The Shifter of Planets (BOOK TWO OF THE SPACEWING PROPHECY)

Chapter 1

Tectonic was dreaming. 

he floated around through the nothingness, wondering which way to turn. Suddenly, a light appeared up ahead. He floated towards it... 

"Ah!" he woke up with a jolt. No, wait, he couldn't be awake. He was in the palace he had spent most of his life in, not in prison, or with that strange group of wyrms that had helped Celestial and him escape. 

But maybe that was a dream. 

Maybe getting taken away and meeting those dragons, that had been a dream, and this was real. He touched the floor. It felt pretty solid under his talons. Maybe he had dreamed about meeting the princess of the SunWings. Maybe she was probably completely different in real life. After all, why would she ever be in prison? He sighed. Awake or not, he wasn't just going to sit here all day. 

"Oh!" he nearly knocked into a castle servant, who quickly hurried out of his way. 

"Sorry!" he called. Suddenly, the world... shifted somehow, and Tectonic's dream changed. 

Tectonic woke up to sunlight in his face. He had fallen asleep in the royal gardens again. He needed to get out of there before someone noticed him. He carefully trotted back over to the front door, and used the secret passageway it had took him a month to dig to get back inside. 

This was how he lived. Stealing food from the garden and living in the shadow of King Boulder and his daughter. 

Venus. The very word made his heart beat faster. He loved the princess, but that was ridiculous. He didn't even exist in her head. SHe didn't know he existed. What would he say to her if he did propose his love? 

"Hello, Venus. I am the wyrm who has been watching you from the shadows for most of my life. I love you. Want to go for a walk in the gardens with me?" he stifled a laugh at the thought, and kept walking. Soon he came to a door. He opened it and dashed inside just as a servant passed by. 

Inside was where he lived. He ate here, slept here, and cried here. It was an old storage closet, but he had cleaned it out and made a lock for the door. When one of the servants found the contents of the closet stacked into neat piles in the hallway, they had tried to open the door, but it was jammed. They sighed. At least everything in it was here, and they could just put it in a different closet. 

That was how Tectonic lived. He ate the carrot he had pulled from the garden earlier. It wasn't as good as a pig, but it kept him alive for one more day. Sometimes he stole from the kitchens. The pastries and spiced meats were a delicacy for him, but he had to be extremely careful not to get caught. 

He left the closet, quietly shutting the door behind him and locking it with the key he had made. 

There she was, right on schedule. 

Princess Venus walked down the hallway, her blue scales shimmering in the torchlight. He quickly made his posture like that of one of the servants. There were so many, she wouldn't notice one more. She smiled at him, and he felt himself blushing. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet, at least. 

Venus passed by, just the way she always did at three every afternoon. By the time she had turned a corner down the hallway, Tectonic was back in his closet. He sighed with happiness. She had actually smiled at him! 

That was it, then. 

Tomorrow, next time she walked by, he would be looking his very best, smiling and ready to meet her. He wouldn't say he loved her, not yet, but he would at least try to make friends with her. It was risky, and stupid, and he knew that if he was caught hanging around with the king's daughter he would be in trouble. But he loved Princes Venus, and he always had wanted to get to know her. 

He shook out his wings and got to work.