o
DARKSTALKER
At first, learning the truth took a heavy toll on him.
It hurt him in two different ways. On the one talon, it pained him to know that he'd changed that quickly, and for the worse. The dragon that Clearsight had described to him — who was so cruel to his friends, and so manipulative to his soulmate — sounded so alien. And to swallow the fact that in an alternate reality, he personally really did turn into that dragon … it was painful.
And on the other talon, it pained him to learn about what had happened to him that caused him to become so bitter. The loss of his mother … Darkstalker never even considered the possibility of her leaving his life like that. He always imagined that she would always be there, nurturing him and guiding him and making him feel loved when Arctic tried to tear him down. If his mother ever left him, Darkstalker didn't know what he'd do.
Apparently he'd turn into a resentful, spiteful maniac. And what scared him was that he honestly couldn't blame himself for that.
But the weeks passed and the sting of the truth faded. The happenings of his current reality crowded his mind and he began to slip back into the routine of his normal self. And although it was evident that Clearsight's experiences had left her shaken and paranoid at times, Darkstalker was surprised to find that she wasn't that much different from her old self. She already saw potential futures swimming in her head all the time, and having the memories of the timeline she'd lived in before wasn't that much different from seeing that timeline in a thread of clairvoyance.
Plus, every day that passed brought them further from that terrible reality. According to Clearsight, Darkstalker had already made so many different choices that she couldn't see any trace of similarities between the world she'd experienced and the futures that lay ahead.
"Not all of the bad futures have disappeared," Clearsight said, beating her wings through the starlit sky. "I still see a lot of angry, tyrannical King Darkstalkers. But the darkest worlds seem to have disappeared."
Darkstalker hummed in thought as he glided beside her. That was the one lingering negative consequence of Clearsight's past experiences. Whenever she mentioned the futures where he became king, they were always the bad futures. It was as if in her mind, it was impossible for Darkstalker to rule benevolently and with tempered authority that brought peace and prosperity to the world. Even though he could see the futures where he was a good king, Clearsight refused to pay any attention to them.
He couldn't blame her. Anybody would be paranoid after beholding the dragon they love puppeting his father into a self-disembowelment and reigning terror upon the entire IceWing tribe. Her skepticism was healthy.
But it also got in his way. After knowing what he was capable of becoming, Darkstalker promised himself that he would tell Clearsight about his honest intentions to take the NightWing throne before acting on those intentions. But it was hard to find a possible world where his honesty didn't lead to an incredibly uncomfortable and heated argument.
The two of them landed on the rooftop of the school's biology wing. Darkstalker briefly kept his wings extended for balance as he found his footing on the sloped clay shingles. His shadows criss-crossed in the light of the moons, which were brighter than normal on this cloudless night.
The scavengers were in the rooms below, probably sleeping. Even though the NightWings had school during the night and kept the scavengers up while class was in session, they seemed to be naturally diurnal, catching sleep whenever they could during the night hours.
"She should be here already," Darkstalker whispered to Clearsight. "She did say to meet us right here, didn't she?"
"This was the place and time we agreed on," Clearsight whispered back. "She ought to show up soon."
"Could you use your powers to make sure?" Darkstalker asked, taking a step forward and scanning the area for a sign of Listener. "I'm missing a very important party at the palace for this. Queen Vigilance is going to be angry with me for the next month."
He felt Clearsight brush her wing against his. "You don't have to be here," she said. "Fathom and Indigo are waiting to meet you at that party. You should be there instead."
"Fathom and Indigo can hold off one more day until meeting me," he said. "I want to do this with you." He grinned impishly at her. "Besides, I have a little surprise planned for Listener."
"What sort of surprise?" Listener asked.
Darkstalker straightened up and spun his head around, nearly losing his balance and falling off of the roof. Listener was standing behind him with a knowing smile. She had three empty burlap sacks draped over her back, which were all easily large enough to contain three or four adult scavengers. "Listener," Darkstalker said once he'd steadied himself again. "You really live up to your namesake, don't you?"
Listener let out a lively giggle. "C'mon, Darkstalker, I don't like surprises. Tell me what it is."
"That's a bald-faced lie and you know it," Darkstalker said with an amused grin. "If you didn't like surprises, you would let Clearsight tell you your future. Besides, this is a surprise you definitely are going to like. Now give me one of those sacks and let's quiet down."
Listener handed one sack each to Clearsight and Darkstalker and jumped off the roof, landing in the courtyard. She landed as quiet as a cat in the shadows. Darkstalker leapt down beside her, examining the stars twinkling through the sky. "I thought you said that there were supposed to be three crescent moons tonight," Darkstalker said, eyeing the massive full moon illuminating the eastern sky and its gibbous brethren to the west.
"Hey, it's not my fault the chart I looked at was for the moon phases of last year!" Listener shot back. "But you know what? It's probably better this way. The scavengers will be able to see better on a bright night like this. Besides, we're running out of time. If we wait any longer, it'll get too cold for them. Apparently scavengers need to wear extra animal fur in the winter to keep themselves warm."
"Alright, as long as we drop them off somewhere where we know they won't get eaten," Darkstalker said, trying not to imagine watching a crowd of scavengers getting picked apart by NightWing hunters. "Did you find out where they were when they got captured?"
"Not exactly," Listener said. She slipped into one of the hallways and quietly inched her way into the animal lab. Without any lanterns to illuminate the stone walls and marble flooring, the inside of the school reminded Darkstalker of a menacing cave. The moonlight was snuffed out, leaving the corridors almost pitch black. "The teachers told me that they just found them in the wild. But they believe there's a scavenger den to the northeast of here, not too far from the mountains."
"I guess that's where we'll go, then," Darkstalker mused. Quietly, he opened the door to the lab and let the others in.
"This'll go faster if we split up," Listener whispered. "Darkstalker, you go to your classroom and pick up the scavenger being kept there. Then go find the scavenger that they brought in to entertain the first-years and take her as well. Clearsight, you can go to our old third-year classroom and gather the scavengers being kept there. The ones here in the science lab are mine."
"What if any of us need help?" Clearsight asked, fidgeting slightly with her sack. "What if the scavengers wake up and try running away, and we need help catching them?"
Listener's mind skittered for a few moments trying to come up with a possible solution. "Think really loudly for one of us?" she suggested. "Darkstalker and I are both mind readers."
"My bracelet is enchanted to keep mind readers from hearing my thoughts," Clearsight explained, lifting her wrist with the moonstone bracelet.
"Then … take it off?" Listener said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Honestly, I sometimes wonder why you feel the need to wear it all the time anyway. Between you and me, the other mind-readers think it makes you look really suspicious."
"Clearsight is the most powerful seer in the world," Darkstalker spoke in her defense. "Some of her visions are best kept a secret."
Clearsight gave him a bright, thankful smile after he said that, and he smiled back at her. See? Not evil. Never gonna be evil again.
Listener groaned. "Okay, fine, but you can still take it off when you need to signal one of us. If you need to signal one of us. I'd prefer it if you didn't. Now let's get moving."
Darkstalker separated from the girls and walked down another hall to his classroom. It was eerie being here when it was so quiet and empty. There were usually teachers and students moving back and forth along the corridors, talking with friends and co-workers about the latest stupid scandal. Now all Darkstalker heard was the echo of his talon clicks.
He snuck into his classroom and quietly wove himself around the tables and floor cushions to the scavenger cage in the corner. The male inside was sleeping, with a fur blanket wrapped around his body, but that didn't come as any surprise. He spent a lot of time sleeping; much more than the others.
Darkstalker thought at first that maybe the scavenger was ill, but he later realized that it was something else. When he tried to read the scavenger's thoughts, he found that there simply wasn't the motivation in his will to do anything. He could never summon any joy or relief or hope in his heart, so he resigned himself to a miserable life where he slept sixteen hours a day and wallowed the remaining eight.
Darkstalker opened the cage and gently scooped up the caged critter. Like most animals, scavengers had a startle reflex — which triggered when Darkstalker picked him up. He woke with a gasp, and covered his face with his arms, but a few seconds later the scavenger slumped down, perfectly ready to get eaten so that his life would be over and done with.
When Clearsight had first told Darkstalker of Listener's plan to free the scavengers, he thought that it was noble but a little bit obsessive. He was always able to tell how sophisticated the minds of these creatures were, but in the grand scheme of things, he felt that there were too many injustices in the world for him to care about something as insignificant as a few helpless creatures.
But once he decided to help Clearsight and Listener with this pet project of theirs, he started to understand Listener's obsession a little bit more. When this depressed and broken little hominid had joined the classroom, Darkstalker had to turn off his mind-reading abilities to keep his sympathy from distracting him the entire day. From that point on, he looked forward to the day when he would free the scavengers from their prison.
He put the scavenger down in the sack and slid quietly out of his classroom and into the hallway leading to the first-year classes. As he did so, the sound of rattling metal and high-pitched squeaking rang out from the animal lab. Listener, he thought, openly projecting his thoughts so that she could hear them if she were listening. Do you need an extra set of talons?
Oh, hi Darkstalker! Listener thought back. No, I think I'm good. I just need to—GAH! Darkstalker felt his own adrenaline rush from how startled she suddenly became. Okay, on second thought, YES, PLEASE HELP ME NOW!
Darkstalker held the end of his sack in his mouth and galloped back to the science lab, where by now all the animals had awoken and were making a choir of rambunctious caws and hollers. He trotted around a cage of screaming cockatiels and found Listener crouching on the floor with her head in a cabinet of titration flasks. Darkstalker cleared his throat to let her know he was there now.
Listener looked back for just a second before burying her head back into the cabinet space. "The darn thing slipped out of my talons while I was busy capturing the other one," she grumbled. "It's hiding in the cabinet. I'm afraid it might find the air vent and make a run for it."
Darkstalker brought his own scavenger sack back into his talons. "Where's the other one?"
"I got it in the sack, over there." She flicked her tail in one direction, where a wriggling burlap sack lay on the floor. When Darkstalker looked more closely at it, he saw an arm snaking out of the top and tugging at the string binding it shut from the outside.
"Can you help me find this one?" Listener asked. "It's being extremely difficult right now. Just grab it if it runs out of here while I clear away these flasks."
"You sure you don't want to deal with your other scavenger instead?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Listener asked, craning her head back out to look at her sack. "I've already tied it — hey, stay in there! I'm trying to rescue you, you ungrateful monkey!"
Listener ran back to her sack and grabbed onto the scavenger, who at that point had just slipped out of the sack and started running for another hiding place. At the same time, the one who had been hiding jumped out of the cabinet and bolted towards the air vent in the corner of the room, just as Listener had feared.
Darkstalker ran after the scavenger and picked him up just a heartbeat before he could slip into the vent. Darkstalker tried to keep his grasp gentle so he didn't hurt the little critter, but the scavenger screamed and flailed wildly in his talons, and after just a couple seconds he slipped away and fell to the ground. He landed awkwardly on one of his legs and squeaked before collapsing. "Well, what did you think was going to happen?!" Darkstalker scolded with a sneer.
"Huh?" Listener said, preoccupied with her own scavenger.
"This one fell and hurt his leg," Darkstalker said, scowling disappointedly as the scavenger stood back up and ran for the vent again with a slight limp. He reached forward and grabbed his torso and held him more tightly this time.
"Oh no. Is he okay?"
"He still seems perfectly capable of moving around, so I'd guess so." The scavenger in his talons was still thrashing, but was clearly running out of energy. He started squirming less and squeaking more. "Will you quiet down?! If we planned on eating you you would have been dead a long time ago."
Listener lifted her head and gripped her sack tightly. "Someone's coming," she said. "Can you hear them?"
Darkstalker cocked his head and listened for any thoughts. And he did hear someone. There was a teacher on the other side of the school who'd been alarmed by all the noise and was coming their way. "Shoot," he hissed. "Here, take this scavenger and go find Clearsight. See if she needs help with her scavengers too. I still need to go to the first-year classroom and grab the one from there."
"Okay. We'll wait for you at the arboretum," Listener said. She took the scavenger in her talons and stuffed it in her sack with the other scavenger, then galloped out of the lab. Darkstalker found his own sack and picked it up. His scavenger had made no effort whatsoever to escape the entire time, and was limp as a ragdoll. For all Darkstalker knew, he might have fallen asleep again.
He darted to the last classroom, his heart pounding. Judging by the thoughts he was hearing, the teacher had just walked into the science lab and was growing increasingly furious. It would only be a few more seconds before she noticed that the scavengers were missing and started heading his way. He needed to move fast.
Darkstalker slithered to the cage and opened the latch. The lone female scavenger inside had already woken up, and was looking at him with bright, curious eyes. Much to Darkstalker's relief, she didn't try to run away or put up a fight, and let herself get picked up and handled without any fuss. Perhaps she has some sense in her and realizes that she's actually being freed, Darkstalker realized.
If so, it was a massive stroke of luck, because Darkstalker could hear the teacher coming his way. Capitalizing on his stroke of fortune, he ran into the hallway, holding his breath as he made his way to the exit.
The arboretum was on the eastern side of the school, but the closest way out was on the western wing. Thinking quickly, he chose to go west. His instincts were flaring, and he got the impression that if he didn't leave right now, then he would definitely be seen. He bolted out of the doors leading to the woods and took to the sky, letting his wings turn him invisible as he flew away from the school.
Once he'd gained enough altitude, he angled his wings and turned around, flying for the arboretum. After transporting the sack to his mouth so that he could use all four of his legs to land, he touched down quietly on the top of a conifer slightly to the east of where his friends should have been. He carefully climbed down, and stumbled onto the ground.
The forest cast a hundred shadows from the light of the two moons and katydids and crickets chittered in every direction, making navigation a little disorienting. But it only took another minute of searching before the colorful leaves of dragon-planted maples and cherry trees began to surround him.
Clearsight and Listener were on the northern end of the garden. They sounded like they were bickering. When Clearsight spotted him, she cut Listener off and waved him over, looking relieved.
"Ha, see?" Listener snapped at Clearsight as he approached. "I told you he'd make it."
"You have no idea how close that was," Clearsight whispered to Darkstalker. "You got caught in practically every timeline I saw. I was ready to leave you behind."
"Which would have been a terrible thing to do," Listener reproached. "We came here to save all of the scavengers, not some of them."
"Well, would you rather we waited to get caught too? Because that's what would have happened if that teacher spotted Darkstalker."
"The teacher wasn't going to spot me," Darkstalker said bemusedly. "I was tracking her thoughts the entire time. I had enough distance on her and I knew where I was going. I had plenty of time to get out of the school."
Clearsight shook her head. "You got extremely lucky. I was certain you weren't going to make it out."
"And that is exactly why I don't like hearing about your stupid future mumbo jumbo," Listener said. "It takes away your ability to have faith." She brushed her wing against Darkstalker's, smiling encouragingly at him. "I knew you were going to make it. Even though someone was convinced otherwise."
Darkstalker didn't say anything, but he gave a thankful smile in return.
"Um, by the way—" Clearsight interrupted, standing between the two of them and looking adorably angry, "we still need to get out of here. Don't forget there's a teacher on our tails."
"Of course," Darkstalker said. "Clearsight, you managed to save both of the scavengers from your classroom, right?"
Clearsight lifted her sack and nodded. "All of them have been rescued. We just need to bring them home."
"We still have a long night ahead of us," Listener said. "But at least the risky part's over. Let's fly."
Listener took a running start and took to the sky. Clearsight and Darkstalker followed, swerving over the tree branches and flying into the stars. Soon they were safely flying through the sky, and they fled from the school with only the hoot of a distant great horned owl to mark their departure.
Darkstalker breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he glided through the sky. He felt good. The rush of adventure, the swell of righteousness that was blooming in his heart, the warmth of the autumn air whizzing through his scales, the sense of companionship by being with Listener and Clearsight — it all made him feel like the world was becoming a better place, and it was partly thanks to him. And this was just the beginning. More adventures were on the horizon, he knew. Bigger, grander adventures that would span months and years — adventures that he would be able to share with more than just Clearsight and Listener, but with Fathom and Whiteout and the rest of the world.
He took up the rear of Listener's right wing, catching its updraft so he had an easier time flying. Clearsight did the same on her left side, and they flew through the stars in a little V-formation.
Listener had impressed Darkstalker these past several weeks with how enjoyable her company was. She wasn't the brightest thinker, but she had a sense of ambition that drove her to act on the good ideas she had. It was a refreshing change of pace to Clearsight, whose abilities must have given her a million good ideas every day, but also enough anxiety to never go through with any of them.
Apparently in the previous timeline that Clearsight had travelled, Darkstalker never really got to know Listener. Before meeting Fathom, Darkstalker's friendships were restricted to Clearsight and Whiteout. The two of them were more than enough to keep Darkstalker company, he was sure, but it was nice to have another dragon to hang out with too — one that had a spirit of adventure that was as high as his own.
Clearsight had admitted that she wasn't sure how she felt about this change from the previous timeline. On the one talon, she thought it was good that the two of them were getting along and enjoying each other's company. But on the other talon, she was getting a little jealous — something which Darkstalker found highly amusing.
"Why on earth would you get jealous?" he'd asked her. "I think we both know that our souls are bound from now until the end of time."
"Yes, I know that," Clearsight responded. "Trust me, if I saw a future where you cheated on me with her, I would have stuffed her in a barrel and chucked her across the ocean a long time ago. It's probably just me being immature. I am only five, after all."
"Four," Darkstalker corrected.
"Right, right. Sorry, I keep forgetting."
Darkstalker hummed, taking a few seconds to try sympathizing with her. "Do you want me to try spending less time with Listener? I wouldn't want to steal your friendship from you."
"No, of course not! I will get over this; just give me some time."
It appeared that she still hadn't quite gotten over it yet. Even back at the arboretum, Darkstalker thought he could sense a bit of envy radiating from her. It made him feel a little guilty whenever he looked forward to seeing Listener again, but she was too valuable and too interesting of a friend. Her intensity and starry-eyed bravado made every hour they spent together energizing and fun.
They flew for nearly an hour, distancing themselves far from the school. Eventually, Listener adjusted her wings and dipped down below the clouds, flying low enough to see the dim, colorful dots on the ground that marked blooming wildflowers popping over the grass. She looked over her shoulder and said, "We're pretty close now. Keep an eye out for a scavenger den."
"Do you know where we're going?" Clearsight asked.
"Not anymore. Like I said, all I know is that the teachers think there might be something near the mountains. And those are the mountains over there."
When Darkstalker looked up ahead, the Agate and Jade Mountain stood high beside the southern Claws of the Clouds, with a sea of evergreens spread out in front of it. There could be a hundred scavenger dens hiding anywhere under the trees.
"What should we be looking for?" Darkstalker asked. "What do scavenger dens look like?"
"We should check the clearings first," Listener said. "In the wild, they cut down trees and use the wood and animal hide to build tents."
"Aww, that's adorable!" Clearsight said, beaming down at the sack she was holding. "They make their own little huts!"
"They're very resourceful," Listener agreed. "Which will hopefully make it easier for us to find a settlement."
They swooped low and started to investigate a small, grassy glade. They hovered just over the treetops, close enough to the ground for them to be able to see the petals of wild daffodils. After just a few seconds, they concluded that nothing was there, neither beneath the surrounding trees nor within the clearing, so they rose back up into the air to find another area to search.
As Darkstalker adjusted his wings to catch a current of air, the moonlight shifted a little in his vision. He looked over, thinking at first that it was just a nearby cloud hovering in the way, but found that it was actually a stack of gray smoke lifting off from the ground. He hissed under his breath. "We should avoid that area up north," he said. "It looks like there's a hunting party that's cooking over there."
"What do you mean?" Listener said, panning her head from northeast to northwest in an effort to find what Darkstalker was referring to.
"I think I see smoke from a campfire," he said. "In the direction of the gibbous moon on your right."
"Really? Let's check it out! You lead the way." Listener sank back, drifting below Darkstalker so he could pull up ahead.
"Why?" Darkstalker asked. "Aren't we trying to keep these scavengers away from danger?"
"Scavengers know how to use fire too," Listener explained. "The smoke you saw might be coming from a scavenger den."
Darkstalker hummed contemplatively. He tried to use his future sight powers to see if Listener was right, but he was too tired from the flying and the rescuing. It would only be a few more hours before dawn would steal the blackness from the sky. He was ready to get this mission over and done with.
Accepting Listener's suggestion, he altered his course slightly and flew towards the moon, where he'd spotted the smoke. At first it took him a little while to catch sight of it again, but once he'd lined it up with the moonlight it was a straight and easy path to it.
As they got closer, the orange twinkle of a bonfire began to take form at the top of a cliffside. It was hard to spot any dragons surrounding it, but when Darkstalker strained his night vision, he thought he was able to see a couple of huts made of thatch and wood.
"Ha! I was right," Listener cheered. "That's a scavenger den for sure. It looks like this might be a pretty big one too. I can see more huts in the woods behind the fire."
Perfect, Darkstalker thought, grinning shrewdly. For a split second, he was afraid that he'd forgotten his satchel and left it at home. But when he brought one talon over to feel for it, he found that it was there, sitting snugly against his chest, with the gift he'd made still resting safely inside of it.
"Do you think they'll try to attack us once we get closer?" Clearsight asked.
"I don't think so," Listener said. "Scavengers are nocturnal, and they won't be able to see us until we land. They're also smart enough to know to run away from dragons rather than try and fight us."
They landed about ten feet away from the campfire, just on the edge of the cliff that it overlooked. Clearsight set her sack of scavengers down on the ground and untied the knot that had been closing it up. A few seconds passed where nothing happened. Listener looked down at the bag worryingly.
"You didn't accidentally kill them, did you?" she asked Clearsight.
"What? Of course not!"
"Are you sure? They're fragile creatures, Clearsight. They—"
Suddenly, the two scavengers bolted out of the sack, squeaking loudly. Then they each picked up a couple of rocks that were lying on the ground and started throwing them at Listener.
Listener flinched after one of the rocks hit her in the snout. "Ow! Stop attacking me, you idiots! We just rescued you!" Promptly, she set her own sack down and opened it up, letting the scavengers she'd captured out. The other scavengers continued to assault her with pebbles, but she just tried to ignore them. A couple of seconds later, the two of them emerged from her sack. The male was limping much more intensely now, hardly using one of his legs, while the female supported his weight and helped him run faster.
Darkstalker untied his own sack as well. Almost instantly, the female ran out, but she stopped and turned around when she realized that the other scavenger wasn't following along. Darkstalker felt a little bit of empathy and frustration coming from her as she slipped her body back into the sack and ferreted around for the other guy. Soon, she was backing out, squeaking irately as she pulled on her friend's arm to beckon him out.
By now there were others from the village filing out of their huts. Some were scrambling from one direction to another as if they'd been set on fire. Others picked up rocks and started throwing them at Darkstalker, who had to resist the urge to laugh at them for their efforts. One scavenger was holding onto a curved stick, crouching slightly. He pulled on what looked like a piece of twine that was tied to the stick which caused the wood to bend, then let go. A wooden projectile launched out of it at an alarmingly high speed, and hit Darkstalker's chest, sinking into his scales.
"Aaaaaaargh!" Darkstalker roared, wincing in pain. "That really hurt, you little furball!" The scavenger released another projectile, this one just barely whizzing past his head. "Stop that! You're gonna poke my eye out!"
The female scavenger that he'd freed turned around and lifted her arms in the air, her palms facing the villagers. She ran over to the guy shooting the arrows and they began squeaking at each other. As Clearsight trotted over to look at the place where Darkstalker had gotten lightly impaled, a male scavenger with long, dark brown hair approached the two bickering ones. The female turned around to meet him, and a heartbeat later, they held each other in a tight embrace.
"Awwww, look!" Listener squeed, pointing at them. "They know each other! They're hugging because they remember each other! Ahh, it's so cute, I'm going to die!"
Clearsight grabbed onto the arrow stuck in Darkstalker's chest and pulled it out. Darkstalker cringed, but the mark it left was clearly nothing serious. The projectile was far too tiny to do any actual damage. "They can make weapons too," Clearsight mused, studying the arrow and the wound it caused. "They really are smarter than I thought."
All of the scavengers had stopped attacking them now. Most of them were just watching, staring cautiously and quietly at the three NightWings before them.
"Hey, why did they stop freaking out at us?" Listener asked, noticing the same thing.
"They noticed that we're not hurting them," Darkstalker said. "And that we just gave them a group of unharmed scavengers."
Listener gasped, her eyes glistening. "Does that mean that they're starting to trust us?"
"I don't think so," Darkstalker answered. "I think they're just waiting to see what we want." Calmly, he reached over and opened up the satchel hanging over his shoulder. Many of the scavengers squeaked at his movements, backing away startled. Darkstalker ignored them.
He reached in and pulled out a tiny golden goblet, far too small for any dragon to use. He then leaned forward and set the goblet down in front of the scavenger villagers, who began to scurry back once again.
"What are you doing?! Don't hurt them!" Listener hissed.
"I'm not," Darkstalker said. "I'm giving them a gift." Once he'd set the goblet down, he brought his talons back, and sat upright once again to wait for the scavengers' reaction.
To his side, Listener cocked her head at him. "What's that?"
"It's a golden cup — a small piece of treasure. Consider it a peace offering."
"Oh! That's sweet of you," Listener said. "Scavengers like collecting precious treasure just like we do, so they'll probably — wait, it's enchanted, isn't it?"
"It is," Darkstalker said as he watched the scavengers study the goblet carefully. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Clearsight gave him a suspicious glare. "But it's completely harmless to them. You'll like the enchantment, Listener, I promise."
"What is it?" Listener asked.
"I'd rather show you than tell you," Darkstalker said, grinning. "Remember the surprise I had planned for you? It involves this."
"Oh! So the enchantment is for me?" Listener started to bounce up and down excitedly. "Show me! Show me!"
"I will," Darkstalker said. "But first, I think it's about time we flew home."
"What? Wait, but—"
"I can show you what it does when we're back in the Great Diamond," Darkstalker explained. "I think our welcome has been overstayed, and it's starting to get late."
The scavengers now dared to pick up the goblet. They surrounded it, passing it around from person to person, staring quizzically at it. In the meantime, Darkstalker backed up and began to spread his wings. The scavengers gave him one last glance as he lifted himself in the air before they scurried back into the forest. As he turned around and took to the sky, Clearsight and Listener followed up behind him.
"Let's go back to my house," Darkstalker told them, feeling warm from the afterglow of a successful mission.
"Darkstalker, how come I don't know about this enchantment?" Clearsight asked him, pulling up to his right. "You haven't been hiding any spells from me, have you?"
"What? Of course not," Darkstalker answered. "It was just yesterday that I made the spell, so you wouldn't have seen it. I didn't want you to spoil the fun for Listener. If you're worried, you can look to the future and find out what I did that way."
"You don't mind?" Clearsight asked.
Darkstalker shook his head. "Not for this spell."
Clearsight faced forward, then closed her eyes and began gliding. A few seconds later, she went, "Ooooh," before opening her eyes and grinning shrewdly at him.
"It's clever, isn't it?" Darkstalker asked, his face lifting with pride.
"Actually, your enchantment might have to wait until later." Clearsight beat her wings so that she was by Darkstalker's side. "Fathom's going to be waiting for us."
A/N: Brighter Paths now has official cover art! The piece was drawn by the amazing Biohazardia, whom you can find on deviantART. You should TOTALLY give her a watch if you aren't following her already, because her artwork is some of the best in the fandom.
The next chapter will probably be shorter than this one, however I have one or two other short stories for Wings of Fire that I want to write first, so if you're currently waiting for chapter 8, it may take just a touch longer than normal to get it out. I hope I don't keep you waiting for too long!