Flight For Peace - On Hold

Chapter 13

 Marlyn is the first to return.

Ferox, upon seeing him, begins to sob and sob, her body shaking with happiness and relief. Ashen's shoulders visibly relaxed and my chest seemed to loosen.

At first, all we see is Marlyn. He is skinner and bags hang under his eyes, but a grin is stuck to his face. And then we see why. Behind him are dragons: a whole flight!

"Am I the first back?" Marlyn's voice fills the emptiness in my chest. The gray dragon laughs gleefully as Ashen nods. "Well, I did think that I found these guys rather quickly, and I guess I was right." He turns to the dragons behind him as his grin widens, "Welcome to the Flight for Peace."

And with that, Marlyn takes off toward Ferox's trembling form. His body collides with her smaller one and they tumble onto the ground in tears and laughter. Warmth bubbles up in my chest as Ferox wipes away her tears.

My eyes travel back to the new dragons. Some are scrawny and covered in scars, others are bulky, and some have an average build. A dragon, one of the smaller ones, comes forth. His wings spread in welcome as his silver eyes travel around our flight.

Silver eyes.

Altair's silver eyes filled with determination before he disappeared.

"I hope we are welcome here." Spoke the red dragon. His body is covered in spikes, yet he seems to carry a certain kind of warmth.

Charity comes forward and greets him, "Of course you all are. My name's Charity, the leader of this flight. May I ask what is yours?"

The leader puffs out his chest involuntarily as he responds, "Ronec, the name's Ronec. Nice to meet you. Marlyn here," He gestures toward the two siblings who have wrapped their wings around each other, "Told us that you want to stop the war, and we," This time he gestures to his own flight, "have always wanted that. So, of course, we will join your cause, we are tired of being pushed around by larger flights!"

The flight behind him roars in agreement and Charity smiles, "I will be forever grateful for your decision. Now, I'm sure you all want to find a nice place to rest. Follow me." And she leads them to the unoccupied dens, some of which are newly built.

Maybe, just maybe, it will be possible to win this war and secure peace.

---

"Do you think we will live through this war?"

Ferox's timid question surprises me. I'm too stunned to answer, however, Purity is not, "There's no way to say, little one. We may live or we may die. Do we really have a choice in the matter?"

Her airy voice rings in my ears. Do we really have a choice?

Ashen bristles at Purity's response, "You can't just calmly say there is a chance we will die!" Smoke billows from her nostrils and her scales begin to eat up. I back away from the angry dragon.

Purity seems unfazed by Ashen's sudden anger as she responds calmly, "But there is. And if you fail to acknowledge that, you could die without ever saying goodbye."

Her words bring Altair's silver eyes back to the forefront of my mind. Did he know that he might have died in the battle? Did he realize that there was a chance? He couldn't have, he would have said goodbye just to be sure.

What were his last words to me? My heart aches as I realize that I can't remember.

I'm drawn back to the conversation at hand as Ashen retorts, "I wouldn't need to say goodbye. Isn't dying a hero enough?"