This story is probably gonna have some edits soon :D
Prolouge
It’s hopeless.
A lone figure surveyed the abandoned battlefield. She shook her head, silver hair cascading around her shoulders. They couldn’t give up hope. Not now. But even so, the words rang in her ears as if they had been spoken just a moment ago. Really it had been yesterday, in the war-room. The reports were being given to the council. She closed her eyes and reconstructed the scene in her mind.
Laper-ped had stood before her, a rumpled mass of dark gray hair atop his head. Shadows resided under his murky yellow eyes, and bandages still covered some of his wounds. A Nuntam lay coiled around his shoulders, it eyes half closed in its exhaustion. It still clutched a piece of parchment in its claws.
“And the NoleeHum are still pressing against the eastern border,” he was saying. “We are having trouble fending them off.”
“Why don’t we just send in more troops?” asked a Plazalp-hum, a young pretty female with long light gray hair.
Laper-ped looked around questioningly.
“Laper, I’ve told you why many times,” said Lun-sher, a skinny black haired female. Scars were raked across her face, giving her a battle-hardened appearance.
“I asked the question Lun,” grumbled Plazalp-hum.
Lun-sher narrowed her eyes.
“We’ve found evidence of a gathering force of CalotOck near the northern border. We can’t risk sending troops away. What if they strike?” she said, a knife-edge to her voice.
“They will strike. And from both directions if we can’t hold the border!” argued Laper-ped.
“Enough of this!” shouted Leopard-sher. She was in her creature form; light brown fur with small black spots, a black tail, and black tufts at her pricked ears. The room fell silent. “We can bicker about this later. Let us continue the reports.”
Laper-ped nodded and glanced at the thin piece of wood he was holding.
“The Archers are low on ammunition,” he continued.
“Well that’s easy to fix,” muttered Enquope-ock, a gray furred, green-eyed male who was also in his creature form. His ears twitched as he focused once again on Laper-ped.
“And the Healers are in need of medicinal supplies.” At this, Laper-ped glanced at Plazalp-hum. He took the crumpled piece of parchment from the Nuntam and whispered something into its ear. The serpent-like creature fluttered of, clumsily knocking into a wall or two before finding its way out of the low ceilinged wooden room. “They told me to give this to you, Plazalp.”
Plazalp-hum stood and held out her hand. Laper-ped gave her the parchment. The pretty female gazed at it intently.
“Well, Plazalp?” asked Enquope-ock impatiently.
Plazalp-hum was nodding with a smile, her pale blue eyes radiating relief.
“I have most of these in the stash,” she said. “The others are easy to retrieve. I can send someone out after this council meeting.”
Laper-ped nodded. “Good,” he said. “What about the arrows? Enquope?” He turned to the green-eyed male.
Enquope-ock smiled. “Easy,” he answered. “I’ll set some young Sergé on the task. And maybe some promising Juniors.”
Laper-ped nodded once more. “That is all to my report.” He plopped down into one of the many scattered chairs.
Lun-sher turned her gaze on the silver haired girl. “What shall we do about the eastern border, Entilzah Silver-sher?”
Silver-sher inwardly groaned. Why did Plazalp have to bring it up once more? But now the focus was on her and there was nothing she could do but give her answer.
“It is true that the border needs more protection,” she began. Laper-ped shot Lun-sher a look. “But the threat from the CalotOck is something we cannot ignore. So, only a few shall go to the border. Myself, Lun-sher, Laper-ped, Enquope-ock, and a few Milfev, Fitsul, and Sergé that I shall pick out.”
Lun-sher leapt out of her seat. “But Silver-sher, what if the CalotOck attack while we are gone? We cannot defeat them with just pure numbers. We need experienced fighters!” she exclaimed.
“They will not attack unless they notice some of our force has left,” said Silver-sher. “And they will not notice if only a few leave. That is why we will leave at night. And that is why we will need you and some other Fitsul, Lun-sher.”
Lun-sher sat back down resignedly.
Laper-ped closed his eyes, changing rapidly into creature form as if already anticipating the battle. “We can’t win you know. It’s hopeless.”
Silver-sher opened her eyes, the memory disintegrating, fading away. It was so matter of fact. So calm. But that one sentence had left her without anything to say. And now she stood at the battlefield. It had, of course, ended up being a stalemate. Both sides had retreated to rethink strategies and tend to their wounded. She closed her eyes, holding back a tear. The wounded. There were too many. And there were too many of the enemy. Laper-ped had been right. It was hopeless. But they needed to fight, and they would fight to their dying breath. Every single one of them. Of that she was sure. They had to wait for the help. Help had been promised. She just hoped that when it finely came, they would be alive to receive it.
Chapter 1
Magma awoke to an unpleasant chill. It stung her eyes and scales.
She yawned, stood up, and stretched her wings to try to absorb some heat. All she got was a cold chill. She shook herself and ruffled her scales in discomfort.
If we don’t get some heat soon, I’m gonna be sick. She thought.
She lay back down on the cold stone floor and pondered on her dream.
Stop it Magma, she chastised herself. It was a dream nothing more.
But still, it was interesting; wonderful and terrible at the same time. Something about mountains, a long journey, a planet blowing up. Not something that would make her leap with joy.
But then there was a wonderful peace and paradise. Magma inwardly shook her head as she stood up. It was just another crazy dream that made no sense.
She stalked towards the entrance to her sleeping cave and thrust her head outside.A cold blast of wind greeted her.
She glanced high up and saw her parents conversing and stretching their wings and tails to catch some of the sun’s feeble rays; Volcano, her Colony’s alpha female, and Jet, her Colony’s alpha male. Looking down Magma saw, much to her discomfort, that the red bubbling lava in the volcano where the tribe made its home was out of her range of vision.
Great, now I’ll have to fight for a cave lower down.
Magma leapt outside and stretched her wings. There was just enough thermal to let her glide down closer to the core. She beat her wings a couple of times and landed outside of what looked like an unoccupied cave.Just in case, she sharpened her claws on a stone. Fights didn’t usually occur very often, but with the sun getting weaker and the lava level going down, she wouldn’t be surprised if one broke out.She walked inside and breathed out a sigh of relief. The claw marks were old and the scent was stale; the former occupant had left long ago.Magma gouged deep marks in the rocks at the entrance and rubbed her palms, where her scent glands were, on them too.By the time she was finished, the Colony was waking up.
Magma leapt outside and stretched her wings, but the hot air rising from inside the weak volcano wasn’t enough to lift her, and she started gliding down in lazy circles. She landed clumsily on a rock and tried something else. She stretched her wings and leapt from rock to rock, gradually clawing her way to the top.All around her other dragons were getting the same results, although it took some of them a longer time to think of a possible solution.
When Magma finally reached the rim of the volcano, a lazy cold breeze and a weak, feeble, old sun met her.She flapped her wings to rid them of the dust and dirt they had collected and bent down to clean her claws. She needed them sharp. It was going to be another long day.
Suddenly, a big ball of red scales crashed into her.Magma clawed the ground and waved her wings and tail around crazily to try and keep balanced.Despite her efforts she ended up on her back, and when she opened her eyes, she saw hazel ones staring into her black eyes.
“Ruby!” growled Magma as she struggled to her feet. “Why can’t you watch where you’re going?”
“I’m so sorry Magma!” said Ruby as she leapt off of Magma, looked down, and shuffled her feet. “I was racing Ash and Cinder and I was only watching them, you know to see if I was in front and I looked at Cinder and then I looked at Ash and Ash was gone and then I looked at Cinder and Cinder was gone and the I looked ahead and I saw you and I tried to stop but I couldn’t stop because I was going so fast and then I crashed into you I’m so very sorry.”
It was hard for anyone to be mad at Ruby when she apologized like that, and Magma was no exception; she laughed uncontrollably.
“You were racing Cinder and Ash! No wonder you got tricked. I bet they were going for you falling into the volcano!”
Ruby’s eyes became as wide as eggs. “They would never!”
“Oh I bet they would!” said a gray female dragon as she walked up to the pair. “That’s a serious comical event to them!”
“Hey Cloud!” said Magma in relief. Soon Ruby would begin to talk her to death, and she didn’t need that kind of stress right now. “I was just going hunting, do you want to come?”
“Sure!” said Cloud, then she added, “I was just over at the food stash and it looks like we could use a nice big shurale. Have you been to the stash yet? I can wait for you to eat.”
“No I’m fine. I think I’ll have something to eat after we catch something,” explained Magma.
“All right, now let’s go catch that shurale!” exclaimed Cloud.
“Can I come? I haven’t had a good hunt in days,” said a small hazel colored male as he approached them.
“Sure Hazel, why not,” said Magma cheerfully. “When it comes to catching shurale, the more the merrier; but I think three is enough,” she added quickly as Ruby started to open her mouth.
“Well come on then,” growled Cloud impatiently.
They walked to the edge of the cliff hat served as a launch pad surrounding the volcano.Cloud sprinted towards it and, just as she was about to run off the edge, leapt into the air, looking just like her namesake as she soared skillfully through the air. Magma looked questionably at Hazel, who just shrugged and took a step back, motioning for her to go first.
She sprinted up to the rock, feeling the wind beating her face, got to the edge, stretched her wings and tail and pushed off….
Chapter 2
Glacier shuddered as she awoke.
Sweat soaked her body, for more reasons than one.
“This heat is killing me,” she mumbled.
She tilted her head and closed her eyes in thought. It was her dream. It had been nice, but scary too.
She had been taking a long journey with some other dragons. But she didn’t know these dragons! They were crouching behind some rocks watching this strange creature come down from the sky. Then it went black. When the picture came back they were walking along a dark tunnel. It was a strange tunnel. It didn’t feel like rock. There was also a planet exploding. Was it a planet?
It was no use. The more she tried to recall it, the faster it slipped away. Like trying to catch falling snowflakes. She shook her head vigorously in frustration.
“Come on Glacier!” shouted a dragon outside. “We have to catch something, at least a whirshale, unless you want to get up and catch a horbafur.”
“Coming Flurry!” Glacier shouted.
She slowly rose and, inch-by-inch, stretched her aching body. Her muscles bulged underneath her tough, strong, furry, back legs and her skinny, fuzzy, dexterous hand legs. She then stood up straight and walked toward the entrance to her ice cave.
Flurry was pacing outside. She was a pure white dragon with beautiful blue eyes. It was a wonder no male had shown an interest in her. Of course, she’d probably pummel him if he did. mused Glacier
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“I was thinking,” answered Glacier casually.
“Thinking?” repeated Flurry. “What were you thinking about?”
“It’s nothing really,” answered Glacier, fidgeting slightly.
Flurry looked like she was going to argue, but she seemed to catch sight of something behind Glacier and let out a groan.
Glacier whipped around and said angrily, “What does she want now?”
A small white dragon was strutting towards them.
“Your ice cave is looking more like a wet rock with a hollowed out center,” she said as she glanced disdainfully at Glaciers cave.
“You’re just jealous that I have a rock foundation in the first place,” snapped Glacier.
“Yeah, I bet Hail’s cave is doing better than yours too, Powder,” growled Flurry.
Powder, being smaller than most, wasn’t the best fighter. So, all she could do was give them a heated look, and clumsily flap away.
“Why does she always act like that?” exclaimed Glacier. “I’ve never done anything to anybody!”
“She kinda has a point though,” whispered Flurry.
Glacier shot a nettled look at her.
“I’m just talking about the fact that there’s barely any snow left, it’s melting,” said Flurry quickly.
“No kidding,” growled Glacier lightly.
“Do you want to get some food?” asked Flurry.
“Nah, we’ll eat after we hunt,” declared Glacier.
“Yah, how about that hunt…?” Flurry started.
“Can we come too?” asked two young dragons as they bounded over.
“Okay,” said Flurry reluctantly.
Sensing Flurry’s discomfort, Glacier leaned over to whisper, “Come on Flurry. With Slush and Sleet we might be able to catch a horbafur for real!”
Flurry seemed cheered up by this, so they all bounded up to where the highest peak of the mountain they lived on tapered out.
Flurry sprinted ahead without faltering and pushed off the edge with her powerful hind legs.
Next went Sleet and Slush, Sleet’s sleek white fur blending with the brown flecks that dotted Slushes snowy coat as they pushed off and soared in perfect unison.
Glacier bolted up with a burst of energy, pushing off the edge of the peak with her powerful hind legs, soaring into the sky with the elation and excitement of flying….
Chapter 3
Sunstone grimaced as he came into the real world.
He tried to ignore the pains in his stomach and go back to his dream. It had been marvelous and horrifying, but the good things outweighed the bad, on the long run.
He had been walking with strange dragons; he thought he recognized them from trades with other groups of dragons. Suddenly there was an explosion and a planet exploded. Then there was peace and food for everyone.
I must be affected by hunger and lack of metal. He thought. How could there be peace after the planet explodes.
Sunstone would have pondered on this for some time, had his belly been silent and cooperative. As it was, he started involuntarily rumbling with hunger.
Sighing, Sunstone rose from his normally tall bed, which usually sparkled with jewels and gold, which was now a dimmed hump. He stretched out, his overlapping golden scales shimmering as they caught the faint dim, shine of his bed.
“We need to make a trade soon,” he thought out loud.
As Sunstone exited the cave he felt a voice whisper into his ear, “Wake up, sleepyhead. Extra shifts on digging duty.”
Sunstone jumped, then he recognized that the whisperer was a male black dragon.
“Don’t do that Obsidian!” Sunstone shouted, half angry, half amused.
“Sorry, but it is true,” Obsidian said as he shrugged his shoulders. “If you want more food you need to dig more.”
“We all want more food!” growled Sunstone.
“Exactly!” said Obsidian as he gave Sunstone a playful nudge.
They spread their wings and glided down from where Sunstone’s cave was imbedded into the cliff face. When they landed they saw dragons preparing to start working in the mines.
As Sunstone and Obsidian walked over to the giant oak-like tree where food was stored, two identical golden dragons came up.
The bigger of the two, the male, asked, “You going digging?”
“Yeah, we are, Bone. Do you and Ivory want to come with us?” Asked Sunstone.
Bone nodded, but Ivory said, “I was gonna wait to go digging with Amethyst. Sorry.” And walked away.
“She doesn’t sound very sorry,” Sunstone whispered to Bone and Obsidian.
“She’s my sister, and I still don’t understand girls,” Bone whispered back.
“Lets get back to getting food and going down in the mine,” said Obsidian louder.
Bone and Sunstone nodded in agreement, and they resumed walking to the tall oak. They reached it and looked towards the roots in dismay.
Bone voiced what they were all thinking, “Only one shurale left for the whole Horde.”
They lifted the scrawny, scaly body by the neck, and dragged it farther away from the roots. Sunstone shoved his claws into the ***** in its armor, right behind the back leg, and ripped off a wad of scales; exposing the thin heat repelling layer of fur underneath. Then he performed the simple process of removing an area of fur before sinking his teeth into the succulent flesh.
“Hey leave us some!” complained Bone.
Sunstone reluctantly stepped aside and let Bone and Obsidian have their share.
Once they had eaten their fair share, they walked over to where many dark holes leading to endless tunnels lay in the softer part of the cliff face like gaping mouths waiting patiently for their food to walk into their waiting jaws. Sunstone shuddered at the thought.
They all bounded over to where many dragons, all shimmering gold, were preparing for to delve into the darkness looking for metals and jewels to trade with other groups of dragons for food. Sunstone walked over and lined the inside of pockets on his rear ankles and his sides with Lubsap leaves; special leaves that protect their precious bundles from scratches, fractures, and other impurities. Sunstone checked his feet for tears in the webbing connecting his toes that helped him scoop up dirt like a shovel and, finally, sharpened his claws on a nearby stone.
Sunstone was ready at about the same time as the others and, sticking with Bone and Obsidian, walked toward the entrance of the nearest cave. He peered into the darkness, but he couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t any light. Sunstone took a deep breath, and descended into the murky, cold, damp depths of the mine…
Chapter 4
Shadow woke up gasping for breath.
She felt as if she had been running to Lava territory and back. She put down her head in thought as her stomach rumbled.
She had had the strangest dream. Everything was like it was patched together by a hatchling. It was horrible and wonderful at the same time. And it was so real.
There had been her and some other dragons, traveling along a mountain pass. She only recognized one of them, a Gold dragon; what was his name? Sundew? Sunsparkle?
The Gold Horde gives their hatchlings the strangest names. She thought.
Then there was an explosion, she was running and running in a long dark tunnel; then everything went black.
She put the dream in the back of her mind and focused on getting up.
She stretched out her usually sleek black body, now dull and skinny, and sharpened her already sharp claws on the bare part of the rock she was sleeping on; the rest was covered in soft cushiony grass. Shadow then slinked to the entrance of the burrow where she lived. As she walked out the entrance, she heard a horrible screech and turned to see a brown male dragon hurtling towards her. Shadow nonchalantly sidestepped and gave the incoming male a shove to the side.
“Nice try, Branch!” said Shadow with a sly smile.
Branch, who had fallen into one of many sticky, prickly Thislesap bushes, untangled himself and started rubbing himself against the lush green grass that covered the ground in the hollow that made their home.
“I don’t get it Shadow,” grunted Branch as he struggled to rid himself of the plant’s sticky sap. “You’re always ready for it.”
“That’s because I could have heard could have you from Lava territory,” Shadow said with a grin.
“Oh yeah,” mumbled Branch, sitting up and blushing as much as his brown overlapping scales would allow.
Shadow helped him up and they both walked to the tall rock where food was stored. Branch climbed up to the top where there was a large crevice in the rock and lifted out a half eaten taforn for them to share.
They ripped into the furry mammal and were picking the bones clean in almost no time at all.
“Well, I guess we should go hunting now,” sighed Shadow as she wistfully looked down at the remains of the Taforn.
“The forest is getting brighter, less trees,” growled Branch as he glanced at the dark swath of trees he was speaking of.
“Then we’ll have to make do with what we can get,” said Shadow defiantly.
Suddenly, a ball of black scales crashed into Shadow, followed by a ball of gray that leapt onto Branch. Shadow, acting instinctively, found herself jumping into the air and landing squarely on the shoulders of her black female assailant.
“Claw! Tooth! Why do you feel the need to do that?” growled Shadow.
Tooth let go of Branch and jumped in front of Shadow.
“I’ll tell you if you let Claw go!” she said with a silly grin.
Shadow stepped, one foot at a time, off of Claw.
“A promise is a promise,” Shadow growled.
“Well,” began Tooth gleefully, “We heard you were going hunting, and we decided we wanted to come too!’
Shadow looked questionably at Branch, who shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine,” said Shadow reluctantly. “But no more shenanigans, we’re all hungry.”
Tooth and Claw nodded their heads seriously in unison. Shadow sighed and the group traveled over to where the hollow gave way to dense forest, Tooth and Claw skipping, jumping, and prancing alongside Shadow and Branch who walked at a slow and steady pace. As they neared it, the enticing aroma of many trees, flowers, and, most importantly, animals of all shapes and sizes reached Shadows nostrils. Her pace quickened until she was sprinting. The group halted at the edge of the dark void of trees.
Shadow looked at Branch, Tooth, and Claw, back at the forest, and walked forward into the cold, crisp stillness that engulfed the ever-dark forest…
Chapter 5
Riptide coughed himself awake.
He looked around the underwater cave he slept in and passed over his reflection in the pool of ocean water that hid the entrance/exit. He looked skinny and shaky and his pebbly blue-silver scales were dull. All around him was the smell of sickness. Even the water seemed to reek of it. He lay down with a sigh and put his head on his hand feet. He had had a dream last night, or was it a nightmare.
He had been trapped in a clear box. All around him were other dragons that were also trapped in boxes. He had tried to break the strange see-through material, but it was solid as a cliff. Then it blacked out and suddenly he was running down a tunnel, and there was a huge BOOM. Then everything went black.
Riptide shook his head at his reflection.
It just made no sense to him.
He shakily got up, took a deep breath, and dived into salty water. It rejuvenated him slightly to swim through the underwater hole and into the open ocean. Riptide twirled and flipped through the water with ease, aided by his wings that acted as flippers to propel him through the water, until he finally breached the surface next to a small peninsula that overflowed with activity. He swam closer until he could touch the sandy bottom. He then waded to shore, where a light brown male dragon was waiting for him.
“What took you so long?” asked the light brown male.
“That is none of your business, Bank,” answered Riptide.
“Well soo-rry mister grumpy scales,” joked Bank as he pranced into the blue-green waves. “I thought you wanted to go hunting with me, but I guess if you just want to laze around all day languishing like a flipalarp without its scales I can go by myself.”
Riptide sighed. It seemed that the energy in Bank that made everyone else feel awake and energetic now had the opposite effect on him.
“I just think we should check on Skip first,” Riptide replied.
“All right, have it your way,” sighed Bank, “But we better not catch whatever she has.”
They walked over to the small cave near the high-tide mark where the sick took refuge. The scent of sickness as they entered the cave almost blew Riptide away. He looked around at the beds of sea grass, each containing a sick dragon. The pair headed towards a bed holding a small silvery gray female dragon.
“Hey Skim,” Riptide said as he nodded toward the female already there who was almost identical to the dragon in the bed. Skim didn’t reply. She looked almost as sick as her sister.
“At least she seems to be getting better,” said Bank as he tried to be cheerful.
“She’s not though,” growled Riptide. Why is he always doing that, He thought, it’s obvious she isn’t better. He’s always daydreaming and wishing but he never really sets out to do anything. He needs to work more and think less. He sighed. Bank was Bank and that was that. He should try to stop thinking about it.
He instead looked at Skip and Skim. The two were actually very different, if you got to know them. They were different and the same. There was no word for that. It was so hard to describe.
Skim was the careful one. She was a silvery gray of storm clouds reflected off the ocean and always thought things through. Riptide liked that about her. He used to fantasize them being together, but the more he thought about it, the more he pushed the idea away. She would never like him; but then one day it had happened. He still couldn’t believe he had been that lucky. Especially since he didn’t believe in luck.
Skip was lying in the bed with her eyes closed. Even though her scales were dull now, they usually sparkled and seemed to move around like the ocean itself. Her personality reflected that. She was energetic, but instead of having the effect of Banks energy, she had the opposite effect on Riptide. It was queer, but seeing her in this state made Riptide feel even worse than a flipalarp without his scales. It was awful to see.
Bank gave Riptide a look of exasperation, and as they walked out of the cave he whispered into Riptide’s ear, “Great job Riptide, great job. You made Skim so happy. Couldn’t you act positive for 5 wing-flaps?”
Riptide sighed once more. He wondered how he and Bank got along so well together. They were so different.
“Well, we should get going,” said Bank, smiling and trying to act cheerful and lighten up the mood.
Riptide just nodded, plans for catching different kinds of prey were racing through his head.
“Where to?” asked Bank.
“Let’s go to Sharp Rocks,” said Riptide.
Bank gave him a doubtful look.
“It’ll be high waters soon,” explained Riptide impatiently. “So there will be plenty of game feeding on the hard-shells. There may even be a few flipalarps farther out.”
Bank nodded reluctantly, and the pair started strolling toward a river near camp.
Suddenly a blue female dragon with pink streaks walked up to them and Bank did a double take as he saw her coming towards them.
“Are you going hunting?” she asked.
“Yes,” Replied Riptide with a nod.
“Can I come with?” she asked as she swished her tail and sprinted over to them, her pink scales shimmering against her blue ones.
“S-s-sure you c-can c-c-come, R-reef,” stammered Bank, looking like he was going to fall over.
“Awesome!” shouted Reef as she flounced pass them towards the river.
As she was doing this, she did not see when a very irritated Riptide caught a fainting Bank on his shoulder and pushed him back upright. Then, with a nudge, he got Bank moving again. Reef was sitting there waiting for them. When she saw them coming, she immediately stood up and clawed at the ground impatiently.
“Well, let’s get going then,” said Riptide.
Reef nodded, and, with barely a ripple, dived into the river. Riptide guided a still stuttering Bank to the river and, after many failed attempts at telling him to wake up and get a move on, resigned to shoving him into the water, causing him to land with an undignified splash.
Lastly, Riptide dived into the current of the icy water, feeling it rush him forward. It swished by his ears, eyes, and wings as it carried him onward…
Chapter 6
Magma twisted and twirled in the air, the wind making lines at her wing tips. In front of her was the gray form of Cloud; behind her she could faintly see the brown form of Hazel; and below her was a sea of emerald green. They swooped downwards towards the outstretched branches. Magma let her claws brush the treetops as they flew onward. The wind roared in her face, causing tears to form, but she didn’t care. She rather enjoyed it.
“Where do you think we should land?” asked Cloud over the wind.
“Maybe in the brighter section of the forest, it will be warmer there,” suggested Magma.
“My thoughts exactly,” shouted Hazel.
The group flew further from the volcano to where the forest was less dense and swooped down into a small clearing.
Magma landed in a crouch on all fours and immediately straightened up to look around and sniff the air. Magma jumped out of her concentration as Cloud landed with a thud right next to her.
“Certainly sounds like there’s prey,” Cloud said as she strained her ears.
“Well, let’s get going then!” said a cheerful voice behind them.
Both Magma and Cloud spun around in surprise. While they were straining to catch any sign of prey, Hazel had landed silently behind them.
“Don’t sneak up on us like that!” growled Cloud angrily.
“Sorry,” said Hazel quietly as he looked at his feet. “I thought you knew I was there.”
“It’s all right Hazel,” Magma said soothingly as she gave Cloud a nettled look. “You just spooked us, that’s all.”
Cloud just grunted.
I can’t believe her! thought Magma angrily as she glared at Cloud. Why can’t she just leave him alone?
Magma abandoned the thought, and focused her mind on hunting.
“Let’s go,” she whispered to the others as she started walking to the forest.
Hazel nodded and began to walk with her. Cloud glared at him for a while, shrugged, and walked stiffly towards them.
Once they got into the lush undergrowth, all of Magma’s worries disappeared. She was only focused on one thing. Catching food.
They wandered through the forest for a bit. Once, Magma caught a whiff of a shurale, but it was young so she didn’t tell the others. Shurale were protective of their young, and since mothers often traveled in groups to get maximum protection for them, this didn’t seem worth the risk for such a small meal. Then Magma stepped in something sticky. She looked at her claws and saw a brown liquid oozing between and all around them. Shurale blood!
Magma franticly signaled to the others to come and look. Hazel immediately started sniffing around, and Cloud strained her ears. Magma put her nose to the ground. The scent seemed to be heading towards the Water Clearing. The shurale probably wanted to get to the watering hole.
Well, at least that makes it easier; we can have an aerial attack without the branches scraping up our scales. thought Magma.
She looked up and shook the blood from her snout. Cloud and Hazel were staring in the direction of the Water Clearing. They clearly thought the same thing as Magma.
Magma pointed her wing up at the sky to signify what she was thinking. Hazel and Cloud nodded, and leapt up into the air. Magma followed them, and immediately felt the joy of soaring through the air again, feeling the sting of her eyes as the wind blew into them. Then, she smelt the scent of shurale on the breeze, and she was rigid, her wings straight out, silently gliding towards her prey. The sea of green beneath them was starting to thin out into a clearing, and the scent was getting stronger. Magma could see the pond were the shurale must be crouching.
They were swooping lower, and now Magma could make out the shurale. Dull green scales covered its body, scales that Magma knew from experience to be extremely strong and slippery. It had a thick tail that it swung at its enemies, and large ears. It also had a gash on its side, but that didn’t matter. Food was food, and this one would be slower due to the injury.
The shurale seemed to sense that some thing was wrong; it kept looking up from its drink and seemed on the verge of running away. They needed to act fast.
Magma looked at Cloud and Hazel. They were watching the shurale. She signaled anxiously at them. Cloud saw her and nodded. She was watching.
Trusting that Hazel would follow Cloud, Magma folded her wings and dived. She screwed up her eyes against the wind. The shurale knew something was wrong now. It looked up and ran across the clearing, back to the shelter of the trees. But her biting hunger told Magma what to do. At the precise moment that the shurale started to run away, she spread her wings just enough to carry her forward instead of down.
The shurale saw her and continued its frantic attempt to escape; but its wound was slowing it down. Hazel and Cloud were closing in on it from the sides, but the Shurale was too focused on Magma to notice. It had no chance at this point. Its attention switched to Hazel, who had swooped in front of it and caused it to stop in fear and confusion. Magma seized this opportunity. She swooped down upon it and pinned the struggling creature to the ground. Magma struggled to find the weak spot in the scales in its neck. Five sharp claws raked her side and pierced her scales as the shurale lashed its legs out franticly.
Cloud and Hazel joined her. They pinned down the legs to make Magma’s job easier. The tough scales slipped between Magma’s teeth. Then Magma felt smooth fur instead of scales in her grip, and she bit down hard. Its windpipe was crushed. Unable to breath, the shurale abruptly stopped struggling.
The dragons sat back, panting.
“Put up a pretty good fight, for a wounded shurale,” commented Cloud as she checked how bad the wounds were that the shurale’s long flailing legs had inflicted on her.
“I think it’s that we’re getting weaker,” said Hazel quietly.
Cloud whirled around to face Hazel.
“Cloud, cut it out. He’s saying that all the Lava dragons are getting weaker,” Magma said tiredly.
“Yeah,” said Hazel timidly as he crouched down in fear. “The cold’s making us all weaker.”
“I wonder where it got that slash,” said Magma quickly.
Cloud seemed to forget about Hazel at this new question, and Hazel cast a grateful glance to Magma.
“Maybe it got it in Gold territory,” said Cloud. “It could have escaped some hunting Gold dragons.”
“I don’t think the Gold Horde would let food go that easily,” Magma said thoughtfully. “You haven’t met a dealing pack of Gold dragons recently, have you? They aren’t trading as many jewels and they look pretty hungry. “
“Maybe a horbafur,” said Hazel in excitement. “Some Gold dragons told me about them in a trade. They live in Ice territory.”
“But why in the name of hatchlings would a shurale go to Ice territory? It’s way to cold for shurale!” exclaimed Magma.
“And why does the sun shine, and the hatchling disobey,” said Cloud impatiently. “Let’s start heading back, I’m hungry.”
Magma gripped the shurale securely in her jaws, and leapt into the air with it dangling limply in her teeth. Hazel came over to help her carry it, and Magma saw Cloud glare at him.
The hottest pat of the day had just ended, and the sun was starting again to fall into the welcoming folds of the mountain ranges. Why does the sun fall into the mountain’s arms, just to break free at sunrise? wondered Magma. Does it come back for us? What have we ever done for it? The Base volcano loomed ahead of them, and Magma decided that she would ponder on this later.
They made a good landing and walked over to the prey pile to drop their catch. Magma pulled a whirshale from the pile and started to rip the scales off of its wings and body as the others helped.
“Now if this whirshale had been slashed by a horba-thingy, I would completely understand, because whirshale live in every territory,” she said. “But shurale are specialized and only live in our territory. That shurale could not have gone to Ice territory and lived.”
“Were do you think it got that slash then?” challenged Hazel.
There was a long silence.
“Maybe Ice territory is suitable for shurale now,” said Hazel timidly.
“Hazel, that makes absolutely no sense,” said Cloud matter-of-factly.
Hazel just looked at his feet.
“Well, I’m off to bed,” said Cloud with a yawn, and she staggered away and leapt into the volcano.
“She doesn’t…” started Magma.
“Mean it? Yeah right,” said Hazel bitterly.
“I think she’s just jealous,” whispered Magma.
“Jealous of what?” asked Hazel.
“Jealous that I spend time with you too,” answered Magma. “She thinks that you’re replacing her as my friend.”
“You say that like I’m not your friend,” said Hazel.
“No,” whispered Magma into Hazel’s ear. “You’re much more than that.”
And with that, Magma walked over to the volcano, jumped into the volcano, found her cave, and fell to the mercy of her dreams.
Chapter 7
Glacier soared over the snowy forest with her friends, her wings beating out a steady rhythm. She looked at the scene below her and chuckled.
Sleet seemed to be attempting to sneak up on Slush and tempt him into a skirmish, but Slush was making it difficult. Flurry seemed on the verge of attacking them both to get them to stay on task. Glacier zoomed down and playfully head-butted Sleet’s wing. Sleet gave a small yelp of surprise as she fell, but she soon regained her balance and retaliated by zooming around and around Glacier in a pesky fashion. Glacier watched her zipping by and pinpointed where she would be in a few seconds. But as she prepared to strike, Flurry shouted, “I smell whirshale!”
Sleet immediately stopped her antics and sniffed the air that was flying by them. Glacier did the same.
“It’s whirshale all right, but there are a lot of them,” she shouted as loudly as she dared.
“We can take them out,” replied Slush with an air of confidence.
It was a difficult decision. One whirshale wasn’t a problem for a full-grown dragon, but diving into a swarm of sharp beaks that could easily pierce an Ice dragon’s thick fur and strong wings that could break weaker bones with one smack was risky, even for four full-grown dragons. But these were four very hungry full-grown dragons.
“Let’s do it,” said Glacier, determined.
They flew on to the source of the smell. When they seemed to be getting really close, Glacier led the group into the clouds.
Glacier could vaguely make out shapes through the clouds. Each whirshale was about ten feet long, about a quarter of the size of small Ice dragons. They had long cruel beaks and huge wings that beat the air in long powerful strokes. Glacier imagined that stroke hitting her instead of air, and she involuntarily shuddered. She looked at her friends. Flurry was looking anxiously at the whirshale, Slush looked as confident as ever, and Sleet was pressing against her brother as if she was trying to suck some of his confidence into herself.
Let’s go, mouthed Glacier to the others.
Flurry nodded and signaled to Slush and Sleet. Once she had gotten their attention, she looked at Glacier.
Glacier made large sweeping motions with her tail at them, signifying that they should circle around the group of whirshale and attack from the sides. They nodded to her.
Glacier took a deep breath, and dived into the throng.
There was immediate chaos. High-pitched screeches filled the air as the whirshale took notice of their attackers. Glacier saw nothing but blue scales. She fought with the desperation of one clinging to life. Once or twice she caught a glimpse of an unrecognizable dragon surrounded by the whirshale, but her vision was soon clouded by the mass of bodies attacking her. She felt a sharp pain in her flank as a beak punctured it, and a strong beat of a wing hit her in the side and winded her, but she quickly retaliated.
Then, suddenly, she broke free. Soaring upwards, she observed their progress. They were doing well. The ferocity of their attack had pressed the whirshale closer to the trees, and Glacier could see dead and injured whirshale littering the ground and strewn among the branches. Now their only problem was getting out of the swarm. Slush and Sleet were fighting together as always, and they seemed to be okay. She plunged into the fight right where it seemed that the whirshale were attacking a struggling Flurry.
Flurry seemed to have many puncture marks all over her body, and wasn’t using her left hand-leg; it might have been broken by a particularly strong wing strike.
Glacier fought with renewed strength and fury while defending her friend.
After what seemed like many rotations, the whirshale finally fled, leaving the fatigued dragons to tend to their wounds.
It seemed that Slush had taken the most severe damage. Being the most confident, he probably charged straight into the thick of the whirshale.
Glacier settled down to look at herself. She had numerous cuts all over her body and there were a large bruises where a wing had hit her. Other than that, she seemed okay, so she went with Sleet, who didn’t have much serious injury as well, to gather the whirshale that they had killed.
“Well, let’s hope that some good came from this attack,” whispered Sleet to Glacier as they walked toward the forest.
It turned out that some good did come from it, the two found a whole lot of whirshale, definitely enough for the whole tribe.
Glacier and Sleet began gathering up the whirshale in their arms and jaws.
They walked back towards the others. When they got there, they dropped their find on the ground and looked around for the others. Flurry was leaning over Slush.
“Does he look okay?” asked Sleet anxiously.
Flurry straightened up and looked at Sleet with surprise. Glacier chuckled quietly. Flurry was too concentrated on Slush to even notice them approaching! That was funny. And kind of interesting.
I wonder…
“Uh yeah,” Answered Flurry in an attempt to regain herself. “He looks like he’ll live, but it will take some effort to get him and the whirshale back to home base.”
The group sat down to rest for a bit and observed their catch.
“We would have gotten more from a horbafur,” said Sleet wistfully.
“Yeah, but would you rather try to single out and fight a horbafur, or fight a swarm of whirshale,” asked Flurry.
“I don’t know, maybe the horbafur might have been easier. I mean, they are land animals, and we could have attacked them from above,” answered Glacier thoughtfully.
“Well, I guess we’ll never know,” said Sleet with a quiet chuckle.
The three dragons gathered all of the whirshale together into one pile and started debating the matter of carrying the twenty whirshale and Slush back to home base.
“We could wait for Slush to wake up,” suggested Sleet.
“That’ll take way to long,” said Glacier. “We don’t even know how long it will take him to wake. It could take rotations for all we know!”
“Why can’t we just carry them?” asked Sleet tentatively.
“Okay, you try flying while carrying ten whirshale or a dragon!” exclaimed Flurry.
“Why don’t we send someone to get help?” suggested Glacier.
No one could find a reason to reject that idea, and they sent the fastest flyer among them, Sleet, to get some help.
Sleet came back about half an hour later, with Hail, Drift, Snowstorm, and Mountain; some of the strongest Ice dragons.
With the added help of four dragons, the group soon got moving, with Flurry and Sleet carrying Slush and the rest carrying two whirshale each.
Glacier glanced over to Lava territory. She could see the huge volcano that the older dragons told her was the Lava Colony’s home base.
How can they possibly live there? It’s way to hot for dragons, especially in a volcano! I just don’t understand the Other Dragons, especially the Lava Colony. Well, I guess that someone had to take those other territories. Maybe it’s better that they want to live in a different climate. I mean, what if everybody wanted to live in Ice Pack territory? There wouldn’t be enough food!
“Maybe we should try to understand the Others more,” she thought aloud.
“What!?” exclaimed Hail, flabbergasted.
“I’m just saying that maybe we would get along if we just got to know each other better,” mumbled Glacier.
“Why in hatchlings’ names would we do that?” exclaimed Snowstorm. “Why would we even want to get along with them? They only ever cause trouble and they’re so weird!”
“It was just a thought,” murmured Glacier.
The rest of the trip back home was pretty quiet, except for the occasional outburst from Mountain.
The outbursts usually went along the lines of, ‘that was so reckless, just attacking a whole bunch of whirshale like that, you could have gotten yourself killed!’ or, ‘Just wait ‘till Blizzard hears about this, I hope she punishes you!’
Glacier shivered at the thought of upsetting her alpha. It’s not like they were trying to do anything wrong!
We were just trying to get food for the pack! She should be congratulating us on the catch, not reprimanding us for taking a risk!
“You’d think that we put a whirshale tooth on his sleeping rock,” whispered Flurry to Glacier in annoyance.
Glacier nodded her head, but she wasn’t really listening. She was still thinking about the Others.
Are they really that different? We are all dragons, right? Why can’t we at least talk to some different groups, other than the Gold Horde? The Gold Horde seems friendly enough at trades; maybe the other tribes are just as, if not more, friendly. Why won’t they listen?!
Glacier chomped down on her share of the whirshale to vent her frustration.
Home base loomed ahead, and Glacier started to worry. Would Blizzard punish them? It’s not like they did anything wrong, they weren’t helpless hatchlings. Mountain was just acting like a female who just found her hatchling climbing the ice prey-tree after telling him time after time not to.
And what about Freeze? Glacier didn’t dare to think what her father, the alpha male might say. He was always harder on her, whenever she made a mistake he was there, rebuking her, telling her, ‘you should have been perfect, you should have fought harder, flown faster, should have been the best of the best.’
Being the alphas’ daughter has way more downsides then one would think, thought Glacier bitterly.
But she hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong. They had gotten food for the Pack. That could always be risky, and they couldn’t pretend that that wasn’t true. The food they ate had claws and teeth too! Slush was a great example of that.
Glacier cast a sideways glance to the dragon now. Sleet was holding him by the scruff and Flurry was holding him by the tail. He was hanging limp in their jaws.
Glacier was worried for him. Once and a while, a traveling Healer would come by the dragons and teach them some skills, but it had been a long time since that one had come by.
They were strange creatures, the Healers. Some times they were pale, clawless, furless beings with small ears that walked on two legs. Other times they were furry creatures with sharp claws and teeth, quite like the Ice dragons themselves, only without wings. The furry ones usually walked on all fours, but they seemed to be able to go on their hind legs if they wanted to. They seemed very kind, and shared many secrets with the pack.
“Maybe the Healers will come by soon,” thought Glacier aloud.
Hail snorted.
“Yeah right. I don’t think the Healers even remember we’re here.”
“Maybe they’re with one of the Others,” suggested Glacier.
“Uh-huh. Even if they were with an Other, that wouldn’t help us,” said Hail scornfully.
“Maybe they’re busy,” mumbled Glacier.
“Busy!” scoffed Hail. “They’re Healers! All they do is wander around playing with plants.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make do with what they taught us then,” said Glacier defiantly.
Hail just grunted.
Sometimes she’s just as annoying as her sister, thought Glacier furiously.
Though you wouldn’t guess by looking at them, Hail’s twin sister was Powder.
Freeze was waiting for them as they finally touched down at home base. Glacier dragged her catch over the Ice prey-tree and dropped her two whirshale into its roots. It was the only food there so far. The others did the same.
Mountain, Hail, Drift, and Snowstorm hurried of to their sleeping caves.
Thanks guys, thanks for backing us up. Really appreciate it, thought Glacier bitterly.
Flurry and Sleet dragged Slush over.
“So,” said Freeze softly, only his eyes betraying his fury.
Glacier wanted to say, “So what?” but she bit back the retort.
Freeze continued.
“You go out hunting, Sleet comes back hunts later telling me that, with full knowledge of the dangers of attacking a group of whirshale, you have done exactly that and you require assistance carrying the catch and your wounded friend back, and you come home with Slush nearly dead and only twenty whirshale!”
Only twenty whirshale! Glacier thought, infuriated by the injustice.
“Take Slush to the healer’s cave and go to bed,” dismissed Freeze.
The trio started to drag Slush to the cave were the healers stayed when they came by.
“You stay here and come with me, Glacier,”
Glacier stopped in her tracks and dragged her feet back to her father, her heart weighed down with dread.
Freeze signaled to Glacier to come, and started heading towards his and Blizzards cave.
Theirs was the highest up, and therefore the coldest. Glacier felt slightly relieved as the cold wind hit her and as she started to sink deeper and deeper into the snow.
Maybe Blizzard will be fairer.
“Your mother is out hunting,” said Freeze as if reading Glacier’s thoughts. “You will speak to her later.”
They finally reached a large hole in the snow that led to Freeze’s cave. Freeze motioned for Glacier to go first. Glacier slipped inside the hole, its walls pressing against her, and continued on until it opened out into a huge space.
Glacier envied her parents. They had a freezing cold, enormous cave.
Freeze entered behind her and sat down on the stone floor. Glacier sat too.
“So, you’ve decided you can take on a whole flock of whirshale now have you,” started Freeze menacingly.
“I was…” started Glacier
Freeze interrupted her. “You should of thought about the consequences! Look at Slush! He may never fight again!”
“We were just…”
“What you did was reckless, foolhardy, rash, wild…”
“We were just feeding the pack!”
Glacier was standing up now, caught up in her fury.
Freeze narrowed his eyes.
“You will not talk to your father like that, do you understand,” he said maliciously.
“Yes father,” Glacier put as much hatred and spite into those two syllables as was possible.
“Get out,” said Freeze dismissively. “You will talk to your mother about this in the morning.
Glacier stalked past Freeze into the open air.
She sprinted down towards her cave. Flurry was eating near the ice prey-tree.
“Come on Glacier! You haven’t eaten all day. You said you would eat after we caught something, remember?”
It seemed like cycles ago when Glacier had woken up and prepared to go hunting with Flurry.
“I’m not hungry,” dismissed Glacier.
And with that, she crawled down into her cave, curled up, and went to sleep.
Chapter 8
Sunstone shuddered as cold water dripped down his back. It came from the many stalactites that hanged from the ceiling. Sunstone didn’t dare look up at them though; they reminded him of fangs that could drop on anyone of them at any wing-flap.
The light coming in from the mouth of the cave was thinning as they went deeper and deeper.
Ahead, torches lit by the golden flames of the Gold dragons cast the tunnel into an eerie semi-darkness.
They went deeper and deeper, and Sunstone faintly felt the tunnels steadily slope downward under his feet.
They turned a cornet and the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Torches flickered on the walls and many tunnels led out to mining sites.
“Which one Bone?” Whispered Sunstone. His voice echoed endlessly in the huge cavern until it distorted and unrecognizable.
Bone was close enough to hear though.
“Let’s take that new tunnel that Quartz found,” Bone whispered back.
Sunstone nodded, and he, Bone, and Obsidian walked slowly over to the far end of the cavern, were a tunnel way smaller than the rest was placed. Bone squeezed through, then Obsidian, and, with a deep breath, Sunstone scrambled into the small entrance.
The walls closed in around him, suffocating him. I hate this, he thought. It’s like I’ll never see daylight again.
He walked farther, and then he started to panic. What if I’m trapped? What if there’s no way out?
Suddenly, the tunnel grew larger, and Sunstone could see Bone’s golden scales glittering in the torchlight and, if he looked just right, he could see Obsidian’s black scales glimmer.
Sunstone strained his ears for the usual sound of other dragons digging, but all was silent.
“Guess we’re the first ones here,” he said.
“Well, let’s get going then,” said Bone as he started walking forwards.
Sunstone plunged his claws into the earth and ripped it upward. ‘Don’t go to deep and dig cautiously, he remembered his mother saying. You don’t want to harm the jewels, or yourself.’
You can harm yourself by smashing into a rock. Sunstone had learned that the hard way.
He soon felt something other than dirt under his claws. It took a while for dragons to recognize jewels and precious metals from the dirt surrounding it. Some of the older dragons could even tell what jewel it was before they lifted it out of the ground.
It’s a ruby. Definitely.
He pulled up the handful, put it on the ground, and picked up the gem. Spinel. Close.
And still valuable. He placed it carefully in his ankle pocket and went back to work.
He had often wondered where the names for the gemstones came from. They obviously didn’t come with a label telling their name and value. Or did they? Did someone make them up?
He had once asked his dad this question and had been rewarded with a story.
A long time ago, when dragons first settled, the Gold Horde was the last to pick their domain and was left with a desert wasteland. The other dragons were cruel and wouldn’t give up any land to the Gold Horde. We struggled to survive. There was scant food and rivers and ponds were far and few between. We were slowly starving to death. Then the Saviors came and taught them the ways of mining. They told them the names and values of the gems and metals, and which ones, if eaten, would make a dragon stronger, healthier, and in rare cases, substitute food. They saved the Gold Horde from extinction. We owe a lot to them.
And that was the answer he had gotten, and the one he would always get.
And even thought the Horde owed so much to the Saviors, they were angry with them. They usually came, if not often, once and a while to share knowledge and heal the sick. But the hadn’t come in over 50 years, and most of the Horde thought that they had given up on them.
Sunstone had managed to make small talk with the Other Dragons when he went on trading missions and had found that they to thought that the Saviors had given up on them as well. It was hard to get that information. All the Others even had different names for them, but you could tell by the look in their eyes that who they were talking about. There was gratitude and respect, but also anger and hate, a feeling that they had been betrayed.
Sunstone had given that a lot of thought. Night after night he went to sleep thinking about it. Then one day he finally came to a conclusion. He hadn’t given up on the saviors yet! If the dragons were having a difficult time, maybe they were to. No one else seemed to have thought of that.
The story wasn’t much of an answer anyway, Sunstone thought as he plunged his claws into the wall again. If the Saviors gave us the gemstones names and values, were did they get them? Did they make them up, or did they also get them from someone else?
His train of thought was interrupted by a yelp from Obsidian.
“What is that?!”
Sunstone, knowing that Obsidians eyesight was keener than average, quickly turned around and walked over to were Obsidian was digging.
He was holding a strange half smashed object in his claws. The dragons stared at it in awe for some time.
It was a sort of sphere with cones coming out on four sides. Coming out of the top of the sphere was a strange thin rod that was snapped at the middle, the top half of the rod was hanging by an odd, sort of metallic thread to the bottom half. Coming out of the bottom were tentacles of some sort, with claws at the end of each one. The entire object seemed to be composed of different metals, and even though this was the Gold Horde’s area of expertise, the three dragons could not identify quite a few of the metals making up this curious object.
“What’s that thing on the side?” said Sunstone, breaking the silence. “It looks like it could be opened.”
Obsidian shoved his claws in the gap between the door and the rest of the object and pried it open. He leapt away in surprise.
Gemstones of different colors, shapes, and sizes poured out of the hole that Obsidian had made.
“Well that explains where the jewels have been going,” murmured Sunstone, half to himself.
“What do you mean?” asked Bone, giving Sunstone a quizzical look.
“That thing was obviously collecting jewels,” said Sunstone patiently, he was used to dragons not getting his ideas. “It probably got crushed in a cave in.”
“You don’t know that,” said Bone in a knowledgeable tone. “It could be placing the jewels.”
“Look at it,” said Sunstone. “It’s perfect for mining. Those points must cut through the rock. And look at the claws attached to those limbs. They seem ideal for picking up jewels, don’t ya think?”
“Sunstone, its just a piece of scrap that happens to have gemstones in it,” said Obsidian, shaking his head. “Your putting way too much thought into this.”
Sunstone sighed. No one ever understood his ideas; and when dragons don’t understand, they usually dismiss and ignore you.
I guess that’s my punishment for trying, he thought dejectedly to himself as he went back to work.
He wasn’t going to give up that easily though. As soon as Bone and Obsidian’s backs were turned, he snatched the strange object and placed it in his right pocket. Normally this would limit the amount of jewels he could collect, but these days one was lucky to fill one pocket!
Besides I’m doing what I think is right, he thought.
“ ‘Do what you believe to be right, no matter what your friends or enemies tell you,’ ” mumbled Sunstone to no one in particular. “Onyx. Wonderful guy. One of the most just leaders in history if I remember correctly.”
“Sunstone, what are you mumbling about?” Asked Bone in annoyance.
“Oh, nothing in particular,” Answered Sunstone, and he went back to work.
They walked out of the mines pretty happy with the days work. Sunstone followed his friends to the Jewel Pile.
In times of wealth, jewels would spill out of the cave and onto the ledge, but now the traders had to go deep inside to find any thing to trade at all.
They climbed and flappe