Peace and its Shadow

Chapter 28: Welcome Home

Peacemaker flew through the air. Concentrating his focus forward and forward only.

It felt like forever since the letter even though it was about a day that had gone by. The sky was turning dark but the sunset glow lit up Peacemaker and the ground below him in an orange hue. The snow was starting to disappear the farther he was getting from the Ice Kingdom. It was like leaving home for more than a week for the first time, leaving behind both good and bad memories.

Good memories of being with Mink and Shard, and seeing other friendly dragons like Lynx and Hailstorm.

Bad memories like the Icewing trio that tried to force(and partially succeeded) the earring on Peacemaker's ear. The whole experience like the first time was just...weird. Surreal even. Though Peacemaker did kind of feel lucky to be alive at the same time he regretted thinking like that. After all, he killed Clearblade, he should've died too, it'd be fair right?

"Peace, please," Darkstalker replied to Peacemaker's mind. His voice sounded like genuine sadness. "Just stop thinking like that, we have things to focus on."

"Why not, don't you agree?" Peacemaker asked. "Shouldn't murderers deserve to die, I mean, look at you right now."

"A wing for a wing makes Pyrrhia unable to fly, an eye for an eye makes the whole continent go blind," Darkstalker rhymed.

"What was that?" Peacemaker inquired.

"A lyric or two you taught me once," Darkstalker reminded.

"I...did?" Peacemaker cocked his head to the side, trying to keep the pace of flight he was at.

"Yeah, don't you remember? On the third day after Clearblade's death, you didn't feel like sleeping so you rested on a tall tree nearby in the night and showed it to me," Darkstalker rhymed. Assumingly seeing Peacemaker's still confused look, he sighed,

"You don't remember do you..."

"I guess not," Peacemaker admitted. Even if he survived the earring, the damage was still there. Peacemaker's memories, or at least a few of them, would fade away. Maybe to be irrecoverable? No, Peacemaker remembered how both memories that he or Darkstalker could come back given enough time.

"About that..." Darkstalker started. "About my memories, I think I'm being able to remember them more clearly. Including, my feelings, I mean I can now feel more joy and sadness, that's a bonus right?"

A thought crossed his head. What if you and I have some sort of balancing act?

"You're saying that as my thoughts and feelings increase, yours decrease?"

"Yeah...could be," Peacemaker admitted. "Well when you think about it, the first time, you suddenly appeared, according to you, you couldn't feel much. Sure, a chuckle there, a sarcastic comment here, maybe a little bit of hatred and regret sprinkled in but other than, blank. You also struggled with memories good and bad. But the second time, there's already a change. You seem to have more emotion to things, being able to remember things clearer."

"If this is a balancing act as you claim, then that means as the earring is attached more and more, your memories will fog and fade away while your emotions slowly get chipped away too," Darkstalker realized. "In that case, even surviving the earring, there are still negative effects from even encountering it in the first place."

"I guess so, but remember how I shattered the few earrings nearby earring like that?" Peacemaker remembered, snapping his talons.

"Yeah, it would be helpful but suspicious to others if they caught you doing that," Darkstalker pointed out. "Besides, you're experience with the ability of yours is very limited, so...I wouldn't count on it. Just avoid it in general unless there's a safe place to destroy it." Peacemaker observed the ground flying by, he sighed remembering the old days just a year ago. But he couldn't think of much besides his friends and his mother from the rainforest. Why was he even going back? He didn't want to.