Chapter Text
Prologue, five years before the brightest night.
Marina was there for Eightstars hatching. It had been the first time she was allowed anywhere near the hot, smokey hatchery, and the second time she’d ever seen her sister's egg.
Eight’s father hadn’t been present. The only dragons in the hatchery had been their mother, one of the tribe's healers, and Marina herself. Her little sister was the only egg in the dark, oversized hatchery. The only egg the tribe had kept until hatching that year, in fact.
Her mother shoved her back as tiny cracks began to splinter across the dark shell. “Be careful, Marina.” The older dragon wheezed.
Marina leaned as far as she could between the two adult dragons crowding the nest. She’d never seen a hatching before. She shouldn’t, really. Most dragons weren’t allowed into one unless they were the mother, father or a doctor. Marina was only there because their mother was dying.
Everyone had been dancing around it, at least around Marina, but Marina could see the redness forming around her nose and eyes. She could hear how bad her breathing had gotten, how she struggled through every word. The older dragon had grown whip thin, as though her scales were shrinking in on her.
But the nail in the coffin was the invitation to her sisters hatching. Graceful wouldn’t last much longer, and when she went, that would leave Marina as her sister's only caretaker. Half sister, that is. Her sister's father had died a few months ago, landing on the wrong patch of crust and falling right through to his molten death.
Marina managed to wiggle between the two larger dragons, just in time to watch as the shards of shell broke apart, and a tiny black dragon fell out onto the pile of ashy furs below her.
Her mother breathed in sharply, scratching at her throat.
The healer got to her first, gently lifting and examining the baby nightwing. “Oh, it’s so good to see another dragonet!” The young looking doctor said, cradling the baby nightwing. “The last one we had died right after hatching.”
“What is it?” Her mother croaked, eyes examining the squirming dragonet.
The doctor turned the dragonet over. “She’s a girl! Good, the last few have all been male.”
“Good.” Her mother agreed, a drop of fondness working its way up her cracked throat. “At least it’s a girl.”
The dragonet chirped, pushing her wings open as she attempted to roll back over. The doctor frowned, lifting one of the dragonet’s wings. “That’s… peculiar.”
“What’s wrong?” Marina asked. The little nightwing was darker than her, with only small hints of red in her under scales. Marina couldn’t see a single silver scale on the dragonet’s body, as though she’d been carved from the volcano itself rather than the night sky.
“Nothing, she's a perfectly healthy dragonet.” The healer answered, handing the small dragon to Marina. She took the dragonet carefully, holding her close to her chest. She squirmed, wriggling to hold onto Marina’s neck.
It was then that Marina noticed it. Her underwings were almost entirely black. A black, starless expanse of scales, like looking into the smog ridden sky.
“Oh!” Marina gasped as the little nightwing gazed up at her with sharp orange eyes. Her little sister was perfect. Unharmed and untouched by the volcano. Marina wished so desperately that she could keep her that way, that she could hold her in her arms and keep her from their awful island. But she was still a dragonet herself. A dragonet about to be thrust into a responsibility she wasn’t ready for.
“What are you going to name her?” The healer asked, and it took Marina a moment to realize the question had been directed at her more than her mother.
“I was thinking,” Their mother creaked before Marina could speak. “The name, ‘Throatsliter.’ An assassin, like her father…” She was cut off by a fit of coughs, spitting out a blob of dark red flem onto one of the smoldering piles of coals.
Marina frowned. That seemed like an awfully violent name for such a little dragon. Nightwing names tended to predict the dragon's future. It was a trick used to make the tribe seem prophetic. She wanted her sister to have something good, better than ‘Marina’, or ‘Throatslitter,’ at least.
She peered at the dragonet again, lifting her wing. The underside of her wing wasn’t entirely black, Marina realized. It was dotted with only a talonful of shiny white scales, exactly eight on both sides.
“How about ‘Eightstars’?” Marina asked tentatively. “Throatsliter seems, uh, she doesn’t look like a throat-sliter.”
Her mother glared at her, but the healer nodded. “That is my dragonet…” Her mother snarled, before coughing again.
And I’m the one who’s going to take care of her… Marina thought, though she didn’t dare say it. And I’m not letting her become another one of Marrowseers assassins.
“I should get a say, shouldn’t I?” Marina said instead.
Smoke was beginning to rise from her mothers nostrils. “You’re not even a real nightwing. How–” She was sent into yet another coughing fit, this one more violent than the last. “How can you–how can we trust you to name one of our dragonets?”
Marina flinched. Her mother only played that card when she was really angry.
“The queen did say Marina would be this dragonets caretaker…” The healer interjected. “She should be the one to name her.”
Her mother snarled. “Fine.” She turned to look at Marina, her bloodshot eyes as fiery as the volcano she lived on. “I hope that dragonet makes you just as miserable as you’ve made me for the past five years.”
And with that, she stormed out of the hatchery. The healer, a small dragon covered in tiny white star scales named Brightness, sighed. “You don’t have to take care of her, you know. There are plenty of mothers that have lost eggs who would be happy to take her.”
Marina shook her head. “No, I, I want to take care of her.”
Marina’s mother had never been particularly nurturing, though she was never as bad as she had been these past few months. She had always been protective over her daughter, shielding her from the harsh words and angry talons of the other nightwings the best she could. She did love Marina, Marina knew that. She was just–these past few months had been hard on all of them.
Marina had been much closer to her father, Algae. They understood each other, forming a little tribe of their own when everyone else seemed to reject them. But he had died over a year ago, leaving Marina alone with her dying mother and the promise of a sibling. And soon, Eightstars would be the only family Marina would have left. And Marina couldn’t lose that, the thought of being all alone on this horrible island was too much to bear.
“It feels like something I need to do.” Marina finished.
Brightness bowed her head. “As you wish. You can leave her here while you go hunting.” She paused. “All new mothers are exempt from the five day rule for the first year, so I guess that means you.”
Marina swallowed. She didn’t want to leave her sister, but she could tell the little dragon needed to eat, and no one else was going to feed her. “I’ll be back, Eightstars.” She whispered, gently passing the squirming dragonet into Brightness’s open arms. Eightstars squeaked, struggling and reaching for Marina’s talons. “I’ll come back for you, I promise.”
…
Chapter One, five years later
…
Marina remembered when the rumors of their animus tunnel began. Stonemover had finally made up his mind on what to do with his magic, and it was going to be for something amazing.
For most of the tunnel's construction, Marina, much like every other nightwing not important enough to attend the nightly council meetings, believed they would be used for strictly military purposes. They would be left untouched until the sandwing sister of their choosing was on the throne and their forces were ready. Guarded and kept hidden until the moment was right. So when the news broke that every nightwings over the age of ten would be allowed to use the tunnels to hunt, that was the most collective excitement Marina had ever seen from her tribe.
Having turned ten only three months prior, Marina barely made the cut. Even though she had been approved by the queen and gone through all the safety protocols with the other dragons permitted to leave, she still didn’t really believe she was going until she was standing at the gaping maw of the rainforest tunnel.
She would be going alone, which still astounded her. That was the rule, at least for the time being. Never travel in groups, groups are loud and easily spotted. A single dragon is much safer.
The other rules flashed through the nightwing’s mind as she crept into the winding, clawing darkness: Don’t stay past sunrise. Don’t leave any footprints. Only take what won’t be noticed. If a rainwing sees you, kill her on sight.
The last one made Marina queasy. She had sworn to follow these rules on her life, though she didn’t have much of a choice. She needed the rainforest. She needed a better source of food than the volcano. She needed to feel fresh air on her scales, drink clean water for the first time in her life. So Marina had promised she’d be good, and Greatness had believed her.
Marina had never killed a dragon before. She had watched dragons die, but never under her own claws. She was large for her age, and a good hunter, and rainwings were the smallest and weakest of the seven tribes. She could do it, she told herself.
The animus touched darkness had completely engulfed her, blinding her from all angles. The air had a heavy, oppressive wrongness to it, as though the earth knew this hole was not supposed to be here and was doing everything in its power to close itself up.
Marina wasn’t sure how long she wandered through that pressing dark before she began to see the light again. It was far off, but enough to send her into a full sprint towards freedom. Just before she had broken free of that animus touched wrongness, her claw caught on a loose vine, sending the nightwing tumbling into the rainforest.
The ground was soft as she collided with the earth, softer than anything the nightwings sore talons had even sunken into. Marina inhaled deeply through her chapped nostrils, trying to take in this world that was so foreign to her.
After fumbling for her fallen glasses, Marina finally took her first look at the outside world. It was beautiful. Everything was so colorful, and alive, and it all smelled so fresh… The trees were green, and overflowing with flowers and fruits in every shade under the sun. The air was alive with the chorus of insects and night critters that left Marina’s head overloaded with new information.
It took everything in her to not go charging off into the jungle and roll around in the dirt and leaves like a newly hatched dragonet. She felt newly hatched. Like the island was her dull, hard egg shell keeping her from the real world. A place she wasn’t meant to return to now that she had tasted clean air.
Marina took her first few steps into the din. Dirt and mud squished between her talons–the ground had never felt so squishy before! The nightwing spread her deep blue wings, basking in the light of the moons she’d never seen before.
And the sounds–everything made so much noise! Bugs chirped, leaves swayed just because they could, a stream babbled–a stream!
Marina stumbled in the direction she heard the stream, plunging her face into the cold water and gulping down as much as her stomach could hold. It tasted so clean! There was no dirt, no salt, no disease or smoke. Just cold, clear water.
She took out the empty waterskin she had packed, cleaning it in the stream before filling it up. Eight needed to taste this. Just one drink from this stream would probably be enough to cure the dragonets lingering cough.
Every one of Marina’s senses was far too overwhelmed for any proper hunting, but finding food couldn’t be hard in this place of pure life. If she followed the stream, she was sure she’d stumble into an unsuspecting panther or monkey or whatever else called this place its home.
Marina had no idea how long she wandered, tasting the air and trying for the life of her to isolate one single smell before she got it. Some kind of snake, though Marina had no idea what kind, and it was still a ways upstream. She followed it eagerly, eventually coming to a small clearing bathed in moonlight.
There, Marina spotted what she’d been tracking. It was a sandy brown snake with darker brown stripes, and the nightwing recognized it as a titanoboa: an ancient snake known for strangling full grown dragons.
Marina readied herself. It was large, but unaware of her presence. If she landed on its head, she could break its neck before it even knew she was there.
Just as she was ready to pounce, a jet of black liquid shot out of the darkness, landing directly in the snake's eyes. It arched back, hissing and convulsing in a horrible way that reminded Marina of a dragon being submerged in lava. It took five agonizing seconds before the snake gave one last shutter, collapsing to the ground.
Marina froze. What in Pyrrhia was that? She wracked her brain, trying to remember scrolls about rainforest creatures. But all she could think of that were capable of shooting acidic projectiles was a few insects, and none of them were large enough to do something like this. That we know of…
Suddenly, and without warning, the trunk of one of the enormous rainforest trees began to ripple, browns and greens shifting and reforming until the shape of a dragon emerged into the moonlight. Her scales shimmered, and all at once the dark shades of the jungle night melted into petal pinks and golden yellows.
It was almost funny how long it took Marina to panic. The first thought that managed to form in the nightwings mind was, I wonder if she knows what did that? And then a moment later, should I warn her?
No, the panic didn’t truly settle in until the dragon sat back on her haunches, poking the dead snake with a pleased expression. “It’s dead.” She said smoothly, far too loudly to be for her own ears. “I’m not gonna eat it, so you can have it if you want.”
Marina felt her throat tighten. Maybe there was another rainwing nearby, still hidden. There must be, there was no way she had been spotted so quickly. She looked from tree to tree, squinting for the hint of another camouflaged dragon.
The rainwing sighed, looking directly at Marina’s hiding spot. “I can see you. I’ve spent my whole life playing camouflage, so you’re not fooling me.” She took a step towards Marina before hesitating. “C’mon. I’ve never seen a nightwing in real life before.”
Marina dug her claws into the earth. Maybe if she just held still for long enough, the rainwing would go away. Go away, and tell her whole village she saw a nightwing. They’d be found out, and the rainwings would attack, and Marina would be punished, and they’d be stuck on their awful volcano forever if the icewings didn’t wipe them out for good–
No, no Marina could fix this. This rainwing's guard was down, completely unalarmed by the strange dragon in her jungle. Maybe if Marina struck just right, she could knock her out and fly back to the tunnel.
“You are a nightwing, right? You don’t smell like a mudwing.” The rainwing asked. She squinted at Marina’s dark scales. “Seawing? I heard seawings can see in the dark.”
Marina was gripping the dirt so hard her claws were beginning to ache. Do it. Hissed a voice that sounded horribly like Greatness. She’d do it to you in a heartbeat. Do it, and save our secret.
But Marina had entered this dragon’s home. How could she bring herself to hurt an unsuspecting rainwing who had shown her no aggression? Maybe if she let her go, maybe she’d forget the whole thing and go back to her regular rainwing life. Were rainwings gossips? Would the news of a nightwing in their jungle fizzle out like a spark in water, or spread through the tribe like wild fire?
Purple flashed along the rainwings stripes, and she flicked her curled tail. “Ah, I see.” She said, frowning. “I thought I read somewhere that nightwings were all secretive and mysterious. I’ll leave you to it, weird night dragon.”
The rainwing turned, spreading her wings as though she were about to take off, and Marina’s heart jumped.
“Wait!”
The rainwing turned back around as Marina swallowed hard. If she couldn’t kill her, she’d have to convince her to keep her secret.
“Sorry, you, um, you startled me.” Marina took a cautious step out into the moonlight, ducking her head. What did rainwings like that Marina could bribe this one with? Sleep, food, pacifism… All Marina had on her were her earrings, so maybe she could bribe her with treasure. Rainwings didn’t have fire, so maybe her glasses would seem valuable.
The rainwing jumped back. “Wow, you’re big!”
“W-what?” Marina asked. Her wings twitched, and she had to fight to keep them from shaking.
Now that she was closer, Marina realized how dazzling this new dragon was. She’d heard rainwings could change their scales, but this one seemed almost iridescent, as though each scale had been polished and buffed to the point of shining. Her scales shifted and swirly constantly, in a way that made her want to stare at them forever while also making her a little dizzy.
She was smaller than Marina had expected. Marina had heard rainwings were the smallest of the seven tribes, but this dragon barely made it past her shoulder.
The rainwing tilted her head. “Ah, that was rude, wasn’t it. I’ve seen plenty of mudwings bigger than you, if it helps.”
Marina shook her head. “You can’t tell any other rainwings you saw me!” She blurted out.
The rainwing looked a little amused. “...Ok?” The ruff around her neck turned a curious blue. “Nightwing secret?”
“Yes!” Marina nodded her head. “No one else can know you saw me or it’ll, um, ruin my secret.”
The rainwing shrugged. “Alright then. Your secret’s safe with me.” She crossed one talon over her heart. “So, why are you trampling through the jungle like a mudwing if you don’t want anyone to see you?”
Marina let out an audible sigh of relief, feeling her wings relax against her sides. She wasn’t sure how good a rainwings word was, but she had no choice but to trust it. “Oh, I’m just, uh, hunting.”
The rainwing kicked the snake, pushing it towards Marina. “Take it. These things try to get into our hatcheries all the time, eat as many as you want.”
Marina eyed the snake's deformed face warily, suddenly reminded of the strange attack. “Did you see what did that?” She asked, gesturing towards the snake's eyes. She shot the treeline a nervouse look. “Is it safe to be here?”
The rainwing let out a snort. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. The mudwings always freak out whenever we use our venom around them.”
The colorful dragon suddenly unhinged her jaw, extending it so far Marina worried she might dislocate it. A tiny stream of black liquid shot out from the rainwings fangs, landing way too close to Marina’s tail. It hit a small weed with a sizzle, and Marina’s eyes widened as the liquid ate through to plant until it was nothing but a black lump.
Three moons. Marina had to go, she had to warn her tribe–could all rainwings just do that? Rainwings were so much more dangerous than they thought, she had to warn them–
“Moon’s above, I’m not gonna spit it at you.”
Marina looked up, suddenly aware that she’d been staring wide-eyed and open mouthed at the ground for too long. She swallowed hard, pulling her wings in close. “Can, can all rainwings just… do that?”
The rainwing shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah. Cool, huh?”
All of them… Anyway rainwing could do that to anyone. All they had to do was spit on a dragon and kill them. This was worse than fire, worse than a poison barb or even frost breath. The nightwings didn’t stand a chance.
“Why are you so nervous? You can read minds, right? You know I’m not gonna do anything.” The rainwing was squinting into Marina’s eyes, as though she was looking for a reaction to her own thoughts.
“I’m, uh, not one of those.” Marina admitted, and then kicked herself. She had always been awful at those, ‘pretending to read minds’ lessons.
“Oh.” The rainwing drooped, as though the information that Marina couldn’t go poking around in her brain disappointed her. “Not even a little?”
Marina wrinkled her snout. “Do you wish I could?”
The rainwing shrugged. “No, I mean, I thought all nightwings could read minds. I guess it doesn’t matter, I say whatever I’m thinkin’ anyway.”
“That’s weird.” Marina informed her. She had been so relieved when she learned nightwing powers were made up. “What are you doing awake? I, well, I thought nightwings were the only nocturnal tribe.”
The rainwing lifted her wings. “Couldn’t sleep. All the moons were full, so I had to see it.” She pointed up, and Marina saw what she was seeing.
Three full moons for the first time in 100 years. Marina hadn’t even realized what tonight was. The brightest night, the night the prophecy dragonets were destined to hatch. Eight more years, and this jungle would be theirs.
“You look like you didn’t know that.” The rainwing said, sounding amused. She grabbed Marina’s talon, pulling her into the light. “C’mon, watch it with me! No one else would watch it with me.”
Marina flinched under her touch, but allowed herself to be dragged out of the shadows. The strange dragons' talons were soft, and Marina recalled reading somewhere that rainwings could retract their claws to help with camouflage. The rainwing fell over onto her back, as though the idea that Marina–a dragon from another tribe she’d never met–might attack her hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“You probably know all about the sky.” The rainwing continued as Marina settled down beside her. “I read somewhere that they’re only full like this once every hundred years. Is that true?”
Marina nodded. “I, uh, I think so.”
“Then it’s a good thing I decided to sneak out!” The rainwing smiled. “What's your name?”
Marina considered lying, but she really saw no point in that. “...Marina.”
The rainwing looked up at her sideways. “That sounds like a seawing name.”
“It is.” Marina answered, glancing away. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, I’ve got all night.”
Marina frowned. “Alright, then it’s a personal story.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” The rainwing looked away, and Marina noticed tiny speckles of purple and orange dust her snout before quickly fading away. “My name’s Pearlescent.” The rainwing told her. “I know it’s a mouth full, so you can just call me Pearl, if you want.” Pearl breathed a laugh. “I guess that sounds like a seawing name, too.”
It seemed like a fitting name to Marina. Pearl was remarkably shiny for a dragon. “That’s a pretty name.”
“Thanks, yours too.”
The night sky was impossibly beautiful, Marina couldn’t stop staring at it. It was so vast and endless, calling her to melt right into it and become one of its many twinkling stars. When Marina was a dragonet, she’d sometimes dream about flying high above the volcanic smog just to get a glimpse at the sky, or maybe swim out far enough that the smoke was no longer blocking out the sun. She’d never gone through with it, of course. Dragonets weren’t allowed to stray far from the coast, and she would surely choke before reaching the end of the smoke cloud.
“You look like you’ve never seen the sky before.” Pearl said after a while, and Marina realized the rainwing had been watching her more than the sky.
“I haven’t.” Marina admitted without thinking, before clasping her talons over her snout.
“What?” Pearl sat up, her scales rippling with sudden color. “Did you hatch underground or something?”
Marina winced. This was bad. She’d completely forgotten why she had spoken to this dragon in the first place. “I… I, uh, I can’t tell you.” Was all she could think to say.
“Ah, another secret.” The rainwing jumped up suddenly, and Marina instinctively rolled over to protect her underbelly, her muscle’s bracing for an attack that never came. “Wait here, I’ll be right back!”
“Wait!” Marina called, but Pearl was alright melting into the shadows, and Marina felt her whole world tip over.
She was going to be in so much trouble for this. Pearl was gone, gone to tell her village what she’d seen, gone and invisible and moving too fast for Marina to catch her. She’d never be allowed to leave the volcano again. She’d be put in the dungeon if she was lucky, or into the lava if she wasn’t. And what would this mean for Eight? Who would take care of her when Marina was just another charred skeleton at the bottom of the volcano?
You should have killed her while you had the chance. Hissed Marrowseer’s voice in her head. Any real nightwing wouldn’t have hesitated.
But how could I!? Marina bit back. How could any dragon with a conscious attack an innocent, unsuspecting rainwing in her own home?
She could already see the disappointment in Greatnesses face. I really thought I could trust you. The nightwing princess would say before flicking her tail, signalling for the guards to plunge Marina to her molten death. Would she make Eight watch? Would all the dragons of the tribe watch as she was forced into the lava–
Marina was so caught up in her panic, she hadn’t even noticed Pearl's return.
“Three moons, are you ok?” Pearl asked, grabbing Marina’s face in her talons. The grass Marina had curled up on was cold, and slightly damp. The warmth from Pearl's soft talons startled her enough to bring her back to reality. “Did something happen? You didn’t eat any frogs, did you?”
Marina flinched back, her heart still pounding. Pearl had come back, she still had time to fix this. The nightwing took a deep breath. “I wasn’t supposed to talk to you.” She said, her voice high with desperation. “I was supposed to–you can’t tell anyone you saw me, ok? Please, just please don’t tell anyone you saw me. I’ll be put to death if you tell anyone.”
Pearl’s scale all changed at once, a starburst of entirely new colors swirling across her body. The rainwing frowned, brushing her wing against Marina’s. “Wow, it’s that serious?” She paused, and Marina nodded. “Alright, I swear I won’t tell a soul about this, ok? I’m good at keepin’ secrets.”
Marina swallowed. “Thank you.” She hesitated. “Also, don’t go out at night anymore. There are, um, other dragons like me who will kill you if they see you.”
That startled Pearl, her scales doing the same shocked explosion of color. “Say what?”
Marina nodded again. “Just, if you have to, tell the other rainwings it’s not safe to go out at night.”
Pearl shook her head. “That’ll just make ‘em curious. Or, maybe not. They like to sleep a lot.” She flicked her tail, and her face softened a little. “I know at least three dragonet’s who’d sneak out into the rainforest lookin’ for a monster.”
Marina breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, I owe you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Pearl began picking through an assortment of oddly shaped colorful objects, and Marina realized the rainwing must’ve gone to gather fruit. “I got these for you. I dunno if nightwings like fruit, but the mudwings never complain when we give it to ‘em.” She paused, eyeing Marina’s protruding ribs. “Plus, I don’t wanna be rude or anything, but you look kinda, eh, thin.”
Marina didn’t take offence to that at all. Everyone was thin, except for the few nightwings who spent prolonged periods of time on the mainland. They got to hunt whenever they liked. “Oh, thank you. I’ve never had fruit before.”
Pearl held out something round and orange, slicing the thick peel away neatly with one claw. “When you said you’d never been above ground before, I figured, hey, might as well serve you Pyrrhia’s finest while you’re up here.” She held out the glistening fruit, juice dripping from her talons. “Here, these are really good.”
Marina took it gingerly. It was stickier than she’d expected, and she quickly shoved it in her mouth. It exploded on her tongue, washing away the smokey taste between her teeth and replacing it with cool sweetness.
“Mh!” She said, her mouth full. “That’s not bad!”
Pearl laughed. “Maybe your breath will smell less terrible if you eat enough of ‘em.”
They sat like that for a while, gazing up at the bright sky while Pearl showed her how to peel and eat each fruit. It made Marina feel lighter than she had in a long time. This dragon saw her as an equal, despite their vastly different lives. There were no expectations, no disapproval. Marina wanted to curl up under the moons with this dragon and stay in this warm moment forever.
“I read a scroll about a nightwing who could project his thoughts into other dragons' minds.” Pearl told her. “I always thought that would be cool, being able to talk to dragons without sayin’ anything. Do you know any nightwings like that?”
Marina thought for a moment, but she couldn’t remember ever reading about that ability. “No, I don’t think that’s real. Sorry.”
Pearl sighed. “Figures. It was written by a seawing, anyway. I guess she wouldn’t know.”
“How did you get a scroll from a seawing?” Marina asked. “I thought, well, I didn’t think rainwings had contact with the rest of Pyrriah.” Truthfully, Marina didn’t know rainwings could read until now. The scrolls she’d read about them said most of them couldn’t even count.
“A mudwing I found let me have it.” Pearl answered. “They get lost in the jungle all the time. They’re usually pretty grateful if you show them what fruits they can eat and point them in the right direction. Usually.”
Marina glanced back at Pearl’s tail, running her eyes over the dragon sized bite scar near its end. Too big to be from a rainwing.
“I was a little worried when I saw you.” Pearl continued. “I mean, everything I’ve heard about nightwings made you guys seem intense, but you’re cool.”
“A lot of the nightwings I know are pretty intense.” Marina admitted.
“Do they also suck at hiding, or is that just you?” Pearl said teasingly, nudging Marina with her wing.
Marina frowned. “What was wrong with my hiding?”
“Three moons, where do I begin?” Pearl said dramatically. “For one thing, you were standing completely straight. Even if you could change color, you gotta try to flatten yourself against the ground or somethin’. Give you somethin’ to blend into. Plus, your eyes are super shiny, but I dunno how you’re gonna change that.”
Marina blinked. She had been given basic combat training in school, though they’d been taught little in the way of stealth. That was mostly reserved for students who intended to become assassins. “My eyes are shiny?”
Pearl nodded. “Blinding. It’s cool, honestly. I guess it’s ‘cause you can see in the dark, right? They remind me of panther eyes.”
Marina squinted into Pearl’s yellow eyes. Now that she thought about it, the rainwings' eyes did lack a certain sheen nightwing eyes had.
Pearl suddenly rolled to her feet. “Hey, how about I teach you? I used to teach camouflage a few years ago, it can’t be that different for nightwings.”
Marina slid to her feet, glancing at the sky. “I’d love to, but I think I have to go.” Marina said mournfully. The moons had shifted noticeably, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d be expected back at the tunnel.
Pearl’s face fell, her scales changing to what Marina guessed was the color of disappointment. “Already? I was hoping I could show you around the rainforest when the sun comes up.”
Three moons, it hurt more than fire to say no to that. Her chest ached at the thought of returning to her home, choking herself with smoke when the option of a warm, blissful morning was close enough to taste. But Marina shook her head. “I want to, really, but I’ve been gone for too long, they–I mean, the other nightwings, might come looking for me.”
Pearl nodded sadly. “Ah, I get it. Can I see you again some time?”
Marina perked up at that. “Yes! I mean, I have no idea when…” She hesitated again, considering whether it was wise to reveal yet another of her secrets to this dragon. “I have this, uh, thing, that lets me visit dragons while they’re dreaming.”
“A dream visitor?” Pearl guessed, her colors shifting again. “Those are real?”
Marina nodded. She’d found it as a dragonet, hiding from one of the older dragonets after she’d accidentally knocked over his school project. The tunnel to the old treasury was something no dragonet dared to go in. Everyone said it was haunted, but it was the only place she could find that no one would ever check.
The small blue sapphire had called to her. She’d considered turning it over to Greatness, but it felt too important to just hand over. Something told her she’d need it someday, that it had hidden itself away from all other dragons but her. It wanted her to have it, not Greatness.
“One is, at least.” Marina answered. “I’m not sure about the others. I’ll tell you the next time I can come and visit, and you can wait for me here.”
Pearl was shimmering happy shades of pink and yellow as she grinned. “That’s so sick! You’re not kiddin’, right? I thought those were made up!”
“They’re real.” Marina assured. “Most dragons think they were made by the sandwings, but they were actually made by a nightwing animus nearly two thousand years ago.”
“I’ve never seen an animus touched object before.” Pearl said, her scales more yellow than pink now. “That’s so cool, having matching dreams. I wish we had cool magic shit like that.”
If the rainwings ever had animus dragons, they kept to themselves. Rainwings and mudwings were the only two tribes to never hatch an animus, at least in recorded history. “I’ve never really used it that much. I can’t wait to see you again.”
Pearl brushed her spiral tail against Marina's before bumping her snout. Her breath smelled like fruit juice and chewed leaves. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Marina grabbed the dead snake, ripping off its venom-melted head. Even though she felt full for the first time in her life, she knew her sister definitely didn’t. This was probably the biggest meal the five year old dragonet would’ve ever had.
Pearl waved a sad goodbye, and Marina melted back into the shadows.