Hey guys! So, I would like to start this chapter off by apologizing to everyone for the (somewhat) long wait for chapter ten. See, I had been working on the chapter for quite some time, had hit a roadbump, and decided to put the chapter aside to finish later in the day. Unfortunately for me, my computer chose THAT EXACT DAY to restart in order to update itself. I didn't realize at the time, but that meant that the chapter (which I had forgotten to save, since I did a dumb) was floating somewhere in the recesses of my arsenal of Autosaved documents. Since I didn't notice until about two months later, I had stupidly thought that I had ALREADY POSTED THE CHAPTER. Shame on me for that, but then I decided to start writing again. In fact, I began writing ADDITIONS to chapter NINE.
Inferno Muse: Shame! Shame on YOU.
Me: I know, I know, you sassy butt. In any case, I ended up finding out what happened and venturing through the oceans of Autosave, I finally found Chapter Ten.
Mist Muse: Good for you…? Question mark…?
Me: Shut up.
Crystal Muse: So you posted THAT… Why are you still talking about this? Get to the point, woman!
Me: SHUT UP, I was getting to that. *Exasperated sigh* Anyways, by that point I had already written an adapted end to Chapter Nine, and I had REALLY taken a liking to it. However, since it made no sense without Chapter Ten, I was struggling on the matter of whether or not to keep it. I had thought about simply adding it to the end of the Chapter Nine I had ALREADY posted, but the significance would have been lost without having first read Chapter Ten. And so, I decided to make it the second half of THIS chapter instead.
Stalagmite: WOW, what an INTERESTING and OVERLY COMPELLING story… Now DO THE DISCLAIMER SO WE CAN GET TO THE ACTUAL STORY!
Me: Okay, okay, yeesh. Why did I have to get stuck with all the MEAN muses today?
Everyone but Me: HEY!
Me: WHELP! DISCLAIMER TIME!
I do not own Wings of Fire. Wings of Fire belongs to the literary genius that is Tui T. Sutherland. (Seriously, I love your work, keep it up!)
…
"So much destruction, Blaze…" A male, unknown yet familiar voice growled softly, his voice filled to the brim with grief. A corresponding female voice snarled in response, her snarl possessing the same amount of grief, but at the same time dripping with venomous hatred.
"And WHOSE fault is THAT, Silverwind?" The voice (Blaze, probably. Mist assumed) spat furiously, and Mist felt herself groan with annoyance. Again?! She muttered internally. HONESTLY, this is the FIFTEENTH time this week! Every night, and almost every nap! Give me a break, mind… As Mist opened her eyes to the dream world around her, she spotted two distinct-looking dragons; and yet, the male looked as though he might have been an IceWing... The IceWing- Mist presumed he might be the one that Blaze had called Silverwind -wheeled around to glare at Blaze, his claws curling as his lips drew back into a snarl, revealing teeth that sparkled as though they were actual icicles.
"WELL, I'm not sure, FLAMEWING." He snarled. "Would YOU mind telling me? It was YOUR kind that attacked the Hive members and STARTED this wretched war in the first place!" At this, Blaze merely snarled right back at her, flaring out her wings in fury.
"WE aren't the ones who KILLED the rest of the MistWings!" She retorted, beginning to charge up a fiery blast. "IF I recall correctly, you cold-hearted, sniveling ICICLE!" Mist's ears perked up at the mention of MistWings. What? She thought in a mini panic. Do they know what I am?! Th-They look like they're about to fight…! I've got to stop them! Then… Maybe I can finally get some answers… They said that the rest of the MistWings were… K-Killed… Spirals of dull blues and grays began to seep through her wings, until she was snapped back to reality by the hissing noise of approaching frostbreath. Without even stopping to think, she leaped out of the cover of trees she had been hiding in.
"! HEY! STOP!" She screamed, sprinting at extreme speed towards the squabbling, aggressive dragons. Both hostile strangers swiveled their heads to find out who had been trying to interrupt their battle, but all of the rage simply melted from their expressions and stances the instant they saw Mist. At the sudden shift in emotion, the young MistWing screeched to a halt, stopping inches from the two older- and MUCH bigger -dragons. Tey glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes, turned to face each other, then turned back to Mist, stunned into silence. Ooooh boy… She grimaced with obvious regret. That was REALLY stupid… Fumbling with her talons, Morning Mist tried to find her words, and eventually spoke up. "U-Um… Well, I heard you mentioning a war, and… M-MistWings… And I just have to say that's impossible! All the seven tribes are at peace now, and I should know! I'm best friends with several other-!" She began, but was interrupted by Blaze.
"This is impossible…" The older dragoness breathed, her shock shifting to awe. "You aren't wrong about that part. You're a MISTWING. But they were all killed eons ago!" As she continued, Blaze's voice increased to a panicked shriek. Silverwind nodded, her eyes betraying trace amounts of guilt.
"Yeah… They were… Maybe she's on that other continent, in her reality?" Silverwind suggested, to which Blaze shrugged, taking Mist's talons in her own. Woah… Okay, this is… Weird. Mist internally complained slightly, still incredibly confused.
"Listen to us, MistWing, please… You're the last hope that Kakusareta has! Please, you have to come back home to us! I-If you don't? Then the rest of the nine tribes will tear our homeland apart until it's nothing but a barren wasteland! PLEASE!" The… FlameWing, if Mist remembered correctly, begged desperately. Mist gazed at them with sympathy, then pulled her talons away.
"I would if I could… But for one thing, I don't even know where Kakusareta IS, and for another, this is all just nothing but a DREAM. I've been having several- every time I go to sleep as a matter of fact -and thirdly, even if I COULD help you, I forget all my dreams seconds or at most minutes after I wake up! So how in all of Phyrria do you expect me to help you?! I don't even know WHAT a MistWing even is, except for the fact that I AM one, and apparently my entire life before finding out was a LIE!" She began calmly, growing more aggravated and upset as she went on, to the point that hot, furious tears were flowing in waterfalls down her face, so she had to fight in order to wipe them away. Taking deep, shuddering breaths, Mist tried and failed to keep the deep reds, oranges and blue-grays that were now cascading throughout her scales, only separated by a bolt of light green. Fear… She sighed to herself, her wings drooping. "I don't even know who I am anymore…" She whispered, attempting to choke back the sob in her voice. I have to appear strong… No matter what happens, I can't let others see how torn up inside I am about this… If others see me break down like this, then I'm sure to be ridiculed even MORE about all of this… I just want to be myself, and have others accept me for who I am, and how I feel, instead of just calling me a pitiful excuse for a hybrid… I want to be FREE. I want to have at least a little spark of hope in my life… As Mist sank deeper and deeper into her inner lamenting, she began to feel the tug of reality pulling at her conscience again; however, this caused a startling reaction from Blaze and Silverwind.
They began to panic.
"She's fading! This amount of emotional stress…! She's going back to her actual location!" Silverwind exclaimed, turning to Blaze with a desperate, searching look. Blaze once again took Mist's talons, despair and panic and desperation filling her entire self to until it overflowed.
"No! Please, you have to come back, we still need you! We need the MistWings back, or we'll all fall! PLEASE! Don't wake up-!" She began, but Mist was only able to catch one more word before she awoke with a start in her cave, her chest heaving as she took in deep gulps of air in an attempt to calm herself down. Looking towards the small window at the far end of her room, she found that it was still daylight out. The moon was rising, but it was still daylight. Time to get to art class.. She thought with a yawn, before remembering the word that Blaze had spoken to her. She had no idea where she had gotten the name Blaze from, but she knew that if she didn't act quick, she would forget what Blaze had told her; especially since her message seemed to echo with life-or-death importance. I can't forget this time. And with that thought, Mist quickly grabbed a blank slip of parchment from her bookshelf, scribbled Blaze's message on it hastily, then hurried off towards the art class.
…
It had been a week since the incident with the scroll, and once more, Mist was painting a vaguely familiar scene from a dream she could not recall. As she painted the gorgeous waterfall cascading over the mossy cliffside, a strange pang of loss, regret, and recognition stabbed at her heart. Wh-What the heck…..?! She exclaimed silently, putting a talon to her forehead. What WAS that…? Furytalon- who for some reason was almost always attuned to her thoughts and emotions, as Mist had come to find out -turned to her from where he had been painting a small beach town.
"You okay, Mist?" He questioned, dipping his brushes into the cup of water he had nearby and wiping off his talons as he came over to her. Mist nodded, swirls of confusion spinning through her wings.
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay, it's just that…. All of a sudden, I was just painting, and then I just felt…. THAT. Whatever "that" was…" She sighed, turning back to her painting. "It's probably nothing…" At this Furytalon smiled and wrapped a wing around Mist, pulling her in for a hug, (SHIPPING/FANART FUEL, ANYONE?) causing Mist to blush slightly.
"Trust me, I understand how that feels… I kinda felt that with all of my paintings that I've done for class too… Maybe I'm painting places from my past, a-and if I keep painting? Maybe I'll get my memories back! HAHA!" Furytalon cheered, growing more excited as his thought track went on. Mist smiled at him, then glanced at her other collection of paintings. She had never been able to recreate the painting from the scroll…. And even if she did, she would have felt as though she were copying it. Somehow, at least to Mist, the first painting she had done of the castle had felt more REAL, somehow… More alive. The young MistWing sighed, shaking her head. Oh well nothing I can really do about it now… She silently complained. The other paintings she had drawn since giving up on the castle were a diamond- inspired by a seemingly flawless diamond that had randomly appeared in the art room in place of coal when Sunny went back in to clean up -, a canyon, a tree completely covered in moss and branching out like a roof over everything else in the forest grotto, a beautiful desert valley with an oasis in the background, and a rock formation almost resembling a bridge that jutted out over the ocean. Each of those paintings had felt the same as the very first one she had painted, and thus she decided to give her series the name "Forgotten Memories". She smiled to herself at the name. Even though each of my paintings gave me a feeling of nostalgia… They all have a representation of hope in them… OH! That's what it needs! And with that, Mist dipped her brush into her paint, briefly into the water cup, and began to paint again.
Upon finishing her final detail, Mist looked over her finished work and nodded, satisfied. Cleaning up her supplies as well as her talons, she picked up her canvas, setting it down on an easel facing the sunlight. As she walked out, one of the dragonets from the Amber Winglet walked over and examined it. Her name was Orchid, and she was a rather curious NightWing who always had herself decorated with black orchids. She sniffed the painting, leaned in close, and then turned to face Mist.
"You know, that rainbow's pretty subtle and transparent… I could barely even see it!" She noted, making a face. "Don't you think you should-?"
"Oh, I know." Mist interrupted coyly, turning to her with a bright, cheerful smile. "I did that on purpose." And with that, Mist walked out of the room, leaving a baffled and enlightened Orchid behind.