— Chapter 6 —

Oracle

Oracle ran out of the prey center as fast as he could, when he saw Winter was out of sight, that's when he had started to run as fast as his legs could take him, breathing heavily after the cold he felt from being so close to the Icewing.

That was a lot that happened within just few minutes, he met Winter, nearly got himself killed by Winter, he met Qibli the incredibly smart dragon, so smart that if Oracle lowered his guard he was sure Qibli would find out his secrets within 24 hours, and he did not want someone to find his secrets.

He thought about where he could go and what to do. He was rather sure that the explosion that Sora sets up won't happen until morning in two days, so probably tomorrow's night he could try out something to stop that.

Right now he didn't want to be any close to the prey center, too many people, and cold ice dragons, and living prey getting killed all over.

He decided he could try to fly a little, his wings are still so weak, yet he knew that if he is to hopefully join any incredible heroic quests, somehow he'd need to manage to fly for several hours nonstop.

The thought of it scared him a lot. When he crashed against Turtle earlier on it showed him just how far back from the average dragon he is, not even able to slow down or stop himself before the crash, and if Turtle didn't catch him then Oracle possibly would've died after crashing against a solid surface at such speed and height.

The first few days he'd been in this world were a mix of awe and fear, to be literally thrown into a fantasy with dragons, as a dragon is literally something that could only happen in dreams, not in reality to a person. Until he remembered just how cruel and terrifying this world can be quite often.

The books have barely given much of a sense of scale or size to quite know what's a typical height for a dragon, more specifically a dragonet from what he feels, he was few years away from turning into an adult as a human, so for equivalent now he was 6 or 7 years old in dragon possibly?

But he also knew that there was something wrong after being very few hours in the academy, seeing other dragons better, including most of the main group of the second prophecy, he knew his size was barely greater than Kinkajou, who's literally 4.

But Kinkajou also has camouflage that can work to be pretty much perfect invisibility, one of the deadliest weapons in the continent with her venom, and she actually knows how to be a dragon, so right now Oracle's next life goal is to get to be even a third of the dragon that Kinkajou is.

I will never get to be much in a fight when considering the threats we'll face IF I manage to glue myself into the main group, my only good perks to potentially survive are my knowledge, he thought saddened.

But he wasn't able to think much like that for a while, he had to focus all of his attention into not crashing against the side of the mountain, or stopping his wings due to being focused on anything else, right now his self-taught flying lessons are all that matter.

He's seen before the postures that other dragons would use while flying, saw some shot forward and up like darts and then manage to slow themselves, saw how others landed.

So all he had to do was to try to copy, and hopefully be able to linger on the air more as well, all his muscles as well as his wings in this small body feel weak, they cannot do much right now and it feels like a miracle his wings are lifting him as much as they are.

So with that he didn't notice someone was following him from a distance.

Oracle was resting again at one of the openings in the mountain, relaxing for a few minutes before he might take off once more, his wings were aching but he knew he had to try harder than this if he wanted to get onto a quest, because what dragons in a hurry like these ones will be if they still need to chase after Icicle, would take with them a lizard that can barely fly?

These thoughts made his mind boil, he was given a chance, he still didn't know what exactly caused his appearance on this world, but the fact he appeared as a Nightwing made it clear at least to him that it was so he could use what he knows of the future to make his way around, just like some of the Nightwings of old.

But thinking about Winter's cold glare made him shiver again. And thinking about Moon's powers and how losing his Skyfire for just one minute could lead to him being discovered because he just can't stop thinking of his true being or about the future. Qibli with his smarts figuring him out and realizing somehow he's not a real dragon and that he's hiding very big stuff from them. If worst comes to worst even Turtle could use his powers on a nondescript strawberry handed to him to make Oracle spill the truth.

Oh here's another useful piece of knowledge to remember, do not ever accept strawberries when there's Animi nearby.

Oracle took off once more, he had got himself so nervous with all the thinking that his head moved to all sides as his eyes darted everywhere, and that is what helped him since he noticed for half a second a shape in one of the openings.

He saw the color emerald green before it vanished inside and he knew that Turtle must've been doing his classic eavesdropping on him in case he actually had said anything out loud, and Oracle's heart sank.

Unless Darkstalker somehow gets out too in this timeline, one of the most powerful dragons in Pyrrhia was spying on me, he knows very well that I stole from him for no apparent reason.

Flapping his wings quickly in direction to the mountain once more, Oracle looked around and went towards another one of the entrances, managing to land and then he ran in, doing some turns and hoping to get away from the Seawing unnoticed.

Okay, at least he wouldn't just confront me out in the open or if there's others nearby most likely, at this point of time he should still be trying to not have much of a spotlight on him, he might keep spying and eavesdropping on me though…

I need to settle this somehow, I wish I could just hand the Skyfire back to him, but it's not like I could casually get another…

Another…

More.

Suddenly, Oracle had an idea for what he could do. But the only issue is that it involves more stuff owned by Turtle.

Stuff that's Animus touched and normally only Turtle would know how to use, if something happened then for sure Turtle would possibly get onto questioning, after all right now he believes no one else in the world knows that he is an Animus.

Oracle checked his map and began to make his way back to the upper areas of the academy, he needed to somehow find Turtle's room.

He looked back down at the welcome scroll, to the Jade Winglet. I know that Moon, Kinkajou and Carnelian sleep together so that's 3. Then it's Winter and Qibli… so Turtle would be Clawmates with Umber, how do I just ask for either Umber's or Turtle's cave…?

Oracle had an idea, family should know where everyone is, right? For sure he couldn't approach Turtle's sister, Anemone to ask about her brother's cave, but maybe he could approach a member of his own Winglet to ask where her brother is: Sora.

He made his way to the library, constantly reading the map to guide him, and entered the scrolls sanctuary.

"Hm these small steps… is that you, Oracle?" Starflight asked, he had been putting some scrolls on their places.

"Y-Yeah, that's right," the Nighwing nodded and his eyes looked around the library, seeing Sora sitting down once more near the window and reading down a scroll, very slowly he approached the Mudwing.

This is the same person that plans to make a room explode to kill one dragon, no matter who might be on the way.

"Hm, hello… Sora, right?" Oracle asked with a soft voice, trying to not stutter at this very moment.

The Mudwing raised her head and nodded at him "Yes," she replied as softly as he spoke.

"Right, hm I wondered, I see that you like reading so I thought if you might know about… scavengers?" Oracle had been thinking of a small idea for the last couple of minutes.

Sora looked a bit curious by the question "I've read a few scrolls with them," she nodded slightly.

"That's great, so hm you see, there's this scavenger now in the academy, pet of prince Winter, an Icewing…" Oracle began, his eyes subtly focusing on Sora's expression to see if the mention of an Icewing, Icicle's brother in specific, might trigger a reaction, but she kept her emotions in check.

"Hm, I didn't think they'd have pets like that, it would probably feel uncomfortable to stay close to these cold scales for long," she commented.

"Well, surprisingly enough, Winter seems to really care a lot about his new pet, even though his face tries to hide it, I think underneath the surface there's a guy who might care more about his pets, friends and family than he might normally show," The Nightwing said casually, keeping a normal tone as he just talked like this of the terrifying Icewing that could have very easily slashed Oracle to pieces, that could've frozen him alive.

It was for barely a tenth of a second, but he thought he saw a bit of movement in Sora's eyes, a very slight different emotion that vanished as soon as it appeared. He had hoped that talking like this of the Icewing, and about how he might care for his family, like his own sibling, might make Sora reconsider even if for a moment. Mudwings are all about siblings getting along after all.

"That is interesting, but I don't think the scrolls I've read would help much in the matter of taking care of a scavenger as a pet," she said with a short shake of her head, and Oracle nodded.

"Of course, thanks for at least listening though," he answered thankful, then tried to start the second step of this conversation "So huh, you are one of Clay's siblings, right?" he asked and got a small nod as response. "That's cool, I wish I had any family members here at the academy. It feels good to have such a known name as your own sibling sharing life on this mountain with you? Got any more here?" he asked, his tone only hinting at curiosity, nothing else.

After just a few moments, he received a small nod as answer "Clay's amazing and I am very glad we got him back and that we can enjoy more time with him. And there's Marsh and Umber here too."

"Marsh and Umber huh?" Oracle said as if he just learned that and brought out his welcome scroll, one of his claws moving around the different Mudwing names.

"Ah, here, Umber of the Jade Winglet and Marsh of the Copper Winglet, how have they been doing?" he asked innocently, hoping Sora didn't think he was being far too intrusive.

"They're doing well too, Marsh told me he's sharing a cave with a quite calm Rainwing, and Umber said he's with a friendly looking Seawing," she replied now.

"So Marsh is with Coconut, and Umber's with Turtle," Oracle replied, showing the scroll to Sora and tapping these names with a claw "I've met both, Coconut seemed tranquil enough during lunch, and Turtle actually saved my life today," he admitted sheepishly "I almost crashed while approaching the mountain."

"Oh wow, it makes me happy to know they're with good people," she said and Oracle swore he could feel the slightest tinge of sadness in her tone. He did not ask about her clawmate, he knew very well the topic was far too delicate at this time.

"Oh talking about that, just now I realized I haven't thanked Turtle properly for, you know, saving my life… by any chance, do you know which one is their cave? We're on different Winglets and this is a big mountain so I don't know how often I'll see him, and I could say hi to Umber too if he's there," he said, there it is, it all depends on the answer.

"Oh, yes I know where their cave is, Umber and Marsh told me where they are if I ever need to talk to them. On the left hall of the sleeping caves it's the last one at the right," Sora replied with another soft nod and Oracle mentally sighed relieved.

"Left hall, last cave at the right, got it, thank you Sora, maybe we could talk again soon hopefully," Oracle managed to let out a smile, and Sora let out a small one too in response.

After that and saying goodbye to Starflight when he walked out, Oracle began to follow the instructions given, very glad that this worked, otherwise his only other real option would be to poke his head on the different caves and that could end very badly.

He finally reached the last cave at the right and held his breath, it didn't sound like anybody was there so he dared to peek with his head, and saw that the cave was indeed empty.

Quietly and carefully he stepped inside, heading for one of the sleeping spots, the one that had the solid rock floor slightly more clean and shiny from the water and there were some aquatic plants to lay down on.

He pulled away the reed mat and below is a satchel, with shaky talons he opened it and saw the little Animus touched objects that Turtle has enchanted, the piece of coral, the tablets, the bowl.

He grabbed the bowl and carefully picks out the Skyfire from the pouch hanging from his neck, this is the scariest step but it'd only be for some few seconds, he'll just double the skyfire, leave one of the two rocks here for Turtle to hopefully make amends, then he'll keep the other one.

The rock is placed inside the bowl and Oracle whispers "Twice as much, please."

Immediately now in the bowl were sitting two Skyfire rocks, looking exactly the same.

And at the same time, Oracle heard movement very few meters away, like a mostly silent squishy step, as if it came from webbed feet.

Oracle's head turned quickly and now at the cave's entrance he was looking face to face at Turtle, who had a shocked expression on his face and was looking straight at the bowl that Oracle held.