Everything was happening so fast. First Luna's application to the Wings of Harmony Academy was denied, then her 'parents' wanted to make their own school of peace to get revenge, then some Night Bringer came along with her prophecy, throwing her into a disaster of events, including a goblin attack, a goblin kidnapping, a crazy goblin princess, Luna killing her first person, some kind of secret acid gland, a fireskins mermaid, and everyone was depending on the other magets and herself to save the world? A bunch of magets? Who would listen to a bunch of magets who don't even know what they're doing?
The first few legs of the flight were nauseating. Luna had to fly along with Wind Pilots every time she felt like barfing. Which was every five minutes. Luna couldn't stop to rest on the platform for long before feeling like blowing her chunks.
"Luna, please calm down," Seashell said to Luna during the thirty-seventh time she had to fly(Yes, Luna actually was counting). "If you just relaxed for one minute, then you would be able to rest your wings."
"How am I supposed to calm down," Luna said, beating her wings and whacking the red Wind Pilot next to her in the nose, "when everyone is blocking their minds and keeping secrets from me? You know I don't like secrets. And Edward told me you tell everyone outside of the family I'm adopted! You haven't even told me if you're my real mother or if the lie is the truth!"
The cold silence rang through the air. The sun moved farther through the sky, all the way to the middle of it. Finally, Seashell spoke.
"If I told you the truth, you would hate me for the rest of your life," Seashell said. "And it would break your heart if you didn't understand why the truth happened. It's best that you hear it from someone else."
Luna and Seashell were quiet for a little while. Seashell spread her wings, trying to offer a hug.
"Luna!"
It was Edward. He glared at Seashell before asking, "You okay?"
Luna flew up to the platform and hugged Edward. Seashell snarled at the Griffin and looked away. Luna cleared her mind of all the thoughts of everyone on the platform and just snuggled into Edward's embrace. Slowly, all of the doubt, self-worry, the endless scolding to hide her scales, all melted away. And for the first time in a long time, Luna's mind was peaceful and carefree.
"After we go to . . . where we need to go," Seashell said, "how would you feel about going back to Dragon Mountain?"
Luna snapped her head up at Seashell. "Seashell," Luna said. "You know I can't do that. I have a war to stop. And the others need to meet their families."
Edward nodded and gave Seashell a defensive glare.
Seashell looked north with a determined look on her face. "We'll see."
--------------------------------------------------------
The wind was cool on Luna's face. She could feel her scales turning pink, yellow, and purple, but she didn't mind. The sun started to pass the middle of the sky. Luna was sitting near the edge of the platform, taking in the whole view. Luna had never had a view like this before. It was breathtaking. The rolling hills, the mountain peaks that pierced the clouds, the clear skies, the shimmering lakes and rivers. Luna lifted her wings and let the wind rush underneath them. The Night Bringer maget had never felt this light, and she never liked the daytime this much.
There were so many dragons on the platform. So many colors were spread across the whole space, some eating cows and pigs, some reading scrolls, and some taking naps. Shiftscales was wrapping bandages around Rollcall's injured wing. Seashell and Thundercloud were both giving food to the Wind Pilots. Luna looked all around the platform, but she couldn't find Bubble or Lake anywhere. There were hardly any magets on board, except for Luna and her friends.
Luna looked over her shoulder at them. Edward was enjoying his new lion body. He, Sprite, and Spray were chasing each other playfully. Sprite was dive-bombing Edward and Spray was trying to shove him out of the way to get the dive-bomb himself. Luna thought that Spray didn't know what a dive bomb was. Artemis was close by, studying one of the scrolls that the dragons had brought on board. But Fowl, on the other hand, was sitting on the west edge, just looking at the sea of green below.
Luna stood up and turned into a human. She tugged on her braid for a moment, thinking about what to do. Does Fowl want to be left alone? She might. But it's not healthy to not talk about your feelings and just hide them. I need to go over there. But what if she tries to attack me?
Luna thought this over some more until she decided to go over. Then, she walked over to Fowl while the others played. Luna stopped a little behind Fowl, hesitated, then put her hand on Fowl's right shoulder, and shook it gently to get her attention. Fowl jumped and looked up at Luna with her teeth bared and a scowl on her face. Luna held up her hands to show that she wasn't a threat. But then she saw that it was only Luna, and her face softened into a sad smile.
"Hey," Fowl murmured.
"Hey," Luna said.
Fowl turned her head back down to the ground below. Luna sat down cross-legged next to Fowl. The phoenix maget shot her head up and turned to Luna.
"Um," she said. "I didn't invite you to sit over here."
"I know," Luna said. "But it looks like I need to."
Fowl let out a big sigh and looked up at the mountains in the distance. Luna looked at them herself. As the sun moved across the sky to the west, the two magets just sat in silence, observing the landscape beyond and saying nothing. The wind gently brushed their faces. As time passed, the sky was starting to be painted with streaks the shades of pink, orange, yellow, and a little dark blue. Finally, Luna decided to break the silence.
"Why are you sitting over here?" Luna asked.
"Just," Fowl said. She seemed hesitant. "Just looking at the view."
"Why aren't you hanging out with the others?" Luna said, nodding her head over at the other magets.
Edward was trying to shake off Sprite, who was tickling him hard. Spray was dive-bombing Edward and tried to pry Sprite off of the griffin maget. Artemis was laughing at the tackling while he read his scroll.
"It's just," Fowl said. She hesitated, took a deep breath, and continued speaking. "I figured it would be best for the others to not get attached to me."
What? "What do you mean?" Luna asked.
Fowl looked down at her feet and said, "It's my sickness."
"The Fire Charred Disorder?" Luna asked. "What do you mean?"
Fowl took a deep breath, blinked hard, and directed her attention to the lake in the distance. Luna tried to meet the phoenix maget's eyes, but Fowl wouldn't meet them. Luna wanted to do this with the least amount of mind-reading as possible.
"Fowl," Luna said sternly, "what's wrong?"
Fowl looked down at the ground, but wouldn't meet Luna's eyes. The phoenix maget sighed again and tried to scoot away from Luna, but she grabbed Fowl's arm before she could. Luna made Fowl meet her eyes and wouldn't let go of the phoenix maget's arm.
"Tell me what is going on!" Luna whisper-yelled, almost growling now. She was fed up with all of the secrets. "I need to know so I can help."
Then, Luna realized something. Fowl's eye color. It was a very pale green. Paler than any eye should be. Fowl's light golden skin looked frail and almost ghost-like. "How bad is it?" Luna asked after she let go of Fowl and a long pause passed.
"I don't have that long," Fowl said, looking down at the ground as the platform started following a shimmering river. "They say that when a phoenix maget turns thirteen and has Fire Charred Disorder, they immediately turn into their phoenix forms, then their feathers turn slowly black, and they burst into ashes. It's a horrible way to die."
"Oh, no," Luna whispered. "That's only in a few weeks."
"It's okay, Luna," Fowl said. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not," Luna said, "and I know that I can help."
"You know," Fowl said, "you can be annoying when you desperately want to do something."
"I know," Luna admitted, "just tell me what I can do to help."
"I'm not sure you can," Fowl said, looking up at a nearby hill.
"Maybe I can enchant something to heal your sickness," Luna said.
"You can't do that," Fowl said. "Phoenixes with my sickness tried that in the past. There is an antidote, though. Made by the second known phoenix sorcerer, enchanted so that no one else would be able to make it, but he made some kind of building and a farm of the antidote on an island near the phoenix kingdom. I don't think we can get ourselves, though."
"How do you know all about that?" Luna asked.
"You know why I was reading scrolls with Artemis?" Fowl nodded over at the unicorn maget.
He had finished his scroll and was pulling out another one.
"He has a scroll-worm side," Luna whispered.
"That's right," Fowl said. "He always has an invisible dimension where he keeps his scrolls, and he has every single known subject. I thought he had a few about the antidote for my sickness. He had one. It told us a little about the antidote, but not that much. I don't think I'll survive after the next starblast night."
"I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you can be smiling and flying through the skies and have a husband and children," Luna said.
"Well, then," Fowl said uneasily. "That was . . . really specific."
"Specific, but hopeful," Luna said. "I know what you're going to say, and I know. It's not enough to be optimistic, but I saw it in my visions. You, a year after the next starblast night, playing with Spray near the Palace of Magic. We'll find a way to get there, I promise."
Fowl turned to look at Luna. Her eyes looked hopeful and kind now. A soft smile spread across her face. "Thank you," she whispered.
Artemis then approached the two. "Um . . . can I please sit with you?"
"Sure," Luna said.
Fowl then decided to leave. Artemis sat next to Luna.
"Listen, I'm sorry," Artemis said. "About earlier when I attacked you for calling me average . . . It's just-"
"I triggered something, didn't I?" Luna asked.
Artemis nodded. "Not surprised you of all people figured it out."
"But still, you shouldn't project like this," Luna said.
"Look, I'm a prince, okay? Princes don't inherit thrones. Only princesses can challenge the current ruler for the throne. My mother married into the royal family, so she couldn't challenge my grandmother. She wanted to have a daughter, but she had me. My mother wasn't happy. She wanted me to know exactly how unhappy she was. She called me average, weak, and she hit me . . . My dad tried to retaliate by boosting myself up."
"So that's why you brag about your beauty and status?" Luna asked. "To combat your mother's words and beatings? And your father trying to help you . . . That's why you want Animus to be king so badly?"
"Yes."
"You really need to tone things down, Artemis," Luna said. "You'll have trouble getting along with the others. And there might be other options to be the next ruler. Your dad would make a good king, I'm convinced of that, but there might be someone better."
Artemis nodded sadly. "Okay, I'll try to work on it. My issues, I mean."
The two sat in silence for a while. Suddenly, Luna felt a sudden drop and the platform landed on the ground, shaking the whole platform. Everyone looked around. The area was surrounded by shrubs, and a small lake was nearby. Luna looked around until she saw Bigwings.
"Bigwings!" Luna called out. "Why are we stopping here?"
"The dragons are hungry," Bigwings said, "and we need to have dinner. We ran out of meat prey."
Luna turned into a dragon and flew over to her friends.
"Everyone!" Bigwings announced to all of the dragons. "First of all, I am organizing a hunting party to get more meat. Second of all, after the meal, we will have a five-hour rest and the Wind Pilots will continue afterward. So form groups, and one representative will come with me and they will hunt for their whole group. You may start forming the groups."
All of the dragons on board started chattering and clumping together. Luna turned to the other magets. They all wanted to go. After some convincing, they decided to let Luna go hunt.
"Okay," Luna said. "I'll be right back with the food. But first, what kind of food do you all eat?"
Thanks for reading guys! Hope you enjoyed! Have a great day/night!