Into the Stronghold - The Truth About Burn

Burn carefully placed the NightWing she stuffed onto an empty stone pedestal in her Weirdling Tower, stepping back to admire her work. Dried blood still lingered on the dead dragon, but Burn didn’t care as much. She loved blood anyways, just as much as Scarlet loved the arena.

The SandWing stifled a growl. Scarlet was starting to get impossibly boring with her ideas of adjusting the Kingdom of Sand to Burn’s perspective. She was starting to get tired of Scarlet’s nagging and invitations to “thrilling” traitor executions. Even though the SkyWing queen too dreamed of bloodlust, she would rather watch dragons die than kill them herself. It was only relatives that Scarlet found exciting to murder.

Burn, on the other talon, preferred to kill any dragon, related to her or not. She always led a squadron at least two times a day to invade nearby encampments of SandWings loyal to only intelligible, ruthless Blister and glittery, sheep-brained Blaze. This way, she had more heads to adorn the vacant spikes on the outside walls. Burn also had an obsession with out-of-the-ordinary things, hence the Weirdling Tower in the stronghold, where she kept oddities of all sorts.

Speaking of the Weirdling Tower...

Burn suddenly recalled Scarlet’s most recent invitation, received after the SandWing had returned from raiding a camp with other SandWings supporting Blaze. The only one that even seemed worthwhile is Burn’s opinion.

Burn,

''I would like to invite you to a series of thrilling arena battles in honor of my hatching day, which is tomorrow. I am quite pleased to say that I have the dragonets of destiny in my claw, so you’ll be seeing some of them fight, too. One of them, a defective SandWing, seemed perfect for your tower. I’ll give her over to you after the battles. In the meantime, I would like you too arrive at sundown, as I have a feast during the evening hours.''

Your ally,

Scarlet

Burn quickly looked out the closest window. Noon. She would have to leave in a few minutes if she wanted to get to the Sky Kingdom on time.

The SandWing trotted into the dining area, her stomach growling a little. She went through the kitchen cabinets until she found leftover fried scorpions scorpions, which she finished off hastily. Burn then trudged into her bedroom to get her chest plate, only to find herself staring at ripped up curtains and a scavenger blinking up at her, clutching pieces of the curtains. She hissed to herself and roared, “SMOLDER.”

Her brother immediately came scuttling up next to her. “What’s the problem, Burn?”

“The problem is your little scavenger pet,” Burn snarled. “This is second pair of curtains she’s ripped up this moons-blasted week.” She lashed her tail. “You ought to train her. Otherwise, you’ll find her head under your pillow the next morning.” Clipping on her chest plate, she turned around sharply and stormed out if her room, muttering curses under her breath.

Smolder trotted up next to her. “Listen, Burn, I understand how you’re still upset about Mother’s death-”

“Clearly I am,” Burn growled. “Clearly I want to rip Blister’s face off with my own talons.”

“Buuuuuuuut think about it!” said Smolder cheerfully. “If you kill Blister, you’ll have a better chance at queendom! Beside, you had a great relationship with Oasis!”

Burn stopped abruptly and hissed in his ear,  “Don’t ever bring up my relationship with Mother.” She thought somberly about the good times with Oasis: the two of them training together, Burn at age two, both of them smiling. Oasis showing Burn at age five the well-protected treasury, whispering in the dragonet’s ear, “This all will soon be yours, Burn.” Burn, a couple years younger than now, fighting alongside Oasis in a battle with SeaWings on a beach.

Burn, twenty years from her current age, seeing her mother in a pool of blood outside the stronghold, tears clouding her vision.

Smolder put one reassuring wing around Burn. “Mother would be proud of you. Look at how you are. Taking over the stronghold by force, making alliances with the strongest tribes...” He smiled at her. “She hasn’t done much of that in her years as a queen, has she? You quickly made peace terms with the SkyWings and got the MudWings from Blister.”

For one, small moment, Burn smiled a little one at the corner of her mouth, but frowned again and said, “You’re wasting my time, Smolder. I have a party to attend.” With a flick of her tail, she walked out of the stronghold and into bright sunlight. “Take good care of the stronghold, will you?” she yelled over her shoulder.

“Yeah!” she heard Smolder yell back. Burn adjusted her breastplate again, and looked over at the six waiting dragons. She nodded to them, spreading her wings and lifting off from the sand. As she set her course for the Sky Kingdom, Burn thought, ''Smolder’s right. I am doing things Mother hadn’t done in her years as queen. Maybe I just might be fit for the throne.''

Then again, Scarlet wants to shape the Kingdom of Sand her way. I can’t let that happen. Besides, I want to be with Mother again. I want to feel her wings brush mine. I want to see her smile again.

There’s only one thing that I can do.

Since the dragonets are there, I’ll let them injure Scarlet so badly she’ll scream and fall unconscious. I’ll take her to the stronghold and lock her up in my Weirdling Tower. After that, I’ll kill Blister and Blaze and rule over the Kingdom of Sand as Mother has done. I’ll finish her unfinished business.

But, if the prophecy decides to take its course and kill me, at least I’ll be with Mother again.