Wings of Fire: A Dark Nightmare #1

Chapter 1

The sun hung in the light blue sky, white puffy clouds passing over it. Birds chirped as they flew overhead, and a cold breeze blew across the land, stirring the dead leaves on the ground. Nightmare leaped in the air, butting his head at a bird to burn it. He grasped the corpse in his jaws, then quickly gobbled it down. 

"Cool catch," his mother walked up, her eyes bright.

"Mom, I've always caught prey like this," the jet-black dragon reminded. 

"Listen, Nightmare, no matter what your father says about you, don't listen to him. He's just jealous," Moonglider told him. 

Nightmare forced a smile. He knew his father wasn't jealous. His father just resented him for destroying his home. As his mother walked away, Nightmare could hear wings beating the air and saw his father flying towards them. He landed on the lush grass, his talons digging in.

Nightmare curled his lip, his talons digging into the stone. He wished he never had this power. He had never stood on grass for his entire, and would never know what it felt like. He had to sleep on this hard stone, and would always wake up with pain in his spine. He glared at his father and sister, wishing he could sometimes claw those smirks on their faces.

"What's wrong, Nightmare?" Palesky walked up to him. "Are you mad that you have to stand on stone all day?" She taunted. "It's been seven years, grow up already. I thought you'd gotten used to it."

Nightmare growled in response. His father had enforced a rule where Nightmare couldn't even leave the patch of stone. He was forced to be here all day, and all because his father didn't want him setting anything on fire. "Oh shut up, at least I'm not the one without fire," He retorted.

"It's your fault I don't have any fire!" Palesky hissed, her talons ripping into the grass. She lips were curled back into a snarl, revealing sharp teeth. "At least I'm not the one that burned down the forest the first time I hatched out of the egg!"

Nightmare almost had the urge to leap at his sister, but he forced himself not to. He didn't remember the day he hatched, but from what his parents told him, his firescales set the forest on fire, and had also left a scar on his sister's side. "You know, you're lucky you don't have firescales like me. I've been suffering my whole life because of my ability. My father has treated me like trash. Do you really think you're suffering more than me? I can't even leave this chunk of stone, and I can't even touch anything without worrying about it burning!" He hissed. 

Palesky stared at him, her eyes wide. She then spread her wings, and flew up, beating her wings against the air, flying away from her brother.

Nightmare let out a heavy sigh, laying down. He rested his chin on the hard stone, his giant wings spread out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Overheat and Moonglider walking towards him. 

"Nightmare, we're going to hunt," Overheat told him. "Since we'll both be gone, and since your sister is gone, I hope you know that you still can't leave this patch of stone."

"Yeah, yeah," Nightmare grumbled. He closed his eyes, then heard the beating of wings as his parents flew away. Opening his eyes, he saw that his parents weren't in view anymore. Standing up, he stretched on the large rock, his jaws gaping open in a wide yawn. He looked around, the shadows of the forest stretching towards him. What did it hurt to simply fly above the trees?

Crouching, Nightmare leaped up, spreading his wings. Although his build took more to the NightWing, his wings were like a SkyWing's. Beating his wings, he got higher and higher, and soon was over the stretch of trees. He could see the sun now setting, and the sky was turning orange. 

Nightmare flew across the top of the tall trees, whose leaves were stripped from them because of winter. The cold wind against his scales felt amazing, and as he kept flying, he spotted a large lake tucked into the forest below. Nightmare noticed that the lake was frozen over. He thought about flying towards it, but thought different when he knew that his firescales would melt the ice and make him fall in.

"Nightmare!" A hollow voice hissed at him, and, turning, Nightmare saw his sister flying towards him, her small form slicked with melting snow. "What are you doing here? You know you aren't supposed to fly away from the rock!"

"Yeah, I know. But it doesn't hurt to explore some, does it?" He growled, narrowing his eyes. "I've never seen the lake before, it's so pretty," he hummed when Palesky didn't answer.

"It's even prettier when the ice isn't there. The moons' reflection in the lake is beautiful," Palesky sighed. "We need to get back, though. How could our parents ever let you roam?" She growled.

"They both went out to hunt. I took my chance and just flew above the trees," Nightmare informed, looking at his talons. "I'm sorry for arguing with you earlier."

"I should be the one that's sorry," Palesky whined, diving down towards where they were staying. "I shouldn't ever blame you for my inconveniences, it's not your fault."

Nightmare stayed silent, not sure what to say. He reached the stone, his talons clawing at the hard rock. He couldn't believe his sister was being nice to him. Did Moonglider make her do this? As he kept wondering, he could hear wings beating the air and saw his parents diving down. 

Overheat was carrying a goat, while Moonglider had a large hawk. They landed on the grass, dead leaves crunching under them as they set their prey down. Nightmare was about to walk towards them to eat, when he suddenly remembered his firescales. He sat back on the rock, letting out a heavy sigh. The small bird he had eaten earlier wasn't even enough to fill him up. 

"Nightmare, the tip of your tail is almost touching the grass!" Palesky gasped.

Nightmare glanced down, noticing his tail. He lifted it up and glanced at Overheat. "I'm getting too big for this rock. We need to move to some larger stone," he pointed out, sniffing a nut on the ground. "How about the Sky Kingdom? You said it's basically all mountains."

"We can't go to the Sky Kingdom. The SkyWings there will want you dead because of your firescales. And plus, I ran away from the tribe, and if I were to go back, I'd be killed as well," Overheat added. As he dug into the goat, Palesky gave Nightmare the hawk.

Once Nightmare thanked his sister, he couldn't help but wonder what his father had done to the point where he'd be killed if he went back to the Sky Kingdom.