King of The Dragons (Wings of Fire X Monster Hunter)

Book 2: The Lost Heir: Prologue

What just happened?

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Year 5,011 AS

Underwater, Webs couldn't hear the screams of dying dragons. 
Underwater, the battle was as far away at the three moons.
Fire couldn't touch him. Talons couldn't scar him. The blood washed away from his claws.
Underwater, he was safe.
Safe and a cowered ... still better than loyal, brave, and dead.
Webs shuttered awake

A catfish was starring at him blankly. It's whiskery tendrils drifted in the current. The expression on it's face said, "Why is there a dragon sleeping on my river stones?"
Webs ate it, and that made him feel a little batter.

'The Talons of Peace must know what's happened to the dragonets by now,' he thought. 'They have spies in the SkyWing palace. They don't need to hear it from me.'
The other Talons didn't need him to stand up in front of them and say. "We failed."

But where could he go? He was already hiding from his own tribe, the SeaWings. Did he have to hide from the Talons of Peace for the rest of his life as well?
Webs paddled to the surface of the river and cautiously poked his head out. It was dark, with the Claws of the Clouds Mountains blocking most of the moonlight like vast shadowy teeth. He'd been swimming downriver for days. The Sky Kingdom was far away now.

The Sky Kingdom and the five dragonets he'd sworn to protect.
Webs dragged his long, aching body out of the water and took three steps into the forest before he noticed the dark shapes waiting for him.

He spun around, but a new dragon loomed out of the river to block his escape. Black spiral pattered marked his green scales, and his teeth gleamed in the moonlight.
"Webs," said the other SeaWing in a pleasant voice, "I thought you would never wake up."

Webs drew his talons through the riverbank mud. "Nautilus," he said. He hated the tremble of fear in his voice. The large figure watching them from the cover of the trees also did. "I have important news for the Talons."

"You don't say," said Nautilus. "I suppose you got lost on your way to the usual meeting place."
"So we thought we'd come find you," said one of the dark figures, in a voice that sounded like icicles dripping. 'Cirrus.' Webs thought. It was never a good sign when Cirrus the IceWing appeared.

"The SkyWings found our cave," Webs said. 'Just tell the truth. It's not your fault.' "And Queen Scarlet took the dragonets."
"Yes," said Nautilus drily. "We gathered that much from how she's practically been standing on the tallest mountain shouting, 'I have the dragonets of destiny! They're all mine!'"

"Tell us everything," Cirrus hissed. "How did they find you?"
"Well," Webs said slowly. The figure hiding in the trees was starting to not like the SeaWing. "It all started when two of the dragonets tried to run away," 'Maybe three.' He wasn't sure where Glory had been on the night he could only find Starflight and Sunny. But he knew she couldn't have gone into the river with Tsunami and Clay.

"Why would they run away?" Nautilus asked sharply. "What did you do to them?"
Webs felt his gills flair. "We kept them alive," he snarled. 'And trapped them underground. And chained Tsunami. And planned to kill Glory, because she wasn't part of the prophecy. But what choice did we have?'

"Surely you caught the runaways and brought them back," said a voice in the shadows. Webs recognized Crocodile, a MudWing new to the Talons of Peace. His hopes rose. In his few meetings with her, she'd been sympathetic. Perhaps he had one ally here.

"Er," Webs said, "no. Not exactly. They kind of ... came back on their own. To get to the others." He cleared his throat. "We weren't expecting that." 'Kestrel thought they'd be long gone as soon as they hit the sky.'