Chapter Text
Nightshade slowly crosses the village bridges as he makes his way to Queen Grandeur home. To say he was nervous would be an understatement. He had no idea it was her home last night. Why Fig didn’t tell him that in the first place he has no idea. A simple ‘Oh, this is the house of a literal Queen’ would’ve been nice.
Last night was eye opening, but also a bit disappointing. The paper just had a list of herbs and foods, which did disappoint him a bit. But he learnt that Queen Grandeur was probably the only dragon around that can actually read. Which adds to the list of things that's ‘somewhat scary’ about her. Whilst Nightshade looks different, Queen Grandeur acts differently, it’s what makes him so nervous around her.
She’s… much more serious and perceptive than any other Rainwing he’s met, even the other Queens. Whilst he hasn’t lied to Queen Grandeur, he hasn’t told the full truth either. Whenever she sees him it’s like she’s trying to take him apart and to see what makes him tick. The idea that she knows he’s hiding something is… unnerving to say the least.
As he approaches her door (she has an actual door), he wonders why he’d need to come back if she wasn’t going to teach him. After he knocks the door, he hears the sound of movement inside before Queen Grandeur opens the door with mild surprise on her face as she looks down to him. “You actually came…” she muttered under her breath.
“Of course, I want to learn.” He says with a small smile. Nightshade hopes his attempt at being disarming like this will cause her to stop constantly staring dagger at him.
After a moment she regains herself. “Good.” She then looks around behind him. He looks back as well to see no one there. “Follow me.” She then walks out to the platform edge flaring her wings. Nightshade follows as she takes off. They fly away from the village in complete silence.
After about 10 minutes Nightshade couldn’t stand the awkwardness anymore. “So umm where are we going?” Grandeur simply glances back at him, then forward again.
“To your teacher.” Is all she says, as silence fills the air again. Ohh, this is so awkward. But his teacher? He thought she was the only one, going off what she said last night anyway.
After the most awkward flight of his dragon life, they end up landing by a vine covered wall. Queen Grandeur walks up to it then turns around and glares at him. “Since you want to learn, you are going to be shown the place to learn. I do not have the time to teach you 1 on 1, so you will be coming here to learn from your new teacher. You will not tell anyone about this place, whether you continue your studies or not. I will not have a group of rowdy dragonets show up and wreak havoc. Is that understood?” There it is. That authoritative tone that leaves no room for argument.
“Y-yes Ma’am!” He managed to squeak out.
She glares at him for a bit longer, before turning around and… walking into the vines? Is there a tunnel back there? It’s impossible to tell. He quickly follows, pushing the vines out of the way. And yes there is a tunnel that is so well hidden behind the vines that he couldn’t tell. He’s left in a cave tunnel that has luminescent crystals lining the walls, dimly lighting up the cave in a mix of yellow and blue hues.
He sees Grandeur ahead continuing forward, he catches up walking to her side. As they round a corner Nightshade freezes, mouth open in surprise. In front of him is a massive room, with indents in the walls where he can see a lot more rolled up paper. Wooden supports and platforms lining the cave sides. With a large crystal in the ceiling surrounded by large roots that span the same ceiling. The large crystal lights the whole room up and several smaller ones are dotted around in places the light doesn’t reach. Vines dangle from the roots in the ceiling with colourful plants growing from them.
Queen Grandeur gives him a brief smirk, before turning to look at the far end of the room. Where a very orange and white Rainwing sits at a table, having their back turned to them. Nightshade can faintly hear them mumbling something. The colouration on the rainwing is interesting, mostly orange but white at the end of their tail, with 4 white socks. Kinda reminds him of a “Fox.” Grandeur calls out to them. Yeah that. The Rainwing doesn’t seem to take notice. Grandeur grunts, silently saying something before moving forward and taking a deep breath. “FOX!” The sudden shout made both Nightshade and Fox jump. The latter sending paper and small bottles of what looks like ink everywhere, as they flare their wings in surprise.
Fox turns around wide eyed and looking frazzled. “Q-Queen Grandeur, sorry I wasn’t expecting you.” The Rainwing lowers his head slightly in apology. “What do I owe the visit?” They ask starting to approach but stop dead, eyes going wide again as they spot Nightshade. “And… with a… guest?” The Rainwing can’t seem to decide whether they should look at Nightshade or Queen Grandeur.
Queen Grandeur opens her wing to gesture to Nightshade. “Nightshade here has shown interest in wanting to learn how to read and write.” She says before lowering her wing. “I would like for you to teach him.” Fox for his part just looks at the Queen in surprise, mouth wide open. He then looks at Nightshade with a baffled look for a moment, his eyes then squint as he looks Nightshade over. He raises a questioning eye ridge as he looks back to Grandeur.
“You want me to teach it?” Fox asked with a small confused head tilt.
Did…did Fox just call him an ‘It’? He sounded… confused when he asked, there didn’t seem to be anything malicious behind it. But being called an ‘It’ didn’t exactly feel… right. Grandeur seemed rather annoyed at the question. “Nightshade.” She seemed to drag his name out, emphasising it. “Is an inquisitive young dragonet that I believe will be able to learn quickly and efficiently. So yes, I would like you to teach him.” Red seems to flicker through her scales for a second.
Fox tucks his wings in nervously. “Y-yes of course your Majesty, apologies.” He says lowering his head again. When Fox looks up again his eyes keep switching between Grandeur and Nightshade in indecision.
Grandeur gives an annoyed grunt before turning to Nightshade. “Why don’t you have a look around, I need to have a word with Fox.” Grandeur gestures to the room. Nightshade, feeling a bit nervous about this interaction, slowly nods his head before making his way forward.
“P-please don’t touch anything yet. Most of the scrolls are… old and fragile.” Fox pleads as Nightshade passes him.
Nightshade looks back to the Rainwing, giving a nod. He starts looking at the stone shelves of what he now knows are scrolls. Grandeur and fox step out of the cave. Once they are out of sight Nightshade pauses where he is to compose himself.
That whole small interaction had left him stunned to be honest. A whole lot of information was thrown at him, that he’s just trying to process. First, there is this place. It’s the only place he’s seen any sort of literature in the entire rainforest. Fox said that most of the scrolls are old, which would make sense that it’s hidden away… kinda. According to Grandeur, no one seems to want to learn and keeping the place hidden is a good way to make sure that no one gets any funny ideas and destroys or damages something that can’t be replaced. He thinks this place is also different somehow in a way that can’t be described. It feels odd.
Then there is Fox, who will apparently be his teacher. Great, he can learn, but that ‘it’ comment stuck out to him. The comment felt derogative but Fox didn’t say it in a malicious way, just more matter of factly. Then there was Grandeur's obvious anger at the comment, which confirms it definitely was derogative. As he thinks back to Grandeur's response, her praise of him makes him feel a little warm inside for some reason. He shakes away the feeling and decides to look around.
He spends the next few minutes looking around. Everything looks like there was an attempt to keep it clean, but was abandoned halfway through. He can see writing etched into the stone by each shelf, likely labels. The wood platforms and pillars, mostly look good and decorated, but some look like they’ll collapse without much effort. There are several crystals mounted on the walls, in some of the darker areas. He has no idea how they glow, but they look awesome.
He hears a Grandeur call out to him, as the two older dragons re-enter the cave. Grandeur looks mildly annoyed and Fox is tapping his claws nervously. He moves to sit next to them as Grandeur speaks. “Nightshade, this will be of your own initiative, so you may come here however many times you’d like during the week. But it will have to be at least once every week, understood?” Nightshade nods in confirmation. “Good. I will be stopping by every now and then to check on your progress.” At this she gets up to leave, then glances back to him. “I have high expectations, let's see if you can meet them.” She then leaves through the entrance of the cave, leaving Nightshade and Fox sitting there.
Nightshade can’t help but shift on his talons at Queen Grandeur’s parting words. Fox seems to pick up on this and lets out an amused snort. “Don’t worry about actually meeting the Queen's expectations. They're incredibly high and I don’t think anyone has ever managed to, so I doubt you’ll be able to either.” Fox states, shaking his head. He then gets up and walks towards the table he was sitting at, gesturing with his tail for Nightshade to follow. “Welp, I don’t know how this is going to go, so let's see if you're actually capable.”
Fox picks up the dropped scrolls and ink and gestures for Nightshade to sit at the table. When he does, Fox moves to put the scrolls away. “So… what is this place?” Nightshade asks, trying to avoid an awkward silence. Fox glances at him, then faces back to the stone shelf as he puts the scrolls away.
“This…” Fox raises a lazy talon to gesture to the room. “Is what is left of the Shimmering Archive. The last place of knowledge in the Rain Kingdom.” Fox flicking his wrist back and forth to punctuate the last part. Ooooh so this place is like very very important then. This confused Nightshade, why would Grandeur show him a place like this? Trust him with this knowledge?
“The last place… and what’s left?” He wants to probe for more information.
Fox had grabbed several other scrolls and walked back to the table. “There used to be more, and from what I’ve read the archive used to be more…” Fox pauses, looking at some empty shelves. “Full.”
Nightshade looks around the room again. It does give off the vibes of a place that’s been abandoned for a while, only to be recently picked back up. “What happened?”
Fox hummed. “Age and disuse.” Giving a small huff. Confirms Nightshade's thoughts. “But that’s not what we are here to discuss. For now, we will start with the alphabet.” Placing the scrolls on the desk, out of sight for Nightshade. He may have grown a fair bit since he hatched but this table is… higher than most.
Nightshade stands on his hind legs and rests his front ones on the table. He can see the top of the desk, but barely. He gives a sheepish look to Fox. “I can’t see…” Fox looks at him, then the table and sighs. He gets up, walking to a cupboard in the wall, opening it and pulling out a flat piece of wood. He places it down in front of Nightshade and then places a scroll full of symbols and an empty scroll on the wood.
The rest of the day is spent getting him to remember the letters and practicing writing them out with his claws. After a few hours Nightshade is able to at least remember a few of the spoken letters and most of the written letters. “Not bad for only a few hours. But we are done for the day, I don’t want you here late.” Fox handed him the practice scroll with the alphabet on it and a small ink pot. “Use these to practice in your own time. Next time you come here I expect you to at least be able to write out the whole alphabet. If you can do that, then you show promise.”
Nightshade nods. “Alright, then I’ll be back soon.” He then makes his way out of the room but pauses at the entrance. “Oh” he lets out, turning back to Fox. “Thank you for teaching me.” He says smiling, giving Fox a small wave, then turning back to leave. As Nightshade passes the vine entrance he stretches and looks back, only to be surprised. The cave entrance is surprisingly visible behind the vines. How did he not see it before? He decides to move some of the vines so that it’s hidden a bit better. It’s not great, but in the dark it should be enough. Satisfied he takes off, heading home.
As Nightshade gets home the light of the day is starting to fade. Coconut is already laying in a hammock and the others don’t seem to be there yet. He puts the scroll and ink away in his pouch, but jumps with a start as a sudden voice comes from the side. “Welcome… back...”
He turns to see Coconut looking at him from the hammock with a wide yawn. “Oh Coconut." He sighs, before a small smile forms. “You scared me there, I thought you were asleep.”
Coconut slowly shakes his head. “No… I just… got back.” He pauses to think for a moment. “Oh… Siamang… found more of those… frogs again…”
Nightshade lets out a long groan. “Uuuugh, I swear I’m gonna stuff her snout full of oranges if she brings another one back here. Unpeeled oranges!” He huffs before letting out a yawn, moving to one of the beds. “But I’ll do that tomorrow.”
“Do you… want to…join me?” Nightshade looks at Coconut who’s tapping the hammock. “...We can share the warmth…”
The hammock is one of the adult ones, so it can fit a few dragonts. Nightshade shrugs. “Sure, an extra bit of sleep would be nice.” He says, making his way to the hammock. Jumping on the far end so that Coconut's back is to him. Coconut lets out a content sigh, closing his eyes as he presses up to Nightshade. Nightshade drapes a wing over him, closing his own eyes.
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With all the training and practice Nightshade is doing, the next 4 months fly by. Right now he’s sitting in the archive reading a scroll given to him by Fox to practice. Said Rainwing is to his side, listening to him read. “Bright colors… can make you happy by inf… infl…” Fox looks over.
“Influencing.”
“Influencing your emotions and perc… perception. Filling your home… with… bright colour will make you feel more p… positive and… up…lifted.” Fox nods as Nightshade finishes the scroll.
“You're making good progress on your reading. How’s your writing?” Fox asked, taking the scroll from Nightshade.
Nightshade reaches into his pouch and hands Fox a smaller scroll. “15 sentences all done.” Fox takes the scroll and unrolls it to read. Over the past months Fox has warmed up to him a little. At first Fox seemed nervous in teaching him, almost to the point of dismissiveness. But after Nightshade had come back at least twice every week, with whatever homework Fox asked him to do, done. The older Rainwing had gotten into the stride of things. He doesn’t seem nervous about Nightshade anymore and is being more attentive than when they started.
Queen Grandeur had also stopped by a few times to check on him and she seemed pleased by his progress too.
“Hmm claw writing needs some improvements… there's a fair amount of smudges and punctures in the scroll. Spelling needs a little work but your punctuation is good. Overall it’s still readable and gets the point across.” Fox nods again, turning to Nightshade, giving him a small smile. “Good job, we’ll practice on what needs improvement later.” Nightshade gives Fox a bright smile. It’s not often Fox gives praise, so when he does, Nightshade gets filled with childlike glee. He just can’t help but smile.
That’s something else he’s noticed a lot recently. Whilst his scales are easy enough to keep neutral, his emotional reactions have been getting harder to suppress. Even slipping through unnoticed. Small things make him unreasonably vocally or visibly happy, and small things also make him unreasonably upset. Like he dropped a few blackberries he was eating off a platform the other day, and he audibly whimpered and let out a sad “aww”. Which caught him by surprise. Back when he was a human, he was much more… monotone? Controlled. But he feels that control has been slipping more and more, which got him thinking. He might have the memories of an entirely different life, but biologically his body and more importantly his brain is that of a dragonet that is just over 1 years old. Which means he might have to deal with having the emotions of a literal child slowly seeping in. Which he is not looking forward to.
“For now…” Nightshade gets knocked out of his thoughts as Fox speaks, pointing to scrolls on the other side of the table. “Keep practicing your reading, whilst I make some scroll copies.”
Apparently, there are quite a few scrolls that are hundreds and hundreds of years old in the archive. So Fox being the archivist has to make copies of the oldest scrolls before they wither away. And there are hundreds of scrolls in the archive. Actually now that he thinks about it… “Fox, can I ask something?” Nightshade looks over to the Rainwing.
“Yes? What is it?” Fox’s head doesn’t move from the scrolls but his ears do perk up.
“Well… there’s no one else that can read and write so… did you also teach Queen Grandeur?” Nightshade has been meaning to ask for a while, but Fox wasn’t as approachable as he is now. So it’s as good a time as ever to ask.
Fox turns to Nightshade and scoffs in fake indignation “I’m not that old!” There’s a hint of a smile on his lips, as he shook his head. “Her Majesty taught me. Everyone that can currently read and write was taught by her Majesty.” he then turns back to his scrolls.
“Except for me.” Nightshade states, with a small amount of pride.
Fox chuckles “Except for you, yes.”
Nightshade turns back to his own scroll and continues reading, writing down words he struggles with or doesn’t know on a separate scroll. Then another question came to him. “If you didn’t teach Queen Grandeur then who did?”
Fox raises a talon to his chin in thought. “Hmm, her mother I believe.” Fox says going back to his scroll. Nightshades ears immediately perk up at this. Mother? He thought Rainwings didn’t do the whole parent thing.
“Mother?” Nightshade asked with a head tilt. “I thought Rainwings didn’t know who their parents were?”
Fox seems to lock up for a second before looking at Nightshade with wide but nervous eyes. “I uhh-some… some Rainwings raise their own eggs themselves.” Fox stutters. “It's very uncommon!" He follows up quickly. “Her Majesty’s mother raised her… as her majesty raised her own eggs…” Fox’s face falls as he continues.
“I…I didn’t know Queen Grandeur had any dragonets.” Nightshade mutters. He would have thought the Queen's children would be more well known. He then remembers that there are 6 Queens so maybe not. Then a stray thought slipped through. “Are you her son?” He asked in a hushed whisper for no apparent reason.
Fox pulled his head far back in surprise at the question. “Wh-what?! No! What gave you that idea?”
“O-oh, well it's just that you said Queen Grandeur’s mother taught her and if the Queen raised her own eggs, I thought she would’ve taught them as well…” Nightshade practically squeaks out, twiddling his talons.
Fox’s mouth remained open as he blinked at Nightshade. “I- that would be an understandable conclusion, but no.” Fox shakes his head. “I am not related to her Majesty.”
“Ah okay… sorry I thought you were for a second. Who are they though? Meeting other dragons that can read would be neat.” Nightshade wonders if he’s already met one of them, considering he’s flown to several villages.
Fox just gives Nightshade a sad look. “I’m afraid you won't be able to get the chance to meet them.”
Nightshade looks at the sad look on Fox’s face. “Oh… are they…” He doesn’t continue. Leaving the last unspoken word in the air.
Fox seems to realise what was asked, shaking his head rapidly. “No, no! Well yes but-” He sighs. “Their relationship with Queen Grandeur is… not good.” Nightshade gives him a questioning look, which Fox huffs to. “Listen kid, this is not a secret or anything, but it is a sensitive topic. So don’t just go running your mouth, got it?” Fox said closing Nightshade's mouth with a talon, Nightshade rapidly nodded his head as much as he could. “She had four children, a son and three daughters. Her son Wonderful, passed away quite young due to illness. Her daughters: Fabulous, Vibrant and Golden Apple, where… bratty and not exactly the best dragons.”
As Fox explains, a familiar sensation starts in his ears and mind. Oh great. He’s been lucky not to have any visions in the archive, so of course his luck has run out when he’s sitting right in front of Fox. He raises a talon to the side of his head, as he feels a headache coming. Fox sighs looking at him. “Queen grandeur tried to teach them, but they were such awful dragons.” Oh Fox please stop, he can’t do both. “She eventually disowned all three. Golden Apple changed her name, Fabul-” Whatever Fox was saying gets cut off as Nightshade headache flares, causing him to gasp in pain.
Images of a hellscape fill his vision. Molten lava and ash covering the ground. The unmoving bodies of several dragons litter the area covered in ash, unrecognisable. It hurts. Only one darkened figure still stands, looking down over an edge where another heavily injured black dragon dangles helplessly above a pool of lava with a violently broken wing. “Please! Don’t! I-I was just following my Queen's orders! I didn’t want to!” The injured figure pleads. It hurts… It hurts. The void of a figure standing above lowered a talon to where the injured dragon is holding onto, flexing their claws. “N-NO! PLEASE!” IthurtsIthurtsIthurts. The standing figure digs the claws into the talons of the injured dragon, pulling them away from the edge and watching them fall into the lava. Their pained screams filled the air.
IthurtsIthurtsIthurtsIthurtsIthurts.
Pain is the only thing Nightshade felt, before everything went black.
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Nightshade blinks awake, the world spinning and his head pounding. A pained whine escaping his throat as he raises a talon to his head and he feels… a bandage? He tries to prop himself up on an elbow, but the rush of pain to his head makes him quickly abandon that idea as he lays back down. Wait. When did he lie down? Nightshade finds that he can’t remember, the last thing he does remember was being in the archive. He keeps blinking to stop the spinning, which seems to work a little but everything still seems blurred, unfocused. He feels nauseous, so he closes his eyes.
“Nightshade…?” A familiar voice speaks quietly by his side. Who is that? His head hurts so much right now. “Nightshade, are you awake?” The voice asks, they sound… hopeful but also… so sad.
“Mmhmm” He can’t bring himself to speak right now, hoping that lil bit of acknowledgement would be enough.
“Oh-Oh thank the moons!” the voice called in relief, he can only wince in pain at the volume. He feels them shuffling to his side nuzzling into his neck and draping a wing over him, hugging him tightly.
He opens his eyes, vision still blurred slightly and seeing the blue and gold dragonet at this side. “...Tamarin?” he asks in a whisper.
The dragonet in question looks at him “Yes, it’s me.” She lets out a long sigh, her body seems to un-tense as she does.
“What happened…? Where… am I?” He whispered to her.
Tamarin's face falls into concern. “You’re in the medical hut. You’ve been unconscious for… a while.” …What? Why was he unconscious? Some more memories of the day start to come back to him, but nothing that tells him why. Tamarin lets go and stands back up. “I need to tell Durian you're awake.” She leaves the hut in a quick jog, which surprises Nightshade as Tamarin usually walks everywhere. He doesn’t try to get up, his head still hurts. So he just lays there.
After a minute the yellow and pink figure of Kinkajou bursts into the hut, coming to a sliding stop next to him. Nightshade doesn’t even have time to react before she wraps him in a tight hug. “You’re awake! You’re actually awake! I'm so glad you're awake!” She cheers as she hugs him, bouncing slightly. But something is wrong, he could swear her voice was cracking.
“Kinkajou please… not so loud.” he whimpered as the volume sent another surge of pain through his head.
Before she can respond another dragonet hugs him tightly from behind, red wings draping over him. “We- I… I'm so glad you’re okay.” Apple croaks from behind him. Nightshade could feel his tears fall onto his back. What… what in the moons happened to make them all react like this?
As if on queue, Durian walks into the hut with Tamarin . He looks down to Nightshade with a relieved smile on his face. “Nightshade” he starts, crouching down to lower himself to Nightshade and gently prying his friends off of him “How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts… like… alot. And I’m… a little confused.” He blinks at Durian, as the blur in his vision finally stops. “What happened?”
Durian tilts his head. “Well you were brought here by Fox in panic. He said you two were chatting when you suddenly started to hold your head in pain and gasping for breath before you just collapsed. He said you hit the side of your head on the edge of his table and then on the stone floor as you fell.” Durian pauses looking back to Tamarin, then back to Nightshade with a more serious look. “Tamarin has told me that you’ve been getting sudden headpains like this for months. Why haven’t you seen me about this before?”
“I…” He had a vision, that’s what caused this. At this realization, the memory of the vision floods back to him. Watching a dragon beg for life, then watching that same dragon die in the most gruesome and horrific way he’s ever seen. It’s all blurry but the images of the dragon burning and melting into the lava, screaming out in pain replayed over and over. He remembers feeling pain. It’s too much for him. Still feeling nauseous and remembering all of this makes him vomit on the spot. His friends let out gasps and try to approach, but Durian stops them by extending his wing.
Durian gently puts a talon under Nightshade's chin and raises his head to look him over, unfazed by the vomit trailing down the side of his face. Everything has left Nightshade in a daze. “Right, you very likely have a concussion. You three.” Durian points to his friends with a wing. “Can you get fresh water and get him plenty of fruit to eat, since he hasn’t eaten in a while.” As soon as fruit was mentioned, Nightshade's stomach churns in pain from hunger. His friend turns to quickly follow the request. “Get mainly blueberries, oranges and bananas.” Durian advises.
As his friends leave, Durian goes to grab a small bowl of water and bring it to Nightshade. Nightshade is told it’s not for drinking but to clean the vomit off of him. Once he’s cleaned, Durian gently picks him up and moves him into a clean bed. “So…” Durian starts, “why did you never tell me about these headpains?” His voice was soft but stern and laced with concern.
“I…” What should he say? He can’t mention visions, not yet. He doesn’t want to lie. Not to Durian, but… “I didn’t think they were serious…” He tries, Durian wings flare open for a second.
“You…” Durian shouts before quieting. “You didn't think they were serious?” Durian gave Nightshade the same concerned look he gave Nightshade when they first met, which just made him feel even worse about lying. “You’ve been unconscious for well over a day, Nightshade. I think this falls under serious.”
Nightshades stared wide eyed at the revelation. No wonder his friends were so worried. “That… long…” he mutters looking down to the bed. “I… they’re normally not this bad… just little bits of brief pain. I-im sorry…” His talons clench against the bed as he struggles to keep himself together. He made them worry, he made them all worry. Apple cried, who else did he make cry?
Durian lets out a long sigh before draping a wing over him. “Next time you get these headaches, you come straight to me. Got that? It’s my job afterall.” He said playfully, but Nightshade knew he was being completely serious. “I… should have mentioned this before… but you didn’t seem to have any problems so I didn’t see the need to, but… Hybrids… can have some issues.”
Okay now Nightshade’s even more worried. “Issues?” he asked with concern.
Durian nods. “Hybrids… tend to (but not always) have mental and/or physical issues. Their brains might not work right or they might hatch with only 3 legs, in the extreme cases. In the… less extreme, they might get constant headaches.” Durian gives Nightshade a small nudge. “So, if you get any more headaches or any other problem with your body, you let me know right away.”
“Alright… I will.”
“Good.” Durian turns around and grabs a wood bottle and takes the cork out. “Drink some of this, it should help with the headache.” Nightshade takes it, giving a quick sniff, finding no real smell. “Just a single swig and swallow quickly.” He takes a quick swig and almost spits it back out. Oh god, that is bad. He forces himself to swallow, making a noise of disgust which makes Durian chuckle. “I’ll leave the bottle by your bed, just take a quick swig if the headpains get worse.”
It wasn't long before the others returned with the requested items. Nightshade drank all the water that was brought in one go. He also devoured most of the fruits that were brought, despite the protest from his head at the sudden movements. After he ate, Durian did a few more checks on him before he was told that he just needs to rest, but he will be staying at the medical hut for a few more days, just in case. His friends stayed until the daylight faded and the moons started to rise.
“Alright it’s getting late, you three should head home.” Durian says to his friends.
“Can we stay the night, pleeeease? We don’t want to leave him alone. Pleeeease?” Kinkajou begs. All three of them are doing their best puppy dog eyes. Durian relents almost immediately under the assault. Yeah, there’s no winning against that.
“Alright alright you can stay at the medical hut.” The three cheered. “It’s not like you need my permission anyway.” Durian says looking at Nightshade with a smirk. “You know no matter what, there was always at least one of your friends by your side when you were unconscious. It was adorable~” Durian cooed looking back at the three, as Nightshade looked they were all a very embarrassed pink.
“D-Durian!” Apple stuttered out hiding his face in his wings. Nightshade could only chuckle at the sight.
“Can we bring the others?” Tamarin asked, quickly getting her scales under control.
Durian nods. “Of course you can.” He says before heading out the door. “If anything happens in the night, come get me. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow!”
As Durian leaves Tamarin gives Nightshade a serious look before turning back to Kinkajou and Apple. “Why don’t you two go get the others and I’ll stay with Nightshade. You’re much quicker than me.” The two agreed and ran out of the medical hut. After they leave she turns back to Nightshade. “So… are you going to tell us what this is about?”
Ooh boy. He slowly gets up into a sitting position, not wanting to move too fast. Avoiding making eye contact “I-I’m not sure, everything was just so sud-”
“You promised” Tamarin cuts him off, making him look at her in surprise. That surprise immediately changes to guilt as he sees the pale green scales on her body. “You promised, that if it ever got worse, you’ll tell us why you get these…these pains. Everyone is so worried for you right now.”
He hasn’t got the answers yet. He doesn’t know why he has this power. But he can’t hold this off much longer. He’s too… he’s… “I… I can’t yet.” Nightshade looks down, guilt ripping through his mind and scales.
Silence.
He starts shaking nervously, he doesn’t want to look at her to see what he’s caused. Then in a quiet voice “Why?” He looks up just enough to see her talons now sad blues and greys. “Why can't you tell us? Why can’t you tell me?” She steps forward to stand right in front of him.
Nightshade inhales sharply, looking back to the ground. “I-I just… I’m just” He doesn’t want to. He can’t. He’s just too... “I’m just… s-so…”
“...Scared.” He unintentionally lets out in a small whine.
“...”
“...Scared?” Her sad tone completely disappeared, replaced with quiet gentleness.
He takes in another sharp breath. “...I’m just so afraid. This… thing, I don’t know why I have it. It’s so different from everything else, it makes me different. Too different. I’m scared of what everyone will think. I don’t… I don’t want to lose this. I don’t want to lose everyone.” Not again.
He’s already lost everyone once. His old friends, his old family. Jen. He gets some down spells every now and then, knowing he will never see them again. It never lasts long though, not between Kinkajou’s antics, Siamang's friendly banter, Tamarin’s calm kindness, Apple’s adorable nervousness, Boto’s mood lifting ideas and Coconut’s… surprisingly few but wise words. He doesn’t want to risk losing them too. He doesn’t want to lose his new friends. His new family.
“It’s okay to be afraid” Tamarin starts, moving to sit by his side. “But you don’t have to be. Whatever this is, Kinkajou and Apple will probably think it’s another odd but cool thing about you.” She giggled. “Siamang and Boto will probably make fun of you for a bit. Coconut probably won’t care and I’ll…” Nightshade feels Tamarin move her tail, feeling around for a moment. Until she finds his tail and twining it with hers, in a comforting gesture. “I’ll understand. So don’t worry, you’ve got nothing to be scared of.”
Tamarin's reassuring words cut right through his fear. He looks up seeing her giving him a smile. Even if she can’t see it, Nightshade gives his own small smile. “...When did you get so wise?”
“Hmm I’ve always been wise, you just haven’t been there to see it.” She jokes, cocking her head slightly to the side. The humor in her voice makes him laugh lightly.
He looks back down taking in deep breaths, letting himself relax and calming down. She’s right, doesn’t make it easier though. It’s not going to be easy to explain the foresight and visions, to get her to believe he’s telling the truth. If only he could give her some evidence, that would make this much easier. As if summoned, Nightshade starts to feel the familiar sensation of a vision. He grunts in pain moving a talon to his head, as the vision sends a jolt of pain through his already hurting head.
“Nightshade?” Tamarin quickly moved her talons towards him to try and support him in case he collapses. Once it’s done Nightshade reaches for the medicine bottle and takes a swig.
“I-I’m alright.” He gently pushes her talons back down. That was… awfully convenient.
“...So why does that happen?” Tamarin probes gently, pointing roughly to where his head is.
Nightshade looks back towards the entrance to the medical hut. “... Kinkajou’s going to come rushing back in.”
“Nightshade, please don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes you are.”
“Kinkajou’s going to rush in and ask what fruit we want her to grab for us.” He pauses as Tamarin gives him an odd look. “And you’re going to ask for a mango.”
“...”
“...”
“How is that not changing the subject?”
“Because it’s not.”
“Yes it is.”
“Nope!”
“Nightshade, ple-” Tamarin gets cut off as Kinkajor rushes through the entrance.
“Hey!” Kinkajou chirps. “We’re going to grab some snacks after we get the others. You two want anything?” Looking between the two.
“Blueberries please.” Nightshade asks.
“Sure, I’ll have a man…go…” Tamarin slowly turns her head to Nightshade, narrowing her eyes.
Kinkajou looks at them confused for a second, before she bounces out the hut. “Okay! We’ll be back in a few minutes with the goods!”
After Kinkajou leaves there’s a few moments of silence as Tamarin stares at him. Nightshade can tell from her scales that she is confused and trying to desperately make sense of what just happened and is currently failing. He shifts on his talons nervously before taking a deep breath. “I can see the future…”
Tamarin’s eyes immediately widen and she reels her head back slowly, mouth slightly agape. She tries to say something without success for about ten seconds before she lets out an “oh”, with a look that says ‘That explains a few things’.
He stays silent, waiting for her to say something, ask something, hell, even shout at him.
“...”
“... How?” She asks slowly. He audibly sighs at the question. The one question that he’s been trying to get an answer for, unsuccessfully.
“I really have no idea.” He admits. “I have a lead that I’ve been trying to look into. Buuuut I’m not sure if it's related to the future seeing thing or not.” She gives him a look that says ‘go on’, so he continues. “I’m most likely a hybrid.”
“A hybrid?” She asks. Right, she would have no reason to know. “Like… a mix of two different dragons?” Neeeevermind. “Is that why you’re so spikey?” Nightshade raises a talon to his head to feel his spinal spikes. They do go further up his neck and head than Tamarin’s do, and they are a fair bit bigger than hers too.
“Yes? Maybe? It’s why I have my ‘stars’, why I don't have frills and why my venom is… weird, and I don’t know what I’m a hybrid of yet. Not for sure anyway. That or as Durian put it, I might be a ‘very special’ Rainwing.” Tamarin hummed in thought. “Are you…mad?” Tension plain in his voice.
Tamarin thought for a moment. “A little, but that’s because you were hurting and didn't tell us.” She pauses. “It’s… when you see the future your head hurts?” Nightshade confirms. “Is that why you’re apparently really good at ‘claw, rock, leaf’?” She asks curiously.
Nightshade blinks a few times before laughing, his head protesting the act. After a few seconds to control himself. “No no, I don’t use it to cheat.” Still chuckling he continues. “I have no control over it. It just happens whenever it likes.” He says smiling, shaking his head. He looks back to Tamarin and feels joy swell in his chest. She’s not upset! She’s not mad!
Her eyes widened, like she suddenly realised something. “Wait- that first day at the hatchery, did you…”
“Ah” He pauses, knowing where this is going. “Yeah… I had a vision showing me the whole thing.” Nodding in confirmation as he explains. “I saw Apple… fall, except… no one caught him in time…” He trails off into a whisper.
“So you saved him instead.” She quietly starts to giggle. “I was so confused how you seemed to know that was going to happen. Guess that answers it.” She still giggles as she shakes her head. “And a few other things too.” Nightshade can’t help but laugh a little himself.
They both look to the hut entrance as they hear the loud voices of Kinkajou and Siamang approaching. The joy he was feeling is quickly replaced with nervousness as his body tenses. Tamarin touches her wing to his to calm him.
Kinkajou and Siamang are the first to enter, followed by Apple and Boto, then Coconut. All carrying some fruits. Boto and Siamang quickly get into his face with Coconut slowly following up in the rear. Asking if he’s fine, if he still hurts. He told them he’s fine but his head still hurts and he has medicine for that. He gets handed his blueberries, as everyone gets comfortable around him. He looks to Tamarin, then back to them all. “Hey guys?” As they all look at him, he flinches. He looks down, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
“... I’ve got something to tell you.”