Wings of Fire; The Creed

Chapter 7

They all faced the entrance and jumped into the air, flapping their wings to take off.

Starburst started to follow them as they flew south, with the sun still blinding her left eye. She squinted with that eye, trying to keep as much of the light out while still being able to see everyone to her left.

The green of the trees below glowed like emeralds. It made Starburst sort of miss the beauty of the rainforest.

No. Bad. I do not miss the rainforest. I hate that place.

She growled quietly, making sure no one heard her, and flew a little slower, to make sure she could stay behind the group. She was not in the mood to deal with them right now.

The group flew for a few hours, each of them starting to get more tired by the second. Their wings started to give out, and they missed a few wing beats more and more often.

Artemis glided closer to her brother and looked around at everyone. They all have been silent the entire flight, and all have lost their confident expression.

"We should take a break," Artemis told her brother. He look like he was gritting his teeth as he looked forward without responding to his sister.

"Diamondback?" she asked again. His wing beats slowed for a second before moving forward again.

Artemis looked at her brother with a hurt expression. She flew back to her original spot and looked out to the horizon. The canopy was starting to become visible, and made Starburst feel queasy.

Starburst flew up to Artemis' side and bumped her wing with her own.

"You okay?" Starburst asked Artemis. Artemis looked over with her sad expression, put a small friendly smile on her face, and nodded slightly. Starburst didn't think she was truly okay, but Artemis clearly did not want to tell her that.

"Why don't you come on back with me?" Starburst invited, trying to be as friendly as possible. It had been so long since she had actually tried to be nice to anyone, so this felt very awkward.

Artemis nodded in agreement and drifted to the back with Starburst. Starburst saw out of the corner of her eye Bubble look back at Artemis. Starburst looked at him in the eyes and shot him a quick glare. His wings faltered a little and he nearly fell out of the sky. He quickly looked away, and tried to correct himself. Luckily, Artemis was too distracted to notice a thing.

What the heck is wrong with that SeaWing? He is so weird. He needs to stop being creepy otherwise I will tear his face off. OOOOH! I know. I will tear off his arms and use them to...

"Starburst," Artemis inquired, interrupting her train of thought. Starburst looked over at her small NightWing claw mate, and she continued on, "Why do you hate the Rainforest Kingdom so much? I used to visit my grandmother there all the time. It seems like such a nice place?"

Starburst looked away in the opposite direction with a glare and growled low in her throat. She could feel her muscles tensing up, and she squeezed her talons tightly.

"I... would rather not talk about it," Starburst said simply.

"O-Oh. Okay. I-I understand," Artemis stammered. She seemed a little nervous around Starburst. Especially when she's angry.

Guilt flooded over her and she immediately started internally yelling at herself.

STOP MESSING UP! YOU COCONUT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

She sighed and continued on in silence.

Starburst started to get lulled by the steady flapping of her flying. Her mind grabbed her with its long grasp and pulled her in.