Wings Of Honor: Heart of Ice

Chapter 13: Into the Valley

We were up before dawn, and flying not soon after. Grace and I had breakfast on the move.
Winter, strangely enough, seemed like he didn't get much sleep. Admittedly, Grace knew that and secured the first watch again. Qibli even joked that he could rest on Grace probably, and he'll carry me instead. Jokes aside, Winter was tired. Which wasn't good if we were going into a fight.
However, Winter had conversed with Qibli during the changing of the guard. I was too tired to really pay attemtion. Something about Pyrite, and secrets. My sluggish mind didn't put two and two together untill 3:00 in the morning. Nonetheless, I shared his sentiment. Qibli discovered Icicle in about the same time as me. If anyone had nearly as certain a chance to uncover the mysteries of Pyrite, it was Qibli. Or Moon, Grace, or even me if Pyrite slips up.
Speaking of, Kinkajou made conversation with Pyrite as we flew. Talking about anything and evreything, IceWings, other tribes, foods, and a whole lot I stopped paying attention about. It was a mostly one sided conversation though, and Pyrite's mind kept swirling in its well worn tracks. Kinkajou also changed her wardrobe, opting for a silver and gold for today.
The day remained clear, for the most part, right up until early in the evening. The sky gave way to clouds and humid air. My gut was already telling me we were flying into rain. Visibility was reduced somewhat, but I still managed to spot a long spire with an eye shaped emblem on the top, about 800 yards out. Not long after, Qibli called it out as well.
"Over there! I think I see it!"
The once sluggish flying Winter, with Pyrite tailing right behind, suddenly surged forward and alongside Qibli. He squinted in the direction Qibli and I pointed.
"I don't see anything," Kinkajou said.
"That's because you're a RainWing," Pyrite added. "I see it. SkyWings can see much better and farther than you do." Suddenly snarky for such a nervous individual.
Winter worked his jaw, looking like he wanted to add something, but then resolved to let it go unsaid. Undoubtedly to avoid associating himself with her of all dragons.
"I don't see it yet either," Moon said to Kinkajou. "But if it's over there, let's go!" She put on a burst of speed and shot ahead of the others.
"Race you to that peak!" Kinkajou yelled, zipping past the three of us.
The two of them raced away, I could still hear their laughing echo off the mountains.
"You want to join them Grace?"
I looked down at her and braced myself.
"No. No thanks. I'm fine right here. And it's not like I would totally wipe the floor with them."
Judging by your huge wings, even bigger than Pyrite's, that's true.
She waggled her wings a little, rolling but not endangering me.
"Terribly undignified." I looked back and spotted Qibli alongside Winter, tipping his head at what specks remained of Moon and Kinkajou. "We would never allow such higgledy-piggledy shenanigans in the Ice Kingdom."
"Was that supposed to be me?" Winter asked him bluntly. "Terribly unimpressive, if so. I haven't once said 'higgledy-piggledy' in my entire life. We would never allow such linguistic imprecision in the Ice Kingdom."
Qibli died at his response, looping into the air with a delighted smile plastered on his face. Winter gilded and thought for a moment. I turned my attention back to scanning.
Pyrite's a mystery.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Yeah, but... you said she has been affected by animus magic. W-why? How?
I don't know. I doubt we'll know unless she gives it up willingly. Unless you want to play good cop-bad cop.
I felt Grace shiver.
No. I know what you'll do to her.
Correction, she knew what I could do to her. Japanese water torture, starvation, verbal abuse, psychological warfare, physical abuse (to some degree), or even just plain threats, those were all under my tool belt. Grace shivered again.
"Just..." she sighed, "don't hurt her." Don't do anything, preferably.
Alright. I looked over at the sandy Skywing. Alright.

It wasn't much longer before we reached said eye-shaped spire. From there, the mountain range matched pretty darn well closely to what Moon saw in her vision. She was one hell-of-a sketch artist. Grace gawlfed at that comment. From our position, we had eyes into a secluded Valley, where three waterfalls merged into a single, clear water lake at the bottom of the valley. It was a fairly irregular shape, but then again, what was I expecting from water erosion. Overall, the entire place gave good security on every flank except the air. Although, we were in a defilade position. Mortars and high angle artillery would be good here, but anything with direct fire that posts up on the hills, everything in this valley was a turkey shoot.
And this is where we set up camp for the night. The spire looming in the distance about 750 yards off on the hills.
Even Kinkajou recognized our vulnerable position. "I don't like it here," she said once we landed. She visibly trembled, flicking her tail and turning a pale, jade-ish green. "It feels like we're being watched. I mean, as if the mountains themselves are watching us."
"And the rivers are whispering about us," Qibli said. Whom he was met promptly with a thwack of one of her wings, he jumped back, looking injured. "I was agreeing with you!" he cried out.
"Oh. Well, try to sound less sarcastic next time," Kinkajou scolded him. "My point is, it's creepy here."
Moon glanced back to make sure Pyrite wasn't listening. The SkyWing had waded into the lake and was scanning the sky and trees hopefully.
"Sounds like the perfect place for Scarlet to hide," Moon whispered.
I nodded, similarly scanning with my Springfield scope. My attention brought to any places of foliage, where someone could be concealed; and any boulders or other obstacles large enough to hide a man with a rifle and a telescopic sight. I relied on my gut to try and get a feeling if we were getting watched, and so far it only said our presence was detected... somewhere.
A sudden mass of wings made us all spin around. I instantly brought my rifle to bear, tracing the sound and watching as my sight lit up with black shapes.
Nightwings!?
But looking over my scope, I saw it was only a group of crows taking off from a nearby tree.
Jesus fucking Crist. I sighed.
"There's something over there," Pyrite suddenly pointed out, waving her tail toward the far side of the lake. I trained my rifle over there, swinging onto Grace as we all went to investigate.
A jump-skip-and-a-hop over the water, we were met with a derelict building. Or... what remained of a building. It looked like a former, friendly village hut I knew once and stuck with me.