Wind and Flames: Talons United

Chapter 5

There was darkness. Calm, serene, yet also painful darkness. It had twisted her left leg and left her wing dangling at a crooked angle with her snout mushed against something hard and sharp at the ends.

But it was so dark, and Nevara was struggling to breathe. The blackness grasped her, choked her, squeezed her lungs. 

A couple minutes after she woke up, Nevara had gathered the strength to try and move her front talons in order to push away the hard thing pressing up against her snout. She almost succeeded too, but it was just too heavy and fell on top of her again.

She growled in frustration. The air wasn't getting much better down here, if anything, worse. Trapped underneath layers and layers of clay, glass, wood and stone: the odds of her surviving weren't in her favor.

"Come on, Nevara," she said, glaring as she closed her eyes. "You were able to survive the entire Nest collapsing. You can most definitely survive this. You will not die." 

This time, she tried to use all four of her legs (including the one that hurt) to lift the heavy thing off of her. This time, grunting in the process, she was able to heave it to her right. Whatever was on top of her fell to the left, and the layers of stone above her fell slightly as a result.

Holding her breath, she used her talons to claw and scrape at the stone, but that only left her talons hurting and the stone with a couple scratch marks.

Come on Nevara, think. What else can you do? 

An idea came into her head, but she went with it anyway. It was only a myth that dragons could once breath fire, but Nevada was desperate for a way out of this pile of Nest. 

She opened her mouth, trying summoning all of her inner warmth, but when she tried to blast out fire, ice instead was what came out. It flowed, frozen and fragile and gave her a source of light.

The ice let her break through the piles of rubble that lay on top of her, until she was faced with fresh air and a cloudy sky.

Taking a deep breath, Nevara looked around.

The grass had taken quite a beating. What she remembered as chest-tall grasses were now laying yellow against the earth, flattened by frantic dragon talons running away from a collapsing Nest.

The sky was cloudy and grey, the air moist and humid. Nevara slightly opened her mouth, and she could sense that rain was soon to be on the way.

Well, that means I should probably get out of here and find some shelter.

She slowly walked off of all the rubble, noticing that her talons (and probably her whole body) were so covered in ash and smoke that she almost couldn't see her own snowy white scales peeking through.

It'll work as a disguise for now.

But where did everydragon go?

The rest of her den mates had probably gone to the closest Nest: but they were only so big and could only hold so many dragons. They wouldn't be staying there for long.

I have to find them. I have to get to them, life outside of the Nest is very dangerous for a dragon like me.

Or, is it?

It was awfully enticing. Leave to go find Deep and Tala and the rest of her fellow dragons, or take this opportunity to explore the world around her, full of no-wings and starry skies and fresh air. 

I wonder what other kinds of animals are out here. 

I mean, besides dragons and no-wings.

She used her wings to help lift her out of the rubble and fly down from it, although it was quite painful because her left wing kept trying to twist underneath her after being stuck in that position for so long.

Nevara hadn't gotten a good look at her left leg until now. It was burnt and twisted and looked like it would never walk properly again. Aqua colored blood dripped out of a gash in one of the seams, and the whole limb was blackened and twisted in such a horrible way, all the scales surrounding it mangled.

She winced at the pain of moving it as all four of her talons landed with a thump on the dry, yellow grass. 

I guess I'd better get used to that. It's going to hurt for quite some time.

I can't wait to find some shelter.

                                                                          *******************

She flew for hours, soaring above the clouds as they poured rain down below. She was grateful that she wasn't flying in the downpour-that would have been very hard to do, as the rain and wind and possibly lightning would strike her and batter her wings around until she couldn't fly anymore.

But Nevara knew she had to go somewhere, and she thought that she had finally struck gold when she saw what looked like a tiny house after the storm had passed. 

It wasn't nearly as sophisticated as the Nests, this little house looked to be for a No-wing, with a small doorway and a roof made of straw with mud and grass walls. 

The doorway was too small for a full-grown dragon like Queen Salquea to go through, but just big enough for Nevara to squeeze herself into. 

Looking around, she saw that everything was very simplistic; neat little books all organized in a row, with strange markings in a language Nevara didn't recognize on them. There was a rug on the wooden floor made of a soft material Nevara had never heard of, and wooden tables and chairs with little spoons and bowls on them.

This must be where the No-wings that live here eat. I kind of don't want to disturb them-they seem so peaceful! Not capable of killing a full-grown dragon.

She shook  her head. "No, I have to focus," she said to herself, trying her best not to knock anything over as she looked for some food to get her energy levels back up.

But when Nevara peered back at the doorway, she saw a strange little creature standing there, looking utterly mortified.

It was wearing rags made of the same material that the rug was, and it looked so smooth and shiny. The creatures hair was dark and tied back, and it didn't have scales or wings. Just smooth skin. It wasn't even that hairy.

Nevara cocked her head at it. Oh, I'm so stupid. Of course it's a No-wing.

The thing that Nevara didn't know about No-wings however, was that they walked on two legs. 

They must get awfully unbalanced. I don't even think I could do that.

It made a strange garbling sound, before looking behind it and making a beckoning motion with it's strange little paws. 

Nevara just stared at it. "What are you doing?" She asked, and the No-wing looked at her with the most indignant expression that Nevara had ever seen on anything, and it stomped a leg twice on the ground.

At first Nevara was confused, until she saw a big looming shadow behind the No-wing. This creature wasn't alone.

And neither was she.

She'd taken a step back when the angry No-wing had stepped into the room, still yelling and yapping, when Nevara saw the creature behind the No-wing. 

A dragon made entirely of crystal looked back at her, confusion and anger brewing in his dark eyes. 

"How strange," he said, his expression morphing into a frown. 

"And here I thought that all the dragons from Viridi's fire were dead."