— Chapter 12 —

Oracle

The rest of the day went mostly normally without many interruptions, Oracle had said goodbye to Turtle some time after Peril left with Clay, and now he was outside the mountain, flying carefully.

Tomorrow will be… a significant day, if I manage to somehow convince her before that point, then it'll be the best ending…

But if I don't… I might… potentially have to take a more hands-on approach.

The idea utterly terrified the small dragon, the thought that if the worst comes to be, he might have to attempt fighting against one of his friends, and not just any random dragon but someone that's been to war and feels revengeful, someone that has certainly killed other dragons, all of which would have experience in battles, and she'd probably see him as collateral damage on the path to avenge Crane if he confronts her.

So all the Nightwing had was hoping he might be able to make a good fighting strategy if the worst case scenario occurs. Right now he's training to get prepared for the possibility, as he landed on the ground he began to move and zig-zag around, roll in the ground to evade an imaginary foe, clawed at the air with his thin claws, pounce forward, and he tried to do a turn to strike a tree with his tail but that only ended with him feeling sore on the tail so he decided against it.

He also tested out his fire breathing, he's a Nightwing so he would be able to use fire whenever, unlike Mudwings which need to keep at a warm body temperature to do it, sadly he can't make things colder so it's not really any sort of advantage in this case. Either way he's able to make short bursts of fire, but only manages to hold the ongoing fire for two or three seconds before the flow stops.

And then he realized that with Sora having cacti that super explode when lit up, using any sort of fire would be actual suicide if even just one ember touched the cactus, which made him all the more aware of just how few options he's even got.

He wished a lot that he could just ask Turtle for help with this situation, if Sora can't be talked down, at the very least he wanted to completely stop the explosion from even happening in the first place, he recalled there were like two dead dragons afterward, one of them the Skywing of the Jade Winglet, and Tamarin had ended hospitalized.

But Sora would probably fight even harder and like if she was cornered if he went for a 2v1, and if Turtle ended far too damaged or even, dead, then Oracle would never forgive himself in the few seconds left he'd have of life before Sora kills him too, for getting such a good dragon murdered.

I still haven't got to actually make super big changes besides letting Turtle in the know about Darkstalker earlier and get him to make that spell… if I die tomorrow, then not much would really change this early on… the timeline should mostly shape back to normal and I know that the good guys still win at the end… he thought sadly in a depressing manner.

If Turtle dies, I cannot even fathom how much that shatters the timeline, no Skyfire for the rest of the Jade Winglet, no RELIABLE Animus because Anemone isn't reliable oh and also she'll keep getting crazier and probably murder her whole family, no enchanted earring which means that EVERY ICEWING DIES…

And meeting him in person, I just want to protect him, just like I'll want to protect everyone else in the group when I get to interact with them more.

And then Oracle suddenly thought a bit about something.

I've been in this world for only 10 or 11 days and I am willing to possibly die tomorrow? For dragons that I know a lot about but they don't really know me yet… I'm just 16 years old in reality, this is just… grim… did becoming a dragon make me more willing to die?

And then there was the voice in his mind that he began to consider his voice of reason by now.

Of course, Oracle is willing to die for a cause that is just, so he has to try, if he manages to win, then his future would be easier with others trusting him more. But maybe he could reconsider and at least hint at what is going to happen to another dragon that Sora knows.

Oracle thought of it for some seconds, then knew who it could be, that could either help him talk down Sora as she was also her friend, or at least might be able to save his life if she appears at the right time.

He's felt her gaze looking at him at times while walking next to each other, he knew she must be confused about why she can't read him, and as far as Oracle knows she could totally have seen a vision that includes him, but perhaps tomorrow, Moonwatcher could help.

Oracle had spent the entire day outside, trying to get enough the hang of this body to at least be able to last more than 10 seconds against someone if possible, and he went back to the mountain just some hours before nighttime, passing by the prey center to grab a handful of fruits while he walked around the academy, looking for the library as he expected Sora to be there, and indeed she was reading a scroll as usual.

"Hello, Oracle, that's you?" Starflight asked.

"Yep, I came here to talk a bit to Sora," Oracle nodded and that made the Mudwing raise her head, looking at him as he approached.

"Hey, Sora, it'll be night in a few hours and we'll have to sleep, I wondered if you would like us to talk with Tsunami? As the head of school, she could move us around so we get other clawmates, that way we both might have a more comfortable night," he offered after waving at her.

"Oh, that sounds good," Sora nodded, closing the scroll, and Oracle managed to see for a second that it was the one about Icewings that she's been reading other times, and that made him nervous.

"Hey hm, we're looking for Tsunami, can you tell us where her cave is?" the Nightwing asked Starflight.

"Oh sure, our sleeping caves are by the East side starting from the Great Hall, Tsunami's is the last cave at the left," he replied helpful.

They both thanked him and followed his directions, remaining silent and not talking on the walk to Tsunami's office, Oracle was quite sure that both of them were feeling unsure and uncertain about the same thing: the next day.

They arrived and were now standing outside the cave as Oracle cleared his throat for a second "H-Hm… head of school Tsunami?" He called, and after a second there were steps as Tsunami steps outside.

"Oh hey, is there something the matter? If it is Peril, know that she's hm, not an issue and will keep us safer," she said reluctantly.

"O-Oh no, Ms. Tsunami, this is Sora and I am Oracle, we're of the Gold Winglet and we wanted to know if we could get some other clawmate? W-We're not even asking for our own individual caves, we'd just like someone else, we're not comfortable with our respective clawmates…" He managed to say.

"My clawmate is Icicle, and his is Flame," Sora added in a whisper.

"Oh right, hm, step inside and we'll talk," Tsunami said, walking back in for the dragonets to follow, it was a rather spacious cave with tapestries of the sea and its tribe around the walls and some jewels adorning them too.

"So, what's the issue exactly with your clawmates?" Tsunami asked, although based on her expression, Oracle was sure she knew the handful they might be.

"I think my clawmate really doesn't like Nightwings…" Oracle muttered.

"Mine is cold, she talks in her sleep and is quite scary…" Sora said softly.

"So hm, would it be possible that maybe Sora and I could be clawmates instead? Or if leaving Flame and Icicle as a pair is too hm… too much, she and I talked, and we're both willing to have each other's clawmate instead." Oracle finished.

"Well, the point is for dragons of different tribes to end up getting along…" Tsunami answered.

"But we can also do that by hanging around with the other like 30 dragons around, can't we at least sleep without being scared or nervous?" Oracle argued.

"I'd have to discuss this with Flame and Icicle too, they get to have a say about whether they accept a different clawmate or not," the Seawing reminded.

"Right, it makes sense," Sora whispered.

"Cooould it be now? We'll have to sleep in a few hours, I'd like some sort of agreement done," the Nightwing pleaded.

Tsunami sighed "Fine, I'll check with your clawmates soon, go along and I'll call you later with the answer."

"Thank you," Sora said, grateful with a nod and began to walk away as asked.

Oracle lingered a little and looked at Tsunami, leaning closer and clearly wanting to whisper something, so the Seawing princess took a step forward to listen.

"I am asking all this mostly for her, please recall that Mudwings and Icewings fought a lot in the war, and I know an Icewing killed her sister during a battle, I feel like pairing her with one is just too much needless tension and awkwardness for literally the very first week," he whispered.

Tsunami seemed to recall something gruesome in her mind based on her expression and nodded "Right, I probably should have considered that while pairing dragons together, the point of this academy is second chances and for the tribes to get along, but I guess if some tension can be defused earlier on, the better."

Oracle nodded, relieved that she got it, and he began to walk away too.

One hour later, Tsunami had searched for Sora and Oracle, and told them to get to their new caves.

Slowly, Oracle stepped into what once was Sora's and Icicle's cavern, and now is his and Icicle's cavern.

And there, perched on a rock alcove, the Icewing was looking straight down at him.

Showing from the get-go who's superior and above, he thought.

"Nightwing," she spoke up from her high place. "So you are my "clawmate", I've seen my brother's, it seems like this place cannot give dragons at least fitting of our class, a Nightwing…" she said smoothly.

"H-Hi… I am Oracle… I promise you'll barely even notice I'm here and… you and Flame had accepted for this swap to happen, no?" He said nervously, here is someone even more unnerving than Winter.

"That Skywing had accepted right away so I was already in the minority of votes, and the Seawing tried quite hard to convince me, finally I accepted just to move on," she replied, eyeing him with her cold gaze.

I'm all for trying to talk things through with others and convince them, but this one's a psycho, and she plans to kill at least one of the Dragonets…

Okay, first make sure Sora doesn't make a whole room explode to kill people, then you can hopefully get others to help you stop earlier this extremely dangerous dragon that has Scarlet in her dreams, I know Sora's murderous attempts come before Icicle's murderous attempts.

Oracle gets onto the spot where Sora had been sleeping until tonight and lays down, feeling the glare of Icicle still on him.

Nightwing-Icewing rivalry, I know, but at least she can't just kill me in my sleep right now. It would be too obvious that she did it and she might lose her chance to kill one of her actual targets here. I'll be able to wake up next morning…

And so now, Oracle fell asleep in a dreamless sleep, upon waking up the next morning, he saw Icicle must've already woken up before and wasn't in the cave, so he got up and walked out.

He searched the library to see if Sora was there, and she wasn't. Then he went to the prey center and picked some fruits while looking for her, and Sora wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Is she going to do it? Waiting for some good time to get into the history classroom to place the cactus and the fuse? I know it will happen in the afternoon after… The Jade winglet and some other winglet have music class. I got a timeframe. I just have to get there first.

Oracle was nervous the whole day but tried to hide it, he walked by Turtle on a hallway and cheerfully smiled and waved before he kept going.

What would Turtle think if I died today? I would have given him breadcrumbs of the future and then just died, no more future knowledge, but I don't know what exactly I could tell him right now! What would be good?

With a sigh, he did not give Turtle more future knowledge.

If everything goes terribly, there's always the main timeline that he can follow… that can't happen as well if I only can tell him some details while leaving a hundred more, there isn't enough time.

The Gold Winglet had their time with instruments in the music cave alongside the Copper Winglet, and Oracle wished that the Copper and Quartz Winglets had more stuff in the books, he didn't even recall if any member of the Quartz one besides their Nightwing actually appeared, huh, that's unsatisfying.

Anyway he spent the time playing the maracas, moving them on his talons and following the rhythm the others were making. It was a nice time before proceeding on what he must do.

And most importantly there was Sora, she probably thought that skipping over one of the classes could be too dangerous in case she ended up as a suspect due to being outside class, and her expression didn't comfort the Nightwing at all, she looked as she usually did but Oracle can tell she was looking more… grim.

The class ended and he followed Sora with his gaze, seeing she went to the direction of the sleeping caves and not to the history cave… she might be going to retrieve the cactus from her room first.

He stepped out of the music cave alongside the rest of his winglet, and saw the Jade and Silver winglets waiting outside, there he can see Moon and he thought of how to do this.

Perhaps Oracle, despite everything, could actually let Moonwatcher take a look into his mind for just a moment, to give an unspoken message, his voice of reason spoke and he liked the idea.

While walking outside the cave, he pulled the chain that connects to his pouch holding the skyfire off his neck for a moment as if he was touching and repositioning the chain slightly, from the corner of his eye he saw Turtle looking at him, perhaps wondering why'd he get his mind defenseless for that moment.

And during that moment when he didn't have skyfire, his thoughts on the front were only Soon in the history classroom, soon in the history classroom, it must be stopped.

And when he put the chain back on, daring a subtle look towards the Nightwing who reads minds, he noticed a puzzled expression in her face, the message was received.

Then he ran down a hallway and towards the history classroom, it was empty, then he began to approach each of the fire globes that gave light, with his head above these he blows air at them and turned them off, leaving only one at the far back of the history cave, then he waited at a side covered in shadows after he turned off the globes, he knew the darkness would be the only thing that aids him, and he appreciated that only Seawings and Nightwings had actual vision in the dark.

After an incredibly tense wait he heard silent steps approaching the cave and he saw a figure stepping inside, head turning around clearly confused of why this was so dark, and after just a few seconds he was able to perfectly recognize Sora in the darkness.

Then he stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of the only remaining globe, looking up at the bigger dragon.

"Sora, you can't do this;" he spoke in his most serious tone yet, forcing himself to keep calm, to not be scared, and the Mudwing was immediately startled and turned towards the light, seeing the small Nightwing standing there.

"Oracle…? What are you doing here? What do you mean that I can't…?" she asked in a whisper after several seconds of silence.

"I came here to convince you to not make this place explode," was his reply, and he was able to see the shock in Sora's eyes.

"You… I… what? Where did you get that idea from?" She stammered, nervous.

"You got a satchel on you from what I can see, and I assume that inside is a specific kind of cactus, that can explode."

Realization kicks in and Sora took a step back.

"You… knew? But when? How?" She questioned, gripping tightly the satchel.

"I knew… since some time, and I know your motivations. Sora, I understand, losing a loved one is one of the most painful feelings in life," he winced, looking down. "But you can't set off a bomb in this academy, you'll spread fear and panic with that, other dragons will die, innocents will get hurt, those are not collateral damage, they're your fellow classmates, people that can be your friends, that can help the pain go away." Oracle stated with pity on his tone, pressing a talon against his chest, giving an understanding tone.

Sora didn't take it too well.

"Was this all an act to get to me? Meeting with me so often, reading in the library while sitting nearby, getting us to swap clawmates… was everything just a ruse?" She spoke and Oracle shivered at her tone, right now she wasn't Sora, the shy dragonet that's nice to hang around with. She's Sora, the dragon that was born in the middle of a war, had to fight to survive, and lost someone close to her.

"N-No! I… me wanting to be your friend was always real, I wanted to help you since the beginning, I know that this won't wor-" he started but got interrupted.

"How? How can you know any of this? Not even my own siblings know… and you sound so sure about it…" She seems to be thinking about this, thinking of the answers before rounding down to the potentially most scary ones.

"No… there is no way…" She said slowly at the thought. " Did you… read my mind? Pry inside? Or did you see it all in some prophecy?" She asked, hurt.

Oracle knew a question like this would appear, once more he'll have to reveal part of the truth to someone else.

"I-I… I've seen glimpses of the future, this explosion causes more harm than good, and it fails at killing Icicle," he revealed slowly, Sora took a step forward and he flinched.

"... It fails… No, I cannot believe you, it's said that you Nightwings don't actually have these abilities, and it sounds like everything else you've done so far was a lie too, I can't trust you…" She said sadly, still holding her satchel. "I know she will come to this classroom next, I've asked about today's classes, she will be here."

"And so will others like Moon, and Turtle, and Umber… would you risk ending with Umber dead too?" He questioned and she took a step back.

"I'd… I will delay him, he'll be fine, and so will the rest of my family after that murderer dies," she replied after a moment.

She's in so much denial, I KNOW there's guilt building within her, and it only expands afterwards, but right now she's too set on this plan, on getting revenge against Icicle to actually reason, only after seeing the actual damage and fear she caused is when she starts to break down.

"Sora… a-as your friend, even if you don't want to consider me one, I can't let you do this, your future is not nice, I am trying to get you a normal life without fear, or needing to escape and worrying all of your family."

"As your friend, I… will have to stop you if you don't accept not to go through with this."

He took a look at the Mudwing's expression, and he saw uncertainty, sadness… but also a determined look to get revenge on who wronged her family, and after she took another step forward, he knew she made her choice now.

"Crane deserved to live a full life… to enjoy the end of the war that would come just months after she was gone… it's unfair, why should she die, but her killer can remain here?" Sora wasn't going to stop right now.

He quickly turned his neck around and blew the last fire globe, leaving the room in darkness, then he quickly moved to a side.

Trembling, he saw Sora's figure having pounced at the spot he was just at a moment ago, her head turning and looking around attently.

Oracle made two steps to the right, but she must have heard him as she made a quick turn and slammed his chest with her strong tail, sending him against one of the rock walls, and he immediately felt out of breath, and he was sure at least some bones must have broken.

And with such loud sound after impact, she had turned that way and was moving quickly towards the wall, a talon raised to claw on him, and he barely pushed himself off the wall and rolling to a side to evade that, and he began to scurry around in the darkness that camouflaged him, Sora turning and searching for him but she wasn't able to see in the dark, he made a distraction by grabbing a scroll and throwing it at the opposite direction he's at, and she quickly moved over there.

He took his chance and for the first time attacked, approaching quickly from behind the Mudwing, he opened his mouth and bit the tip of her tail, the weak spot of all dragons, and she roared in pain, her tail quickly moving and launching the Nightwing backwards as he rolled on the ground.

"I'm sorry…! I really don't want to fight you, you are a good dragon, you can do better than this!" Oracle apologized with a wince, feeling many parts of his body aching after that.

Sora didn't respond and took advantage of Oracle's mistake, he had talked, revealing very clearly his exact position so she was moving quickly at him, his eyes widened and he tried to walk out of the way, but she had extended her talons and managed to reach his tail, he gasped and then let out a roar mixed with a pained cry as she had pressed her claws on his tail's tip now as retaliation, then very easily due to the size and strength difference she lifted him from the tail and slammed the smaller dragon to the ground.

Oracle's vision was starting to get fuzzy, his breath stiffening, he saw Sora looming right above him, and desperately he managed to move one of his talons and quickly slashed his claws against one of her forelegs that was right by his side, he drew blood which was sticking on his claws now, the first time he's caused any sort of bleeding on someone.

She made a pained gasp and she reached for his snout with her other talon, pressing on it and suddenly Oracle was now starting to struggle a lot more, desperately trying to get her talon off him, slashing more but she kept pressing there despite more claws marks and some more blood coming from her leg.

I… can't… breathe…, Oracle thought panicked, as air wasn't able to enter his lungs, the pressure hurt so much, and his flailing was slowing down due to the lack of oxygen, until his talons were still.

His eyes tried to meet Sora's, giving a desperate, terrified plea, but she wasn't looking at his face, as if she didn't want to actually see this happening in motion.

Eventually, his visions grew completely blurry and dark and his eyes closed, losing consciousness, then is when he felt the pressure on his snout going away, and the last thing he heard before fully becoming unconscious were her steps going towards a side of the cave, the sound of the satchel opening.

Killing… me normally would be too messy, either she knows it could be dangerous to leave too much evidence behind on my body, or she can't actually dare to land a killing blow herself.

So she's going to leave me in the same room as a bomb and let it take care of everything.

And then everything faded to black.