User:AMBERTHEANIMUSSANDWONG

Wings of Fire, Book 16:

THE ANIMUS CURSE

Prologue

Around the brightest night.

Dune’s talons smacked against the sand as he tumbled through the desert, desperately scanning the area. He needed this egg. It was incredibly important to the Talons of Peace. And he was gonna get it.

The sunlight from above hit his scales, warming his body. He muttered to himself, glancing at the empty landscape. Nothing but a few cacti scattered here and there. A small gust of warm wind sent a small puff of sand Dune’s way, and he flicked it away with his good wing. He clutched the sand under him, and continued to walk endlessly through the desert.

Just one egg. He thought to himself, dragging his poisonous tail through the sand. All I need is one lone sandwing egg!

Just then, his claw bumped against something hard and delicate. An egg! His eyes widened as he dug the egg out of the sand. What happened to this one? He thought. It was golden, not pale yellow like normal eggs, slightly larger than usual, and he thought he even saw a few silver flecks on the egg when the sun hit it just right. Maybe that’s just what SandWing eggs look like, and the eggs I’ve ''seen were deformed. Anyways, it must be due to hatch soon, I need to get it back now!''

He dug around the egg for a few moments, since the Talons specified the egg needed to be alone, not in a clutch of egg He found no other eggs though, and he took off running with the SandWing egg clutched in his talons

He was in a dark tunnel, lit only by spaced apart flaming torches. His talons ached, but he kept running. At the end of the tunnel, a SeaWing, and a SkyWing he recognized as the one and only grumpy Kestrel. It was a large cave, and it looked like at least 6 full grown SkyWings to fit with their wings fully spread. There were not-so-sturdy looking stalactites hanging from above, and in the middle, 4 eggs were bunched together, pulsing with the scales of the dragonet wriggling inside. A blood-red SkyWing egg, a deep blue SeaWing egg, a faded teal and orange SkyWing-SeaWing egg and a jet black NightWing egg, with the same silver flecks as the one clutched in his talons, but a lot more of them, and they looked more like stars in the night sky.

“Finally! The eggs are about to hatch!” Kestrel snarled. This was true though, as he had noticed miniature cracks forming in the egg in his grasp. She wrenched the egg out of his claws and placed it down with no particular gentleness in the niche in the stone floor.

“At least he made it,” The SeaWing pointed out, then gasped as the SkyWing egg broke open… and a MudWing snout poked out.

“What? Did that just happen-” Dune cut off as the tiny dragonet threw himself at the blue egg, and started attacking it.

“Hey!” The SeaWing yelped, but Kestrel was faster. She grabbed the MudWing by its neck and slid it across the cave floor. It yelped and scrabbled across the stone floor in an unsuccessful attempt to stop before he slid into the river.

“Asha wanted to name it Clay,” The SeaWing said.

“Asha?” Dune asked, puzzled by the chaos.

“The MudWing that brought the blood-red egg,” The SeaWing said. “I’m Webs by the way,” Webs said nervously.

He wondered if he should tell Webs his name. “I’m Dune.” Now he remembered the legend of the blood-red MudWing egg. Weren’t they immune to something? Fire? No… frost breath? No… he couldn’t remember. All he knew was that they existed and they were somewhat normal. Wait… if that wasn’t the SkyWing egg… then where was it?

“Where is the SkyWing egg?” Dune asked.

“Oh yes, Webs, why don’t you tell him where the SkyWing egg is?” Kestrel snarled, teeth bared. Dune almost jumped, forgetting that Kestrel was there.

“We… We lost it.”

“What? Without a SkyWing how is the prophecy going to be fulfilled?”

“Well… I was thinking… Do we really need a SkyWing? I mean, yes the prophecy calls for a SkyWing, but, any other tribe could really do just as well-” Webs started, but then the deep blue egg started cracking open, and a tiny claw poked through the shell. Webs gasped, and walked over to the egg, mesmerized, and Kestrel snorted. A brilliant blue snout poked out, teal eyes staring at them.

“I think your name should be… Tsunami.” Tsunami agreed, apparently, squeaked, and tumbled out of the shell to stare up at Webs.

“So, what did you replace with the SkyWing?” Dune asked, looking at the blue and orange egg. “A SeaWing, SkyWing hybrid?”

“Hah!” Kestrel barked a harsh laugh. “Even worse! This sea slug got us a RainWing instead of a SkyWing!” Dune’s heart sank. There was no RainWing in the prophecy! A lazy, fruit-eating RainWing could never be the same as a SkyWing, even if Dune wouldn’t admit it. No, no matter what he would train this dragonet. He would train them to be loyal, strong, swift, and smart. He was sure if it wasn’t raised by RainWings it wouldn’t be so lazy.

Then, the NightWing egg shifted, and so did the RainWing’s, but still no more cracks from the SandWing’s. The RainWing’s wing poked out, and then the tail, and then finally, the egg burst open, revealing a color-shifting female dragonet.

Wow… Dune thought. She was glorious, with her beautiful shifting scales, changing colors every second, her multi-colored eyes staring around the cave in awe. Her scales were swirls of multiple shades of yellow, pink, sky-blue he guessed meant curiosity, and other shades of indigo, rose and gold, but he mostly saw orange-purple scales, which almost matched her eggshell. Glorious… He thought.

“She should be named Glory,” Dune said, and Kestrel snorted.

“Ok,” Webs replied, still looking at Tsunami. The NightWing egg burst open, and Webs said, “I think Morrowseer told us to name it Starflight.”

“Alright then, Starflight.” They all sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, as the tiny dragonets scrambled around the huge cavern.

“Webs, go get some food for them,” Kestrel snapped when Clay started gnawing on one of her talons. Just as Webs nodded and ran off to go catch prey for them, the SandWing egg started to crack just a little more. It’s happening! Dune though with excitement. What should I name it?

Dune looked at the egg in puzzlement as it cracked and fell apart, revealing two not-so-SandWings sitting on the floor. They were golden-colored, not pale yellow like most SandWings, one with bright green eyes, and one with dark green eyes, but both not obsidian-black like most SandWings, they were much smaller than the other dragonets, but the most shocking thing of all, was that one’s tail curled into an ordinary tip, like any other tribe. The other dragonet’s tail curled into a deadly barb, like most SandWings, but when she moved, Dune could see silver flecks underneath her wings, exactly like Starflight’s.

“What’s wrong with them?” Kestrel snarled. “We can’t have any more mess ups or Morrowseer will have our heads.”

“It’s not a mess up, they’re obviously hybrids,” Dune explained.

“Well, the prophecy only calls for one SandWing, so which one should we keep?” Kestrel snarled.

“Well, that one is the less obvious hybrid, she just looks deformed,” Dune pointed to the one without the tail barb. “Because that one,” Dune pointed to the other one, “Is slightly darker, and has silver scales under her wings. We don’t want dragons to know they’re hybrids.”

“Well, go ahead and name the one you want to keep, and I’ll take the other one to the Scorpion Den in the morning.” Kestrel said angrily.

Dune was torn. He desperately wanted to keep them both, but he knew that wasn’t an option. But if he kept the one with the tail barb, the other one probably wouldn’t survive in the desert in the middle of a deadly war. He knew what he had to do.

“That one,” He said, pointing to the one without the tail barb. “I’ll name her Sunny,” he took a deep breath and said, “And take the other one back to the Kingdom of Sand.”