Wings of Fire 2: Toward the Horizon

Chapter 5

       Athebea groaned, as she tossed another issue of The History of Cooking Sheep into a growing pile of books. The assumption that her friends were trapped in the library turned out to be wrong, and Athebea decided to take the "Darkshadow Route" to find her friends.

       Reading!

       As fast as the first book left her talon another one entered, which went by the name Rainwings. She gave the book a quick look through and tossed it to the ground. At the point, no route seemed easy, and Athebea reached for the next book-

      "I've read that one before, and I can understand why you would throw it away."

        Athebea looked around for the sound of the voice. There wasn't anyone where she was, and the library was empty when she entered.

        "Above you!" prompted the voice. A dark yellow Sandwing smiled jokingly back at her. His strangely black talons holding the page of a book, which also read Rainwings. Not knowing what to do, Athebea quickly glanced back down and acted as if she hadn't seen him at all. She regretted this instantly.

       "Hey! I know you saw me." Exclaimed the Sandwing, he didn't seem offended at all. Athebea kept her gaze glued to the book and prayed that he would just give up. She remembered Minnow's chat with her friends about the Sandwings trying to find a Sunwing, specifically her. If she got involved or even talked to him, her life and freedom might be at risk.

      Sadly, the Sandwing didn't get the memo at all. After hearing wing beats, Athebea shifted her gaze to the side, and to her horror, the Sandwing was in the same floor as her.

      "Hey! I'm Storm!" said he said. His voice wasn't very peppy or loud as Athebea thought. He seemed pretty chill for the most part, but also stupid. "I don't remember seeing you with the group I'm in. Are you with Petra or Stone... maybe Dust? I actually don't know any of them."

       Storm gave the dumbfounded Athebea a small laugh.

      "I'm kinda new in the army you see."

      "Oh?" Stammered Athebea. He thought she was a Sandwing like him, and if so, she'll just have to play along.

      "Yeah." He sighed, placing his copy of the book, Rainwings, on top of one of one the shelves. "I was hoping to find another fellow Sandwing here to help me find the rest of the group... but I got lost. So, I just decided to sit here and read."

      "Oh?"

      "Yeah..." Storm smiled in embarrassment and asked. "Do you know where they could be perhaps."

       He smiled hopefully at her. Sadly, she had to destroy it, but the words didn't seem to come out. Despite the Sandwing's friendly personality, she was terrified of him. Not that he was helping whoever was trying catch her, but there was something off about him. It just seemed like he wasn't alone, or he might even know that she was the Sunwing and was just pretending. So...she just stared at him and hoped that he would think of her as weird and walk away.

     That didn't happen.

    "Sorry I was asking too much." He said, and then gave her a small smile. "You must be new to the guard too."

     "Y-yeah. I'm Briar."

     "Briar... I don't remember a Briar-" Storm muttered. Athebea had to act quick.

     "I JUST ARRIVED TODAY!" She exclaimed. "I forgot my pet-PARROT and had to go back and get him."

     "A parrot?" Storm laughed. "I read about those, and they're hard to keep quiet."

      Athebea laughed nervously.

     "Y-yeah, but he's a quiet parrot, so he won't be much trouble."

      "Nice!" Storm grinned. "I never thought the guards had pets of their own."

     "I guess I might be the first."

     Storm laughed, but it was cut short when he glanced at the sun. It was high in the sky and bright as ever. Strangely, he was horrified of it.

     "Darn, I'm late. It's noon already and I'm supposed to be training with the others. I still don't know where they are though"

    "Oh?" Athebea glanced at the sun, amazed that the Sandwing could tell time from just from the position of the sun. Every time she looked at it, it seemed be having a new mystery prepared for her about her family, the Sunwings.

    "Briar you shouldn't stare at it for a long time." Storm's voice shook Athebea from her trance. "It'll hurt your eyes."

     "Eh?" Athebea stared at him in confusion. It didn't feel weird to me. Storm just gave her a nervous smile and glanced to the door.

     "I should be heading out. The generals aren't as chill, you see." He laughed nervously. "Does your group have training at this time."

     "N-no, I have the day off, since I just arrived." Lied Athebea. She wanted to ask about the Sandwings plan that involved her, but she was already shaken at the fact that she was talking to one of the dragons, who was part of the plan. It was best to just let him leave ignorant to the fact she was not a Sandwing or his friend.

     "Lucky for you then, see you later." And with that Athebea was alone again.

*                                                                                       *                                                                                                 *

     "What are you doing with those." Athebea glanced over Minnow's shoulder. The princess was arranging rocks of many colors into a box, which was divided into small compartments. Each one had stones of the same kind and a label for each rock. Yes, the rock collection, that was mentioned before, was indeed real.

      "What does it look like." Hissed Minnow, as she took a small clear stone from its place. "Have you ever seen a rock collection before?"

      "No, but I bet Darkshadow has one though." Then she added with a smile. "Maybe if we can meet him, he can show you his."

      "Nice try." Snorted Minnow dropping the rock in a compartment with a loud clack. "But another lazy attempt in convincing me to free your friends."

      "Well it's my only choice." Growled Athebea. "It's been two days and I still haven't been able to see Darkshadow and Peacock, despite that fact that I followed you around in the shadows like you asked me too, which has been as boring as heck."

      Minnow didn't seem to be hearing Athebea's rants, as she gazed into another one her stones. It was a blue one this time. Athebea growled in annoyance.

     "You can go now; it's getting close to my bedtime." Minnow responded blankly. "And I'll let you see your friends at the end of this week."

     "REALLY!" Yelped Athebea and Minnow glared at her.

     "Shush, I'm not supposed to have anyone over, and if mother sees you here, I'm going to be stuck in this castle for another month, and your friends are going to have trapped here forever."

     "Oh..." Athebea stammered at the princess' remark. Was that a threat? Shrugging it off as just a rant of an annoyed princess, Athebea trudged away with a little hope, and it would be in a matter of a few days, till she would see her friends. So, for the rest of her stay here, she would get to the bottom of the Sandwing's "Sunwing" plan.