Wings of Fire 2: Toward the Horizon

Chapter 6

         The next day was pretty much uneventful, despite that fact that Athebea had awoken on the edge cliff. WAIT! Athebea took a huge step back, her eyes wide in terror. Despite the time she expected, the sky was dark and full of stars, and it would have been beautiful if it were normal. She could feel a strange sense of being watched creeping up as she looked around too scared to glance into the land below the cliff.

      "HEllO!" she yelled, and her voice echoed into the starry sky, not a single response. Suddenly something moved from behind her. Athebea wanted to turn around but was unable to.

     "WHO ARE YOU?" she yelled as she struggled to move, but that attempt failed.

      The voice did not respond, and Athebea only had the eerie silence for her answer. To break the silence, Athebea continued with her questions.

      "W-Where am I?" she managed to squeak, as she looked over the vast darkness filled with stars.

      "Paradise!" Said the voice triumphantly.

     "P-paradise?" Athebea repeated.

     "Yes!" Responded the voice, "See how beautiful the sky looks in the night, if only it could be like this forever." Then the voice added with a chilling tone,

     "Sadly it will never be like that again."

     Athebea made a small glance to the direction of the voice, intrigued. "What happened?"

     "You're what happened! You and the rest of those destructive Sunwings!" Athebea, equally curious and terrified, listened to the voices tale. What did she mean by dangerous?

     "The sky once resembled the one we see right now, but suddenly a huge, blinding glow appeared in the sky. The light was so overwhelming that none of the dragons dared to look upon it."

      "The sun?..." Asked Athebea. There was a pause, and then a laugh filled the air. It was almost like a shriek or a cackle, which made Athebea's skin crawl.

      "Yes!" said the dragon triumphantly. "The one we are so familiar with. All of the dragons were terrified of it, so they decided to destroy the source."

      Athebea didn't have to guess what the voice was implying, because it was obvious. The source was the Sunwings. Did the rest of the dragons once wanted to destroy her and the rest of her kind? Was the sun that bad?!

      "Despite wanting to get rid of all the Sunwing, one still remains! Growled the voice seething with rage, and Athebea almost felt that someone or something was glared at her. Darkness began to envelope her until it became impossible for her to see anything.

      Athebea woke up startled with the book, Rainwings, slumped on top of her face. It, along with some other books, landed with a fwak and scattered all along the floor. Her screaming abruptly stopped when she recognized that she was in the school's library, but that still made her panic more.

       Did someone hear me? Athebea ducked under the table and listened for footsteps. It was just the sound of rushing water and...WINGBEATS!

      "Briar, it's just me!" Athebea felt some relief from hearing the familiar voice of Storm. "I brought a friend!"

       Never mind.

       Athebea peaked from under the table and cringed, he didn't just bring a friend, he brought half of the army. They had been talking to each other in the library ever since the day Athebea went there, but she was not expecting him to bring anyone, let alone multiple.

      It was actually just two other Sandwing, but now Athebea would be outnumbered if they found about her. They both looked like Storm, but their talons were not completely black like his, and they also seemed reluctant to be here.

     "Briar, this is Scorpion and Blaze." Said Storm with a smile, "They're from the same group as me!" Blaze and Scorpion both gave Athebea a weak smile, and Storm continued.

     "I was planning on introducing them to you at camp, but it seemed like you left for a patrol or something."

      "Yeah..." stammered Athebea, and she began her story, "Like what you said before, the generals are very strict. Didn't even have time to feed my parrot!"

     "The rumors are true!" Blaze yelled in astonishment. "I love animals and so does Scorpion!" Scorpion nodded quickly.

     "Rumors..." repeated Athebea.
     "Yeah!" answered Storm. "I kinda told every single soldier that you had a parrot!"

     "W-what! You told them about me?" Athebea yelled (mostly shrieked). It was over, she was going to get caught, because if the head Sandwings found out about an unknown Sandwing in their army, they were sure to find her, catch her, and imprison her for the rest of her life!

     "Briar! I'm sorry I didn't know you would hate that!" pleaded Storm. He was distressed about this, and the other Sandwings were too.

    "It's alright only our group kno-!" chirped Blaze.

     "Blaze, Scorpion, you two should have back to the camp" interjected Storm, his face full of guilt. "And don't mention anything about meeting Briar, okay?"

    The two Sandwings nodded and left leaving Storm with the stressed out Athebea.

    "Briar...I'm really sorry." He said softly. "I should have respected your privacy, but it's just the Sandwing army. If you're embarrassed about yourself or your parrot, no one is going to judge you."

     Suppressing her panic, Athebea gave him a weak smile, thinking about her excuse for her behavior, though the situation was all too stressful.

      "It's fine! I'm just afraid of people taking my parrot." She said quickly. "Rainbow is very important to me."

      "Rainbow?"

      "That's the parrot's name." A very random one too, but Storm seemed to be impressed.

      "Interesting. I promise that Rainbow will be safe from the rest of the guards. Most of my group loves animals, but it is hard for them to have one, because of the responsibility."

       Athebea gave a weak laugh.

      "True, Rainbow can be a handful sometimes too, but he is quite calm most of the time. One day, while I was at home one day, he didn't make a peep at all, not even a squawk!"

      "Oh?"

      "Yes, yes." Exclaimed Athebea as if the parrot existed. "The cool thing was that there were other parrots around, and he didn't even look at them."

      "I see. I guess he would be comfortable in the environment of the army." Storm smiled. The conversation, which Athebea hoped would end, about Rainbow the parrot dragged on, and before the two knew it, the sunlight in the room had dimmed, and the luminous blue library lights were now their light source. Minnow was probably wondering where she was now, and both seemed aware that it was getting late.

       After saying goodbye, Athebea started her flight back to the castle. Minnow explained to her the morning during a break at school that she had something to show her in the castle's library...yes another library. Athebea groaned at the thought. This must have been some quest for Darkshadow, because all she was doing was reading and doing anything else that what wrack her brain. The separation from her friends made her stress more and knowing that another kingdom of dragons was trying to catch her made it worse.

       First Skywings, now the Sand-

       A red blur glided around the sky from far away! Athebea squinted to get a better look, but whatever it was, had disappeared. This scared her a bit, because there was only one type of dragons, who were mostly red.

       Skywings!