Peril was positively exhausted. Before now she had always assumed a Skywing would never tire of flying, and yet after spending the last few days turning the entire Kingdom of Sky upside down, her wings felt as though they were seconds from melting off. The smoke emanating from her scales seemed to billow in larger, blacker clouds the longer she pushed herself to continue the search. Now, as she watched the sun setting, signalling three days coming up empty, she knew it was fruitless.
It had begun innocently enough, Turtle had woken her in the early hours of the morning, saying Moon had vanished with the scroll, and he and Qibli hadn't found any sign of her nearby. She hadn't been too worried, the Nightwing wouldn't be able to outpace an older Skywing like herself. Yet as the day stretched into evening without even a hint of the young dragonet, Peril felt the weight of what Moonwatcher could be doing hardening in her stomach like cooling iron.
She'd said an animus had placed his magic inside of the scroll to keep from losing his soul, does that mean all of his magic is in there? Could she use it to cast any enchantment she wants, not just transformation spells?
Peril had stopped to rest her wings on a cliff not far from Jade Mountain, reasoning that Moon must be near there. The air had been cold and damp, telling of rains just fallen and storms to come. As she'd moved higher up the mountain she'd found a patch of flattened grass, and a shed black scale sitting lazily in the centre. She'd set a close rotting tree ablaze and waited for the other two to find her. When they did, looking much worse for wear than her, they had decided together to spread out their search and continue looking. Turtle had flown to Jade Mountain Academy to inform them of their missing student, and her imperceptibly dangerous cargo, while Qibli and Peril had continued searching.
Peril knew better than anyone they were unlikely to find Moon just the three of them, after spending so many months searching in vain for Queen Scarlet. Even with the possible help of the Dragonets of Destiny, and if they were lucky, the Talons of Peace. The Sky Kingdom was a vast, mountainous realm, riddled with spiralling caves and ravines to hide away in if the Nightwing was even in the Sky Kingdom at all. Thus, eventually they just had to call a spade a spade and ask for further help.
So Peril now found herself winging her way towards the Sky palace, preparing how to inform her Queen she had failed to retrieve the scroll. Despite the time, Peril knew Ruby would still be awake. The Skywing Queen had been intensely interested in recovering the scroll after experiencing its power firsthand. She had sent out search party after search party, and Peril had frequently run into them over the last few days, though whenever she asked they always reported to have seen nothing of the scroll yet. Peril had conveniently forgotten to tell them that the scroll was being carried by someone new, hoping they'd be able to find Moon first and avoid getting her in too much trouble, alas that didn't happen. Peril doubted the Queen wanted to use the scroll's magic for herself however, she would likely hide it away or destroy it if she ever got her claws on it again.
Peril swooped down into the Palace's long marble halls and didn't have to search far to find the Queen. Ruby was pacing back and forth through her gardens, rather unusually without any attendants at her side. She must be a lot more comfortable being alone now that her mother is dead. The warm gold light of the sunset tainted the Queen's scales a burning amber, and behind her was cast a lengthened shadow that was four times her particularly small size, making her appear more than even ever like Tourmaline, rather than Ruby.
Peril swooped down into the Gardens behind the Queen, careful to land in the centre of the cobbled path and fold her wings in tight to keep from burning the whole place to ash. Ruby turned to face her, drawing herself up in a practised, regal manner. There was a fluthered flush to the scales around her eyes, but with everything that had happened to her recently, Peril couldn't hold it against her.
"Peril, it's good to see you return safely. Were you able to track down Soar after his escape?"
"Yes. My friends and I cornered him by the Great Fivetail River. We um, were able to get the scroll away from him". She stared at the ground, pushing the memory of the agonised shrieks and scorched scent of her father's scales out of her mind. When she looked up again she found the Queen was peering at her in an expectant manner, "Do you have it with you then?"
Peril swallowed hard, this wasn't going to be fun. "No, one of our group, a Nightwing dragoness, ran off with it in the middle of the night. We've been searching for her for days, but it's like she's dropped off the face of the planet…" Peril almost winced as she watched the glimmer of hope in Ruby's eyes flicker out, the Queen's usually guarded expression replaced with pure abject horror. "The most powerful magical object this continent has ever seen, in the talons of a dragonet," she said entirely to herself, but Peril nodded anyway.
Queen Ruby's expression hardened, her defences now obviously back up. "Very well, thank you for telling me Peril. I'll up the amount of patrols and inform the other queens of the situation." Ruby flicked her tail, motioning for Peril to stand beside her. "Fly with me to the throne room, I need as many details about this Nightwing as you can give so my guards know what to look for." Despite the circumstances, Peril could feel pride swelling in her chest at those words, like this time she had earned her spot at the Queen's side. She almost smiled despite herself, swooping up to join the Queen's side as they took to the sky.
Jade Mountain was a mess, but Sunny was doing her best to handle it.
Sure, they may be missing an entire winglet, and there had already been several murder attempts, some more successful than others, but this was Pyrrhia's first inter-tribal school, of course there was going to be a few kinks along the way. It's not like things could get any worse from here.
Then things got worse.
Sunny had been up early in the morning, investigating a section of mountainous caves that the other dragonets had been considering walling off for safety reasons, when out of the sky dropped the frantic blobby green shape of one of her students. One of her missing students in fact. It was Prince Turtle, who had flown off without explanation a few days prior, he'd looked so frightened when he'd landed though that Sunny completely forgot to be mad at him.
"Sunny," he'd panted, stopping to catch his breath. "Turtle! Is everything all right?" She hopped over to him, folding a warm golden wing over his webbed back. "Bad, news," his breathing was becoming less frantic, but she could still feel his heartbeat hammering through his scales, "Kind of, a long, story." Sunny could tell it would take a decade for him to get to the point like this, so she said, "Here, let's get you inside to one of the underground lakes, you'll cool off a lot faster."
After a lot of flapping, and over-balancing, and complaints about sore muscles, Sunny managed to help Turtle hobble into a lake cavern. She guided him gently to the water, and only then realised there were other dragons in the cave, two Nightwing students. The pair's conversation trailed off, and they watched silently as Turtle disappeared under the water, splashing back up with a much more pleased expression. "Thanks, that's a lot better." Before she could respond however, one of the Nightwings, Mindreader, piped up, "Hey, you're one of the dragonets from the missing winglet, right?" "Yeah," the other one, Mightyclaws, chimed in, "what happened to the others." Turtle frowned, "Right yeah, that's kind of why I'm here." Sunny arched and eye-ridge, gesturing with a talon for him to elaborate.
"So, Peril, Qibli, Moon, and I were in Possibility, waiting for Winter to come back when-" "Wait, wait," Sunny interrupted, holding up a talon, "From the beginning, why were you in Possibility to begin with, and where did Winter go?" Turtle nodded, dipping back under the surface briefly before continuing.
"Well, it's kind of a long story, but basically Scarlet had Winter's brother held prisoner, and the others went to get him back. What happened then isn't really important, but what does matter is they rescued Hailstorm, his brother, and both him and Winter flew back to the Ice Kingdom, so we were waiting for him at Possibility." Sunny had already known about the Scarlet situation, but it was certainly a surprise hearing Turtle talon wave it away, it made her worry how important the actual news he'd come to give them was. She also knew that they had been staying in Possibility because Kinkajou was getting medical treatment there, but since Turtle had left that part out she assumed he'd temporarily forgotten about his friend's injury, and giving the attachment she'd seen between them in just their time at school she decided not to remind him.
"So Winter didn't come back, and Scarlet managed to put a spell on Peril, I think, I wasn't particularly clear on that part."
"A Spell?" Sunny questioned, thinking back to a few days ago, "Like the one she put on that Mudwing's head?"
"Yeah exactly like that, same scroll and everything. Anyway, so Ruby defeated Scarlet in a challenge dual, and the first thing she did was lock up the dragon with the scroll, who was using it to cast enchantments for Scarlet, but he escaped." From the way Turtle's eyes kept darting to the side, Sunny knew there was something he was leaving out there, but she couldn't figure out what and didn't want to interrupt him again, so she didn't mention it.
"My friends and I caught him though and we managed to get the scroll back…" the Seawing trailed off, fidgeting with the webbing between his talons.
"So," Sunny continued expectantly, "I'm assuming you gave it back to Queen Ruby?" Turtle frowned, disappearing under the water again, before slowly reappearing, somehow more worried looking than when he'd went down, "We were supposed to, but Moon said she wanted to give it back to the animus who enchanted it in the first place. She'd said that he'd placed all of his magic into it, so it was only fair he got it back, Qibli had argued that we should wait until the morning to decide what to do with it, but Moon took it and ran off in the middle of the night, and we haven't seen any sign of her since."
Sunny just stared at him, not saying anything for a long moment. Turtle began to awkwardly sway in the water, before ducking under and huddling at the bottom for a while, which gave Sunny the opportunity to collect her thoughts.
Why in Pyrrhia would an animus place all of his magic in a scroll? Surely that's just asking for it to be stolen or destroyed, so maybe there's just a reason for doing that I can't think of. Does that mean it could be used to cast any enchantment? Possibly, but then why didn't Scarlet kill us with it? Maybe whoever was using it for her was lying about what it could do, or maybe neither of them worked out its full potential. Or I might just be being paranoid, that's always an option. More importantly, should I be worried about what Moon is doing with it? She didn't seem like the dangerous type to me, exactly the opposite actually. She did hide her powers from everyone for months though, maybe there's other things she's hiding.
Sunny was faintly aware of unintelligible whispering beside her and suddenly remembered the Nightwing students, kicking herself for not asking them to leave earlier. Just as she was about to Turtle re-emerged, and one of the questions she'd had came bubbling out before she could stop it. "Did Moon mention the animus' name?"
Turtle scratched the back of his neck, before his face lit up in recognition, "Uh, I think she said he was called Darkstalker or something like that."
"DARKSTALKER!" The three other dragons cried in near unison. Turtle yelped in surprise, jumping back and causing water to slosh at Sunny's talons from the movement. "Y-yes? Why, do you guys know him?"
"Sort of," Sunny replied, glancing to the side as she tried to remember everything she'd heard about the ancient Nightwing legend, "Not much."
"I do!" Mindreader cried. The dragonet was speaking substantially faster than usual, and that combined with her poor Pyrrhian made it almost impossible to tell what she was saying.
"He was our first animus, he went insane from his power, and killed like, hundreds of dragons, with his mind! He even murdered his own father! Someone managed to stop him, but we all know he's still out there, and he'll kill us all if he ever returns." She seemed frustrated by the other dragons' sceptical expressions and glanced to the Nightwing beside her as if for support. Mightyclaws wasn't listening though, he was staring down into space, his brow furrowed. She elbowed him in the side, hissing something to him in Nightwing. Mightyclaws just mumbled something back, before turning to her, and as far as Sunny could tell explaining whatever had been troubling him.
Turtle bobbed in the water, casting Sunny a concerned glance as the Nightwing's continued their conversation. Sunny curled her tail around her talons, wishing she'd been able to find time in the months prior for those Nightwing lessons her father had promised her.
Eventually Mindreader had growled something, pointing to Sunny, "If you think it's so important explain it to her then." Mightyclaws looked at Sunny sheepishly, dragging a claw across the ground in small, rhythmic circles.
"About a week ago, before the explosion in the history cave, Moon found me in the art cave and asked me a few questions about Darkstalker. She seemed kind of agitated by my answers, but I just assumed it was because I was speaking in Nightwing and she didn't really understand me. I was kind of weirded out by her reaction though, so after she left I followed her from pretty far away, just to see if she would do anything. After walking around the school for a bit she disappeared into an empty cave, where she paced around and growled to herself for a while. I tried to get closer to see what she was doing, but as soon as I got close she left, and I lost her in the caves." He turned his grey-blue eyes to Turtle, regarding the Seawing as if for the first time.
"I just kind of thought it was her being weird because she's really weird, but if she was telling the truth about wanting to help Darkstalker, do you think she might have been talking to him?" Turtle was nodding before Mightyclaws could even finish his question.
"Probably, she said she was able to sense him from school, and that she thought he was buried close by."
"Sense him?" Mindreader squeaked. The Nightwing had been growing more agitated as Mightyclaws' story had gone on, and now she was staring around the room wildly, as if expecting some ancient ghost to come bursting out of the walls. Sunny couldn't exactly blame her though, especially after Turtle's second comment about Darkstalker possibly being buried near the school.
"How would she be able to sense him?" Sunny winced, finally clocking what Mindreader had meant the first time. Sunny had promised Moon that she wouldn't tell anyone about her powers, and she could guess from Turtle's grimace that he had promised the same thing.
"All right, all right, that's quite enough speculation, I'm sure everything is fine."
Was that too dismissive? Should I have been more reassuring? Wouldn't that just make them panic more?
"Would you two mind returning to your sleeping caves? I promise you we'll get everything sorted out." Mindreader didn't need to be asked twice. She bolted out of the room at a surprisingly impressive speed for her small frame. Mightyclaws hesitated, glancing between Sunny and Turtle, something like suspicion sparking in his eyes. Hearing the other Nightwing's clawsteps becoming fainter however, he hurried after, disappearing somewhere deeper into the mountain.
Sunny waited for the echos of sets of claws against rock to completely dissipate before looking back to Turtle, his jade-green eyes mirrored with as much concern as her emerald.
"Fantastic, more rumours spreading around the school, that's exactly what we need right now," the Sandwing murmured dryly. Turtle's ears drooped, "Sorry, I didn't think, I mean-" "Oh, no no, sorry," Sunny cut him off before she could completely butcher this conversation, "I didn't mean it like that, it was my fault, I should have asked them to leave."
"So, do you think Darkstalker is actually alive, and Moon gave him his magic back?" There was a hint of scepticism to the Seawing's words that Sunny couldn't help but agree with. It did seem pretty unlikely that if Darkstalker ever actually did exist, he would still somehow be alive. And even if he was, he was a Nightwing, why would he be buried in the Sky Kingdom, and not in the volcano? Assuming all of that was true though, how long would it take for Moon to find him? The Sky Kingdom was a lot larger than many outside of it knew, and it was a bit of a tall order to expect a four-year-old to be able to find one dragon amongst all of the rock.
"I doubt it. If he's anything as bad as those two said we'd have definitely noticed something was up by now." She went with that answer instead, she didn't want to make it seemed like she didn't believe the Nightwing's story's, no matter how outlandish they sounded. Then again, it was hard for Sunny to believe that Moon would intentionally lie to her friends about something like this, which did not at all help her come to a conclusion as to what was actually going on.
"Just so I can get this straight, all you know currently is that Moon disappeared along with a scroll infused with animus magic and that she had said she wanted to give the magic back to its original owner, Darkstalker?" Turtle nodded, climbing out of the lake, and shaking his wings of excess water.
"All right, thank you for telling me, does anyone else know?" Turtle tapped his chin, before answering, "I think Peril should have told Queen Ruby by now, but other than that no." Sunny was surprised that Peril would have gone to her own Queen for help, and a flurry of hope bubbled in her chest that the two may have been able to reconcile their relationship. That was certainly a familiar feeling she welcomed when being as uncertain as she was now.
"Okay, well I'll speak to all of them, and I'll see if I can contact Moon with the dreamvisitor. For now, you should get back to your sleeping cave."
"But," Turtle wined, "I have to get back to looking for her. The others-" She placed a warm golden talon on his dripping shoulder, "I'll be telling the others to come back to school as well, I think you three have done more than enough searching already. The Seawing still didn't look convinced, so Sunny held onto his other shoulder, turning him so she could look him directly in the eyes, "Turtle, you're exhausted. Rest for a while, I promise you we'll find Moon and sort all of this out, all right?"
"I'm not-" he was cut short by a yawn that he tried to hide with a talon, his shoulders slumping at the amused gleam in her eyes. "Yeah, your right, I should probably get some sleep."
Sunny walked with Turtle back to his sleeping cave, all the while assuring him that everything was going to be fine and that she was sure Moon would be found shortly. After dropping him off she considered waiting behind to make sure he didn't try to sneak off, but she almost immediately heard snoring coming from inside, so she headed straight for her own quarters, all the while wondering how she was going to explain this and have the other dragonets take her seriously.
After checking each of the dragonets rooms and confirming they were elsewhere Sunny slipped into her own, pulling the large star-shaped sapphire out of the chest behind her bed. It seemed unlikely to her that anyone would be asleep right now, even taking timezones into account it was already well into day for the entirety of the continent. Still though, Moon was well aware of the dreamvisitors, so if she was trying to hide it was likely she'd have adjusted her sleep schedule to buy herself a bit more time before being contacted. It wasn't as if it would take much time to check anyway, and Sunny figured she was better safe than sorry.
The Sandwing curled up in her hammock, pressing the sapphire to her head as she tried to picture the Nightwing with as much clarity as she could muster. After a few seconds of nothing happening, Sunny sighed, figuring she'd try again later. When she opened her eyes however, instead of seeing her sleeping cave she found herself in a forest of gnarled, gangly trees that stretched so impossibly tall the night sky was all but completely snuffed out. She took a few unsure steps, her eyes immediately drawn to a narrow clearing, the only spot illuminated by the stars above. In the middle huddled Moon, wimping weakly but not moving from her spot dead centre. Sunny followed her gaze, already guessing what she would see. Just by the tree line stood another Nightwing, or at least the shape of a Nightwing. Its silver eyes shone in stark contrast against its pitch black face, yet the rest of it wasn't nearly as clearly defined, its form twisting and rolling like heavy smoke.
The figure's voice carried low and menacing, as it stalked towards the dragonet, hissing something Sunny didn't understand. Moon meekly mumbled in response, clutching what Sunny guessed to be a cover of some kind to her chest. The shape stopped just before the light, pacing around the edge of the glade with pure contempt written in its features.
"Traitor," it growled, taking slow, deliberate steps, "We had a deal." Moonwatcher shook her head, folding her wings even tighter around herself, "I never promised you anything, I only said I'd think about helping you-"
"LIAR." The figure boomed, making Sunny's heart lurch with surprise. Moon just continued to cower, forcing her eyes tightly shut, rocking softly back and forth.
"You dare try to deceive me with such blatant dishonesty." It completed its loop, glaring at the dragonet with wide, outraged eyes.
"Darkstalker, p-please," tears slid down Moon's cheeks, further distorting her already quaking voice, "I didn't-"
"SILENCE." It roared, slamming a great talon into the ground. Cracks shot out into the clearing, the earth falling away to reveal inky, frantic flames burrowing underneath. Moon yelped, scrambling back as the fracture spread outwards, uncovering more of the desperate, hungry blaze. In her haste she stumbled, her talons moving reflexively to catch her, dropping the case as they did so. It bounced along the ground, coming to a stop just at the edge of the precipice, Darkstalker's shining eyes watching with eager interest. Moon moved desperately to catch it, and Sunny was running before she had the sense to stop herself, already knowing the Nightwing would be too slow.
Moon reached out, just barely clasping the case in her talons before the fire consumed it, yet the dragonet's sudden relief was interrupted as the ground below began to give way. Sunny watched as the Nightwing spread her wings, slowly, far too slowly. She put in a burst of speed but she knew there was no chance she'd make it in time.
"Moonwatcher!" She cried out, and the Nightwing's attention immediately snapped to her, eyes wide. She blinked, too distracted by the Sandwing's presence to continue her attempt to fly away. Before Sunny had the time to say anything else the earth beneath Moon completely gave way and she plummeted, the flames swallowing her almost completely before Sunny was dumped rather unceremoniously back into her body.
Sunny just sat there, not moving for a long while as she tried to process whatever she'd just experienced. Whatever that was, it certainly gave credence to the Nightwing's stories, which didn't exactly assure Sunny they'd be able to sort all of this out quickly.
I guess that means Darkstalker is alive after all.
Maybe not,
The more rational part of her brain whispered,
She might just be imagining it all, maybe with all of the stress she's been under she had a bit of a, break? I mean, all you have to go off are her claims and one of her Nightmares, and it's not as if it all just being in her head is any more unbelievable than a thousand-year-old Nightwing ghost story back from the dead.
She could hear two sets of talons tapping against stone, followed by rowdy shouts and warm, deep laughter.
Clay and Tsunami, I'll explain all of this to them, Starflight too. We'll be able to figure this out together, just like always.
As she steps out into the passageways to greet them she felt a sense of foreboding settling over her scales, as though this time the future wasn't quite so certain, and maybe the "best" ending wouldn't be quite so easy to find.