Wings of Fire Eranomous' Story PART 3

Written by: RhynoBullraq

Edited by: A.T. Peluso

Based on the World and Characters created by Tui T. Sutherland

Chapter 6: Krona

        Krona closed her eyes feeling the sight disappear. "I need a moment..." 

    The Tribe Leaders sat in silence as Krona rubbed her head in pain. "Do you need anything, Krona?" Gneiss sounded genuinely concerned and ready to get up. "I remember how much pain your Mother experienced whenever she used the sight... Perhaps some water... or."

    Before he could finish Krona shook her head, "I'm okay... but thank you Gneiss." She sighed heavily and composed herself. 'Come on Krona, a little head ache can't stop you... Plus I gotta show Gneiss how strong I am! Wait what?' Krona felt herself blushing, 'What am I thinking!? He's literally old enough to be my Father!' She quickly pushed those thoughts away, 'Focus!'

    Adenium cleared his throat. "Sooo, You gained the MudWing’s memories, huh. If you don't mind me asking... what happened? Was he just out numbered or what?" The SandWing began itching an old scar on the left side of his neck thoughtfully.

    Krona hid her confusion. 'Why does HE care what happened with Earthquake? Maybe he is searching for a sign of…' She stopped herself. ‘Just explain it Krona…’ "Well turns out some of Burn's SandWings ran into a SkyWing patrol... I can only assume. Then they asked for some assistance due to Eranomous coming from the Sky Kingdom. They saw Earthquake helping us and the SkyWings knew he was too dangerous to ignore. So they all attacked him..."

    "Oh please, a dragon like Earthquake could never exist in a peaceful world. I say good riddance!" Mandrake scoffed.

    Krona whipped her head to look at the MudWing. "Excuse me!?" Krona felt her anger rising, 'How dare this ugly old MudWing say such a filthy thing.' "You Ugly..."

    Gneiss shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, Mandrake do you know how to shut up! Any and all dragons can find peace." Gneiss stepped down from his pedestal towards Mandrake. "If we judged dragons solely on their pasts then surely none of us would be allowed in a world of Peace!"

    "Ahem..." Adenium lifted a claw in attempt to silence everyone.

    Gneiss either ignored him or didn't hear him.

    He continued to get closer to the MudWing, "Don't forget about the blood on your claws Mandrake and yet you are the face of MudWing Peace! Perhaps it’s time we find you a replacement!"

    Mandrake seemed to be getting smaller and smaller on his throne. Krona couldn't hide her amazed expression, 'Wow Gneiss really put him in his place.'

    Adenium stood up. "That will be all, Gneiss! Please take a seat, so we can continue." His tail lashed behind him, nearly knocking Jackelot over.

    "Huh?" The Seawing seemed to only just now notice Adenium, "Oh... my apologies Adenium. He just ticked me off." He turned away from Mandrake and headed back to his seat, grumbling to himself the whole way.

    Mandrake composed himself and snorted with a curse under his breath. 

    Adenium took a deep breath. "Alright Krona, please tell us what happened to this poor MudWing... if you don't mind."

    "Okay I guess..." Krona frowned to herself. 'This memory is so painful... but I have to do it...' She closed her eyes recalling the memory. ‘Earthquake’ When her eyes opened they were glowing a brilliant white.

    Adenium sat back in his chair and hissed with an odd amusement in his eyes. "Those are the Sight of the Dead eyes I'm used to... they’re different from when she recalls Eranomous’ memories… how fascinating."

    Then Krona began "Earthquake..."

§

EARTHQUAKE

    The sun was just a sliver at this point and all three moons were up now, it almost seemed as though they rose to witness this battle. The wind was cold, soothing Earthquake's sore sun burnt wings. The sand under his claws was soft and easy to hold a defensive position in, granting him a little bit of confidence.

    He glanced back at the others one last time, seeing them disappearing over a dune. 'You dragonets better get there or so help me...' He thought of his siblings for a moment, the images of their dead faces branded in his mind.

    Earthquake turned to the incoming dragons and roared. "What do you want!?" After examining the group closer he noticed about six SandWings and five Skywings. 'Eleven, I've taken more.' he thought with a chuckle.

    As the dragons flew closer one of the SkyWings began to speak first. "Earthquake, fancy running into you here. I heard a rumor that you left the Sky Kingdom on a mission, but I never imagined it would be work against your own alliance." His voice was suave, and his scales were yellow and orange and he had three deep scars across his face. He also wore a strange sheathed tusk like blade across his chest. But Earthquake always recognized him from his bright eyes, one was a brilliant green and the other blood red.

    Earthquake buried his talons in the sand deeper. "CrossWind... You could look the other way! You know better than most dragons that death follows the path I walk.”

    CrossWind shook his head. "Tsk-tsk, Earthquake you are in no position to be giving me suggestions or threats. You are a washed up fighter and clearly outnumbered, but because I’m sure you could entertain lesser dragons with your pinning skills in the yield arena… I'll give you one chance to step aside."

    Earthquake chuckled under his breath. "Washed up huh..." 'Earthquake you stubborn fool... he's right. You should step aside... it would be the easy thing to do… and it’s probably the only way to ensure living…' The memory of his siblings flashed through his head again. 'Moss, Tremor, ToadWart, Bur... I failed to protect you... I should've been stronger. I should have died for you.’ He looked down at the sand, ‘Skylis, Eranomous, Krona, Weed... maybe this is my chance to right that wrong… to do what I failed to do. Even if I die in the end... I am giving this everything I got!' Earthquake looked back up to the SkyWing and extended his wings. "Hey CrossWind... are you coming down here to face me, or does this washed up MudWing have to go up there and pull you down here!?" 

    CrossWind looked disappointed and shook his head. "What a waste of a good entertainment. Kill him." The four other SkyWings darted down towards Earthquake, talons extended. 

    "Circle around him, give him no room to breathe!" The head SandWing hissed, ordering the five other SandWings down to surround him.

    Earthquake narrowed his eye and began to ready his first strike. When the first SkyWing was in range, Earthquake swung his left claw into the side of their head letting out an unsettling loud crunch. He followed through with his motion sending his wing into the next closest SkyWing sending it to the sand, he knew this wouldn't kill this SkyWing but it would allow him a moment to deal with the next one. 

    The MudWing swung his heavy tail toward the next one but they swiftly dodged it, sliding their claws up Earthquake's back. The MudWing only winced for a moment noticing five of the SandWings slowly circling him, tails arched and with poison.

    Suddenly he heard a faint hissing sound coming from his right. 'Fire breath!'

    Without even looking he raised his wing feeling fire torching his flesh. "Aaaahhh!!!" He roared. Earthquake forced his wing out feeling it hit the SkyWing in the face knocking it off balance and into the sand.

    'Come on Earthquake... you have a SkyWing in front of you ready to pounce and one eating sand behind you... and the SandWing to my right is closing in.’ Earthquake knew he could act faster than them, he knew he was made for battle. He swiftly and powerfully slammed his tail down, snapping the neck of the SkyWing behind him. Then he grabbed the SkyWing rushing him by the neck with his forelegs and used them to block the SandWing's barbed tail. The SkyWing howled in pain as the barb strung his collar. 

    Then Earthquake lashed his tail knocking down two of the SandWings flanking him. It wasn't enough, however. Flame scorched up his back unexpectedly, he could feel his scales burning. 'Three of the five Skywings down... and still six SandWings... and I'm on fire... this is turning out great.'

    Earthquake quickly felt his body heat rising, giving him an idea. He twisted around spitting fire at the closing in SandWings and to Earthquake's surprise his fire seemed larger than usual. 'My fire looks huge... it’s engulfing them.' He felt an odd tingle inside himself that he couldn't place.

     The MudWing was pretty sure he had finally just lost his mind.

    Taking on this many dragons by himself was insane, but he didn't care. He knew for a fact he wasn't getting out of this battle alive, but this excited him. 'I can't wait to see you all soon...' his fire consumed and melted all the SandWings in a blaze of screams and cries. When the fourth SkyWing flew down again to strike, Earthquake lunged up and pulled him down, crushing him under his weight with several cracks and snaps. He looked ahead of himself to see CrossWind approaching, drawing his odd metal tusk from it’s sheath. 'One more SkyWing... zero SandWings... wait...I only killed five SandWings!' Suddenly Earthquake felt a sharp pain in his hip.

    "Ah!" He lashed his tail violently hitting the SandWing leader across the face with a crack. 'Ha… that was carless of me… But I feel stronger than I ever have... I might be on fire, have holes burned in my wings, and poison in my leg but there's still one more... CrossWind.'

    Earthquake knew how dangerous this SkyWing was, he would have to be careful. CrossWind was fascinated so much by the Scavenger who killed the Queen of the SandWings that he began studying them. The way they killed and what they used to do it. So he crafted this rough metal tusk like blade, that could cut through any dragon’s under scales like water. 

    Earthquake readied himself, ignoring his numbing lower body. CrossWind rushed over and raised his blade to stab him, but Earthquake swung his left wing to block it. The blade cut right through, but gave Earthquake a split second to act. The MudWing slugged the Skywing with a right upper cut, knocking the SkyWing back for a moment and dropping the blade. Earthquake grabbed the blade and stabbed it towards the SkyWing viciously.

    CrossWind let out panicked cry, slipping over his tail and falling on his back, exposed and ready to kill.

    Earthquake’s heart skipped. ‘This is it! It ends now!’ "This ends now CrossWind!" Earthquake brought the knife down eagerly, but before he could plunge the blade in, the SkyWing began to blow fire in his face, destroying his vision.

    "Ggrrrrrraaaahhhhh!!!" Earthquake roared clutching his face. 'I can't see!' He violently thrashed about in pain. "Yooou... Aaarrrggghh!"

    The MudWing could feel his face melting slowly in his claws. Then he realized he dropped the knife, 'No...' he felt CrossWind jump on his back with all his weight, Earthquake slammed his claws down trying to catch his balance. Then he felt the blade slice across his throat.

    "Ah...." Earthquake was in shock. Blood gushed out of his neck like a waterfall over a cliff and the ability to breath became impossible. The pain was indescribable, causing Earthquake to lose his strength and fall to the ground. 'I failed again?' Millions of thought and questions flooded his mind overwhelming him with fear. 'I almost did it...'

    CrossWind chuckled lightly into the MudWing's ear. "You might be unstoppable in the yield arena, but in the real world... you are just a failure. That’s why you hid in that cave for so many years…" 

    Earthquake felt himself drowning. 'Not like this...' He wished and wished that he could've redeemed himself. He tried to focus his mind on one thing, then he recalled a memory he had with his sister a long time ago. 

    
~~~

    "Earthquake... what do you fight for? I mean above our Queen... I mean why do you kill those branded as our enemy." Bur looked up to her brother, longing for a response. 

    Earthquake tilted his head at his sister. "What do I fight for? Well... I kill to keep my loved ones safe. If I didn't... who knows what would happen to everyone."

    Bur nodded. "I understand, but do you think we can't protect ourselves without you?" 

    Earthquake shook his head and laughed. "I know all of you can handle yourselves just fine without me..." He pulled his sister closer with his wing, "But as long as I am here, I will be an extra line of defense for each and every one of you. With all of us protecting each other, we can assure we'll always be together." He smiled warmly at his sister.

    Bur snuggled closer. "Brother, you know even if one of us die... we'll always be with each other. Through the dirt between our claws and the air we breathe... we are always together."

    
~~~

    Earthquake felt the wind lightly blowing across his scales and he squeezed the sand between his claws, 'You all were always with me... and I didn't even notice.' He felt that odd tingle of power course through his body again. 'That power... is it you?' 

    He felt the SkyWing lift off his back and begin circling around to his face. "Poor fool... I burned your good eye. You can't even see how happy I..."

    Before he could finish Earthquake lunged forward and grabbed the SkyWing's head in his bloody mouth, biting down with all of his strength. CrossWind’s brief scream followed by a loud crunch of the SkyWing's skull were the last sounds Earthquake heard before he died.

    
§

    Krona felt tears falling from her eyes as she blinked the sight away. The pain from the memory faded as well. "There you go Earthquake's End..." She wiped her tears away and looked to each of the dragons in the chamber. Everyone was quiet for a moment, including Mandrake. 'Wow, no snide remark from mister perfect saint MudWing...'

    Adenium sighed, breaking the silence and appearing crestfallen. "Thank you for sharing that Krona, I'm sure it wasn't easy living those feelings again." He seemed genuinely sympathetic.

    'It's amazing how good this SandWing is at acting... if I didn't know any better I'd believe he was actually sad.' Krona narrowed her eyes at her claws and took a breath.

    "What happened next?"Adenium questioned hesitantly. "If you are well enough to continue right now I mean..."

    “I can keep going…” Krona nodded and closed her eyes. 'Eranomous...' When her eyes opened, they were glowing a fiery orange once again. "The Oasis on the Path of Peace."

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