Eternal Fire

Chapter 28

Ember opened her eyes, blinking in the light, her wing throbbed where it lay next to her, she was lying on her back, she sniffed, smelling ash, stone, blood, and faintly, other dragons. She stared into the sky, unmoving as her body lay there, freezing, in a hole in the ground, other dragons were looking in, some seemed to be surprised to see her there, awake.

"Oops, sorry. Don't worry, I'm alive, I'm awake." She grunted, turning over and stood up, swaying slightly. A shiver went down her spine, and she reached out with her mind, taking a little heat from the area, warming herself up, fire dragons were not normally cold, they were able to keep their warmth in most scenarios. She looked around and saw the male grey fire dragon smiling as he looked at her. "You saved me?"

"Kind of had to." Soot said, still grinning, his eyes were bright, and Ember quickly checked the amount of fire he had, he'd overloaded, making him hyper, all because he'd stolen some of hers whilst trying to save her. He was one lucky male.

"You sure?" A male dragon said from above, Ember raised her head and stilled when she saw the water dragon, a dark mark shining on his chest.

"Yes." The earth dragon, who had questioned her during her time away said, his tail wrapped around his back leg.

"It's a deal." The water dragon said, watching Ember and Soot. Ember turned to look at Soot and tilted her head before glancing back to the dragons above. Soot looked at the ground and shook his head.

"Tonight, make sure to make it easy," the dragon lowered the volume and continued to speak. Ember stretched her wings and jumped into the air and flew out of the hole and over the heads of the assembled dragons, only to fall as pain erupted through her wing. 

"Stupid injury!" She growled after hitting the ground. She felt someone pounce on her back, so she tried to roll over as a dragon pressed their claws through the softer scales where the head met the neck at the bottom, causing her vision to go black before returning. Then everything disappeared in the darkness.

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Ember woke, her body limp whilst claws dug into her limbs, she opened her eyes, only to see the darkness of night and twinkling stars, the beating of many dragon wings met her ears as she hung there, she felt some of her blood fall from her body as one of the dragons readjusted their hold of her. She wriggled as she tried to look at where they were, only to see the tops of the trees blur underneath her whilst she was jabbed in her side by the end of a dragon tail. "She's awake!" Was closely followed, at least, that was what Ember thought they said. She then felt her mind slide as darkness took her over again.

---

She woke again, the bright light from the rising sun bouncing off the water dragon in front whilst she just hung there, not moving. She didn't want to be knocked out again. They flew like this for a while, the bright colours from the rising sun disappearing and the light level increased as the day took its hold over the world. Then a dragon screamed, it was like a roar, but whilst a roar was deep, the scream was high, and pierced Ember to the bones. She saw the dragon fall to the ground, no injury to be seen, except for a bright feather wedged between the dragon's scales.

Flapping her wings, Ember tried to escape from the holds that the dragons had on her, wanting to escape during the havoc that was to come. Another scream, another dragon fell to the ground, a bright feather trapped in its scales. Breaking free, Ember flapped into the air, feeling for the hunters that prowled below with her fire, sending her fire into them when she found one. She flew away from where she had escaped, away from the hunters, away from the dragons. Towards nowhere. She realised that they must have repaired her wing before they had started flying away with her, as it was no longer hurting her. She felt something splash along her scales before the liquid reached the skin below, causing Ember to cry out.