Wings of Fire: A Mage from Another World

Ch.20: Cattail the Mudwing

The dragons had now arrived to the Mud Kingdom, spotting a group of Mudwings. "There!" Glory exclaimed, then Clay flew downwards. "Let's land and walk in." As they landed, they could hear the larger Mudwing giving out orders to the others. Clay seemed confused at this, wondering how the other mud dragons didn't notice them. "Can they see us?" Glory sighed, ushering Clay to follow her as she walked closer to the Mudwing. "Yes, they're just ignoring us." "Nah, they're training." Tyto spoke up to correct Glory. "So cool!" Permafrost gasped out with amazement.

"Turn! Turn! Left! March!" the orders were given, and the Mudwings did as they were told from their Bigwings Mudwing. Glory got up to his side, hoping he would acknowledge her. "Ahem." The Mudwing glanced at her for a moment then back to his troop. "Keep practicing. Look, I'm sorry there's only three of you left, but we don't take unsibs." "I-I get that, but-" Clay started, then Glory spoke for him. "We're just looking for a Mudwing couple who lost an egg about six years ago."

Now the Mudwing turned his attention to the group, his curiosity growing. "A Mudwing couple?" he asked, ushering Glory to continue. "There was a red egg, and we believe it was stolen from here." "STOLEN?!" The dragonets flinched at the Mudwing's volume before the Rainwing finished. "Or, well, taken anyways. By a Mudwing named Asha?"

The Mudwing then calmed down, seeing what the dragonets meant. "Ohh, you must be talking about Asha's sister, Cattail. She had a blood egg about six years back, but it wasn't stolen." Clay hadn't heard that last part as his excitement began to show on him. "Cattail! Is she alright? Is she still alive?" he asked on, all while the large Mudwing grumbled. "Somehow. That troop has no discipline as they're down to four now." Plummet looked around for any sign of the mentioned Mudwing, but it was difficult as there were a lot of huts. "Where can we find them?" The Mudwing pointed down a row of mud huts. "They bunk in the broken sleephouse at the end of the path." "Thanks." Glory said before starting to walk down the path with Clay.

"Hang on. Why does the kid have white patches on him?" one of the Mudwings in the troop asked, eyeing Permafrost suspiciously. The little hybrid smiled smugly at the Mudwing. "It's because I have vitiligo, mister." The green-brown Mudwing hummed, snorting out some smoke from his nostrils. "Meh, whatever." he muttered, turning away from Permafrost and to the Skywings. "We're just escorting the Mudwings." Plummet said, and the three Skywings walked behind the three other dragonets.

Everything around them was mostly mud, and they rarely could see Mudwings. "Cool! Snakes!" Clay exclaimed upon seeing a snake slithering on a tree. "Hmm..." The Mudwing then noticed a frog sitting in the mud, ribbiting and minding its own business. "A frog!!" Permafrost went to hop in with excitement, but as he did a Mudwing lifted their head from the mud. "Watch it!!" "Sorry!" Permafrost immediately hopped out and to Clay.

"There's a dragon in there!" The IceMudwing whispered to Clay. "There's Mudwings everywhere." Plummet stated, glancing at the visible Mudwing tail in the mud. Clay then turned to the Mudwings sleeping in the mud, mentioning that they looked comfortable. "I could never sleep in mud! My dreams would be full of mosquitoes and muck!" Phoenix looked to the dragons around, noticing they haven't done much. "You guys notice how none of the Mudwings have paid attention to us at all?" Glory nodded, looking up at the group of flying Mudwings. "Yep, and I have a theory about that."

Phoenix hummed at her, telling her to explain. "Well, the scrolls we had on Mudwings were never any good, but do you see the groups of dragons flying around?" she explained, glancing at the dragons. "Maybe they're like army troops?" "That's correct! Mudwing clutches are their own troops, and it's up to the leader of the troop, or the first born, to lead them into battle or a patrol." Tyto further explained, not noticing Clay waving at a red Mudwing who then rushed back into the sleephouse.

Permafrost hopped closer to a broken sleephouse, looking back to the others. "This must be it!" Glory patted his head, now standing in front of the sleephouse. "Yep. Hey! Anyone in there?" she yelled, earning some clattering as a response along with a "Whooszzat?". Phoenix sighed, standing beside Clay. "What a wonderful greeting, Glory." The Rainwing rolled her eyes, nudging the Skywing. "Hey, I had to. Besides I doubt anyone would've answered if I just said 'hello? is anybody home? I apologize if we intruded but we need to ask some questions, if you would allow us?', right?" Phoenix shook his head, huffing to hide his small laughter. "Well, that does make sense in a way. But still, could have been better to ask silently." Permafrost shushed the two, his gaze on the sleephouse. "Shh! Someone's coming out!"

Eventually a Mudwing rose from the sleephouse, looking tired as she glanced at the dragonets in front of her. "Oh, it's a pair of dragonets." she grumbled, rubbing her eye tiredly. "Well get rid of them!" yelled some Mudwing from the sleephouse, which had the first Mudwing crawl out of the sleephouse. "I-I'm sorry for bothering you. We didn't mean to be so loud, it's just- we came looking for Cattail and-" "Yes? What do you want?" The Mudwing stated, annoyed or tired or just neutral in general they couldn't tell. "I-I... um..." Clay couldn't speak, so Phoenix took over. "Are you Cattail?" Cattail nodded, crossing her arms. "Yes. Who are you?"

Clay smiled at her, excitement bubbling in his stomach. "I'm Clay, and I think I'm your son." But the mud dragoness's response threw everyone off a bit. "So?" "Um, I think you're my mother." Clay pushed on, but it seemed as if Cattail didn't care for this information. "Those would seem connected. And?" Now Glory got impatient, and she stepped in for Clay. "You don't understand. This is the dragonet you lost six years ago!" But even so, Cattail's expression didn't change. "I haven't lost any dragonets." "He was in a blood red egg, and-" Then while wiping her jaw, Cattail's mind seemed to click. "Ohh, that egg. I didn't lose it, we sold it to the Talons of Peace."

Clay was speechless, not believing what he heard. "You... sold me?" he asked in a hurt way. "Does this mean they want their cows back?" The female Mudwing asked, scoffing with a shrug. "Because they can't have them." Phoenix puffed a cloud of smoke, but kept himself calm. "You sold him? Why?" Cattail snorted, picking at her talons. "Why not? There were six other eggs in the hatching. They didn't need him." Clay was still desperate, and so he went onto another similar detail. "Well what about my father? Didn't he try to stop you?"

Cattail only laughed and snorted at this, clearly amused by Clay's attempt to reconnect. "You don't know anything about Mudwings, do you? Your father doesn't care." she stated, then swiped some mud off her tail. "I don't even know who he is! The tribe has breeding nights once a month, nothing more." Clay now processed this, his wings falling downwards. "No... father?" Glory scoffed, glaring at Cattail. "And no mother either, apparently." "That's correct." Cattail said, waving the group off. "Good luck, but there's no room in our troop for clingy dragonets."

Phoenix snorted, turning away and ushering the group to leave. "C'mon. We're done here anyway." he muttered, rubbing Clay's back in an attempt to comfor the Mudwing. "You tell those Talons we mads a deal! They can't have those cows back!" Cattail yelled out, and she muttered something else but they didn't care to hear what it was.