Wings of Fire: Peace (Completed)

Chapter 11-Mandarin

Mandarin's wings hurt. His talons hurt. His arms hurt. His neck hurt. His chest hurt. EVERYTHING hurt. Oh, stop it with the complaining! One part of him said. Tell Copper to stop! He has to listen this time! The other said, His mind should tell him that everyone is tired! Mandarin shook his head to clear his thoughts and noticed that everyone was swooping down into the taiga forest below. Success is what matters, shut up about the tiredness, he thought. Even when you're not sure what success is in this situation, he added grumpily.

"THANK YOU!" Gasped Empathy, collapsing on the ground. Her dark scales were probably absorbing all the sunlight, so she was the warmest of all of them. They had been flying for almost a day straight so even Copper and Kumquat were tired.

"Can we eat something?" Flytrap groaned. Mandarin nodded, "Be back here at sunset and split into groups just in case we meet some DreamWings or cult members on the way."

Mandarin, Palo, and Copper flew to a big hill and looked around for something to eat. "There!" Palo said, quickly diving down onto a pine tree and snatching a hawk in his claws. He snarfed it up in three seconds flat. After that, Copper caught a big wolf. "Hey, guys we need to catch a few more things and then go back, it's nearly sunset," Mandarin nodded at the evening sun that was at an angle in the sky.

The dragonets flapped over to a secluded area that was completely shaded and untouched. There were the quiet chirps of birds, yaps of wolves, the whistles of the wind, and hoots of owls. Quite a lot of life for such a small area. "This is where I grew up," Copper growled, "where I should've been this whole time, if it weren't for Ruby and her stupid decisions." Palo gasped, "Are you criticizing your queen?" You could never tell if he was joking. The SkyWing frowned and snorted a puff of black smoke.

The dragonets dove down into the small area and waited behind a very large boulder. A baby lynx wobbled through the gorse, mewling adorably and tripping over a root and wiggling, paws thrashing at the air as if it were trying to slay an imaginary bird. Then a bigger one trotted out, followed by another kit that was obviously smarter than the first one, carefully stepping over the root that its sibling had tripped on. The three cats stalked a rabbit that was nibbling at the ground. Palo glanced at Mandarin with a look that said, Should we? The MudWing shook his head.

Copper launched himself over the boulder, missing the lynx family and getting the rabbit instead. "Dummy," he said, fastening his jaws around the neck of the poor animal, giving it a quick, painless death. Palo pricked his ears at something behind him. A weasel! Mandarin realized, glancing at the SandWing, with a look that said, Yours. The white-yellow dragon whipped around and grabbed its middle section. "One more, then we need to go."

The dragons lifted off again and let Mandarin catch a mountain goat, then went back to their meeting place. Sheer and Empathy had both caught deer, Flytrap and Kumquat had got berries and a large owl, and Junix, Drift, and Cecropia got blueberries and a wild dog. "Wow, um, what are we going to do with all this?" asked Kumquat. "We could donate some to the SkyWings, I guess," Mandarin suggested. They all agreed that's what they would do and flew to the mountain palace.

The guards held their spears in an 'X' and refused to let them through, but then noticed the dead animals in their talons. "Alright," one shrugged, rolling her eyes. There was a giant arena littered with very old scorched dragon corpses and bones, leaves, and injured dragons being tended to by nurses. The dragonets and the guards landed in this arena and set down their kills. A small dark red SkyWing with goldfish orange eyes flew over to them. "Who are you? Do you have business with the queen?" he asked. "Prince Cliff," Copper said, bowing, "We have a few pieces of prey to give, we caught an unexpectedly large amount."

Prince Cliff wrinkled his nose and then nodded at him, "Copper, aren't you supposed to be at school?" "Well..." he looked at his friends, "Jade Mountain is constantly being attacked by a dragon tribe-cult." "Okay then," the SkyWing prince shrugged and then called a few other dragons over. "Owl, Dove, Vermillion, Flame, give these to the nurses please."

Suddenly, a larger ruby-red SkyWing adorned with small rubies glittering from between the scales around her eyes and silver rings with larger rubies on them around her claws swooped down from the palace. "Mother, these dragonets are here to give food to our dragons, don't be mad." Mandarin realized with a jolt that she was the queen and bowed instantly, flicking his tail to signal the others should too. "Are they," she said, grinning, "Alright. Copper, why are you back here so soon?" "He said that it's being attacked," Cliff answered. "By who?"

"DreamWings," all the dragonets said in unison. "Hmm. Anyway, thank you, we are grateful for your contribution," Ruby said, "Tell Peril I said hello!" The ten dragons lifted off and flew to a cave. "We can stay here," Copper nodded. A few sticks and prey bones were lying around, as well as a few mossy rocks. The fire-breathing dragonets made torches out of the stray sticks and started munching.

Mandarin felt much heavier than before after they were finished and fell asleep in a second.

The next day, he woke up to Palo staring at him with those jet black voids of SandWing eyes that stared into his soul and inspected it for rotting spots. "Ack!" he yelped. "What the heck, Palo!" "Copper says it's time to go, Empathy has been having "visions" again," the SandWing rolled his eyes. "Come on, get your stuff."

Mandarin stood up, blinked a few times, and looked around. He grabbed the last scraps of his goat and ate them quickly. Most of the dragonets were outside climbing the mountain. "You're awake," said Empathy, jumping up to hover midair. "My visions say we should follow the river, the DreamWings will probably find us first, though." That was unsettling. "Come on!" Copper growled, hovering by Cecropia.

Empathy was the first to start flying away, followed by Copper, Cecropia, Kumquat, and the rest of the dragonets. Fog enveloped them soon after and they breathed some fire to melt it away. Mandarin shivered. This is so weird.... he thought. "ROOOAAAR!" a dragon roared nearby, bringing the sound of wingbeats with it. "Corner them!" someone shouted, "This way! Over here!" A giant mountain loomed out of the fog. Seven DreamWings were chasing them, on the left, on the right, over, and in front.

They were trapped.