Lavender wanted to stop and spin around and run the other way, but there were three dragons chasing after them, and besides, Salamander didn't look as though she were slowing down, oh no, she was speeding up and ducking her head down as though she were a charging bull. Lavender definitely didn't want to try stopping to take on three fully gown SandWings, ones who looked to be the creepiest dragons in all of Pyrrha!

They probably watch other dragons sleep like a monster in the shadows, OR! They stalk random dragon down the streets.

She shook her head as she kept up just behind Salamander as they didn't stray from their direction. The SandWing ahead of them must've expected them to stop because of her presence, but no, instead they ran straight towards them.

The SandWing's eyes widened as she ducked down low to the sand, giving Lavender and Salamander the chance to leap over her and out of the darker area of the village. As soon as the two of them felt the warmth of actual sunlight beam down upon their scales, Salamander's wings shot open, showing off the glittering star like pattern within them. Lavender shot out her starry wings as well and the two took off into the dry air of the desert.

Why am I still following her? Her mind buzzed as the two hybrids flew down the streets, gaining speed before shooting off above the huts and stalls, their chasers still hot on their tails, all four of them. I could just fly back to the palace and get help! Yeah, that's a way better plan than following a CRIMINAL WHOS BEING HUNTED!

She grit her teeth as she looked off towards the palace that didn't look to be getting any closer, instead, it was getting father away. She's leading us away from the palace!

"Where are we going?! Why aren't we going to the palace!?"

"Do you really want to go there right now?" Salamander shot back to Lavender as they kept flying, Lavender keeping close to the larger dragon she was following, well, more like being FORCED to follow. Lavender didn't want to be following her but she didn't really have much of a choice in the water with four dragons chasing after them with murder eyes.

"Preferably, YES!"

"Well sorry to pop your dream bubble princess, but thats not the best place for wanted dragons. You'll be thrown in a cell before you can think 'Cooked Lizard'." The Hybrid smirked, why was she smirking?! They were being chased by dragons who wanted to catch them, and most likely kill them, which Lavender did not feel like having done today thank you very much.

"I'm not a wanted dragon!" She spat.

"Well now you are! Also, duck."

"What?"

Lavender felt heat start to swell at her tail so she ducked her head as flames shot above her head, her pink eyes wide. They're going to kill me! She screamed in her head as she pushed herself to fly faster. She then noticed that Salamander had spun around to face their perusers, her mouth opening before fire blasted out and managed to directly hit one of the for SandWing's in their face. They let out a roar of pain before they stopped giving chase to focus more on the burning pain across their face as they scraped at their face with their talons.

I thought I was done with evil dragons! Rattlesnake be dammed I thought she was a try evil dragon! But theses ones are next! She thought as she kept flying, that's all she could do. She couldn't breath fire like a NightWing or shoot venom like a RainWing, she could only read the kinds of a similar dragon at a time, and at this point in time, she felt helpless. Lavender never liked to feel helpless, it felt like a sinking feeling in her chest as though the world had opened up below her and was trying to swallow her whole. She hated feeling helpless, feeling as though she could do nothin but watch.

That's all she could really do right now, watch and fly, fly fast to keep safe. She kept following Salamander as the palace kept growing father and farther away behind them, but their pursuers didn't stray far behind them, other than the one that got blasted in the face with fire. The desert continued to flash by below them like a sea of sand.

"You've got no where to go!" Shouted one of their pursuers, his voice sounding like the bellow of a crocodile with its low pitch.

"Wanna bet camel face?" Lavender shot back without hesitation. She could see the smile on Salamander's face from where she was a little bit below her.

As they flew, the wind rushing past their faces, Lavender could see the mountains that lead into the Sky Kingdom up ahead, still far off in the distance but they were getting closer by the minute. This must be Salamander's plan, to lose them in the mountains! But then Lavender would be suck with her if they went somewhere that she didn't recognize.

Oh three moons, please let me be able to get away from this bad luck attracter known as a dragon, she thought.

"How well do you fight kid?" Salamander's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Once again, NOT A KID." She hissed.

"Answer the question."

"I can fight fine, but, I've never really had to fight someone before, not really." She admitted. The only time she ever had to fight a dragon was a year ago when IceWing's attacked her village when she, Shadowsplitter, Rattlesnake, Funnel and Scorpion were passing through. An IceWing had tried to attack her and Funnel, but Lavender threatened to spit her acidic venom in her face, which she really couldn't do but she wouldn't tell them that, and it managed to scare them off and give them enough time to escape.

"Good enough for me."

"What are yo-"

Lavender got her answer as the mountains were getting closer in view. Salamander spun around and with a powerful push of her wings, she shot towards one of their chasers, catching them by surprise as she slammed into two of them, slowing them down and distracting them while the third shot past and was still after Lavender.

Ohhh thats what's she doing, she was forced out of her thoughts as she felt talons wrap around the tip of her tail and yank her back. She saw that the third SandWing Salamander didn't tackle had managed to grab a hold of her with his talons, his claws sinking into her scales, which HURT. She spun around as she was yanked back, facing the other dragon and giving the angriest snarl she could manage, flashing her fangs which were basically just for show rather than actually doing anything, her frills fanning it as far as they could go and rattling like a snakes tail.

She saw the SandWing brace himself to be squirted in he face with horrible scale melting acidic venom, but when nothing came, he snarled and tugged Lavender closer, wrapping his talons around her to restrict her movements.

"If that filthy excuse of a dragon was right about you being her niece, then you'll be useful." He spat.

She recognized his voice. He was the male SandWing gang member of The Barbed Cobras that had cornered her in an alley a few days ago! Oh once I get my claws on Salamander I'll become an evil dragon! She roared in her mind as she struggled.

Lavender snarled, wishing she could do something! She felt helpless still and the feeling kept sinking into her, making her feel like a hollow shell like those she'd find along the shore whenever she'd get the chance to visit Sapphire by the SeaWing Summer palace or the village along the edge of the SeaWing kingdom along the shore. But back to the struggle at talon, SHE COULDN'T DO ANYTHING. She kept struggling but the SandWing's strong forearms were wrapped around her as he started to try and fly away back towards the Sand Kingdom while Lavender looked to be beating the three moons out of the two other gang members while spitting insults at their faces.

As she's struggling she managed to get one of her arms free and her body seemed to move on its own as her talons reached up to her attempted captors face, she gripped above his right eye and sunk her talons into his scales. She heard him roar above her and try shaking her arm off of him, but that made her arm slip, dragging her talons down his face and over his eye, making his roars of pain turn into screams as he let go of her. Her wings shot out to catch her as her talons unlatched themselves from his face.

Lavender spun around in time to see him clutch his bleeding face, the right side becoming more bloodied by the minute. My talons did that, she felt her body shiver even though they were still within the Sand Kingdom with the warm sand below them. She looked at her bloodied talons, her right forearm had the SandWing's blood slowly dripping down her arm.

I don't physically hurt other dragons, she tried to tell herself but her mind kept replaying what just happened inside her head, her talons sinking into his scales, tearing his flesh and feeling the warm scarlet liquid glow from his face and onto her talons like glittering red paint that looked to sparkle in the sunlight like sparkling water, but this water gave a dragon life. She was pulled from her thoughts once more as Salamander flew over to her, blood on her talons.

"Let's get going before more show up, common." She didn't even think about it before she followed after Salamander. She felt like a criminal now. Sure, dragons hurt other dragons, but she didn't want to be one of those dragons. She wanted to stop evil like she did with Rattlesnake. She didn't want to cause it.

No, I'm not going to turn evil just by possibly, no, definitely, blinding a dragon in one of his eyes. No, it was self defence. Shadow taught me that, so it's not bad, she tried to reassure herself mentally as the pair flew closer to the SkyWing mountains that reached up like claws into the sky, ready to tear apart anything within its reach.

Like you did with that SandWing's face.

No! It was self defence! She shook her head with a frown.

Sure.

Oh shut up! She told herself, her frown now turning into a scowl.

-~-~-~-~-~-

"Ow!"

"Hold still and it won't hurt for so long."

"Lair!"

Lavender winced more as she felt Salamander working on Lavender's tail. Turns out that SandWing grabbed her rather good and it hadn't stopped bleeding yet since they flew into the mountains and found a forest to shelter in with a river running through it like a snake slithering across the mountains. Lavender's body felt sore from all the flying and running, she was glad for a break but now she was in the middle of the Sky Kingdom mountains with no idea where in the kingdom she was.

"Ever since the moment I met you." She grumbled.

"It wasn't the exact moment you met me, maybe, a ew minutes afterwards." Salamander shrugged, her smile never seeming to leave her spotted NightWing like face.

"Still, my point proven."

"Sure, whatever you say kid."

"Once again, not a-"

"-Kid, I've heard." Salamander let go of the purple hybrids tail, letting it softly drop onto the soft grass by the river that cushioned them. "How old did you say you were again?"

"Seven."

"Eight."

"What?"

"I'm eight, just giving you my age because....eh don't really have a reason but it's not useful information so doesn't matter." Salamander shrugged with her broad shoulder. Lavender noticed she had SandWing scales on her arms, well, her shoulders. She had the first two rows of SandWing scales that then sharply turned into the small circular NightWing scales found all over their bodies much like SeaWing's, SkyWing's and RainWings. She was fairly sure MudWing's had the same small scales on their face, but she didn't know for sure. Down the hybrids forearm were NightWing scales that stripped across the fronts of her arms and around her talons.

"You like what you see?"

"What?" She snapped out of her thoughts with a shake of her frills.

"You were staring."

"No I wasn't!"

"I know I'm gorgeous, but you don't have to hide it sweetie. Go on, I could pose if you'd like."

"Nooooo thank you." Lavender snorted.

"Oh come on, which pose would you like?"

"One wth you flying far away from me so I can leave and we never meet again."

"Sorry, can't do that."

"And why not?" She demanded with a huff.

"Because you're stuck with me now honey."

"Oh says who?" She groaned as she stood herself up and dripped her talons into the cold water. It felt refreshing as she started to wash away the dried blood on her right arm from when she lashed out at that SandWing's face. By now she'd convinced herself that it was self defence. He attacked her first, not the other way around so she wasn't a bad dragon. Dragons got hurt all the time, not always by other dragons but sometimes.

"Says me, and all the dragons who'll be after you now."

"Oh great, just lovely, peachy!"

"Now don't get to excited, you don't want to be up all night thinking about spending your time with me." Salamander smirked with a wink.

"I definitely won't, you hardly could stay in my head even if you wanted to."

"Ouch, you wound me."

"Dry your tears. You'll live," she shot back. "Probably."

Night. I can sneak away then! The thought made her heart pound in her chest as her wings twitched.

All I'll be thinking about is the best time to sneak away and get back to the SandWing Palace. I do not want to go who knows where with some thief.

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This chapter is longer than the last few which I'm glad I was able to do since the last chapters have been a little short.

Chapter nine might take a bit to complete but hopefully it won't take to long!

- MindlessTyper