Stardancer's Vision

Part One: The Prophecy of Shadows- Chapter One, Stardancer

When Stardancer was two years old, Nightseeker took her out of the cave systems she'd grown up in and took her to the village, where she'd been mostly accepted. Of course, that was because there would be other mind readers and future seers. Over the last four years, she'd learned everything she could about her powers, including what her grandmother knew. And, of course, she'd studied animus powers like every other dragonet. The queens from each tribe tested every dragonet when they were newly hatched, and if they were an animus, they were closely watched. When Star joined the tribe, she was excused from the chore of reciting the normal lines that all the other dragonets did.

The recitations were a yearly chore for every dragonet, partly to raise confidence but also to see if they could actually do the spell. Besides, the queen trusted Moonwatcher when she said that Star had recited the lines in the cave system that she'd grown up in- which wasn't a lie. Star had recited the lines- if only to make her mother feel better. But Queen Nebula didn't care about some random dragonet whose mind and views were already made up. She wanted a young animus whom she could easily apprentice. If she had someone like that, she could influence their ideas and actions. That's what she really wanted.

But Star had thanked her lucky stars-ha- that the Queen hadn't decided to apprentice her for being a mind reader-future seer. She could have been the next Clearsight, which was a responsibility she definitely didn't want at this point in her life. And anyway, she had plenty of things to do in her spare time. Currently, she was reading in the library because she'd found a scroll about Clearsight from her friend Listener. Additionally, she recited other facts in her head.

The queens have a spell that tells them every registered animus dragon in their tribe. If a dragon cast a spell, the queen would know who did it and what it was. When Stardancer came, Queen Nebula didn't bother to, coinciding that if Stardancer was an animus, they'd know already. Of course, Stardancer had done a soul-protection spell in the caves like Moonwatcher had told the queen she had- those yearly lines that were required. But if she were an animus, it would be necessary- all animuses' first spell was soul protection. Stardancer- or Star- was one-fourth Sandwing, because of her mom's dad- Qibli. Qibli, Moon, and Winter had married each other because none could choose who they liked better. So now Star was stuck with this SandWing tail barb and sandy freckles on her snout, along with black irises dappled with blue, and a starry SandWing frill with spikes on either side. Her scales were purplish-black, and her wings were a vibrant purple-pink with starlike scales like a NightWing.

Her cousin Aurora, the IceWing hybrid, was part NightWing and had silver webbing and black stripes under her wings. Her spikes were very thin and close together, so they resembled a SandWing frill, although they weren't. Star and Aurora hung out a lot. They were best friends. Lately, though, she'd been having visions of a darkness taking over Pyrrhia. She told Moonwatcher, but Moon only said it was 'Just a vision, nothing to worry about.' Like Star believed it for a second. She knew it was a very possible future, but she wasn't sure what she could do to stop it. She sighed and walked from the library to her room in the palace, which had been enlarged so everyone could sleep there if they wanted to. As she flopped on her bed, she thought about her vision.

She didn't know what to make of it. All she could do was live her life as if nothing was wrong, even though every fiber in her being said the opposite. Suddenly, Stardancer felt a pulling sensation in her chest, like something that was supposed to stay down had come up. Another vision hit her, but this one was different. A dragon with gemlike scales, beetle-like wings -with a beetle shell over the wings, like a ladybug- and antler-like horns held his talons out, and thousands of other dragons like him rose, angry- but they looked wrong. He smiled and said, "My tribe. Welcome back." Then Star flashed back to the present. Who was that? I've never seen a dragon like that before... Well, I'm sure I'll understand later.