Wings of Honor: Tales of Pyrrhia

Chapter 4: Scavengers

Me and Qibli soared around the area I saw. Despite my best efforts, the rest of my old Jade winglet joined me. Kinkajou and Turtle flew beside me, while Winter flew up ahead.
"What do you think they'll be like? If they're scavengers, do you think they'll be different? How different?"
Even though I couldn't read her thoughts anymore from the skyfire, Kinkajou still said what was on her mind.
"Gee, Kinkajou, They're in a prophecy, don't you think they'll be different?" Turtle refuted. He wasn't partial to her talking his ear off either.
"I know! I can't wait to meet them. I love Scavengers. They're so tiny and cute, and fluffy, and Starflight says we need to learn more about them."
Here she goes again.
I tuned out her voice a bit, focusing on the ground. It all looked the same, as it should look. It was getting late, and it would be wise to head back to Jade Mountain.
But... something was here. I felt something, something small but... significant. I couldn't hone in on it. Sometimes I wished I had asked Darkstaker to teach me some of these things before... I lost him. But there are things about even my own powers I had to learn on my own. I kept flying, nothing so far.
"Wait! What's that?"
I turned to Qibli, who banked suddenly. I looked at Kinkajou, who lit up in yellow and pink, sweeping down to follow him. As the rest of us followed him down, I noticed something in the water. It was not like anything I've seen before. It looked like a dragon had crashed here, but what lay in the sand was no dragon.
"Let's go down and take a look!" Qibli led.
I followed everyone down and landed on the beach. Winter finally noticed we had left him, and circled down to land with us. We stared confusingly at the strange structure.
"What do you think this is?" Asked the RainWing.
"I don't know. I've never seen or read anything like this." Qibli commented.
"It'll be easier to investigate it if we drag it onto the beach. Don't you think?" Winter said, as he landed next to Qibli.
That actually sounded like a good idea.
"Come on Moon. Help me."
The four of us grabbed a part with our teeth, dragging the strange thing onto the shore. Now we could get a better look at it.
It was big, way larger than us. Two things jutted out from it, the shape reminded me of our wings. But... could this thing fly? Not how it was now, most definitely. It was a dark green, with silver stars on it further down. Turtle climbed onto one of the long, flat things sticking out, poking at a thing that stuck out from the rest of the shape. He nudged it, and the sticks connected to it spun around.
"I wonder what this used to be?" He asked.
Qibli approached where Turtle was, looking the thing over, and spinning it as well. Then he got closer, looking at the sticks that spun.
"Actually... I think this used to power... whatever this was. I think it could fly."
"Exactly what I thought!" We smiled at each other.
"Yeah, look at these, they look like wings! And these smaller things back here, like our tails!" Qibli was super excited now. "And the holes, they are way too small to be for a dragon. Do you know what this means!" Qibli exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"Wait." Turtle began to say. "Are you saying that this thing was made by Scavengers?"
Qibli couldn't hold back his expression. "YES! That's what it looks like! Three moons, Moon you were right! Starflight will want to see this! Oh, and maybe Webs too! Heck, all the dragons will want to check this out!"
"Hold up Qibli. We don't know if the scavengers who were in this thing even survived the crash. We should still go and find them."
Winter was right, and I saw some light drain from his eyes.
"You're right. We should go looking for them."
"Hey, guys?"
"But where could they have gone? I mean, why would they leave?"
"Guys?"
"No, they wouldn't have gone far, even if they had left." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kinkajou take off her skyfire stone and place it on the ground.
MOON! Her voice screamed out in my mind, startling me.
Sorry. But I think I found something.
I went to where the RainWing was standing. And there, I saw what she saw.
"Tracks. Small tracks." I mumbled.
"Like from a Scavenger!" Oh! We're on the right track!
I smiled at her excitement, and then she remembered to put her stone around her again. We followed the tracks further, into the forest. There was obviously a trail here, like they had traveled over this same place several times. Kinkajou followed closely behind me, probably excitedly chattering away in her mind. The tracks got harder to see as night approached, but I followed them as best I could.
Suddenly, I heard a stick crack. I froze, crouching down, hoping I could blend into the dim light. Kinkajou saw me, turning to camouflage behind me. I looked ahead, where the sound was. I saw movement, but I couldn't make it out. Something was there, and it smelled like a scavenger, but I didn't know if it was a lone, lost scavenger, or something totally else. Then I remembered the prophecy: