Fire Islands: Chapter Six: The SunWings

Chapter Six

The SunWings

    The SunWings were waiting at the peak. It seemed that their red scales ranged from a dull blood red to the shiny ruby red on Flicker and Embers. The sisters' color only appeared on one of them, the largest female. She wore no jewelry except for a thin golden circlet around her horns which was encrusted with rubies. She looked towards them as they approached. "Ah, thank the moons, Flicker and Embers." She frowned at the little dragonet who had carried the phoenix chick with her from the cave. "Bask is worried sick, Embers. You know better than to run off like that."

    "But school is boring," complained Embers. "It's all, yada yada yada, stay away from the Terror Rocks, yada yada yada, avoid contact with Glowsnakes, tons more yadas and warnings about Venom-Spitter."

    The dragon sighed heavily. "Maybe I should give Bask permission to get chains from Slate. Although we'd have to hire one of the moons to keep you in place." She turned back to the rest of them. "Hello. My name is Queen Shining. I received word from our little runaway here that you had arrived." Shining nodded to them. "It is an honor to have the Boulder Dragons here."

    Tsunami frowned and looked at Flicker. "Boulder Dragons?"

    "I'll explain later," hissed Flicker. "Your Majesty," she continued in a louder voice. "These are Starflight of the NightWings, Clay of the MudWings, and Tsunami of the SeaWings. They have two companions, Glory of the RainWings and Sunny of the..." She glanced questioningly at Clay.

    "SandWings."

    "Yes. They both are recovering from various injuries under the care of Blueberry."

    Shining frowned. "That is...unfortunate. Are they serious?"

    "No, they are not," called Glory from the cave. "At least mine isn't. And Blueberry says Sunny will be fine."

    Blueberry's voice could be heard shushing her. "She will only be fine if she gets rest, which she won't if the only dragons in the cave with her who I thought would be quiet are yelling their heads off like hooligans. If you don't be quiet and let the little dragon rest, I will personally throw you into the ocean."

    Shining shared an amused look with a crimson and gold dragon sitting next to her. "May we come down, Blueberry?"

    There was a long-suffering sigh. "If you must, Queen Shining. Although may I please ask of you to not disturb the patients?"

    As they made their way down the slope they could hear Glory arguing with her. "I am completely fine with being disturbed. I am disturbed every moment of the day. It's my job to be disturbed." Soon the cave came into sight. Glory was laying next to Sunny while Blueberry carefully tended to the gash along her arm. They saw Shining, and Glory dipped her head. "Your Majesty."

    Shining returned her greeting. "And I assume I should call you that too?" Glory looked up in surprise and Shining chuckled. "In my experience, there is only one job where you are disturbed that often." She turned her gaze to Sunny and winced. "How bad?"

    "A day, maybe two, for her to wake up at least," Blueberry replied. "Then a few more for her to recover."

    Flicker motioned to the rest of them. "If I may, Your Majesty, I'd like to show them around the village."

    Shining looked at her. "All right. Take Shade with you." She nodded to the crimson and gold dragon who had followed them in. "Tell the tribe that I'll be helping move these two to the village."

    Shade nodded and Flicker led them out into the sunlight. She rose up into the air and waited as they caught up with her. "So you asked about the Boulder Dragons."

    "Yes," said Tsunami.

    "We have a large boulder in the center of our village. On it are really old paintings, like from centuries ago. The paintings are of dragon tribes that we never met and have never heard of. Until now." Flicker smiled at them all. "The paintings show you all in different positions and poses. Soon we figured out how to mimic your scales with different types of dye and flowers."

    "Huh," mused Starflight.

    Tsunami gave a playful groan. "Let me guess. You're on the edge of some amazing scientific breakthrough that I couldn't care less about."

    Starflight glared at her and turned his attention back to Flicker. "Why SunWings?"

    "Not trying to intrude or anything, but it's because if we don't spend the majority of the day in the sun, our energy practically disappears and we have to sleep for most of the day," cut in Shade.

    Flicker gave a little fake sigh. "Yes, Dad. I know."

    "Dad?" asked Clay, startled.

    "In a way." Shade gave Flicker a playful glare. "Sometimes I wonder if she really is my daughter, or if she's faking."

    Flicker laughed and tackled him in midair. They rolled around, laughing and trying to stay aloft. They finally broke apart and Flicker, still giggling, did the reflective shine from her golden arm scale so it hit between two of the mountains. She flashed twice, and soon another flash came from between them. She and her father dove towards it, and the rest of them followed.

    They landed in a village, with most of the roofs missing and SunWings milling about. Shade flicked his tail at Flicker and walked off towards a tall tower with a SunWing posted on top. "Here," Flicker said, stopping in front of one of the houses that actually had a roof. "I want to show you the Hatchery." She opened the door and they walked into the cool interior. It was dark, with no light to see with, until Flicker tapped the ground a little to the left and it began to glow. Closer inspection told them that it was shining moss, activated by the touch of Flicker's talon.

    As the glow spread, they began to see eggs lining the walls and floor. It was a neat, orderly grid, and slanted gently upward with dips for each egg. Their color was red, with as many shades as they had seen on the SunWings. Flicker whispered, "One second," and disappeared towards the back of the room.

    Tsunami gently touched one of the eggs with her talons and the dragonet seemed to stir slightly. She smiled over at the rest of them, Starflight, who was running his talons over the wall, trying to figure out what the room was, and Clay, who was trying to gently keep him away from the glowing moss, probably trying to prevent him from making any experiments on them.

    Suddenly she heard a thump coming from a side door, followed by a few more. The three of them stopped and frowned. Clay squinted into the darkness, trying to find Flicker, but she had vanished into the rows of eggs. The thumping grew louder, followed by whispers. Starflight nervously abandoned his wall search and stepped closer to Clay. Then there was a loud crash and the door flew open.