Chapter Text
Starflight found himself being terrified to sleep. He couldn’t put a talon on it, but he knew something awful would happen if he fell asleep. He had been paranoid all day.
He was counting the dragonets in the library, as he always did. There were only two in here this evening. Kinkajou and Tamarin were reading a scroll about IceWings together, and Kinkajou softly sounded the words for Tamarin to hear.
“ Starflight, ignoring me isn’t going to do any good ,” The voice he had been hearing rang throughout his head.
He shook his head. Leave me alone! He thought fiercely. He had no time for delusional hallucinations. His brain did flips as he totaled how many books needed to be returned by the library by now. Nobody else kept track, so he would.
I can assure you, I am not a delusional hallucination, as you call it. My name is Darkstalker. The voice was tentative and creepy, and Starflight would like it out of his head, thank you very much.
I don’t care what your name is, because you’re not re- He snapped his head up as a dragonet reached his counter.
“Hello Moon,” he ignored his heart hammering in his chest. How did she sneak up on him without him realizing? “What can I do for you?”
The dragonet was soft-spoken as if she was afraid of being in the room. “Sunny sent me to help you with something.”
The lightbulb went off in his brain. “Oh yes!” He turned around and started digging through shelves frantically. Where did he put it?
He heard Moon shuffle from side to side. “Uhm, are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“Of course, I’m okay Moon. Why wouldn’t I be?” Starflight chirped at her, ripping a scroll free from the shelf it was in. Other than the fact that I have a voice in my head.
“What?” Moon asked frantically. He turned his head in her direction, confused. What did she mean?
You’re going to feel very silly in a minute. Darkstalker, or whatever it was, laughed in his brain.
“Uh, What did you need help with?” Moon said. Oh yeah, something is going on with her. His talons gripped the scroll he was holding tighter. I won’t be able to get her to talk though, I know it.
He set the scroll down and tried to act like the tension wasn’t heavy around them. He heard a whisper snake through his mind, sounding foggy. Please don’t let him hear me, not right now. I can handle him hearing me later, but not now. His brain flashed an alarm silently. That wasn’t Darkstalker, it was much different. It sounded like...
“So I have all of these scrolls that haven’t been returned yet, and I know who checked them out,” He started babbling, trying to ignore the feeling of panic in his gut. “I just need you to help me write down the scroll title and the dragon’s name. Then we can give it to Sunny and she’ll try to find the scrolls.”
“Okay,” Moon said uneasily. “Doesn’t Fatespeaker normally help you with this? Not that I don’t want to help you or anything! I just thought-”
“I understand,” Starflight cut her off, patting her talon. “Yes, Fatespeaker normally helps me, but she had to go back to the NightWing village for a few days. So I asked Sunny if any students would be willing to help, and she sent you.”
He heard the steps of two dragonets coming towards the counter from where they had previously been sitting. “We finished the scroll, Starflight.” A scroll bumped his talons as Kinkajou placed it on the counter for him. “Hey Moon! Tamarin and I are going to go bother Winter. Do you want to come with us?”
Moon hummed. “No thank you. I’m helping Starflight with something. I’ll come to find you after, okay?”
“Okay! See ya later!” Kinkajou led Tamarin out of the room.
“Bye Moon,” Tamarin called out as they left.
“Bye Tamarin!” Moon called back.
Starflight hummed pleasantly. Tamarin is a very sweet dragon, I’m glad she’s found friends. She was one of the dragons he had worried about. He wasn't sure if any dragons would tease her for being blind, but nobody seemed to be doing so yet, so he was glad she was finding her way around school.
“Yeah, she’s great.” Moon agreed.
They both froze. He could practically hear how hard the little NightWing’s heart was going.
Finally. I was waiting for my two favorite mind-readers to find each other out. Darkstalker yammered at them. He sounded genuinely pleased as if he was actually excited about this.
Mind reader? I am NOT a mind-reader. His head suddenly jolted with a stabbing pain. Wait, does Moon...
“Yes,” Moon sounded almost devastated to admit this. She grabbed his talon in hers. I can hear Darkstalker too.
Darkstalker laughed. The three of us have a very fun future ahead.