Wings of Fire: A Dangerous Scroll

Chapter 6

"What?!" Moonrise yelped.

"Oh, how strange. I thought you'd be much more clever than this, considering you're part SkyWing and all."

Moonrise opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Queen Finch let out a booming laugh. "Seriously? You had no idea? Hello! Firescales? You know that only SkyWings can have those, don't you?"

Moonrise looked at her talons nervously. "I-I thought..."

"Well then, why does she look like a NightWing?!" Crescent was ready to fight tooth and claw to defend her friend.

"She's a hybrid, of course! Why don't I give you a little science lesson, hm? Firescales dragonets always hatch with a twin. The firescales dragonet will absorb all of their sibling's fire in the egg."

"You're saying I had a twin?"

"Wow, you're even more stupid than I thought! Yes, you did, idiot! Of course, I had to dispose of him. What's a little SkyWing-NightWing hybrid freak with no fire going to do to serve my kingdom?"

"Why are you telling us this now?!" Crescent was getting ready to lunge.

"Well, just killing you would be boring. Why not add some extra salt in the wound?"

That was the final straw for Crescent. She pounced at Queen Finch, roaring fiercely.

Moonrise was frozen in shock. So many questions had just been answered in her mind, but so many new ones had arisen. Too bad she'd never get to know the answers to those...

"Moonrise! A little help?!" Crescent's strained voice brought Moonrise back to reality. She had time to think about this later. Right now, she had to help fight Finch before she and Crescent were killed.

She ran over to the SkyWing Queen and held nothing back. She dug her claws straight into Finch's chest. The sound of her pained screech and the sizzling of her underscales mingled to create a truly horrifying combination, but Moonrise had to look past that. Everything was at stake here. A blast of fire breath came out of Finch's mouth and straight into Moonrise's face. She screwed her eyes shut and held down her snout so no fire could get into her nostrils. If she protected certain parts of her face, she could withstand fire. A cry of anger erupted from the Queen as she saw Moonrise raise her head again.

Crescent was biting down full force on Finch's ear and digging her hind claws into her belly. Moonrise could tell she was faltering, though. She couldn't hold off the queen forever. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. If they both burned her at the same time, she wouldn't have enough time to react and her face would be charred. 

"Burn her, Crescent!" They both exhaled flames directly into the Queen's face and she screeched in horror. 

Another guard had come to join the fight, the same crimson one who had woken them up this morning. He dug his teeth into Crescent's wing, making her cry out in pain. Luckily, Finch was distracted. This was their chance! "Over here!" called Moonrise, bounding towards the door. Crescent followed close behind, the guard on her tail. 

"Locked!" she hissed furiously. Another cry sounded from the edge of the throne room. Moonrise saw a SkyWing guard... fighting the Queen! 

"Through the window!" he instructed, dodging blasts of fire as he spoke.

There was no time to thank him. Moonrise and Crescent headed for the stained glass. High above the fighting, the sun had risen, turning the sky a pale yellow. With one swipe of her tail, Moonrise shattered the colorful glass into thousands of pieces. Carefully, she escaped through the hole, followed by Crescent. As they flew as fast as their wings could carry them, they heard another screech from Queen Finch.

Hopefully, that was the last one.