Burning sands

Burn grinned as she drove her tail through her sister's corpse one-two-three times. It was so satisfying to see that smug grin finally destroyed as Blister's lifeless body fell to the ground.

It had been easy, trivial even, to locate Blister's base of operations. She'd fled the night kingdom after the fall of Soulseer, hiding in far too predictable a place. Somehow, Blister had lost her edge. This fit Burn's mood perfectly, as she had been wanting to kill something for days now. It was only better that the something had ended up being the biggest pain in her tail for the last twenty years.

As she slid her tail out of the corpse, Burn realized with a happy chuckle that now, there was only one dumb little stumbling block on her path to becoming the true queen of the sand kingdom.

Exiting the cave, Burn dragged Blister's corpse behind her, nodding to her soldiers as she passed them on her way to the cliff. "We go north. To Blaze's little hideout." Burn turned around to survey her soldiers, and then unceramoniously shoved her sister's dead body off the cliff and into the churrning water below.

---

Burn's mood stayed steady as she and her minions flew northward. She did find herself anticipating the comming battle, but there was none of the usual hassle she felt when going on trips like these, bizarrely, Burn even felt a tiny bit relieved. Everything was going her way for once in this moonsforsaken world.

Eventually, they arrived at Blaze's hideout, it wasn't nearly as hard to find as Burn had expected. It was far enough north to make coming here a purposeful desision, but it stuck out like a sore talon amid the rocky landscape. That made finding it so trivial that it wasn't even worth mentioning.

Burn approached the door and had Sandstorm check it, he'd been meant to search for traps or unwanted surprises, but to Burn's amusement, it was completely unsecured and unlocked to boot.

It seemed Blaze hadn't gotten any smarter in the last twenty years.

The group quickly secured the building, taking out the measly two guards that Blaze kept. Burn burst triumphantly into the central room, where she expected she would find Blaze. The room was filled with meaningless tapestries, piles of blankets, a hammoc, but to Burn's annoyance there was no Blaze.

After a cursory scrutiny to be sure that Blaze hadn't miraculously become a master of hide-and-seek, it was confirmed that her idiotic youngest sister was not in her base.

Burn swept out of the base, feeling her mood sharply decline as it became clear that she wouldn't be an only child by the end of the day. She motioned vaguely behind her, "someone destroy that."

---

Scarlet suns

"SCARLET!!!"

The SkyWing queen flinched at the noise, frowing up from her puzzle as a depressed looking SandWing threw herself onto the table. Too bad for Blaze, it was covered with puzzle pieces, and they were generally very easy to fling about haphazardly, which is precisely what happened when the SandWing princess fell onto the table.

Scarlet glared at her and set the piece down that she'd been working on. "What." the queen snapped, "I'm kind of busy right now."

"SCARLET YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"

"Why are you even here."

"SOMEONE BURNED DOWN MY MINI CASTLE AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO HUNT HTEM DOWN!"

"Blaze, if you don't talk like a normal dragon then I'm just going to go back to my puzzle."

Blaze gave the puzzle a confused look as if she hadn't seen it until now, "how can you build puzzles at a time like this?! Scarlet, my tiny castle was burned down! The one by the Ice kingdom! Do you know who lit my house on fire!"

"No, I don't." Scarlet picked up the piece she'd set down and examined it for a moment. "Do you?"

Blaze sighed dramatically, "no, I don't, but you're smart! I bet you know who can know!?"

Scarlet unceremoniously shooed Blaze off the puzzle, "maybe I could figure it out." she said, placing the piece where it belonged. "But what in pyrrhia are you planning on giving me for this favor?"

Blaze waved a talon dismissively, "I'll think of something, but that's not important now, come on, we have to catch him before it's too late!"

Scarlet gave Blaze a look, wondering how the idiot had gained a sense of time, she certainly hadn't had one earlier. "Late for what?"

Blaze gave Scarlet a shocked look, "too late to rebuild my mini castle! I liked that one, it was going to be my getaway after I get the palace back from Burn!"

Scarlet rubbed her temples, "Blaze, I will pay you to go bother someone else with this."

Blaze gave the queen a startled look, "what! I can't ask someone else! No one else has the right amount of beauty to balance my own!"

"Then tough luck, I don't have time to rebuild your summer getaway."

"But-"

"Blaze, I'm trying to finish a puzzle here."

---_---_---_---_---_---

Every vote gives Scarlet another hour without Blaze there!!!

Sorry about the late post, I completely forgot on Friday ;-;