Wings Of Honor: Heart of Ice

Chapter 13: Into the Valley

We were pushed back by the Germans a moment, out of a small village I forget the name to. I had met up with a family, who had been hiding a young girl, about 14; a son named Moses, and their pet puppy. They were Jewish, and were hiding from persecution. I petitioned my CO to see if we could get them to safety, but in the wrecked remains of a paraglider, he said: "There is nothing we can do Marvin. We have no logistics. Just... tell them that we're sorry, and that the 1st Infantry will be along."
The 1st Infantry was 3 days too late.
When we marched back over the village, looking to link up with other Airborne units, I saw the little hut again, only I nearly didn't recognize it. I recognized the body hanging on the oak shade tree though. The husband who owned the farm, and the hut. The man who tried to save their lives. Whom asked me — Me! Of all people! — to help him. And... I couldn't.
I just... couldn't.

So that's what I saw. Grace waded through the rubble.
"Yikes," Kinkajou said. "Someone was not pleased about something."
Then, I got that feeling. A familiar feeling that always put me on edge.
I found that Winter had glanced over at Moon, for the umptillenth time today, but found her frowning up at the ridge that loomed over us to the East.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"Just a feeling," she said, letting a shiver run out to her wingtips. I shivered as well. "I don't know, exactly."
I know.
I know.
"I do know," said Kinkajou. "Creepy, being-watched feeling, as I have already mentioned."
Grace nodded slowly.
Pyrite let out a gasp, which nearly caused me to shoot her right then and there. She had pounced on a stack of broken twigs, sending a crackling noise that could be heard from miles away. Caught on the tip of one of them was a dark orange scale.
"It's Scarlet's!" she cried. "I know it is. I'd recognize her color anywhere." She looked around desperately. "But where is she? What happened here? Did something terrible happen to her?"
"There's no sign of violence," Qibli said, moving aside a branch to look underneath it. "No blood, no claw marks on the surrounding trees. It looks more like she destroyed her shelter in a temper and left."
He was right. This wasn't a struggle.
"Perhaps she somehow found out we were coming," Winter said.
That feeling again, but this time compounded with an intense dread. I took a shaky breath.
"What? How would she know that?" Kinkajou yiped in alarm.
They all turned to look at Pyrite. The orangey-yellow SkyWing was overturning bits of foliage and scraping through the moss, like she expected to find Scarlet buried in the rubble somewhere. Muttering and hissing and grumbling to herself. She had no idea the attention on her.
"Pyrite," Qibli said. "Did you happen to see Queen Scarlet in your dream last night?"
I frowned. "Hmm."
She glanced at him and shook her head doubtfully. "I don't think so. I don't really remember. I think I had a weird dream about snow, maybe? But that happens whenever I sleep near Cirrus, too."
I don't remember seeing a dream.
Yeah, me neither.
"It's still possible," Moon said. "Even if she doesn't remember it. Scarlet could have interrogated her in her dream and found out what she was doing and where she was going."
"It doesn't matter," Winter huffed. "What matters is that Scarlet's gone and so is Hailstorm." He then ripped a large branch off the nearest tree and hurled it deep into the forest.
He's mad. Grace added to me.
Yeah, no kidding.
What about Halestorm?
What about him?
I mean... he's his brother. Kind of like you and Gregory.
That did it.
I could never truely see what it was like being a younger brother, only an oldest. And that was my curse. But I did catch a glimpse, of the awe, wonder, the respect the Winter had for his brother. I thought of my own brother Gregory, looking over my shoulder and stared at my works or drawings. Even pinning his own artwork to the walls. Walls that I inherited when he complained about sleeping under the window. Random stuff. I never used to care much about it, unless it was a secret project which I kept from even him. He would usually scuttle off to go and play with his trucks some more. But now... I could see he was looking up to me. I hung my head, remembering how I told him I couldn't play with him because I had work. But when we did get to playing, I let him dictate. Maybe I was picky about my choices of games, and he was slow to warm up to them as well, but I always let him take point on our game sessions. Tag, board games, playing cowboys, or even just rock paper scissors. We played for hours on end. And I would always try and let him have say when he wanted to stop, to rest, to go do something else.
I took a sigh. All of this... he looked up to me. I wouldn't say revere, but just shy maybe. I was his role model. An imperfect person he could see, hug, talk with every day. And now... I could see his heartbreak when I get home from a long day school and tell him I can't play. He waited the entire day, only to be told: "No." I wiped away a tear.
And he was gone. Dead.
I never got to tell him goodbye, for the last time.
"Stop, stop it," Qibli startled me, up in Winter's face, taking him by his shoulders and shaking him. "I see you going to the giving-up place in your head. Get yourself out of there right now. We do not know he's dead any more than we did an hour ago. What we have to do is keep searching, because he's only definitely dead if we give up and sit here like moping camels. You are not allowed to mourn until you see a dead body, do you understand me?"
I took another shaky breath. I hadn't noticed Grace's wing wrapped around me.
"What else am I supposed to do?" Winter snarled. "What's your next brilliant idea? How can he still be alive?"
"Who are we talking about?" Pyrite asked, wrinkling her snout. "What he? I'm confused."
"We split up and search the whole valley," Qibli ordered, ignoring her. "I'll go with Kinkajou and Grace, and you go with Moon. Look for clues about how long Scarlet was here and where she might have gone. Look for a cave or something else that could have been used as a prison. Figure out where and how she actually kept him and see if we can guess how she's transporting him. Were there other SkyWings helping her? Or how else was he guarded? Is she traveling in a group? With a chained IceWing behind her? Because that's going to be a little obvious, don't you think? Look for messages she might have left behind. Look for anything that will actually tell us something."
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. I had orders, for once. I shivered in comfort, back to being an executive officer for the first time in forever.
I looked back and saw Winter breathing quickly and deeply, obviously agitated. His tail spikes clattered with every breath. He was thinking... something.
"Come on, Kinkajou," Qibli said, flicking his tail at her. "We'll take the valley south of the lake; the rest of you go north."
"You bet," Kinkajou said with welcome enthusiasm.
Winter looked like he wanted to say something.
"I'll go with Winter," Pyrite declared. "Not that anyone asked. But. I figure. That's ok, right? Although ... what are we looking for?"
"Signs of Scarlet being here," Winter told her. "Anything that looks like the detritus of dragons."
She looked confused a moment. Then shrugged. I had no idea what "detritus" meant either.
We flew in V formation, we took up the rear right corner. I hung over Grace's side, scanning alongside her. We banked around and covered every square inch of the Valley and surrounding cliffs. No shapes emerged except forest animals, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
"You know, Qibli has a point." Grace said to me.
"Why?"
"Like, where would Scarlet even keep Halestorm? He seems like a dragon who wouldn't give up without a fight." Like you. "And would also leave signs, or some sort of trail."
"Yeah. Icicle would totally do that. She was smart enough to attack Starflight anyway." I was surprised to hear that sass come from Kinkajou of all dragons. Grace lost the wind out of her sails.
"And you can't hear anything... right?" Qibli questioned.
"No. Nothing. Marvin hasn't seen anything either."
"Mmm-No. Not yet." I mumbled. Scanning over the valley slowly. Trying to pierce through the foliage and other concealment. Anything that hid an irregularity. Anything that could suggest an onlooker, an outlier. I thought I saw a flash of an orangish red, but it was something reflecting the evening sunlight behind us. We were losing time fast.
"If anything, Scarlet probably has him camped out somewhere high in the mountains up there!" I pointed. "It's too vulnerable to be anywhere in the valley. Apparently too easy to be spotted."
I got both Qibli and Grace to smirk. Kinkajou rolled her eyes at me.