The Only RainWing in the War

How the Hurricane Happened

     This chapter takes partly place when Glory is half-conscious, so I'll give you a key.

     Italic=thoughts/flashbacks

     Normal=waking commentary

     Underlined Italic=???

     Glory's POV:

     It was sudden.

     As sudden as a few wing beats. If there were signs, we saw none. But we suffered the consequences.

     I've always heard that weather can change in ten minutes - naturally of course, it could change way faster with animus magic. But I guess I never believed it until that moment.

     The moment the hurricane's wind blasted down upon us with the pouring rain.

     It was terrifying to see the sun get blocked out suddenly by enormous clouds, to see waves rising so high some almost touched us in the sky, to see trees whirling past us in the fury that was the storm.

    Peril saw it first, but not fast enough. Appearing from behind us, she yelled, "SEEK SHELTER!" I was totally confused. Then I saw the clouds.

     I screamed and clutched Death's arm with a death grip. This was one of my greatest fears: to be helpless, at mercy of someone or something else.

     The wind blasted upon us before the clouds rapidly followed. I was being hurled through the air and the sky suddenly darkened. The clouds were upon us.

     Then the rain, pouring so much it was almost in buckets. The waves reaching out to grab us, the rain pelting down on us begging to submit to the ocean, the wind keeping us from balancing and flying on.

     As if that wasn't enough, lightning began to strike the waters, making it dangerous for us to even be there.

     The thunder rumbled. And then came the worst moment.

     We were almost at the island: Peril had landed there and was seeking shelter. Her firescales glowed in the rain, and we flew towards the place steam was plentiful. We were almost there when I felt a small shock in the small of my back.

     I read that for a dragon, that means they are about to be struck by lightning. I would have three seconds to brace myself.

     But though I normally hide emotion, I couldn't hide this one. He saw my face, my pale green scales. He saw the look in my eyes.

     It seemed he was about to say something, but he decided not to. At the last second, Death flew like a bullet and hovered over my entire dragon body, shielding me from the rain and-and-NO!

     A flash of white light. Then the biggest BOOM of thundered escaped the clouds. Try as I might, I couldn't keep a hold on what I saw was now an unconscious Deathbringer. The wind ripped him away from me and I remember screaming for the first time in years. Truly screaming, not just a raised voice. Purely fearful screaming.

     I sobbed and gave in to the winds. They slammed me onto the island we were hoping to get on anyways. I remember no crack in my bones, I landed on sand and I drifted out of memory there. Perhaps I just saw no more point to observe and memorize what was going on.

     The wind and cold kept tuning in and out. The sounds felt farther away and I drifted into a state on semi-consciousness. At one point the cold disappeared and I heard Peril's voice, her wings just above mine to warm me up.

     "Deathbringer" I had insisted in my sleep, not knowing what was real and what wasn't.

     I woke up to a clear sky and a concerned SkyWing. Peril. That was Peril.

     The memories came flooding back as soon as Peril said, "So... how are you holding up?"

     Deathbringer. Gone.

     I wanted to scream and cry and-and- I didn't know what, but not just sit here and do nothing! But that's what I did because Peril was there. I stamped my emotions out of my scales, choosing to be dark gray today. It meant sadness anyways and I wasn't in the mood to be a bright color.

     "Fine," I said in such a flat tone Peril winced.

     I walked up to the now calm ocean waves and saw how awful I looked. Tired and dirty. Even my beautiful green eyes - wait, since when were they beautiful? Why did I like them so much? I didn't remember....

     I eventually started crying, feeding the ocean more salt water. The waves washed them away gently, as if it too understood how much the hurricane hurt it. I guess it did, seeing as the ocean wildlife was damaged. Did the ocean think of the hurricane as a virus, and that it was the host but not by choice?

     I shook my head. The ocean didn't have feelings, and I couldn't keep acting like Deathbringer. No wondering how a body of water was feeling.

     For all I knew, Deathbringer could be dead.

     No I'm not, a little voice insisted in my head. The voice that belonged to Deathbringer. I froze. Glory, I love you. I would never leave you. I shook my head. I was hearing things, and it wasn't making me feel any better. The voice that was Deathbringer's was just the voice I always must have had in the back of my mind, and now it was speaking to me.

     S-stop it. If you love me, leave me alone. You're not him.

     The voice was silent. I knew it. It wasn't Death, just a figment of my imagination. Of what I wished was real.

     Third Person POV:

     Deathbringer wasn't dead.

     Of course he wasn't. It would take a bit more than lightning to kill him.

     But he had no idea what he was doing on an island far away from the Night Kingdom. What had been his previous mission?

     Deathbringer jumped. Wasn't he supposed to be there for a meeting? He was totally about to miss it! All the other assassins were there!

     They really needed new assassins. They were down a few. Ugly was very gleeful about that.

     Death really wanted to shut Ugly up, but he hadn't lost his temper so far. Ugh.

     Maybe today he would finally learn what plans they had for the Rainforest. The RainWings never noticed (they were all lazy and fruit-eaters) but Death saw the NightWings constantly enter the forest. Testing the soil, stealing some fruits.

     He had yet to talk to a RainWing, he realized. All the other tribes, yes. But he hadn't ever talked to a RainWing. Barely caught a glimpse of one. Aside from that young dragonet, of course, but he never talked to another RainWing.

     He winced at the pain in his wing from the-the what? What had happened to him?

     He... he couldn't remember.

     Death looked up at the sky. He realized his body was larger than he remembered. His stomach dropped - how much had he forgotten?

     Well, he would have to skip the NightWing meeting. His wing made sure of that.

     Meanwhile:

     The Dragonets of Destiny were done with the Mud Kingdom. They had almost been caught but escaped, and now they were heading to the Kingdom of the Sea....

     They wondered what they had in store for them there?

     DON'T KILL ME

     I had to do it ;-;