Book 4 Side Stories (2/2)

“Huh,” Emile said as he landed beside Susan. He rubbed his lower beak with the tip of his wing. “You’re right: it really does look unnatural. It’s too straight.”

Susan nodded. “See? I think it was built by someone,” she said. She fluffed her feathers out and exhaled through her beak. Heat radiated out of her, and Emile shuffled towards her before doing the same. “It’s really cold here.”

“How come those chipmunks aren’t freezing?” Emile muttered. He shivered and held his breath. Heat burst out of him, and the branch the two phoenixes were sitting on was set ablaze. Emile glanced down and blinked. “Oops.”

Susan ignored the flames. “There’s a door over there,” she said and pointed at the pyramid with her wing. “Do you see it?”

Emile followed his sister’s wing. There did seem to be a crack on the side of the pyramid underneath all the moss and vines. “I think so. Let’s explore it.”

“Should we?” Susan asked and furrowed her brow. “I don’t know…. What if something happens to us?”

“Like what?”

“Well, we could die.”

“Then we’ll just come back to life,” Emile said and rolled his eyes. “C’mon, you worrywart. You’re the one who wanted to come here in the first place. Now that we’re here, we can’t just leave without checking it out. What would Tafel think?”

“Why do you always bring Tafel into things?” Susan asked, tilting her head.

“Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.” Emile waved his wing in front of Susan’s face, shushing her while clicking his tongue. “What did I say about asking too many questions?” He hopped off the burning branch while spreading his wings, gliding towards what he thought was the entrance of the pyramid. “Are you coming or not?”

Susan sighed and followed after her brother, leaving the tree to burn. The chipmunks at the base of the pyramid scattered as the two phoenixes landed on a vine atop the pyramid. “Let’s clear some of this away,” Susan muttered and took in a deep breath, her chest puffing up. A stream of fire shot out of her beak, setting the side of the pyramid ablaze. A foul odor drifted out of the pyramid, and the chilliness in the air seemed to increase despite the burning flames.

“What do you think this place is?” Emile asked, shuffling towards Susan, puffing himself up to stay warm.

Susan shrugged. “We’ll see soon,” she said, waiting for the flames to die down. Once they did, Susan flapped her wings, creating gusts to blow away the accumulated ashes and smoke. A charred hatch came into view.

Emile hopped forward and landed on the hatch’s handle. He pressed one talon against the pyramid and lifted the handle with his other talon. A grunt escaped from his tiny body. “Help me out here.”

Susan hopped forward and wedged her body into the small crack that Emile had created. She puffed herself up, opening the hatch just enough for Emile to crawl through. Once he did, she followed after him, and the hatch slammed shut with a metal banging sound. Susan puffed out a small flame, illuminating the insides of the pyramid.

There was a giant mural of a black dragon painted on the walls of the pyramid, and engraved in the ground, there was a circle with lots of lines crossed through it in symmetrical patterns. Emile blinked hard. “Susan,” he said and swallowed. The black dragon seemed to be staring at him as if he were a piece of food despite the fact it was just a painting. “I don’t think we should be here.”

“Flee?” Susan asked, the flames dying down when she spoke. However, the inside of the pyramid was still illuminated but with a purple light. The glow was coming from the circle on the ground.

“Flee!” Emile shouted. But it was too late. The purple light flashed, engulfing the two phoenixes. When the light died down, the two birds were gone.

In a dark, faraway place, two phoenixes stared at each other with blank expressions. Emile cleared his throat. “I know why we’re always lost now. It’s not Mom’s fault, and it’s not Tafel’s fault either. It’s yours! Look at where we are because of you.”

Side Story 3

Two dragons, one silver, one black, lay next to each other. They were on their stomachs, their limbs splayed outwards with their heads pointed towards a bundle swaddled in gold cloth. Jutting out from the top of the cloth was the speckled tip of a white egg. The cloth would occasionally rustle every time a gust of wind washed over it, the air moving thanks to the dragons’ breaths.

“It’s beautiful,” Leila said and sighed, her eyes misting over.

“It’s an egg.”

Leila’s eyes shifted over, staring at Grimmy. “It’s our egg.”

“Well,” Grimmy said and blinked twice. “I suppose it is.” A furrow appeared on his brow. “Is it moving? Is it about to hatch?”

Leila shot to her feet, her eyes widening. She took one step forward and placed her cheek against the side of the egg.

“Wait, don’t get so close,” Grimmy said but didn’t do anything to stop his mate. “What if you accidentally crush it? Be careful!”

“I’m not going to crush our own egg.” Leila rolled her eyes, but she moved her head away from the egg before giving it a deep glance. “I, I think it really is hatching.”

“Is that normal?” Grimmy asked, tilting his head. “How long has it even been? Do eggs hatch this quickly?” He sat up on his haunches and glanced at his front paws. “Am I going to be a father so soon?”

Leila leaned back and sat up as well, wrapping her left wing over Grimmy, pulling him close to her side. “You’ll make a great father—just look at how well you brought up Vur. And this time, no one else is going to interfere with us raising our child.”

“Hmm?” Grimmy glanced at Leila. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, you know,” Leila said and gave her mate a slight nod. “Imagine how differently Vur would’ve turned out if Prika hadn’t been around while he was growing up. Or if Vernon hadn’t been the one teaching him to hunt, Vur wouldn’t have imprinted a boar and claimed it as his son.”

Grimmy stroked his chin with the tips of his claws. “Don’t let them hear you say that,” he said and raised one eyebrow. “They’ll think you’re attacking them.”

Leila rolled her eyes. “I’m thanking them for making mistakes so we don’t have to,” she said. “Besides, no one else is here. Prika’s gone off to visit her family with Vur, and Sera and Vernon are at Sera’s mother’s place.”

“Floofykins and Snuffles are still here,” Grimmy said.

“That doesn’t matter: They can’t speak.”

Grimmy furrowed his brow. “That’s a fair point. I feel like we’re forgetting someone though.”

Leila tilted her head and glanced at her mate. “Who?”

Grimmy shrugged. A moment later, his eyes widened, and he pointed straight ahead. “It’s hatching!”

Leila’s head swiveled to the side, and her eyes glowed silver. A beam of light descended from the ceiling of the cave, enveloping the egg. Small cracks appeared on its surface as the baby dragon inside the egg wriggled, pressing against the shell. “You can do it,” Leila muttered with her paws clenched. “You can do it.”

“There’s something wrong,” Grimmy said, a deep furrow appearing on his brow. “There’s no way the egg should bulge like that. A baby dragon tries to break out of its egg through one point, but there’s two bulges.”

“Twins?” Leila asked. “From the same egg?”

“Possibly,” Grimmy said. His eyes lit up. “Or our baby has two heads.” After a short pause, he said, “Hey. If our baby has two heads, do we have to give it two names or just one?”

Leila smacked Grimmy’s paw and glared at him.

“What?” Grimmy asked. “It was a serious question.”

“Not as serious as this,” Leila said, turning her attention back onto the egg. The faint cracks had grown even larger, spreading all along the surface of the egg. The golden cloth had fallen to the ground from all the wriggling, and the egg tipped over onto its side. A large eggshell cracked off, and a tiny black dragon’s head poked through. Its eyes were closed as its mouth opened, letting out small cries similar to a baby bird’s. While it moved its head around, its mouth made contact with the egg, and it bit down, tearing off a small piece of shell, eating it. Before Grimmy or Leila could say anything to each other, another dragon’s head, silver in color this time, appeared beside the first one. It also bit down on the egg, eating away at it.

“Now the question is,” Grimmy said, his eyes narrowing, “how many bodies are there?”

Leila dropped onto all fours and crept forward, peaking into the egg. She exhaled a sigh of relief. “There’s two.” She glared at Grimmy. “You almost jinxed it.”

Grimmy shrugged. “What should we name them?”

Leila stared at the two baby dragons eating their way out of the egg. “The black one is a girl, and the silver one is a boy.” Her expression softened as the two baby dragons munched on the last piece of eggshell starting from different sides. The baby silver dragon tugged the shell away when the black one opened its mouth to bite, causing it to bite down on nothing. Moments later, it cried out and flailed its little limbs as it looked around for the eggshell with its eyes closed. The baby silver dragon seemed to have a smug smile on its face as it held the eggshell with its front paws and munched away at it.

Grimmy scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes at the two baby dragons. “How about Ramonester and Gloriandra?”

Leila raised an eyebrow. “They’re perfect,” she said and let out a smile. “Little Ramon and Gloria.” She exhaled through her nostrils, letting a gust of hot air wash over the two baby dragons. The silver light coming from the ceiling died away, and the two baby dragons let out yawns. They had finished eating the eggshells, and their bellies were round and plump, bulging from their first meal.