Wings of Fire 1: The Hidden Secret

~Chapter 11~

Moonflower was sitting in a cave with the Talons of Peace again.

She'd decided to join them, after a week of thinking about them. Thankfully, Darkmagic had joined with her, mainly because Shadow was in it. It turned out that Leopard was the leader of the Talons, a choice that Fierceclaws was or wasn't happy with, depending on what mood she was in.

The cave that she'd woken up in a week ago turned out to be the Talons of Peace camp, for the two weeks, anyway. Every two weeks they moved to another secret location.

"I found another destroyed part of the rainforest," Hoatzin announced. "Same as the one we found Darkmagic and Moonflower at. Claw marks, blood, SandWing venom, plus the fact that all the trees in the area were burnt."

"So we know that it's a SandWing," Leopard said. "Well, we alright suspect that it's Skyfire, the runaway, but this is just more evidence. What other tribes have fire?"

"NightWings," Moonflower answered. "SkyWings, SandWings, and...that's it."

"Well, this Skyfire is a SandWing-SkyWing hybrid," Hoatzin said. "And why would a NightWing destroy part of their home? It's obviously got to be Skyfire."

"If it's not, then it's either a SandWing or SkyWing," Darkmagic added. "Most likely a SandWing, because of the venom. We just need to find the culprit."

"And who he's fighting," Shadow said. She glanced down at her talons again with a worried expression. "There's no way I'm being part of the trap."

"I will," Fierceclaws said boldly. She seemed to have a habit of staying silent of ages and then talking without any warning. Moonflower had managed to not freak out when Fierceclaws did that. "I'm not scared of any SandWing runaway."

"You'd be bad at that," Squelch pointed out. "You'd just jump out and attack whoever goes anywhere near the trap."

Fierceclaws opened her mouth to say something back to Squelch, but after a moment of hesitation, she closed her jaws again. Moonflower had realised that Fierceclaws couldn't be mean to Squelch, even if she badly wanted too.

Moonflower drummed her claws on the ground. "You were right."

Fury looked up. "About what?"

Octopus, who'd been silent ever since Moonflower got their raised his head and blinked at Moonflower. "You mean your vision? How we said that Pyrrhia isn't peaceful anymore?"

"Yeah," Moonflower said. "I've been thinking about it. The destroyed parts of the rainforest, and the fact that the SeaWings will attack the RainWings and NightWings some day."

"They will?" Leopard asked, but Octopus explained everything to them. About Moonflower being Splash, Queen Coral's pet. And meeting him and Elkhorn, and escaping from the Kingdom of the Sea. Everything about Splash's past.

She'd already told Darkmagic and Shadow, so they didn't have the looks one their faces that the others did. Fierceclaws looked furious, but she always looked like that; Leopard looked surprised, just like Fury and Squelch did; and Hoatzin looked sympathetic.

"You have to live six years underwater?" he gasped. "Without knowing who you really were?"

"Until Octopus and Elkhorn saved me," Moonflower said. She smiled at Octopus, and Darkmagic's wounded expression was the result of that. Moonflower twined her tail with his reassuringly and shyly smiled at him.

"Anyway," Leopard barked. "We need to organise patrols."

"I'll take the rainforest," Fierceclaws piped up suddenly. "Squelch can come with me."