Wings of Fire: A Pale Moon Rises

Chapter seven: Strange Old World

Venomspitter blinked back tears, flying as fast as she could, a small black dragonet clutched in her talons.

She whipped past trees, absorbing scents and sounds which were new and old, fresh and faint.

She didn't know how long she flew before she finally stopped, collapsing onto the moist mud of the forest floor, sobbing and clawing the ground.

Eventually, Venomspitter collected herself, sniffling.

Justice sat near her, wide eyes staring with apprehension, "What about Palemoon, we have to go back for him, right?"

Venomspitter wiped her eyes. "Not alone. We need help." Her tone was dark and determined, "Let's find the RainWing village."

***

They arrived in a sunlit canopy. Platforms and huts wound with vine ropes, decorated with flowers. Colourful dragons lazily moved from place to place. No one seemed to notice or acknowledge either of them.

Venom landed in front of a sky blue RainWing.

"I just escaped with this dragonet from the NightWing Island, we need your help, we escaped but my b-... my friend, got left behind, we need help to find him and bring him back!"

The dragon looked curiously from Venom to Justice. Orange and yellow bubbled through his scales. "Alright."

"May we meet with your Queen?" She asked, trying to hold onto hope of a welcome reception despite the dragon's nonchalant reaction.

The RainWing shrugged his wings, "Sure," he gestured vaguely with a talon to a large, flower decorated hut near the centre of the gathering of structures and walkways. "You have to wait in line though. What's your name?"

"Venomspitter, and this is Justice."

"Weird names, I'm Rambutan. What kind of dragon is she?" He asked, cocking his head while casting his peach-coloured eyes down at Justice.

She just stared, fiddling with her claws nervously. Justice had never been good at talking to new dragons, but the whole gravity of their situation just worsened her shyness.

"A NightWing." Venomspitter replied.

"I think I've heard of those. Do they stay that colour?"

"Usually, yes." Venom replied, and, to demonstrate that she was a RainWing, not a NightWing, she shifted a barrage of colours through the underside of her wings.

"Wow." Rambutan said, "Your scales are so dull!"

Venom's scales flashed a hot red.

"No need to get so mad!" Rambutan said, chuckling. "You just need a little extra sun time, that's all."

"How did you-"

"If you don't want people to know how you're feeling, you should keep your scales under control." Rambutan advised, and demonstrated, turning himself into a strict colour palette of orange, white, and brown.

Venomspitter returned to her typical colour scheme of dark greens, purples, and blues. A sense of invasiveness wafted through her as she realised that all RainWings would be able to tell what she was feeling if she stopped focusing on her scales for even a moment.

"Well, you should get going to talk to the queen. There's usually a line."

"I think discussing missing RainWings with her would probably let me skip the line."

"Missing RainWings?" Rambutan asked, "Who?"

"I don't know specifically, don't you all keep track? I know you don't track your eggs, clearly, but wouldn't you notice if adults and dragonets went missing?"