The Nightwings were not a fearful tribe, merely practical. 

That's what they said when they uprooted their entire tribe to live on a desolate island in the middle of the sea. That's what they said as they hid from Darkstalker, cowering in darkness and breathing in ash as the dragon they despised wasted away underneath a mountain. That's what they said as their dragonets grew weaker and their eggshells grew thinner. That's what they said as clouds of ash covered the moons they once loved and stole away the powers they pretended to still have.

The gifts of the moons—mind reading and future telling—would have been lost entirely if not for the quiet wisdom of Thoughtful, Whiteout's husband and Darkstalker's brother-in-law. On his deathbed he told his oldest daughter the secret of the moons and begged her to pass it on. "Keep it secret. Keep it safe. Tell your descendants." She promised that she would.

In the centuries that followed, the moons rarely cut through the near-impenetrable clouds of ash and smoke that covered the Nightwing island; however, every now and then, a dragonet would hatch and a whisper of power would flow through them.

When the three moons lit the sky, two-thousand years after Darkstalker's hatching, two Nightwing eggs were about to hatch. One was hidden in a cave far below the Skywing kingdom, nestled between a Mudwing egg and a Seawing; the other was balanced on the spire of a melted castle, waiting for the moons.

The clouds dispersed. The moons shone through. And two eggs, though separated by a thousand miles, began to hatch.

Two Nightwings watched intently as moonlight illuminated their egg, hearts racing almost in sync as the shell turned silver under the three moons. Thoughseer looked at his wife and grinned. She had never been more beautiful than in this moment, her ink-black scales almost vibrating with anticipation as she crouched down and nuzzled the egg. Moonlight, so rare on the volcanic island, shone through her wings and turned the underside a star-spattered mauve.

Hello, little ones, she thought, mind filling with a fragmented vision of two impossibly small, impossibly perfect dragonets. It's time to wake up.

Thoughtseer crouched next to her, then jumped as the egg gave a slight jolt. "Three moons, it's happening!" He whispered, delight lighting up his voice. "Do you think they're going to have mind-reading, like me, or-"

He cut himself off as his wife froze and the smile slid off her face to be replaced with an icy blankness. Her eyes, eerily out of focus, seemed to stare through the egg in front of them as a bitter wind cut across the exposed mountain top. "Worldfinder? Are you alright?" He waved his talons in front of her eyes, torn between obligation to her and their dragonets. Her mind was as blank as her expression.

Then, as the first crack split through the egg, a vision started marching across her mind. The world tilted, sweeping Thoughtseer up with it, and for a moment the empty landscape disappeared.

Scarlet. Fire. Heat. A sound like broken glass and slow destruction washing over everything.

Black dragons, black smoke, black char, black sky.

Thoughtseer forced his eyes open, desperately trying to breathe. Nothingness. The world was still black. The vision—it had to be a vision—still held him as tightly as it held his wife. He tried to to panic, tried to keep his body still even as his mind raced and raced and raced through emptiness.

Light. Fragmented, blinding light.

A Nightwing without any stars. A Nightwing with silver scales. Three moons. Two moons. One moon. Darkness. Again, darkness.

He steadied his breath, praying to the moons that he would wake up soon.

Another echo of light, this time bluer than anything he had ever seen. Bluer than the sky. Blue as ice.

Ice. Everywhere, ice. Iced scales, iced claws, iced soul. Iced secrets. Iced memories. Iced lies.

Ice and a serpent. A serpent and a knife.

Three promises, three lies.

A burning scroll.

A breath.

And then light.

Thoughtseer shook himself free of the vision, opening his eyes and taking a deep breath of relief as he saw his island—desolate as it was—once more. He turned to Worldfinder, twining his tail with hers as her eyes refocused and then filled with fear. "It's okay, love. I'm here," he whispered as she came back from the vision.

I've never- "I've never had a vision like that before," she said quietly, burrowing her forehead in his neck. "It was terrifying."

"I know, love. I know." He held her tighter. "But our dragonets are almost here, and you're safe now. I've got you."

"I know."

Together they watched as the spiderweb cracks widened and then split apart, a tiny dragonet spilling out from the egg. Undiluted joy radiated from both of their hearts as she stared up at them, silver-rimmed eyes wide. The moonlight caught the edge of each perfect, purple-black scale, scalloping it in ice as she yawned her first yawn.

The egg gave another shake. Thoughseer and Worldfinder stared with hopeful anticipation as their second dragonet prepared to emerge from the silvery egg.

The wind shifted, hurling the world into darkness as ash-clouds obscured the moons. Like ink over parchment, the shell turned obsidian. Neither of them had seen anything like it, and when their son crawled out of the egg, his scales were as black as night, save for a pale sliver of silver in the middle of his forehead.

Beautiful, Worldfinder thought. "They're perfect."

"They really are."

The two dragons curled around their hatchlings, sheltering them from the icy wind and delaying the moment they would have to return to the rest of their tribe. "What should we name them?" Thoughseer asked, claws curled protectively around his daughter's tiny form.

"Oh, I hadn't even gotten there yet." She laughed. "Part of me is just surprised we got this far."

"Me too. But we can't leave them nameless. Here," he gave Worldfinder the little dragoness and picked up the male. "How about we name you Eclipse? You haven't got a single star on you, have you?" The dragonet nipped at his claws and Thoughtseer laughed warmly. "See, he likes it!"

He turned to his wife, mirth slipping away like rain on oil as he sensed the depth of her thoughts. In the moment of stillness, her mind had settled back to the vision that began with the hatching. A name was forming in her mind. An ominous, dangerous name. A strong name. A name that could carry the weight of three moons and an uncertain future.

Worldfinder looked up at him, an odd look on her face as she said, "Her name is Doomsayer."

The dragonet blinked up at the clouds with big, dark eyes and shivered as if she already saw dark thinks on the horizon. The wind howled in reply.

~

A/N:

Hi all and welcome to the new prologue for The Forgotten Dragonets!   I thought it would be fun to slip into Thoughtseer's mind for this scene because it let us see both of their thoughts, and I wanted to show more of his and Worldfinder's relationship.

Any first time readers out there? If so, please comment and tell me what you think! If you've read the original draft I would LOVE to hear what you think of the changes.

See you next Friday for chapter one and hope you have a great start to the new year!

~ Ginger