Chapter 9
Scars
Pelican lay in her hammock, the breeze slowly rocking the green cocoon.
Treejumper was nearly finished with the hammocks. She had already made six and was halfway through the seventh. They'd made it work with six hammocks the night before- Mange and Ocelot shared a hammock, and Treejumper slept with Pelican.
Pelican watched Treejumper weave the hammocks and admired the skill in which she did so. If Pelican were to try something like that, she'd surely bungle it up.
"Pelican!" Falcon yelled from the other side of the forest. "Come hunting with me and Bloodspiller?"
"Sure," said Pelican, climbing out of her hammock and heading towards Falcon and Bloodspiller. Treejumper and Ocelot had, together, created a large pot for collecting water out of clay. Bloodspiller sat on the ground, watching it dry in the sun.
"We just have to wait for it to dry, and we can collect some water," said Falcon, noticing Pelican's gaze.
"Let's go find that waterfall," said Pelican thoughtfully. "There's sure to be prey there. All living things need a water source."
"Yes, that's smart," said Bloodspiller, heaving herself up off the ground.
"Let's go find the waterfall, then," said Falcon, closing up the discussion. He rubbed his scarred talons together in anticipation.
Pelican stared at the scars. She'd often wondered where they had come from, but had thought it rude to ask.
Bloodspiller followed after Falcon, pulling Pelican out of her thoughts. She followed them, rubbing her own talons as if they, too, might be scarred.
I may not have any physical scars, Pelican thought, but I certainly have emotional ones.
Mother.
Father.
And now Iceberg.
Pelican's heart still hurt and her eyes still burned at the corners whenever she thought of the cheery IceWing/RainWing dragon. She had never really taken a minute to completely appreciate her, and now she was gone, and it was too late to tell her how much she admired her.
What were the last words she had spoken to Iceberg...? Pelican couldn't remember.
"Stop," Falcon whispered suddenly, his diamond-shaped head snapping up the way it always did when he heard something. "Freeze."
Pelican stopped in her tracks. Falcon took a step forward, crept up...
And snatched a bird right out of the air. He grasped it tightly for a moment while the bird scratched and squirmed, and then he leaned forward and snapped its neck.
"Wow," said Bloodspiller. "You're a natural hunter."
"Oourg," Falcon shuddered, passing the bird to Bloodspiller. "I never want to do that again." His talons were covered in blood and for a moment, Pelican couldn't tell if the blood was the bird's or his own, from the bird's talons scratching him. But then she saw the blood still oozing from the scratch on his snout- the scratch from the fight in the Kingdom of Sand- and remembered that his blood was purple.
It was odd, Pelican thought, that his blood would be purple. It wasn't a bright purple- it was more of a blackberry- but it was nonetheless purple. IceWings had blue blood, and SkyWings had red blood, so his blood would likely have been either of the two. How odd that they'd merge and form purple blood.
Pelican shuddered. It felt horrible to think of blood like paints, where you could just mix them together and they'd form a new color. Pelican looked down at her own talons. She'd rarely ever seen her own blood- only that time when she'd scratched her tail on one of the food bones from dinner, and when her wrists had bled from the taloncuffs.
"I don't know if we can eat this," said Bloodspiller, examining the bird. "It's all feathery."
"We're used to eating all-feathery things," said Pelican, remembering the day Treejumper had first come in, that day that she'd finally gotten breakfast, that day that everything had changed.
"Maybe we can catch some fish," said Falcon.
"Do you even like fish?" Bloodspiller asked, wrinkling her snout.
"I haven't tried it in a long time," Falcon shrugged. "Things might have changed."
Pelican was inspired by Falcon's immediate instinct to adapt to his environment. The amazing things dragons can do, she thought to herself.
"We should bring this bird-thing anyway," said Bloodspiller, plucking out a talonful of feathers from the corpse. "Maybe the others will like it."
Pelican crouched low and waded into the water, her eye on a fat silver fish.
"Pelican, what are you doing?" Bloodspiller asked.
"Shh," Pelican whispered, her talon to her lips. She crouched low, the clear, pure water lapping at her sides, and reached out. With one quick movement, she speared the fish.
"Wow!" Falcon cried. "That was amazing!"
Pelican handed the fish to Bloodspiller, who piled it up on top of the bird. "It was nothing," she said modestly. "I used to watch my mother do it all the time. Trust me, I'm probably hopeless at hunting on land."
"Food is food," said Falcon. "Can you teach me?"
"Sure," Pelican shrugged.
"I'll go bring back the prey," said Bloodspiller, "and then I can help you." She paused for a second. "And the water-bucket should be dry by now. I'll get that, too."
"Okay," said Pelican. "Thanks."
As Bloodspiller started walking away, Pelican suddenly remembered how thirsty she was. She leaned over and cupped her talons. The water quickly drained out as she brought it to her lips, but she was quick enough to get a taste. The water was clean and pure, unlike the murky water the old guard used to bring them to drink.
"So," said Pelican nervously, suddenly aware of how her heart was beating loudly in her chest, "you have to be very still. If you move too much, you'll scare the fish away." She looked around and saw a small gray-pink minnow swimming towards her. "Keep your eye on the fish, and when it comes close," she reached out, "you spear it with your talon."
Pelican grasped the lifeless minnow in her talons. She followed Falcon's serious yellow eyes to a little orange fish swimming by. It took a moment, but when it came close, he snatched it up in his talons.
"Wow!" Pelican cried. "That was great!"
Falcon looked down at the orange fish. "That was a lot easier than hunting for the bird," he said. "The bird was all wriggly and squirmy."
Pelican shuddered, imagining the bird scraping at her with its sharp, gleaming yellow talons. Not a pleasant image. "Let's catch more."
Falcon looked at her with a sideways smile, the one that made Pelican feel happy and sad and angry and pleased all at the same time.
.
The green SeaWing crept through the forest, accompanied by two burly, fierce-looking SeaWings. This was where the river led. The hybrids could have easily hidden here.
The forest was dense and green. He hated it here. It was so cramped, you could easily bump into anything. He couldn't see squat what with the trees and shrubbery everywhere.
But suddenly the forest seemed to come to an end. Rocks piled up as far as the eye could see, steadily building up to a mountain.
He looked around, and his eye caught on a large, mossy stone. It was in a very unnatural sort of position.
The green dragon dropped to the ground and put his ear to the boulder, not really believing he'd hear something. But to his surprise, he could just make out a few muffled voices.
The hybrids! he thought.
"Come on, boys," said the green dragon to his colleagues. "Roll this boulder aside for me."
The taller of the two squatted, heaving the large boulder over to reveal a small tunnel. Aha! he thought. It was too small for him to crawl into. He would have to lure the hybrids out somehow.
He peered through the tunnel, and, to his shock, did not see the hybrids. It was just three dragons- a SkyWing, a NightWing, and a SeaWing.
"Step back," he warned quietly.
The burly guards stepped well away.
"And pick up the boulder."
The second guard lifted the boulder easily, and without discomfort, heaved it onto his back. The green dragon leaned over and looked in through the tunnel. The dragons inside had ceased talking.
"You there," he called, narrowing his eyes dangerously. "Come out of here with your talons up, or my colleague here will drop this boulder and cave the whole place in."
