Chapter Two

Moon felt the earth tremble under her. Just barely a tingle, but it made every scale want to turn inside out. A headache sprouted inside her skull, as fast as a tsunami crashing upon the shore. Visions assaulted her eyes, but she couldn't seem to make sense of them. Talons digging into her head, she tried to breathe through the liquid fire pouring over her brain. Her toes curled, her wings froze, her tail thrashed as she fought to keep herself from passing out.

Finally, when it seemed that the pain would be without end, it receded as the visions died. Taking deep breaths, Moon worked to push the last of the agony away. Disorientated, she opened her eyes. When had she fallen? One wing was crumpled underneath her, a knee was pressed into her ribs in a very uncomfortable way. Slowly, she stood on shaking legs.

What had caused that? Tentatively, as if fearing another onslaught of the pain, she tried to recall that wall of visions that had slammed down onto her mind. But no, they were gone, as distant from her recollection as yesteryear's dreams.

She looked up into the sky, at the blaze across the stars that had so enraptured her just moments ago. A comet with a tail of fire. Blood red against the diamond stars. A dash of colour in the blue and black world of the rainforest at night. Where had it come from? What did it mean?

There was a faint noise at the edge of her hearing. Her ear twitched, but all she caught was the nighttime buzz of insects. Odd. Had it been a weird echo?

Dread balled her stomach. Turning her head towards where she thought the sound had come from, she tried to listen again. Both with her ears and her mind.

Distantly, there came a distant murmur in her mind. Briefly at first, but growing. Moon felt herself be drawn to it. Between the trees she was pulled, their high trunks sentinels parting to allow her entry into their shadowy depths. The NightWing, hypnotised, abandoned her world of silvery, comforting moonlight and innocence, and instead passed over to a murky underbelly, from which there was no return.

Ferns brushed her flanks, animals skittered past her to return to the moonlight. She heard their chitters, as if they were crying out to her to escape with them. But she couldn't. Whatever this was that was drawing her mind, she had to follow it. The ground crunched with dead leaves and the tree shavings of many years, waiting to decompose.

The noise in her head was getting stronger. Unrest, confusion, a mass of anxiety and uncertainty that was building like a storm cloud. As she began to comprehend it, Moon felt her steps become more surer, her curiosity replaced with concern. Something was happening, her instincts told her, and she had to be there NOW.

And then, a wave of violence crashed into Moon so hard she was almost knocked off her feet. Terror, desperation, anger, outrage, vengeance. The emotions piled onto Moon one after the other, until she struggled to remember herself.

Kill them all!

The volcano! It's going to get us! Fire and smoke - it's right behind us!

Me or them, no room for sentiment here!

Attack!

That was Glory's voice, both in Moon's head and in her ears! Eyes snapping open, she sprinted the rest of the way towards her destination. She pushed aside the instinctive fear, born from her days as a hatchling when her mother would warn her to never ever go to this part of the forest! The voices in her mind were crowding around her, pushing her down, threatening to overwhelm her. The headache was back and almost blinding. She tried to imagine pushing the voices out of her head. Bring up a wall of her own to protect her from the noise. Why couldn't she push them out?!

There was a break in the trees. Moon skidded to a stop. The clearing was before her, the small waterfall and the two tunnels. The wrongness of them radiated out to Moon's mind even from this distance. They would have even had they not been stained with fresh dragon blood.

Black wings were pouring through the tunnel in the tree! Dozens of them. Moon might've mistaken them for a murder or crows, for they seemed to form together and fracture apart, until she didn't know whether there were a thousand of them or one giant monstrosity. In all of their minds came flashes of fire, of death, of their world being destroyed in a cataclysmic event, to spur them into faster action. In all of them was the order to attack, to take no prisoners, anything for their own survival.

A flash of red. Glory - and there, right beside her was Kinkajou! And then there were all of her friends. Moon's heart did a little flip to see them, rushing to meet the tide of darkness pouring into the rainforest. Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, even Turtle was here! She'd only known them two weeks. If there was a bond of friendship, it was tentative, as she didn't know what to tell them and what not to. Even so, Moon felt a stab of petrifying fear to see them racing towards obvious danger.

Turtle crouched behind Tsunami, eyes wide and head dipped down. He was terrified. The complete opposite of Kinkajou, who stood as tall as her little height would allow, red and striped with black, ferocious with her fangs bared. She, Glory and Tsunami were the first ones to launch themselves into the battle.

Other RainWings appeared in the trees. They abandoned their camouflage - or it simply fell away in their shock - to rush to their Queen's aid. Some of them tried to use their sleeping darts, and a few NightWings went down quickly. But three more were there to swarm the shooters. Within moments, it turned into a bloody brawl.

The RainWings should have had the advantage. They had the camouflage and the home territory that they had evolved to inhabit. But the ferocity and discipline of the NightWings matched them. Some RainWings managed to use their venom, but most still had the mindset to never use their venom on living beings. Moon could see in their minds, the old habit struggling to be shaken in their fear and confusion. The NightWings took advantage, and came in close to clobber at the smaller dragons' heads, or attack from behind.

Moon huddled in the underbrush, holding her head against the onslaught of thoughts and feelings. Her heart wrenched itself in two. How could this be happening?! Why was her tribe doing this? Should she help her friends? What about her duty? How many would die if she chose one side or the other? But her friends were getting hurt!

"Starflight!"

Moon's head snapped towards the sound. She knew that name, it was always in the minds of Sunny and the other Dragonets of Destiny. There! She saw him. Crumpled on the floor by the tunnel, unresponsive, though his mind was filled with agony and a new darkness. Blistering scars were branching out across his face. A female NightWing - around his age - was bent over him, trying to pull him out of the way of the fighting.

Another NightWing saw them too and immediately swooped down onto them. "Traitor's! Fight with your tribe!"

"H-He's hurt!" said the female - Fatespeaker, Moon saw her name in her mind.

And then, the NightWing took a proper look at them, and he bared his teeth. "I know you!" he snarled and lunged.

Moon was moving before she even knew it. With a leap and a thrust of her wings, she was dashing through the air straight at the older male. She turned at just the right moment, and smashed her side into his. The force was enough to shove him away, even if it did leave Moon with a tear-inducing bruise.

A shake of her head, and she scrambled to her feet. She'd acted on instinct, like whenever she hunted, just fast movements in response to her desire. Now, her rational side was back. Assaulted on all sides from all the minds of the battle around her, her terror and indecisiveness returned too.

The male was getting to his feet. Unsure of what to do, Moon thrust out her wings to hide Starflight and Fatespeaker behind her.

The male looked her up and down, not recognising her. They were almost nose to nose. By the shape of his snout and the build of his shoulders, Moon guessed he was around her age, but she was taller and he was sickly thin. The male thrashed his tail, trying to not look intimidated. "Who are you?! What're you doing?!"

His thoughts on all the ways he could kill her to get to his real prey made Moon tremble so hard her voice shook. "L-leave them alone!"

"Hey!"

The male turned, only to be met with a head turned upside down from a branch overhead. The moment he turned to her, she let loose her fangs and sprayed venom into his face. The NightWing howled with pain. Moon cried out with him as his excruciating agony became hers. Their skin was melting off their faces! Their eyes were gone! Their bones and nerves were burning away! Their brain -

Gone. The body dropped to the floor, dead. Moon was almost violently sick as she experienced his death inside her own head. Just one moment there, and then POP. Vanished. His thoughts, his very life, blown away as quickly as a flame on a candle.

"Moony?" called a voice.

It anchored her. Moon was able to crawl away from the horror of having experienced death so intimately, to the safety of Kinkajou's pink scales, happy to see a friend safe and sound. Those bright yellow eyes told Moon it was okay to breathe again. Tears streaked her face, and she didn't know when they'd begun.

Behind Kinkajou, emerald green pudgy Turtle scurried towards them and the safety of the edge of the battlefield. No NightWing seemed to pay him any attention, not even when his thick tail almost hit one. "I don't think this is a very safe idea!" he cried, "In fact, this is the very opposite of safe!" He clutched a pouch that hung from around his neck.

"Queen Glory!" Kinkajou waved her wings, and a moment later, the RainWing Queen swooped out of thin air to land before them. She instantly inspected Kinkajou from head to tail.

"Are you alright?" she demanded, seeming not to notice how one of her brows had been cut, blood pouring into her eye.

"Brilliant!" Kinkajou cried, her thoughts bursting with blood-thirsty rainbows. "What's our plan?"

Glory's scales looked as if they wanted to go pale, before her mind slammed a wall down around herself and they returned the colours she had chosen. But still, her expression said everything she didn't allow her scales to. "This… there isn't one…"

Moon saw flashes, of Glory's dreams, of Starflight warning them of attack. Of Glory and her friends rushing to prepare the RainWings for invasion, and the element of surprise turning against them. Now, her RainWings were unprepared and shocked and frightened, and this was the worst nightmare Glory could ever imagine.

"Excuse me, Glory!" Fatespeaker nearly shrieked. The RainWing turned and finally saw Starflight.

"Is he-?!"

"He's alive," said Moon. "But he's really hurt…"

"Come on, Glory!" Kinkajou urged, trying to be the voice of hope. "We can turn this around!"

But Moon saw what the Queen saw. A RainWing screaming as her wings were shredded by two NightWings. Another RainWing fell to the floor, neck broken, dead. A NightWing was trying to save his own talons as venom ate away at his fingers. Tsunami - and Glory's other friends - fighting for their lives.

And the RainWing Queen made a choice. "RETREAT!" she yelled at the top of her voice. She shot into the air, turning her wings a dazzling bright yellow and green and pink, the brightest colours she could in order to grab her tribe's attention. "With me, RainWings! Retreat!"

"But Glory!" Kinkajou protested, "We could-"

"I'm not losing any more of us!" said the Queen as she landed on a tree branch and waved the RainWings to her. "Moon!" the command made the NightWing jump. "Narrow the path! Make it harder for the NightWings to get to us!"

She's trusting me? Moon wondered in awe. But she did as commanded. Summoning the fire into her throat, she let it shoot out of her mouth igniting the dry rainforest floor. The blaze quickly grew, and the other NightWings leapt back away from the flames. Moon met each of their stares as they studied her, their thoughts confused, accusing. Father's conditioning reared its ugly head inside her, telling her that this was her tribe, she had a duty to them! But Moon only had to see the little bodies on the floor to realise that this was wrong. She didn't want to condemn her people, for she could see inside their heads that for most of them, this was something they didn't want to do. They were terrified of the volcano that had blown up behind them. They wanted to live, and they'd been told that another tribe was standing in the way.

Across the battlefield, RainWings took the opportunity for the NightWing's distraction and vanished with their changing scales. Moon didn't even realise they all came flying past her, until she felt the brush of their minds and the wind under their wings. The other dragonets of destiny were the last to make the sprint to escape. Clay bundled Tsunami and Sunny underneath his wings as he ran straight through the fire, his fireproof scales absorbing the damage meant for his sister-figures. One NightWing tried to launch himself at their backs, a cheap shot. Tsunami leapt out from under Clay's wing, grappled the NightWing to the floor, tore open his stomach and snapped his neck in half as many seconds. She then abandoned the body to run straight towards Moon and Glory and the others.

"We're falling back," Glory said. The others didn't argue. "Stay close and fly for your-"

"Moonwatcher."

Everyone froze. Moon felt her heart try to smash out of her ribs. They slowly turned to see Morrowseer step over the flames. The other NightWings had fallen back to make way for him, most were even trying to tend to their wounded. But even if he'd had the entire NightWing army at his back, Morrowseer couldn't have looked more terrifying to Moon. He loomed over her, closer and closer, eyes melding with the firelight.

"Glory! Get back! Go!" Clay shouted. "We'll hold him off. Get the RainWings out of here."

It was clear in the young Queen's mind that she wasn't about to abandon her friends. "No, Clay. A queen should stand with her subjects and allies." She then met Morrowseer's eyes. "A lesson your queen never really learned."

He hissed, as did some NightWings behind the fire. Moon saw it flash through their heads. Queen Battlewinner was dead.

Her father pointed one sharp claw at Glory. "From the moment I set eyes on you, I knew you were trouble."

"Trouble?" she echoed, her scales shimmering until she matched the raging flames. "Here's trouble for you. You may have won tonight, but just know that it's not over. I won't stop until my tribe gets our home back. I won't rest until I see you dead and melting in a pool of venom for what you've done!"

Violence and hate bristled under the surface. They were ready to launch themselves at each other.

Clay planted himself in front of Glory, his first instinct always to protect his family. "Glory, don't!"

Morrowseer was going to use the distraction, Moon could see it in his tensed shoulders even when she couldn't read his mind past the numbers. She threw herself into his path, wings outstretched. "Please!"

He paused, staring down at her. A fierce disappointment burned through her father's eyes. Years of instinct screamed at Moon to back down immediately. She shrank, neck bent, tail tucked between her legs. She hyperventilated, her talons fusing with the ground.

But then there was someone at her side. Royal blue scales, bared teeth. Tsunami. "Back off, squid-brain. We're getting out of here and you can't stop us!"

He quirked a brow at her, but other than that, his expression didn't shift. Neither did his fixed gaze on Moon. "Is that so?"

"You've got the rainforest," said Clay, appearing on Moon's other side. She stared between him and Tsunami, standing beside her, protecting her, and she was awed. "You got what you wanted." Behind him, Glory growled. "Let us go."

"And leave a knife at our backs? I think not." And then he smirked and added, "Especially not with my daughter."

He knew what he was doing. He got the reaction he wanted. Moon felt that small sentence completely blow up the minds of those around her. Tsunami even flinched away from her, as if she had suddenly turned into a viper. She looked hurt, confused, suspicious, and Moon felt like her wings had been ripped away.

"Whoa…" murmured Kinkajou somewhere behind Moon's wings. "Moony, you never said the big bad one is your dad!"

"Moon?" she turned to Clay. His expression was puzzled, and his mind was trying to piece together why she hadn't said anything sooner. "Is he really…?"

"Oh yes," said her father before she could. "My dragonet. Raised away from the island to grow up to be the weapon we need."

"She's not a thing!" A flash of gold. Sunny. Moon was shocked. They hadn't really spoken that much, mostly because Moon was too shy. She could read inside the SandWing's head that she was just as shocked as everyone else, but unlike the other's, she didn't hold it against Moon. She still had faith.

Morrowseer peered down his nose at the small yellow dragon. "She's my daughter. She'll do as I say."

"No." Everyone looked to Moon, as surprised as she felt to hear herself speak. But she stood up, even when every instinct told her to get down, appease him, don't make him angry! She brushed her wing against Sunny's, hoping that bravery would rub off on her. "F-Father… please. They're my friends."

"You have a duty." he growled.

"But it's not right-!"

"There is no right! There is only the tribe."

"You're wrong." Sunny lifted her chin defiantly. "What you're doing, taking the rainforest, trying to make the prophecy anything you want - that's not destiny. Even if you were the one who delivered it, all of this is not the way things should be."

Morrowseer threw his head back and laughed. Moon shuddered. "Don't presume to lecture me, stunted SandWing!"

"She's right." said Clay. "You don't control us anymore. We will stop you. You and all the NightWings."

Tsunami widened her stance. "You invaded the wrong rainforest!"

Morrowseer lost all traces of mirth. His lips curled to reveal a hint of his teeth. "You think to threaten us? We made you. You dragonets are only important because of us, and we can destroy you just as easily."

Sunny shook her head. "No, you can't! We have a prophecy to fulfill, and there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening."

"My prophecy can happen any way I like, considering I'm the one who made it up in the first place."

Silence. Even Moon was shocked. Not even she'd known her father's plans had extended back this far. Of course she knew he had no gift of foresight, but she'd assumed the prophecy of the war had been made by some other NightWing, and he had used it to get his tribe a new home. She could feel the stunned reactions all around her. Clay and Tsunami gaped at one another. Glory was growing more and more enraged as she put the pieces together. Kinkajou was bewildered as to what everyone was talking about. Turtle was thinking about a half dead tree. But Sunny… her's was the most heartbreaking of all. Moon saw a crack on the glass that was the SandWing's mind, spilling out a sense of hopelessness, of uselessness that she was desperate to put back inside its container.

"No!" she said fiercely, blinking back tears. "The prophecy is real! We were born to end the fight - to end the war and save everyone!"

Morrowseer could see how upset this made her, and twisted the knife. "Afraid not. You're just as ordinary as any other dragon."

Sunny stood still, chest heaving to contain all the emotion inside her. And then, with a loud sob, she whirled around and dashed off into the darkness of the forest. Her siblings watched her go, talons reaching out to stop her, to comfort her, but unable to find the words. If there were ever a time that Moon wished she could have a convenient vision, it would be right then, anything to mend the broken heart that fled from her father.

Tsunami wheeled around on the massive NightWing, snarling. "You are just the worst!"

For the first time in her life, Moon looked on her father with an outsider's eyes. That had been unnecessarily cruel. He had said those things just to hurt Sunny's feelings. Why? What could he possibly gain?

Morrowseer ignored Tsunami as if she hadn't spoken at all. "Moonwatcher, come." He held out an outstretched talon to her, beckoning her to his side. "It is time."

"But…" she tried, fidgeting with her claws. "I-I don't want…"

All at once, the numbers in her father's head vanished and a thought came through loud and clear. If you want your 'friends' to live, do as I say.

Her wings drooped. She knew the threat was very real. If they all turned and fled, how far would they get? One or two of them might escape, but her father and his minions would certainly catch some of them and kill them. Moon couldn't bear the thought.

It will be alright, Moonwatcher, he thought to her in such a gentler tone that Moon felt an old, battered sense of hope. The instinct to make him happy, to bring out a show of affection, the want to be loved, was almost too strong to resist. Do as you're told and help me make our tribe great again, as you were meant to.

Before she could decide, Glory was there, putting a wing in front of Moon's chest.. "You're not getting a talon on her."

"And who's going to stop me?" Morrowseer scoffed, the numbers returning and closing off his mind to Moon. "The three of you?"

"Yes." Tsunami and Clay said together.

"And me!" cried Kinkajou.

This time, her father showed all his teeth when he growled. "Here's all the dragonets I want dead in one convenient place…" He coiled his body to lunge -

A shadow burst out from between the other NightWings and hit the back of Morrowseer. Overbalanced, he fell to the ground. The dragon on top of him managed to put enough weight on his head that he hit a rock and was dazed. The new dragon stood over him, heaving with the exertion of having to shove her way through the crowd and fight him. She'd managed to stun everyone into shocked silence. Turning, she immediately looked to Moon, who felt her heart leap into the stars with joy as she recognised the dragoness who looked a lot like herself.

"Mother!" she leapt into her waiting wings and clung to her mother in a fierce embrace. Secretkeeper was whispering soothing words to her, crying, holding her just as tight. Moon couldn't stop her tears. Here was her mother! How long had they been separated? It felt like an eternity. But now, she felt safe, she felt right.

"Oh, my little Moon," Secretkeeper pulled her back enough to look her over from horns to tail.

"You-You came for me!"

Her mother held her close again. "Of course I did, sweetie. I'd do anything - anything - for you!"

Abruptly, Moon didn't care if all the NightWings - if all the world - hated her for her mother's decisions. Because she knew her mother was right. She'd taken her away, broken tribe law, broken her marriage, all for love of her dragonet. Moon felt like the luckiest NightWing in all the world.

"Um…" said a voice, and they turned to Kinkajou. "Not to interrupt or anything, but we might want to… go now?"

"Yes," said Secretkeeper without hesitation. "Let's go,"

Moon was shocked. She'd thought her mother's loyalty was without question. "But the tribe-"

"Don't deserve you," she bumped her snout with Moon's.

Numbers twinged at Moon's mind.

"Look out!" someone shouted.

Secretkeeper shoved Moon back as she turned and leapt at Morrowseer as he reared above them. Moon fell and tumbled in the dirt from the force. Clay's warm talons were the ones to lift her up, the touch amplifying his thoughts, conveying his dismay, his sense of helplessness. Moon spun back towards her mother -

Secretkeeper was grappling as if her life depended on it against Morrowseer. Probably because it actually did. Her husband was much broader and more muscled than she was. Just one swipe of his talons left a blow that allowed everyone to hear the thump that almost broke her ribs.

"Mother!" Moon rushed to help, but two sets of talons held her back. She struggled, frantic. "Mother!"

"Moonwatcher!" Secretkeeper shouted back as she tried to claw at Morrowseer's face, trying to keep him back. "Get out of here! Fly!"

Morrowseer managed to duck his head and roar. "Seize them!"

The NightWings (those following the drama and remained at the ready) charged to leap over the fire at the dragonets -

CRRRRRRREEEEEAAAAAKKKKK!

A tree fell to the ground with a thunderous crash, right on the dividing line between the dragonets and their enemies. Though only the tip of its half-dead branches touched the fire Moon had made, the entire tree was ablaze in moments. It burned so hot, its flames so high, that it almost set the leaves above on fire. No dragon could pass over them.

Everyone glanced over to where the tree had come from. Turtle stood with his talons still on the bottom of the trunk, and gave a sheepish smile. The tree must've been more dead than anyone thought.

Moon stared through the flames at her parents that were still grappling, the other NightWings, having abandoned their original targets, closing in on them. There was nothing she could do. Moon stood one side of the divide; her mother was on the other.

A few leaves overhead were starting to catch light. The NightWings were being ordered to gather water before it became a forest fire. The Dragonets of Destiny saw their opportunity. "We have to go!" Tsunami ordered.

Unable to respond, Moon felt herself be dragged away. She flew with the others through the trees, heading north. But that was about as much attention as she gave her bodily functions. She didn't even register the tears streaming down her face. She'd had her mother in her talons, and then lost her again just as quickly. Her entire world had been turned upside down.

The RainWings, the Dragonets of Destiny, and their tag alongs didn't stop. Not until dawn was almost upon them, and they had reached the northern border of the rainforest. Only then did they pause to catch their breath. Only then did they look back.

Clay came over to Glory as she stared back at the kingdom she had abandoned. He put a wing around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Glory."

"We'll get it back," she vowed in a hoarse voice. "If it's the last thing I do, I will make them pay for this."