Don't Fall in Love with the Night

Chapter 18

     Prism heard a gentle babble of voices coming from the healer's hut as she approached. Hoping her conversation wouldn't be too awkward, she knocked on the side of the open door that led into the hut.

     A healer answered the knock, standing at the doorway. "Are you injured?" he asked, looking her over for injuries.

     "No," she answered with a polite smile. "I just came to visit a patient - may I?"

     "Sure." He motioned her in, calling to the other healer. "We have another visitor!"

     Another? Prism poked her head into the cool, shady hut, seeing a RainWing dragonet quietly snoring on a bed of leaves. On the other side of the hut, she saw two NightWings who turned towards her as she came in. One was younger and had a bandage of leaves over his eyes - Starflight, Prism recognized, and the other was...

     "Duskwatcher?"

     He grinned at her. "The very same. Good to see you again, Prism."

     Starflight shifted. "You two know each other?"

     "We met while building the NightWing village," Prism supplied. Three moons, I hope this conversation doesn't get awkward with him here...

     "She showed me how to eat a pineapple," Duskwatcher confirmed.

     Starflight nodded. "Nice to see the two tribes working together so well..." His voice trailed off and he touched the blindfold around his eyes, realizing he couldn't really see anything.

     "Actually, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," Prism interjected, keeping the topic off of his blindness. Carrying on before she lost her courage, she tried to not have her voice shake. "Everyone keeps saying that NightWings are... umm... we'll that they're liars and murderers, and that they're not to be trusted." She sneaked a glance at Duskwatcher, who was attentive to her, his brown eyes meeting her gaze. Prism quickly looked back down at her talons. "I know that isn't true for all NightWings, but how would I know which ones to trust? I don't want to keep the division between the two tribes, but I also don't exactly feel safe..." She stopped, hoping she wasn't offending either Duskwatcher or Starflight.

     Instead of being angry, however, Starflight merely nodded. "I can understand that, but tell me - do you trust Duskwatcher?"Prism glanced back towards Duskwatcher again, who goofily waved at her.

     Prism bit back a smile at his silly behavior. "I mean, he's not exactly the menacing type."

     "I don't know if I should be offended or not," chuckled Duskwatcher. "But you can make that decision because we've met before and since you know a bit about me."

     "Exactly. I believe that every dragon has an innate sense of wrong and right, and it is the situations in which they are placed that mould them into the dragons they are," continued Starflight.

     Prism was lost in thought for a moment, wondering what 'innate' meant and imagining the sort of mold she saw on decaying fruit. "But what about how two dragons in the same situation are different? Like Duskwatcher and his sister - they were raised the same, but he's friendlier than she is." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished she hadn't said it. "I mean - I didn't mean to say that Dawnseer is mean- it's just that she's -"

     "I know, she's a bit more hostile. And I would know, I've lived with her all my life." Duskwatcher grinned.

     Starflight interjected. "Exactly what I was getting to. The situations a dragon go through impact some differently than others, since we are all unique. You just have to learn about each dragon a bit more, get to know them."

     Prism nodded. "I guess that'll happen during the reading program."

     "Reading program?" Starflight and Duskwatcher asked simultaneously. Prism quickly explained it to them. Duskwatcher was intrigued, while Starflight grew immensely excited about it.

     "I could help Glory with the creation and structure of this program -  she'll have to choose the correct level of literature to start out with, certain scrolls, educate the NightWings as well as the RainWings - and the teaching techniques..." Starflight's voice lessened to a quiet mumbling as he planned the program out in his head.

     "I think it's a great idea," Duskwatcher turned to Prism. "You're going to be in it, I'm guessing?"

     "Yup! First on the list, actually."

     "Great! Well, I guess I'll see you around then, Prism." He held out his talons for her to shake. She did, smiling at him. He does have a very nice smile. 

    Oh no.