King of The Dragons (Wings of Fire X Monster Hunter)

Part 2: Chapter 12, 13, & 14

(3rd Pov Moonwatcher)

"I can't set you free," Moon whispered to the wall that night after Kinkajou and carnelian were asleep.
'Do I really seem evil to you, Moon?'|She buried her nose in a pile of moss, but she knew she couldn't hide the answer from him. 'No.'
'We don't know what really happened back then, after Clearsight and Fathom tricked me. We can't be sure the tribe ran and hid and gave up their powers because of me. I mean . . . nothing I did was awful enough for that.'

Moon rolled onto her back and gazed up at the ceiling. 'What about the things they knew you might do, in the future?'
A rumble in her head, like flames building: 'Is it fair to judge me for possibly dreadful deeds I never even did? We all might do terrible things. This SkyWing in your cave might smother Kinkajou in her sleep just to shut her up. The IceWings might conspire to murder Peril, or you might let a killer escape, or you might send a friend to certain death. That NightWing, Stormcaller, might die in the near future.'
'What are you talking about?' Moon asked. 'Do you know what's going to happen? Have you had visions of all those things?' She sat up. 'Do you already know if I'm going to free you or not?'
He sighed. 'Moon, I told you. With a prophecy gift as advanced as mine, I can see all the possibilities. I see futures where you free me, and futures where I live like this, trapped in the dark, alone, for thousands more years. All your choices spiral off into different futures. The visions you've had are only brief glimpses of the most likely outcomes; you see them as clearly as you'd see a dark cave with one burst of flame. And they could still all change.'
(Side note: It is impossible for Darkstalker to see all possible futures, because every time you look into the future, the future changes, even if it is by a little bit.)

'So you could manipulate me into freeing you,' Moon pointed out. 'You can see exactly what you need to say to make me say yes.'
A long pause.
'That's not fair, Moon. What can I say to that? Anything will sound like a trick to you. But it's not manipulating you if I tell you that what I'm going through now is torture. That's just the truth. That is not what the tribe planned for me; Clearsight would not have wanted this. How can I not tell you these things, if they might convince you?
However,' he went on, 'I cannot make you do anything. You make your own choices. That, unfortunately, is the essential problem with prophecy. Every dragon has the power to choose their own future.' He let out a low, sad chuckle. 'Except me, of course. Ironically.'
'You're going to haunt me for the rest of my life if I don't free you, aren't you?' Moon asked.
He chuckled again. 'I'd only argue that this is not so much "haunting" as it is "clinging desperately to my only conversational companion." '

At last Moon fell asleep, straight into another night of dreams about Jade Mountain Academy collapsing around her and her friends while the massive dragon towered above them in the sky. Now Darkstalker's face from the scroll loomed over the whole nightmare, glaring up at the dragon with a look of fear and hate. A warning? A promise?
Was the fall of Jade Mountain something that would happen if she freed Darkstalker - or something that would happen if she didn't?

* * *

The next afternoon, the Jade Winglet met in the music cave with Anemone's group, the Silver Winglet. Moon could hear the deep warbling sound of didgeridoos as she climbed up the tunnels behind Kinkajou. the sound seemed to swallow her up, reverberating in her bones, and then the dragonets emerged into a vast cave full of echoes.
It was like being inside a singing bowl; the music catapulted around the high, smooth walls like thread winding around and around the assembled dragons.

Moon recognized Anemone's clawmate, the little SandWing named Ostrich, as one of the players. She held a wing-shaped harp and was plucking the strings with her claws. Beside her, Umber was trying to keep up on a hollow stringed instrument as tall as a dragon that boomed in a deep bass register.