Nightwing

Lightning zigzags through the sky, followed by a shattering clap of thunder. Nightwing bolts awake. Her wings rustle against her sides.

She listens hard. Wind hammers the walls of the lair, but that is not what concerns her. She makes her way to the hatchlings' room. The night guards watch as she passes, and they all nod to her. Most of them smile. But whether or not they do, she smiles at them, and her expression, as she finally enters the hatchlings' room, is calm. Most of the hatchlings are quiet, but one of them is kicking in his sleep. Nightwing moves closer to him. She lays her head upon the cavern floor, and she closes her eyes as if in slumber. Beside her, the hatchling stirs a bit more, and then he quiets down. His breathing becomes more even. Nightwing opens her eyes, and she waits.

After a moment, the hatchling wakes up. His face twists as he yawns, and then his eyes widen in recognition. "Nightwing! You're he--"

Nightwing shushes him gently, but she smiles as she does so, so that he knows he isn't in trouble. The hatchling grins back. He relaxes against the Imperial as she draws a wing around him and his nestmates. She hums a sleepy little song, and the hatchling begins to drowse. "I had this really crazy dream."

"Yes, dear. I know."

"It was really dark and I was inside a storm....You were in it. You were flying in to rescue me. And then the clouds turned blue and really sparkly...." He blinks, and a furrow inches onto his face. "Hey, you're always in our dreams. The other hatchlings, too, they say..."

"You should go to sleep now," Nightwing chides him. She gently draws a blanket over the brood. The hatchling yawns and goes back to sleep. Soon he will be flying through luminous blue clouds again. There will be a rainbow at the end, over a beautiful forest where jeweled birds sing. Nightwing loves children's dreams. They are always simple and pleasant.

She remembers the hatchling's nightmare: it was of being snatched off the ground by a rogue wind and hurled into the sky. Her face darkens as she remembers him screaming, the fear of being torn apart by howling winds. And then seeing the raging sea below. The endless, merciless sea, writhing with leviathans with saw-edged teeth. She had plucked him out of the nightmare and deposited him into a more pleasant one -- almost literally, in fact....

"You'll understand someday," she thinks to the hatchlings. She waits a moment longer to see if they will wake, but they are pleasantly asleep for now. The hatchling's nightmare still tumbles through her mind. It is eerily familiar to her.

~ ~ ~
The Imperial became aware that there was a world around her when she suddenly felt she was falling. Clammy air rushed past in a viscous stream. She managed to twist her head to look down and saw only a heaving darkness. Here and there, faint patches of white glowed. A part of her screamed in alarm: those patches were huge eyes; there were things staring at her, monsters she couldn't possibly comprehend!

She wanted to fly away, but her wings were too feeble. Down she went, and down. There was a crash as she plunged into the sea.

-- And beyond that, there was another swirl of noise...No, of voices. She couldn't pick out the words, but she understood the emotions.

They sounded angry. Or...scared...? --

Above her was the color of tarnished steel. And deep below her, an abyss yawned. She was being tugged towards it even as she fought. Strange things loomed at the edges of her vision -- pale things with huge, luminous eyes. So she did not struggle too much; she feared that if she twisted around too sharply, she would see horrors that would rip her sanity away.

It started to get cold.

Soon the white lights faded away. The Imperial had stopped struggling long ago, though now it was getting harder to breathe. Her heart was fluttering in her ribcage; it felt so tight....Her mouth cracked open. No sound escaped her throat, but deep inside her mind, she let out a plaintive cry. It was completely inaudible. And yet someone heard.

The air didn't change, but the Imperial was suddenly aware that she was not alone, and she trembled in awe. And then she heard a voice as vast and dark as the abyss....

She summoned the courage to ask for its name.

The world acquired a deep blue hue. There was a tremendous roar, but she perceived, dimly, two words in it: "I am--"

And then she broke free from the dream, like a swimmer breaking the surface of the water. She sucked in her first gulp of air and let out a shrill little cry.

It was answered again, this time by voices that were a great deal closer to her. Shouts and tears of joy. "--alive!" one voice blared out, a triumphant clarion call. "She is alive!"

The Imperial who would be called Nightwing stretched her sky-colored wings. She struggled out of her eggshell, and the dragons – her parents and clanmates – crowded eagerly around her. The voice she had heard earlier faded in her mind. But it would always be there....

~ ~ ~
The dragons of the Focal Point are uneasy. The coast has been battered by great storms lately, and that is never a good thing. Some lairs are damaged. Smaller dragons are washed away.

Nightwing leaves the hatchlings’ room. Many of them have dreams disturbing enough to make them cry out in their sleep, but by the next day, they are always bright and chipper and ready to gambol with each other. The same cannot be said of adults....Adult dragons have seen many things in their long lives, some of which still haunt them. Their secret fears prey upon them in their sleep.

Nightwing passes by the guards again. One of them is still awake; he lets his fellow sleep. The blue Imperial looks at the sleeping guard’s face. He seems peaceful enough. Her intervention is not needed here. She feels somewhat relieved by that – for a dragon who has the power to peer into another’s dreams can also read their secrets. Sometimes it’s a heavy burden to bear.

~ ~ ~
She was born at midnight, and shortly thereafter she escaped from a dark dream. Nightwing began training in the ways of the Water Flight, and it didn’t take her long to discover her special abilities. Other hatchlings, sleeping innocently nearby, were always startled out of their lives when she pounced on them, yelling about sweets or toys they had stolen. Adult dragons grew uncomfortable around her, too, for she started babbling about things that they were absolutely sure they hadn’t told her – things that hatchlings were too young to know, let alone understand. Things that should have stayed secret. It wasn’t long before nobody wanted to stay near her, for fear that she would ferret out their secrets and scatter them to the winds.

Something had to be done. And so when she was old enough, Nightwing was sent to the Starfall Isles. There, she was placed in the care of several scholars of magic. The first one, a Coatl who was also an old friend of the clan leaders, scratched his head. He read the letter that the leaders had sent along with Nightwing. “I am not sure if I understand,” he said in halting Common speech. “What is it you do?”

Nightwing took a deep breath. “I go into others’ dreams...”

At night, as other dragons slept, she sent her consciousness into their dreams. The Coatl mage engineered dreamworlds for her, ones she could safely frolic in and manipulate without endangering herself or the dreamer. He advised her, “The mind is a fragile thing....Be careful.”

“Be gentle,” said another mentor later on. “Be kind.” She was a Pearlcatcher, an oracle famed for the truth of her prophecies. But it had not always been so. Nightwing slipped into her dreams and saw how the young oracle had thoughtlessly spoken of her visions as a child. She had predicted things that would happen, but others had thought that her predictions were commands that made things happen. She had been driven out of her village and had wandered far away, weeping, with nothing to her name but her pearl.

In the dream, the oracle sat under a tree as rain bucketed down. Nightwing slipped into the dream and shaded the hatchling with a wing. “Why should I be kind? How can you say that?”

The oracle in the dream took on the form of a hatchling – but the eyes she turned on Nightwing belied her true age. “They drove me away not out of malice, but because they were afraid for themselves and their young. It was fear, not hatred, that spurred them. Those who know fear are to be protected and guided – not scorned.”

Nightwing turned her will upon the dream, and the rain faded away. The forest flattened, trees toppling like dominos, and auroras danced across a clear blue sky. The oracle smiled. “Then, and only then, does the fear vanish,” she said, “and hatred is carried away.”

Another month, another mentor – a reformed sorcerer who had once broken the law. He dreamed of blundering through a foul-smelling swamp, where the vines turned into nooses that tightened around his neck and unseen jaws bit at his feet. The howls of his pursuers were not far behind.

Nightwing tore into the dream with the force of a gale: a great wind rose, stripping away the trees. The sorcerer shivered, and he found himself standing atop a grassy plateau. He watched as Nightwing spiraled down to meet him.

“Don’t spill secrets; they were never yours to take,” the old Imperial growled. He held out a paw and opened it. Nightwing peered forward in interest – but it was only a maple leaf, and it spiraled up into the air.

“It goes to the gods,” he told her, his eyes burning with memory. “Every dragon has their secrets – and what they all are, only the gods may say.”

Jump forward several more months....And again, there was Nightwing, being shaped by yet another mentor: an old Mirror who had once been a great soldier. He repeatedly relived one of his first battles, and Nightwing took pity on the armies about to collide in a loss of blood and life. The scene crackled and blurred – and then it changed in an eye-blink, like a page turning in a book. The Mirror dragon stopped his charge. He turned to Nightwing, and he removed his helmet.

“So many dragons want to serve a lord or a king, but lords and ladies are not whom we’re here for. No...We’re here for everybody.” He looked back at the scene Nightwing had made for him: a great market, a crossroad for all the traders of the world. Buying, selling, haggling...sharing and laughing.

“When a dragon is born with a unique ability, they must prove themselves worthy of it – for it’s a sign that they were chosen to do great things. And to do great things, first, one must be a great dragon.”

“Chosen? By whom?”

“You’ll know them when you hear them,” the Mirror said. And then his four eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps...you already have?”

~ ~ ~
Nightwing had fallen into darkness before she was born. And the great blue dragon, in answer to her cry, had come forth to save her. He had cradled her in his massive paws and told her, “Listen…Listen…”

Nightwing had quieted down. And she had heard those other noises again...no, they were voices. Crying out, begging her to come back; they hadn’t even met her and she shouldn’t die before being born!

“Good,” the dragon growled. “You are listening. That is our purview, as dragons of the water: to listen to that which others would not even deign to hear....

“You will live long and travel far. I shall grant you a blessing: that the waves and the tides will hear your voice and that you may bend them to your will.

“But everything has its price, and this is mine: You, too, must listen, always listen...and the secrets of the world shall be opened to you.”

“Who are you?”

Bubbles swirled around them as the blue dragon roared. He opened his paws, and Nightwing went away, shooting up towards the light, towards life....

“But why do I have to go away?” Nightwing wailed. She was still a hatchling, and the leaders of her parents’ clan had just informed her that they would be sending her away, the better to master her powers. She pouted and thumped her tail.

“I have mastered my powers. The sea obeys me!”

“The sea obeys no one!” thundered the clan progenitor, and Nightwing tumbled backwards with a squeak. She suddenly knew she’d made a mistake, and she cowered as the progenitor stepped closer. She was sure that she would be struck for her impertinence.

But instead, the matriarch reached down and gently drew her to her feet. “The gods do not choose their instruments lightly,” she told Nightwing. “Any dragon they choose is imbued with complete control of their powers. It is not the same as mastery.”

She squinted at Nightwing with aged, deep blue eyes, and she lightly touched the Imperial’s brow and chest. “The head and the heart,” she stated. “That’s what needs mastering.”

Nightwing had been about to protest, but another voice stopped her – and it was one only she could hear. It rang from the vaults of her memory. “Listen,” it warned her. “Listen...”

Her heartbeat slowed.

“You will live long and travel far,” the Abyssal Oracle had foretold. “I shall grant you a blessing....But you must listen, always listen, and the secrets of the world shall be opened to you.”

”What do I do with those secrets?” Nightwing asked silently. There was no answer – but she didn’t need one. She already knew.

~ ~ ~
The wind has picked up speed in the past few hours, and it has brought sweeping curtains of rain. Dawn is coming – that’s what the clocks say. But the dragons who look outside don’t believe it; all they see are an inky sky and a restless, tossing sea. It doesn’t take long for the storm to descend in all its howling fury.

Storms are natural – but sometimes, nature is a terrible thing. The storm batters the docks. It washes boats out to sea; it tears the nets the fishers have labored so long to create. Roofs groan under the hammering rain; gardens are flooded and ruined.

And just as quickly as it arrived, it is gone. It leaves behind a ruined shoreline and a sea that doesn’t want to recede.

It is time for Nightwing to take flight.

As the sentinels watch, she spreads her wings. She launches herself off the top of the castle and flies over the shore.

As she drew a blanket over the hatchlings, so she now draws her wings over the sea.

“Sleep...” she murmurs low. “Sleep, sleep, sleep...Return to your bed and dream in the quiet darkness....”

And the sea obeys her: sluggishly but willingly, like a child who doesn’t want the day to end but is too tired to go any further. Nightwing smiles as the sea crawls down the shore.

“There will always be a new day,” she promises it, and she soars upwards in a thunder of wings. The sea is back in its proper place by then. It heaves a moment longer, and then is calm. It reflects the Imperial soaring above it, past the face of the dawn.

The hatchlings awaken not long later. They crowd around Nightwing, tumbling over her enormous feet. “Nightwing!” crows one, the hatchling she comforted earlier. “You didn’t go to sleep....Weren’t you afraid of the storm?”

“Nightwing’s not afraid of anything,” gushes another hatchling. Her pink eyes shine with wonder. “Sometimes I see her in my dreams, and she’s amazing! She’s super!”

“Nightwing always goes out when there’s a storm and the sea is crazy. She’s the best flier ever!”

Nightwing doesn’t answer their praises, not directly. She bends low and nuzzles the children before sleepily bidding them a good night. The hatchlings chortle, pointing out that it’s morning, before they’re herded away.

~ ~ ~
“Be not over-proud,” said the oracle. She kissed Nightwing’s nose and then sent her away in a swirl of rainbow smoke.

“Maintain your integrity,” said the sorcerer. He beat his wings and summoned a gust that bore Nightwing safely to her next destination.

“Be of service to your people,” said the soldier. He joked that Nightwing was too big to be carried off, magic or none, and he patted her on the foot. “Better start walking. But then, you shouldn’t mind that. More dragons to meet...more opportunities to help out. That’s a nice thing, wouldn’t you say?”

Nightwing thought it was, that they all were. So she listened to their words. She listened, and she took them to heart...and slowly, she learned as she grew.

Here and now, Nightwing surveys the shoreline and thinks that it will be a nice new day. When the hatchlings are grown, they will be told of her abilities. But first they must learn...

Nightwing yawns. It’s been a long night, and she hasn’t had much sleep. It’s time for her to go to bed. She goes down to her chamber, and in moments she is fast asleep. She dreams of...

What does she dream of, really? It’s a secret, and Nightwing keeps all secrets well. Like the abyss that keeps all who come down to it...

Like the Tidelord waiting at the bottom of the sea.

~ written by Disillusionist