Darkseer could hardly keep his eyes open in history class. He had been placed into the Amber Winglet ever since… everything happened. He was now with Delta, Typhoon, and Frigid. Even then, the four of them had been dispersed among the other winglets, as four dragons cannot make a full winglet work. Darkseer was glad things had slowed down. Ever since the day Scorch was murdered, things had been insane, mind-bending, and overall exhausting.
Darkseer had spent lots of time trying to see into the future, trying to get glimpses of what was going on, but he could hardly see anything. There was a whole lot of darkness ahead. That was for sure. He had been writing down things he had seen late at night. Some of the big ones he saw were a Sandwing in a white hood fighting Adnachiel. Queen Glory watching with horror as her bodyguard Deathbringer sliced a Rainwing in half, two more dead bodies nearby. A burning tree falling to the ground. Tsunami standing in a field, the three moons shining overhead, screaming into the sky with what sounded like immense sadness, Sunny sitting next to her, crying.
And finally, the unexplainable ones. Swordfish, but older and wearing strange white armor, and holding a crown. Standing next to a strange purple dragon, wearing strange armor as well, in a forest, both with tears streaming down their faces, a blackened and burned dragon body in front of them, unidentifiable. And finally, a dead Skywing with a strange wound, like a hole through his forehead, his blood spattered on the white wall behind him.
Darkseer's eyelids began to droop as Webs continued talking. "The Seawings were very angry with the prince. There was even a group that wanted to overthrow the crown entirely and make a new system, but that group disappeared one day. The topic is still something dragons will bring up sometimes as an argument that queens cannot be trusted. Obviously, they are wrong. Our queens uphold our kingdoms, so we must give them our loyalty in return. That is how it has worked for as long as dragon history documents." Typhoon raised her claw into the air. "What would the queens be replaced by?" She asked. "There have been various theories of government." Webs answered. "One where there's elected leaders. One where the wealth is distributed among us all. Fortunately, none of these have been fully developed and actually dangerous ideas."
Blah blah blah. Listen to him grovel about the queens. Doesn't he know that the old style of queens have become an obsolete system? Frigid thought. Darkseer jerked his head up to look at the Icewing. That was the first clear and concise thought he had ever heard from the braindead Icewing. And it didn't fit him at all. In fact, he even sounded different… if that made any sense.
I'll just keep that in mind. Darkseer thought to himself. He had no idea what to think about any of that.
When history was over, Darkseer walked with the rest of his group to the next class. He had been hanging out with Delta the most recently, her being the only one from the little group that had formed within the two new winglets. He hardly knew the Mudwing, but her thoughts seemed harmless and she had good intentions most of the time. She was almost nothing like Cedar though.
Darkseer felt bad for her. Ever since Cedar died, she had been very quiet and spent a lot of time on her own, not even being with the rest of her sibs. Darkseer knew she blamed herself for everything that had happened with Cedar. She had been the one to kill him. She hadn't figured it out sooner. She could've saved him. She could've saved them all, even Mahogany. These were the thoughts that had been swirling around in Delta's head.
The Amber Winglet had definitely taken a hit. Darkseer's sister and Savanna hadn't been seen for days, and the teachers had been going crazy looking for them. Darkseer had to tell them what he had seen and heard in their minds. The Darkists were now a known thing to the dragonets of destiny, who were looking more and more tired. First the demons, now this. Also, both Rainfall and Scorch had died.
Darkseer hadn't gone to go rescue Swordfish, and now he regretted it. He had no idea where the rest of his winglet had gone. He had avoided it because he foresaw a future where if he went, the Darkists find out all his powers, even the animus, and then use him. Obviously, if he would want to get out alive, he would have to kill dragons. Maybe even Savanna, or his own sister. Darkseer didn't like the thought of killing someone, even if it was someone like Farseer.
Back on the volcano, Darkseer had shaped his world to not be like his sister. Why would he want to be like her?
Darkseer had gotten his mind reading and prophecy from his mother taking his egg up into the sky where the moonlight could reach it through the smog of the volcano. Of course, Darkseer didn't know that until it became common knowledge again with the birth of Moonwatcher. Darkseer had never told anyone about his power, until Blizzard exposed it to everyone in the library that night during the lockdown.
Darkseer had grown up hearing all the thoughts of the Nightwings. Constant dark thoughts and anger. He found out about the Rainforest plan long before he should have, and even about the queen from listening in to the Princess' thoughts. Darkseer learned to be a quiet dragonet. He didn't have to ask questions when he could just get the information he needed from the minds of the other Nightwings. Even Morrowseer could be read, and so could the queen herself if Darkseer was close enough to where her cauldron was.
As the other Nightwing dragonets were taught how to lie, how to fake a prophecy, and about how the Nightwings controlled Pyrrhia, Darkseer was trying to learn about the Nightwing powers, and their history. Most books on them had been removed from the Nightwing library, probably on purpose. He could only pick up bits and pieces of knowledge from the old scrolls.
Soon enough, Darkseer started to see the visions of the future, and it was at that point he knew Queen Battlewinner's regime was evil. He saw the Rainforest burning, the Rainwings being slaughtered, the Rainwings being enslaved. He started to see the war that his tribe had created. The bodies being piled up, the crushing sadness Mudwings felt when their sibs died, the Seawings being outnumbered by the other two queens every time, always suffering heavy losses, the Skywing arena and the prisoners of war dying for entertainment.
Once Darkseer started to see that he was an animus in his visions, he realized just how much of a threat he could be, and swore to himself that he would never use them. He saw visions where he made more tunnels like Stonemover had made. He saw visions where he went crazy. There was one vision in particular where he was choking a large Sandwing to death, the skull tattoo on his neck twisting with the tension.
But as Darkseer had these realizations, his older sister by two years, Farseer, was making a name for herself in the tribe. She was proving herself to be a loyal Nightwing, and sought the recognition of Morrowseer. She became a guard inside the fortress, and a heartless one at that.
Darkseer remembered seeing her push dragons under the lava per order of the queen. Their screams would echo throughout Darkseer's head for the rest of the week, and Farseer would appear to feel nothing. She became one of Morrowseer's favorite dragonets. Of course, he never would say that, but Darkseer read his mind once as Farseer proved her loyalty once more, this time by running her talons down the tail of another dragonet, Mindreader, who being a little nosy for Morrowseer's liking.
Eventually, after a fight with their mother, who was worried that Farseer was trying too hard to look good in Morrowseer's eyes. Farseer started calling herself "Scaleslasher," and not responding to "Farseer."
Darkseer was not too happy about the path Farseer had taken either. The older they got, the less and less she talked to him. She began calling him "useless" and "slacker." Just like their father always did. He had an angry mind, and he spoke it. He truly believed that it was the Nightwing duty to rule the world, and all others were below the tribe. He once got in trouble for sneaking into Mastermind's Rainwing prisons after drinking and punching a chained-up Rainwing named Orchid until she bled.
Everything changed when the volcano erupted. Darkseer had seen it coming, but he didn't want to reveal his powers. He considered telling the newcomers, Starflight and Fatespeaker, but after hearing about how the Skywing, Flame, had pushed the Sandwing, Viper, into the lava and didn't care, he didn't know if he could trust Fatespeaker, and by extension, Starflight.
But when the volcano erupted, and the queen and Morrowseer died, and Glory took control of the Nightwing tribe, everything Farseer, her father, and all the Nightwings like them had built up, toppled. The Nightwings were exposed as a fake, the Rainwings ruled over them, and their fortress and hidden location were destroyed. The pride was destroyed and was replaced by bitterness and anger, and hatred. Which only grew when Queen Glacier attacked with the Icewings during the Hunt for Prince Winter.
Darkseer wasn't sure exactly when his sister joined the Darkist cult, but he suspected it was when her mind got hard to read. It became like Queen Glory's. Like a prickly ball was keeping the mind readers out. Savanna had the same thing, and so did Rattlesnake and Blizzard.
Darkseer had always wanted to meet Moonwatcher and talk with the only other alive mind reader and prophet, except for Darkstalker, if he was really alive and buried somewhere by Clearsight. But Moonwatcher had died, along with Winter, which made Darkseer loop back around to worrying about his own winglet, and if they were alright.
As Darkseer was walking to the next class with Sunny, he saw a vision. A brief scene of himself sitting with Turtle and Falcon. Turtle… he went through this when his winglet left to chase Scarlett… and he's an animus.
The only other animus Darkseer had ever met was Stonemover. The one time that Darkseer had snuck out at night since Rainfall died, and he went back to the old Nightwing, slowly becoming stone in the caverns. It was something that Darkseer felt he had to do.
He remembered approaching Sunny's father in the caverns again. "Back again?" Asked Stonemover, not even needing to look at him. "How did you know?" Darkseer asked quietly. "I knew you would come back eventually. There was something different about you, and I could see it." Stonemover croaked as Darkseer made his way around to the old animus' face. "What did you see?" Darkseer asked him. Stonemover looked up at Darkseer. "Myself."
"You're hiding something." Stonemover said. "I can see the same worry that once plagued me in your eyes. A Nightwing dragonet once came to me, asking about the old Nightwing powers. I see her in you too." "Moon." Darkseer blurted out, and Stonemover nodded his head slightly. "A combination of myself and Moonwatcher would be something… dangerous. Something the world has not seen for two thousand years."
Darkseer tried to see into the futures, and from what he could see, his secret was safe with this dragon. "I've never used my powers." Darkseer said quietly. "I only know I'm an animus because of my visions. I have no lust for power. I have none of the ambitions Darkstalker had." "But will you?" Stonemover asked, a kind of terror showing in his old eyes. "Sunny has told me about everything with the demons and these other worlds. Will this world shape you to become what you are afraid of becoming?"
Darkseer was silent. There were some futures he had always seen where he goes crazy. Ones where he becomes like the power hungry monster that was Darkstalker. But there were also the futures where he took a different path. Where history did not repeat itself.
"Or have you already done something that makes you a bad dragon?" Stonemover asked. "I once made tunnels that connected different parts of Pyrrhia. I had no idea what I was doing was wrong until I met Sunny's mother, Thorn. I began to realize that what I had done… had not been morally right. The thoughts of violence and killing the weak began to run through me. I had dreams where I killed everyone. Even Thorn. I did this to myself, so I could not do those things, and to remove those violent thoughts." Darkseer looked at how the old dragon was slowly becoming stone.
"If you're looking on how to save yourself from this curse that plagues us animuses… there's somebody a lot better to talk to than me. Somebody who knows how to control themselves and stop themselves. The descendent of Fathom." "Turtle?" Darkseer asked, and Stonemover nodded slightly again.
After a bit of silence, Darkseer turned to look at Stonemover. "Thank you." He said, and then turned to leave. "Darkseer." Stonemover said before Darkseer left. Darkseer turned back around. "Yeah?" Stonemover did one of his signature sighs. "If you are an animus that can only mean you and I are related. Descendants of Prince Arctic. Which also means that the same blood that ran through Darkstalker's veins runs through ours." Darkseer looked down at his talons. "Don't become our ancestor."
So now, Darkseer knew it was time for him to talk to the Jade Winglet's Seawing. He had been putting it off, not wanting to potentially share with yet another dragon his secret, but if the visions showed him doing it, better do it sooner than later.
When lunchtime rolled around, Darkseer quietly told Delta he was going to talk with someone. Delta's face fell slightly, but she didn't try to follow him or anything. She just kept staring out of the cave.
Darkseer quietly followed Turtle out of the prey center, sticking to the walls to keep himself unseen. Turtle walked with a limp because of his missing talon. Turtle had survived the explosions that nearly destroyed all of Possibility, along with his girlfriend Kinkajou.
Darkseer followed the scarred Seawing until he arrived at the same classroom where Blizzard had told them all about the Tragedy of Prince Winter. Turtle entered the classroom and Darkseer waited for a bit before entering the room. He heard the minds of Turtle and Falcon inside the room. Darkseer entered the room and the Seawing and Skywing looked up at him.
"Darkseer… right?" Falcon asked immediately. Darkseer nodded. "Hey Darkseer. Why are you here?" Turtle asked.
"I followed you." Darkseer said. "I wanted to ask you how you keep yourself from using your animus power." "Why do you want to know that?" Turtle asked after a pause. Darkseer shrugged. "Just curious. Apparently I'm a distant relative of Stonemover and I wanted to know how our ancestor became the way he was."
Turtle sighed. "At first, I made some special objects that were just used to make my life easier. That was a big mistake. Your soul isn't worth that kind of thing. Kinkajou argues that your soul only starts to become bad if you do bad things with your magic, but Falcon here has been telling me a story his mother once told him when he was young."
Darkseer turned to the skinny Skywing teacher with an unknown past. "The story of the first animus dragon to walk the earth." Falcon said. "She told me he woke up with the power one day. His tribe is unknown. He did great things for the dragons of his time, so much so that his family is rumored to be one of the original royal families. But, unbeknownst to him, if the power was spread to another tribe, they would suffer a curse. A curse that would eat away at the user's soul. Eventually, the animus power died out of his family, and the only animus dragons that remained were the ones who suffered the curse."
Falcon noticed how intently Darkseer was listening in. "It's just a story. I don't even know if it's true. I was just warning Turtle that Kinkajou might be wrong." He said. Darkseer kept studying the Skywing's face out of the corner of his eye.
"I guess what I try to do is tell myself I don't have these powers." Turtle said. "Better for everyone like that. The world needs less animus dragons. That power is doomed to fall into the wrong hands eventually. You can't guarantee that all of your descendants will be good hearted."
The world needs less animus dragons. That sentence almost rung in Darkseer's head. He almost felt a vision coming on, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it came.
"I mean, you have your own powers that can double as a curse." Falcon said to Darkseer. "Sunny and Tsunami tell us you have prophecy and mind-reading." Turtle turned to Darkseer, shocked. "You mean… there was another one… all this time?" Turtle's mind was racing. Darkseer picked up one thought. "She wasn't alone after all. If only she had met him."
"You mean Moon wasn't the only one…" Turtle said, and then sprang up from his seat. "I'll be back!" He said, and then ran off, leaving Darkseer alone with Falcon.
After a bit of silence, Falcon chuckled lightly. "What is it?" Darkseer asked. "Nothing." Falcon said. "It's just back where I used to live, there was nobody special like this. And now I'm sitting in a room with an animus and a mind reader." Falcon's mind flashed to a scene of a city street with all kinds of dragons, some of them not of tribes Darkseer knew of. It came with a name. Wilmingfield. But the thought disappeared as soon as it came.
"Is it true that the Skywings used to kill all of their animus dragons?" Darkseer asked. "I think so." Falcon said. "I don't know what Ruby's stance on it is. There hasn't been a Skywing animus in so long."
Their conversation was interrupted by Turtle coming back in with Kinkajou and Peril. "Is it true?" Kinkajou asked, her scales turning all different colors. It had never really occurred to Darkseer how dull Rainfall had always been compared to other Rainwings. Rainfall had also been near impossible to read, but Darkseer had picked up resentment towards the laziness of the other Rainwings in the school, and towards sun time.
"Is it true? There's another prophet and mind reader?" Kinkajou asked. Turtle nodded and Darkseer stood up. "You were Moonwatcher's clawmate, right?" Kinkajou nodded sadly, and Darkseer saw her mind flicker to a scene where she walked into the room she shared with Moon and a Skywing named Carnelian. Her mind worried why she was put with a Nightwing.
Peril stood far away from everyone else, trying not to burn anything. "I'm going to go right to it." She said. "Can you figure out what happened to Qibli?"
Darkseer paused. He had tried to figure that out before, but he couldn't get anything. Once again, like something was blocking his power. But he saw the hopeful looks on Turtle, Kinkajou, and Peril's faces, and couldn't just say no.
Darkseer sat down and closed his eyes. He thought about the dragonets around him and tried to see visions.
What came next nearly knocked Darkseer over. He had a rush of visions. Peril screaming at the top of her lungs, trees and brush in flames around her. Kinkajou crying, staring at some dust on the ground. Turtle, staring up at the sky, a look of horror in his eyes. And then, the same dream of Darkseer choking the tattooed Sandwing to death flickered through the visons of pain and horror.
"I'm sorry… I can't see him." Darkseer said through gritted teeth. "Wait… you can just search for a future? It's that strong?" Falcon asked, and Darkseer opened his eyes and nodded, and then saw the crestfallen faces of the rest of the Jade Winglet. "I'm sorry. There's nothing more I can do." He said.
"That's incredible…" Falcon said, and Darkseer looked at the Skywing teacher one more time, and suddenly had a realization. "I'm sorry again." Darkseer said. "But I have to go to my next class." Kinkajou had become a mix of light blue and violet. A mixture of sadness and curiosity. "I get it." She said glumly.
Darkseer turned to go away. "Oh, and thanks for telling me about animus powers." Darkseer said to Turtle, who nodded sadly.
Darkseer turned and ran as fast as he could, but he didn't care about the gongs Fatespeaker was ringing to let everyone know they had to get to class. He ran right to his room, and quickly took out his scroll of visions and his quill. He dipped it in the ink quickly and shakily, and then, under the vision of the dead Skywing with the strange wound, he wrote a name.
Falcon.