Through Flames and Debris (story below the cut)
(Previous part here)
(First part here)
Blizzard, acting on pure impulse, ran straight into the burning armory! She didn’t care that she was being abhorrently reckless, she didn’t even really think about her mysterious savior for more than a moment, if there was even a slim chance that her guardian was alive, then she was not going to run and hide while he died in vain.
Inside, the flames blazed through the floor, shelves, and even managed to reach up and ignite the wooden support beams for the second floor. The smoke stung at her eyes and threatened to suffocate the Icewing should she inhale too much. Audible cracking noises could be heard over the crackle of the flames; the second floor was going to collapse soon!
Did this deter the dragonet? Not a chance.
Even if she could only walk on three of her legs, she persevered through the suffocating smoke and blistering heat, spraying her ice breath whenever she could to weaken the flames and cut a path through the destruction. Her neck craned downward to keep her head as low as possible while remaining upright so she could maneuver around swiftly while inhaling as little smoke as possible.
Finally, she could see who she came for, as from behind the flames and projected onto the back wall of the armory she could see the shadow of a dragon that had been impaled by around a dozen spears!
Blizzard saw this horrific imagery, but still she pressed on, as she could also see one of the dragon's wings flapping in desperation.
The hot stone floor burned at her talons as she traversed through the flaming debris of her home, her eyes watering from the irritating smoke, and her frost breath began to fail as her body began to overheat. The top floor of the building fell an inch as one of the central beams collapsed from its share of the weight.
There she could finally see her guardian, alive, but trapped!
Apparently that red Hivewing didn't kill him but rather opted to pin him to the stone floor as the armory burned around him. He was almost completely helpless, save for one thing; his assailant didn't do a very good job at pinning his wings. Plateau may not have been able to lift himself off the ground, but what he was doing was fanning the flames away from himself while he gnawed at the spears that locked him into place.
"Plateau!", Blizzard barely coughed out, the smoke wreaking havoc upon her lungs.
The Sandwing's face portrayed emotions of shock and horror at the sound of her voice. He had hoped she would have been in the Ice Kingdom by now, far away from this battle, yet she was here, risking her precious life for him.
"BLIZZARD?!?" Plateau shrieked.
The Icewing could only cough in response, as she couldn't even begin to find the right words now, nor did she have the spare breath to utter them.
She sprinted towards her target and began to pull at one of the spears lodging her guardian's neck in place.
The Red Hivewing must've possessed an unnatural amount of strength to pierce stone with a spear, and removing even a single one proved to be an incredibly difficult task.
"Wait," the Sandwing said, "My arm, free my arm first!"
Without hesitation, Blizzard switched spears and began to pull at one of the spears pinning Plateau's right arm with all her might.
Her left arm pulled while her hind legs and tail pushed against the hot floor.
POW!
A small explosion went off to the right side of the armory, launching burning splinters of wood everywhere and igniting the remaining support beams. The rear most support beam began to falter under the weight of its load, creaking loudly above the roar of the flames.
"You need to go now; this whole place is crumbling down!" Plateau ordered.
"NO! I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU!!!" screamed the Icewing in a horrifically hoarse voice as she spread her wings and began to flap for that extra amount of pull.
Her wing beats fanned the flames and caused the fire to grow even wilder, but she could feel the spear wriggling loose.
She bit into the spear's shaft for that extra last bit of grip, and finally she and the spear shot out backwards out of the floor.
Her impact against the stone floor had knocked the wind out of her and forced her to inhale a ton of smoke.
The hot floor against her back held quite the unpleasant sensation, but it didn't deter her from noticing that Plateau's right arm was now free and pulling at one of the spears pinning his other arm.
All the smoke she had been breathing had given Blizzard a splitting headache and made it difficult to stay awake, but she would not give up, not on him.
She rolled back onto her talons and stumbled back towards the trapped Sandwing, ready to pull again with all her might, this time assisted by her guardian.
She found this spear to be easier to remove than the first one, partially due to her now knowing how much strength it took to remove the first one, and partially due to the fact that Plateau was now helping her.
Now that both of the Sandwing's arms were free, he was now able to dislodge the spears around his neck while Blizzard went to unlodge the pairs holding his hindlegs in place.
It was at that point that she noticed how his tail had been dislocated in the middle and was contorted into an unnaturally acute angle towards the left side.
The sight unnerved the young dragon, and she swore that those thieves will pay for what they did, one way or another.
Finally, Plateau was freed when both he and Blizzard removed one of the spears pinning his tail, and not a moment too soon!
The rear most support pillars had failed with audible cracks, causing the back end of the second floor came crumbling down! The only thing that had temporarily stopped the dragon pair from being crushed by the entire second floor was a stone shelf carved outward from the wall, but that wouldn't last long!
When it went, the momentum from the collapsing back side would cause the entire second floor to come crashing down with it!
This time, Plateau didn't even bother telling Blizzard to run, he just slid her on his back and ran towards the exit!
Cracking could be heard as that stone shelf began to buckle under the weight of the entire second floor, barely audible over the middle support pillars creaking as well as the flames roaring around the sides of the armory.
A piece of burning shelf stood between the dragons and the exit, but Plateau simply leapt over it as there was no time left to spare, slipping into a roll on the snowy ground outside. Blizzard was launched from his back and slid on her belly a few feet away from him.
There wasn't a moment for them to catch their breath, for after they had cleared the doorway, a loud crumble could be heard erupting from the armory. The second floor collapsed entirely on top of the first floor, crushing everything still inside into ash. Flames erupted from the doorway in one last desperate attempt to catch the pair but ultimately died out before they could reach them.
Whatever was in the armory had been destroyed, a small solace for the Sandwing as that meant that the thieves would not be able to salvage anything from in there.
The Sandwing turned to his daughter, who looking worse for wear. She had claw marks on her chest, her talons had been burned, and she was still coughing from the smoke. She tried to tell him something, but her voice had been lost, and all she could do was wheeze. An impossible choice laid in front of him, He could either abandon his post with his daughter or fend off the intruders to prevent them from getting the last thing they might value from this place.
Indeed, there was one more thing the Sandwing knew of that any dragon who wished ill would desire, and it was the whole reason this armory even existed atop this barren cliff. Connected to the wall of the main armory was a green house, which was built more like an iron prison cell with glass paneling to prevent a dragon from breaking in. The environment in there had been cultivated to grow one of the most dangerous plants in all of Pyrrhia, Dragonflame cacti. Indeed, this armory had been used to grow these dangerous cacti and process them into bang powder, but even in its raw state they were still deadly.
Unfortunately for the pair, there were two dragons who had been fighting the whole time while they were in that flaming building, the strange Skywing and mysterious Rainwing, and they just noticed them in the snow. The Skywing shouted something in his unknown language, and from beyond the cliff face his two hivewing guards emerged, and they were heading straight for the weakened pair.