Wings of Honor: Saving Grace

Chapter 7: Unit Dispersal Rally

That night, I saw him.
He was sitting up, looking out a small crevice in a much larger structure. He was looking out into the starry night sky, but I could see him envisioning my wings. The wings that cradled him once, the wings who he knew truly understood him, the wings that held his heart and soul. A tear rolled down his cheek. He was nervous, he regretted his actions, but he trusted me. He knew I would come back to him safe. He took one last look outside before retiring.
He was waiting.

I awoke with a sharp gasp. Something stirred.
I sat up with a start, trying to blink quickly to clear my vision. I scanned the trees, trying to see whatever it was that was nearby. There was a mind nearby, but Turtle's Skyfire glare and the rolling dribbling of the river masked any hope of even triangulating whatever it was. However, the contact quickly faded, and the gentle buzzing of forest life resumed around me.
The threat had left, I huffed. Curling myself back over my cooler spot. The sun was beginning to show signs of poking over the horizon, so I just resigned to get as much rest as I could.

In the morning, Turtle emerged from his resting spot at the bottom of the river. His wings had mostly recovered. He was still a little jittery at almost being discovered. but it could have been passed off for excitement about being so close to finding his winglet again. But it wasn't just Turtle who was preoccupied.
His friends — and then he'll probably ditch me, Peril realized. I guess the others wouldn't be too thrilled about her coming along. Especially that IceWing, if he was still alive and around anywhere.
Well, if I had to find Scarlet on my own, that was probably better anyway.
She sat on the same boulder she'd slept on, watching Turtle splash around after his breakfast. She noticed he had a small waterproof pouch around his neck, which looked heavier than usual now.
From the way it thumped against his chest, I guess that he'd put one of the river rocks in there.
His only other accessory was his gold armband with the three Skyfire rocks set in it, plus three holes where Kinkajou's, Qibli's, and Winter's used to be. Peril recalled that he fiddled around with it when he was nervous, sticking his claws into the holes and tugging the armband up and down, like he was doing now.
"Why are you glaring at me?" Turtle asked.
"I'm not GLARING," Peril snapped back. "This is my FACE."
"Your face kind of looks like it hates me today," Turtle observed. "Can you remind it that I'm really quite nice?"
I did my best not to smirk, looking away.
Peril concentrated on her expression for a moment, but she could feel her frown only getting deeper. "All right, now I'm glaring at you," she said. "Can we get on with this annoying day already?"
I nodded, slinging my pouches back into travel position. They had moved around while I slept. Aparently I move around in my sleep, just like Marvin.
"Are you nervous about going to Possibility?" Turtle asked. "We won't have to be there long. Maybe no one will even notice you."
"You really have no idea what it's like to be me," Peril said, arching her neck and flaring her wings, casting only a more blurred image of the intense figure in the water below her. "I've never NOT been noticed. That's not an option for me. Imagine my life as the literal opposite of yours."
Turtle didn't answer. Peril squinted at him and realized he was peering at a spot along the muddy shore of the river.
"What?" she demanded. "What's so fascinating?"
"I'm guessing these talonprints aren't yours," he said.
Uh oh.
Peril hopped into the river and splashed over to him, sending up clouds of steam all around her. Turtle didn't flail away in a panic like most dragons would have when being met with scalding hot water and steam. He moved over quietly so she could see the mud, where a set of prints were clearly embedded, along with the sweep of a tail around them.
I winged over to the other side of the muddy riverbank.
Someone had been standing here, then sitting here, quite recently. Someone bigger than Peril, facing the river ... facing the boulder where she'd been sleeping.
"Last night," I began. "I heard someone. I didn't see him, he flew away; but I heard someone. I didn't know he was this close." Marvin's training didn't help me then.
"HELLO?" Peril yelled, making both of us jump. "If you're spying on us, just come out already!"
Turtle rubbed his ears. "So stealth isn't your strong suit either, I see."
I groaned.
"Sorry," Peril said unrepentantly. "I know it's your only suit. WHOEVER YOU ARE, JUST COME OUT AND SAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY!"
There was no response. Just the peaceful canopies swaying under the early morning breeze. The tranquil running water, gentle chirping of the birds, even the deep croaking of a frog somewhere upstream.
Peril shrugged. "I guess they left. Maybe they just wanted to catch a glimpse of a fire monster. Or maybe they thought I was Scarlet and then realized who I am and fled in terror! That could be it."
I chuckled, hanging my head.
"Hmmm," Turtle said, with just a shade too much skepticism in his voice. He twisted around again, scanning the trees and sky and river, but there wasn't any sign of anybody.
"I have a plan for Possibility," Peril said. "Let's go." She spread her wings and launched herself into the sky, rising straight into the sun, almost bursting into flame herself. The light had crept over the mountaintops, spilling in golden stripes down through the canyons and over the hills. To the west, Peril spotted a line of camels plodding across the desert with smaller shapes on their backs and around their heels. From Marvin's experience, I recognized them as humans - travelers. But I didn't recognize anything about them. It wasn't Travers or McManis.
Turtle flapped wetly up beside her, splattering her with spray from his tail and wings. I rose above them to avoid the trail of water that could shiloete me in my chamoflage. I could probably account for it, but it was too complicated and would need to change the angle of light more often then practical. In the sunlight, Turtle's sea green-toned scales looked more like emeralds than ever.
"A plan would be good," he said. "Tell me your plan."
"Easy. We'll just dive right into the middle of the market, and then all those dragons will start stampeding around yelling about what a menace I am, and then you shout, 'Moon and Qibli, meet us outside town!' and then we fly away again." Peril nodded with satisfaction. "I think that would work."
I smirked audibly this time.
Turtle wrinkled his snout at her. "I have a slightly less insane idea," he said. "If you can swim."
"I can do anything," Peril said, tossing her head. "There was a lake by this waterfall near the Sky Palace that I swam in once. I didn't like it, though." It was weird, being surrounded by water. In a way, it was like flying, because she couldn't exactly burn anything while she was underwater. But it was also unsettling. Dragons shouldn't be underwater. Fire shouldn't be underwater.
"If we swim into the city, no one will notice you," Turtle said. "We'll be able to scout it out without attracting a lot of attention."
"I don't care about attention," Peril said. "If a dragon wants to stare at me and hate me and think horrible thoughts about all the things they can't do to me, then they can go right ahead."
She twisted around to glance back at Turtle. A movement far below them caught her eye, and she angled one wing to look down. I joined her, looking around.
There was a black dragon. THAT black dragon, standing on the boulder where Peril slept the night before.
He lowered his snout for a moment — studying the moss on the rock she'd burned? What? But then he lifted his head to scan the sky.
Although he was miles away now, Peril felt his eyes snag on her scales like wickedly sharp fishhooks.
He didn't move. He didn't come flying after them.
He just stared, eerie and still, watching her beat more and more. The distance between us, him getting smaller and smaller.
Whoever he was, Peril had a feeling he wasn't done with her yet.
I finaly let my breath go, realizing I had held it that entire time. A shiver ran its way from my tail all the way to my neck.
Turtle did a flip in the sky to see what she was looking at. He nearly lost the wind under him as he spotted the dragon.
"I was right!" he cried. "See? He's following us!"
"He's not," Peril pointed out. "Mostly he's just staring at us. It's creepy, but to be fair, if he tried to do that from any closer up, I'd have to stick something sharp and burning into his eyeballs."
"All right," Turtle said. "Thank you for that visual. Do you know any NightWings?"
"Starflight," Peril answered. "And that other fluff-brained one at the school, but it's too big to be either of them."
"And me." I flicked my tail at her. "But you already know about me."
Turtle flicked his tail nervously and beat his wings faster, keeping up with us easily for the first time since they'd left Jade Mountain. "I did hear a rumor ... " he started.
I shivered again. I knew what he was talking about.
"A rumor?" Peril asked. "Or dragons having a conversation you weren't supposed to overhear?"
"Nobody said I couldn't stand in the tunnel outside and listen!" Turtle said defensively. "Anyway, Sunny was telling Tsunami that some NightWing prisoners had escaped from Thorn's stronghold. Maybe it's one of them."
Nope. Different thing. That still doesn't make me feel better. And she mentioned prisoners, plural. We're there more dragons tailing us?
"Why would a NightWing prisoner be interested in us?" Peril asked.
"True. Maybe it's someone working with Scarlet," Turtle said. "Maybe it's her new ally."
Peril swiveled violently around in the sky.
How did I not think of that? What if it's a NightWing animus? Coming after me on Scarlet's orders? Maybe I'm higher on her vengeance list than I thought ...
I looked back once more. The black dragon was gone.
"I..." I hesitated. I wasn't entirely sure it was the dragon who attacked Kinkajou. "There was a NightWing. A big NightWing..." I looked towards Turtle, "who knocked out Kinkajou."
"What!" He exclaimed, missing a wingbeat.
"She's fine. Marvin's got her. He had super dragon strength, the doctor said."
"Wonderful," Peril said. "You couldn't have mentioned that a bit sooner? Now all I can do is WORRY about it. I HATE worrying about things."
"It's almost time for us to swim," Turtle said, trying to cheer himself up. "You can worry about that instead." He canted his wings and swooped down toward the river.
Uneasily, Peril followed him down.
Don't think about it. There's nothing I can do about this NightWing right now anyway. I have to wait until he shows his face a bit closer to me, and then I can burn it off, and then everything will be fine.
I'm not so sure about that.
Peril flexed her talons, feeling the warm shift of her firescales, and then swooped down and splashed right behind Turtle.
I tucked my wings in, diving like a Peraguine falcon, towards the water. Flaring at the last minute to make a not as graceful, but much quieter and safer dive. The river was extremely cold but not as unpleasant as I was biased against. Admittedly, Marvin made it quite clear that he dislikes swiming in cold water.
Peril did not like it ONE BIT. The flappy slippery things (which were a variety of fish) kept touching her and then not bursting into flames, and that was aparently so weird to her. Even the soothing, cool feeling of water all around her scales, pressing in on her like a weighted blanket, was extremely unsettling for her.
She was also not particularly fond of how much faster than her Turtle could now suddenly go. He powered forward in huge underwater wingbeats, steering gracefully with the current; compared to Peril, who flopped around snorting water up her snout and generally feeling more like a hippo.
An actual hippo floated past, eyeing her with serene scorn.
Fine. Not like a hippo. Like an ostrich suddenly plunked in the middle of an ocean, how about that.
I smirked. I did my best to mimic Turtle's form, and managed to outpace Peril. Even though I was nearly too big to swim in this river. I felt my wingtips occasionally catch the silt and rocks on the riverbed. Oh well.
Far ahead, Turtle swerved majestically around a bend in the river and clambered onto a submerged boulder to wait for us. I hung up towards the surface to grab a breath, Peril floundered toward us, finally finding pebbles below her talons and a moment to gasp for breath.
"Couldn't we fly a little closer?" she spluttered.
"Not if we want you to arrive incognito." Turtle pointed to the increasing number of dragons flying overhead. Just their sight made me chamoflage more into the water. Their wings flashing in the sky were mostly red, orange, and/or a sandy yellow, although you could spot a few shades of brown and blue up there as well. "Don't worry, soon we'll be swimming into Possibility. Hopefully no one will notice your scales underwater, and hopefully we'll be able to spot Moon and Qibli from the river."
I nodded. I would contact Moon and Marvin as soon as we got into limits.
Turtle dove back into the river, I followed after him. Peril had no choice but to follow us. The outskirts of Possibility inevitably swept up on either side of the riverbank. These were a few smaller dwellings for dragons who'd moved to the city recently. The ghetto-ish outskirts of town.
We swam past a family of SeaWings who splashed in the shallows nearby. A couple blue scales flickering like broken shards of sky amidst the blue, blue-green water. The two kids yelped and wrestled while their father watched, smiling like the proud father he was to care for his kids. A smile that I've seen Marvin's father wear. A smile... Marvin wore only a few times... so far.
A little farther downstream, on the other side of the river, three MudWings more near Peril's age were tending to a garden. The biggest one pointed to a crooked furrow and thwapped one of her siblings bossily. Her brother flung a carrot at her, and the third sister giggled until she nearly fell over. However, when I took a second look, a cold flash ran through me. That MudWing was missing her front left arm. My eyes rapidly watering, but I tried to blink them clear.
Peril also took a closer look at the next set of dragons we passed and spotted another battle scar, a scar that ran nearly the length of this SkyWing's tail. But this dragon, too, was smiling, leaning over to show a smaller dragon how to fix a broken door frame. He must have felt Peril staring at him, because he turned his head toward the river, but Peril submerged her head and swam faster. I was invisible. I saw him look back, explaining and helping the kid up to tap the hinge pin in. The way Arthur taught Marvin once. I ducked down to catch up, and when I surfaced again there was an island between us and the town.
More islands began to dot the river as it widened out, and the current faded, sometimes trailing into wandering streams or scattering about in clumps of tall reeds. But that's simple fluid dynamics. More area, less pressure. That's the theory to make steam water injectors work. I know way too much about this. I blame Marvin.
Peril and Turtle swam under a bridge packed end-to-end with stalls and dragons calling out to customers. Almost like a huge farmers market, calling "The finest rugs in Possibility!"
"The actual finest rugs in Possibility!"
"Roasted crocodile on sale!"
"Don't eat that! His crocodile was rotting in the streets yesterday! We have seagulls caught in the air this morning!"
I just shook my head, knowing full well how marketing works, and the actual truth these vendors cherry picked for their customers.
The next bridge shone with bright colored paint and stone, shaking under thumping talons as dragons danced along its length. So much so, the music vibrating in the water around us. Beaten silver circles hung from the railings and under the bridge like giant coins. Gong like devices, but they sounded like chimes and cymbals
"A full-moon festival," Turtle said, popping his head out of the water right next to me. "It used to be a SandWing tradition, but they didn't have much time for them during the war. I heard they were coming back."
"Huh." This looks interesting.
Peril floated under the bridge, watching the whirling dragons overhead as they clapped their wings and intertwined their tails together. She knew she would never dance in a crowd like that, wearing bangles of silver moons and singing until her voice cracked. She would never paint huge canvases side by side with other SkyWings and SandWings, dipping their tails into the same buckets of moonlit white and midnight blue paint and laughing as it spattered across their claws and snouts.
She recalled she'd been in this town only four months ago, searching for Scarlet, but something was different now. It felt lighter and more open than before. As if the war was starting to melt away ... as if their world was starting to feel safer under Thorn and Ruby than it ever had been with Burn and Scarlet.
But it's not safe. Not as long as Queen Scarlet is still out there, smoldering with hate.
"Moon should be easy to spot here," Turtle said, his snout half buried in the water so his voice rose through bubbles. "Not a lot of NightWings around."
That's a good idea. I should probably call Moon or Marvin.
Moon! Marvin! Anyone? This is Gracebringer to anyone on this frequency. If you can hear me, please respond!
I sensed a presence acknowledge me, but it was heavily muddled under the crowds and Turtle's Skyfire glare. At this point, I'm tempted to just enchant the glare away. But I was looking in his direction when I saw Turtle perk up.
"Wait," Turtle said, turning so suddenly that he splashed water up Peril's nose. She backpedaled against the current, scowling at him.
"What?" she said. "Can we give up now? We could just fly over the town — it'll be easier to spot a black dragon from up there anyhow. It's not like anyone is going to come up and try to fight me."
"I thought I saw Qibli," Turtle said.
"Wait. Really!" I exclaimed.
He spread his wings to float in a circle and craned his neck, peering at the dragons along the waterfront. "Those SandWings over there, arguing with the red SkyWing — doesn't one of them look like Qibli?"
I tried to look over to where he was looking. There was another Skyfire hum in that direction, but it was too muddled to tell its range with any accuracy, it could be Qibli, or another SandWing who has Skyfire for decoration, like Onyx.
"Uh — sure?" Peril said, unconvinced.
"Let's go see." Turtle charged out of the river before Peril could counter. His emerald green tail left a slick wet path of dulled drops and talon prints on the cobblestones behind him.
"Follow me." I said to Peril, as I swam to the edge as well. Shaking off the water, I scanned around. All the dragons were thankfully focused on their own business; no one was watching the river. And now I could really see the dragons Turtle was aiming for. The red SkyWing stood with his wings folded back and his head cocked arrogantly at the two burly SandWings in front of him, one of whom was lashing her menacing tail. Both SandWings were wearing medallions around their necks stamped with the image of a large bird. Not an Airborne Eagle, rather a full bird. Like the one on a dollar bill, with the olive branch and arrows.
However, arranged on the stones around their talons were several odd-looking brownish-greenish-pink spheres studded with little spikes. They were a little bit larger than watermellons, but there was a dangerous aura around them, like you had to treat them with respect.
Peril slithered out of the water, past me, and hurried after Turtle, keeping her head low and her wings tucked in close. After being shocked at that instant, I ran after her.
"Peril!"
I overheard the vendor's conversation with the two Sandwings.
"You said thirty!" she heard the bigger SandWing yell. "That was the agreement!"
"You are welcome to come to the mountains and try harvesting these
yourself," spat the SkyWing. "It is much more difficult than your paltry pouch of gold would cover."
"Let's just take them," the male SandWing growled.
"He won't be pleased and you know it," his partner snapped.
Turtle paused several feet away from them and turned back to Peril, shaking his head.
Not Qibli.
She stopped, too, in the most empty patch of stone she could find. I was a little aft of her. But even from here, the plaza became cluttered with merchandise spread on carpets, flowers growing out of window boxes, and dragons blithely trampling around everywhere without worry.
Danger tingled just beyond Peril's reach; she could sense all the terrible things that might happen if she stepped any farther into the town.
I felt my chest closing in on me, realizing I was feeling her anxiety. Like Momma's.
I need to get back to the river, where I wouldn't be such a threat.
She glanced around and began to cautiously turn, keeping her tail curled safely in.
And then one of the SandWings muttered something furious and kicked one of the spheres, sending it rolling.
Oh, it's a cactus, Peril realized, spotting the roots as it bounced across the stones toward her. I've seen those in the mountains, I think.
It was then I realized what those things were. All these memories flooded onto me.
Explosions. Fire. Death.
"PERIL!" I screamed, lunging at her.
She glanced up, and the last thing Peril saw was Turtle's green eyes widening as the sphere rolled up to her talons. I tackled her, shoving her to ground. But the cactus brushed against her flailing tail — and exploded in a humongous fireball.