~Part 3~
The Darkness of Dragons
Eclipse groaned, sitting up from her laid position. Confusion struck her like lightning as her eyes adjusted to her surroundings. She wasn't in the underground lake, nor was she in her sleeping cave. This cave was unfamiliar to her.
This cave was big, with pictures of dragon anatomy hung on the walls around her, along with shelves filled with bandages and medicinal herbs and plants.
She was laying in a bed of mosses and leaves that sat next to 3 other beds. One, she noticed, held Tamarin. The RainWing didn't look ok in the slightest. Her scales were pale white and she was grimacing in her sleep.
Another surprisingly held Sora. The nervous little MudWing who was like Moon.
She half expected to turn and see Kinkajou standing somewhere but the only dragons in the infirmary with her were Sora and Tamarin.
Eclipse finally noticed the feeling of being restricted and twisted her neck to look down her body. Her midsection was wrapped in delicate bandages and she noticed a few blood spots that had seeped through the wrappings. Her neck was also wrapped, but these bandages were thin and light while the coverings around her midsection were thick and heavy.
Three gongs suddenly echoed through the halls.
That's strange, Eclipse thought. I wouldn't think they would continue classes this soon, especially when some of us are healing.
Eclipse poked her head out of the healing cave and watched as dragons began to silently crawl out of caves and trot down the tunnel, all in the same direction.
Eclipse watched the dragons walk by, learning from their minds that there was a meeting in the Great Hall.
She popped into an opening and began walking with the crowd, wincing slightly as her injuries flared in protest.
As Eclipse entered the Great Hall she noticed the teachers all present, along with Fatespeaker, atop a ledge facing them. Eclipse could feel their surging emotions clearly, but she thought she could have read them just as well by the looks on their faces.
Sunny: devastated. Tsunami: furious. Clay: grieving. Starflight: anxious, and trying desperately to puzzle out what had happened. Fatespeaker: scared for Starflight, and a little unsure about whether this school was worth it. And Webs, who was mostly relieved that he'd been late to class and had therefore survived.
The students, on the other talon, were a mess of jumbled mental energy. Eclipse winced again; it was like stepping into a hurricane. It was worse than the fear set off by Peril's arrival. This was an avalanche of terror, she'd been scared before sure; but this made her feel as if she needed to run for her life or she would die. right. now.
The gong sounded one last time, and Eclipse sensed her sisters arrival. She turned and began slipping through the crowd to get behind it, hissing when bodies made contact with hers.
Her eyes met Moon's and she relaxed. Surprisingly, Qibli was with her, close enough to brush their wings together.
"Moon," Eclipse muttered. Moon was already looking at her and beckoning her over.
"You should be resting," Moon whispered once Eclipse sat on her other side.
"I couldn't miss this," Eclipse smiled. She glanced at Qibli, who was feeling rather anxious about being next to two mind readers, and nodded. He nodded back stiffly.
"Hi, everyone," Sunny said somberly. "I know you're all worried about the awful fire that happened yesterday. The first thing we want you to know is that the school is not closing, at least, not right now, but we understand if you want to leave. There are dragons on their way here now who can escort you safely home." Her mind flashed quickly past Queen Glory, Deathbringer, a six-clawed SandWing, and a big MudWing who looked like Clay.
"We understand if you want to go, but we're hoping you'll choose to stay," Clay added. "We ask you all to give us two days before you decide. Give us two days to find out what happened and who did this. If we can't - if we think it's too dangerous to stay here - we'll consider shutting down the school."
We're looking for the dragon who planted the bomb. Moon's mind whispered.
Gotcha. Eclipse silently nodded.
We think it might be Pike since he had a problem with both Carnelian and Bigtail. Moon continued.
That dragon has a problem with everyone. Eclipse rolled her eyes. Other than Anemone, of course.
It's still worth a look.
Moon. Startled, both Moon and Eclipse glanced to their side and found Qibli staring at Moon intently. He tipped his head. See if you can edge that way. Pike's over there.
Only half listening to Clay's speech, Moon sidled through the crowd until she was directly behind the SeaWing. Eclipse easily stepping into Pike's mind.
At least the princess was no where near the fire. He had a confusing mind. His thoughts rampaged around like wild rhinoceroses; half of them began and then trailed off as he jumped to another. If Anemone had been hurt - maybe Queen Coral is right - can't protect her if I'm dead - dare to kill me, I'll rip off their - that poor little RainWing - I miss the Deep Palace, nothing catches on fire there - wish I'd had a chance to fight that NightWing - would've given him a tail whack he'd never forget - never even got to fill his bed with slugs - so pointless, having dead enemies, nobody to yell at - there's Anemone; that IceWing is standing too close to her; maybe I'll go bite him - wonder which of these idiots set the fire - that'd give me someone to snarl at -
"That dragons mind is a mess," Eclipse mumbled to Qibli.
"Messier than mine?" he chuckled awkwardly. He was trying to hide the fact that he was outlandishly uncomfortable with the fact that she'd been able to see through him this whole time, then feeling stupid for trying to hide anything from her.
"A whole lot messier," she grinned.
Moon pivoted to meet their eyes and shook her head. Pike was an odd, bad-tempered dragon - and might be secretly protecting Anemone for Coral - but he wasn't their killer.
Frowning, Qibli scanned the crowd, choosing and discarding suspects at lightning speed. He crossed off all the RainWings right away, which Eclipse agreed with; none of them had ever had an aggressive thought, as far as she'd seen. He paused on Umber and thought, Too loyal to Clay, then Marsh: Too nervous. Eclipse agreed with that as well; from the frantic terror spiking out of Marsh's head, he wouldn't be able to handle planning something this big without cracking under the pressure.
Winter and Icicle? he wondered, studying the two haughty IceWings, who stood a few paces away from everyone else. Not Winter, he mused. He was with me or near me most of the day, especially right before class. But maybe Icicle?
Eclipse didn't think so. It had to have been a dragon with fire, right? That or they had an accomplice.
Winter stretched his wings and twisted his neck to search the crowd - for Moon, Eclipse realized. Moon ducked out of his sight behind a large MudWing and Winter skimmed his eyes right past her, catching Eclipse's eyes instead.
They stood still for a moment, simply staring at one another. Maybe it was a show of dominance that made them both not want to look away. Or maybe it was something different.
Either way, Winter snapped his eyes away first, a hint of pink tinting his ears and a twinge of irritation emitting from his mind.
All of the IceWings had sharp, glittering minds, and clumped together like they were, it was somewhat difficult to pin-point Icicle's thoughts and read them clearly. They seemed to bounce off the others and be reflected several times over. But after a moment of concentrating, Eclipse found herself dipping carefully into Icicle's mind.
By the teeth of the Great Ice Dragon, this is boring as sand, Icicle grumbled internally. I shall certainly tell Mother and Father and Aunt Glacier what a waste of time this entire school is. What have I learned so far? Even dragons who have been to war can be pitiful emotional wrecks. IceWings are superior to every other tribe - of course we knew that already. And don't set any dragons on fire, or else a bunch of sentimental soft-talons will cry and moralize and lecture you about it endlessly afterword. YAWN.
Icicle sure was an empathetic dragon. Note the sarcasm.
I should also tell her this place has done something frightful to Winter. Clearly he's too weak to associate with dragons from other tribes - he's talking like he might almost find them interesting. I wonder if I should tell him about Hailstorm. He wouldn't try to stop me, I don't think, but it would be too tiresome if he did.
Who was Hailstorm? Eclipse wondered. And she couldn't help but notice the twinge of anger she felt when Icicle commented about Winter. He was anything but weak.
Icicle made an impatient movement, and Winter shot her a warning glance. His sister rolled her eyes. Why are they STILL GOING ON ABOUT THIS? Two dragons died, so what? I've killed nine times that in almost every battle I've been in. We don't need to HEAR about it ENDLESSLY. They should just find the dragon who did it and give them a slow, horrible death. Perhaps by making them listen to Starflight talk for the next hundred years.
Up on the dais, Starflight was earnestly trying to explain something about psychological trauma. Eclipse personally thought it was quite interesting but she couldn't focus on what he was saying until they found whoever caused the explosion.
Eclipse noticed Moon shrink away from behind the MudWing she had chosen to hide behind and meet Qibli and Eclipse's eyes, shaking her head with a frown.
Icicle hadn't caused the explosion, but she did have a deeply cold, unsettling mind.
Qibli beckoned the sisters surreptitiously, flicking one of his wings at the far wall. Eclipse followed his gaze to Flame, who was brooding in a shadow by one of the torches.
He's a SkyWing, Qibli thought, and looked at Moon. Perhaps?
Moon lifted her wings in a "maybe" gesture and started working her way over to the scarred dragon. Tsunami was speaking now, explaining that they would catch the culprit and asking for anyone with information to come forward.
"I don't like Flame," Eclipse muttered to Qibli. "I don't trust him anywhere near Moon. He's dangerous and unstable."
"We have to know if he's our killer. I don't like it either but out of the two of you Moon is the one who can get close." He said. "He can't do anything to her anyway. Not with all these dragons around to witness it."
That made Eclipse feel somewhat better. He was right. Eclipse nodded slowly and Qibli averted his eyes back to Moon figure.
Although Moon was trying to be subtle, one step every thirty seconds or so, Flame swung his head around to glare at her when she was still several paces away. Moon froze in place, keeping her eyes locked on Tsunami and wondering if he knew she was trying to get close.
Darkness filled his head like a torrent of inky bile. Eclipse found herself glancing down at her talons, half expecting to see black stains left there from even brushing the surface of Flame's thoughts.
But will this convince her to come get me no of course not she'd rather leave me with fools and killers than take care of me herself even after what the NightWings did to me even after what Viper did to me even after what the Talons of Peace did to me she's the only one who's supposed to care about me when she hears probably not she hates my face as much as I hate my face I wish I could rip off every SandWings venom barb and then use them to stab all the NightWings in their stupid snouts -
Eclipse stomach churned painfully as thought she'd eaten a bowl of rotten fruit. She felt as if she was stuck in his mind, the inky blackness sticking to her scales and pulling her in.
He could be the one. His mind went right past Carnelian and Bigtail - stupid half-baked, or all-baked ha ha, idiot dragons they're lucky they're dead or else they'd be shambling scarred monsters like me - without a flicker of sadness or remorse. His loathing was so unrelenting that he barely seemed to have room to think about the fire itself, either that he'd set it or not.
And then, wound into the tangled gloom in Flame's head, she heard: I wish I'd done it everyone would take me seriously then but I wouldn't hide it I'd roar it to the world -
So it wasn't him. And she needed to get out of his brain, before she drowned here.
Eclipse tried desperately to claw off the ink that seeped between her scales but as much as she tried she could seem to get out of it.
She reached her talons out carefully, gripping onto Qibli's forearm. The direct contact helped pull Eclipse from Flame's mind and plunge into Qibli's. As quickly as she dipped into the SandWings mind she leapt out of it, dropping her claws with a sigh.
Before Qibli could ask why she'd done what she'd done, they both noticed Flame's head shoot up. She heard his mind shout: Who's there? WHO'S THERE? Then the force of his minds wall slammed down so hard it shot her out of any corner of his mind.