You cannot believe how excited I am to release this chapter.
Wolf, Sedge, Harpoon, and Atlantic arrived at Copley Square, where St. James met Clarendon, the address from the card that had been waiting for them outside of their hideout. Reluctantly, Sedge had complied and came here with three others. Wolf was glad he was included because he had a sneaking suspicion he knew who this might be.
"I don't see anyone." Harpoon said.
"He probably hasn't shown up yet," Atlantic replied.
Sedge stepped forward, carefully. "Remember to be ready. This could be very bad, or very good. It doesn't look like there is any in-between." He said.
Once all of them had stepped there, right on the corner of the two popular streets, they got sucked down through the ground. Wolf braced himself for impact, or pain, or any kind of reaction to such a thing, but nothing happened. Instead, the four dragons were in a large, empty room. It was all concrete, with absolutely nothing in it. No doors, no windows, nothing.
"What the?!" Harpoon said, and Sedge readied himself.
"I don't know what just happened, but be ready." The large MudWing said. "I'm not having any more of my friends die."
"Boys, boys, relax. Nobody's going to harm you." Said a voice from behind them. Wolf spun around and saw him.
The black dragon.
From the night Lilypad and Tide died.
From the night the soldiers were blown up.
Wolf gasped. "This is him! This is the dragon!" He said to Sedge, but Sedge said nothing. He didn't even move. Upon further examination, he wasn't even blinking. None of them were. Wolf kept moving around, trying to get their attention.
"Harpoon? Hello?! What is happening?! Are you guys okay?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Wolf was frantically waving his talons in front of their eyes, but he got no reaction. Wolf turned to the black dragon. He was still moving, sitting down in… a chair? Where had that come from?
"What is happening?!" Wolf pleaded to the dragon.
"They're okay, don't worry." The dragon said. "They can't see either of us moving. Time itself is… currently inactive."
"How?!" Wolf asked.
"I stopped it." The dragon said simply.
"But HOW?!" Wolf asked again. Am I dreaming? I'm so confused. What is going on?
"No, you aren't dreaming." The dragon said. "And yes, I read your mind. I can do that. Ugh, I'm so tired of having to constantly explain it."
"Who are you and WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Wolf asked, panicking.
"My name is Moonfall. Moonfall the NightWing. I have the power to read minds, and I occasionally get visions of the future." The dragon said.
"NightWing?" Wolf asked. "And what now?"
"NightWing. The tribe of black-scaled dragons that aren't really around anymore. In fact, I'm the last one." Moonfall said.
"What happened?" Wolf asked.
"Short answer is war happened," Moonfall said. "There is a whole lot more to it than that, but that is a story for another day."
"Okay… how can you do this stuff?" Wolf asked, still convinced none of this is real.
"Oh, it's real alright." Moonfall said. "and NightWings have these powers. Considering, of course, they're born under the moon's light."
"So, you're the last dragon left from a tribe of dragons with supernatural abilities?" Wolf asked, clarifying the insane sentence.
"Correct," Moonfall said. "And it's not supernatural. It's entirely natural, just advanced. But that's not where it ends. I'm also the last being alive with a… certain gift."
"And that is?" Wolf asked.
"It was called Animus Magic when it existed," Moonfall said. "Now, I'm the only dragon with it, and the only one who can have it."
"What?!" Wolf asked. "Magic?! Okay, I don't believe thi-" Suddenly, Wolf was thrown aside by nothing at all. An apple appeared in front of him, and then that apple turned into a banana. Then, the banana peeled itself, and a squirrel ran out of the peel.
"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" Wolf asked.
"I demonstrated my powers," Moonfall said. "But enough about all of this, I need to talk to you."
Wolf was shot into the center of the room, in a chair, facing Moonfall, in his chair.
"You and the rest of Basilisk want to stop a Suprema rally coming up," Moonfall said. "I respect that, and wish to help you."
"How?" Wolf said, still suspicious of literally everything and anything happening.
"With my magic, of course!" Moonfall said. "I can make everything go right. None of you will have to do any planning at all, I can do all of it in a second, and you will succeed in stopping the rally."
Wolf narrowed his eyes at the dragon.
"But, there is one condition." Moonfall continued. "You need to name a human. Any human in any human at all. And that human will die."
"WHAT?!" Wolf asked. "WHY WOULD I-"
"Think." Moonfall interrupted. "Think of all the horrible human beings who have committed horrible crimes. They've done horrible things, Wolf."
Wolf was quiet now. He had to think. Wait, no I don't. Killing is wrong.
Moonfall stood up from his chair and started pacing around Wolf. "Killing is wrong, yes, but sometimes killing is crucial. Sometimes you have to kill someone." He said. "Especially when the world becomes a better place without them in it."
Wolf silently started thinking. "But I still don't know if your powers are really real or not." He said.
"If they aren't, then the human won't die. Even if you truly believe my powers aren't real, I'm still helping you." Moonfall said, behind Wolf now.
That's a good point. If the powers aren't real, then it actually helps me, because then nobody dies.
"Why do you want to kill a human?" Wolf asked Moonfall.
"I'm trusting you to kill a bad one," Moonfall replied. "A despicable one. The kind of one who would command a bunch of people to blow themselves up, and kill some innocent soldiers."
"Johnathan Craney," Wolf said under his breath.
"That's right!" Moonfall said. "He's a despicable person, the kind of person who kills without remorse. You saw what he did down the street."
"If you know who's doing this, why don't you report it to the police or the SuperHumans?" Wolf asked Moonfall.
"Why waste their time when I can do it instantly without ever having to even lift a finger?" Moonfall asked.
"Why don't you?" Wolf asked. "Why do you need me to chose him?"
"So that I can teach you," Moonfall said. "Think of this as a kind of exam, but I'm giving you all the answers."
"What kind of EXAM is this?" Wolf asked.
"A morality one," Moonfall answered simply. "Now think."
So Wolf thought. Killing Johnathan Craney and stopping any further attacks, as well as assuring everything goes well stopping the rally? And even if the magic isn't real, which is probably is, considering everything Wolf has been seeing, then there aren't any bad consequences.
Moonfall sat back down in his chair and leaned in close to Wolf.
"She would want you to do it." He whispered in his ear. "Lilypad. She would be able to make this choice in a heartbeat."
Moonfall was right. Wolf could almost see Lilypad in front of him, leaving Tide and Wolf's doubts behind, and going forward to make this choice.
"Get out of my head," Wolf said slowly to Moonfall.
"Okay, okay," Moonfall said. "I just thought that you might want to hear your honored friends' probable opinion on the matter."
Wolf put his head down into his talons, rubbing his forehead.
"I must say, Wolf. You are quite the challenger." Moonfall said after a few moments of silence. "Your mind is complicated, hard to read. Even if NightWings were still everywhere, it would be hard for them to read you, understand you, or manipulate you. You are very hard to crack."
Wolf kept thinking. You should do it for Lilypad. But Lilypad wasn't always right! Just because she would do it, and do it quickly, doesn't mean it's the right choice.
"Nobody else has to know. I'll just tell Sedge and the others that I'll help them. This can be our little secret." Moonfall said reasonably.
"OKAY!" Wolf said. "I choose Johnathan Craney."
A smile crept across Moonfall's face. "I knew you'd make the right choice." He said, then closed his eyes for a moment. "It is done." He said, opening his eyes. Suddenly, Wolf was back exactly where he was when all the others froze, and the chairs were gone. Moonfall was back into the same position as before as well.
Sedge reeled around to face Moonfall. "Who are you?" Sedge asked menacingly, but Moonfall just smiled. "I'm your new ally. I respect your cause and plan, and I assure you, everything will go right. My dragons and I will flood their rally and systematically move them out of their little church and onto the street. From there, we'll just spread them out. No violence."
"How can I trust you?" Sedge asked.
"You'll find that I am… very trustworthy, ." Moonfall said and made eye contact with Wolf.
"What 'dragons?'" Sedge asked, looking around. "Nobody else is here. AND HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME?!"
Moonfall snapped, and a door that seamlessly blended into the wall opened, and tons of dragons of all tribes, shapes, and sizes flooded out crowding the room.
"You have my word!" Moonfall called among the crowd. "I'll check back in later, I promise!" Moonfall looked back to Wolf, winked, then disappeared into the crowd.
The tons of dragons filled the room, and the 4 Basilisk-members were suddenly pulled right back out of the room and left standing on the corner between St. James and Clarendon.
"I told you," Wolf said to Sedge. "He knows everything." Sedge grunted, and lead them all back to the Basilisk hideout in silence.
Wolf, of course, still had lots and lots of doubts, but this dragon obviously had quite the following. They wouldn't all trust him if he was a lying snake, would he? Besides, Wolf is hard to manipulate, right?
Everything would be fine.
It would be.
-/-
Wolf and the others arrived back at Basilisk. Waiting for them there was a large box and 5 suitcases. Amazon grabbed one and ran up to Sedge.
"Sedge!" He cried, racing up to him. Amazon opened the suitcase, and inside was filled to the brim with stacks of hundred dollar bills.
Sedge, Atlantic, Harpoon, and Wolf all gawked.
"All of 5 of them are filled," Amazon said.
"What's in the big box?" Sedge asked.
"A large flat screen TV," Amazon said.
"Who delivered this stuff?" Sedge asked.
"Nobody knows," Amazon said. "It all just showed up right outside the vault door."
Wolf has a suspicion he knew where this all came from.
Moonfall is legitimately helping us out. It seems we've really found an ally.
He might just be the key to victory. He might be what saves us. He might be the dragon that brings peace to the world, and equality to dragons.
Wolf figured out the black and purple dragons on the cave murals must've been NightWings. But what Wolf still didn't understand were the orange and red dragons. They looked different from all the others, including the black and purple dragons. So what were they? Another tribe lost to history? How did entire tribes get erased? How did Moonfall survive? Was Moonfall alive during the war? Why didn't he appear older? Wolf's mind buzzed with confusion. He still half expected to suddenly wake up, and realize it was all a dream.
Yes, all a dream. From the explosions in the military base where he was stealing bread, all the way till now, where a strange magic dragon is supplying Basilisk with thousands of dollars. Soon he would be woken up by Tide and Lilypad, Lilypad complaining about wanting breakfast and Tide explaining some kind of math to Wolf. They would sit down and eat, then they would read or play, depending on whether or not they got a new book. Sedge might call a whole-Basilisk meeting, and he, Harpoon, Atlantic and Amazon would explain some kind of fund-raiser or update everyone on current events. Then, they would eat again. Lilypad would go on her nightly fly. Tide would reread the same books over and over again. Wolf would sit nearby, always against the wall, daydreaming.
Wolf didn't mind doing nothing at all. The truth was, Wolf wasn't a very intelligent dragon, there wasn't much going on in his head constantly like in Tide's, and he didn't dream of the future and all the possibilities like Lilypad. Lilypad would claim that she would be the first dragon president and the third female. She would talk about how nice her house was, how much she always had to eat, and how she would have seven dogs and they would all play together, and she would take all of them on walks every hour.
That seemed impossible to Wolf. Wolf definitely wasn't intelligent or clever, but at least he was realistic. He knew that could never happen for any of them, right down to the dogs. No dragons ever owned pets. 'Why would an animal keep another animal as a pet?' They would ask. Wolf didn't really care. Wolf didn't know what he would do with a dog or a cat. They wouldn't help him in any way, they would just be another mouth to feed.
But now, there is hope in my life with Moonfall. Maybe now, I can start thinking about stuff like that. Most people wouldn't have to think about how feeding their pet makes them a burden, they love their pets unconditionally.
Do their pets love them back?
Surely not, they keep them as prisoners.
But can an animal comprehend prison? Is getting food daily on time enough to make life good enough for them? Are they happy being a prisoner to the humans?
I killed a man today.
Wolf had never thought too hard about that. He knew that Johnathan Craney was a horrible man, and him being off the planet would keep many more people on it.
Is the blood on my talons or Moonfall's?
Moonfall was the one that killed him but on my command. But Moonfall gave me the opportunity, informed me of the man, and persuaded me.
But I said the name.
Am I a fool for listening to Moonfall, or a hero?