Moonfall, #2
The Ballad of Falling Dragons
by Sarah A. Parker
Contents
The Other Past — 2
Overview
Raeve’s immersion reveals her Other nurturing Allume and Elluin after Elluin is devastated by her brother’s cruel outburst. The Other shelters them, senses Elluin’s sorrow, and chooses comfort over retaliation. This memory deepens the themes of bond and sacrifice, framing love as protective ache and purposeful penance.
Summary
The memory opens with the Other carving a jagged stone rim around her nest, then curling within it as a protective barrier. She watches two young Moonplumes fly and aches for Allume, whose wings fail her. When Allume topples trying to balance, the Other draws her beneath a shielding wing.
Footsteps approach. Elluin enters with cropped hair and clenched hands, wordlessly seeking the Other’s embrace. The Other tests their bond and is flooded by Elluin’s sorrow, then coaxes Elluin to meet her gaze. Elluin breaks, revealing her brother told her he wished she had left him to die and that he hasn’t spoken since Netheryn.
Allume keens at the shared hurt, and the Other tightens her tail around both young ones, rocking them into sleep with a steady rumble. Though she longs to avenge Elluin’s pain, the Other chooses protection and presence, believing Elluin’s brother will one day know happiness again.
Keeping watch over the burrow, the Other reflects on the silver ribbon that once bonded her fate—both blessing and burden. She savors the fleeting now, accepting love’s weight as penance and treasuring the rare moment where all three fit together, safe beneath her wing.
Who Appears
- The OtherNarrative focus; protects Allume and Elluin, senses Elluin’s sorrow, and reflects on bond, fate, and love’s burden.
- ElluinTwelve-phase girl; arrives devastated after her traumatized brother says he wished she’d left him to die.
- AllumeThe Other’s young; struggles to balance and fly, shares the emotional hurt, and is soothed to sleep.
- Elluin’s brotherOff-page presence; returned from Netheryn, mute until lashing out, expressing a wish to have died.