Wings of Fire: Darkness of the Light

Chapter 7

"You're crazy. Insane. Ridiculous. You expect me to go against my tribe?"
Dusk nodded, as if he didn't see anything wrong with her turning against the SpaceWings. When she thought about it, that made sense, going back to the story he told her.

"Why did you bring me here?" Infinity asked, avoiding his big question.

"Follow me, but stay hidden. I would disguise you like us by putting white dye over your crystals, wings, and stripes, but they would know that you aren't of pure blood."

Infinity understood now. In the scrolls, it said that hundreds of years ago, Queen Solstice sentenced the GlowWings to stay hidden and live under Gold Mountain. Dusk must be showing her where his tribe has been living over the past centuries.

Dusk scooped up some mud with a claw and smothered over her glowing areas. The mud did not feel pleasant, and her face turned red every time he touched her scales. Now her turquoise glow was dimmer, almost gone, and was less noticeable; perfect for hiding.

The white-glowed dragon pushed a large rock against the mountain to the side a bit, revealing a small hollowed out hallway that led to a thick curtain of vines. When Dusk pulled them back, she couldn't believe what was behind.

The hallway led to a large open cave filled with luminous white and blue light, the white coming from dragons, and the blue coming from plants she had never seen before. There was a large waterfall roaring down the back center of the enormous cave, flowing into little pools all around the bottom. It also seemed that the GlowWings had built huts all around the walls and floor out of vines, the speckled luminous plant leaves, and the native wood that grew there. And of course, there were dragons standing and flying all about.

"This is what I call home," Dusk said after a while, letting her absorb it all in. He brushed his tail against her, telling her to follow him into the small underground forest. There were odd thin trees with branches that almost touched the ground and swayed with the air. The soft bark had large blue glowing streaks just under the surface. The most common things that Infinity saw were the large ferns that were speckled with blue glowing dots and small, six petaled flowers with blue glowing veins. There was no grass, but soft moss that lit up when she stepped on it. Besides the roaring waterfall, Infinity could also hear chirping insects and croaking frogs.

Dusk stopped as they were close to the middle of the cave. Smack in the center on the entire place was the largest water pool of them all, but it was completely destroyed. Giant spikes of grey rock stuck out of the water-less pool with violent cracks in it and all around it.

"That's where the magic pool was, and this is what remains when Moon came to destroy it."

Infinity could tell by just looking at it, the anger Moon must have felt when destroying it. It gave her the chills. It made her feel like a mistake. "Let's move on."

Next, the GlowWing showed her the largest hut from afar. "That's the Chief's hut. I believe back out there, you have Royalty that leads you? It's a bit different here. The Chief position is not earned by blood, it is earned by challenging the current Chief to a battle to the death. You must preform a great act of courage before you can challenge, like taking on a beast and surviving. The current Chief is Howl, named after the voices of the moons, and he lives there with his family for now."

Dusk flicked his tail towards a platform near the center on the subterranean area. "That's the food pile. We have skilled hunters that are trained to kill prey swiftly in the Tropical Savannah and go unnoticed. But that's not really a problem, since we have figured out that the SpaceWings do not do well in the heat the Savannah carries."

Infinity loved his knowledge and passion for his culture. Everything was so interesting and different under Gold Mountain.

Dusk flew up to a higher part of the small forest that grew alongside the ledges and walls of the place. He perched on a thick branch that led to several other branches that drooped down. Infinity followed close behind, landing right beside him. They were perfectly concealed by saggy branches all around them.

The GlowWing gestured with his wing towards a hut not far away, built on the side of the cavern like several others. "That's where I live, along with my parents."

Infinity peered through the branches and saw a large white-glowing dragon through the window. Infinity observed that he looked like an older dragon, which led her to asking: "Is that your father?"

"Yes. He is Storm, named after the furious clouds that rage over the world. He is also Chief Howl's closest friend, making him second in charge. He takes the war against the SpaceWings very seriously," Dusk answered flatly, a feint frown appearing on his face.

"What's wrong?" the young SpaceWing asked. "Was it something I said?"

"No no," Dusk said, reassuring her. "It's just that he is difficult with me. He expects me to be everything he his and more. That's why he sends me out there so I can learn to be the best warrior of the clan. That's why he made me get a Deathfang Panther Claw. That's why he wants me to become the next Chief."

Infinity looked back over at Storm. She noticed he had the same claw on a necklace as Dusk did, but his was weaved with brown string and blue beads, instead of Dusk's plain black string. "I see you two both have the dangerous jaguar claw presented boldly on your chests. Why is that?"

"You don't know? Has that disappeared among the SpaceWing culture too? It's an old tradition. Back when dragons used to live in the Western Forest, killing the deadly Deathfang Panther was a huge act of courage. If you survived, you would strip the feline's carcass of one of it's famous silver claws and wear it proudly. My father has done it, and I too have ventured out to the Western Forest unnoticed by the SpaceWings, and killed one. Now I guess I could challenge for Chief like he wants me to," he said with a sigh.

"You don't have to become Chief if you don't want to," Infinity said, looking at him. "You need to remember it's your life and-"

She was interrupted by the sound of talons walking near them. They both turned toward's Dusk's hut to find Storm standing on the platform just outside the doorway. He was staring straight at them.

"I know you're there!"