Wind and Flames: Talons United

Chapter 4

Dragons came pouring out of the Nest. Smoke rose high into the air, circling above the confused faces of the dragons outside. Flames lapped at the Nest, red and bright and threatening as anything.

Nevara's breath caught in her throat as she thought she saw the Nest shift. 

No, it's can't be moving, can it? It's a huge, ginormous nest, with the clay walls and stone floors and  glass windows.  It can't have moved.

But it had. And it was huge: so tall that it almost looked like it could take flight and touch the moons. It was supposed to be that big, because it was supposed to house thousands of dragons at once.

Dozens of thoughts swam around in Nevara's head.

Thousands of dragons.

Glass, the flammable glass.

Clay. 

Huge Nest.

Thousands of  dragons.

Thousands of trapped, burning dragons.

The with that last thought, her eyes widened. She turned to the nearest guard, cold realization brewing in her veins. 

"There's still dragons in there," she said, panicked. "They'll never make it out in time! With all the fire, the Nest is going to collapse-"

The guard shook her head, frowning at the ground. "Of course not everyone will make it out," she said, looking at the nest. "Especially not the dragons in the upper lengths. I'm sorry Nevara, but you can't save everyone." 

Nevara felt her talons curl inward and her tail begin to lash. Her eyes narrowed as she stared back up at the collapsing Nest, heart beating wildly all the while. 

Deep could still be in there. He's probably still in there.

She slowly spread her snow colored wings, glaring up at the Nest. The guard looked at her,  and frowned. "Nevara..." she said softly, warningly. "Don't even think about flying away." Nevara looked at the guard, her wings finally fully outstretched. 

"You might not try to save them, but I will. My friend is in there, and I'm not just going to let him die. You might be okay with it, but I'm not. I refuse to be okay with it." 

 And with that, Nevara jumped off the ground, beating her wings as hard and as fast as she could. She'd never even tried to fly before, and she wobbled a little bit, but it was much faster and easier than bumping through dragons in the huge crowd that had gathered outside the Nest windows. 

She flew inside where she had exited only a few minutes before, and the wave of heat hit her so hard it almost knocked her backward.

It was so hot in there.

Nevara coughed, and looked up. The smoke was rising out of the building, taking up the entire upper floors. The fire was most likely somewhere up there. 

Gathering all of her courage, she spread her wings again and flew up the stairs, knowing very well that she might not make it out. 

When she did reach the upper floors which were caked in smoke and little bits of the nest, she saw at least fifteen dragons all huddled in one corner, most of them coughing.

She saw the familiar dark blue dragon with red tips on his talons and wings that was Deep, along with a three others she recognized: Nettle, Swift and Breeze.

Deep coughed. "Nevara...it's, so hot..." "I know," Nevara went over to them, trying to shield them from the smoke and flames with her wings. 

"I thought dragons were supposed to be fireproof," Nettle whispered. "This doesn't make any sense."

Nevara considered this. "We haven't been close to fire for generations," She said, guiding them towards a window. "Of course our scales wouldn't be fireproof anymore." 

"Wow," Deep said, coughing. "That's terribly inconvenient." 

Nevara smiled, but only for a split second. Grabbing one of the clay chairs from the room, she hurled it at the windows where they shattered. Deep and the others gawked at how far up they were.

"We can't fly," Swift said, fear in her eyes as she stared at Nevara. "We'll fall and die." 

"It's not that hard," Nevara said, looking behind them uneasily.

The clock was ticking, and the fire was getting closer.

"You just open your wings as far as they'll go and flap as hard as you can. Now, get ready to jump! One.." 

They were all positioned at the window, fearful expressions, wings beginning to outstretch. 

"Two..."

The fire inched closer, and the ceiling fell slightly. In a nervous burst of energy, Nevara shoved all of them out the widow while she yelled, "THREE!" 

They were falling, but not before they stretched out their wings and flapped as hard as they could. It slowed their decent, but they still landed a little harshly. 

Nevara didn't have enough time to jump. She leaped to one of the corners of the room and curled herself into a tight ball before the ceiling collapsed on top of her, nearly crushing her in the process. 

All she could think about was Deep and the others, how they hopefully didn't die because of her. How happy Tala would be that Deep had made it out alive. 

Her last thought before drifting into complete darkness was, She'll be happy that Deep made it out alive.

Now  I just have to as well.