FSE

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Starflight opened his eyes and winced as the light hit them. He rubbed his forehead, and noticed that Sunny wasn’t next to him. He got up and walked out of the room, and flew over to find something to eat. After eating, Starflight flew over to the throne room, and found it empty. After a while of wandering, he found Sunny talking with a bunch of nightwings at their village.

“What’s up?” Sunny asked.

“Oh, nothing, just wondering about nightwing traditions.”

A random nightwing turned to him. “You were born in a mountain during the brightest night, your powers would have activated around now, since the only thing that can stop it is extreme ash in the atmosphere. In the event that your eggs hatch during a double moon, they will get both telekinesis and foresight, though one will likely be more powerful. If hatched under one moon, they will get one or the other.”

“Oh.” Starflight blinked.

“Yes, this is news to us as well.”

“I was more focused on the traditions, and how they did it.” Sunny replied.

“Yes, its mostly something that the parents do alone with just you and your eggs. It’s pretty simple actually, just take them out and wait. Were still trying to regain our old traditions, and I’ll make sure you’re on the list to get letters with updates.”

“Thank you.” Sunny nodded.

Starflight flew back with her to the tree platforms. Sunny could already feel the weight in her stomach, even though she still has three months.

“Wooh, feels like a lot of these.” Sunny replied.

“Are you okay?” Starflight asked with concern

“I’m fine, I just get tired easily right now.”

“We should take a break.” He replied.

“No, I’m fine.” Sunny replied. “Let’s just go home.”

“I wanted to say goodbye to Glory and Deathbringer first.”

Sunny nodded, panting. “We can do that.”

They found the newlywed couple relaxing on the highest platform, chatting.

“Oh, hey you two.” Glory spoke

“Hi.” Sunny panted, tongue hanging out.

“You okay?” Glory asked.

“I’m fine, were about to go back to the academy.” Sunny replied.

“Oh.” Glory rushed up and nuzzled Sunny. “Be safe, and relax once you get back.”

“I will.”

“I’ll be worried about you, and I’ll be back once you lay the eggs.” Glory smiled.

Sunny blushed. “Alright.”

Deathbringer nodded to Starflight, who nodded back.

“I’m assigning you an invisible guard…” Glory added

“No, Michael’s coming with us.” Sunny shook her head. “I’ll be fine”

Glory sighed. “I wish you could stay here.”

“I know, but we have the academy to run.” Sunny replied.

Michael landed on the platform, and nodded to them.

“Ready?” He asked.

Sunny nodded, and they both took flight. It took them an hour to return, and Sunny was completely drained when she landed. Starflight carried her into the academy, and laid her on the bed. She smiled at him, and rubbed her belly.

“I think we have two or three of them in here.” She told him.

Starflight beamed. “Really?”

“I don’t really know, but it feels like a lot” She replied.

Starflight walked over and nuzzled her belly.

“I felt you doing this last night.” Sunny told him.

He blushed. “Oh, you did?”

“Yeah, what were you saying?”

“Oh, I was just telling them I was waiting for them, and that I loved them.”

Sunny blushed. “You… are adorable.”

Starflight smiled, and nuzzled her. “You are more so.”

Sunny laid her head back, and giggled at him. “Come here.”

Starflight fell in next to her, and she buried her face in his neck, and fell asleep.

Moon and Qibli walked through the nightwing tunnel and into the volcanic island.

“Where is this thing again?” Qibli asked

“I don’t know, but Michael said it should be near the Queens old quarters.” Moon replied.

“Isn’t she… still there?”

“I was told so, nobody really moved her.”

Moon shivered. “I don’t really want to go into that room.”

Qibli cast a wing over her. “If we have to, I’ll do it.”

Moon smiled. “Thanks.”

Qibli nodded, and they walked into the fortress.

“The volcano has died down.” Moon noted.

“Yeah, it fully erupted, and is done now.” Qibli replied.

Moon looked out the window, and noticed the green plants starting to grow on the rocks, and the clear sky and bright sun overhead.

“So… what should we talk about while we look?” Qibli asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Uhm.”

“You told me you wanted eggs a while back.”

“Yeah, I did.” Qibli blushed.

“Is that still the case?”

Qibli stammered. “I… I… Uh…. Yeah.”

Moon smiled. “Not now.”

“I know, but I still like to think about it.”

“I wonder if they’ll look like Sunny?”

“Probably, at least one.”

Qibli smiled brightly, and looked over at Moon. She blushed at the expression on his face, and they searched the first room.

“Not sure how to raise dragonets in the academy while teaching.” Moon spoke.

“After a point, doing what Sundew does works.”

Moon smiled. “Yeah, she’s adorable.”

“Apparently she was at their wedding.”

Moon raised her eyebrows. “I thought it was leafwing only.”

“It was, but her adopted daughter was an exception. Apparently, she was an adorable flower girl.” Qibli replied.

“Aw.” Moon smiled.

“And there’s Blue and Cricket...”

“They want to get married, and are very impatient about it.” Moon chuckled.

“Blue is super nervous, but Cricket is very excited.” Qibli replied.

They checked the next room, then the next one. After finishing the fifth room, Moon sighed and shook her head.

“I think it’s in her room.”

Qibli nodded. “It’s likely, an artifact of that power.”

They stopped outside of the hidden room, and Qibli smiled and kissed her cheek.

“Be right back.”

Moon nodded, and watched as Qibli walked into the room. After about an hour, he came back with the staff, but looked pale.

“What happened?”

“Well, there was a rotted corpse in the middle of the room, and I had to hang out around it for an hour while looking.”

“But you found it?”

Qibli nodded, and Moon walked up and nuzzled him. “Thanks for that.”

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“C’mon, let’s enjoy it for a minute, it’s a lot nicer here, and we don’t have anything we need to do.”

Moon nodded, and they both flew out into a clear area to relax.

Blue flew over the endless expanse of ocean. Cricket was at his side, and Michael was a little ways ahead of him. He smiled over at Cricket, enjoying the little adventure they were doing. She was staring off into space, smiling at some random thought in her head. Blue cocked his head, wondering what she was thinking about. She was going through a dragonet phase, and was really excited to get married. Blue’s face flushed when he thought of marriage. He loved her with all his heart and really wanted to marry her, but this would be the first Hivewing Silkwing public marriage to happen in a very long time. He was worried about what would happen, and if they would be accepted. They had wanted to get married in the skywing kingdom, and Michael was still working on that, but it was better for them to get married here so that it wont be used for any political purposes back in Pantala.

“Almost there.” Michael called back to them.

Cricket snapped out of her trance, and looked over at Blue.

“What were you thinking about?” Blue asked her.

Cricket blushed. “Uhm… just… dragonets.”

Blue nearly fell out of the sky. Even though he was half expecting it, the fact that his mate and future wife wants to have dragonets with him still makes his heart burst with pride.

“Uhm… you still want them?”

“I really want them.” Cricket replied. “And I really want to get married.”

Blue nodded. “I do too.”

Blue watched as Cricket froze, and fell several feet before regaining her composer and looking over at him.

“You do? You’ve been so dodgy about it.”

“I want to marry you, and I want children, but I’m… Worried.”

“What about?”

“Our marriage will be the first official marriage between a hivewing and a silkwing. What is everybody else going to think? What if people object, and try to stop us?”

Cricket paused for a moment, then looked over at him. “Look, I know that some people find us horrifying, and against all society. But nobody is going to stop us, and nobody is going to fly all the way here, just to object at our wedding.”

Blue nods. “I don’t want either of the counsels, nor the new queens to use our marriage for political means”

“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” Cricket replied.

Blue smiled at her, and an island appeared in view. They landed on it and noticed that it was a large, flat, grassy space. There was strange glinting metal spread around the field, and Blue could tell that this was a very old battlefield. They looked around for a few hours, before the sun had set and a dark, ominous tone fell over them. Michael built a fire, but Cricket still shivered. Blue laid around Cricket and she cuddled up against him.

“What is this?” Blue asked.

“The dark staff has left effects on this land after hundreds of years of it being here.” Michael told them

“Like with that mind stone and the Breath of Evil?” Cricket asked.

“Exactly, magic is radioactive, it emits energy which gets absorbed by all things. After enough magic is absorbed, it begins to change. You two are feeling the dark radiation that’s emitting from the entire island.”

Cricket nodded, and Blue held her close. They closed their eyes and eventually fell asleep. Cricket woke first when the sun started to poke through the horizon. She looked over and noticed Michael carefully digging out a strange looking blade.

“Is that it?” She asked

He shook his head, and pulled the ancient, tarnished blade out of the ground. He looked it up and down, before sighing.

“I remember giving this to the nightwing prince.”

Cricket looked at the hole, and saw the familiar glint of bone.

“What exactly happened here? This is my heritage too.”

Michael nodded. “A long time ago, the three original tribes were the only that existed. Sun, Light, and Night. The Sun and Light tribes grew afraid of the powers that the night possessed, and after more tribes came into existence, they rose up and attempted to slaughter all the nightwings. The nightwings would have one, but they were forced to retreat. They tried to escape to a different continent, but were followed, and the final battle took place here, where the nightwings won.”

Cricket nodded. “What happened to the other tribes?”

“They still exist, with others, on the other three continents.”

Michael pulled out a cloth, and started to clean the blade.

“Do you know where the staff is?” Cricket asked.

“Not exactly, but I’ll be able to tell soon.”

Blue stirred in his sleep, and nuzzled against Cricket. After a few hours, they got up and searched, and found the staff and made their way home. After arriving at the academy, Michael called a meeting for all the DoD and the Jade winglet to attend. After everybody settled into their places in the meeting room, Michael stepped forward and smiled.

“Hello, it’s time for us to discuss the future. All of you here are old enough to start having eggs, and most of you will likely have your own. We will be having an influx of eggs being laid here.”

Cricket looked over at Sunny, and sighed.

“So, I have built a room designed for the egg hatching, nightwings aren’t likely to attend, but everybody else can. Since you are all close in age, you will likely have eggs close to one another. An influx of eggs means that you will all likely have issues with your teaching positions. To start, if you get pregnant, you will work for the first two months, then stop for the second two. Then have the first month after laying off, and having the person with the least active workload guard the eggs until they hatch. After hatching, you will get a three-month break, and then you can choose who the dragonet stays with during classes. You all know how Sundew and Willow, and how Bumblebee stays with Sundew during the classes.”

Everybody nodded, and started talking amongst themselves.

“Sucks Winter and Lynx missed this.” Qibli chuckled. “I wanted to make him uncomfortable.”

Moon smacked him with her wing, and he laughed.

“Glad you two were able to figure things out.” Cricket replied.

Qibli nodded. “Yeah, I understand how he was feeling.”

Michael walked up and nodded to them. “Moon, Starflight, can you gather all of the nightwings together for me?”

“Uhm, sure.” Moon replied.

The two nightwings wondered off, while Cricket and Blue went to take a nap.

Starflight sat with Fatespeaker, talking about random things to pass the time. The nightwing students were nervous because they knew this meeting had an importance to their tribe. Michael walked up and smiled at the group.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this many healthy nightwings together.” He smiled.

Everybody nodded, Moon flushed a bit.

“I’m here to talk about the eclipse. The nightwing tribe in a whole hasn’t experienced a solar eclipse in a long time.”

“What is their importance?” Mindreader asked.

“They do a lot of things to nightwings, and extra things to those who are aligned with the moons. As of now, only three living dragons are aligned with the moons, unless they have hatched recently. Moon, Peacekeeper, and Starflight are all aligned to the moons.”

“What does it do to the rest of us?” Bloodshed asked.

“Well, for one, it induces a mating season, so you will all be excused and released for two weeks.”

There was some gasping and the group chattered.

“It also makes you really strong during the eclipse, and really fast.” Michael added.

“And those who are aligned?” Starflight asked.

“It enhances your powers tenfold.” Michael replied. “So to the rest of you, I need to know if any of your siblings have been hatched under a moon since you moved here.”

“My little sister…” Mindreader admitted.

“My little brother’s best friend was.” Another nightwing told him.

“Uh, what was her name, that girl my brother’s hanging out with….”

“That’s my sister.” Mindreader replied.

“Alright, just get their families to watch them carefully for about a half hour.” Michael told them. “The eclipse is in a week.”

“And from what I can tell, the nightwing tribe has gotten back on its feet. Thrity three dragonets were hatched last year, but the tribe really wants more.” Michael replied. “So, we are opening more winglets soon so that the current dragonets can get a good education.”

Everybody nodded, and wandered off to prepare for their trip home.

“When is the eclipse?” Moon asked

“Tomorrow, around noon.” Michael answered.

She nodded, and walked off.

Turtle and Kinkajou walked along the hallways, Kinkajou was leaning against the seawing prince.

“So, how have you been doing in Web’s history class?” Turtle asked.

“I stopped caring about that, we graduate soon, and were going to move on with our lives.”

“That’s true.”

“I wanted to ask you, what should we do?”

Turtle felt a massive surge of pride at the mention of them spending their lives together.

“I… I’m willing to do whatever you want.” Turtle told her.

Kinkajou looked into his eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, as long as you’re with me, it’s worth it.”

Kinkajou smiled, and they walked into their winglet cave. The skywing and mudwing, Finch and Cherry, were already there. Cherry smiled at them, but Finch just stayed asleep. Turtle fell into the hammock, and Kinkajou curled up on top of him.