— Chapter 18 —
Turtle
The Seawing prince had never expected to actually be right there at the time a prophecy was made, in the stories he often read, like the ones about the Dragonets of Destiny, prophecies could be massive events, words that could shape the entire continent based on the prophecy's contents and who heard it.
And here Turtle got the chance to hear two different prophecies within about a minute of each other, and he didn't know if with that he should feel extremely lucky, or if he should run away scared.
He decided on the third option, which was to help up the small Nightwing who clearly looks shaken and scared, breathing heavily and gazing at everyone present.
After a silence that lasted a minute with everyone processing this, Kinkajou was the first to speak. "Is it prophecies day? What is going on?" She said, her eyes constantly moving from Moon to Oracle, her scales being a mix of yellow and green right now.
"Three moons, two prophecies, what do we even do with this information? Why did this happen almost simultaneously?" Qibli pondered, looking too.
"W-What did… I say exactly? It felt so… weird, and painful…" Oracle whispered, bringing out a quill, some ink and a scroll from the pouch where he carries the Skyfire, probably deciding to write that down.
"We should write down both the prophecies to make sure we always can check the specifics at any time," Qibli mentioned, and Oracle just distractedly nodded.
The Sandwing had clearly memorized the exact wording since the moment the words came out of the mouths of the Nightwings, and told Oracle what to write exactly, and after a minute both prophecies were written on the scroll.
The Nightwing had looked at them for a second, then to their sides wrote "The Jade Mountain Prophecy" next to Moon's, and then "The Last Prophecy?" next to his.
"But what does it mean by the "last prophecy"? How could the gift just vanish? It barely even started to re-appear." Moon said now, gazing at the scroll, she looked tense and was rubbing her head a lot, sometimes gazing at absolutely nothing for several moments.
"Care to tell us how the gift even came back in the first place?" Winter asked, raising an eyebrow now, and Moon looked uncertain for some more seconds, gazing at nowhere.
"It's due to moonlight… a Nightwing egg that hatches under a full moon gets a gift. In the place where they lived, nobody hatched under a full moon," Moon finally explained.
"The part of "and one can only walk into darkness" wouldn't mean something crazy like the moons disappearing or something and then it would be dark, right?" Turtle said extremely anxious, voicing the first insane possibility that came to his mind.
Kinkajou's scales immediately turned a pale green, all of them. "I-It couldn't be that, riiight? What in the world could cause that!?"
Maybe I shouldn't have said that, that might've been a bit over the top perhaps? Turtle thought to himself.
"I doubt it would be something that extreme," Qibli quickly added, although his expression looked as if he was a bit shaken too by Turtle's insane idea. "Realistically, Nightwings that already have the gift should probably still keep them even if the three moons burned down or something. It sounds more like something happens with the skill itself, as if it was on some timer. And "one can only walk into darkness" might simply follow the idea of the paths ahead being harder to see due to no foresight?"
"Oh! Oh! Maybe it's this "darkness of dragons" from Moon's prophecy? Both prophecies used the word "darkness", that must be it!" Kinkajou suddenly added, trying to help.
"I guess? The something that wants to shake the earth and scorch the ground sounds threatening," Qibli said thoughtful
"Is it the "other one" from some old mixed lineage?" Winter surprisingly said, clearly feeling stumped enough of what just happened that he added something too.
"But now that wording makes things confusing, because if there's some "other one", does it mean we should also know someone else like that?" Qibli stated in a completely confused tone for once.
"This is so confusing, and should we try to decipher it all already? How does it work with prophecies? Is it better to understand the contents right away or to just follow the path?" Turtle asked, legitimately confused and curious at the two only prophetic dragons in the room, although both were still shaken and confused, but Oracle eventually responded.
"I believe it depends," he whispered. "Oftentimes, trying to go around a prophecy will make it come true due to these new actions trying to prevent it, and that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy."
"So, no good," Turtle nodded.
"So is that just it?" Moon argued, looking down to the ground. "The Nightwings will already lose their foresight? I don't understand… And that part of "a path that shouldn't exist"... How can that happen? Shouldn't every possible branch be within the possibilities?" It sounded as if she was talking to nobody in particular, just truly wondering what this means, what's in store for her tribe in a future seemingly covered by darkness, then her eyes met Oracle's.
"You have to be the one who read the future, right? Ever since you arrived you've said you wanted to change things and prevent stuff from the future… So you're making a somehow impossible future? How can that be?" Moon asked and Oracle looked down to the ground, his wings were low and touching the floor as well as he remained silent for a moment under Moon's gaze.
"I… don't know, I knew that things would change, but I'm always hoping for the better, for sure I wasn't expecting such a prophecy, and coming from me…" He had finally answered slowly.
"In that other timeline you said you've looked at, do you know if there was any other different prophecy?" Moon kept on asking and Oracle flinched, staring down at the scroll for a minute, before tapping the prophecy that Moon had given.
"Only this one…" The small Nightwing whispered in his lowest voice yet.
"Wait so, only now we deal with two prophecies at once?" Qibli questioned, his black eyes trying to meet Oracle's too, but he was staring at the ground.
"..." He did not answer that question, looking embarrassed, Winter stepped closer.
"So you've heard the prophecy that she gave already, you probably know all of its meaning, how about you just say it and then we don't have to deal with two different headaches?" He questioned coldly.
Once again, no answer, the tiny Nightwing was clearly trying to process what just happened about as much or more than everyone else.
He must've always had some sort of plan, a handy guide through events he knew that would unfold. And now here's a brand new prophecy he never accounted for, he has to be terrified. Turtle thought with sympathy as Oracle tried to shrink, covering himself, probably hoping the others would stop gazing at him, and the Seawing felt sure that he could relate to that more than most in this group, it could be projecting himself on him, but he was confident on this.
He saw Oracle's talons shift, as if he was considering getting up and just running away, and Turtle tried to imagine himself in his talons: An awkward, often shy, small dragon that carries who knows how much knowledge of a different present, believing he could arrive and make the happiest, brightest future. And then a dreadful, ominous prophecy comes out of his own mouth and suddenly there's a lot more to consider. He recalled their first conversation near the underground lake, and a part of their conversation that had stuck in his mind.
"I-I shouldn't say it, I can't… there could be so many variables, everything could change and I couldn't do anything! I can make things better, I could…"
He's a good dragon, despite their shaky first meetings, once Turtle understood better why he did these things, he had to admit he often felt himself like remaining close to the Nightwing, his curiosity going up whenever he revealed details of the future.
And that's when Turtle found himself surprisingly bringing a wing over him, to the Nightwing's clear surprise, but Turtle just wanted to look assuring at him. Although it looked slightly comical, just his wing covering nearly his entire body with only the tip of the tail and his snout and face poking out.
"I… trust in his guidance." Turtle announced after some seconds to the rest, who were watching over them.
"You… trust his guidance?" Winter repeated, scoffing.
"Hasn't it only helped us?" Turtle managed to retort. "The ones that would've gotten hurt or died from the explosion are fine, Sora and Umber are still at the academy, Icicle got stopped in her tracks before she actually truly managed to hurt someone, isn't this going better?"
"But we can't know for sure what fate would truly be more beneficial in the long run," Qibli replied. "Early on it looks plain better, but now that we're diverging… wouldn't it be fair to know already what we're leaving behind? Can't you just tell us the cons of what you're trying to change?" He asked the Nightwing currently hiding below Turtle's wing.
"..." Still no response besides some more shuffling, and Qibli sighed.
"Listen, it's only fair that we know in my opinion. Also one thing, the fact you know specific details about Winter's brother, that must mean he has appeared in that other future too? Is he still saved then?" Qibli continued and Winter stared more intensively at Oracle, and after several moments, the Nightwing nodded.
"So… we would've saved him either way?" Qibli kept going now and Oracle sighed.
"Y-Yes… but Hailstorm isn't the end of things, there's plenty of situations I am trying to prevent, and I can't be too specific, there's more here than what you could imagine…"
"Just… at least say the very bad stuff without being too specific but neither too vague? C'mon, just something for us to work with," Qibli requested, and Oracle had finally looked at him in the black eyes.
"... O-Okay, maybe I could say just a bit more, let you weigh the options… if either you try to get back onto the normal path if it's still possible or… try the new mystery path… That sounds good enough to you?" His silver eyes met everyone else's, Turtle, Qibli, Kinkajou, Winter, and Moon. After some moments there were some mumbles of general agreement.
"Okay, here it goes…" Oracle closed his eyes for a moment then recited, looking at the air and not at anyone in particular. "One of you falls into a month-long coma in not long," already there was nervous shuffling as the dragons looked at each other. "One of you nearly burns down to death and a big secret will come out to light."
The wing that Turtle had over Oracle twiced slightly as his mind raced with thoughts. The others could have their own secrets too, and that is fine, but that slight context… Do I end up close to becoming fried fish and have to reveal my power? I do it to save one of the others? Saving someone with my gift is not the worst way to go about it… but if nobody ends that hurt for me to reveal it… Probably better?
"Hm then… the thing in Moon's prophecy? That's going to shake the ground and all that? It appears, yeah and hm… o-one of the current Queens… dies... And a-a war between two tribes begins… One of you loses family members during that?"
Well, Oracle surely had saved the "best" for last, because the reactions were instantaneous, everyone's eyes had already widened when he mentioned the death of a queen, and then their expressions just got worse with each following bad news.
One of the queens die!? Now I wish he could be more specific, is it mother? Queen Glory? Winter's aunt? The new queen of the Skywings? Moorhen? Turtle's thoughts were scrambling and he could tell with a single look that everyone else looked completely speechless too. And just one of us loses members of our family… And I can't really think "I hope it's not mine", that's for once way too selfish, would be the same as wishing death on the others' family.
"Okay so hm… I think trying something else is sounding more promising each second." Qibli admitted, his expression looking quite nervous for once, and he didn't really add any humorous comment here, these reveals were a lot for everybody present.
"Okay, Qibli said that you can still be vague about it, but you can't reveal that amount and then just end it there!" Kinkajou protested now.
"Sorry… I just really feel uncertain about how much multiple people should know…" Oracle replied, and looked around for a moment as if someone was listening.
And then Turtle remembered that supposedly, someone was indeed listening, Darkstalker. And that put a lot of things into context for him, the Seawing is aware that he shouldn't be able to read either his or Oracle's minds, and that he hopefully should care little about them, but the smaller Nightwing is probably trying to play it safe, giving more knowledge to such an individual could be dangerous.
Duh! You know what part of Moon's prophecy means, Oracle said he's trying to prevent Darkstalker from appearing, and now he said something will come in the future. Turtle wanted to mentally facepalm for not realizing sooner, but in his defense, a lot just happened.
"I think that makes sense, as much as I'd like to know more details… Oracle's trying to prevent all that in the first place, if he just revealed every single thing he knows, that might be a lot if we all had knowledge we normally shouldn't have?" Turtle once more stood up in Oracle's defense, he's the one here that probably knows the most after the Nightwing himself, and that made him extremely nervous to be in such a position, but he should probably do something still.
Just imagine like it's one of these detective stories, he's the detective that knows nearly everything, and you could be the sidekick of the great detective, that's a good role, I can do that.
After a tense silence, Oracle spoke up. "Is this convincing enough…? Do I need to tell you more? I just want to help… I believe another path would be good…"
"I will follow you there, if we can really prevent what you said..:" Turtle muttered, his anxiety was at an all-time high, but he tried to hide it.
"I agree! That sounds scary! What if Queen Glory dies? Oh no, I can't allow that!" Kinkajou agreed, her scales a mix of colors, probably due to how confused she must be feeling.
"Agreed, that might actually end up being the best plan so… I am willing to go through with that," Qibli was next, then everyone looked at Winter and Moon.
Winter scoffed. "This is all extremely confusing, but it would be bad if these deaths and wars you mentioned were somehow Queen Glacier and the Icewings at one side of the war, it'd be foolish to allow that to happen, but I'll be watching you, so you better did not lie to us," hee assured coldly.
So now only one was left to agree, Moonwatcher looked at the others, she possibly might be checking the minds of the others and seeing what they think and believe, and she let out a sigh, rubbing her head.
"If it is to prevent another war happening so soon and these deaths… even if it costs the foresight of the Nightwings… I think it's worth it," she accepted with a head nod, and Oracle began to step off from below Turtle's wing.
"Everyone… thank you, I promise I will try to not disappoint, I just want the best achievable ending… I believe we can get it." He said with some more confidence by the end of the sentence.
"Well then, let's go now? Seems like we've settled for the dark scary path with no more future powers, might as well get onto it before it gets too dark." Qibli said with one of his typical grins.
"Hm before that…" Moon suddenly talked.
"Now what?" Winter huffed, clearly feeling like there's been a lot of things that's stopping them from just leaving the mountain.
"I… want all of you to be able to trust me too, I know my other gift, reading minds can look kinda scary so… Turtle? Do you think you could give the others some rocks from your armband?" Moon requested softly.
The Seawing nodded and plucked off three more rocks, or Skyfire as Oracle had called them some days ago, and approached the others.
"What 's this?" Winter questioned, raising an eyebrow at being offered a rock.
"It's a rock," Kinkajou said, holding it on one of her front talons, looking down at it.
"Oh you shouldn't have, I don't think I can hold responsibility over a pet rock just yet." Qibli joked with a bigger grin.
"That kind of rock blocks mind reading, when you hold it then I won't be able to see into your minds again," Moon explained, and the three of them looked at the skyfire with more curiosity.
"Well at least this exists… I never signed up for a Nightwing to look into my mind whenever she wanted," Winter stated and just nodded.
"Coool! Thanks, it feels better to know my thoughts are only for myself. So shall we get going or will anyone else want to share more critical wisdom before departure?" Qibli thanked as well.
Everyone shook their heads and at last, two pairs of black wings, a pair of emerald green wings, white wings, pink wings and yellow wings flared open and everyone took off.
They began to fly and Oracle pointed to the northeast, saying now "It's important we meet with some people, we'll follow the Winding Tail River, and when we're some miles from the big Scavenger's den there, we can give a signal."
"Who would we be signaling to?" Winter questioned.
"Hm… the Talons of Peace?" Oracle said sheepishly and Winter stopped flying forward, hovering in the air to look at him.
"What?" The prince questioned and everyone looked back too.
"Two talons in specific, they hold big clues to where your brother is, I'll explain more when we're closer, but we gotta meet them," Oracle said nervously and kept on flying, which made Winter sigh and proceed too.
Turtle flew near Oracle, who was at the far end of the group, knowing that he's not exactly the best flier, for the first 15 minutes he seemed to be doing rather well, after 20 minutes he'd slowed down slightly, 5 minutes later there was clear strain on his face, and then was breathing heavily after half a hour but didn't speak up yet, that's not safe nor healthy.
"Hm, hey, there's the tail river, maybe we could go down for a few minutes for a drink? I was so focused on everything that I forgot to drink water today." Turtle called out, the others looked down and nodded, descending there. Turtle gave Oracle a small look and he noticed the thankful expression in his face.
They reached the river, which was rather long from side to side, winding across the side of the mountains, and the ground around it was soft on their talons.
Most began to drink. Turtle approached Oracle and asked "Hey, would you like to swim a little?" He said, hoping the Nightwing will get the hint of what he wants.
"Hm, sure, but only if the official fish of the group helps me with some pointers, I haven't been on water a lot here," he admitted and slowly began to step into the river, while Turtle literally just jumped in with a splash that reached the Nightwing, already soaking him.
"Oi!" He complained with a short chuckle, with Turtle helping by staying at the side, they swam to the other side of the river, there they're at some decent distance and not facing the others, and besides, Oracle's kind of a loud swimmer so that helps.
"Hey, I thought we should talk about a small detail for this adventure we'll have," Turtle whispered with a sympathetic tone.
"Huh? What is it?" Oracle asked while keeping himself floating on the surface.
"Well, your wings… I do get sore wings after a while too compared to the norm, but it's at least some hours, I was thinking about how you can keep up? I don't think Winter would feel very happy if there's a stop every half hour." Turtle confessed and Oracle looked down at the water in shame.
"I know… I'm sorry, for some reason my body just feels… so incredibly underdeveloped for my actual age, it's terrible…" He muttered.
"I get it, and sorry I don't mean to offend you. But well I also had a bit of an idea I guess?" Turtle said in thought, as Oracle tilted his head.
Casually, Turtle began to dive down to the riverbed and picked up a round, smooth rock from it, then he swam back up, showing it to Oracle.
"Today's the official day of presenting rocks to others, isn't it?" The Nightwing joked, but Turtle thought he saw a gleam of realization in his face.
"Indeed it is. So hm I was thinking already to… well… enchant something to heal physical injuries and sore feelings since I thought I might need it for however long this may last." Turtle explained the idea and Oracle quickly nodded.
"Aaah, classic." He said and then the small dragon realized what he said, so now was Turtle's time to tilt his head.
"Classic? You knew I'd do something like that? Do I also do this during that other time too?" He asked now.
"Hm well… yeah, you also had a healing rock normally, because no matter what timeline it is, Turtle will need something for his poor wings," Oracle nodded with a slight smile as he jokingly bumped lightly at one of Turtle's wings.
"Huh I see, well either way, I thought that maybe I could add a small enchantment on top to help you? If you want of course," Turtle kept talking, and Oracle looked at him with curiosity. "Something like… I enchant this rock to heal physical injuries and soreness when it touches somebody. And it will also make Oracle the Nightwing a flier as good as anyone else."
Oracle's eyes widened in surprise at that immediately. "You… would do that for me? That little bit of help, a small shortcut… it'd be fine?"
"Well, it would only be helpful for everyone but you most of all, it'd be hard to survive if you can't fly much." Turtle explained, with actual worry on his tone.
"Oh Turtle… Thank you! And, that sounds great to me, alright!" He nodded eagerly, and with a smile, Turtle enchanted the rock with that exact wording, then looked back to make sure nobody's watching this direction, and tapped the Nightwing's side with a rock for a second.
"So, do you feel any different now?" Turtle asked curiously.
"Hm… Yes, the way my wings feel, just this sensation here… I think I must feel like how anyone else would, can't believe I am saying this, but I am really glad to be average on something in this case." He chuckled, and brushed one of Turtle's wings with his own, giving a bright smile.
After two more minutes, they swam back towards the others and then they all took off, looking back at Oracle, Turtle could tell his flying was more confident and natural, and he actually was keeping up not as far behind the Seawing as he had earlier.