[OLD] Wings Of Fire: Bluefire

Part 11

Azure'shard woke on the wooden floor, His mind was cramped with a terrible headache. His vision was blurry, and he slowly shifted his nauseated eyes up and down the floor. He rolled up his face towards his chest, and a terrible pain stung everywhere. Being dragged across the floor isn't the most comfortable thing when you're already injured. His wounds had not fully healed and were still fresh. He was back in his prison cell, laying on the hard floor. As soon as he opened his eyes, he could see two dragons; Sophellia, who was laying on the floor as well and staring at him, and Harbinger, who was also staring at him, from outside his cell.

Upon regaining the sight to see more than a meter ahead of him he noticed the Night'wing. Harbinger bared his salient teeth at the two dragons. "You have a single damn day to prepare. At this time by tomorrow, you better hope you're ready because we are here to train you, not to waste time with some dragonets. If you do not comply you will regret it, you will not complain or quit. You will listen to our every command as if your life depends on it, which in fact, it does. So get off your ass and get ready for tomorrow." Harbinger's tempered tone made Azure'shard flinch.

The hybrid lifted himself up slowly, staring at the Harbinger as he talked. He froze, what happened? He pondered to himself, he was walking towards training and met someone. Then it hit him. A crash of emotions slammed into his heart. His mother, he had met his mother, and they had ripped her away from him in seconds. Then he was dragged away and then everything went black and he passed out. Now he had nothing but questions. Where was she? Did they kill her? Will he ever see her again?

The Night'wing hissed upon getting no response, "Do you understand me?"

Sophellia turned to Harbinger, snarling, "Yes, he is not deaf! Would you shut up and leave him alone?"

Harbinger stepped back from the glass, glaring at the Sea'wing but shutting his mouth. He readjusted his wings, "YOU shut your snout, walking fish. All you do is waste your breath trying to stand up for this pathetic hybrid. The only importance you serve is to entertain this Kingdom. I do not have time for useless dragons like you." He sniveled, before leaving the prison.

The Sea'wing quietly growled at the Night'wing advisor as he left, watching him closely before turning to Azure'shard.
"You can sit back down, the idiot is gone now. It seems like he loves spitting lies and insults at dragons." She huffed, sitting down on the stone floor.

He glanced at Sophellia, "W-where is she?" He croaked in desperation, glancing around.

"Who?" The Sea'wing asked confusedly.

"My mother- where is she?" He repeated himself.

Sophellia tilted her head,  "The orange Sky'wing guard that you hugged? but... you don't look like a Sky'wing hybrid"

"She-she raised me, before the Queen took me- I-I need-" Azure'shard asked, starting to panic, and beginning to hyperventilate.

The Sea'wing frowned, "I don't know, I'm sure she's fine, please, you need to rest"

Azure'shard stood up and slumped onto the glass panes, scratching at the glass with his talons. ."I need to see her!" He cried in desolation, but his voice echoed alone through the prison, it was empty aside from all the other prisoners, and even they didn't speak a word as if they felt bad for the panicked hybrid.

Sophellia sighed, "The guards aren't there, sit down."

The hybrid turned to the Sea'wing with a teary voice, "You don't understand! I need to see her!"

"You can't do anything right now, you are injured. The Night'wings are guests, I'm sure they can't throw her in the prison or kill her without asking Queen Gemstone first. And she's a Sky'wing- the Royalty doesn't like hurting their own tribe as much as they like doing that to other tribes. I'm sure she was spared." Sophellia tried to reassure him, but knew deep within that the Queen's brutality easily outweights her loyalty to her own tribe.

Azure'shard stared at her, she could see the desperation in his eyes. "You don't understand, you haven't seen what I'VE seen. The Sky'wings are ruthless. Gemstone is ruthless. She will be dead by the next moon if she's lucky!" Azure'shard slumped onto the ground, laying onto the floor and covering his eyes with his front legs.

"If anything happens, I will tell you, you don't need to worry. But for now, you need rest, please."

He glanced up at her momentarily, then turned his head back. He accepted the fate that had been bestowed upon him. He laid motionless against the glass panes. His injuries pained every moment and his muscles were sore. He laid back on the mossy floors in the center of the cage. Sophellia looked down at him with concern.

As he rested, Darkshark watched them both from the other cell, unsure of what else to do. She waved her talons in the air upon noticing Sophellia facing outwards towards the main prison complex, catching her attention. "Hey, Sea'wing, what's going on there? Is he dead?" She asked, saying the last part of the question in a quiet whisper.

Sophellia sighed, "He has a day to rest, finally these idiots gave him a break, a short one at that. Who knows what shit they'll do with him tomorrow."

"You two need to stop sitting around, we should all start to plan some kind of escape- unless you want to rot here forever?" Darkshark suggested.

"An escape plan? Right now there is nothing we can do, and if we do try something it's only gonna get worse for him." The Sea'wing answered, walking closer to the glass door.

Darkshark narrowed her eyes, "No, we don't have time to wait around, waiting is gonna make it worse, waiting is gonna get us all killed!"

Sophellia growled, "There is NOTHING we can do. If you want to plan, go ahead but don't say I didn't warn you, it's hopeless."

The dark blue dragon sighed, "Fine, it seems like you've given up- but I'm gonna get out of here."

Darkshark turned to inspect her cage, looking for any weak spots or things to use. She sat down, groaning in annoyance and retreating back further into her cell, Oviraptor simply watched her without a care in the world while half-asleep, blinking slowly and yawning.

The next day...


Queen Gemstone and King Aetites walked through the clean hallways, as always the lightreflected off of the chased and colored glass high on the ceiling and walls. Both dragons were decorated in silk robes and golden jewelry. The two soon split up; the King walking off into the direction of the main palace exit and the Queen traveling toward the hatchery.

King Aetites glided out of the palace, today was a cloudy day, rain and mist clouding the usual daytime brightness. He descended into the arena, landing on the royal balcony. Hundreds of Sky'wings, Mud'wings, and the occasional Rain'wings or even Night'wings sat along the outdoor seats. The crowd erupted into cheers and howls in sight of the king. He spread his wings, the crowd shushed in an instant.

"Queen Gemstone will arrive shortly, please remain in your seats." He shouted out to the horde of spectators, before sitting down against his own chair and looking up at the palace. Soon enough, the Queen arrived with a convoy of guards behind her, she landed on the balcony, the guards all taking their positions nearby. In her talons were two tiny objects and a small creature, her two unhatched eggs and her first daughter Princess Tanzanite.

"It is time for them to learn about the arena, don't you think?" Queen Gemstone turned to King Aetites as she sat down, placing the two eggs on a warm blanketed nest to her side and letting the dragonet go.

The King nodded, then turned his head to the young dragon, who was now stumbling around the balcony and exploring it; fortunately, the barriers were way too tall for the dragonet to be able to climb and possibly fall down.

The dragonet sat down momentarily as giant arms descended from the sky, Queen Gemstone grabbed her child and put her next to the two eggs, "Stay here, my daughter. The view is much more pleasant here." The dragonet seemed somewhat confused, but remained on the blanket, glancing down into the arena.

Soon, guards dragged a prisoner into the arena, a yellow Sand'wing, Oviraptor. He spat at the armored Sky'wings. Upon touching the damp sand that coated the ground, the Sand'wing raised an eyebrow. It had been long since he had touched the sand, but it was a familiar and pleasent feeling.

He then glanced to the other side of the arena as the stone gates slid open, revealing nobody other than Azure'shard. He was slow to enter the arena. Oviraptor muttered something under his breath, "Shit, they're making me fight the hybrid?"

Azure'shard's eyes widened, he was going to have to fight, and possibly kill the dragon who now lives with his neighbor, he didn't know him; but it wasn't a nice feeling knowing that you have to fight someone that you've met before. He looked up at the two rulers of the Sky'wings, growling under his breath before looking back at the Sand'wing.

"Hurry it up already!" The Queen roared at the two fighters with annoyance, waving her talons in their direction. The crowd erupted into shouts. One of the Sky'wings hurled a rock at the two, encouraging them to fight. Azure'shard scowled at the dragon who threw it.

Oviraptor stared at his opponent, sighing, "Let's just do this.'' His tail twitched, it was long and the barb was oddly shaped, technically the barb was upside down,  and the sharp tip was elongated like a spear tip or a Hive'wing's stinger. It must've been some sort of mutation that ran in his family, or perhaps he himself was the descendant of a hybrid.

Azure'shard inhaled, maybe he did not need to kill him, he could refrain from using his fire and do claw-to-claw combat, perhaps the Queen would stop the fight if one dragon was unable to fight back and the other wasn't attacking. He took a step forward, and so did the Sand'wing.

They began to circle each other, Azure'shard grumbled quietly so that only the Sand'wing could hear. "I won't kill you." The Sand'wing didn't respond and went in to attack, slamming his tail into the side of his torso, not doing much aside from slightly putting him off balance due to their size difference.

Azure'shard spun around to counter-act the attack, standing back upwards. The Sand'wing took the opportunity of imbalance to strike. He opened his mouth and let a hiss of fire slam into Azure'shard's chest. Azures'shard crouched down, narrowly avoiding the fire the warmth passed over his head. He attacked back, sinking his teeth into the middle of his tail and pulling, the Sand'wing twirled around, before finally getting free, stumbling around and falling onto the sand, thumping onto his back. Azure'shard charged forward, but as he got close Oviraptor flung a fistful of sand into his eyes. He roared, stepping back.

Oviraptor got up, lunging at the larger dragon and beginning to claw at his wings and shoulders repeatedly. Azure'shard's frail wings closed around himself in an attempt to stay out of the way, but suddenly were torn as the Sand'wing's talons sliced through. He roared in pain, his disfigured wings shredded. He fell backward, The agile smaller dragon slithered around his attack and pinned his neck into the sand. Did the Sand'wing want to kill him? Azure'shard snickered at the thought, he was trying to make the fight as least damaging as possible, but to him, it seemed like Oviraptor didn't share the same motive.

The larger dragon hissed, kicking his legs up and slamming the Sand'wing down onto the ground and once again clamping his jaws around the end of his tail, narrowly avoiding the deadly barb. He held on with more force than before, Oviraptor yelped in pain and struggled, managing to claw his opponent's face along the snout.

Azure'shard snarled, continuously more angered by the other dragon. Smoke began to arise from his mouth, and soon a small, blue flame began to spread along the tip of the Sand'wing's tail. Oviraptor screeched and thrashed violently, leading to the hybrid nearly losing his grip on his tail multiple times and causing fire to pour out of his mouth in small bursts, some flames hit the Sand'wing's body, leaving sizable burn marks on his tail, torso, and limbs.

Eventually, Oviraptor managed to free his tail, Azure'shard stepped back, the fire ceased to burst out of his throat and his glowing spiky fluff and bioluminescent scales stopped glowing. He stood still, staring down at the smaller dragon who curled up on the sand in pain.

Azure'shard realized just how much he'd injured the dragon, way more than he had intended to. He sighed, stepping back further and sitting down. The Queen and the King watched from above, the Sand'wing looked helpless and half-dead.

Queen Gemstone growled, readjusting her crown, "That was utterly disappointing!" She turned to her guards, "Take them back to the prison, the Sand'wing too. I do want to see some more of that freak tail in the arena if it survives, it could get interesting."

The guards nodded, "Of course, Your Majesty." They swiftly took off into the air, swooping down into the arena. One of the guards pounced on top of Azure'shard, pinning him to the ground despite being smaller. They slammed a muzzle onto his snout, before jumping off and gesturing for him to head down back to the prison.

Azure'shard cooperated, getting up and making his way back towards the tunnel. As he was walking, he looked back behind him, seeing another Sky'wing guard drag Oviraptor into the opposite gates.

Princess Tanzanite, the young dragonet, looked up at Queen Gemstone with a happy smile, a small amount of smoke exiting through her nostrils. Her mother patted her head, "Did you enjoy the show? That's the spirit!" The Queen turned to King Aetites, "Would you take the children back to the palace? I have to consult the general."

The King scooped the eggs up into his arms, paying close to no attention to them. He let Princess Tanzanite climb up his shoulder and latch on, before taking off into the air and returning to the palace. Soon, he was in the hatchery, placing the two eggs back into their luxurious nests in a hurry.

Princess Tanzanite stared down at the eggs from a distance as she and her father exited the hatchery, both eggs looked different, there were gray and black marks across their sides, burn marks. She turned her gaze back to Aetites, smiling as he returned her to the royal babysitter.