— Chapter 13 —

Moonwatcher

Soon in the history classroom, soon in the history classroom, it must be stopped.

Moon had stopped moving immediately, she had managed to hear a new mental voice, one that she's been curious about for a couple days, so suddenly now she was hearing the thoughts of Oracle the Nightwing before they were promptly covered by a haze again.

She kept looking at him for a moment before quickly looking away, not wanting it to look like she was focusing too much on him in specific, and her winglet was entering the music cave so she had to follow them.

Did you hear that? I actually was able to hear his thoughts, Moon thought to mentally talk to Darkstalker.

Indeed I heard, I don't think it matters much, but it is interesting how that just happened, Darkstalker answered at her thoughts after a second.

Moon looked perplexed by that for a moment.

I thought you felt as stumped as me in the matter of Turtle and Oracle's mental blocks, she reminded him. Moon felt like there was an odd shift with Darkstalker lately, ever since he gave his false warning about these two, she thought he began to act strange whenever they were the topic.

I can assure you Moon, there is nothing odd with me, just like there is nothing too interesting about them, nice dragons from what my visions say, but nothing outstanding, he said with complete disinterest.

Okay, either way, his thoughts were so strange in that one moment, something is going to happen soon in the history classroom? And why was I able to read his mind only for that message? … You don't think he knows…? She began to ponder.

About your gift? Doubtful, and he is not a mindreader himself, only they have have these silver scales by the eyes like you do,Darkstalker explained, and Moon was left to wonder about this while having to play an instrument, she decided to put everyone else's thoughts into raindrops so she can think only of 2 things: the strange event that just occurred, and trying to follow the rhythm with this mbira she was given.

After this was over, Moon was walking out of the music cave, stopping for a minute in the hall as she considered what she should do.

Behind her, she felt the confusing and chilly presence of Winter starting to approach her, she was going to turn to see what he wanted, but then, suddenly there was a flash on her mind as she blinked confused.

What was that? Did you do this? She asked.

No. Moon, this is unexpected, his words appeared on her mind before she felt an incredible amount of pain in her head and she collapsed to the floor.

"What's happening?" She felt Winter's voice behind her as he stopped, Is this common among Nightwings? He questioned with worry.

"What's going on here?" Qibli's voice shot up from behind, quickly approaching as he saw the scene. What just happened? Did Winter do this? But I was right behind him, and she doesn't look physically hurt, is it a headache? I wish I carried medicine with me. Will she be okay?

Moon wasn't able to respond to either of them, as she gasped, clutching her head and a vision appeared in her mind.

The history cave, covered in an unsettling darkness, and there she was able to spot a small figure, Oracle, lying on the ground with bruises on his body and splatters of blood visible on his body.

Then Tamarin entered the cave, unable to notice it's much darker than it should be, or able to notice the hurt Nightwing at the side.

Then flames roared along the walls of the cave and in seconds had reached the two of them. Tamarin gasping and screaming as the flames burn her down, Oracle still unconscious and dying in complete silence.

Moon! Darkstalker shouted into her mind, Moon, it's a vision, they aren't dead yet.

"My best friend looks hurt! We have to help her, we gotta bring her to the infirmary!" Kinkajou's voice was heard.

Moon was able to hear the thoughts from nearly her entire winglet nearby, she had dropped to the ground literally a minute after they were done with music, so they were still here.

"N-No…" Moon muttered, standing up, feeling dizzy and looking in the direction that'd lead to the history cave.

Moon, what are you going to try? Darkstalker questioned.

You saw it, I can't let them die, and Oracle already looked hurt, a lot is going on.

A lot indeed, strange, I never saw a future like this in my visions, in a few others you still had a vision from what I saw, but it was like twenty minutes later.

I got the vision earlier? I can't think much of what that means right now, I need to do something.

"None of you can approach the history cave! You have to stay back! Please!" Moon suddenly shouted at the dragons around her, who looked startled from her sudden exclamation, and then more suddenly she ran off to the direction of the history classroom.

This is not a wise move, you'll be heading straight to a place that will explode, Darkstalker pointed out.

Letting them die is not wise either. Can you look at the future right now? You said I normally get a vision later, so tell me, is the cave going to explode in over 20 minutes now?

Silence, and then Yes, you are over 20 minutes early in running wildly to a cave that will explode to help others.

Moon felt a shiver up her spine, how could that happen? She couldn't understand her power of prophecy. What had changed this time that not even Darkstalker could expect it?

She saw a shape up ahead, walking towards the direction she's running at, and she recognized it.

"Tamarin! You can't go there!" Moon quickly called over and the blind Rainwing stopped.

"Moon? Is something wrong?" She asked after stopping.

"You… you just can't go there, it's too dangerous, please believe me," she said with a tone filled with rush and worry, and the Rainwing nodded her head.

"Okay, I can stay back here," Tamarin agreed.

Moon felt relief washing over her and the vision changed, Tamarin wasn't burning down anymore, there was only Oracle's body in the burning cave.

"Thank you." Moon said grateful before she began to run that way again.

The history classroom was on sight, and despite seeing it in her vision, Moon still felt some surprise from seeing every fire globe turned off, making it all dim. She stopped for a second before entering, her eyes able to pierce through the darkness.

But then several different thoughts were approaching from behind, she turned her head back and saw Qibli, Turtle, Winter and Kinkajou had followed her.

"Moon, what's going on? You fell to the ground then began to scream and run, I heard you stop Tamarin, and now you're here, did you hear something?" Qibli questioned, and Moon could hear his mind working at fast speed, trying to think of the different reasons of why this is even happening.

"Maybe it's something that Nightwings do, randomly worrying all of their classmates." Winter talked coldly, but his mind actually sounded worried. Is she pulling some sort of prank on us? But she looked legitimately in pain, what's the meaning of this?

Moon, you cannot explain to them, it's a great risk and you know that they can't know, next was Darkstalker talking to her.

Moon shifted on her feet "I really cannot explain right now, but I need help. Turtle, Seawings are able to see in the dark, right?" She asked in a hurry.

"That's right, the depths of the ocean are very dark," Turtle nodded, his face turning to look at the dark cavern.

"I need your help, while everyone else needs to stand back here, there's someone unconscious in the cave, we need to carry him out fast," she requested, Turtle looked surprised for a moment before nodding and approaching.

"And how do you know that?" Winter snarled a bit.

At his side, Qibli was thinking too. I didn't see her step inside the cave before we arrived, is whoever's unconscious facing the entrance and she saw him from here? Is that why she was running? But how could she know there's someone in here from all the way at the music cave? Unless…

Moon stepped inside the darkness and Turtle followed, they quickly walked around and looked at the sides and corners, then Turtle gasped as he approached the opposite extreme of the cave to the right.

"Oracle?" He called down, looking at the unconscious Nightwing, his breathing was very slow, he had several bruises across his body, there was blood on the claws of one of his front talons, and more splashes of blood near him.

"We need to bring him out fast," Moon said worried, Turtle nodded without arguing or talking further, and they each grabbed one of his talons to pull him to the exit, thankfully he was quite light so they weren't struggling to move him.

As they did this, Moon wondered what was even going on. She hears his thoughts for the first time, and then about an hour later he's unconscious and beaten down in a dark cave that's about to explode, his thoughts mentioning this place in a hurried tone. Did he set up the explosion? But it didn't make sense he'd end like this in the same spot, did he know who's going to make the cavern explode and this was their way to silence him?

They dragged Oracle out of the cave, and the rest of dragonets stepped back, Moon could see shocked expressions on their faces.

That other Nightwing, the one that seemed to really like scavengers, what happened to him? How could she know…? Winter thought.

It's that small dragon, it looks like he's just got into a fight and must have mostly taken blunt force, there are no cuts by his talons but there's blood, probably from the one he fought, and there's marks at the tip of his tail so whoever it was they exploited that weakness, Qibli thought, already analyzing every detail he saw.

Moon didn't even need to read Kinkajou's mind, she said the same thing that she thought "He looks awful! I already said that Moon needed to go to the infirmary, but now both she and him should go!"

Moon on her part just sighed relieved, her vision disappeared, now nobody was going to die, nobody will get hurt by the fire.

"We have to get farther away from here, now," she said, dragging Oracle just a bit more forward, so Turtle helped for another minute and then they placed the tiny Nightwing a good distance away from the cave.

After the hurt Nightwing was settled down on the ground, Winter approached in a menacing way "Nightwing, you need to explain yourself already, you can't constantly ignore the questions, you are clearly hiding something," he said, cold eyes glaring at her.

"Stop treating her so badly! She just helped out someone in need, why are you always mad?" Kinkajou chimed in.

Winter was going to argue more, and then got interrupted by a loud explosion occurring dozens of meters away from them.

The group screamed in shock, getting up and stepping back as the cave burst into flames, the fire licking the outside of the classroom slightly but didn't go farther.

And then, having heard such a loud boom from a distance, a sound like that echoing a lot in the mountain, there was panic. Moon was able to hear the distant thoughts of several dragons from around the mountain starting to converge in the hallways and coming this way.

A mind covered by a fiery barrier was running close and quickly Peril was in sight now, seeing the burned down cave.

"Are there any dragons in there?" She quickly asked, stepping closer to it.

"No, this one was the only one there," Turtle replied and Peril looked over, and Moon could see some recognition in her expression.

"That tiny dragon? What happened to him?" Peril asked, and in her mind the flames had gone down slightly so Moon could hear. Now I actually wish I thought nicer things about him earlier.

"We're still trying to figure that out more exactly," was Qibli's turn to answer now.

The crowd is coming closer, Moon can feel their thoughts, Umber was at the front, being the closest to them as he reached the group.

"What happened? There was this loud boom and… Oh…" His eyes widened as he saw the cave.

"Nobody is in there, a catastrophe was luckily prevented." Turtle quickly assured the Mudwing, who sighed relieved.

Then everyone looked down when they heard a cough. Oracle was finally starting to move, very slowly his eyes opened and he shakily sat down, breathing heavily, and then it seemed like he fully realized where he was and how many people were looking at him.

Moon looked at everyone else, Kinkajou and specially Turtle looked the most worried, Winter was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, Peril looked relieved to see him up, and Umber looked simply glad to see him up.

"H-Hm…" Oracle muttered with a small cough, rubbing his snout.

"Both of you, Nightwings. You have a lot of things to explain." Winter said coldly, looming over Moon and Oracle.

You better think of some good lies now, and hope the other Nightwing can give some good explanation to this, Darkstalker stated, and Moon gulped slightly.

Oracle yelped as Winter had suddenly grabbed him from a talon, a shiver going through his body, as the Icewing dragged him away to a side cave from which the crowd was not coming.

Moon could hear on Qibli's thoughts that he was about to tell Winter to stop, but he proceed to walk after them just moments later. I think both the nephew of Queen Glacier and me can agree that some answers could be good, Oracle clearly fought someone, possibly the one that started the fire, we need to question him and now.