Wings of Fire: Beyond the Horizon

Chapter 7

Conquest    701 CT

"Take this!"

Bellicose rushed towards Conquest, ducking her head to charge in a similar fashion to the ashboars. Conquest found it strange that this was her preferred attack, especially considering the immense strength her tribe possessed. It was also extremely easy to counter.

Conquest dug her back talons into the ashy earth below them, then caught Bellicose's head with her front talons. She threw Bellicose aside, and she rolled across the ground, getting black and gray caught in her fur.

"You seriously have to come up with a new tactic," Conquest said, looking down at Bellicose disapprovingly.

"Well, maybe it would be a little more effective if you didn't have such a strong defence," Bellicose replied.

"Thank you," Conquest said, smirking. "Care to try again?" She offered a talon to Bellicose, who swatted it aside, getting up by herself.

The two of them were training already. Despite only being about five and a half months old, they were wrestling and fighting. It was early, even for the fierce CrimsonWings. Conquest and Bellicose were so excited for fighting classes, they decided, why wait when they could have their own?

"Conquest," she'd said, "Are you ready to start school?"

"I was born ready for those fighting classes," Conquest answered. "If I wait much longer, my fur is going to fall out."

"Wait," Bellicose chirped. "Why don't we just practice with each other? We could have our own fighting class here!"

"That's a great idea!" Conquest exclaimed. They proceeded to spend the entire day and almost the entire night training together. Their parents were worried sick, but it was a great way for them to not only improve their fighting skills, but to bond. Conquest's mother was sort of proud of her, seeing her taking the initiative to practice fighting early, even when she was so small.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by something sharp poking her tail. She whipped around, meeting the angry gaze of an ashboar three times her size. It growled, huffing angrily. Its eyes were a deep maroon and looked like they were staring into Conquest's soul.

Bellicose roared in alarm before running over to Conquest's side. Bellicose's fearless, protective personality was already beginning to show. She dove into the ashboar, pressing her entire body's weight into the ashboar. Of course, since she was still a dragonet, it didn't do much of anything.

Ashboars were a main source of food for the CrimsonWing tribe. Their numbers were high, and they were easily hunted by CrimsonWings. They were big enough that a few could feed the average dragon, and weren't much of a threat, unless you were a dragonet. But unfortunately for the two standing right in front of this ashboar, that was exactly what they were.

Conquest growled, holding her fire in. She released it onto the boar's legs, burning them black, but not doing very much damage. CrimsonWings had relatively weak fire early on, but as they got older and consumed more lava, it became stronger. Conquest's fire was not yet blue due to her young age.

The ashboar swung its tusks at Bellicose, who rolled out of the way just in time. It charged for Conquest, and instead of dodging, she stood still. She readied her front talons, and as the boar got close, she reached over, sinking her claws in. The ashboar stopped in its tracks immediately.

There was no doubt that CrimsonWings were the strongest tribe. Their immense strength allowed them to pick up other dragons and creatures quite easily, and it made the construction of their fortresses much easier and faster. Despite her age, Conquest was already strong enough to stop the ashboar. 

Once she had the ashboar where she wanted it, she whipped around, smacking it in the face with her tail, making a loud crack. It stumbled back, dazed. Bellicose took advantage, ramming her talons into its head as hard as she could, sending the ashboar reeling. Conquest spread her wings and took flight.

For a moment, she circled around them, watching Bellicose repeatedly pushing her talons into the ashboar in a quick fashion. That's weird. What is she trying to do? Conquest swooped down, harnessing the momentum of her dive and focusing it into one talon. In one swift motion, she swept down and held her claws out, slashing the throat of the ashboar cleanly.

"We did it," Conquest proclaimed proudly, flexing her maroon-stained claws. Blood poured out of the ashboar's neck, and it stopped moving shortly afterwards due to its inability to breathe. She couldn't wait to see the look on her mother's face.

"Finally, we get to put our training to use!" Bellicose paraded over to Conquest, nudging her with her wing. "We make a great team."

Conquest smiled. "And I'm sure we'll make an even better team on the battlefield one of these days." She gripped the partially severed head of the ashboar and pulled it the rest of the way off. She was sure flying back to her mother would be difficult, but she wanted to demonstrate her fighting prowess. It wasn't until their first birthday that CrimsonWings typically began to successfully hunt ashboars, and she had beaten that benchmark substantially.

"Come on, let's go back to the palace," Conquest said, waving a talon towards the large marble structure in the distance. Conquest sinked her claws into the ashboar, and Bellicose  did the same. Together, they took off, distributing the weight between each other.

As they arrived back to their quarters, they dragged the ashboar's head through the halls. A little bit of blood was still dripping, but it was nothing that couldn't be cleaned up. After turning a corner, they arrived at her and her parents' room.

"Mom, mom! Look what I got!" Conquest set down the head of the ashboar happily. Her mother gasped in surprise. "We killed it about thirty minutes ago."

"Congratulations, Conquest! Dragonets your age are usually stuck hunting smaller animals. You must've put up a very good fight." Her mother's voice was filled with pride and bewilderment.

"Yep! We worked together, and brought it down." Conquest smiled at her mother.

"Thirty-seven seconds," Bellicose said. "I was counting." She flared her wings proudly.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you kill an ashboar at your age?" Conquest's mother asked.

Conquest and Bellicose sat down and discussed their kill with her mother. They told her all about the techniques they used and how they were caught off-guard. In the end, they decided to cook it that night and eat it together. Since he was busy on guard duty, Conquest's father couldn't make it to dinner that night, but her mom was sure to tell him the story.

They kept the tusks of the ashboar and put them on display in their room, a testament to Conquest and Bellicose's first successful ashboar hunt.