Deathbringer's Winter Turning

Chapter 6: The Island

Deathbringer swooped into the tunnel clearing. This part of the jungle still smelt uncomfortably like the NightWing island, and always reminded him of it. He landed and looked around. Glory was giving orders to seven RainWings who were holding dart pouches with slightly more confidence than most. Deathbringer tried really hard to remember the names of the RainWings, but when they changed colors so frequently it made it difficult.

"Deathbringer, about time," said Glory, ushering the RainWings to the tunnel entrance. She was stone grey, but he noticed small swirls of pale green through her wings and ruff. She must be more worried about Kinkajou than I thought.

"Hey," he said, catching her eye. "It's going to be fine. Kinkajou can take care of herself."

"Unlike some dragons I know," Glory replied. "But Icicle is dangerous. So the quicker we take care of her, the better."

"Count on me," Deathbringer said, grinning. "When have I ever let you down?"

"How much time do you have?" said Glory, cracking a hint of a smile. Deathbringer crinkled his snout at her and she gave him a exaggeratedly hard look.

"Uh, your Majesty?" asked one of the RainWings. He was holding a blowdart with a vaguely confused expression. "Which ones are we shooting again?"

"The female IceWing." Glory said. Her scales slid back to dark grey and her smile faded. Deathbringer flicked his tail.

"Yeah, okay. So... IceWings. They're, like, the blue ones, right? "

"I'm pretty sure that's SeaWings," interjected another.

"Both can be blue," said Glory. "But the one we're getting is white. And it's the female one, so don't go shooting Kinkajou's friend."

"Right, right. I get it," said the first guard, looking very much like he did not.

"Time to go," Glory muttered to herself. "Alright, everyone. Do you all have your blowdarts?"

There was a round of affirmations from the RainWings, half of whom were poking at frogs or examining flowers. But Deathbringer noticed they did all have their weapons and were even holding them with some level of seriousness.

"Fantastic, then," she said. "Let's go. Remember, camouflage. We can't let Icicle know we're here." 

Deathbringer considered reasurring her again, but decided against it and took the lead into the tunnel. It was dark and claustrophobic, and reminded him too much of the NightWing island. He remembered walking those cramped halls with Quickstrike, off to training again, or to the queen's chambers to learn how the council worked. Or to any of the horrible places filled with lava and smoke and the smell of death. 

He shook his wings out and took a few deep breaths. That was over now. He wasn't trapped under the claws of Battlewinner or Morrowseer or anyone. He had a new life, and a new purpose. 

He glanced at Glory, who was at the back of the procession. Her face was set, but he knew her well enough to notice the little nervous flick of her tail and the quick streaks of greengage that were quickly melted away. She was good at hiding it, but he knew she was more worried about Kinkajou than she'd ever admit.

Deathbringer reached the end of the tunnel and scanned the island. The entire top of the volcano had collapsed, destroying most of the fortress and making the whole place smaller. The remains of the cinder forests were gone, submerged in cooled lava floes. Deathbringer wouldn't miss it - he remembered the island prey in much too vivid detail for his taste.

"Go ahead," said Glory, nudging him out of the way so the rest of the RainWings could spill out from the tunnel. "Find them. Then we'll come in with the blowdarts."

He nodded and took to the sky, blending into the black smog and dreary overcast. The smell of burnt scales was horribly clear in the smoke - he knew it well from the various dragons executed in the queen's throne room, including Vengeance. Deathbringer tried to shake out the memories, unsuccessfully.

Focusing on the mission instead, he angled himself for a long, lazy swoop around the volcano, watching the shale slides and crumbled fortresses for any sign of glinting white or sandy yellow scales. Nothing... nothing... wait. There was a glint of something shiny, like a tail, disappearing into one of the caves.

Deathbringer checked to make sure no one was following the IceWing, and then arrowed into the nextdoor cave. He had to hope his scales hid him well enough. This cave was used for the RainWing prisoners, so it should connect to the chasm in the middle...

A sudden flicker of motion made Deathbringer freeze in his tracks. His instincts told him to hide, but he steeled his nerves and breathed a plume of flame to illuminate the cave. It wasn't an IceWing... it looked like some sort of treasure hidden inbetween the rocks. He pried it out of the wall and examined it with curiosity. It was a long, simple necklace with a singular silver ring attach to it. A weird piece of jewelry - it wasn't particularly ostentatious or made of a rare metal.

Unless... this necklace looked familiar. He tried to remember Quickstrike's lessons about the other tribes of Pyrrhia. IceWings were particularly fond of silver, as he recalled, and there was certainly none of it on the NightWing island. She's here.

Deathbringer shook off the chills that slithered through his wings and down his tail. He was fairly sure he could handle Icicle in a fight - and really, a NightWing should have no problem in the dark. It was just something about the acrid smell of RainWing venom, and the feeling of being utterly alone in the place where his nightmares had been staged all his life that made him feel strangely nervous as he proceeded further into the cave. Not scared, exactly, just... strange.

To be fair, though, the chasm that connected all the prisoner caves wasn't dark. It was lit by the warm glow of a lava flow somewhere deep below, and the ceiling had collapsed on one side into a huge shale slide that angled towards the volcano's top. Deathbringer felt his eyes adjust as he moved onto a sturdy-looking outcropping, studying the other caves for any sign of IceWings.

Suddenly, a noise made him freeze. He held his breath as what sounded like faint conversation whistled in from the collapsed ceiling. An argument, to be exact. He spread his wings and glided to a higher ledge, next to the shale slide. A few meters above him, a flight ledge connected to a cave entrance. 

He heard the flapping of wings, and there was definitely talking - he recognized the posh IceWing accent of Winter, as well as Kinkajou. "It isn't?" squeaked the RainWing. "Why not?"

"There was a city before this one," explained the NightWing. "The NightWings used to live somewhere on the continent, back in Darkstalker's time. But they fled their city after he was - one he was gone - and they came here."

Deathbringer glanced down and though he saw something like a dragon dart across the chasm below him, from one cave dangerously near the lava flow. He glimpsed scuffed white scales against the warm orange backdrop. The sounds of serrated claws on stone.

Icicle was here. And she was coming for them.