Chapter 18

"Thunder?" Vala said.

Thunder didn't respond and was just standing there motionless, looking at the dead body of the Drillwing in front of him.

"Thunder?" Vala said again. "What… what did you do?"

Thunder still didn't respond and didn't move as Vala got closer to him. She put his wing over him but he still didn't react.

"Thunder?" Vala asked for the third time.

"I… I… I…" Thunder stuttered.

"Hey Thunder, what happened?" Vala asked.

"I… I… she… I…"

"Thunder, please tell me what happened," Vala said.

But at that moment, Vala heard footsteps coming through the woods and saw Tulsi, Prancer, and some of her personal guards appear.

"What on earth?" Tulsi said as she looked at the situation in front of her. "Vala, what's going on?"

"I don't know," Vala said. "But let me explain who this dragon is."

"That's the killer!" came a voice behind them all and the dragon that Vala saw earlier when he voiced out the warning was back in front of her. But now that Vala could see the dragon, she recognized who it was. It was Tulsi's cousin, Tron.

"Who's a killer, cousin?" Tulsi asked Tron.

"Him!" Tron said, pointing to Thunder. "He attacked my patrol out here!"

"Thunder would never do that!" Vala said. She was going to defend Thunder even if it had to result in a fight.

"You know this killer's name?" Tron said. "Are you working with him?"

"Now cousin, that's absurd," Tulsi said. "Vala was in the village when this happened. It couldn't have been her!"

"But he definitely killed that dragon in front of him," Tron said, pointing to the dead Drillwing.

"Hang on, could someone tell us a clear story of what happened?" Prancer asked.

"Sure," Xena said, stepping from behind Tulsi. "I can tell you the events since I was in this group as well."

"Go ahead Xena," Tulsi said.

"So we were doing our patrol route through here when we heard some rustling through the bushes," Xena said. "We went to take a closer look when that dragon popped out. We were scared and tried to talk to him but then he seemed to get crazy all of a sudden and started attacking us! Me and Tron ran to get help while our other companion decided to stay back to hold him off. And now he is dead."

"That dragon is a monster and should be punished!" Tron said.

"Hang on, I know Thunder!" Vala said. "When I was gone, he helped me out, he wouldn't do this!"

"I… I did… do this," Thunder said.

"What?!" Vala said. "I'm trying to defend you here!"

"I… I… killed him thinking… thinking he was… someone else."

"Who?" Vala asked. "Thunder, who?"

"Does the end result matter?" Xena asked. "He killed one of our own and should be punished!"

The Drillwings around started chanting for him to be punished and Vala saw Tulsi under pressure by all of this.

"Tulsi," Vala said and Tulsi looked at her. "Trust in your friend that this dragon wouldn't viciously do this. There must have been a reason! I mean look at him, he was attacked as well!"

"I… I… I see Vala," Tulsi said. "But I also just can't have a dragon who murdered someone from my tribe wandering around freely."

"Tulsi, he didn't do it!" Vala said.

"And I believe you!" Tulsi said. "But if I allow him to walk freely, it would hurt my relationship with my tribe. Vala, I've only been queen for two weeks, I can't have this type of pressure on me."

"Tulsi," Vala said. "I understand, but don't put him in jail. It won't help."

Tulsi thought for a long time before answering back to Vala.

"Fine," Tulsi said. "But I will have four soldiers watching over him at all times."

"But," Vala started to say but Tulsi shushed her.

"If you find out information that makes him innocent, then I'll get rid of the guards. But for now I have to do this."

"Fine," Vala said. "But I will find what proves Thunder innocent."

"Ok," Tulsi said. "Now let's go back to the village before anything else happens.

Vala watched as the others started to walk back towards the village and a few Drillwings stood behind to watch over Thunder. Thunder then started moving towards the village and it caught Vala off guard.

"Thunder, what happened?" Vala asked. "Please tell me!"

"It… it was… her," Thunder said. "It… it wasn't… me."

"Thunder can you be more specific please?" Vala asked.

Thunder didn't say anything and got ahead of Vala and continued his walk to the village with the four Drillwings surrounding him. Vala looked at her wing and saw the blood on it from Thunder's injuries. Vala decided to brush it off and walked towards the village.

What is going on with Thunder? It sounds like someone did something but I don't know. Something happened and he isn't telling me for some reason.

Vala thought of it on her way to the village. She was going to prove that Thunder was innocent, no matter what.

As Vala got closer to the village, she saw Moon and decided to go talk to her. It wouldn't be quick to prove Thunder innocent so she needed to figure out everything.

"Hey Moon," Vala said as she approached her.

"Oh hi," Moon said. "I'm glad that you're back."

"Yeah," Vala said. "Thanks again for helping me with figuring out my power."

"No problems," Moon said. "And I can continue to help you understand them. You'll have a better teacher than I had."

"Who helped you out?" Vala asked.

Moon looked around like she didn't want to say but leaned closer to her and dropped into a whisper.

"Darkstalker," Moon said.

Vala then understood immediately and decided to change the subject.

"What were those visions I had earlier?" Vala asked.

"They were visions of different possible outcomes in the future," Moon said. "I sometimes get them as well but usually they never change as fast as yours did. Maybe there is something special with you."

"Really?" Vala said. "Because that was driving me insane with the amount of visions I was seeing."

"I'll help you with that," Moon said. "I wonder something though."

"What?" Vala asked.

"I wonder if you get prophecies like I do," Moon said.

"What do you mean by that?" Vala asked.

"I've had a prophecy about your continent," Moon said. "I should say it to everyone."

"I'll get everyone," Vala said and flew off to get everyone. While she flew, she saw her Collective group and decided to take a stop to surprise them.

"Surprise tackle!" Vala said, tackling Sundew.

"Ow, what on…" Sundew started to say but turned around and saw Vala. "Vala! I can't believe that you're okay!"

"She's okay!" Batik called out and for the third time that day, Vala was bear hugged by more of her friends, this time being Sundew, Nail, Batik, and Kobli.

"Aghh, not again!" Vala said and got out of the beg hug.

"I'm so glad that you are okay!" Nail said. "Sundew said that we should get help after you fell into the hole. She also said that she saw some sort of weird lava dragon as well.

Good, so I wasn't the only one who saw Queen Ash, Vala thought.

"Well me, Abrax, and Nova made it out," Vala said. "And we chased off Queen Helen who, get this, was actually me and Abrax's mom, so yeah. Anyway, we chased her off and learned from King Blade that the Spikewings used to have kings as rulers. So Abrax and Nova decided to become King and Queen of the Spikewings to satisfy everyone. And oh yeah, we helped defend against the Cavewing attack."

When Vala was finished with her explanation, she looked at them and saw that they were confused.

"What?" they all said.

"Oh, I'll explain it in more detail later," Vala said. "The important thing is that we all are safe."

"That's great!" Kobli said.

"Almost as great as you having a new boyfriend that you actually like?" Nail asked.

"Shut it!" Kobli said.

"Uh, what do you mean?" Vala asked and then Gimlet landed beside them.

"Oh there you are Kobli," Gimlet said. "Come on, we have the evening shift today," and he took off into the sky.

Vala saw Kobli blush.

"Coming love!" Kobli said and flew off to catch up with Gimlet.

"Uh, what happened?" Vala asked. "I thought that she never really cared about her boyfriends?"

"Yeah, well she decided to try her tactic with Gimlet when we got here," Nail said. "But she felt her heart open up when she was with him and she was confused by all the mushy feelings that she was having."

"She is experiencing love for the first time!" Batik said. "Good for her!"

"Oh come on silly," Nail said, wrapping his tail around Batik. "Let's go take a walk around the village."

"Sure!" Batik said and they both left, leaving Vala and Sundew there.

"I'm glad to see more couples like them," Sundew said. "Shows that being different isn't that bad, as long as you love the person you are with."

"Are you wishing you were right now with the one that you love?" Vala asked.

"Yes," Sundew said. "But I know that she would be proud of what I am doing, or at least I am anyway."

"Anyway, I have to get going," Vala said. "But Moon said for everyone to meet at the plaza tonight."

"I'll be there," Sundew said and Vala flew away to gather up the other dragons before nighttime.

Finally everyone was here and everything was fine, Vala thought but then saw Thunder with the Drillwing guards around him. He still had his head down and seemed to be wandering aimlessly.

I'll prove that you're innocent, don't worry Thunder, just give me time.

Vala then saw Ocho and decided to check up on her.

"Hi Ocho," Vala said as she landed. Ocho didn't move from her web. "You good?"

"Define good," Ocho said.

"Are you still sad?" Vala asked.

"Oh I don't know," Ocho said. "My dad is a psychotic killer and now I know my mom was murdered my one of his apprentices. Nope, perfectly fine here!"

"Ocho, we're all here for you," Vala said. "Especially me."

"Like you have a psychotic parent," Ocho muttered.

"Actually I do," Vala said. "I learned that me and Abrax are siblings and that Helen was actually our mom."

"Really?" Ocho asked, turning to face her.

"Yeah," Vala said. "So I understand what you are going through. How you deal with your problem is your own way but just know that we, and especially I, are here for you."

Vala saw a tear drop from Ocho's face. "Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome," Vala said. "Just make sure to come to the plaza tonight. Moon I think is going to have a big announcement."

"Okay," Ocho said. "I'll be there."

A few hours later, it was nighttime and everyone was gathered in the middle of the plaza when Vala showed up with Moon. Even Thunder was there but in the back and still with the guards on him.

"Ok, so what did you want to tell us all?" Tsunami asked.

"Well first I have to tell you some unfortunate news," Vala said.

"What is it?" Sundew asked.

"Well when I was running away from here, I thought I grabbed my pouch but I accidently grabbed yours Tsunami."

"What?" Tsunami asked.

"And our mom, Helen, took out the Dreamvisitor so now she has it."

"You did what?!" Tsunami asked, raising her voice.

"Hey calm down!" Sundew said. "It wasn't her fault that she grabbed the wrong pouch. Maybe you should have distinguished your pouch from the rest."

"Oh I'll distinguish your face!" Tsunami said and they both started to approach each other.

"Ok, ladies I think you both need to get away from each other," Qibli said, holding Tsunami back.

"Yeah, just go sit as far away from each other as possible," Winter said, holding Sundew back.

"Fine," they both said and walked away from each other to go sit on the two ends of the group.

"Good, well I'm sorry I lost it, but we will get it back I promise," Vala said.

"Anyway, I wanted everyone here to tell everyone about the prophecy I had about this continent," Moon said.

"Don't worry, we always have to improvise!" Tsunami said.

"Let me just say it," Moon said.

"Fine," Tsunami said.

Vala then watched as Moon closed her eyes and then spoke in a strange, new voice.

Turn your bodies away from the sky

To the caves that run underground

To a war that has lasted centuries

Where peace can never be found

Within their tribes lies a secret

Within their war lies a secret

Within their caves lies a secret

That may save everyone in time

Watch out for a great power buried below

To dangerous to leave

Help the tribes to unite together

Before everything will die, was the final line Moon said before she became normal again.

"I really hate prophecies," Tsunami said.

"Wow, that is very interesting," Nova said. "I mean that could mean a whole bunch of things."

"The secret with their tribes could relate to Dredge's group or The Resistance of Webwings and Cavewings," Prancer said.

"The secret that lies within the war could be how Dredge was the cause of it," Flint said.

"But the secret that lies within their caves?" Hunter said. "That could be a lot of things!"

"Maybe it is a reference to my tribe?" Vala said. "We do lie within the cave."

"Maybe," Tulsi said. "But that last line got me. 'Help the tries to unite together before everything will die.'"

"Yeah," Ocho said. "Like how we are trying to end this war."

"That's… that's it!" Thunder randomly said.

"Huh?" Vala said. "What do you mean Thunder?"

"Queen Ash!" Thunder said. "That is who I saw earlier! She took control of that Drillwing and I felt terrible for having to kill him but she was trying to kill me with him."

"So you are truly innocent," Tulsi said. "Okay guards, you can leave him."

"Yes your majesty," the guards said and left Thunder.

"But there is more," Thunder said. "At the end before Vala came, Queen Ash said something to me."

"What was it?" Vala asked.

"This is what she said," Thunder said. "'This war will finally destroy the experiments that I don't need anymore.' She means the dragons on this continent and the war where for an experiment she was doing."

"What experiment?" Moon asked.

"I don't know but she must have completed it because the last thing she said to me was, 'I found the perfect subject. And after I get them I will be able to summon what I have been wanting to summon all this time. I'll be able to summon our creator.'"