Chapter Text
When I awoke from my regularly scheduled sleep, it was not because of the unusual suspect, that being my alarm. No, it was a bunch of bloody seagulls screaming their lungs out. I found that to be rather odd considering I live in an inland city which isn't usually the place where one would find seagulls.
When I decided to actually open my eyes I made quite a startling discovery. I was no longer in my bedroom. In fact, I was on some random beach, while still in my pyjamas. I stood up from the sand and dusted myself off for what felt like hours. Anakin was right to hate this stuff. After that ordeal, I looked around the beach but saw no signs of human life, may that be beachside homes, litter, or footprints. The lack of footprints was especially strange considering I was in the middle of the damn beach. To put it mildly, I was quite bewildered by my current predicament and was quite unsure of how I was to proceed. Behind me was a forest though I could also see what looked like a cave along the beach line. Before I could decide on how I was going to proceed BOOM , thunder, and God damn rain.
Not wanting to get wet in my only available clothes, I sprinted down the shoreline to get to the cave entrance. Just in time, by the time I got in the rain started pouring like there was no tomorrow. By this point, I was starting to panic a little. I mean, walking up on some random beach after going to bed in your apartment with no sign of life isn't something that most people are prepared for, and understandably so.
I decided to take a little look around the cave to both try to calm myself down via destruction and to make sure there was nothing else in here that could kill me. Which wasn't very calming but it’s not like I had anything better to do. It was kinda hard to walk around the cave at first because of all the little stones on the ground and a lack of shoes to protect my feet from said stones, but I ain't no wussy, so I carried on. The cave was quite big actually, much bigger than what I was presuming it to be, and had a rather large opening that seemed to have some good lighting for some reason. Looking around the area, there wasn't anything intre-
“What the hell is that thing?!” I shrieked.
On the right side of the opening, in a pool of shallow water, was a giant blue lizard-looking thing just lying on the ground, and trust me, when I say giant, I mean GIANT. The bloody thing was about the size of a double-decker bus! Unsure whether or not the creature was dead, I quickly jumped behind a large rock that was off to the side of the opening so the beast wouldn't be able to see me, just in case. To say I was bewildered would be the understatement of the century. First, I wake up on some random beach in the middle of nowhere, then a storm comes rockin' in and I have to go into a random cave to not die of hypothermia, and then in said cave is a giant dinosaur ripoff havin' a nap!
A rather unusual day, to put it mildly…
After calming myself down, I decided to take a quick look at the thing to see if it was dead or sleeping. Looking over the stone at the thing, I could tell that it was, in fact, alive, unless breathing is a thing dead people do now as well. Now that I was looking at the lizard more closely, I could see two big wings protruding from the thing's back.
“A fuckin Dragon?” I said in bewilderment while staring at the mythological creature. Said creature didn't give any reaction when I uttered those words to myself, meaning it either was asleep, had bad hearing, or just didn't care about me being there. Either way, I wasn't just gonna stand here waiting for this thing to get hungry, and considering it either didn’t know or care that I was here, for now at least, I would take my leave of this cave.
I'll take my chances with a bit of rain over a mythological creature any day.
I slowly began to make my way out of the open area of the cave, making as little noise as I could possibly make to not annoy the Dragon. I didn't get very far from my hiding spot when I heard a noise coming from where I had first entered the cave. At first, I heard a faint flapping sound but that soon morphed into something walking.
Something big walking.
Using my brilliant brain, I was able to put two and two together and swiftly went back to my previous hiding spot.
And it was a good thing I did too, because not long after not one, but two bloody dragons. However, unlike the first dragon, which also seemed to sense their presence as it stood up, these two had black scales. Although the slightly larger one seemed to have some off-white scales going along his back, unlike its slightly smaller friend.
The two newcomers seemed to be talking to each other, though I couldn't understand a word of whatever they were talking about.
Most likely either sheltering themselves from the storm like I did, or perhaps they are friends with the blue one or something. Are they smart enough to have concepts like friendship? I thought to myself.
For some reason, the larger of the black Dragons suddenly turned its head in my direction, despite me being completely silent. I quickly ducked my head behind the rock I was standing behind. After about 10 seconds of silence, I slowly peeked around the side of the rock to see what the Dragons were doing. The slightly taller one that had looked in my direction seemed to be squinting his eyes in my general direction while the other one was now looking at the bigger one with what seemed to be a rigid eyebrow.
The small one said something in its Draconic language to the Big Guy, which seemed to surprise it as it stopped looking in my area to the Smaller Guy. Before the Big Guy could say anything back, it seemed that the Blue Guy, who I had honestly forgotten by this point, noticed the two big lizards entering his cave, or at least only cared to do anything about it now, as he stood up from his spot in the corner and seemed to start talking to the newbies.
After a few minutes of standing behind this rock and listening to the three Dragons chatting, I decided that now would be the best time for me to take my leave of this dragon-infested cave. For real this time. Hopefully.
I slowly made my way to the entrance of the opening once more, making sure to be careful to not disturb the three Dragons from their conversation. I made it to the entrance of the opening without much trouble, but before I could leave, disaster struck. I was too focussed on the dragons behind me and I fuckin tripped over a damn rock. After I had fallen, and before I could stop myself, I shouted “God fuckin damn it!” before quickly putting my hand up to my mouth to shut myself up.
I laid on the ground in complete silence for what felt like hours, neither I nor the Dragons made any noise. Slowly, I turned my head around to look into the opening I had just left, expecting to see three hungry overgrown lizards about to make a meal out of me. Instead, all I saw after looking back was…darkness. A…scaly looking darkness.
”Oh Scheiße…”
Slowly looking up, I saw the face of none other than Big Guy himself looking down on me. I had not seen any of the Dragon's faces too well until now. Big Guy's eyes, like his scales, were black except for his dark blue irises. Behind his eyes were white markings that were not too dissimilar to the scales on his back, although these almost looked like tears.
Now I don’t think it would shock you to know that at that moment, staring into the eyes of a massive predator with no means to defend myself from said predator, I was quite fucking terrified. As I'm sure most people would be in such a situation. Despite my terror, I refused to scream during my starring match with the monster. I wanted to die with at least a little bit of dignity, you see. Well, minus my body shaking in fear, but I can live with that.
Or die with that, I guess.
Well, that is if he is gonna kill me. He's just kinda looking at me in silence. Honestly, my fear was slowly being overtaken by confusion.
Sooo is this thing gonna kill me or what? I thought to myself, not wanting to talk aloud in case it would provoke it. This is honestly getting kinda weird.
For some reason, the Big Guy shot his head back from me with his eyes widened slightly. One of the Dragons behind him started trying to talk to him after he did that. When Big Guy turned his head towards the other Dragons, I quickly got up from the cave ground to try and make a run for it, but before I could get far, Big Guy grabbed me with his left hand or left front foot I guess, and held me up around his chest before turning around to see his two companions.
Big Guy said something to the both of them before turning around once more to leave the cave, with me still in hand. After leaving the cave, with the other two trailing him he lept up into the air and started flying inland, covering me with his other front foot from the wind, which was nice I guess.
Well, to put it mildly, this is NOT how I was expecting my day to go…
______________________________________________________________
Darkstaker was feeling good.
He had helped his sister deal with some idiotic bullies and, on the same day, had finally met the love of his life. Well, in person that is. For you see, Darkstalker is a Nightwing, well half Nightwing, and Nightwings, if born under one of the three full moons, gain the power of either mindreading or being a seer. Darkstalker, however, was blessed enough to be born under not one, not two, but three full moons, which gave him both the powers of a seer and mindreading.
Darkstalker also has one more gift, one that is far more unique. That being the power of Animus Magic. He had inherited the power of Animus from his Icewing father, Arctic, who used to be a prince of the Ice Queendom before running away to be with Darkstalkers mother, a Nightwing named Foeslayer.
Darkstalker was flying over a beach with Clearsight. Who is Clearsight you probably didn't ask? Why, she is quite possibly the greatest Nightwing seer who has ever, and may ever, lived and as well as that, the love of Darkstalkers life. Both of them had visions of each other. Futures where they are happily married with dragonets and even futures where they rule the Nightwings together, as King and Queen.
The future doesn't matter right now I began to think to myself, as he looked over at clearsight I’d rather just live in the moment.
My thoughts were broken when a rain droplet landed on his nose and not long after, it started to rain profusely on the two Nightwings.
Clearsight looked down to the sea below them and Darkstalker could tell that she was getting nervous about the forming storm around them. Before I could say any words of increment to her, or ask if she wanted to turn back to her home, Clearsight spoke up.
“ I can see a cave not far from us, by the beach, we should shelter there until the storm passes us,” Clearsight said, slightly louder than how she would normally talk so that Darkstalker could hear her. Before I could respond to her, Clearsight had already flown down towards the beach, eager to get out of the storm. I was quick to floor her lead and it didn't take us much time to reach the entrance of the cave.
After they both had landed, there was a very sudden silence, with nothing but the rain making a peep.
The cave itself was quite big, comfortable fitting both me and Clearsight and there seemed to be a bit of a glow in the cave.
“Soooo Darkstalker, can I ask you something?” Clearsight said after a few more moments of silence had passed between the two of them.
“Of course,” I said, turning my head towards her. “Ask away”.
“If you don’t mind me being a bit noisy” She started with “ You and your sister are the only hybrids that I know of, but you don't really… look like a hybrid. I mean, you have some off-white scales on your back but you know what I mean.” Clearsight said, then frowning slightly “I’m sorry if that was a rude-”
“No no,” I said, cutting her off “It’s fine, really,” I said, cutting her off.
I lifted my wings and pointed to the much more Icewing-looking scales under them. “I like the scales there,” I said “They're far more easy to hide than the ones on my back”.
Clearsight gently put one of her claws on the scale, almost studying it. “Woah!” she exclaimed “The scale is as cold as ice!”
“Freaky, ain't it?” I said with a smirk.
“I think it’s rather cool actually,” Clearsight said, with a smirk of her own.
“Oh? Are you hoping to become a comedian?” I said. We both laughed a little over our jokes.
After the laughing between us subsided, I couldn't help but let out a shaky sigh. Now, in this empty cave where no dragon could hear us, is the prime spot to tell her the truth about my abilities. Those same abilities that not even my family or Queen are privy to.
"You know," I begin forcing the nervous done. "Those scales aren't the only thing that I have inherited from my father..."
“You're an animus,” Clearsight said, taking Darkstalker back a bit considering he never told anyone about it, not even his animus father. It seemed she saw my confusion, and so to rectify it, she said “I saw it, in my visions, I mean”
Ah, right I thought to myself. That makes sense…
Before I could reply to her, I heard something in the cave with us and I quickly turned my head away from Clearsight to where it was coming from on the other side of the cave, but saw nothing. Well, heard may not be the right word, per se. My mindreading picked up on…something. The only creators of Pyrrhia that could think were Dragons. The closest species were probably Scavengers, although I never had much of an interaction with the little monkeys, many of the texts in the school say that their minds are far more complex compared to other prey.
But what I had heard was clearly someone thinking, although I could understand what they were thinking. It was as if it were in some other language.
But that's impossible I thought to myself. The only language in Pyrrhia is Dragon Speak. Perhaps I misheard it? Maybe I'm hearing things?
Before I could decide on what to do, Clearsight spoke up beside me.
“Are you alright?” She said, “Did you hear something?”
I turned my head towards her “I thought-” I began to say, before someone else further in the cave spoke up, startling us both.
“Hello? Is someone there?” a voice said weakly, a little further into the cave.
Both of the Nightwings were taken aback by this interruption, especially Darkstalker since he would usually hear the thoughts of other Dragons before actually seeing or hearing them in person.
The Dragon made his way to the centre of the opening before spotting the due and making a stop. Forgetting about the previous mystery, Darkstalker along with Clearsight made their way slowly over to the other Dragon. The other Dragon was not a Nightwing, as evidenced by the blue scales.
“Oh…Nightwings” he hissed out, though it sounded more sad rather than threatening.
A Seawing then, and quite far from his Queendom too. I wonder why? I thought to myself, beginning to probe the mind of the Seawing to understand what he was doing here.
While I was doing that, Clearsight slowly made her way closer to him, looking him over. “Are you alright?” She said in a soft tone “Are you hurt?”
Before the Seawing could give any answer, Clearsight spoke up again, “Oh! You have a big cut on your side!” Clearsight said, worry in her voice “How did you get such a deep cut?”
The Seawing seemed unwilling to answer verbally, but his mind gave Darkstalker more than he could ever want to know. The Seawing and his family seemed to have been attacked by someone powerful. Very powerful.
“You must be very tired, I can see you've been swimming for days,” I said before turning to Clearsight and saying “Judging by what his mind is telling me, his family was attacked by another Seawing, and there was a lot of blood.”
Clearsight gently nudged the Seawing to sit down in a shallow pool of water “Relax” She said in a soothing voice. “My name is Clearsight, and this is my friend Dakrstalker, can you tell us your name and what happened to you?”
“Albatross happened,” he relented.
Albatross? I thought to myself. The brother to the Seawing Queen…The one with animus magic…He did this?
“Albatross?” Clearsight said “Isn't that a type of bird? Are you saying a bird did this to you?” with a hint of doubt in her voice.
“Albatross is the name of a Seawing Prince” I clarified “I read about it in one of my father's scrolls”.
“I don't know why,” The Seawing muttered. “He went Mad…he started killing everyone, I barely escaped, and when I did, I swam and swam and swam until I ended up here.”
Clearsights mind started spinning after hearing this, He killed everyone? Darkstalker heard her think. What about Fathom? He can't be dead! Clearsight seemed almost on the verge of tears over this revelation. Darkstalker did know about Fathom from some of his vision, a shy, green-scaled Seawing who would become good friends with the duo, but even so, Darkstalker count understands why Clearsight was so worked up about his possible death. I mean, she technically didn't even know the guy.
Before Darkstalker could say anything to try to calm Clearsight down, she seemed to beat him to it herself. No no, his fine, I still see him in our future she thought to herself, looking slightly happier at the prospect.
“He killed so many…”The Seawing said, “The King and Queen, the Skywings my…My Brother. I don’t know if anyone else made it out”.
“Why would he do this?” The Seawing continued “We all loved him. He was loyal to the Queen and made so many beautiful structures with his magic. I just can’t understand-” The Seawing cut himself off, tears begging to slowly fall from his eyes.
“I think I understand, '' Clearsight said, shooting Darkstalker a look “He wasn't careful, with his soul, I mean. He must have gone mad because of all the magic he used”.
Darkstalker wasn't very happy with the not-so-subtle look Clearsight was giving him. “Clearsight, I don’t know what future you're seeing of me, but how about instead of focusing on what I may do, you focused on me. Is that so-”
Just then, a loud shout from behind the Dragons cut Darkstalker off. All three Dragons quickly looked towards the entrance of the cave opening, only to see a strange-looking scavenger on the ground.
The two of us, as well as the Seawing who paused his crying after the sudden interruption, looked at the scavenger who remained still by the entrance. Clearsight made a slight move toward the scavenger before I stopped her, putting my claw up to my mouth to ask for silence and quickly, but silently walking toward the scavenger.
The reason I went towards the scavenger was because I wanted to take it for my sister. She loves the weird monkeys for some reason, even as a doll of one of them that I had enchanted for her after she lost it once. She never actually saw one for herself, so I think she would like it as a pet or something.
The weird-looking scavenger slowly looked behind it, still on the ground, just as I stopped walking towards it. The scavenger was staring at my leg before slowly looking up towards my face.
I could tell that the thing was distressed, which is fair considering I would probably be pretty distressed too if a creature that could swallow me whole in one bite was just looking at me. Even so, I could tell that the scavenger was putting on a brave face, or at least trying to, anyway. It wasn't doing a great job at it, with the shaking all over its body and all.
I was about to grab the little thing off of its spot on the ground, but before I did I heard it again. The weird, foreign thoughts that I couldn't understand, but were clearly a language of some sort. It took me a second to realize that those thoughts were coming from the scavenger in front of me. I shot my head back in surprise at this revaluation which in turn, seemed to surprise Clearsight who was still behind me with the Seawing.
“What happened?” Clearsight said, with a hint of worry in her voice. “Did it attack you? Are you alright?”
“Ah I-, what?” I said, still taken aback by the revelation before quickly correcting myself and turning my head a bit towards Clearsight. “Uh, sorry, I'm fine, it- it didn't do anything.”
Clearsights concern gave way to confusion after that. “Then what was that all about?”
“Uhhh” I can’t say that I heard the Scavenger thinking, she'd think I’m insane! I thought to myself. By this point, even the Seawing was looking at me in confusion. “He…smelled bad” I said with a bit of a delay.
That answer didn't seem to satisfy either of them, but I turned my head back around towards the scavenger, hoping that neither of them would ask any more questions. When I did, I saw that the scavenger was just starting to finally get off the ground, and fearing he might make a run for it, I quickly snatched him and brought him up towards my chest so he couldn't escape.
Turning around, I made my way over to Clearsight and the Seawing. “We should make our way back to the Queendom, get some help for his cuts. As well as inform the Queen of the Seawing's predicament, while we're at it”
The Seawing didn't look thrilled about us spilling his tribe's secret to the Queen, but it’s not like he could do much about it.
“Are you bringing the Scavenger too?” Clearsight said, “Why, if I may ask?”
“Because…my sister uh, likes them,” I said “She um, she has a doll of one. Thought it would be cool to show her the real thing, ya know?” I said, putting on a smile.
Clearsight didn't say anything, but it was clear that she knew something was up about the scavenger, though she decided that now probably wasn't the best time for integration.
Thank the three moons…
Turning my head towards the Seawing, who was still lying in a shallow pool, I said “Come on Seawing, the quicker we are at the Queendom, the quicker you get healed”. After saying that, I turned back around to make my way out of the cave, hearing the Seawing get up behind me.
“Current,” the Seawing said, with a bit of annoyance.
“Well we're obviously not swimming there, why would currents matter?” I retorted in annoyance of my one.
“My name is Current, Nightwing”
Clearsight let out a sigh and said “Come on you two, as Darkstalker said, the quicker we are there, the better”.
Leading them out of the cave, where thankfully the storm had settled, we all shot up into the air, with myself and Clearsight taking the lead, since Current won't know where to go.
I covered the Scavenger with my free front foot. The Scavenger was surprisingly calm throughout this whole ordeal, and even now I can still hear the thing thinking.
What a strange day…