Clearsight's Choice

Chapter 9. Whiteout. The Night Kingdom.

The NightWing-IceWing hybrid barely opened her eyes to the flicker of lightning high up in the clouds. The cold air seemed to blow right through her, freezing her bones and drying the blood and debris on her scales. W-where am I? She thought. She looked around from where she was, weakly turning her head to get a better view. Branches and leaves were scattered across the ground; as well as blood droplets. Whiteout shuddered. Colors of blue and red swarmed around in her mind as she had flashback after flashback. Arctic, Darkstalker, Foeslayer. She was the last of her family. Pain flared through her, and she looked down at her legs.

One of her talons had been twisted badly, either sprained or broken (Though it felt worse than either of those), and a pool of blue-red almost purple blood surrounded one of her hind legs. She winced as she tried to move it. Bad idea. Now that wound hurt even more, and blood spilled a bit faster from it and onto the ground. She slowly lifted her head to look up at the tree, gritting her teeth as she tried to ignore the pain. When she had fell, she didn't notice how many of the branches she had crushed, nor that she had crashed through a tree. Whiteout saw blood dripping from some of the branches, which fell onto the leaves.

There was a hole in the tree from where she had fallen through, and the faint glow of the rising moon shone through. The light barely lit of Whiteout's scales because of how filthy her scales were; the scales that were once silver were now brown with splotches of blue-red blood. Whiteout almost how her blood was almost purple. That was a very strange thing to think about in this situation, or any situation, for that matter. She winced again and clenched her jaw. Everything hurt. That wasn't nearly an exaggeration. The lightning bolt that had struck her had darkened her back, and whenever she moved, awful pain vibrated through her.

Black and purple dots blurred Whiteout's view. She was beginning to feel dizzy. The color of green danced around in her head; she was feeling sick. That fall was from such a great height, she should be happy she was even alive! She was, or, the happiest she could possibly feel from all of the pain. Her back felt like it was on fire, and her claws felt frozen because of the cold wind. Whiteout shuddered, sending waves of pain through her once more. The debris dug into her scales as she began to lose consciousness, keeping her awake- well, sort of. The dirt and bits of wood clung to her scales and pinched her like burrs. She didn't know why she could feel it; probably because it was touching her stomach, which was rather soft.

Just when Whiteout was going to lay down and sleep, a black dragon padded past the tree. Whiteout perked her ears toward the dragon, hoping to see Thoughtful or Clearsight, but she couldn't recognize it. Whiteout tried to choke out "help", but she couldn't. Her throat was scratchy and sore. As if the dragon had read her thoughts, the black dragon whipped around and looked at her in utter horror. She stepped closer, and Whiteout's heartbeat slowed. She felt relieved; someone had found her, and she was safe. Hopefully. The black dragon had teardrop scales on the corner of its eyes. Whiteout half-gasped, half-choked.

That dragon could read minds!

The black dragon raced over to Whiteout, although she had only been a few talon-steps away. "Whiteout!" she cried, and Whiteout suddenly recognized the mystery NightWing.

Listener.