"Shifting Tides" by Fogeye (aka Flamestorm)

Book 1: Shifting Tides

This is the current Wof fanfiction i'm working on. Note that English isn't my mothertongue, and i may have made some gramatical mistakes. Feel free to correct these mistakes. However, i ask you not to touch the story itself.

Further i wanted to add that this story will take place during the events of book 14, but they will likely not play a major role, at least as of now.

Lastly, this is an unfinished story, and things can still change. I only have a rough idea of where this story will go and over time i'll likely be cleaning up some mistakes i made or changes i've decided on, as well as some formating issues. Updates will likely also be slow, and as of right now, i don't know how many chapters there will be.

Prologue

A thick smoke covered the skies as a black figure crept through the shadows of a ravene. By now it should be close to midnight, though the moons were not visible through the smoke blanket. The dragon stopped at an opening in the rock walls, and cautiously looked inside for any movement. Tucking in her wings, she squeezed through the tight hole. With a thump, she landed on the other side. Silently shaking out her wings, she thought about any other way to do this more efficiently. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to use this entrance anymore, she already barely fit through it right now, if she were to grow any more, she wouldn’t fit at all. She sighed, She’d really need a new way in soon. She wondered if any other, bigger openings could be found on this side of the cave system, it was the least visited by other dragons after all, the easiest place to get in unnoticed. The dark coloured dragon continued her walk through the hallways, glancing past every corner to make sure no guards were around. Eventually, she came to a stop at a right turn. She knew that this turn led to an open space, which tended to have at least a couple of dragons in it each day. But it was late at night, no one should be there right now. Taking a deep breath, she started to make her way down the clearing.

“I know you’re there.” A voice called from somewhere in the shadows. The black dragon froze, her heart sinking as she recognised the voice. It only took a heartbeat before a burst of flames lit up the nearby candles and torches. A bigger black dragon, with scales that gave off a weird red shine, was now visible in the room. “Did you really think you could sneak off again like that, Foresight?” She had done this countless times before, but only recently have others been noticing her. Foresight tried to make herself look as big as possible. “I’m not doing anything wrong with being here, Fatereader. I was just taking a night walk.” The bigger dragon suppressed a laugh. “Sure you were, I'm guessing it’s one of these stealth walks of yours.” Fatereader’s face turned serious again. “Don’t lie to me, Foresight. Sirius saw you use the Rainforest tunnel earlier today. You didn’t have permission to go there now, did you?” Foresight could feel her chest filling with rage, that little pest really had to ruin this for her, now did he? Next time the snitch showed up his face he’d be regretting it. She tried to calm herself down. “I wanted to get a breath of fresh air, is that such a crime? I mean, look at this place.” “Foresight, you know you’re not allowed to use the tunnels for stuff like that. You could be ruining Queen Battlewinner’s and Morrowseer’s plans. Why can’t you be more like the other dragons your age? At least they know what’s good for their tribe.” Foresight could feel one of Fatereader’s boring “be less selfish and act your age” speeches coming up. If she only knew the stuff some of her old burrowmates did and still do. But, to her own surprise, Fatereader just sighed. “Listen, Foresight. I and some other Nightwings have been talking about your recent… behaviour. We can’t risk you having any more of your little adventures in the Rainforest, or wherever you go off to. We have agreed that from now on, you’re not to leave my sight.You’re also not allowed to leave the island without supervision. If you were to be spotted breaking the rules again, there will be serious consequences attached.” Foresight felt like she was about to explode.”WHAT? That’s not fair, I’m not a dragonet anymore, why should I have to be treated as one?” Fatereader turned around and looked at her. “Do you think I want this? You are destroying my image as much as you are your own. What do you think other Nightwings say about me when you’re misbehaving like that? Why aren't you more like your brother, Foresight? Sirius is quite responsible for his age, way more than you were when you were 6. Your father’s rebellious nature must have rubbed off on you.” Foresight stood there, dumbfounded. She was eight and a half when her father, Narrowsight, died in a tragic accident. Sirius never had the chance to meet him. Maybe that’s why he’s this unbearable, just like their mother. Foresight knew there was no room for discussion here. “Fine, I'll do whatever you want. Can I go to the sleeping caves now?” Fatereader had her “i’m going to make this so much harder for you” expressions leaking through her facade. “Actually, now that I come to think of it, there is something I did want to let you know. As you know, we need more animus dragons in our kingdom, so I have arranged a marriage with Stonemover’s cousin, Fierceclaws, for you. He’s the only dragon other than Stonemover of course that might still carry some animus offspring. Maybe this marriage could actually make you useful for once.” Foresight couldn’t believe her own ears. Fatereader has always been a terrible dragon to her, but never did she imagine her mother would take things this far. “I’m not marrying Fierceclaws. He’s terribly annoying and he smells like dead animals. I doubt that guy has ever cleaned himself properly. You can’t do this to me mom.” Fatereader shrugged her shoulders. “As far as i’m concerned, you two are a perfect match. You wanted to ruin our status, you can fix it too. I want an animus grandchild by the time your little brother turns 8.” Foresight could feel her chest aching. She was furious but strangely, also sad , she’d never felt this awful before. She didn’t hear anything else her mother was telling her. She could feel Fatereader pushing her forward. Together, the two of them walked to Foresight’s sleeping burrow. She laid herself down on her bed, thinking about everything that had gone wrong that day. Fatereader had left her burrow by now.

She had to leave. There was no way she’d spend another day on this island. Foresight waited until she was sure her mother had left. She checked on her burrowmates to make sure they were all asleep. Though exhausted, she left the cave system the same way she had entered it. This time, making sure no one saw her. She squeezed herself through the narrow hole for the second time that night. But instead of going for the Rainforest tunnels, which would surely have some guards by now, she headed off to the opposite side. She waited by a small cave, just big enough for a 2 year old dragonet to comfortably sit in, and reached her talon into it. She felt around for a while until she found the roundish object she was looking for. Pulling it out to reveal an egg, her egg. Luckily the other NightWings hadn’t found out about this yet, and they wouldn’t either. She would take it with her, to wherever they were going. She thought about what Fatereader would do if she ever found out about this egg. She’d destroy it, Foresight was sure of that now. There’s no way Fatereader would ever accept it. What was she even thinking, she would never have been able to raise her dragonet here. She should have left long ago, she should have left and never came back the first time she visited the Rainforest, first time she met him. Checking the skies for any Nightwings, she flew off, holding her egg close to her. Her future dragonet. She knew exactly where she wanted to go, but would she be able to find her way to the mainland, without the tunnels? It didn’t matter, she’d fly until she’d find it. Foresight just needed to leave this place as soon as possible.

Chapter 1

10 years later

A dark purple dragon was resting in a hammock, a margay was laying next to her on a thick branch that stuck through one of the windows of the tree hut. The purple dragon slowly opened her eyes and yawned. Her eyes resting on the margay. She reached with one of her talons to the cat-like creature, and gently pet it. The margay chirped and woke up as well, blinking at the bigger creature, before washing her pelt. The dragon started making her way around the hut, looking if she had any more food stored. When all she found was a dead mouse, she shrugged and threw it towards the margay, who gladly took the offer. “I’ll be right back, Stalker”, she called to the margay. The dragon looked for a few more moments at her pet. This was how her days used to go, just her and her margay, alone, isolated in the rainforest. Barely any visitors, no company, just her and Stalker. But things changed, things have changed ever since the RainWings got their new queen, which was almost a year ago now. Things didn’t change in a bad way, they were just… different. One of these changes was currently awaiting the dark purple dragon at the other side of the door. As the dragon exited the house, she noticed a dark orange, nearly black dragon sitting on the balcony, shivering. “Dawnbringer? What are you doing here?” The dragon looked at her. “I was waiting for you to come out, what else would i be doing at your door?” The purple dragon looked questionably at her. “How long have you been sitting there?” Dawnbringer seemed to think for a minute. “Since shortly after the RainWing’s suntime.” The purple dragon sighed, she walked up to Dawnbringer and wrapped her wing around her. “You know I only wake up when the moons are visible, why didn’t you just, wait at home? Come by later?” Dawnbringer looked at her. “Because I forgot. All the other Nightwings wake up shortly after midday, why wouldn’t you have, Abysssight?” Abysssight shook her head, it wasn’t the first time she found Dawnbringer waiting at her door, but usually she had the sense to come by in the late evening. Abysssight drew her wing back after sitting there for a minute. “Say, i was going to gather some berries and fruits, as well as perhaps some small animal for Stalker to hunt, she prefers her food fresh. You wanna come with me, it’ll warm you up.” She saw her friend shiver at the mention of her margay. “Sure, I've got nothing better to do anyways. Btw, why do you still call your pet that? Doesn’t it make you uncomfortable?” Abysssight shook her head. She had known what went down in the night kingdom a few weeks ago, but she hadn’t been a part of it. “Stalker has always had her name, ever since we found each other five years ago, she’s used to it. I’m not changing it because of what happened with Darkstalker and the nightwings.” “Oh, ofcourse.” Abysssight spread her nearly black, star-covered wings, and prepared herself for take-off, and flew out into the dense rainforest. Dawnbringer followed close behind her, her friend clearly seemed to have a harder time manoeuvring through the trees then she did, so Abysssight decided to look for the easiest route.

The two landed on Abysssight’s favourite gathering spot, mostly because it held a lot of mangoes, her favourite fruit. Dawnbringer started looking around the various plants, sniffing the flowers, and pulling up her lip whenever she saw a fruit, as she usually did. Her friend wasn’t much of a fan when it came to non-meats. Abysssight knew she was close to the RainWing village, and looked in it’s direction. It had been a while since she saw a RainWing, in fact, she had not yet seen the new queen up close. She had only been able to see her once, from afar, when she visited the new NightWing village. But she didn’t mind, she liked it this way. If she could, she never wanted to see a RainWing again. Abysssight shook her head and concentrated on gathering food again. The two were doing their own thing in silence. Abysssight liked it that way. Despite the fact that everything had changed around her in the past year, she still wasn’t used to all of it. She wasn’t used to the fact that there were NightWings close by, real NightWings, and she wasn’t used to the idea of not being alone. She remembered the first time she went to visit the New village, or at least, back when it looked more like a camp than an actual village. Most of the other NightWings showed no interest in her, she might as well have been completely invisible. She didn’t blame them, ofcourse. After all, they had just lost their home, their queen, and had been completely and utterly defeated by a horde of pesky RainWings. She wouldn’t want to meet new dragons either. Well, there was one dragon who didn’t quite think this way.

“Okay, you are just a NightWing, meeting other NightWings. There is nothing to be ashamed of. You just haven’t, you know, seen or talked to any NightWings in the entire nine years that you’ve lived. See! There’s NOTHING to worry about!” The purple dragon was pacing back and forth between the massive trees that formed the Rainforest, just outside the soon-to-be NightWing Village. “Come on Abysssight, you can do this. I’m sure they’re going to be better than the RainWings were.” Abysssight, the dragon still needed to get used to her new name. She had chosen it after she had decided to visit her real tribe. Abysssight sounded NightWing-like, right? She hadn’t known her parents when she was young, she always assumed she was just some mis-formed RainWing, the fact that the other RainWings thought this of her as well, didn’t make things much better. But she wasn’t a RainWing, she never wanted to be seen as one again. Abysssight looked through the trees at the camp. The truth was that she had no idea what NightWings were like. In fact, she only learned recently that there were more dragon tribes other than the RainWings and the brown ones she sometimes saw when she was out exploring as a young dragonet. She used to fantasise about the idea that there were more tribes, but she never thought there would actually be more. If the information she had was correct, there should be 7 tribes total. How could she possibly have missed out on seeing 5 more, completely different tribes? She shook her head clear, it wasn’t the time to think about that kind of stuff. She took a deep breath and made her way into the camp. She looked around, the space was filled with all kinds of black dragons, or at least, nearly black dragons. None of them were fully black, as she had assumed. She looked at her own dark purple scales, and let out a sigh of relief. At least her scale colour wasn’t as weird as she’d imagined. She noticed that most of the NightWings were either working, or clustered together in small groups of 2 to 4 dragons. ‘Families?’ Abysssight assumed, a pang of bitter jealousy seeping through. The RainWings didn’t do “families”, looking at the small groups, of which most seemed to be happy despite the circumstances, really made her heart ache. She would never be able to know what that felt like, living with a loving family. Not now she knew who her parents were, and why they weren’t there for her when she needed them. One of the workers walked her way, Abysssight, waved at him, rehearsing her own introduction, but the worker didn’t even look at her while he walked past. Her confused gaze followed the worker. “Well that was rude” she half-whispered to herself. She took a few steps forward, still staying close to the outside of the camp, she didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself. Suddenly, she heard someone yelling. Abysssight turned her head, to see where the sound came from. Two nightwings seemed to be fighting about something. The eldest one looked quite big. She had dark scales that gave off a red shine, she also looked quite ill. The other dragon, a blue-ish black male dragon who didn’t look much older then Abysssight herself, seemed to be upset about something. She couldn’t quite hear what the two were on about, it also wasn’t her business. She decided that she’d best leave these two alone, they didn’t seem in the mood for meeting new dragons anyways. Just as she was turning to make her way further, the youngest dragon ended the yelling match and started running away. Abysssight wasn’t able to react in time, and he clearly wasn’t paying attention to where he was going, causing him to run into her. She was just about to say “I’m sorry” when a burst of pain ran through her head. ‘Not again… Not now’ she thought, but she wasn’t able to stop it, the other dragon seemed to say something to her, but she couldn’t understand him. She held in her breath, trying her best not to scream at the sudden pain, the last thing she wanted was to make a scene. After a few seconds, that felt like a whole minute, the pain finally ebbed away. “Are you okay?” she heard a voice say. The male dragon was gone, the voice instead came from a ornagey dragon, who’d come to sit next to her. “Need to find something.” Abysssight whispered. “What?” The other dragon was staring at her. “No, need to find someone.” she whispered again. ‘Wait, who do i need to find?’ Her head was still hurting, she could feel the other dragon shaking her. “Hey, you there? Can you hear me?” Abysssight looked around in confusion “What happened?” she asked. The other dragon shrugged her shoulders. “I would actually like to know the same thing.” she answered. “You were muttering something about finding someone. Are you lost? Are they lost? Are you okay? You seemed to be in pain.” “I don’t... know?” Abysssight noticed that by now a lot of dragons were staring at her. “Well, how about I take you to my mom’s hut. She usually knows what to do. Can you stand?” Abysssight tried to find her footing, and slowly let herself be led to a small, wooden hut. “Watch out for your head, it’s still a work in progress”. The dragon said. It took Abysssight a few minutes to come to her senses. The dark orange dragon was discussing something with two other dragons, one of which Abysssight had learned was the orange dragon’s mom. That dragon had also given her some kind of calming drink. The orange dragon turned back to Abysssight. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “Better, thank you.” “Soooo… What happened?” Abysssight shrugged her shoulders. “Headache attack. It’s happened before.” “And the whole looking for someone thing?” Abysssight shook her head. “When I get these headaches, my brain gets confused, which causes me to sometimes say random things. I wasn’t looking for anyone.” The orange dragon nodded, and seemed to think for a minute. “Say, I haven't seen you around, who are you?” This was it, either she’d be the outcast again, or she’d prove to herself that NightWings were indeed better. “I’m Abysssight.” she started. “And yes, I didn't grow up amongst the other NightWings. Which is why you wouldn’t have seen me before.” The orange dragon looked at her, her eyes shining with interest. “Nice to meet you Abysssight. I’m Dawnbringer by the way. My mom’s named Bloodmoon, and the other dragon, my dad, is called Stormbreaker. I could give you a tour if you’re feeling better.” Dawnbringer was smiling at her, it had been a long time since anyone smiled at her. Maybe things would be better here, and maybe, she would be able to live amongst the other NightWings. No more living in isolation. Maybe finally, she would have some place to call home. “That would be nice, thank you.”

“Hey, Abysssight, are you listening?” Abysssight shook her head clear, her memory fading back into the background. “What is it?” She looked at her friend, who seemed to have been picking flowers while she zoned out. “I was wondering why you haven’t come to the village ever since, you know, Darkstalker happened. You know the place is safe now, right?” Abysssight let out a huff. “I’ve never been afraid of that dragon. I’ve never met him, and he’s gone now. It would be a waste of time for me to now get worked up about him. No, I just didn’t feel like I was needed there right now.” “Oh, I see.” Dawnbringer looked kind of taken back from what she had said.The truth was, that Darkstalker did have something to do with why she didn’t want to visit the village. But it was not in the way Dawnbringer would think it is. No, Abysssight had been trying so hard to fit in, to belong. But the events that happened proved to her she would never be like the other NightWings. She had always known she wouldn’t belong, just like she didn’t belong amongst the RainWings. But there was a time she had hoped that she was wrong. Her mind quickly going back to her first time visiting the camp. How naive she had been. But in the end, all NightWings except her were put under Darkstalker’s spell. Proving for once and for all, that she didn’t belong. “Why, is there a reason I need to be there?” Abysssight asked, while picking some more mangoes and stuffing them in the little bag she brought with her. “No, not really. I was just, you know, curious. That’s all.” Dawnbringer fell silent for a minute, she seemed stressed about something. “Are you okay?” Abysssight asked, some concern seeping through her usually monotone expression. Dawnbringer suddenly started talking without leaving any breath-breaks. “Actually, I sorta, kinda wanted to know if you’d maybe be able to come eat with us tomorrow night. I know you usually refuse the offer but it would be really nice if you’d come. As it’s kind of, you know, my 14th Hatchingday and I hoped you would be able to come as well. I know this won’t change your mind but there are also some new dragons that I believe you would like to meet…” Abysssight looked with a stone-faced expression at her friend while she rambled on. “Wait… It’s your Hatchingday tomorrow and you’re telling me this now?” Dawnbringer stopped talking and took a few breaths. “Well, I thought you wouldn’t be interested in it since you never told me yours.” She eventually said. “I never told you my Hatchingday because I don't know when I hatched. The RainWings never bothered with things like this. All I know is that my egg hatched about ten years ago. But of course I want to come over!” Dawnbringers eyes lit up, “Oh, Thank you Abysssight!” Abysssight could feel her friend's arms and wings wrap around her. ‘Hugs’, something else Abysssight wasn’t yet used to. “Hey, how about we go drink something at my house? I’ve gathered enough fruit for the next couple of days anyways, and I can always let Stalker out of the hut if she wishes to hunt, she always comes back about an hour later anyways.” Abysssight said after her friend had let go of her. “I’d love to. Hey, maybe we could celebrate your Hatching day tomorrow too. You may not know when it happened, but it has to have happened at some point, sooo…” Dawnbringer made one of her ‘Look, I’m so clever’ faces, which almost always caused Abysssight to leave a chuckle. She was glad that she had a friend like Dawnbringer, that made at least one dragon that didn’t want her to be as far away from them as possible.

Chapter 2

Abysssight set foot in the NightWing village, it had been a while since she’d been there. She looked around, most NightWings didn’t even notice she was there, as she had expected. And the few who did notice, either acted like they didn’t or looked at her with some form of resentment shining through their eyes. Dawnbringer’s hut was located near the outer edge of the village, which was a good thing for her. The less NightWings she’d have to see, the better. In the past year, she had done her best to recognise all the NightWings, and learn all their names, but eventually, she gave up on that after she figured she wouldn’t be staying in the village. One of the dragons she never learned the name of was the sick reddish-black dragon she had to pass nearly every time she visited her friend. She was fairly sure she was the same dragon that shouted at that guy that ran into her that first time she visited the village. Which reminded her that she hadn’t seen that dragon ever since that day. She didn’t really know anything about either of the two, only that the reddish dragon was terribly ill, and that she wasn’t the nicest dragon to be around. Today too, she was passing by the sick dragon. As always, the dragon was sitting just outside her hut, staring into the distance with clouded eyes and a sour face. Abysssight had heard that her illness had made her blind, and that moving her safely to the Rainforest had been quite the hassle. Sometimes she wondered who the dragon was, and why she was sitting around looking bitter all day, or where the other dragon had gone, but even now, she just ignored her curiosities and walked passed. It wasn’t her business anyways, and Dawnbringer would be waiting for her.

When Abysssight arrived at her friend’s place, she was shocked to see how different it looked from the last time she had been there. It was mostly bigger, and resembled more of a house than a hut. Mightyclaws clearly had made use of the powers he received from Darkstalker. Abysssight only knew the gist of what had happened, but she was aware of the fact that Mightyclaws had kept his powers to draw stuff and make them a reality. Building houses had never been this easy, it was partly why she didn’t come to the village anymore. Before Darkstalker, Abysssight would come to help with the buildings, but now that wasn’t necessary anymore, she didn’t have any other jobs she could do, so she also had no reason to come back. She knocked on the door, and a small, male NightWing opened it. The young dragon, who she assumed was about 2 years old, looked at her weirdly, as if she was some weird creature he had never seen before. The dragon turned around “Auntie” he called, and ran off. Abysssight stood there in a moment of confusion, but after a few seconds, Dawnbringer’s mom, Bloodmoon, came back, with the small dragon half hiding behind her leg. “Oh, hello Abysssight. Nice to see you.” Abysssight greeted the dragon too. There was a short awkward silence before Bloodmoon stepped aside, and let her pass through. “Come in.” she said, trying to sound as polite as possible. “Dawnbringer is in her room, I'll go get her.” Bloodmoon left her alone in the room with the small dragonet. Who was still looking at her weirdly, which she decided to ignore. Bloodmoon was a good dragon, she would never act wrongly towards Abysssight. But she couldn’t help but notice the discomfort every time the two crossed paths. She didn’t blame Bloodmoon, a lot of dragons were uncomfortable with her being near them, and they had good reasons for it. She just hoped that some day, the two of them could talk without the awkwardness around them. Like she did with Dawnbringer and her dad. Stormbreaker wasn’t home often when she visited. But when he was, he seemed happy,and up-beat. He would often joke around, tell them stories about his past, or just, peacefully join in on conversations. Now too, the dragon popped his head out from one of the rooms. And waved at her. “I went to gather some fruits for you.” He called, “Not gonna lie, that curved yellow stuff tastes kind of bitter.” Abysssight suppressed a laugh. “You mean bananas? You did take the peel off right?” By the look of his face, she could tell that he didn’t. At that moment, some smoke started to come from behind him. “Oh cinders! Our food!” He turned around and went back inside the room, which Abysssight assumed was the kitchen. She suppressed a chuckle, and sat down on one of the cushions that laid in the corner of the main hallway. “Are you Dawnbringer’s friend?” A squeaky voice asked. Abysssight looked around, and noticed that the voice came from the small dragon, that was still staring at her. Before she could even say “yes”, the small dragon continued. “Why do you look so weird? I’ve never seen a NightWing that looks like you.” Abysssight shuffled with her talons. Many dragons must have thought this, but never had anyone said it out loud, in her face like that. She wasn’t that different from the other NightWings, was she? The dragon pointed at her face. “Why is there a white scale there?” He asked. Abysssight thought about the small, white, teardrop scales that were located beside her eyes. It was always one of the first things that made her unusual NightWings noticed about her. Other than her, she knew of only 2 NightWings that had these scales. She had seen a dragonet a few months back with teardrop scales, Moon something, and according to Dawnbringer, Darkstaker had had them too. Though she never saw the massive dragon up close, nor did this dragonet apparently. According to Bloodmoon, the teardrop scales gave NightWings the ability to read minds. Her friend thinks that they are the cause of her sudden headaches. Abysssight never felt like this “power” was of any use to her. If anything, it barely worked and just caused her to feel pain. Nevertheless, Bloodmoon still felt weirded out by it. “Shadowsong!” Shouted a familiar voice. The small dragon looked behind him, as Dawnbringer came down the stairs. “Sorry about my nephew, I hope he didn’t bother you.” Abysssight shrugged it off, it was just a dragonet, right? What did their comments really matter? Dawnbringer said something to the small dragonet, after which he left, and ran up the stairs excitedly. “He’s been living with us ever since that fight at Jade Mountain. His parents and older sister haven’t been able to care for him, too weak from heavy wounds.” She sighed. “We haven’t told him yet, but his dad never made it to the care centre.” She suddenly felt bad for the dragonet. She had sort of known what losing a parent felt like, well, she had known what missing a parent she never met, felt like. She was nine when her father finally revealed himself to her, as well as when he gave her the crushing news that her mother had died before her egg hatched. Ever since, she had wondered how different her life would have been if she had lived. She shook her head, this wasn’t about her, she was here to celebrate her friend’s hatchingday. She was sure she’d make it the best day she could.

“Have you heard about what’s going down in the Icekingdom? Apparently a big group of strange, unknown dragons have settled down there.” Stormbreaker said. The five of them were sitting around the dinner table. Abysssight had a bowl that mostly consisted of fruits, with a few vegetables mistaken for fruit mixed in with them. It was a bit of a mix-match, but tasted surprisingly good despite being made by someone who had no knowledge of them. Dawnbringer and her family were eating some creature she’d never seen before. According to Bloodmoon, it was a crocodile. They apparently lived in the Mudkingdom, and were sort of dangerous, especially to eggs and very young dragonets. It was a better option than most of the innocent creatures that lived in the Rainforest. “Hah, the IceWings allowing strange dragons in their precious kingdom? I doubt it.” Bloodmoon said. “Especially with their new queen. She seems even more of a narrow minded hothead than Glacier was. At least Queen Glacier wouldn’t dare to start a fight with the NightWings.” Stormbreaker shook his head. “We can’t know that. Glacier never knew where the NightWings lived, she couldn’t attack us even if she wanted to. Besides, it’s sort of our fault that she’s dead.” “Our fault she’s dead? Please, stop with that nonsense. She would have died sooner or later anyways.” Dawnbringer rolled her eyes. Apparently her parents didn’t argue a lot, but ever since that new IceWing Queen got the throne, they didn’t seem to be able to get their minds on the same line. “What do you mean, strange dragons?” Abysssight asked, in an attempt to stop the bickering. Stormbreaker seemed to think for a minute. “I don’t know who or what they are to be honest.” he said. “All I really know about them is that they apparently lived on a different continent we didn’t know about, and fled to Pyrrhia for one reason or another. They apparently sort of look like RainWings from afar, mostly colourful. But that’s all I really know.” Dragons from another continent? Could that really be true? What would they be doing here. Abysssight shook out her wings. By now her bowl was empty, as was her friend’s. Meanwhile, Shadowsong’s side of the table had started to look like a battlefield. Bloodmoon was frantically trying to clean up the mess the young dragonet made, which he seemed to find hilarious. Dawnbringer stood up from the table, took her stuff, and brought it to a sidetable. Abysssight copied what she did. “We’re going outside”. Her friend called to her parents, after which she lead Abysssight out of the house.

“I bet you’re going to love this.” She exclaimed. Abysssight looked questionably at her friend. “Love what?” She asked. “Well, a few days after we came back to our home here, two new dragons joined. They live here now. I’m sure you’re gonna like their company.” “New NightWings? Why would you think i’d enjoy their company specifically?” Dawnbringer shrugged her shoulders. “Just a feeling I have. I think you’ll have a lot in common. Look, there they are!” Dawnbringer pointed in some direction, and Abysssight looked at what she pointing. Two dragons were sitting not too far in front of them. A greenish Nightwing who was definitely older than her, and a young, black dragonet, seemingly still a hatchling. It was hard to see from where she stood, but the dragonet’s starlike scales seemed off. “These are Hope and Peacemaker”. Dawnbringer continued. “Hope’s not from around here. We don’t really know where she lived though. And Peacmaker’s her son. He’s a hybrid.” Even before she was able to tell her what kind of hybrid he was, she had already guessed it. “Night-Rain.” She said. Dawnbringer nodded her head. “Isn’t it exciting? You two could prolly find a lot of things to talk about. With you having lived with the Rainwings and all.” Abysssight knew her friend was just trying to be a good friend, but this just wasn’t it. She felt some sort of anger building up. “Neither of them have ever lived with the RainWings. Now have they?” She half-shouted. Trying her best to keep herself calm. Dawnbringer looked at her, sort of shocked. “Yes, but.” She started saying. But Abysssight stopped her. “They couldn’t possibly know what it’s like. I just don’t think this is going to make anything different.” She sighed. “I’m going home.” Abysssight said. She could see the hurt in Dawnbringer’s eyes, and a rush of guilt rippled through her chest, but she ignored it. She took off and flew back through the rainforest. Right before leaving the NightWing village, she could see the colourful scales of a RainWing from the corner of her eyes. She looked at it, recognising the new queen, before continuing her way back. By now, the sun was going down. Usually, she would only wake up by now, but she had woken earlier for her friend.

She was getting closer to her hut when she heard a sudden rustling, which ended in a screech and a loud cracking sound. She looked in the direction the sound had come from, but was unable to see anything through the darkening, dense forest. Cautiously, she landed and stalked through the trees. Trying hard not to make too much noise. She could hear something groaning, and when she slowly pushed through a bush, her eyes landed on something she had never seen before. A clump of vines hung down in a net between a few trees. In the midst of this clump of vines, she could see a strange dragon.

Chapter 3

Abysssight looked closely at the abomination. She was barely able to see the scales of the strange dragon. They were brownish-yellow. A RainWing perhaps? But RainWings usually didn’t get stuck in vines. The scales were also unusually dull for a rainwing. She didn’t know any RainWings that had dull yellow scales like that. The dragon growled again, it was wriggling itself into all kinds of unnatural positions. “Stupid vines!” It shouted. The viney bundle slowly turned around in it’s struggle to escape, by now, she was able to see the dragon’s face. It looked weird. It wasn't as small and sharp as a RainWings, but not as strong looking as a NightWing’s either. It also lacked the blocky shape of those MudWings she saw. Abysssight slowly stepped back. She didn’t want the strange dragon to see her. Quickly she was trying to think of all the other tribes she knew, which didn’t help her at all, since she never managed to remember which ones were which. Dawnbringer had tried to teach her about Pyrrhia many times, she just wasn’t able to remember them all, nor was she able to picture what they would even look like. Perhaps it wasn’t even a Pyrrhian dragon, but these new ones had only arrived in the Ice kingdom a few days ago, did they not? Would one have been able to fly all the way to the Rainforest, on it’s own? She didn’t know, and honestly, she didn’t want to know. The sooner she was away from this place and back at home, the better. What did she care about this stranger? It would get free in no time anyways, and what then? It’s a strange dragon! It could be hostile. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to just leave. She just stood there, frozen behind some greenery. The other dragon seemed to get more and more desperate in its struggle. Abysssight noticed the vines had wrapped on tight around its neck. Didn’t it realise that the tightness would only get worse the longer it kept resisting? Abysssight took a deep breath, and slowly walked out of her cover. “Do… do you need help?” She called. She saw the dragon’s head turn abruptly. A moment passed, before she heard a raspy, breathless voice say “oh no, as you can see, i’m clearly fine.” Abysssight didn’t move. That dragon didn’t seem fine to her. “That was sarcasm”. The dragon rasped. “Please get me out of this mess”. She shook her head and approached the tangle of vines and looked closely at how she could get it to loosen the quickest. She took two of the vines and sliced through them with her claws, then took another one and janked on it until it came loose. Not too long after, the entire thing crashed down, and the stranger managed to get out. The dragon shook off the remaining vines, revealing its scales. There weren’t any other colours involved, only the various shades of brownish-yellow scales she had noticed before. The dragon was slightly smaller than her, probably a little younger too, but not young enough to be considered a dragonet. Maybe 8 or 9? She inspected the dragon more closely. She had a curved tail that ended in some weird, dangerous looking, tip, and had eyes as dark as a moonless night. She was sure she had heard of a dragon tribe with these features before, she just couldn’t remember which one it was. Abysssight noticed the dragon was carrying a few bags around her wrists and neck, one obviously held a knife of some sorts, though she couldn’t figure out what the biggest bag was used for. What was she even doing here? Abysssight started to turn around, it wasn’t her business anyways, she should just go back home. “Hey, thanks for saving my scales there.” Abysssight shrugged her shoulders “No problem”, she huffed. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. “Before you go, could you show me to the Nightwing Village? It’s not like I'm lost or anything. It would just be nice to have someone who knows this place come along.” Abysssight looked at the dragon. She didn’t exactly want to go back after she ran off like that. But the strange dragon clearly did need help. If not for her, she’d have suffocated. “Euh, sure.” she said. The dragon smiled, thanked her, and started walking. Abysssight looked after her. “You know the village is that way, right?” Abyssight said, pointing in almost the complete opposite direction of where the stranger was headed. “Yes, of course I knew that. Going right this way!” Abysssight held in a chuckle, as the dragon almost tripped over a random root sticking out of the ground whilst turning. Her discomfort slowly started to ebb away. For once, she wasn’t the odd dragon in the Rainforest. She started following the stranger, feeling heat coming off of her strange, yet oddly beautiful scales. It almost felt like she was trailing after a small sun. It actually felt quite nice. It had been a while since she properly participated in Suntime. Though the heat radiating off the strange dragon’s scales wasn’t the same as the sun shining brightly on her’s, it still was pleasant and calming. The two of them walked in silence for some time, Which Abysssight liked. It was comfortable, not having to talk to this strange dragon. But that comfort would soon be broken. “So, may I know my saviour’s name?” The yellow dragon asked. Abysssight let out a small sign “there goes the silence.” she whispered to herself. With a more straightened face, that wouldn’t reveal how she felt about all of this, she continued. This time loud enough for the stranger to hear. “You can call me Abysssight”. She slowly started to pick up speed, hoping she could make it to the NightWing village before the stranger asked any more questions. The dragon followed up on the conversation she’d started. “Well, thank you Abysssight, nice to meet you. I’m Fennec by the way.” Before she even realised, a question rolled off her tongue. “What’s a fennec?” She asked, then continued to quickly cover her mouth, muttering a silent “sorry” in the process. She knew all dragon’s names were based on existing things, but she’d never heard of something named “fennec”. Fennec just chuckled. “You must be one of those NightWings that never left their precious secret island. Don’t worry, I'm not offended. A fennec’s basically a desert fox. You have seen a fox before, haven’t you?” Abysssight nodded, even though she really hadn’t. Dawnbringer had told her about foxes before, but all she really knew about them were that they were red prey animals that had a similar structure to her Stalker. Which reminded her that she should check on her pet once she brought Fennec to the village. “You’re less talkative than I imagined a NightWing to be.” The dragon said. “I expected you to be boasting about how great all NightWings were compared to the other tribes by now. At least, that’s what my friends say NightWings are like.” Abysssight didn’t really know how to respond to that. Fennec seemed so calm in her observation. She was almost going to say that she wasn’t really a true NightWing, but held that to herself. After all, she wasn’t the only one that didn’t boast about NightWings. Her thoughts once again going back to her only real friend, guilt sipping through her once more “I guess your friends are wrong then.” She half muttered to herself. “Oh, of course.” Fennec replied, seemingly taken aback

The rest of the way to the NightWing village, the two didn’t speak a word. When they finally arrived, Abysssight let out a sigh of relief. Soon, she would be able to stop the formalities and go back to her hut. The only place she really wanted to be right now. The Queen was still in the village, presumably doing queen-related stuff. Some NightWings were gathered around her. As well as a lot of RainWings. She guessed most dragons weren’t able to see them, but she had lived long enough with the RainWings to at least learn how to spot them. She didn’t recognise any of them though, at least, not when they were practically invisible like this. Fennec turned to her. “Thanks again for coming with me.” she said. “Hope i’ll see you again.” Fennec waved once more at Abysssight before seemingly making her way towards Queen Glory. A part of her was curious as to what the strange dragon was here to do, but a different part of her also couldn’t care less. The dragon didn’t seem dangerous, so she didn’t think the Queen was in trouble. And even if she was, the dragons around her would prolly protect her anyways. Besides, she was a RainWing, she didn’t care if something happened to those kind of dragons. She was about to leave when she heard someone call for her. It was Dawnbringer. Great. She’d hoped she could hold off the awkwardness until tomorrow. Abysssight was about to try and leave again, but her friend stopped her. “Please, don’t go.” She said. “Look, I'm sorry about what happened earlier today. That was insensitive, and I should have realised that sooner. I was just, so excited to show you these new, amazing dragons. I hoped you’d be able to make some more friends.” Abysssight gruffed. “I’m capable of making my own friends, you know.” She had to admit to herself, Dawnbringer’s idea was sweet, and totally something she’d do on a regular basis, but she wasn’t some helpless dragonet. She liked Dawnbringer, a lot in fact. But she could sometimes also seriously get under her skin when she did things like this. She saw Dawnbringer glare at Fennec, who by now had reached the Queen, and seemed to be talking to her. “I can see that.” She said. “What were you doing with a random SandWing anyways?” SandWing! Of course Fennec was a SandWing. That she wasn’t able to think of that herself. “We’re not friends. I don’t even know her to be honest.” Dawnbringer turned her gaze towards Abysssight. “Okay, but, why have you brought her here?” She shrugged. “Found her trapped in some vines. She asked me to bring her to the NightWing village, so I did. Don’t know anything else about the situation.” Her friend’s face started to look concerned. “You didn’t ask her why she was here?” Abysssight shook her head. “Why would I? It’s none of my business anyways. Besides, you can see she just came to talk to the Queen.” From where the two of them were standing, she was unable to hear what Fennec and Queen Glory were talking about. Though she was able to see the Queen’s face. Which rapidly switched from confused, to worried, to expressionless, prolly realising she was showing emotions. Suddenly, Queen Glory signed to some of the dragons surrounding her, said something to that NightWing that always hangs around her, and seemed to be headed back the the RainWing village. The invisible RainWings around her started fumbling in an attempt to keep up with her, making it obvious to even the dragons with the worst sight out there that there were disguised RainWings.Some curious NightWings followed her as well. Among them, Abysssight recognised one of the most annoying NightWings there was, an older dragon named Fierceclaws she believed. Not only did that guy lack manners, but he also just gossipped a lot. Like, the moment that guy knew something he wasn’t supposed to know, the entire tribe would know. She hated him. You’d think a NightWing named Fierceclaws wouldn’t be into that stuff, but clearly, he was given the wrong name by his parents. A few moments passed before the village calmed down again. Most dragons went back to whatever they were doing before, with the exception of a few dragonets, running around wildly, probably playing out whatever they thought just happened. Fennec had surprisingly not followed the Queen. She was looking for something in her shoulderbeg. Once she had whatever she was looking for, she looked around in the village. Her eyes eventually landed back on Abysssight, after which she started to trod back into her direction. “Look, your new friend’s coming back”. Dawnbringer teased. “Not a friend.” she answered back under her breath. She kind of wished she could just leave again, but not wanting to seem completely impolite, she waited for Fennec anyways. “Hi again.” the yellow dragon said once she arrived. “Sorry to bother you once more, but I need to deliver this to someone called Stormbreaker? Do you know that dragon?” She pointed at the scroll she was holding. Dawnbringer replied before Abysssight was able to say anything. “That would be my dad, actually. I can give it to him. What’s in there anyways?” Fennec seemed to think for a minute. “I’m not sure I'm allowed to share that with anyone besides the receiver.” She shrugged her shoulders, and gave it to Dawnbringer. “I’m sure he’ll tell you anyways. Doesn’t seem like anything that’s super secretive.” Her friend took the scroll, and looked at the seal on it. “It’s a message from the care-centre” She muttered. “Bad news?” Abysssight asked her. Dawnbringer shook her head. “I’d have to read it to know. I seriously hope not. I don’t know what we’d have to tell Shadowsong if something happened to his mother or sister too.” Fennec looked through her back again. “I think that’s it.” she said. Abysssight’s friend looked at the SandWing. “How’d you get this message by the way?” she asked. Fennec looked at her. “Some RainWing gave it to me when me and some other messengers arrived there, looking for Queen Glory. She told us the Queen had gone to the NightWing village, and gave this to me, saying she was unable to give it to the last messenger that went there.” Dawnbringer nodded. “Say, shouldn’t you go back to the RainWing village then? I mean, if there are other messengers there.” Abysssight questioned her. Fennec just shook her head. “No, I only came with the assigned IceWing because he didn’t want to visit the NightWing village if the Queen wasn’t in her own village. My part of the job is done, he’ll handle the rest of the message. Anyways, i think i might stay for a while, i’ve never visited the Rainforest before, I don’t really have any task right now either. I just need to get back to possibility by the end of the month. Would one of you mind showing me around?” Fennec asked. Dawnbringer didn’t wait for a response from her friend, her happy energy seemingly having come back by now. “Of course! Are you coming too, Abysssight?” She shook her head. “I need to check on Stalker.” She said, before heading back towards the edge of the village. Besides, she was unsure if she wanted to hang out with Dawnbringer right now, she was still a bit angry about earlier. Her friend shouted after her “Okay, Just know i’ll be waiting in front of your door first thing tomorrow! I hate seeing you like this!” Abysssight couldn’t help holding in a chuckle, of course she would. She heard the two girls talk with each other when she started heading to her home. She thought about the yellow SandWing. She seemed to be straight forward. She liked that in dragons. She hated having to wonder if they were hiding something from her. It’s partly why she and Dawnbringer have been friends for a year now. Fennec also seemed less energetic and all-over-the-place than her friend, which was refreshing. But for some reason, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see her again. It would be nice getting a chance to talk to someone besides Dawnbringer, but she wasn’t used to that. She didn’t like talking to other dragons more than she had to. Yet a part of her did seem to want exactly that. Abysssight shook her head clear. There’s no point worrying about that. She’d just let fate decide and see how she’d handle it then. First, she needed some alone-time with her Margay.

Chapter 4

Abysssight’s eyes slowly opened as she felt something lightly tapping her snout. Her gaze landed upon Stalker, who was playfully trying to wake her up. Abysssight concentrated on her breath, heating it up to a pleasant warmth, but not hot enough that smoke or flames would be able to accidentally hurt her furry friend, and blew it onto her. Stalker jumped back with a surprised chirp at the sudden warmth, after which she shook out her fur and head-bumped the dragon’s snout. Abysssight glanced through one of the holes in her hut that allowed the tree it was attached to to grow through it. She could still see the faint light of the setting sun shining through the dense trees. Which meant she was up earlier than usual. Despite that she still stretched her wings out and yawned. Carefully getting out of her hammock to avoid catapulting her margay off of it. She felt an uneasy soreness running through her back, and glanced at one of the windows that was supposed to allow sunlight to shine into the hut. Despite not being awake during the day, and generally preferring the darkness of the night over the brightness of the sun, she had specifically designed that window to let the light fall on her while she slept. Her experience amongst the RainWings might have been awful, but she’d always liked the warmth on her scales during Suntime. She sighed as she noticed a giant leaf had fallen onto the window, blocking off any light that might have been able to reach that spot. That explained her soreness, welp, she’d have to remove that leaf before going back to bed in the morning. She slowly made her way to the food storage, took a mango, and threw some meat towards her margay, who had made its way out of the hammock. She decided to go flying for a bit, to try and get that sore out of her back, and walked towards the door. She expected Dawnbringer to be there, waiting for her, as she’d done in the past few days, but surprisingly, the landing platform was deserted. Abysssight realised her friend must have decided to come when the moons were actually visible, after all, she had lectured her about coming too early to her house, and letting herself get cold in the process. Abysssight’d just have to make sure her little flying trip didn’t last too long. She was about to head off when she felt something scramble upon her hindlegs. Looking back, Stalker was trying to hold onto her scales. “You wanna come too?” she asked her pet. Stalker gave a chirp in response, looking absolutely adorable trying to climb onto the bigger creature. Abysssight let out a chuckle, cupped up the margay with her front claws, and set it on the ground. She swiftly went back into the hut and grabbed a carrying bag made of giant, sturdy leaves, which she hung around her neck. Stalker was still attempting to try and climb onto her, which made moving around the already tight entrance of her hut even more challenging. After she made it out onto the platform again, she could feel her pet starting to slip off her scales, and immediately reached out to her. Stalker was a Margay with little patience. If something came to her mind, she’d seemingly not stop until she got what she wanted. She reminded her a lot of how she used to be back when she was still a dragonet in the Rainwing village. She held on to the protesting margay, and placed her in the leaf bag. She knew Stalker liked sitting on her back more, but it was just too unsafe during flight. Stalker wasn’t a sloth, who’d be able to wrap her arms around her neck. “Stop squirming Stalker, you’ll fall out if you don’t.” she exclaimed with a sigh. Trips like this always went the same way. Stalker loved to fly with her, but was nearly always too energetic or stubborn because she needed to sit in a bag to make it work out smoothly. Stalker looked up at her, her big, dark eyes blinking innocently. Abysssight gave in, defeated by her adorable pet. She shook her wings out, and carefully took off. Keeping one of her front legs close to the bag, just in case.

The weather was nice during their flight, though Abysssight was able to tell it would rain soon, so she had made sure to head back home before the downpour. When she arrived, her friend was waiting for her, as expected. She let Dawnbringer inside, and managed to block off some of the most open windows just in time to see the first drops of water fall from the dry interior of her hut. Dawnbringer was looking around in awe, which reminded Abysssight that this was the first time her friend had really been inside of her hut. They’d usually just chill at Dawnbringer’s, or on the platform in front of her hut. “You really made this? On your own?” Her friend asked, astonished. Abysssight simply nodded. Ever since she was basically silently casted out of the RainWingvillage when she was 4, purely because she was different from them, she’d been living on her own. Slowly learning how to survive. It wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed into the village anymore, but it was clear to her, even then, that she wasn’t really welcome either. She used to have a small group of RainWing “friends”, which came by to see how she was doing every once in a blood moon. Though even those days have been long gone. The only RainWing that occasionally visits her now might as well be the worst one of them all. To her it seemed more like he came to mock her than anything else, to remind her how much she isn’t one of them. She hated that dragon with a passion. Living on her own had never been easy, especially not as a helpless dragonet, but she managed it, somehow. Her home wasn’t perfect, but it was how she liked it. Though looking at the way Dawnbringer stumbled around, she realised it really wasn’t made with more than one dragon in mind, especially not someone who’s not used to the RainWing ways of moving around. She realised she’d have to make some adjustments, not that she expected her situation to change, but maybe just in case. “Say, how’s that SandWing doing? Is she still hanging around the RainWing village?” It had been a little over week since Fennec arrived. She hadn't seen her since that first day, but knew Dawnbringer saw her often enough. She apparently stayed in the RainWing village for the majority of her day, and visited the NightWings in the late afternoon. But she’d always be gone by the time Abysssight woke up. Not that it mattered much to her. “Fennec? Oh, she’s fine. She’s been talking nonstop about you, and your heroic actions.” Abysssight looked up in confusion. “What?” she asked, while trying to concentrate on her scales. Dawnbringer chuckled, “Was that a shift?” Feeling even more embarrassed, Abysssight gave her friend a soft swipe with her tail. “Just, shut up.” She said. She checked out her own scales, which looked slightly paler than before. She hated that they did that. Usually, she was able to keep her scales in the perfect shade of purple. The shade that would hide anything RainWing in her. But over the time they spent together, her friend had figured out how to get her out of that shade. She took a deep breath and concentrated on darkness. Closing her eyes, and letting the darker colours run through her, until her scales were the perfect colour once more. “I was kidding by the way.” Dawnbringer continued, still softly laughing. “She didn’t really mention it all that much. Though she does seem grateful. She’s asked a few times where you were, and if you were gonna come to the village.” Abysssight nodded “And what did you tell her?” She asked her friend. Dawnbringer shrugged her shoulders. “I told her how it is. You never come out during the day. What else could I have said?” “She didn’t think that was weird?” The question came out before Abysssight realised it. What did it matter to her anyway? She didn’t care about what others thought of her. She didn’t care about anyone. Besides, everyone thought she was weird, what did it matter if that SandWing did too? But still, for some inexplicable reason, she just wanted to know. She glanced up at her friend, who looked at her with a weird face. “Why would she think you’re weird for being nocturnal? She actually assumed all NightWings were.” Abysssight didn’t know how to respond to that. Instead, she just looked out of one of her windows. Stalker was sitting on her usual branch, though more so on it’s outer edges, to avoid the rain that partly dipped in. Speaking of rain, she noticed the weather had calmed down already. Dawnbringer noticed too, as she was getting up from the spot she had made herself comfortable in. “I should probably get going.” she said. “Ever since my aunt’s been injured, my parents’ been keeping her shop running. I promised Bloodmoon to help out later today.” She looked at her friend. “Your aunt has a shop?” She asked. She didn’t really know a lot about Dawnbringer’s family, other than the members she met. According to the scroll that was delivered to her friend, only her niece was ready to come back home, While her aunt would still have to stay in the care centre until she fully stabilised. Though they were allowed to visit. But other than that, she knew nothing about them. Not even their names. Dawnbringer just nodded. “Sincere’s Goods.” She said, “She sells a bit of everything. Though her shop only really hit off once we moved away from the island. My mom and grandmother have been keeping it going ever since the attack. Though both have other jobs as well, so my mom’s been trying to get me to run the shop. I’m supposed to take it over if Sincere isn’t able to run it anymore. Or at least until Shadowsong or Eternal are old enough to do it themselves. Though I seriously hope she comes back soon. I don’t want to be a shopkeeper.” Her friend sighed, and started making her way to the door. Abysssight decided to go with her, she had nothing better to do anyways. “What do you want to do? For a job, I mean.” Dawnbriner looked at her. “This might sound a bit silly, but I always wanted to be a traveller, or explorer, like Stormbreaker. Well, he’s currently more like, a messenger or spy, but you know what I mean, right? Sadly, Bloodmoon doesn’t think that’s an actual job. My father offered to take me with him on my 10th hatchingday, but Bloodmoon forbade it. Saying I was more useful on the island.” Abysssight looked questioningly at her friend. “If you want to be an explorer, why haven’t you just left the kingdom? You’re old enough to live on your own anyways.” she asked. Dawnbringer just shrugged. “Fear of being alone, I guess. I could always try joining my father, but he respects Bloodmoon too much. He knows she doesn’t like me going with him, he’ll try to stop me, I'm sure of it.” Abysssight nodded in understanding, and decided not to ask any more questions.

The rest of their trip to the NightWing village was peaceful and silent. And when they arrived at the store, Abysssight was shocked. It looked like they were in the middle of building it, even though they had animus magic. She learned that they had decided to not use any magic, since they knew Sincere, which she had figured was her friend’s aunt’s name, would prefer it being made by talon. The store sold several completely different items, just like Dawnbringer had said previously. In one corner there were plants and greenery, then another had sanitary stuff, there was jewellery and accessories, there was a place with crafting materials, and one with general house equipment. Most of it seemed talon made. Apparently, Sincere’s husband was a wood and stone carver, while she herself liked to make scrolls and flower arrangements whenever she wasn’t working in the shop. Their daughter, who was named Eternal, liked to paint, and even some of her works were sold at the shop. They looked great for being made by an 8 year old. There was a clear difference between the pieces painted before she moved to the rainforest, and the few she managed to paint afterwards. The first few paintings were all dull in colour, mostly grey and black, with sometimes a little bit of colour, mostly shades of orange and red. While the more recent ones all had a riot of colours. As if a rainbow had exploded in every one of them. For the past 2 or so hours, Abysssight had attempted to explore every nook and cranny of the store, while her friend was watching from a distance, either cleaning or helping shoppers. Despite the many, many things the shop held, it was surprisingly rather small, which gave it this cramped, unprofessional look. But despite that, all the items were of good quality.

Dawnbringer eventually walked up to her. “Hey, I’ve got a break, you want to come with me to the library? I need to give back a few scrolls I borrowed.” Abysssight just nodded and followed her out of the store. She had been to the library a few times before, mostly to get those scrolls for hatchlings. Her friend had attempted to teach her how to read, but she hadn’t made much progress. She could only read slightly better then before they met, which isn’t that big of an accomplishment, as she wasn’t able to read at all back then. On their way to the library, they suddenly heard someone call. Abysssight turned in the direction of the sound, and saw a pale yellowish shape come towards them. Next to her, Dawnbringer shot forward. “Fennec! What are you doing here this late?” Abysssight slowly came forward as well. Even in this little light, the SandWing’s scales looked rather clear and unmistakable. They didn’t look quite as pretty as they did a few days back, when there was still a little sunlight outside, but they still had that oddly beautiful look she noticed the first time they met. Just as before, she was able to feel a pleasant warmth surrounding the SandWing, making her think of the sunshine she’d missed today thanks to that stupid leaf. Fennec was playing off the fact that she obviously came by hours later than usual. Trying to act like she hadn’t even noticed the time difference. “So, what are you two up to?” the SandWing asked, Abysssight noticed her eyes were focussed on her, but didn’t make a remark about it. “We’re headed to the library”, Dawnbringer answered. “Why don’t you come with us?” she offered. Fennec seemed to appreciate the offer and went along with them. The library was pretty much in the centre of the NightWing village, and was one of the bigger buildings there too. There were quite a few NightWings walking around the building. She saw an older dragon talk playfully to two dragonets, one of which looked like it was still having trouble breathing, likely an after effect from being born on the NightWing island. It suddenly started coughing, resulting in the older dragon becoming worried. Another pair of NightWings, maybe a year or two older than her, came out of the Library, holding more scrolls than she thought was possible to carry. They seemed to excitedly be talking about something. An ancient looking NightWing was nibbling away on a piece of prey in front of one of the houses, while a younger dragon was attempting to show him something. She saw a small group of young dragonets running off to another building, one of them yelling they were going to be late to class again, and for the rest to hurry up. The place was surprisingly lively at this time of the day, by now, all RainWings would be fast asleep. As she and her companions were entering the library, she also noticed the sadder parts of the NightWing’s lives. A bunch of “missing” posters were plastered on the walls of the building. She guessed most of the recent ones were just dragonets who got lost in the forest, and would turn back up in a couple of days. But she noticed a few posters that dated back to over a year ago. Likely dragons that went missing in the chaos of the volcano eruption. The oldest poster she was able to find was almost completely torn up and faded, she wasn’t able to see the face of the dragon who’d gone missing. All she was able to make out was “5,001 AS”, which was 11 years ago if she wasn’t mistaken.

When they were about to reach the front desk, Dawnbringer suddenly stopped and went through her scrolls. “Hey, I seem to have forgotten one of the scrolls at my home, and I really need to turn it in.” She looked at Abysssight and then at Fennec. “Why don’t you two go look for something interesting in here, while I go get my missing scroll. I could read with you later Abysssight.” Abysssight sighed, then nodded. “Sure, I can do that.” she said, Fennec too seemed to agree with Dawnbringer, and they headed towards the scroll shelves. Abysssight didn’t like being alone in the NightWing library, she always felt embarrassed not being able to read and all. Usually when she and Dawnbringer went together, they first searched the non-fictional historical section for some of Dawnbringers scrolls, then went to the pyrrhian travel, legends and mysteries aisle and lastly they would take a small stop at the “scrolls for hatchlings and dragonets” section. Dawnbringer usually choose the scrolls, so they wouldn’t be too long in that aisle before moving on, then they’d look at which ones she was interested in afterwards. But now she had to do it on her own, she glanced at Fennec, nervously, would she find it strange that she couldn’t read? Or that she’d be hanging around the dragonet section. Only then, Abysssight noticed Fennec had been looking at her with a questioning expression. She must have asked her something. “What was that?” she asked. “I just asked if you were a reader.” she repeated. Abysssight shook her head. “I don’t read a lot” she admitted, not revealing the reason why she didn’t read. “What about you?” she continued. Fennec shrugged her shoulders. “I usually don’t have time to read, but I do enjoy it. A few weeks ago I managed to get my hands on “The Labyrinth Sprinter”. It's pretty good, but that’s honestly one of the only scrolls I've read since I left my parents. Before that point, most of the scrolls I read were for my younger brother. I’d read ahead, making sure it was suitable for him, and then we’d read the scroll together. He used to love that. With the war going on, our parents often didn’t have the time to do these things with him, or with me for that matter.” She sounded sad. “How come you left your home?” Abysssight asked. Fennec sighed. “I didn’t want to be a *royal* messenger, like my mother was, I don’t like being forced to spend all my time going from castle to castle, trotting after the queens. For what I wanted to do, it was just more beneficial to move out of the Stronghold, and live in Possibility instead.” she answered. “So,do you live alone now?” She asked, but Fennec shook her head. “No, I don’t. That was the original plan though, but I was fortunate enough to meet some dragons that offered homeless dwellers a place to stay.” she giggled at her own remark. “Speaking of which, I should probably go back to them soon, they’ll be wondering where I’ve been all this time. I usually stay away for a couple of days, but never this long without properly informing them. Sometimes I wonder what they’re doing while I'm away, rather or not they miss me just as much as I miss them. And if any new dragons have joined our household since I left.” By now, they had walked through a few aisles without really looking for any scrolls. Abysssight decided that she would start pretending to browse some of them, so it didn’t look as if she were just walking aimlessly. She thought about what Fennec was saying. Could she ever live like that? Surrounded by other dragons, dragons who actually cared about her, like Dawnbringer? She’d been living on her own for the past 6 years, but she did wonder what it would be like if she actually did live a life like that. What would her life have looked like if she had decided to stay with the RainWings. Her mind suddenly had a picture of Gecko in it. He used to be one of her friends back when she was a dragonet. She hadn’t seen him in years, but somehow, he seemed to have been the only dragon there who actually didn’t openly avoid her, or was openly scared of her, or anything like that. She remembered actually liking him, and him actually looking for her once he had noticed she had left. But that was a long time ago. She hadn’t seen him since she was 7. He has moved on, just like the other Rainwings. She couldn’t imagine any world in which she’d have been happy staying in the RainWing village. They all were equally terrible. “What about you?” she heard Fennec ask. “Do you live with someone?” Abysssight shook her head. “I have a pet, like i told you a couple of days ago, but other then her, and occasionally Dawnbringer” *and him* her thought interrupted her words, she shook her head and continued. “No other dragons come close to my hut.” She finished. “Not even your family?” Fennec asked. “I’d rather not talk about that.” There was a moment of silence, when Fennec suddenly asked something not a lot of dragons had dared her to ask before, though she was sure most would’ve if they had that chance. “I’m not trying to sound insensitive. I’ve noticed you’re not quite like the other NightWings” she began. “I mean, you don’t live with them, you don’t follow their lifestyle and you look different somehow, more lean and flexible, mostly. So, I guess my question is, Abysssight, are you… a hybrid?” Abysssight stared at the scrolls in front of her. It was always something she wasn’t proud of, and she was surprised someone had dared to ask her. Even Dawnbringer hadn’t, but she was sure her friend had noticed a long time ago. “Yes.” she answered. “I grew up amongst the RainWings.” she said, silently, so no one but Fennec could hear her. “My father’s tribe. I never knew what was wrong with me, why I was so different from the rest. I only found out last year that my mother was a NightWing.” she could feel her talons trembling. “I’m sorry, Abysssight.” Fennec said. “I didn’t realise this affected you so much. I wouldn’t have asked if I'd known.” She shook her shoulders. “It’s okay.” she said, trying to keep her cool. “I think it’s best if I go back outside for a bit.” Fennec nodded, and stayed behind a bit. She didn’t understand why she had been willing to tell her that. If any other dragon had asked her, she wouldn’t have said anything. Perhaps it was just because she reminded her a bit of Dawnbringer, the only other dragon she’d share those things with.

It took some time before Dawnbringer had returned with her scrolls, and had come back out with new ones. Fennec was with her, the two were casually talking. By now it was pretty late in the night. And it would be time for Dawnbringer to return to the shop, and for Fennec to go back to the RainWing village. The two dragons met up with Abysssight outside of the building. Fennec looked at them. “I think it’s time for me to go back.” she said. “To Possibility, I mean.” “Oh, really?” Dawnbringer said, she sounded a bit disappointed. “Yeah, I’d like to pay a visit to my parents on my way back, and I don’t want to be away from home for too long. It has been fun being here though.” Abysssight had been avoiding her eyes, but she knew Fennec had been looking at her. “You can always come for a visit, *both of you*.” She said. “I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind, and I’d love to see both of you again sometime, I could show you around the city.” Dawnbringer nodded. “Sure, I’d like to come by sometime in the future. Just tell me where I need to be, and I’ll find it!” Fennec smiled, and she watched as the two dragons exchanged a small piece of a scroll where Fennec had been writing on, after which they said their goodbyes. “I should go back to the shop, before my mother decides to come look for me.” Dawnbringer said, and turned to Abysssight. “You know where to find me, I’ll leave you two for a minute.” After that, Dawnbringer left, leaving Abysssight behind with Fennec. “Sorry, again, for what happened back there. I didn’t mean to bring any unpleasant feelings out.” Abysssight shook her head. “You’re fine.” Fennec seemed to think for a minute. “You know, Dawnbringer has said a lot of positive things about you, it sounds like you two are great friends. She had told me a bit of what your life has been like in the past year, she’s very concerned about you, you know.” she narrowed her eyes. She didn’t like it when Dawnbringer was talking about her behind her back. She knew she didn’t mean any harm, but she preferred it if she didn’t. Before she could make a remark, Fennec continued. “I’m glad I have had the possibility to meet you, you seem like an interesting dragon to be around. I wish I could’ve gotten to know you better.” Abysssight was surprised by the honesty with which she spoke. A part of her realised she kind of wanted the same thing. She did like Fennec, even if the two times they had met were strange. But the SandWing seemed friendly, and she felt comfortable enough around her to share things she normally wouldn’t share. Fennec sighed. “I hope we meet again sometime. Goodbye for now.” Abysssight nodded, she didn’t know what to do. She looked down at her talons when she responded “sure, until some other time.”. After that, Fennec left, and Abysssight watched her go. Conflicting thoughts raced through her head, but she tried to silence them. After a few heartbeats, as she felt dragons beginning to stare at her, she turned around and headed towards Sincere’s Goods. She’d later decide how to feel about this situation.

Chapter 5

To be continued

Oc's and canon characters

Just a list of which mentioned dragons are oc's and which aren't.

Oc's

• Abysssight
• Bloodmoon
• Dawnbringer
• Eternal
• Fatereader
• Fennec
• Fierceclaws
• Foresight
• Gecko
• Narrowsight
• Shadowsong
• Sincere
• Sirius
• Stalker
• Stormbreaker

Canon characters

• Darkstalker
• Hope
• Mightyclaws
• Morrowseer
• Peacemaker
• Queen Battlewinner
• Queen Glacier
• Queen Glory
• Stonemover