Wings of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom | ✔️

~ The Hidden Kingdom: Chapter Seventeen ~

The earth began to shake without stopping, a continuous tremor that jarred Hare's teeth in her head and made her feel as though the ledge was about to drop out from under her. The volcano growled again, and another fountain of lava shot over the side and started slithering down the craggy slope.

Morrowseer's face was lit by the orange glow of the volcano, cruelty etched into every line of his snout.

"You what?" Tsunami said.

"You don't mean that!" Sunny cried. "You're just trying to be mean."

Hare pulled away from the big NightWing as his gaze swept the dragonets. Something about that expression tells me he's being serious.

"It's completely true," Morrowseer growled as the volcano let out another roar. "Queen Battlewinner and I wrote it together after the last eruption destroyed part of the fortress. We knew we'd need a new home soon, and the prophecy was our plan to get it."

"How?" Hare blurted. "How does any of this fit together?"

"The idea was that we would control the dragonets," Morrowseer replied, "by including a NightWing, who, naturally, would be the leader of the group. However, his abysmal failure in that department was our first problem. Then we'd choose a SandWing queen, and eventually the NightWings would join the war, with our strength in numbers tipping the balance so our ally would be sure to win."

"And then your ally, whoever you picked, would help you take over the rainforest," Starflight puzzled out. "It's all about you, but not in a way that anyone would notice. Darkness will rise to bring the light - that's the NightWings."

"Exactly. The only really important part of the prophecy; we couldn't be too obvious about it," said Morrowseer. Behind him, dark smoke was pouring out of the volcano at an alarming rate. "The rest of it? Smoke and mirrors."

"No!" Sunny almost shouted, making the rest of them jump. "The prophecy is real! We were born to end the fight- to end the war and save everyone!"

"Afraid not," Morrowseer said nastily. "You're just as ordinary as any other dragon."

"Wow," said Clay. "No wonder I've always felt ordinary."

"But you're not- you're not ordinary," Sunny said, her voice full of tears. Hare had never seen her so upset."What about the red MudWing egg? What about my egg, all alone in the desert?"

"There are scientific patterns to things like the appearance of blood eggs," said Morrowseer. "We study them and use them in our prophecies to impress our less scientific inferiors. As for the SandWing egg, we planned to set that up, but as it happened, we got a tip that yours was there already. A coincidence."

"No, it wasn't, it- it was fate." Sunny hiccupped.

"You have to be kidding," Hare protested. "You went through all this, put innocent dragonets through practical hell, for a prophecy that isn't even real? No. No, no, you're lying."

"Do I look like I'm lying?" Morrowseer rumbled.

Hare met his eyes. "So this entire time, everything you put them through, it was for nothing?"

Morrowseer shrugged. "Not entirely. We still get a new home, do we not?"

"One that you don't deserve!" Hare cried. "I mean, you're even worse than we thought. You're twisted liars! I can't believe you did this."

"Why do you care?" Morrowseer asked her. "It's not like it matters to you."

"It affects my friends," Hare spat.

Sunny was leaning into Starflight, breathing heavily. Tsunami placed her talon on the small SandWing's shoulder. "Sunny, think about what this means. We can live our own lives. We don't have to follow some plan that the stars laid out for us. We're free."

Sunny took another gasp of air, her eyes darting around on the ground below her. After a few more moments of heavy breathing, she finally began to relax.

"Think about all the pressure taken off of us," Tsunami went on. "We can live the lives we've always wanted."

Sunny looked around, then turned her attention to Tsunami. "But the war-" She sighed. "No, you're right. After everything we've been through, we deserve happiness. The war will still end though, won't it?"

"Eventually," Tsunami said with a shrug. "But no one said we need to be the ones to stop it."

Sunny looked at the others. "What do you guys think?"

"I never wanted a destiny to begin with," Clay admitted. "I'd be happy to let someone else take my place."

"Me too," Starflight put in. "Maybe Fiecreteeth can take my spot."

"I never fit in to begin with," Glory said. "I'm happy to let a real SkyWing take over."

Sunny hesitated and looked down at her talons. "Alright," she said slowly. "Then it's final? We won't end the war? We'll be happy, and live our own lives?"

"We'll get the lives we've always deserved," Tsunami said with a small smile.

Hare stared at them in shock. "That's it? You're giving up, just like that?"

"We have no fate, why bother continuing trying to have one?" Starflight said.

"But you can't!" Hare cried. "What about all those dragons who are counting on you? Who will save them?"

"No one," Morrowseer rumbled. "The war will go on until something puts it to an end."

"You can't let that happen!" Hare choked out, turning to her friends. "That's not like you. You're heroes, you have to help!"

Her friends exchanged uncertain glances. "I don't-" Glory began.

The volcano interrupted her. It was like the earth turned inside out, collapsing the top of the mountain and shooting a vast, billowing cloud of flaming smoke into the air, which rose to the height of a hundred dragons and then fell, sending all that fire and rock and ash and death charging down the slope toward them faster than any dragon could fly.

"Run!" Starflight screeched. Hare tore down the tunnel after her friends with Morrowseer right on their tails. Fatespeaker went down, then Starflight turned to grab Tsunami and shove her down next. Hare paused to look back. She saw the fireball come barreling at them, filling the tunnel wall to wall with bright orange flames. Morrowseer's dark figure was silhouetted against the fire for a brief, horribly bright moment, and then suddenly the huge NightWing was gone, swallowed by the volcanic explosion.

"Hare, go!"

Somebody grabbed her and shoved her down the tunnel. Hare barreled down so quickly she could barely process what was happening. Her wings flopped around clumsily and she struggled to straighten herself.

She burst out of the tunnel and collapsed onto the rainforest floor. Hare pushed herself up, blinking against the rain that had begun to fall. NightWings were gathered around with the RainWings guarding them, clearly waiting for their queen to give them further instructions. Hare pulled her gaze away from it and down to the forest floor.

This was a new beginning for the NightWings, but the end of the prophecy destined to save the dragons of Pyrrhia.