Oracle the NightWing woke up in the middle of the NightWing village in the rainforest, the images of spattered blood and dead dragons with soulless eyes still burned into her eyelids.

She had to stop herself from screaming and waking up the village, and her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest. Thankfully, before it could do that, Oracle steadied herself and shook her head. Don't worry. It was just another vision.

Oracle was a NightWing seer, born under a full moon, and this was maybe the fifth vision this week. All of which were of the same thing- dying dragons.

She got up out of her bed and walked out of her hut, trying to make as little noise as possible. The trees, which were usually filled with commotion during the day, were eerily quiet, the leaves swaying and whistling in the gentle wind, like ghosts in the pitch-black darkness.

The NightWing shivered. It was unusually cold tonight... that was never a good sign. Maybe it wouldn't hurt just to check, right?

She pushed back through a couple of tall, yellowish plants and spread her wings, flying up to the canopy so she could get a better view. Her wings brushed the trunk of some sort of spiky tree, which sent a wave of pain up her shoulder. Oracle winced, but didn't stop. She was determined to solve this mystery, once and for all.

Finally, Oracle spotted the hill of rocks that lay a little ways away from the rainforest kingdom's borders. The researchers (mostly consisting of NightWings) had theorized that the ruins were the remains of an ancient building, perhaps a temple. But right now that didn't matter to Oracle. All that mattered was that at the top of that pile was where her connection to the moons - and her visions - was strongest, and that was where she was going.

Oracle gently glided over to the top of the hill and perched on a steady looking rock. She looked up at the moons... and almost cursed when she found herself looking at a bunch of gray clouds.

"Three moons!" she muttered under her breath, before she realized the irony of that statement. If the moons were covered, her connection wouldn't work.

Suddenly, Oracle heard a rustling sound behind her, and she flinched. She slowly turned around to the trees. "Wh-who's there?"

It was silent for a moment, before a one-year-old dragonet with iridescent blue and black scales came from the bushes. "Need a little help?"

Oracle exhaled in relief. It was just Fairywren, her friend. "Fairy, what are you doing out here? Your sister Sakura will be so worried if she notices you're gone."

Fairywren grinned. "I followed you! And-" she declared proudly, "I brought these!" From a small sack hanging around her neck she pulled out something that looked suspiciously like Anemone's weather bracelets.

Oracle frowned. "Did you... steal those from the queen?" she asked.

The young RainWing made a face. "You're always about following the rules!" she complained. "Rules are boring. Besides, it's her fault she borrowed them from Anemone." She put on the bracelets. "I'll just move the clouds for you, then I'll return them."

"Uh... you do remember what happened when Qibli tried to use them, right? Are you sure you can use them properly?"

Fairywren's face fell. "Oh. Right." She handed the bracelets to the NightWing. "Maybe you can use them...?"

Oracle took the bracelets, holding them in her talons. It was risky, but it was possible that the visions were important...

She slipped on the bracelets, taking a deep breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, raised her talons towards the sky, and willed the clouds to move. Come on, come on...

Oracle heard the loud crackle of thunder, and Fairywren's startled yelp. She gritted her teeth, feeling a pulse of energy inside her, threatening to knock her unconscious. She opened her eyes, but she didn't put down her talons.

Finally, with a last boom of thunder, the lightning storm retreated, and the clouds parted, revealing the moons and bathing up the ruins in bright moonlight.

Oracle collapsed in exhaustion, but as she gazed up at the one moon that was fully lit, she wondered if any NightWings would be hatched tonight, and receive the same prophetic powers that she had had for her entire life. She wondered if they would ever know about the dragon that moved the clouds away from the moon that fateful night when they were born. The thought gave her a little comfort.

She slowly got up and handed the bracelets back to Fairywren. "H-here."

She turned back around and closed her eyes again. She could feel the energy gathering in her heart...

Suddenly Oracle's eyes snapped open, but those same images began to play in her mind, the same whispers. Her eyes began to glow white, and the whispering turned to chanting in her ears, getting louder and louder until...

"STOP IT!" she screamed. "PLEASE, STOP!"

The white didn't stop, though. All she could see was white and the chanting had grown deafening.

Oracle could barely make out Fairywren's frantic cries before she shut her eyes as tight as she could, shouted something she couldn't hear, and watched the world fade out to black.

——

Oracle opened her eyes.

She seemed to be standing in an empty, white void. She could still hear the whispering, but it was much quieter now.

Off in the distance she spotted a lone dragon, standing alone with his back turned to her. Oracle tried to walk forward towards him, but she wasn't getting any closer.

Then the dragon turned around, and Oracle almost screamed when she saw the staring, empty sockets where his eyes were supposed to be.

The dragon smiled at her, a smile that didn't fit the face. It seemed almost... too friendly.

Suddenly, he was in front of her, almost looming over her. Underneath his unwavering gaze, Oracle felt very, very small.

The dragon smiled again.

"Hello, Oracle. I've been expecting you."

Expecting? Ignoring the cryptic sentence for now, Oracle managed to form some words. "Who... are you? What is your name?"

The dragon waved away the questions like a pesky fly. "My name is not important. As for who I am, I am but another simple dragon, like you."

"I- is this a vision?"

He frowned. "A vision? I suppose you could call it that. Though I believe the correct word is-" he leaned forward, "a... visiting."

The NightWing took a shaky step back. "A visiting? Are you..." she paused. "...dead?"

The dragon chuckled. "No, Oracle, I am alive and well."

"Then why are you here?"

"Well..." he thought for a moment. "You know, you remind me of a dragon I once knew. What was her name...?" He tapped his chin. "Oh, right. I believe her name was Dreamsight."

Oracle drew in a sharp breath, recognizing the name. "My mother? How did you know her?"

"Oh, that's a simple question." The dragon leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"I was the one who took her from you."

The NightWing drew back from him, her face contorted in disbelief. "You.. you were the one who murdered my mother."

The dragon barked out a laugh. "I apologize, Oracle, for my miswording. I, myself, am not one for murder. But.. a couple of my friends are."

Oracle growled, though she could not completely stop her talons from shaking. "Why? Why did you do it?"

The dragon's face suddenly went serious. "I want a perfect world." he said. "One with no 'special' dragons, one where everyone is the same. Your mother was... too weak. She does not deserve this future."

Oracle was slowly digging her talons into the floor. "You... you're a monster."

The dragon ignored her and looked up. "Oh, would you look at that. You're waking up."

As soon as he said it, she felt it, felt reality slipping away like the floor was being ripped out from under her. Her conscious self was slowly waking.

"No no no," she muttered. "Wait, come back!" She reached her hand out to the dragon, but he was already moving farther and farther away. "Where are you going?!"

The dragon gave her one last, tiny smile. "We will meet again, Oracle," he called. "Because I am coming for you..."

She could barely hear him, though. All she could do was close her eyes...

... and wake up.

——

"Oracle? Oracle, wake up!"

The NightWing opened her eyes to find Fairywren desperately trying to shake her back to consciousness, along with her older sister, Sakura.

The purple-pink RainWing sighed in relief. "Oh, thank the moons you're okay! Fairy came into the village to tell me you passed out, and I had to come."

"Thank you," Oracle said weakly. She got up, wincing. That wound in her shoulder from the tree earlier was starting to get worse.

"Did you have your vision?" Fairywren asked quietly. Oracle noticed that the sack around her neck was gone, and hoped that meant she'd returned the bracelets.

"Y-yeah. I did." She shuddered. "There was... a dragon, and.."

Oracle recounted her vision, about her mother's murderer and his ominous warning, and how he'd said he'd be back.

Once Oracle was done, Sakura stepped forward, reassuringly twining her tail around hers. "You've had a rough night, Oracle. You should get some rest. I can take you to the healer's hut, if you need me to," she offered.

"That... would be nice, actually," Oracle admitted.

Sakura let the NightWing lean on her shoulder as she and Fairywren headed back to the village. As Oracle felt the warmth of the rising sun on her back, she let her worries melt away.

But when she looked back behind her, she couldn't help but be reminded of her vision, as the moons slowly dipped below the horizon, the last ray of light disappearing under the glare of the sun.

Oracle shivered for the second time that night, but it wasn't from the cold. It seemed that this story had just begun...

· · • · ·

This pre-roleplay basically leaves off from here, when Oracle, Fairywren, and Sakura return to the village at sunrise. You can ask them about the vision and interact with others.

Roleplay for the rainforest here! —————>

Elsewhere, on the NightWing island, Utopia is having a meeting at Wanderer's Keep, located on the dormant volcano. Attending is not required. Roleplay for that here! ——————>