The Sapphire of War

Epilogue

Throughout her entire life, General Amber had never even thought about deserting Queen Pine. She had stayed loyal, followed orders, and never left the queen's side.

Until now.

She wasn't putting Queen Pine in any danger, Amber told herself as she slipped out of the underground bunker she and the queen had been hiding in for the past few days. She was only leaving for a short time, and with a good reason. 

Amber had to find Foliage. She had to. She knew she had done all she could to protect him during the MistWing invasion, but she also knew that it wasn't enough. He was now wandering through Palem on his own, and the MistWings would doubtlessly find him if Amber didn't first.

Slipping past the MistWings guarding the city was easy -- Amber could detect five different flaws in their formation right on sight. She spent the next week or so restlessly searching the continent -- first the Great Grassland, then Sunspray Lake. She was now on her way to the abandoned palace on the other side of the lake. Rumor had it that the RainbowWings had inhabited the palace before they were wiped out, but Amber didn't concern herself with petty legends.

To her surprise, the palace wasn't completely abandoned -- there was a small village surrounding it. As Amber flew down to investigate, something caught her eye -- an odd formation of rocks and trees that didn't appear completely natural. She flew to a sight that made her heart nearly leap out of her chest. It was Foliage! It looks like he's in some sort of strange prison cell, she mused. 

Amber then turned to a sight that shocked her even more. There was a group of dragons standing just outside the village, talking and laughing. Some of the dragons had striped, brightly-colored scales, but it wasn't the RainbowWings that truly surprised her.

It was the other dragons. The ones with the pitch-dark scales.

TO BE CONTINUED...