Wings Of Honor: Heart of Ice

Chapter 15: Contact. Front.

Hold up. What? Pyrite? What's she got to do with anything?
I barely made out a brief scramble, which came from where the dragons were. A cold flash running through me.
Not a moment later, a dragon emerged from the cave. It's jet black scales filling my vision. The air rushing past caught me, overbalancing me and nearly sending me off the cliff.
I sucked air as I swayed on a single foot, over an infinity high precipice. But I managed to flail in the right direction, collapsing onto the cliff.
Whaaat the-fuck.
I high crawled back to Grace.
"Who is that?" Winter  demanded.
"I have no idea," Moon whispered back.
"Me neither." Grace added.
"But if he's a NightWing, maybe that's why I can't hear him think. Maybe he's been trained to shield from mind readers or something." Moon thought for a moment.
I climbed back onto Grace's back.
You okay?
"Yeah. Fine." Out of breath.
"We have to get to Pyrite before he does," Qibli whispered from Moon's other side.
Winter was the first to slip away, crawling down the mountainside, looking for a flat enough spot to take off from. Dragons were hells of climbers. Although, not very graceful, Winter's avalanche (no pun intended) was more audible this time. The rest of us followed him down.
I saw that Scarlet had gone further into the cave, and was facing away from us.
"Now," Moon breathed suddenly. She launched herself off the mountain and Winter hurtled after he. We followed suit, after Qibli. Rapidly catching up to Moon and Winter. He arrowed down toward the camp, his eyes fixed on what small flicker of firelight was left.
"The NightWing won't go straight there," Qibli panted behind him.
"Yeah. Flanking route." I nodded.
"He'll want to sneak up and take Pyrite while the rest of us are sleeping. He'll land and approach the camp quietly. We'll get there first."
"An ambush." I bounced off Qibli.
"Only if you shut up and fly," Winter growled at us.
Qibli didn't say another word as we shot down the cliffs and over the trees. Winter plunged through the leaves, catching the ground and went skidding to a crash beside Kinkajou. Raising all hell.
"Yikes!" the RainWing yelped, leaping to her feet.
For an instant, a rush of panic surged through me when I couldn't make out Pyrite instantly. But then she sat up from the other side of the fire, obscured by smoke, rubbing her face.
"What's all the noise?" She mumbled sleepily.
"Yeah, really," Kinkajou said, flaring the ruff behind her ears. "Is someone on fire? Why are you smashing around waking up perfectly happy sleeping dragons? YEEP!" she cried as Moon and Qibli came touching down behind Winter, trailing broken branches, with leaves and twigs caught in their wings and tails.
"The-" Grace was cut off.
"You!" Winter leaped over the fire and bowled Pyrite to the ground. She screamed, flapped her wings at him, and tried to wriggle away. I fumbled with my Springfield, but he leaned all his weight on her back and had her pinned down with his deadly IceWing claws. Even though she was bigger than him, she stopped resisting quickly. Her talons twitched in the grass and she twisted her neck to look back at him.
"This is mean." She whined.
"What do you know about my brother?" he demanded.
"Winter." Grace tried to plead.
"Nothing at all," she said. "Now can I get up?"
"You know something," he said in a low, dangerous voice. "He's an IceWing named Hailstorm. A couple of years older than me. The bravest dragon in Pyrrhia. Scarlet's prisoner for the last two years." He shook her vigorously. "You know where he is!"
"All right, all right!" she whined. "But you don't have to attack me; I would have told you if you just asked! Queen Scarlet's prisoners are kept in an arena in the Sky Palace. I can draw you a map of the place if you want. I don't think there are any IceWings there anymore, though. And Ruby traded back almost all the prisoners of war."
Oh my God.
I could see the visible frustration surge all throughout Winter, as he dug his claws in just a little, making Pyrite wince. Across the fire, Kinkajou was watching them with wide, bewildered eyes. I myself tempted to set my finger on the trigger.
"Don't toy with me, SkyWing," Winter hissed. "Scarlet needs you in order to kill Hailstorm. So why is that? Where is he? Did you use your magic on him?"
"Winter!" Grace called out.
"What magic?" Pyrite protested. "I don't have any magic! I never did anything special for Queen Scarlet!"
"Winter, I think she's telling the truth," Moon said. She had her front talons pressed to her head and an expression of pain scrawled across her face. I realized Grace had the same, fighting a migraine through our link. "She has no idea what you're talking about."
"What she said!" Pyrite yelped. "No idea!"
"She's blocking you somehow," Winter said furiously. "She is magic, I can feel it." I could tell he was convinced she was an animus. He glared down at the dragon and spotted the necklace tangled around her neck. "Maybe with her necklace — maybe she enchanted it to hide her mind from you." He reached for the chain.
"No! Wait!" Grace screamed.
"Don't touch that!" roared Pyrite, surging to her feet and throwing him off with sudden, powerful, violence.
Winter was thrown straight into the fire. The burning embers rose in a sickening sizzle against his scales and back talons. He leaped away with a bone rattling howl of pain.
In the chaos, another dragon touched down beside Pyrite. Qibli's tail was poised to attack as he wrestled Pyrite. Her arms were longer than his and her claws slashed at his underbelly while her wings beat him away from her. The SkyWing's teeth were bared and her face was a grimace of fury and determination.
My eyes widened. This was something else. This wasn't the meek Pyrite from before. This person could kill.
I ran in to join the fight, bearing my pistol to try and at most wound her.
And then I heard a sound that made me loose my breath. Kinkajou shrieked in terror. I swung around to meet it, and the black dragon was suddenly there, appearing from the shadows. He pounced on Kinkajou, striking her three times with swift brutality before slamming her out of the way with a powerful blow from his tail. All within a moment, the little RainWing was thrown into the base of a tree with a sickening crack. She crumpled to the ground, her scales fading to ghostly white.
"Kinkajou!" Moon cried.
"No!"
I grit my teeth, a silent yell.
The black dragon turned on her and Moon let loose a jet of blazing fire straight at his face. He reared back, covering his eyes, and she leaped at him, slashing furiously at his wings and neck. A bright gash of red appeared along his throat and he roared, seizing Moon's talons. Blisters were starting to bubble along the edges of his mouth and nose and he kept shaking his head as though it was hard to see, but he was strong and huge, and he flung Moon to the ground with ease.
In the break, I loosed six rounds into the dark dragon before Winter and Grace joined the fight. I couldn't risk friendly fire.
It was a mess of black and white and dim red scales, roars piercing the night. The dragon managed to get a blast of fire off, smacking Grace right above Winter's head. She absorbed the blow and shook her head, hissing. Then there was a hiss of frost breath. Winter went for an eye shot, but it looked like he managed to close it in time. Instead, the ice froze into the cut and burns inflicted on him. I almost felt good about his howls of agony.
Suddenly, he threw Winter off him. He managed to roll Grace off him as well, shooting into the sky.
"NO YOU FUCKING DONT!"
I trained my MKB irons onto him, quickly locating him in the night. I let loose all thirty rounds, watching as the tracers plinged off him. Hoping I could catch his wings or something. He faded into the sky, but I fired until the magazine was empty. The barrel hissing from the full-auto fire, with rain dripping onto it.
My forecast was late, and it couldn't have been worse.
The world seemed to slow when I turned 'round. I saw Winter, burned, hurt pretty badly, but still dragging himself to Moon.
Moon, crouched against a pale white Kinkajou, shaking her gently. "Please be all right," she whispered. "Kinkajou. Please wake up." Her voice snagged into a sob. "I can't hear her. I can't hear anything from her mind at all."
I turned and walked away. The weather dripping onto me. Me eyes wide, tears forming in them. My mouth slightly agape. My mind empty, filled with only white. I held my rifle loosely, letting the sling brush my leg.
"He went for her first," I made out Moon. "Did you see that? He could have attacked any of us, but he started with Kinkajou on purpose. Why would anyone do that? Why target a tiny RainWing, the smallest of us?"
I felt a presence come over me.
Marvin? Are you okay?
I could only blink.
I... I...
Then the whistling came.
I buckled down to my knees, letting out all the air in my lungs in one combined scream. The scream of death. Death of a person. What remained now was a shell of one's former self.
My training took over. My vision returned to lucidity.

I saw Moon had straightened one of Kinkajou's crooked wings and smoothed it back into place.
That needs to be splinted.
Then I heard a commotion. Qibli had subdued Pyrite and was standing over her on the other side of the clearing, his venomous tail suspended over the midpoint of her spine.
Winter limped over and looked down at the traitorous SkyWing. I alongside him.
"That NightWing could come back with Scarlet any minute," Qibli warned him. "We should get out of here as fast as we can."
Winter nodded. I beat him when he reached for Pyrite's necklace.
"No," Pyrite said with a hysterical edge to her voice. "Please. I'm not supposed to take it off ever. It's life or death. I need to wear it. Please leave it alone. Don't take it. Don't —"
He ripped it off her neck, yanking it twice before I finally cut the chain myself.
The SkyWing let out a cry. I looked at Winter holding the baggie. Whatever was inside was very light and crunched like a handful of snow.
He looked like he was about to open the pouch when Pyrite's scales began to slide off. At least, that was my first impression.
It looked almost like she was melting and growing and snapping into place at the same time. Her snout narrowed and lengthened. The orange color swiftly bled out of each scale, like it was being drained out. Sharp spikes erupted up through the skin all along her back and at the tip of her tail. Turning into a familiar weapon.
Qibli leaped off her with a yelp of surprise.
It was over in a matter of seconds. The change.
The dragon who was no longer Pyrite arched his back, unfolded his long white wings, and opened eyes as blue as the winter sky. He coughed and stared around him in utter bewilderment. His gaze landed on Winter and Qibli.
"Winter?" he said in a shaky, disused, hoarse voice.
Winter stared up at him, his talons clawing the ground, his wings shiverimg with fear. He was too shocked to speak.
"Holy snakes," said Qibli. "Is that — are you —?"
I knew who it was. I was unfazed.
Pyrite was gone. Standing in her place ... was Hailstorm.