Chapter 2

Now let's see what Morrowseer thinks of the Dragonets of Destiny, shall we?

Windracer stood frozen at the sight of the mighty NightWing. The mere sight of him was enough to give any dragon nightmares. The younger NightWing tucked in his wings as far as they would go, hoping that Morrowseer wouldn't notice.

...the Talons of Peace...

Windracer looked around for the source of the voice. But no one's mouth was moving.

...are these really the dragonets?

The young NightWing tried to hide the inevitable look of confusion and fear as best he could. He had no idea where the voice was coming from, but he had a feeling it had something to do with Morrowseer.

The MudWing and SeaWing look fine. What is going on with that NightWing? Isn't he...wait a minute.

The voice in Windracer's head ceased as the larger NightWing leaned his head down to get a better look at the RainWing twins. After glaring for a moment, Morrowseer spoke out loud. "What. Are. Those?"

There was enough venom in his voice to kill about fifty dragons in midflight.

Mango and Marmoset quickly shifted their scale colors to a reddish orange, hoping to make themselves look more like SkyWings. But Morrowseer wasn't fooled in the slightest. He turned to the guardians.

"There was an accident," Kestrel said. "We lost the SkyWing egg, so we had to get another one somewhere..."

"From the RainWings?" Morrowseer asked angrily.

"It was his idea," Kestrel snarled, pointing at Webs with her tail. "He brought their egg here!"

The SeaWing tried not to look guilty. "We needed five dragonets," he tried to explain.

Morrowseer then shifted his gaze to Windracer. The younger NightWing suddenly wished he was a RainWing himself, so he could hide from the older dragon's stony glare. Then he remembered that Arid was standing next to him, so Morrowseer was looking at them both.

"Are they supposed to be the NightWing and SandWing?" the older NightWing asked. "What's wrong with her? No SandWing I've ever seen has had spikes."

Without thinking, Windracer stepped forward. "There's nothing wrong with Arid!"

Now Morrowseer was looking at him fully. He growled to the guardians, "And where did you get this dragon?"

Dune stepped forward cautiously. "We thought you brought him here."

"I did not!" Morrowseer roared. "The NightWing I sent with the egg that was meant to hatch on the brightest night was found dead in the crossfire of a battle, and the egg was smashed. No one bothered to tell me until I was about to leave for the mountain. Now, where did you get him?!"

The scarred SandWing looked surprisingly relaxed. "I'm the one who found him. He was left outside the cave with a note I assumed was from his mother, asking us to take care of him. He'd already hatched, so I..."

Morrowseer turned around swiftly, a death glare burning in his eyes. "He hatched?! Before you brought him inside, his egg hatched?!"

"There's nothing wrong with that!" Lagoon shouted. "Windracer is a great dragon!"

Bog quickly chimed in. "Marmoset and Mango are great, too!"

Morrowseer glared at them. "Stop talking!"

The dragonets immediately went silent.

Morrowseer shut his eyes. "Something has gone very wrong here," he said.

"I'll say it has!"

It was Arid who had shouted her agreement to what the NightWing had said.

Kestrel glared at the younger SandWing. "Arid, hold your tongue!"

But Arid ignored her. "We've been hiding under this mountain our whole lives, destined to save Pyrrhia when we haven't even seen it! Those dragons have been treating us like we're nothing! Just wait until our parents hear about this!"

Of course, Arid never knew her parents, she had only been an egg after all. But she had a feeling that whoever they were, they were of high authority.

Naturally, Kestrel was very unhappy about the SandWing's antics. "Ungrateful lizard!"

Then, without warning, Morrowseer lunged at Arid.

Windracer started forward to defend the dragon he was so in love with, only to stop cold as something strange happened. He saw himself fighting Morrowseer, but it was different than what he had been about to do in that exact moment. For one, they were on a platform that was surrounded by blistering hot flames. And he was mad at the older NightWing for something he hoped didn't involve any bad happenings to his friends.

A roar brought the young NightWing back to reality. Lagoon was now in the fight, standing beside Arid. Both of them were snarling. Bog lay on the ground a few feet away, his attempt to attack resulting in Morrowseer shaking him off with ease.

Windracer crouched down low and snuck around back as he remembered his battle training. Specifically, what Arid had done during his lesson earlier. He jumped onto Morrowseer's long tail and bit down as hard as he could, right on the vulnerable spot near the end.

The large NightWing stiffened with pain, a sign that the younger dragon's technique had worked. Windracer suddenly found himself lifted off the ground, still clinging to Morrowseer's tail like a lifeline, and staring right into the older dragon's eyes.

"Ha," Morrowseer rumbled. "Now, that's a surprise." He pried Windracer off with his front talons, as though he was just a tiny insect. The younger NightWing avoided the prophet's eyes as he was set back down onto the cave floor.

"These two will do," Morrowseer said, pointing at Lagoon and Arid. None of the larger dragons had moved at all as he attacked the dragonets.

Neither did the RainWing twins.

"This one," Morrowseer studied Bog. The MudWing looked like he'd had a few too many extra helpings of cow meat. "We'll have to see about him."

"We followed the prophecy," Dune insisted. "Bog's egg was the color of blood, and I found Arid's alone, buried out in the desert."

Morrowseer paid him no mind. His attention was on Windracer. "I assume you used your NightWing powers to figure out I wasn't going to harm the SandWing. No doubt you already know that I'm going to take you into the next cavern for a private conversation."

Windracer felt chills down his spine. A "private conversation" with Morrowseer sounded about as much fun as getting his oversized wings roasted by Kestrel. He cast an apologetic glance back at his friends as the older NightWing led him to the study room. Morrowseer paused in the archway and looked back at the dragon guardians.

"We'll talk about them later."

Windracer cast a glance at Marmoset and Mango, who were still colored in their SkyWing disguises. He wanted to give them some words of reassurance, but a forceful nudge from Morrowseer's tail got him back to the task of heading into the study room to hear whatever the NightWing prophet had to say.

Even from in the study room, Windracer could still hear Kestrel yelling at his friends, specifically Arid for complaining about their living arrangements. Morrowseer was trying to keep the younger NightWing focused on what he was saying, but Windracer was more focused on what he was hearing in his head.

I knew I couldn't rely on those Talons of Peace! A RainWing can't replace a SkyWing, and they've got two of those things! When I come back later, things had better have been dealt with! They may have found that SandWing's egg in the desert like the prophecy says, but there's something off about that one. And this NightWing is unlike any I've ever seen. What's wrong with his wings? He can't have possibly come from our tribe, no other NightWing has left the island since I sent the one with that egg for the prophecy. If the Talons of Peace can't tell me where he's from, I'll find out myself!

Windracer was paying so much attention to the voice in his head that he missed what Morrowseer was saying. He found the older NightWing looking at him expectantly, and, after a moment, nodded awakwardly.

To his surprise, Morrowseer smiled. "Good, I'm glad you understand. Now go join the other dragonets, I'm sure they'll be eager to meet their official leader."

Leader? Morrowseer wanted him to be the leader of the Dragonets of Destiny?

This was officially the weirdest day of Windracer's entire life.

After getting over the shock, the young NightWing quickly exited the study hall and rushed into his room, where he started poking through the scrolls he always kept on a shelf that had been carved in the rocky wall of the cave.

"It's over here."

Windracer turned to find Arid holding a large scroll in her talons. He reached out and grabbed it, his talons brushing against Arid's. Instead of flinching in surprise like he usually did, he carried on with his task of rolling the scroll open and reading it.

Arid gave him a look of pity. "So, it was that bad?" A NightWing Guide to the Dragons of Pyrrhia was Windracer's favorite scroll. He always read it whenever he was upset or stressed out with classes from the older dragons.

Windracer sighed. "I have a lot to learn."

"You already know everything," Arid said in a sort of teasing manner. "You've got to be the smartest dragon in all of Pyrrhia."

A long, sad breath whooshed out of Windracer's snout. "I meant about myself. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not like other NightWings. Well, not like the ones I've read about in these scrolls. I've always wondered why that was. Don't you ever wonder why you have spikes and that odd, blue color?"

Arid looked at her wings and tail before sighing. "Yes, I do. I've read some of these scrolls, and none of them say anything about SandWings with spikes. Kestrel is right, I am a mutant. But I don't let that stand in my way. And neither should you."

"Why bother?" Windracer asked, his voice heavy with depression. "This is obviously a test. I failed the day I hatched with these stupid, oversized wings."

Arid chuckled. "Well, at least you're not a RainWing."

She meant to try and cheer him up, but it clearly wasn't working. Windracer was so upset, he actually tore a corner of the scroll between his claws. Arid had never seen him upset enough to damage a scroll without noticing.

"Arid, there's...something you need to know about me. Just promise you won't tell anyone else."

The SandWing looked annoyed, but intrigued. "What is it?"

Windracer wasn't sure how to tell her. "I..." He hesitated, but sucked in a breath and forced his sentence out. "I could read Morrowseer's mind."

"So?" Arid didn't look very surprised.

"I never did it before," Windracer said. "Read anyone's mind, I mean. I always had powers, but I was afraid of the kind of dragon I'd become if I started using them the way Kestrel expected me to. Sure, she isn't a NightWing, but it was still terrifying for me to think about how she wanted me to use them. I didn't want to use my powers because I didn't want to hurt anyone, especially not you. So, I pushed them away, deep inside so I could never use them. But I couldn't keep them away forever. I've had a lot of headaches and weird dreams, and I didn't realize until now that it was because I couldn't force my powers to hide any longer. I can read minds, I can see the future, everything a NightWing can do. I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you."

Arid didn't answer.

Windracer continued. "There's something else I've been hiding. I've read about it in scrolls, but I didn't think I would be one of them. An animus. I found out by accident, I made a rock jump into my talons, a rock. That bowl I used to hold my snacks, I enchanted it to double the amount it contains. Then I made myself a beaded bracelet and enchanted it to protect anyone who wore it from harm, so I could get out of Kestrel's classes unscathed. I had to fake it though, so she wouldn't get suspicious. And those days someone needed to ask a question, but couldn't find me? I was in my room. I enchanted a stick to make whoever holds it invisible so I could read my scrolls in peace while everyone was looking for me. I know I should have told you about all of this sooner, but I'm telling you now. Because you're the one dragon I trust more than anything."

He expected her to be mad, or at least disappointed with him. He risked a glance to find her giving him a friendly smile.

"I appreciate you sharing all that with me, Windracer."

The NightWing smiled. "You won't tell any of the others, will you?"

"Well, odd dragons like us ought to stick together," Arid said. It was almost exactly what Kestrel had said to them earlier, but it sounded a lot nicer than how the grumpy SkyWing had remarked. "Can you tell me a little about your visions?"

Windracer returned his attention to his scroll before answering. "They first appeared as dreams. In most of them, I'm someplace I don't recognize, and my wings are on fire, but it doesn't seem to hurt. Then there's this one where I'm meeting a dragon I've never seen before, like an entirely new species. My most recent one was earlier, when Morrowseer lunged at you. I saw myself fighting him, but I was older, and I was mad at him about something, I don't know what." He'd also had a vision about having dragonets with Arid, but he wasn't going to tell her about that just yet.

Arid hummed in acknowledgement and interest. "Any prophecies?"

"None so far," Windracer replied. "But I don't think another NightWing prophecy is what we need right now."

The SandWing turned to leave. "Well, I think I'll go check and see how the others are doing. Hopefully I won't walk into another one of the twins' pranks this time."

Windracer chuckled in amusement. He watched Arid leave his room before returning to his scroll. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed with a powerful headache. He clutched his head in his talons and grit his teeth as he tried to ignore the pain.

"Wings of mud and sea and rain,"

The words just popped into his head without a voice, and for some reason he was speaking them out loud.

"Wings of sand, ice, night, and sky."

He didn't know what was bringing this on, but the words were accompanied with visions. The kingdoms falling, dragons dying, the whole continent perishing in flames and destruction. As the visions died down, one last piece of what Windracer knew was a fragment of a prophecy rolled off his tongue.

"All seven form the wings of fire,
And the time for peace shall be nigh."

Finally, his headache subsided and the visions stopped. Now that he was no longer cringing in pain, he could hear something going on outside his room. He quickly raced out to the large cavern, only to skid to a halt, horrified.

Kestrel was blasting fire at an iron chain that was wrapped around a stalagmite, the metal melting into a bubbling mess and welding together. Behind her, Morrowseer was holding Bog and Lagoon back with his tail and wings as the two dragonets tried to climb over him. But the most terrifying sight to Windracer was the dragon that that had the iron chain wrapped around her neck and one of her legs so she couldn't move.

Arid.

Well, that happened. I'm not exactly an expert on how NightWings with the power to read minds are able to do it, and since it was Windracer's first time actually using it I thought it would be simplest for him to read what the other dragons were thinking to themselves.

As for that fragment of a prophecy, I couldn't reveal the whole thing without spoiling the plans I have for this story. Best to stay tuned for what's to come, and maybe leave a review.

Auburn - Valka
Windracer - Hiccup
Arid - Astrid
Lagoon - Heather
Bog - Fishlegs
Marmoset and Mango - Tuffnut and Ruffnut