Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The rain slipped down Darkstalker’s muzzle as he lay on Agate Mountain. He hadn’t moved from this spot, wanting to wait for Moonwatcher. He’d hunt, but he would always come back. But she was taking longer than planned, the storm slowing them down. And it wouldn’t lift for a while.

He could have taken shelter in the hole he used to be stuck in…but that was out of the question. He did not want to be trapped down there any longer. Never again.

Sadly, he was much too big to simply sit under a tree either. Heading to Jade Mountain would always end badly, without a spell. Much fighting and screaming. Icewings and nightwings would try to end him, and never listen. They couldn’t kill him, but it never did good with relations if Moon and Winter weren’t there to smooth things over.

No, if he went early, Moon was disappointed.

But he also didn’t want to stay out in the storm. The longer he stayed, the more he thought about that flight with Clearsight in the hurricane. When they found that cave, which became their secret spot, it reminded him of Fathom, when they went ot watch the lightning from the towers.

Why did his memories have to revolve around storms so much?

He could try to cast a spell to end the storm….no Turtle would realize immediately. Thanks to the quill and River, he was very intuitive about magic.

He could try casting a spell he learned from Qibli. A spell to make others like him. But then Qibli would see through it, and that would all fall apart.

In fact, the number of spells he could cast without getting caught was incredibly slim. And if he did any after Moon got there, the choices slimmed even more.

Currently, there was only one spell he could cast that would get him out of the rain. But it started its own problems. Problems he could deal with, of course. But problems he’d never suffered before.

Was that how Whiteout felt? She was much stronger than Darkstalker gave her credit for. He thought he was protecting her, but truly, she was indomitable to survive under that pressure. Even when he could come in to defend her.

But now he’ll have no magic to defend himself. Only his mind-reading and future sight. And he was starting to rely on the latter as much as Clearsight did. Trying to find the right timeline, but unable to make others choose the path that leads to it.

I'm sorry for ever joking about your need to look ahead, Clearsight.

Well, he had a choice. And currently, casting the spell was the best option. It made Moon more comfortable. But he didn’t like how some of the others saw him. And he did not like the idea of going to Jade Mountain…like that.

Well, there was at least one new good light there. Started by River once again. That seawing was sending ripples down the timeline with every choice he made, but this ripple would be a good one. For Darkstalker at least.

He sighed quietly, picking up a rock from the ground…and cast one of the few spells he could. At least this was following the ‘never shake the earth’ part of his new prophecy.

Sunny was sitting on the landing area of the entrance hall. She did this a lot lately. Waiting for her students to return home. It had taken a few days to reach the Jade Winglet by dream visitor. Something about forgetting to remove a protection spell, but when she got in contact…

She was mad!

In her Sunny way of being mad and worried. But still mad. Facing Scarlet alone? Fighting off bombs? Finding a lost princess...then turning them back into a queen? Finding the dead King. Oh, how Tsunami had cried into her scales when Sunny had told her she didn’t kill her father.

Of course, she was proud. They’d brokered peace between three tribes. They’d kept innocents safe. They’d fought for the values she was teaching at this school.

But they were just dragonets!

“Excuse me? Sunny?” a voice sounded, not one she recognized. It was deep, with the telltale crack of a dragonet in his later years. She turned to see a nightwing, looking incredibly sullen in the rain. Drenched from head to tail, and wings drooping.

He was slightly taller than she was, probably about six years old. And the poor thing looked absolutely pathetic sitting in the rain. Her heart melted.

“I’m not pathetic!” He said, sitting up on his hind legs and stamping his talon.

Sunny blanked. She was pretty sure she didn’t say that. She would never say something like that out loud. Which meant he was probably like Moon, another nightwing with secret powers.

“Not so secret really,” he said smugly. But the rain dripping down his snout kind of defeated the look. He seemed to notice that in her head, because he dropped the smug expression. “Can…I come inside?”

“Oh, of course!” Sunny said quickly, motioning him inside, and taking cover from the rain herself. “Are you here to visit someone? I don’t think I recognize you from the nightwing village.” She started rambling, speaking everything from her mind as a form of protection.

“You don’t need to protect your mind from me. I’ve been hearing it for months. There’s nothing bad in it.” He said simply, shaking the rain from his scales as he slipped into the dry cave behind her.

Then he continued speaking. “I’m here to wait for some… a friend. She should be here in a few days…Could I stay for a bit? I won’t cause trouble.” He asked. His talons tapped together like he was nervous, despite sounding confident. Was he afraid she was going to turn him away?

“Of course you can stay.” She said simply. More wonderingly.

“Oh phew. There were a couple of timelines where you didn’t let me. And if I tried to stay anyway, Moon would get mad. But I really don’t want to be in the rain…” He seemed to sag a bit with relief, bouncing from talon to talon with excitement now when he mentioned Moon. Then immediately stopped and tried to take a dignified stance when he saw that thought in Sunny’s head.

The sandwing couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think I could manage having those powers.” She said between giggles. “Always worrying about what others think. Or about the future. You and Moon have it rough.”

“It’s more of a gift, really.” He said with all that same confidence from before. Now that he was standing in the light, letting the water drip onto his talons in a puddle, she could see him more clearly.

Black scales, with silver scales over his entire body. The same teardrop scales around his eyes. And a line of white scales on the underside of his wings. The dragonet quickly tucked his wings, hiding that line of scales from her view, with what seemed like shame. But he didn’t offer any more information.

“Do you have a name?” She asked, trying not to pry further.

“Of course I have a name! It’s….probably better not said…” He started, before slowing down as his eyes grew unfocused.

“Whyever not?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“Nightwings and icewings here will try to kill me on sight, and if I fight back, Moon will be upset. But if I don’t fight back, I’m stuck under lots of angry dragons for days. And they never believe me when I say I don’t want to hurt any dragon.” He let out a short huff, smoke spilling from his nostrils.

“Why would they want to hurt you?”

“A complete misunderstanding and a long story that's spilled out of control over the years,” he waved his talon as if chasing smoke away. “But I honestly don’t want to hurt anyone….here. There are a few dragons, maybe, but none here.”

Sunny gave the dragonet a deep look, and he sighed. “Everyone wants to hurt someone,” he said with the same attitude of a dragonet complaining to his mom.

“I’m not complaining!” he growled, stamping his talon for effect.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Sunny pointed out.

He waved his talon again, as if brushing that information aside. “You and Clay don’t count. You’re weird,” he started, before stumbling over his words to correct himself. “I mean in a good way. Weird in a good, nice, peaceful way. Please don’t throw me out!”

Sunny couldn’t help but laugh, and he seemed to relax at that.

“So, if you don’t want to use your real name, what should we call you?”

“Um…how about…Dark….moon. Darkmoon.” He said, nodding to himself.

“That's…morbid.” Sunny frowned a bit. He stamped his talon again, lashing his tail.

“Is not! Obviously, you’re neglecting your nightwing heritage if you think that!” he snorted a bit of flame, drying some of the puddle under himself. “A dark moon or a new moon is a sign of new beginnings to nightwings. It's the start of the light. It's almost as important as a full moon to us.”

Sunny nodded at that for a bit. “Hmm…. then I guess that's not too bad. You’re looking for a new beginning, then?”

The dragonet looked a bit sullen at that, sitting on his haunches and twiddling his claws. “I don’t know… I miss who I was…But I don’t want to lose the future I see. There's so much that can go wrong, though. And I can’t fix it now like I could before. Every time I try, it leads to dark paths for me.” He looked up, as if expecting Sunny to have an answer for his problems.

“Oh, you poor thing. You shouldn’t have to worry about the future at your age,” she said, ignoring his look af annoyance. “Yes, yes, I’m not much older than you.” He let out a loud snort that almost knocked him over at that.

“You have no idea.”

“Perhaps I can learn,” Sunny asked, tilting her head again. “While we wait for…Moon?”

“And the rest of them. But…Moon is my friend. She’ll tell you when she gets here. In a few more days…the storm is slowing her down.” He said quietly. He seemed lonely to Sunny.

“Then you can stay here till then. Maybe you can learn something while you’re here.” Sunny said with a nod. “I'm guessing you’re….not from the rainforest?”

He quickly shook his head, shuddering a bit at that. “I’d never let a rainwing rule me.” He started, before catching her eye. “I mean uh….Okay, I don’t have anything for that. Don’t tell Moon I said that, please.” Darkmoon drooped a bit more. “I’m….not used to not hating other races?” offered the dragonet.

Sunny hummed a bit before nodding. “Then I believe we should get you a clawmate or two.”

The dragonet blanked, and Sunny could almost see his mind ticking like Qibli’s did when something new and unexpected happened. “No-no-no! I didn’t want to be enrolled here!” Darkstalker said quickly, shaking his talons. “I’m just waiting for Moon!”

“And while you wait, you can get to know more dragons. That’s my condition for letting you stay, how's that?” Sunny smiled triumphantly as he seemed to sulk into himself.

“Fine… But not Flame, please. He’s not a fun mind to be around.”

Sunny started to think about that, and his muzzle turned a bit worried. “Where exactly have you been staying? If you know so much about here?”

“N-nearby.” He stuttered out.

“Mmmhmmm,” the smaller sandwing hummed out. “Well. We can keep you away from Flame if it bothers you that much, but you are getting a clawmate. For now. We’ll see what Moon has to say about you when she gets here.”

Was that fear in the dragonet’s eyes? It was quickly quashed away as he took on a scowl surprisingly similar to Winter’s. And now he looked even angrier.

“I am NOT like Winter!” he huffed, stamping his talon on the stone again, making Sunny laugh brightly.

“Fair. Fair. He doesn’t stamp around like a hatchling.” He narrowed his eyes at her before he seemed to sulk a bit more. Sunny flicked her tail, motioning for him to follow after her.

“I’m so going to regret this.” He said quietly, before moving to follow Sunny.

“You say that now…” She sang out.

“I can literally see all the ways this can go wrong,” the dragonet grumped, but he kept following. Apparently, whatever could go wrong was worth it for Moon. Sunny turned back to see the dragonet looking away and a slight blush on his muzzle.

“It's not like that!” He roared as Sunny started laughing once more.