Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 27

wings of night

The thrum of minds and pains grew louder the closer they got to the island, Tsunami leading the way without pause, even with her mind swirling with anxieties. How she could put on a strong front was one of the things Starflight admired about her. Most dragons with Tsunami's level of responsibility would have given up by now, but Tsunami thrived on it. She thrived on taking charge, making the best decision she could, and rolling with it as far as it could take her. Somehow.

Starflight on the other hand, watched that city approaching with trepidation. He'd been better lately, something about being surrounded by peaceful dragons who barely knew the definition of war had begun to calm him, it also helped that the cavewing language was completely foreign to him, the meaning of their thoughts still got through, but Starflight could finally keep them separate from himself.

And now he was flying straight back to a place of nightmares. Starflight would do it, but only because he knew it was for good reasons, but he still found himself preparing for the worst as the distant island slowly came into his range.

Was his range bigger than before? Maybe? Starflight couldn't tell, it had always just been his range. At the edge of it, thoughts tapered into emotions and then into nothing. He couldn't tell how many dragons edged into his range, from emotions at first and then slowly into thoughts as they became more precise.

Countless dragons battering at his senses. Countless pains and joys bombarded him, over and over, surprise, excitement, anguish, fear, anxiety, sadness, confusion, happiness, and amusement. Over and over the emotions that circled through each dragon bounced into his range, ready to be known and wanting to be heard more than anything.

As always there were a few dragons a bit harder to read, but Starflight had never found a dragon he couldn't hear before.

Starflight wasn't sure when they actually landed, he felt distantly the cold snow beneath his talons, which stood out because icewings couldn't feel cold. But at that point, there was no more Starflight, only emotion, thought, and experience.

Queen Aurora was waiting for them, her mind whirring with thoughts, did they leave all my icewings in those caves? Didn't I tell them that Frost was specifically for conquering and wasn't allowed to stay? She didn't voice her wonderings and growing annoyance though.

Tsunami smiled and nodded at the Queen as her group landed, if she does anything shady, I'm ready for it. "Ah! Queen Aurora! Did Storm make it back safe?"

Aurora nodded curtly, "he did."

"Then you know most of it already, the operation was a success!"

Aurora looked over the group, belatedly realizing that over half of Tsunami's group was gone. "Did you leave the helpful cavewing in the caves?"

Tsunami inclined her head, "no, I sent him back with the majority of my group to make sure everything back home is running smoothly."

Ah. Wise of her. "And Frost?"

"He went with them," Tsunami responded immediately, thoughts echoing her words.

Is she trying to order my dragons to do things? At least it was Frost though, he makes everyone here uncomfortable. "Understandable." she answered eventually, "now we should talk strategy, explain to me again your numbers and how long my dragons have to prepare."

Tsunami adopted a thoughtful look and followed Aurora as she led the group inside her palace. "Good idea."

The council chamber was fairly large, with a circular table taking up a good amount of the space, in the table lay a large slightly distorted map of Pyrriah. Queen Aurora led everyone inside as the assembled council of ice dragons watched. Several of them gave Starflight dirty looks, but he didn't notice, as he was caught up in their minds, finally having regained enough individuality to realize he should probably assess them.