Wings of Fire - Eclipse Burning (1)

Chapter 11

The next afternoon, the Silver Winglet met in the music cave. It was like being inside a singing bowl; the music catapulted around the high, smooth walls like thread winding around and around the assembled dragons. 

Eclipse had followed Ostrich over to a wing-shaped harp. The SandWing picked it up and began playing it as Umber tried keeping up on a hollow stringed instrument as tall as a dragon that boomed in a deep bass register. 

Eclipse noticed immediately when Moon and her winglet arrived. The sense of her sisters anxious excitement overlaying everyone else around her.  

Moon and Eclipse made eye contact and Eclipse grinned at her. But before Moon could trot over Kinkajou jumped forward. 

"Let's join in!" Kinkajou cried happily, shouting over the music. She seized a pair of gourds that rattled as though they were full of dry seeds, and she tossed Moon a wooden box. 

The box was square, as long as Moon's forearm, and looked like it had several metal tongues of different sizes attached to the top of it. A label carved into the side said it was a mbira. When she plucked one of the tongues with her claw, a reverberating, twangy noise came out, and it turned out to be a slightly different noise for each tongue. 

Eclipse suddenly sensed Winters arrival, wrapping chilly talons around her mind. Of course there was already a chilling mind hiding somewhere in the cave but Winters mind was just different. 

Moon - to shy to make music - sad, she's missing out, rang Kinkajou's mind. Eclipse saw Moon notice her trail of thought and began trying to match the rhythm of the music already booming throughout the cave. 

Eclipse trotted over, throwing a wing over Moon's shoulders and guided her a bit more into the cave, releasing her shortly after to begin swaying on her feet with the music. 

Soon after that, Qibli came bounding into the cave and straight over to the drums, where he ousted a bewildered Thrush. As he began to play, Eclipse felt Moon's anxious thoughts begin to wither away for the first time all day. 

Qibli drummed with his whole body, like he was dancing and drumming at the same time. His tail thumped a rhythm on a huge bass drum behind him, while his front talons jumped and skipped and bumped from one small drum to another. 

Anemone grabbed Turtle and started dancing, and after a moment, Kinkajou, Boto, and Sepia joined in. Sepia dragged Eclipse in as well and she started dancing with them too, twirling in tight circles and laughing. 

It was even better than the raindrop trick; here, with the drums echoing off all the walls and swallowing individual thoughts, Eclipse felt like her head was clear and she didn't have to worry about anything. 

It seemed to work for Qibli, too. For once, his mind was moving at about the normal speed of other dragons, absorbed in the pounding below his talons. 

Afterword, to both Moon's and Eclipse's surprise, Winter caught up with them on their way to the library. 

"I want you to look at my scavenger," he said to Eclipse brusquely. Don't make eye contact! he was shouting at himself. Don't think about her! You're a disgrace to the royal IceWing lineage, Winter! Your brother would never have been so weak! 

"Oh, well," She faltered. "I don't really know all that much about scavengers." 

"Then use your intuition or whatever," he said. Or whatever, his mind echoed ominously. 

"We were just heading to the library so, maybe later?" Eclipse said, twining her tail around Moons when she sensed her mind race with anxiety. 

"Fine, I'll bring him there." He whisked away before she could protest.