~Chapter 2~

  ~Six Years Later~

  Surviving was the hard part, that’s what Eclipse had to learn very quickly. He had a lot of power and he knew that but what good was the power when all he was able to do was sit alone and watch. He’d groan to himself all the time wondering; if I’m so important why do I have to be so hidden? Hm timeline? Want to answer that? But of course it never did and never could, so he just had to trust the part of ‘not being alone forever.’

  He flew through the Claws of the Clouds Mountains under the cover of night, his black, midnight wings concealed in the background. One and half moons filled the sky; Something Important is happening or going to happen. Eclipse’s mind told him. Thousands of times like just opened and died in a single moment, yet something said this was good and exactly what he wanted. He was about to fly over a river when a sudden, painful burst of an important moment pulsed through his head. Voices, dragons, two… important, if you keep going you’ll run into them and it will ruin everything.

  Eclipse tried to steady his wings as the current under his wings faltered, he barely managed to so, landing on the ground below roughly.

  “Ow,” he let out a soft grunt as he stood up and dusted off his wings and walked to the treeline.

  They could spot you if you do this.

  But the possibility is almost zero and it’s a risk I’m willing to take. He stalked closer to the edge and stopped, seeing an orange-looking MudWing and a blue SeaWing.

  “Oh Tsunami you have to try this, it's so amazing.”

  “Maybe another time Clay,” The SeaWing rolled her eyes.

  These dragons… they haven’t such pleasant thoughts and the MudWing seems so friendly… I just want to. Eclipse reached out his claw to them and almost left his hiding spot but he knew he could, he knew he shouldn’t…. So he just crumpled into his spit and watched, like he always did.

  He picked up a rock next to him, I could enchant this to make me invisible and then I could get close; but no that timeline had too many risks, he could drop it while moving over to them and reveal himself, or his splashing in the water would alert them and they’d fly off, or his wingbeats would do the same and that couldn’t happen. He let go of the rock and placed it gently back down, too fast and he might make a sound that would alert them.

  There was a crash that alerted all of them, a weird-looking creature appeared. Certainly not anything I’d seen before. The creature seems panicked, it was fleeing from something. Eclipse deduced.

  “It’s a scavenger! Look, Clay! Our first scavenger!” The Seawing exclaimed.

  “Aw, it’s so…little.” The Mudwing observed.

  “One of these killed Queen Oasis? Really?” The SeaWing wondered.

  “Can we eat it?” The MudWing asked.

  “Starflight says they’re endangered.” The SeaWing responded.

  The scavenger ran away quickly, dropping a sack on the ground. It’s mind ran rampant.

  “Don’t eat me, don’t eat me. Lose them, lose them.” Its thoughts screamed on Eclipse’s head and he covered his head trying to shut them out and failing until it got far enough away he couldn’t hear it.

  The two dragons began to rummage through the sack; admiring the treasure inside. A new voice entered his thoughts, oh these were bad thoughts, very bad thoughts. Whoever this dragon was, she was very arrogant and rude and her thoughts made Eclipse want to flee, but if he did he could alert the dragons nearby and again, that’s be horrible.

  “So… pretty…” the SeaWing admired.

  “Can we keep all this?” The MudWing asked the SeaWing.

  “Certainly not. Unless you want to fight me for it.” A regal voice rang out.

  A dragon with dark orange scales emerged, wearing a golden breastplate adorned in red gems; rubies and diamonds adored so much of her body that Eclipse wondered if she was more gem than dragon.

  “Who are you?” Clay asked.

  “How can you not know that?” The SkyWing asked, fully offended.

  I don’t even know who she is, but from what I’m seeing, she’s very important and these two are going to do something very stupid…. Why can’t I do anything?

  “You’re not a very good spy, are you, SeaWing?”

  “I’m not a spy! We’ve been — held prisoner, kind of. We just escaped!” Tsunami exclaimed.

  “A SeaWing and MudWing held prisoner? But you’re not from my dungeons unless I’m getting horribly forgetful. So who could you be?” The SkyWing placed a claw to her chin.

  “Tsunami, come on. Just give back her treasure and let’s go.” Clay tried to take the treasure from Tsunami’s claw.

  The SkyWing chuckled in her mind. Yes let’s go, back to kingdom where I’ll put your heads on the arena walls, I quite like that idea.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Clay tried to hand back the treasure but the SkyWing crushed his claw and threatened him.

  “Nobody touches my treasure!” She hissed.

  “Who even are you?” Tsunami barked.

  “Oh, didn’t I say? My name is Scarlet, but you may call me your majesty if you wish to live.” The SkyWings eyes gleamed.

  “The Queen of the SkyWings.” Clay's mind went up in fear.

  “Now you MudWing make me quite curious, we’re on the same side so why wouldn’t you recognize me? Unless… no you couldn’t be.” Scaley ran her talon down the bridge of his snout.

  Clay tried to backpedal and pretend he was who she assumed, but his mind was racing a million miles a minute.

  Tsunami came behind and stabbed Scarlet in the take with the sword the scavenger had dropped; Scarlet let out an ear piercing screech as Clay and Tsunami took the moment to escape.

  Eclipse's mind flared once more as futures shifted and shuffled like a deck of never ending possibilities but one thing was for certain, this choice was going to end badly for these dragonets.

  Eclipse watched as the two dragons escaped and Scarlet fumbled to free herself; once she did, she flew off back to the her soldiers with a speed Eclipse had never witnessed, he waited a moment longer to be crawled out of the bushes and began down somewhere to rest, the sun was rising and that meant he’d need to find a cave, check about hundred times what the likelihood of being found was and then decide if it was worth it to even rest. I need to find those dragonets again, they seem important or rather I know they're important. He kept telling himself as he made it into a secluded area full of different caves. He went to one of the middle ones that was six away from the center and crawled to the back corner.

  His mind was filling with new shifts in the timeline every second, what those two dragons did really was making his head throb and ache. Eclipse started to hit his claw against his head as if it would make the throbbing hurt any less. He took a nearby stone and wrapped his claw around it.

  “Enchant this rock, so that it will turn into a bracelet to make the pain of my visions more bearable.” He groaned.

  The rock quickly turned into a silver bracelet with a black gem piece in the center; he slipped it on his wrist and in a moment the throbbing was gone and he could hear the timelines. But they weren't screaming, only loudly whispering. He let out a sigh and shut his eyes, knowing in a few hours he’d have to leave the cave and make a decision that could shift his life forever.

  As Eclipse slept he had a dream, a vision, a pulse. Something beating inside his mind, but not of the timeline, of a dragon. Scales a golden-yellow and eyes that shone green. Her smile reminded Eclipse of that feeling he got when his mother smiled at him; warm like a summer's day. She’s important to me but why? Is she one of the dragons that I’m supposed to know? Is she one of the dragons who’s why I don’t stay alone forever?

  He tried desperately to hold onto this image as long as he could, but it started to fade and his eyes shot open. A SandWing, the desert. I can go to the desert and find this dragon but… oh if I get caught there… something and happen but what?

  He was getting glimpses of a very high SandWing standing over him and she was definitely not a dragon he felt he’d want to meet, but now two possibilities ran in his mind, two choices. Continue to move across the continent in the shadows for some more time or stay here and wait for some more time until he is supposed to do something. The Sand Kingdom was definitely off limits, the amount of bloodshed that followed if he tried to go there was too much and too messy.

  I hate these visions, don’t do this, stay hidden that, give me something other than. ‘Don’t do this, it’ll end badly.’ He grumbled in his mind but then an idea struck him. Those dragons flew from the SkyWing Queen, and from what I’ve seen, they get taken to the Sky Kingdom, so what if I go there? What if I tried to watch them… from afar? They are important at least from how loud the visions screamed at me and if they are important perhaps I can find my next task.

  The timeline began to hiss at him, but he was barely listening anyway, he wanted to do this so he was going to do it. He’d be careful, for sure he would and the timeline wouldn’t tell him otherwise. He picked up another loose stone and placed it in his claws.

  “I enchant this rock to…” he thought for a moment; Queen Scarlet seemed to like treasure and so… I shouldn’t make anything too flashy, but I don’t even know if this will work. We’ll just have to hope. “Ok, I enchant this rock to turn into the most uninteresting and unappealing ring ever and make the ring turn the dragon, Eclipse, into a normal SkyWing.”

  The rock began to shift and turned into an unappealing silver ring. Perfect, Eclipse thought as he slipped the ring onto one of his talons. His scales began to slowly shift from the normal midnight black into a deep burgundy and his wings grew in size and his normal straight horns, curved and twisted slightly.

  “Oh this is different,” he looked down and took off the ring to be sure it wasn’t permanent. Luckily he went back to his normal NightWing self once he took it off. “Perfect, they’ll never suspect a thing.” He stepped out into the afternoon sun, there was a slight breeze and the air was crisp. “So I just need to get to the Sky Kingdom and it shouldn't be too far.” He began to flap his wings and felt how much stronger they were. Once he was high enough in the sky, he soared to those dragonets, hoping they’d be there.

  He released how much faster he was flying as objects and things passed by him so quickly; an anxiety spike hit him as for a moment he forgot he wasn’t his normal self and that he could fly in the open and not ruin everything. Of course he knew there were still threats that lurked and if he was spotted by the wrong dragon it wouldn’t end well for him. He quickly made his way over the mountains and began to see the high pylons and structures of the kingdom; dragons with all sorts of red and orange scales soared through the sky.

  A giant arena with dragons on top of other pylons, chained, came into his view along with so many voices and thoughts. So many full of resentment and anger and fear. He tried to block them out as best he could for the time being. He tried to fly towards the palace when two guards flew in front of him and blocked the way.

  “Who are you and why are you going to the palace?” One hissed.

  “Uh…” think of a name, any name, something Sky related. “My name is Falcon, the SkyWing.” Eclipse internally crumpled as he saw them look to one another in complete confusion.

  Well no duh you’re a SkyWing, by the three moons, is this another one who got hit too hard in the head? They both thought.

  “Ok…. Falcon, what are you doing trying to go to the palace,” one began slower and softer.

  “You know you need to be very special and important to do that right?” The other one said even slower and more condescending.

  Important?!? I’m the most important dragon you nothings will never know — though doesn’t that also make me a nothing as well? He contemplated that so long he almost forgot to answer their question. “I just wanted to know about any dragonets that came through here, if there are any that is.” Eclipse nodded slowly, more to himself than them.

  “Ohhh yeah, we see tons of dragonets every day, right Venetian?”

  “Ohhh yeah Carmine, we do.” Venetian pointed off towards a far away pylon. “Hey Falcon I’m sure you can find any dragonets you’re looking for over there, please be careful and uh don’t hurt yourself on the way there.”

  By the three moons, stop speaking to me like I’m some kind of new born dragonet. But checking the timeline, none went anywhere beyond him getting gently escorted somewhere else so he nodded, thanked them, and flew over where they pointed. Perhaps tomorrow I can find what I’m looking for, the arena, what if I went there? Ohhh that’s probably where they are. He cursed himself for a good minute not even stopping to think to look there but then again all those thoughts were really getting to him and they’d no doubt get worse if he got any closer. He perched up high on one of the towers and waited till the next day when he’d finally see those important dragons again.