𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎 : 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚜

06 : Visions

Stardust

Stardust carefully worked on her patient, like a dance she'd memorized. She applied herbal remedies to the wound, placed bandages on top, and removed shards of glass.

She let out of sigh of relief. The dragonet would live.

She had shimmery black scales that sparkled with pink and purple, and muted purple wings. Green freckles dotted her legs.

A worried dragon burst into the room. She had wings like SilkWing, though they seemed to merge in the middle, and she was green and gold. Stardust did lots of work about dragon anatomy, so she could guess this dragon was a LeafWing-SilkWing. Judging by the black scales of her daughter, the dragonet's father was a NightWing.

"Moonsilk!" The mother cried. "We were so worried!" She gave Stardust a grateful look. "Thank the moons you were here. We were traveling, and we left Moonsilk alone in the cave we were in, and then we found the MudWing..."

Stardust nodded. "Of course. There have been a lot of reported murders from MudWings lately," she said, worried. "Moonsilk is so lucky you found her."

The mother burst into tears.

A tall NightWing strode into the hospital room. "Hush, Milkweed. She's okay, and Aster is outside. He won't want to see his mother cry."

Milkweed nodded and sniffed. Stardust ducked out of the room to leave the family alone, moving on to the next patient.

In the next room was a SkyWing, the tribe occupying most of the beds. After all, they were in the Sky Kingdom—

Something flashed in Stardust's eyes. A brown blur, spinning in circles and leaving a trail of death in its path. Finally, it hit a surprised dragon on a throne, knocking her to the ground.

He placed the crown on his head.

"It's time."

Stardust reeled back and gasped in horror. Another medic, a SkyWing named Cadmium, flashed her a curious look. "Can I go home early?" Stardust asked him.

He frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I just... have a thing... for NightWings?" She tried.

The SkyWing looked even more confused. "Isn't your husband an IceWing-SandWing?"

"Oh! Um, yeah..." She sighed. "Please?"

Cadmium shrugged. "Fine. Be back tomorrow, you're our best medic." He turned his head and hollered for another doctor.

"Wait!" Stardust turned, impatient. Milkweed was running after her, a few silver and gold pieces clutched in her hand.

"I want you to have these," she said.

Stardust shook her head. "No, I'm just doing my job. This isn't necessary."

Milkweed smiled at her. "Please? I know how under payed medics are." She pushed the treasure into Stardust's talons. "For saving Moonsilk."

Stardust hesitated, than nodded. "Thank you."

Stardust darted through the halls of the palace, finally finding a good window and launching herself into the sky. Worry for the dead dragons plagued her mind, fueling her wing beats.

"Apricity?" She asked when she reached her home, a small cottage lit with candles. They lived in the slums of the SkyWing kingdom, so there wasn't a lot of privacy.

No one was home.

Stardust sighed and sat down on the hammock outside. It was a RainWing and NightWing custom to sleep in hammocks, or so her parents had told her.

When they weren't yelling at her or each other, or calling her a useless waste of scales. Which was pretty much all the time.

She'd always had small visions, which had helped her save her patients by showing her what to do in the future. They had always been tiny snippets of her doing things.

But never like that.

She touched her teardrop scales, worried. That dragon had been a MudWing. That dragon on the throne...

She gasped. The MudWing assassin who'd tried to kill Moonsilk was going to kill Queen Fawn of the MudWings!

"Stardust! You're home early!" Apricity was clearly in a good mood, and he held a bag of something. Stardust felt bad to spoil it.

"We need to send a messenger to the MudWing kingdom!" Stardust cried.

Apricity's look darkened. "Stardust, the MudWings are trying to start a war."

"Only one of them. And he's going to kill Queen Fawn!"

Apricity frowned. "How do you know all of this?"

"I had a vision, Apricity. At the hospital, so I came back home. Please," Stardust begged. "You're good at this stuff. We need to warn her. If he becomes king, he'll attack my tribe first. They're the closest."

"Queen Beautyrise exiled your parents!"

"My parents weren't the best dragons."

He sighed. "Are you sure about this? You've never had a vision like this before."

Stardust looked at her husband, determined. "Yes. I'm sure."

Apricity sighed. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."

Stardust smiled. "You always find something."

Apricity grinned wryly. "That's why you married me."

Stardust rolled her eyes.

"On a totally different subject," Apricity said, "There was a SkyWing noble being attacked. I managed to get her out, though," he added when Stardust looked concerned. "She was very pretty, and had mostly white scales."

Stardust couldn't contain her twinge of jealousy. Stardust, she chided herself, There are other pretty dragons in the world.

"Oh," was all she said.

Apricity smiled at her. "Should I go now?"

Stardust shook her head. "It's fine. We're barely ever both home."

Apricity agreed. "Also," he said sneakily, "Look at what I got!" He opened the bag to reveal a huge pile of gold.

"Apricity, that's amazing!" Stardust cried. "I also have a surprise for you." She pulled out the gold and silver Milkweed had given her.

"You got a raise?" Apricity asked hopefully.

"No," Stardust sighed. "This came from the MudWing victim's mother. She's lucky she and her husband got there when they did."

Apricity sighed. "What is happening to the world?"

Stardust shrugged sadly. "At least this isn't as bad as Pantala."

Apricity nodded. "I thank the moons every night for that." He yawned. "Speaking of which, it's almost sunset. We should go to bed soon."

Stardust agreed. Normally, she would leave the hospital at moonrise. This was a good break.

That night, the vision of the MudWing plagued her dreams, and she woke up in cold sweat multiple times.

They were running out of time.

She could feel it.

⊰ ꩜ ⊱

A/N

Lol there is a double update, enjoy it >:) This was almost entirely written by @FlameWing_Z so you should definitely check her out after this :D anyway, the real shit of this book will be happening soon