The Lost Dragon

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The Prophecy of the Children of Legend
The missing dragon must be found,
Or all is lost.
The dragon claimed by the ground,
Must pay the cost.
The wings of earth and fire will lead the search.
The wings of night and rain will find the threat.
The wings of sand and night will lose all hope.
Once the sea has drowned and once the land is lost,
The wings of hive and silk will bring the rest to safety.
The missing piece, the hidden jewel, the wings of rain and sea,
This dragon is the only hope, the one who holds the key.
==Prologue==
“It’s hard to believe this whole thing was caused by a plant,” Sunny said as she picked her way across the blackened ground.
    “Well this wasn’t a plant,” said Cricket. “The plant took over the continent and we burned and froze the ground.”
    The war with the Othermind was over, after months of fighting it, freezing and burning huge chunks of land, Jerboa had finally agreed to bring back magic and the united power of the animi had been enough to destroy the Othermind. Pantala was in bad shape, considering all of the damage done to the land and the after effects of the Othermind’s control over the minds of the dragons who had been infected. It seemed as though things were going to work out after all. The dragonets of destiny and many of the students from jade mountain were helping to clean up. Planting new trees and helping the injured. Sunny, Cricket, and Moonwatcher were looking through the wreckage of Wasp Hive to look for any useful tools or supplies.
    “After 22 years the dragon world can finally be at peace.” Sunny said.
    “No, it can’t.” Moon said.
    “What do you mean?” Cricket asked. “Did you have a vision?”
    “Yes. And they’re not good. But from what I can see they’re far into the future, at least ten years.”
    “We can prepare though, can’t we?” Sunny and Cricket stared at Moon as she began to speak.
    “The missing dragon must be found,
Or all is lost.
The dragon claimed by the ground,
Must pay the cost.
The wings of earth and fire will lead the search.
The wings of night and rain will find the threat.
The wings of sand and night will lose all hope.
Once the sea has drowned and once the land is lost,
The wings of hive and silk will bring the rest to safety.
The missing piece, the hidden jewel, the wings of rain and sea,
This dragon is the only hope, the one who holds the key.”
    “Was that a prophecy?” Cricket said in awe.
    “I think it was,” Sunny said, equally shocked. “You were right, it didn’t sound good.”
    “We can prepare,” Moon said. “It talks about five dragons who can fulfill the prophecy. If we can gather them, maybe all won’t be lost.”
    “Tsunami won’t like this,” Sunny looked in the direction of their camp. “None of the others will.”
    “Why?” Cricket asked. “Beyond the obvious ‘another world ending event’ that is.”
== Chapter 1 ==
(Ten years later)
Salamander dipped his claw into the pot of black ink on his desk. He carefully formed his letters on the smooth paper of the scroll he was working on. This was his favorite part of the day, before the sun had risen or slightly after, when most other dragons were asleep or just waking up. He took this time to prepare his lessons or grade assignments, when there was nothing to distract him. He blew gently on the scroll to dry the ink and wiped his claws on an already ink-stained cloth. He rolled it up and placed it in his bag with his other notes and teaching supplies.
The hallways were still mostly deserted, only one or two early risers heading to breakfast. Jade Mountain academy had grown since the days of its founding. They now had ten winglets, each made up of ten dragons, one from each of the ten tribes. Salamander had grown up in these halls, and attended classes when he was old enough. Now he taught history to the youngest students, the three and four year olds. His father, Clay, was still the healer at the school, and his mother, Peril, lived with them in a cave a little apart from the main school.
The eating hall was empty except for the prey and a single leafwing named Olive. She was studying a squirrel bone in her talon, turning it over and over.
“What’s on your mind Olive?” Salamander asked. She jumped and looked up at him.
“I was just thinking about how every little bone fits together.” She put the bone on the ground, fitting it into a skeleton she was constructing. “It’s so perfect. Every piece has a place.” 
Salamander smiled. He liked Olive, but he didn’t know quite what to make of her. She always seemed to be distant, but at the same time she was paying attention. Her mind could go a mile a minute and she could still look like she was half asleep.
“If one of the bones is broken it can heal back together, good as new, almost.” She pointed to a tiny line in one of the leg bones where a break had healed. “It still works, but it would have this mark forever.” She put it into its place.
Salamander took a cow in his talons and began to eat. The hall slowly filled with dragons eating their breakfast. Soon the room was filled with the sounds of dragons talking and laughing. He finished his cow and put the bones in the bone pile, then went to his classroom.
He was going over the section of scroll he was going to teach that day, then paused, something catching his eye.
“After the return of the NightWings to the mainland of Pyrrhia some dragons have been known to possess future-telling abilities, though none of them other than Moonwatcher have been known to make any prophecies. Moonwatcher has made three prophecies to date.”
Salamander’s forehead creased. He only knew of two prophecies made in the last two-thousand years. The Jade Mountain Prophecy and the Lost Continent Prophecy, but now his scrolls were saying there was a third prophecy. He would have to ask Starflight about it when he had a free period.
His thoughts about the prophecy crowded his head that day, making his teaching less enthusiastic than it normally was. On any other day he would have easily been able to answer Horsefly’s rapid-fire questions about the War of SandWing Succession, but today he had to search his memory to remember the date of the brightest night, which was very strange, as it was his father’s birthday. Finally he had a free hour to go to the library and ask Starflight about the prophecy.
“Is that you Amethyst?” Starflight turned his head to the entrance of the library when Salamander entered. “That book of poems is a week overdue.”
“It’s Salamander. I have a question.”
“I have a lot of answers. What’s your question?”
“I was looking at a history scroll, and it said something that doesn’t match up with what I thought was true.”
“There are often things that we think are true that aren’t. What was it?”
“My scroll said that Moonwatcher made three prophecies, I thought she only made two.”
“She made three.”He paused, as though he was trying to find the right words for what he needed to say. “You weren’t supposed to know about it, not until they all decided to tell you.”
“Who decided to tell me? Why is this prophecy such a secret?”
“Your parents. They wouldn’t tell you, because they thought it was about you.”
== Chapter 2 ==
“So you didn’t tell me about this because?” Salamander faced his parents in their cave. It was evening after the school day had ended.
“The dragonets of destiny and I, we all grew up thinking that we had to save the world. That’s too much pressure for a dragonet to grow up with.”
“You didn’t think that would be important to mention sometime before now though? Maybe when I was seven and not waiting until I figured it out on my own when I was nine?”
“We all made an agreement.” Peril said. “All of the parents of the dragonets from the prophecy. We would all tell you at the same time, once everyone was at least seven.”
“Am I ever going to meet these other dragons? Have I already met them?”
“Some of them.” Clay said. “Firefly, you’ve met her a few times. You and Dragonfly met once, when she was less than a year old. I don’t think you’ve met Coyote. But yes, we’ve sent messengers to the others, we’re all going to meet on the next night two moons are full.”
“Can I read the prophecy before then?”
“You’ll all read the prophecy together on the night of the meeting, not before.”
Salamander felt like his world had been turned upside down. Before today he had just been a history teacher, true, he was the son of two well known dragons, but that had never been the thing he thought was special about him. Now he was the subject of a prophecy, a prophecy that had been made before he was even an egg. What could this prophecy be about to make dragons so nervous that they wouldn’t even tell their own dragonets about it. He felt like the meeting couldn’t come soon enough, but it finally did. The meeting was in a clearing near the scavenger sanctuary, a little ways away from the school. There were several dragons in the clearing already, all different colors and shapes. Peril landed carefully on a large rock, avoiding anything flammable.
“It’s been a long time.” Queen Glory said to Clay. “It’s good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you too.” The large mudwing wrapped his wings around the rainwing queen.
Salamander looked around the clearing. There was a pale gold sandwing with an amber earring in one ear standing close to a nightwing. They had a small dragonet with them, mostly nightwing, but instead of silver scales under his wings they were gold. He had a sandwing crest 
and orange scales halfway up his front legs, like he had dipped them in paint. Queen Glory stood with Deathbringer and their daughter, Firefly. A shimmering blue silkwing and a hivewing had a beautiful blue hivewing with them. Her scales were the same color as her father’s, but with black splotches like her mother’s and hivewing shaped wings.
“Is everyone here?” Asked Glory with a pointed look at Peril.
She sighed, “Yes everyone’s here.”
“Does everyone know why we’re here?” It seemed to be a rhetorical question, as every dragon nodded their head. “Good, I don’t have to explain too much. You all know about the prophecy now, but some of you haven’t heard it. Moon, tell them.”
The female nightwing stepped forward and Salamander realized that it was Moonwatcher, the one who had made the prophecy. “Ten years ago I made a prophecy. We didn’t know what it meant at first. We had our suspicions, but none of us wanted to believe them. As you all hatched it got harder to ignore, our dragonets were spoken of in the prophecy, there could be no doubt. The prophecy went like this:
The missing dragon must be found,
Or all is lost.
The dragon claimed by the ground,
Must pay the cost.
The wings of earth and fire will lead the search.
The wings of night and rain will find the threat.
The wings of sand and night will lose all hope.
Once the sea has drowned and once the land is lost,
The wings of hive and silk will bring the rest to safety.
The missing piece, the hidden jewel, the wings of rain and sea,
This dragon is the only hope, the one who holds the key.
“Salamander is the wings of earth and fire. He’ll lead some kind of search, possibly for the missing dragon. Night and rain is Firefly, she’ll find some kind of threat, maybe something we couldn’t see coming otherwise. Wings of sand and night” she looked at her son. “Will lose all hope. Hive and silk is Dragonfly, she’ll lead the rest of you to somewhere safe.”
“Who’s the wings of rain and sea though?” Firefly asked. “It seems like this whole thing is hopeless without them.”
“We don’t know yet.” The dragon who must be Qibli said quickly. “They might not even be hatched.”
Salamander looked at the sandwing. It was clear he was hiding something. So what isn’t he telling us? 
“Do we know who the missing dragon is? Or the dragon claimed by the ground?” Dragonfly asked. “We have to find the missing dragon. That seems pretty important to the future of the world.”
“There are plenty of missing dragons.” Firefly said. “A lot of nightwings are missing from the village.”
“Which wasn’t supposed to be common knowledge yet.” Deathbringer said, exasperated.
“It’s not completely common knowledge. Just these nine dragons.” Her frill drooped a little under her parent’s stern gaze. “Right, it could be anyone. Probably not a nightwing, ‘cause there are definitely no missing nightwings.”
“I think I know who it is.” Glory said, turning to look at the assembled dragons. “A delegate from the seawings came to the rainforest yesterday. His news wasn’t good. Official messages are on their way to all of the major cities, but you should know this now. Princess Auklet is missing.”
Salamander’s heart sank, he had been clawmates with Auklet. He couldn’t think who would be able to kidnap the feisty seawing, she certainly wouldn’t leave on her own accord.
“Who could kidnap Auklet?” He said. “And why?”
“There are plenty of reasons for someone to kidnap her. Hold her for ransom, learn information about the sea kingdom, both.” Firefly listed on her talons.
“We have to find her,” Salamander said. “Where was she last seen?”
“Wait. Are we letting them do this?” The silkwing asked.
“I don’t think we have a choice.” Clay said to him. “Or all is lost. That makes it seem like it’s pretty important to find her.”
“I thought that we were keeping this a secret so our dragonets wouldn’t have to go on some crazy quest like we did,” The silkwing snapped.
“Blue,” The hivewing said calmly. “You and I both know that this will only end badly if we don’t let her go.”
“Dad.” The blue hivewing said to her father. “Let me make this decision by myself.”
“We have to do this don’t we?” Coyote spoke for the first time since Salamander had arrived. His voice was quiet and slightly squeaky. “The prophecy says that some pretty bad things will happen if we don’t, so why is it even a question? Every time there’s been a prophecy it’s come true, whether the dragons in it wanted it or not.” 
“I’m ready for this.” Firefly looked at the rest of the dragonets. “I’m goin to find Auklet even if no one else comes.”
“I’m supposed to be leading this quest so I guess I don’t have a choice.” Salamander laughed, but after he saw the looks on the other dragons faces he realised that it hadn’t been received well. “I’m coming, that’s what I’m saying.”
“I’m in.”That was all that Dragonfly said.
“Yeah, I’ll come.” Coyote replied.Category:Fanfictions
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