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5015 AS

It's been three years since Jerboa had cast a spell and no new animus dragon had been born since.

All the tribes have continued on with their lives not sure if they should forget about animus dragons or fear the arrival of the next one.

The Seawings engaged in their Talon of Power ceremony, each year, where they'd test every dragonets at two years of age for Animus power in hope, perhaps, that a new one arises.

Many Seawings had joined this year more to enjoy the nice weather and the festivities than expecting to actually see a new animus. With Queen Coral presenting the ceremony in a joyful way with music and entertainment before and after the actual tests.

A one year old Seawing in the crowd had really wide eyes staring at all the assembled dragonets and their coconuts.

Queen Coral was sitting on the opposite side of the crowd so that they could all see her presiding over the ceremony. Turtle, Anemone and Tsunami all sitting by her side.

Turtle being the most peaceful of them, not moving at all despite his instinct telling him to run away. He never really wanted attention on him and avoided crowded places as much as possible. He was one of those who defeated Darkstalker and people would often try to catch him when they noticed him around the palace, asking questions, or just wanted to talk with him. He, most of the time, managed to find a reason to walk away and hide until he was alone but this time, it was official and as Prince he couldn't back away from it. Queen Coral, however, promised him he wouldn't have to talk.

Anemone, on the other talon, was quite the excited kind and Queen Coral had to make her promise she wouldn't interrupt her all the time. Her gaze kept jumping from dragonet to dragonet as if she tried to find out if any of them could be an animus just by staring at them. Sometimes she would look in the crowd to see if she could spot Tamarin. The rainwing had promised her she'd come but she had yet to find her among all the dragons.

"C'mon," she thought to herself, "a rainwing among seawings is not that hard to find!"

Meanwhile, Tsunami looked bored. While it was easier to get her to agree on not talking, it had been much harder to have her participate in the ceremony. It took both Clay and Riptide persuasions to get her to agree.

"This is not my place!" She had argued, "I'd be better at Jade Moutain Academy! My students need me"

"We have enough teachers so that you can go for a day and not have to worry about them", Clay had replied.

"If you don't go, I'll make sure that my next lesson in Aquatics includes reading poem like Whirpool did" he whispered the last words in her ear.

Tsunami shuddered and reluctantly accepted.

"And I will be there too," he smiled.

Tsunami grinned at him and flashed her scaled "Squidbrain!"

They both laughed and the matter was settled.

"Can I go down there, Mommy?" the little Seawing asked.

"You're too young Tidal, you need to wait one more year", her mother answered softly

"Butbut I wanna do it, I canna do it!" Tidal insisted

"Honey, I understand your frustration but the rules are the rules, and we should follow Queen Coral rules, right?"

"Yes we do." she said slowly making a pouting face.

She quickly looked back up to the center of the palace and her tail wriggled with excitement as Queen Coral announced the beginning of the event

Each dragonet used their voice in a dissonant unison to order their coconut to float but to no avail. There was a long silence as if every dragon present was holding their breath hoping, or fearing, to find an animus dragon and a low rumble as chattering started to begin.

Queen Coral heard the murmur of the assembled dragons but ignored it. Instead she looked intensely at all the dragonets assembled trying their best to get their coconut to levitate and then eventually giving up one after the other.

She looked up at the crowd, this shouldn't be anything unusual. She had done that many many years and each year with that same exact result, except when they found out about Anemone, and before her Orca and... she sighed, those last two ceremonies though were different. She has had two animi dragons, her daughter Anemone et her son Turtle and then they have been stripped of their power by some unknown forces, this felt so unfair to her. Orca has used her animus power for evil with her statue and then when suddenly she could now have her animi children do something for her, for good, they were denied.

She had tried to find out the reason why the animus magic was not working anymore but no one has found the answer to that question. She had tried to push her intel and through them the intel of the other tribes to find the source but without animus magic, it was a lost cause.

She wanted to hang her head low but remembered at the last second that all the dragons were staring at her. Very select few of the other tribes were invited but the seawings were her tribe and she could not, she must not show a moment of weakness in front of them.

"This ceremony concludes with no animus dragon for this year!" she exclaimed, "Enjoy the summer palace banquet and see you all next year!"

She quickly moved away from her royal pedestal to a more hidden position, where she'd be less bothered by dragons trying to greet her. She didn't want to talk to anyone but as part of the ceremony she had to and made her best effort to hide her emotions whenever another dragon approached her.

The little seawing looked around as everyone was moving away from the place, she wasn't too sure what had happened as it was her first time seeing this. When her mother stood up, she quickly jumped to her feet and ran toward Queen Coral

"Let's go see the Queen, mommy!" she shout at her without turning her head.

Her mother was shocked but didn't react in time to stop her. Tidal rushed towards the Queen and she suddenly bumped hard into something

"Ouchie." she said

A shadow loomed over her and she looked up at what seemed to be a really really tall dragon in front of her. The scales shone an iridescent blue and green and some were flashing intermittently. As she looked up, following the long and muscular legs up to a wide neck with pearly white under scales, her jaw dropped in awe, until she eventually get up to the guard's head with his large emerald eyes fixed on her.

"Ooooh Hi!" she said with a grin

The guard kept a stern look at her, standing between her and the Queen who barely noticed what happened.

The mother quickly arrived and bowed in front of the guard to Queen Coral: "My apologies, your Majesty, I wasn't paying attention enough and she ran away from me."

The guard raised his head to look at her: "You should be more careful if you don't want your dragonet..."

"Silence!" Queen Coral cut the guard.

The guard bowed deeply.

"This is a ceremony where everyone is welcome, we are not at war anymore and I don't want to hear anything more from you." she added without looking at him

She turned her gaze toward the female seawing bowing with eyes closed in front of her: "And you are?"

"I.. I'm Sponge, your Majesty and this is Tidal, my daughter, I didn't mean to..."

Queen Coral raised a wing to stop her: "no need to apologize, Sponge, this is a joyous moment and...," she hesitated, "Tidal was just caught in it." she smiled a bit

She turned her head to Tidal who had stared at all of them with her mouth agape: "Say little one, how old are you?"

Tidal blinked twice: "I'm one year old, m'am..." She glanced at her mother frowning and corrected herself, "I mean, your Majesty!", she tried to bow as best as she could.

Queen Coral seemed pleased with that answer and smiled at Tidal: "Would you two like to join me at the banquet?"

Sponge jumped as if she had been scared by something: "Your Majesty, I'm just an humble gardener, we are not royal family, we cannot accept..."

"And I am your Queen asking you for a favor." She turned to her, "Would you deny your Queen request?"

Sponge bowed again: "O-of course not... Your Majesty" and then stood up to follow her

Tidal pranced around as they walked away.

"This may not be such a bad day after all." Queen Coral thought.

Anemone, Turtle and Tsunami followed from a distance. Eventually going their own ways as Anemone finally spotted Tamarin and Tsunami, Riptide.

---

Wanderer touched her wing gently as if he wanted to apologize.

"I didn't mean to yell at you, hun... It's just that..."

"I know, I know!" she repeated. "It's just that I thought we could give her that chance"

She looked at the egg against her belly.

Wanderer sighed, "Starchaser, I... I am still afraid of what might come to her... You've seen how our tribe is weary about mindreaders since the comeback of DarkStalker..."

Starchaser raised an eyebrow: "It's been quite a while since you've called me by my name."

She took a long pause; she knew he'd only call her that when he was serious or afraid.

And she didn't like that.

"Listen, DarkStalker is no more, and the last known mindreader is in the Sandwing kingdom... I..." She looked at her talons. "I don't want to make a mistake, love, but I need your support. I feel like she is destined for a great future..."

Wanderer frowned seriously and scrutinized her on both sides of her head.

Starchaser held her breath for a second, thinking she had alienated him.

"W-what?"

His frown turned into a smirk and with a twinkle in his eye, he replied:

"Since when did you become a seer?"

"I never... wait, what?", She looked at him and poked his nose with her wing talon. "My dear, I will let you know that Nightwings seers do not have a silver teardrop, it's just mindreaders..." She stopped herself and her smile disappeared.

Wanderer grabbed her chin with his talon gently and raises it until he could stare in her eyes.

"Honey..." he whispered, "It will be OK, we will be there for her and protect her. We will show others that there's nothing to fear from a mindreader."

He laid down next to her and from their cave they looked as the sun was setting and two of the three moons raised up in the sky. They'd still have time until the next full Moon. Starchaser had wanted for her egg to hatch under the three moons altogether but this would have to do.

"We will call her Moonlight" she said softly.

"And what if it's a male?" he had asked.

She didn't reply.

Outside, Rainforest night critters had started chanting.

---

Wanderer was a young and elegant male Nightwing, he had grown to be one of the most respected carpenter in the Rainforest since they moved out of the island.

He remembered the youth he had spent there and was grateful to Starflight and Glory for accepting them and save their lives. Being a dragonet when he left the island made it easier for him to adapt as he never really had to do anything with Battlewinner.

He spent most of his youth being taught the basics of surviving the island and that dragonets should never ever leave it without supervision.

He had seen Morrowseer around more than once and was always impressed by the large Nightwing when he was walking around. His mother often had to close his muzzle when he was staring at him. A couple times, the large dragon had stared at him and he felt so proud that he noticed him... that is until he learned the truth about Morrowseer and his deeds.

Wanderer shook his head. "No need to brood those memories, we are so much better now, but even four years later, there are still a lot of us who do not trust Glory..."

Several Nightwings and Rainwings had tried to challenge her for the throne but to no avail so far. Glory had always been kind and understood the point of the challenge, she had done it the Rainwings' way and made a point to thank their challengers to keep her mind sharp as she refused to have any challenger killed.

Some have felt deeply humiliated about that, mainly the Nightwings who lost but she also had gained a lot of respect from both Tribes thanks to her attitude about it.

The Nightwing stood still for a good minute and looked around the sun was rising slowly in the sky. His black shiny scales reflected the sun-rays which pierced through the branches with purplish hue, the fine membrane of his wings cast a light green shadow on the ground with darker spots where the light had hit his underwing stars.

"Hoy Wanderer, what's up?" a voice called from behind him.

Wanderer blinked and saw his Rainwing friend, Pitaya, he smiled and waved a wing at him. "Hey Pitaya, going to the builder's meeting this morning too?"

Pitaya nodded and smiled. He was slightly older than Wanderer. He was a good-humored dragon and very few things upset him, as such he often carried a slightly pink hue all over his scales with traces of light and dark green at the tip of his wings and his talons.

Wanderer waved goodbye at Starchaser and turned away talking to Pitaya as they walked to work for the day.

Starchaser sighed in contentment, she half-closed her eyes. There was not much for her to do while she took care of her egg. Wanderer had insisted that he took care of all the duties so she could stay with the egg at all time. His insistence had sometimes rubbed on her nerves but he had always known what to do to calm her.

From time to time, he had taken her place next to the egg to keep it warm but most of the time she'd do it.

Neither of them really knew how to take care of an egg as it wasn't a subject that was discussed much during their school time on the island, so she mostly relied on her instinct.

She didn't mind Wanderer taking her spot sometimes but it didn't feel right to her to be away from her... their egg for too long.

She stared absentmindedly at the ceiling of the cave. It seemed to her it was only yesterday that they left the island and the volcano erupted. She had had regular nightmares during the first years after they settled in the Rainforest, she would wake up suddenly panting as she felt like she had been trapped or refused by the Rainwing and left to die as the volcano exploded.

As the years passed, her dreams came less and less and she could eventually get a full night sleep all the time.

Settling in the Rainforest wasn't easy though. She was still a dragonet and had to follow her parents around. Adult Nightwings had no real time to give her as she grew up. School was scare as the rare Nightwings who could teach them were busy building their new village or plainly didn't care about giving them a good education.

She had wistfully hoped she could get to Jade Mountain Academy but as years passed, her dream faded. She just would not be attending it... because...

She often blamed herself for it: she was not good enough, She was sure she failed the tests although she had no proof of it, her mother only told her "Next time, Honey..." sweetly.

But she could feel it broke her heart.

For a while she had been resentful at the Mudwing directing the Academy, Clay. She was sure he just didn't want Nightwings there.

But she knew her justification was flawed and she would hurt her brain trying to find a good reason why she couldn't go.

She had cried herself to sleep more than once about it.

The truth is, the Academy was just too popular and there wasn't enough room for the all the dragonets in Phyrria, even if the directors tried their best to accommodate as many as they could and made sure to rotate as often as possible to teach and reach all of them.

She had given up all hope when the day she turned six, she received an official letter from the Academy. It was quite a shock as she had stopped applying to it a while ago as she felt there was reason to continue trying.

In secret, her mother had kept nudging Clay and Tsunami, and, she would later learn, that she tried to bribe Starflight so that her daughter could get a place there. This anecdote always made her laugh. The most unbribable Nightwing of them all and her mother still tried.

That day she had hugged her mother and father for so long and so tight that she didn't open the letter until later that night. She didn't know the content but she knew what it meant.

It had been her best year in her life since.

That is until she had her egg with Wanderer.

Her eyes focused again in the shadow of her cave. She looked around, it felt like hours had passed but by the sun still at the same place in the sky she gathered, it had only be a couple minutes.

She sighed softly and reached for a paper on the nearby table and studied it thoroughly. She had chosen to work from home as she refused to let her egg alone in her cave or in a hatchery. It just didn't feel right to her.

As a compromise, she had agree to work on all the plans for the incoming caves and whatever building her Tribe would need.

Thanks to her skill with drawing and visualizing what a certain place could become, she had been appointed as one of the Nightwing architect as soon as she graduated from the Academy.

Now she had to review the plans and suggestion given to her by her second in command who had brought her the latest news as he would every day.

---

Wanderer and Starchaser had left their cave for the night. They had taken care of everything necessary and made sure no other Nightwing had follow them.

Against her chest, the egg was shaking a little bit. Only a couple more hours.

They had wanted to go to a mountain hill but they didn't want to steer attention to themselves nor didn't want to leave for longer.

Wanderer had looked around several nights in a row to find the best place that was both far away enough from the Tribe or any possible encounter and still have an open sky to let the moon shine.

After the third night, he had found this clearing that looked so perfect he wasn't sure they'd be alone that night.

He was pleasantly surprised when they arrived and no one was there nor could he hear any sound except the crickets. The place was already shining with the moon light. The grass leaves all had bright blue tips thank to the earlier rain.

Wanderer held his wing out and Starchaser gently slid under it pressing against his side.

"Tonight..." she whispered softly.

He looked around again, but there was no one to be seen. If any Rainwing sentinel was there, they didn't make themselves known. He just hoped they wouldn't try to stop them.

Wanderer stepped forward a bit and released the harness holding the egg and gently placed it where the moon shined the brightest.

"Moonlight." She whispered to it and took a step back against Wanderer.

Soon the moon will reach its apogee.

They looked at their egg intently already making plans for their future together. Wanderer imagine teaching her how to work with wood while Starchaser dreamed of teaching her how to draw. And they'd live happily no matter what.

Tonight, all their fears were gone.

Tonight, everything was perfect.

A branch cracked and a bird flew above their head. It was a white bird. They smiled and watched it fly away.

No matter what, they would welcome the future with open wings. It's what they had dreamt for all their lives. They would be family.

They both laid down with their talons touching each other.

In the depths of the Rainforest, a silver egg shook and cracked.