A/N: Welcome back, everyone, to Chapter 10.
So...back when I started writing this story I told myself to do my best to keep all chapters between 3,0000-4,000 words (give or take). This for a variety of reasons, but so far I've mostly held to it. Until now. This one came in at about 6,500 words, making it by far the longest chapter in the story yet. My plan and hope is to get back to the normal chapter size soon. It should be doable, it just wasn't for this one.
Anyway, and as always, feel free to favorite/follow if you like the story so far, and be sure to leave a review. And, of course, enjoy...
Chapter 10: Salvation
No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Darkstalker's mind was flying faster than he was, and right now he was flying very fast. This can't be happening, this can't be happening.
He looked back at Clearsight as she, Indigo, and he sped over the roofs of the Night Capital, Indigo at the head of the impromptu sprint. Fear and worry filled his head; from what he knew, it may already be too late to save his mother from whatever had happened. Of course, he didn't even know for sure what had happened to prompt the encounter Indigo had had with her and Clearsight's subsequent vision, but he had a few ideas.
"I saw her right at the marketplace, not too far from here," Indigo called back to him over her shoulder. And she was right about the distance, only a few moments later she slowed and hovered not far from the center of the city, just above the numerous merchant stalls below. "This is it," she told him as he and Cleasight caught up, him behind by mere seconds whereas Clearsight took a bit longer, "She came from that way," Indigo pointed down at what he recognized as his own street, "And took off flying straight north. I didn't keep a close eye on her, but I didn't see any reason to think she altered her course."
Darkstalker took a deep breath, resisting the urge to immediately begin flying north as fast as his wings could carry him. I can't panic, he told himself even as his mind raced almost faster than he could process everything, desperately trying to save time, I need to stay calm. I need to think. Think, plan, and execute. I need to know what I'm doing. I need my scroll.
"What do we do?" Clearsight asked, her sides already heaving from exertion. She seemed almost as worried as he was, he could hear it in her voice and see it in the way her eyes darted back and forth, looking for anything that could somehow help.
"It won't do any good to just take off after her," Darkstalker said, trying to put confidence into his voice that he didn't really feel at the moment. "First, we need to check my house. Hopefully this is all a big misunderstanding and she's right there now, perfectly fine. If she isn't, then maybe we can find out what happened and what we can do."
Clearsight nodded and followed as he changed course and flew towards his home. Indigo followed too, close behind. The Seawing seemed to be holding herself better than Clearsight, but why shouldn't she—it wasn't like it was her mother's or friend's mother's life on the line.
The short flight to his house only took a talonful of seconds from the marketplace, and soon the three of them touched down in front of his door. Darkstalker wasted no time in bursting in, ready for both the best and the worst. What he wasn't expecting was his sister to be standing the middle of the living room, wings spread wide, wailing a high pitched sort of distress call like some dying bird as loud as she could. Whiteout's cry was piercing and sad and maddening and Darkstalker wondered how he hadn't heard it from all the way away at the marketplace.
"There you are, thank goodness," Arctic growled, announcing his presence as he entered from another room as Clearsight and Indigo entered from the outside, "Maybe you can make her stop; she's been doing this for almost a half an hour, now.
Darkstalker tried to read Whiteout's mind to see what she'd seen and find out what was the matter, but all he got were flashes of silver and white that stung his mind and hurt to hear. He couldn't get anything from it and could only barely block it out to think his own thoughts.
Clearsight dashed over to Whiteout's side and put a wing around her, whereupon his sister crumpled into her and began sobbing, suddenly looking very small and pitiful.
"Shh," he heard Clearsight murmur to her, softly and gently, "I know, I know. It's awful, I know."
With a tiny shake of his head he collected himself and turned his attention fully towards his father. "Where's mother?" he demanded, his voice somewhere between a yell and a snarling growl.
"How should I know?" his father snapped back, but Darkstalker could make out a few more thoughts in that head of his. Picked another stupid fight, the Icewing was thinking, Flew off in a huff right before Whiteout started her screeching.
"Did she go back to the warzone?" Darkstalker kept the same edge in his voice as before, "Why is she gone? Arctic, where is she?"
"I don't—" Arctic suddenly paused and became much more alert. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Clearsight had a vision," Darkstalker answered, frustrated at being forced to waste time explaining, "Something's happened. I think Queen Diamond is going after her. I'm not sure, but I think there's a sort of spell—"
"Impossible," Arctic interrupted, "My mother would never use her magic against Foeslayer. She's already used it once for her tribe; she cannot use it again."
"Maybe she made an exception, for revenge," Darkstalker growled, "Something small…something like a summoning enchantment, just enough to prompt mother to fly north and come to her. That must be it!"
"But why now?" Arctic asked, "And how? Even if Queen Diamond did do something like that, which I'll concede she might have, Foeslayer has her earring that I made her. There's no spell or weapon that can possibly hurt her…" his words slowed and he trailed off. Darkstalker suddenly got a sense of fear from his father that he'd never felt from him before as the Icewing's mind suddenly replayed the events from earlier that day.
The fight had been over the war, over Foeslayer's decision to continue to fight while Arctic remained in the capital doing almost nothing. He'd accused her of being too sentimental and stubborn to insist on it despite how little one dragon could do. She'd accused him of being too selfish and cowardly to make any sacrifice and actually do anything useful to help her or her fellow soldiers.
Arctic had shouted that she was hardly any different, as his protective earring meant that she wasn't exactly risking her own scales.
"I don't wear this for protection," she'd yelled, "I wear it because I love you!"
What followed next were thoughts that Darkstalker could see that Arctic already regretted, guilt and pain evident in his mind as much as the Icewing would have like to have hidden it. He'd accused her of not loving him, but rather his power. He'd accused her of lying to him, of only pretending to care to steal his gifts. That everything was just a big scheme to get animus magic for her tribe. They were words he'd regretted immediately, Darkstalker could see that, but there'd been no time to take them back before what had happened next.
"How dare you?" Foeslayer had screamed, "I love you more than anything. I wish you weren't an animus, I wish you'd never had a shred of magic. I never wanted it! I've never wanted anything to do with it!"
Then Foeslayer took off his earring and threw it at him, and without another word turned and left the house, leaving him alone.
"You let her take off her earring?" Darkstalker hissed, before giving a very low, threatening growl.
There was fear in Arctic's eyes and in his mind as he was making the same connections Darkstalker was. He could hear in his mind that the theory that Queen Diamond had cast a spell no longer seemed ridiculous. "She was angry," his father tried to explain, "I thought she'd come back for it sooner or later."
"Do you realize," Darkstalker continued to growl, taking a menacing step closer to him, "That that earring was probably the only thing standing between mother and Diamond? That by letting her take it off you let this happen."
"But I didn't mean too," Arctic insisted, his voice cracking as his wings faltered at his sides. He looked the smallest that Darkstalker had ever seen him as the weight of what happened began to crash down on him.
"Do you realize," Darkstalker continued to press, "…what will happen if Diamond gets to her, Arctic? She'll KILL HER!" He shouted the last part and only barely restrained himself from slashing at his father's throat. Whiteout whimpered louder at his words, still under the gentle wing of Clearsight.
Without another word he left his father there, the Icewing frozen and trembling, and ran to his room. He couldn't worry about his father or even his sister right now—he had much to do if he even wanted to have a chance to save his mother.
He heard clawsteps entering the room behind him as he pulled out his scroll and dug for a piece of paper to use. First things first, he thought as he laid the first decent sized piece of parchment he could find on top of his scroll, I need to make sure that what I fear is actually happening.
A second later he was scrawling on his scroll, casting the enchantment he needed: enchant this paper to show me where Foeslayer is right now.
Immediately a map blossomed into view across the page, mountains, forests, trees, and rivers all shaping themselves in vivid ink in an instant. To the south was the Night Kingdom, the greens of forests and browns of cliffs depicted with an artist's touch on the page, and to the north was the Ice Kingdom, a great blotch of endless white. Between them was the Sand Kingdom, an equally unappealing blotch of sand brown on the map. Darkstalker's eyes scanned the paper until they found a small red dot that he took to be his mother, still within the Night Kingdom but heading right towards the northern border.
It was a good start, but he needed more information. Enchant this map to also show the locations of all Nightwing and Icewing camps and patrols, he wrote quickly, more dots and squares immediately sprung up, blue marking Icewings and black marking Nightwings.
Okay, he thought to himself, Not horrible, not yet. Foeslayer still had some distance between herself and the boarder, and even more between the nearest Icewing camp. Unfortunately, Icewing patrols seemed to be all over the southern desert and there was no way he could predict where they'd be once Foeslayer got closer. There didn't seem to be any Nightwing patrols ahead of her, either, that could have intervened. Just at an initial outlook, it seemed her course was going to take her straight to the Ice Palace, which mercifully didn't put her straight over any current enemy encampments. Queen Diamond probably summoned her there, or just to herself, which would explain why that was the case.
Can I do the same spell, summoning her back here? He thought. He decided to try, writing a quick spell instructing his mother to come to him. He glanced at the map and growled as nothing seemed to change.
Maybe I should just kill Diamond, was his next idea, That should be easy enough…
He glanced over towards one of his trunks, the one which held the few weapons he had. They were mostly knives and daggers, but any one would do. He moved to grab one but found a dragon in his way.
"You can't kill Queen Diamond," Clearsight told him, having followed him in. Indigo was next to her, watching them both carefully. He noticed the Seawing tensed up a little at those words.
"I thought I was the mind reader," he growled, pushing past her toward the chest, "And, yes, I can. It's a great idea. It's what she'll do to my mother, at any rate."
"You can't," Clearsight said again, "Because right now her only heir is a niece who's far more ruthless and cunning than she is. If she ascends the throne, Darkstalker, you have no idea how bad it could be."
"It can't be worse than my mother dying," he hissed, going through his blades. He found a nice, sharp dagger with a satisfying curve to it.
"It can be," Clearsight insisted, "I haven't seen too many of those futures, and what I've seen is hazy, but there's so much blood. War without end…chaos…genocide of entire tribes. Snowfox cannot be queen, Darkstalker. She can't be."
"Then what do you expect me to do?" he yelled, whipping his head towards her, "I can't just let my mother die!"
"Then go after her."
It was Indigo who spoke this time. She was over at his desk, looking intently at the map he'd enchanted. A wave of shock went over Darkstalker as he realized that he'd been using his scroll right in front of her, but it was quickly replaced with confusion at her words.
"How?" he asked, "She's too far ahead. We'd never catch her."
"I don't think so," Indigo responded, still looking at the map, "It's a long way to the Sand Kingdom, isn't it?"
"Almost a full night's flight," Clearsight confirmed.
"Foeslayer only has about a half-hour lead on us right now," the Seawing went on, "It's daunting, I know, but I don't think it will be impossible to catch her if we leave right now. We just have to outfly her. And when I saw her take off earlier, she looked confused, disoriented; if there is a spell on her, she might be fighting it. She might be slowing herself down."
Darkstalker dropped the knife back in the chest and walked back to his desk, looking again at the map. What Indigo said was true: his mother did still have a long way to go before she crossed the border. But he couldn't tell how fast she was going; the map was just too small for him to get an accurate idea. For all he knew, whatever spell Diamond had cast could have forced her to fly full speed.
He looked at Clearsight, who had both fear and hope in her eyes, then at Indigo, who seemed to hold herself as neutral as ever.
"Do you really think we can catch her?" he asked the Seawing.
"It's better than standing here worrying and fighting," came her answer.
He looked at the map one more time, at the little red dot that was his mother's life. He made a decision.
Grabbing a satchel beside his desk, he shoved his scroll, the map, and a jar of ink inside before slinging it over his neck. "Then let's go," he said as he turned to leave the room. He caught a glimpse of Clearsight and saw a look of utter relief on her face. He could head the same from Indigo's mind, but also a hint of excitement as her idea was acted upon.
There was still one thing he needed before they left, though. Reentering the living room, he found Arctic just as he'd left him, standing there frozen, a distant look in his eyes. His mouth was open slightly, and he didn't respond even as Whiteout sat whimpering against him. The Icewing's mind and body seemed to be in a state of shock, almost as if Darkstalker had cast a spell over him.
Darkstalker approached his father, actually having mild concern over how blank the Icewing's mind was. But that wasn't why he wanted to talk to him. "Where's the earring?" he asked.
"W—what?" Arctic said, his eyes only barely flickering towards him.
"Foeslayer's earring," Darkstalker demanded, "Where is it?"
The Icewing raised a shaky claw and pointed to the dining table in the other room. Darkstalker rushed over and found it setting on a plate, no doubt picked up from wherever Foeslayer had thrown it and discarded in a visible place. He quickly grabbed it and shoved it in his satchel, then turned and headed towards the door. He didn't even glance back to see Indigo and Clearsight following him outside, but he could hear their clawsteps and thoughts behind his own.
With a few powerful flaps of his wings, Darkstalker took to the sky. Angling himself north, he immediately flew up higher, searching for helpful air currents. Anything that could add a little bit of speed could mean the difference between his mother's life and death, and he knew that the flight would be easier on him the more help he got—however short or long that flight would be. It took him a minute or two, but he found a good current and settled into it as the Night Capital went from being under him to behind him.
Clearsight and Indigo, too, found the air current and flew behind him, taking advantage of his breaking of the air. A thought came to his mind that this could be another advantage that they had: they could each take turns at the lead in order to rest at times and thus move faster overall. Wherever Foeslayer was, she was having to deal with all the air drag by herself.
But even as this thought crossed his mind, another problem rapidly became evident. Clearsight was already beginning to lag behind. She'd never been the strongest flyer, and in this moment where speed was of the essence, she couldn't keep up. Short-term, maybe, but not for the hours it would likely take before they could catch his mother. With each beat of his wings she drifter farther away, and Darkstalker knew that he couldn't afford to wait for her.
She seemed to have the same thought. "Darkstalker," she called out, exertion and worry in her voice.
Whatever would happen, Darkstalker knew he'd want Clearsight there. There was so much she could help with, whether just being supportive or with a helpful vision. But right now, she simply couldn't do any of that.
"Go back," He called back to her, his voice echoing against the wind, "There's nothing you can do to help. Make sure Whiteout stays calm and…and make sure Arctic doesn't lose it." That indeed was something Clearsight could help with. He could see that his father had been extremely shaken by what had happened, and if it caused him to become a bit irrational then a lot of bad things could happen. No, it wouldn't do for a mad Icewing animus to be unsupervised.
Clearsight gave a nod, no doubt getting what he meant. She turned and flew back towards the Night Capital, leaving Indigo as his only ally.
He was alone with Indigo. An uneasy feeling hit him at that realization, and not just the constant discomfort from the worry over his mother. He hadn't had the presence of mind to throw on any of his jewelry with protective spells, and Indigo had threatened his life in the past. And she'd just gotten a glimpse of his scroll. Of course, he'd not exactly explained what it was to her, but Indigo was smart enough to at least know that something was up with it. An animus doesn't just write down every spell when they don't have to.
Suppose she tries to kill me, whether for the scroll or otherwise? Darkstalker thought, a small shiver running down his back. There was a clear and present danger of that happening…and yet…he couldn't feel any animosity towards him in her mind. She could be hiding it, but there seemed to be a genuine desire in her to help. If she tries anything, I'll deal with it then, he decided, I'll just have to be careful. If she was willing to help, he wasn't exactly in a position to refuse it. Not with what was at stake.
The two flew in silence, speedily flying above the Nightwing forests on their way towards the Sandwing Border. Every so often Indigo would fly ahead and overtake him, putting herself at the front and giving him a small respite. Then, when he felt ready or could see that she was tiring, he'd fly ahead and take the brunt of the wind. Occasionally he'd pull the map out of his satchel and check it, seeing where they were compared to his mother. Each time he did he found that they were indeed catching up. Whether or not they could catch her before she went too deep into the desert was something he still couldn't tell, though.
Time passed. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days as his wings began to ache and his mind continued to go numb with worry. Below, trees turned to meadows and back to trees as the landscape changed the farther north they went. He found himself finding a bit of solace in the routine they now had. Ahead, fly harder. Slow, let Indigo ahead, fly softer. He tried to keep his focus just on that—on flying—so that his mind would wander to all those horrible, horrible places that the future might just go if he didn't succeed.
It sounded like Indigo was doing the same—from her mind, at least. She didn't say a word as they went, but her mind seemed to have the same rigid determination as his did. Fly fast, fly focused—her mind kept repeating those words over and over like a mantra. Why that was the case was beyond him, but whatever helped her match him in speed was fine with him. After all, Seawings were supposed to be the slowest flyers of the tribes, but Indigo was proving more than apt at a speedy flight.
It was as she was once more taking the lead from him that he finally broke the silence with a simple "Why?". He didn't feel the need to elaborate further; he had a feeling she knew what he was asking.
Her gaze flickered back to him for just a moment before she turned it back to look ahead. It wasn't a rude gesture, just a wise one to keep herself streamlined. Her answer was a bit hard to hear due to it, but Darkstalker could still make it out. "I guess I'm invested, now," she told him, "If my bumping into your mother started us on this path, I may as well see it out. Besides, Foeslayer seemed a good dragon. I'd rather not just let her die if I could help prevent it."
He gave a small, unthreatening growl, more to himself than anything. "Yeah, she is."
They flew on. Farther and father. All through the darkest part of the night and into the early morning. He could tell that dawn was coming sooner rather than later. Darkstalker glanced at his map every so often, frustration and dismay beginning to set in. They were still gaining, but they were too far behind. They were losing speed; his wings were burning and he knew Indigo's must be as well. The gains they made each time he checked their progress were getting smaller and smaller, and he knew that if something didn't change soon then it would all be over.
With a growl, he informed Indigo of the situation. "We won't make it," he called out to her, "She's too far. We're too tired. We can't catch up."
Indigo gave him a look, one of tiredness and pain. He got a sense of stubbornness and frustration from her as she made a motion downward; she wanted to land. He growled, not yet ready to give up himself, but he followed her as she dipped down and headed towards the ground below.
They landed in a large clearing, his wings collapsing limply against his sides as soon as he stopped using them. They ached furiously, discomfort flowing through his shoulders even as they finally got relief. He gave a hiss before chocking back a sob of emotion and frustration. After so much, it couldn't end like this.
Indigo stood near him, her sides heaving as her wings drooped like his did. They gave each other a tired look, before she sunk down onto her haunches and gave a long, low groan. "Five minutes," she said once she had finished it, "Then we need to get back up there."
Darkstalker shook his head, defeated. "It's no use. We can't…I can't…" his pain and frustration began to shift, to turn to anger, and then to fury. He should never had followed Indigo's plan and tried to catch Foeslayer. He'd flown all night for nothing! He should have just followed his instinct and sent a kill spell to end Diamond before she could do anything! Or he should have spent his time trying to figure out a counter spell to save his mother!
Wait…
He looked down, remembering that he had taken his scroll with him in the satchel around his neck. It hadn't done him any good since he couldn't write in it in flight and he couldn't afford to stop flying to do anything, but now he was on the ground with plenty of opportunity to cast whatever spell he needed to. He could figure out how to kill Diamond with Clearsight around to dissuade him! He could get his vengeance right now, maybe even have it kill Snowfox too if it would prevent Clearsight's worrisome visions. In fact, why stop there? He had all the time in the world to craft a spell that would make sure that no Icewing ever became a problem again!
He pulled out his scroll, those thoughts in his mind, and saw Indigo suddenly jump back up to all fours. He thought for a moment that she somehow knew what he was planning and that she was about to try to stop him, but then he saw excitement in her eyes and in her mind.
"Darkstalker! You're an animus!" she exclaimed, as if it was a great revelation.
"Of course I am," he growled, not sure if he should annoyed or intrigued by the thoughts in her head that were suddenly going too fast for him to really understand.
"No…Yes…What I mean is…you can enchant things," she tried to explain, "Things that could help us! You said that we're too tired, too slow, but you can change that!"
The thoughts in her mind we solidifying to one central idea. Darkstalker saw it, and suddenly began to have a little bit more hope.
"Maybe you can put a spell on something that grants the holder or wearer more speed and stamina," she continued, "We may not be able to catch your mother as we are, but I'm sure we could if we could fly like we did when we first left the city to chase her."
Darkstalker nodded, slowly at first, then a bit more vigorously as the idea took shape in his mind. Yes, he could do that. It would be easy, too, and far from the most complex spell he'd ever done. He pulled out his ink and dipped his talons in it (he'd forgotten his normal writing utensils), but paused, suddenly suspicious.
"Wait," he asked her, "I thought that you were against me using animus magic. Aren't you worried that I'll turn my soul evil."
"Ordinarily, yes," came her answer, as she lashed her tail impatiently, "But this is a special situation. I mean, how can magic hurt your soul if you're using it to save a life? Besides, I have a feeling that losing your mother would do far more damage to you than a spell or two."
Darkstalker nodded, the thoughts of anger and revenge that were so present just moments ago now replaced by the original goal: get his mother. Once more the prospect seemed attainable, and as he put ink to his scroll he could almost feel certain that he'd be able to do it.
If not, he thought, no amount of armies or magic will keep Diamond from my wrath.
Ordinarily he'd use something a bit more elaborate for an object to enchant but, as it was, he was forced to use two small-ish rocks he found beneath his claws. He set them on his scroll and wrote out a hasty spell. Enchant these rocks so that whoever holds them may fly faster than a Skywing and will never grow tired. It may not be a perfect spell—one that could very well be used beyond what was he was intending—but it would do for now. He noticed that Indigo watched with curiosity as he wrote it down, although she didn't comment on the scroll.
"Here," he told her, tossing one of them to her. She caught it one claw and eyed it a bit warily but didn't put it down. In fact, she immediately began to perk up a little, as if she'd suddenly had cold water splashed on her scales.
Picking up the other stone, he felt what she'd just gone through. Instantly, the aches in his wings disappeared and all of the exhaustion in his body vanished. He felt like he'd just awoken from a long and wonderful nap, energized and ready for anything. He was suddenly more alert, more awake, and much more capable of saving his mother. Putting his ink and scroll back safely in his satchel, he looked up to the darkened night sky with determination.
He took off back into the air, suddenly undeterred by the flight ahead, and was thrown off a little as his wings lurched him farther up than he'd thought he'd go. Due to the spell, his wings were somehow moving more air, pushing him up faster than he'd ever gone before as he climbed back up to the air current he'd been using. It actually took him a few minutes to adjust and get the hang of the flight. Indigo seemed to go through a similar struggle, but was right behind him as he zoomed over the northern reaches of the Night Kingdom.
With cruising speeds that rivaled that of his fastest dives, he and Indigo quickly began to make up the distance on Foeslayer. A few periodic checks of the map confirmed that were gaining twice as fast as they had before, even back when they were still fresh from leaving the Night Capital. And what was even better was that despite this, Darkstalker still felt the same as he had when he'd first grabbed the rock. Even after an hour of flight had passed, he didn't feel a single bit of pain or discomfort on his wings.
The sunlight was just beginning to break over the horizon when Darkstalker checked his map once more and saw with a sinking feeling that Foeslayer had crossed into the Sand Kingdom. He'd hoped to catch her before, but it seemed as though not even the spell could make up the distance in time. All was not lost, though; they could still catch her so long as no Icewing patrols came across her—or them—first. The map indicated that there were a few in her area, but none on a direct course towards her.
Furthermore, and to his relief, it wasn't long after that the trees ended beneath him and an expanse of barren and rocky plains began. The change to the lifeless scenery made it clear: they'd crossed over to the Sand Kingdom themselves.
He and Indigo flew on, safety and familiarity behind as they moved into enemy territory. Being seen or captured here could easily lead to a gruesome death—or worse. He informed Indigo of this, giving her a chance to turn back, but she remained. He could hear in her head that at this point she was almost as determined to save his mother as he was.
The first true rays of sunlight began to light the barren desert below when Darkstalker finally got a glimpse of what he'd been longing to see for so long. There ahead, skyborne, was a tiny black dot. He could tell almost at once that it was a dragon, and that impression was only confirmed the closer they got.
He could almost have cried when they got close enough to see that it was a Nightwing, and again when he could confirm it was his mother.
They caught up to her in a surprisingly short time after their first glimpse. Only a few minutes passed before they were right on her tail and it was easy to see why. Foeslayer's wingbeats were slow…haphazard, almost. She was grumbling something to herself, twitching weirdly. It almost looked as if she was trying to turn around but she couldn't—something that Darkstalker immediately theorized was due to the spell. It looked like she was actually having trouble keeping herself airborne due both to that and clear exhaustion, and she didn't even glance at Darkstalker even as he flew right up alongside her.
"Foeslayer!" he cried, brushing his wingtips against hers, "Mom! Don't worry, I'm here!"
There was no response, just indecipherable murmuring. He glanced at Indigo in confusion and the Seawing gave a sigh.
"Let me try," she offered, coming in on his mother's other side, "Foeslayer? Can you hear us? Don't worry, we're here to help." Indigo looked at Darkstalker as nothing changed and gave a small growl. "Sorry."
Reaching out, she grabbed onto Foeslayer and folded her wings. In an instant she dropped towards the ground below, dragging Foeslayer with her. His mother gave a small yelp and Darkstalker looked on with shock as the two dragons fell from the sky. Not long later there was a small crash as they hit the ground. Darkstalker dived down after them, not exactly sure what had happened.
He felt relief as he landed. Indigo had apparently known what she was doing, as neither she or his mother looked too harmed by the fall. The latter was under the Seawing, struggling weakly as Indigo held her down. Not needing any prompting, Darkstalker reached into his satchel and pulled out her earring.
Approaching his mother, he moved to put it on her. She wriggled against him, trying to stop him from putting it on her, but he was able to slip it on after Indigo forced her head still. In an instant her struggle ceased and she relaxed, head falling down as her body went limp.
For a moment, Darkstalker was terrified that she'd died before her eyes slowly blinked open. "D—Darkstalker?" she asked softly.
"Mom!" he cried, barely keeping tears back. He had to wait a moment for Indigo to release her, but as soon as she did he rushed forward and threw his wings around her. "I thought I'd lost you."
"Darkstalker, what happened?" she asked, sinking into him. He could feel her exhaustion in her mind, as well as great confusion. Foeslayer had had some idea that something was wrong in her head, but she didn't know what and why. The events of the night had been a blur, like a dream that she was already forgetting.
"Diamond tried to get you," he explained simply, tightening his wings around her, "Indigo and I stopped her."
"I don't understand—" Foeslayer began, but was cut off by Indigo.
"I don't want to interrupt a heartfelt moment, but we're still in the desert," she said looking up and around for any enemies that could descend upon them at any moment, "Perhaps we should get to safety, then we can bother to explain things. Or explain as we fly."
"I…yes. Good idea," Darkstalker said, forcing himself to release his mother. Finding a rock and pulling out his scroll, he repeated his spell from earlier for Foeslayer. With her now alert and reenergized, the three took off once more. This time, though, they were headed south. To safety.
Darkstalker explained what had happened as they made their way back home. From Indigo's chance encounter with her, to Clearsight's vision, to the all-night chase they'd been on. He admitted that there was still a lot he didn't know about what exact spell Dimond used, but he assured his mother that she'd be safe so long as she kept the earring on.
It was a long flight home, but with the enchantments in place they made good time. It was only about midday when the three of them alighted outside his house. All remaining tension vanished from him as his feet touched down on familiar ground, his mother safely beside him.
Arctic was outside, waiting for them. His eyes went wide as he saw Foeslayer, and he rushed forward and embraced her with a cry. Darkstalker felt emotions he'd never felt his father feel before coming out of the Icewing's mind, and he heard a choked noise coming from Arctic's throat. Was Arctic…crying?
He was. Darkstalker could see tears falling as Foeslayer gently returned his embrace. "I'm sorry," the Icewing sobbed, "I'm so, so sorry."
He heard a door open and saw Clearsight and Whiteout coming out. Whiteout gave a shout of delight and rushed forward, joining in on Arctic's embrace. Clearsight looked at him and walked over towards where he and Indigo stood, relief etched all across her face and mind.
"You saved her," she told him, sounding almost surprised, "This…this is fantastic, Darkstalker! You didn't see what I saw but…if you hadn't…there was so much darkness. Suddenly, every future looks a little brighter."
He gave her a small smile, then looked over to where Arctic, Foeslayer, and Whiteout were still embracing, looking for the first time in his memory like an actual family. Maybe things were going to be better from now on.
Hearing clawsteps behind him, he turned to see Indigo beginning to walk away, her wings slightly outstretched as she seemed to be ready to take off. She noticed him looking at her and paused. "I…I should go," she said, "You probably want to be alone. I'll let Fathom know what happened." She took another step away.
"Wait!" Darkstalker called. He took a step towards her, then another. Suddenly, in an act that he never thought he'd actually do, he found his wings around her in an embrace, the emotion of all the hours of fear, frustration, and relief suddenly catching up to him in one swift motion. "Thank you," he said, meaning it with all her heart.
A moment later he suddenly realized what had just happened and pulled away, feeling awkward. She looked at him, just as stunned. She blinked once, then gave a very small smile. "No problem," she said. They looked at each other for another moment, before it got more uncomfortable and he looked away. She spread her wings again to fly, but stopped again. "Hey," she asked, raising something up for him in question. He saw it was the enchanted rock. "Do you want this? It is your magic."
Part of him urged himself to take it back, that it was a bad idea to be giving any dragon his magic, let alone a Seawing who he hated. But no, he didn't hate her. If he hadn't stopped hating her before, he certainly had now. With what she'd done for and with him today, how could he ever consider her an enemy?
"Keep it," he told her. She looked surprised, but didn't question it as she took off, flying back to the palace. He watched her go for a few moments, then looked back at his mother and father and sister. All safe and—for the moment—all happy.
Clearsight was right. The future definitely looked much brighter.