Tempest Unleashed

Chapter 15: Deception and Betrayal

When we had finished explaining that Moon had a prophecy, Winter, Moon, Qibli, Kinkajou, and I went to the library, but Sandstorm said that he, unfortunately, had business to attend to elsewhere. Qibli and Kinkajou went off to find some scrolls to read, but Winter, Moon, and I went to the front desk to talk to Starflight. "Ah, welcome back, Winter and Tempest. Moon! Welcome to the library!" He flared his wings, and it made us look around the whole library with a newfound respect for it. Starflight said, "Also, Winter and Tempest, I forgot to give you bags and stamps last time you were here. Here you are." Starflight handed each of us a stamp and a beautiful black silk bag with a silver chain as a strap, both with our names on them. We all put our stamps into the bags, and Moon looked at me meaningfully. I didn't know what meaning she meant, so she rolled her eyes and touched the telejewel. I understood immediately and nodded to show that I did. Moon nodded back, then asked Starflight, "So, what happens if we lose our stamp?" Starflight replied, "Good question, Moon. If you lose your stamp, you can come to me for a new one without guilt, unless it's your third time losing one, then you don't get a stamp anymore and my assistant, Fatespeaker, carves your name into this desk so that I remember not to give you a new stamp." Moon nodded, and even though Starflight was blind, he seemed satisfied. "Alright, thanks!" Winter whispered into my ear, "Tempest, there's something I need to tell you in private. Can you follow me?" "Yeah." I replied softly. I followed Winter to a remote part of the library, where there weren't many people around. He stopped, and turned to face me. He walked forward until his snout was almost touching mine. "Tempest, I need to ask you something." "Yes, Winter?" He hesitated for just one moment, and then asked, "Tempest, can you ever forgive me?" "What?" I asked, alarmed. Then, suddenly, out of the shadows behind Winter, ten dragons leaped towards me, and I lifted my tail into scorpion pose, bared my fangs, and hissed, long and loud and clear. The mysterious dragons formed a ring around me, backed me into a wall, and one of them stepped forward to tie a rope around my snout. That was his fatal mistake. As soon as he took that one step closer, I jabbed my tail barb towards his heart, and it pierced the scales, the skin, and the poisonous tip struck true. The snout rope dragon fell down, dead as a doorknob. I hissed, "Anyone else?" The other nine dragons stared at the dangerous barb on my tail that was lying in wait for the next dragon stupid enough to step forward. Suddenly, fueled by rage, they all charged me at once. I blew fire at the closest to me and stabbed the next with my tail. The next's throat was slit, and I broke the next dragon's neck with one clean snap. I was left standing face-to-face with the last four mystery dragons. Weren't there ten dragons? I only killed five ... Suddenly, I was lying face-down on the floor with the biggest mystery dragon pinning my wings and tail to the floor. I began to do the fire-is-coming-soon hiss, but the big mystery dragon pinned my snout shut. The other four dragons came over. One of them tied a rope tight around my snout, two of them bound my wings so that I couldn't stretch my wings at all, and the last curled up my tail and put a tight covering around it so that I couldn't uncurl my tail or stab anyone with it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the big dragon hand a large bag full of gold coins to Winter. "Winter! Winter, help me!" I tried to scream, but my voice was muffled by the tight rope surrounding my snout. Winter caught my eye as I started to tear up, and said, "I'm sorry, Tempest." I began to quietly sob as he turned away and closed his eyes, no longer able to watch me suffer, even though he was the one that got me into that mess. The mystery dragons got out a large cage and put me into it. Then, the large dragon said in a creepy voice to Winter, "Prince Gannet can't afford to meet a fine specimen like you to study and just let him go. You're coming with us." Winter didn't object when the four other dragons tied a rope around his neck and tied the other end to the bars of my cage. The four mystery dragons lifted my cage on two metal bars and followed the large dragon into the shadows.