Warrior - A Wings of Fire Story

Epilogue

Queen Burn landed at the mud kingdom's outskirts, looking down at her weak, shaky talons as she sunk into the mud as if it were quicksand. Hissing in disgust at the wet, mushy feel of the wet dirt, she shook her talon to fling it off, padding deeper into the marshes, sighing at the sight of the mud dragons soaking themselves in the bodies of murky water, completely ignorant of the presence of a queen. Some Mudwings peaked their heads out of their houses at the sound of their arrival, only to pull them back in, whispering things amongst themselves.

"You there." Burn called to one of them, a Mudwing who looked as if he hadn't seen the light of day in hundreds of years. "Take me to the queen at once."

The Mudwing looked back at her nervously. He looked like he was considering declining, but no dragon would ever attempt to say no to the most deadly dragon in Pyrrhia. "R-Right away." He said, stretching quickly and walking out of his home. "This way."

Queen Burn said nothing, only following the Mudwing as he lead her deeper into the marshes. He was quite a big fellow, probably the 'bigwings' of their group, or whatever they called them. By the looks of him, he was obviously a solder, she knew from the fading wounds on his neck and the burns on his wings. His plumpness gave away the impression he had an enormous appetite. As they approached the kingdom, a few Mudwing guards straightened at the sight of her, a few others running back into the throne room Burn has been into many times, presumably to warn the queen of her arrival. Burn didn't wait for any confirmation and simply walked inside, the Mudwing guards eying her in case she tried to do anything to the queen.

Queen Moorhen tilted her head at her slowly, her powerful gaze staring her down like a snake. "Queen Burn..." She said, "To what do I owe the pleasure?" She gave a small smile. Burn did not return it.

"I am afraid this will not be a very pleasant visit, Moorhen. I bring some terrible news."

She gave her a concerned look, "What is it?" She said, tensing.

"Queen Scarlet of the Skywings is a traitor." Said Burn. Some of the guards and other common dragons gasped and murmured to each other at the news of their allies.

Queen Moorhen raised an eye ridge. "This is a bold claim. What has happened?"

"A while ago I hired a young spy-for-hire, a young Sandwing by the name of 'Warrior,' but unfortunately, I discovered much too late he was working for one of my sisters, double-crossing me. He gained my trust and learned more about me so he could tell them how to defeat me. Because I wanted him out of my life, and because Queen Scarlet has been bombarding me with letters telling me to come to the kingdom, I brought the little worm along as a little present." Moorhen nodded as she told her tale, "I told Scarlet to keep him out of her little arena. I wanted him to rot in prison and not die at the hands of another dragon, especially that little monster firescale. Of course, she disobeyed and put him in anyways. Well: His performance in there was soo impressive, she fell in love with him immediately, and sent me on a wild goose chase because I thought he had escaped and was on the run in the kingdom!" She sighed, "In the end, she put a traitor before the rest of the kingdom, and disobeyed ME, her friend and sworn ally just for that Sandwing. I challenged him to a duel in which I would kill him myself, but right as I was about to... Scarlet struck me down." The queen gasped in dismay. "Look at me. Every part of my body aches and now Scarlet is off with her Sandwing, completely ignorant of what he will do to her when she lets her guard down. She hurt me, the future Sandwing queen of Phyrria, and destroyed our alliance for good. I believe we shouldn't just sit and let them think we will forget, I believe we must destroy Queen Scarlet."

Moorhen nodded, "I did not think it would have to come to this, but they have left us with no choice."

"Are you mad?!" A guard shouted at her, "If we did this, we could start another war! Imagine how the Skywings will react!"

Moorhen looked like she was about to yell, lashing her tail, before sitting back down on her haunches, "He is right..."

"At this rate, Skywings and Mudwings might end up in a war if something is not done. We have to strike first." Burn declared, "Those foolish Skywings are likely unaware of the gravity of the situation. Scarlet quite loves the war, and she will not be sitting out any time soon. I reckon we have only a few days before she goes to my sister Blister to forge another alliance. We must form an army and storm the palace, kill the queen, and tell all the Skywings willing to listen to her crimes. Then we could convert them to our side again. Then we can focus on the real problems." She smiled at Moorhen, "Well? What do you think?"

Moorhen thought, looking at her guards, "I am not sure who to believe here... But knowing Scarlet's track record, I'm not surprised this has happened." She flicked her tail to two of the guards, "Take her to the hospital wing and have her immediately looked at, and when you are done, we'll have a long discussion about how we will do this."

"Thank you Moorhen. I knew I could count on you." Burn said.

"You would do the same thing for me, Queen Burn." She said with a little bow, "Go rest up, we have a lot of work to do. It's such a shame Queen Scarlet's reign will have to end this way, but at the end of the day, she brought it upon herself."

"Quite a shame indeed... Queen Scarlet, the deadliest dragon in Phyrrhia to be dethroned and killed by the Queen of the Sandwings..."