Wings of Fire; The Creed

Chapter 12

Starburst faltered, nearly falling out of the sky. She took a quick dive down to the closest stable object, and landed numbly on the branch she chose.

A gut-punched feeling made her nauseous, and her scale turned pale green. She felt slightly dizzy and fought to stay standing upright.

Why would a RainWing do this? I thought all the RainWings loved Queen Glory. None of this makes sense...

After a short while, Starburst finally managed to get some sort of control over her emotions again. Her heart was pounding, and she needed some sort of emotional anchor, but she refused to let that get in her way.

She looked around for anyone who she could question, when she arrived at the village, but everyone she looked in the direction of was either too busy doing something or noticed her and had a clear look of disgust on their faces, as if their scales weren't clear enough indicators.

The sun was finally starting to set, and Starburst's wings and shoulders were starting to ache. She was only coming up on blanks with her investigation. Maybe it helped to actually be liked and social when it came to talking to others. Both of which she was not.

Feeling disappointed, she made her way toward the NightWing village. Her thoughts were clouded by the pure exhaustion she felt, she didn't realize what she was doing until she started to hear the sounds of the village not far up ahead.

She snapped back to attention, and quickly halted in the air, her shoulders screaming at her to land already. She grunted through the pain, quickly whipped around and bolted in the other direction. She was not prepared to come face to face with her father yet. She didn't need him knowing that she was back home.

<O>

She finally hit the end of her body's capabilities, barely arriving on the front ledge of the hut her clawmates were staying in. She needed a place to sleep for the night, and even though she did not want to be with them, they were a better option than her father.

She quietly moved toward the door, trying not to be noticed by her clawmates, but as she made her way in, she heard a soft sound of wings in the distance.

Her ears perked up, and her instincts took over, forcing her to roll behind one of the walls and into a pile of leaves nearby. She quickly turned her scales to match the shadows of the leaves and looked out into the open space of the village center.

It was hard to make out in the dark, but she could see that there were at least two dragons flying by. They looked to be holding something in the talons, but she couldn't tell what.

"Of course, we got stuck with the night shift," one of the dragons said.

"Eh. It could be worse. We just have to make sure that we stay awake at the..." the other dragon said, the last part of the sentence was cut off as the voices faded away.

Starburst was going to make an attempt at following them, but as she left her cover, and was about to take off after them, her shoulders finally gave out and she nearly collapsed right then and there. Her legs wobbled, but she stayed silent and upright, more or less.

She turned back to the door of the hut, hoping beyond hope that she could enter unseen and unheard, and leave early in the morning before anyone knew she was there. As she was about to enter the hut, she heard the sound of soft humming coming from inside the hut.

She paused momentarily before continuing on into the hut. She poked her head in through the door, looking around to see her clawmates spread out throughout.

Bubble found himself a spot in one of the hammocks that were spread in the Visitors Hut. Boris was in a dark corner of the hut, his usual grumpy face that Starburst was used to him wearing was broken, replaced by a calm demeanor. Diamondback was curled up on a small rug of woven vines, he seemed to be unsettled a bit, his barbed tail twitching every once and a while.

Starburst looked around in the shadows of the hut, straining her eyes to try to make out a small NightWing somewhere in them, but she couldn't see anything. She looked over toward what sounded like the source of the humming and saw her NightWing clawmate staring up at the sky with rays of broken moonlight showering her. She situated herself to lean up against the window she was sitting next to, seemingly melting away all the tension she usually had.

The melody she was humming was a soft tune, matching the different songs of the birds Starburst grew up listening to in the rainforest. Starburst gradually found herself inching toward the NightWing. She fought her body for a second, trying to keep her guard up, but her exhaustion got the better of her, and she gave in. The sereneness radiating off the small NightWing... Starburst longed for that feeling. She silently walked up next to the NightWing, who still didn't notice her RainWing clawmate's presence.

Starburst listened for a second, absorbing every note Artemis hummed, and Starburst joined in, with a different bird song, harmonizing with the song Artemis was humming.

Artemis continued to hum, not recognizing the different voice until a little bit later, when she looked over at Starburst sitting next to her. She jumped a little, stopping her humming out of shock, but Starburst kept humming for a little bit longer, until she too came to a stop.

"You have a really pretty voice," Starburst said.

"T-Thanks. You have a really pretty voice too," Artemis replied with a small smile. "What are you doing here? I thought you were somewhere out in the rainforest. Don't you have somewhere else to stay? Why would you stay with us?"

"I..."

Starburst thought for a moment. Was she sure she wanted to tell Artemis the real reason why? No. She won't.

"I forgot my way there," Starburst replied stupidly.

Artemis gave Starburst a skeptical look, so clearly saying. "As if. You didn't forget a lifetime's worth of experience," but she didn't pry.

"Why aren't you asleep like everyone else?"

Artemis looked back out at the star-covered sky, "I find it hard to sleep at night. I am pretty sure it is the NightWing half of me."

"Isn't your brother also half NightWing?"

Yeah, but I think that his dominant side is SandWing, which is why he looks more like a SandWing than I do."

Starburst nodded, "Makes sense."

They both sat there in silence, listening to the sound of animal activity. Artemis continued to hum, but Starburst was too tired to join back in.

Starburstlay down, closing her eyes, not bothering to move to a more comfortablelocation, and almost immediately fell asleep. The last thing she heard otherthan Artemis' humming was a distant voice saying, "Be there at sunrise, anddon't let anyone follow you."