Heart Of The Wolf: The Spirit Awakens

Chapter 22

"M-my Queen?" Rriredel stammered, bowing down as low as his small body would allow.

"What?" Queen Rienea snarled, whipping her head around to look at the small dragon. "U-um... I was j-just w-w-wondering if you need anything... a-any prisoners to t-torture or any food..." Rriredel trailed off and stumbled backward at Rienea's face. He just nearly ducked as a jet of fire came roaring toward him, although it did catch his wing, leaving it smoking and the small dragon whimpering.

"Go!" the Queen roared. "Before I decide I want to torture you!" 

Rriredel turned quickly and stumbled out of the throne room, before leaping off of the landing platform and winging his way toward the servant's quarters.

It was obvious that the Queen was in a very bad mood, though nodragon except the dragons that watched Ethan, Fierne, and Narina escape knew why.

Rriredel soon reached the little cave that acted as the servant's quarters. After scraping his shoulders and wings many times on the roughly carved, narrow entrance, he now had many callouses, so it no longer hurt as he squeezed into the sad little cave. There were little torches made of nickel and iron to hold globs of lava, making the cave blisteringly hot and only shedding the tiniest bit of light over the many slaves' few belongings.

Rriredel sighed, making a small amount of light smoke curl out of his nostrils. He dropped his head and collapsed onto one of the few bare rock ledges in the cave to examine his burnt wing. 

He sighed again and mumbled, "No use trying to heal it now. It's probably just going to happen again tomorrow." 

Rriredel leaned his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and brought his scaly wings up to cover his body like a blanket. He began to think about the events of the day to try and help him sleep; the sooner he could make himself fall asleep,the better, as sleep was a rare thing in the lava tunnels and you rarely got much of it.

He remembered the strange human who arrived earlier, and how somehow he was rescued by two Spirit Wolves. Rriredel hadn't seen a Spirit Wolf since he was barely one year old, and even then it was from a distance. He'd even begun to think the had imagined that incident, and that Spirit Wolves weren't real - until he saw two today. 

He must have been half asleep, now, because he even began thinking that he wanted to help that little human boy, to who he had whispered directions to so that he wouldn't get himself burnt by Rienea. 

But of course that was ridiculous.