Chapter Text
Starflight hadn’t known that dragons could be so big. Morrowseer was twice the size of Kestrel, nearly quadruple the size of the dragonets. As if stuff couldn’t get worse, he also looked like they’d just personally wronged him and wanted payback. Starflight was absolutely still when his gaze landed on him, the distain in Morrowseers eyes lightened up, but not by much.
The same couldn’t be said for Glory, Morrowseer stared at Glory as if she’d killed his whole tribe directly in front of him. “What is THAT?” He said, vile within his tone. “Don’t look at me! That kelp-brain brought her here after Hvitur had an accident with Burn and killed himself and the SkyWing egg!” Kestrel snarled, pointing at Webs. “We couldn’t have let the dragonets hatch without a fifth egg, and we couldn’t have snuck back into the SkyWing nursery either.” Webs countered, “We have five dragonets. That’s all that matters.”
Morrowseer scoffed, turning to the smaller dragonet, “More like four and a half. Are you supposed to be the SandWing? Don’t you eat? What’s wrong with you?” Morrowseer interrogated. “She eats! And she’s a good fighter.” Tsunami interrupted. “It’s not her fault she’s small.” Starflight said in response. “Glory’s a good fighter too.” Clay jumped to the defense of Glory. “Stop talking now.” Morrowseer rumbled deeply, ending the protests.
“Something has gone very wrong here.” Morrowseer grumbled “Yes, it has!” Tsunami suddenly interrupted, “We’re kept like prisoners in these caves! How are we supposed to save the world, when we haven’t even seen it!” Tsunami growled. “Tsunami, hold your tongue!” Dune barked. “I will not!” Tsunami yelled back. “Enough.” Morrowseer suddenly hit Tsunami with his tail, sending her back a few inches.
Clay lunged onto Morrowseers back as Tsunami scrambled back and clawed at his underbelly. Morrowseer suddenly let a hiss escape his mouth and lifted his tail into view. Sunny was at the end of it, biting at the vulnerable spot. Morrowseer let out an amused huff and pried her off easily. He then shook off Clay. “The SeaWing will do. So will the MudWing. We’ll have to see about the SandWing.” Morrowseer said appreciably.
He looked at Starflight. He hadn’t done anything during the test. Neither had Glory. “I assume you used your NightWing powers to see I wasn’t actually going to harm the SeaWing. No doubt you already know you’ll be taken into the next cavern for a conversation.” Starflight already was terrified of Morrowseer, this surely wouldn’t help.
“As for the RainWing… We’ll talk about her later.” Morrowseer snarled in disgust. He then turned and walked into the study room, as if expecting Starflight to start following. Of course, he did follow after a few seconds of counting his options of either being scared out of his mind the whole time or getting treated like Tsunami during the fight before. Once they were in the study room and seated, Morrowseer began speaking, “Do you know of the SandWing queens?” Morrowseer asked. “Of course. You’d have to living under a rock to not know.”
They both ignored the irony of Starflight himself living in a cave for all his life. “We’ll be specifically talking about Blister then. What do you know about her?” Starflight was confused by these relatively easy questions but he wasn’t going to complain. Not aloud of course. “Blister is allied with the SeaWings. She’s smarter than the other two queens combined. If I had to guess, she’s probably waiting for the other two queens to kill eachother first.” Starflight answered. “Right. That is why you are to…well, convince the other dragonets to choose Blister as the SandWing queen.” Morrowseer said bluntly.
“Wha…how! I-I am the least qualified for this kind of job. Why do you even want me to do this?” Starflight stammered. “As you, presumably, know, NightWings have stayed out the war. Why?, you might ask. Well, it’s because we’ve been wondering who we should support for most of the war. Burn is much too ruthless so she might backstab us in the end, Blaze is…well about as smart as a scavenger, and wouldn’t be suitable. Blister is everything you’d want in a Queen, intelligent, strong, and not easily defeated. If we can get you to, say, subtly get the other dragonets to have a better opinion on her, you’d be doing the whole of the continent a favor.” Morrowseer grumbled. Starflight thought he might’ve detected the smallest hint of a lie in his tone but he passed it off as paranoia and fear twisting his mind. “Ok…but anyone else would be better at this than me. The others…don’t exactly listen to me often. Tsunami would be much better, she’s like the leader of the whole group.” Starflight suggested.
Morrowseer scoffed, “That hotheaded SeaWing? She’s more like Burn than anyone else. If anything, she’d disobey us and choose some other candidate like Blaze or Burn. Besides, NightWings have natural leadership, you should easily be able to gain your rightful role as leader in the group and convince them all that Blister would be the best choice.” Morrowseer replied. “I…I should tell someone else about this at the very least. Maybe the guardians? They should help with convincing the others at least.” Starflight backed away, moving towards the door. “No.” Morrowseer said with immediate sternness. Starflight froze in fear, mere inches from the doorway.
Morrowseer then blocked his path out, and continued, “No one must know about this. Not your friends, not your guardians, not anyone .” Morrowseer growled. “B-But!” Starflight started but Morrowseer interrupted him. “You do know you’re not really a NightWing, correct?” Morrowseer snarled. If Starflight could be anymore frozen than he already was, he turned into that as soon as Morrowseer mentioned that. That was the thing he was the most scared of. Knowing that he wasn’t at all full NightWing. The spiked tip of his tail twitching uncomfortably and weirdly sharp fangs gnawing on the inside of his cheek.
“Most NightWings aren’t very, well, appreciative of hybrids, especially towards ones that are part NightWing. This could be your chance to prove yourself to your tribe. Just by choosing the right SandWing queen. You wouldn’t pass that up, right?” Morrowseer said in a sickeningly sweet voice Starflight hadn’t known Morrowseer could have. “Right…” Starflight muttered. “So don’t mess this up. Get the others to believe in you more than that SeaWing and choose Blister.” Morrowseer nodded. The conversation was over by that point, Morrowseer leaving the study room. Starflight stayed still for few seconds afterwards before leaving and bee-lining towards the library. “Starflight!” Clay called out but Starflight really didn’t want to talk right now.
Once Starflight entered the library, he started searching for his favorite scroll, luckily, Clay found it for him. (he could be so overwhelming yet so calming sometimes) He unwrapped the scroll and began reading. “What happened? Wasn’t Morrowseer all like ‘oh NightWing this NightWing that! We NightWings are the best tribe ever and so are you by extension’?” Clay asked. Starflight was getting really sick of the word NightWing. He didn’t want to be related to that manipulative, spy-needing tribe.
“Yeah, e-essentially.” Starflight lied, fiddling with the fragile material of the scroll subconsciously, and tearing it a slight bit. “So, what went wrong then?” Clay asked. His voice sounded little less gentle and a little more grating. “Just…stuff. Sorry, I can’t really tell you.” Starflight muttered. “Why can’t you tell me?” Clay prodded, annoyingly. “I just…can’t. Okay.” Starflight murmured. By this point, he had started to zone out, Clays warm, yet currently, annoying , grating voice becoming more muddled and drowned. “Just drop it. Please?” Starflight pleaded. Thankfully, Clay stopped investigating and left him alone, sitting near Starflight but not within his personal space.
Starflight got a few minutes of reading in silence before he heard chains dragging against the ground, Sunnys desperate shouts, and hissing. Familar hissing. Tsunami’s Hissing. Clay immediately got up onto his paws and nearly sprinted out of there with Starflight following immediately after. The image in front of him was almost funny if he wasn’t feeling like this was all his fault. Tsunami was getting tied to astalagmite by Kestrel and Dune, their fire fusing the chains together. Clay roared with anger and tried to pry off the chains, hissing at the feeling of the burning hot of the freshly fused chains. “When our parents find out about this-! When the world finds out how you treated the dragonets of destiny!” Tsunami growled, forcing herself as far as she could into Kestrels face. “Bah! Your parents won’t care, and neither will the world! All that matters is that you’re alive and the Talons of Peace have you.” Kestrel snarled in return.
“Why would you do this? If anyone could save the world, it’s Tsunami!” Sunny cried out. “Actually, the one you should believe in is Starflight over there. NightWings are natural leaders so you’ll be fine under his guidance.” Morrowseer nodded towards and looked at Starflight. Starflight immediately looked away from Morrowseer. “I’ll be back tomorrow to see if the proble m”, Morrowseer specifically decided to snarl that word out in disgust and stare at Glory in particular, who might’ve just woken up from her afternoon nap. “has been dealt with.” Morrowseer walked towards the bolder and, when Kestrel and Dune opened the door, left. “You all were awful today. No dinner for any of you! I don’t wanna hear even the slightest of sound for the rest of the night.” Kestrel growled.
“Oh, yeah?! What if I feel like singing all night?” Tsunami yelled before singing the only song they knew. “OH THE DRAGONETS ARE COMING! THEYRE COMING TO SAVE THE DAY! THE DRAGONETS ARE COMING HOORAY!” Tsunami sang at the top of the lungs, her off-key singing voice echoing throughout the cave. Starflight covered his ears as Tsunami continued. “This was your fault! I told you not to teach them that infernal bar song!” Dune said to Webs as Kestrel yelled at Tsunami to no effect. “We have extra chain! We could always wrap it around your snout!” Kestrel yelled directly in Tsunamis face that time which got her to stop for but a moment. Tsunami stared at Kestrel indignantly and took in a deep breath. Kestrel immediately interrupted, “Or maybe you could have a friend with you too? I’m sure Clay would appreciate hanging from a stalagmite all night!” Kestrel barked. That seemed to finally have an effect on Tsunami, shutting her up with a scowl.
Kestrel stormed off to her cabin, Dune followed after her and Webs, after a long period of looking towards the direction the other guardians went and Glory, jogged after them. “Clay, go after them. They’re clearly planning something about Glory.” Tsunami said after a small period of silence. “I don’t know…it could a coincidence?” Clay asked. “A coincidence that Morrowseer just so happened to look at Glory when he said issue? A coincidence that Webs looked at Glory for so long? As if.” Starflight brought up. Clay finally sighed and dove into the river, swimming towards the guardians.
As Starflight waited for Clay, he thought about the events that had been occurring recently. Being assigned to spy within his own group, getting increasingly overwhelmed or overstimulated (whichever. he doesn’t care at this point) by Clay, Tsunami being chained because of him being unable to keep his mouth shut for once. As Starflight was thinking, Clay shakily climbed out of the river, and it wasn’t only because of the cold. Clay stood up straight with a grim expression and said, “The guardians are going to kill Glory tonight.”