Wings of Fire: Peace (Completed)

Chapter 4- Copper

Copper stared at the SeaWing dragonet. She had weird squiggly shapes on her light blue wings. Were those tattoos? Did they mean something? Stop! he thought, frowning even more than he already was. Why was he even curious about anyone here? SkyWings weren't supposed to ask questions!

"Everyone, this is Drift! We were just about to go hunting, want to come with?" 

"Sure!" Drift squealed. No! 

"We need to work in partners, so we don't scare away all the prey," Tsunami tucked her wing back in and then looked at Kumquat and Cecropia. "And... fruit." The orange RainWing and the SilkWing made weird faces.

"So, Mandarin and Palo, Copper and Drift, Cecropia and Kumquat, Junix and I, and Empathy and Flytrap." Copper was convinced the blue SeaWing was just trying to provoke him now. Smoke poured out of his nostrils, nearly masking his whole face. The SkyWing bared his teeth at Tsunami, who didn't seem to notice.

Mandarin and Palo were the first to lift off, flying toward the mass of green trees to find prey. Where should Copper and Drift go? He scanned the area with his sharp vision. There was a gopher hole not too far away. He would hunt there. He didn't care if Drift objected. He didn't submit to anyone except his queen. And that queen, was Ruby, that squeal-a-minute SeaWing over there was not.

"Wait! What's your name- Copper! Wait for me!" The blue dragon flew after him, struggling to keep up. Copper hissed at her over his shoulder, floating up to a faster-moving wind current.

"What is wrong with you?" she wailed. "It's like you hate me!" 

"That's because I do!" he growled. Drift looked hurt, but why did he care? If he was a SeaWing, he probably would, but he wasn't of course. Copper folded his wings against his body and dove in a downward spiral, spotting a sliver of brown bolt back in its hole.

"What are we doing?" the blue dragon asked, tilting her head. 

"What are we doing? I think you mean, what am I doing," he said back. Copper plunged his talon into one of the small holes and felt fur slip away from him. Moons-blasted goat turds! He thought, there must be more though. 

"Can't you eat, like, a squirrel or something?" 

"If you didn't know, squirrels are even harder to catch and eat than a gopher! Why can't you go eat a seagull?!" 

"I already did, you dum-dum," Drift snorted. 

"You don't have the right to call me dum-dum, SEAWING!" 

"Well, actually, I'm a princess!" the SkyWing snapped his jaws at her and flew away, fast.

Copper looked around in search of other prey. What in the-? What was that?! The dark red dragon landed on a high peak with some bushes where he could hide from Drift and from the strange thing. He examined the weird dragon. It had shiny pink scales that caught the light at weird angles and feathered wings. Then its scales suddenly changed color! But did they? The SkyWing looked up and saw the sun had been covered by a cloud. He looked back at the dragon. Its scales hadn't changed color, in fact, they just faded to a dark lavender purple! What the moons?! It couldn't be a RainWing... could it? It didn't have the prehensile tail, or the ruff, so what could it be? The dragon flicked its dark purple tongue and narrowed its eyes. RainWings didn't have purple tongues! No tribes did!

He decided to go down there. Copper spread his wings and flew down from his mountain peak where the strange dragon was now resting on the grass under the shade of a tree. She was perfectly helpless. Her eyes flew open and she tried to flee, but he grabbed her tail. 

"Wait! It's okay! I won't hurt you!" he said to her. The strange dragon hissed at him and bared her fangs. Is she a hybrid?

Copper studied her further. She had extra scales on her forearms and gills on her neck and a weird flap of skin near her lower jaw. What could that be? He felt like he soon would find out. 

"What do you want?!" she demanded, shaking him out of his thoughts. The dark red dragon decided not to be scared; he knew how to fight. His throat pulsed in a new anger that he felt all of a sudden. The shiny dragon hissed and a bright yellow gas erupted out of her throat. It smelled really bad and it made him cough. But Copper would not give up. He shot a blast of fire at her face. Had she seen fire before? It seemed like she hadn't. It scorched her scales badly. The purple dragon roared in pain.

The SkyWing snatched her up in his claws and flew to the academy.

"Tsunami! Look what I found!" the SeaWing narrowed her eyes at the shiny dragon and walked closer. 

"What in the continent is that?!" she yelped. 

"I have no idea! She looks like some kind of hybrid. She breathed a weird gas that seemed to be toxic, but I'm fine." Copper wheezed. "Take her to Marigold in the Science Classroom, she'll find out what to do with it."

Copper nodded and dragged the dragon into the Science Classroom where Marigold the SandWing and Sunny were experimenting with Pantalan garden chemicals. 

"Hi!" said Sunny, looking up, her green eyes widening at the shiny dragon. The SkyWing wheezed again. 

Marigold gasped and hurried over, her poisonous tail swishing side to side. 

"That's a DreamWing! Did she attack you? Did you breathe in the gas?" 

"Yes and yes." 

"Oh dear," the yellow dragon dove back over to her desk and dug through the drawers, tossing things she didn't need at the dragon anatomy scroll hung on the wall behind her, at the shelves, and at Sunny (accidentally).

"Ah! Here you are!" Marigold held up a test tube full of a bubbling pink liquid that looked like it would explode if anyone opened it. The SandWing uncorked the tube and poured it in a bowl, then she picked up yet another test tube out of her drawer that she didn't chuck at the wall or shelves. 

"I- is that? Is that SandWing venom?!" 

"Uh-huh," Marigold nodded. "Don't worry, it won't hurt you at all, I promise, all it'll do is make you want to sleep forever." Copper picked up the bowl cautiously and took a sip. 

THUMP! The SkyWing fell unconscious and felt Marigold call Sunny to help her get him to his sleeping cave. Suddenly the DreamWing roared and attacked them.