The Truth About The NightWings

Stonemover

That night, a young NightWing could be seen taking off into the night sky. 

She couldn't have been much older than five, which was odd; NightWings were rarely seen around Pyrrhia, and even then, they were always adults, not dragonets. 

Perhaps she was out for a casual flight; a vacation from the NightWings' secret kingdom. 

Judging from the wary look in her eyes, though, it was evident that whatever she was about to do, it couldn't be any good. 

And, indeed, it wasn't. Flying in the middle of the night to the lair of a potentially dangerous animus--well, there was hardly anything more dangerous than that. 

                                                                              *** 

Flying to Jade Mountain was not easy. 

For anyone else, they would probably make it in two or three days. 

Then again, living in an island full of smoke and lava didn't exactly make for strong flying muscles. 

The first day, there was a storm. 

Lightning blazed, the thunder roared as if it was displeased with the NightWing tribe, too. Rain pounded from the clouds as if trying to fill in the gaps of death left from the war and the volcano. 

I had to take shelter in a canopy of leaves on a tall tree. I buried my head in the dangle of branches and leaves, waiting until the rain stopped. 

The next day, the storm had stopped, but flying wasn't much easier. I had to make frequent stops; breathing smoke and ash for the past five years meant my lungs were terrible. 

Finally, after about a week, I saw the blurry outline of Jade Mountain. 

I had heard tales of the enormous height of the mountain, but seeing it with my own eyes was a whole different experience. The two peaks stuck out like the fangs of a viper, and the mountain itself looked like a giant mouth, engulfing its surroundings. 

I landed and looked around. According to the old scrolls, Stonemover was last seen heading towards Jade Mountain. I figured he must be living in one of the caves. 

I tentatively walked into one, and my heart immediately sank. 

Ahead of me, the stone path forked into four different paths. I peered down one of them and saw a seemingly endless void of darkness. 

The network of tunnels was huge. How was I going to ever find one lone dragon here?

I clenched my jaw. Well, I didn't come all this way to be disappointed. 

I breathed a small flame and made my way down on one of the tunnels, hoping that I would find the right one. 

It seemed to take forever, but finally, deep in the neverending silence, I heard a small sound:

Breathing. 

I ran towards it, grinning with excitement. 

This was it. It had to be. Who else would want to live in a dark, lonely cave?

I burst into a spacious room. There wasn't anything to decorate the walls but moss. In the middle of it all was a large lump of black. 

I could see the lump rising and falling, but other than that there was no indication that it was a living thing. 

I found a small rock and threw it at the lump as hard as I could. 

To my surprise, it bounced off the scales, almost as if...

As if it were made of stone. 

I blinked in surprise. 

Was the animus turning into stone?

I heard stories of animuses, legends of what happened if they used their magic too much. There was even a tale of a NightWing animus who did so many terrible things that the entire tribe fled into hiding.

But I had never heard of an animus turning into stone before. 

What had happened? 

I had no time to wonder about this because just then, an eye slowly opened and stared at me. 

Caught by surprise, I stammered,"Oh! Um...h-hello."

"Hello," said the dragon, his voice low and scratching, as if his voice was grating against walls of stone. 

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm Stargaze. I'm here to ask you about  Princess Twilight."

For a long time, the NightWing animus didn't say anything. 

I felt a wave of anger wash over me. "What happened to her?" I demanded. "Did you kill her? Or did you enchant her to be someone completely different?"

"I'm...not...supposed...to...talk...about...this," Stonemover said in an agonizingly slow voice. 

I grabbed him by the throat. 

"Who...is...she???" I asked fiercely. 

The NightWing animus slowly blinked, not registering the claws tightened around his throat. 

"Spellcaster."