Wings of Fire • Dragon of Loyalty [4]

Chapter Eight

Hey guys! I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I had it written a while ago but I didn't like the way it was making the story progress so I essentially rewrote it. It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go and I hope I got it right this time. "Quality over quantity," and all. I hope the next chapter will make up for one of those aspects, if not both. I've been really slow lately.

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After the pebble finished speaking, Lightningtail leaned down and sniffed the Ice Mirror. She was silent for a long time, the only sound being the moan of the wind as it blew through the ruins. "I don't think we should use this anymore," she finally said.

     "What?" Rainwind exclaimed, tearing her gaze from the Truth Stone in her talons and blinking in surprise.

     "Why?" Thunderclap added, tilting his head at his sister. Quickclaws was still pacing and Brisktail was silent, staring at the pebble in Rainwind's claws.

     "Well, to start, we just... broke time, or something," Lightningtail argued, "I think that's pretty telling."

     From his spot marching in the snow, Quickclaws added: "And we don't even fully understand how it works. We had no idea that was going to happen. How do we know it won't happen again?" Lightningtail nodded vigorously as he made his point.

     "But Brisktail could fix it," Rainwind pointed out, lifting her talon to gesture to him, "We just need to make it so that the mirror is no longer a window. That was the problem, wasn't it?"

     Lightningtail frowned. "Yeah, the 'window' part was the problem, but I don't want to take any chances; for instance... how do we know it's completely fixed? What if we just... throw it in the ocean and leave it there forever? No one will find it and nothing bad can happen."

     Thunderclap snorted. "You agree with Quickclaws that we don't know what will happen. Who's to say it doesn't wash ashore in a thousand years and someone finds it then? Or a SeaWing finds it before then? What kind of bad things might happen if-"

     "Then take away the enchantment that keeps it unbreakable and destroy it," Quickclaws and Lightningtail chimed at the same time.

     Rainwind frowned at their suggestion. She wanted to go to the bay and see what caused Windwhipper to start the rebellion for the first place – the mirror was their best bet for that. Plus, they could use it to find Swansong's movies for murdering her mother as well. After that, they could come back to the tribe and make everything better. Wasn't that important, too?

     "We need the mirror to figure out what happened in the past," Brisktail spoke up for the first time, his quiet voice grabbing their attention immediately, "So that we can save the tribe now. We won't know if we're missing anything if we ask the stone. How about we leave this problem for now, go home, and think of a better plan? We'd need time to gather supplies to travel anyway. We don't need to rush anything."

     At his words, Rainwind and Quickclaws scoffed. Rolling her eyes and twirling her talon in the air, Rainwind gestured to no one in particular as she spoke: "Yeah, no need to rush – except a crazy, manipulative dragon wants to murder the leaders of our tribe. Let's sit down and have tea with him."

     Brisktail shrugged. "That's not what I meant. I meant that he just attacked a few days ago and we don't know where he is, so there's no need to worry."

     Ignoring Rainwind's muttering's of "That sounds like something to worry about," Brisktail took the Truth Stone from her claws and asked it: "Is the tribe in any immediate danger?"