— Chapter 22 —
Moon
Moon could not believe her eyes when she saw what the transformed Icewing was holding in a talon. A scroll and a black leather case, and her reaction was instant, remembering what Darkstalker had shown her in her mind some days ago.
All right, it's a scroll.
That day, the voice had finally decided to tell her more about his magic talisman, which he called the most dangerous Animus-touched object in all of Pyrrhia, and showed Moon the scroll, wrapped in a casing made of black leather.
And right here in front of her eyes is a scroll that looks just like that. She was sure this couldn't be a mere coincidence, the other Nightwing has proved that his knowledge on events that are yet to come is significant, so if something like that scroll was in the future, it makes sense he'd know.
But that left Moon to wonder if this whole thing was to get Oracle the most powerful and dangerous thing to exist, he's holding a scroll that can do anything he writes on it, that prospect is terrifying.
And suddenly for just a few seconds, visions appeared in her head when she saw Oracle and the scroll, coupled with her nervousness of the situation.
A black talon with long claws is hovering over a scroll while holding a quill, and with a deep black ink, it writes Oracle and keeps on writing something she couldn't see.
Oracle and Moon both standing inside one of the caves at Jade Mountain, with him shifting nervously on his talons as he often does, time seemingly skipped forward slightly and Oracle was lunging at her, aiming for her throat.
Moon looking at nothing with a dazed, blank expression, shock in her eyes, then a massive, loud and angered roar occurred.
And that was enough to snap her out of the visions, and that left her with even more questions now. First, days ago when she saw Turtle she'd seen a vision of him attacking his sister Anemone.
And now a new vision told her that Oracle is going to attack her, what is going on with this group? If next she somehow receives a vision with something like Kinkajou blasting Winter with venom, she's done with this.
No matter what, you cannot trust these two dragons that had their minds blocked to us, the Seawing and the Nightwing, that leads to plenty of bleak futures.
Darkstalker's warning was ringing in her ears. Is this what he meant? Is this the reason for him to tell her that? But… Why did he suddenly ignore these two right after?
"Ooh, ghost stories? We don't have a lot back in the rainforest, but! I'm a great listener so I can hear yours," Kinkajou said with clearly big curiosity.
"Yeah, spooky tales, ancient horrors… that kind of stuff," Oracle the Icewing nodded, stepping closer to the campfire and sitting down, he looked nervous, and quite a lot.
"Horror was never my favorite genre to read…" Turtle admitted in a mumble.
Winter meanwhile just glared with a scowl. "What is it now? You're seemingly always planning something and forming things ahead in your mind, so clearly there's a reason for this sudden interruption."
The other Icewing had flinched slightly, but actually glared back at Winter, copying his expression.
"You really hate fun… fine. Then I'll just directly say, how about you tell that one story shared between Icewings and Nightwings?" Oracle offered and Winter actually looked shocked by that proposition.
"You're joking, there's only one name that fits the descriptions, and why would you need me to talk about the Darkstalker?" Winter muttered at him.
And that made Moon freeze, Oracle wants to talk about Darkstalker? What does he know? Is he aware of her conversations with him?
"Darkstalker? That's an actual name? Soooo creepy!" Kinkajou said.
"Hm, I believe I've read that name twice or thrice, but not too many details," Qibli added.
"It makes sense, his name is most known among Icewings and Nightwings due to the atrocities he's committed," Winter grunted. "Anyway, fine, these stories are told to most Icewings ever since they're young dragonets to make them behave, even though the Nightwing could just tell it himself…" He stared at Oracle some more, "I guess I could tell some of this if it matters so much., and just so you won't pester me with this…"
The Icewing prince approached the campfire, the light of the fire reflecting against his white scales that were already moonlit, giving a bit of a ghostly look.
"The Darkstalker… it is a name feared among my tribe for a lot of reasons, as two thousand years ago he brought a lot of terror upon us…" Winter began to talk.
"The Darkstalker was the offspring from the last Animus Icewing, Prince Arctic, Arctic was taken and captured by the Nightwings so they could get the Animus gene within their tribe, and Darkstalker was born," everyone was listening to the tale with great interest, Moon admittedly felt very nervous, but she wanted to learn too.
"His name already should tell you plenty about the kind of dragon he was. Utterly terrifying, he was born an Animus of course… and his spells were all meant to make my tribe suffer, Dragons in the Ice Kingdom would suddenly appear dead in gruesome manners with messages or signs next to them placed by Him to scare us. The queen at that time would tell he'd appear in her nightmares, telling her the multiple ways he could kill her, all the stories say it was the worst era in our tribe's history."
Kinkajou was breathing loudly and gasping next to Moon, listening to that tale and probably imagining these horrors, Qibli just looked casual but his expression showed that he felt unsettled by that as well, and Turtle was looking a bit sick.
"How was he defeated?" Kinkajou whispered as if out of breath, sounding very curious about this tale.
"Well, the only true way to stop magic is with more magic, some scrolls say that there was a Seawing royal called Fathom, they say that he befriended Darkstalker on a kinship of both being Animus, and… well, Fathom kinda disappears in many tales, but typical assumption is that he did some sort of magic to trap the Darkstalker, and even now, many Icewings believe that he isn't actually dead but imprisoned somewhere, waiting for the day where he can rise and bring down our tribe…" Winter finished the explanation now.
Turtle had at least looked more interested in the tale when Winter had mentioned Fathom, Kinkajou was left with her mouth wide open, and Qibli looked as if he was mentally taking notes.
"Wow, thank you Winter, and hm just out of curiosity, how did your tribe learn some of these parts of what happened?" Oracle asks with a curious tone.
Winter huffed. "Obviously… because even your tribe ended up too scared of the Darkstalker and flew away, and upon reaching mainland, some were captured by Icewings and put into questioning to learn these details."
"Ah, that does make sense," Oracle nodded at that.
"Now that I finished telling all of you a bedtime story to have some nice dreams, you will tell me why you asked me to do that," Winter said right away to him.
"O-okay, fine… I told Qib that I'd tell you all a lot of things right now and I will… Well as you said, I could have told Darkstalker's legend myself…" Winter stared at him after he said that. "But hm, I wanted everyone to be able to hear the base version to start wrapping their minds around it… and then I can tell… the full version," the transformed Nightwing announced.
"... The full version? What do you even mean?" Winter questioned.
He means… the entire tale of Darkstalker? He knows it? How? Moon thought to herself.
"I… am privy to the information of nearly everything that happened back then, 2000 years ago…" Oracle admitted.
There was some baffled silence for some seconds before Winter just scoffed.
"You've told us that we should follow you because you can see the future, but I don't believe you've mentioned you could see the past. How could you even know the "full" story?
"I… simply got my methods which I… cannot quite reveal just yet, sorry, you'll have to bear with my obnoxious vague answers for longer. Yes even I am not happy about having to keep that up," he said quite nervously in tone.
Moon was rather sure that probably everyone agreed on that, Oracle seems like a nice dragon that's been helping, but knowing he just keeps hiding a lot of information, and that he's aware it's annoying, puts him in an odd perspective.
"Winter, let him talk, I want to hear what this is about, there's another version of the story? More complete? Iiiii am interested," Qibli commented.
"Yeah! Oracle just keeps hiding a lot of stuff, but if he can tell us a good story tonight, then it's fine right now," Kinkajou chimed in nicely.
That just made the transformed dragon look even more awkward and sheepish after just being called out like that even more.
"O-Okay… well then, listen with attention because this is going to take a while, I am going to tell you quite a lot right now…"
He then gave a glassy-eyed stare to nothing in particular for a moment, and that made Moon think of when Kinkajou showed to her what she sometimes looked like when talking to Darkstalker, and she realized that Oracle has done it a couple times these days.
"Actually… how about I don't just tell you the tale but I… Act it out for you?"
"Wait, what?" Winter said actually surprised by the random offer, as was everyone else.
Without any warning, Oracle apparently began to enact the story of Darkstalker, having taken upon himself the role to play everyone.
He began acting as Prince Arctic and Foeslayer, telling of their surprising first meeting. Moon could tell that Winter really had a lot of mixed feelings upon seeing the other Icewing act nice and flirtatious as each of them, he probably thought Arctic was forcibly taken.
At times when he wasn't outright acting as a character, he narrated the events as if from an outside perspective, telling how Darkstalker was born under three moons in a Brightest Night, and thus his powers had no equal, having incredible foresight and mind reading coupled with the Animus gene from Arctic, and how since childhood, he knew who he wanted to meet and have as his mate before even seeing her in person, Clearsight. And how Clearsight too knew she'd meet him.
Then the story was painting things in a different light, speaking of Darkstalker's life at his home, having a mother and a sister he loved, but his father had grown bitter, still loving Foeslayer, but he also was not a good dad to Darkstalker, instead preferring his sister, Whiteout, as she looked more like an Icewing and didn't constantly pry into his mind.
And then he shifted to another part of the world, acting out as Seawings, in particular as Fathom, Indigo and Albatross. Now it was Turtle's time to listen far more attentively, possibly getting details unknown to anyone else in the Sea Kingdom about the old royal massacre.
And Moon had noticed, amused by this, that Oracle the Icewing was acting very similar to Turtle in demeanor, body movements, and he even tried a calm voice in his raspy Icewing voice whenever he acted out as Fathom. She looked at Turtle who had of course also noticed, and he had wrinkled his snout amused.
They heard of the big massacre, Turtle shifting uncomfortably on his talons as Oracle truly sounded mad and crazy when he acted out as Albatross as he murdered the royal family, and then threateningly tried to find and single out Fathom to see him die in front of his own eyes instead of enchanting something from afar, before Fathom killed him with magic to protect Indigo, Turtle looking surprised by that part in specific, Moon wondered why until "Fathom" a minute later had lied to say Indigo was the one to kill the Animus.
And with what he called the "main cast" introduced in the narration, he went along the story, speaking from multiple perspectives. Talking of Fathom's oath to his sister to never use his magic again or have dragonets, how Arctic found out about Darkstalker's animus powers when he was impressing Clearsight…
Moon wondered when the Scroll came into play, Darkstalker had thrown some hints at her that it was to protect his soul, and wouldn't it make sense that it was early in his life? And yet upon suddenly starting to act, Oracle had tucked the scroll back into the pouch for now, and now she was hoping she had the amazing controlled foresight that Clearsight and Darkstalker had, then she could follow along Oracle's actions in the future.
And Moon shifted with uncertainty, at times, since Oracle wasn't exactly the best actor he'd stop for a moment as if to remember a line or moment, looking glassy-eyed at nothing for a second and then immediately snap back into his acting, that's just strange.
He talked of Fathom and Indigo arriving at the Night Kingdom to watch over Darkstalker and make sure he stays "normal", with a friendship quickly blooming between Seawing and Nightwing, but Indigo remained ever-alert.
He moved along the events a bit faster by the middle, Clearsight becoming the queen's top seer, Darkstalker creating a thing called a Soul Reader to see how much good and evil is in someone's soul, black sand to signal the good, and white the bad, his making of the Dreamvisitors
And then it became more saddening, with Foeslayer arguing with Arctic and taking off an earring that protects her, making her fall victim of an old enchantment from Queen Diamond, and thus Darkstalker began to fall down a dark spiral.
For the next biggest event, Darkstalker ended in an assassination attempt! Oracle had grabbed a long stick as if it was a weapon and charged against a sturdy tree, breaking the stick with a blow.
"And that's when the assassin tried to hit Darkstalker, it was a clean blow, yet it did nothing and the weapon slipped along his body! Unknown to everyone else, Darkstalker had made himself invincible to physical damage, and his body would heal wounds," Oracle narrated.
Moon's eyes widened, Darkstalker had forgotten to mention the little fact when trying to convince her that he literally cannot be harmed, that does make the idea of freeing such a… controversial figure even a tougher choice.
And then, Indigo had seemingly just vanished, only leaving behind a note, it probably felt obvious to everyone that the Seawing didn't just dip. Oh and then Darkstalker found out the queen had hired the assassin.
And then his narration slowed down, speaking of how Arctic tried to escape back to the Ice Kingdom while bringing Whiteout, and Darkstalker stopped him and did the unthinkable.
"Enchant Arctic the IceWing to obey my every command." Oracle had said with his coldest tone possible as an Icewing, and the reaction was instant.
Winter looked sick, Kinkajou let out a massive gasp as she's that enthralled in the tale, Turtle was looking down at his talons, and Qibli was looking as if he was submerged deep in his own thoughts.
And Moon could not believe this, Darkstalker had controlled his own father.
And when they were nearing the end of the tale, Oracle had swooped up towards a rock as if he landed on stage, leering down at the ground.
"Cut out your tongue," Darkoracle said coldly.
He immediately made a startled expression as he swapped to Arctic, opening his mouth and showing his blue tongue, he brought a talon closer and made a swiping gesture inches away of the tongue to act as if he had cut it, making a pained sound, eyes wide open, then he stood quickly, still leering down.
"Now," "Darkstalker" said, leaning down. "Take your talons, rip open your stomach, and show us all what you're really like on the inside. Pour out your life on this stage."
Moon flinched, no, this couldn't be true, she could feel tears starting to escape her eyes, there's no way Darkstalker ordered that.
And then Oracle raised one of his talons with serrated claws, and acted as if he brought it along his stomach, several times, clawing all over at the air right in front as he let out a quite realistic sounding choked roar of pain, and then he fell limp atop the rock.
Winter was breathing heavily, eyes staring at the scene, clenching his talons and gritting his teeth. Now without any doubt he was feeling even angrier towards Darkstalker.
And it's the same way with Moon, she felt betrayed, even if it's only been days, she was feeling like an idiot for letting Darkstalker convince her to try looking for his talisman to free him, after all this? She didn't think she could bear the thought of just freeing him from his underground prison.
Slowly, Oracle got up from the ground, and left the rock, looking at his shocked audience, everyone looking bewildered, and yet he wasn't done.
He finished the tale by telling how Clearsight had made him go to Agate Mountain for a final meeting.
"Did you know," Clearacle said thoughtfully, "that this won't be the tallest mountain in Pyrrhia for much longer? There's going to be an earthquake soon and this whole side will collapse. Then Jade Mountain will be the tallest."
"Is that supposed to be a metaphor?" "Darkstalker" said, flicking his tail back and forth. "Something about the most powerful dragon falling and someone else taking his place? Because it's a bit muddled. Not your best work."
And a minute later, Oracle narrated how Fathom had broken his oath to enchant Clearsight's bracelet for a spell to deal with Darkstalker, and Clearsight had now slipped it onto his arm, and Darkstalker was put to sleep.
The act ended, and Oracle opened his pouch again, bringing out the scroll.
"Now you know nearly the whole tale… and there's one more thing I didn't mention, saving it to the end for a big reveal, most of these spells that Darkstalker said? They weren't spoken, no, instead he had done something in an attempt to protect his soul, taking his magic out of his body and putting it in something different to hold it, a scroll."
Everyone was silent, working out what Oracle was trying to say, Moon looked at Qibli, and it appeared like he realized something's going on.
"So currently, the Darkstalker is without magic, wanting to get back his power… and now, observe.
He brought out a pen from his pouch, and Moon's eyes widened as she was getting up panicked, feeling the eyes of the others looking at her but she ignored them, is he going to make a spell!?
He held a rock gently with a talon and spoke while writing. "I enchant this rock so that it turns into a silver chalice, and if whoever that holds it says or thinks of the words "Heal me", the chalice will fill itself with water that will cure absolutely any kind of wound, ailment, and eliminate physical threats within the body instantaneously."
The rock was morphing and shifting form, enlarging and getting bigger, and then it had turned into a simple yet elegant silver chalice, and the others had stood up as well, Winter staring at the scroll in shock and then glared at Oracle.
"Heal me," Oracle whispered, the chalice filling itself with water, Oracle ripped off Chameleon's pouch from him and his scales went from white to black, his form becoming smaller as he gasped in pain, one of his eyes getting swollen and darkening and corroding.
He took a quick sip of the water, and just like magic, all of that in his eye vanished instantly without a trace and he took a relieved deep breath.
And then the small Nightwing had to look up to the group of dragons that had encircled him.