If Glory Missed

Chapter Two - A Fight to Remember

The trumpets blared, and every dragon took their seats. The arena was crowded with MudWings, SandWings, and SkyWings. The sky was clear, and the sun blazed down on them, its golden rays lighting up the arena. As soon as Queen Scarlet came into view, the crowd hissed with respect. Vermilion - the SkyWing prince - clapped his wings together to get everyone's attention after the Queen sat down along with Burn.

"Hello everyone!" He shouted. "Thank you for coming. Today we have a very special fight planned for all of you. Please welcome Tsunami of the SeaWings!"

Several burly SkyWings brought in a writhing, hissing, blue dragon. The guards had several long cuts along their snout and neck that were trickling blood. As soon as they dropped the SeaWing onto the arena floor, they jumped quickly out of the way in order to avoid getting slapped by her tail or feel her claws and teeth rip through their scales.

Next, the guards dumped a furious RainWing (probably the only one any dragon has ever seen fight), into the arena. She had several gashes that had just started to scab over. It looked as if she had been struggling against the guards just as Tsunami had, but decided to look a little less like a crazed, attack-first-think-later sort of dragon, sticking her nose into the air defiantly. She strutted over to Tsunami, and sat down. Her gaze swept over the crowd until it rested on Queen Scarlet and Burn. The Queen of the SkyWings met her gaze triumphantly.

"Here we have Glory of the RainWings, who tried to kill our beloved queen." There were many boos from the crowd, but Glory glared at them making some of the dragons flinch.

"Last, but certainly not least, we have Peril of the SkyWings our champion fighter!" There were several claps, but otherwise the crowd was silent.

"Most of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, these two dragons, "Vermilion pointed to Tsunami and Glory, "Are the dragonets of destiny." Scarlet grinned maliciously as some of the dragons listening practically fell out of their seats in shock. A RainWing? How could a dragon from that worthless tribe ever replace the SkyWing dragonet destined to save all of Pyrrhia?

"Should I wait to start the fight any longer?" Vermilion asked the crowd, and heard shouts of "No!" and "Hurry up with it already!"

"Now what everyone is here for, let the fight begin!"

Tsunami ran right up to Glory and tried to rip the bindings on her mouth.

"Ouch! I fels ly ur rippin my fay off!"Glory shouted through clenched teeth. Tsunami rolled her eyes, then decided to actually access the situation (which was generally unusual for her). She had watched Peril from up where she had been chained up and knew that no one had defeated her yet. Looking around she saw nothing she could defend herself with. The ground was just sand and dirt, and her wings were bound so there was no chance of them escaping to the sky.

"Glory, what can we possibly do against her?!" The RainWing didn't answer. Her eyes were focused on something on the other side of the arena.

"What is it? What are you looking at?" She stared hard in the direction Glory was facing but saw nothing that could be used against the SkyWing.

While the two dragonets were looking for anything to use against a dragon that could melt your scales by just touching them, Peril had sat down in the dirt. She kept glancing at Queen Scarlet, then her opponents and back again. There was no way out of this, she would just have to kill them quickly. "Finish them!" Scarlet hissed when she caught Peril's eyes on her.

Peril turned away from Queen Scarlet and watched as the SeaWing tried communicating to her friend. She took a step towards them.

"Don't do it! Please Peril!" That sounded like Clay. She kept her eyes on the ground and took a deep breath. She had to kill them, it was the only way.

Suddenly, Glory leaped from where she had been standing with Tsunami moments before and leapt over Peril.

"Wha..." Peril managed to say before an explosion of pain came from her back. Her legs gave way and she fell to the ground in a fiery heap. Dragons in the audience screamed for they had expected Peril to easily kill her opponents with a single touch from her claws.

As luck would have it for the Dragonets of Destiny, earlier that day Tsunami had knocked over a pole with her tail while trying to free herself from several guards. This pole happened to land in the arena and was made of a very special material: neverburn. As the name implies, this type of rock can never catch on fire or be melted by it. When Glory landed on the other side of Peril, it was only a matter of seconds before she picked up the pole in her talons and plunged into Peril's back.

Every dragon was on their feet, excluding the ones who had flown away in fright, of course. Tsunami glanced up at Clay who's eyes were blurry with grief, and almost went tumbling off the edge. Burn had a look of surprise on her face, but Scarlets was contorted with rage. She and her guards were on the dragonets in seconds binding Glory and Tsunami - who didn't even struggle because even they were in shock. The guards started to haul the two dragons back to their platforms above the arena when they were stopped by none other than the queen herself.

"Wait," Scarlet began," Take that acid-spitting murderer into the palace. I have something special planned for her."