Suspicious Findings

This short story is for Luster for their New Years Gift! I hope you like it.
== The Outpost ==
Burn hissed at the group of soldiers flying beside her. They talked endlessly, trying to get a calm conversation going as if it was a normal life. Yet how could anything be normal if they were going to visit an outpost that never talked to the messengers she sent? She would constantly send groups to check on the outpost, only to get reported back that, "Oh, they're fine. They just don't have anything to report." Moons, they were the closest outpost to the SeaWings!
How could there be nothing to report? If she goes to the outpost only to find out her own dragons were keeping secrets from her, she would rip their traitorous heads off clean off their necks! Her sister, Blister, must have something to due with this. She always had something to hide in that abnormally large skull of hers. Burn smiled, imagining countless times where she won against Blister in her youth. Too bad she never could find Blaze.
The SandWings beside her were looking at her, dumbfounded and slightly frightened. Burn dropped the grin, hissing at them as she bared her teeth, "Do you have something important to say? If you do, say it now." A SandWing stiffened, nearly falling from the sky as they made their way through the heated skies of MudWing territory. She frowned, watching the dragon trying to stay in the air like a dragonet.
"Well, Your Majesty, we are almost there. And..." The one SandWing stopped, looking down at the ground. Burn always noticed how this soldier had one smaller ear than the other. It was fascinating and the fact that he could hear just fine like a regular dragon was even better. She eyed his ear for a moment, the tension and confusion building in the air before Burn snapped it.
"Good, we'll finally get some information ripped from them. They may have valuable information worth noting considering their silence," Burn hissed as she looked away, looking at the disappearing muddy terrain as it transitioned into a sandy landscape. "I do have one question, though. Have the SandWings ever showed their faces to the messengers I've sent?"
    "Yes they have, Your Majesty. Though they say the same SandWing always answers the coming party," the small-eared SandWing answered, a crack in his tone. Burn beat her wings in the air, flying slightly ahead of the group.
"Why?" She asked, a hiss boiling deep in her throat. It was a good question too. Why did the same SandWing answer the outpost's door? Were the rest of SandWings in that moonsforsaken outpost lazier than RainWings!? Did they even check the surroundings of their post? She couldn't even fathom how irresponsible these dragons were. It made her sick to her stomach.
"W-We don't know why, Your Majesty. All we know is that he's an old dragon and-"
"And what? Is there anyone else in the outpost?" Burn looked at the dragon, his jaw opened and shut before looking over to the SandWing beside him. He gave a little shrug and the dragon whispered something to him. Burn hissed loudly, "Don't whisper around me."
The SandWing turned his head around to her, "Oh - my apologies. The outpost is in sight, Your Majesty!" Burn turned her head away from him, noting the subject change he did. The outpost was a tall, stone structure protruding from a rock face with a landing perch and a poorly constructed straw ceiling. She curled her lips, knowing how many ways enemy SandWings would attack the post from above. A wooden door was in sight, reflecting parts of the setting sun. She glided down to the perch, creating a loud crumbling thump onto the stone.
Her small troop of soldiers followed shortly after, the small-eared one landing closely to the door. Burn growled, looking at door. It was a clear command to continue on with it. For her army, at least. The SandWing slithered over to the door, his talons sluggishly dragging on the stone as he raised his fist to knock. Giving a moment of silence that Burn cringed at, he finally knocked on the door.
There was a pause, a couple of her troops exchanged glances and words that questioned if anyone was even inside. Finally, an old battle scarred SandWing opened the door with a necklace of keys. It almost reminded Burn of her brother, Smolder. Yet, too bad this SandWing didn't appear quite useful anymore. He glanced around in confusion at the dragons before laying his eyes on Burn. They widened with fear, immediately straightening himself and staring. Letting out a long hiss, Burn broke the silence.
"Hello, judging by your expression you know who I am already. Going my recent reports from my messengers, you and the other SandWings assigned to this outpost haven't found anything interesting in over three months," Burn stepped forward, her size compared to the old dragon intimidating. The old dragon stumbled over his words before he could finally form an eligible sentence.
"Yes well we - uh - found lots of - y'know - interesting things, but they weren't worth reporting to you and-" Burn cut off the old SandWing, pulling him out of the outpost's doorway harshly.
"Search the interior for anything suspicious!" Burn roared, flaring her wings open as her troop hurried inside the outpost. She watched as the dragons turned over beds, pillows, armor and weapons, and even the fireplace. Dust flew everywhere and it came to the conclusion that the old SandWing was alone. She narrowed her eyes onto the SandWing, "Where are the rest the assigned SandWings!"
"Th-they're out patrolling the Mud Kingdom's border on the SeaWings! They'll be back soon!" The SandWing exclaimed as he raised his talons in defense. She could see that the old dragon has small black diamonds going down the length of his scales, basically absorbing all the light that gleamed onto them. Burn growled, looking at the dragon from talons to wingtips.
She couldn't help but ponder; why was this dragon the only one here? There were over seven SandWings assigned to the outpost. Surely six SandWings didn't need to patrol one area of the landscape as the area could just be observed from the perch. Burn frowned at the old dragon's explanation before one of her troop ran out with a dusty old scroll. "We found this under one of the cots, Queen Burn," said the SandWing.
Burn took the scroll from the SandWing, unrolling it as the old dragon at her talons shivered. She began to inspect the scroll, the writing was scratchy and hard to read at first. At the top of the scroll it said;
Strange Things Found on the Coast of Mud Kingdom
She raised an eyeridge at it, looking down at the old dragon. "Why are you recording this type of information?" Burn asked him, rolling the scroll back up.
"We've been finding weird things washing up on the coast. We think they're animus-touched objects, but they just seem like ancient SeaWing pottery and jewels," he answered as he began to look inside the outpost like he was afraid of something. Burn took the scroll under her wing and looked inside the outpost herself. The SandWings were trying to reach for something shoved into the post's stone wall and had pulled out multiple strange artifacts. Burn looked down at them, picking up a weird, jade statue of a one-eyed SeaWing. 
Another one had a broken wing and claws, but Burn was more interested in the one in her talons. One of her troops turned around to her, noticing that she had walked in. She usually hated how her some of her dragons didn't notice others coming up behind them. It was poor training in awareness that would get one killed. "Queen Burn, it seems that there's hoarded treasure here," said the SandWing in a report-like tone.
"I can tell," Burn hissed as she held the one-eyed SeaWing statue gently in his talons. The SandWing seemed to take a small jab at her response before looking past her and gasped. Burn quickly whirled her head around at the entrance, her tail smacking one her troop to the floor and others avoided her poisonous tail. She narrowed her eyes at the empty sky and charged out of outpost. The old SandWing.
He was gone.
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)