Darkness Falls ~ Book 1 ~ A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter 11 ~ Tricked

~~~Mirage~~~

Something was chasing her. She didn't know what, but whatever it was, it was dangerous, and she had no way of stopping it. 

And then she woke up.

"Are you okay?" Frozenshadow asked, peering over at her from the next cot over. "You were thrashing around and mumbling something about danger."

"It was just a nightmare," Mirage replied, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, although she couldn't shake the overwhelming sense of terror she'd felt.

"If you're sure," the other hybrid shrugged. "At least you're not a prophet, or I'd seriously be worried."

"Indeed," Mirage murmured, laying down again and staring upwards at the ceiling cloaked by shadows. Recently, Lapwing had discovered an out-of-the-way storage room, and they'd stolen enough cots for everyone to sleep in it.

The Shades were still out there, she was sure of it, but nobody had seen them for the past five days, ever since the foraging party had escaped from Freeze. A part of her worried what they were up to, but she was grateful for the time to rest easy and not spend every moment looking over her shoulder.

"Do you hear something?" Frozenshadow suddenly asked. 

Mirage cocked her head and waited a beat, but didn't, and she said as much.

"Maybe I'm just too nervous," the IceWing/RainWing hybrid muttered, rolling over. 

With the sounds of all the snoring dragons surrounding her, Mirage felt comforted. She felt safe. It was the first time since the Shades' arrival that she'd felt that way, and it was enjoyable. 

"Hey, Mirage?" a voice whispered, after a few moments passed, and Mirage jumped. She peered around the room and saw nothing, but then realized that the sound had come from Leaf-cutter, who was mumbling in his sleep.

Cute, Mirage thought, watching him as he slept, which she realized would probably look weird if anybody noticed. 

Suddenly, a distant mind swept over her, pulling her into its depths. At first, she felt like she was underwater, which was normal only with SeaWings, but what happened next wasn't.

Instead of being able to breath underwater, Mirage found she was slowly chocking, and it was terrifying. She paddle furiously, trying to find the way up, even though she knew there wouldn't be. And it wasn't like she could escape the mind either; it held her trapped, like a bug in sap.

"Help!" she gurgled, black spots floating before her eyes. This wasn't how she'd ever thought she'd die, drowned inside the mind of another dragon.

"Mirage, wake up!" a familiar voice exclaimed, and she felt herself being pulled from the water, into a completely dry cave filled with sleepy dragons that were blinking at her groggily.

The dragon that'd brought her back was Leaf-cutter, and Mirage realized she must've hit him while she thrashed. "S-sorry," she stammered at the waking dragons. "I-I didn't m-mean to wake everyone."

"Well, you still did," Snipe grumped, rolling his eyes and laying back down with his back to her. Others followed his example, but Mirage ignored them. 

"What was that?" Leaf-cutter asked in a low voice. "You looked like you were drowning on air."

"I-I'm not sure," Mirage replied. "There was a mind nearby, and it - it sucked my inside. And then it started d-drowning me."

Lapwing stared at her incredulously. "Who was it? And are they dangerous? Should we be running?" he interjected.

"I'm not sure who it was, although they seemed like a SeaWing," she told him, frowning as she tried to remember. "And yes, they seemed dangerous, and we should most likely run."

Lapwing's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?" he exclaimed, snapping his head around to stare at the dragons who were trying futilely to fall asleep. "We need to go!" 

Mirage nodded and began running back and forth, waking up dragons left and right. "We need to go," she murmured as soothingly as possible. "Someone's coming."

Slowly, everyone groggily got up, and started filing into an adjoining room, their fear not quite registering as much as it should,

"Everyone's up," Frozenshadow whispered to Mirage. "Should we go?"

Frowning worridely, Mirage glanced at the door to the hall, in the direction she'd sensed the mind. "No. I'm going to find out who that was."

"Are you sure?" the IceWing/RainWing hybrid asked. "They almost killed you with their mind. Should you really be seeking them out?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Mirage responded. "That mind...it felt weird. There was something not entirely dragon about it. I'd rather face it prepared than have it attack us unawares."

Frozenshadow shrugged. "Well, I'm coming with you." 

Mirage dared to smile at that. "Alright. Let's go." Most of the room's former occupants were gone, so it was easy for the duo to slip out into the hallway unnoticed. Or so they thought.

A dragon followed them, creeping by on silent feet.

"So are you going to reach out to them again?" Frozenshadow asked once they were a safe distance away from that sleeping room. "Or are we just going to search the old-fashioned way?"

"Give me a moment," Mirage replied, closing her eyes as she concentrated. This time, she extricated herself from the mind easily, although the pace of thoughts confused her even more. 

Find the rebels, find the rebels, it murmured. Search for them, search for them.

Whatever it was, the voice seemed to have an eerie echo, whic caused Mirage to shiver. "This way."

After a few more confusing twists and turns, they ran smack dab into the quarry, which turned out to be non other than a familiar dark blue SeaWing.

"Depth?" Frozenshadow gasped. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you with the others?"

A look of confusion flashed across his face, and then disappeared. "The Shades captured me," he explained. "I only barely escaped."

"What?" Mirage yelped. "I thought you were with us!"

Depth shook his head. "No. Remember, you left me when you went to run in the first place. The Shades got me not much longer afterwards."

"I'm so, so sorry," Mirage told him. "But at least you safe now. Come on, let's go find the others." She didn't let herself think about the cold unnatural feeling to his thoughts, or the way she'd felt like she was drowning the first time she'd encountered his mind.

The three of them started back, Mirage and Frozenshadow leading the way, with Depth trailing in the back. As the walked, unbeknownst to the two female dragons, Depth's eyes flashed a blank white, the colour of dead snakeskins....

A/N

The plot thickens! Who do you think is following them? And what do you think is wrong with Depth? All will be revealed in the next chapter, Battle!