Zoltar thought his heart would pound right out of his chest as he was lead down the narrow corridor towards the main palace hall. His wings had been pinned down again and his paws had been shackled to one another, allowing only small movements.
The image of Emerald’s cold stare lingering on him as he left the room was burned into his mind. It was a look he hadn’t seen before. It was as though she’d been assessing the situation, had come to a conclusion and was debating on whether or not she should take action. What the action was, he didn’t know.
He thought for a moment about her fangs and how much damage they could do if she decided to use the poison laced within them.
Zoltar shook his head. She wouldn’t do that. She wasn’t like Shiraku. She knew the consequences that would follow.
Still, surely the Wind Talons knew about her poison? Why hadn’t they put a band around her mouth just encase she did decide to lash out? They’d put one around his, until they’d learned that it was pointless, since he no longer had the ability to breath fire.
‘It doesn’t really matter right now,’ Zoltar thought, his stomach clinching into knots as they entered the main hallway. It wasn’t really the biggest concern facing him.
Up ahead was the Queen’s throne room, the wooden doors shut tight while two Wind Talon guards stood stationed outside them.
As they approached, Zoltar noticed that the older of the two guards was the same one that had given them dinner the night before, the white scar on his face flashing like a beacon against the dark cobalt scales.
“Morning Zereen,” Zoltar’s guard said cheerfully, with a slight flap of the wing.
The scarred Wind Talon scowled and exchanged a look with the other guard, who Zoltar now recognized as Delareth from the day before.
“The Queen has been waiting for you,” Zereen said with an impatient huff, his tail bristling.
“Oh, it hasn’t been that long. I was only gone for a few minutes,” the Wind Talon said, waving his paw as though it were nothing.
It was Delareth’s turn to grit his teeth, “Just get in there Oren. I don’t know why she allowed you to become a palace guard.”
With that the two Wind Talons opened the doors, revealing a sun dappled throne room.
Inside, bent over a rock platform to the far left of the room, were two dragons. One was the Queen, her face creased with thought as she studied the scroll laid out in front of her.
She looked up when the groan of the door opening pierced the still silence of the room. Her golden eyes met with Zoltar’s for a moment before they flashed over to Oren next to him.
The other dragon, Zoltar didn’t recognize as his face and wings were shrouded in the shadows cast by the flowering ivy blooming overhead.
“Where have you been? I told you to get him half an hour ago,” the Queen hissed, pointing at Zoltar, “Voltron doesn’t have time for your dillydallies.”
“I got him here, didn’t I?” Oren said, shrugging his wings as he proceeded to unlock some of the chains around Zoltar paws.
The Queen sighed, running her paw over her horns in an exasperated manner, “Never mind.”
She turned towards the other dragon, who Zoltar presumed was Voltron. Her eye caught his and he grunted, flexing the silver spines along his back before he turned to face Zoltar for the first time. His eyes flashed with a golden light and as he stepped into the light, Zoltar could see the yellow bolts running along his wings.
“Another Lighting Talon,” Zoltar gasped under his breath.
“Aahha,” Oren whispered with a cheeky smile as he unlocked the last of the chains.
Zoltar was almost too preoccupied staring at the two Lighting Talons in front of him to hear Oren, but he did and flashed the Wind Talon a questioning glance.
Oren didn’t seem to catch the look, instead he stood back up, strutted over to a corner and sat down, his wings folded close to his sides as he watched on eagerly.
Zoltar looked at the Wind Talon and imagined the look of complete confusion on his face. What was he doing?
“Oh for three moons sake,” the Queen barked, throwing her paws in the air, “You’re dismissed Oren. This is the part where you leave, not take a seat and watch the proceedings.”
Oren flared his wings, putting on an obviously dramatized hurt face as he dragged himself towards the door.
Zoltar caught Voltron roll his eyes as he watched the young Wind Talon leave the room.
“Maybe this was a mistake,” the Queen mumbled under her breath.
Voltron gave the Queen a look, which she scowled at before he turned to face Zoltar again.
“So you’re Zoltar,” he rumbled, “Lezeeru told me about you and your little proposal over the Lightning Diamond.” His eyes flashed for a second to the slab where the scroll lay.
Zoltar followed his gaze and saw that the jewel was resting in a small glass case on the table, its center pulsing with new found light.
“We have decided to … accept your offer,” Voltron continued, his tail sweeping over the marble as he walked over to Lezeeru, “But first, we need to check a few things. You see, the idea of pairing up with another tribe is bad enough for our image, but to side with an Ice Talon, even if she isn’t with Shiler, is almost unthinkable.”
Zoltar's heart dropped. They still didn't want to accept Felistia, even with the show of the Lightning Diamond. It was just too hard to trust a dragon from an enemy tribe. Surely if they met her though, if the listened to why she was here?
“I understand that Sir, but I swear Felistia is on your side as are others in her tribe. She would tell you herself about the Wings of Freedom and how they want to stop the war if you let her. She is trust worthy.” Zoltar urged, looked beseechingly at the Queen. She'd seen the Lighting Diamond. She'd heard what he'd had to say. She must know that he wasn't lying about Felistia.
Lezeeru took a deep breath, her wings almost glowing in the sunlight filtering down from the ceiling, “I want to believe that, Zoltar, and you have shown me that you are trustworthy, at least for the moment, but Felistia needs to earn that for herself. I can't take it just on your words. That is why I brought you here this morning.”
She nodded at Voltron, “Bring her in.”
Voltron turned to look at the back of the room and rattled his tail spikes, the spines bristling in a loud chattering whine.
The clang of armour banging against scales sounded from a side door that Zoltar hadn’t noticed before. It was right at the back of the room, practicly hiden from view by the throne.
Two Wind Talon guards walked through the door, holding spears and grasping two lengths of chains. They were followed by an Ice Talon with her paws shackled and clamps over her wings and jaws.
Zoltar didn’t recognize her at first, but when she looked up and his eyes met with those burning yellow eyes, he drew in a sharp breath. It was Felistia.
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
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Original Text:
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125,005 Literary Works • 672,795 Reviews
SO IT *WAS* ANOTHER LIGHTNING DRAGON
omg how many of them do they have. this tribe must be STACKED. It's such a shame they rely on the lightning diamond! Having two legendary dragons must be such an awesome carry for their tribe, but even the strongest dragons have their weaknesses. And the lightning dragons are tied down by a diamond.
Also LOL Oren is such a fun addition to your cast. He's so goofy, I kinda wanted to picture him as really squirrely. Like when he walked over to the corner of the room to watch the meeting (isntead of leaving), I imagined him scuffling over there like a squirrel, a skittish dragon with so much adrenaline and energy that he doesn't know what to do with it all, you know!? I had fun with that image.
I'm pretty stoked we're getting more wind talon introductions. I'm guessing these will be recurring wind talon guards throughout this third part, but I definitely think considering the fairly friendly nature of this tribe and the potential for becoming allies, introducing us to recurring wind talon characters is a really good idea.
I totally picked up on Voltron calling the queen by name. I trust Zoltar will keep calling her by her titles, being queen and all, but I do wonder what Voltron's relationship with the queen is like! Are they close friends? Is he Prince Consort even?! Very interesting!
Okay, the MEAT of this chapter. We're getting some insight into what Voltron and the queen were discussing now with regards to Zoltar's offer. I think we kinda expected the queen to be willing to work with Zoltar and be unwilling to work with Felistia, so none of that is really a surprise to me. It's pretty consistent with what we know about them. What's really interesting is how Voltron delivered that point:
Their image! So it'll look bad if the wind talons are spotted working alongside shadow talons. (Let alone Shiraku and Emerald, if they're going to help out too!) This really is telling about the state of dragon relations. It's definitely been mentioned several times before that dragon tribes remain isolated from each other and don't really do anything with each other. But this is a pretty harsh perspective on the idea that we haven't seen yet. So the state of dragon relations is really worse than I had thought. D: The wind talons here are showing us how detestable they find non-wind dragons, so the fact they're willing to appease Zoltar at all is amazing. Why they wouldn't keep Shiraku and Emerald down in the dungeons is also amazing. It's like... the wind talons want to be friendly, but they're really struggling with this culture bias against foreigners at the same time. So it's all very strange how it adds up, but I feel like things will make more sense as we learn more about the wind talon culture.
I wonder what they're going to have Felistia do, though, to prove she's trustworthy. Clearly, they have some ideas for her to prove her friendliness and willingness to work together. I half expect(ed) they bring proof of that rebel group, maybe Felistia's brother and/or a few others. But that's also really dangerous, so maybe not. Maybe Felistia will end up accompanying some wind talons on some spy missions or whatever against other ice talons. ...Or maybe it's just a Q&A. xD I DUNNO! I look forward to reading the next chapter!
Thank you for another great review. I'm so happy you liked Oren's character.
I've decided that I need to make the guards\soldiers in my story less like pieces moving the plot along and more like real character that have a story. I need to go back and edit that in the previous books.
That's an awesome idea!! It helps SO much to make even minor characters feel much more real, and your main cast will even interact with those characters so much easier too. It'll also just be a lot of fun because character building is so much fun.
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm back.
First Impression: Well...what can I say...another beautiful chapter with our amazing characters. The Emerald thing was...interesting...some details that I didn't even notice but now that you mention them...so many things to think about and of course this Voltron fellow. It looks like Chapter 11 is going to be quite amazing with the stuff that you've set up in this one.
Anyway let's get right to it,
I guess they want to be extra careful when meeting the queen. Can't be too trusting...
Definitely lingering on us too...that does not sound like very nice foreshadowing.
Oooh...I literally forgot that little detail. Really nice to see it being properly mentioned here.
Oooh so far I am loving your little quest to make the guards more realistic and relatable instead of just blank slates that do guard duty.
Ooh a short description but still doing a wonderful job with setting up that scene.
Okay I had to burst out laughing at Voltron, I'll admit. That sounds like a transformer.
Okay that was kind of rude but then I guess its official business or something...unless this is all just some inside joke judging by the face and then the eye roll.
Oooh...is that the Queen's name? Now that sounds pretty cool.
Well fair point there. You can never be too careful in war situations. Good on you for making sure to mention all of that and not cut straight to them agreeing.
Again seems really fair. I'm just really loving your take on this whole thing. Its just awesome to see that this is the sort of hurdles they cross. Its so much more effective than if the queen was just a straight up evil person or straight up said yes to everything.
That should be practically hidden.
Yayy...she's going to be back in the next chapter!! *does happy dance*
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall I've liked where you've taken this plot. It looks like it'll be hitting that midpoint quite soon, I think we are approaching a point where this little slower paced bit will give away to some action. I can't wait to see Felistia again. As always waiting patiently for more.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Thank you again for another great review. I'll start working on the next chapter as soon as I can.
This book is going to be a bit slower than the others since I wanted to take a step or two in the direction of showing off another tribes culture and to build the world and friendship between the characters.
You're Welcome!!
Always nice to see that in a story.
Ahh...that sounds good