What if... - Putrid reflection

Chapter A

Scalding smoke , suffocating heat , darkness that won't help, rough ground , and, oh, how he wished there was wind to blow away the horrible taste in his mouth of that rotten thing they fed him earlier.

It didn't matter where he looked, everything in the NightWings' kingdom sucked, for so long he wanted to see what his home was like, and now the first thing he wanted to do was get out.

If I found another dead end I swear I'd scream. It was the tenth turn to a cliff, he wanted to release the anguish of getting lost in his own kingdom, but he shut himself when 2 NightWings passed by very close, screaming would only be another mistake on his list of regrets.

He trotted between the stone paths without a clear destination, he couldn't wait for Glory and the others to arrive soon, but he didn't know the way back either, one of the reasons why Morrowseer hasn't chained me, I suppose.

Although since I'm here, I can get information, if I don't find the RainWings, I can find a library, they surely have one, and I NEED to train these eyes.

He looked around again, more rocks, more lava, more nothing. The environment was blurred by the heat waves to see more than a shot away.

During all the turns he made he couldn't find the closest thing to an establishment, from time to time a dragon flew out of a cave that doesn't even seem to be there, and of course there was that stone castle where the queen was, but he couldn't go back there.

It's unfair that the queen saw me after being knocked out, if it had been different... Then an idea came to his head, his friends weren't around to humiliate him, and there was no audience that would make him nervous, he could practice a speech.

"We are the dragonets of destiny, we seek the well-being of all dragons, please, you must free the RainWings, they are also dragons." He stopped to think about how he felt in front of the queen and that audience, no useful word would come out of his snout, even if he studied 20 scrolls.

His spirits fell as his step, he didn't care to listen to a nearby conversation when he scolded himself, this is absurd, everyone saw me as a maddragon just for talking, even so, what could I say? I don't want to tell them our plan to save the RainWings, but if I don't say anything useful they would throw me into the lava... I don't want to betray anyone...

In the rain forest, Starflight didn't have much to do but take care of Webs or protect the tunnel to his home, now that he was on the other side, he couldn't feel more miserable, his stomach empty, his eyes dry with moisture, and a thirst that left his throat dry, somehow it was worse than being under the scorching desert sun.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't see the trench that led to a descent, he tripped and fell into a hole when he stepped on air.

He cried out in surprise and before he could get back up in the air, he hit the ground with a thud. "pain," Starflight said, raising his neck tha cushioned the fall of his hind leg.

"Hey, are you..." a voice said very close to him as it moved him with a talon, through his clouded vision he could barely make out the silhouette of a dragon. He blinked and tried to get up, but the pain got the better of him and he collapsed back to the ground, "oh, you're not dead."

Behind this dragon, another voice sounded, one could mistake it from a squeak, "what's going on over there? Did they throw us something to eat?"

"Not unless you feel like a cannibal," the first voice replied, its hissing voice making Starflight's scales dance, this time he was able to get up, but his vision was still clouded.

"Wait, it's you!" Another voice joined in, this cheerful creature stood so closeof him that its purple eyes contrasted brightly with his own brown ones.

He had to take a few steps back because of a headache he had, "Yeah, is it me?..." Ow, I must have hit myself really hard.

He took a few steps back and finally could see more clearly, his attention was on that dragonet who was so excited about him, he didn't notice the golden scales moving in the periphery.

The aforementioned dragonet took a step towards him without taking her eyes off him, "Of course you are! You are the one who will be part of my destiny!" She began to scream so loud that Starflight's head hurt again. "My name is Fatespeaker, what's your name? No wait, let me try..."

She frowned and began to massage her forehead, she seemed to focus her tough trough her skull, she even made a "mhhh" sound. It took a moment for her to shout her answer, "Astral!"

Words lacked to express what Starflight had in mind, on one talon, she wasn't far to get his name right, on the other, what did she do to say that? Is this how NightWings read minds? Morrowseer definitely didn't do that when she reads my mind.

"Don't pay attention to her, she's crazy," said the first voice he heard, finally noticing the contrasting color of his scales with the stone of the walls, "if you know what's good for you, don't even answer her."

That seemed to offend the NightWing, she turned her head at a wide angle and spat, "Shut up, he was in the vision I decided not to tell you about, get lost"

This NightWing seems to know the SandWing over there, I have no idea how he's even here, but I want to know one thing at a time, the situation seemed strange to Starflight, but in a pleasant way.

"I'm Starflight by the way, what is that you say about a vision?"

"Oh, I didn't guess right... wait, how do you not know? You're a NightWing, you should know about these things."

The question confused Starflight, he didn't understand what a vision was, although coming from a NightWing it should be something natural for them. He wanted to seem less naive, "well, I want to know what you know."

Fatespeaker's face seemed to burst with joy upon hearing those words, "Oh, I see! Well, all my life I've had these visions that show me the future."

She is interrupted by the squeak voice from before "Don't pay attention to her~! Her visions are all but reliable." That little dragon was so small that Starflight almost confused him with Kinkajou, but he's not a Rainwing, he's a Seawing, what the heck is a Seawing doing in the  NightWing kingdom?

This story sounds familiar to me, Starflight's suspicions rose with him on his talons, he began to inspect the cave in search of an exit, before seeing the opening of the cave, or considering the hole through which he came, he came across a body of mound brown.

It looked like a log, but logs don't breathe, it wasn't until he moved it with a talon that he heard a groan, a deep and rough "aughhh" sound, it reminded him of Clay waking up on the floor of the cave under the mountain...

It was then that he had an idea, like a stone that fell on a lake, and the waves formed to ravage his mind, he could barely formulate the words before his confusion "what are a SandWing, a MudWing and a SeaWing doing here in this place?"

Mentioning those words also reminded him of another living nightmare, the memories of his life under the mountain begin to rush over him, he almost didn't process Fatespeaker's answer, "There is also a SkyWing, hidden up there, and together we are something like the dragonets of destiny."