Wings of Fire: A Game for Glory

Chapter 8: The Pursuit

Red and orange dragons hissed and snarled, blasting flame, but a few were hit by ice and a beams of some type of pale green energy or light. The injured dragons dropped to the floor, ice crawling up their chests and necks, only to be ignored by their fellow comrades. More and more SkyWings burst from the trees...

As the vision fades away, Envy could barely hear the the wind roaring around him anymore. All he felt, all he knew, was the pain of that moment. The rest of the world became detached; all he could concentrate on was the pain rooted deep in his head, and Envy lowered his head as he closed his eyes tightly.

"Envy?"

The prince heard a muffled, somewhat static-like voice come from somewhere. Slowly, his senses were returning to him, and the sound of the winds were crystal-clear. He whipped his body around. Newt had his talons wrapped around a frost-covered scroll.

"Oh," Envy said, rubbing the temples of his head softly. "You found it."

Newt nods. "It was under a large pile of snow, which makes sense. I mean, it's been there for, like-- centuries ago. Took me a while to dig it out."

Envy blinked, reviewing the vision that he had experienced. He hasn't had a vision in a while, for about three years, in fact. The last vision he had was three years ago, when Fateslayer almost got himself killed by trying to teach himself how to fly by jumping off of the mountain the NightWing palace was settled upon. He was lucky his precognition saved his brother's life, but ever since then, he hasn't seen a vision at all... until now.

"...Are you alright?"

Envy blinked again, his ears swiveling back and forth as he came back to his senses again. He didn't notice that he was getting carried away in his own thoughts and was apparently staring blankly at the shorter mountains in the fog. He turned to Newt. "Oh, my bad," he said, smiling with embarrassment. "Alright-- let's get to somewhere secluded and secure, and figure out these riddles."

Envy and Newt dove towards the ground, trying to get to the floor before a dragon spots them.

"Are there any caves around here?" Newt asks as he folded his wings once he landed. Envy gently lands on the ground, setting his haunches onto the dirt ground before he went back to his quadrupedal form. "I'm not entirely sure," Envy answered. "But, perhaps there is. Maybe towards the Rainforest Kingdom? Going into the SkyWing territory is WAY to dangerous, and I'm not going over there."
"Back to the RainWings we go..." Newt grunts.

Promptly, dragons in multiple hues of red and orange slithered around trees, leaping over boulders and surrounding Envy and Newt. The light gray spikes on Envy's back shot outwards, sticking out like a porcupine, and the spikes on the back of Newt's back flared with alarm. They were now surrounded by countless SkyWing soldiers. Envy's eyes were widen with terror, his breathing harsh and ragged. He tug his trembling talons into the soft dirt as he eyed the sky dragon's menacing expressions. They began to grin, as if they were pleased by Envy's anxiety.

"Tsk tsk... I don't think you two are going anywhere."

A dark, merlot red SkyWing came forward, the soldiers moving out of her way so she could move pass. Her neck and tail were so long, probably as long as four full grown pythons stuck together. She was almost literally glittering with jewelry; all of her talons had golden rings with large rubies, and tourmaline gems were embedded around the ridges of her eyes and the base of her wings. Larger than all of her soldiers, Envy could instantly tell who this was.

"Queen Ruby?" He said.

"The prince recognizes me! Oh, and it looks like little ol' Newt is here too. Such an iconic, and powerful duo... Never expected to see an IceWing and a NightWing together. I'd love to have you two in my kingdom. With you two's abilities... ha, the SkyWings will be indestructible, don't you two understand?"