Darkness Falls ~ Book 1 ~ A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter 3 ~ Lessons

~~~Mirage~~~

History was so boring.

Sure, there were interesting parts, like the the Battle of Jade Mountain or Darkstalker's story, but most of it was boring.

Like now.

"After the final battle, all of the heroes disappeared into the wilds of Panzia, and were neither heard from nor seen from for years. It wasn't till exactly five years and six months after the battle that they reappeared, trusting you all in our care. From what we managed to gather in our brief encounter with them, they had apparently regrouped after their defeat and spent their time in a hidden location they refused to disclose even to us." Papaya let loose a long, theatrical sigh. 

"They said it was too dangerous for their dragonets to remain with them, and left again for another five or so years," he continued. "Lately, as you all no doubt know, there have been reports of several points of activity, including Queen Glory's revolution, the rumour spreading through Panzia on the group trying to cure dragons of the othermind, etcetera."

"So will we be able to see them soon?" Mirage asked hopefully, her eyes bright.

Papaya shrugged, an unreadable look on his face. "You never know," he replied evenly, but his mind continued on a darker thread; not if Darkstalker has anything to say about it.

"So why can't we help them fight back? We're not dragonets anymore," Imperial piped up. From what Mirage had heard about his father, Swordtail, she guessed his rebelling spirit came from that.

"No, you aren't, but that doesn't make it any safer," the RainWing teacher replied, little flickers of orange impatience threading thought the brown on his ruff.

"But we have powers! If it's not safe for us, then why are our parents out there? I mean, my mom stopped a war when she was six!" Tidal, Tsunami and Riptide's descendant argued.

"And almost died a dozen times along the way. No, we cannot risk your safety. This conversation is over." With a snort, Papaya lifted his head and smoothed out his semi-angry expression, becoming calm once more.

"As I was saying, the once-heroes are fighting back, and many dragons are fleeing to join them." Mirage caught a worrisome feeling of despair float off of him when he said that, but kept it to herself. "SeaWings, IceWings and RainWings are breaking off from the tribal monarchy, with rumours of many more to follow. This, off course, gives the rebellion much needed strength in numbers, so we are hopeful," he said this with a hard glance in Mirage's direction. "Of a good outcome."

Before Papaya could continue, Freeze stuck her head through the doorway. "Excuse me, but Commander Shark ordered me to extract you from your duties for a private meeting in his office." 

The RainWing shot a longing look at his students, before moving to follow her upstairs. "You are dismissed," he called over his shoulder as he passed through the doorway.

Most of the dragons leapt up with relieved expressions, already talking to one another about what they should do next, many discussing plans for exploring the camp, since not even the most curious dragons had found every room yet. Mirage supposed that was what happened when it looked like a simple village from above, but turned out to be just short of an underground city from below.

It was quite easy to get lost in the long, twisting tunnels and stairways under the surface, all of which led different underground homes or buildings. Mirage suspected that it'd been built with animus magic, since there was no way a dragon could ever hope to build something this complicated without spending thousands of years on it.

"Who's in for a game of hide and seek!" someone shouted, which was answered by a loud chorus of dragons crying "me!". 

Mirage rubbed her claws together in anticipation. While most people found the game boring, it never was in their camp. With so many available hiding spots, and the added bonus with half of them having powers, it was always very nerve-racking and difficult.

"Last one to the centre building well is it!" Imperial shouted, taking off.

The whole flock of students followed, many quickly outdistancing the loud SilkWing. Mirage reached the well shortly after he did, and was happy to find that Leaf-cutter was the seeker. The SilkWing/HiveWing hybrid was a challenging foe, since between his antennae and his sixth sense of knowing where everyone would go, he was one of their overall best.

"Ready, set, count!" Tidal announced, running through the nearest door and disappearing inside, no doubt already making her way into the underground labyrinth contained below.

Mirage didn't follow, instead beating her wings as quietly as possible and jumping on to the roof. 

"3, 2 , 1!" Leaf-cutter finished, opening his eyes and glancing around. Mirage instantly froze,  not wanting to be detected by his antennae. 

She watched as he took a few steps forwards, swivelling his head this way and that as his long feelers unfolded, waving in the air like floating snakes. 

"Hmmm," the other hybrid murmured, changing direction towards the door Tidal had gone through. Mirage didn't dare move, her breath held tightly in her chest. 

A few dragons went through there, she heard his mind whisper.  But I sense more flying nearby. He glanced at the sky, confused. Maybe I'm just sensing things, he finally decided, slipping through the doorway.

Mirage breathed a sigh of relief, her wings twitching slightly as she silently stood up, glancing at the empty sky once before floating to the ground. That was close, she thought, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.

"Tag!" a voice shouted just as something slapped her on the arm. She whirled around, only to find Leaf-cutter standing there with a gleeful expresion.

"Seriously?" Mirage muttered, sighing. "Already?"

A/N

Sorry for the long paragraphs, everyone! I hope you like this chapter, and if you do, don't forget to comment and vote! Also, if you see an error, don't hesitate to point it out so I can correct it!

-Your faithful FanWing author, xSTORMDRAGONx