[OLD] Fear The Whispers - Book 1 [Wings of Fire Fanfiction]

Chapter Seven - Feelings

Essence sat on her bed, eyes drooping. Scorpion had left shortly after he had calmed her down a couple of hours ago, but she could still feel her mind whirling. Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes and explored the future, not asleep but not really awake either.

I am walking down the hall. Now I'm in a room. Are those bandages? Tundra? And a Rainwing...

Roused by curiosity, Essence stood and followed the path from her dreams, turn for turn, keeping her claw steps as quiet as possible. She eventually found herself in front of a curtain made of dried palm fronds. A stone sign was hung next to the entrance with the word "Infirmary" scrawled over it. Essence pushed the leaves aside and stepped in.

The nurses' office was spacious, and was located near the peak of the mountain. Large leaf-covered windows covered the ceiling, and an orange sunset could be seen clearly. Shelves wrapped around the chamber laden with medical goods. Below them were several beds, most of which were empty. Essence opened her mind and quickly found the one she was looking for, a stone ledge with several blankets piled on it.

"Hey, Tundra."

The blankets rustled aside to reveal a tired-looking Icewing with a sky blue scarf. Tundra grinned groggily when he saw Essence, rubbing his eyes. "Wazzup?"

"I just wanted to check up on you. How's your wing feeling?"

Tundra looked down at his left-wing, which was heavily bandaged and propped up with several pillows. "Well, it sucks not being in my own cave. But I'm fine, really. See?"

Tundra proceeded to flex his wing awkwardly. Although his face didn't show it, Essence could tell it was painful.

"Tundra?" a new voice called. "I hope you're not straining your wing."

Essence turned to see a bright Rainwing walking up to Tundra's bed. Kinkajou.

Tundra gave a whooshing sigh. "No, I'm not."

"Good." Kinkajou turned toward Essence, and lit up slightly. "Oh, you must be Moon and Qibli's daughter! Oh... Essence, was it?"

Essence nodded and gave a polite smile. "Uh, yeah. Nice to see you again!"

"How are your parents?"

Essence noticed a small vine necklace wrapped around Kinkajou's neck with a wooden tag on it that read "Medic". I guess she takes care of everyone here. "They're doing pretty good.."

The nurse smiled, but a cloud seemed to build up in her mind. "Well, visiting time is over now. If you like, you can visit Tundra again when the sun comes up." Kinkajou walked Essence toward the entrance, pushing through the palm curtain. Essence couldn't tell exactly what was going on inside the Rainwing's head, but she thought she could trace a thread of guilt.

"Sorry, I have to talk here. But Tundra doesn't like it when I talk about his injury."

"Injury?" Essence stepped closer to her.

Kinkajou lowered her voice. "Yes. Tundra doesn't like to admit it, but he's hurting a lot more than he looks. Well, of course, you would know that." She pointed to Essence's teardrop scale.

"He actually has a pretty bad fracture along his whole wing. I doubt he could even fly for half a minute." Kinkajou sighed. "I know you wanted a flyer for your team, Essence, but it's going to take him a while to heal. Sorry about that."

Leaving the infirmary, Essence was a bit worried, the team needs a new flyer! But it was getting dark, and Essence was exhausted and needed some sleep.

Essence awoke to a battle being raged around her somewhere in the mountains. Swellow, Tundra, Ace, Kraken, Scorpion, and her were fighting a Icewing wearing gauntlets, firing off bolts of lightning at them. Swellow shot her silk across the battleground, trying to tie him up but the IceWing dodged it. Swellow then jumped into the air, raising a shiny new sword above her head to finish off the IceWing while he was distracted by Kraken and Scorpion, but the IceWing turned around and raised his claw into the air and zapped Swellow with lightning. She fell onto the ground, twitching in a horrific way. A scream filled tha air.