Powder

Chapter Twenty-Four: Through Fire and Blood

"So we're stuck here, with no food and water except for what's left in our pouches?" Palm yelled at me.

"Relax Palm, we all knew this could happen."

"To be free from one prison only to be stranded in another." Toucan sighed and he sat there defeated.

"If you saw Wren then we got out of this Toucan, why so glum?" I ask.

"You said it yourself, not all the visions are right." He snorts back.

"Now you're listening to me, when it's convenient, I see-"

"Cut it out, both of you!" Pebble snaps as he angrily kicks the last scroll we just read through, a scroll that was supposed to have the entire history of Pyrrhia since the Scorching.

"Anything?" I ask.

He angrily shakes his head. "We're just pests, mice! And Teardrops are apparently extinct with Nightwing's as well, which means-"

"They're damn knaves!" Palm roared as she slammed her fist down on the floor, scaring a couple of giant spiders walking past.

"So Fatespeaker lied to us-" Toucan started.

"Fatespeaker isn't lying, I think she genuinely believes she has the ability but..." I trail off.

"So she's crazy?" Palm snickers.

"She's not crazy, and can you blame her for wanting a better life, for dreaming a better life, look where she grew up!"

"Enough, fighting won't get us anywhere, get the spider to bring out the next scroll." Pebble sighs, the darkness caused by the shadows almost perfectly hid the black spots under his eyes, he hadn't gone to sleep once.

"That was the last one, Pebble-" I announced.

"FUCK!" He curses, as he kicks one of the stone shelves, only to immediately regret it. "OW!"

"Pebble, you okay?" I ask as I go to his side and lay him down on the floor.

"Am I okay? We are stuck in hell knows where, with no answers on where we came from, surrounded by giant spiders, and I just stubbed my toe!"

I back off as he vents till he sighs and just sits upright.

"Sorry, I can't... I'm just... we have to think clearly if we want to figure things out." He says as he looks up, but suddenly there's a spark in his eye. "Maybe we're looking in the wrong section?" He reasons aloud as he stands up and starts limping forward.

"There's Pebble, what's going on in that mind of yours?" Palm asks.

"Something like scavengers having power may seem impossible to dragons, so maybe instead of looking at facts, we should turn to fiction." He said as we made our way between two rows. "Myths and fairytales. Let's see if we might be able to find some answers."

***

My legs trembles as I stayed on my knees to read the text, it had been an hour and all I could find were mentions of this Darkstalker guy, the amount of texts he was in kinda made it seem like they were really pushing for this guy to be fake, maybe a concerned parent with a child that wouldn't go to sleep complained too much? It didn't matter, and it got harder to resist letting my eyes close and embrace the comfortable darkness of sleep.

"I got something!" Toucan suddenly announced.

We all practically bolted as we all turned to read his scroll.

"It isn't much but look at this."

We all leaned down and kneeled to take a look.

Once ago, there were a race of scavengers, but unlike their brethren, these creatures were more evil and more intelligent compared to the rest of their kind, always causing chaos in our society, stealing our food and messing with our prophecies, doing whatever they could to make a mess out of things. They...