Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 10

Hidden alone from rival queens

Sunny held the reassignment with worried talons. A secret mission and they were taking Starflight too. She read it over again and again, trying to comprehend the words in front of her. But that was like trying to see through a sandstorm. She had received the scrolls, one for herself and one for Starflight because the messenger couldn't find him.

The only type of thing she could imagine anyone asking starflight to do was look into the future or interrogate an enemy, but trying to make him use his powers effectively was a nightmare because he didn't even know how they worked.

It was awful cruelty to make him try, and Sunny knew that it made him hurt inside. He wouldn't tell her the details, but she suspected that even if his powers disappeared he would never be normal.

Sunny was the dragon he came to because she was supposed to be able to help dragons like that. She was supposed to make them better. She was the one that the dragons with war tiredness came to first. She was the one who tried so hard to understand.

So why would the princess of the seawings send Sunny with her worst patient on some type of secret mission? The only thing she could think of was that somehow the seawing princess had it in her head that Sunny could make Starflight's powers work. But at this point, most of the things they'd been working on were to silence the voices and ignore the visions.

Anger welled up in Sunny as she read the assignment again, one detail stood out though, base 7 was where Blaze lived. Nothing much happened there and it was as far from the war as one could get. What could be happening at base 7? Especially herself and three others from base 4? She knew Starflight was one at least so if anything she wouldn't be lonely, and at least they weren't attempting to send him without Sunny.

A few hours later and after an afternoon of anxiety, a second message arrived. "Princess Tsunami will collect you personally tomorrow morning."

And that was it. Nothing else.

Sunny, resigned to her fate, went to Starflight's room as the sun began to descend, finding him curled up on the floor rocking back and forth. She watched him for a moment, growing angrier at the princess with every moment that she would expect anything from such a dragon.

Sunny sat beside Starflight and put a wing over him, letting the warmth of her scales and the blanket of her own thoughts wrap around him. Tsunami is going to get a talking to... she's not my princess.

"Who's Tsunami?" Starflight asked, blinking up at Sunny as if he wasn't sure when she'd appeared.

"Tsunami is a dragon who's coming tomorrow morning to talk with us."

"Morning." Starflight echoed. "And... I have to be awake for this?"

Sunny sighed, "that's exactly why I'm cross with her. You don't have to worry about it though, I'll be right next to you."

Starflight nodded slowly.

---

When the morning came, Sunny was barely awake before a blue seawing that didn't seem royal at all to her appeared, the head of base 4 trailing behind her nervously. Sunny looked up at her, blinking blearily as the seawing shooed away the rainwing behind her.

Sunny recognized Tsunami from the descriptions, but it was still strange to think that the head of this wing of the resistance was just a normal dragon. Tsunami sat down right inside Sunny's door, not looking twice at the messy interior. "Sunny of the sandwings, I presume?"

Sunny nodded, "Princess Tsunami of the seawings."

"Good, we know each other, I bet you're wondering what the secret mission is, and don't worry it'll be explained in detail, I'm just here to collect you and the nightwing." Tsunami nodded sharply, "where is he anyway? No one seems to be able to find him."

Sunny blinked, finally feeling semi-awake. "Starflight would be in his room right now, I got him your scrolls and he knows about the assignment, but... I don't think he's well enough to travel."

"His powers are negated by distance right? Well, we are heading into the literal middle of nowhere, and all he has to do is come with us. I can't just bring three dragons on a mission like this and it would take weeks to organize more with the weird restrictions that Scarlet put on me after last time." Tsunami muttered under her breath. "Thankfully I found a loophole, if I take dragons of all different tribes they'll be no restriction and scarlet can go suck on her tail."

Sunny squinted at Tsunami. "So... this is all because Starflight is the only Nightwing you have access to and there's strength in numbers?"

Tsunami nodded. "Exactly. Plus he might be of use in actually locating the place. Apparently, my only other source of that information isn't very sure about the location..." she grumbled under her breath and shook her head. "Either way, let's get moving, we've got a crazy Nightwing to get, an annoyed mudwing, and a rainwing who might actually kill me for asking her."

She led Sunny outside, where two other dragons waited, another sandwing and what looked at first glance to be a very lightly colored seawing, but as sunny glanced back at him she noticed the ears and their grey-white coloring and decided that she might have severely misunderstood this mission.

The other sandwing had a few bags situated on her that Sunny assumed were for this journey. Slowly, things were clicking in place as Tsunami introduced her to Echo and Cactus.

This was going to be... interesting.