Silenced Voice

Chapter 10 Moon

Moon blinked. What has happened? It feels like I've been asleep for months... She glanced at her wing. No, the wing is still tied. She sighed. However, I feel much better than in the last memories before deep sleep. The sunburned scales have healed!

She sat up and examined herself. The shiny black scales showed no signs of injury. However, she still remembered the pain that ravaged her scales and caused her to have terrible nightmares. In them, she had fallen in the middle of the raging fire and had not been able to fly to safety. Another nightmare had been about Winter. It was a strange and realistic dream. He was tied and chained to some kind of dungeon made of rocks. Why did she have such a dream? At the same time, a pain hit the back of her head and she collapsed onto the bed. A lightning-bright flash in the field of vision. Scavengers, screams, Winter in the dungeon, abused, starved. Wren! More scavengers. The city of scavengers. Then the confused vision disappeared and the pain subsided.
Moon sat up again, rubbing her temples, and at the same time two figures landed in the doorway.

"Moon, you're awake!" Kinkajou's cheerful voice penetrated her consciousness. Moon shook her head.
"I... I am."
"What's now? How do you feel?" Kinkajou asked worriedly. "Turtle is here! He healed your scales", she continued in an excited voice.
"Oh, hi Turtle. Nice to see you. And thank you. You used your healing stone, didn't you?"
"Hello Moon, nice to see you in better shape. Glory sent Tsunami a message and asked me to come. Your scales were really quite nasty-looking."
"He gave the RainWings their own healing stone! Look!" Kinkajou exclaimed and jumped to pick up a stone from the shelf that matched the Turtle's own stone. "This is exactly the same. Isn't that great!"
"Yes, indeed", Moon said absently.
"You don't seem very excited?" Kinkajou wondered, returning the stone back to the shelf.
"I had a vision..." Moon said in a weak voice.
"What? Where from?"
"It... it was pretty messed up. But I think the scavengers are..."
"What? What scavengers are? In danger? Has some jerk decided to ignore the queens order?" Kinkajou interrupted.
"No...nothing like that. Scavengers have captured Winter. He is in danger. Wren was there too. Imprisoned, I mean."

"How is that possible, scavengers can't do anything to dragons?" Kinkajou asked in disbelief.
"Kinkajou, Do you remember where the time of Scorching started...?" Turtle pointed out. "We received new information from the passengers of Pantala via Luna – or actually via Freedom."
"Ah, yes... It's still hard to understand how smart scavengers are."

"It's not about the scavengers of the protected area, is it? That would be ironic..." Turtle asked.
"Ah, no, I don't think so. The place looked strange, and so did the scavengers. He needs help. I don't know why I didn't see Sky when Wren was there though. The place looked like a dungeon built between rock walls. We have to go find them!" Moon explained alarmedly.

"Moon, you can't go anywhere. Do you remember? A fracture in the wing. You can't fly", Kinkajou pointed out.
"I have to! You will not find him on your own!"
"We'll get Qibli to help, we'll search Sky and we'll find out where those scavengers come from", said Turtle emphatically.
"But..." Moon tried.
"No problem. We will find Winter if the scavengers really kidnapped him. You stay here and get better", Kinkajou commanded. "I wouldn't want to leave you Moon, but we have no choice", she continued sadly.
Moon sighed heavily.
"I know."
"Uh, I'd like to make sure it was a real vision and not a nightmare? I mean, if you just woke up and..." Turtle stammered, staring at his toes.
"When I woke up, I first thought I had a nightmare, but then the vision hit me again when I was fully awake. Just before you came", Moon explained.
"Sorry for asking, but I just wanted to make sure..."
"It's fine, don't worry."

"In that case, it's best for us to leave right away so we don't waste time. Hmm, I'll leave you with this slate that receives notes. We can keep you updated", Turtle said in a slightly hesitant voice, digging out a small slate from his bag. "Our message appears here. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the other direction, but if necessary, you can ask someone to pick up the dream visitor from Jade Mountain if we're late or there are no messages from us."
"You write regularly, otherwise I'll die of worry?" Moon asked discouraged.
"Of course. Take care of yourself Moon. We'll tell Glory where we're going and ask that you be helped down from here. You can wait in Nightwing village. We're looking for Winter and Wren", Kinkajou said and hugged her. Turtle hugged her too and then they were gone. A tear rolled down Moon's cheek.