Moon returned to the cave where she, Winter, Qibli, Turtle, and Peril stayed in to hide from the shapeshifting dragon. She carried a mountain lion to feed everyone with, a lucky catch for her.
Qibli had started a fire while she was gone. The SandWing now prodded the fire with a longish stick, letting the ignited moss and leaves catch the sticks and logs on fire. Winter fiddled with a large aspen leaf, using his frostbreath to make a tiny dragon sculpture. Turtle had set the animus scroll on a ledge in the back of the cave. He now stood in front of it with a guarding posture. Peril sat near the opening, just within the shadow of the cave's mouth.
Moon roasted the mountain lion for them all before serving it out to everyone. Everyone ate their serving in silence, other than Peril's rather ravenous garbbling. No one talked, only darting their eyes to the animus scroll, finding someone looking at them, then finding their meal fifteen times more interesting than the scroll ever could be.
The NightWing's thoughts barely lingered on a thing at a time. What did that dragon do with the scroll? I should go to Darkstalker. What's everyone thinking right now? She looked up to study each of their faces.
She deduced everyone wanted the scroll's power in one form or another. Except Turtle, maybe. Knowing nothing about him didn't help. How much had he used his magic? How eaten-away was he? Was he only maintaining a calm demeanor to catch everyone off-guard?
"You didn't have to do that, Turtle," she said finally, breaking the silence.
Qibli twitched his wings in surprise. Winter broke his tiny NightWing ice figure. Turtle himself parted his maw, though he didn't speak. Even Peril peeked over her wing from the far side of the cave.
"You shouldn't use your animus power if you can help it...maybe you shouldn't use it ever." Moon stared at him with worry in her gaze. "Aren't you worried about your soul? How do you feel?"
Turtle fiddled with his armband, shrugging. "A little cold, but only the tiniest bit evil."
Qibli chuckled a laugh, but Moon disregarded him. "I'm serious! I read about what happened with Albatross."
"My murderous ancestor, I know." Turtle gripped the armband, eyeing the NightWing with the slightest hint of indignation in his voice. "But my enchantments have been so small, and I feel exactly the same as I always have." He breathed a nervous chuckle. "I think you'll notice if I start turning homicidal."
Moon frowned.
From the far side of the room, Winter tilted his head. "It's all right to use animus magic if you're careful about it. In the Ice Kingdom, our animus dragons used to spend their lives planning one enchantment that would benefit the whole tribe. They used their magic once, for something beautiful and useful, and they were fine all the rest of their lives."
Qibli hummed a thought. "I thought I heard of something about an IceWing queen who went crazy once, a long, long time ago."
"Oh," Winter said, shifting on his talons. "Maybe, but she―well, she used her magic more than she was supposed to. If it's the queen I'm guessing it was anyway." His face shifted to blue with embarrassment.
Peril unfurled her wings. "What should we do with the scroll now? Should we take it back to Jade Mountain and gave it to Clay?" She seemed to realize what she said, then added, "And the others?"
Turtle half-nodded, half-shook his head. "Maybe, but I'm not sure anyone should have this much power, no matter how good we think they are." He shot a glance at the scroll. "It can't be good for your soul."
"I think a very wise and good dragon would know how to use it the right way." Qibli objected. "I think we should give it to Queen Thorn."
"Maybe we should give it to Queen Glacier!" Winter snapped.
"We shouldn't give it to anyone!" Moon cried, standing up. "It already belongs to someone."
All eyes turned to her. Blazing blue, chilling sky, deep green, and jet black gazes met her scales. She felt as hot as the fire and wished to turn to a shadow to melt away.
"What do you mean?" Winter asked at the same time as Qibli said, "Who?"
"The animus dragon who made it." Moon admitted. "He put all his power into that scroll so he could use his magic without damaging his soul." She shrugged. "Which is pretty smart, right? He was trying to protect the world from whatever he might become."
"Or give himself unlimited power…" Winter muttered, scoffing.
"But doesn't it seem like a good idea? If his magic doesn't turn him evil, he'll only do good things with it, right?" Moon looked around, hoping for a reassuring comment.
Instead, she received skepticism from Qibli. "Doesn't? Moon, I thought you said it was some ancient legend." The SandWing tilted his head. "So why are you using the present tense?"
Moon's hide burned with nervousness and embarrassment; she thought she'd burn Peril if she touched her. "Because…" Her voice hitched. She started again. "Because he's still alive."
"Who?" Winter asked, rising to his feet.
Near-panic rising in her voice, Moon's words spilled out like smoke. "And he's trapped. I started hearing his voice in my head when I got to Jade Mountain. He's stuck underground somewhere and he's starving and alone and just wants to get out and this scroll is the one thing that could help him do that. So I said… I said I'd look for it."
"And give it back to him?" Turtle hissed, then caught himself. "Actually, I guess that's fair. It is his magic, after all."
Winter lashed his tail, approaching the NightWing with chilling fury. "Moon," he growled, low and ominous. "Who is he?"
Moon stepped back, pressing herself against the wall. "Well, first I want you to remember that everything you know about him is two thousand years old and comes from stories told by the dragons who defeated him. You don't really know him, even if you think you do."
"DARKSTALKER?!" Winter roared, his voice a mixture of fear and anger. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"
"There's no need to yell!" Qibli snapped, standing up as well.
"If the Darkstalker is trapped and starving and alone, that is exactly what he deserves." Winter hissed, turning to the SandWing.
"Oh, really?" Moon stood up, pushing him away from her and the wall. "What about the misunderstood NightWing that you set free? Wasn't she a legendary enemy of the IceWings, too?"
Winter snarled. "Yes, but she doesn't have horrible powers!"
The NightWing roared, her wings flaring as she rose on her hind legs. "Horrible powers? You mean mind reading and visions of the future? You mean my horrible powers?!"
Winter muttered something inaudible, glancing at Turtle.
"And my horrible power?" the SeaWing finished, glaring at the IceWing prince.
Peril huffed a half-hearted laugh. "Well, at least he doesn't have mine."
"He killed his own father! Our IceWing prince." Winter added, ignoring Peril's comment. He turned to Moon. "Isn't your whole tribe terrified of him?"
The NightWing gave a shrugging nod. "Yes, but they don't know him either."
"And you do?" Qibli asked, staring at her with an intense black gaze.
Moon broke her eye contact with him. "Maybe…? I think so…" She sighed. "I don't know."
"I can't let you use this scroll to free Darkstalker." Winter folded his wings to his sides and raised his head in his IceWing-princely way.
"What you can't do is order me around." She pressed a claw to his chest, making her point. "What you can do instead is have a rational conversation with me, and listen to me, and try to talk me out of it if you must."
"But not right now," Turtle said, pushing between the two. "Right now we should all sleep, and then we can talk about it in the morning." He eyed over the tense dragons in the room, his eyes heavy with exhaustion.
"I agree," Qibli added, stepping toward the IceWing and NightWing.
Moon stared at Winter for a moment, then sighed, "Fine."
He glared back at her. "Fine."
The tension ebbed and flowed like the tide...though now the tide was high and wouldn't go low for some while. The dragons disbanded.
Peril stood up. "I'll sleep outside."
"In the rain?" Turtle asked, settling beside the cleft with the animus scroll.
"It won't bother me." Peril said, shaking her head. "And I've been told I'm a restless sleeper."
The SeaWing eyed her wings nervously. "Oh… In that case, sure, absolutely, you bet, great plan."
The SkyWing smiled as she left the cave.
Moon turned to the other three dragons in the cave; the IceWing settled as far away from everyone as possible, the SandWing sat close by the meager fire, and the SeaWing returned to his post beside the scroll. Moon herself rested somewhat close to the opening, placing her head between her talons.
A few moments later, Qibli asked Winter to put out the fire, and the prince obliged.
In the silence, sounds amplified.
Qibli's tail twitched at every owl's hoot or crow's caw from outside.
Winter shuffled positions like a cat, seeming to never find a comfortable place to fall asleep in.
Turtle didn't make any sounds. Not for a while, at least. Soon, his light snoring filled the cave.
And in rhythm with his breathing, Moon nodded off.
The mountain lion did not sit well with her when she woke up from a rather loud owl's cry.
With her adjusted eyesight, she made out the faint figures of each of the dragons, the dead fire, and the ledge with Darkstalker's scroll.
Poor Darkstalker, sealed away and alone. She hadn't heard his voice in her mind in a week. He must be so lonely, not having anyone to talk to―not having her to talk to. She had his scroll, sort of, but she could free him now. He was only a day's flight away... All she needed was the scroll and a massive head start.
She listened out for the other dragons.
Qibli's tail never twitched.
Winter never moved.
Turtle's light breathing filled the room.
All slept.
Except Moon.
The NightWing counted to a hundred breaths before she slowly stood up. She crept toward the SeaWing guarding the scroll, but realized she had to go around Qibli to get to them.
Who knew if he could sense things well in his sleep?
He slept so comfortably, so peacefully, his freckled face calm and unworried. Moon wished to see his dreams. What was he dreaming under that peaceful face?
She hardened her jaw and eyed where the best place to pass over him would be. After a moment of surveying, she determined his tail would be, despite her inter-dragon instincts worrying over getting stabbed by accident. If she survived, she'd have some explaining to do.
Moon waited for Qibli to move his tail. It'd be a moment. Just a sudden movement.
There! A subtle twitch at the sound of a rather loud owl. The NightWing waited until he stilled, then carefully crept over his tail.
She looked up at the scroll, then surveyed the SeaWing guarding it. He was curled up on the floor, his chest slowly rising and falling with each snore. Moon considered where she could stand to avoid accidentally waking him up, then deduced toward his head. She shuffled to the spot near his head and reared up on her hind legs, grabbing the ledge with one of her talons. With the other, she reached out to grab the scroll. It was just barely out of her reach, only able to be poked by her clawtips. She stabbed the leather casing in hope to slide it her way, but she didn't stab it correctly, instead sending it sliding across the ledge and falling over Turtle's tail.
Moon froze in horror. She listened out for any change in the other dragons' breathing.
She waited, then deduced she hadn't woken anyone up.
Then Turtle moved, now covering the scroll under one of his wings.
Moon carefully landed on all fours once again, then slipped to the SeaWing's back half. She assessed where best to securely grab the scroll. With caution, she snagged the scroll with three claws, pulling it out with relative ease. She studied Turtle, who didn't seem to be awake.
The NightWing turned, finding the easiest escape route to be past Winter instead of Qibli. She held the scroll in her jaws to give herself the most balance possible. She slipped past him, then found Peril guarding the exit.
If I touch her, I'll have a burn I'll have to explain.
Better not mess up, then.
Moon studied her, deducing all her possible escape methods. She settled on one.
She backed up a bit, far enough to get some speed, but not too much that she'd disturb anyone in the cave. After convincing herself everyone was still deep in sleep, she dashed forward, unfurling her wings to give them a little flap. She jumped over Peril, then caught the updraft caused by the heat of her scales. The NightWing glided over the SkyWing, who, thankfully, still slept soundly.
She flapped her wings a few times, hoping to find a current that took her to Jade Mountain. She turned back to the cave. Did she wake up Winter? Or Qibli? Or Turtle?
If any of them were awake, surely she'd find herself being berated by an IceWing or interrogated by a SandWing or fussed over by a SeaWing.
If Peril woke up, Moon reasoned she'd just be dead.
The NightWing found her desired current and took it, gliding away from her friends and to Darkstalker.
Moon soared for the rest of the night and all during the day. She only stopped once to take a drink and snag a fish to snack on, but she continued onward to Jade Mountain.
Some time during the late afternoon, she spotted Jade Mountain.
Darkstalker! she shouted in her mind.
Moon? Darkstalker's mental voice sounded so forlorn.
Moon's heart skipped a beat and she did a flip in the air. Darkstalker!
Moon! Thank the stars you're all right!
She laughed, tears of joy stinging her eyes. Are you all right?
Other than cramped, starving, and horribly lonely, none of that matters now. I'm doing great.
Where are you?
Darkstalker paused for a moment, occasionally showing Moon bits of his thought process to assure her he was still there. Before she betrayed me, Clearsight said that an earthquake would cause Agate Mountain to fall. We met at that mountain and, trust me, Clearsight may have been the best seer of all NightWing history, but she wasn't that strong. She couldn't have dragged me that far. I think I'm trapped underneath Agate Mountain.
Moon tilted her head, running through the notable mountains in the Claws of the Clouds Mountain Range. Sunrise Quartz Mountain was where the Sky Palace stood over and Jade Mountain was the tallest mountain, but she couldn't remember ever seeing an Agate Mountain.
Where is it?
Darkstalker showed her a mental image of Pyrrhia, the mountain highlighted in his mind. Jade Mountain was a few mountains away from it. About here. The rubble would probably have been grown over in two thousand years, but I think you'll still be able to find some hints of "something fell here". I'll also be able to see things in your eyes, if you don't mind.
Moon huffed a laugh. Right. A game of Warmer-Colder.
Do you have a better idea?
Good point.
Eventually, the two found where the NightWing behemoth was sealed away. Moon settled on the western side of the mountain and touched the grass below her, sensing Darkstalker beneath her.
I'm here, Darkstalker! I've found you!
Darkstalker stopped for a moment. His mental voice took in a sharp, surprised breath.
Is there something wrong?
No, nothing wrong, Moon, just… He lingered for several heartbeats. You sound so much like Clearsight.
Moon didn't quite know whether to feel pleased at that comparison or offended, but she batted the thought away. I'm not going to release you right this moment. I just want my friends to come back and we can talk it over.
You know you could always do it.
I'd rather listen to their council before making a potentially world-breaking decision. She settled on the soft grass and laid down, basking in the warm rays of the early evening. Right now, I just want to be here.
Darkstalker sighed, but the gentle shift in the ground indicated he leaned against his prison.
So be it.
Moon rested. She relaxed her aching muscles, sore bones, and heavy eyes. She'd done so much in so little time. The sun slowly descended on the horizon, one of the moons a tiny, tiny sliver. In the back of her mind, Darkstalker started mumbling in his mind a song.
It's an old NightWing war song, he explained, interrupting himself at the end of the second verse. My father didn't really like it, given his tribe was on the opposite side of the war, but I frequently heard it sung in the minds of NightWings.
Moon nodded. Mother used to sing me a song to teach me to stay away from danger.
And look where that's got you.
She laughed. She'd have a heart attack if she knew what I'm doing now.
Ha! She would.
Bored, Moon took off the leather casing of Darkstalker's scroll.
His laugh quickly stopped. Moon, please don't look at my scroll.
Why not?
Please, it's private. It'd be like me reading your personal diary.
You already read my mind. Can't get much more intrusive than that.
Moon, please don't read it. His voice raised an octave higher. I beg of you; don't read it!
What's wrong, Darkstalker? You're acting like I've got a spider on me.
Just don't read it, Moonwatcher!
Moon paused. She must've struck a chord on him. She defied him and unfurled the parchment, finding the latest spell written in presumably Darkstalker's angular claw-writing. The little NightWing turned to face the mountain so the light would catch what she read. Her eyes fell on the words at the bottom.
MOONWATCHER!
She read it aloud. "'Enchant Arctic the IceWing to obey my every…'" She nearly dropped the scroll.
Moon, this isn't what you think it is!
"Isn't what you think it is"?! What am I reading here?! You enchanted your father like he was some...some shiny object! Her mind slipped into remembering the several IceWings she met or saw over the past week and a half and instantly regretted her word choice.
Moon, trust me. He kidnapped my sister―his daughter! And he was going to sell her to the IceWings! And wipe out my tribe! Those sickly NightWing students wouldn't even exist if I hadn't done that! You wouldn't exist if I hadn't done that!
And I should congratulate you for treating a dragon like a wooden puppet?!
Yes!
That's insanity!
That's necessity! I couldn't see a future where I ruled my tribe in peace and prosperity with a rampant Arctic in it!
SHUT UP! SHUT UP! STOP TALKING! Moon clapped her talons over her ears. Her efforts to stamp out the sound of Darkstalker's voice were in vain. She cried, his endless stream of arguments flowing into her mind. The tears and heartbreak mostly drowned him out, but she still heard bits and pieces of his thoughts.
The little NightWing unfurled the scroll even more, hoping to read something good that he'd done with his magic. She couldn't quite read it through the watery blur. She blinked, letting her tears fall on the parchment and found it clear enough to read.
Most spells were good; there were spells to help his mother, his sister, his beloved, his best friend… But there were some black ash on white lamb's wool. A spell where a dagger was to slay an IceWing every full moon for a year and leave a horrifying message. No wonder Winter and the IceWings hated and feared him.
DARKSTALKER! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?! She nearly tore the paper in her grasp, she was so angry. Heat flooded through her that she barely noticed the cause of it.
"Um, so. Hello. I've been instructed not to set you on fire." Peril's voice came from a rock not too far from Moon. "In case you were worried."
The little NightWing looked up at her.
Peril winced a little at Moon. She suspected she didn't look that good. "Yikes, I'd offer you a hug, but…"
"I just wanted to hear him again… I wanted to tell him we found it―to talk to him and remember why I trusted him. But then I started reading, and he clearly didn't want me to, and I found this…" Moon traced the letters of the Arctic spell with her middle claw.
Peril craned her neck to get a look at the parchment. "What does it say?"
Son of a meteor, will that flaming lizard of doom stop spewing flames in my mind!
She's not a flaming lizard of doom!
Then what is she? Darkstalker prompted.
Moon couldn't answer him.
"Hey!" Peril yelled. "I'm not a mindreader! Different horrible power over here, remember?"
Flaming lizard of doom. I'm right.
"Stop talking!" Moon hissed. In the corner of her eye, she caught Peril jumping in surprise. "Oh, not you. Him." She indicated the mountain and hoped she'd understand what she meant.
The firescales SkyWing tilted her head at the mountain. "He's talking to you right now? That's...creepy."
A lot less fiery than last time, but still a flaming lizard of doom.
Moon tried to block him out. "He has trouble reading your mind, too, although he agrees it's a lot less infernoesque than it was before you went to the Sky Palace."
Peril paused. "...Yay?"
I wonder what made that thing more subdued…
"A dragon's not a thing!" Moon shouted, unfurling her wings for emphasis. "You shouldn't be able to enchant someone like that! It's wrong! Don't you―"
Arctic was about to do something much more atrocious!
"―No, stop! It doesn't matter how bad he was! This." She jabbed the scroll and felt a tiny rip beneath her claws. "This is the cruelest thing I've ever read."
Peril spoke up again. "Okay, you really have to tell me now."
You're not going to tell her, Moon, the NightWing behemoth threatened.
"I am. I am going to tell her. When you do something this terrible, you kind of cancel out any privacy rights." She turned to Peril and stared at her fiery blue eyes with as much strength as she could muster. "Remember how Winter said that Darkstalker killed his father, Prince Arctic?"
Peril nodded. "Yeah, that confused me a bit. Why was his dad an IceWing?"
Moon shook her head and waved a talon. "Long story, not important." She caught herself. "I mean, except to the IceWings. Anyway, the other rumor I'd heard about Darkstalker was that he did something so awful that it terrified the entire NightWing tribe into abandoning their city and going into hiding, so that he would never find them again if he ever came back. They thought he was gone, maybe dead, but they still uprooted the entire tribe to hide from him, just in case."
The SkyWing reeled. "Yeesh, and I thought my tribe hated me."
"Well, now I know what it was."
You do?
"Yes, I do."
You sure?
"I'm sure. If I saw a dragon do this, I'd go into hiding to!"
Peril gritted her teeth and waved an indicating talon. "YES?"
Moon, don't tell her!
"He used his magic on his father. He enchanted him, as if Prince Arctic was no more than a necklace or a rock or a piece of cheese." Moon glared at the mountain, a slight hiss escaping her teeth.
Son of a―
Shut it.
"Oooh…" Peril tilted her head to the side. Moon caught glimpses of enchanted cheese in her mind.
"The spell is right here." Moon's voice broke as she spread her talons on the scroll. "'Enchant Arctic the IceWing to obey my every command.' That's it. It's that simple." She stared at the ground, intending it for Darkstalker. "What did you make him do? You made him kill himself, didn't you?"
The SkyWing widened her fiery blue eyes. "Woah, is that possible? That could happen? Could Turtle do that?"
Moon shook her head, wishing Peril would stop asking questions. What did you make him do, Darkstalker?
Darkstalker meandered on pointless rabbit-trails for a while before confessing. I just encouraged him to disembowel himself. His mental voice didn't shake a bit.
"DISEMBOWEL?!" Moon roared. "Did you seriously just say disembowel?"
"Who disemboweled who?" Peril asked, then seemed to put two-and-two together. She said something else, but Moon couldn't hear her over her sobs and Darkstalker's pleas.
It felt like hours of her crying and Darkstalker giving horribly flawed logic to his defense until Winter and Qibli met her sides. Her anger and sadness burned her warm on the inside, so she felt somewhat relieved when Winter allowed her to lean on him. Qibli reached a wing around her on her other side.
"Tell us what happened; is he talking to you right now?" The SandWing's warm voice reassured her.
The little NightWing nodded. "Yes, and he won't shut up." She sat up and wiped away her tears, sniffling. "Winter, you were right. We can't free him." She handed the scroll to the IceWing, who gave just the tiniest sigh of relief. Qibli breathed a plume of fire to read it.
After a moment, the SandWing breathed, "Woah."
"We absolutely can't free him if he can control other dragons that way, that easily, and we can't free him because he's the kind of dragon who thought of doing it in the first place."
I promise I'll never mess with a dragon in that way ever gain, Moon. You have my word.
"He says he promises he won't ever do that again. Darkstalker, how can we trust you? No one could ever stop you, with a power like that."
But, Moon, look at what I could-
"No, stop. I don't want to see another fairy-tale vision. I'll have my own visions, thank you very much."
Winter's wings relaxed at his sides.
Qibli took the scroll from the prince. "So what do we do with it?" He brushed a delicate claw across the blank space. "I was thinking about it today while we flew. We could do a lot of good with this. We could use it to protect our queens. I could enchant something so that Thorn will never die, or make her palace immune to attack." He nudged her side with a wing. "Moon, think about it―we could enchant something to make all the NightWings love Glory. You know how many of them hate her, probably better than anyone because you've seen into their minds. But imagine if they all loved her instead? What if she could rule without the threat of assassination hanging over her?"
Moon shook her head. "She wouldn't want that. She wouldn't want enchanted obedience or fake love."
"How about fireproof scales, at least?" Qibli shrugged, adding emphasis to his question. Moon caught a glimpse of Peril's elated face and bits of the SkyWing really enjoying that idea.
Qibli continued. "Or something that could warn Glory before someone tries to kill her? Wouldn't that be a good idea? And then you wouldn't have to use your own powers to help her...you could do whatever you wanted with them."
No. You are not using my power to do that.
Shut up! Moon put her talons to her head. "He doesn't really love this conversation."
"If we're in the business of protecting queens with magic, we should include Queen Glacier. She's a good queen, too." Winter gave an approving nod.
"And what about my mom?" Turtle asked. "Or Queen Ruby, for Peril?"
Peril's brows furrowed. "But if we enchant all the queens to never die or be magically protected or whatever, then...won't we end up stuck with the same queens forever?" She gave a shrug. "Wouldn't that be bad, too?"
Qibli flared his wings a little. "Not in the case of Queen Thorn." He glared at Moon, Turtle, and Peril. "Look, the three of you have these crazy gifts and you're figuring out how to use them safely, aren't you?"
Moon, you need me to make this scroll worthwhile!
"Shush! I've been fine without you!" Moon hissed. She caught the SandWing giving her an incredulous expression.
"Not you. The crazy dragon in her head." the SkyWing explained for him.
Qibli glared at them. "So if I can trust you with your powers, couldn't you trust me to take care of this one? To think carefully about the consequences and only use it for good?"
Winter snorted a posh IceWing laugh. "You? By yourself? We just let you saunter off with the most powerful talisman in the world? Why should you get it instead of me?" He took a corner of the scroll. "Maybe I should take care of it."
I want my power back.
"Or maybe all of us together?" Turtle suggested in vain.
Give it back! Moon, take that scroll and write my animus magic back to me!
"You just flew off and abandoned us in Possibility! You were really mean to Moon and you haven't even apologized!" the SandWing roared.
Winter held his eyes to the little NightWing's, then closed his mouth.
Darkstalker laughed at Winter's dumbfoundedness. There's a reason IceWings haven't had animus magic for the past two thousand years!
Darkstalker! That's mean!
"So how could we trust you?" Qibli snarled.
The IceWing flared his wings with indignance. "At least I'm a prince and have some experience making decisions to help my tribe!"
"Oh, brilliant logic! You're royalty, so you've always had power, so you should get to keep any new power that comes along?!"
The SandWing street rat has a point, Moon. But don't let him take it! Give me back my power!
"Stop fighting!" Moon roared, covering her ears. "All of you! Darkstalker, stop yelling at me!"
Winter and Qibli kept yelling back and forth over her. Darkstalker continued pressing her to give him back his power.
Roaring. Fighting. A struggle for infinite power. Qibli even hit Winter with a slap to the chest to get him to back off, which Winter retaliated with a snort of frostbreath.
Barely paying attention to it, she felt a blaze burn behind Qibli and swing out. The SandWing let out a startled shout, catching everyone's attention. Even Darkstalker paused for a moment.
Moon turned and found Peril clutching the scroll in her talons, the parchment and leather casing ablaze.
In her mind, Darkstalker let out a tiny chuckle.
What's so funny?
That solves that problem.
Moon didn't know which was scarier: the scroll being gone forever, or that he said that at the same time Peril did. The worry over the scroll washed away like a crab at the tide. The emotion flooded her body, making her shake.
Wait, that wasn't her…
Peril's perching rock tumbled down the hill, forcing her and Turtle to the sky. The rumbles provoked Qibli, Moon, and Winter to take off as well.
"What's happening?!" Turtle yelled in a panic. "Is Jade Mountain falling?! Is this the prophecy?!"
Rocks erupted and crumbled to rubble as a large talon flung out and gripped the mountainside where the dragonets once stood. The mountain split in half, a dragon's head forcing itself out of the side.
You lied to me...
Finally, the NightWing behemoth broke free of his prison, the dying rays of sunshine catching black and white scales, twisted horns, and an emaciated form. His large wings stretched the farthest they'd likely been in centuries. He landed on all fours, stretching and flexing muscles that barely moved in the past two thousand years.
"Ah! That's infinitely better!" Darkstalker turned to Peril and smiled, genuine and horrifying at the same time. "Nice to finally meet you, Peril. Thank you so much for your help."
Thank you for reading! I've been working on this piece for a while now. If I were to guesstimate how long it took, I'd say about seven or eight hours, maybe nine. And this is over a one-month period (even though I binged through the end with about five hours dedicated to it).
It all started with an idea on how Moon's stealth mission came about and the fanfic slowly turned to a rewriting of the end of Escaping Peril with different narration and occasionally different word choice. The different narration came about because 1) it's all in Moon's perspective and 2) I hate Tui's prose. It sounds like someone smashed slang of this decade with the format of 1950s literature and it's a slog to read. Trust me, I've read every main series book (and Darkstalker) aloud and it sounds wrong.
I love Wings of Fire, but this has to be my biggest gripe with the series. Yes, even bigger than other controversial topics like certain characters, certain pairings, and certain plot points. Even with the gripes, I still think the characters are fun, the plots are good, and the worldbuilding is amazing. Eh, it's like reading a comic with great characters, great plot, and great worldbuilding, and then the art skill is just...not there. Something along those lines.
If you enjoyed this, please check out my other WoF fanfic: The Epilogue to an Unsung Epic if you haven't already.