Kingdoms Falling

Chapter 5

Meadow awoke with a jerk and a shriek. His wings leapt up like springs, and his tail whipped around, warding off invisible monsters.

"Whoa! Hey! Sorry! I'm sorry!" came a distinct accent from his right. There was a scuffle of talons and a tail, and the frantic beat of retreating wings as Hillock moved back instinctively. "I didn't mean to alarm ya, but ya shouldn't be lyin' in the sand. Good place for the sand scorpions to get ya. Come on, up ya get now."

Meadow groaned, blinking at the skinny yellow hatchling standing before him. His hazel eyes shone with concern and he held out a talon to help Meadow up. "Sand...scorpions?" Meadow asked as he took his claw and the desert dragon pulled him to his feet. His throat felt dry and he winced at the dull throb in his skull.

Hillock nodded. "Aye. Nasty little beasts. Their poison can give a grown dragon incredible hallucinations." He frowned suddenly and looked Meadow up and down. "Ya haven't been stung have ya?"

"No," Meadow said. But what if he had? Could that explain his dream? Had it all been in his head? No, he decided. It had been far too real for that. And the dragon...he'd felt so alive. There was no way he could have been a figment of his imagination. If only he knew who it really was...but he had a start. He knew where to find him.

Barren's Cavern

The same place where, at that very moment, Sun and his troop was headed.

He had to stop them.

Hillock jumped away as he sprang up and, without shaking the sand from his scales, rushed past him and took the air. He had to beat Sun to the gorge. They were all in danger. He had to get there first and warn them.

"Hey! What's your hurry?" Hillock called, running after him. With his long, narrow wings, it did not take him long to catch up, but Meadow didn't care. His smaller wings would have to suffice. He had to stop Sun before someone got hurt. "Hey! Meadow! Wait up!"

"How far to Barren's Cavern?" Meadow demanded, not missing a beat, or caring about the concerned frown stretched across the sand hatchling's snout.

"The old haunted caves?" Hillock hesitated, wrinkling his snout. "About a mornin's flight. But, why? No one's gone in there for hundreds of years!"

"Then why did the Queen send a squadron to investigate?" Meadow heard the words pop out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"What are ya goin' on about?" Hillock looked very confused.

"Sun's patrol," Meadow answered, angling his wings away from Hillock and putting a little space between them as they raced over a sand dune in the direction of the city. "Someone's there, Hillock! I have to get to them and stop them or they could all die!"

The older hatchling didn't ask how he had this knowledge, or why he hadn't brought it up before. He only set his jaw and nodded, as though accepting the fact that he didn't know anything, but was agreeing to assist anyway. "South for about ten leagues or so. Then west the rest of the way. Be careful. That land is untilled. No tellin' what ya might find."

Meadow nodded. "Find Armadillo and then go straight to your Queen," he instructed. "Tell her what is happening. Tell her to have a search party ready if we aren't back by morning! I have to stop Sun!" He twisted away from his friend and started winging it as fast as he could toward the distant tan hills.

"Good luck!" Hillock called after him. Moments later, he was nothing more than a speck of yellow on the horizon.

Meadow couldn't remember ever flying so hard in his life. He didn't know how far he traveled. He lost track of the miles as they quickly all blurred together into one. He passed dozens of tiny civilizations, and he forcibly blinked away images of them ruined and dragons lying in pools of blood. He wouldn't let anyone do that to the Realm. To any of the Realms.