Darkness Under Sand

## Prologue

10 years ago

Torrid covers himself with his wings, trying to protect himself from his big brothers and sisters. Drought, his oldest brother held his barb up. Torrid got up and hissed at him, trying to scare him away, when he wouldn’t. Torrid scratched his dusty yellow brown scales, not likely causing any damage. Drought strikes back, clawing deep with his sharp claws, leaving a bleeding gash on his youngest brother’s snout. He whipped off the blood, leaving a red stain on his bright tan scales. His other siblings, Coati and Grit, were threatening him with their tails. Torrid managed to escape, but Coati burned his wing and Grit scratched him in the chest with his barb. Torrid ran off, limping slightly.

## Chapter 1

Diamondbackfang got up in his cave. He realized that Waterfall was there, his soothing blue scales were shining near the water. His ruff had light blue gradients on them, just like his wings had.

“Where are you going?” Fall asked.

“To the Sand Kigndom,” Diamondback sighed. Fall looked at his tan scales with diamond markings on them. When he spread his wings, Fall realized he had black stars on his sandy coloured wings. Diamondback ran off, escaping Crystal Stone Academy, being careful of crystals that he didn’t memorize. He grabbed out his animus enchanted map and drew a messy line to his path lightly with his talon. Suddenly, the path appeared as an illusion, so followed it. He tucked the map into his pouch and continued walking.

## Chapter 2

Diamondback continued to follow the illusion. He laid down of the sand, realizing it was dusk. He went to sleep as soon as the moon rose.

Hours later.

Diamondback woke up and saw the Scorpion Den near by. He got up and ran off to the den. When he got there, it was chaos. More chaos than he likes. Diamondback did not like this place. He looked for the place. The place that Drought settled in. Diamondback ran to a shiny area. It looked like a sandstone fortress. It was decorated with black diamonds. He walked into the fortress. It was shiny and dark at the same time. He walked to a certain room. It had several posters of dragons. One was a tan dragon with diamond patterns. Her face was cold and unreadable. Another had a sandy yellow SandWing that looked like his father. The last picture had an unfamiliar SandWing on it. A large dusty yellow brown SandWing came over. His scales were full of battlescars. His talons looked awfully scratched and burned up. Probably because he handles very aggressive prisoners.

“What are you doing here, funny looking SandWing?” he asked.

“Uhh, nothing?” Diamondback said, trying to sound innocent.

“Are you interested in joining our amazing group?” a dusty tan SandWing came over. He also had many scars.

“No, and never!” answered Diamondback.

“He’s a spy!” called some other SandWing, “He probably hates us.”

“Maybe we should lock him up and take his stuff,” growled another. Diamondback flinched and ran away. In the halls, the walls looked damaged, like they are going to collapse soon. There was another room. It was a total mess. There was some familiar SandWing in there. The SandWing had diamond markings just like he had. She had pale dusty tan scales and a dark ridge. Diamondback stepped a little closer.

“What are you looking at?” snarled the SandWing.

“What?” Diamondback responded confusedly.

“What are you doing here, strange dragonet?” she growled.

“Nothing!” Diamondback said sarcastically.

“You’re just lying,” she continued coldly, “You seem like one of Morrowseer’s supporters.”

“Morrowseer is already dead!” Diamondback reminded.

“When did he die?” she asked.

“A year ago, during the NightWing volcano,” Diamondback said honestly.

“I wouldn’t trust you, your the son of a NightWing who is the daughter of one of Morrowseer’s followers,” she hissed.

“You meant Skyburner, not Skybreaker! My mother was a member of the NightWing Protestors,” Diamondback said. The SandWing didn’t look like she trusted him.

“Do not lie to me, I am a descendant from Queen Scorpion,” she snarled.

Diamondback pulled out a piece of iron and said “This SandWing near me is a descendant from Queen Scorpion of the SandWings” before blowing smoke onto it.

“Get that away from me!” she growled and got up. On the iron, letters saying *This dragon is true* showed up.

“How!” exclaimed Diamondback. The SandWing stabbed Diamondback’s leg with her barb when he didn’t notice.

“Eeeek!” he screeched at fell to the ground but was still conscious. He tried to get up, but his leg was in huge pain. He limped away, trying to find brightsting cactus to heal the wound. He found a merchant selling brightsting cactus juice, and he quickly limped off. When Diamondback got there, there was some SandWing near him. She had a chest wound and tan scales. “Can I buy the cactus?” Diamondback asked, grabbing out his coin pouch.

”No I want to!” snapped the SandWing haughtily.

“But I need it!” Diamondback argued.

“So do I,” the SandWing argued back.

“UtahAgave, Diamondbackfang! Enough fighting!” announced the merchant.

“We both need it,” UtahAgave and Diamondbackfang said at the same time.

## Chapter 3

“What are you going to pay?” the merchant asked.

”50 coins,” they both said.

“This is the last one and there’s two of you,” the merchant sighed, “I can’t share it either.”

“Give it to me, my wound is more severe,” Agave said, pointing to herself.

“I have a spare, but only a small bottle,” the merchant said, taking out a small bottle of cactus juice. “One of you have to buy the small bottle,” he continued.

“I want the bigger one,” Agave smirked.

“I also want the bigger one,” Diamondback said.

“Agave gets the big one, Diamondback gets the small one,” the merchant said, taking Agave’s payment and giving her the bottle.

”UNFAIR!” Diamondback snarled, “that bottle is mine!”

“Agave said first, it’s first come first serve,” the merchant said.

”I DON’T CARE!” Diamondback growled, grabbing out a knife from his pouch. Agave instantly broke the knife. “You aren’t even injured, you’re just seeking for attention,” Diamondback smirked.

“Your wound is small, the small bottle is for you, and you have some animus scroll, you can just heal using it,” Agave argued, “You probably have some other animus objects.” Diamondback searched through his pouch and pulled out a rock and put it on his leg. The wound quickly started to disappear. When he got up, he was perfectly fine, he ran around, and it still didn’t hurt. “Told you,” Agave said and walked away. Diamondback ran off, going back to Crystal Stone.

## Chapter 4

“You returned!” Waterfall called, running to Diamondback.

“Yes,” Diamondback said, “Are you interested in stopping Drought from killing the Queen?”

“Seems interesting, I would join!” Fall responded confidently.

”Let’s go!” Diamondback called, running off with several other dragons. As soon as they exited, Diamondback picked up his enchanted map and drew a swiggle from their location to the Scorpion Den.

A few minutes later..

All the dragonets walked to Drought’s Fortress and saw many dragons. They were collecting valuable items from the fortress.

“We collected everything, now burn this down!” announced their leader. In one heartbeat, the SandWings burned the fortress down.

“It looks like you are impatient, maybe we should fight now,” Drought smirked.

“We will not bow down to a dishonest queen wannabe,” one of the SandWings snarled.

“We’ll see who wins,” Drought snickered, and ran off. The rest of the others followed him. Diamondback and his followers joined in.

## Chapter 5

“We shall fight, if I win, Coati challenges for the throne, if you win, Thorn doesn’t get challenged,” Drought announced. A blood red SkyWing landed with several others.

”We shall fight with the Talons!” one announced. The diamond patterned SandWing looked for a place to ambush Drought. Diamondback breathed flames in front of Drought’s group. One of the SandWings escaped and started to chase Waterfall. Fall turned around and shouted some strange black liquid from his fangs. The droplets fell into the SandWing’s face. The SandWing screeched in agony and collapsed. The diamond patterned SandWing tackled Grit (the dusty tan SandWing who was allied with Drought) and grabbed out a spear. She pinned him down and impaled his throat. Another diamond patterned SandWing appeared, but she had light tawny scales. She pounced on one of Drought’s allies. The ally scratched her eye, but she didn’t mind it and slit their throat.

A few minutes of fighting…

A scarlet red SkyWing grabbed out a spear and threw it at Drought. “You son of a—- EEEEK!” Drought screeched before he fell. Coati slashed one of the Talon’s necks. A tan SandWing later impales Coati with a spear.