The first thing Totem noticed was the color of this dragon's scales.
Whereas most Nightwings had black, or dark indigo scales, this Nightwing seemed to be a reflective, shining silver, reminiscent of the three bright moons glowing in the night sky. The light from those moons shone onto her scales, making the Nightwing appear to be glowing softly in the moonlight.
Blossom, his newfound ally, and, maybe even friend, had called her Stardust.
It seemed a fitting name.
On the topic of the Rainwing, her previously sulky manner had now brightened back to her normal, stereotypically cheerful attitude. She had changed her scales to an almost blinding shade of purple, and was fussing with a towering stack of thin leaves that was for some reason present next to her window, and chattering aimlessly with Stardust, whose mysterious violet eyes were obviously miles away.
Borealis's mood, on the other claw, had transitioned from confrontational grumpy Icewing to being silently moody in the most shadowy corner of the hut.
Clearly nothing was ever going to get accomplished if he didn't step in.
Totem cleared his throat.
No one paid him any heed.
He cleared it louder.
Borealis snarled at him, then returned to angstily staring at Blossom.
Totem smashed his tail on the hut floor a few times, until Stardust, Blossom, and Borealis turned to look at him.
"Have we all forgotten about the 'find my father' part of this?" He sighed, fiddling with his amulet.
"Hey! Watch it with the tail, buddy, I just got that hardwood down!" Blossom crossed her arms, coiling her tail tightly.
Totem blinked, and looked down at the floor. The dirt floor.
"I'm sorry, um, back on track now. I propose we head to the SkyWing Kingdom, since that is where the talonprints led." He straightened the map of Pyrrhia that Blossom conveniently had in her hut.
Stardust looked around with a dazed expression.
"Excuse me?" She slowly closed and opened her eyes. "Has it been decided that I'm coming with you?"
"Coming with us? She can't come with us!" Borealis butted in, growling.
"She knows too much not to, at this point." Totem pointed out.
The silver Nightwing smiled sweetly at Totem. He smiled back.
"Wait wait wait, who's coming with us?" Blossom asked, glancing at all the dragons assembled.
"Stardust is." He sighed.
Stardust beamed a Blossom-worthy smile, then frowned.
"There's one teensy problem," she furrowed her brow, "I'm not actually one hundred percent certain where and why we are going."
"How could you not know that?" Borealis rolled his eyes, "You were literally listening to our entire conversation about where we were going and why."
Stardust thrashed her tail.
"Yeah, but I only heard part of your conversation, and I wasn't really paying too much attention because, you see, I was having this wonderful vision, where-"
"Uh-huh, sure you didn't hear the whole conversation." Borealis aggressively took a step forward, and flared his wings, which knocked down a large stack of leaves.
"Well, all I gathered was that it sounded like an adventure," Stardust said defensively, "and I have always dreamed of some grand adventure, perhaps flying to some unseen, faraway land, only to discover some hidden secret about-"
"Blossom, could you please fill Stardust in?" Totem interjected.
The Rainwing looked at him.
"Fill her in on what?" She blinked.
Totem sighed, for what must be the millionth time since he had met Blossom and Borealis.
Xxx
"Borealis…"
The Icewing snarled and rolled over.
"Borealis?"
"No!" He growled lashing out blindly, and squeezing his eyes shut tighter.
He heard a sigh, then murmured conversation. Smiling slightly in his sleep, he curled up into a little ball.
In mere moments, his peace was disturbed, as the ground fell from beneath him, and he felt talons gripping him. Angrily muttering, he clawed at the talons.
"Ow! Moons-what the-?" A voice cried, and the talons released him. Borealis once again, made himself comfortable, ignoring the pesky feeling like he was falling, and drew himself closer to the ground.
There was no ground.
Borealis opened his eyes, and saw bright blue skies rushing away from him, as Totem frantically dove after him.
He let out a very un-dignified, shrill scream.
As the wind whipped around him, the Icewing saw Totem stop his dive after him, and, was he smiling?Borealis opened his mouth to yell at the MudWing, until his fall was stopped in an unpleasant way.
Splooooosh!
Icy cold enveloped Borealis, the shock of the sudden temperature drop temporarily overcoming his natural Icewing immunity to cold, as rushing, frothing water churned around him. Bobbing up to the surface, he gasped for breath, now fully awake.
He glared up at the three dragons hovering overhead, Totem, grinning stupidly, with that Nightwing, Stardust on his left, a slight smile tracing her features.
Blossom was being none to subtle about her apparent amusement, guffawing raucously and rolling around in mid-air.
The Icewing snarled as he shook water out of his ear. He was definitely awake now.
Xxx
"Guys, I'm not even joking, my wings are about to FALL OFF!" Blossom groaned, dramatically thrusting her wing out to emphasize her tragic pain. Okay, maybe they didn't hurt THAT bad, but they were sore and achy, and that, in Blossoms opinion was just as bad as if they actually WERE falling off.
She heard Totem sigh quietly.
"Well, just a few more hours and we can stop for the night. We're not even to the Diamond Spray Delta yet."
Blossom moaned loudly, and hung her head in submission. Who would have thought saving the world was so exhausting?
Well, technically they weren't saving the world, just one dragon, but still!
The Rainwing turned her head to look at Borealis, who was steadfastedly ignoring her. She didn't see why he was suddenly so uncomfortable and hostile towards her. All they had been doing was sharing a private, probably romantic, moment.
Okay, yeah, she could see why he might be a little uncomfortable.
But she still didn't understand the hostile part!
Their eyes met, and Blossom smiled widely. Borealis glared in response, and turned his head away quickly.
She sighed, feeling a little like Totem now, with all the exhaling of air softly.
"So… what's the deal with him?" Stardust asked under her breath, flying in closer to Blossom.
"What do you mean?" Blossom furrowed her brow, confused.
"Why is he so grumpy and hates everyone?" The silver Nightwing clarified.
"Oh," Blossom thought for a second, "...um, I think it's because he's an Icewing."
"Hmm…" Stardust looked to be deep in thought as she stared off into the distance. Blossom waited a few moments before realizing the conversation was over, and Stardust was off on another private fantasy.
Looking to her left at Borealis, who was still avoiding eye contact, right to Stardust, flapping along in her own personal reverie, and up ahead at Totem, flying forward with short, powerful wing flaps as he stared straight ahead, doggedly determined at the task set before him.
The Rainwing sighed again, preparing herself for a long fly in silence.
Aaaaaaand back at it with another chapter.
Reviews are nice to wake up to, so I wouldn't mind if you'd leave a few ;)
Also, could someone please tell me if dragons have inns in Pyrrhia?
Thanks for reading, stranger now reading this, see you next chapter!