A/N: Welcome to Chapter 15.
Nothing much to say for this one, other than my reminder to favorite/follow and leave a review if you like the story so far. That said, enjoy...
Ch. 15: In the Right Direction
The flight to the cave couldn't exactly be called long, but neither was it short. It wouldn't have taken quite so long if it wasn't for having to lead two Seawings who hadn't been there before, but Darkstalker didn't mind. The skies were clear and the moons and stars shone brightly in the heavens, making it a downright beautiful night for a flight. The air was crisp and clear and barely a single breeze blew through it.
The four dragons flew mostly in silence, the Seawings slightly more focused on not getting lost than talking. Darkstalker had noticed both Indigo and Fathom had gotten much better at night flying since they'd arrived in the Night Kingdom, but there were still times when they went flying that his and Clearsight's scales blended in too well with the darkness and they accidently got themselves separated from the others. Most of the time they didn't even realize it until they heard Fathom yelling and asking where they'd gone. Several times he had been tempted to not respond or try to scare him as a practical joke, but Clearsight always stopped him before he could.
With the moons' illumination this night, however, losing the Seawings wasn't too big a worry, and before Darkstalker knew it they were in sight of his and Clearsight's cave. In the distance he could hear the sound of waves breaking on the shore, and glancing over the ocean he caught the glare of the moons reflecting on the water like three massive torches, shimmering and shaking with every ripple below.
He led his friends towards the beach, down near the water until they were practically flying over it. The salty smell of the ocean and fish met his nostrils as he guided them along the edge of the water towards the cave entrance, one that he doubted that Fathom or Indigo could even see themselves. It was exceptionally well hidden, and that was what made it so special; they had it all to themselves.
A sudden splash from behind him caught his attention, and he looked back just in time to see Indigo flying up from the ocean, a large fish in her claws. Apparently, she'd seen and taken a target of opportunity, and Fathom looked a little bit jealous as she bit into it once she'd caught back up.
He rolled his eyes but smiled a little as he looked back in front of him, then was forced to glance back again as he heard Fathom call out "How far?"
"Not much," he yelled back, "Just keep an eye on my tail."
And just like that, the shore rose up with a gap in it, and Darkstalker turned himself around to go towards it. In on swift move he went from flying parallel to the beach to flying right at it, and in that same beat of his wings he went right into the side of the small sea cliff and into the cave. It all happened in just one quick moment and he was gone from view and hidden in the cave. Sure, he could have just looped around and gone in normally, but where was the fun in that?
He landed on the rocky cave floor next to the largest of the tidal pools and looked back out towards the cave entrance. Several seconds passed before the other three flew in, much more slowly than he had. Clearsight gave him an overly exaggerated eye roll at his antic as she made sure that neither Fathom nor Indigo crashed into the side of the cave during the entry. It wasn't exactlya deceptively small entrance for the size of the cave, but then again, the Seawings weren't familiar with it like he was.
"Woah, this is neat," he heard Fathom say as he and the others landed next to them, "It's like one of those deep-sea caverns I've heard about, but mostly above water." The Seawing prince looked up at all the bioluminescent moss and glow worms covering the cave walls and ceilings, casting glows of green and yellow light like discolored stars in a rock-formed sky. He picked at a piece of bright green algae under his claws and held it up to his face, observing the look and texture of this new and foreign world.
"I knew you'd like it!" Clearsight exclaimed, "It's just such a…well, neat place. Like the perfect cross between your Sea Kingdom and our Night Kingdom."
"It's secluded, too," Darkstalker added, "I've never seen evidence of another dragon ever being here," he paused, "…Well, except once."
"Yeah, that's the interesting thing," Clearsight told Fathom, building off of him, "You know how your cousin—Current, wasn't it— was found by the Nightwings, healed up, and sent back to you, eventually taking the message with him that had you come here. I don't know if we ever told you, but we were the ones who found him, and this is the cave where we found him." She tapped a claw on the stone floor and drug her tail in a semicircle, dipping the tip into a tidal pool behind her. "If you think about it, it's almost like this cave brought you here."
Darkstalker could hear Fathom's mind immediately flip back to the horrors of the massacre for a split second at the mention of his cousin, but to the Seawing's credit he quickly moved on, refusing to dwell on it. "Interesting," he said in response, although not with the same enthusiasm Clearsight had had.
For her part, Indigo was already walking along the edge of the tide pools, glancing in and at times dipping her claws in the water and pulling up small shells, snails, and starfish. "Are these safe to swim in?" she asked, looking back at them.
"Of course," Darkstalker answered, "Clearsight and I swim in them all the time."
That was kind of a lie. He and Clearsight had swum in them a couple of times, but the majority of that "all the time" was still in the future. Still, it had to be perfectly safe if so many futures had them doing it fine.
A few seconds later and there was a splash as Indigo entered into the closest of the pools, submerging under the calm water. Another few seconds passed and her head popped back up, right near the bank where the rest of them stood. Fathom glanced at her, then them, then with a permissive tilt of Darkstalker's head he leapt in to join her.
"Oh, good water here," he said after doing an underwater loop along the edge of the pool before surfacing. "A bit cold, though."
"It's not cold," Indigo corrected him with a splash of water directed at his snout, "We've just been away from the sea for too long."
Darkstalker gave a small laugh from the shore as the two Seawings submerged once more, making use of their gills for the first time in a while. He himself wasn't ready to get wet quite yet, and neither, it seemed, was Clearsight. She planted herself down next to him and gently touched her tail against his as they watched the two Seawings swim circles around each other.
"I told you it would be fun," she told him, leaning into his side.
He gave a questioning hmmpf, not quite sure what she meant.
"Bringing Fathom and Indigo here," she clarified, "I always had the impression that you weren't too keen on doing it. I know there was a bit of a fight we had in several futures over it, but I could never really understand why."
Darkstalker shrugged his wings. "Who knows? Who cares? What's important is that we're here now and that we have a good time with it."
In truth, however, Darkstalker knew exactly why it was that he could have been so contentious about it. It all came down to Indigo. Not too long ago he would have rather had his tail cut off than bring her along to this special place. That was back when he despised her, when he still held that grudge against her for her wanting to kill him at their first meeting (to be honest with himself, he still wasn't completely over that, even if he had pretty much put it behind him now) and when she maintained her aggressive stance towards him.
And then there was that other reason, the one that he still tried not to think about too hard: his visions about that same Seawing dragoness. Not that long ago he had one of him and her together at this very spot, and he had worried that bringing her here would practically be opening himself up to such an unideal future. Yet with time had come a bit of softening in his heart; no longer were he and Indigo so vehemently opposed to each other, and no longer was Darkstalker so worried about such a vision occurring. He was in control, after all. He chose his own destiny.
All the same, he couldn't help but feel his mind drift to that memory of a distant and different future, where the Seawing he now watched swim before him in the present laid and laughed beside him as much, much more than the friend of his friend. And he couldn't exactly explain why it was that he found himself smiling at that thought…
Then he felt Clearsight's tail wrap around his and he shook his head rapidly, clearing those thoughts away. No, no, no, no, no! He chastised himself, I belong with Clearsight, not some Seawing! Why would he even be thinking that, let alone entertaining the notion? There was already a special dragoness in his life, and he did not need to be considering another, much less one that he knew his best friend harbored feelings for!
He turned and looked at her and Clearsight gave him a smile. "Do you want to join them?" she asked, motioning towards Fathom and Indigo with a wing.
"Not right now," Darkstalker answered with a tilt of his head, "Let's let them have their fun before we crowd the water."
"Good idea," Clearsight told him, "Besides, there's something I wanted to talk with you about."
"Oh, really?" he asked her, intrigued. He couldn't help but get the feeling that she was about to confide in him in some way, taking some act that strengthened their bond and whisked away all those other silly futures he kept seeing.
He was quickly disappointed.
"Yes, I talked with Queen Vigilance the other day," Clearsight began, "And she instructed me to talk with you about something the next time we went flying or spend the day together. She said something about wanting me to look over futures where you use your spells, and what effect they'd have on the war." She paused and tapped a claw on the stone floor. "I thought it odd, since I didn't think you'd made any spells for the war."
Darkstalker frowned. Of course Vigilance would try to push this on Clearsight, he griped in his thoughts. "I haven't," he answered, trying to keep the edge in his mind out of his words, "She wants me to, but I'm not particularly thrilled with bending to her wishes with what I do with my magic."
"That makes sense," Clearsight said with a nod, "No need to be careless with your magic. It's just that...well, if you want me to look into anything like that, let me know. I've already seen many futures where you help us win the war with an animus made weapon or two."
His frown deepened. "Is this you offering, or Vigilance?" he asked before he could help himself.
Clearsight pulled away and gave him a hurt look. "You did not just ask that, did you?" she demanded, sudden anger in her voice, "You know full well that I wouldn't try to push you into anything like that, especially if there was any chance of it doing the slightest bit of harm."
Darkstalker met her glare and gave way under it just enough to mumble a pathetic "sorry" with a short growl of frustration. Clearsight's anger melted in turn.
"It's just," she went on after a lapse of silence, "I don't know if you've seen the visions I have, the ones I've looked at day after day. There's so much death and killing. Dragons upon dragons dead. I do what I can to stop most of it, to save the lives I can, but I can only do so much. I'm tired of living under the shadow of this war, Darkstalker, and I wish it could all just end. And if any dragon has the power to end it, it's you."
Glancing down at his talons, Darkstalker gave a frustrated huff. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to do? He knew Clearsight was right, in a way, but he still wasn't about to just go out and start pumping out spells for the queen's use. It was a difficult subject, and one that he simply didn't want to spend time thinking about, not right now.
"Let's not worry about this, not now," he told her, setting a claw on hers, "Come on, I think I'm ready to join Fathom in the water. Maybe a nice swim will do both of us good."
Clearsight nodded and moments later the two found themselves submerged in the water, swimming around the tide pool with the two Seawings gliding effortlessly beneath their claws. Despite what Indigo had told Fathom, the water definitely did feel cold on his scales, although the longer he stayed in the less he noticed. He dipped his head under, fully submerging himself, then with a swish of his tail did a small twirl headfirst before surfacing again. Letting himself just sit and float, he watched Fathom and Indigo rise up themselves, sending dozens of tiny waves across the calm water.
A splash of water hit the side of his face, and an instant later he sent a splash of his own at Clearisght without even looking, knowing that she'd done it. He heard her laugh and he rolled his eyes with a grin as Fathom swam over to him.
"Hey," the Seawing prince exclaimed, "Want to play a game? Indigo and I can teach you some of the swimming games we do in the Sea Kingdom."
Personally, Darkstalker was content to just lounge, but Clearsight answered for both of them before he could speak. "Ooo, that sounds fun!" she said, "We'd love to!"
Fathom's mind lit up with glee at the prospect, and Darkstalker didn't have the heart to say anything. "Sure," he concurred, "What do you have in mind?"
"Oh, lets see…" Fathom's mind buzzed; he clearly hadn't quite thought this far ahead, "There's shell hunter, where one dragon hides a specific shell and the others find it, first dragon to do so wins."
"We'd need a good shell," Indigo interrupted him, "There really aren't any here. Besides, it's too dark for it to work well."
"Right," Fathom said, a tiny bit flustered, "How about…oh! Searise—no, we need a ball for that. Or…no, we need one for that to."
"How about flash tag?" Indigo suggested, "We might be able to make it work."
"What's that?" Clearsight asked.
"It's a pretty simple game," Fathom explained, "Any number of dragons can play it, so it's fairly popular. Anyway, the idea is that one dragon is the 'flasher', which has to keep their eyes shut for as long as they're the flasher. Their goal is to find and touch another dragon, who then becomes the flasher and they have to avoid him. The twist of the game is that in order to find the other dragons, the flasher, well…flashes his wings." Fathom lit up the lights under his wings to demonstrate. "When he or she does, each other dragon must light up their wings in response." He nudged Indigo, who lit hers up in another imitation. Fathom looked at whatever she'd said in their language with her flash of light and snickered as she rolled her eyes. Darkstalker tried to peer into either ones' mind to get the joke, but it was already gone.
"Anyway," Fathom went on, "The key is to try to judge where the flashes of light are coming from to determine which way to swim to catch someone."
"But your eyes are closed," Darkstalker pointed out.
"They're still sensitive enough to light, even closed," Fathom counterpointed, "But yes, that's what makes it so difficult. Of course, we Seawings can also feel the movement and vibrations in the water, which makes up for it quite a bit."
"Well, we can't exactly flash our scales or feel the water like you can," Clearsight said, "How would Darkstalker and I play?"
Fathom paled a little. "I don't know—"
"Sound," Indigo answered, interrupting him, "I've seen it played that way before, where instead of light each dragon gives a shout underwater. It plays pretty much the same, maybe even a little harder. Alternatively, I've also seen it done by sound entirely on the surface, making it a level playing field."
"That's right, I've seen that too," Fathom agreed, "We can try that!"
"So, if we don't—or can't—flash, what do we say?" asked Clearsight.
"I…don't know," Fathom said, looking to Indigo for help.
"It shouldn't really matter," the purple dragoness answered, "I think when I heard it the flasher said 'ocean' and everyone responded 'dragon' so that it went 'ocean' 'dragon' 'ocean' dragon'," she repeated it a few times, "We can do that, if you want."
Clearsight looked at Darkstalker who gave a halfhearted nod. "Sure, that sounds fine," she said enthusiastically.
"Great!" Fathom swished his tail in the water, looping around them in sudden excitement. "Here, I'll be the flasher first, just for you to get used to it. If it's okay with you, we'll keep it to the surface for now, and maybe we can try it entirely underwater after a few games."
They figured that idea was fine and at Fathom's direction they spread out around the tidal pool while he stayed in the middle, eyes shut. "Okay…" he said once they'd found their spots and stopped swimming, "Ocean!"
"Dragon!" Indigo, Darkstalker, and Clearsight all called back at once, and just like that the game was on.
Altogether, Darkstalker found it to be a rather basic, easy, but not unenjoyable game. It was simply a matter of outswimming the flasher and not being overly confident by assuming that having eyes closed robbed them of their senses. The first game only took a total of two or three minutes before Fathom closed in on and tagged Clearsight. The second game she came close to catching him but wound up getting Indigo. By the third game he'd developed a pretty good strategy of keeping moving along the outer edge of the tide pool, and he never came close to losing. Fathom was the flasher again the fourth game, and although Darkstalker could see in his thoughts that his friends was specifically after him, he successfully evaded and tricked him into tagging Indigo instead by leading him to her when he could tell he was preparing to strike.
Being sporting, he did try do his best to stay out of their minds as they played, even if it wasn't a big deal so long as he wasn't the flasher. At one point, during a break between games, he made a point to assure Clearsight that he wouldn't use it to cheat if he did have to play the role. So far, he'd avoided it quite well.
One more game went by with Clearsight getting tagged before Fathom stopped and suggested they try it underwater now. Even though it gave the Seawings a definite advantage, both in their natural affinity for water and the Nightwing's natural need to surface regularly to breathe, Darkstalker and Clearsight agreed. After a short swim on the surface to reposition himself while Clearsight prepared to hunt, he sank down into the pool below, entering a suddenly darker and less clear world than he was used to.
The outer lens of his eyes kept the worse of the sting from the salt away as he looked around him, adjusting to the new environment. Personally, he seldom spent much time under the water, preferring to lounge at the surface and not get his head wet. Everything was just so distorted underwater, near things looking far and far things looking near. Then there was that odd sensation of weightlessness, like falling from a dive in the air but not quite. He didn't hate the sensation, but he was far from loving it either.
He watched Fathom swim silently in front of him, cutting through the water with the ease of a fish. Darkstalker knew that he had no such ease; he was in the Seawing's domain now.
His mind distracted, he'd almost forgotten why he was even submerged until he heard a faint and distorted sound coming from the center of the pool. "Ocean," it sounded like, though the ocean itself disrupted the word, and he had the presence of mind to immediately call back "dragon", even as the water seeped into his mouth as soon as he opened it, twisting the very sound as it left his throat.
Maybe this wasn't so great an idea, he thought as he watched Clearsight turn about in confusion at the sounds around her. Yet when she called out again and he responded once more, she seemed to get her bearings and slowly began to move in his general direction.
Naturally, Darkstalker began to swim back a little at that, but before he could give it much more thought he heard his lungs cry for oxygen. Nightwings can't hold their breath for hours like Mudwings—only for several minutes at most—so he was forced to surface and take a large breath of air before heading back down. As soon as he did, he saw that Clearsight was much closer, practically on top of him.
Alarmed, he flapped his wings quickly in the water to try to burst away, but all it seemed to do was allow her to zero in on him. When she yelled out 'ocean' and he was forced to speak back 'dragon' she took her chance and lunged. He tried to dodge, to swim away to the side and under, but he felt her claw touch his tail and knew it was over.
Giving a frustrated growl, he followed Clearsight up to the surface, where he found her taking in great gulps of air as she caught her breath; she'd been holding hers far longer than he had. She gave him a triumphant smile as he swam along side her. "Got you," she bragged.
"Yeah, yeah," He grumbled good naturedly, a bit disappointed but a little excited to try his own claws at hunting instead of avoiding, "Enjoy it. It won't happen again."
Fathom and Indigo's heads popped up not far from them. "Ready?" Fathom asked.
"One moment," Darkstalker said, "Go ahead and get ready." He swam to the middle of the tidal pool, eyes shut. He could hear and feel the sounds of swimming around him as the other prepared, but he could see nothing. "Ok," He declared once he felt the waves die down, unsure if anyone was even at the surface to listen, "I'm ready."
He forced himself under, eyes still closed, nothing to see but blackness. But that was okay, it was his nature—his very name—to hunt darkness itself. It could not hide them from him.
"Ocean," he called out, hearing once again the strangeness of the word leaving his own tongue. The sound he received in response was no less strange, sounding far less like "dragon" and more just a muffled "mmmpf". It seemed to come from everywhere at once, without clarity or direction.
He tried again, calling out his word. Once more a muted and vague response was received, but this time he thought he got some direction. He turned to his left and started forward, listening closely to the sounds of the water and feeling for any vibrations. The scales on the end of his snout, so sensitive to pressure and electricity, tingled as he searched for any indication of another dragon.
"Ocean," he said once more, and once more a reply came. It was coming from this direction; he was sure of it. What he didn't know was who he was pursuing. Probably Clearsight. It would make sense that she'd have the same struggles he did.
He could feel a quick movement in the water, a swish of sudden current, and he turned himself quickly to the right, sure that that was the direction his prey had tried to flee to. He received confirmation as he called out "ocean" again and received a fairly clear response from straight ahead.
His lungs were beginning to burn now, but he resisted the call to surface. He would not lose this dragon. For some reason, he felt that he needed to know who it was he was chasing. Moving farther right, he corralled whoever it was back towards where they were before. If he was right in his thinking, he'd have them up against the edge of the tidal pool soon. Then there's be no place for them to run—err, swim.
The dragon seemed to know what he was trying to do, and feinted flight to the right before trying to dive beneath him. Clever, he thought as he reacted in time to force the dragon to back off but not quite fast enough to catch them as they neared. Not Clearsight, then. She doesn't have the maneuverability. Fathom, maybe?
Lungs now screaming for air at his neglect, he made his final push. He lunged forward, claws outstretched, and he felt another pair of claws grab his own and slow him down before he could collide with them. Triumphant, he opened his eyes to see who he'd caught.
…And was met with two brilliant purple ones inches from his own.
He'd forced Indigo right up against the stone edge of the pool and his final attack had carried him right up against her with nowhere else to go. He found himself pressed up against her, so close in almost every way, wingtips brushing even as they lay spread out in the water. Their snouts were almost touching, and if he'd wanted to he could have touched muzzles in an instant.
He floated there for a moment, frozen. Why did this suddenly feel so…right? Why was he suddenly so captivated by her gaze so close to his own and the feel of her scales on his own? Why did he have the urge to embrace her like this was more than a simple game that had led to this moment by complete accident.
Then the visions came. Brief splinters of things he'd seen before, where he and Indigo were touching snouts, where he and Indigo were more than just two dragons that shared a common friend in Fathom. And new brief flashes of joy, of laughter, of love and light that chased away so much darkness that he'd never even seen before in so many other…
His lungs gave another desperate cry, pulling him away from those visions. Pulling away from Indigo, he shot to the surface, shooting his head out as fast as possible and sucking in as much air as possible in each mouthful, his body giving a sigh of relief as he finally kept himself from drowning. Yet even as he found relief physically, his mind still raced.
What was that? He demanded of himself. He'd had similar visions before, but never had he been so close to actually acting on them before. This time, he almost did. He was so close—she was so close—and he'd almost lost control. Three moons, maybe he had lost control!
He heard a small splash beside him and saw Indigo surfaced next to him, a look of confusion and concern on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked, either due to that odd moment that had happened or the fact that he was still struggling to breathe normally from his prolonged lapse in it. He noticed Fathom and Clearsight swim up behind her, similar concern in their faces.
"I—I'm fine," he told them, "I just…I think I swallowed a bit too much seawater there," he half-forced a cough and put his claws on the dry stone bank, heaving himself out of the water. "I think I'll sit out this next game or two. You guys go ahead."
Of the three, only Indigo looked skeptical, but none of them challenged him. Indigo began her turn as the flasher while Darkstalker made his way out a bit farther from the pool and onto a comfy bed of moss, where he lied down. His thoughts were still more than a little shaken as he watched them continue to play, but not shaken enough for a tiny part of his mind to register that the dragoness he watched the most was Indigo.
After what had happened, Darkstalker needed to do a little reevaluation. He needed to see once more how things should be, how things would be. He closed his eyes and peered into the future, looking at his favorite and most probable futures. Futures where he ruled with Clearsight. Futures where they raised their dragonets happily, a loving couple, the pure image of the perfect Nightwing family, royalty or no. That was the future—or some version of it—that he would have. That was the future that he wanted! He was sure of it.
…And it was because of that certainty—no other reason at all—that when he looked at those other futures where it was Indigo that he spent his life with, he didn't recoil like he would have before. Looking at such visions wouldn't make them happen, after all. Yes, perhaps it was a bit self-indulgent to be viewing futures of him with a dragoness other than the one he'd been planning to spend his life with, but it wasn't a major issue. After all, even if he did find the Seawing dragoness to be intelligent, charming, and altogether captivating it didn't really mean anything.
No, he told himself even as he browsed through those futures with so much more interest than the other ones that were supposed to happen, it certainly didn't mean anything at all.