Chapter 8
Raspberry
Raspberry was pulled from sleep as she falt a talon on her shoulder. She blearily blinked her eyes, trying to disperse the last grasping remnants of sleep. She sat up and glanced around. The forest around her was pitch black, and she could see the glimmer of stars through the swaying branches above her.
I hate mornings badly enough as it is, she thought bitterly, without being woken up in the middle of the night.
She turned her head, eyes narrowed, to the dragon who had pulled her from her dreams. To her surprise, it wasn't a dragon she recognized. The dragon with pale scales was standing over Raspberry, and as she sat up he glanced down at her, "Raspberry?" he asked, sounding unreasonably nervous.
He must have seen her eyes widening surprise because he quickly tried to reassure her. "Don't worry," he reached a talon out towards her, "Nightfall sent me to get you and Palm."
Raspberry spat, feeling as though she had a foul taste in her mouth. That she-devil. who does she think she is, sending strange dragons to retrieve us?
"It's true Raspberry." Palm was suddenly standing behind the white dragon, Raspberry leaped to her feet, her tail lashing. She was glad in that moment that they couldn't see her conflicting emotions. "Apparently Nightfall found and attacked them. Snowstorm," he gestured to the other dragon, "is an old friend of Nightfall's."
"Yes!" the dragon, Snowstorm, leaped at the explanation like a dragonet after a spot of light. "We used to know each other on the island. Surely she told you about the island?"
Yes, that was right, Raspberry realized, she had mentioned something like that. Her tail stilled against the cyfe of the forest floor, and her wings relaxed down again. "Okay, I get that. But why are you here, and why did you wake me up in the middle of the night!"
Snowstorm
Snowstorm felt the irritated gaze of the female dragonet flying behind him piercing his tail like so many icicles. He had absolutely no idea why she was so mad. Sure, she had just been woken up in eh middle of the night by a strange dragon, but even that couldn't make her this angry. He wondered if it was something else, or maybe she just really wasn't a morning dragon.
The other dragonet, Palm, flew with strong wingbeats beside him. His scales gleamed with a cold golden glow. Snowstorm decided that it couldn't quite be called silver since there was an obvious yellowish sheen beneath the moonlight, but it came pretty close. Snowstorm's own wings stood out like a glowing search beam in the darkness, the moon turning them an even paler silver white. He thought that it was interesting that he couldn't quite seem to just call their colorings silver, but didn't dwell on it. He could see the small flickering gleam of the campfire up ahead and beyond that the vast emptiness of the neverending ocean. Sometimes he wondered what the ocean would look like if it was instead great dunes of sand, or snow…
"Hey!" Raspberry called out behind him, "watch out. I think we've passed your camp."
Snowstorm turned his head only to see that, in fact, they had just passed the smoldering campfire. He cursed and spun around, his tail nearly hitting Palm in the face with its momentum, then dove down to land next to Delta.
She jumped, then glared at him. "What are you doing?" she hissed, "Nightfall and the other dragonet are sleeping!"
He grinned at her, "how long are we going to keep calling him 'the other dragonet' for? It already seems like we adopted him, so we should at least know his name."
"Idiot," she muttered, and accidentally brought her tail down on a log resting on the edge of the fire, sending a shower of sparks in a shining arc about them. She yelped and shook of the embers that had settled onto her tail.
Snowstorm heard a cough behind him and turned to see the other two dragons standing behind him. Palm was awkwardly glancing at his talons, while Raspberry stared disdainfully at everyone in the clearing. Nightfall had described her as such a sweet little dragonet, he was beginning to doubt that these were the correct dragons. This Raspberry seemed positively sour.
He laughed at his own joke.
"Well, if you two are finished with your extremely interesting little talk, can we please wake everyone up so that we can get on with the conversation and then I can finally get to sleep?"
Delta cleared her throat, "yes, of course." she stepped over the tiny sleeping form of the tiny dragonet and put a talon on Nightfall's shoulder. The younger dragon blinked her eyes blearily as Delta shook her, a little bit roughly Snowstorm thought.
"What?" she yawned, "why is it still dark out. Oh." the last word was uttered after she realized that it was Delta who had woken her. "What do you want?"
"Your friends are here. We think that we should all sit down and talk like one big happy family."
"We're not friends." Raspberry piped up and was instantly shushed by Palm.
"I don't care," Delta spun on her, "whether you're friends, enemies or dragonets from the same womb, will you please just shut your mouth for one moment and let us actually talk?"
Raspberry shut her mouth compliantly, then looked guiltily at her talons.
"So. why are you all here? Why are you away from the island Nightfall?"
"Can I ask a question?" Palm asked, sitting up straight from his crouched position near the fire. "Why does it seem that everyone here hates Nightfall? And how exactly do you know each other?"
"I don't hate Nightfall." Delta said smoothly, "we just never saw eye to eye on eh matter of the island. She was there from the very start, even before scallop or I showed up. She also never told us anything about herself. Nightfall has always considered the island to be our savior."
"while you have always had more of a 'let's get the hell out of here as soon as we can' mindset." Nightfall shot back, "where else do you want us to go? The island is our home. We can't just leave it."
Snowstorm was silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably on his talons. "Actually, that's exactly why we're out here," he said sheepishly. Delta shot him a glare, while Nightfall just looked incredulous.
"What, are you running away? How do you expect to survive out here?"
"We're not running away." Delta snarled, "the island started to collapse, so we were sent out to find somewhere else for all of the other dragons to live."
"How about we help you?" Palm sat up perkily, his ears pricked forwards. "We were just heading to the island, but if it's not safe anymore, what better way to help our future tribe mates than to find their new home?" he asked excitedly.
"Sounds like a suicide mission to me." Nightfall and Raspberry said simultaneously, then glanced in surprise at the other. Snowstorm thought that is was amusing how similar they were in certain ways.
"Well, I think not!" Palm cried, "okay. It's settled then. We will help to search for new land!"
He really is like an overexcited puppy. Snowstorm thought with a snort.
...
Hey there, and thank you for reading chapter eight of The Scorching: Legends of Pyrrhia! I hope that you are all enjoying the story, and will continue to enjoy it for the chapters to come!Ii will be trying to update more frequently for the last few chapters, so watch out for that!
-Nightfall100
Note: Cyfe: literally Crap You Find Everywhere. Refers to the dead leaves, dirt, and pine needles found on teh forest floor. A term used at a camp that I go to.
