Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 15

Echo of the snow

After Blaze's place, they flew onward, passing terrain that Uhar vaguely recognized from his original trip. Eventually, he realized that Uhar was the only one who had gone this far north before. Sort of concerning considering he'd been in a blizzard half the time. He doubted he could easily lead them to the cave entrance.

Uhar had to trust that they would make it though because everyone was counting on him. Everyone was here to forge an alliance with the Kiaen and they wouldn't turn back until that happened.

The group flew onward, past the point where the ground was coated in snow. Most of the dragons looked as if they'd never seen the substance before, which made Uhar concerned as they began to complain about the cold.

He didn't feel it though, this cold that the others described. It felt the same as it always did to Uhar. Temperate. The two sandwings were shivering more than the others and had long since given up and put on a few blankets. It got to the point where every few hours they had to stop and warm up everyone's wings.

Uhar found it fascinating to watch them start the fire every time. Tsunami, who seemed far more tolerant to the cold than the others, would head around looking for things to burn and come back with talon-fulls. She'd tried bringing Uhar along a few times but he had no idea where plants were bound to be growing. After getting the stuff to burn, one of the sandwings or the nightwing would light the fire with their breath. And proceed to huddle as close as they could to it for the next while, piling on the blankets, the amount of which never seemed to be enough.

They got further north and eventually, even Tsunami donned a few, and they were stopping more and more often to warm up as the sun slowly began to set.

During one such stop, Uhar heard the nightwing talking under his breath, but he didn't quite catch the words as the dragon looked around with trepidation. "It's close. It's close." After knowing the nightwing for approximately two days, Uhar wasn't quite sure how sane he was.

He stayed near Blaze's niece, Sunny, the entire time, whispering to her, and she, in turn, whispered to Tsunami something that Uhar finally caught because Tsunami didn't know how to keep a secret. "WHAT? HE SAID WHAT? AND HE DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME SOONER?" she spun around and cornered the nightwing. "STARFLIGHT HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN BEING FOLLOWED?"

The black dragon blinked up at the angry seawing for a good two seconds. "Just since the last time we stopped. I don't think they're here to hurt us though, I haven't gotten any visions-"

"Bah." Tsunami interrupted. "Alright, take me to the nearest one." She turned toward Uhar, "You too Echo, in case it's the Cavewings." Uhar jumped and followed the Seawing as she got Starflight to start moving. "Where are they?"

Starflight pointed hesitantly and Tsunami barreled in that direction, leaving them to try and keep up. Starflight shouted at her to slow down. "They may not react well if we appear out of nowhere, looking for blood!"

Tsunami slowed a bit, but it didn't help much as Uhar's tired wings tried to keep up. Thankfully, Starflight directed her toward land after a short time, and Tsunami did not hesitate in landing straight on top of a startled white dragon.

"HA! TEACH THEM TO STALK US!"

Uhar, needless to say, was getting concerned as Tsunami spiraled into madness. He supposed... stress was revealed differently for everyone...

The other two white dragons that Uhar hadn't noticed before were just staring with shock at the seawing who'd tackled their companion.

The white dragon made an undignified noise as Tsunami got up, evidently deciding that the poor dragon underneath her wouldn't be running away anytime soon.