Shadow Falling

Earthquake

Shade watched as Passion continued to hunt the crabs in the shallows. He felt like he should ask about the little Icewing he had seen, the tawny pelt, what he saw when he accidently touched Silver. And how Silver was so odd. But maybe that was just because he was worried and out of sorts.

He carefully stepped into the fluffy seafoam, watching it wash soothingly around his talons.

"Passion?" he called tentatively.

She popped her head up, before bounding over, splashing seawater everywhere. Shade held up a wing to prevent the saltwater from getting into his eyes.

"What? You need something?"

"Uh, I just... uh... do you know anything about Nightwing powers?" he blurted out.

Passion cocked her head to the side, before sitting in the water next to Shade. She dug her talons into the surf before she spoke. "Don't you guys not have them anymore? That's what Queen Glory said. But you used to, right?"

"Yeah, we used to. Mind reading and foresight. The... the older Nightwings taught us to act like we still had them. Act like we could read minds when we were really just watching body language and how to make up a good prophecy. I was never any good at it."

"Okay... but why do you ask?"

"Well, I... I've been... seeing things."

Passion's ruff fanned out, turning dark green. What did those colors mean?

"What sorts of things?" she asked eagerly, looking like she was about to jump up and down in excitement.

"Uh, you... I think I saw your family once. And... and blood. And then you were with a little Icewing?"

The color drained out of Passion's scales so fast that it looked as though someone had doused her with gray and white paint. Then she shook her head vigorously and color surged back up her body. It was, Shade noticed, quite a bit duller than he had ever seen it before.

"That was ages ago." Passion muttered mostly to herself, wings drooping.

Shade reached out to drape a wing over her back but stopped himself. "Can... can I ask was happened?"

"I think what you saw was my little brother, Thaw." she gritted her teeth, dark boiling red washing over her scales. "He was so little, he... he didn't have any way to protect himself. Not like Jewel. Not like me. He didn't even have any venom. No frostbreath. He and Jewel were playing... and a jaguar just... got him."

Her scales went gray again, her whole body folding in on itself.

"I talked to my father. I wanted to bring him back. I know I can." Passion's eyes shone so fiercely that for a second, Shade believed her. "But he said no. 'Even animus magic had limits. Nothing can change death'." she quoted bitterly.

"I'm sure you did what you could, Passion. You were really little after all." Shade said, trying to comfort her.

"If I had known I was an animus then... I would have prevented him from ever getting hurt. But he's gone now. And as much as I want to bring him back, I will listen to my father. He seemed pretty sure that animus magic couldn't bring the dead back."

"Yeah..."

Passion shook herself and stood. She tried to give a winning smile.

"You want a crab? It'll only take a moment to get you one!"

"Uhh, sure, why not?"

"Great! I'll find you one!!"

It didn't take long. Passion burrowed into the sand and popped out a bit later from a wriggling blue crab, waving its clawed pinchers, in her talons. She deftly crushed its shell against a rock on the shore and proudly presented it to Shade. He slowly took it and found that it was surprisingly good. Hard to eat, but good. Shade even helped Passion find crabs, though he wasn't all that great at it.

One by one, the other dragonets joined them and before he knew it, they had gathered to eat a pile of them together. It was... kind of nice, though Shade made sure that he stayed close to Passion.

As he was gnawing on a crab, something below him seemed to... quiver. He pulled his attention away from his crab and focused his attention on his talons. Or, more accurately, the sand under his talons. It was moving. He carefully stood and he was able to feel the trembling of the ground beneath him.

"Uh... Passion...? Can you feel that?" he asked, trying to keep his voice level.

His friend looked at him in confusion, then stood, too. The quaking beneath Shade's talons increased just slightly and he knew Passion could feel it now. All of them could, as the other dragonets were looking around in confusion.

And the ground lurched out from under Shade. He tumbled to the sand, feeling the ground roll under him. What?! What was going on?! All he could see was sand. He couldn't see anyone else at all. There was just too much sand and the ground was rolling too violently.

But as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

Shaking, Shade pulled himself out of the sand. It slid off him and he found the others sprawled in the dunes. Passion had already scrabbled out of the dune herself and was digging furiously through it. Within a few moments, she had dug up both Jewel and Destiny. Both were a little shaken but otherwise alright.

"Tiny, do you have any shells?" Passion asked urgently.

"Uh, yeah, do you need one?"

"Yes, please!"

Destiny handed her sister a shell, which she took.

"I command this shell to show me anything I tell it to!" Passion told it, holding it before her.

"Passion, don't!" Shade cried, too late.

"I need to see what's going on! Show me what caused the earthquake." Passion ordered, peering at the shell intently.

Reluctantly, Shade sidled up beside her to look into it. The other dragonets were yelling about what had happened, Stormcloud screaming about how the world was ending, as colors started to swirl across the shiny inner side of the abalone shell in Passion's talons. The scene resolved itself into the picture of a mountain side, where a massive hole had been blasted out of the side of it. A truly gigantic Nightwing with twisted horns emerged from the mountain and Shade's blood went cold.

"That's... that's Darkstalker." Shade said, absolutely certain of what he had seen.

"That's him? Really?? But that would make him thousands of years old!!" Passion cried excitedly.

Shade swallowed hard. "The legends say that he made himself immortal. I guess... I guess they were right."

"We have to see this for ourselves! Shade, come on!"

"Passion, wait!" Jewel yelled, winding her tail with Passion's. "We need to check on mother and father and Whale! Whale will be so scared! The scavengers, too. We have to make sure they're okay!"

"You're right, I'm sorry. Let's go take care of them, then we'll go see together." Passion agreed. "Are you coming, Shade?"

He slowly nodded. He didn't have anyone else to take care of, did he? And he did want to make sure that Passion didn't lose any more of her soul. She was getting to the point where it was getting worrisome. And Passion was his friend. He had to take care of her.