Back from the dead! Woop woop!
As the suddenly very unfamiliar dragon launched themselves onto Eclipse, the reddish gold dragon let out the most undignified noise she had ever made in her life.
"Blarrgh!" She shrieked, then came to her senses and drew up to her full height, snout twisted into a snarl.
You just messed with the wrong half-breed, she thought, a threatening hiss slowly sliding into the air.
"Who are you?" She demanded, trying to buy time so she could tap back into the dragon's string.
C'mon, c'mon… She focused as hard as she could. The other dragon was saying something, but she was almost there…
Finally, she found them tangling across the dragon. White… royal blue… and yellow? Scared, worried, and irritated. So she didn't mean to attack me, but now she's frustrated that… I'm in her way, maybe?
"Where are you going?" She interrupted, hoping the irritation was caused by Eclipse slowing her down.
"I'm not going anywhere," the other dragon said coolly, sitting gracefully.
Ookay, maybe not. Eclipse felt silly and overly aggressive still standing in a position to attack, so she too sat. "Well… you seem to be in a hurry."
"I said I'm not going anywhere," she repeated, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
Well that's a touchy subject… I wonder where she was headed. If she didn't want to talk about it… Eclipse's mind whirred with possibilities. Maybe somewhere she wasn't supposed to? Or she's coming back from somewhere she wasn't supposed to be? Hmm…
"Rargh!" Suddenly, a fierce battlecry came from above and the mysterious other dragon was thrown to the ground by a red and blue blur.
"Avalanche?" Eclipse asked cautiously as the stranger screeched in sudden fear and dove into the bushes.
"Aha! Run!" Eclipse's best friend's eyes flamed with the delight of the chase.
"Avalanche! Wait just a second!" Eclipse called, holding in a snort of amusement as the stranger shrieked again and switched bushes.
Avalanche dove in pursuit, but Eclipse leapt onto her and pinned her friend's wings. "Oh, no you don't."
"What are you doing?!" Avalanche demanded twisting furiously. "Lemme get her!"
"Avalanche, she wasn't attacking me," Eclipse said patiently. "Okay, she was, but she stopped when she realized I wasn't a deer, or whatever else she was going after."
"That's right!" The stranger called, sounding much more calm now that a furious RainWing/IceWing/SeaWing wasn't after her. "My name is Hail Bl- Hail."
"Hailblehail?" Avalanche repeated incredulously, wrinkling her snout. "What a terrible name. Who were your parents?"
'Hailblehail''s eyes flamed with annoyance, but her voice was level as she said, "My name is Hail."
"Nice to meet you, Hail," Eclipse intervened, shooting a warning look at Avalanche that she was fairly sure her friend missed entirely.
"And your name is?" The other dragon inquired.
"Oh, right, uh, I'm Eclipse." She attempted a smile, but it felt more like she was baring her teeth.
"Right…" The dragon frowned at her slightly.
The 'smile' dropped from her snout and she met the gaze with an equally challenging look.
"And I'm Avalanche!" This time, it was Eclipse's best friend who stepped in, introducing herself with bubbling enthusiasm.
This time, Eclipse cracked a real smile at Avalanche's overeagerness. Hail grinned too, but there was a shadow in her eyes that unnerved Eclipse.
"Nice to meet both of you," Hail said. "Er, if you don't mind me asking… Who are your parents?"
Both Eclipse and Avalanche suddenly bristled, and Hail took a step back. She couldn't have known… but still, Eclipse thought, wincing.
"I- sorry," Hail muttered. "But-"
Eclipse shot her a warning look. Avalanche gets real touchy when we talk about that, and I rather not see this nice dragon get their snout clawed off.
"Then where did your names come from?" Hali's eyes held genuine curiosity, but when Eclipse opened her mouth to deliver the well-rehearsed lie about their parents having strange fascinations with nature, when she realized.
The reason I mistook her for Avalanche… She squinted at the dragon, something nibbling at the back of her thoughts. Oh- she's... she's a hybrid. Of what two tribes? IceWing was clearly the first one; save for her talons, wings, and tail, her whole body was icy blue like the first frost of winter.
First frost of winter; that's pretty good! I'll have to use that for something later… Eclipse thought to herself, her talons twitching. Wish I had a scroll handy…
Brushing the thoughts away, she focused back on the dragon. Her talons, wings, and tail were bright golden, like sunlight, or the sky right before sunset… or a SkyWing. Aha, she's a SkyWing/IceWing… just like me.
"We're not… we're not blood-pure dragons," Eclipse admitted, fairly sure this wouldn't garner a negative reaction based on her observation of Hail's heritage.
The blue and gold dragon jolted upwards as though she had been electrocuted. "You're hybrids? L- like m- like, you're from two different tribes?"
Avalanche looked away sourly, and muttered, "Three."
"Three?!" Hail's mouth dropped open. "Whoa."
"Yeah," Eclipse said shortly, not wanting to dwell on the subject.
Hail's eyes narrowed as though she was trying to figure out something.
"RainWing;" she said, pointing at Avalanche, who hissed dangerously. "SeaWing; and… IceWing?"
She nodded once, sharply, still hissing ever-so-softly.
"And you're… SkyWing, obviously… but IceWing? Because of the spines?" Hail continued. Eclipse graced her with a nod as well. "You're a thrice-blood as well?"
Her spines rose involuntarily at the word. "I prefer hybrid."
"Right, right." At least Hail had the grace to look ashamed. Then she tilted her head thoughtfully. "But what's the third?"
In answer, Eclipse tilted her wings, revealing the stark white undersides, coupled with the shadowed spray across them.
"NightWing," Hail breathed, either reverence or disgust in her voice; Eclipse couldn't tell which. "You were born under a full moon?"
Definitely disgust. Maybe a little hatred mixed in, Eclipse decided.
So you're going to tell her the truth? The voice in her head asked, amused.
Don't be a fish-face. Eclipse wrinkled her nose.
She let herself slowly tune into the blue-gold dragon's threads, searching for the answer that would win her favour with the cool hybrid.
Still irritated, uh… happy? What? Why is she happy? Okay, that's either worried or calm… It was hard to tell with the gauzy strands. Why doesn't every dragon have strands like Avalanche's?
Her friend's short, thick, vibrantly coloured strands made figuring out her emotions as easy as stealing treasure from a sleeping dragon.
Suddenly, Eclipse realized that Hail was still waiting for her answer to the question of the full moons.
"No, no, of course not!" Eclipse giggled nervously.
Hail's eyes narrowed for the briefest of seconds, before the calm mask was set across her features once more. "Good."
No need to tell her I was born under two… she thought, one talon tapping the ground nervously.
It hardly matters; you're not a real NightWing, the voice jeered.
And proud of it! She snapped back fiercely. I'm glad that there wasn't enough NightWing blood in me to give me either power fully!
Right, because a voice in your head and the power to read emotions- like that's so hard -is such a blessing, the voice retorted caustically.
You be quiet! Eclipse yelled.
"You all right there?" Hail asked, sounding genuinely worried.
"Fine, fine," Eclipse lied quickly, and another shadow crossed Hail's eyes.
"Well, we should get going…" Avalanche said uncomfortably.
Suddenly, a sound like a mountain crumbling, thunder booming, and a thousand dragons whispering in harmony rose out of the earth.
Eclipse immediately clapped her talons over her sensitive ears. Avalanche shrieked in surprise, and Hail ducked for cover once more.
"What's happening?" Avalanche yelled over the noise, but it only grew in response.
The whispering suddenly strengthened, and the words became clearer as the voices melded together. Eclipse realized that they were all saying the same thing, but with the differences in timing and pitch, it was impossible to tell what.
Well, it's something important, the voice said decisively. Maybe it's time you proved yourself as a NightWing.
I'm not a NightWing! Eclipse shouted futilely. She gave up on the voice and focused on the chorus of whispering.
"What are they saying?" Hail shouted.
"I- one second! I think I can figure it out!" Eclipse cried back.
She pulled her talons away from her ears, letting the whispering flood in, threatening to deafen her. Accept it in… take it in… untangle. Untangle. She breathed out with the ebb and flow of the whispering, and reached into the part of her that held her deepest focus.
Focus. Untangle. She repeated the words in her head like a mantra as she felt for the threads of the ghost-dragons. Squeezing her eyes shut, she reached for the threads that always spun around her.
Finally, she found them, a tangled mess, swirling around Hail, Avalanche, and Eclipse, but with others shooting out in all directions. Inside her head, she visualized walking into the middle of the threads, and suddenly she could feel the cobwebby mess stretching across her scales.
The feeling was deeply unnerving, but she persevered, picking out a thread at a time. They weren't like the threads she was used to; instead of a thickness, texture, and colour, they were all gauzy and white.
This is going to take forever! We're all going to be deaf by the time I'm done! Eclipse thought, frustration making her rip the thread she held into little bits. The voices pressed against her, a headache beginning in her skull.
She ripped more of them, the satisfying thwip as they pulled free from the rest egging her on.
After tearing up several talonfuls, she suddenly realized the voices had lessened. Time or actions, her voice murmured. Caused by time or actions.
Time… the voices have been here for several minutes… or actions, me tearing up the strings!Thanks voice!
She swiped her claw through the thickest bundle, wasting no time shredding them. The voices receded once more, only about a dozen remaining.
The words were becoming clearer, and Eclipse strained to hear what they were saying.
Fire… Ice… Darkness… Light… blight… shadows… hope… secrets… burden…
The headache worsened. Eclipse gritted her teeth, reaching for the last few threads.
Thwip!
Thwip!
Thwip!
Only one remained.
Her head felt like someone had dropped a volcano on it and then the volcano had erupted, but she tensed herself and bore it.
She glanced up at the last thread. It glimmered silver, catching the sunlight as it waved softly in the wind.
She reached for it, preparing to yank it in half and finally cut her suffering away, when the another booming sound threw her out of focus.
"ECLIPSE!" Avalanche shrieked.
She blinked her eyes open, returning to the real world. Hail was staring at her like she'd suddenly sprouted another set of wings on her snout.
The clearing was doused in golden light, but in the centre spun the same silver thread that Eclipse had seen with her mind's eye.
"It comes," she muttered hoarsely, then all noise was drowned out as one ethereal voice boomed;
Fire and Ice, Dark and Light, Unless you seek them, face their blight. Beware the shadows with secrets, and the rays with hope, for they carry the burden at the end of your rope.
Eclipse's head gave one final throb, then her headache disappeared.
As did her consciousness.
And in the middle of the clearing, a silver thread spinning and the last words of a prophecy echoing around them, Eclipse fainted.
I could get used to these lovely cliffhangers.
Anyways, loads of mystical magical things happening over here, hope you could follow.
For those who were confused and for those who still are, given Eclipse's smaller portion of NightWing blood, she can't read minds fully, only sees 'threads' that represent emotions. More'll be explained as the story goes on, hopefully.
That's all for today, see y'all… probably in months, knowing how slowly I get around to writing…
~Pondfrost