Hello and welcome to-

Just kidding, I don't have a proper author's note to go here except to let you know that I'd appreciate a little bit of feedback. Happy reading :)

Rune hesitated, wondering if she shoud step into the cave. Peril had directed her to Turtle's sleeping cave, but she felt awkard all of a sudden. She'd only spoken to the SeaWing prince once before, and didn't know if he was willing to help her.

She took a deep breath, but before she could step in, someone stepped out, nearly knocking her to the ground. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" The dragon apologized profusely while helping her up.

The IceWing stared at her curiously, and Rune realized that there was something preventing her from hearing him. Probably skyfire, she thought, remembering that Moon had given the rocks to the other dragons in her winglet. "Hold on, you're not Moon."

"I'm Rune," she offered.

"I'm Spire," he returned. "Um - was there a reason you needed to go into the cave, or...?"

"Oh!" She'd forgotten. "I needed to see Turtle for a second. Is he inside?"

"No, I believe he left a while ago." Spire paused to think for a moment. "I think he's down by the lake with Auklet, and if not you might find him in the art cave with Kinkajou."

"Oh, alright. Thank you," she said politely, before lifting her wings and flying in the opposite direction and out of the mountain, down towards Sapphire Lake - aptly named, for under just the right amount of sunlight it seemed to shimmer and glitter like the blue jewel itself. From where she was, she could make out two dragons splashing about in the water. Spire's first guess had been right.

"TURTLE!" Auklet shrieked as her brother sent a large wave into her face with his tail. She looked up just as Rune descended from the sy, landing on the shore of the lake. "Rune, help me drench this snail-brained - AGH!" Turtle laughed as Auklet was splashed with water again. Rune liked being around Tsunami and her siblings - mostly because they were generally agreeable and she liked them, but partially due to the fact that they wore skyfire and it was comforting to have silence for a while.

"I thought SeaWings were supposed to be comfortable with getting wet," she teased as her friend glared at her.

"Yeah, but this is different," Turtle explained, dragging his tail along the surface in Rune's direction, and -

"Three moons," she muttered, sopping wet. "I, for one, am not a SeaWing." She held out her wings, black scales dotted with tiny silver ones that looked like stars. "I do not like getting drenched as much as you might."

"My brother's a bully," Auklet declared, sending a tiny spurt of water his way.

"Contrary to popular opinion." Rune shook some of the water off. "Turtle, I actually had something I needed to ask you about."

"Shoot," he said, balancing himself.

"Do you have some skyfire I could give to the rest of my winglet?"

Turtle blinked at her. "Skyfire? Um, are you... can you..."

"Yeah," she answered lamely. "That's why."

"Do they know?" he asked cautiously, rising out of the water.

"They found out," she said flatly. "Several hours ago. And I'm fairly sure they all hate me, so the least I can do is give them some kind of assurance that I'm not intruding on their privacy."

"I'm sure they'll forgive you," he said kindly. "And I think I can do something about that skyfire. How many do you need?"

"Six."

"Alright." Turtle motioned for Auklet to get out of the water, and as she beat her wings, several droplets landed on Rune's face. "Follow me."

"You're an animus?" Rune asked incredulously, staring at a plain-looking bowl that supposedly doubled its contents upon being asked. Moon hadn't told her that.

"I am," Turtle confirmed. "Just don't go letting everyone know, please. Only several dragons do and I'd like to keep it that way."

"So is Anemone," Auklet piped up. "But everyone already knows that because she used to use them all the time, apparently."

"Auklet," Turtle chided, despite the small smile growing on his face. "You're a lot older than Rune, but based on the way you act, even I forget that sometimes."

"That's why we're friends," she said, putting a wing around the black dragon. "She stops me from doing stupid things."

"Like asking Peril to burn your history assignment so you could have a good excuse not to hand it in and blame it on her," Rune agreed. "That was definitely a very stupid thing to do."

"You wanted to blame Peril?" Turtle asked, horrified. "Why would you do that?"

"She's scary," Auklet pointed out. "If she touches me, I could die."

"Peril is a very nice dragon," Rune said. "If you tried talking to her once, maybe you'd see that side of her."

"And she stopped Qibli and Winter from attacking each other," Turtle observed. "Although that did set Darkstalker free, which is a whole other issue, but at least Winter and Qibli suffered no injuries."

Auklet blinked. "Oh."

"Yes." He turned to his sister. "Can I see your skyfire for a moment?" She reached into the pouch around her neck and drew the rock, placing it carefully into Turtle's talons. All at once, Auklet's thoughts rushed into Rune's head with the intensity of a raging river.

"Oh, don't worry about that," the SeaWing princess said. "You won't be able to hear anything weird, I promise you." Rune tilted her head sideways.

YOU CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING! I'M NOT THINKING ANYTHING RIGHT NOW AND YOU CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING! FISH TASTE GREAT AND TURTLE IS A GREAT BIG BULLY AND PERIL IS A BURNING MENACE AND I'M RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BUT I CAN LAST UNTIL TURTLE DOES HIS WEIRD MAGIC THING! I THINK!

Rune giggled.

"Twice as much, please," Turtle muttered. Two of the dark black rocks appeared in the bowl, and he took one out and placed it to the side. "Twice as much, please." He put the rock back in, and now three of them lay in the wooden bowl. The tiny rocks looked incredibly fascinating, almost as if they were alight and on fire. "Twice as much, please. Twice as much, please."

Handing Auklet's rock back to her, Turtle dropped six rocks into Rune's open claw. "Here," he said kindly. "Good luck. You should probably get these to them as soon as possible."

"I will," she said determinedly. "Thanks so much, Turtle."

"No problem."

"See you later, Auklet!" Rune waved to her friend as once again, she spread her wings to fly, off to find her winglet.

Delta and Floe were, predictably, in their sleeping cave.

"Delta?" Rune asked softly. The MudWing turned around, and Rune willed herself to ignore anything the dragonet was thinking. "Delta, I need to give you something."

The MudWing took a step back, as if frightened. It stung, to tell the truth, but it was understandable. "What?"

"Take this." Rune held out her talons with two of the skyfire rocks Turtle had given her. " It's skyfire. If you keep it with you, I can't hear what you're thinking. Floe should have one, too." Just to be sure, even though she really never heard anything from Floe anyway.

Floe looked on, realization dawning upon her slowly. Delta just hesitated, unsure whether to believe her or not. "Trust me," Rune said. "It basically blocks your mind from me. You'll be safe."

Delta slowly picked up both rocks and handed one to Floe. Silence enveloped the cave as both dragons' thoughts disappeared. "That's so much better," Rune breathed, a small smile on her face. "Thank you."

"Rune," the MudWing called just as she was about to leave.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Rune asked.

"For not understanding," she said quietly. "I didn't know whether I was supposed to trust you or not at first, but then I realized that if I were you, I'd probably be in the same position. I wouldn't have been able to tell you guys outright."

Rune stared at her, not really knowing what to say. She was the one usually apologizing, for her clumsiness or something like that, but this was probably the first time someone had apologized to her. And yet, she didn't really see how anything was Delta's fault.

"Thank you," she managed finally. "For understanding." There was an awkward pause. "I-I'll see if I can find the others so they can have these, too."

"They're in the library," Floe offered. "We were getting tired, so we came back, but they should still be in there."

"I'll check," Rune agreed, feeling incredibly awkward. "See you guys later."

"Alright," Delta nodded. "See you."

The second the dragonets caught sight of Rune, they immediately scattered, straying farther away from her. Someone must have told Gale, because his stare was pure hostility and nothing else.

"Keep this on you," she told them, feeling a sharp pang of hurt at the look on their faces, as if she was something entirely different. "As long as you have it, it essentially blocks me from hearing anything you're thinking."

"How do we know that?" Gale asked abruptly. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"She's right," Aster said, not meeting Rune's eyes. "Qibli used to keep some with him, too, because of Moon." He stepped forward and gently took the four stones from her, distributing them among the other dragonets.. Immediately, there was silence, and Rune welcomed it with open wings. It was refreshing to have six less voices in her head. It was wonderful.

But did they still trust her? She couldn't even tell now that she'd given them the skyfire, and their expressions gave nothing away.

"Rune!"

Clay burst into the library, breathing heavily. "Rune, where's your mother? And Starflight?"

"I don't know," Rune said cautiously. "They usually stay in here, but I just got here and I haven't seen them since last night. Is everything alright?"

"Not really," he said. "I believe they're missing."

"Missing?" A cold sense of dread hung over her shoulders. "What do you mean they're missing?"

"I mean that they're not anywhere here, and if they went somewhere, they would have told one of us," Clay said, sounding panicked. "We haven't seen them since last night either, and we would have known if they left the school. Why would they even have to leave the school?"

Over here, little dragonet.

Huh? Rune swiveled around, confused. That voice was certainly not her father's. In fact, it didn't sound like anyone she knew at all.

That's right. I don't think you've ever heard of me. Although I am fascinated to find out that NightWings are still born with those legendary powers.

I'm not the only one, Rune thought, feeling very awkward. And what is this strange voice?

Yes, I know about the other one. Moonwatcher, is it? But she's a bit on the boring side. You, on the other hand... The slippery voice broke off into peals of crazed laughter. You have a very interesting mind, Rune.

"Stay here," Clay told her sternly. "Stay right here and don't leave the mountain. All of you. I'm going to get Tsunami and Sunny and see if we can figure something out."

What's wrong, little dragonet? Why are you so worried?

I'm not little, Rune thought fiercely. And I'm not worried.

Of course you are. If my own parents went missing, I think I'd go insane, wouldn't you?

How do you know that? She turned around and stared at Firefly, wondering if it was somehow her doing - but no, she had her skyfire and was staring right back at Rune, puzzled.

I know many things. You shouldn't be surprised, really. It's the natural way of dragons to want to understand everything, to know everything. However, only several do. Strange, isn't it?

Go away! Just - stop! Leave me alone! I don't need some random creepy dragon in my head telling me what dragons are like!

Are you sure? The future tells me you and I are going to be speaking with each other quite frequently from now on. And wouldn't you like some help finding your dear old mother and father? Especially since that pathetic MudWing isn't going to find them, even with the help of the feisty little SeaWing princess. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if anyone can.

You know where they are? Rune's eyes widened, and a tiny seedling of hope sprouted in her heart as the terror and shock slowly melted away. Where? I'll find them, tell me where.

As a rule, I generally don't tell. I show.

Then show me. She was beginning to get desperate, tail curling around her front claws.

"Rune," Firefly said uncertainly, stepping forward. "Is it another - another vision?"

She didn't respond. Show me where they are. Show me!

"Is she alright?" Gale asked, frowning.

Hmmm... but it wouldn't be very useful if they were long gone by the time you arrived. Would it, little dragonet? How would you feel if you stumbled upon the cave I pointed out to you, only to find the poor dragons' corpses lying on the cold stone, lifeless and-

"Stop!" Rune yelled. "Shut up! Just shut up!"

"Excuse me?" the SeaWing asked, an edge of hostility in his voice.

"Not..." Rune sighed, lowering her wings, dropping to a whisper. "Not you."

"Really." Gale snorted. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're slightly insane. Perhaps more than just slightly, since apparently one of your habits is yelling at no one in particular and conversing with thin air."

"Well, if 'thin air' knows where your parents are and you have to find them because no one else can, then you kind of have to converse with it," she snapped venomously.

"Whoa, wait." Aster shook his head. "'Thin air'? What does all of this have to do with anything?"

Rune hesitated. These were the same dragons who had nearly estranged her for being born differently. Could she tell them about this new strange voice in her head? Or would they once again blame her for everything and leave her to deal with it all alone?

Probably not, but she wasn't one to take a chance.

"Nothing, nothing," she dismissed. "It's nothing." She smiled sweetly at Gale. "I'm just a little insane, that's all, and I happen to particularly enjoy yelling at no one in particular."

For once, Gale seemed speechless. His jaw opened and closed, but he made no sound.

"Are you sure?" Rune could practically see Aster's brain working already. She knew that he knew that what she had said wasn't the complete truth, and he'd probably be the first one to find out.

"I'm sure," she said, lowering her head. She could deal with her winglet later. First, she had to figure out who the creepy new dragon invading her mind was, and how on earth they knew her or her name or even where her parents were gone. But based on what the dragon had said, maybe they hadn't just gone somewhere... perhaps they were taken.

Rune suddenly remembered something the voice had said. A cave... it had mentioned something about a cave.

"I'll be right back," she told the other dragonets, speaking quickly before darting out of the library and through the Great Hall, taking to the sky.

It was time to pay Stonemover a visit.

Little author's note down here. Some of you may think that I've copied the whole thing in Moon Rising where Darkstalker realizes that there's another mind-reading dragon around and starts speaking to Moon in her head. Some of this idea comes from that, but while looking at the plot, I realized there's no other way to write this part of the story, because this mysterious dragon has to interact with Rune without giving away where they are. It won't go exactly as it did with Darkstalker being freed and all - you'll see in later chapters. I just wanted to clarify something is all.