Moonfall, #2
The Ballad of Falling Dragons
by Sarah A. Parker
Contents
Chapter 6
Overview
The narrator tears free from a memory-laden abyss beneath an icebound lake, fighting through silver threads and shattering the surface. Sensing the Other moving below, she escapes to shore. A sobering realization follows: the silver Moonplume chose a brave blue-eyed child, forcing the narrator to confront her own fear and perceived cowardice.
Summary
The chapter opens with the narrator ripped from an overwhelming memory, heart racing as she fights through tangling silver threads beneath an icebound lake. Gripping her saber, she hacks at the ice barrier, each strike a frantic attempt to purge what she has absorbed.
A vast, luminous shape shifts above, then the ice collapses inward, hurling her into a churn of shards, silver filaments, and frigid water. She senses a rhythmic disturbance—thud-ump, thud-ump—recognizing the pattern as the Other moving beneath her. She surges for the bouldered shore, scrambling over jagged stones until she’s clear of the water.
On land, part of the narrator remains trapped in that cold elsewhere, her pulse still linked to another’s. She recalls soaring through blackness tied to a little girl’s warmth—blue-eyed, black-haired—whose courage and protectiveness anchor the connection.
This clarity brings a revelation: the silver Moonplume chose the child for her fierce loyalty and bravery, not for power or convenience. Confronted with that standard, the narrator recognizes and condemns her own avoidance and fear, feeling the child would be disappointed in what she has become.
Who Appears
- NarratorFirst-person viewpoint; escapes an icebound lake, senses the Other, and confronts her own perceived cowardice.
- The OtherLarge, luminous dragon-like presence beneath the ice; its rhythmic movement guides and alarms the narrator.
- Silver MoonplumeNewly hatched silver dragon who chose the brave blue-eyed child as partner.
- Blue-eyed, black-haired childYoung fae bonded to the silver Moonplume; courageous, protective, a moral mirror to the narrator.