The Song of the Eclipse

==Note==
There are spoilers! Major spoilers! And there's time travel. What more could you want in a fanfiction? :)
==Prologue==
The luminous SeaWing set her talons carefully on the stone, her thickly muscled tail curled in an aggressive position. She was clearly waiting for something - or someone.
The click of claws caused her to whip around, pearly teeth bared so that they flashed like slivers of moonlight in the sun. But it was only a small group of SandWings. They were gathered at the edge of the river, ready to snatch at an oblivious school of fish swimming nearby.
They were in a bustling town, bordered on one side by the river and on another a motley assortment of bricks and sandstone. Buildings of wood, stone and flapping linens stood side by side, hemming in the various IceWings, SeaWings, and SandWings that jammed the cobbled streets.
The SeaWing folded her wings in annoyance and settled on a smooth boulder. Her webbed claws curled in disgust as an IceWing walked past, and he in turn cast her a cold blue gaze.
"Cobalt," was the curt greeting.
"Arctic Fox," the SeaWing said. "Long time no see."
The IceWing flicked a pair of serrated talons in an almost airy fashion. "A routine that I would like to continue, if you don't mind. Why are you in the neutral territory at this time? Doesn't the queen have some important duties for her ambassador?"
Cobalt surveyed him with displeasure, then she uncurled her clenched claws. "I'm waiting for someone in particular," she said. "Not that you would understand, being only a minor aristocrat among the IceWings."
Arctic Fox shrugged this off and continued walking, but he turned, blue eyes glaring at her like chips of ice and snow. "Careful where you tread, Cobalt," he said. "Not everyone would likely hesitate to attack the only heir of Tsunami and Riptide."
Cobalt glared at him as he continued, until his snowy white scales vanished amid the crowd.
Note: Sorry for the boring prologue. It will get better. :)
==Chapter One==
The Jade Mountain Academy was a beautiful place, Tamarin thought as she entered the school for the first time in a while. When she had been young she had attended it, and now here she was, ready to teach her first class.
She paused as Starflight's desk. The elderly NightWing, still blind, turned his sightless eyes towards her and smiled wanly. "Tamarin, right?"
"How did you...?"
"If I told you, it would lose its mystery," Starflight replied.
"Is Mother and Father here?"
"Kinkajou might be sorting fruit in the prey centre," Starflight said. Tamarin could see that his talons were itching to sort some scrolls, and he was clearly tiring of this conversation. "Turtle just started his trip to the rainforest, however. Something with ambassador work. But your brother just arrived."
Tamarin flicked her tail in annoyance and rustled her crest. Starflight turned towards a pile of scrolls, ending the conversation, and so she made her way along the corridor, towards her classroom. It was inherited from Tsunami after she had become the queen of the SeaWings, and Tamarin enjoyed the faint trickle of water in the background as she readied herself for her class.
The vines by the entrance moved, and Kinkajou, bright pink with splashes of dizzying magenta, entered. Though she was now an older RainWing - fifty-two this summer - she still radiated energy and excitement.
"I can't believe that you didn't come visit me," she said, fanning her wings. "To think, my daughter comes to Jade Mountain Academy and doesn't even bother to greet me? What sort of mother does that make me?"
"A great one," Tamarin said. Kinkajou embraced her with colourful wings, and then she took a step back, flashing a toothy grin.
"You're exactly like your namesake. Complimenting me and always knowing how to stop me on my rants." Kinkajou flicked her tail and surveyed the classrom. "You get the Jade Winglet first, by the way. My old winglet, you know, with Moonwatcher and Qibli and Winter and..."
"Alright, Mother," Tamarin said, shoving Kinkajou into the corridor. "I need to prepare...oh, there they are!"
The students filed in, ranging from four years to seven, and their eyes were bright with curiosity as they looked at their surroundings. Tamarin gave a little leap when she recognized Cerulean, the granddaughter of Clay and Peril. Unlike her grandparents, Cerulean was a light shade of blue, but there was the odd white scale, thanks to her IceWing father.
A haughty MudWing eyed her. "Are you supposed to be a RainWing or a SeaWing?" he asked rudely, and Tamarin looked at him, affronted.
"I'm half and half," she said.
"It's bad enough that we have to have winglets with hybrids," the MudWing sneered, "but teachers, too?"
"Excuse me?" Cerulean said, icy blue eyes focused on him.
"It's not natural," a scrawny, emerald green SeaWing said. He cringed at the angry looked from Cerulean and shifted his wings. "Sorry, that's just what Father says..."
Tamarin recognized him now. Tidepool, the only son of Squid, an unpleasant SeaWing if she ever saw one.
Nevermind that, she thought. The class is a disaster now. Especially with that awful MudWing, who must have been only a year or two younger than her. In fact, Tamarin realized with horror, he was taller than her, which was bad enough.
"Look," she said, "it doesn't matter if there are hybrids. We are just the same as you. Right, Cerulean?"
"Exactly," she hissed.
"Pfft," the MudWing scoffed. "This class is such a joke. I don't even know why I bothered -"
"If you have a problem with the class, then you can report to the head of school," Tamarin broke in. She glared at the MudWing until he shrugged and trudged into the corridor, moving purposefully at a snail's pace.
She watched him until his tail vanished from view, and then Kinkajou was back, scales flashing a dizzying emerald and white.
Tamarin's own scales flashed the same colours when she saw that her mother had a gash on one forearm. "Mother?" she cried, reaching for the RainWing.
Kinkajou gathered the remainder of the Jade Winglet with one wing. "The mountain's falling!" she screeched. "We have to evacuate the school!"
Note: Sorry, still kind of boring. :)
==Chapter Two==
Quickflight, the son of Deathbringer and Glory, stood alongside his brothers on the rise. The wind whipped around them and Quickflight's wings lifted in response.
Talonfoot squinted into the distance. Unlike Quickflight, who looked more like a RainWing than a NightWing, Talonfoot had polished black scales that shimmered in the afternoon sunlight. Then he turned his flinty gaze back to Quickflight and his brothers.
"SandWings," he said. "Approaching from the west."
"SandWings?" Quickflight asked in surprise. He exchanged worried glances with Kestrel. "What would they want?"
"It doesn't matter, does it?" Talonfoot asked, grinding his claws into the mossy boulder that he was perched on. "They're trespassing on the new Rain Kingdom's bounderies."
They were gathered on the peak of a mountain, which was littered with rocks of all shapes and sizes. The forest stretched around them, resembling small bushes, while a winding river looked like a mere ribbon. Golden scales flashed in the distance, and Quickflight readied to launch into the air.
"Should we fight them?" Kestrel asked.
"Not yet," Talonfoot said. "Wait until they approach."
Quickflight's nerves were set on edge as they waited. He glanced at his brothers, who had their wings extended for the fight.
Talonfoot gave the signal.
The cool air whispered in Quickflight's ears as he collided with the first SandWing, claws already slashing. A hooked barb swung dangerously near his head as he dodged a clumsy blast of flames from his opponent.
Claws as deadly as a hawk's bore into his flashing scales and Quickflight roared, whipping around to face his new attacker. This one was a light shade of brown, with piercing ebony eyes that resembled flat lakes, and these seemed to stare right through him, like he wasn't anything but...
The SandWing screamed and released him. Quickflight gave chase, anger clouding his vision, when Kestrel suddenly stopped him.
"Quickflight!" he screeched, pointing a claw to the distant shape of Jade Mountain. "It's falling! Jade Mountain is falling!"
==Chapter Three [Last Different Main Character, Don't Worry :)]==
Emu clutched the gemstone. He had used his animus powers for the first time in his young life, to store the entirety of his animus power, but then everything had shifted. The trees looked younger, it was nighttime, and not only that, there was no longer a path beside him.
"Um, anyone?" he asked. Of course no one answered.
Pocketing the gemstone in his bag, he glanced around. The familiar shapes of the Claws of the Clouds mountains loomed around him, but he realized that many of the peaks were duller, and more snow laced them. Where his hut had been previously there was nothing but a cluster of grasses and trees, and in confusion Emu turned a circle.
He blinked, wonderingly, and lifted his wings. Maybe he should have a look around or something...
A waterfall arched off of one of the ledges like the rippling tail of a horse, and Emu paused to look at it. There hadn't been anything like this previously, only a small trickle easily ignored.
Then suddenly a SeaWing and a MudWing nearly crashed into him.
One had bright blue scales that shone like a thousand tiny sapphires, and the MudWing seemed to gleam like an amber coal. Emu swerved to avoid them - they didn't seem to notice him - then lost his bearings and collided into the the lake that was pooled around the waterfall.
Sputtering, he looked at the others for assistance. But they had vanished.
Note: Guess who the SeaWing and the MudWing are! Guess! :)
==Chapter Four==
Cobalt blinked, and then she was coasting on an air current.
This was so confusing, so disorienting that she nearly crashed into a pine. Steadying herself, she looked around.
A NightWing was splashing around in a pond, which was fed by an arching watefall, and a SeaWing was falling through the air. A young MudWing was pursuing her, his eyes squinted against the claws of the wind, and Cobalt banked to one side. They hadn't seen her yet, and she wasn't planning on letting them. Not until she got her bearings.
The MudWing passed the SeaWing, then he stopped, snapping open his wings. The SeaWing crashed into him, sending them both careening into the forest, and Cobalt dove after them. She was going to find some answers, even if she had to use her claws. Then she remembered the NightWing in the pond. He would probably know the answer to her questions, more so than these two younglings.
Gracefully circling around the lake, which had rivers branching off of it, she started to swim around the floundering NightWing.
"Are you responsible for catapulting me all the way across the continent?" she growled.
"Um, I think so?" The NightWing brushed his head. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" she countered.
A young RainWing - or what looked like a RainWing, except she had webbed talons - interrupted them. It was almost as if she had suddenly swooped in on them from the sky, but she looked just as bewildered as they did.
"My name is Tamarin. What's going on?"
== Chapter Five ==
Tamarin surveyed them with curiosity and decided that, between the two of them, the NightWing looked much more friendly than the SeaWing. She fanned her wings and looked around nervously.
"I was in Jade Mountain, then suddenly I just...transported here, in the river," she said, flicking her claws in a spray of sparkling droplets. "Do you know why?"
The NightWing rubbed his scales in earnest while the SeaWing snorted and looked away. Tamarin waited patiently, and they heard the distant rustlings of the forest. "I'm Cobalt," the SeaWing said, not answering. "And this creature is Emu." She splashed water with her muscular tail.
"I think it has something to do with how I was trying to store my animus power in a gemstone," he murmured, half to himself. "But that doesn't make any sense..."
"Actually, it does," Tamarin said. Her mind was whirring, both with excitement and fear, and her scales shifted to a bright pink splashed with anxious greens. "I'm an animus physics teacher. This must have something to do with the compartment being incompatible with your animus powers..."
The SeaWing turned to give her a disbelieving glance. "An animus physics teacher?" she echoed. "Those actually exist?"
Tamarin flicked her tail cheerfully. "Right. If a storage container..." She continued, and all the while Emu was watching her with a fearful fascination and Cobalt was watching the horizon with an expression of disinterest.
The stars twinkled coldly and they were jolted from their reveries as the two other dragons, the MudWing and the SeaWing, laughingly made their ways from the foliage. Much to Tamarin's surprise, the MudWing began to squirm his way further into the muddy bank.
"I don't think most dragons get this excited about being so dirty," the SeaWing said.
"I bet my kind do. I've never been this warm in my whole life." The MudWing scooped mud onto his scales.
Tamarin regarded this with amazement. She hardly liked getting her scales dirty. She bathed as often as she could so that she looked as radiant and beautiful as her mother.
Maybe we should talk to them, she thought. Maybe they know why we're here. She made her way forwards, but a pair of talons grasped her tail.
"We can't just talk to them," Cobalt hissed.
"Why not?" Their voices were drowned in the cascading roar of the waterfall; Tamarin had to roar to make herself heard. The MudWing and the SeaWing still hadn't noticed them, and they seemed to be occupied with something else.
"What if they're dangerous?" Emu asked anxiously. "We have no idea what even -"
"They're just dragonets," Tamarin growled, fighting Cobalt's vice-like grip.
It was too late. The dragonets had already vanished into the forest, and finally Cobalt released Tamarin's tail.
== Chapter Six ==
With a roar, Quickflight splashed into a pond. Cold water met his scales and he was aware of three other dragons hastily scrambling towards the safety of the bank.
"I'll fight anyone," he said, snapping his wings open. He squinted suspiciously as a warrior-like SeaWing hissed in response.
"I'll take that offer."
"Wait, wait," a NightWing said. Quickflight released a breath of relief at seeing a member of his own motley tribe.
"Do you know why we're in this lake?" he asked.
A RainWing with webbed talons cocked her head, and was clearly ready to launch into an explanation when the SeaWing said, "We were transported here with some mumbo-jumbo animus powers, either forwards or backwards in time, as its moons-set now."
Quickflight scoffed, but it broke off with a choke. Sure enough, the black sky was scattered with millions of cold lights, like shattered ice or perhaps snowflakes caught in the web of a spider. The three moons dipped close to the horizon, shining like silver crescents.
He turned around to analyze his surroundings. He was in a pond, which had a river branching off of it, while a silver waterfall cascaded across the face of a mountain nearby. His ears were filled with its deafening roar.
"I wonder how many more dragons are going to suddenly appear here," the NightWing said worriedly.
Quickflight blinked, looking taken aback for a moment, then he bared his teeth in a confused snarl and turned viciously to the RainWing. "You seem to know why we suddenly just materialized here," he said, tail twitching despite the water curling around his claws. "Answers."
"There's no need to be rude," the RainWing said soothingly. "I'm Tamarin, and these are Cobalt and Emu. We've known each other for two minutes, roughly."
Quickflight snorted. I'm not believing her, even if she is a RainWing. Or a SeaWing, he added as he cast a disdainful look at Tamarin's webbed claws.
And then they heard a roar.
== Chapter Seven ==
Cobalt reared in the water. The familiar sound reverberated in her memories, bringing up countless battles. She flexed her claws and lifted into the air, sprays of water flying off of her wings. Tamarin, Emu and the unpleasant RainWing/NightWing hybrid followed her.
Her wings snapped into position so that she hovered over the trees.
The young SeaWing was apologizing profusely to the MudWing, and she was clearly trying to disentangle him from a thornbush. Cobalt gasped, and Tamarin turned to face her.
"Are we going to confront them or something?" she asked.
"Not quite yet," Cobalt said. She decided then and there that she was the leader of this patrol of assorted dragons, even if that RainWing/NightWing hissed unpleasantly in protest.
Both of the dragonets froze, and the SeaWing wrapped her talons around the MudWing's muzzle. In a brief flash of moonlight, Cobalt recognized the SeaWing.
Portraits of Tsunami had hung on every corner of every corridor, on every scroll, in every dragon's memory.
"Mother?"
== Chapter Eight ==
At a gesture from Cobalt, the dragons banked towards a secluded mountain peak. "Shouldn't we talk to them?" Tamarin asked, feeling cross as she shook her wings.
Emu wrung his talons and turned to Cobalt. "You recognized her, didn't you?" he asked.
Cobalt seemed to be in shock. "That was my mother, Tsunami," she said. "But she is so young...she can't be more than six or seven."
The RainWing, or NightWing, or whatever he was, stared at her as if she had come from the moons. "Three moons," he breathed. "You mean that we went back in time? To before the end of the War of SandWing Succession? Do you realize what this means?"
"That we're in a lot of trouble?" Emu ventured.
"We're part of the legend! We're living the legend." The RainWing - she decided to think of him as just a RainWing, as it was a little confusing to think of him as RainWing/NightWing all the time - turned an excited circle, his tail lashing. "We can change history!"
"How can we change history if it's already history?" Tamarin asked.
Emu screeched, but Cobalt lunged forwards and wrapped her talons around his muzzle, in a similar way that Tsunami had done to the MudWing. Who was probably Clay. Hadn't she seen Clay just mere moments before this fiasco, leading a group of dragonets to the prey centre?
"Scarliff! Scarliff!" Emu said. When he finally got Cobalt's talons off his face, he breathed and whipped around to stare at them with horror. "Scarlet's here! Don't you see her?"
A viciously orange SkyWing had swooped on the dragonets. Cobalt clenched her claws. "We can stop her," she said. "Then Dune won't be killed and neither will Kestrel, if she doesn't get captured."
"We can't do that!" Tamarin said in shock. "That means Clay will never meet Peril! No one will kill Scarlet!"
"That's scary," Emu said. "We could literally make everything happen so that the world as we know it will change forever!"
The dragons stood there, staring at each other in exhilaration and fear.
Note: Ugh, I'm sorry for the boring chapters. I'll try and write better chapters to come. Please feel free to comment! :)
Work in progress
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Content (WillowandtheWoof)