Wings of Fire • Dragon of Loyalty [4]

Chapter Five

The dragonet in question shuffled his talons, lowering his head. Rainwind realized with narrowed eyes that Eagletalon was holding a chunk of moa in his jaws. She glared at him and he shrunk under her scrutiny.

     "I, uh, brought this as a peace offering," Eagletalon said, lowering the food to his talons as he avoided their gazes, "I saw you as we made our way up and thought I'd stop by."

     It didn't take a genius to decipher that Eagletalon was talking about Rainwind. They had made eye contact after all. However slimy it made her feel to be associating herself with him.

     "I don't think-" she started, but Lightningtail cut her off.

     "That's awesome! Here," she said, patting the ground in front of her with a talon, "Come sit with us."

     Eagletalon smartly kept a wide berth around Rainwind as he made his way over. He sat stiffly, looking like he might want to bolt away any minute. The spot Lightningtail picked out for him was, unfortunately, right next to Rainwind and it was clear he was leaning away from her. Caught between her and Thunderclap, who was glaring daggers at him, Eagletalon did not look like he was having a fun time.

     Rainwind eyed the slab of bird in front of her then lifted her gaze to give Lightningtail a look. Her cousin returned one of her own that said "I dare you to harass him," before reaching forward and tearing the feathers off the chunk of flesh.

     "So," Lightningtail started, "What made you want to come over here?"

     Eagletalon shifted his weight and leaned further away from Rainwind and Thunderclap. "Like I said, I had a feeling I should come. You should be glad. I had to ditch Seaspray to sneak over here and that is not an easy task."

     "Of all the insufferable..." Rainwind growled, before quieting under Lightningtail's stare. She met her eyes and realized her cousin was barely holding it together, trying to appear to Eagletalon as if their bad history did not affect her. With a defeated sigh, Rainwind guessed it was worth it to be tolerable of him for once.

     "Seaspray aside," Quickclaws began, seemingly wanting to get to the point, "We do need your help. What can you tell us about Blackcloud?"

     Eagletalon visibly flinched at the mention of his name. "I didn't see him since the first evacuation. That's all I know. What have I got to do with him?"

     "Rainwind over here thinks you're a turnscale," Quickclaws stated, nodding at her. Rainwind shot him a glare but he waved it off with a smile. "Lightningtail is vouching for you. She wants to hear what you have to say."

     A sigh. Eagletalon didn't look happy but he looked relieved and Rainwind was still glaring at him suspiciously. She would track down Brisktail later and they would use the pebble to confirm all of his claims.

     "What would you like to hear?" Eagetalon asked, breaking her from her plotting. Rainwind stared him down to make sure he understood he had to be truthful.

     With a start, Rainwind realized she wanted him to lie so she would have a new reason to hate him. 'Excuse' was probably a better word than 'reason', however. Rainwind wasn't stupid – she could see how Eagletalon held himself. He wasn't proud of the things he had done and was taking his chance to be better – and that made her mad. She wanted to have a reason to hate him so that she could blame him for things going bad.

     Is that fair? Probably not, but when is life ever fair? She thought stubbornly.

     "What was Blackcloud like before he turned?" Quickclaws asked, setting off the conversation. With the way all of them were sitting, Rainwind thought it looked more like an interrogation than a friendly chat.