NOIR:- A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter 9

(This takes place during Lupus's coma before he wakes up)

Lupus woke up with a pounding headache. Agh, my head- Wait- Where am I? He stood up on shaking legs and looked around, massaging his head tenderly with a talon.

He checked his side, and noticed it was severely burned and damaged. Ow ow ow. He grimaced and reached for his satchel, and when his claws touched his burned side and not leather, he pulled his talon back, realizing that his satchel was gone. Lupus NEVER took off his satchel. Not even if his life depended on surrendering it. He stared around the dark room he was in, and then the flashbacks hit him.

The bare stone walls, the hard stone floor. This wasn't just a cave. This was the cave where it happened. The cave that on one sole night, his family all died in.

Written on the wall in red ink, or possibly blood, were the words :- Face your fears, little dragonet. It's the only way you'll be free of this.

There's gotta be some way out of here. He thought, scanning the four barren stone walls of his cell for a door or switch or anything.

He found nothing. Nope, nada, zilch. Nothing. No secret way out. No solution to his predicament. Lupus sighed, wanting to give up, but not going to give in to this dream.

He read the message again, this time reading it a bit more closely. Facing my fears.... My past? He pondered.

That's gotta be it. Lupus looked at the words, and then said aloud. "I am afraid of my past."

The words on the wall shifted into a different phrase, saying:-
And where do we bury our fears?

Lupus stared at this phrase for a while, pondering to himself. I guess we bury them deep down? So no one can find them? Lupus's eyes narrowed and his brow wrinkled in thought. Oh! We bury them in the ground.

He strolled over to the center of the cave, where he noticed that a rug had appeared. Pulling away the rug, he revealed a wooden trapdoor, big enough for a dragon to fit through.

Lupus scanned the hole the trapdoor had covered. He then stuck his head in, and without warning, the floor holding up his body caved in, and he tumbled into the hole.

He didn't fall far, but it did leave his limbs smarting. Luckily, after checking his limbs, nothing was broken.

Better stay vigilant. Could be another trap or twist like that. It IS a dream, after all.

Lupus stood up, shaking debris from his wings.

The room he had fallen into was pitch black, and he breathed a few jets of flame so he could get a basic outline of where he was. Guess it's a cave? He thought.

He picked up a stick off the ground, and began looking for a few scraps of cloth to make a torch. After a while of scrounging and looking, he found an old tattered sheet which he tore into strips and wrapped around his stick. Now I just need something to make it burn brighter. He then noticed a bottle of alcohol, the kind used for disinfecting wounds, and picked it up.

After soaking the cloth on the stick in alcohol, Lupus breathed another hot jet of flame, igniting the makeshift torch. Holding the torch in one talon, Lupus advanced through the cave, finding a small passageway big enough for a dragon. Squeezing through with little or no effort, Lupus made his way into a rather large cave. In the middle, was a large block of ice.

Lupus advanced slowly, holding the torch in front of him.

Approaching the block of ice, he realized that it was shaped somewhat like a dragon, but this dragon, well he looked familiar.