Dragon Prince: The Storm's Heart

Chapter Seventeen: Ibis

Shira was stunned to silence by Ibis's sudden revaluation to her. But she pushed away any anger and fear that she indirectly felt towards him. She wrapped her arms around Ibis and squeezed her dad tightly. Shira felt Ibis's strong arms wrap around her. She shut her eyes and let her whole body relax into the embrace. "I don't believe it." A silent sob escaped from her. Warm tears were sliding from Ibis's face too.
Ibis hurried to embrace Shira, evoking a snuggle from his daughter. Tears pricked her eyes in response to the warmth of Ibis's arms. He carried the scent of the sky, the wind, and the rain. The simple feeling of being home again. She let out a noise that was halfway between a sigh and a sob.
Shira could of been angry towards Ibis. But she couldn't. She knew she as well as she knew her mother. For the first time, Shira understood why her mother had been so insistent on taking Shira camping and sky-gazing. Every time they were in the woods on a summer day, every time a thunderstorm came from the sky, Ibis had been there.
Maybe she should have resented him, but Shira didn't. After losing her mother, she didn't have patience for grudges. Her years alone in the mountain village had taught her that it was pointless to whine and moan about what one could've had. Shira was just happy to have this moment.
They soon both pulled back from the embrace. But they both held each other's hands, not willing to loose each other again and feeling the warmth from each other. When Shira looked up at Ibis's face, his face was alight with pure happiness. It was like when Shira's mother would come home from a long trip and see her daughter after weeks of absence, her mother's eyes shining brighter than the sun.
Still... Ibis's presence felt reassuringly familiar. Even though Shira had never met Ibis, she was reminded of all her happiest moments — her mother reading Shira Xadian legends and myths; befriending Aethra; her meeting with Rayla, Callum, and Ezran; watching Zym's hatching day; an afternoon in the woods when her mother had picked her up, kissed her, and showed Shira an oncoming storm. Never be afraid of a thunderstorm, Shira. That is your father, letting you know he loves you.
"Dad." It felt so good to call him that, but Shira still has many questions regarding him and Mom. "Where were you? What happened between you and Mom?"
"Please let me explain." Ibis's voice was raw and choked with emotion. Warm tears started sliding down from his face.
⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️Many Years Ago:
"It all started when I was sent away to do a spying mission for King Avizandum in the Human Kingdoms." Ibis was flying high in the stormy gray sky, away from the Human Kingdoms. But torrents of rain poured down on him, soaking him to the skin. The raindrops sounded like pebbles against him and the woods underneath him. Black thunderclouds swirled in the sky, flickering with swift lightning.
"But one day, I was shot down from a group of elf-hating humans." Something slammed right into him and coils the tangled net around him, restricting his movement! He was falling! He tried to steer his fall into the forest, but he was too tangled in the net to do so. He heard cruel cheering and laughter far behind him.
Ibis struggled to free himself as he continued to fall, tumbling through empty air, but to no avail. Whoever threw this cursed thing had a good arm. His arms were deeply tangled in the net, Ibis was going to crash! He braced myself for impact, at least he was heading for the forest and not a human village.
"CRASH!" Ibis went through the trees headfirst the branches and twigs snapping in his face. He soon landed rather roughly against the earth, in a small clearing. When he tried to move his left arm, it was too painful to move and he had a hard time breathing. He must of broken it when he crashed landed. "I've crashed landed pretty hard in the middle of the woods. I was terribly injured from the landing and I was deeply tangled within the rope." Breathing heavily, Ibis tried to block out the pain. Dark spots were forming in the edges of his vision, Ibis starting to lose consciousness.
"Little did I know, someone had spotted me in my time of need." But not too far off, a young and beautiful blonde-haired woman with warm hazel eyes and in a green dress named Bianca was riding a buckskin mare named Rosie on a trail towards her cottage. She and her mare were both soaked from the rain, though Bianca enjoyed feeling the touch of rain and smell the wet dew.
But she stopped her horse when she soon saw something dark and falling out of the sky, clearly tangled in a net of a sort. "What...?" Bianca watched the captive with rapt curiosity and wary sympathy as it was flying in an odd, loopy way for some reason. The being struggled with its flying and fell into the forest, plummeting like a comet out of the sky. Bianca wasn't sure what type of being she was seeing, but she has to help the poor being. Bianca spun Rosie around and urged her mare to gallop after the falling being. She followed it all the way out into the woods.
Through the sparse canopy of leaves, the light of the crescent moon shone through in soft rays of silver. The air was humid, that even the clouds that hung in the sky were stiff with cold. All the animals were huddled in their nests and dens, sleeping through the night with hopes that tomorrow's sun will bring back the warmth to the world. The only creatures that dared be out tonight were the fuzzy rabbits that munched on the leaves, not worrying about predators that might snatch them away, and a few skittering field mice, searching desperately for spare shriveled berries on the forest floor.
But the animals hidden away when the ground have started trembling from Bianca riding Rosie in a careful gallop.
It wasn't till she had found a circle in the treetops that was probably made the captive. Her eyes were soon drawn to a clearing in the earth surrounding the captured one. The ground beneath the captive is slightly scratched up and muddy, but the injured captive remained still and silent.
"Though, I wasn't exactly expecting for help to come from the most unexpected person." Bianca dismounted her horse and took out a Sunforge knife from her secret pocket. As she stepped towards the net cautiously, she gasped at the sight of the being. The being is a Skywing elf. Though he is quite handsome... for an elf.
She shook her head from that strange thought and her feelings towards the elf. Bianca noticed that the elf's eyes were opened and met her gaze. His eyes are blue as a cloudless sky. Ibis was surprised and amazed to see a beautiful woman human, but she was holding a knife in her hands.
"Even though she was hesitant in freeing me, but I felt her heart is full of empathy and concern." A sliver of lightning flashed overhead. The elf's face was illuminated for a moment, but a moment was all that Bianca had read. Bianca saw the elf's fear. She saw his sadness. She saw his defiance. She could almost hear his thoughts: I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. But she also saw his love for life and the promises it held for him — promises the hunters would sever with theirs weapons.
Ibis was at her mercy, he was in the Great Spirits' hands. Ibis closed his eyes waiting for the deathblow. He closed his eyes, he laid down limply onto the muddy ground. The woman took a deep breath and...nothing.
Bianca looked up at the moon as if she was trying find some inner strength and took a deep breath, then releasing it. She started using her knife by carefully cutting the elf's bonds.
Ibis's eyes flashed opened and was surprised to see what the woman human was doing. But he wasn't able to stay conscious long enough as the woman started freeing him and laid limp on the ground.
Bianca soon freed the elf from his bonds, but she realized that he had probably exhausted himself from his fight against the net and it seemed that he had broke his left arm too. Bianca felt concerned towards the elf and whistled for her horse to step in to help her.