Chapter 21

"How?! I've been watching you dragonets since you hatched!" Lady Kinkijou said, her eyes widening.

"You hatched in the kingdom of mud! How do you have that tail?!" She cried

"Did you ever stop to consider why I look so different from the rest of my tribe? It's quite obvious that my egg was moved in a chaotic flash. I'm not from the Mud Kingdom. Plain cut, isn't it?" Takashi asked, taking scattered steps forward.

Lady Kinkijou took sharp steps back, her ears drooping.

"What is it? Your body language says your afraid, my lady." Takashi said, taking faster steps forwards.

"Stay away from me!" Lady Kinkijou cried, her tail launching her into the air.

"Why? You don't think I'd do anything to hurt you, right?" Takashi asked, his tail coiling like a snake.

"You would! Get away from me before I do--!" Lady Kinkijou cried before being cut off.

"Something you might regret? I've heard that one before. You need to come up with something new." He said, taking off into the air, and after Lady Kinkijou.

"I said stay away from me!" She cried again.

"What?! Are you afraid of the pain of death?!" Takashi yelled, making pace with Lady Kinkijou, as his large wings made it easy to catch up with her.

"Takashi. She's not worth it." Tsuki called.

He quickly stopped, looking back down at Hide, Tsuki, and Tai. Hide glanced over to Tsuki, who had an unpleasant expression.

Takashi began turning around when he felt sharp talons against his tail. It was Tai, who had quickly flown up and grabbed his tail.

"Don't you DARE talk to my Lady like you have. I'll rip this tail clean off of you." Tai snarled.

"Excuse you? Who do you think you are, pest." Takashi asked, flicking his tail out of her grasp.

"I'm the royal egg of the kingdom of sand. You will listen to me." Tai growled.

"I think you've forgotten, you're no Queen of mine. I don't have to listen to a word of your nonsense." Takashi spat, staring dead at Tai, as her ears drooped.

Takashi shot down to the broken tile below him, as Tai looked ashamed.

"We'll come back for the both of them another day. The Lady of this ruined kingdom clearly wants us to prolong her death. Let's just give her what she wants for now." Tsuki whispered to Takashi.

He huffed out a plume of smoke as he began walking away.

Hide quickly trotted up to him, smiling. Tsuki looked back, before flicking her tail towards Tai. She quickly looked at Tsuki, who had a wry smile on her face.

A moment later, the ground began shaking under Tai's talons, as the decaying ruin had too much weight on its tiles.

"Just know this.." Tsuki said, smiling wider.

"You'll never live to be a Queen. The floor beneath you? It's been hit with a gust of wind, with enough power to quicken the decaying process by thirty years. Good luck, dear." Tsuki threatened, taking off after the boys.

Tai quickly launched herself into the air, as the tile shattered, falling into a dark pit beneath her. She looked down, feeling the weight of the air pulling her down into the void of darkness.

Tsuki quickly flew until she reached the boys at the entrance.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry! Tai had a few words to run by me before we left. I lost you guys in her rambling!" Tsuki cried, bowing her head with apologies.

"We're in no rush. But we need a plan to find the pale yellow dragonet from the prophecy. Maybe they'll have an idea where we can find the others." Takashi said, shifting his wings.

"That's right. We were discussing how to get in without being attacked." Hide said.

"Well, maybe we can just say we're visiting because of business from Queen Kastra. Maybe a research panel from her?" Tsuki suggested.

"The Queen might believe that, but how do we get the official research panels from the Kingdom thousands of miles away?" Hide asked.

"Well, I was in the research department for a short while. I took a panel from there, so I could help Arison with the prisoner count. I memorized the whole sheet. I could make a fake for this." Tsuki said.

"That actually sounds perfect. Tsuki, When we find a stable place to hide out, we'll need you to make a copy of the layout printed on that paper." Takashi barked.

Tsuki nodded, a smile on her face.

Hide hopped through the glowing disk, hearing a strange sound follow it. When he looked back, the disk went from glowing pale yellow to glowing sky blue.

Tsuki hopped through, the color staying the same, then Takashi. The disk began glowing a bright vermillion, as a loud voice followed.

"Attention all dragons, and dragonets. We have an intruder. Catch the FlameTail by any means necessary. Bring him to the gladiator ring dead or alive." It called.

"What the hell-?" Takashi blurted.

The disk's color soon faded, a dark gray color consuming it. Takashi stuck his talon on it, expecting it to go through like it had been since they got there, but his talon just jammed into the wall.

"Takashi," Tsuki called.

"Hm." He mumbled as he tried fixing the disk.

"We've got company." Hide finished.

Takashi whipped his head around, seeing mechanical dragons. They were the color of sand, and looking closer, looked just like the sand dragonet, Tai.

"This is just perfect," Takashi remarked.

"Now isn't the time, bud," Tsuki interjected.

Tsuki quickly shot into the air, flying as fast as her wide wings would take her. She soon began circling the grounds, like a hawk, opening her bag, and letting scraps of paper fall from it. As they hit the sandy ground, each one exploded, causing each mechanical dragon they hit, to fritz out, and fall mid-flight.

Hide quickly picked up on Tsuki's strategy, pulled out scraps of paper, and wrote something down in an odd language, with a charcoal stick. Hide quickly threw them out in a carefully placed position, as they stuck to the sand. Within a few seconds, a pastel yellow barrier was created, blocking all sorts of attacks.

Takashi stood, unable to move in shock. He took a moment to inspect the dragons charging toward the barrier. They seemed to have a weak spot on their backs. One that was puffing out smoke and sand. An exhaust port. Takashi launched himself out of the shield keeping him and Hide safe, and began shooting plumes of flame at the port, then throwing in some black rock, that stopped the fire from escaping. The robot dragon Takashi had tested on quickly fell into the sand. He focused on the other robots Tsuki's bomb papers had missed. He quickly took one out after another.

He heard heavy wingbeats behind him and saw the Prussian blue dragon shoot past him, following Takashi's movements. He shot a few bright blue plumes of fire, then threw in the same black rocks. He followed Takashi's movements to a T.

After a few minutes, Tsuki flew back down, landing in the sand, brushing some aside with her tail. Hide landed in front of her, and Takashi ever so gracefully fell nose-first into the sand, going sliding a few feet down.

"Pfft- Takashi you okay?" Hide called.

He quickly got up, sneezing out the sand up his nose.

"Yep, never better." He remarked.

He quickly hovered over, making sure to watch his speed.

"Why fly? You can't walk in sand?" Tsuki asked.

"Not even a little bit. My talons are shaped differently than yours. Mine aren't webbed." Takashi explained.

Tsuki smiled, before facing the ruins, as the shield was fading away.

"What was with that place? It completely cut access off of the inside, didn't it?" She quizzed.

"Yep. Nice work with the paper though." Takashi complimented, smiling.

"The Kingdom of Night and Moon specialize in talismans and enchantments. It's one of the kingdom's only good qualities. Depending on where you grow up, depends on what talismans you learn, and how well they can work in a fight like this one. Hide had to study all kinds of talismans, and I studied bomb-type talismans. Ones that are long-range, in other words. " Tsuki explained.

"Well, that explains why I don't get a single thing Hide was writing down. It's in the moon Kingdoms script isn't it?" Takashi asked with half-lidded eyes.

"Yep." Hide replied.