The Silver Revenge

Chapter 12: Diplomacy

"Silver," Firefly's gaze ran over her, judging, "What a... suitable name."

Silver shivered, beginning to get a little uncomfortable around the other dragoness, "What do you want?"

"Oh.... now what did I want?" she titled her head mockingly as if trying to remember, "That's right! I was sent here to come fetch you and your companions! Zoralth is ready to see you. In fact he is quite... eager."

Silver muffled a sigh, 'Already? I wanted to at least have a little bit of a rest first.'

She nodded at Firefly, "I'll fetch them."

"Good," the fire dragoness purred, "Meet me here will you?"

Silver had a feeling that it was more of a command then a question. She nodded and dropped out of the cave, flapping her wings to stay in the air. She let out a quiet groan as saw muscles began to work feverously to keep her up. The other dragon's caves were just below her own. The two females had the top two and the males were lower.

She found Merene sleeping quietly on her nest. She woke when Silver touched down and struggled to get up. She looked very tired, with droopy wings and ragged looking scales. They all needed a rest.

"What is it Silver?" yawned the mind dragon.

"A dragoness called Firefly has come to get us. A dragon call Zoralth wants to see us. Probably the boss dragon we have been wanting to see."

"Oh," she yawned again, "I'll contact the drakes. We're meeting in your cave?"

Silver nodded and left the cave again, flying back up to where Firefly was waiting. The dragoness had settled down at the edge of the cave and smiled in an almost innocent way when she saw Silver. The metal dragon nearly growled again but kept her anger in check. It was important to keep her head cool in a diplomatic mission, especially when she didn't know exactly whom she was dealing with.

"Where's your little group?" asked Firefly, cocking her head to the right.

"They're coming," said Silver shortly.

Sure enough the other dragons slowly flew up to the cave. Merene took one glance at the fire dragon before sitting down and waiting. The two drakes had a mixture of reactions. When Zepos first saw her he froze, staring opened mouthed. Firefly had chuckled at that, and Silver glared at him. Afterwards he had gulped and flown to the cave, looking anywhere but the beautiful dragoness in the cave. When Retrix saw her he had frowned, and flown in suspiciously as if wary of the fire dragon. Firefly had seemed confused at that. She was quick to regain her composure however.

"Okay, follow me," she purred once again, gracefully leaping off the edge of the cave and twisting her body with a flap of her wings.

The others followed, Silver in the lead. Even the way Firefly flew was somewhat of an annoyance. The fire dragoness seemed to want to be seen by everyone. Her wing beats were sleek, like a butterfly's, and with every flap her body rippled like water. Her red scales flicked like fire, catching the fractured light from the ice that encircled the area.

'She's even more of a show-off then Iraliene,' Merene thought to Silver.

Silver looked back at her friend in surprise. It was the first rather negative comment the mind dragon had said about the queen of Sky Mountain. Silver grinned and sighed. She was right though, this dragon was far worse.

Many curious glances were thrown their way as they flew. There was no doubt Firefly was quite popular among the dragons of the haven. A few of them even started to follow the group from below, seeming to have eyes only for the fire dragon, though there were others quite interested in the two new species that had arrived.