Wings of Fire: The Hidden Key

~Chapter Eight~

From the way Amber was grumbling, Reed had the impression that whoever Starberry was, she annoyed the heck out of the SandWing. As they slunk down the shadowy hallways, Dreamcatcher kept a firm grip on Reed's arm, like she expected her to bolt at any moment. 

 "You can let go of me now..." Reed mumbled, embarrassed. Dreamcatcher had a grip like steel, and it was beginning to hurt.

 The NightWing jumped, and quickly pulled away, looking flustered. "Sorry. Just nervous."

 Reed nodded. Well, I officially have reached the max level of embarrassment. She turned to Amber, who still had steam curling out of her nose. She kept muttering something under her breath, but whenever she caught Reed looking at her, she stopped and scowled deeper.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Reed whispered.

 "Somewhere I wish I could commit arson to." Amber muttered, prompting Dreamcatcher to stomp on her tail. She yelped and shot daggers at her. 

 Reed pointedly ignored this, and they continued down the hall. She was beginning to realize just how big this place was. Where even is it? Are we underground? Shouldn't someone realize by now that it exists...? She froze when she noticed two SeaWings standing guard outside of a door. They both were covered in scars, and had stony expressions on their faces.

 A whimper escaped out of her mouth, and she prayed that they wouldn't notice the three dragonets standing in the shadows. The guards seemed to be deep in conversation, not paying attention to anything else, which gave them a chance to quickly slip past them.

 She held her breath the entire time, not daring to let a noise come out of her mouth. She didn't want to jeopardize their entire mission. Finally, after about ten more minutes of walking, hiding and nearly passing out, they arrived at a dumpy looking door that read, 'do not enter.'

 "Um, are you sure this is the right place? It says do not enter." Reed whispered nervously, glancing at the other dragons.

 "Yes, you idiot. I know what I'm doing." Amber scoffed, rolling her eyes. Her words stung, but Reed ignored it and went along with them. Dreamcatcher pulled out a small golden key from a pouch around her leg, and opened the door with it.

 Reed hadn't noticed the pouch before. She wondered if the key was the only thing in it. They stepped in the room, with Reed hiding behind them, hoping Starberry wasn't mean or scary. She'd had her fair share of mean and scary in her life.

 The room was dark, cold and filled with piles of junk, with a small, hard bed and a table crammed in the back. She saw a colorful dragon huddled in the corner, happily scribbling something on the wall. "Is that a RainWing?" She blurted, happily surprised. She liked RainWings. They were always pretty nice to her, and she shared some of their blood.

 "Yep." Amber sighed, not as happy about it as Reed was. 

 "Starberry!" Dreamcatcher snapped, looking annoyed. "Stop graffitiing the wall and get over here!"

 The RainWing's head snapped up, and Reed was met with a burst of pink and yellow. Starberry's entire body looked like someone had smashed a mixture of bananas and strawberries on her. Her eyes were bright green, and full of cheerfulness. Her tail was curled around her legs, and she had a bright smile on her face. "Hi, Dreamy, Orangey! What's goin' on?"

 Both of them scowled. "Stop calling us that." They said in unison, equally annoyed. Reed giggled, and Starberry's eyes turned to her. She brightened, and bounded over to her, exclaiming, "hi! You must be Reed!"

 Reed nodded nervously. "Yeah... um... are you Starberry?" She knew it was obvious that the RainWing was Starberry, but she wasn't exactly sure what to say to her. She seemed way too hyper for Reed's liking.

 "Uh-huh!" Starberry grinned, and her scales shifted to a bright pink. She flared her ruff with excitement, and grabbed Reed's talons. "You look so cool! Oooo, I've never seen that color before!" She pointed at the bright green scales speckling her light blue ones.

 Reed couldn't help but grin along with the RainWing. She was being so nice to her, and her excitement and cheerfulness was almost contagious. "T-thank you..."

 "Starberry, stop with that ridiculous sappy stuff. We need you to do something for us." Amber growled, glaring at them. She seemed to be saying, if you say one more happy thing, I'm going to slap both of you.

 Starberry's eyes sparkled. "You guys finally need me for something? This is the best day of my life!" She proclaimed dramatically, teasingly poking Amber in the snout.

 The SandWing snarled at her, slapping her talons away. "No touchy the snout!"

 "Sorry!" Starberry said cheerfully. She flicked her tail, taking on a serious face. "Anyway, what do you need?"

 "A distraction." Dreamcatcher stepped forward, her wings twitching. "We promised Reed that we'd get her some information on her brother. So, we need you to get all the guards surrounding Eel's office somewhere else. We only need a few minutes worth of time."

 Starberry gave them a thoughtful look, her face shifting to pale blue. "I don't know if I can do that. If they realize that I was leading them away from you, and you actually got into the office..." She shuddered, a flash of pale green crossing her scales.

 "I know. But we need to help Reed the best we can... and maybe she can help us too." The three of them exchanged a meaningful look. Reed sighed, wondering when they would actually explain why they kept looking at each other. Did they have some sort of secret code involving eye contact?

 "Alright... fine. But if I die, I'm going to haunt you." Starberry said seriously, flicking her tail across Dreamcatcher's leg. The NightWing scowled, but she had amusement in her eyes.

 "Thank you so much, Starberry. I promise we'll try to be as quick as possible. And we'll stick up for you if the guards give you trouble." Dreamcatcher said, looking very relieved. 

 Starberry nodded. "I hope you guys know what you're doing..." She got to her feet. "You'd better get going. I'll be doing my thing." She grinned a little nervously, and took off into the corridors, slowly blending into the shadows with her camouflage scales. 

 "So... she's a little weird..." Reed said, glancing at where Starberry had disappeared. 

 "That's an understatement." Amber snorted, throwing a look at the drawings on the wall. With a pang, Reed realized that they were all chalky sketches of a happy group of dragons with the words 'us' written over and over again. She found them a little creepy, but didn't say anything. She figured Starberry was just homesick, because she probably had been here as long as Dreamcatcher and Amber.

  Dreamcatcher glared at them, and snapped, "come on! We have to get into the office before they stop Starberry."

 Reed nodded, and all three of them slipped into the hallway. She was determined to find her half-brother, no matter what it took to get to him.