Epilogue

Eight weeks later…

It was not long for the dust to settle after that short but world-altering final battle. Dawn broke upon a field of dragons much changed, with the last of Vulture's thugs dead, and the Queens returning to their respective Kingdoms in peace. The NightWings watched them go with no bitterness or fear of another incoming attack. The time for that had now passed.

Due to the chaos that had happened in her absence, Queen Greatness was recalled back from her pilgrimage to the City of Night early. To say she had been shocked with what she found was an understatement. Quickly, she set about organising dragons to clear away the rubble and bring together their best minds to put the tribe back together. Some wanted to rebuild the castle straight away, but Greatness decided to set that task aside for once the tribe was organised and back to full strength. She then set about learning of all that had occurred whilst she was gone. No tongue of war did she speak, for instead she and her council set about the task of making amends with the other tribes. Some might have called her weak, but Greatness cared not, even in her short time away she had achieved a kind of enlightenment and now returned with a sturdier backbone to command her kingdom with. Her mother would've wanted retaliation for an attack on their new home, but Greatness thought herself wise enough to see the role she and her NightWings had played in the events that lead up to this. Her rule would be one fixated on mending the NightWings, she vowed.

And it started with the RainWings. Her first envoy had been sent to the rainforest to offer sincere apologies for all the transgressions committed against the RainWing tribe. Greatness then also offered a meeting for the two Queens to discuss repatriations and a path forward for both of their tribes. Glory had agreed to this, and once they met the two Queens soon came to an agreement. Greatness could not offer gold or jewels, not that the RainWings wanted any, so instead she offered her fellow young Queen texts from the restored NightWing library that her researchers had found. Greatness argued that the RainWings had lost their sense of self just as much as the NightWings had from what their forebears were two thousand years ago. So these texts were filled with mentions of RainWing culture and customs, traditions and stories that had been lost millenia ago. Glory had been quite surprised by this gesture, but accepted the peace offering. It was a small start, but everyone was confident that this was a step in the right direction.

The hardest test for Greatness had come when she had had to treat with Queen Glacier. The IceWings might have accepted the end of the war, but who could tell if they were open to the idea of true peace rather than just amicably ignoring each other? Greatness recognised that she had to begin the work of mending this two thousand year animosity between their two tribes. This one had taken almost a dozen letters back and forth before Glacier would agree to a meeting on neutral territory. But once they did, Greatness was quick to offer her gift which she knew would put a step in the right direction. She'd had her dragons comb the mountains everyone once referred to as 'Darkstalker's Teeth', and they had carefully collected the bones of all the IceWings who had lost their lives to the invisible shield that surrounded the City of Night. Greatness now returned those bones to the Ice Kingdom, to let them be laid to rest. But she had personally given to Glacier a special box, filled with what she assumed to be the bones of Prince Arctic.

"Let him be laid to rest in the customs of his people," she had said to Glacier humbly. "Let him finally go home."

An expression had come over Glacier's face as she reverently took the box in her talons. "I… He shall be laid to rest… beside his wife. That would be fitting."

Elsewhere in Pyrrhia, the aftershocks of the end of the war could also be felt. The Kingdom of Sand had been left in turmoil once word spread of Blaze's death. No one knew what this meant, if there would be more unrest to find a new Queen, or if they would be left leaderless and in chaos for the rest of time. Some old dragons who swore oaths to each of the SandWing sisters thought this was their moment for glory and tried to once again take up the fight in the name of their chosen princess. But Thorn and her Outclaws had swept across the Kingdom of Sand and quickly snuffed out those warmongers before they or their ideas could gain any real traction. Then, with the help of some within the SandWing army, she had helped to direct relief and aid to those who needed it most and restored order to the Kingdom of Sand.

Once a more stable peace had been established, Thorn had thought her job was done, and the aristocrats would soon choose someone from amongst themselves to lead the Kingdom. Perhaps a dragoness who was a distant cousin twice removed from one of the princesses. Yet, that was not what happened. Considering all that Thorn had done for the SandWing tribe, whether it was offering shelter or food to refugees during the war, or keeping the worst of the fighting from far off villages, or how she had led them during this crisis, her name was on everyone's lips. Thorn had been the voice of reason and calm, she had been the one who cared and she had been the one to truly lead them. Which was why no one was more shocked than her when the aristocrats announced that there was no far flung relative to shove the crown onto, and instead Thorn was elected as the new SandWing Queen.

Her first act as Queen had been bold and decisive. Thorn had declared that never again would the SandWing tribe be torn apart by infighting and contention for the throne. Which was why she announced the end of queens and following a lineage in the line of succession. Instead, SandWing leaders would be elected by the SandWing people as she was - someone who had proven themselves a leader of hearts and minds. There was some political blowback (of course) from the nobility, but Thorn's edict had only further endeared her to the SandWing commoners, who made their love of her well known.

Thorn had set about repairing the SandWing fortress - though the damage from the earthquake had been quite minimal. The body of Queen Oasis had been disturbed, and so Thorn had her remains put back as a point of priority. There was some disturbance in the sand around the monument, as if some kind of object had been laying there. The air had crackled with power from an unknown source. Some servants whispered that it was the Eye of Onyx, that it had come back now that the war of succession was over. But those rumours turned out to be little more than that, as neither Thorn nor her workers ever turned up any mysterious magical necklace. So Thorn decided not to worry about it until such a time that it became something substantial.

And with a leader now finally selected for the SandWing throne, the Queens of Pyrrhia had all decided to convene again at a true Assembly. They had all been rocked by the events that had taken place in the Night Kingdom, and the spell that they had been put under where they had felt the emotions and thoughts of other dragons. It gave them new perspectives of one another. And so, one month after the final battle, they all gathered once more and set about forging true peace alliances between each other, and brought the war to a final, official close.

As for the heroes of this tale, they were now done with war. The Dragons of Destiny had been born and raised for war and had now finally reached a point in life where they could think about something else instead. They knew their voices still carried weight, and so to use that wisely, they decided that they would go ahead with their plan to ensure a war like this would never happen again. It was mystery, a lack of understanding, and a false sense of superiority that had driven the tribes to war with one another. Each had thought themselves better than the others, and so those delusions needed to be destroyed once and for all. The Dragons of Destiny believed that if they could give the opportunity to other dragonets that they had been given - the chance to grow alongside dragons outside of their tribe, to learn each other's ways and make friends - then no dragon would want to war again. So they set about turning Jade Mountain, the place they called home, into a school where dragonets from across the continent would come to live and learn. And it would be called 'Jade Mountain Academy'. Between getting everything ready and sending out invitations, they hoped to have the school accepting its first students by the next spring. What a perfect way to start the new year!

Peril officially received a royal pardon for all her supposed 'crimes' from Queen Ruby, and was even offered a place in the Sky Kingdom. Word of her skills as a blacksmith had reached even the Queen's ears and she offered Peril a place where she might be able to run her very own workshop. Peril had jumped at the chance, and so set up a place for herself in the southern reaches of the Claws of the Clouds Mountains. This was so she could still make quick trips to Jade Mountain whenever she liked to be with Clay, whilst also exploring this new path that had opened up for her. And it was exciting! She got to experiment and craft new forms of weapons and armour using her firescales - though Peril vowed to never again forge a sword.

Turtle also received recognition for his deeds in the war. And thanks to some good words put in by a remorseful Anemone, Coral finally gave her son her gaze - she even promised to remember his name. They began a correspondence via letters, and bonded over their love of storytelling, just like Turtle always imagined! It was a slow start, but Turtle truly hoped to one day build a real bond with his mother, to finally get the love from her he always wanted. But for now, he was content with this: he chose to stay at Jade Mountain, to help Starflight in the library or be a history teacher. But mostly, he chose to stay with Kinkajou. He loved her, and was ready to explore what that meant with her. And if she wanted to stay and help with the school, then so be it. Some nights they would lay together and talk about their future, about some day returning to Fathom's Sanctuary and repairing and rebuilding it. RainWings didn't believe in ghosts or cursed places like SeaWings did - they believed that a place could feel sad if too many sad things happened there, and the only way to reverse that was to fill it with happy memories instead. Turtle wanted to believe that too, that he could return to Fathom's house and turn it into a real home.

Qibli had been almost immediately appointed to become a member of the new Royal SandWing Council, by none other than Queen Thorn herself. It had actually been her second decree as Queen. She said she wanted to use his brain to benefit the SandWings all across the desert. Of course he had accepted, and though it had pulled him away from his friends, he still came to visit once every ten days or so. He told them all stories of his accomplishments, of the work he and Thorn were doing, of how he had started his own program to help orphaned street-rats. He arranged for them to be housed, fed and educated so that they could one day contribute meaningfully to their society, rather than to perpetuate the same system of poverty and crime over and over again. He wanted to save them just like he had been saved.

Winter had received the highest honours an IceWing could earn. His efforts throughout the war and his actions during the final battle had earned him the rank of First Circle in perpetuity in Glacier's eyes. She even offered him a place as her personal advisor, one of the highest members of her court. And in truth, Winter had been tempted by such an offer. Yet, in the end, he had politely declined, for the life of hierarchy and protocol was over for him - perhaps life with outsiders had corrupted him, but he didn't care. He wanted to live as he wanted, wanted to live without restrictions or regrets. Glacier had accepted his proposal and so sent him on his way with her blessing, and a royal pension that would be paid to him yearly as his reward. Winter immediately thought to use the money to follow the dreams he'd once had as a dragonet, to perhaps start up his own Scavenger Sanctuary. There he could study the little creatures in peace and protect them from harm from other dragons. Maybe one day he might be able to unlock the mysteries that surrounded them and their strange connected past. Though he did not know where he would place this Sanctuary, there was no rush. For now, he decided to stay at Jade Mountain until he could find a suitable place to put his new research to good use. And also tried to ignore the many times Qibli teased him for being 'unable to stay away'...

And watching all of her friends' successes was Moon. She was happy for them all, even celebrated with them. But these past eight weeks had been hard and filled with mourning. She'd stayed at Jade Mountain this whole time - in those first days just recovering from injuries and heartache. Many were perplexed by the fact that Darkstalker's body had not been recovered, and so Moon desperately waited any word from any of the many searches that had been sent to find any trace of him. But they all came back empty-taloned; it was as if he had just vanished from the world. With every day that passed, hope for his survival dwindled in her heart, for surely he would have contacted her by now to let her know he was alright? During those first few nights she had cried herself to sleep many times. Her friends had stayed with her, sleeping beside her. When they watched her weep, they began to fully understand the depth of her feelings towards Darkstalker. They too mourned his loss, in their own way, for he had redeemed himself in their eyes during his final moments. And perhaps they regretted the part they'd had to play in driving him towards his fate. So they supported Moon in any way they knew how, whether that be talking to her, bringing her food, or sleeping beside her. They let her know with their warmth and their touches that she was not alone. Though it did little to ease her grief, it was much appreciated. And little by little, they managed to pull her from the brink of despair.

Deciding to try to live again was no easy feat, least of all because Moon did not know quite where to begin. How could she choose where to go after everything that had happened? What would she do? Eventually, she decided she would not return to the Kingdom of Night, not even to help rebuild or to continue her role as curator of the Grand Library - too many bad memories lingered there for her now. And she didn't want the eyes of other NightWings to find her, to watch her, like she was a ghost among them. Instead, she chose to offer her services to the Dragons of Destiny in their new school, to be a teacher again. She remembered that that had brought her some joy in the past. Clay and Starflight had graciously accepted when she talked to them, and the rest of the group later confirmed it.

Yet even as the weeks went by, and Moon began to prepare her classroom for the dragonets that would be coming in a few short months, she was struck by a thought. This all felt so… lacking? It was like she had a puzzle almost finished but the last piece wasn't setting into place just right. And she couldn't even explain what about her life felt so out of sorts. Her friends were wonderful and caring, her future looked peaceful and uneventful. Was this it? Would she never be satisfied until she found this missing part?

Feeling restless, and inspired by a stray thought, she decided that the only way to move forward was to get some kind of closure on all the things that now lay behind her. She petitioned Queen Glory to go and visit the rainforest, which the Queen accepted. Kinkajou offered to go with her, but Moon knew she had to make this pilgrimage alone. So she flew south east, following the directions that Glory had given her, until she came across a small clearing with a line of stones jutting out of the ground. Carved into each one was the name of a dragon who had died that day in the rainforest when Blister had met her end. At the very end of the line was a stone that had two names carved upon it: Morrowseer and Secretkeeper.

Moon fell to her knees just looking at the stone. It was confirmation before her very eyes that her parents were dead and buried. The RainWings hadn't known the customs of NightWings or what to do with their dead, so they had dug graves for them and all the other dragons here. They had been left as a kind of memorial to remember what had transpired that day. Jambu had said (a little untactfully) there hadn't been much left of her father to bury, but they had collected what they could and laid him to rest beside her mother. That was probably more than he deserved, but Moon appreciated it all the same. It allowed her to find some peace of mind, and for all his faults, Moon knew without any shred of doubt that deep within his heart he had truly loved his wife.

She reached out a talon and traced a claw over the letters of their names. Now that she was here, all the words and intentions she'd had in coming here seemed to become trapped inside her, unable to be filtered properly out of her mouth. Why had she come here? To seek guidance? Apologies? Closure?

Yes, maybe that was it. Closure… Seeing them here had finally brought this chapter of her life to a close. One every dragon went through, where their entire upbringing was dictated by the wishes and wants of their parents. And now they were gone and Moon no longer felt that attachment. That loss both brought her a sense of freedom and bereavement. More so because those losses were both tied in some way to her actions. Her mother was dead because she lacked the fortitude to commit to saving her. Her father was dead because she hadn't been strong enough to save herself from Blister. So how was she to find closure when she still felt so burdened?

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," she found herself talking quietly to the stone, her talon slowly drifting down until she could bury her claws into the dirt. "I wish I had done things differently, that then at least I wouldn't feel so guilty for both of you. Perhaps you were right, mother. Maybe I am cursed, just not in the way we thought. Maybe my curse is to do everything wrong so that the ones I love are taken from me one by one due to my actions. Or lack thereof… He's gone. He's truly gone and I feel so alone. My friends are trying to help me and I love them so dearly for it, but they can't understand. There's no thoughts in the back of my head, no music, no one to stay with me when I dream."

Tears began to fall gently down her face. She hadn't shed a tear in several days. But just like the words that were spilling out of her mouth, they came like a dam overspilling, a constant stream unable to be stopped. "The pair of you dominated the purpose of my life for so long…You and Darkstalker. And now that I'm without any of you, I feel adrift. What do I do with my life now? Everything I once believed was in my future is gone and now I have to try and find my own path and it is daunting. Is this what other dragons have to do? They have to find their own destiny even when they have no clue as to what that might be?"

She could imagine her father looking down on her right this very moment, admonishing her for thinking so lowly. He would tell her to lift her head, straighten her posture, and act like a true NightWing should. Morrowseer would have wanted her to march back into the Kingdom of Night and secure for herself a position of power and influence, like he believed she was owed due to her powers and bloodline. Secretkeeper would have wanted her to fling herself far away from the tribe, to prioritise secrecy and safety above all else. So different had they been in their wishes for how her life would have turned out, and they both got to glimpse different sides of it. Moon contemplated what they might've thought had they gotten the whole picture. Would Secretkeeper have liked Darkstalker? Would she have approved of his teachings and how he influenced Moon to be more carefree? Would Morrowseer have approved of Moon's winglet if he had taken the time to truly know the depths of her attachments to them all and how they brought out different facets of her personality? If they hadn't been on opposing sides, would he have been proud of the role she'd played in ending the war?

"I guess nothing has turned out like we thought," she muttered quietly and stood. An ever so slight cold was seeping in even through the humidity of the rainforest. They were in the depths of autumn now, the world outside shedding its vibrancy, the leaves changing and the frosts creeping in. But the rainforest always remained the same, even when the sun hid behind the clouds, as if under its own kind of spell. To her right, a breeze caught fallen leaves and made them dance along the forest floor. A discarded feather was amongst them, one that Moon recognised - the vibrant colours of the scarlet macaw were not hard to miss. She caught the feather between her claws, turning it this way and that, to admire it for just a moment, before placing it atop the stone of her parents' grave. "Goodbye mother… father… I've got to get back to the rest of my life. I'm going to be a teacher. I'm going to live in Jade Mountain and teach dragons from all the other tribes how to live in peace. For the rest of my life."

As swiftly as the winds would carry her, she headed north once again and returned to Jade Mountain as the sun was beginning to set. As she flew, her thoughts were becoming troubled. Her last words seemed to keep echoing in her head: for the rest of my life. For some reason that bothered her. But why? Why should it bother her that she had structure and familiarity to look forward to? If she had learned anything, it was that there was safety in monotony. So what if she would wake up, teach another class of dragonets, go to lunch with the same faces, talk about the same things, repeat the same lessons every year, stay in the same place, be stuck in the same stage of life, for the rest of her days…?

Moon felt all appetite leave her and so skipped going to the prey centre and just went straight to her cave. The realisation haunted her, and she wished she could go back in time to before these thoughts had spun their ceaseless circles around her mind. At least then she could pretend to be happy with her life. Not like now, when she became painfully aware that this was not what she wanted. Though she loved the Dragons of Destiny, and fully believed in their dream and wanted to help and support them, she didn't want to be part of this for forever. Being a teacher was admirable and she was good at it, and she enjoyed it… but not for the rest of her life. The selfish wanting for more was starting to burn within her, a craving she couldn't suppress lest it burn away at her soul in retaliation. She wanted more than this safe life, more than the safe monotony. Instead she wanted… that feeling she had when she and Darkstalker were fixing the Kingdom of Night, learning about each other, always on the path to discovery.

Memories of when she first met Darkstalker resurfaced. She'd told him she wanted dragons to not know her connection to her father, that she be free of the stain of her association with him. A similar want grew from that. She wanted to go somewhere where no one knew her name, wanted be in a place where there was no knowledge of her history, no expectation of her or her powers. A place where she could truly be unknown.

A thought struck her: hadn't that been Clearsight's mentality when she had gone to the Lost Continent? After everything that had happened with Darkstalker and the NightWing exodus, Clearsight had left to start somewhere knew where she could leave her trauma and past as a mystery to never be uncovered. The wild impulse to do the exact same thing sprung through Moon's mind. Could she do such a thing? Could she follow in her predecessor's footsteps and go across the ocean to lands unknown? But how? The ocean was so vast that no dragon had ever made a safe crossing to the other side and come back. Not even the SeaWings, who predominantly lived in the eastern ocean. Perhaps this idea was crazy, Moon rationalised; an impulse she was not thinking through clearly enough. But the want persisted, and Moon appeased herself by compromising that maybe this was a dream for another day, when she'd had more time to wisely consider and plan.

That night, it was long past midnight, long past the time when all the rest of the Mountain had succumbed to sleep and was eerily silent, before Moon found rest. Winter was sleeping beside her tonight, and he was already deep into slumber by the time Moon felt her eyes slowly drifting shift, lulled to sleep by the steady sound of his soft breaths.

Almost instantly, dreams claimed her.

Go to the land that is lost… where all have been deceived… Go now, to the pit and the mire… In the grave where it feeds…

Echoes of Darkstalker's prophecy swam around her head coming from all directions, disorientating her, making it hard to tell which way was up or down as she floated aimlessly through a star filled sky. There was pressure all around her, like a thousand dragons were trying to put their talons on her, trying to direct her attention every which way. With each cold touch, Moon felt a flash of an image and she suddenly realised what was happening. She was seeing parts of Darkstalker's vision. Not the full extent of it, for it wasn't hers, but her powers were picking up ripples of it, discerning certain information from what it could gather.

She saw dragons so strange as to defy everything she believed in. They had scales as colourful as any RainWing, and four wings that reminded her of giant butterflies! Behind them were enormous tower-like structures that looked as if they were made from both wood and stone, with huge ropes like spiderwebs spanning between more towers. Then the image changed and the towers were on fire, the webs between them burning and falling away, a single dragon flying amongst it all, burning everything in its path.

Hives burn and dragons fall… Unite the divided land… For the day shall dawn in darkness… And the world will turn to sand…

More echoes, more images. Now Moon was underground and there seemed to be roots everywhere. But they were moving, reaching, ensnaring! They tried to reach for her, and she felt the loudest hunger she'd ever witnessed in any living thing. Moon tried to duck away from it, but the roots were coiling around her, entrapping her, binding her. Each one cut into her as if covered in a thousand thorns. The more she struggled, the tighter her bindings became. Only to abruptly loosen as everything around her - the roots, the thorns, the walls the butterfly dragons - it all began to crumble and turn to sand before drifting away in the wind. And once again Moon was left in empty darkness surrounded by nothing but stars.

And then she abruptly heard a voice, seeming to come from everywhere at once, a voice she recognised. It was like her own yet not. A light cut through the darkness of space, causing Moon to hiss and shield her eyes. When she dared to look, she could make out a bright white light seeming to come from a gash in the fabric of the dream. In it she saw an old dragoness, wrinkles under her purple eyes and her black scales dulled and weathered by time. Moon's breath hitched when realisation hit.

"C-Clearsight?"

"Come to me." The older dragoness commanded in a tone that brokered no argument. "Find me. The threads must be rewritten!"

She vanished in another blinding flash of light. Moon cried out as she felt herself be flung into the void again. More images assaulted her mind, quickening their pace with each flash until she could barely register what she was seeing. She saw old temples with crude talon-painting. A dragon with fire spilling from his wrists. A dragoness stabbing her barbed tail into helpless eggs. A thousand white eyes. A book. Skeletons crushed in vines. A pit filled with bodies all decomposing as one, meshing together into a mass of flesh and pulp that gurgled and writhed and reached for -

Moon felt talons wrap around her and pull her out of the dream. Wings enveloped her, and a tail brushed away the nightmares like splashing away ink in water. All at once, Moon felt warmth encompass her, hold her gently, a gentle touch stroking her back and soothing her. And then she heard a music in her mind that made her heart skip a beat.

"Darkstalker?"

All at once, that presence let her go and retreated. Moon tried to go after him, to seize hold of him and make him stay with her. Was this really him? It didn't feel like part of her imagination - did that mean…?

But he slipped through her talons. Yet even as he did so, Moon's powers seemed to latch onto his and brought to her a vision that she was sure he hadn't meant for her to see. She saw an image of him flying over the ocean, heading west, going from island to island until he came upon a huge and vast land unknown to her.

When the vision ended, Moon bolted awake with a gasp for air like she'd been held underwater for far too long. It took her a moment to recognise where she was, for her eyes to adjust to the pitch blackness. Winter's steady soft snoring did not stir even once. Moon's heart slowly descended from its racing rhythm, and Moon felt an emotion swell within her body that had her smiling so wide she thought her face would break.

"He's alive…"

It took Moon a week since that dream for Moon to decide what her next step would be and to make preparations. Perpexlingly, it had been both easy and hard to make this decision, to decipher what the dream meant and commit to it. But there was no going back now. Darkstalker was alive and she'd seen where he was going. He was heading west, and she would follow him, to that mysterious land beyond the horizon. She stared out at that same horizon now, stood atop a hill that lay near the border between the Kingdoms of Night and Sand, overlooking the ocean. The grass at her feet swayed gently in the breeze, tickling her scales with the barest hint of a caress. It was about an hour until sunset, the sky tinted pink and orange, reflecting upon the sea and turning it to liquid gold.

A long journey lay ahead, and Moon had to have faith that she was as prepared as she could be. She'd pestered Starflight for the latest maps that reached the furthest west possible. A satchel was across her chest, filled with supplies that she would need without weighing her down. And she had been using her powers to scour the futures every night, to try and see if she could stretch her foresight to determine which path she should take across the ocean. There could not possibly be anything else she could do at this moment - she was as prepared as she possibly could be.

"Moony?"

She turned at the sound of the voice and smiled as she watched her friends all land and come to her. They had all received her message and had come when she'd asked. A part of her felt relieved by it, but her gut also twisted in apprehension for the conversation that was about to happen. She could see on the faces of her friends that they had some inkling of what she was going to say, their brows turned upward and creased with worry.

Peril hopped up onto a rock so as to avoid setting the lovely grass on fire. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"Do you have to do this?" Qibli asked. He wore a deep maroon shawl around his shoulders, held together with a golden clasp at his neck - the decorations of his new role on Queen Thorn's council. It made him look suddenly so grown up.

"Yes." Moon nodded. "I saw it as clearly as I see you now. Darkstalker's alive and he's heading west to a land I've never seen before with dragons unlike any tribe I know of."

Turtle's expression changed to one of wonder. "The Lost Continent?"

"Maybe. But if he's going there, then I must too. I have to, to get to the bottom of his prophecy."

"Or maybe he's going there for a fresh start?" Peril shrugged. "Maybe he faked his death so that no one would follow him?"

"That might be true," Moon said, trying to hide how much that possibility hurt her feelings. If it was, and he'd decided he'd prefer a life without her in it, then of course she would respect that choice. But she had to find out regardless. This was bigger than him and her, her heart whispered, it was bigger than all of them and could not be ignored. "But this is something I have to see through to its end."

"But what will we do?" Kinkajou asked, her scales jumping through several different colours to show her anxiety. "Every time it feels like we just get you back, you have to leave us again."

Guilt made Moon reach for her little friend and pull her into a tight hug. A part of her knew this was cruel, that she was constantly playing with her friends emotions and that wasn't fair. But she was also trying to be honest with them, and had to let them deal with the truth however they chose. "I'm sorry. But I promise to stay in touch this time."

"Is that why you wanted me to give you this?" Turtle asked, his voice drawing the two apart. He came up to Moon and handed her one of his magical communication seashells. It was light and smooth in her palm, and Moon smiled at it as she put it in her satchel.

Peril snorted a small laugh. "At least this time if you ever actually need help, you can call and we'll come. Same as we always have."

"You really think he's alive?" Winter's voice was quiet, small, like he was trying very hard not to let his true emotions be known. But Moon could read them in his eyes as surely as she could read his mind were he not wearing Skyfire. He was in pain, his beautiful blue eyes filled with yearning and hope, however small, that he could turn her away from this path.

Moon felt her heart softening, and she stepped towards him. "Yes. And I want to find him. I want to make sure he's alright, and I want to help him to find peace in this world - whatever that may be." For some reason it felt important to emphasise those words. That this was not a duty or a chore that she felt obligated to do. No, this was her choice. She wanted this.

"Will you come back?" Qibli asked.

"And never tell Starflight what might lay beyond the western horizon? He'd hunt me down and kill me himself if I dared to keep him from such precious knowledge." That managed to make them all smile a little, at least. And then Moon took a deep breath and looked back out onto the horizon. "I need a new start; where no one knows who I am, who my father was, what my powers are. And maybe I can find out what happened to Clearsight. She calls to me, in my dreams. There's something out there that connects us, but I don't know what and I need to find it. There's still a part of this mystery that needs to be solved."

"The Great Weaver?" Turtle suggested, his brown eyes alight with curiosity. "Fathom mentioned Clearsight went looking for it. That it had the power to rearrange time."

"Maybe," She was unsure of how true that was, or what she would do with such a power. Clearsight's message had been to rewrite the threads but Moon felt something squirm inside her at such an idea. That would be a bridge to cross when she found it. If she found it. "I'll never know unless I find out."

Peril's talons fidgeted on the rock. "So… this really is goodbye then? At least, for now?"

Moon nodded. Kinkajou abruptly let out a loud, distressed wail and ran back into Moon's arms, wrapping her wings around her tightly. "I'll miss you sooo much! I mean, I missed you all the other times you were gone and we didn't know what happened to you but this feels worse somehow even though we know where you're going and we can't come and I don't know what to do and I'm sooooo sad and-"

"Don't worry about me, Kinkajou," Moon said, stilling the RainWing as her words kept tumbling out of her faster and faster. "You're going to have your talons full soon enough with your many tiny, colourful dragonets. They will be wonderful."

"Wait, what?!" Both Kinkajou and Turtle squawked in unison. Kinkajou stumbled back from Moon, eyes wide. She glanced at Turtle and he stared back. Their faces were perfect mirrors of shock and horror. Moon gave her friend a cheeky wink.

"Ha! I knew it!" Qibli exclaimed with a laugh. "I knew you'd pull your powers as a prank one day."

"You read me like an open book," Moon chuckled. And then she brushed her wing against his, looking him in the eye. "And Qibli? You really are one of the smartest and most considerate dragons I've ever met. Please don't forget that."

His throat bobbed as he swallowed, sobering instantly. He blinked rapidly and darted his gaze away. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and thick. "Never."

Moon decided not to press him more and so stepped towards Peril, until she was in front of her rock. Peril knew what she was doing, somehow, so she beat Moon to it. "I would ask what my future holds… but we both know how that ends."

"The future is not set in stone, Peril. You can overcome this fate - as you've overcome so much else in your life. I don't think I could've survived what you did."

There was pride in Peril's gaze as she beheld Moon and nodded. "Ditto."

Moon pressed her talon upon a rock and Peril placed hers as close as she dared. The heat was intense, but Moon did not pull away, wanting to be as close to touching the SkyWing as she could. "I'm proud to have called you a friend."

Finally, she stepped away and came towards Winter. His scales looked almost an ethereal blue-white when set against the backdrop of the fiery orange sky. He was watching her with a sad, resigned stare. It relieved Moon a little to know he wasn't going to fight her on this. It meant the world to her to know they wouldn't leave on bad terms.

"So I guess that's it then…" he said on a sigh.

Moon lifted a talon like she wanted to touch him, but didn't know how or if that would only be rubbing greater salt in the wound. "Winter… I'll never forget that night on top of the mountain… and what we never said. Maybe if we had…"

"I understand," he murmured, shoulders sagging. "I just thought…"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and twined her tail with his. "Please be happy. More love surrounds you than you know. There is more to you than you know."

The corner of his lips twitched into a smile. "Stay safe. I can't always be your knight in shining armour."

She smiled and turned away. Only now did she hesitate. Stood on the brink, the enormity of the task before her seemed to strike her all at once. Was this madness? Was she a fool for following a stupid dream rather than common sense? Or, if she turned around right now, would she regret not going for the rest of her life?

"Moon?" Turtle's voice called out to her, making her turn back around to them. "Before you go, there's something we want you to have…"

He produced from the pouch around his neck a little box no bigger than a palm. Opening it, he unveiled a cloth, and when he pulled that back, he showed her a triangular black rock. Moon knew instantly that it was Skyfire, could sense the power in it, recognised the way it seemed to swallow all the light around it. It was a familiar piece. The one she had retrieved from the battlefield, the piece that had been lodged inside Darkstalker. She knew because she had spent many nights with it on her desk, and she watching it obsessively, as if it could tell her what had happened to her friend, or as if its presence would call him back.

She glanced at her friends, confused as to why they were giving this to her. "But that's…"

"We know Darkstalker won't hurt you," Winter said, as if reading her apprehension. "But there are other things in this world that have magic - this might offer you some protection."

"It took a little experimenting," Qibli continued for him, "but when put in cloth and the box, we realised its anti-magic effects don't reach any further than what it is currently touching. So you can take it with you and still be able to use your powers."

"A bit of a morbid reminder of everything that happened," Kinkajou grimaced.

Peril snorted smoke out of her nose. "But we figured you'd rather have this than the big sword."

"And this thing…" Turtle murmured as he held it out to her. "I don't know. There's something about it, like it's tied to fate? Somehow?"

Moon gingerly took the box in her claws. Turtle was right, she couldn't feel a difference when the Skyfire wasn't literally touching her. Carefully, she put the cloth back over the piece and closed the box securely, tucking it away in her satchel. "Thank you." she said, and meant it. It was a strange gift, but oddly touching that they had thought of it this way. She looked upon them all, and took a deep breath, trying not to let her eyes glisten as she smiled. "No one in the world could ask for more devoted friends."

With that, finally, she leapt into the air and thrust her wings down, taking off into the sky. She circled above them, taking in the scent of the sea, and the promise of adventure that sent a thrill through her bones. She paused a moment, looked down upon her friends who were all watching her and roared to them. They roared back, their calls resonating within the air around her ears and within the pounding of her heart. I will see them again! Moon promised herself as she flipped in the air and allowed her wings to gather the wind beneath her and push her out towards the west.

To find Darkstalker, and to find the Lost Continent…