Storm Season | Shelha Series 2 | ✔

Chapter Twenty: Drakon Shells and Caradels

Flicker in the hollow and sing on the wind,

Catch a copper butterfly, storm clouds pinned;

Who stole the Capperdel? Dark night fall,

Living in a silent river, never live at all.

South flee, silvertree, give an eye a bird,

Looking for a secret that the wild wind heard;

Whitewing, flickering, give a world a chance;

Silverpath's a river and the moons all dance.

The gusts eventually forced the three to retreat from the window. Silversand attempted to start a game of tail-tag, but Sethral and Whipper were head-to-head by Flitter's broken tether, trying to figure out how the Vilus had escaped.

Silversand glanced at the skylight. "It's not raining yet. Do you think it will?"

"I doubt it," said Whipper.

There was a faint whistling coming from the skylight. Silversand frowned. "Wha—AAAIIIIIIIIII!"

Wind blasted her flat as a Drakon plunged through the skylight. Four more charged after it. "Search hall!" one screeched. All scattered.

Silversand sprinted to guard the main hallway. Whipper flew up a wall and hurled himself at a Drakon, driving it into another. He leaped clear and whizzed between the claws of a third. A bloodcurdling screech rent the air. Sethral and the lead Drakon pinwheeled by, other Drakons diving to avoid them. One flew at Silversand; she attacked it and suddenly everything was a blur of sand and sound and feathers. Sethral folded her wings and smashed her opponent to the ground. It clawed her loose and escaped.

Whipper vaulted off another wall. This time he hit a Drakon's back and rolled across it, snatching one steering wing on his way by. The surprised creature flipped in the air. Sethral snatched another Drakon and flung it into his path; they collided with a crunch and the Forester landed on Sethral's back, out of harm's way.

Silversand leaped off her dead Drakon and intercepted the leader in midair. She wound up on its back. The hall careened past at an alarming speed.

"Silver, you'll crash!" shouted Sethral.

Silversand lashed out at the Drakon's wing and dropped to the ground. The wing dropped beside her. The Drakon pulled up just in time, powered its remaining wings to full speed and spun around the hall screaming, "Dat one not here! Retreat! Retreat!"

Sethral snarled and flung herself after it. The Drakon dodged her and shot out the skylight still screaming, "Not here! Dat one not here! Retreat!"