Wings of Fire: Nighthawk

Chapter 14: Cardinal

Nighthawk was settled in. Life was taking a turn for turn for the better. It had been two weeks since he moved in with the seawing family. He was happy, although still anxious something might happen to them too.

Tonight would be his first official battle alongside the seawings. The darkness gave the seawings a huge advantage due to their night vision. He had been training to fight like them, which added to his knowledge of combat tactics. Commander Tempest led the wing of soldiers, some flying, most swimming. He stayed close, being more familiar and comfortable with her, Lobster, and Sulu. They had become good friends by now.

Ahead of them was a large cluster of islands that the skywings had been camping out on. While they lacked air superiority, they had them surrounded by sea. Never wise it was for an army to be situated in the territory of their enemy. He figured the skywings must be desperate, brave, or stupid.

"Alright. Just ahead is the camp! I don't want to hear any alarms!" Tempest barked and shot towards them, the rest following behind. The arial seawings glided towards the main island where the largest camp was. The underwater groups spread out to the other islands.

Nighthawk landed first, silently and smoothly before slowly stalking towards a group of tents with Lobster and Sulu.

"Did you hear that? It sounded like footsteps." One skywing hissed.

"It was probably just the waves."

"No, we're too far from inland for that. It sounded more like a thud."

"Well if you're so worried, why don't you go check?" A third asked. "Stop waking us up."

"Hmph. Fine." The dragon opened the flap to the tent and poked his head out. Nighthawk watched him glance around, then take a step outside and walked towards the noise. Once close enough, Nighthawk jumped down and pinned the dragon to the grass before slamming his head towards the ground hard enough to knock him out. The skywing went limp and he got off, glancing at the tent. It wasn't the only one around, there were about five more in a large semi circle with a fireplace in the middle.

Lobster pointed to the seawing soldiers next to him and proceeded forward, leading them into the area to jump the skywings. Nighthawk stayed in cover with his crossbow, ready to pick them off from a distance, out of range of their firebreath.

"Puffin? Three moons puffin. This isn't funny, you gotta stop pranking us." One of the skywings walked out towards where puffin went. As soon as it was out of sight, Nighthawk fired a bolt into its chest. It was almost like a mini spear, but much faster and deadlier. The skywing collapsed instantly with a small yelp. This caused the other two in the tent to exit and look around.

"Let's not mess around guys." The third whispered, not wanting to wake the others. "We weren't assigned to stay up tonight so we can mess arou- Gk-" He was cut off by Lobster tackling him down and slamming his head into a rock. He watched his sister get the fourth in a similar fashion, then the two dragged the bodies into the darkness of the jungle. Nighthawk had already hid his two as well.

By the time he looked up, the other five tents were broken into and emptied, almost as swiftly as the first one. Their commander led them further into the camp. Further in, there were crates of weapons, armor, food supplies and all sorts of equipment. The skywings were set up for several large scale attacks across the kingdom, which meant they possibly had intel on surface towns and villages. Nighthawk walked with a pair of soldiers to the largest tent while the other dragons took care of the rest. This camp was more active, more dragons were awake and speaking, walking around and chatting.

As he glanced over, he saw some were even sharing some drinks and stories. The voices and music drowned out their quiet footsteps as the seawings navigated through the camp. Nighthawk paused outside the largest tent, hiding in a shadow and listening to their voices.

"Queen Scarlet isn't here." A female voice growled.

"But these are her orders! We can't just disobey her. That would be treason."

"It's not disobeying." She spoke again. "I'm editing them to how I see fit, while keeping her ideas in play."

"General, we were told not to attack civilians. Only soldiers."

"There's nothing wrong with destroying their village. We'll bomb it, clear out any survivors and take the location for ourselves. She'll understand. Any advantage helps us."

"And if the seawings retaliate?"

"We will crush them. Once we settle in and take the land we can use it how we see fit. Set up defensive measures on the beaches so they can't creep up on us."

"But-"

"Enough. I'm your general, and you will do as I say. Do you understand, soldier?"

"Yes, General Cardinal." The soldier said with a small quiver in his voice. They had a name, Cardinal. Nighthawk took note of this. It didn't sound like there was anyone else in the tent. The male skywing stepped out of the tent before disappearing into another. This was his chance. He had to sneak in and steal whatever he could. He crept up to the open flap of the tent, seeing a bright candle on a table. Cardinal had her back turned to the door, which was perfect. He silently crept into the tent and blew out the light. It was nearly pitch black inside, and he was able to use his night vision to see.

"Of course he left that door open! What an idiot." Cardinal hissed and paced towards the door. Nighthawk used this opportunity to leap on her  and clasp a talon around her snout so she couldn't call for backup. His weight pushed her down and he slammed her head against the ground with a thud, knocking her out. Now it was time to gather any intel he could.

He glanced around and noticed several maps and scrolls. He was easily able to stuff them in his cloak and sneak them out, the only downside was the crinkling noise the paper made. He huffed and slowly walked outside of the tent. He noticed a skywing was approaching due to the sound, so hustled up close pointed his crossbow at it and fired into his chest, killing him instantly. Now he caught the body before it landed with a thud.

'Time to regroup' Nighthawk thought before heading over to where he last saw the commander and Lobster. Everyone in their group was back and safe. He was surprised at how smooth the operation went.

"Got a few notes and scrolls. We should leave, right now." Nighthawk whispered.

"Perfect. The others are done with their islands, let's go." Lobster whispered. They snuck off towards the beach, Tempest had to go slow and careful so she didn't make too much noise as she walked. Once at the beach, they finally heard some yelling and a few bells ringing. By the time the skywings would have gotten to them, they were gone. The mission was a perfect success.