~Moonwatcher~

Her brain was spinning and she felt faint. 

What did Futurehero mean? 

It was pretty clear that was a prophecy- after all, Future himself admitted it. Why though? Why didn't the universe give the prophecy to her? And also, no other NightWings had been given the power of mind-reading or foresight other than her, right? It wasn't possible that the 4-year-old dragonet had it. 

She was the same age as her. Which meant she was born at the volcano. What if . . . she was making it up?

Winter who saw her panic, hesitated and then put his wings around her. "A-are you alright? I- uh," He started awkwardly. It soon turned into a sputtered mess. "Sorry, sorry! I just realized how weird this is. I- I just thought to comfort you . . . but GAH, this is like creep-behavior!" He jumped away, his arms flailing in the air, flustered. 

Moon chuckled and poked Winter's cheeks with her tail and he immediately shut his mouth. Kinkajou tried to hide her smile, eyes gleaming with amusement as Winter turned all sorts of blue, his eyes all dreamy-like. Moon ignored it, just smirking at Winter. "Shush. You're making it harder for me to think!" She exclaimed jokingly. 

"Sorry- agh, uh, I mean, err.." Winter stammered, flabbergasted. He cleared his throat, and stuck his sharp claws into Darkstalker's carpets, ripping the corner of it to shreds. "So, uh, are we going to talk about this new prophecy Futurehero gave to us?"

Kinkajou narrowed her eyes. "That was weird wasn't it?" She said, echoing Moon's thoughts. "I thought you were the only one with foresight (and mind-reading) powers." She gestured at the NightWing dragonet.

Moon nodded, her eyes drifting around, trying to keep Future's prophecy in her mind. She rubbed her talons together and let out a deep breath. "OK, OK, let's recall my prophecy first." She murmured quietly and Kinkajou immediately saluted her energetically. "So, we found the line 'One who has escaped the darkness consuming' (Winter) and 'One with the heart of gold' (Kinkajou), so that leaves 'One who's in a tragic state' plus 'One who's in a dying state.."

Winter tapped his chin thoughtfully and a brief look of hesitation flashed through his eyes. Moon tilted her head at this reaction. "I can tell you have something you want to say. Come on, share with the group. It's not like we have mind-reading." She said slyly and then paused as she unblocked Winter's mind to hear his thoughts. 

She tilted her head. "You really think so?" 

"I mean, it all clicks rig-" Winter started but got cut off by Kinkajou.

"HELLO! Not everyone has mind-reading powers you know! SPILL THE BEANS!" Kinkajou exclaimed, jabbing a claw at Winter. 

"Agh, OK, OK!" Winter laughed. "I'm just saying, Moon's prophecy connects to Futurehero's. Her squabbling of the two paths you can take probably means the future routes we had taken." When Kinkajou looked confused, he pushed up his spectacles that came out of nowhere and pulled down a whiteboard that also appeared out of thin air!

"Wait where did those come fr-"

"OK, let's say Moon's never figured out that I and you are the Destined Heroes. The paths she's talking about are the routes to the futures." He explained, tapping squiggly lines drawn on the whiteboard that they have absolutely no idea what it was supposed to be. "Since there are tons and tons of possible futures, I suppose Futurehero just split them into two. A part where we are successful, and another where we find the wrong dragon and, well the future is doomed."

"She had also stated, on the right path, it could either be something that hints in the future or she could be talking about how we're correct so far . . . and well . . . don't you find it suspicious that Moon, I and you are so far the destined heroes? We're all part of the Jade Winglet so... wouldn't that leave Qibli and Turtle? It's suspiciously perfect, you know? Or maybe I'm thinking too much into this . . ." Winter's voice trailed off.

Kinkajou nodded slowly. "I think I understand . . . but what about the rest? The Quater after that thing."

"Well, I haven't really figured out that part yet, but hey, we're making progress, aren't we?"

Moon didn't respond to either of them, her snout scrunched up in a do-not-disturb kind of way. 

"Well, I think you're right!" Kinkajou perked up excitedly, bear-hugging Winter as Moon tried to suppress some kind of weird feeling at Kinkajou. Her face fell when she continued her sentence though. "I mean, at least, you have to be right about Turtle. 'One who's in a dying state' is the exact line for him." 

"And that leaves Qibli with 'One who's met a tragic fate' right?" Moonwatcher stated with a frown. "But that . . . doesn't seem to fit him, does it? I mean, Qibli seems to be living his best!"

Kinkajou whacked Moon's wings with a bit of force. She gazed up at Moon with a disappointed-parent face. "Are you being sarcastic or joking? It's not funny! You know that right?"

"What? If anything, he's having the best life of all of us!" Moon exclaimed, her arms flailing into the air. 

"He's being forced to be Darkstalker's servant, tending to his need even more than I am! I see Qibli following Darkstalker around like a puppy these days!" Kinkajou growled, her tail was lashing angrily now. She didn't understand how Moon her, best friend, could say something like this!

"What?" Moon's face suddenly fell. She finally realized. "Kinkajou... Qibli's not being forced to follow Darkstalker around. He's doing it willingly. Darkstalker gifted Qibli animus magic and now he's acting all weird and lovey-dovey toward him." She explained. 

Winter twitched and Moon could see that he was trying to control his anger but couldn't. "Are you kidding me?! While we all need to go through things such as being a prisoner or servant, Qibli's having his time as Darkstalker's friend! How could he?!" He demanded and then realized that he had lashed out and drooped his head in shame. 

"Sorry. . . I lost control." He mumbled.

"Well, I don't blame you!" Kinkajou flared her frills. "I've been running around all day long for Darkstalker and I've been hating him all this time, thinking yall think so too! But guess what!? Turns out Qibli was buddy-to-buddy with Darkstalker!" She yelled but quieted down when Moon flicked her tail at Kinkajou, reminding her they needed to be silent.

Moon shuffled uncomfortably. "I don't think Qibli's doing this intentionally though.." She whispered quietly.

"Do you still trust Qibli even after he betrayed us like this? Who knows what he did? Maybe he's boasting to Darkstalker about how his idiotic friends actually believed he was their friend right now!" Winter shot at Moon with a hint of bitterness in his voice. 

"No," Moon said calmly. "I'm saying that maybe Qibli's been manipulated by animus magic. Maybe Darkstalker enchanted him!" 

"But what about the earrings? Didn't Qibli wear that?" Winter asked.

"Darkstalker could have made some objects with a twist. Maybe something that doesn't direct his magic exactly at Qibli so the earrings don't work. Oh! Maybe he focused his magic on a fake earring and teleported it. Something like that-" Moon responded in a rush. 

"OK, fine. Let's say Qibli was innocent or whatsoever. How would we even recruit him if he's not himself?" Kinkajou asked.

Moon hesitated and then said, "Well, we'd need to find Turtle first and then get him to use his magic if he's fine with it." She wasn't sure whether it would offend Kinkajou if she talked about using Turtle's magic. 

Kinkajou's eyes narrowed but she nodded her head with just a slight moment of hesitation. "I'll go find him. It's not safe for you two to go running around the palace. Just- go outside to the forest and stay for a while. It's a miracle that the guards haven't found you yet." She nodded her head toward Winter. 

"Let's meet outside on Circle Avenue."