Before we start I just wanna say, thank you all for reading this story and than you for the support.
Also, another quick shoutout and thanks to Chickenman323 and ConeGuardian for making these videos. (Chickenman made the first one, ConeGuardian made the second.)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kv6nDwQvKzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ffgsVEg104
Now, onto the very long chapter.
Part Three: The Eye of Onyx
(3rd Pov Sunny)
It was still raining when Sunny woke up the next morning. She could hear the pitter-patter at the far end of the passageway, and the breeze that gusted toward them smelled damp and fresh. But it came along with the dim morning light, and the wind wasn't as cold or fierce as it had been the night before. She felt sure that the worst of the storm had passed.
She stood up and stretched, reaching her wings as wide and high as they would go and pressing her talons out in front of her.
Everything felt less awful again, somehow.
Her father was still asleep. Sunny hesitated, half tempted to leave without saying goodbye, but she couldn't do that to him.
"Stonemover?" She poked him lightly in a part of his shoulder that didn't look entirely made of stone yet.
"Mmmph?" he answered. His eyes slowly peeled open.
"I have to go," she said.
"Already?" He sighed, this time long and smoky so she had to step back to breathe. "Can't you stay? it's really . . . quiet here."
'Really lonely, you mean,' she thought.
"I'm sorry," she said, then added with a burst of excitement, "I think I've figured out how to end the war. I mean, I think i found a clue, sort of. At least I have an idea."
Stonemover's eyes were dark and puzzled. "But . . ." he said. "But why? The prophecy isn't real, remember?"
"That doesn't matter," she said. "I'm not doing it because a prophecy told me to. If I can stop the war, I think I should. it would be nice if someone else would take care of it, but maybe that's what everyone else is hoping, and maybe someone just has to do it."
"Hmm," said Stonemover. "Somehow I suspect it won't be that easy."
"Maybe it will be," Sunny said brightly. "I'll find the Eye of Onyx and give it to one of the queens, and that's all it'll take."
"Ah," said Stonemover. "That'll never work."
"I thought you might say that," Sunny said. "Don't worry, I'll come back and tell you all about it when it totally does work." She smiled at him, and she thought she saw the slightest movement of a maybe-smile twitching around the corner of his mouth.
"I wish-" he said, then stopped.
'I don't even know where to begin with wishing,' Sunny thought. 'I wish the Talons hadn't taken me? No, because then I wouldn't have grown up with my friends. I with I'd been born looking like a real SandWing? No, because then I wouldn't be me, and I wouldn't want to be anyone else. Maybe I wish the prophecy were real. I wish I knew for sure that this would work.'
Sunny shook out her wings. "Just wish me luck," she said. "I'll see you soon."
When she left the cave, Stormcaller was there in the passageway waiting for her, the fiery glow that emanated from his chest the night before was now gone. "Ready when you are," he said, sounding somewhat tired. She nodded, ready to attempt to stop the war.
As they headed up the passage, toward the light and quiet rain, she could sense Stonemover watching her gloomily. She wondered what her mother would think of him now, how much he had changed since they knew each other.
'None of my friends got to know both of their parents. I'm lucky they're both still alive - and I'm lucky they're not that bad.
But now that I've met both of the, I know which one I want to be like.
I'm not going t sit in a cave and mope because things aren't the way I want them to be. I'm going to make them happen, the way thorn stated the Outclaws and searched for me. If she'd given up, how would we ever have found each other? She'd have been just another dragon in the Scorpion Den, and maybe our paths would never have crossed.'
Then another thought entered her mind - a question - one that she had a while ago, but never got to ask. 'What is Stormcaller's family like?'
The passage ended in a shallow cave overlooking the mountain range below. The sun was rising in the east, which was also the direction of the rainforest. But the forest with the scavenger was to the west.
'Do I have time? What if Scarlet gets to the rainforest before I do?'
"So. Care to tell me your plan to potentially end the war and save all of Pyrrhia?" Stormcaller said with a yawn. For a moment, Sunny forgot about Scarlet and thought of something else. She thought about what Stormcaller would do, be ominous and not explain things until later.
"I'll tell you when we get there," she said with a smirk. Stormcaller blinked at her her before slightly smirking and letting out a small laugh.
"All right, all right," he said. "Where are we going?"
Sunny smiled more, leaning forward. "You'll find out when we get there," she said quickly and plummeted down the mountainside, soaring west toward the scavenger ruins and, she hoped, the missing treasure.
* * *
The burnt village was easy to spot from the air; a dark gash, stark and black against the surrounding greenery. Sunny spiraled toward it, studying the tress with her sharp eyes and looking for any movement that might be scavenger.
Stormcaller also became visibly irritated when they spotted the village.
There was nothing so far, but it was late afternoon and Sunny wasn't even sure whether scavengers were normally nocturnal or preferred the day.
She landed lightly in a cloud of ash the smelled like a wood fire. Stormcaller inhaled deeply through his nose when he landed, a strange mix of emotions glinted through his eyes when he did. The ruins were still and deserted, and sunny wondered uneasily if she had been wrong. What if the scavenger wasn't here? or what if she'd been here but was now gone, and Sunny had missed her?
'Think positive.'
"Why are we here?" Stormcaller growled softly.
"I was dream visited by a scavenger last night." Sunny explained what she had seen in her dream and what her plan was as they paced the perimeter of the den, searching every structure with even half a wall standing. Every noise made her freeze and listen, her head cocked to the side, but it was always squirrels or other nearby little creatures, or Stormcaller, who would purposely knock down parts of the already ruined dens.
Sunny sat down on the old bell platform, eating a mouse she had caught. She offered to catch one for Stormcaller, but he declined. He hadn't said much since arriving here.
Well. There was no one here now, but that didn't mean she should give up. Maybe the scavenger would return later. Except she probably wouldn't if she spotted two dragons prowling through the ruins, especially a really grumpy and potentially dangerous looking one . . . but then again, if she'd stolen the treasure from the SandWings, that meant she had to be fairly bold and reasonably stupid.
Still, Sunny decided to hide, and convinced Stormcaller to do the same, just in case.
She found a tree with thick, overlapping leaves and wide branches and settled into the crook of the trunk, keeping a sharp eye on the burnt village. Stormcaller doing the same, but on a different branch. From here they had a good view of most of it, and they spent the rest of the day watching and waiting.
By nightfall, as one of the moons climbed cheerily up the sky, Sunny had begun to doubt herself again. 'We should just go. We don't have time to sit here - I have to get my friends in the rainforest. Besides, if she comes during the night, only Stormcaller will able to see her. I won't be any help.'
She dug her claws into the bark, forcing herself to be patient. If the Eye of Onyx was nearby, it was worth waiting for. Once she had that, she'd have a way to end the war.
'Which won't stop Scarlet from wanting to kill us, of course.'
She stared hard at the village, now a shadowy mass of odd lumps and pointy shapes, overlaid with the silvery moonlight.
Was that- ?
As soon as she noticed a small light moving through the forest outside the ruins, Stormcaller had already bolted after it in a full sprint. His claws dug into the ground, flinging dirt and ash into the air.
"Wait! Stormcaller!" she called, but the next thing she knew, he was already across the town and in the forest. She blinked and suddenly multiple trees burst into flames.
She quickly unwound her tail from the branch and slithered down the tree and ran after Stormcaller. Running through the ruins, she came to a halt at the edge of the now burning forest. She could feel the blazing heat crashing into her scales.
"Stormcaller!" she yelled. "Stormcaller!"
Sunny growled and paced along the edge of the flames, staying a little ways away, shouting Stormcaller's name every so often. She was frustrated with the NightWing. He knew the plan. He knew they needed the scavengers alive to find the missing treasure. And he went off and probably killed them.
She looked into the flames and a burning tree crashed to the ground, solidifying her beliefes of thinking the scavengers were dead.
Slowly a silhouette formed amidst the flames - the that eventually took the shape of a dragon.
It was Stormcaller.
"Stormcaller!" Sunny yelled as he exited the burning forest. She was mad. "Why did you kill them? We had a plan!"
Stormcaller looked at her and she froze. His amber eyes seemed to burn furiously with rage. "Here," he growled and held out a talon and dropped two perfectly fine scavenger onto the ground. "I'm going to go for a walk until I don't feel like setting any more forest fires," he said before walking back into the flames and disappearing amongst the burning trees.
'Why did he do that?' she wondered.
Sunny looked down at the two scavengers. They were coughing, obviously scared, and smelled like smoke. One of the had short, fluffy hair - but the other one's hair was long. Sunny was sure it was the same scavenger from her dream.
"Sorry about him," Sunny said, gingerly picking up a scavenger with each talon. She quickly looked around and spotted a building that hadn't been burned as badly and wrecked by Stormcaller as the rest of them. Two walls still stood, forming a corner of heavy round stones. The walls were as tall as Sunny's head - too tall for a little scavenger to jump off, unless they were more like frogs than Sunny thought they were.
She slowly placed the scavengers on top of the wall. They sonly stopped coughing and then began to make little yelping sounds at one another and clung to the stones.
"Sorry about Stormcaller, again," she said. "But at least he's gone now." She tried to be positive.
Their big eyes stared back at her. The light from the fire Stormcaller caused was enough for both her at the scavengers to see each other clearly.
"So," Sunny said. "Where's the treasure?"
The scavenger from her dream pointed at Sunny and chattered something at the other scavenger. 'If she were my pet, I could give her a name,' Sunny thought. 'Maybe something like Holler, for all that noise she was making. And the other one could be Fluffy, for his hair.'
She smiled. Holler and Fluffy. Totally cute. But also maybe totally responsible for this whole war, if they were the ones who stole the treasure. They looked a little small to be treasure thieves, but then, all scavengers were too small to be trying something that idiotic.
"The dreamvisitor," Sunny said, cupping her front talons together as if she were holding a jewel. "The one you had in my dream. Where is it?" She tilted her head.
Holler and Fluffy started arguing, or at least, it certainly looked that way, raising their voices and barking at each other, waving their paws.
Sunny watched this for a moment, then stuck her claws between them and said, "All right, you're adorable, but that's enough. Dreamvisitor? Treasure? Now?" She rested her open talons between them.
Holler hesitated, looking a Fluffy, and then reached into a pocket of the fabric that was draped around her. She pulled out the sapphire and dropped it into Sunny's palm.
"Whoa," Sunny said. She hadn't actually expected that to work. She raised the jewel to her eye and studied it. It certainly looked like the animus-touched gems from the scroll.
"Thank you," Sunny said to Holler. "Where's the rest?"
Holler blinked at her.
"Um," Sunny said. She took the jewel and put it on the ground, then drew a large circle around it in the ashes and mimed adding more jewels to the circle. Then she spread her wings around it and waved at the imaginary pile of treasure. "The rest of the treasure. That you stole. Where this came from." She picked up the dream visitor and waved it again.
Fluffy indicated the imaginary treasure and barked something at Holler. Holler ignored him, pointed over Sunny's shoulder, and said something to her in what sounded like an imperious tone of voice, if it wasn't too crazy to think about scavengers trying to think to order dragons around.
Sunny narrowed her eyes at Holler. Now that she had a moment to think about it, she could see that both scavengers were smaller than Flower. They didn't seem entirely full-grown. Scavengers reached their full size before twenty years, didn't they? So if the treasure had been stolen twenty years ago -surely it couldn't have been these two who took it.
But there was the dreamvisitor, real and heavy in her claws.
Fluffy began chattering vigorously at Sunny. Holler grabbed his shoulder and tried to stop him, but he fended her off. He pointed at the imaginary pile of treasure and then at himself and then at Sunny. That. Me. You. And then he mimed picking something up and giving it to Sunny.
'Is he offering to bring me the treasure?' Sunny's hopes rose.
Holler stamped her foot and snapped at him. He put his paws on his hips and yapped back.
"I have an excellent idea," Sunny announced. She gently scooped her claws around Fluffy and lifted him off the wall and onto the ground. he yelled and flapped around a bit until she let him go and stepped back, and then he stopped, watching her warily. "You go get the rest of the treasure, and when you come give it to me, you can have Holler back." Sunny tapped holler lightly on the head.
This took a while to sink in. Sunny pointed to the forest, held up the dreamvisitor, pointed to Fluffy and Holler, in several different combinations until finally Fluffy took a few steps toward the trees, calling up to Holler. She yapped back at him, and he bobbed his fluffy, shaggy head, then hurried off into the darkness.
"I hope this works," Sunny said to Holler. "I'm not actually going to eat you or anything, even if he doesn't come back."
"Yibble yibble yibble," Holler said to Sunny, or at least, that's what it sounded like.
"You're very cute, but you're all a lot of trouble," Sunny said.
"Yibble! YIBBLE YIBBLE!" Holler shouted, pointing over Sunny's shoulder again.
Or maybe she was pointing at Sunny's shoulder. Where Flower had been sitting in Sunny's dream.
"Oh," Sunny said, thinking of Glory's sloth. "Do you want a ride? Are you sure?" Sunny flicked her tail. "You won't be scared?"
"Yibble!" Holler demanded.
"All right," Sunny said, scooping her up. Holler shrieked, with a little more terror than Sunny though was necessary, considering she'd asked for this. As Sunny set her on her shoulder, Holler grabbed Sunny's neck and balanced herself across her scales, making a startled yelping noises.
"Hold on tight," Sunny said, swinging her neck around to check that Holler was firmly in place. She spread her wings and leaped into the sky.
* * *
(3rd Pov Stormcaller)
Stormcaller was seething, letting out puffs of smoke with every breath. His chest continued to blaze a fiery red, ready to set anything he came across on fire. A few dead bushes burst into flames as they brushed his scales.
His right talons glowed an ominous and dangerous white while crackling with red electricity.
Of course, Stormcaller wasn't truly mad. He'd only gotten really mad a few times in his life, and whenever that happened multiple things died.
He let out another puff of smoke with hints of fire in it. He needed to calm down. Stormcaller dug his talons into a nearby tree, instantly cracking the bark and sending a spiderweb of cracks across its side.
He needed to think of anything. Anything to distract him from those pathetic, horrible, meaningless worms called humans.
He talons sunk deeper into the wood and the red lightning arced off his white scales and into the tree. The side of the tree literal exploded - burst into splinters - right in Stormcaller's face and the oak toppled over sideways.
'Starseer, give me patience,' he thought, unhooking his talons from the remains of the tree. She always knew how to keep him level headed and calm if she knew something were to bother him, like anything involving Pride.
Stormcaller let out a low hum. He wondered how the elder dragon has been doing since his banishment.
The red lightning crackling around his white scales ceased and the white glow dimmed. Stormcaller, realizing he was calming down, continued to think of his late wife.
After he had brought her back to Pyrrhia, she had been interrogated by his grandfather. He tried to get any information about the enemy, even a name would have been useful. And they got one.
After years of fighting and not knowing the name of the tyrant they had been fighting, they finally learned it . . . . and Stormcaller dared not bring it up. Not here. He was trying to calm down, not start another forest fire.
They had learned other thing from Starseer when Stormbringer interrogated her. Her parents had been killed moments before she fled from the tyrant's land. She would have been killed next if it weren't for Stormbringer finding her. She didn't know the way to Pyrrhia. She would have been hunted down by the Laviente and killed.
After learning of her past, Stormcaller's family had welcomed Starseer with open wings. There was the slight problem of the mountain their family lived on was already starting to become crowded, and his grandfather's home wasn't large enough to comfortably support to Fatalis. So. they went to Stormcaller's uncle . . . . Reckoning.
Stormcaller's eyes widened as he remembered his uncle. For a moment, he forgot about the elder dragon - something he often did. In reality, Stormcaller wasn't the third oldest monster ever recorded, he is the fourth. His uncle took first place, being much older than the likes of Eclipse. And now that Stormcaller thought about it, his brother, Fireheart, was technically older than him, so he was fifth oldest monster.
Reckoning was Stormcaller's great great granduncle - the brother of Eclipse. Reckoning, despite his name's meaning, was a nice, forgetful, old monster. He allowed Starseer to live with him when she came to Pyrrhia, and eventually grew to love her as if she was his own daughter.
Reckoning fought in every war Pyrrhia had ever been in, including ones from before Stormbringer's time.
Reckoning was a black dragon, much like Stormcaller, and an extremely dangerous one, too: a Dire Miralis. He was considered to be immortal and undying and have the strength to cause calamity to run rampant throughout the world.
Reckoning often slept for years on end, sometimes even hundreds of years. Stormcaller would often forget about him due to that.
The last time Stormcaller had spoken to his uncle was . . . . slightly after Starseer's passing. The Dire Miralis then went on to participate in the event and then went into a deep slumber, Stormcaller assumed.
Stormcaller let out a slow and long sigh before blinking a few times. He felt calmer than before.
Did he feel like starting another forest fire? Not really.
Did he feel like scaring those humans was necessary? Kind of.
Did he want to kill those humans? Yes.
'I suppose I can with stand the presence of humans for a few moments. I just have to try to not look at them.'
Stormcaller sighed once more before walking back toward the ruins of the human village.
* * *
(3rd pov Sunny)
It was a clear, starry night; all the clouds from yesterday's storm had blown away, and two of the moons were half full in the sky overhead. the rustling leaves below them looked like waves rippling on the sea, and the large fire caused by Stormcaller looked like a massive torch in complete darkness.
Sunny soared up in a long arc, swooped down across the forest, and veered back around again. The scavenger was quiet on her back, which was much preferable to shrieking.
'I hope Fluffy understood me,' Sunny thought. 'I hope he hasn't gone to get a pack of other scavengers with pointy things. Imagine if he really does come back with the missing treasure! I could be moments away from holding the Eye on Onyx.'
'The Eye of Onyx, and power over the whole Kingdom of Sand.'
Sunny shivered from horns to tail and felt the scavenger clutch her neck tighter.
'Whoever holds the Eye could be queen. Even I could be queen. That would be one way to end the war - none of the three sisters wins, and I take the throne. Sunny, queen of the SandWings. Of course, that would leave three dragons with a single unified mission: kill me.'
It was scary, but it gave her an eerie thrill to think about, too. What if that was her real destiny - to rule the SandWings?
She glanced down at the forest and saw movement near the fire Stormcaller had caused. She soon realized it was Stormcaller! She tucked in her wings and dove toward the ruins, landing with a thump right in front of him.
Stormcaller's eyes instantly landed on Holler, and Sunny felt the scavenger shift to get behind her neck.
"Where's the other one?" Stormcaller asked, looking away, but his eyes still seemed to burn.
"I sent Fluffy to get the treasure. Hopefully he'll come back," Sunny said.
A look of confusion crossed Stormcaller's face and he looked at her again, blinking a few times.
"Fluffy?" he said, not sure her understood what she said.
"Oh," said Sunny. "That's what I named it. This one is Holler, because she screams a lot." She gestured to the scavenger with a wing.
"Interesting," Stormcaller said with a bite of smoke leaving his mouth. It was just then that Sunny realized that Stormcaller didn't like scavengers a lot.
The NightWing turned away from her, to face the still blazing fire.
"Um, Stormcaller," Sunny started, also gazing into the fire. "Why . . . Why do you not like scavengers."
For a moment, the blazing look in his eyes grew . . . or it was just the fire reflecting off of his amber eyes.
"They . . . . killed my wife," he said slowly, digging into the ash and dirt.
Sunny's eyes widened and she looked over at her NightWing friend. It hadn't even occurred to her that Stormcaller might have ever been married, he just always seemed so . . . mysterious and confident and . . . gloomy.
He had never mentioned his family before. It also just occurred to Sunny that her and her friends had never bothered to ask about his family. She felt a little guilty now.
"What was your family like?" she asked suddenly. The question had been burning in her mind for a while now.
Stormcaller's expression softened and his eyes seemed to glaze over, as if he wasn't in the present anymore.
He didn't say anything for what felt like an hour, but in reality was only a minute.
"There's . . . my grandfather," he said slowly, "Stormbringer."
Sunny felt the scavenger shift on her neck and she looked at it. The little creature had positioned herself to sit of Sunny's back, as if she, too, was listening to Stormcaller speak.
"He was strong and smart - smarter than most dragon's you've met."
In Sunny's opinion, it wasn't too hard to be smarter than most dragon's she's met.
"He - he took us in when out parents died," Stormcaller went on.
"I'm sorry," Sunny said, not wanting to bring up any bad memories that the NightWing may have. 'Wait,' she realized. ' "Us" ?'
"My parents," Stormcaller said, "were the best. Darkfire, my mother, was tough and sometimes a little brash. She taught my brother and I how to fight when we were young. My father, Mightysoul, was a dragon with an unbreakable will. To me, he was unkillable, he was the strongest, second only to my grandfather."
"Then there are my brothers." Stormcaller's tail lashed behind him for a moment. "Fireheart," he went on, "is a little older than me. We hatched from the same clutch. He's arrogant, a little rude, and likes to joke around. He and his girlfriend disappeared a few years ago - off to search for some mystical land made of gold." His tail lashed back and forth a few more times. "Idiots," he mumbled.
"My other brother," Stormcaller went on," Blackstar, was taken in by my grandfather when he took my brother and I in. He . . . was strange at first - he was obsessed with nature and life and music. But I grew to understand that. Blackstar was nicer then most dragons I knew at the time, but he would constantly get into fights with a good friend of mine." He let out a small chuckled. "Last I heard: he lives on an island a ways west of the Sky Kingdom."
Sunny smiled. Stormcaller's family sounded nice. It was a lot like what her and the other dragonets would imagine their families being like. She felt . . . a little sorry for Stormcaller. He lost his parents and his brother is missing.
"My uncle, Reckoning, is really, really old," Stormcaller said. "He's often forgetful and extremely kind. The term 'gentle giant' describes him perfectly. Although when he gets mad he can become a problem."
"They sound nice," Sunny said. Stormcaller slightly smiled.
"If you haven't figured it out yet, my family tends to give dramatic names," Stormcaller said, and then let out a small laugh.
"My wife, Starseer," he went on, "was something else. She was smart, kind, strong, and a little hotheaded. The love of my life . . . ." He trailed off and his talons dug into the ash and picked out a stone similar in size to Holler. "And those scavengers took her from me!" He hurled the rock into the flames, and Sunny watched in astonishment as one of the trees toppled over. "I mourned her death for a week," Stormcaller continued. "After that I went out and killed as many scavengers as I could find, hoping to find the one that took her life . . . . . and I never did."
Sunny's eyes widened and she softly gasped.
Stormcaller's talons rested back on the ground, the white one sifting through the ash. "When I finally stopped hunting down those things," he growled, "I felt lost. For days on end I couldn't sleep and wouldn't eat."
'Like he does now,' Sunny thought.
"like I do now," he said as if he could read her mind. "But it was much more extreme. I felt alone. My grandfather had passed a few years prior, so it was just me and Blackstar, since Fireheart was off who knows where."
"Then one day something happened." His talon stopped moving the ask around and his voice grew slightly softer. "I had asked three close friends of mine to take care of something, something that would take up the rest of their lives. They believed in me and my decisions and I knew I could trust them, so, in return each of them asked me to take care something important for them."
"That's how I ended up raising three rambunctious dragonets," Stormcaller said with a smile.
"You have dragonets?" Sunny almost yelled. Stormcaller glanced at her and she went quiet, and then he continued.
"They may have not been my own, but I raised them as if they were. They all hatched within a few weeks of each other. The oldest, Hurricane, was a stickler for rules and loved to learn. He would often get dragged into trouble because of the other two. The next was Ignite. He's extremely hot headed and is usually quite grumpy, but he's nice once you get to know him. Surprisingly, he's also a pretty good cook," Stormcaller added with a small laugh. "The youngest, Ivy, is quite childish. She often got into fights with her brothers, and loves to play pranks and get into things she's not supposed to." When he stopped talking, he paused for a moment and took in a breath.
"That's my family," Stormcaller concluded. For a long moment, none of them did anything except stare into the blazing fire. The silence was eerie, yet warm . . . . most likely because of the flames. Sunny stepped forward and hugged Stormcaller, attempting to wrap her wings around him.
"I'm sorry you had to lose so many dragons you care about," she said, trying to not let any tears slip from her eyes.
"You don't have to apologize," Stormcaller said, unwrapping Sunny's wings from around him. "The things I went through weren't caused by you. It's quite alright."
"But it's not," Sunny countered. "No one should have to lose so many dragons they care about. That's why we need to end the war - so no one has to go through the things you or anyone else has gone through."
Stormcaller's eyes narrowed for a moment. "The loss of my family members were not a result of the war. And the dragons that were the cause have all gotten what they deserved."
Stormcaller didn't need to say anymore for Sunny to know what he meant. He had killed the dragons that harmed his family. While she didn't agree with what he may have done to them, it was noble of him to avenge his family . . . but was it necessary?
The sound of something moving through the forest caught their attention. Stormcaller and Sunny turned around just as Fluffy walked out of the trees.
His eyes widened when he saw Stormcaller and then noticed Holler on Sunny's back, and he launched into another shouting fit, practically hopping up and down. Holler slid off Sunny's back and joined in.
Sunny wasn't interested in their little monkey squabble, though. She was interested in the bulging canvas sack that Fluffy was clutching.
Reaching over Holler's head, she deftly lifted the sack out of his paws. Fidgeting with excitement, she emptied the contents of the sack onto the ground.
Gold coins and jewels tumbled out and bounced through the ashes, clicking and clattering into a small pile. Most of the jewels were tiny - none as big as the dreamvisitor - and barely worth stealing. The biggest object was a statue of a dragon carved from blue stone, with emeralds for eyes. 'The Lazulite Dragon,' Sunny guessed, remembering the scrolls about the missing treasure.
She noticed Stormcaller peering the treasure with that fiery look in his eyes, but chose to ignore it.
She sifted through the pile, her heart sinking. She knew the answer at first glance, but she dug through it all, examining every coin, just to be sure she was right.
She was.
The Eye of Onyx was not there.
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Onto the next chapter
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(3rd Pov Sunny)
"This isn't all of it!" Sunny cried. "Where's the Eye? Why isn't it here?"
They stopped chattering immediately and jumped away from her, holding their paws up in the air. Fluffy pointed at the sack and yibble-yibbled frantically.
"You must have it! Where else could it be?" Sunny started pacing back and forth while Stormcaller watched her. She could feel smoke rising from her snout, and she knew she was probably scaring the scavengers, but they didn't run away. "I need the Eye of Onyx. it's my one chance to end the war!" She stopped and faced them. "How am I supposed to end the war without it?"
"Yibble?" Holler said tentatively. "Yibble . . . yibble?"
"Well said," Sunny said to her. "That's very helpful." She sat down and frowned crossly at the pathetic pile of treasure.
"I have a few ideas," Stormcaller volunteered.
"We're not killing anyone," said Sunny.
"Well," Stormcaller paused. "There goes half the ideas."
"Ribble yibble," Fluffy said to Holler.
"Urble YOBBLE," she snapped back.
"Someone else must have it," Sunny said, thinking aloud. "If you had it, you'd have brought it to me, because you were worried about Holler. You wouldn't keep the one thing I need, when I'm sure scavengers prefer shiny little things like all of this."
"That would be accurate," Stormcaller quickly added.
"So you don't have the Eye of Onyx," Sunny went on, "which means it's . . . somewhere else in Pyrrhia."
She sighed, and then stopped herself mid sigh so she wouldn't sound like Stonemover.
Her first theory was probably right, and some other dragon had stolen most of the treasure. perhaps they had the Eye of Onyx and didn't realize what it was or what it could do. But that didn't help Sunny, who had no way to track down the real thief.
She felt something touch her talon and looked down. Holler was standing in the curve of Sunny's wing, patting her talon in a way that seemed to say "Don't worry" and "It's not the end of the world."
"You're brave and cute," Sunny told her. She heard Stormcaller lightly scoff behind her, some she chose to ignore and continued talking. "I wish I could keep you. If Glory can have a sloth, I don't see why I can't have a scavenger or two." She glanced at Fluffy, who was edging closer, glancing up at her and Stormcaller warily. "But it's too dangerous. I'd feel terrible if one of you got hurt."
Stormcaller turned his head away from the scavengers, as if he wouldn't be the cause of the little creatures sudden demise.
She gave Holler a thoughtful look. These small, breakable scavengers were brave enough to ride a dragon who could eat the in three bites.
'Could I be that brave? Like, for instance . . . could I try to stop a war? Even if I don't have a magical jewel or a mystical prophecy to back me up? Even if my friends decide not to help. Could I still do it?
Isn't it important enough?
Why shouldn't I try? So what if there's no foretold destiny saying I have to. Shouldn't I do it anyway, just because I want to?'
'But how?' she tapped claws on the ground. 'Stormcaller did say he had a few ideas,' she thought, glancing over at her NightWing friend. Stormcaller had taken out his flask and was currently taking a drink out it.
"Yiible robble fnob?" Holler said. She pointed to Sunny's shoulder again.
"Sorry, Holler. I don't have time to take you for another ride," Sunny said regretfully. "I have to go." She shook out her wings and reached to scoop all the treasure back into the sack. She was a little bit tempted to let the scavengers keep it, but she had a feeling she could find some use for it - giving it back to the SandWings, perhaps.
"We're going to find our friends and see if they'll help us," she informed Fluffy and Holler. "And then . . . then I've got a war to stop." She patted them each gently on their heads before turning to Stormcaller. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.
The NightWing had just put his flask back into his leather bag. "Ready to get away from these things, yes," he answered.
Sunny spread her wings and then took off, Stormcaller doing the same a moment later. As she sailed into the sky, she looked back and saw the scavengers waving. She wondered if she'd ever see them again. Maybe she could come back and look for them after the war was over, although she had a feeling Stormcaller would do something to them, no matter what she said to him.
The weather was with them this time, and they flew through the mountains and saw the rainforest ahead of them, illuminated by the rising sun beyond it. It looked so vast and green and peaceful. Sunny found herself caught by a moment of longing, a wish that she could just dive into those leaves and stay there forever. There would be enough to do, helping Glory rule the rainforest and organize the NightWings. It was beautiful and there was always enough food, and the RainWings were easygoing dragons to share a tree with.
'The war would come here eventually,' she told herself. 'Even the RainWings aren't safe - we already know that from what the NightWings did to them. And between Scarlet and the three sister looking for us, we probably aren't safe anywhere either.
No hiding in caves. That's my promise to myself. No hiding at all. When the world is all wrong, I'm going to be a dragon who does something about it.'
Her nerves started to get the better of her the closer she got to the RainWing village, though. She kept picturing her friends faces - doubtful, kind but condescending, all "really? you, Sunny?" and "that is sweet, but now let's be serious." Her stomach was doing flips and spirals by the time she spotted the treehouses on the outskirts in the early afternoon, and she was almost tempted to turn around and fly away again.
'What if they're mad at me?' she suddenly thought with another stomach lurch. 'What if everyone's furious at me for running off?' It had occurred to her to use the dreamvisitor while she was traveling, but she'd decided against it - she wanted to explain everything to her friends face-to-face.
A movement distracted her from her thoughts - something shifting, out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked she couldn't see anything but dangling vines and bright orange flowers. Immediately she ducked and rolled, so the tranquilizer dart shot right past her and bounced off Stormcaller's metal scales.
"It's me!" Sunny shouted, twisting to wave her claws at the leaves around her. "it's Sunny! I'm Queen Glory's friend!" She held out her talons and spread her wings, hoping one of the hidden RainWings would remember her.
A face materialized on a nearby branch, his scales shifting from brown to green and dark purple. The dragon blinked a few times, looking more wary then most RainWings Sunny had ever met.
"The queen was looking for a little gold dragon," said a voice behind Sunny, and another dragon emerged, this one shifting to the clementine orange of the flowers. "This could be her."
Stormcaller then flew up beside her and the RainWings suddenly raised their blowguns and fired. All the darts fell harmlessly to the ground after hitting the NightWings scales, causing the RainWings' eyes to widen in surprise.
"I'm with her," Stormcaller said, pointing at Sunny. "I'm a friend of Queen Glory's, too."
The RainWings looked at one another dubiously.
"Shouldn't we knock them out anyway?" asked the purple dragon. "Just to be safe? You know the queen keeps telling us to be more careful."
"She means about the NightWings," said the orange dragon blithely, and then paused for a moment and looked at Stormcaller. "Like this one."
"We're Glory's friends," Sunny promised them. "We need to see her."
"The queen . . . let's see, she might be in the audience treehouse," said the orange dragon thoughtfully.
"Or the healers' hut," said the purple dragon. "She's there a lot."
"Or visiting the NightWing camp."
"Or checking on the progress of the school."
"Or reviewing-"
"All right," Sunny interrupted. "I'll just look for her. Thank you."
They both flicked their tails and bobbed their heads, and their scales began shifting back to camouflage as Sunny and Stormcaller flew on.
'The healer's hut,' she decided. 'So I can see Starflight.'
But before she got there, she spotted the mahogany-brown of a MudWing stretched out on one of the sleeping platforms.
"Clay!" she yelped happily. She barreled up to him and nearly flung her wings around him before she realized it wasn't Clay at all. It was some other MudWing dragonet, who jumped back with a startled expression and hid something behind his wings.
"Whoa," Sunny said, skidding to a stop on the wood. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" he responded rudely.
Sunny usually liked everybody, at least at first, but something about this dragon immediately rubbed her the wrong way. "Where's Clay?" she asked.
"How should I know?" he demanded.
Sunny frowned at him, the turned to fly away. If he didn't want to be helpful, she didn't need to bother with him.
"Hey!" he called. "Come back!"
She ignored him.
Stormcaller, who was flying next to her and had observed the entire encounter, let out a small laugh, causing Sunny to frown at little.
She noticed the angle of the sunlight and realized that it was the RainWing sun time, when most of them would be sleeping high up in the treetops, recharging their scales. She wondered if Glory was up there, too, or if she ever let herself sleep.
Just then she spotted the healers' hut - and coming out of it, opening his wings to fly, was Clay, definitely Clay this time, every wonderful brown scales of him.
Sunny dove into his wings, nearly knocking him backward, except that he was big enough to catch her. He made and "oof!" noise and then realized who she was.
"Sunny!" he roared. "It's you! You're alive! You're all right!" He seized her and swung around, her tail flying out behind her, and then quickly put her down. "Are you all right? he asked anxiously. He touched her wings and checked her talons. "We thought something terrible had happened to you. We've been searching and searching. Come, come in." He dragged her into the hut before she could say anything. "Starflight! Sunny's back!"
Two black dragons turned their heads in unison toward the door. Sunny recognized Fatespeaker, the NightWing who had been one of the alternate dragonets, raised by the Talons in case they needed a spare set to fulfill the prophecy. She was crouched beside a nest of leaves, where Starflight was lying with his wings spread out.
Sunny flinched at the sight of frostbite all along Starflight's dark scales. Some kind of silvery ointment glistened over the wounds, and she saw a little of it on Fatespeaker's talons as well, as if she'd been helping to put it on.
"Sunny?" Starflight said in a hoarse voice. "Really?"
Sunny realized with a stab of guilt and horror that Starflight's eyes were covered with a mask of leaves, carefully plastered in place. "It's me," she said, hurrying over to his side. She nudged his shoulder gently with her snout, trying to share her warmth with him. "I'm here."
"I'm here, also," Stormcaller said, entering the healers' hut.
"Stormcaller," Clay said happily. "Where have you been? Did you find Sunny?"
Neither Sunny nor Stormcaller said anything for a moment.
"Yeah, sure. Let's go with that," the NightWing said quickly.
"Are you all right," Starflight asked her anxiously.
"Better than you are," she tried to joke. Stormcaller let out a small laugh.
"I told him you were fine," Fatespeaker interjected in a helpful voice. She patted the edge of the leaves where Starflight lay. "I had a vision! I mean, it was fuzzy, but I was pretty sure you were fine."
Starflight coughed awkwardly, as if he'd been trying to avoid talking about Fatespeaker's visions for days. Sunny remembered what Stonemover had told her - that no NightWing had had prophetic powers or mindreading for generations. So was Fatespeaker lying? Or did she believe her own wild stories? She didn't seem cruel enough to deceive Starflight about whether Sunny was all right - but then, Sunny didn't really know her at all.
"I'm sorry I wasn't hear to take care of you," Sunny said, touching one of Starflight's wings gently.
"I took care of him," Fatespeaker said.
Sunny felt a flash of something odd. Like she wanted Fatespeaker to shush and go away. 'Jealousy? But wouldn't that mean . . . that I like Starflight the way he likes me?'
Did She? it would be nice if she could love him back. it would make him happy - and she did care about him. Plus he was a real hero - he'd just helped save the entire NightWing tribe from extinction.
'We don't have time for mushy romance right now anyway,' she told herself sternly. 'Whatever's going to happen with me and Starflight, whatever we are - we'll figure it out after we stop the war.'
She glanced around the room and noticed that Webs was still there, asleep in the corner, although the venomous scratch on his tail looked almost completely healed. there were a few RainWings as well, four with injuries that might have happened during the attack on the NightWing island, and two others whose breaths rattled in their skinny chests as they slept. Sunny guessed they had been prisoners and were still recovering from their treatment at the Talons of the NightWings. She could see spots on their snouts and ankles where iron bands had rubbed the scales raw.
The only other dragon occupying a bed was the SkyWing, Flame. He'd grown up with Fatespeaker among the Talons of Peace, as another possible alternate for the dragonets. She could tell that the healers had applied the cactus-milk antidote to the wound that slashed across his face, but it would still leave a nasty scar. She wondered if his face had looked that furious before he was injured; she suspected yes. He was awake, glaring at the back of Stormcaller's head with trails of smoke coming out of his nose and ears.
(Side note: No, I did not forget about Viper. She is currently somewhere else.)
"So where were you?" Clay asked, bumping Sunny's wing with his own. "Tsunami thought maybe you'd been kidnapped, isn't that crazy?"
"Well, I kind of was kidnapped," Sunny admitted. Starflight and Fatespeaker both gasped. "but I got away. Except then I got kidnapped again, and the I was a prisoner in Burn's stronghold for a while."
"What?" Starflight tried to sit up and nearly fell off his bed. Clay's eyes were wide and shocked.
"Wait," Stormcaller said. "It happened twice? I thought it only happened the one time when I kidnapped you."
"You what!" Fatespeaker and Starflight and Clay all said at the same time.
"He had a good reason, right?" Sunny looked back at Stormcaller who shrugged, not helping his case whatsoever. "I'm here now, though, aren't I?" Sunny said. "It all turned out fine," she added honestly. "It was a little crazy. But I should tell you all at the same time. Where are Tsunami and Glory?"
* * *
Tsunami was drilling RainWings in evasive maneuvers, although apparently what that actually meant was a lot of yelling things like "Pay attention!" and "Leave that toucan alone!" and "Why are you pink? Stop being pink!" and "THREE MOONS, ARE YOU EATING AGAIN?"
Sunny half hoped that meant she'd be all yelled out, but of course it didn't. Tsunami had plenty of yelling energy left for Sunny.
"Where have you BEEN?" she roared. "Do you know how WORRIED we've been? How could you DO that to us? I was so sure the NightWings did something to you that I nearly threw them all back to the volcano! We've had search parties out every day, but not ONE SIGN of you ANYWHERE! Not even Deathbringer, well, he said he smelled you over to the west, but who trusts him, NOT ME IS WHO. I haven't slept in days, Sunny! DAYS!"
She grabbed Sunny and wrapped her wings around her in a fierce hug. Sunny felt her own anger melting and realized she'd been furious with Tsunami ever since overhearing their conversation in the Obsidian Mirror.
'She may not take me seriously,' Sunny thought, 'but she really does love me.'
"I'm sorry," Sunny said, muffled, into Tsunami's shoulder. "But I swear I was doing important things. I'll tell you all about it. Where's Glory?"
"Checking on the NightWing camp," Tsunami said, relaxing her grip on Sunny but keeping one wing around her. "She is kind of awesome with them. All scary and tough and royal, like a real queen. Do not tell her I said that."
Sunny grinned up at her. "Are they behaving?"
"For the most part," Tsunami said. "They were all absolutely starving, so just give them enough food is making them a whole lot happier and easier to deal with. Glory's letting them hunt and eat as much as they want, except for sloths. Those are off-limits, apparently. I guess being a giant sucker for cute furry things is a RainWing genetic defect."
"I wouldn't eat them either," Sunny pointed out.
"Well, but that makes sense," Tsunami said. "You practically are a cute furry thing."
Sunny debated getting riled up about this, but Tsunami was already turning to one of the RainWings - all of whom were staring noisily at Sunny - and ordering him to fetch Glory.
"Tell her to meet un in the healers' hut," she said. "and NO DWADLING. If you stop to admire so much as one beetle I will seriously bite you."
"All right," the RainWing said affably and flew off in a way that probably counted as a hurry for a RainWings, but was only marginally faster than your average snail.
"I swear," Tsunami muttered through her teeth. "Sunny. You'll probably be shocked to hear this, but I don't think I'd make a very good RainWing."
Sunny laughed. "I missed you," she said, and meant it.
It wasn't long before they were all gathered around Starflight's bed. Sunny felt a rush of joy as Glory swept into the room. Here were all her friends, all together in one place like they were supposed to be.
"Sunny," Glory said, and the relief in her voice was matched by the bright yellow of her scales. She even reached out and squeezed Sunny's front talons, which was more affection than Sunny would have expected from her. "Thank goodness you're alive. Because now I can totally behead you. Starflight, what's our official policy on beheading right now?"
"Our constitution says no beheading Sunny," he said loyally.
"Let's amend that," Glory said, flicking her tail. "To 'I can behead anyone who worries me half to death like this.' "
"I know you're probably mad," Sunny said. Glory's ears and wings were starting to shade more red than yellow. "Okay, definitely mad. But there were - lots of - stuff happened, and -"
"It had better be wildly important 'stuff,' " Glory growled. "You know what I don't need in my first week as queen, in addition to a whole new tribe of pretty much the worst, most unhealthy, most annoying dragons ever? I don't need to be freaking out because one of my best friends has disappeared. I don't need to be using my best dragons on patrols searching for you when they should be helping me run a brand-new experimental two-tribe kingdom."
"That's me," Deathbringer said, poking his head in from outside. Sunny jumped. She still wasn't used to seeing any NightWings in the RainWing village, apart from Starflight and Stormcaller. "When she says her 'best dragons,' she's talking about me."
"I am not," Glory said, a little too indignantly, Sunny thought. "Quit stalking me."
"This is not stalking," he objected, sliding into the room as if he were perfectly welcome. "This is protecting you."
"Nobody invited you to this private conversation," Tsunami said bossily.
"Hey, I'm just making sure the queen is safe," he said, spreading his wings.
"The queen can take care of herself," Glory pointed out. "Out of the two dragons in question, the queen happens to be the one with camouflage scales who can shoot venom. What can you do again? Sit in the dark, is that it? Guess what, I can do that, too." Inky black spilled across her scales and she looked down her snout at him.
"I can stop dragons from killing you," he said. "Three assassination plots so far, Your Majesty. No one's better at stopping assassins than the worlds best assassin."
"You poor dragon," Glory said. "If only you had a shred of self-esteem."
"What?" Sunny cried, dismayed. "NightWings have tried to kill you? Three times already?"
"I find that doubtful," Stormcaller said plainly.
"So he says," Glory observed. She didn't look remotely scared or even ruffled. "Apparently he's my body guard now. Not that anyone asked him to be, ahem."
"It's true, I did have to fight my way past a whole pack of angry volunteers," he mused mockingly. "Oh, no, wait. It's just me. the only dragon who cares if you live or die."
"He's just trying to make his list look longer than mine," Glory said to Sunny. "We're keeping track of who has saved who more often. I say it doesn't count if you have to save me from your own dragon-murdering self, and he says I shouldn't get credit for sending him away before the IceWings got him since that was Stormcaller."
"If we're keeping track of who's saves who more, I would be winning," Stormcaller said to no one in particular. "I've saved you all more times than you've saved each other and me combined."
"If you three are quite finished jabbing at each other," Tsunami said, rolling her eyes. "I'd like to hear what Sunny have been doing for the last week."
"Me too," Clay said fervently, sliding up beside her. Sunny twined her tail around his, relieved at least one of her friends wouldn't be mad at her, no matter what she's done or how worried he's been.
"Well," she said, "I found my parents. And I met Burn's brother. And I saw Peril again, and Queen Scarlet is alive, oh, and she's coming here to kill us, although I hope she doesn't really know where we are, although she said she did."
Glory cleared her throat quietly, but everyone turned to look at her anyway.
"Um," she said. "So. Yes. Actually, she does know where we are." She squinted at the skylight, rubbing the back of her head. "She maybe visited me in a dream. With a dreamvisitor. And saw where I was. So Yes."
"That seems like something worth mentioning!" Tsunami yelled.
"I was going to tell you all," Glory said huffily, "but then Starflight disappeared and I became queen and I got a little . . . busy."
"Anyway," Sunny interrupted before the two of them could start one of their interminable arguments. "So she was in Burn's stronghold, but she's not anymore."
"Could you start from the beginning?" Starflight asked. "I'm a little confused."
"Me too," Fatespeaker chimed in.
'As if anyone asked you,' Sunny thought, then felt incredibly guilty for thinking it.
"All right," Sunny said. "It started with these three NightWings grabbing me . . ."
END OF CHAPTER
A/N
That . . . . . was a long chapter. Hope you all liked the new information on Stormcaller and his family.
Thanks for reading.
Let me know if you have any question or suggestions.
See you all in the next chapter.
bye