Wings of Fire: The Secret of Silverstripe

~Ch.5: Pearl Harvesting~

Silverstripe's sleep was exciting, to say the least.

First, she dreamt about just regular swimming in the ocean. She hunted with random SeaWings from her imagination, and listened to some amusing gossip.

Second, she dreamt about seeing Turquoise again. They went to the Summer Palace to attend some kind of feast, the meals even being as far fetched as a sea serpent rotisserie. She saw the queen as she was eating, talking to a random SeaWing official in Aquatic about there being spies in the kingdom. Silverstripe watched the conversation uneasily, and kept to the shadows next to Turquoise for the rest of that part of the dream.

Third, Silverstripe dreamt about talking with Turquoise. He told her about recent rumors of a Talons of Peace spy in the sea, possibly being a SeaWing-NightWing hybrid.

As Silverstripe listened to Turquoise talking about the danger of hybrid spies in the dream, she felt a sudden disturbance, like a small earthquake.
Silverstripe shrugged it off and kept listening to dream-Turquoise as he went on and on about who the spy could be.

Silverstripe felt another disturbance, this time rocking her nearly off her talons, as though someone had pushed her in the shoulder.

Wait... someone pushing her?

That wasn't part of the dream from what she could tell...

Another disturbance came, this time definitely feeling like someone pushing on her shoulder.

Silverstripe opened her eyes in irritation, only to see two faces staring at her with likewise expressions.

You slept well? a bright green SeaWing flashed.

Silverstripe shook her head groggily.

You don't wake well, a cyan SeaWing observed as Silverstripe climbed onto her talons. Both of the SeaWings watched her expectantly as she stretched her legs and wings.

"What?" Silverstripe mouthed.

We have to get to the Summer Palace, the green SeaWing flashed. Mistress Seasnake sent us to wake you up.

"Oh!" Silverstripe mouthed in realization as she hastily readjusted her pouch.

The two SeaWings swam out of the room, Silverstripe following closely behind their tails until they landed on the third level of the pavilion, Seasnake sitting casually at the back, talking to the same SeaWing she had the day before.

"Good morning, Mistress," Silverstripe said as she sat down a tail length from the green SeaWing, facing her.

"Good Morning, Abyss," the Mistress said brightly. "Nice to know that you're here on time. They weren't too rough waking you up, were they?" she asked, pointing to the SeaWings behind Silverstripe.

"No, they needed to be to wake me up," Silverstripe said, bowing her head apologetically.

"That's fine; at least you slept well enough for the first day of harvesting," Mistress Seasnake said, gesturing to the group of SeaWings around them. "You'll go with Cobalt and Cerith today to help you ease into the job. They usually help train the new recruits."