Unshattered

Chapter Six

As they flew higher into the treetops, Soaren wondered, should I ask about the cactus juice now? What happens if she ran out of it, then I'll have to go to the Kingdom of Sand. But Hvitur told me it would be best not to go there because I'll get into more trouble. Oh moons...

Glory stopped and hovered. The SkyWing saw Deathbringer beside her frowning when he looked at the dragon sitting on one of the suntime platforms. But this platform wasn't exactly in the sun; it was shady and leaves covered a view of the light.

Soaren caught a glimpse of the dragon, who was reading a scroll perfectly well in the darkness. Her scales sparkled dimly on pitch black and frost blue. Cold night sky wings were tucked in as her whipped tail flicked around patiently.

His eyes widened on how beautiful she was, just as beautiful as the queen, probably more a bit. But this dragon's expression and face looked like she meant business.

The dragon's icy blue eyes glowered at Soaren.

"Who's that?" She asked skeptically.

She stood up, her neck straightened with her head held in a still position. It looked as if she'd been practising that stance and aced it. Her posture was like modelling for the perfect sculpture, yet her face was so calm.

Soaren saw a thin black pouch in the shape of a haladie knife strapped around her neck and a silver crescent moon earring that hung from her left ear.

"Oh," Glory said, nodding at the SkyWing. "Soaren, this is Moondrift. Moondrift, this is Soaren."

Moondrift nodded to him with a small smile, then turned to Glory with a serious face on. But as she did, Soaren spotted a silver scale in the shape of a teardrop painted in the corner of her eye.

"So what do you want?" Moondrift yawned.

He wondered if that scale was there for a purpose or if all NightWings have that.

But he looked over at Deathbringer and saw that he didn't have one.

"You must address the queen in a proper manner," Deathbringer scolded Moondrift, "'penguin head'."

"Mind you, smug snout," Moondrift snapped back, the tension in her body was breaking.

"We," Glory said with her voice raised, "need your help."

"Yes, I know that," the hybrid rolled her eyes.

Tsunami groaned and yelled, "THE DREAM VISITOR AT JADE MOUNTAIN ACADEMY IS MISSING CAN YOU FIND IT PLEASE."

Soaren wrinkled his snout at the SeaWing, but just realised that Aqua was still there beside him, hovering.

He glanced at her and saw the gem glowing white, with an expression on her face that obviously looked as if she was either really shy or incredibly meek. Which she wasn't.

Should I tell them about the cactus thing now? They look like they don't have time though...but I need to save Hvitur...after all he's done for me, I can't let him die in such a terrible, unfair way...

Suddenly, Moondrift's blue eyes landed on him. She made a gesture for him to come closer.

"You, SkyWing," she said.

"Umm, y-yes?"

She squinted her eyes at him. "You need brightsting cactus juice to heal SandWing venom. Is that why you're here?"

That shocked Soaren so much it sent him startling back away from her.

Glory turned to look at him as well. "Brightsting cactus? Well, I could ask the healers for some. Moondrift could probably lead you to them."

Soaren was surprised that Glory didn't sound so shocked at how Moondrift had practically read his mind.

"But d-didn't she j-just...?" He stuttered.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention," Moondrift said casually. "I can read minds. Whatever you're thinking right now, I can hear it, so don't bother trying to hide anything from us."

"Yes, yes, yes, you can read minds and all that stuff, NOW PLEASE HELP US FIND THAT DREAM VISITOR." Tsunami interrupted desperately.

Moondrift rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, but don't scold me if I can't find it."

Without another word, she shot up into the air with Tsunami, leaving her scroll in the dust and soon becoming small flapping wings in the distance.

Glory turned back to Soaren. "So. I'll give you the directions to the healer's hut. There, just ask them for some of the cactus juice, but be specific about it and state your reason; they've started becoming suspicious of everything ever since the NightWing Exodus."

Soaren waited for her to give him the directions.

"Oh," she realised. "You see those larger huts near mine?"

He nodded.

"Fly down to the hut furthest to the right. You'll either find two RainWing healer's or an IceWing aiding the injured dragons in there. Go to the IceWing for help if the RainWings are too busy with something else."

Soaren nodded and bowed his head. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

He flew off and followed Glory's orders. His peripherals told him that Aqua was following behind him, her gem still glowing a pale white, as white as the snow.

He turned back to the front and suddenly stopped when he realised he was right in front of the hut already.

He landed on the platform in front of it and peered inside. He entered nervously and saw a row of cots filled with wounded dragons, which were mostly RainWings.

One of them had a bad scratch on his face that wouldn't stop bleeding, so there was a RainWing beside him at all times.

There was another RainWing who was moaning in pain as a healer was dabbing a wet cloth on the snake bite on her leg.

The third RainWing was asleep, but Soaren spotted a bad burn on the side of his underbelly.

The last RainWing was... dead.

The healers couldn't save her.

"What happened to those poor dragons?" Aqua whispered empathetically. The SkyWing saw her gem glow magenta and she gave a worried look.

"I...I don't know," he said. "I don't get how that could have happened. It's always peaceful in the Rainforest and Glory would've made sure that the NightWings — if they did do this — won't harm any dragons."

"But I've been to the Rainforest before," Aqua confessed. "Nothing like this happens to dragons here. Now."

Soaren's gaze shifted to the dragon sitting down beside the row of cots.

The SkyWing could easily read his face: failure, disappointment, sorrow, sadness, mourning.

He realised this dragon was the IceWing Glory mentioned to him earlier. The ice dragon had one talon to his forehead and sighed with depression.

"Um," Soaren said. The other dragon looked up at him. "I'm looking for some brightsting cactus, if, um...that's alright with you. I mean, you don't have to give it to me if you don't want to, but, uh...if you can and you're fine with it...I can tell you're not in the mood so maybe I should just go..."

The IceWing jumped up. "Oh no," he said, "It's fine."

The IceWing reluctantly rummaged through all the things in the healer's hut, looking for the cactus.

But in between the bottle clanking, he kept mumbling to himself, "Terrible...stupid...idiot...she's dead...me..."

When he found what Soaren had been looking for, he held it up with a suspicious look.

"Why do you need this though? Oh, better question: who are you?"

"I'm...Soaren. I'm not dangerous or anything if that's what you're thinking."

The IceWing tilted his head. "I'm Snowstorm."

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