Chapter Text
Thoughtful was quite new to the whole ‘attention’ thing.
Perhaps it was because he was also new to parties, or even socializing with other dragons. Perhaps that was because he never found wasting time with other dragons as important as his studies, or at least, his parents didn’t.
Thoughtful’s parents weren’t incredibly wealthy. In fact, their home was quite small - a simple brick shelter comprising of few rooms. His family always had enough to eat, but not much more than that. Sometimes his mother, Starcaller, an elegant dragon with green eyes and scales that were slightly lighter than a usual NightWing, would bring back an extra rabbit or squirrel, but that was about as lucky as they’d get.
Studies were an enormous priority in his home. It was quite common for either of his parents to go on a tangent about how much different and better life would be as soon as they were accepted into the queen’s palace. As a result, Thoughtful spent most of his time each day either learning, studying, or sleeping. Sometimes he’d sneak in a bit of glassblowing here and there, but even that was a premium. If the glasses weren’t an indication, Thoughtful spent a lot of time reading.
When Thoughtful’s father, Nightseer, who was a lot darker in his scale color compared to his mate, and featured a much stockier build, decided to bring his son to one of Queen Vigilance’s parties for the first time, Thoughtful was absolutely a little confused at first. Surely he would rather let his son expand his knowledge on NightWing anatomy, or better yet, IceWing anatomy, and the most effective ways to deal with them? For the few times Thoughtful himself asked to join his father in a party, he always reassured him: “That’s time better spent growing that large brain of yours,” and patted him on the top of his head.
It didn’t quite make sense to him why the same thing didn’t apply to his parents, but it was probably better if he expended his energy on quizzing himself on the history of NightWing royalty than try to figure that one out.
However, when Thoughtful did get the chance to join his parents in Queen Vigilance’s party, he decided that it probably couldn’t hurt to take a bit of time off. Besides, maybe he’d even learn something while he was there!
“I don’t think I need to tell you this, but behave yourself,” instructed Nightseer before they had left to go to the party. “I want you back before sunrise. Look at the moons - you shouldn’t even see a speckle of orange in the sky by the time you return.”
When Thoughtful arrived, the party wasn’t anything like he quite expected. Candlelights surrounded the piazza, decorating the glossy grey-black stone with amber reflections. Several dragons were dancing around the Great Diamond, their grey scales swirling through the center of it like a whirlwind. A few leather couches were set up in a corner along with a couple of tables, and opposite from that were the feasting tables, which had lots, and lots, and lots of food.
Surrounding the Great Diamond were several glass sculptures. Among them being one of his. Apparently the queen had a glass jubilee to celebrate how long she’d been queen.
So that’s all I’m good for… he had thought with a chuckle. Huh…
And then he had realized he had no clue how to socialize. So by that point, miniature marble stacking scrolls in the couch corner were his best friend.
However, as fate would have it, a small group of dragons were hanging out away from the large clump of NightWings in the middle of the jubilee and contained some interesting looking dragons. There were two SeaWings, three NightWings, and a dragon Thoughtful had never seen before. Among the dragons were two familiar faces - one of which being a dragon he had a small exchange with the day before (was her name… Eavesdropper? No wait, it was Listener), and the other being a dragon he’d heard many things about: Darkstalker.
Every time Starcaller and Nightseer had discussed the hybrid, it was never in a positive light. Usually they said things like: “I swear to the Moons, that dragon is nothing but trouble. Make sure you stay away from him at all costs, Thoughtful. One day, he’ll probably get us all killed. Thoughtful, promise to me you’ll stay away from him!”
Thoughtful never quite understood why his parents were so paranoid of the dragon until that night. Yes, he had animus magic. Yes, every time Thoughtful heard Darkstalker say anything during passing periods at school, his large ego was often quite apparent. But he did use his magic for the good of the tribe. If Thoughtful had animus magic, he would probably cast similar spells to him. The IceWing barrier that surrounded their kingdom, while perhaps excessive, did its job well and saved many NightWing lives.
Darkstalker didn’t seem like anything to be too afraid of as long as you didn’t get on his bad side.
However, his sister, on the other talon, was nothing like Thoughtful could’ve imagined. In absolutely the best way possible.
With a grain of anxiety fluttering in his heart, he had greeted the group and asked them if anyone had wanted to join him in stacking marble scrolls. A few of them, including one of the SeaWings as well as that odd-looking dragon, were playing Scales-and-Squares, a board game Thoughtful played occasionally with his parents when he had freetime (which was rare). However, just then, he heard a female dragon (Thoughtful seriously couldn’t remember her name - it was something like, Crystalvision) say with a slightly strained smile:
“I’m Clearsight,” (oh, so THAT’S what her name was!) “Our SeaWing friend is Fathom and- and have you met Whiteout?”
Clearsight’s words had sounded a little forced, but that suspicion faded away when Thoughtful laid his eyes on a beautiful dark blue dragon with white wings. He knew exactly who she was talking about. Whiteout looked unique from any dragon he’d ever seen.
“WINNER!” Whiteout cried in victory, before rambling about her win in a strangely gorgeous way of speaking. When she finished, she saw Thoughtful and said: “Oh! Look how shiny you are.”
Wow. Thoughtful immediately regretted isolating himself from others for all of this time.
“Shiny?” snorted Listener. “Whiteout, what are you ever talking about?”
He felt a little irritated by this, but before he could give Listener a quelling look, Whiteout lurched forward and took one of Thoughtful’s talons. “ You made the Cascade of Dreams ! Words and glass, spun flutes and verse. Waterfalls of language in fire-blown claws.”
“You noticed?” Thoughtful replied. So this is what appreciation felt like. It was… it was really nice. “No one- you really saw the pieces of scroll inside the waves?”
“Tangerine. Probability. Spelunking.”
Honestly, Thoughtful was amazed. He felt as though he was a dehydrated dragon that had just been doused in fresh water.
Whiteout continued: “I think you should teach me glassblowing, and I should teach you clarity.”
Listener had a loud, seemingly frustrated reaction to that, but Thoughtful ignored her and replied with a small smile: “How is the empress of scales at scroll towers?”
“Amazing. You’re going to die of awe.”
I think I already am, Thoughtful realized with wide eyes.
As Whiteout shook out her white wings, Thoughtful felt a happiness he’d never known before. They padded towards the marble scroll tower Thoughtful had left alone with equally wide smiles. Thoughtful heavily regretted isolating himself now.
But just when they were about to sit down together with the scroll tower, an unfamiliar NightWing, quick as lightning, blitzed through the crowd of dragons and stabbed Darkstalker with a spear to his chest, like a vicious arrow.
Oh… oh Moons…
The other SeaWing that was in the group left Fathom’s side and tackled the dragon who’d killed Darkstalker, slashing at him relentlessly until he stopped, laying lifeless. Whiteout looked horrified. Clearsight looked perhaps even more scared than she was. Thoughtful saw a wave of hopelessness wash over Fathom’s expression, as if he was reliving a terrifying experience from years past.
However, it was Thoughtful’s turn to be scared when Darkstalker rose, unharmed.
Listener began yelling something at Darkstalker and Clearsight, and before long, she stormed away from them. If Thoughtful had to guess, Listener was just as confused as he was about Darkstalker’s miraculous health.
Thoughtful noticed that the dead dragon looked kind of familiar. Its mangled body resembled Quickdeath, a pretty reputable assassin. To think someone would send Quickdeath after Darkstalker… Thoughtful shuddered. This was crazy.
After the group talked for a while, Darkstalker walked up to Thoughtful and asked: “Do either of you know him?”
Thoughtful hesitated, before confessing: “Yes, I do. By reputation, anyway. His name is Quickdeath, and he was- well, you can guess.”
Clearsight looked grim. “A killer for hire? Are you saying somebody sent him to kill Darkstalker?”
However, before Thoughtful could reply, Darkstalker put a wing around her and reassured her: “But he failed. No need to panic.”
Hmmm…
After a bit more conversation, Darkstalker turned to Thoughtful and asked: “Thoughtful, can you stay here and watch the body until we send someone from the queen’s guard to investigate?”
“Sure,” he replied.
“I’ll stay with him,” added Whiteout. “Protect him from angry spirits.”
Thoughtful allowed himself a small smile. Even though he was beginning to believe that perhaps his parents were correct about Darkstalker, at the very least there was one dragon who seemed okay.
Then again, Darkstalker seemed okay before that happened, weaseled a suspicious sector of his brain. The same could happen with Whiteout.
He felt his smile falter just a little.
As Darkstalker and the others flew away from the party, leaving Whiteout with him, he couldn’t help but feel spiders crawling down his spine. Everything had happened so fast, and it was an absolute rush of emotions - happiness, fear, relief, terror, and paranoia. He just hoped things would become a little more normal from here on out.
Thoughtful approached the couch Darkstalker and the others had been sitting on and collapsed on it, feeling drained already. Whiteout followed suit - she didn’t look quite as shaken as he felt, but perhaps she was just hiding that. He couldn’t know. Not unless he could read minds, or something.
Whether Whiteout was just as scared as he was or not, staring at Quickdeath’s corpse made his scales crawl.
“Wow,” Thoughtful said quietly after a small moment had passed. “I can’t believe Darkstalker wasn’t hurt. Did Quickdeath really just… miss?”
“Hmm,” Whiteout said thoughtfully. “Perhaps his blanket is woven more tightly than all others. With magical threads and fabric.”
“Huh.” It never occurred to him until then that perhaps Darkstalker had used his magic to make his scales invulnerable. But now that he thought about it… it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he had. Darkstalker acted extremely calm after he almost died. Unnervingly calm.
“Yeah, maybe,” Thoughtful conceded, adjusting his glasses unconsciously. “Doesn’t that scare you, though? That he could do basically anything with no consequences to his physical wellbeing?”
Whiteout didn’t answer.
Oh, that’s right! Wasn’t Darkstalker her brother? Which would mean…
Wow. Just… just, wow. Suddenly I feel much more grateful he didn’t die.
“I’m sorry we weren’t able to stack marble scrolls together,” Thoughtful said. “Though I can’t really say it’s a huge shame. You probably would’ve found it boring anyways.”
Whiteout shook her head. “No, your marbles are very glimmery. But it seems that they were destined to topple anyways.”
Thoughtful gave her a worried look. “Are you feeling okay? You seem… well, for a lack of a better term, colder. And uh, I’m not just saying that because… y’know, you’re part IceWing, and-”
He was cut off by Whiteout’s giggling. “That’s okay. I’m just feeling a little melted at the moment. My glacier doesn’t fare well in the hot summer heat.”
Thoughtful chuckled softly and said: “Alright, if you say so…” just as a squadron of NightWings landed before them. They upheaved Quickdeath’s corpse and started to hover. One of them said: “We heard about what happened.” More quietly, he added: “It’s a miracle that hybrid survived…”
As they took Quickdeath’s corpse away, Thoughtful could see the dark blue colors of the night sky begin to become more luminous. Before long, day would break. Thoughtful was already expected back home.
“I need to go now,” said Thoughtful with an apologetic expression. He pushed himself off the couch and shook out his wings, readying himself for flight, when Whiteout stood up and rested a talon on Thoughtful’s shoulder.
“Are you sure?” she said. “The ocean waves are still miniature. We can continue to walk along the beach.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can,” replied Thoughtful. “My parents are already expecting me back home. I doubt they’ll be happy with me staying out this late.” When he saw her expression falter, he added: “But don’t be sad! I bet we’ll see each other again someday. Maybe even someday soon!”
Whiteout slowly nodded. “Mm, okay. See you when the scrolls of time declare their judgement.”
This made Thoughtful smile. She was probably right. They probably would see each other again. Hopefully.
And then Whiteout was behind him as he lifted up into the sky, which was slowly turning amber. The once piercing shine of the stars was beginning to muffle, as if to indicate just how late he really was. Taking a deep breath, he pushed through the air in the direction of his home, as if he was just coming back from school.
I just hope all of this craziness ends soon…
Thoughtful’s parents were less than elated to see him return home as late as he did.
“Where on Pyrrhia have you been?!” Starcaller exclaimed as Thoughtful pushed open the creaky wooden door of their small home. She darted in front of him and grabbed one of his talons, examining his palm. “Are you hurt? Did you get in a fight? Why did you take so long?!”
“Mom,” Thoughtful began with worried eyes as his mother started to visibly shake. “I’m okay. I wasn’t hurt. I just… kinda got wrapped up in a conversation with some new dragons. I’m sorry for not coming sooner,” he added quickly. “I wasn’t watching the moons and forgot to look for the sun.”
Starcaller took a deep, exasperated breath, paused for a really long, awkward moment, and conceded: “...It’s okay. I know you haven’t really talked with other dragons very much. I guess I should’ve expected you to take your time.” She chuckled and glanced at Nightseer, who was sitting at a dining table expectantly. “I know I sure did when I was your age.”
Thoughtful pictured an elegant shape of dark blue and white, and gulped. He hoped this wasn’t a premonition.
After Starcaller blinked away her dreamy expression, she let go of Thoughtful’s palm and motioned for him to follow.
“Oh, Mom-” said Thoughtful. “I, um, actually didn’t end up eating at the party.”
Starcaller looked slightly annoyed, but shook her head and said: “Alright, that’s fine. We still have a couple rabbits left from yesterday.”
The kitchen, like most sections of the home of Thoughtful’s family, was small. There was an iron board installed in an average-sized kitchen island and a small pantry that was more like a slightly larger cabinent than anything else. There was also a bar, but as one might’ve guessed, it was also quite humbly short. However, the orangish glow of the candles scattered across their home was comfortingly familiar, and as Thoughtful settled himself on one of the stools in front of the bar and breathed in the familiar smell of their little house, he couldn’t help but feel a little refreshed after the unpredictable party.
Starcaller selected a rabbit she’d left on the island and breathed some steady flames onto it. Before long, the rabbit caught fire. She ceased her lighting of the fish and waited a few seconds before taking a deep breath and blowing the flames out. What resulted was a slightly charred but quite appetizing rabbit. After grabbing a plate from a cabinet inside the island and dropping the fish on it, she took the plate over to the dining table and set it down. It made a little ‘cla-clink’ sound as it touched the table.
“Come sit with us,” said Starcaller, who took out a wooden chair for Thoughtful and sat in the one next to it. Nightseer shifted in the chair he was sitting in and nodded, adding: “I’d like to hear about the type of dragons our son met at the party.”
“It was really nothing,” Thoughtful assured them as he slid into his seat. “There were a couple of dragons playing scales-and-squares. It looked fun and hey, I hadn’t played before, so I thought ‘might as well’.”
Lying to his parents wasn’t exactly something Thoughtful enjoyed, but he preferred it to explaining how a powerful super-dragon had escaped imminent death with seemingly no effort. They either would’ve laughed and passed it off as a joke, or they would’ve put even more effort into keeping Thoughtful close to his scrolls and away from his peers.
“Hmm,” said Nightseer. “Guess it was a really intense match, to cause you to stay out that late…?”
“Well, yes,” Thoughtful started. “I mean, um, no. You see-” And then he realized he was awful at lying because he’d never tried it before, and quickly took a bite out of his rabbit to give him time to think. A headache began to well up near his temples, pulsing with almost as much intensity than the beautiful colors of Whiteout’s scales.
After wiping his mouth, Thoughtful continued: “So I did end up getting stuck in a conversation with one of the dragons there. He looked like, um…” He adjusted his spectacles. “He kind of looked like Dad, kind of.”
“And you were talking with him about…?”
“And I was talking with him about the current state of the IceWing war.” Though I would legitimately like to think about that more. Darkstalker… honestly kind of scares me. The way he survived Quickdeath was unbelievable. He must have been using magic...
Neither Starcaller nor Nightseer looked particularly convinced, but the latter simply shrugged his shoulders and said: “Alright, whatever. Speaking of the war, I bet you’ll make great use to the queen once you get out of school. What’s the word on your studies as of now?”
Starcaller, Nightseer, and Thoughtful were all born without any prophetic powers, which would’ve been especially useful to Queen Vigilance (though Thoughtful recently heard from somewhere that her current star seer, Allknowing, was being replaced), and also lacked mind reading abilities. Because of this, Thoughtful’s parents had placed their bets on their son’s intellect to one day propel him up the queen’s ranks, taking his parents with him, and one day help him become a trusted advisor to Vigilance.
Gaining more wealth was a benefit from this, but more than anything, Thoughtful’s parents wanted - no - expected him to serve his tribe in the best way possible. And who wouldn’t with a tribe as respected and powerful as the NightWings?
“Honestly, keeping up has been kind of difficult,” admitted Thoughtful. “I should’ve gotten through history from the last five hundred years by this point, but I’m only around halfway through. Also math has been a little torturous lately. But… I suppose that’s just how things are sometimes.” His eyes flicked back and forth between his father’s eyes and the reflectionless surface of the table. “Remember when this happened back when I was four?”
Nightseer thought for a short moment before conceding: “Yes, I do remember. You got yourself back on track like a champ.” Nodding, he continued: “I think we certainly raised you right. We’ll be out of this dumpy home in no time.”
Thoughtful’s heart filled with gratitude and pride at his father’s praise. Images of Thoughtful delivering war-ending strategies to his queen slid through his mind. Vigilance’s eyes shone with admiration for this powerless, yet incredibly smart and faithful NightWing. Dragons rushing through the palace would see him and smile, thinking: It’s Thoughtful! instead of rushing through school thinking: Oh, it’s just Thoughtful…
Invigorated, Thoughtful promised: “Don’t worry, Dad! I’ll make sure I learn all of the things I need to before you can say ‘The IceWings have finally conceded defeat!’. When I get out of school, I’ll be like a completely different dragon.”
“I trust you, Thoughtful,” said Nightseer. His eyes flicked to his mate, who nodded in agreement, adding: “Make sure you’re paying as much attention as you can to your math teacher tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Mom,” said Thoughtful, before he got up from the table and began padding towards the small room he slept in.
“Um, son!” called Nightseer as Thoughtful was leaving. “You forgot about your rabbit! You only took like, two bites.”
Why can’t I get one stupid but kind of cute dragon out of my head long enough to finish my meal?!
“Oh, sorry!”
Thoughtful’s bedroom, if you could even call it that, was a bit of a mess. All he had was a small bed and a nightstand with a few drawers embedded, as well as countless scrolls scattered across the floor. At this time of the day, it felt like a small little brick-and-wooden cube, though it was obviously a bit bigger. But the mess didn’t help make him feel any less claustrophobic.
However, it was nothing compared to the absolute cluster that was Thoughtful’s head as he laid on his bed shifting occasionally, unable to sleep.
And standing in the middle of the storm was an elegant hybrid of navy blue scales.
I can’t believe there are dragons like her out there, he thought. Will I ever get to talk to her again? Or will I have to focus exclusively on my academics? I can’t ignore them… not ever. Not if it means sacrificing any part of my queen’s eventual appraisal of my knowledge and strategies and capability for producing quality advice…
But as the weird white wings and her odd but pleasant way of speaking drifted through his mind, he couldn’t help but hope that maybe, just one day at school, like maybe… two days a week, he could spend like… thirty seconds talking to her. Yes, that sounds okay. That could be okay.
But if it isn’t, and my studies suffer even more… no way. It would probably be better not to see her at all.
Memories of the cool touch of Whiteout’s scales shaking Thoughtful’s heart brought thunder to his thoughts once again, as brief as lightning. He winced, as if to try and eject the flash from his consciousness.
...No. I can’t be like them. I can’t waste my time or, Moons forbid, completely forget about my education. I’m… I’m not thinking clearly.
Maybe I just need sleep.
Maybe once I go ahead and finish up with that history stuff, all of this will have been nothing but a simple confusion that ultimately amounts to nothing.
Thoughtful closed his eyes… and didn’t sleep for another hour.