Wof: Under a Scarlet Banner

(Edited) Chapter 6 part 2

When morning came, a couple of the guards
returned, but Scarlet was not with them. There was only one soldier who was watching me who looked really upset that the others had ditched him in the middle of the night. He was also very nervous for some reason. He looked smaller and maybe younger. That probably had something to do with it. He was nervously fidgeting with his spear as one of them walked up to him.

"Where is the queen?" He quickly asked.

The other guard was much a larger dragoness with purple scales. She laughed at her jittery friend, "Sheesh Canary, you shouldn't be so jumpy. What, was the scavenger giving you a hard time?"

The other guard snorted, "Ugh, the miserable welp hasn't moved from that spot all night. Last night was stupidly boring. I should have been out there! Not wyrmsitting!"

"A shame really. You missed a lot of action." The other guard had a smug smile and hummed to herself while Canary tugged on her shoulder.

"Come on Cinder, just tell me already! I was about to doze off with how dull the night was."

She rolled her eyes and began to explain, "Well for starters, Queen Scarlet is having her wound properly treated before she does anything else."

"How did that happen anyway."

"Ok so, Scarlet was chasing down that Scavenger. We found a few more by the way. Pack mates or something. And after she killed it and got her treasure back, she found two dragonets. A Seawing and a Mudwing together."

"Wait, are they talking about Tsunami and Clay? Pssh, of course they are." I felt stupid for forgetting that. This whole time I was so wrapped up with Scarlet that I actually forgot the dragonets. They must be talking about how they got captured.

Canary was confused about why two dragons on opposing sides would even try to talk to each other. "What? That doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't a Seawing rip out a Mudwing's throat? Unless...a spy?" His eyes grew wide, "Were they planning an attack or an assassination?"

"Hold on, I'm not finished," Cinder shook her head and continued, "Scarlet did have the same suspicion obviously. She attempted to capture them herself before they attacked her with the Scavengers's own blade."

"Oh, so that's how she got injured."

"Yeah, and after that, they flew off and Scarlet came back to the palace to collect her guard."

"Where is everyone else?" Canary gestured to the empty throne room. "Why are you the only one here?"

"They're taking care of our new prisoners. But I'm gonna get to that. Stop being so pushy."

"Listen, you wouldn't believe how boring last night was. I want to hear everything."

"Then let me finish!" Cinder lightly shoved Canary to shush him up. "Anyway, Scarlet then begins her search for the dragonet attackers and you know what they did?"

"What?"

"The idiots made a smoke signal."

Canary chuckled lightly and shook his head. "What? Why'd they do that? That's the dumbest thing I've heard."

Cinder was laughing with him. That smoke signal was meant to help Clay and Tsunami find the others, but it would obviously attract Scarlet as well. It really wasn't the best plan, but it was the only one the dragonets came up with.

"I know. They were all holed up in a cave with a few more dragons from...actually. Actually, I want you to guess. Come on. You won't be able to guess who in a hundred years."

Canary quickly answered thinking he already knew."The...the Seawings? Or part of Blister's army? If they were spies, it would be likely."

Cinder tapped Canary's shoulder as he whispered dramatically, "The Talons of Peace."