Wings Of Fire: The Dragons Of The Night Sky

Chapter Seventeen

Thunderwing's words were met with loud jeers of disapproval and hisses of disrespect.

"Fight!" A Skywing shouted from the crowd. The Skywing's words were followed by jeers of the same.

"Enough." Cadmium spread her wings. The clamor below disputed at her words. "They hybrid speaks bold words. He is not afraid to speak his mind. I will grant you this pass, and this time only, for you not to kill each other."

Adust stared at Cadmium for a moment, then met Thunderwing's eyes. "Don't think you won."

Adust then left, leaving Thunderwing standing alone on the arena sands; seeming to be confused as to why Adust was still being hostile. Well, Thunderwing, now do you see why I have to be so careful with who I trust? Why I'm so prickly?

This isn't his fault, Thunderwing thought back fiercely.

Nightfire was surprised Thunderwing had caught her thoughts, then quickly blocked her mind from him. How does he not see it, Nightfire wonders, when it's right in front of him?

"Anyone else bored?" Cadmium crowed from her pavilion. "I hope not! I have more exiting battles! Where someone actually dies!"

"Lucky us," Barnacle commented. "Wonder why Cadmium didn't make them fight to the death? The last prisoner that tried that didn't have the best ending to they're story."

"Someone else tried to get out of the battle without killing their opponent?" Nightfire was surprised.

"Shortly before you were captured," Barnacle explained. "It was a Rainwing."

"A Rainwing?" Serpent questioned from Nightfire's other side. "I thought they were only known to be lazy."

"Most of them are," Barnacle shrugged. "There are a few throughout history that don't fit that description. The non-violent Rainwing was called Ricordia."

"Like the mushroom?"

"Yes. Exactly like a mushroom. Ricordia possessed one of the most dangerous weapons in Pyrrhia, and he wouldn't use it."

"At all?" Serpent's eyes gleamed. "Or just on dragons?"

"Just on dragons," Barnacle shrugged. "We prisoners that are still here and well that remember Ricordia have seen him use it on the chains that bound him."

"What happen to Ricordia?" Nightfire asked.

"Dunno," Barnacle snorted. "Cadmium made him disappear."

"Did she kill him?"

"Go ask Cadmium that." Barnacle's voice shook as he tried to make a joke of it.

"For real?" Serpent questioned. "I can just imagine that. 'Hey Cadmium, can you tell me how you made Ricordia disappear? And every other prisoner that refused to fight and/or disappeared'?"

Nightfire laughed. "You say that like you've put a lot of thought into it."

"Well, I've been stuck here next to barnacle-breath for so long, haven't I?" Serpent joked.

"Ha ha." Barnacle said dryly.

"Well, you were the one that brought humor into this in the first place, Seawing," Serpent coiled her tail around herself. Nightfire noticed that when Serpent's tail wasn't coiled around her, it was twitching or thrashing.

"Where there others like Ricordia?" Nightfire asked.

"A couple," Barnacle said. "Cadmium made them all disappear. But Ricordia stood out the most."

"Did Ricordia actually fight anyone?"

"Yes. But he would never hurt or kill them."

"We could use more dragons like Ricordia in our world," Serpent commented.