Silenced Voice

Chapter 39 Moon

The ruins of the Great Ice Cliff spread east and west in front of her, and a cold wind bit into her scales, bringing with it sleet, as she realized that she would have to take a break. She had been flying for a couple of hours since the previous stop and the scenery had turned snowy.

After wheeling around the south side of the ruins for a while, she had mustered up enough courage to descend upon the once deadly wall that had isolated the Ice Kingdom from the other tribes.

She was about to slip, surprised by the sudden coldness when her toes hit the uneven surface of the Ice Cliff, but after reaching her balance, she remained standing, wanting to look at the landscape that opened up in front of her for a moment.

She had never been this far north before. When Pantala's refugees had arrived from the sea to the west coast of the Ice Kingdom, she had been waiting at Jerboa's hut on the Kingdom of Sand side of the coast. The refugees had soon arrived there, guided by Tsunami and Turtle, because Queen Snowfall had demanded a large group of dragons move elsewhere and escorted them past the Great Ice Cliff with Lynx and her guards.

Snowfall didn't like her much and the idea of ​​entering her kingdom without being invited suddenly seemed like a very bad idea. But the Tiara had to be returned and maybe Snowfall would know where Winter is.

She looked down and realized there were tracks in the snow that hadn't yet been covered under the new wet snow. Right at the base of the wall was a depression shaped like a dragon had laid there and there were talon prints all around. Beside it, there were blocks of ice half-buried in the snow, which looked as if they had fallen into it recently. However, they did not look like they had detached themselves from the ice cliff and rolled down.

Has somebody attacked the sleeping dragon here...? Why would anyone do that? Moon wondered and bent down to examine the ruins. There were fairly fresh-looking scratches on its surface. Then she shook off the wet snow that had fallen on her, dug Turtle's healing stone out of her bag, quickly treated herself with it, and took off.

A freezing headwind made the cold worse than she had expected, and the worsening wet snowfall made the wings heavy. It was already getting dark when she decided to look for a more sheltered place for the night. She wouldn't be able to fly any further in this kind of weather.

The forest loomed in the northwest and she decided that it would be the best and only possible option for her to survive the night without freezing. There would be branches to light a campfire and maybe she could catch something to eat more easily than on the snowy plains.

As soon as she arrived at the edge of the forest, she noticed a hare hopping lazily behind the leafless bushes and dived to catch it. Satisfied, she landed with the limp hare in her claws and decided to look for a suitable campsite on foot, so that she could collect firewood for the campfire at the same time. She shoved the hare into her bag to free her talons.

Soon she realized she was approaching the IceWing village and stopped.
I can't go any closer. I don't know how these IceWings feel about the NightWings... maybe they are hostile.

She turned north, away from the village, and soon found a small clearing surrounded by thick fir trees, where she dared to light a campfire. She tamped the snow from a small area and placed the firewood in it. Then she lit the wood, threw the bag from her back, dug up the hare, skinned and gutted it, and strung it on sticks over the fire. She figured that the heated food would help keep her warm. After making sure it was firmly in place, she got up and went to collect fir branches to insulate against the cold ground below.

After sitting shivering by the campfire for a while, she could hear voices coming from the forest. Snow crunching in the distance and then muffled talking. She waited anxiously, looking through the blizzard into the darkening forest. She was sitting in the circle of light from the campfire, so it was hard to see into the dimness behind it.