Chapter Text
It felt like years had passed before Marina got to see Pearl again. Weeks began to blur together. Soon, weekly meetings weren't enough, and Marina began using her dream visitor on non visit afternoons. She loved hearing Pearl talk about anything, it didn’t matter. Marina got all the hottest rainforest gossip. She learned about all of Pearl’s dragonets. She told Pearl how her time keeper was going, about Eight, about life on the island.
“She’s just so cool!” Marina gushed after another visit. “Look, she gave me this!” Marina held out the woven string of teal flowers Pearl had made for her.
“You think she likes you, too?” Eight asked, chewing through the net of fruit Marina had brought back for her.
“Maybe…” Marina twisted the string around her neck the way Pearl had shown her. She liked how it felt. Light, not too loose but not constricting. Enough so that she could forget it was there. “Do you think she might?”
“She’s bringing you flowers and talking to you every afternoon.” Eight answered. “That’s pretty mushy.”
“She said these remind her of my eyes.” Marina said wistfully.
“Ew.” Was Eight’s response. “Have you told her about the invasion yet?”
Marina’s face fell. “...No. I know, I will.”
Marina had let Pearl in on how bad her home really was. Pearl knew she lived on an island with a volcano, and that was where the nightwings had been hiding all this time. But she hadn’t told Pearl how she was getting to the rainforest, or why, or that nightwings didn’t really have powers, or that in seven and a half years the nightwings were planning to invade her home…
She needed to come clean, if for Pearl’s safety than anything else. Marina had never had the energy to question the morals of taking over the rainforest before meeting Pearl. It had to be done. Her tribe was starving, and dying, and they needed a new home.
The rainwings didn’t deserve it. It was a treasonous opinion, but there had to be another way. From what Pearl had told her, the rainwings weren’t an enormous tribe. They only had the one main village, with only a few rainwings living further out in the jungle. The rainforest was huge, and the nightwings were a small tribe. There was room for both of them.
…
Unlike most nights, Pearl didn’t worry too much about her hiding place. She had a special surprise for Marina tonight, one that would probably give her away even if she tried. Still, she crouched next to a large fire berry bush, just in case.
Marina eventually made her way into the clearing, much quieter than she usually did. Pearl smiled. She must be using the advanced tree gliding lesson Pearl had given her last time.
Marina looked around the clearing, eyes quickly landing on Pearl. She marched over to her, poking her wing. “Three moons, you need to try a little harder than that.”
Pearl allowed her scales to shift back to pink and yellow, unfolding her wings. Marina twined her tail around Pearls, and she felt the pink in her scales deepen. “I know, I know, you’re a very good spotter. I couldn’t hide too well tonight because I was carrying this!”
She held out her claws, showing Marina the brown and silver sloth that was still asleep in her talons.
Marina gasped. “Oh, Pearl, I can’t eat that! It’s too cute!”
“You’re not supposed to eat it!” Pearl laughed. “This is Dusty, my sloth!”
Marina took the pet gently, running a talon over her shaggy fur. “Oh! So this is what a sloth looks like!”
Sloths slept during the night, and they rarely ventured far from the safety of the rainwing village, so it made sense that Marina had never seen one.
Pearl puffed out her chest. “I don’t wanna brag, but Dusty is way cuter than the average sloth.”
Marina was smiling, holding the sloth to her shoulder as Dusty woke up. She let out a drowsy warble, grabbing onto the nightwings neck before falling back asleep. “I wish I could keep a pet sloth.” Marina said wistfully. “It’d get eaten in a heartbeat back on the volcano.”
“You will someday.” Pearl assured her. “Once you move to the rainforest with me.”
Marina’s gaze shifted. Marina had let her in on a few more nightwing secrets. Like, that they were all living on a volcano of all things, and that it was awful, and that she desperately wanted to move to the rainforest but the other nightwings wouldn’t let her.
“Actually, there’s something I’ve been meaning to show you.” Marina said, her voice changing suddenly. “It’s, it could be dangerous, so I need you to stay camouflaged and not talk until I tell you it’s safe.”
Pearl tilted her head. “In the rainforest?”
Marina nodded. “I want to show you how I get here. And, um, some other things.”
That piqued Pearl’s curiosity. “Will it be safe for Dusty?”
Marina carefully disentangled the sloth from around her neck, handing her back to Pearl. “Yes, but you should probably take her. I don’t want to drop her by mistake.”
Pearl took her sloth, forcing her colors to fade to the dark greens and browns of the jungle at night. She followed Marina quietly, smiling as she saw how fluidly the nightwing glided through the trees. She was definitely a fast learner.
It took about fifteen minutes before Marina held out a wing, signalling for Pearl to stop. She tucked her sloth under her wings, just in case there was some sloth eating monster nearby.
Marina pointed up. “Look.” She whispered, and Pearl followed her talon.
Pearl couldn’t stifle her gasp as her eyes landed on what Marina was referring to. High in one of the ancient jungle trees, there was a hole. Not a normal tree nook, a hole. It felt so… wrong. A shiver crept up her spine just looking at it. It looked as though it had been ripped in the fabric of reality, and the universe was desperately trying to close it back up, like an infected wound.
“What in Pyrrhia?” Pearl whispered. She found herself backing away from it instinctively, and she had to force her talons to stay put.
“It’s a tunnel to the nightwing island.” Marina answered.
Pearl felt sunbursts of surprised ripple through her scales, and she quickly quelled them. “But… how? How–” Realization dawned on her. “Wait, Marina, are you an animus?” It was the only logical explanation. Marina had a dream visitor, and was using a magic tunnel to travel across Pyrrhia. Pearl was suddenly very worried for her friend. How much did Marina use her magic? All the scrolls she’d read about animus dragons ended in madness and tragedy.
Animus dragons were incredibly rare. They were born with the power to enchant and animate objects, with the strength of this power varying depending on the scroll Pearl had read. The catch was, every time they used their power, it took a little of their soul until it drove them mad. Only some tribes had them, nightwings included.
“What? No, but an animus nightwing did make it.” Marina quickly clarified.
“Thank the moons.” Pearl breathed, relieved. “You had me worried for a sec.”
“I’d make a great animus.” Marina said, whacking her with her tail.
“I’m sure you would.” Pearl answered. “It’s just nice not havin’ to worry about your soul getting eaten.” She paused. “Wait, how old is this tunnel? How did you even find it?”
“An animus nightwing made it about a year ago.” Marina answered. “He ran away shortly after making it. There’s another to the kingdom of sand, but I don’t know where that is.”
Pearl was alarmed by the information that there was a possibly insane animus nightwing on the loose, but if he was going to do something crazy, he probably would’ve done it by now. “Why?” Pearl asked. “Why in the moons would the nightwing need a tunnel to the sand kingdom? The rainforest makes sense for hunting, but why a tunnel to the desert of all places?”
Marina’s face fell. “That’s what I really need to tell you.” She glazed back at the hole. “Let’s move a little further away, just in case.”
Pearl nodded, happily following Marina away until the hole was several minutes behind them.
Pearl got the sense Marina was trying to stall. She poked her tail, stopping her. “Marina, what’s going on?” Pearl was trying to hold onto her camouflage, but she could feel blots of nervousness peaking through.
“The nightwings are dying.” Marina blurted. “When our tribe settled on our island, the volcano wasn’t active, but now it is, and ever since our island has been becoming inhabitable.”
Pearl nodded slowly. “Yeah, I kind of figured that. So you made the tunnels to come here and hunt?”
Marina shook her head. “No, I mean, partially, yes, but that’s not the full reason. In seven years, the nightwings are going to invade the rainforest. I don’t, I mean, I don’t know what to do–I should’ve told you a while ago, but I can’t–the nightwings need a new home, but I can’t just let them kill all of you!”
Orange surprise scattered across Pearl’s body. Why was her first reaction. There was plenty of room in the rainforest for a few hundred nightwings, so why go through the trouble of starting a war when the rainwings would surely share if it meant preventing the extinction of an entire tribe. Maybe the nightwings didn’t know how big the forest was. Maybe they didn’t know how cool the rainwings were, and thought they had to fight over it like dragonets.
“This is great then!” Pearl said excitedly.
“How in Pyrriah is this good news?” Marina asked, looking baffled.
“That we met, I mean.” Pearl explained. “There’s plenty of space in the rainforest. I can talk to the queens, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if the nightwings made their own village somewhere. Or I can talk to your queen, and then we won’t need to fight!”
Marina didn’t look relieved in the slightest. “No, Pearl, you don’t understand. The nightwings, they’re so angry. And proud, they’d never agree to share the rainforest.”
“But
Pearl's voice was getting louder. “If they invade, we’ll fight back! I know the world thinks we’re lazy and stupid, but we’ll defend our home. Nightwings will die. Why wouldn’t your queen want to take the path with the least loss of life?”
“Because most dragons don’t think like that!” Marina exclaimed. “They’re proud. They think every other tribe is beneath them, especially rainwings. They see me as beneath them because I’m one eighth seawing. They think if we don’t take the rainforest by force, the other tribes will see us as weak.”
“You don’t!” Pearl shot back. “There must be other nightwings like you! If we offer them a peaceful solution, they’ll take it!”
“How?” Marina asked. “Are we just going to start handing out flyers telling all the nightwings to disobey their queen and come live in the rainforest?”
“No–” Red frustration flickered along Pearl's sides before she quickly snuffed them out. “What do you think we should do then? I’m not going to let my tribe get invaded, and I’m not gonna let you and the other nightwings die because your egos are too big to see how dense you’re all being!”
“I don’t know!” Marina yelled. Tears were brimming in her eyes. “Pearl, I don’t know! I don’t want you to get hurt, I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but my tribe will die if we keep living on the volcano. We’re desperate, and angry, those aren’t sensible emotions.”
Pearl noticed her distress, relaxing her posture and forcing calm blue to start pooling across her scales. “I know, this is just a lot. But we can figure something out, I know we can.”
“There has to be a solution.” Marina agreed. She furrowed her brow, looking like she was thinking hard.
“Is there a prophecy?” Pearl asked. “You’re waiting eight years, but you have the tunnels now. Why are you waiting?”
Marina ducked her head. “...We can’t see the future. No one can, it’s all made up.”
Pearl’s scales exploded in color. “What!? You’ve just been lyin’ for what, centuries? Can you read minds, or is that made up, too?”
“It’s all bullshit.” Marina said through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry, you should hate us, I should’ve told you a long time ago.
Pearl forced her scales to relax. “I don’t hate anyone. But why, though? Why would you lie about that?”
“We used to have powers.” Marina explained. “A long time ago, but we gave them up. We couldn’t let the world know we purposely weaken ourselves, so we lied.”
“Why would you give up powers like that?” Pearl asked, getting distracted.
“It’s a long story.” Marina sighed. “A nightwing used his powers a long time ago and nearly destroyed the tribe. The nightwings back then decided to give up our powers so no one could put the world at risk again.”
Pearl had a million more questions about that, but she needed to focus. “Still, why wait eight years? Why make two portals?”
“You know the dragonet prophecy, right?”
Pearl frowned. “...Yeah? I mean, I know the jist. Why make that up?”
“We have the dragonets.” Marina explained. “Or, we know where they are. Morrowseer does, at least. In eight years, we’ll pick a queen, and we’ll join the war, and when we win, the sandwings will help us take over the rainforest.”
Pearl sat back, rubbing her face. The rainwings could maybe fight off a few hundred nightwings, but the entire sandwing army was a whole other story. “Moons, Rina...”
Marina slowly stepped away from her. “I know, I should’ve told you sooner, I’m sorry.”
Green panic was quickly overtaking the blue covering Pearl’s body. Marina looked guilty, and ashamed, and scared. Pearl took a step towards her, and Marina flinched away.
“Rina…” Pearl said.
“I know, you should be mad at me.” Marina said, ducking her head and stepping back again. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. I thought, I thought we could come up with a solution, but I understand if you just want me to go.”
Pearl grabbed her talon, and Marina pulled it away quickly. “Rina, I’m not mad at you. You had nothin’ to do with all this, it’s the stupid proud nightwing queen I’m mad at. We can fix this together.”
Marina finally met her gaze. Her sea foam eyes were brimming with tears, and Pearl felt a stab of guilt. She shouldn't have yelled, Marina had risked a lot telling her this and was clearly holding a lot of guilt.
“I know we can come up with something.” Marina agreed softly.
Pearl felt something wriggle under the wing, and she jumped. “Oh my god–oh, it’s just Dusty.” She laughed at herself. “Sorry, girl, I forgot you were under there.”
Her sloth made an unhappy noise, as though she were scolding the dragons for yelling.
Marina laughed with her. “We’ll be more quiet, I promise.”
Pearl sighed. “I can look around the jungle tomorrow, look for a good spot for another village. Maybe if you tell your queen you found a spot for the village, and the nightwings come check it out, they’ll see there’s enough room for both of us.”
Marina looked as though she didn’t believe that would work, but she nodded anyway. “I’ll try, but I don’t think the council is particularly worried about city planning right now.”
“It’s something, at least.” Pearl said. “Can I tell the other rainwings?”
Marina looked uneasy. “Don’t tell them about the tunnels. If they went through, it would be really, really dangerous for both of us.”
Pearl nodded. “It might cause panic. I’ll keep it to myself until we have a plan, at least.”
Marina looked relieved at that. “That’s probably for the best.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Pearl said earnestly. “I know that probably wasn’t easy for you.”
Marina shuffled her talons. “You deserved to know.”
“Still.” Pearl brushed her wing. “C’mon, there’s nothin’ we can do ‘bout it right now. I left your fruit in the clearing, let's go eat and try to solve this whole thing later.”