Chapter Text
Starflight had expected today to go normally. Training, reading, maybe they’d get cows for dinner! He didn’t expect, however, to be assigned a spying role by the first NightWing he sees and manipulated into it by that same NightWing.
(Maybe? He doesn’t think it counts as manipulation because he gave in so easily. Usually, the person getting manipulated is much more resistant.)
(At least— that’s what he thinks anyways. It always felt that way.)
He also saw Tsunami get chained by their guardians (probably because of him mentioning that she was the leader of their group like a dumb bag of rocks), and then he had to plan their escape since Glory has a target on her back. But, what does Webs always say? Expect the unexpected?
It was coming to bite him in the back really hard now.
“WHAT!”Tsunami roared, struggling against her chains with renewed fury.
“Yeah, what she said. What do you mean the guardians are planning on killing Glory!” Sunny shouted.
“The details don’t matter. The only things that do matter is keeping Glory safe, and getting out of here.” Clay said calmly but Starflight could tell that Clay was quite the opposite from the way his talons gripped at nothing, and the way his tail shook at uneven intervals.
“Why are you guys talking like I’m not here?” Glory snarled, “I don’t need bodyguards on my flank 24/7, I can handle myself.”
Clay looked about 5 seconds from a breakdown now. Probably because the realization of “Glory will die today if you don’t do anything about it” hit him in the face with the weight of a million rocks. He looked similar to how Starflight felt currently.
“I know that! But it’s you against Kestrel! The SkyWing, who, as we all know, hates you.” Clay stressed, “It’s going to be an unwinnable fight for you and barely a fight for her. You— We need to get out.”
“If escape was that easy, we’d be out already,” Starflight mentioned, “There’s a huge boulder blocking the exit. It can’t be opened from the inside without the key, and only Dune has the key.”
Clay grimaced, “We could steal the key?”
“They’d catch us for sure.” Glory scoffed.
“If one of us got out, could we move the boulder from the outside?” Sunny questioned. “I mean, we’ve seen Webs and Kestrel enter without Dune’s help.”
Starflight considered the possibility, “We could, but—“
“But it doesn’t matter. There’s no way to get outside without alerting the guardians.” Tsunami interrupted, an angry hiss building in the back of her throat.
Sunny was quiet for a while and then perked up with an idea while the others conversed around her, “What about the sky—!”
“Can we force the boulder? We could all lean on it.” Clay thought.
“Won’t work. The mechanisms lock it into place.” Starflight responded, beginning to pace around the room.
“Maybe the sky—” She tried again.
“This is all really sweet guys, but don’t get in trouble for me.” Glory declared.
“Acting like a martyr isn’t helping things.” Tsunami scoffed, turning her head to Glory.
“I’m not acting like a martyr. I’m trying to make sure nobody gets killed.” Glory growled in response.
“Oh, but it’s fine if you do?” Tsunami retorted.
“Who cares? I’m not in the prophecy.” Glory responded.
“I swear I’ll kill you myself.” Tsunami scowled towards Glory.
“Glory, she’s saying we care!” Clay reassured Glory and Sunny had finally found an open opportunity to say the idea that was squirming in her mind the whole time.
“Guys! Listen! What about the sky hole? In the study room? We could fly up and squeeze out!” Sunny blurted out.
Starflight hated to burst any bubble, especially Sunny’s. But… “It’s too small. Even for you. I’ve flown up to the hole when no one was around.” Starflight stated.
Both Glory and Tsunami both agreed with Starflight’s statement, affirming that they both had already flown up to the sky hole.
Clay looked at Tsunami, “You have an idea. I can tell. You’ve been working on an escape plan forever.”
“Forever?” Sunny exclaimed, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Tsunami ignored Sunny, “It’s too dangerous. It was supposed to be me.” Tsunami muttered.
“The river?” Clay quizzed, “Do you know where it goes?”
“I found a gap under the wall in the training cave.” Tsunami cautiously started, looking around to check if the guardians would come running at the sound of a possible escape attempt. She saw no one so she continued, “It’s very tight. I’ve never gone through in case I couldn’t get back.” Tsunami finished.
“I’ll go. With you tied up, I’m the next best swimmer.”
“Clay, you can’t!” Tsunami adamantly refused, “MudWings can only hold their breath for an hour— you might get trapped with no air and drown. And you can’t see in the dark like I can. You could die!”
“Glory will die if I don’t, right? There’s no other way.” Clay took a deep breath in and looked at the river ahead of him.
There was a lot of hope that the hole led outside, and Starflight was unsure if he should bring his hopes up or if he should bring his hopes down. He decided on bringing up his hopes. “We don’t know where the river will take you. You’ll need to orient yourself. When it’s daylight, we’ll send a smoke signal through the sky hole.” Starflight planned.
“I can think of a few scrolls I’d like to burn.” He can understand that. A lot of scrolls bad-mouth RainWings.
“Me too!” Sunny, what. Why? Since when?
Starflight was worried over his scrolls but Tsunami was still worried over Glory’s well-being. “What’s Glory supposed to do while we wait for the sun to come up? Kestrel’s coming for her tonight.” Tsunami queried.
Glory huffed with amusement. “I’ll be fine.” She began to…fade into the background? “The guardians don’t know I can do this.” Starflight jumped at the sound of her voice. “I guess it’s a good thing we never studied RainWings after all.” It was weird to hear Glory’s voice but not see her body. Especially since she was in front of him.
“You don’t even have to risk the river, Clay. I could just stay like this.” Glory said with confidence.
“For how long? Until you starve or get caught?” Starflight responded. Glory’s head reappeared gradually; it became a dark brown color commonly seen on MudWings. She looked at Clay.
“They’re trying to kill you. We have to get out.” Clay glanced back at Glory (she had fully reappeared by then) from in front of the river.
“All right. Do what you want.” Glory sighed, “As long as you’re not just doing it for me.”
Clay nodded and looked at the river again. He carefully got inside of the water with a small shiver at the cold chill of water. “Be really, really careful, Clay.” Tsunami warned.
“Follow the current. If the river goes into the world anywhere, the current will take you there.” Starflight advised.
Clay looked at Glory, who had walked up next to him. “Glory, you should hide.”
Glory glanced around the room and muttered something to Clay that made him respond with a small smile. Sunny came up running and hugged Clay, “Don’t you dare die!” She sniffled lightly.
“You stay safe, too. I’ll be opening that boulder before you know it.” Clay reassured. Sunny hugged Clay tighter, unwanting to let him take the journey into the depths.
Starflight remembered a little fact he’d read in a scroll and decided to tell Clay about it; as it might help him focus. “Don’t panic when you’re down there. If you panic, you’ll run out of air faster.” Starflight informed.
Clay nodded and Sunny reluctantly released Clay. Clay took a deep breath in and dove beneath the surface of the water. “Don’t die.” Sunny muttered one last time.
“So, what do we do now?” Tsunami asked, straining against the chains as if this time they’d break.
“We should probably start…” Starflight hated the words that would come out of his snout next. “We should start sorting the scrolls. For the smoke signal tomorrow.” Starflight cringed at the sound of his reluctancy but— he thought that all of his scrolls were important! He regretted suggesting the smoke signal.
(He didn’t. He’d burn every scroll in Pyrrhia for his friend’s safety.)
“I’ll help.” Glory and Sunny said at the same time. They glanced at eachother and smiled. “We’ll both help.” Glory said. Starflight sighed.
“Alright.” He muttered and walked towards the library. Glory and Sunny flew in ahead of him and began searching through the shelves. They took a few moments to look through each scroll and organized two rapidly growing piles of “keep” and “burn”. Starflight almost never added a scroll to burn.
“Starflight, do you think this is enough material for the fire?” Sunny turned to Starflight after tossing another scroll into the “burn” pile.
Starflight thought for awhile, calculating the amount of smoke that would come up from around 10-ish scrolls. “Probably. If we need anymore, you two’ll just grab some more from the keep pile.” Starflight confirmed.
Sunny nodded and then looked outside. “I think I have a good idea.” Sunny hesitated, waiting for Starflight to interrupt her or anything. He stayed silent. He quietly tilted his head to let her know that he was listening. “Kestrel melted Tsunami’s chains with fire, right? We could probably “apply the reverse” or whatever you say— to the chains and melt them with our combined fire.” Sunny suggested.
“That…would have a high probability of working.” Starflight muttered after a while. “I mean, the chains are probably pretty weak after that long blast of fire from Kestrel.”
Sunny beamed from excitement, “We could— no, should! We should do it right now! Clay needs all the help he can get!” Sunny bounded out the entrance of the library. Starflight almost ran after her, but he remembered that Glory was also there.
“I’ll be fine. Kestrel won’t know I’m here.” Glory interrupted before Starflight could even begin, “I’ll camouflage before she even has the thought to come in here, now go free Tsunami, Star.”
Starflight sighed and followed Sunny to Tsunami. “We have an idea!!” Sunny exclaimed, sprinting into the room.
They explained their plan to Tsunami and— with Tsunami’s overwhelming support—they took their positions. They positioned themselves in a specific way so that the area where Kestrel blew flame was hit directly by both streams of fire. Starflight looked at the chains— the flammable, weak chains— again and steeled himself. He took a deep breath in, reaching for the spark of fire within him.
He remembered a piece of advice Kestrel had yelled at him once. “Haven’t I beat this into you yet!?” She had exclaimed after dodging yet another one of Starflight’s breaths of fire. “Hold your fire-breath in for maximum flame, you bird-brain!”
He held his fire in for a few seconds; feeling the flame growing hotter and hotter over time. He released the blaze within his mouth at the same time as Sunny, and they watched as the combined blast began to melt the chains that held Tsunami easily.
He released his flame as Tsunami began to wriggle out of the chains. She finally spread her wings and stretched her body as the chains started to fall apart. “Finally!” Tsunami exclaimed. “Thanks Sunny.” Tsunami grinned and dove into the river without a second to spare.
If emotions could affect appearance, Sunny would’ve been a miniature sun with how bright her grin was after freeing Tsunami. “We did it!” She exclaimed and then lowered her tone of voice as Starflight pointed at the guardians den not-so-far away. “I knew my idea would work.” She beamed.
Sunny was just so happy, Starflight couldn’t help the small smile that crept up onto his face. But, there were still things that could go awry. “Well, we can’t be too sure that Tsunami’ll actually get to Clay nor can we guarantee that the hole will actually lead somewhere.” Starflight reminded, and then promptly shut up at the glare from Sunny.
“It does lead somewhere! It leads outside! I bet that Clay and Tsunami will be here unscathed by tomorrow morning.” Sunny argued.
Starflight gnawed at the inside of his cheek, tasting iron as his fangs ripped a small hole into his gums. “Well…” He started and then paused. He didn’t want to argue with Sunny but…the situation had a lot of unknown details around it.
Wouldn’t Webs have looked in the river for potential escape routes? Surely, they wouldn’t have brought them in this cave if the river did have a way out?
“If you say so.” Starflight muttered. Sunny clearly didn’t believe that he believed but she dropped it. Starflight didn’t want the silence between them to get too over-bearing but he was too busy thinking about what he should say.
“We should get to bed,” He said after a long and awkward pause. “It’s late and we won’t want to get caught awake after today.”
Sunny agreed and they went back to their dormitories. Starflight wondered about where Glory would sleep since, of course, Kestrel would be checking her space to kill her. He flew up onto his ledge, tucked his wings in, and fell asleep with surprising speed.
(Surprising as in 20 minutes instead of 40.)
___________________________________________________
“WHERE ARE THEY!” A yell echoed through the cave and startled Starflight awake. That same yell caused him to fall off his ledge. He’d just barely managed to propel himself upwards away from the embarrassing crash with the floor and land gently when Kestrel burst into the room with smoke pouring out of her nostrils.
“What did you do!” Kestrel shouted, a steady hiss building in her throat. Starflight should start dodging soon.
“I— I didn’t do anything!” Starflight stuttered, trying to get as close to the ground as he could so he could be as unnoticeable as possible.
“Don’t lie to me! The RainWing’s gone,” Thank the moons Glory survived the night. “Clay’s gone, and Tsunami’s escaped! The chains were melted so it had to have been you, Sunny, or Clay who freed Tsunami.” She growled. “I already asked Sunny about what happened but she didn’t budge— of all the times to be a lock box!”
Sunny? Keeping a secret? That might be a first. “I’ll give you one chance before I make sure we’re missing a dragonet for the prophecy, Where. Are. They?” Kestrel leaned in close, closer than Starflight had ever wanted. If Kestrel blew a flame now, Starflight would be hit head-on regardless of his reaction time.
“I..I…Uhm.” He stammered. Kestrel’s underlying hissing sound got louder as she got more impatient. Maybe if he diverted her attention he’d— I mean, Glory would be safer? But, it’d have to be at the cost of Tsunami’s and Clay’s safety. He’d have to hope that they were close to the cave otherwise… “I— I have an idea on where Tsunami and Clay could’ve gone!” He blurted out. The hissing sound paused and slowly lowered in tone as Kestrel narrowed her eyes in a suspicious but less aggressive manner.
He whispered an apology to the two dragonets who were either dead or outside as of right now and continued. “They could’ve escaped through the river— they both have the required lung capacity for it. They’re only ones who could’ve escaped that way anyways.” He rambled before Kestrel could interrupt and bring the topic back to Glory.
The distraction seemed to have worked as Kestrel hissed “I knew it!” and ran out of his sleeping cave. Thank goodness Glory was safe but, Tsunami and Clay wouldn’t be in a few moments. Starflight was headed towards the library when he bumped into Sunny. “Starflight! I saw Kestrel open the cave door and fly out in a hurry, what happened?” She questioned.
Starflight froze and let a sigh escape him, his tail curling around his talons in shame. “She cornered me when I woke up and questioned me about Glory. I panicked and told her about the river; she’s probably searching for Tsunami and Clay now.” He explained, “We have to get the signal up quickly otherwise, the escape plan would— no, will be for nothing.” Sunny nodded and walked into the library.
“Glory? Are you here?” They looked around for any sign of the RainWing.
“I’m behind you.” Starflight startled and turned around just in time to see Glory switch from cave wall colors to her usual swirling green, blue, and orange. “Let’s get the burning started.” She walked over to the hidden piles of scrolls from last night and began dragging them beneath the sky-hole.
Sunny blew a small spark onto one of the scrolls and the rest of the scrolls were set ablaze in the same moment of The flame was beautiful…in a melancholy way. He’d miss his scrolls but at least he had a few left? (Even if he wouldn’t be able to see them again after this.) Plus, there was always the added bonus of keeping his friends (if they were even alive and out there) safe and able to navigate back to them.
Starflight paced around the library in an anxiety-filled state for those pain-stakingly long minutes. He considered bringing the leftover scrolls along with him but dismissed the idea. It’d be a burden to the others to bring a whole bag of scrolls with him everywhere he went and Tsunami would never let him.
Starflight’s tail coiled around his talons, causing him to have to avoid his own tail multiple times. He tightened his wings against his body and bit a slightly larger hole into his gums as he heard the sound of the cave door opening.
Please don’t be Kestrel.
Please please don’t be Kestrel who could be dragging Tsunami back kicking and screaming and—
“We’re back!”
Thank the moons.
Starflight ran over to the entrance of cave, looking at Clay and Tsunami with a new sort of appreciation. “You did it!” Sunny cried, running to the newly-opened cave door.
“Where’s Glory?” Clay looked around the cave, trying to find the outline of the RainWing.
Starflight then realized he didn’t know where Glory was as well. He stopped paying attention to her after the fire started. “We’re not exactly sure.” He muttered, looking around.
The wall behind Clay glimmered and Glory ever-so-slowly came back into existence as a bright yellow dragon with a pink undertone. “I’m right here.” Glory brushed her wing against Clay and he turned around in excitement.
“You’re all right!” He wrapped his tail around Glory’s.
“Of course I am.” Glory smiled, “I’d have been fine on my own.”
“I know.” Clay responded.
Glory huffed and said, “But…thank you for doing insanely dangerous things for me anyways.”
The sound of wings flapping radiated through the cave and all the dragonets turned towards the open cave door as a dull orange dragon with golden armor appeared with at least ten other armored dragons. “Hello again.” The dragon smirked.
“Oh no.” Clay growled and spread his wings in an attempt to protect the rest of the dragonets.
“You followed us here?” Tsunami snarled.
The orange dragon chuckled, “Oh, I didn’t have to. Someone left a lovely, helpful smoke signal for me. What a brilliant idea!”
Add that to the list of “times Starflight’s ideas endangered his friends.” It’s getting pretty long at this point.
“Who— who are you?” Sunny asked.
“Now, really, this is getting insulting. You’re in my territory—“ Ah. Now he knows who this is. That explains the SkyWings and the way she’s acting. “How dare you not recognize me?”
“Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings.” Starflight declared. He bowed as Queen Scarlet moved closer and took a longer look at him.
Scarlet sprung up from her place in front of Starflight, seeing his strange features. “You’re a NightWing! How THRILLING! I’ve never seen such a young NightWing in person, let alone one so mutated.” Scarlet grabbed Starflight’s tail, holding it up to her face. “It smells like poison; just not SandWing poison. Probably not lethal then.” Scarlet let go of his tail and looked at Starflight’s back instead. ”Oh, and the extra wings! Why, you’ll be a perfect—!“ Scarlet paused and got ahold of herself.
“Pardon me. Got a bit ahead of myself.” She giggled and glanced at the rest of the dragonets before settling onto Starflight’s bowing form again. She leaned down to his position and condescendingly asked, “Tell me— little NightWing. What am I thinking about in this exact moment?” She waited a few seconds and continued, “Too hard? I’ll give you a hint.” She looked at the rest of the dragonets, sitting back up. “Why would a mutated NightWing, a SeaWing, a MudWing, and… whatever those two are…be hiding under my mountain?” Scarlet perked up and smiled mischievously.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain prophecy, would it?” At that moment, Dune suddenly came from behind Starflight as he was standing up and trying to move away from Queen Scarlet’s grasp.
“What’s going on out here? Scarlet!?” Dune’s eyes widened and he began to shout, “Webs! Kestrel!” Dune then tried to engage Kestrel in combat, but he was much too slow and was caught by the neck by Scarlet.
“Kestrel’s here too? What a fun reunion this is going to be.” Queen Scarlet grinned.
“Go! Hide!” Clay muttered to Glory.
“Disappear while you try to die for us again? No way.” She snarled back.
“They’re the dragonets of destiny!” Dune choked out, “You have to leave them alone!”
Scarlet rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on Dune’s neck. “But what if it’s my destiny to play with them?” And with a sickening snap, Dune’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle and his eyes became devoid of life. Scarlet let go of Dune’s body with a bored expression as Sunny cried, “Dune!” And ran to the corpse.
“I always find the ones who betray me in the end.” She wiped her hands off and glanced at the doorway to the dragon that had just came in. “Isn’t that right, Kestrel?”
“You’ve got me now. Let these worthless dragonets go.” Kestrel snarled.
“Why, Kestrel! Have you gone from disobeying orders to giving them?” Scarlet scoffed as she walked closer to Kestrel.
“I’ll come with you. Just leave them alone.” Kestrel negotiated.
“Of course you’ll come with me! We’ve got a thrilling trial planned, followed by an even more thrilling execution. And these little dragons will be perfect for my arena.” Scarlet looked at her guards and yelled, “Take them!”
One moment, Starflight was standing behind Clay. The next, SkyWings had tackled Clay to the ground and Starflight was on his back with a chain around his neck. Starflight keened and clawed at the chain to no avail. As if it’d work anyways— what would he do if he actually managed to get out? Bite the guards? Poison the guards with the stinger he wasn’t supposed to have?
Kestrel struggled free for a moment and yelled, “Webs! Run! Tell the Talons!” Before getting wrestled back to the ground by a duo of SkyWing guards.
Webs growled at the guards surrounding him and jumped into the river. “Should we go after him, your majesty?” One of the SkyWings asked.
“A SeaWing in a river? He’s gone, idiot.” Queen Scarlet turned around, and spread her wings. “Time to fly.” Queen Scarlet flapped her wings and flew into the sky effortlessly.
“Get up.” One of the guard next to Starflight smacked him on the head with his wing. “We’re following Queen Scarlet. Don’t struggle, don’t resist, and you’ll be unharmed.” The guard instructed as Starflight stood up as well as he could with a chain around his neck.
“I, uh, where are we going?” Starflight stammered as the guards dragged him to the opening of the cave. They ignored him, spread their wings and jumped into sky with Starflight following unwillingly.
“So, uh—“
“Shut up.”
“Ok.” Starflight looked around the sky. The sky was beautiful. The white clouds seemed to glow against the blue skies and the sun was bright. It was brighter than anything Starflight had ever seen or experienced.
Starflight admired the skies for a few more minutes before they began to land…in the castle? Wait, what? Starflight looked behind him and saw pillars of stone around the castle he was being lead into. He looked closer and saw Tsunami and Clay getting placed onto separate pillars. Why was he in the castle? Wait. He saw Sunny getting lead to a separate room.
Why were they in the castle?
“Stop moving so much.” The guard growled. Starflight flinched but stopped looking back. They led him to a small, grey room with a cage in the middle. Starflight realized what was going to happen before it actually did, but suddenly Queen Scarlet came into the room?
“Leave him out of the cage for now. Restrict his wings though— I’d hate for my gift to run off.” Queen Scarlet ordered. The guards nodded and held his wings down as they latched wing clamps onto them. “Thank you. You’re free to leave.” Starflight wished he was able to leave.
Starflight folded his wings in. “Why— Why am I here?” He asked.
“Burn collects curiosities.” Scarlet said, which didn’t answer his question. “Her palace is filled to the brim with two-headed lizards, seven-toed dragon talons, and stuffed scavengers with pale skin. You and that little SandWing will fit in perfectly.”
Oh.
Oh, that’s terrible.
“What!” Starflight yelled in shock. “I— I can’t go to Burn’s palace. I have to—!”
“Save the world.” Queen Scarlet interrupted. “I’ve heard that phrase so many times over the years that I just have to ask. Save the world from what? The war? Ha!” Scarlet laughed, “Don’t make me laugh. The war is saving the world. You’re just too close-minded to understand it. Plus, the war benefits many. Mainly, me.”
“The war is killing so many innocent dragons, and you think it’s saving the world?” Starflight questioned.
“It helps me know who’s loyal and who’s not. You wouldn’t believe the amount of spies inside of my army.” Scarlet flicked her tail, “I’m getting off-topic. I didn’t come here to talk about the war. I came here to talk about the arena.”
“The arena?”
“I need entertainment, as would any dragon. I also need to punish the people who choose the wrong side of the war. So, I made a small, little stadium for viewing. What— you will ask— are the people viewing?” Scarlet stared at Starflight and grinned slowly. “Death. I choose two prisoners to fight to the death and if one wins enough battles, they get to go free.”
Starflight squirmed under Scarlet’s gaze. “That’s just what you tell them. You don’t actually set them free.”
“I do, actually. It’s just…no one has gotten the chance because of my champion.” Scarlet looked outside and muttered something under her breath. “Enough information for now. The only thing you need to know right now is your battle.”
Starflight froze. “My…what?”
“Your battle! I can’t have a full-blown NightWing in my possession and not have him fight a few battles.” Scarlet exclaimed. “Don’t worry, you won’t die. You’re still Burn’s gift, after all. You just might be a bit…damaged.”
Scarlet turned around and yelled, “Guards! Escort this young man into the arena for me.” Two guards took hold of Starflight and took him out the room.
How was he supposed to survive this? A whole new opponent that has way more experience in fight than him and will fight differently than anyone he knows. He couldn’t even fight Sunny without a few scrapes after.
Starflight was dropped onto sand after a few more moments of panic-filled thinking. He looked across from him and saw a large— much larger than him— SandWing. He might be able to slip under her a few times.
Starflight heard cheers and looked up to see hundreds of SkyWings. Above the SkyWings were the prisoners and his friends. His death would be seen by all.
He jumped as he heard an announcer’s voice radiate from above. “After 2 victories, Sunrise the Sandwing—formerly a soldier in Blaze’s army— has been challenged to a battle with a dragonet of destiny! Though, this NightWing dragonet has a few tricks up his sleeve. Or…should I say stingers up his sleeve?” The announcer joked. It fell flat. The announcer huffed, “Alright, fine. Back to the fight.”
“Claws up!” Starflight could run, right? Maybe blow a few flames? He could— maybe— defeat her that way.
“Fire ready!” Sunrise probably knew how to counter that strategy. She’s been in war. Starflight has not.
Starflight was inexperienced, a bad fighter and a terrible speaker.
“FIGHT!” He was so, so, so screwed.