Beach’s Adventures

**Forbidden Hybrids** **- Beach's Adventures**

A story with original characters - based on the book series Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland.

**Written by: Mace**

**Cover by: Qinter**

AUTHORS NOTE: Everything except for the last chapter of this story was written over three years ago. I found this story sitting unfinished in an old Google doc and decided to finish it up. I will be going inactive again after this gets posted. To all who were here those years ago in support of this story, thank you. Please enjoy.

This is a story about a hybrid dragon named Beach. Her dad, Trout, was a SeaWing, and her mom, Sunrise, was a SandWing. Beach hatched mere weeks before the start of the Great War. Her dad agreed to take Beach to the SeaWing Kingdom to raise her. He had said, “She looks more like a SeaWing. I should take her to the Summer Palace.” So Trout raised Beach while Sunrise was forced to live in the IceWing Kingdom with Blaze.
Beach had a tan underbelly, a poisonous barb, and the ability to breathe fire like any other SandWing. Other than that, she looked like your average SeaWing. He covered her barb in plaster that was painted to look like the rest of her aquamarine scales. As for the rest, Trout figured most dragons wouldn’t notice her underbelly and if she didn’t know she was a hybrid, then why would she try to breathe fire?

Trout’s plan to keep Beach‘s other side a secret worked for six years, until the plaster started to peel off, and Beach found out the truth...

## Chapter One: The Truth

I tore at the plaster stuck to the tip of my tail. After a lot of clawing and peeling it, I ripped it off and uncovered... a SandWing barb? *Wait, I’m a hybrid?* “I am going to kill Trout for not telling me this,” I swore to myself. ”Where is he?”

I started out of the entryway of our cave. My dad works at the marketplace on the seventh pavilion. He sells the scrolls that Queen Coral writes. I head there first. It’s around lunchtime, so he may be on his break, but I’ll check anyway.

When I get to his shop, I see Octopus exchanging a copy of *A Tail Of Blood* for an emerald. *So he’s not at work; he must be in the park on the eleventh pavilion.*

As soon as I get there, I hear a dragonet scream, “Momma, look at her! She has a deadly barb!” Everyone looks at me. *I am so stupid for not covering my barb back up.* My dad runs towards me. “You have to run, Beach,” he said. “They’ll come after you, because you’re a forbidden hybrid.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah I know I’m a — wait forbidden?” He shoves me off of the pavilion. I had to flip over so that I could fly. “Your mother’s name is Sunrise,“ he calls. “Now go!” As I turn to escape, four guards charge towards me! One of them thrusts their spear at me, but I dodge it. My left wing is pulled down by another guard, and I struggle to fly. Finally, I escape his hold and I dive down towards the secret entrance to the Summer Palace.

*Whew, that was a close one!* I swim towards the next island, which I call Cave Island, because it provides many caves to hide in. But when I get there, I am surprised by the presence of another dragon! *Wait, that doesn’t look like a SeaWing.* It was taller and had bigger wings. He moved closer to reveal orange scales. *Oh no, it’s a SkyWing!*

## Chapter Two: Captured

The SkyWing looks in my direction. I duck behind a giant rock, but I was too late, because he sees me. “HALT!” he commanded. “Come out from behind that rock!” I am shaking. *But it’s okay*, I think, *because I have a barb, so I probably have fire, too.*

I come out from my hiding place and into a defensive stance. “Who are you?” I ask. “I’m asking the questions here,” the SkyWing replies. “But if you must know, my name is Flame. And you?”

“Why would I tell you?” I question.

“Because I told you my name.”

“Fine. I’m Beach.”

“Huh. So Beach, why are you here?”

I’m puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t play stupid. Why are you on SkyWing territory?” Flame booms.

“SkyWing territory! This island is SkyWing land?”

“Yes it is, and your hybrid self is trespassing. ASH! CARDINAL! HERON!” he yells. Three SkyWing guards appear out of one of the caves. The first one, probably Ash, had mostly mahogany scales and almost black wings; the second one, probably Cardinal, had bright red scales and weird white eyes; but it’s the third one, Heron, that surprises me the most. She was bulkier than the other SkyWings and she had a flat snout. No way, she’s a MudWing-SkyWing hybrid!

“Deal with her,” Flame says. The three guards plunge towards me. I tried to fight them but they are too quick. Before I can even blink, my talons are tied together, my snout is in a muzzle, and a sack is covering my barb. One of the guards, the one I think is Cardinal, fits a metal band around my neck, and then clips a chain to it.

“We’re taking you on a little trip to the Sky Kingdom,” he says.

## Chapter Three: The Palace

It’s a long and dreadful flight to Queen Scarlet’s Palace. I never realized how hard it is to fly when your stomach is churning of nervousness. Or maybe that’s because I haven’t eaten anything at all today. I keep drifting to the right, and every time I go too far, Cardinal jerks the chain back left and Ash punches me. Heron is the only one who didn’t look like she wanted to kill me right now. I wonder why.

Finally, we reach the palace. My wings are so tired. But when I start to stretch them out, one of the guards pushes them back in and clamps them together with a metal band. I turn to see that it was Flame.

“You guys can go, I’ll take her to the queen,” he says. Ash and Cardinal go immediately, as if they are relieved, but Heron stays a moment longer and gives me an “I’m sorry” look, then flies away, too. Flame unties the rope binding my talons and takes my chain. He brings me to a huge palace. *Whoa*, I think. *Is that Queen Scarlet’s Palace?*

Flame leads me down a long hallway. There are cells all along the walls, some with IceWings, some with SandWings, some with MudWings, and even some with SeaWings that I recognize. I remember seeing a circle of giant pillars outside with prisoners on top. *Are these dungeons for special prisoners? If so, am I one of them?*

Flame enters a huge room. There are guards along the side walls and a giant cloud-shaped throne in front of me. There’s a dragon on top of the throne, wearing a gold chest plate with rubies embedded in it. *That must be Scarlet.* “Bow,” Flame tells me. I growl from inside my muzzle, then reluctantly obey and bow. “Tell me about her,” Scarlet says.

“Yes, your majesty. Her name is Beach,” Flame says. *Darn, I shouldn’t have told him my name.* “We found her on the border islands.” He looks at me and slowly says, “Trespassing.”

“That was not smart, SeaW—wait, she’s a hybrid!” the queen exclaims. I make a muffled noise of aggravation as all the SkyWings in the room turn their eyes to me. The queen claps her talons, signaling three of her guards to take me. “Throw her in the dungeon with the others. She’ll be thrilling for my arena.” I fight the guards. *I am not about to be Scarlet’s toy!* One off them brings out a pole with a heavy metal end. They hit me with it, and everything goes black.

## Chapter Four: The Arena

I wake up. My forehead throbs with pain. There's also a little pinching in my left ear. I’m in a cobblestone cell with metal bars facing the long hallway with the other prisoners. My muzzle is off, and so is the sack around my barb, but the bindings on my wings are still there. Two guards come into my cell. One puts a chain around my neck and leads me out of the cell. We turn into a short hallway. My chain is taken off and a guard pushes me into a giant arena with blood-stained sand at the bottom. *This is the queen’s arena. I really don’t feel like fighting - or doing anything, for that matter.*

“You’re going to fight to the death for her majesty’s entertainment,” one the guards says. *Great*.

As I walk into the hot, dry arena, the announcer says, “Yesterday, a group of four guards found this hybrid dragon trespassing and possibly spying on the border islands. Here for her first battle, Beach of the Sand and Sea!” The dragons in the stands roared and shouted. Queen Scarlet peers down at me. I scowl at her.

“And her opponent,” the announcer continued, “with three wins he’s scarred and battle ready, Subzero of the IceWings!” A white and icy blue dragon struts into the arena. He has scars all over, one prominent one over his eye, and his wings are bound, too.

“Claws up, breath ready, FIGHT!!!” Immediately, Subzero lunges at me. Wake up, Beach! It’s do or die! I dodge him. He opens his mouth. Oh no! Deadly frost breath shoots out at my head. Instinctively, I jump up out of the way. I land on Subzero’s back and bite his neck. He screams in pain. While his mouth is open, I shoot fire down his throat. He knocks me off with his tail and coughs. *He won’t be able to breath frost breath for a while, so that’s to my advantage.*

Subzero recovers quickly, though. He charges at me with his claws up and teeth bared. I do the only thing that I could do at this point. I stab him with my poisonous barb.

Seconds later, Subzero lay there dead. I hang my head. I had never had to kill a dragon before. Subzero was a prisoner like me, missing his family and his home, and now he’s dead. *But I could have been him. I could have been the one to die far away from my home.* The guards put a chain around my neck again and ushers me back to my cell. But something’s different. There’s a dragon in it. A SeaWing.

But not any SeaWing. It’s Trout.

It’s my dad.

## Chapter Five: Unexpected Ally

The SkyWing guard closes the cell door and locks it. I wait for him to walk away. “Spill,” I command. Trout shifts his long, dark blue tail back and forth before saying, “I’m sorry, Beach. I - I just didn’t want you to go telling everyone because you’re -”

“I’m a forbidden hybrid. Yeah, I know, you keep saying that. What does that even mean?” I question him. Trout looks at me with a confused expression. “You - you really don’t know? I mean, I never told you, but, I expected you to figure it out.” I shake my head. “Well it’s like this,” he explains. “SeaWings are on Blister’s side; you know that. But SandWings, pretty much all of them are on Blaze’s side. SeaWings and SandWings are on opposite sides of the war, which makes you a forbidden cross between the two.”

*He’s right, I am kinda stupid for not figuring that out.* “Your mother - Sunrise - I guess we you could say it's a forbidden love,” he continued. “Well, now it’s considered that, but really we were married before the start of the war. She was forced to go to the IceWing Kingdom to serve Blaze.” I look him in the eye with a tint of happiness. “You mean, my mom is not dead? Like, I could really meet her?” I ask. Trout nods.

I can’t help but smile. But Trout sees me and says, “I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The chances of you getting to meet Sunrise during this war is, well, zero. You can’t just go the IceWing Kingdom and ask to see her. They’d capture you for sure.”

*Capture.* “Dad, did you get captured by the SkyWings because you came looking for me?” He puts his head down, then nods. Once again, I can’t stop myself from smiling. “Thanks.”

Suddenly, a soldier appears at our cell door. It’s Heron. She’s holding a key.

“Hey, I’m gonna try to get you guys out of here,” she says.

## Chapter Six: The Escape

“Huh? Why?” I ask, startled. Heron shrugs her shoulders. “Just, c’mon, less questioning and more escaping,” she says. She opens the cell door. I look at Trout and he tilts his head towards Heron, beckoning for me to follow her. On silent talons, I creep out of the cell.

I hear guards walking down a separate hallway, one that intersects with the one Heron is leading us down. Trout and I stop but Heron keeps on going. "Act natural," she says.

"You mean, look like we miss our home and want to get the heck out of here?" I ask.

"Exactly." The guards see us and frown at Heron, as if they don't like her much. One of them is red-orange, the other is glittering amber. "What are you doing with those prisoners?" the red-orange guard booms.

Heron doesn't show any signs of nervousness, but instead loudly and clearly says, "Inferno, Sunstone, Queen Scarlet wants to see them." The guards looked suspicious.

"What for?" the amber guard commands. Heron taps the tip of her tail. "This one hasn't been marked," she says pointing a talon at my dad. *Marked?* *I don't remember being marked in any way. Unless...* I touch my left ear, the one with the pinching, and I feel something pierced through it. *Aha! That's what she means!*

I look over at my dad and see that it was true, his left ear was not pierced. "Okay, so why did the other one have to come along?" the red-orange guard demands, tilting his head towards me. Heron looks back at me, then to the guards, and says, "She has a few questions for her majesty.

"Well then, if she must, you can bring her along," the amber guard says. "But no funny stuff, private. You know what'll happen to you and your brother if there's an - incident."

"Yes, ma'am." The two SkyWings pass in front of us, and we wait until they're gone, then Heron leads us down the hallway and to the exit of the Sky Palace. She opens the door slowly, looks out, and then beckons for us to follow her. We creep outside of the palace doors. Heron breathes a small, direct flame to melt Trout's wing bindings. He winces in discomfort as the metal band gets liquid hot and falls off. She does this to each of his bindings and I do it to both of my own.

As we go to fly, a voice from behind us shouts, "HEY! THE PRIVATE IS LETTING THE HYBRID AND THE SEAWING ESCAPE! GET THEM!" Before I know it, about thirty SkyWing guards surround us.

## Chapter Seven: Egret’s Rescue

I turn to face the entrance of the Sky Palace. I see that the voice that had yelled from behind us is my captor, Flame. “So, you thought escape was that easy, huh?“ he says. “Wrong. That piercing in your ear, Beach, it’s enchanted. And if a prisoner that has been marked goes past the castle walls, it gives a signal only SkyWing guards can see.”

“WHAT? You mean the SkyWings have an animus?!” I ask, blown away by this news.

“Let’s say… it may have come from the SkyWings, may have come from the MudWings.. But wherever it came from, that power is *ours*. So, in short, yes, we do have an animus.”

Both Trout and I turn to face Heron with our mouths open in surprise, but Heron shakes her head. “No, not me,” she says. “My brother, Egret.”

“That’s right,” Flame says. “I’ve warned you many times, Private Heron. You and your brother were pardoned, and in return you two work for us. But an act like this, it can’t be forgiven. Your execution date is to be determined by Queen Scarlet, and Egret, well, let’s just say we won’t let him out of our talons.”

The red-orange dragon that we met up with in the hall, Inferno, steps forward. “Secure the fugitives,” he commands.

“Fly!” Heron shouts. The three of us frantically take to the sky. Trout and I fly away from the palace, but Heron flies *towards* it. “We have to save Egret!” she shouts.

“There is no way I am going inside there,” Trout tells her. He grabs my talon and pulls me away. “Dad, we have to save Heron’s brother,” I protest. “It’s the least we could do. She helped us escape.”

Trout looks terrified. “But - but if I lose you...I’ll hate myself for it.” I look him deeply in the eyes. “You won’t, I promise I’ll be safe.” He lets go of my talon. I fly towards one of the castle towers, dodging spears and blasts of fire. An arrow shoots through my wing, tearing a hole in it, but I pull it out and keep going. Heron and I reach the tower and I immediately see another Mud-Sky hybrid dragon. *That must be Egret.*

“Egret! Follow us! No questions. We’ll explain later. C’mon!” Heron spits out. Egret looks confused, but he follows anyway. We shoot out of the tower and fly upwards. SkyWings are plunging towards us. We manage to escape the first wave of them.

But just when we think we are free, a SkyWing grabs my wing, pulls me down, breaks my horn, and holds a spear to my throat.

## Chapter Eight: Runaways

A circle of SkyWings flood around me. I look to the sky and see Trout stopping Heron and Egret, talking with his hands and pointing to me.

*I wish they would just keep flying,* I think. *Heron has her brother, they’ll be safer outside the kingdom anyways. And Trout... if he flies away, he won’t have to worry about any troublesome hybrid ruining his life anymore, cause I’ll probably end up executed and added to Burn’s collection…*

“Pyrrhia to dragon?! Hellloooo? Hey, I’m talking to you!”

I got so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice the SkyWing who had me in a hold speak to me. I snap back into reality.

I realize that this SkyWing is Sunstone, the other dragon we ran into back inside the prison. “Cardinal, Ember!” she shouts. “Help me carry this dragon to the dungeon. We might have to knock her out again.”

I look over her shoulder to see Egret hovering above the circle of dragons. A few of the SkyWings spot him, but it’s too late for them to do anything. Sunstone suddenly topples to the ground, along with every other SkyWing.

“Come on!” Egret calls. “I don’t want to have to hold them for long.”

I look at the dragons scattered across the ground and then to Egret’s outstretched talons. *He’s using his magic... a total stranger, and he’s risking his soul for me. There* are *good dragons.*

I quickly scramble up into the sky. Egret beckons Heron and Trout forward. He lets go of the spell cast on the SkyWings, but before any of them can get to their feet again, a bubble-like field forms around the four of us. In a blink of an eye, the scenery changes from the Sky Palace to a calm, tropical island. We land on the warm sandy shore and catch our breath.

Heron looks towards Egret with a mix of shock and concern. “Are you- do you feel okay, Egret?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve got goosebumps, though,” the Mud-Sky replies.

“I didn’t even know you could do that,” Heron continues. “First with the guards and then you- I suppose you teleported us away from that skirmish.” Egret nods in response. “This island is one I visit any time the Queen lets me out of the castle," he explains. "I don’t think she knows about it, so we should be safe here, at least for one or two nights.”

Egret leads us into a cavern a bit more inland, where Heron makes a fire. Trout goes out to the shallows and catches a few fish to fill our empty stomachs just a bit. While we eat, Heron and I explain the whole story to Egret and Trout.

“Ah, that island,” Egret says, talking about Cave Island. “The SkyWings don’t use it much but as a temporary base or rest stop for troops. You got to be real unlucky to catch anyone there.”

“Yeah, well, I got lucky finding my way out,” I reply.

Heron yawns. “We should all get some rest. It’s been a long, crazy day.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I may have had a million thoughts going through my head, but they all stop as soon as I curl up to sleep. Except for one, which echoes through my mind as I drift off.

*It all worked out in the end…*

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**THE END**

Years later, Beach’s Adventure finally meets its end. Hope you enjoyed.