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Clearsight was staring over a cliff, looking at the waves and rocks crashing into each other below. This was the proverbial fork in the road. If she leapt off this cliff and began her journey to Pantala, she wouldn't have the opportunity to return. Soon there would be a storm that would span the ocean. It lasted as far into the future as she could see. If she flew to Pantala she wouldn’t be able to return to Pyrrhia. If she stayed in Pyrrhia, she would lose the chance to escape to Pantala. The storm was possibly punishment from the Three Moons. Stay and be ostracized by your tribe, or leave and never see your friends and family again. There was more risk staying. If she missed him too much she might free him and that would put Fathom and Indigo at risk. The choice was clear. The choice seemed clear. But she couldn’t seem to take the step in the right direction.
“Do you go by a pseudonym?” The voice was familiar, but one she never expected to hear again. At least not here. Clearsight whipped around to find Whiteout standing behind her. “There are blind dragons with clearer sight. Trust them, they would know.”
“Hi Whiteout.” Her voice cracked as she spoke the hybrid's name. She hadn’t noticed she was holding back tears, but they began to flow. Was she feeling… relief? “What do you mean?”
“Ash is quite a cloudy thing. Most dragons have the sense to look away.” She hummed, taking steps toward Clearsight and reaching out to wipe her tears with a claw. “Did the snow falling make you rain?” She asked, cupping Clearsight’s face in her talons.
“Oh Darkstalker?” Clearsight realized out loud. “I suppose it did.”
“I am blue too.” She confided, placing her forehead against Clearsight. “But you can’t be mournful when the snow fell into the hole so eagerly.”
“Whiteout, I think I need to leave. Will you come with me?” Whiteout pulled away and took a few steps from Clearsight before turning around to face her once more.
“You have not wizened up about ash it seems.” Whiteout grumbled. “There will be others who will fuck the butterflies.”
“That was strangely blunt?” Clearsight huffed.
“Knitting?” Whiteout responded, tilting her head like a confused animal. She approached once more and tugged on one of Clearsight’s talons.
“I can’t stay here Whiteout.” Clearsight argued. “The tribe knows how close I was with Darkstalker. They won’t forget that… and what if I miss him too much, I could free him and doom us all.” Whiteout placed her forehead against Clearsight’s and began to hum. Clearsight was confused by the gesture, but the low rumbling vibrations coming from Whiteout’s head felt nice. Whiteout pulled away and grinned.
“Azure once more.” Whiteout looked up at the sky and then down at the City of Night.
“Everyone else left a while ago.” Clearsight realized. “Whiteout, what are you doing here? You should be with the tribe.” Whiteout looked at Clearsight for a long time, like she was trying to convey something.
“Even among brethren, I’d rather not choke.” Whiteout said stoutly, raising her snout and inhaling deeply. “I won’t follow falling stars towards their smoky destination.”
“Are you staying here?” Clearsight questioned and Whiteout shook her head in response.
“The Moons will have to learn to enjoy each other's company. I think I’ll enjoy where the arachnids rest.” Whiteout answered. “But I don’t want to be a lone star among stingers.”
“I want to, I just… I just…” Clearsight stuttered and Whiteout’s face dropped. “It’s hard, I don’t care how harrowing the journey is, I just can’t stay here. It’s all just easier to forget.” Whiteout’s disappointed face was too much for Clearsight to bear and she turned away. “I know you already said no, but you could come with me, and we could start a new life. Away from Darkstalker. Away from the Nightwings. Away from Pyrrhia. Away from the painful memories.”
Whiteout shook her head once more. “Goodbye, stranger” Then she turned and left. Clearsight had to force herself to look away as Whiteout left the cliff. She stared back out towards the water, considering the rushing waves and heavy clouds in the distance. She took a step. Then another. And another. And another. Until she finally broke into a sprint and launched herself off the cliff. She dived for a moment, feeling the winds in her scales before opening her wings to soar and take to the salt flavored ocean sky. She flapped her wings as powerfully as she could, hoping the thoughts plaguing her would go away as Pyrrhia disappeared.
-
She felt water on her face.
Did I wait too long? Has the storm started? She took a questioning glance at the sky, only to be temporarily blinded by the Sun, without a cloud in sight. She touched a talon to her face and realized she was crying. Even her aching wings could not distract her from the torrent she felt inside. She was a days journey from Pyrrhia and though she couldn’t see it, she knew the storm was hot on her trail. It was too late to turn back. Did she even want to? A flash of Whiteout’s face came to her mind. The answer came easy after that. Yes. Yes I do. But Clearsight couldn’t, the storm was already behind her, there was no turning back. She persisted for a few more hours with the storm eventually overtaking her.
Crraaacckkklle
The loud boom and flash of lightning caught her off guard. But there was another glint beneath that.
Wooosh
With the next strike of lightning can a vision. She didn't receive them often, viewing the future at her own leisure without worry of prophecy. But visions always seem to act as some form of divine intervention. The moon, Oracle, speaking through or to prophets.
A dark alleyway. A glint of a blade and a horrified Whiteout looking on in fear at her assailant.
It shook Clearsight to her very core. Sobs began to escape her with no end, but it was too late, she couldn’t turn around now. She’d have to brave the storm, or find a way around, but by then it’d be too late. There was no way to save Whiteout. Another flash of lightning came striking down in front of her.
Whiteout painted a portrait of Clearsight. She awkwardly handed it to the prophet later and seemed awfully shy about it.
She’d seen that before.
It felt like a vision.
But that was a memory.
Another flash.
Whiteout joined Clearsight, Darkstalker, and Fathom out on the beach one night. Darkstalker is telling a tale around the fire, but Whiteout and Clearsight are too fixated on each other.
Flash.
Indigo and Fathom were sharing a dessert. Darkstalker had bought one for him and Clearsight but dropped it. While he went to buy another, Whiteout gave Clearsight some of hers.
Clearsight felt agony. Whiteout. A dragon she loved so much without knowing, was going to die, all because she was too scared to stay by her side.
Are you dense?
“Excuse me?” She said to no-one but the rumbling rain.
I know you heard me.
She took a questioning glance around her, but found no other dragon flying alongside her. “I must be going insane.” She whispered, once again, to herself.
Oh please, that happened a long time ago.
“Who are you?”
Come on, you know who I am.
“...”
You thought about me earlier.
“...Oracle?”
Yes exactly. The moon apparently confirmed. Dear my sisters and I. You are so hard to deliver a divine message to. I sent a storm so you wouldn’t leave, but it only expedited your departure. I give you a vision of someone getting hurt, yet you only steel yourself. I had to borrow my sister's domain to give you visions of memories, and you still kept going. So now we’re here.
“Why are you trying so hard to get me to turn around?”
Because I’ve been rooting for this relationship for centuries before you hatched. Oracle explained. And then you started thinking you were soulmates with her brother.
“How do I know I’m not just imagining things?”
It doesn’t matter if you’re making this up. Where would you rather be?
That made Clearsight pause and stop soaring through the sky, becoming stationary in the air. There was a place for her in Pantala… and… and… there was a place for her in Pyrrhia as well. By Whiteout’s side. She turned and faced back towards her homeland, before moving back in that direction. The storm soon dissipated leaving the giant visage of Oracle and Imperial in the sky. The moons watched her from both sky and water as she traveled to return and perhaps a polite gust of wind blew her along faster on her way to where she longed to be.
-
For that divine intervention is why on that day, in that alley, when a dagger was drawn towards Whiteout, Clearsight had arrived with perfect timing. Falling out of the sky and on top of the assailant. Citizens of the Scorpion Den thought the story was so romantic, that they made a holiday out of it.
And they all lived happily.
(At least until Darkstalker did the weird necromancy thing with Fierceteeth and Clearsight had to awkwardly explain that she had fucked Darkstalker’s sister after betraying him.)
The End.