Shadow's Rising {Wing 4} Chapter 4

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm Kate and I'm here to leave a quick review!!

First Impression

Well this was a lovely follow-up to the earlier one, some small moments of this crew actually working together a little and naturally a bit of a fight in the midst of it too. Love the way the storm dancer's mention at the start comes in to be important in more than just the one way there.

Anyway let's get right to: Kate's Line by Line Reactions;

Thunder boomed overhead as brief flashes of lightning illuminated the scene below. On the wet, muddy ground laid the limp body of Aurora. Her beautiful silvery scales covered in mud along with the blue and white streaked dragonet clutching her still form.

The dragonets were gathered around her. Still in shock at what had happened.

Gale was punching the ground in frustration while Boulder, Hailstorm and Shadow all stood nearby with stunned looks.

Cradling the limp body of her sister and best friend, Tempest buried her face in Aurora’s neck as her body shook with sobs. Her tears lost in the rain that unendingly poured from the sky above.

Well this is a horrible moment to start off on here. Ahh. Definitely worse than anything we saw in that third book this one. Its somehow always the nice one too that's the most innocent. Well I'm going find some tissues and let's get on with this.

“Why?” Shadow whispered just loud enough for the others to hear.

“We saved her. Why? She was still alive after the lightning. So why…”

He felt an intense pressure in his chest and head. His eyes were burning, and his throat was so swollen it was hard to breathe. His wings and chest shook with each inhale and his mouth was completely dry. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say?

“This shouldn’t have happened. There must be some way…” Hailstorm clutched his head shaking with emotion. Then suddenly his head snapped up as he remembered something.

Well unfortunately death is quite hard to reverse especially from a shock like that which I would assume straight up stopped her heart. I mean the dragons are advanced by they don't exactly have defibrator's lying around to try and restart one of those.

“Shadow! You said lightning is what did this to her?”

Shadow looked at him in confusion. “Yes but she was still alive after she got hit.”

Then Hailstorm stared off into space, his mind running a thousand miles a minute.

If it was a lightning induced seizure then maybe the residual magic energy allowed her to remain conscious for those last few moments.

If that’s the case then the reason for her catatonic state is the irregularity or complete stoppage of her heart. But that doesn’t mean she’s dead yet!

Oh my, am I just that good at predicting this stuff now xD. Either way I'm not complaining if Aurora has a way to be saved although I don't know if these dragonets can throw lightning like the older dragons were capable of in that one scene.

That scroll said that if a dragon’s heart is stopped by an electrical current then there is a high probability that running enough current and magical energy through her chest will revive her!

“Everyone! We might still be able to save Aurora!”

Suddenly everyone’s attention turned to Hailstorm while hope was beginning to rise in Shadow’s heart.

“If we can make enough electricity run through her chest, then we might be able to restart her heart and bring her back to life!”

“Tempest! You can make lightning as a Storm Wing, right?” Boulder asked excitedly.

Oooh well here we go. Tempest is definitely the biggest bet in terms of what we've seen up to now. Unless Night wings have some sort of special power with regards to that, I don't see how any of the others here really good except mayb Hailstorm, just going off that name.

Tempest looked down at her friend with an agonized expression.

“I can’t do it! Surge never taught me how to use lightning since we were underground. She said that to create lightning I first had to energize myself with it and she wasn’t going to do that for me until we were above ground.”

“Then all you need to do is let yourself get hit by some lightning to charge up then come back and use it on Aurora,” Hailstorm insisted. Again, Tempest shook her head.

“It can’t just be any old lightning. It must be lightning released, or at least manipulated, by a dragon or monster of some kind. Otherwise, my body won’t be able to accept it. That’s what Surge said.”

Ooooh this is interesting. Tempest has a little bit of experience after all. This'll be a good thing to try. I mean at this point you have to go with whatever could potentially work. This is quite literally life and death and it can't really get worse even if the plan goes wrong.

“Then we just need to find some kind of monster that uses lightning.” Hailstorm agreed.

Both Boulder and Shadow turned to Tempest at the same time. “We just need to find a storm dancer!”

Hailstorm’s eyes widened. “Of course! If I remember correctly, storm dancers are monsters closely related to elementals. Their bodies are very conductive and are almost constantly shrouded in lightning. They redirect the energy in storms and use it to move faster than the blink of an eye by riding the current down to snatch their prey.

They almost never land and instead soar on the wind and currents until they sense the bioelectric field given off by their prey. They usually prefer tall mountains with little tree cover as their hunting grounds.”

Ooooh the storm dancers coming back in and this time for a good thing. Ooooh well this is quite the callback and here I thought they were going to end up being evil monsters they'd have to actively combat in this one. Well, well, well this is getting exciting.

“Tall mountain with no trees. Got it.” Tempest nodded as she crouched to take off with Aurora in her arms.

“Wait!” Hailstorm protested just before she leapt into the air.

“The storm dancer won’t see you as prey because of the magic running through you. We’ll have to find some kind of big prey like an elk, bear or moose and hope it’s hungry. Otherwise, you’ll never find it.”

“Tch. Fine.” Tempest growled. “Boulder. You stay here and take care of Aurora. The rest of us are going to find some prey and somewhere that looks like a good storm dancer hunting ground.”

Ooh this is good, they're mobilizing together now to try and find a solution to this problem here. Certainly looks like the most in tune with each other they've been so far in this story.

Shadow almost expected Gale to reply with a snarky comment about her trying to boss them around again, but even he had an expression of somber determination.

Tempest gently handed Aurora’s limp form over to Boulder who took her carefully and set her head down in his lap.

“The scroll never specified how long we have before she cannot be revived but I doubt it’s more than an hour,” Hailstorm warned. “We can’t afford to miss anything or move too slowly. Let’s go!”

As Shadow leapt into the air along with the other dragonets his wings felt like two big bruises sticking out of his back, but he didn’t care. Aurora’s life depended on him!

Well yes timing is absolutely paramount there, someone should definitely also be doing CPR, because that is the best way to go about this and prolong life until a shock is delivered although I don't if that's a thing in this universe or if dragons even need it. Either way they need to go about this as fast as possible.

He remembered her smile when he had encouraged her. Her beautiful purple and silver scales shimmering with each lightning strike. How she had swooped in to defend him when Tempest tried to dismiss him.

The long nights he had spent listening to her calming, gentle, thoughts when he couldn’t sleep. And her warm empathy towards all living things that softened even the hardest dragon’s heart.

Speaking of hard dragon hearts, Tempest appeared to be flying somewhere nearby as her thoughts invaded his head.

I have to save her! She’s too… too… argh, everything! Kind, happy, gentle, cute, friendly… She’s my wonderful little sister. I wish it had been me. It should have been me. It was my fault for wanting to press on. I wasn’t fast enough.

Oooh this is interesting. Shadow doing some reminiscing and realizing some very interesting little details there to be thinking about while at the same time we've got our girl Tempest who was already quite mad at herself now spiraling quite a bit out of control there. Shadow has to try and calm her down if they're going to pull this off.

It’s all my fault!

Shadow made his way over to her and found her being battered by the wind. Her flying was erratic, and her talons clutched her head while her eyes, though fixed on the valley below, were not truly seeing it.

She was far too wrapped up in her own mind to focus on what she was trying to do, and Shadow knew that she was probably Aurora’s best hope.

“Hey! Snap out of it!”

Tempest’s head snapped towards him with fury in her eyes.

Oooh love that. Shadow's realized what needs to happen and is fully going for it, now to see if Shadow can actually get through to Tempest especially if Shadow has to try and not give away the whole mind reading thing which Shadow is keeping a precious secret.

“Don’t talk to me Night Wing! We are supposed to be looking for the storm dancers and some bait. Spread out!”

“No! You need to listen.”

Tempest paused for a moment. Her desperation quickly causing her fury to reach its peak.

Before she could tear his wings off mid-flight, Shadow tried to reason with her. “You can’t focus on helping Aurora while you’re blaming yourself for everything. We don’t have time to think about how we could have done better right now. So, stop thinking and start doing. You are the only one who can save her!”

Oooh well Tempest lashing out as one would in a moment like that when you just get yelled at to get yourself together but it looks like Shadow was able to say the right things in the right time there and we're back on track at least for the moment here.

Tempest was trembling as conflicting emotions raged within her. Shadow could feel her fear, anger, hopelessness and desperation all swirling inside her. He looked around and squinted through the rain. Then a flash of lightning stuck a stone peak not too far away. The flash illuminating the mountain’s face for a brief moment.

Shadow’s eyes widened. It was almost perfect! The peak of the mountain was slightly taller than those nearby and the top third of it had almost no trees.

“Don’t you think I know that?!” Tempest finally responded. “Everything is my fault and I’m the only one who can fix it! Don’t lecture me on how important it is to focus right now. Don’t you think I’m trying?!”

Oooh well that's a lovely moment there to reveal our little flash of hope in a literal flash there. I think its punctuated nicely by Tempest still in just such a chaotic headspace and trying hard. To be fair, Shadow isn't exactly being comforting at the moment.

Shadow could feel her desperation reaching its peak as she turned and flew off frantically.

“Wait! The mountain! Look!” Shadow shouted desperately after her, but the rain and thunder drowned out his voice. Shadow tried to chase her but quickly lost sight of her in the rain.

NO! I can’t lose her now. We were so close to the perfect habitat of the storm dancers. I need to find her. But where did she go? Then he heard a feint voice in his head.

Of course! He could follow her thoughts.

Oooh okayy well this is proving to be a fun little moment. Tempest is definitely the biggest cog in this plan but it looks like its upto shadow be the one who gets all of these cogs to run together for this to actually work.

Shadow dove forward, flying close to the valley floor in pursuit of Tempest’s thoughts. As he went he noticed a large goat on the side of the valley below. Part of him wanted to go hunt it but the other, much bigger part, didn’t want to loose Tempest’s trail.

Then he heard another set of thoughts and quickly came upon both Tempest and Gale.

“I found a good spot and an elk we can use as bait,” Gale hurriedly explained. Shadow was immediately hopeful until he noticed the image of the place in Gale’s mind. It was a tall mountain covered in dense trees.

“Wait!” Shadow called as he came up to them. Tempest and Gale turned to him with anxious expressions.

Oooh well plan are going back on forth here. They're going to have to settle on something soon, Aurora really does not have much time left. It would be even more heartbreaking to have it all within their grasp and then loose out because they waited too long.

“I found a spot and some prey as well. It was a tall mountain with no trees just like Hailstorm said.

“No. He said a tall mountain with lots of trees.” Gale protested.

Shadow turned to Tempest but in her panicked state she couldn’t remember what he had said, and suddenly it felt like some kind of wall came up between them.

“Don’t try to get our way Night Wing. Aurora is our family, and I’m going to save her. I’m not going to let you confuse me with your lies,” was what she spoke, but her mind was saying; I trust my family more than I trust you.

And with that, the two of them flew off.

Well that was a little unexpected. I mean completely understandable to have that series of mistakes in a panic this desperate but I wasn't expecting all the distrust towards Shadow to culminate in such a big divide. Ahh, well that's what terror and panic will do to ya. I hope Aurora doesn't suffer as a result of this whole thing.

Almost crying with frustration Shadow turned and bolted back to where he had seen the large goat from before. It didn’t take him long to find it and he quickly snatched the terrified animal from the cliffside.

A few minutes later Shadow landed next to Aurora and Boulder with his prey in his talons.

“What happened?” Boulder asked as Shadow dragged himself over to them breathing heavily.

“Gale… thought Hailstorm… said a tall mountain… WITH trees. He and Tempest went far away.”

Oooh smart move by Shadow there. There's some hope for Aurora yet although its going to be a tough ask for just the two of them to pull this off, especially without Tempest and her ability to have some sort of control over the lightning. This'll be a big ask.

Boulder whined quietly in worry as he gazed down at Aurora in his lap. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he explained the idea that had occurred to him while flying back.

“I found the right place. If you help me carry Aurora there, with this goat I found, maybe we can get the storm chaser to strike her.”

“But that will mean whoever is carrying her will be struck as well,” Boulder protested.

“We have to try! Tempest will be stuck waiting for a monster that will never show up. It’s up to us Boulder!”

Well I think that's a bold sacrifice by Shadow there because you know he's the one about to try and play the hero card here while Tempest and the others are off being in their panic.

Boulder bit his lip nervously. After a few seconds he nodded. “Alright. Show me where to go.”

Shadow felt relief wash over him but quickly became serious once more. He nodded and grimaced as he painfully stretched his wings. They were practically numb at this point, but he couldn’t afford to think about that now.

“Wait. Shadow. You look like you’re going to fall out of the sky,” Boulder spoke, looking concerned.

“We don’t have any choice. I have to show you where the mountain is.”

Boulder shook his head. “I can carry you and Aurora. All you have to do is carry the goat.”

Oooh Shadow's fatigue finally being actually acknowledged by someone instead of being laughed at and a little bonding moment maybe with Boulder. This feels like quite a big moment here for the two of them. They haven't been great at seeing eye to eye up to now.

Shadow looked at him incredulously.

“Don’t worry. Quake taught me strengthening magic. It’s the specialty of Stone Wings. It might not help much with endurance, but this is what it was made for. Using magic, each of you will be about as heavy as an old ram to me. Plus, I’ve been resting here the whole time doing nothing. Trust me. I can do this” Boulder said in a serious tone.

Shadow looked at him for a moment and glanced at his own frail wings before finally accepting it. He nodded and picked up the goat in his front talons.

Oooh Stone Wings. That's the first I'm hearing of them. Looks like they've got quite the cool power set to go along with their rather cool names there. That's quite a sight to behold.

Boulder held Aurora with his front talons under hers. Then he lifted off and glided over to Shadow, picking him up with his back talons. Then, taking a deep breath, Boulder roared wordlessly as if challenging the world to stop him.

Shadow felt the strength of Boulder’s grip grow more solid and each stroke of his wings seemed bigger as he propelled them forward. Shadow called out directions and encouragement whenever he heard doubt creeping into Boulder’s thoughts.

It felt like a long time before Shadow saw the mountain once again. By then Boulder’s breaths were coming in strained gasps but he gritted his teeth as their destination came into view.

Well looks like they're going as fast as they can here and Boulder's really coming into his own for the moment as they're making this big last ditch effort to do their best to save poor Aurora.

Boulder dropped Shadow as soon as they were close, and Shadow caught Aurora as Boulder tried to gently place her in his arms. He collapsed soon after.

Shadow was worried but Boulder waved him off. He needed to be quick if they wanted any chance of saving Aurora. Thankfully the goat had feinted after all the terror of being carried around by dragons, so Shadow was able to hold its neck in his mouth and carry Aurora in his front talons.

He walked into the open near the top of the mountain and carried her as high as he could, but it didn’t take long for his back legs to tire and burn with the effort. Then, on an exposed ledge high on the mountain, he slipped on the wet rocks dropping the prey and barely breaking Aurora’s fall as she rolled out of his arms.

Well this is a strong moment here. Boulder now exhausted from that massive feat of strength and now its upto Shadow and what little strength he has remaining to try and pull this off. Its an interesting difference here from Jarid who's a really strong person in his world, just in an oppressive and bad environment while Shadow seems the one that's a little shunned in general. Very different vibes in how they can handle things because of course this group is just in the process of getting to be better friends.

For a moment he laid there wheezing and wondering why the storm dancer hadn’t struck yet. He didn’t care if it hit him too. The world needed Aurora, not him.

He was just a Night Wing rejected by his own tribe and left behind by the one other person in the world who cared about him.

With tears of pain and frustration Shadow gathered the strength to pull himself to his feet. He reached for Aurora again but as he did so he felt a tingling sensation all over his scales and heard a familiar buzzing, zapping sound.

Oooh here we go. The moment of truth is coming in now. Let's see if Shadow has managed to pull this off. Ahh the tension being built up to this moment is simply incredible here. You've done a wonderful job building that up here. I'm on the edge of my seat again.

His eyes widened a moment before he was thrown back with a deafening “BOOM!!!”

Shadow felt his limbs trembling and the hard stone beneath him but everything else was fuzzy. His hearing was muffled, and his head hurt but he quickly forgot about himself as he remembered Aurora.

Shadow picked himself up and looked towards the spot where he had last seen her. He still couldn’t hear a thing, but what he saw was enough to freeze him in place.

There was a storm dancer standing over Aurora. It looked much bigger this close and the air itself seemed charged with energy.

OOooh this is interesting, a storm dancer lured in successfully, but this one seems to be much more intelligent than to just be chasing after a goat. It almost looks like its trying to assess the full measure of this situation and make some sort of decision.

The storm dancer regally looked down with at Aurora’s limp form, cocking its head slightly as if curious about the dragonet laid out before it. Then it reached out with one talon and jabbed a single hooked claw into Aurora’s chest. Easily piercing the scales but not going too deep.

Then it turned so that it was face to face with Aurora and started beat its wings slowly. With each wingbeat Aurora’s whole body jerked from the electric pulse that went through her. An ethereal glow grew between her and the storm dancer, growing brighter with each wingbeat.

Then suddenly Aurora coughed and spasmed a bit before gasping for breath. Shadow felt his heart nearly burst with ecstatic joy! Warm tears formed in his eyes as he watched Aurora coughing and groaning.

OOooooh YESSSS. I was really hoping that would work out there. It was looking more and more doubtful as each moment passed and they didn't have tempest but looks like the storm dancer and its powerful electrical magic did the trick her when applied with some very clear intelligence there.

The storm dancer quickly removed its talon and looked towards the goat beside her. Without glancing back, it picked up the goat in its talons and disappeared into the clouds overhead.

Shadow had no idea why the storm dancer had decided to help but he wasn’t about to question their good fortune.

“Aurora!” Shadow called as he scrambled over to her.

Everything was still muffled and fuzzy, but he could see her groaning in pain. As he came up to her he looked down at the spot where the storm dancer’s talon had pierced her chest and all he could see was a slightly pink wound that had been seared shut. It would probably leave a small scar but that was a small price to pay.

Ahh well here we go. Love the storm dancer there just finishing its work and being like my work here is done before just poofing off into the rain. And it seems Aurora is a little too weak to be doing much right now as is the entire lot of them honestly but they're all alive.

Shadow quickly opened his stiff wings to block out the rain as he leaned over her, cradling her head in his talons. She relaxed a bit but still grimaced slightly with each breath. One of her talons rubbed the wound on her chest and she winced. Then her eyes slowly blinked open.

“What happened? Everything hurts. Did I sleep on a sharp rock or something?” She croaked groggily.

Shadow could help but half chuckle, half cry as fresh tears fell onto Aurora’s chest. His throat was too choked up to answer her, so he simply smiled and nodded.

Ahh this is a cute little moment here. I can't wait for the whole gang to meet up and for them to have a moment to rejoice. Looks like things are going to be okay, although they better learn from that terrible decision to not take a rest and definitely from the decision to fly directly into a storm when not everyone is a storm wing.

Then he heard someone approaching and looked up to see Boulder climbing over the ledge. He looked at Shadow worriedly but Shadow smiled and opened his wings to reveal Aurora who turned her head to see her brother.

“Morning Boulder.” She whispered with a small smile as she waved her talon weakly.

Boulder rushed forward with a smile somewhere between crying and shouting for joy. He slowed down just in time and wrapped his arms around her before pulling her up into a hug where he could also wrap his wings around her.

“Aurora…

“Oh… Aurora,” he whispered as thunder echoed in the distance.

Well this is a beautiful little shot to end on here. The two of them hugging reunited amidst the thunder still roaring. Why do I feel like when the others come back they're going to push Shadow away to go into a group hug? It's just giving me strong vibes of that right now.

Aaand that's it for this oneee!!!

Overall

Overall another lovely chapter in this series, once again a little moment from earlier really coming back to pay its dividends here. Glad to see that we won't lose Aurora early. Let's see where we're headed out to from this point. Surely they must regroup and rest.

As always remember to: Take what you think was helpful and forget the rest!

Stay Safe and Have a Nice Day!
Kate

Hello Again, My Friend!

I'd like to continue my review of this great story today! Let's dive in, shall we? Heh heh heh...

What The Black Eyes See...

Ah, what a save! Man, you had me worried for a minute there! XD This chapter was so gritty, constantly reminding the reader about the urgency of the situation and the rush to save this adorable dragonet. The clash of emotions from everyone was touching, and seemed to help as well as hinder the situation in a lot of ways. Let's get into the details though.

Where The Dagger Points...

No complaints! This chapter was awesome and had me at the edge of my seat!

Why The Grin Widened...

First of all, I love how Hailstorm got to shine in this chapter, especially after putting himself down as "the boring one" not too long ago. Seeing Shadow process his thoughts was great and immediately makes the reader second-guess the "death" at hand, without taking away from the intensity or pressure of the situation.

That scroll said that if a dragon’s heart is stopped by an electrical current then there is a high probability that running enough current and magical energy through her chest will revive her!

Makes sense that magic would be the main method of revival here, but dang if it didn't make the whole process harder, haha.

I'll just sum up my thoughts on Tempest all in one section here...AAAAGH!! I love how she's written, as aggravating as it is! First of all, the display of doubt -not in her mind, but right in front of everybody, makes it easy to understand and empathize with her, especially knowing her "little sister" is on the line:

Tempest looked down at her friend with an agonized expression.

I have to save her! She’s too… too… argh, everything! Kind, happy, gentle, cute, friendly… She’s my wonderful little sister. I wish it had been me. It should have been me. It was my fault for wanting to press on. I wasn’t fast enough.

But, as these same emotions cloud her judgment, causing her to fly haywire and lash out when Shadow insists she pull herself together, there comes the aggravation -as understandable as it is. The same goes for her trusting Gale over Shadow. Yes, trust your family, but your family is wrong dangit, agh!! It's the perfect setup to continue building up Tempest's character, keep the reader on edge, drive Shadow to act, and cast more uncertainty on what's going to happen.

I also fear how Gale will react when he realizes that he's wrong...He has not made the best choices thus far, but it is sad to see how hard he takes these losses.

As Shadow [leaped] into the air along with the other dragonets his wings felt like two big bruises sticking out of his back, but he didn’t care. Aurora’s life depended on him!

I don't really have much to say about this, other than that I love the sense of determination and urgency here! And I also have to give huge points to Boulder this chapter!

“Don’t worry. Quake taught me strengthening magic. It’s the specialty of Stone Wings. It might not help much with endurance, but this is what it was made for. Using magic, each of you will be about as heavy as an old ram to me. Plus, I’ve been resting here the whole time doing nothing. Trust me. I can do this”

Well, Shadow is making progress with at least one of the dragonets, other than Aurora of course! The trust he put in Boulder here was impressive, as was Boulder's decision to follow him and his plan, instead of immediately backing up Gale like Tempest did. Also, cool power!

For a moment he laid there wheezing and wondering why the storm dancer hadn’t struck yet. He didn’t care if it hit him too. The world needed Aurora, not him.

This was a sad moment in an already grim situation. I do hope Shadow will come to realize his importance and value. Not just to Jarid, but to the dragonets as well.

Then it turned so that it was face to face with Aurora and started beat its wings slowly. With each wingbeat Aurora’s whole body jerked from the electric pulse that went through her. An ethereal glow grew between her and the storm dancer, growing brighter with each wingbeat.

This was an awesome moment!! Not just the dramatics of it all, but the beast immediately recognizing the situation and choosing to save Aurora really spoke to its intelligence and sense of mercy. Guess dragons aren't the only underestimated creatures in this world!

Shadow could help but half chuckle, half cry as fresh tears fell onto Aurora’s chest. His throat was too choked up to answer her, so he simply smiled and nodded.

Again, you captured the rush of emotions incredibly, throughout this whole chapter -the positive and the negative. And yay, I'm happy that Aurora was saved!!

Our Mad Thoughts...

Overall, that chapter was a rush, but it was amazing! Nicely done!