Chapter Text
Chapter 1
4997 AS, fourth season
"I feel numb most of the time / The lower I get the higher Ill climb"
—Marina and the Diamonds, Numb
Most tribes thought the jungle home of the Rainwings was a paradise, a lush, tropical place, filled with fruits. Its residents were overfed, lazy, and generally, not a threat. While the rainwings certainly knew how to appreciate the finer things of life, good fruit and long naps under the sun, they were not the jungle’s only inhabitants. Other things lurked in the dark, things that could snap up an unsuspecting dragon if they weren’t careful. Crocodiles, poisonous plants, and jungle cats of all variety also called the rainforest home.
It is the last of these, that the tale begins with. A jungle cat, and a dragonet, hidden from the tribe of her mother, hidden in the lush rainforest so that she would never know the pain of living under the volcano. The one born under the gentle light of two moons, who’s mother named her as such.
Moonwatcher.
Six months old now. Not just a crawling little hatchling, but now a young dragonet, with the ability to move, to wander, to explore. Though her mother had warned her against such things, telling her to stay hidden in the underbrush, it had been a few days since she had last seen her mother. Hungered nawed at her senses, a dull emptiness in her belly that led her to break her mothers lone rule.
She had seen her mother hunt, once, pounced on a jungle hog by a river, a quick kill. This is what she hoped to imitate, as she crawled her way through the underbrush. No flying, not yet, though small little glides where she could manage, down small hills and other miner obstacles.
She didn’t know how long she had been gone from her hidden nest, but she knew she was getting close to something that smelled like food. Dragons were intelligent, yes, but they were predators first of all. The ability to smell the blood of a wounded animal was something they all possessed.
So Moon followed that scent, when it finally hit her, following it through the underbrush. The daylight sun, occasionally breaking through the web of branches above, seemed to like to reflect off the silver scales that lay by her eyes, like little mirrors. She was no master hunter, but still, being the color of the night had its advantages in the shadows.
Finally, after what seemed like another small eternity to the little dragonet, she found it. A deer, dead, seemingly abandoned but recently killed. Fresh, and food. That’s all she needed now, driven more by primal hunger than by rationality.
An older dragonet would have wondered why such a fresh kill was left abandoned.
With a meal in her sight, she stepped into the clearing, forgetting all ideas of being hidden with a rustle of the bushes as she rushed forward. And so, as she were to do, she ate, gnawing what she could, a slow process for one who’s fangs hadn’t fully grown in yet.
Of course, she wasn’t alone in this place. Something else waited here, something intelligent, clever, hidden in the branches above. Something that knew it could not fight an adult dragon, and hid when it sensed her approach. Now, however, it studied new prey. A deer and a dragonet in one day was a fine meal indeed, to a creature like a jaguar.
A rustle in the shadows above, a yowl of ferocity, and suddenly, pain is what Moon knows, the feeling of claw sinking into her back, pushing her into the ground, sinking into her young scales.
She pushes herself up, in a panic, rolling with the combined weight of the creature, throwing it off for a moment. She cries out as it is loosed, a shrill of pain, her mind finally catching up and realizing how stupid it was to wander off alone.
Getting to her feet again, she looks to what attacked her in fear. A cat, sleek with black fur and hungry green eyes, all lean muscle and ferocious power. It yowls at her, an angry hiss, and she backs up, scrambles, turns and flees. The jaguar gives chase, and it is much faster.
In a moment, it is in front of her, and pounces, tumbles with her again, and they land in a thud, the creature on top, batting and swiping and clawing at her.
Fire, to almost all dragons, is an instinctual thing to a dragon, buried deep in their souls, their last line of defense. An almost magical thing, an outward expression of ones soul, ones will to survive.
In an instant, the jaguar gets lucky, a strike, a long swipe down the left side of her face. She cries out again, in pain, shock, panic. She can’t tell if she’s blinded, wether its the blood from the cuts or if the jaguar managed to take her eye.The fire in her chest, in her soul, responds.
A Fwoosh! And a burst of fire leaves her, burning bright, if only for a moment. It hits the target, enough, fire engulfing its face for a moment as it yowls out in pain, jumping off of her. It’s face is singed, whiskers burned off, and on its right, a new burn.
Fire was not what the jaguar expected, or was prepared for. It lets out another yowl, of anger and hate, and turns, flees back into the jungle, leaving its prospective meal behind.
Moon cries, in panic, from the pain of her injuries, from the fear. Her ears feel like they’re ringing, her heart thumping fast in her chest. She takes only a moment to rest, before standing, getting to her feet. Her meal is forgotten as she turns, back to the jungle, the opposite direction of the jaguar. Home. Nest. Mother. Safe. She needed to get home, to the hidden nest, where she would be safe with her mother.
She stumbles for a moment, and releases a whimper as the movement strains the new injuries to her back, but presses forward. Momma would make it right, would wrap Moon in her wings, and sing songs and keep the jaguars away.
Another step, sluggish, then another, and another, and finally, she makes some progress. At least that’s what she thinks, in this injured, adrenaline fueled state.
For hours, she goes on like, wandering through, trying to see anything that looks familiar, that smells like home, but fails. She’s lost now, deep in this jungle.
Of course, she was not fated to die this day.
The light, finally, at the edge of the jungle, is what draws her. Out of the jungle, away from the predators, as lush rainforest transitioned into fields of tall reeds and dirt and smaller trees. At least its farther from the cat. That’s all the mattered now. She could find home later, after she woke up.
Hours of walking, the blood from her injuries finally dried, clotted, though she still couldn’t see from her left eye. She hadn’t found water to try and wash it. She didn’t know if she wanted to try, scared to confirm if the jaguar had taken her eye or not.
So, she rested. Collapsed, more like, curling her wings around her in an attempt to mimic the comfort of her mothers own wings. Like a little black meteor, a constellation fallen from the night sky, contrasting oh so easily against the reeds and the grass. An easy thing to see…from the sky.
___
A skywing patrol, a normal, if often boring, duty, was so often a trivial task. Check the borders, look for spies. Of course, for whatever reason, this patrols commander wanted them to fly further than normal, to look along the borders between sky and mud, and to also look towards the rainforest.
“Why, again, are we flying this far out? To the rainforest, of all places?” Called out one member, Ash, the youngest of the formation. “All we’re gonna see is some big trees and a bunch of banana brained rainwings.”
“You heard the commander. He wants us to see if the mudwings might use the rainforest as a staging grounds. Wouldn’t be hard for them to bulldoze that rainforest and go straight to the sand kingdom, bypass our border at its narrowest points.” Flint, the flight leader responded. She was the oldest present, and on her left and right were Skydiver and Windcutter respectively. Ash took the back of their square formation.
“Yeah yeah, sounds like he’s just trying to keep us all busy. We haven’t had a real battle in weeks! Just little skirmishes. It’s getting boring.” Ash snarked back, a puff of flame emitting from his nostrils.
“Think of it like this. A chance to stretch your wings, and maybe just kill some mudwings. Sounds like a good day to me!” Skydiver called back.
“Yeah yeah, we all know you love tearing up mudwings. We get it. You wont stop talking about it.” Ash again snarked, before looking to the last member of the group. “What about you, WindCutter? What do you think? We gonna kill some mudwings?”
Windcutter…didn’t respond, eyes looking down, narrowed in concentration, towards the rainforest.
“Hey, you hear me, lizard-“ Ash snarled, before Windcutter finally cut him off.
“Shut up! There’s something down there. I dont…think it’s a mudwing. Look” She gestured down, and their gazes followed, to a little black dot amidst the baige reeds.
“What…is that? A Meteor?” Skydiver asked, puzzled
“No. I just saw it run out of the jungle…I think its a dragonet.” Windcutter answered.
With a sigh, Flint acknowledged them: “Let’s check it out. No stone left unturned.” She dived, and the rest followed suit.
Landing with a grace and presence only possible for a skywing, they surrounded the little dot, and closed in.
“By the moons…it is a dragonet. A Nightwing. What is a nightwing dragonet doing out here? Looking like that?” Windcutter mumbled, eyeing the small, bloodied form.
“I think…I think its still alive.” Ash answered, carefully reaching out a talon, and poking the sleeping form.
With a startle, Moon awakens, her eye taking in the form of several other dragons around her, surrounding her. Still, she was too tired to stand.
“What do we do with it? With her?” Skydiver asked, yellow eyes starring at Moon like a puzzle, waiting to be solved.
Flint was quiet for a moment, considering it, studying the nightwing for a moment. Part of her said to just kill it, be done with it all, and leave, but another spoke of her queens…eccentricities. If the queen could read minds…
“Take her with us. Let the queen decide. Perhaps she is the key to finding the nightwings. Skydiver, tend to her injuries, quickly, then we return to the palace with haste. We will not be having our…package die on the way to the queen.”
“Yes ma’am.” He responded, reaching forward and gently scooping up the little Moon.
“Hey, look at her eyes. Silver. You think she was born like that?” Ash asked, getting close as well
“I dont know, maybe? Maybe the nightwings tattoo it onto their newborn dragonets. Now back off, dont crowd her. I need to work.” The largest of the group turned, heading to the jungle edge to collect whatever he could find to try and make this little dragonet well enough for a flight to the sky kingdom capital.
“Think she’s reading our minds?” Ash asked, looking to Windcutter.
“Probably. Isn’t that what their known for? Reading minds? Seeing the future? You’d think seeing the future would have prevented whatever did all that, huh.”
With Moon, she was…squirming, trying to escape the skywings talons with no success. a mixture of fear and blood loss related stress not helping in her endeavors.
“Stop moving. Im going to help you. Ill try and be gentle.” Skydiver spoke, carefully picking large leaves, berries and herbs from the tree line.
“Eat these. They’ll help.” *he presented a small handful of berries to the dragonet, and she looked at him, her struggles stopping for a moment. Those eyes…they seemed to look through him for a moment, and the skywing had to consider wether or not those ideas of nightwings reading minds were real.
Carefully, she ate, chewing the slightly sour berries.
“Good. Ill wash that blood from your face. It looks like…whatever got you didn’t get your eye.” Taking a leaf, he carefully brushed the dried blood from her face, and her other eye opened.
“Now come on. We have a journey ahead of us.” Turning back to the rest of his patrol, he nodded, and Moon…felt sleepy, an odd tingling in her bones that nudged her to sleep. Within moments, she was out, yet again.
___
With the strength of an adult skywing, the journey from the rainforest border to the sky palace was a short few hours, just the right time for Moon to awaken yet again, the odd tingling now only leaving a dull thrum of pain from her injuries.
“You can speak, right? You better not be brain dead or something from whatever attacked you.” Ash spoke to her, as skydiver set her down in the middle of the patrol group. Little Moon looked to him, nodding ever so slightly.
“Yes…I can…I can talk. My momma taught me.”
“Your momma? And where was she when you got attacked by…what attacked you?”
“A jaguar…and she was…gone. She’s always gone, for a few days, but she always…always comes back, but she didn’t and i was hungry and…”
“Enough, I dont need the whole sob story.”
“Quiet. We’re taking her to the queen. Fall in line, dont let her out of your sight.” Flint spoke, and the other dragons nodded, if grimly.
Skydiver couldn’t help but wonder if they were sending a dragonet to her death.
The walk through the skywing palace was…long. Moon had never seen, never dreamed of a place like this. Tall, sweeping doors, gold inlays in statues of a fearsome looking skywing, portraits of the same skywing, wearing a golden crown, and similarly golden necklaces and other jewelry. It was all…so much.
And the voices.
Those were perhaps the strangest thing. So many, whispers and conversations, making her stumble as she tried to process them all. The patrol that escorted her only chalked it up to her injuries, and her age.
Finally, a pair of doors, beautiful, intricate fortifications hidden behind a masters craft. The doors to a throne room. The gateway to a dragons lair. For a moment, a flash, and Moon sees them on fire, melting and crackling with heat. The vision disappears, and she sees reality again
Flint speaks to the guards, and gestures to Moon, speaking of urgent business to present to the queen. The guards only mutter that its her funeral, and open the doors, letting them pass through.
As they approach the throne, dusk approaches, casting the room in shadow. Even in the torchlight, Moon can’t make out all the details of those around her. Thoughts echo oddly in her head, not her own thoughts, but others, watching, whispering like snakes in the dark.
Finally, the patrol stops, and Moon stops with them. They bow, all of them, and after a moment, Flint speaks again.
“My queen…We were sent to look at the border by the mud and rain kingdoms, and found this. A nightwing dragonet, injured, by a jaguar. We thought it prudent to deliver her right to you, in the event she may know something useful.”
The patrol opens their formation, presenting Moonwatcher to the throne hidden in the shadows of dusk
The air is silent now, whispered conversations quieted. The shadows and the torches seemed to still, before, finally, a voice.
“Well, isn’t this…a lovely little surprise. Tell me, nightwing, what…is your name?”