Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

chapter 20

By thedragonshifter
Pleiades's PoV

     Hemlock? Is it really him? And, he's... saving me? She could feel a comforting warmth fill her heart, washing away a small bit of the fear, sadness, and anger that had been locked up in it for so long. She hadn't  expected anybody to rescue her out of the Sun Kingdom. She had never thought that anybody actually cared enough about her to do so, unless Neptune found a way to escape from her cell. Hemlock cares about me...

     She heard the sound of claws echoing around the chamber, and she tried to find which direction the sound was really coming from, and turned her head towards it. "Thank... You." She croaked, though her voice was barely audible. The chains that were wrapped around her started to slide, and the sound of a key lock opening rang into her ears before she realized that she was facing the wrong direction. Then, with a clank! The chains fell off of her and onto the cold stone ground. "Anytime." She heard Hemlock whisper.

     Pleiades lifted one of her talons and felt around where her eyes were supposed to be on her head, but she could only feel deep gashes and warm blood. Though, she couldn't feel any of the wounds that she had received. Instead, her entire body was numb from the pain. Along with multiple scratches all over her, she had been permanently blinded. My torture was the last thing that I would ever see. I won't ever see the blue sky, the beautiful mountains, forests, the three moons, ... the stars that never failed to make me feel at home, the happy faces of my frien- of Hemlock when we go on a new adventure.

     She turned her head in the direction of the Cloudwing that she had tried to kill when they first met. The movement felt different when the only thing she could see was blackness. Hemlock, my only friend. He risked his life to save me. She she took her talon off of her destroyed eyes and instead felt around the edges if the freshly blood spattered table she had been previously chained to, trying to find a place for her to slide off of its surface.

     She was about to step down from the metal table, but she stopped herself, realizing that it was completely silent in the chamber. Where's Hemlock? What if I accidentally poison him? Or I accidentally hurt him? Or, did he leave? The silence was killing her.

     "Hemlock? Where are you? Where did you go?" She asked nervously, swiveling her head around like she could still see with her eyes. "I'm still here." She could hear him whisper from a little ways away, and after Pleiades concluded that he wasn't in front of her, she half stepped, half fell off of the cold metal table.

     "This way." Hemlock whispered before Pleiades could hear soft, pattering footsteps leading further away. She moved towards the sound of his feet, occasionally running into large, mysterious contraptions until she felt walls on either side of her, signaling that she had gone through a doorway.

    She could still hear him, the footsteps sounding more distant this time. As Pleiades continued to follow Hemlock through the dungeons, her panic grew with each step she took. It seemed like she ran into every wall in the entire underground maze, tripped on every stair step she walked up, and almost got them caught with every guard that they passed. Though, she tried to contain her fear and panic, instead focusing on not losing Hemlock.

     Then finally, she felt fresh air wash over her when they finally escaped the large dungeon. She could feel grass disintegrate under her talons as she set foot on it, and like she always did at night, she turned her head expectantly up at the sky. Or at least what she thought was the night sky. Though, she couldn't see it's beautiful darkness. She could only see the lifeless, never ending black that would strangle her the rest of her life, like the neverending depth of the void, a haunting shadow full of sadness.

     "Pleiades! Hurry..." Hemlock called from her right. His voice was quieter out in the open, and she couldn't hear his muffled footsteps on the grass. "Where are you?" She called back, her ears flicking in every direction. Worry clouded her mind as she thought of how she would navigate around the rest of her life. She would destroy everything in her path, unintentionally kill dragons by just stepping on their foot for too long, and how would she even avoid endangering herself and Hemlock without her eyes? Never before in her life had Pleiades felt so worthless and weak.

     She walked in the direction where she thought Hemlock's voice had come from, but realized that she was going the opposite direction when he called her name again. "Sorry." She mumbled as she made her way towards him, noticing the ground change from purely grass to a mixture of grass and dirt. "It's not your fault." Hemlock murmured before she could hear his footsteps on the crunchy sand leading her onward.

     They walked for only a few more minutes before Hemlock stopped again. "Wait here. We are at a shop where a very nice family of Sunwings have allowed me to stay for a week. I need to run in and find a way to get you inside the house without anything being ruined." He whispered . Pleiades nodded her head in the direction of his voice and crouched down in the spot she was standing in. She could hear his footsteps fading away and a door hinge creak as he walked inside the shop, leaving Pleiades by herself somewhere nearby.

     She had no idea where she was, and if made her feel exposed. A Sunwing guard could find me any moment and drag me back into those dungeons. Her mind flashed back to the image she saw before she was blinded, and she could feel a chill run up her spine. Just the very thought of it made the numbness on her wounds fade a little, stinging just the tiniest bit. Once the numbness is gone, there is no doubt that I will be in a whole world of pain.

     Hemlock was only gone for a few minutes before she heard the door open again and his hurried steps approaching her. "Come on and follow me, the Sunwing family doesn't know you're here and the sun's close to rising." His voice was urgent, and Pleiades stood from her spot, following him into the shop.