Wings of Fire - Eclipse Burning (1)

Chapter 4

Moon hid in her cave the rest of the day. Eclipse had come by and checked on her but she hadn't felt like talking. Eclipse understood and had patted her shoulder before stalking out of the cave.

When Eclipse got back to her cave, she was flooded with questions by Ostrich and by their other clawmate, which turned out to be a MudWing named Sepia.  

"Where you scared?" Ostrich asked. 

"Scared? She looked pretty scary herself from my point of view," Sepia noted, a nervous twitch in her mind. 

"Lucky Qibli stepped in, huh?" Ostrich said. 

"Yeah," Eclipse started, "If he hadn't there might have been a fight after all."

"I was hoping there wouldn't be." Sepia confessed.  

"It's the first day and everyone's already fighting. . ." Ostrich mumbled. I wonder if it's still safe here. How many of these dragons have blood on their talons? Her mind went on. If Qibli can stay, so can I. But maybe he thinks it would be safer to go home? 

"I think we should go to bed," Eclipse tried, "I've had a long day."

"You get some sleep then, I'm going to stay up a while longer." Sepia said. Maybe I should go to the art cave? Calm my nerves a little before bed. Her mind finished as she ducked out of the cave.  

"I'm pretty tired too." Ostrich said, is Qibli going to sleep yet? She walked over to her rock ledge and got comfortable. Well, as comfortable as one could be, laying on rock. Eclipse couldn't imagine sleeping on cold stone voluntarily.  

Eclipse walked over to her rainforest bed and laid down, quickly falling into a nightmare. 

Ever since the comet six months ago, Eclipse and her sister had been having the same awful dream, although the details changed at times. 

A roaring avalanche crushed dragonets in it's path. Lighting split the sky as thunder rolled through the jagged peaks. Dragons screamed in terror and died all around her, their death spasms shuddering through her mind. 

Jade Mountain. Eclipse realized, watching the earth shake and crack open, the fang-shaped peaks crumbling into a slide of deadly boulders. It's. . .falling.  

Eclipse watched as the world was destroyed under her claws and a sizzling pain began to pound against her head. 

She knew what this was. She knew this wasn't real. It was a vision. It had to be. A vision of the future. . .or what's left of it. 

A SandWing on fire, screaming. Cracks appearing all along Jade Mountain, opening right under the talons of some dragons and swallowing them into the ground. A dragon, who looked like Moon's RainWing friend, but white with fear, shrieked as falling rocks crushed her tail. 

Wake up! Eclipse shouted to herself. Maybe if she tried hard enough she could.  

"Talons and teeth, you poor little dragonets." a huge shape suddenly loomed beside her, as if another mountain had materialized out of the ground. She had a lightning-fast impression of silver and black, and then vast talons closed around her claws and she was yanked out of the nightmare into darkness. 

Cool, still, peaceful darkness. Darkness with no voices in her head, nothing burning or collapsing, no noise or catastrophe or panicking. It was the first real silence she'd heard since arriving at Jade Mountain. Maybe ever. 

Eclipse's heart rate had gone down, leaving her wondering where she was and who had pulled her from the nightmare. She was still asleep though, she realized, but he'd brought her somewhere quiet and she guessed he was somewhere nearby.