Wings of Darkness

By the light of golden treasure

New chapter! I've been rolling them out recently, haven't I? As always, sit back, listen to your favorite song, and enjoy.

Winter led the interesting duo around the cave that he and his friends called home. The strange SkyWing named Sky (of all things), and perhaps the most interesting out of the duo, was a scaven—no, a human, he remembered—named Wren.

"So, humans actually have a form of social structure?" Winter asked, looking down at a scroll held in one of his talons, covered in scribbles. He looked up to see Wren nodding.

"Yes," she replied. "While it varies from village to city, they're almost always like your queens, except for us, males usually rule instead of a queen."

"The village I... left... had a leader called a chief, which is pretty much just another word for king," Wren explained.

Winter nodded, intrigued, as he wrote down her answer on his scroll.

Wren thought for a moment, balancing on Sky's back as they walked down the hall. "So, may I ask, why are you so interested in humans?" Wren asked the IceWing.

Winter looked embarrassed and paused. "Well, at first... I thought you guys were cute," he said, causing Wren to look annoyed and start to protest, but Winter continued, "But later on, I learned that scaven—humans, I mean—were more than we'd thought, so I started studying your kind in my free time back in the Ice Kingdom."

Wren stayed quiet after that, finding his response acceptable. Winter looked back at Sky. "So, how did you somehow learn to speak dragon?"

Wren seemed reluctant to answer, but Sky spoke up for her. "She found me as a baby and helped me grow up," he said happily.

Winter stopped and looked at the human. "You... found him?" he asked, confused.

Wren nodded, glaring at Sky. "I found him as a baby in the mountains. I figured his parents tried to save him, since their home was burning."

Winter was getting more confused by the second. "Burning?" he asked. "But almost all SkyWing homes are made of stone and almost never burn."

Wren shrugged. "Well, it definitely was burning, and a whole lot of dragons were making a fuss about it."

Winter looked back at Sky. "Do you remember any of it?"

Sky frowned and shook his head. "Not much. I just remember coming up out of some water, and Wren was there."

Wren looked a bit offended. "Look, if you think I kidnapped him—" she began, but Winter interrupted with a snort.

"No, I doubt you'd ever be able to pull that off," he said with a smirk. "It would be almost impossible for you to climb up the mountains the SkyWings live on and make it back down with a baby dragonet."

Wren frowned but nodded. "I waited a while for his parents to show up, but they never did."

Winter stayed silent at that. This dragonet was about the same age as him, so his parents had likely lived around the same time as Scarlet...

Winter shook his head. "While all that's interesting, I know Starflight had some questions he wanted to ask you as well," he continued as they rounded a corner and entered the library.

Wren and Sky spotted the blindfolded NightWing sitting in a corner, looking as though he was staring off into space, yet smiling.

"What could he want us to look at? He's blind," Wren whispered. Suddenly, Starflight's head turned as if he were looking right at her.

Winter chuckled. "Trust me, he isn't as blind as he might seem."

Wren grew even more confused as the NightWing opened his mouth. "Hello again," he said. "I trust Winter was pleasant?"