A/N: Hello? Anyone there? Yeah, it's been a little while… *checks dates again.* Ok more like 10 months… However, I do indeed not have an excuse this time. I have a lot to say so I'm going to start with this;
This is the ending to this story. I know, I know, sue me. But I'm not going anywhere with it, I came back to this and I know that any effort I put into it will be abysmal and a poor excuse for writing. At the same time, I'd rather give you this poor ending, than leave you with a bold note telling you I'm done with the story.
I wrote the epilogue back when I wrote the original story, and I just connected the ending of chapter 4 to the epilogue although it makes no sense and that's because it's not supposed to. There should be about 6-9 more chapters between them, but it just didn't work out that way. So if it doesn't seem all that well written I'm sorry but I figured something is better than nothing.
I'll let you guys read through but I got more to say after this all…
Darkstalkers wings beat as the early morning light poured over his back causing a warmth to spread across his wings. Off to his left, he could hear his beloved's wingbeats as the soft Thump Thump signaling that she was still following.
He was taking them both to the field in which he had first held a conversation with Eclipse hoping that she would be there again. As he glid letting the wind carry him, Clearsight caught up to him the rest of the way.
"Sooo… What do you think is blocking your mind reading from her?" She asked, looking at him with a curious expression.
Darkstalker let out a 'hrmph' before responding with his theory.
"I think she has an Anmuis enchanted object that blocks my abilities." Clearsight nodded before breaking eye contact and looking in the other direction staring at some distant point while they flew.
"I also found something else you should probably know about…" She said, turning her head back to him.
"Oh?" Darkstalker said with a curious expression turning his head towards her.
"I checked every possible future that I could… Days, Weeks, Months, Years, down the line…" Clearsight paused shaken up by something, what it was that disturbed her, Darkstalker hadn't the slightest clue.
"No matter where I look she's not there." Clearsight finally said looking at him with a glance of worry.
"What do you mean not there?" Darkstalker replied almost instantly.
"I mean that no matter where I look in the future this 'Eclipse' dragon doesn't exist… She's not there at all." Clearsight paused breaking their contact once more.
"It's almost like she's not supposed to be there at all…" Darkstalker looked at her with confusion, his worry seeping into his expression.
After a long pause, he opened his maw to respond but before he could speak they passed over the crest of the mountain and the field spread out below them. In the middle of the field was a black dot that Darkstalker had to assume was Eclipse; she was nearly in the same spot that she had been last time.
"That her?" Clearsight asked, breaking the temporary silence between them. Darkstalker only nodded as they both glided down towards the open plain where the shape currently was. As they approached her she appeared to be bent over in the grass looking for something.
"Eclipse?" Darkstalker called carefully not wanting to scare her. Despite his intentions, she jumped at the sound of his voice taken by surprise.
"Ohh Darkstalker... sorry y-you scared me." Eclipse said clicking her talons together her gaze fixed on the ground. She finally looked up although not at their eyes and noticed Clearsight.
"No I'm sorry didn't mean to scare you, this is Clearsight my bel- friend." Darkstalkers decided to call her friend until he was sure she was ok with him doing otherwise.
Eclipse nodded before returning her gaze to the ground looking around for something. Clearsight and Darkstalker shared a look before Clearsight continued.
"It's nice to meet you…" Clearsight said rather shyly. Eclipse looked up then let out a meek 'eep' as if she had just now only realized who she was talking to.
"Uhhh s-sorry I-I j-j-just l-lost my e-earring, and I r-really w-we-want to f-find it…" Eclipse stuttered over her words once again.
Clearsight and Darkstalker shared another look still somewhat confused before each gave a glance towards the ground. Said earring was on the ground, right in front of Eclipse it shone in the light, it was made of gold and it had a weird sparkly look to it that called to Darkstalker as he reached down and picked it up.
"This earring?" He asked, holding it up.
"Oh, that's it! She quickly said, reaching for the earring that Darkstalker held.
Part of him was hesitant to give it to her but he only raised a brow as she placed it back in her ear, an instant Aurora of calmness surrounding her.
He hadn't noticed it before but when she clipped on the earring her mind seemed to pop out of existence. Something that deeply confused him. He hadn't paid it much mind but before she'd put the earring on, there had been a slight buzzing in his mind where her thoughts should've been.
Yet now when the earring came on her mind simply ceased to exist. He raised a claw to ask her exactly what it was that had just happened but before that could happen her head whipped to the side.
"I'm sorry, b-but I have to go... " She said, before either Clearsight or Darkstalker had a chance to respond she was gone, her wingbeats quickly fading as she increased the distance between the three of them.
"She is a strange dragon…" Clearsight commented raising a brow at her disappearing form.
"She concerns me…" Darkstalker said as he tilted his head to his soulmate.
"You and me both…" Clearsight said, meeting his gaze. "You and me both."
Eclipse landed in a nearby field after narrowly dodging questions from Darkstalker and Clearsight. She glanced behind her to make sure that no one had followed and then departed into a nearby cave.
She removed the necklace around her neck and her mind came back flooding with repressed memories. She forgot how hard this assignment was going to be. But she'd done it, she'd found the best future in which Darkstalkers wouldn't turn evil yet remain a force of good in the world.
But taking the necklace off revealed who Eclipse was on the inside. Moon. Moonwatcher. She shook her head as she reached into the pouch removing what appeared to be an obsolete stone.
She placed the stone on the ground in front of her, and laid in front of it, closing her eyes as she thought of home. Moments later a shimmering light appeared in front of her and a small smile graced her lips.
"Goodbye Darkstalkers, I hope you're happier with this future, I know the rest of us are." She took a deep breath and stepped into the light
Epilogue
Moon brushed off her wings as she shivered through the other side of the light shaking her wings as she did so. The door made of light closed behind her sealing her off from that past world altogether. The cave she stepped into was darker in contrast to the cave she had just left. Of course, that bright midday had happened over two thousand years ago.
She shivered at the memory but before she had long to contemplate a set of warm wings enveloped her and she looked to find Kinkajou hugging her.
"Oh, you're finally back when you didn't show up on time we thought something might've happened to you!" Moon detached herself from the eager rain wings claws.
"Yeah I know sorry I was late, I got held up but listen! I think I found the right future!" Moon exclaimed her excitement peaking.
"Really?!" Kinkajou said with her excitement.
"Darkstalker doesn't turn completely and fully evil in this one?" Moon shook her head to answer the question and KInkajou gave a happy glee.
"Winters is gonna be so happy to hear his Idea worked!" Kinkajou's expression quickly faded as her scales turned a sad grayish color that stood out from her usual flourish pink.
"Kink what's wrong?" Moon quickly started looking at her Rainwing friend.
"It's better if Qibli explains it…" was the only response she said as she threw out her wings heading off towards the front of the cave.
"Follow me." Moon cocked her head questions and started to worry, why would Qibli explain it better? Another question dawned on her: where were they, why weren't they here in the base? She did a quick look around to discover that it had been emptied, all signs of life were gone, empty tables and the only thing left was a couple of scribbles on the blackboard.
The most unsettling was the splatter of blood stains along with two of the walls, in the darkness of the cave she couldn't tell the color, but she feared the worst for Winter, especially after Kinkajou's ominous response. She quickly followed her Rainwing friend out of the cave into the moonlight.
Kinkajous scales changed to a dark black becoming invisible against the night sky. She quickly took off headed North towards what Moon assumed to be the next base. In this world Darkstalkers patrols were constantly on the lookout for anybody not obeying the curfew, the normal punishment for this was only a small minor infraction but after Turtle canceled all the animus magic in the world except for his own their little group of friends was to be taken prisoner on sight and to be tortured for hours on end.
Darkstalker would stop at nothing to get his powers back no matter how many dragons stood in his way. 'The Rebellion' as they called themselves was Darkstalkers largest and the only problem. (More on how this Pyrhiaa functions and works in the Authors note).
Moon wasn't thinking about patrols or anything of the sort she only wanted to get to wherever the new base had been moved to and understand what was going on. Soon Kinkajou banked suddenly diving for a mountain that Moon wouldn't have guessed would be their new base considering its proximity to the last one. She quickly followed Kinkajou's dive and approached a small outlet near the middle of the mountain.
The thing was practically invisible from the sky and she had no idea how they found it. Had a patrol been chasing them they wouldn't have thoroughly checked this area until after they already passed it. It was exactly the kind of cave Winter always would pick…
As they landed Kinkajou moved aside some brush that blocked the cave entrance, revealing a larger opening that fit their small group of friends perfectly. Inside the alcove, Qibli was pacing back and forth his brow furrowed deep in thought.
Turtle was hunched over a desk scribbling furiously on a scroll. She saw Tsunami sitting in the corner watching the blackboard with a tired expression. On the blackboard, Anemone was pointing at different marks trying to explain something to her sister. What made Moon's heart sink was that Winter wasn't present in the room, he should've been here yet he was nowhere to be seen.
"Guys, where's Winter?" She was tired of this and decided to just be blunt and ask the question, get it over with. At her voice everyone in the cave looked up to meet her eyes, she was focused on Qibli's expression.
Many things passed through his eyes, pity, sadness, maybe even a little bit of relief or joy that Moon had made it back with possibly good news for once. Regardless of all this Qibli's expression finally settled on one final emotion; boiling anger.
"Where is he? Better question… where were you!" Qibli stalked forward a bit, his tail lashing back and forth.
"Qibli, leave her alone, she had no idea…" Turtle quickly said standing up and easing a wing onto his Sandwing friend's shoulder.
"I-Is he alive?" She asked simply, she didn't have to read their minds to understand what was going on here, not to mention they all had Skyfire on anyway. Something terrible had happened, and it was her fault.
"Doubt it…" Qibli said, turning towards another entrance stalking somewhere, and disappearing off to a different section of the cave.
Moon let out a small whine and collapsed into Kinkajou's side where her Rainwing friend caught her, giving her a shoulder to lean on.
"When you didn't come back, on time Winter insisted on staying here waiting for you, we waited an extra three days before we began packing up fully.
We were leaving with a plan for Kinkajou to stay at the old base once we moved. Once we finally got out… we were spotted by a random patrol, not a routine one. They tailed us for 5 minutes before Winter took off flying in a separate direction, we were in heavy rain hard to see and hard to hear. Qibli yelled as loud as possible
"Fly Turtle we'll hold them off!" Turtle paused a moment sucking in a breath before continuing.
"Most of the patrol followed Winter, leaving just a few dragons to deal with us."
"If Tsunami hadn't shown up we would all be gone… We found this cave and waited…. No sign of Winter and no sign of you. The plan was a last-ditch chance, shouldn't have worked. Well, it did, and Winter is either captured or dead." Turtle looked upon the brink of tears from retelling the story.
"Please tell me this future is the right one, that might make it even slightly worth it…" Moon tried to speak but her words came out in something more of a squeak, she merely nodded unable to answer Turtle's question with words.
Turtle's expression lit ever so slightly before he turned following into the same room Qibli had gone into earlier. Kinkajou was still leaning on Moon's shoulder uneasily and Moon herself didn't have words. The room remained silent before Turtle entered holding up a stick with Qibli close behind him.
"This is it...:" Turtle said, holding it up for the group to see.
"Snap it in half and fix everything. History will change and the Arctic will have been the father figure Darkstalker lacked in his life. We'll go away and Pyriha will change forever…" Everyone knew what Turtle meant, when they broke the stick there was no guarantee that anything would be the same, no guarantee that the Sandwing war would happen no guarantee that the dragonets of destiny would have been even created in the first place.
There was no guarantee that Jade Mountain Academy would be recreated, The chances of them all becoming friends in the new future wasn't plausible however this new one would be much better much safer. Moons only regret; she wouldn't say goodbye to Winter.
"For Winter." Turtle said as he held the stick and the group of dragons gathered in a circle around the wood.
"For Winter…" Moon agreed the rest of them remained silent.
"I'll see you all on the other side." Turtle said with a ghost of a smile on his face. The noises and the world itself seemed to cease as if the planet had stopped rotating, and then all at once in… The world went black.
Moon flew through the brisk morning air, her wings flapping up and down. She sighed, shaking her head as her mother trailed behind her. It was her first day at Jade Mountain Academy! Although part of her was excited she was also incredibly nervous.
She wasn't the most social dragon having a secret mind-reading power that no one knew about certainly didn't help her. As they swooped down and approached the platform Moon couldn't help but hover above it and practically attach herself to her mother's leg refusing to let go, she didn't want to leave.
"Come on now they won't bite!" Secretkeeper said detaching herself from her only daughter and laying a protective wing around her.
"At least stay with me for a little while please!" Moon begged as her claws touched the cold stone. Secretkeeper sighed but nodded as she turned to watch the new dragons come in.
All the tribes were certainly here, many of them bustling back and forth as they prepared themselves for the day. There was a shiny group of Icewings that were talking with their parents. A mudding and a Skywing were chatting together they seemed uneasy.
The number of dragons was something that Moon had been underprepared for and she began to get a headache as the number of minds grew to an unstable level.
"Alright I need to leave now Moon, remember what we talked about." Secretkeeper gave Moon a knowing look to which Moon only nodded.
"I love you," Secretkeeper said as she brought her daughter into a hug and kissed her forehead.
"I love you to mom," Moonwatcher responded as she pulled herself away from the hug.
The secret keeper gave Moon an affectionate pat and a pained smile and then detached herself from Moon. Spreading her wings and taking off her wing beats slowly faded as she left. Moon sucked in a breath and turned around heading for the inside of the academy purposefully ducking under everybody and snagging a map from the main entranceway.
Realizing that she didn't know where to go she approached a table that had scrolls laid out on it was what appeared to be every student next to their name was a winglet. Moon scanned over it before finding her name and reading what was next to it; Moonwatcher - Jade Winglet.
Seeing nothing else and being careful to avoid everyone she followed her map to her assigned cave. Wanting to desperately get away from the bustle and hum of every dragon's mind. She ducked into the cave relieved to find that no one else had arrived yet. She was alone.
"I'm afraid to say you are far from alone Little Moonwatcher." Moon jumped upward, petrified by the voice she had just heard. She whipped around looking for the owner of the voice but she couldn't find him. "I'm in your head Moon."
The voice said which made her jump again. "B-But how is that possible?! W-Wh-Who are you?" Moon frantically thought as she checked around the room once more. "I'm a mind reader just like you Moon, well I'm a bit different… I have some extra qualities."
The voice said with a little bit of a chuckle after it. "As for who I am? Why is it me, the all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-knowing, Darkstalker."
A/N: So that was a journey no? One question on your mind and mine is why come back now? The answer is quite simple I took a break to focus on real issues, ( Family members deaths, school work, and other projects, life doesn't stop for anyone you know? ) When I came back to writing I only found the effort to work on my Orignal Story "The Sea Never Forgets." Believe it or not, I pushed myself and made a whole 300-page novel topping just 80k words. It's in the editing stages right now and I hope to publish it soon. It's one of the accomplishments I'm most proud of in my life and I'm sorry that it took the death of this story for that to come to life.
Moving on, I came back to the fanfiction world needing to read something, and regular books wouldn't cut it for me. So I got into the reader's seat again, finding some of my favorite functions to be unfinished and leaving me in the middle of the story with nothing. And every time I had a stab of guilt knowing I was guilty of the same thing. So I came back to finish it, although poorly. Better to give you this than give you nothing.
I was going to write an entire explanation of the world but this ending was kind of hastily so it wasn't as planned as it should've been. The basics are that Darkstalkter didn't get defeated by a strawberry, yet his magic was canceled and a group of dragons was able to get away, mostly those with earrings.
It's more complicated but once again I didn't put too much thought into it and it's kind of thrown together last minute so this is what I got. I know it sucks and it's a bad idea (mostly because of how little I can explain in words it works in my mind I swear) so don't berate me further, please
So with that, I plan to get back into writing Fanfcion although I doubt any of it will be Wings of fire-related so sorry about that...
This has been a journey and although it was small it's one I'll keep tucked in the back of my mind. If you like Star Wars (specifically Star wars rebels) I'll be posting a story involving Rebels soon. So drop a follow and keep an eye out for it.
Stay Safe, Goodbye everyone.