The Prince of Night and Rain

Chapter 6

They returned to the village where Peregrine insisted on Shadowscale going to the healer's hut. The prince was reluctant, for it wasn't really a migraine, but he owed it to his friend to go so he did. A sweet NightWing named Hope checked him. She seemed to be subconsciously block his mind reading abilities, odd, but not uncommon. Though her eyes did linger a bit on the scales by his eyes, but that too could have been his imagination. After a short while, she declared that he was okay and showed him and Peregrine out.

Before he crossed the threshold, however, Dr. Hope held him back. "Are you sure you have nothing else to tell me?" She asked, staring at him like she knew something he didn't.

"N-no?" He replied, not knowing what she was getting on about.

She just frowned with disappointment, then leaned near his ear and whispered gently. "Remember hatchling, the longer you keep a secret, the worse the consequences shall be."

Her words had taken him by surprise. "What do you-"

"Come on Shadow! It's that Suntime thing your mother told you to be back by, right?"

Shadowscale glanced around and saw as all the RainWings migrated towards the platforms and hammocks.

"Oh, you're right." Shadowscale said. "I'll join in a little bit, I-"

He turned around to see that Hope had vanished, frowning, he turned back to his friend and shrugged. "Never mind, let's go."

He launched into the air again with Peregrine at his side.

"So... what is this 'Suntime?'" The SkyWing asked. 

"Well... for RainWings, it helps with their moods and camouflage scales. Also makes their scales more vibrant and gives energy. For me? I don't know really. Sure, it makes me energized, but just as much as any nap. I don't know about my scales, I never really saw a difference when I skip, and I just feel the same afterwards. It helps my sister though, me? Not so much. I just rather sleep during the day though. I think I take more from my NightWing side than RainWing when it comes to stuff like this..."

"Oh." Peregrine replied. "So, it's like a photosynthesis?"

"Photo- what?"

"Photosynthesis. The process by which plants use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. In other words, sunlight helps produce energy for plants. From what you stated about energy, it just sounded a bit like it."

"Where did you learn about that?"

"A science scroll I read once. Obviously made by NightWings. They did a ton of experiments on how plants need sunlight, some by seeing what happens when they cover a plant all day, put a potted plant in the desert while also making sure it had plenty of water, things like that. It showed that some plants did really well in the desert, some died due to the heat but most survived. All the plants with no sunlight died though. It was boring but also interesting at the same time."

"Weird. About how similar plants are to RainWings that is."

Peregrine grinned. "I know right!?"

They landed on the royal platform nearest to the top of the Rainforest. Queen Glory turned elegantly in their direction and smiled.

"Ah, right on time. Now was that so hard?"

"My glorious and exquisite queen, don't be so hard on our son." Deathbringer said with his flirtatious smirk. Glory rolled her eyes playfully then smiled down at Peregrine. 

"Your parents are in the guest tree house across from our home. They are planning on staying a few days, you can join us if you'd like, but I'm assuming you rather return to them than nap with a whole bunch of RainWings." She joked.