Eternal Fire

Chapter 20

   Ember stood in the world she hatched in, but the colours looked weird, the greens of the plants took a minute for Ember's eyes to get used to, the greens were too bright, too shiny, too fake. The bright light pink on the mountains looked false. Everything looked fake. She looked at the sky, small fluffy clouds flew at pace that should make them fall out of the sky, the blue sky also looked too blue. She looked back, the dark green sparks of the portal disappearing. Her wings drooped. She was alone.

   Do I really want to do this?

   For my family, and for the other families, I must do this, quicker the better.

   Ember crouched and jumped into the air, her wings beating in the morning air. She looked around trying to make sense of where she was.

   "I am lost." She said, her voice barely audible, "Hello? Anyone there? I am lost!" She shouted into the gentle wind. I could just fly south, and go from there, but I do not have time for that. She looked around, trying to see some signs that dragons lived here. She landed, sniffing the ground around her, trying to find a scent of any dragon. Where would a dragon live, if there was one around here? Ember looked around, she needed to make her mind up quickly, there was not much time.

   She jumped into the air and started flying towards the mountains, hoping that there would be a dragon there, having landed on a hill, she had had a good view of the land around her, and she was quite sure that this was in a southernly direction.

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   There was a community near here. She could smell dragons, all earth dragons, going from the scents, they had a nutty smell to them. She called out again, hoping that someone would hear her. She heard a growl from a dragon under her, so she looked down, but only plants met her gaze.

   "I am lost, I need help." She said downwards.

   "Go away, you are not wanted here." The male earth dragon's voice came from the bushes.

   "Just point me in the correct direction and I will go."

   "Your kind has made us suffer already. Leave us."

   "I do not know where I am!"

   "I will not tell you where you are, as you will come back and burn us to the ground."

   "I promise, I will not tell a soul about this place. I have never hurt any dragon from this world that hasn't hurt me, or my family. I just want to know where I am."

   "From this world?"

   "I need to warn and help stop an incoming invasion, please tell me where I am."

   "You sound like you need the Guardians, anyways, thank you for the warning, do you have any advice?"

   "Do you know where they are? Just stay quiet, stay here, do not come out if you notice a large green, with some blue, number of dragons."

   "There is a base near here, we will warn the others before continuing on to their base." The dragon stepped out of the bushes; his leaf green scales had helped him to blend in perfectly to his environment. "Follow me."

   Ember landed on the ground, watching the earth dragon out of the corner of her eye, as well as keeping an eye out on the landscape around her. "Why do you have the odd green scale?" The dragon asked.

   "How you think that I managed to find out that there was going to be an invasion?" Ember countered, it would be best if the dragon thought that she had not been living with them for over eight years and was sent here by the future invaders. "How do you know that there are Guardians in this area?"