Chapter 1:

5017 AS

Anemone was getting ready for the Summer Fest in the Summer Palace. But this time, it was different. This year, as it had been for Turtle a few years back, it was her own gifting ceremony.

***

After the disappearance of DarkStalker and Jerboa's spell, most dragons eventually got over Animus magic or just forgot about its existence since no one could do magic anymore. Prince Turtle, with the help of Starflight and Anemone - when she was not busy being a princess - took on the task to compile all the knowledge they could gather about Animus; the many possibilities; the inherent risks but first and foremost, the benefits if used for good.

It took him almost two years to retrieve all the data, ask as many details as he could to the Animus dragons he knew and who would agree to help him and collect the scrolls that StarFlight enjoyed digging up for him.

He also secretly delighted in teaching others at the Academy about Animus, sharing his knowledge whenever he had the opportunity even if he'd never publicly admit it.

And after those days, he would sometimes stare at the ceiling of his room in a blissful state of comfort before falling asleep.

One day, after the lesson was over, as he was walking down the hallway of the Jade Mountain Academy, dreamingly envisioning of new lessons to write down in scrolls, he bumped into another dragon and tumbled, bringing the unsuspecting stranger down with him. The sudden cold feeling against his chest made him stand up and pull away immediately.

"I... I.I.. I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention", he mumbled.

"Ah!", interjected the other dragon, "Same old Prince Turtle..."

"Wi... Winter?" Turtle asked.

"Were you expecting somebody else?", Winter scoffed.

"What are you doing here? I thought you'd never come back..."

"Actually, I shouldn't be here, no one knows...", the Icewing muttered.

"As usual", Turtle thought.

"But I discovered something in the ancient Icewing scrolls and I wanted to share them with Starflight as soon as I discovered them... And, actually... it concerns you!"

"W- what?", Turtle cocked his head.

"It does concerns the Animus dragons and since you seem well versed on the subject...", he continued.

"Ahah, yeah, sorta my thing indeed, I mean, I guess...", Turtle nervously chuckled

Winter raised an eyebrow: "Everybody knows you are one and that you take unique joy in teaching about it, Professor Turtle"

Turtle blushed and looked at his claws. Even as an adult dragon, he still looked like a dragonet every time he felt embarrassed.

The white dragon ignored his reaction and added: "Anyway, not that this conversation is boring or anything but I can't stay too long, come with me please."

Turtle gladly followed Winter in the corridors, he was really eager to know more about the icewing's discovery and exchange with StarFlight about it.

They walked together to the Library, Starflight and Fatespeaker stood in the middle of it, back to back, with their wings gently brushing each other's. They were focusing on translating scrolls into that language Fatespeaker invented a few years ago to allow for Starflight and other blind dragons to be able to read them by touch. Starflight was reviewing the ones that she had already finished. He would sometimes make comment to Fatespeaker and annotate the scrolls were he thought it would need correction.

The room was dim except for the place where they both stood as if a bright light was hung over their head pointing down like a sign that says "this is where you will get all your answers!"

Starflight's ears perked and he turned his head in the direction of the newcomers.

"Hi Winter, long time no see! And hi Turtle", exclaimed Starflight as soon as they entered the room.

"I see you remember me well", admitted Winter.

Starflight smiled and inquired softly : "Do you have new scrolls for me?"

Turtle and Winter looked at each other in surprise and Fatespeaker chuckled quietly.

"I haven't recovered sight", Starflight chimed in, "I just know that you wouldn't come to me just to say hi and since you do not visit the Academy either, I only deducted you had something of interest for me which would turn out to be scrolls since I'm considered the most knowledgeable dragon about them."

Starflight gleamed for a few seconds and Fatespeaker slapped him gently on the head with her tail before she burst into laughs.

"OK, 'Flight, you better deflate your ego if you want us to get out of this office!", she boasted.

StarFlight smiled softly at her: "Oh StarFlight, talk to me again in your know-it-all voice!" he mocked.

Winter rolled his eyes and pulled out his backpack to reveal a couple of ancient scrolls that he securely enclosed in a protective bark and unrolled them next to each other on the table.

"I found those scrolls in the Ice Kingdom library and I realize how important they could be for the history of Animus dragons.", he observed.

"Oh?" mused Starflight, as he turned away from Fatespeaker to feel the scrolls under his talons.

"Let me read them to you..." proposed Winter, and went on not waiting for an answer. "In this year 2517 AS, be proclaimed the Gifting Ceremony of Aus... erm... sorry, I'm not sure what the name is, the scroll has been scratched where the dragon name is..." he continued "... for his gift of Animus be recognized and celebrated by all and remembered. Have a fruitful life and serve your Tribe well with your powers, Animus!" Winter trailed down.

Fatespeaker had turned around to look at the scrolls that the Icewing spread on the table, she was reading the second one while listening to the white dragon.

Starflight remained silent for a moment and then turned his head at Turtle with a knowing smile. Fatespeaker chuckled.

"What?" exclaimed Turtle.

"I'd say they know what to do for your hatch day, Prince Turtle.", concluded Winter.

Certainly, Turtle had tried to complain that he didn't need this and since he couldn't do magic anymore, this would be pointless. But the more he argued against it, the more it convinced the others to do it.

"You deserve it." Winter affirmed, in a way that didn't fit well for him but also felt actually genuine.

The ceremony wouldn't be the same as the one done by the Icewings , for the Seawing Queen didn't care much for a gift from the animus dragons, beside the fact that there was no magic anymore, she thought that it wasn't necessary, especially after it became public what Turtle had done for Pyrrhia.

So it had been decided that it would be a grand party where Turtle would be the center of attention, and that every tribe of Pyrrhia was invited.

***

Anemone, on the contrary, enjoyed all the attention she could get and was more than delighted to have everyone look at her today and recognize her as the animus dragon she was.

The young Moonlight giggled and was dancing frantically to the music when she bumped into Anemone.

The Seawing popped out of her reverie and turned her head to study the tiny dragon who ran into her. She was about to say something when she noticed the frightened look on her face. The dragonet expression had something unique that reminded her of something dear to her and yet somewhat sad. That when she noticed the small dragon stare. It was blank as if she was looking through her and a pale green veil seemed to cover her whole eyes. It was both eerie and subjugating and in a curious way, it wasn't displeasing over the shiny black scales that covered her nose.

She only realized how old she had stared at her and how inappropriate it was when the dragonet blurted:

• "I... I'm sorry, Princess Anemone, I didn't mean to...", the Nightwing lowered her head in shame

• "It's OK", soothed a voice from behind Anemone.

• "Hi Tamarin!", the dragonet turned her head to look at where the voice emerged right through Anemone as if she was invisible.

Anemone turned her gaze to Tamarin and that's when it hit her. The dragonet was just like Tamarin. She was blind.

• "You can go now, Moonlight, just remember to focus!" reassured Tamarin gently.

• "Yes Tamarin, I will be careful!" She turned to Anemone and bowed some, "Sorry again Princess Anemone." and then walked away.

Moonlight tiptoed for a short moment and then stepped away more confidently as her tail wagged in rhythm with the music. Anemone studied her for a short while before turning back to Tamarin who just smiled at her.

-"She's my new student.", she softly acknowledged.

-"You have students?" inquired Anemone, "And you didn't tell me?"

-"It happened quite recently and she actually found the perfect occasion to present it to you", Tamarin observed still smiling.

-"Well, that was certainly... a unique way to meet!" interjected Anemone, "I mean, it was sudden, short and well, very... Unique, I guess."

-"Her mother came to me after her birth when she realized she was blind." noted Tamarin, "I only started working with her a few months ago when she expressed the need to learn, although I tried to help her mother as much as I could as soon as she came to me."

The Raiwing dragon stared at the ceiling as if feeling somewhat unsure but she regained her natural expression so fast, Anemone wasn't sure she actually saw it.

The Seawing princess sighed.

"It's been over a month already since we last saw each other, no wonder I missed her so much, but I was so busy preparing for today, I didn't had time to think of anything else...", she rummaged through her thoughts. Her eyes focused back on Tamarin. "I'm sorry Tamarin, I feel like this is such a bad thing to think like I don't think enough of you."

As if she could understand her trail of thoughts, Tamarin remained silent next to her and brushed her wing with hers.

-"So...Sorry, I got caught up in thoughts," she blurted

-"As you always do." nagged Tamarin gently

Anemone cracked a smile at Tamarin and then turned her gaze at Moonlight who was now back to dancing and prancing in the middle of party floor.

-"She's going to hit someone again if she continues like that.", she remarked.

Tamarin chuckled, "Ahah, yeah probably, but that's how you meet new friends."

"And for once she's not as worried as is her usual." Tamarin reflected, "I still need to help her mother figure out her actual power but even Starflight remained clueless. She should have been a mind-reader. His last theory was interesting though, the fact that she is able to..."

Anemone interrupted her train of thoughts when she touched her wing and suggested: "let's go have a drink"

Moonlight was dancing without concern on the large palace floor, she felt the breeze and the salt from the ocean gently brushing against her scales while she was jumping and prancing. Tamarin had been careful to let her know the room layout before the ceremony so that she wouldn't keep hitting the walls and other structure while she was dancing, but with all the dragons now around, she had to constantly focus to avoid them. It proved quite difficult for her and she had a few close calls when she got herself too much into the music.

-"You will have to be careful though", Tamarin had said, "there will be many dragons and not everyone enjoy being bumped into"

The remark had felt weird, Tamarin had always let her be the way she wanted. She felt like the Rainwing has been sterner than usual with her. She eventually started to understand when she was introduced to royalty in the palace and when Queen Coral had presented the ceremony.

She had been very careful to follow Tamarin orders up until she heard the music play and felt it crawled under her scales like a magic snake that enthralled her limbs into moving along the rhythms. She certainly could dance and keep herself focus, couldn't she?... well, except that time with Princess Anemone but it wasn't her fault, the music was sooo good!

-"It's not going to happen again..." she thought a moment before she tripped on her own wing while spinning and crash-landed onto another dragonet.

-"Ouch...", She cursed under her breath, "So much for being careful."

She struggled to get back on her feet and shook her wing a bit, trying to focus on whoever she had hit.

-"Aww, AWW, Ouch! Careful, can't you see wher...", the voice trailed off

-"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I apologize, I didn't mean to!" Moonlight quickly blurted holding her head low against the floor

The other dragonet stared at her silently, cocking her head sharply to study her. Moonlight was a bit surprised by the lack of response from the other dragon and raised her head trying to figure out what the other dragon was doing. From the voice and its direction she understood she was about her age. She stood still for a while not really sure how to react.

Around them, the other dragons had resumed dancing, apart from a couple dragons who towered over the two younglings and seemed to be staring at them. Moonlight thought they were probably the other dragonet's parents, and wondered if they would chastise her or worse.

-"What's wrong with your eyes?", the other dragonet abruptly probed.

-"Tidal!", her mother softly called, "that's not something to ask, dear..."

Moonlight took a step forward and looked up at the tall dragon who just spoke up.

-"It's OK, madam, I don't mind being asked", she turned her head to Tidal, "I was born blind so that's how my eyes look. I cannot see but I can figure out where a dragon is from the sound of their voices", she nodded, "Also, Hi, I'm Moonlight, nice to meet you!" she tipped her head to the side and smiled.

Tidal stared at her for a couple seconds, "Oooh," she whispered. "Well, I'm Tidal, nice to meet you too. I guess..." she fluttered her wings and tail and resumed, "if you don't count the whole pouncing and rolling over me, that is."

Moonlight winced a bit and lowered her head again: "Sorry about that, I really loved that music and I wasn't careful..."

"I love that music too!" blurted Tidal, "Come, I know where we can dance together!"

Tidal touched her wing and carefully directed Moonlight to a less populated area of the palace where they could still hear the music.

The room felt large, the black dragonet could hear her talons clicking on what sounds like a marble floor. She studied the reverberation for a while and let a smile run across her face as she determined there was no obstruction around her that would put her at risk again. As a matter of fact, she couldn't see anything at all in the room apart from the other dragon and suddenly she found the resonance of the room to be quite uncanny and inched closer to Tidal to ease her mind as she started dancing. The sound blockade that the Seawing provided on one of her side reassured her.

Moonlight enjoyed the feeling that the other dragonet seemed to really care about her. Both her close presence and the lack of a crowd made her relax and let herself get transported in the music as she closed her eyes.

After a while, she eventually started to look at Tidal next to her dancing, the Seawing dragonet seemed to always keep an eye out on her, even if she couldn't exactly tell, her attitude and the way she was dancing made her feel like a guardian ready to intervene if anything wrong happened to her. That's when she realised the green dragon aura shone quite differently than how she usually saw other dragons. It caught her interest and she slowly stopped dancing and stared at her for a good minute. Her mind snapped back when Tidal also stopped dancing and sat in front of her.

The Seawing cocked her head and it felt like she also raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Didn't you say you were blind?" She queried.

It took a few seconds for Moonlight to understand what Tidal was asking.

"Oh, er... yes, yes I am! W-Why are you asking?"

"Well, you seem to stare at me so intently, it feels like you can actually see..." the Seawing continued and waved a wing in front of Moonlight face.

The Nightwing tensed a bit and move her head slightly backward.

"Well, no, I cannot see. I mean, not in the sense that you see..." She softly replied while touching the other dragonet's wing with hers.

Tidal curled her tail around her legs as she pulled her wing against her side and surveyed the Nightwing from nose to tail.

"What do you mean?", she straightened herself and stared in her eyes, the veil impassible over the faded-out green iris.

Moonlight lowered her head as if she was looking at her paws then around the room where they stood. At that very moment, she had wished she could hooked her gaze onto something around her but it was just a pitch black void around her apart from Tidal. They were definitely alone, Tidal's parents had not followed them in the room but the music still carried loud enough for them to hear as if they were in the ballroom.

She sighed softly and stepped closer to Tidal.

"When you look at another dragon, what do you see?"

"Is that a trick question?" she snapped then caught herself, "I.. I see a dragon, obviously."

"Nono, I mean, what do you see about that dragon? Shape? Colors?..." she directed.

"Oooh," she paused for a second and stared intently at Moonlight, "Well, when I look at you, I see your face, I see your black scales shining under the sun, the purple reflection that your snout carries and the green hue from your underwings that matches with your unique eyes..." she trailed off for a second thinking she'd probably said something she shouldn't and quickly added, "And those shiny silver scales behind them!"

Moonlight instinctively reached for the teardrop scale behind her eye with her talon at that mention, she'd had often caressed them ever since her parents but also Starflight educated her about them, the unmistakable mark of a mindreader and all the burden this sign carried.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..."

"No, it's alright" cut the black dragonet. Maybe she doesn't know or hasn't heard about mindreaders?

"Well, as a blind dragon, I cannot see all those but I was born under one of the full moon..." She turned her head up as if she was trying to look at the moon through the palace ceiling. "Those scales, from what I was taught, are the marks of a mindreader among the Nightwings."

Tidal shivered as if she was suddenly conscious that Moonlight had been able to read her mind all this time.

"But... I'm not a mindreader." She waved her talon at her in a negative motion, "Not even an empath as per the definition of my tribe."

The Nightwing was staring again straight at the Seawing, her mouth barely moved as she breathed the words to her.

"Instead, I seem to be able to see the contour of living things, like an aura." She ended.

The green dragonet stood in the same position as her for what seemed an eternity. Neither of them could decide who should talk first again.

In the ballroom, the music had stopped.

The sound of footsteps approaching slowly grew louder and broke the enchantment that both seemed to be under. It was Tidal's parents. They came to them and gently bowed to Moonlight.

"I hope you two had a fun time" asked her mother with a soft smile and then turned to the Nightwing, "Alas, we must be going for now."

"Oh yes we did, mother!" Tidal interjected before Moonlight could reply.

The Seawing jumped forward and hugged her, to which she reacted instinctively and hugged her back.

All three of them waved to her and walked away as the black dragonet stood there motionless.

"Oh and by the way, your aura is very different from any other dragons I saw, I love its color and shape and I hope I will see you again and thank you for today!" Moonlight suddenly blurted in the empty room.

The silence filled the room again and she remained put for a long moment.

She had wished Tidal stayed and she could have told her all those words and that she really enjoyed being with her and and... No, Moonlight, no! Focus! You can't just fall in love with the first dragonet you meet that you find cute. She paused her train of thoughts for a second and tried to recall Tidal's aura. There was something unique and very mystical about it. Something both eerie and powerful but also frightening. Her aura...

"Hey Moonlight, it's time to go for us too." A soothing voice whispered.

The dragonet jumped and turned around, it was Tamarin standing, her figure partially hidden by what she guessed was the door frame of the room. The Rainwing aura looked so peaceful every time she looked at her. It seemed like nothing could disturb her nor ever make her angry.

"Oh," Moonlight tried to hide her deception, "sorry Tamarin, I was lost in my thoughts... again"

"About her?"

She nodded imperceptibly.

"I don't know, there's something that is unique about her, about Tidal," she corrected, "I can't tell what it is, I just... feel good when I'm next to her?" she explained.

"So, you're in love." Whispered Tamarin.

Moonlight walked to her and stared at her face, how she wished she could see more than just the contours of dragons she talked to. It was still difficult for her to understand certain dragons emotions with only patterns from the aura. Sometimes the voice tones helped but she gathered from listening to others that facial expressions and eyes helped a lot with that comprehension too. And she was glad she had both Tamarin and Starflight to help her with that. I wonder how much other dragonets worry about such things, not that I know other blind dragonets, guess it would probably be nice to learn together...

"I am not in love." She replied after a while. "I have never seen an aura like that before. It's... unique".

She went on to describe what she had seen to Tamarin as they walked away and made a mental note to also report it to Starflight when she gets the chance.

Tamarin listened attentively then added, "I think I will have to ask Anemone about Tidal, she told me once that she was asked to be her mentor but I don't remember if she told me why."

The Rainwing raised her snout and inhaled the air outside of the Seawing palace then spread her wings.

"You could accompany me next time if you want to."

Moonlight nodded and they both took to the airs to fly back to the Rainforest.