A Brighter Future Ahead

AN: As promised, here is a new chapter a few days after the last one.

As a reminder, there's a poll on my profile page for the new story I'm planning. If you have a spare minute or two, go vote, please.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.

Darkstalker:

"So how exactly are we going to infiltrate the palace?" he heard Fathom ask.

They were sitting on an island a few miles away from their intended target, observing the distant structure. Normally, they would have been spotted, but since it was night, he was using his black scales to his advantage. Fathom had to be a bit more careful, but hopefully, if he was somehow spotted, any patrols would simply pass him by without suspicion. "Magic, obviously," came his reply.

To his credit, Fathom didn't seem as worried about that as he probably would have before. "And, uh…what kind of spell did you have in mind?" he asked.

Darkstalker turned to him with a wicked grin. "You'll see. Here," he tossed a seashell to the Seawing who failed to catch it since it was dark. It bonked him on the nose before falling to the sand at his claws. Fathom rubbed his sore nose and glared at the Nightwing. "Don't lose that," he told him sternly.

Fathom picked it up after a moment's hesitation and looked around, clearly waiting for something to happen. "Nothing's happening," he stated the obvious.

"Well…not yet," Darkstalker said mysteriously. "Let's go. We've got dragons to…interrogate." He was going to say 'kill' but decided Fathom probably wouldn't like that too much. He took to the skies and started flying towards the palace, and he heard Fathom curse behind him and follow.

"Are you insane!?" he shouted. "We'll be spotted!"

"Have some faith, Fathom!" he called back, his grin returning in his twisted excitement for what was to come. "Don't you trust me?"

He could almost hear the eye-roll in Fathom's response. "You really don't want me to answer that."

Darkstalker huffed at that, though he figured that was fair. He had done some…questionable things in the past. In fact, some might say he was still doing some questionable things, but at this point he really didn't care. "Just follow me and don't panic," he ordered his companion.

Of course, as soon as he said that, he realized he didn't know how to enter this seemingly inconspicuous pile of rock. Right when he was about to ask Fathom how they were supposed to get it, he noticed a Seawing patrol heading in their direction.

He hovered in place, waiting to see what they were going to do. Fathom stopped next to him, and he gasped in fear when he saw the approaching Seawings, as well. "W-W-What do we do!?" Fathom looked to him for his response, but Darkstalker didn't do anything.

Rather, he stayed calm. "We wait," he replied.

"W-What!?" the Seawing yelled incredulously.

It was very clear that Fathom wanted to try and fly away, but Darkstalker didn't want him to. "Just watch," he instructed the Seawing. By some miracle, Fathom actually listened to him, and they hovered in place as the Seawing got closer…

And closer…

And closer…

And then they simply flew right beneath them, not stopping or suspecting a thing. In fact, they didn't even show any sign that they knew there were two intruders in their midst. Darkstalker grinned as Fathom stared at the retreated Seawings in utter bewilderment and confusion. The Seawings dived into the water, and Darkstalker turned to follow them. It made sense that the entrance to the Seawing Palace was underwater, so he was surprised at himself that he hadn't thought of that. "Come on!"

He dived beneath the water and watched the patrol enter a hidden cave. He quickly followed and hoped they would reach the surface again before he ran out of air. Of course, he could simply enchant himself to breathe underwater if he needed to, so he wasn't particularly worried.

Fathom followed behind him. He did, in fact, need to enchant himself to breathe underwater before they reached the surface, but they surfaced behind the returning patrol just as another patrol slipped into the water next to them. He had to pull Fathom out of their path before one of them bumped into the confused Seawing, but other than that, they were fine. "So where's Trench's room?" he asked his companion.

Fathom jumped in fright, looking around at the surrounding Seawings, no doubt expecting his question to garner some sort of response out of them. But when it became apparent that they were still fine, Fathom turned to him. "Okay, what in the three moons is going on?" he demanded.

Darkstalker chuckled at his frazzled friend. "I put a spell on that seashell that would make us completely imperceptible to other dragons. They can't see or hear us, but they might be able to feel us," he explained.

"So…don't bump into anyone?" Fathom asked for clarification.

"Right," he confirmed. "Now…Trench's room?" he asked again.

Fathom nodded, taking the lead. The Nightwing trailed behind his friend as they wound their way through the palace. Other than a few guards here and there, the halls were mostly quiet. Of course, that was to be expected since it was the middle of the night.

The Seawing stopped outside of a particular door on the fourth floor. Darkstalker looked at the Seawing, silently asking for confirmation. Fathom nodded. "This is it. Trench should be inside."

Darkstalker nodded but didn't open the door just yet. "Alright. Here's the plan. I'll take care of Trench. You go see if you can find Anaconda's daughter. If you find her, just get out."

"What about you?" Fathom asked.

Darkstalker didn't answer him, instead looking at the door. But that in itself was an answer, and though the Seawing was very clearly worried and didn't like this one bit, he relented and went off to find the missing Rainwing. In truth, Darkstalker didn't plan on stopping at Trench. After finding out what he needed to from the Seawing Commander, he was going to kill him. And then he was going to find his grandmother and do the same. And then he would do the same for the Seawing Queen.

He figured Fathom wouldn't like that—especially the last part—but they had started this war. They had made this personal, and he would make them all suffer for it.

AN: So yeah, that doesn't sound ominous or foreboding at all... I'm sure all of you can guess what's about to happen next, but what about the consequences for it? That's going to be the real question.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22