[IC] Legends of Pyrrhia | Wings of Fire

[PrankFox]

Most of Viper's focus was on the shorthanded scrawling that she was getting down on the scroll as a record for the meeting. She could only imagine how important this might be down the road if something did come about due to the death of Queen Ember, and she couldn't imagine the any tribe letting the death of their queen just letting it be.

She froze slightly as Dreamseeker began to speak and gave a furtive glance towards Queen Ardent. As the NightWing continued to speak she could feel her own scales paling and that deep panic beginning to set in at the idea that someone might be watching what was going on within the hut. That the dragons who had been threatening them somehow knew that they were going to be giving away information and would bust in to kill all of them.

If she admired Queen Ardent for anything it was her ability to keep her emotions well hidden. Despite being a RainWing the only indication that she gave that this line of questioning bothered her, and the only reason Viper caught it was because of how much time she spent here, was the slight twitching of Ardent's claws where they were crossed in front of her.

Ardent kept silent for some time, her head bowed in thought. Her eyes flicked to the door of the hut before they landed back on their visitors and she sighed. "We did not do it because we wanted to. I know the other tribes think that we are lazy and clueless of our own abilities, but that is not true. We are well aware of how dangerous our venom can be, but they did not give us a choice."

Viper couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath as her queen continued to speak. "You have to understand, they threatened my tribe and continue to do so if we tell anyone what has happened. They have dragons around, listening to the things we say in a hope of catching us breaking the deal we made. I did only what I had to in order to stop us from being attacked," she grimaced, "We are not a tribe of fighters."

Her long neck turned so she could give Viper a pointed look, but when she spoke her voice was airy and disinterested, the opposite of her quiet and serious tone from before. "Viper why don't you show our guests the wonderful drawing that you did for me the other day."

Confusion filled her mind for a moment as she struggled to follow the line of conversation before, after a short moment, she snapped up. "O-oh of course Queen Ardent! I'm sure they would all love to see it."

"I apologize but we don't really have time for this." She heard Eclipse say as she rushed to a stretch of bamboo shelves that were covered in scrolls.

"I think this will very much interest you." Ardent told him as Viper came back with a single scroll in her paw and laid it on the ground to unroll it. The drawing was crude and not incredibly detailed, but it was unmistakably a SeaWing.

[Marlowe]

Skua didn't know what to expect from Ardent, especially when she fell silent and glanced towards the door. But it definitely wasn't for her to suddenly admit the whole plot and why the RainWings did what they did. For a moment, he felt pity for them, along with frustration. What was a tribe to do in the face of danger if they couldn't fight? Why couldn't they even fight in the first place? He ground his teeth together, glaring at the floor as Viper went off to get a drawing.

It was only when she showed it to everyone that his head snapped back up at attention. Viper's drawing was one of an azure dragon, with fins, a thick tail, and gills... his heart sunk to his stomach.

"That's a--!" he was about to shout, but Dreamseeker's wingtips brushed against his muzzle.

Dreamseeker turned to Ardent, her violet eyes wide and filled with fear and worry. "We know who those dragons are. Luckily for us, they aren't very good fighters above the water." she whispered. "I think we can do something about them for your tribe."

[PrankFox]

Finally they had someone who actually knew what was going on. Eclipse did feel bad for the RainWings, having their lives threatened was nothing to ignore, and he couldn't even find it in himself to fault them for not trying to fight back. While they might not be as lazy as was written in the scrolls they were still pacifists as far as he could tell. He could tell Skua was getting irritated at everything that was going on, but hopefully they'd be on their way soon.

He was surprised to say the least when Ardent changed her tune and completely stopped talking about what was important. Instead telling Viper to go get a drawing and even as he went to protest Ardent gave him a keen look. She was much more intelligent than anyone else seemed to give her credit for.

He moved up to stand next to Skua and Dreamseeker as the scroll was unfurled and felt his brow furrow in confusion. This couldn't be right. What reason would the SeaWings have to start this or threaten the RainWings? The drawing was unmistakable though and the rest of his troupe also realized quickly.

"You think so? They're a real nuisance but tougher to get rid of than one would expect." Ardent's voice kept that bored tone as she spoke to Dreamseeker and Viper moved back to the small table beside her. Her pale blue scales were swirling with a pale green. He had no idea what that meant but judging by the way her eyes were darting around the room she must be nervous about whoever these SeaWings were. Ardent's scales hadn't shifted at all, Rainwings were so confusing.

Eclipse nodded in agreement with Dreamseeker. "If you could give us an idea of where they might be I think we have a pretty good chance." He didn't want to risk the lives of the RainWings, but they needed more information and what better place to get it than from the ones responsible.

The jewelry jingled as Ardent shifted on the throne, "Usually they stick to the outskirts, I believe, or any place with quite a bit of water."

He nodded and filed away that information, "I think we need to have a conversation about all of this," he looked to the rest of the group, "There's a lot that we have to consider."

"Whenever you make your decision let me know. Viper can inform me if you don't wish to come back and wait in line." She gestured towards the door with one paw, "Best of luck to you."

[Marlowe]

The SeaWings acted smart, apparently sticking to the outskirts of the RainWing's territory. Maybe there they would be able to keep track of what occurred in the forest, and he wondered if they knew about their presence already. Skua hoped they did. He felt like clawing a few of those sea-snail eaters in the face. He followed everyone outside of the hut, glancing over at Eclipse and bumping his flank against his. "All we need to do now is get rid of those pests." he declared with a crooked grin. "And then we could head to the SeaWing Kingdom and demand an explanation."

Dreamseeker padded up alongside them. "I think it's a lot more difficult than it sounds, Skua. We need to be really careful about what we decide to do," her eyes were gentle as she glanced over the three males in front of her. "But as of now, we're all pretty tired. Maybe we can talk over brunch. Full bellies will help us in planning our next move."

Skua snorted and clawed the wood in front of him. "Fine. But I don't want to waste any more time than we have to. I'm already itching to fly to the east and burst into Queen Marlin's palace."

[PrankFox]

This revelation was sending all sorts of conflicting thoughts pinging around in Eclipse's head. Unfortunately, most of them were questions without any answers. He had never met any SeaWings personally, beyond the occasional envoys that showed up to speak with his parents or Queen Ember, but they'd always been cordial and never given any indication of dislike, though he supposed it was easy enough to hide that. Either way, it was confusing to say the least. What reason did the SeaWings have to start a war or kill the Queen? What could they hope to gain from it?

He was snapped free of his roiling thoughts when he felt Skua's side bump against his and he let himself relax a bit with a grin in return at his friend's confidence. "If all they've been dealing with are pacifist RainWings they're in for a surprise when we track them down." He almost couldn't wait to get his claws into them.

As Dreamseeker spoke he knew she was right. He just wished that at least one thing they did had an easy solution. Was that too much to ask after everything they'd been dealing with so far? "We didn't get a chance to eat this morning. If we're going to be busting down doors it might be a good idea," he flashed Skua another grin, "Not that I don't think you're perfectly capable, but then again, if we try to do something quietly we may have a problem."

It was easy enough to get back to the upper platforms and he was happy to see there was still plenty of food for them to tear into. He missed meat though. He supposed this would all have to do. "So what's the plan then?"

"While I don't think tracking down a bunch of SeaWings in a jungle is going to be all that hard, isn't it supposed to be super difficult to get into the SeaWing's home?" Aardwolf piped up while they ate, "I've heard that it's hidden underwater or something like that, so we may need some kind of help getting there."

Eclipse sighed, of course it couldn't be simple. "I'd rather not try to convince one of these "assassins" to tell us how to get in, so I'm open to ideas."

[Marlowe]

Skua didn't feel like getting the SeaWing assassins to fess up, either. Assassins were trained not to submit themselves to their capturers, right? So what made them think that a random SeaWing was going to tell them where their palace was? The assassin would probably die laughing if they even tried to make them fess up. Skua shook his head.

"Hidden underwater or not, I doubt that lot's going to tell us anything about where their Queen is. We might just have to rely on our own intuition to get us there," he growled. "Let's just try to get some food to in our bellies before anything else though."

They flew off to another platform where a bunch of RainWings gathered, apparently to get their breakfast. One of the RainWings was helping out with handing out fruit, and Skua was given a large, round, pinkish fruit with green spines. How did the RainWings survive off of just fruit? He was still hungry from last night...

Dreamseeker spoke to them once again once they all had their fruits and were resting underneath the shade of a tree. "We could see if we can find another SeaWing that isn't an assassin. If we fly around the ocean for some time, we're bound to run into someone, right?"

[PrankFox]

Eclipse nodded in agreement with Skua as they all picked up some food for the morning and headed a little ways off to be out of earshot of the rest of the RainWings. It felt like they'd been close to figuring all of this out and being able to go back home. He couldn't imagine how his parents must've felt when they woke up to find him gone. Maybe the knowledge that Skua was most likely with him would at least settle their minds a small amount.

He didn't even bother looking at the fruit he was eating, it honestly made it easier to just chew mindlessly and not think about the prey that wandered the jungle that he could be eating. He'd be more than happy to get away from here.

"That's an option. I don't think they frequently leave their kingdom, and if they do they certainly don't leave the ocean much, but we still need to give Queen Ardent an answer, he tossed some sort of red berry into is mouth, "Are we going to try and deal with these assassins or do we hope the RainWings can hold out and head towards the sea?"

He personally didn't want to leave with the possibility that the RainWings would be attacked, not when they could do something about it, but he felt like they needed to consider if it would just be faster to go straight to the source and get the SeaWings to call them off. Though they may not even be willing to do that if they found out the RainWings had told someone what was going on.