Posts by mahal

Fearstriker and Eclipsewatcher remained outside for a while, seemingly arguing with one another, but then eventually Eclipsewatcher came back to Gelus. "I'll be back soon," she said. "I have to go somewhere right now. Don't know why, though. But...we can continue this conversation once I get back, okay?"

"Everything will be fine," Eclipsewatcher assured her. "Trust me, I've dealt with Fearstriker plenty of times before. I'm pretty sure all he wants to do is just go argue with me in the rainforest, which we've done many, many times before. I'll be fine."

"Thank you. I'll be back soon, don't worry," Eclipsewatcher said. She wrapped her wings around him for a few seconds, and then she pulled away from him and walked off to go meet Fearstriker.

(( Time skip? ))

It was early morning, and Eclipsewatcher was nowhere to be found.

“Where is she?” Tayra muttered. “She promised Stormcaller that she would visit him today.”

“Maybe she just got busy this morning,” Tanager suggested.

“But she was so excited to get to Stormcaller,” said Adder worriedly. “What’s taking her so long?”

Tayra let out a surprised yelp. "Fearstriker? You mean her scary brother?" she asked. "What did he want to talk to her about?"
"I doubt that it was anything good," Adder worried. "But surely Fearstriker would try not to risk hurting her like that when anyone here could find out what he's done, right?"
"Not unless there's something he wants out of it," Tanager pointed out. "SkyWings are always taught to take any risk for a great reward. Of course, that only leaves the question as to why he'd want to do something like that."
"This is not exactly the happy conversation I was looking forward to having today," Tayra said.

"Do you think maybe she's already with Stormcaller?" asked Tayra. "I mean, she was pretty excited to see him, and I wouldn't put it past her to make an impulsive decision..."

"Well, it's worth checking, right?" Tanager asked. "If it's an option then it's worth looking into it, so we could cross it off our list sooner rather than later."

"Alright," Tayra said. She paused for a moment, trying to remember the way to the Old Night Kingdom. It was going to be a bit hard, but so as long as she knew the general direction and the others were there to guide her, then she supposed that she would be able to do it. "Let's go."

(( Time skip? ))

Eclipsewatcher wasn't here either.

"Are you sure?" Tayra asked Stormcaller and his parents. "Eclipsewatcher never came close to this place? She never stopped by?"

"Gelus said that the last time he'd seen her, she was going to talk privately with her brother," Tayra said. "And apparently, she hasn't come back since."

"I really hope Eclipsewatcher is just trying to pull a prank on us now," Adder said, though he knew that that was hardly likely to be the case. "The sooner we find her, the better."

"So assuming that you aren't going to use your powers to help us," Tanager said to Stormcaller, "do you have any idea where she might have gone or what might have happened to her? Do you know where we should start?"

"I...think I might have seen him," Tanager said suddenly. "Last night. I was just going out to try to find something to hunt and eat. I think I might've seen him returning to the village, but I didn't see Eclipsewatcher with him. I didn't even know that Eclipsewatcher was with him. I don't know what he would have wanted from her, though."

Adder paused for a few seconds, and then dread opened up in his stomach. "Wait," he said. "Wasn't there a tunnel in the rainforest that leads to the Sand Kingdom?"
"Yes," Tayra said slowly. "Why?"
"I was just...thinking," Adder said. "If Fearstriker took her there, then maybe there were some SandWings there who could want a dragon with powers like hers. I wouldn't put it past some dragons I know. Maybe Fearstriker met up with some SandWings beforehand, spilled Eclipsewatcher's secret abilities to them, and they made a deal. But of what kind? Who could possibly want to use her like that?" Though Adder was sure that he already had a pretty good idea on who it could be.

"It's just that...I've kind of been avoiding my family all these years," Adder said. "And if my suspicions are right and they're the ones who have her, then we're going to be taking a very big risk if we go talk to them." He couldn't imagine going up to his siblings, mother, or...or his grandfather and asking for his friend back politely. But if they really do have her, then we need to do something, don't we?

"Well...all of us can go, then," Adder said. "But whatever you do, just stay close to me. My family could kill every single one of you."
"I'd like to see them try!" Tanager protested.

"Trust me, you'd rather not," Adder said.

Adder turned to Stormcaller suddenly. "Are you sure there isn't even one small enchantment you could cast to help us out?" he asked him. "I mean, you're not obliged to use your powers, of course. But it would make things a lot easier for us."

"Just anything you could think of that could help!" Adder said. "Maybe some way to communicate with us, or something to protect us, anything, so as long as it could be useful."

Adder looked around, and then he carefully removed the earring from his ear. “How about this?” he asked Stormcaller, offering it up to him.

Adder watched him, and once Stormcaller was finished speaking the enchantment, Adder reached up to take it back from him before putting it back on. "So, I guess we'll figure out later if it actually worked," Adder said.