The Bright Future (COMPLETED)

Jerboa's Hut

***AUTHOR'S NOTE: SOME STUFF FROM BOOK 14 ARE IN HERE, SO YOU MAY NEED TO READ IT TO UNDERSTAND THIS PART.***

Jerboa seemed to be holding a candle holder. She had her mouth opened; perhaps she was about to say something. The SandWing whipped her head around. "Oh, you didn't even bother to knock, you just walked in like you own thi--YOU'RE ILLUSION'S DAUGHTER!" She placed the candle holder on a shelf and hurried over.

"Um. Yes. How did you know?" the NightWing dragonet asked as Jerboa began to examine her.

"You have her pretty gold eyes and graceful neck. And you have your father's snout--sprinkled with silver scales, like freckles, with speckles circling your eyes... Have they come, too?" Jerboa said in a rush.

"Er... no," she replied cautiously. "They're dead." 

Jerboa's mouth opened slowly. "Dead? Illusion and Visionwriter? How? They were so brave..." She began to rub her forehead.

"Can we please not get into that? I came here to ask you a favor." She fidgeted with her golden rings.

"Oh... maybe. If it has anything to do with using my magic, then no." Jerboa's tone became flat again.

"Umm.... well, it does. Maybe I can repay you?"

"Not unless you can break a curse. And the curse is not reversible by magic, either. So don't t waste your soul and try to fix it," Jerboa said ruefully.

"Can you tell me the story of the curse?" she asked Jerboa.

She sighed. "Well. I suppose so..." 

And then Jerboa explained all about her mother controlling her, making a scroll that could make little tweaks to fix her, and about herself freezing her mother and burying her under the hut. Then about the curse that took away a part of her every time she cast a spell. 

Jerboa took of her necklace--enchanted to hide her true self--and revealed that she was missing six claws.

 "So. The curse is unbreakable. No one can take it off you?" the NightWing dragonet said finally. 

"Yup," sighed Jerboa. "Hold on... why don't I know your name? What is it?"

"My name," she said, spreading her wings, "is Starwatcher. But my parents used to call me Star, so you can too if you want. I have an idea of how to break the curse. I will help you if you help me."

Jerboa's eyes were full of uncertain hope. "Really?" she whispered. "I will help you, I promise, if this works."

"Alright," Starwatcher said carefully. "That scroll--anything you write in it applies to you?"

"Correct."

"Well then." She strode over to the scroll lying flat on the table. Starwatcher dug in her scroll pouch for her peacock-feather quill and wrote on the piece of paper: All curses from other animi removed completely. She set the pen down and held it out to Jerboa.

"Why haven't I thought of that before?!?" exclaimed Jerboa as she read the scroll. She rushed over to her shelf and pulled out a different scroll. "Did it work?" she asked it.

What is she doing? thought Starwatcher, but miraculously, a word began to appear on the scroll. it read: Yes. 

Jerboa just stared with her mouth open at Starwatcher. "You... removed the curse. I've had it for over two hundred years. And... it's gone. Thank you, Star. I owe my life to you. Now, what can I help you with?"

She sat down on a wooden chair, and so did Starwatcher.

"Well." She tapped her ringed claws on the table. "Do you know who Darkstalker is?"