Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 19

Radiant snow

Radiance was impressed by the ingenuity of the strange dragons. After their leader's display of brightness, the cave dragons quickly fell into line, every dragon and their pet rock seemed to want to pledge their loyalty to queen Aurora.

None of them seemed to get that Aurora wasn't Tsunami. But that could be solved later. Echo easily translated, but after a while of the same words being exchanged, he only explained to the other cave dragons that their pledge was accepted -or not- depending on that dragon's history of loyalty.

Radiance was only mildly worried that Echo was somehow purposefully translating wrong, she could trust him for now. Vapor would have had a fit if he'd seen Radiance's lax attitude here, but he could go suck on an icicle.

After a bit, Echo finally decided that it would be best if he gave everyone a few important words in the tongue of the caves so that they could communicate if something happened to him. Radiance only really got 'thank you,' and 'help,' out of the ten words Echo had chosen. Which was more than some of the other dragons had gotten out of the lesson.

Radiance and one of the sandwings -the larger one- went with Uhar to his cave to help him collect his things. He hadn't been able to take much during his initial escape, so he was going to go through it and sort out the useless stuff. Radiance was coming mostly just to beat Tsunami to any huge discoveries. That princess was a real pain. Radiance's left wing was still sore from the impact.

Though Radiance looked through a few of Echo's pages, she couldn't spot much beyond the fact that each book was filled with words. He took a long time sorting through each volume, resting his talons on them for a moment while he thought, pondering the ups and downs of bringing it.

Radiance got bored quickly and wandered away without an explanation, Echo and the sandwing didn't seem to notice though as he tried to explain why they couldn't just take everything. Radiance left Echo's cave, wandering through the tunnels making sure to keep the light within sight. It was claustrophobic to be down here, but Radiance supposed that she could live here if she was out of options.

Which brought the question of where the cavewings had come from. They resembled icewings enough, and they didn't seem to feel this mythical 'cold' either, even though Radiance felt almost warm down in the caverns. They were isolated, just as the icewings were, from the rest of the world by nothing more than history.

Are they survivors of the genocide? Just as we are? Survivors that fled down instead of north? It was a positive thought that other icewings had survived that ancient time of death, and two thousand years was certainly enough time to rebuild, as evidenced by radiance's own tribe. Though if I'm right we're the same tribe. Which erased the slight guilt that Radiance had felt at claiming the caves for her queen.

Lost in thought, Radiance squeezed through an entrance to a tunnel, it was a tight fit but she should be able to-

Radiance stopped sliding forward, either of her sides crushed between the two cave walls, she squirmed, but Radiance was well and truly... stuck.

She squirmed more, part of her expecting to be able to keep sliding forward as if this had been ice, but she wasn't budging. Radiance lashed her tail, part of her hoping that it would help wiggle her out, but it immediately slammed into an unseen wall behind her. She grunted against the pain.

She was pretty sure she knew why she couldn't slide out the way she'd come. As Radiance got the slightest bit of movement, a sharp pain erupted at her side as the wall scraped several scales loose.

Radiance winced, she'd been determined not to ask for help, but it was looking more and more like she would need it. She tried wiggling again but she was still completely stuck.

Radiance gave up and filled her lungs with as much air as she could, "HELP! I'M STUCK! SOMEONE GET HELP!" a few squeaks of confusion and the scuttling of small talons were the only response. Right, language barrier... "Iena!" she shouted, with much less volume, because at that point, her vocal cords didn't want to work.

She felt absolutely stupid, screaming in a language that she didn't understand, probably pronouncing it completely wrong.

An inquisitive voice rang from behind her, asking something with a long line of sounds that had far too many 'ei' noises. Radiance wished she'd asked Echo how to say 'I don't speak cave.' but the dragon behind her seemed to get it as Radiance responded by screaming "Iena!" once more. Oh please tell me I didn't mix up help and thank you... she was pretty sure help had been Iena, and she was sticking to that, but the chance that it might not be right was terrifying.

The dragon behind her shouted something and Radiance felt a push from behind. Yes, push, don't pull. Please don't pull off all my scales...

Other small steps approached and they all began to push, evidently taking it as a good sign that Radiance wasn't screaming at them to stop. It took a while, but slowly, Radiance felt movement. Oh, blessed movement. There was still scraping, but it was going the right way along with her scales so none of the others were pulled loose. Radiance resolved to memorize the faces of all the dragons who were helping her once she saw them, and ask Echo their names so she could give them special treatment.

There was a halt in movement and a bit of yelling from the other end as one pair of claw-steps ran away, hopefully, to get more help. Radiance was fine with waiting though, this was embarrassing, but at least she was getting help.

A few minutes later there was more pushing, which heeded little progress, Radiance squirmed again, feeling slightly looser, but not enough to finally pull free. The minutes ticked by and Radiance blinked as three Echo-sized dragons appeared in front of her talking quietly as they observed her situation. One walked forward with an anxious glance at her face and grabbed one of her talons, which she stretched forward helpfully.

The second one grabbed her other talon and the pulling and pushing resumed. The third dragon shouted something and started picking at the rocks at her sides, checking for loose ones and pushing away pebbles.

Radiance fell violently forward with a sound almost like a POP. she gasped as the ground met her, but sighed in relief. All her little helpers cheered, thankfully none had been in the way as she'd fallen.

A few had scrapes, bleeding out bright blue fluid, a stark contrast to their duller greys and blues. The scrapes especially covered the dragons behind her who'd been pushing on her tail -which was covered in spikes- as she'd decided before, Radiance memorized their faces and colors, repeating the cave word for thank you over and over as the small dragons dispersed, smiling.

One of them decided that Radiance was apparently not to be left alone, and she led her back to that large cavern where they'd initially talked Losei down, where Radiance had to explain to a shocked Drift exactly what had happened. "I'm never going wandering again." she decided.

"I sure hope not." Drift said with narrowed eyes. "If you do I'm sure that you would somehow manage to fall into a pit and break a wing."

Radiance scoffed, "I'm not that bad. Maybe I'll get lost, but pits are for amateurs."

"Eh, at least you aren't that Mudwing, apparently he hit his head pretty hard on a tunnel roof. It knocked him out for a while."

Radiance made a face, "I didn't get away unscathed either." she brandished her scraped wings and sides, stained blue with blood. "Plus mine could be mistaken for battle wounds."

Drift eyed her scratches, "eh, not really. Maybe an accident involving a cave."

She swatted him with her wing, "if you don't have an accident then I'll give you one. In fact, I can think of a few right now."

Drift laughed, "oh, good luck, you're wider than me, I'll just go into a small cave and stay at the back so when you get stuck you still can't get to me."

Radiance narrowed her eyes, "did you just call me fat?"

Drift, wisely, shrugged, "no, I'm calling myself a twig."

"You're lucky that I don't hate you. That might change though so perhaps you should stop while you're ahead." 

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Radiance learns a new word for every vote!