🌑Chapter 4: Twin Visions🌑

  Moon was already regretting what she'd just said to Winter. They weren't on friendly terms to begin with, and this would just make things worse. She said what she meant, though, and she meant what she said, so she wasn't going to go back and apologize. If she even wanted to, she couldn't; after she had angrily walked away from him, she'd gotten lost before she had even realized it. 

  Just keep walking...I'll get back to my cave eventually.

  The thoughts of other dragons became closer after a few minutes, but they were unfamiliar, just like the rest of this place. Why did her mother make her go here? She just wanted to go back home, even if she had to clean their hut every day for a year. This school was full of strange dragons, and smells, and noises, and rude IceWings, and a SeaWing who was somehow able to block her mind reading seemingly without knowing it.

  Moon's head throbbed as she approached the scene of an argument between three students, their loud words and even louder thoughts like a hammer to the skull. As she walked past them, they were too busy to even glance at her.

  The pain didn't subside, even after she was many feet away from the fight. She decided to just keep wandering through the tunnels.

  After a few more minutes, more thoughts gradually grew clearer in her head. These weren't angry, sharp ones though, which was a relief. The dragons producing them seemed very relaxed at the moment. 

  She quickly found where the thoughts were coming from. She saw what looked like the entrance to a cave on her right, but when she looked inside, it turned out to be a large cavern. A blue-green lake took up almost all of the floor space, and four SeaWings were swimming about in the turquoise water. 

  Maybe going for a swim would help clear my head. That sounds kind of nice right now, especially after what just happened during hunting. I'm not exactly the best swimmer, but I can stick to the edge of the water.

  The NightWing walked over to the edge of the lake, where warm sunlight was pouring in through a hole in the cavern's roof. She thought that this would be a nice spot with the sun warming the water and prepared to lower herself into the lake, when a SeaWing slightly smaller than her popped up from beneath the surface.

  "Sorry NightWing, but this is my spot," the female said in a tone not at all apologetic. "I got here first, and I picked here."

  Moon was startled by her sudden appearance. "But, there's a lot more space over there," she said, pointing to a section of the lake farther back. "And since you've been here awhile, maybe you could...go over there?"

  The pinkish-blue dragon glared at her. "I told you, this is my spot. None of the other spots have the warm water like this spot does. It's dark and cold in the rest of the lake."

  "B-but..."

  The SeaWing rolled her eyes, hoisting herself up onto the cavern floor and standing almost level with Moon. "How about you go to a different spot? I'm a princess, Princess Anemone to be exact. And I'm not about to leave my spot and let some NightWing have it. So either go somewhere dark and cold, like where you belong," she snarled, pointing to the shaded part of the lake, "or scram."

  A second SeaWing, this one green, appeared where Anemone had been just moments before. "Princess, why don't you let her have your spot? You have been here the longest, and-"

  "Shut up, Pike!" the small SeaWing growled. "Mind your own business." Turning back to Moon, she said "so what's it going to be? And don't try to trick me with some stupid lie about mind reading; everyone knows you NightWings are nothing but fakers."

  "I...I'll just go..." Moonwatcher mumbled, walking back to the entrance of the cavern.

  "That's what I thought!" shouted the princess.

  Are all royalty so snobbish? Moon thought as she sullenly left the cavern and continued walking through the many hallways of the academy. Maybe I can find the library and talk to Starflight. He's usually pretty nice.

  It took several more minutes of walking, but she finally came across the library. It was nicer than she had expected. Fire globes still hung from the ceiling, although they were all soothing colors like blue, green, and purple. There were five windows on the wall to her right, each covered by leaves with green sunlight shining through. And there were about six rows of shelves, each looking to hold thirty or more scrolls. Starflight, the NightWing who had been blinded years ago by some sort of accident that he never explained, was sorting through piles of scrolls behind a large counter to the left. 

  "Hi, Starflight," Moon greeted softly as she walked up to the counter. 

  "Hello, Moon," he replied, seeming to have known she was there before she even reached the counter. "Have you finished the scrolls in your sleeping cave already?"

  "No, but I'm almost done with one," she explained. 

  "That's not surprising. Anything I can do for you?" he asked, taking his attention off of the scrolls he was sorting through.

  "Not really," she said. "It's just...well...my first day here isn't going so great."

  "I can understand that," the blind librarian said. "You're in a new, unfamiliar place, surrounded by new, unfamiliar dragons, some of which aren't very welcoming. I expected that from a lot of students. It'll get better, trust me. I think you'll grow to like it here."

Thats doubtful, considering how shy she is. I almost feel bad for her, his mind said, betraying his words. 

  "I know, but it's not just that," Moon said. "There's these two dragons in my winglet, an IceWing and a SkyWing. The SkyWing kind of hates me for some reason, and so does the IceWing, but he's more complicated. One minute he's being rude and spiteful, and the next, he's standing up for me when the SkyWing was being particularly unfriendly. I...don't really know what to think about him yet.  Everyone else is fine, though. But me and the IceWing got into an argument, even though I helped him kill a saltwater crocodile when we were hunting, and-"

  Starflight held up a talon. "Hold on, slow down a minute. You killed a saltwater crocodile? I thought those were massive, there's no way you could have done that!"

  "Well, I had to help the IceWing fight it. We both almost got killed. I tried to save him, then he had to save me, and now we're back to hating each other, and I just don't know what to do."

  He bowed his head slightly, seemingly deep in thought. After several moments and a jumble of thoughts, he looked back up.

  "Firstly, I'm glad you're not fish food," he said with a wry grin, "secondly, I think for right now, maybe try to apologize to the IceWing. It might put the two of you on better terms. And I wouldn't wait for him to apologize first; I'm not an expert on IceWings, but they're not the kind to say sorry very often."

  It wasn't the answer she wanted to hear - but she didn't exactly know what she had hoped to hear - but it was worth a shot.

  "Okay," she replied. "Also, do you know which way it is to the Jade Winglet caves from here? I'm kind of lost."

  "Forgot your map, huh?" he asked. "I can fix that." He reached underneath the counter and pulled out a leather pouch. "You can carry it in here. Also, when you come to check out a scroll, I'll give you a library card to keep in here. You know what, I'll just give you one now. Stay there for a moment."

  He walked farther down the counter to find it, letting his claws brush against it so he didn't go off-course. He moved pretty well for a blind dragon. Then again, it had been years since his accident.

  Starflight came back holding a pice of driftwood small enough to fit in his palm, carrying a scroll in his other talon. "How this works is that when you want to check out, I take your scroll and stamp it on this one. Each scroll has a unique stamp on one end, and when you bring it back, I stamp it again next to the first stamp. The library card is mainly for the aesthetic of having one." 

  He handed her the library card and the scroll. "And to get to your cave, you should be able to find it by going out the way you came and taking the second left."

  "Okay," Moon said, placing the two items inside the pouch he gave her. "Thank you."

  "Anytime," he replied, getting back to what he had been working on before she entered.

  The NightWing followed his directions, and soon realized that she was nearing the Jade Winglet's caves. 

  I guess I should apologize to Winter. It's probably for the best, and Starflight gives good advice.

  For whatever reason, her eyes flew up to a random quote board hanging from the ceiling. An ominous message was written on it, not optimistic or joyful like many of the others:

  'Always expect the unexpected.'

  Shortly after reading it, a sharp pain exploded inside her head and Moon fell to her knees, clutching her head as if trying to prevent it from splitting in half. This wasn't simply an overwhelming sensation of thoughts. Though she had only experienced this a few times, she knew what it was. 

  A vision.

  Her mind suddenly emptied itself of everything but a blurry image. An image of an IceWing, Winter to be exact. Blood and sweat was running down his face, a deep gash just above his right eye. His face was a contorted mix of despair, fury, and terror, and he appeared to be staring at someone or something else. The rest of the details were too fuzzy to make out, which was probably a good thing considering that just the main part of the vision was this horrible.

  "Moon?" a faint voice called. At first she thought she was imagining things, but realized it was coming from the real world. It sounded like...Qibli.

  As the vision faded and she regained her strength and sanity, she looked up and saw that it was in fact the SandWing she'd met just an hour ago.

  "Are you alright?" the pale yellow dragon asked, reaching out a talon to help her up. "You look kind of sick."

  The NightWing gratefully took his talon and he helped her get back to her feet. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a headache, that's all. I usually get them when I'm stressed," she lied. 

  He tilted his head. "A headache...okay. Must've been a pretty bad one. You're all sweaty and pale. Do you want me to take you to the nurse?" 

  That couldn't have just been a headache, his mind thought, rushing like a river with several other strings of thought. She looked like she was trying to rip her skull open.

  He knows it wasn't a headache, she thought frantically. Does he know about my powers? He can't possibly know...stay secret, stay hidden, stay safe, like Mom always says...

  "No, I think I'll be alright."

  He stared at her for a moment. "Okay. I'll just walk with you back to your cave. You know, to make sure you don't collapse again."

  She was startled when he wrapped a warm wing around her and began guiding her in the direction of their caves, but was too busy thinking about what she'd just seen to push him away or anything. Why was Winter in a vision? And why was she even having a vision? In the past, most of them had been little things, like her mother leaving to go to the market at Possibility or something, small snippets of an event that happened soon after. This felt different though, like it was part of something much bigger.

  They shortly arrived at the cave she and Winter shared. Moon said thanks to Qibli and reluctantly entered, where the IceWing she had planned on avoiding until a few minutes ago was sitting on his icy ledge.

  He glanced suspiciously at her as she walked in, his striking blue eyes following her every move. But what was even more unsettling was that he didn't say a single word. He simply watched her for several moments, neither of them speaking to one another. Moon pretended to busy herself with finding her place in the scroll she was reading, but was focused much more on him. And he knew. Whenever she looked over at him to see if he was still watching, he glanced away.

  Nearly twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence passed before she decided to speak. He clearly wasn't going to anytime soon, so she might as well apologize now.

  However, before she got the chance, that familiar searing pain in her head was back, only impossibly stronger this time. It felt as if something was expanding inside her head, pushing against her skull, ready to burst at any moment. Her eyes squeezed shut, tears of pain immediately flowing from them as a second vision plagued her. 

  It was yet another IceWing, although it was much harder to discern them. She didn't even think she'd met them before, but they appeared about the same size as Winter was in the first vision, maybe slightly larger. Even if she did know them, it was near impossible to recognize their face. Not only because their shiny scales were streaked with mud and blades of grass, but they were wearing a mask that appeared to be made out of another dragon's skull. And if she wasn't mistaken, not just any dragon, but a NightWing. Their lips were parted in a snarl, gleaming white teeth exposed as they stared down whoever was unfortunate enough to be in their way. Could this have been who Winter was looking at in the first vision? The lighting and angle was right for it. None of this explained why the pain was so much more immense this time, though. And then, that question was answered as her body seemed to take control, forcing her to quietly whisper a phrase.

  "All is calm at Jade Mountain, or at least, so it seems,"

  "Unbeknownst to most, being constructed is a devilish scheme."

  "Then, dragons with scales as black as tar begin to vanish,"

  "And soon, no one walks the rocky tunnels without a sense of panic."

  "Two beings of ice, one lost but not forgotten,"

  "The other an outcast, but clearly not as rotten."

  "Both will fight till the very end,"

  "However, only one will truly suffice."

  "When ice and night collide, only with unity can they hope,"

  "That they can put an end to this, the suffering that started with blue smoke."

  Moon suddenly broke from whatever trance had befallen her, opening her tear-filled eyes to see a pair of arctic blue ones staring right back at her. Winter was holding her up, and she came to the conclusion that she had started to collapse again when that vision had started. His face was a mix of worry and fear, and there was a noticeable dark blue hue to it.

  "I'm sorry," they both said at once, although they most likely had several different reasons for this. At any other time it would have been slightly comical, however with what had just happened, it was anything but.

  "You go first," the two dragons said, again at the same time. This brought a small grin to Moon's face, and the same happened to Winter.

  "I'm sorry for being such a jerk back at the nurse's office," the pale blue IceWing said as he stopped supporting her so she could sit back down on her leaf and moss bed. "And for...what happened just now."

  Moon was confused for a moment, but soon realized that he must've meant how he had prevented her from falling.

  "It's okay," she said. "Thanks for not letting me fall. And...I also wanted to apologize for saying what I did earlier. I was just in the heat of the moment and all, and my anger kind of got the better of me."

  Winter gave a half-smile. "Don't apologize. I deserved to be told what you said, and I still do. I kind of admire that you called me out like that; no one's ever had the audacity to do that. But...um...what exactly was that? How you almost lost consciousness and then began rambling on like that."

  Moons felt her expression fall. "You heard that?"

  He nodded. "Every word."

  She sighed. "To be honest...I don't really know. That's never happened to me before."

  Winter nodded once more, although his thoughts were far less simple.

  She's probably lying. Like mother and father always said, NightWings are no-good, lying, smoke-breathing lizards who don't deserve our respect. Well, technically Moon hatched in the rainforest, so she probably hasn't breathed smoke much, but still...and that stuff she said sounded awfully close to a prophecy. But what am I thinking?! Her tribe's so-called "powers" were proven to be false years ago. There are no mind-readers, there are no visions, and there certainly aren't any prophecies!

  Winter suddenly got up and walked back over to his icy ledge, layed down and turned so he was facing the wall, just like earlier that morning.

  Moonwatcher sighed. She curled up on her bed of leaves and attempted to immerse herself in a scroll, but for once in her life, couldn't manage to do so. She didn't want it to be true, but it was clear that she had just spoken a prophecy of some sort. It was a good thing there weren't any other classes today, because she was going to be thinking about it all day.

  I hope you guys like the prophecy I made! I spent a good twenty minutes coming up with things that would rhyme and still get the point across. I changed the check-out system for scrolls if you couldn't tell, because it was kind of confusing in the stories where after someone returned a scroll, they stamped the library card over the first stamp. How would that even work with the card being made out of wood? It just makes more sense for them to stamp the scroll again once it was returned, at least to me. That's all for now, and I'll see you all next time. Cataclysm138, out!