Peril's Choice (Wings of Fire AU)

Chapter 2

Peril and Kestrel flew south for hours. She was usually confined to the arena and her room, occasionally sneaking out for a glimpse of the outside world. Never going too far to get lost. She pored over the occasional map and lengthy tales from Osprey helped her find where she was.

Of course, the southern Sky Kingdom was as mountainous as the rest of it, with the addition of more forests and bodies of water. The temperature was also warmer than the northern parts of the kingdom. The majority of the Sky Kingdom lived in the north near the palace or their half of Possibility despite the more harsh climate. And aside from some trade cities turned fortresses near the border and a large city called Bloodowl where the royalty went during the winter (with the exception of Scarlet who preferred to stay in her capital for the arena games.) Most towns were made of isolated lumber and mining villages, getting news much later due to the small number of SkyWings that bothered to go there. It made sense for Kestrel to hide here, at least for the time being.

Peril's wings felt as heavy as the arena itself. She wanted to dice down and land, but her firescales prevented her from doing that, at least without starting a wildfire. Rarely flying had certainly made her worse at flying than other SkyWings. "Ke- mom?" she said. She would have to get used to calling her that. "Can we take a break? Kestrel who was silent for most of the trip slowed down and hovered above the forest glade beneath, eyes burning hotter than Peril's firescales. "Are you crazy? If we stop here you will burn up the forest and give away our location to everyone in a hundred-mile radius! Besides, you're a SkyWing, and we're the best fliers of all the tribes!" Peril rolled her eyes. "I know that, mom. I meant that we should find a safe and fireproof place to stop and rest. What good would come from us being sore and unable to fly away if needed? Surely you're also getting tired?"

Kestrel was trying to hide it as best she could. She faltered. Peril could hear her mother start to pant. She didn't know why Kestrel was hiding it. It's not like being exhausted after hours of flight would make you look weak or anything. "Perhaps she's just too used to doing that by now, not showing any signs of weakness," Peril thought*. "Kind of like how I got used to kil-*" "No, not right now," she muttered to herself she shook the unwanted thought from her head. Kestrel groaned. "Fine. I know a place. But don't you dare whine about it or I'll make you fly laps until sunset." "Thanks." Peril said. She didn't expect Kestrel to cave so easily. She seemed willing to fly from the Ice Kingdom to the Sea Kingdom and back if she had to. But she also seemed to care about Peril enough to take in her opinion. "Either that or she's scared of what I could do." Peril thought. She wished Kestrel was only a stern but caring mother that Peril never got. Kestrel's quick decision to kill her brother and her eagerness to ditch Clay and the others still made her doubtful. The duo flew for another half hour before lowering to the base of a mountain.

"Stay as close as possible to the mountain and stay quiet," Kestrel commanded. Peril did just that, despite her just wanting to crash on the ground and sleep. They slowly crawled up the mountain for another 20 minutes. It would probably have been less if Kestrel didn't stop after every other snapped twig.

Peril understood the importance of stealth, especially in their situation. However, her mother seemed to be verging on paranoia at times. Eventually, they stopped at a semi-circular stone structure, it's rear edges with small curves and claw-like decorations on the tips of each end of each arch and a long thin line coming out the centre. It resembled the back section of a dragon at mid-flight. The exterior was covered with moss and the stone forming the structure was showing signs of damage from erosion from the elements, battle scars from wars and skirmishes both remembered and forgotten and just general neglect. However, the architecture still held sturdy though and was still in one piece for the most part. This had to be an ancient Skywing tomb. Something the Skywings used to make before they burned their bodies.

"This must be the place Kestrel was taking me to" Peril thought. Tired of walking and flying Peril barged into the structure despite rather loud objections from her mother. Peril wasn't picky about where she slept. Her room was basically an empty stone box, after all, so she got used to sleeping just about anywhere she could without setting anyone or anything on fire. So Peril simply crashed on the ground. She was starting to drift off when she felt rocks hitting her back and tail. This was apparently Kestrel's way of waking people up.

"A simple "get up" would have been nice" Peril thought as she raised her wings to defend herself from the barrage. "Idiot!" Kestrel exclaimed. "You're lucky there weren't any bandits or wild animals or who knows what else in there!" Peril was starting to get annoyed by this. She just wanted some alone time without someone yelling down her neck like those drill sergeants in the barracks.

"What was that symbol Scarlet used to tell me to leave her alone?" She pondered. "Oh yeah! Right! How could I forget it?" She then proceeded to lift her middle talon straight upward towards the sky. That didn't help at all. It just got a defining roar of rage and a whole heap of rocks launched at her. Thankfully they were pretty small and didn't hurt too much.

"How DARE you disrespect me like that?" Howled Kestrel. "I am your MOTHER. I had the power to kll you off and yet I spared you! So dont go tuning into a brat like those dragonets I raised!" "How is that disrespect?" Peril asked, confused. "It just means "leave me alone" right? That's what Scarlet told me. She used it all the time with no problem." Kestrel stopped snarling at her and soon was making a funny looking face. Peril thought she heard a well-concealed snicker. "Uh... no Peril. It very much does NOT mean that." Peril was even more confused now. "Well, what does it mean then?" "Well uh..." Kestrel stuttered. "It uh... oh, forget it. Let's just say it's very rude and if you do it again you're losing your claws." Peril understood the situation better now. If Kestrel felt awkward explaining it must have been really bad.

"Well, anyway this place looks secure enough for our purposes," Kestrel said. "Normally I would try hiding in the middle of the woods but that's not an option so this is the best we got. This one isn't on any modern maps of the kingdom anyway so we shouldn't be found as long as we don't do anything stupid." She still kept one eye on the entrance like she already doubted her words. Peril rolled her eyes again. "The word hasn't gone out here yet Kestrel. We're fine." Fine?" Kestrel spat. "We have the entire Sky Kingdom looking for us as we speak and you say we are fine?" "I'm just saying that we don't have to be on our guard all the time." Peril replied, "We're free! C'mon Celebrate! Have some fun!" Kestrel just snorted, "Fun? I haven't had fun since the day you were hatched." Peril flinched. Some smoke was rising from her scales.

"Oh so you wish I was never born then huh? I see how it is!'' Peril yelled. Kestrel growled, "I didn't mean it like that. I am just saying that since the day you were born my life has gone nowhere but downhill." "Thanks, mother," Peril thought, "that makes it so much better knowing I'm a dead weight to you."

"Look, I don't have time for this argument right now." Kestrel huffed and stood up. "You wanted to rest here. And if we want to stay here we are going to need food. Real food. Not those "black rocks" or whatever else Scarlet was feeding you." She looked down at Peril. She looked somewhat concerned.

"You look like you need some. So I'm going to go fetch some. Meanwhile, you can rest and go linger on your anger or whatever you want to do." She got up and walked out the doorway, "Don't go wandering off and if anyone or anything but me comes out of this door or the tomb entrance, I expect you know what to do." and with that, she took off. Leaving Peril alone with the familiar situation of having nothing but her unwanted thoughts for company.

Please vote if you liked it, it motivates us to write more. Do comment on what we have to work on as that would be greatly appreciated.

First draft by Kyle (reddit.com/u/TheEgoReich)

Editing by yours truly. (reddit.com/u/DragoDraconDraconis)