PART ONE

CHANGES

— Chapter 1 —

Waking up at the base of a mountain is not how he was expecting the day to begin, not at all. And neither was to feel an incredible migraine on the head, coupled with grass right at the nose that made him want to sneeze.

And that's when he sneezed, with the upside of this opening up his eyes as he looked around, seeing an endless stream of mountains at his side, while at the distance there were a couple of figures flying in the sky that he wasn't able to identify.

He stood up as he normally would, and that is when he realized yet another odd thing besides the fact he was outside and not on his warm bed.

He fell back down immediately after standing up, gasping loudly as his head hit the ground which made him let out a startled sound. But when he moved over a hand to rub his head he saw the weirdest thing.

There was no "hand" at sight, instead his gaze met some sharp talons, the claws being thin and long, over them on the toes there were silver spots on each digit, with the rest of the limb covered in dark, black scales.

In absolute shock he rolled over onto his back to move his neck up and look over at himself, scales, scales everywhere. Silver ones splattered all over his belly and underside, black ones from the sides and above, and he took notice that he had wings a tail too.

Realization dawned on his eyes as he tried to stand up again, not on the now hind legs as he did before, but on all fours, it wasn't the best try and he nearly fell down again but still managed to stand.

"I… am a dragon, "was his first statement, taking a deep breath "T-that shouldn't be possible, it makes no logical sense, like, h-how!?"

And that wasn't all of it, there's still yet another fact that he believed less, that made even less sense.

"Not just a dragon… t-these already are literal fiction, but I AM also fiction, isn't this like one of these species from these books I've read?"

"A Nightwing?"

Getting used to a brand new body for him was a mixed result, it felt weird, wrong and unintuitive. Yet at the same time it felt right, as if he was born to be like this.

My human mind is arguing with my new body. He thought to himself as he sighed sadly.

It had been a few hours since he had awakened. The most significant thing that happened during that time was him jumping up in surprise when he looked at the sky and saw more than one moon.

That's right, that just appears to add evidence to my theory, I am actually in that world. Were his new scrambled thoughts as he witnessed the sky.

To him that idea felt terrifying, somehow having ended inside of a fantasy world? Inside actual books? He remembered oftentimes dreaming of that several times in his life, yet he never considered that his dreams could become a reality.

But at what point of time I'm at? Geography wise I think I recall the map I've seen back home, the Sky Kingdom must be up north on this mountain area… but When am I? Is this during the Darkstalker's times? The years before the Dragonets were born? The years during the first saga? At some point during the second arc? Gods I hope it's not during the third one in that other continent, I haven't got there yet! I only know ONE specific plot detail...

His thoughts were rushing through his mind as he sat down, seeing how more stars were starting to appear and the sky was getting darker, trying to decide the best next course of action.

I am not a real dragon, my mind is still the same, and I am especially not a typical Nightwing, be it in their old Kingdom, the horrible volcanic island, or their rainforest village, I would not fit… His mind thought bitterly.

"I need to find out at what point of time I'm at, if it's something covered in the books then maybe… maybe I could use my knowledge in my favor, I could know a significant amount of future events, is that why I turned into a Nightwing? Because I might potentially know the future?" He finally whispered to himself to break the silence, to not just think but actually act.

He had seen some other dragons flying on the skies above, mostly Skywings, easy to recognize due to their orange or red scales, and these times he had used the skill he knew he had as a Nightwing of going into the shadows and use his black scales atop for camouflage.

But maybe now he might need to talk to someone.

Nightwings and Skywings… if this is during the first books that could be a danger, the orange dragons might be on guard for any black dragons after what happened in Queen Scarlet's arena, with the Nightwings lead by Morrowseer storming in, killing all the Icewing prisoners and taking away Starflight.

And yet he doubted there would be many ways of getting away from the area without alerting a Skywing, and being not used at all to this body he cannot risk a chase, smooth talking will have to do.

Next step was the most terrifying one, he attempted to flap his wings and take off, to reach for the sky to meet up with another dragon.

But he failed, and failed, and kept failing, his body always slamming back against the ground. From a distance it would look like a big piece of coal that's being thrown up before hitting the floor once more repeatedly.

This was not going the way he had hoped, and he should have thought about that earlier, after all, just starting to fly could not be that easy.

As he tried for an hour, eventually too focused on the movement of his wings and the increasingly annoying headache he was getting from hitting the ground, he didn't notice a dragon was coming down until it was right in front of him.

"Well I have to say that this has been a very entertaining spectacle, never would've thought I'd see a Nightwing making a fool out of himself out in the open, let alone a dragonet." A clearly amused female voice spoke up.

The Nightwing's eyes darted up as he stood up after his latest failure, stepping back as he saw an orange skywing with splashes of red scales along her body landing in front of him, she was holding a spear but not menacingly at the moment.

"Now, what are you doing all the way here and why are you looking so pathetic?" She questioned, taking yet another step forward after seeing him step back.

"A-Ah huh… H-Hello, don't mind me I just… crashed, hit my wings hard so flying has been a struggle." He stutters nervously, breathing heavily as he realizes he's actually talking to a real dragon, alive and in flesh.

"So of course, the best course of action was to crash many more times," she replied with clear sarcasm in the voice "And I don't see anything wrong with your wings, but plenty of wrong in how you tried to take off. Did your Nightwing family and teachers neglect teaching you how to fly correctly to focus on how to craft more lies with your amazing "powers"?" She'd ask now, as the black dragon looked in realization.

That comment might not have meant much for the Skywing, but the newcomer was able to quickly piece things together like that.

She said that we craft lies, and she was dripping all of her sarcasm onto the word "powers", does that mean I am at the point of time after the Sandwing sisters war? When the lack of powers of most Nightwings got revealed to the world? Was his quick thinking now.

The orange dragon noticed him seemingly staring off at nothing and thinking about something, so she moved one of her talons closer to his face and waved it in front.

"Hello? You're here? Three moons, first Nightwing that I talk to and of course he just acts weird." She muttered the last part.

"H-Huh? O-Oh! Sorry, sorry I was just… thinking about something, so hm, what's your name?" He managed to say, quickly snapping out of his thoughts.

"I feel like you should be the one to say your name first given that you're the random Nightwing crashing here in our territory, but if you insist, it's Amber. And you are…?" Amber the orange Skywing dragon questioned.

Oh my, how have I not thought of that!? A name, I need a new name in this world! I've turned into a Nightwing, so I have to go for the kind of naming convention they have, I have to think it thoroughly and not be too try-hard with my name… Was his following realization.

Starlight? Too similar to Starflight. Hm… I think I'll just have to say "No" to anything that starts with Moon, I wouldn't want to be confused with the actual Moon if I am around the time of the second set of books and I meet her. Think… depending on when you're at, your knowledge would basically be rather detailed foresight, go along that line of thought…

"Again? I only asked for your name, are Nightwing rules that strict that you cannot even tell?" Amber huffed.

"A-Ah! Excuse me, I can't help it, it's just that it randomly… happens? Of course I can tell you my name, my name which is…"

Okay, I got one, sounds cool enough, yet simple, and fits what you might be able to do.

"Oracle."