"What's he want with the rainforest?" Passion cried. "What... I don't... the Nightwings! He's coming for the Nightwings. But Queen Glory wont let them go. Shade... Shade said he had wanted to be king of the Nightwings. But he can't be!"
Passion started flying very quickly toward the rainforest, silently banishing the frost figure of Darkstalker. Her mind was blinded by panic, until she smacked directly into Caiman's chest. His talons fell on her shoulders, keeping her airborne and preventing her from falling out of the sky. She looked up into his face, mere inches from her own. The voice in her head hissed malevolently.
"Don't go in over your head. What are you going to do against another animus? What if he's prepared to fight against one? You said he was big. You are tiny. Think. Why are you worried, do you have family in the rainforest that would get hurt?"
"My... my mother. Father... my little sister. They... My dad's an Icewing. Nightwings and Icewings have always had a rivalry. I can't let them get hurt!"
"Okay, but what are you going to do?"
Passion paused, mind starting to clear a little bit because of the pause Caiman was giving her. She needed a plan. And a good one at that.
"How do you feel about being made into a Nightwing?"
Dreamwatcher landed in the Nightwing village, which was abuzz with excited, nervous energy. Beside her, Noctis, a Nightwing with completely pitch-black scales, landed with a heavy thud, his thick, muscled form tense and ready for a fight. The two Nightwings shared a look and Dreamwatcher led the way to where most of the other Nightwings were gathering. Gathering at the feet of a massive Nightwing.
Darkstalker.
"The sun is coming up; do you need to let your sister know where you are?" Noctis asked, body rigid as he surveyed the area.
"That's a good idea, thank you." Dreamwatcher reached into the pouch around her neck, retrieving a scroll from it. She held it in one talon, and Noctis held his wing in such a way so that no one could see what she was doing with it. "Inscribe on this scroll a message to the Rainwing Icewing dragonet, Jewel, that her sister, Passion, is following Darkstalker, who is in the rainforest. Find her immediately and read the message aloud to her."
With a faint puff of smoke, the scroll disintegrated, leaving Dreamwatcher's talons empty. She nodded to Noctis, who lowered his wing and turned his attention back to Darkstalker. The big Nightwing had paused from what he was doing, looking around in about the direction that the two Nightwings were sitting. It gave Dreamwatcher a slight chill.
"Are you sure about this, Passion?"
"It's Dreamwatcher, Noctis. Stay in character. You have to act like a Nightwing."
"Sorry, how are Nightwings supposed to act?"
"In this case, excited but afraid. Darkstalker has been a scary story for years, but he's back and it looks like..." Dreamwatcher squinted at Darkstalker, who had gone back to speaking with the Nightwings. "I think he's giving out animus touched objects."
"Wouldn't that damage his soul more?"
"Well, yes," Dreamwatcher cocked her head to the side, frowning slightly. "He doesn't seem to be too bad though. I mean, it's been millennia since he was around originally, right? Maybe everyone was wrong. Maybe he wasn't even bad."
"What do the stories say about him again?"
"That he tried to become king of the Nightwings. He wasn't even royal, unless you count his father. His father was Prince Arctic. But he killed his father, I think. Maybe he had a reason. Maybe his father was bad."
"So, he's a hybrid."
"Yeah, exactly. Maybe he was just seen as bad because no one understood. Maybe. Come on, let's get closer."
Noctis looked worried. "Dream..." he trailed off as she started to approach Darkstalker. He sighed, following the Rainwing disguised as a Nightwing.
He hovered protectively around the small Nightwing as she wove her way between the other Nightwings, shouldering his way past them. The other Nightwings were starting to take notice, this big, well-muscled Nightwing that was forging his path through the still scrawny, malnourished looking Nightwings from the island, following a small, violet tinted Nightwing. Dreamwatcher could hear the whispering.
"Oh, look, must be another one that managed to get smuggled off the island," one especially thin dragon hissed, casting angry eyes at Noctis.
"Shut up!" another hissed, shoving them to the side a bit. "It's probably an assassin. Battlewinner had several of them. He was probably after the Dragonets of Destiny at one point. Look at him. He has warrior written all over him."
Dreamwatcher glanced back at Noctis, who somehow hadn't noticed the whispering or looks about him. She herself had never seen an actual warrior. Was Noctis - Caiman - a warrior? She had no idea how to tell. She'd talk to him later. But after she was done investigating Darkstalker.
As she got closer to the ancient animus, she noticed a couple of things. One, there were several young dragonets at Darkstalker's side. Two, they were from several different tribes. There was a young, slender Nightwing, silver teardrop scales at the corner of her eyes. Dreamwatcher recognized her but couldn't tell from where. Obviously, she lived in the rainforest with the other Nightwings, but she didn't know her name. Then there was a Sandwing with a scar across his nose, a sour faced Icewing, a Skywing off to one side, and two Seawings. The Seawings intrigued her, one, the pale blue and pink one, was sitting proudly by Darkstalker's side and the other, dark green, was cowering in terror. How odd.
Dreamwatcher looked up into Darkstalker's face and froze. He was staring directly at her, and she was suddenly very afraid. Even the voice in her head was silent now. Silent and worried.
Wait, what had Shade told her about Darkstalker? He was an animus.... something about three moons? Most powerful dragon to ever live? He seemed to be very... good, though. As she sat nearby, she felt all the worry she had drained out of her. He didn't seem bad at all. Why had she been so worried before? That was ridiculous. Nothing at all should concern her about this powerful, wise dragon...
"Protect yourself!" the voice in Dreamwatcher's head screamed. "Make it so that you can think clearly! Use your magic!"
Struggling to clear her thoughts, Dreamwatcher just continued to stare up at Darkstalker in awe. This was a dragon that had seen the passage of centuries. He should have, by all rights, been nothing more than dusty bones locked away in a cave below Jade Mountain. And yet here he was. What power it must be to wield. To surpass even the killing power of time itself.
Without her knowledge, Dreamwatcher's jaws began to move of their own accord, silently mouthing the words to a spell. Though she couldn't hear it, and she wasn't telling herself to speak, she knew exactly what she was saying.
"Allow me to keep my mind, to think clearly in the presence of magic meant to alter how I think."
Once her mouth stopped moving, Dream's thoughts felt much clearer. No longer was she feeling as though she was in unadulterated awe of Darkstalker. What... No time for that. No time. She looked over at Noctis and found that he was definitely eying Darkstalker with great respect. He looked much like how Dream had felt just moments before. He was no longer tense, and his spines were flattened.
"Noctis... What is your opinion of Darkstalker?" she asked quietly, nudging her friend with her wing.
He looked at her, confused. "He's an animus, Dreamwatcher. He's got a lot of power, don't you think? And given how old he is, I think he's got more experience and wisdom than any other dragon there is."
He turned back to Darkstalker, and Dream started another spell. She used the spell she had cast on herself, just twisting the words a little to protect Noctis instead of herself. She'd have to do this for the others when she saw them again. She needed to protect them too. Once the spell was cast, it looked like Noctis was much more skeptical. His spines rose almost as soon as the words left Dream's mouth. He looked back at Dream, when the voice in her head spoke to her again.
"Mind reader..." it whispered. "He's a mind reader. Your thoughts aren't safe. What I tell you isn't safe unless you do something."
Almost as though acting in a trance, Dream did what the voice told her, and made herself impervious to mind reading. In the same breath, the same spell, she shielded Noctis from Darkstalker's mind reading as well.
"We have to leave," Dream said, voice thick with fear. "Get back to my family. Get them as far away from Darkstalker as we can."
Noctis nodded his agreement. "Lead the way, I'll follow."
Dreamwatcher turned to leave, wings quivering slightly, when Darkstalker himself spoke.
"You, little Nightwing that's turning away, is there something you want?"
Heart pounding loudly in her chest, she slowly turned to face the ancient animus that seemed to have addressed her. And there he stood, staring down his narrow black snout directly at Dream.
"Something I want?" Dream repeated, trying to play the part. The fawning, awestruck Nightwing that was seeing a dragon from legend and lore.
"Surely there must be something a dragonet such as yourself could want. Anything at all?" Darkstalker said in a sweet voice that made the scales on Dream's back itch.
"Surely I must be the happiest dragon of all, because I can't think of anything I would ask for," Dream said humbly, lowering her snout, all the while trying to relax the spines along her back. "It is an honor enough to see the legendary Darkstalker."
There was a long pause as the animus weighed Dream's words. Then he nodded, almost to himself, and turned to a different Nightwing who was wriggling in anticipation by his tail. Dream and Noctis shared a look, before hurrying away from the masses of Nightwings together.
Once they were far enough away, Dream removed the silver cuff bracelet from her left wrist, and the form of Dreamwatcher melted away to reveal Passion, her scales an almost sickly shade of green. They were like this for only a moment, before she had adjusted them to her typical palette of blue and purple. She stuffed the cuff into the pouch around her neck, trying to hold her talons steady.
Noctis gave her a concerned look but said nothing as he took off a similar cuff from his own wrist and became Caiman again. He carefully made his way over to Passion, stretching his wing to brush her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he handed the cuff back.
"No, but we don't have time for that. We need to get to my family. They have to get far away from Darkstalker. I don't like it. I don't like it at all."