Eternal Fire

Chapter 38

   Ember watched the pack, one of the biggest she'd seen during the past three years, settle down for the night, she'd wait for night to settle down in full before entering. They were all dragons that hatched in this world, some of them were injured enough that they were limping or were permanently damaged in some way.

   Some dragons were still up when the night had fully covered the world, some stayed where they were whilst others were moving around the camp, but the majority were asleep. Slowly picking her way down the hill, she ached to burn away the mud on her legs, but she wouldn't, she needed to fit in, although her scales and power made it hard. She lowered her head, wings and tail as she entered the area, how so many did this all the time, she wasn't sure. The patrolling dragon closest to her headed in her direction, and Ember stopped walking, standing still as the dragon stopped next to her.

   "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The voice said, distinctively male.

   "I'm looking for a pack, I've been quite unsuccessful for a while, I've been travelling on my own for many days." Ember turned her head, keeping her eyes lowered as she saw the male's blue scales.

   "I think you're lying. You seem quite strong and powerful. So, who are you? Why are you here?"

   "I'm looking for a different pack, one that travels, I like travelling a lot. You lot seem to travel."

   "Come." The dragon turned and walked towards the centre of the group, dragons watched them pass before closing their eyes and drifting back to sleep. There were only a few earth dragons, the majority was made of the two once warring sides, they'd probably not been able to find a pack that had space and wanted them, so they'd banded together.

   An earth, water, ice, fire, lava, angel and demon sat in a circle, watching them with eyes that nearly dropped, but opened fully when they just have heard Ember and the water dragon. The angel dragon spoke first, "I'd say that you're a Guardian, you are powerful enough to be one, but you are not. Who are you?"

   "I'm Flicker, and I like travelling, hence why I'm not part of an official pack."

   "Right," the female fire dragon snorted, "sister, you are a terrible liar. Flicker is my name, yours is Ember. Did Amluse finally let you free from his grasp?" Eight pairs of eyes watched her, and Ember stopped pushing her fire downwards, letting them know the full extent of her fire, making a few shuffle and glance at each other, as others began to wake up and watch.

   "My name is Ember, the leader's most trusted dragon in all the planets," she raised her head, wings and tail to their usually position, "you could also say my name is Ember Kingkiller." That definitely started to worry them even more. "Brake up this pack, save me the job of killing you all, join official packs, and leave this place. You have till the day reaches its full power, then, and only then, will I unleash the full might of my fire, which even fire and lava dragons will burn."

   "What if we send the leader a message, perhaps your head?" Flicker snarled.

   "You would have declared a war, a war against all the official packs and the leader. That's if you do manage to kill me. I've not gotten to my position by looking cute." Ember showed them her shining, sharp teeth, "I'll leave this to you to sort out." She stretched and sat down, closing her eyes as she rested her mind and body while the leaders of this pack probably glared at her and whispered about their next move.

- - -

   The sun woke Ember up, the colours shining across the lands as the area looked a lot emptier than it was the previous day. The seven leaders were still there, watching their pack slowly break apart with their command. About half of the dragons had gone, with more going every moment as Ember watched. "I see that I have still got my head." She murmured, her eyes watching the dragons that was left, a third of those were hybrids, one of them was watching Ember with her teeth bared, her red and blue scales shining as the female dragon - probably around three - turned away and headed into the woods. Some of the hybrids banded together and headed off in small groups, but most headed off alone.