"Clay, Clay, CLAY!" I felt someone shaking me awake. I did the only logical thing and hit whoever it was with my pillow then layed back down. "Get up!" I was struck with said pillow then looked up to see who was trying to wake me up. "What?" I asked as Sunny looked down at me with folded arms. I looked around and saw that the others were gone.
"Where did everybody go?" I asked her. She headed over to her bed to fix her sheets while she explained. "Kestrel took Starflight for some combat training, Dune took Tsunami to test her on some of the things we learned this month and Webs took Glory for a chat." I nodded as I got dressed while she was fixing her bed.
I turned to her when I got dressed. "So why didn't they take us?" Sunny shrugged. "Maybe they think we'll pass with flying colors?" We then spent way too long laughing at the thought. "Does this have something to do with Morrowseer?" I asked her, but she didn't seem to know that either.
"Oh yeah! Webs told me that we need to be ready when the sun is in the middle of the skyhole. We should have food in the kitchen." I grinned at her then we left to go eat. I thought I would hear Starflight and Kestrel training but I couldn't hear any weapons clashing or Kestrel yelling.
Sunny and I spent the morning eating then playing war with the wall map. (I got sandwings, seawings and mudwings against her icewings, Skywings and rainwings) after awhile, we played a game that Starflight made, we take a rock, flick it and try to get it through the other person's fingers held up like a half box. I'm really bad at it.
"Clay! Look at the sky hole!" Sunny said, and I saw that it was time to meet the others. We put the games up then headed to the dining room where Webs and Glory already were along with Dune and Tsunami walking in at the same time as us. Sunny and I grabbed two seats by Glory and Tsunami joined us while Dune and Webs left to go talk privately.
Sunny poked Tsunami. "Hey! What did you two do? Was it about Morrowseer?" She asked, trying to contain her curiosity. Tsunami rolled her eyes and shoved her hand back. "He just wanted to see if I remembered what we we're being taught. Also I'm sure that it has something to do with him" she said.
I looked over to see that Glory was keeping her stone face. "You ok?" I asked, while giving her a small smile. Glory gave a fake smile then nodded. In response, I flicked her in the back of her head.
"HEY!" She growled, dropping her facade.
I gave her a serious look. (As serious as I could at least) "Talk"
She signed and then responded. "After our group talk, Web's said they'll give us time to prepare for Morrowseer's examination. I'll tell you during that. ONLY you." She muttered the last bit while Sunny pestered Tsunami to tell her more. I nodded and the two guardians walked in along with Starflight and Kestrel. Starflight sat next to me and seemed more worried than usual.
The guardians stood in front of us and Dune began to speak.
"As three of you already know, Morrowseer will be coming here today to see if you five are up to the task of fulfilling the prophecy that you have spent your whole lives preparing for. As you should know, Morrowseer is the one that spoke the prophecy, so queen battlewinner has entrusted him to oversee this. You five will be on your BEST behavior and will do EXACTLY as he orders you to do. Are we clear?" He demanded, we all nodded, some with more enthusiasm than others.
Webs stepped forward and began speaking. "Morrowseer will be checking your combat, history and geography skills. I suggest you use the time we are about to give you wisely. He'll be here in an hour so get ready."
Kestrel glared at us. "If ANY of you say anything you know you shouldn't, there WILL be massive consequences. I don't expect him to be impressed but hopefully some of you can barely pass his low bar." She seemed to focus on Glory but made sure all of us knew she didn't expect much from us.
I expected the guardians to go to their main cave but they actually left the cave itself! "They're probably going to go meet him." Tsunami muttered next to me. Starflight stood up. "We should probably go study." it seemed like none of us were in a good mood. Sunny and Tsunami stood up to go with him but Glory spoke up. "Clay's gonna help me look around the guardians cave." Should have known she'd say that. The punishment for looking into the guardians cave was something none of us were brave enough to see. Even Tsunami wouldn't dare step in, this was guaranteed to make sure the others wouldn't follow us.
"YOU CAN'T DO THA-" Sunny was interrupted.
"I'll prepare your eulogy." Starflight said while Tsunami covered Sunny's mouth while giving Glory a knowing look. Glory nodded and we left for the forbidden room. Heading down the kitchen and past the classroom. Their cave had a massive boulder, similar to the one blocking the exit. Unlike the exit, I have never actually tried to move this one. I tried to grab the boulder but Glory stopped me.
"We're not actually going in there!" She hissed. "What if they notice the boulders in the wrong place? Or if they have something on it on the other side to see if someone moved it?" Truthfully, I think she was giving too much credit to the guardians.
I folded my arms. "Ok, so what happened? Sunny woke me up and you three weren't there and I was told that the guardians took you for testing."
Glory looked down the hall. "I can't say for Tsunami or Starflight but Webs took me to the swimming pool. He quizzed me on some small stuff then told me what Morrowseer expected."
I nodded. "And what does he expect?"
"Too much from the way Webs talked. I doubt it will matter how well I do since according to you and Tsunami, they didn't tell him that I'm not from the sky kingdom." She said.
"Oh come on, he'll definitely be impressed! Especially if you go after me." I laughed though she rolled her eyes.
"That leads me to the other thing. The reason you weren't called was because they expect you to do decent."
I blinked. "But my history and geography suck."
Glory punched my arm lightly. "All Morrowseer is gonna care about is that you're big and strong. With Starflights brain and Tsunami's skill, you three will probably be fine."
"So will you!" I said to her.
She ignored me and continued. "Judging from the rooms they took the other two to, I'd guess that Tsunami was being quizzed on history since she struggles a lot with that and Starflight with combat… you can guess why." She mumbled. Starflight was smart but he was not a fighter like Tsunami.
"Why wasn't Sunny called?" Not that I expected her to fail, but wouldn't the guardians want to test her too?
Glory looked up to the ceiling. "Because of how specific her egg had to be laid, they expect that she's the only one who could be the Sandwing egg so they didn't bother." She ended "That's really it, now it's my turn to ask questions. What did Starflight tell you two days ago when you went to put the weapons back?" How did she know about that? Did Starflight tell her?
"Umm, he mentioned the prophecy. I think something about leaving on our own? Though he didn't seem to have a full plan, which is weird with him." I laughed though Glory cursed.
"Alright, look. Do you think we can complete the prophecy by ourselves?" She asked with a serious look.
I knew my answer. "No! What if we get captured, or injured seriously, or if we mess up the prophecy?"
Glory signed. "If we're destined to save the world, then won't any action we take be the right one?" She countered.
"I guess, but what if Morrowseer doesn't deem us worthy? Won't he be the one that matters since he said the prophecy?" I asked.
"Just because he said it doesn't mean he understands it. He's just as clueless as the rest of us so I don't think it will matter what he thinks."
"There are so many things that can go wrong though, we don't even know what's really out there! What if we run into a Curo snake?" Glory couldn't actually think we're ready to leave.
She looked at me intently. "Don't you want to leave?" She asked. "Find our families out there, see the world that's been blocked from us?"
I didn't really know what to say. "Well, yeah but not at the cost of our lives!"
"What if they're holding back the prophecy! We can't save the world while stuck in here!" She told me.
"...are you and Starflight in on this together?" I asked quietly.
She nodded. "And Tsunami."
I figured that Sunny wouldn't be included. "When were you three going to tell Sunny?"
Glory rubbed her arms. "We were just gonna grab her as we left." She muttered.
I rubbed under my eyes. "How did you three come to that as your best option?"
"Well our MAIN plan was to have YOU ask her since she would agree, but Starflight messed up on asking you." She said defensively.
"Couldn't you just ask her after you got me on board? It's not like we're leaving anytime soon." I said. She didn't say anything. "Right?"
"Well… We kinda planned on leaving tomorrow." She gave me a worried smile.
I stared at her. "YOU THREE DIDN'T THINK THIS THROUGH AT ALL!" I yelled.
"Look! We planned on using the hole in the pool room! If Tsunami could get deeper in, we can find a way out and then move the boulder on the outside!"
"I can't even move that boulder!" It was true. I had tried but it was difficult.
"That's because there's a lever the guardians use to move it." Glory stated.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
She lit up. "Yeah, that's how Dune is able to move it due to his foot. If we can get Tsunami outside, she can move the boulder and we can leave."
I blinked. "Just like that?"
She signed. "Just like that."
I still wasn't completely on board. "What if she gets stuck, or drowns?" I asked quietly.
Glory looked down. "This was Tsunami's plan. Starflight and I tried to convince her to try something else but she wouldn't budge."
I groaned. "Can I at least convince you three to hold off on leaving until we get Sunny involved? It wouldn't be right to leave her out until the last second."
Glory nodded.
I smiled. "Alright, let's go see how scary Nightwings actually are."
Scary. VERY VERY scary. I never actually believed the whole 'Nightwings are very scary, their mere presence can mean defeat for their opponents' due to Starflight but Morrowseer was COMPLETELY different. He was taller than Kestrel and he looked like he could crack Sunny's skull in half. He stared at all of us with disdain, guess we failed his expectations already. He then stared at Glory with a cold sneer. He looked over the others then turned to me and it felt like a sharp knife impaling me.
"You, and you" He said pointing to me and Sunny. "I want to see your combat skills." We looked at each other then grabbed the training swords and shield. We walked to the center of the training room and waited for Morrowseer's signal. After he shot a fire bolt, we charged at each other.
It had been about two months since I dueled Sunny in a serious fight so I forgot how scary she could actually be when she was trying. Sunny's style relied on fast hits and forcing the opponent on the defensive. She swung at my legs and then my arms. I blocked one of her hits then shoved her back and took a more defensive stance. She charged again but I kept her at bay. She backed off and tried to find a way through. She charged one more time but instead of holding her sword forward, she raised it up and shoved it down onto my sword forcing it down. She then took one hand and before I knew it, she charged up a dust cloud spell and fired it at me.
Still not sure why she tried that but it backfired severely and she was left rubbing her eyes and groaning in pain. I attempted to help her but Morrowseer stepped forward and forced us apart.
"You." He growled at Webs. "Help her. The rest of you. Line up on the wall."
Webs took Sunny to, I assumed, the kitchen to wash out her eyes and the rest of us lined up with Glory trying to be as slow as possible without looking suspicious.
The prophecy giver glared at Tsunami. "Cast a stream of water."
Tsunami tightened her arm, stuck it out and attempted to gather some of the energy in her to perform the spell. Annnd, nothing happened. Well, no MAGIC happened, Tsunami's eyes looked tired from the attempt and she tried to stay standing but fell to the floor. I made a move to help her up but Glory elbowed my side and nodded at Morrowseer who was moving towards her.
"You, do… anything." He sneered.
Glory held her hand out but made no attempt to actually perform a spell. "Oh well." She muttered then sat by Tsunami.
Morrowseer's eye twitched but remained calm. He then looked at me and I immediately wanted that cold glare onto someone else.
"Cover your hand with the earth and lift it up." Well that sucks. I could probably, maybe, make a small rock change form. But force the ground up? No chance.
I mimicked Tsunami to gather energy then slammed my hand flat on the ground and tried to make the floor shift. I really don't want to know how it looked but I was definitely standing there with my hand stuck to the floor concentrating really hard for way too long.
Morrowseer didn't bother to give me a second look and I collapsed on the floor. I watched Starflight. He was the only one that could perform magic at all.
The adult Nightwing grabbed a torch and made Starflight hold it. "Drain it of its light." Did he have a sense of hope in his voice?
Starflight tensed up, why did it have to be a dark spell? Those were insanely difficult to perform! I think…ok that's what Dune said. Starflight tried to drain it but something went wrong and he accidentally made the flame bigger with a flame spark. He then fell like the rest of us and the torch grew in size until Morrowseer snuffed it out with a wave of his hand.
He looked at Starflight intently. "So, you have been trying to make up for the lack of a Skywing? A noble endeavor, but focus on our superior magic." Starflight blinked then looked at me with a worried look. He only practiced fire magic because it was easier than the other basic forms of magic.
"Umm, what about Sunny?" Starflight whispered.
Morrowseer turned away. "She showed her skill in the battle, and it's disappointing that someone like her could do it while you two couldn't." He said, while glaring at Tsunami and me. It's not our fault the guardians gave up on teaching us magic.
Webs and Sunny walked back into the room, Sunny's eye's still looked irritated. Morrowseer went to talk with the guardians in private so we all sat around each other to chat as well.
"So what did he want you guys to do?" Sunny asked us.
Tsunami layed down. "Perform magic."
Sunny looked interested. "How did it go?"
"I failed, Tsunami failed, Starflight passed and Glory didn't try." I stated.
"I did too try! Just not very much." Glory smiled.
"Oh, and you passed, we think at least." I added.
"You think?" She asked.
Starflight was messing with his hands.
Glory looked over to him. "What's up with you oh noble nightwing?"
"Thinking." He muttered.
Tsunami turned her head over to him. "What about? You seem to be his favorite. Not that the bar was high."
Starflight looked up. "I dunno, I just figured he would read our minds and see what we were capable of. Clay was definitely thinking about how he couldn't do the magic he was asked to do."
"Hey! I wasn't JUST thinking that!" I countered while Sunny giggled.
Glory nodded. "I was thinking about that too, he probably can't read our minds like we were taught."
"Hey! So Starfligh's NOT an oddity!" I spoke up and got a pebble thrown at me in response.
Sunny rubbed her eyes some more and Tsunami spoke up. "Why'd he pick you two for the fight?" She asked Sunny and me. I was stumped but Starflight gave an answer.
"Isn't it obvious? Clay's looks like the strongest and Sunny looks like the weakest, just based on how you look!" He said defensively when Sunny gave him a dark glare. "I mean, your sma-" Tsunami covered his mouth. "Morrowseer just doesn't know you enough so he's going off of your looks. We all know you're not actually weak. RIGHT?" She raised an eyebrow while letting Starlight speak.
"Yeah, that…" He muttered with a worried look.
Glory yawned then spoke. "Ignoring that, what were you saying?"
Starflight looked up with a lighter look. "I would guess he wanted to see how far apart we were in skill. I'm guessing he was expecting us to do magic and that's why he had us do the magic test afterwards."
I was about to speak up but the guardians came in with Morrowseer walking ahead. "You." He growled at Starflight. "Come with me." He then turned and left. Starflight looked at us and I gave him a smile, really glad he couldn't read my mind or would hear me screaming "NO!"
The two left and Kestrel waited until they left to speak to us. "You four, go to your room and wait until we come back." She said, uncharacteristically calm. We left and Glory layed on the bed while Sunny grabbed one of the books and started reading. I sat next to Tsunami and figured it was time to confront Tsunami on her plan to leave the cave.
"You three REALLY didn't think any of your escape plan through did you?" I whispered so Sunny couldn't hear.
Tsunami looked up with surprise and then dropped the look. "Who told you the rest of the plan?" She asked.
"Glory, earlier today, and hey! I could have figured it out through my talk with Starflight!" I said defensively. She gave me a suspicious look in response.
She signed. "Look. I know that you don't think we're ready to leave."
"I'm on board." I said.
"And I can understand that, there's still a lot we have to learn.
"Tsunami."
"But we know enough to learn for ourselves! We can't stay here fore-"
I covered her mouth. "I said I'm in."
"Really?!" She smiled.
I nodded. "As long as we get Sunny on board BEFORE we prepare to leave."
"We're never going to convince her. She likes it here." She muttered.
"You know that's not true. She just wants all of us to smile by being positive." I said in Sunny's defense.
"Yeah, sure. Anyway, how are we going to tell her?" Tsunami asked.
I looked over to the youngest of us. "I'll figure out a way, just don't plan to leave yet."
Tsunami nodded and then we saw Starflight enter the room with a stone face. I was about to go see him but stopped when Morrowseer walked in after. "You three are going to change the world, as long as you follow him. Do as he says and you will succeed." He said, then he left.
Sunny walked over to Starflight and grabbed his arms. "How'd it go?" She asked worriedly.
Starflight looked to Tsunami and me. "Go and to the spot and listen." He said weakly then sat on his bed with the rest of us looking at him in confusion. "NOW!" he hissed at us.
"Go, we'll talk to him." Glory whispered to me.
I grabbed Tsunami and walked us to the swimming room. We checked to make sure no one was in the rooms we needed to pass and we made it without making much noise. "I'll go first, make sure to be quiet." Tsunami whispered, I rolled my eyes in response.
Tsunami went underwater as quietly as she could and after a while, I followed. We swam for a few seconds and when the cave got dark, I poked Tsunami in the back. In response, she closed her eyes and her hair started flashing different shades of blue until settling on a sky blue tone and we continued forward.
We reached the spot and got close to the small crack in the guardian rooms wall. Tsunami and I liked to go down here when we think the guardians are talking about something important.
"Have it done before I get back. Or I will do it myself, and I do not like getting my hands dirty." The voice of the Nightwing said. He sounded like a container on the brink of erupting. Keeping his cool but knowing the wrong word can let it blow.
After some silence, we heard what sounded like Morrowseer leaving. A bit later, Dune spoke up. "So, who's going to do it?"
"We could just drop her off where I found her?" Webs asked.
Dune sounded mad. "It's your fault where in this mess! We can't just let her go after everything she knows!"
"What if we just hide her? Somewhere else, then after the war we let her go?" He said with a lower voice.
"Oh, do tell how you plan on holding her down for that long. And who you're going to get to do the job." Dune mocked him.
"Both of you shut up!" Kestrel growled. "I'll do it. I'll make sure she's asleep so she won't feel it."
"Are you sure you should do it? What if you see hi-"
"She's not him! And I won't fail." She ended.
There was more silence.
"What if the others try to stop you?" Webs asked.
"The bookworm and the slacker probably won't even try, and do you really think Sunny can do anything?" Dune said.
Webs spoke again. "Clay could. He's strong and protects them fiercely."
Kestrel sounded like she was standing up. "I can take him. Who knows, maybe the monster will finally be released in him."
"I still don't think we should do it. The other four will never do anything we say ever again." Webs muttered.
"I'll do what has to be done. For the prophecy, and Pyrrhia." Kestrel said finally. "I'm going to bed. Tomorrow morning, We will have our Mudwing, Seawing, Nightwing, Sandwing and finally, Skywing."
I could hear them leave and felt like I had fallen out of a trance. I realised I was clenching my fist and could feel the pain in my hands. Tsunami had just gone back underwater and I followed her out. All I could think about was digging a grave for the three adults we had known our whole lives.
"You're sure you didn't misear anything?" Sunny asked us with a serious look.
"They didn't." Starflight said, with a crack in his voice.
"We could hide her! Tsunami could lead her to somewhere deep in the cave where none of them can find her!" Sunny said.
"Won't work, we could kill them first." Tsunami gave as her option.
Sunny looked appalled. "No, Kestrel and Dune's magic is too strong.
"AND KILLING IS WRONG!" Sunny shouted as quietly as she could.
"Guys, this is my problem."
Tsunami talked to Starflight. "We could hide her in the closet?"
Starflight gaver a look. "Oh right." She muttered.
"It's not that big of a deal."
I finally spoke up. "We leave."
Starflight looked to Tsunami who seemed just as surprised.
"What?! We can't just leave! What if we get killed?" Sunny said.
"Glory WILL get killed if we don't leave!" I spoke heavily.
Clay, that's stupid!"
Tsunami nodded. "I'm with Clay. Starflight, ready?"
He nodded.
Sunny just looked at each of us in surprise. "Wait, you PLANNED on leaving?!"
I looked at her. "Yes, I found out today. I wanted us to wait, but we can't let them kill Glory. Are you going to help?" I asked her with a calm voice.
"CLAY! WE ARE NOT LEAVI-"
Sunny looked at Glory then back to me. "Yes." She muttered.
I hugged her as tight as I could without hurting her then looked at Starflight. "Plan?"
Starflight looked like he was thinking of so many things at once. "The plan has to change a bit. Only Sunny and I will stay here and distract the guardians. Clay, you'll go with Tsunami. Since we haven't been able to check out the cave, his muscles should make it easier. Glory will stay at the hidden spot until you get back and open the door. Tsunami will pick her up." he finished. We all nodded and started getting ready.
"NO!" Glory shouted at all of us. "They are trying to kill ME! Not YOU! This is MY problem!"
Tsunami rolled her eyes. "Let's just skip the speech of 'Oh, I don't deserve to be saved' nonsense and get to the 'Time to start a real life out there!' part."
Glory looked like she was about to explode. "And if you two drown while in there?"
"We won't." I stated then looked back to Tsunami.
"What if I don't want you to risk your life for me?!" She shouted and it was Starflight who responded.
"I get that you like being in control, but just accept that you can't get out of this on your own. Whether you're with us or not, we're not letting them kill you."
Glory stuttered. "I- I don't LIKE control! I just prefer if you didn't DIE for me!"
I glared at her. "Would you risk your life to save mine?"
She stopped. "Y- yeah?"
"Good, then get ready to hide for a few hours."
She stood there for a bit. "Fine. but I'm not going in the water." She said then her body shimmered and she disappeared.
"Since when did you learn that?!" Tsunami hissed.
Glory reappeared next to Starflight. "We were practicing just in case we would need it to escape, along with some other things Rainwings seem to be able to do more easily."
Sunny spoke. "Ok, so you turn invisible for as long as you can. Starflight and I will try to distract them if you need to recharge."
We all agreed and got ready.
Ok, so you're probably wondering how I ended up in the dark water of the cave without my source of light? Well, our plan broke apart pretty quickly when Kestrel and Webs walked in and ordered Tsunami to go with them.
"Don't make a scene, we need to make them think nothing is going on." Starflight whispered to me.
I nodded as Tsunami left with them.
A few minutes later, we heard Tsunami yelling and Sunny and I went down the hall to find her chained to a stalagmite.
"Be glad your punishment isn't extra combat training. And if I see ANY of you try to free her, I will personally chain you all up with her!" She yelled and left. Sunny tried to reason with Webs but he did his best to ignore her. "It's for your own good." He mumbled.
After they left, Tsunami hissed at us. "Clay, Go without me. Feel your way across and find a way out! Sunny, go get Glory ready to hide and help Starflight find a way to break these MOONKISSING CHAINS'' Sunny flinched at the swearing and we nodded. "Good luck Clay!" Sunny told me while turning to our room. I prepared to get in the water until I felt someone touch my shoulder. I turned to look and couldn't see anyone.
"Thank you." I heard Glory say. I didn't need to see her face to know how relieved she was to know we all cared about her this much.
"Anytime." I smiled in what I assumed was her general direction. I took in a deep breath. I had about an hour before I needed air. An hour to find somewhere in the dark cold water to either find a way out, or take a breath and keep going. All of the fear came to me at once. What if I DID drown? What if there was something in the water down there? What if there was no way out? Then I remembered Glory's sarcastic laugh and I plunged into the water.
Well, that was chapter two. If you have any story questions, I'll answer them as long as they don't spoil the main story. (Also if you're wondering if certain scenes will take place, don't be afraid to ask.) I'm hoping to upload more consistently. (Like less than 2 months?! Feel free to be mean to me about that, I won't blame you) Btw, I initially planned for this chapter to only be 8 pages long but figured I should make chapters a bit longer. I'll try to make the third one last 10 pages unless enough people prefer smaller chapters. (Only like two people are reading this so the vote shouldn't take that long lol) I'll end it with this. My favorite book in the series is Lost heir. What's anyone who's reading this favorite book in WoF?