Deep inside a hidden cave carved into the soaring mountains of the Skywing Kingdom, a dragon had just hatched. But she wasn't a Skywing.

This was it.

The moment she had been waiting for.

The Nightwing that sat in the center of the cave was lithe and quite beautiful, despite the fact many scars laced her scales. All of that thanks to the many assignments her Queen, Battlewinner, had sent the assassin to complete. Her name was Dreamcatcher.

Not many dragons knew of her or her family, and she was fine with that. She grew weak and scrawny like the rest of the dragonets when she was young- but unlike them, she escaped. And now she was here.

The Skywings never came around to the part of the mountain they resided. It was too far out in their territory and too close to the Rainforest for them to give it much mind at all. She lived in almost perfect peace, messengers hardly came by anymore. Not since the first stopped coming back, having decided to stay with the other Nightwing. Despite her history, Dreamcatcher had wanted a family for the longest time. And then finally, in her mate Blacktalon and their daughters, she had one.

Daughters.

The newest addition sat curled in the crook of her tail, looking to the world like a shard of strange stone. The Nightwing lay there, studying her unique features with sharp, pale grey eyes.

Dreamcatcher had never seen a dragonet, certainly not a Nightwing dragonet, the same as the one she now cradled so carefully. Maybe it was the fact her egg had changed, and the fact her dragonet hatched a little late than she should've. Somewhere different from the ugly and horrid volcano she herself had. For months the dragonet's egg was a dark, dappled black. Then, that night...

Dreamcatcher had suddenly felt very strange as she was tending to her oldest, like eyes were on her, and immediately went to go check the egg. A motherly instinct, she guessed.

A breeze slipped through with small beams of moonlight from the moss covered entrance her egg was carefully nestled by. Small silver tipped flowers were growing around the egg, sheltering it. She immediately noticed it was different.

So different that she thought Prophecyteller had gone and replaced it with a black stone. But as she approached the nest, she watched as the curved black shell faintly rocked, a single sliver of silver eggshell bleeding into the black around it as it flashed in her eyes.

Her dragonet looked different, no doubt. Part of her worried that she had done everything wrong. This was her first egg, after all. Prophecyteller was not her daughter by blood. Her mother had died from the volcano- it made her lungs much too weak and she died suffocating. It was a sad death.

But since Blacktalon joined her, she peacefully accepted Prophecyteller, though she could never hold such a vital piece of her as the dragonet that now shook her eggshell away, rubbing her eyes.

She gently lifted one of the dragonet's talons, who just snorted and clumsily pulled her talon away as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Dreamcatcher smiled faintly as she looked down at her, her heart swelling with unimaginable pride at the small thing. She was her parents only offspring, and barely survived herself. But this tiny thing she helped to make gave her such joy.

Her ears perked as she heard familiar footsteps lumbering by, and then the clatter of small talons afterwards. In a flurry of her small wingbeats, Prophecyteller propelled herself forward and nearly into Dreamcatcher's own chest. The dragoness simply reached out with her wing and nudged the year old dragonet upright, who giggled and clung to the black starry membrane of her wing.

A tall Nightwing entered at a similar speed to Prophecy, and he looked bewildered. His scales were so dark that he looked like a slice of void standing in the dimly lit cave. Unlike hers, his scales were duller and dryer, but devoid of any scars. He had only been a messenger, after all. He was like a moonbeam, and her a meteor.

His intelligent eyes raced throughout the cave until they landed on Dreamcatcher, who beamed and lightly slid her talons around her new dragonet and lifted her up just slightly for him to see. The dragonet proceeded to bite at her talons.

"Isn't she a peculiar one, Blacktalon?"

Blacktalon grinned and sidled around Prophecy, who squeaked at him not to get in the way.

"Quite a peculiar one." he agreed.

"Mommy, what's her name? Did you name her yet?" Prophecyteller prodded, and Blacktalon sat near Dreamcatcher. "I wanna name her!" she gasped, grey eyes alight. They contrasted greatly with her scales, which were a much darker color with a faint blue hue in the sun. As her eyes blew wide, they looked like two moons stark against a clear night sky.

"You want to name her?" Dreamcatcher said, smothering a chuckle as Blacktalon lightly nudged her. "Well, do you have any ideas, Prophecy?"

"Give me a second!" She shrilled, eyes still owl-like. She stared at her new sister, assessing the odd color of her scales and strange placement of silver scales throughout her body.

"Blue-eyes." She declared, and Dreamcatcher stared down at the obvious attribute to her new dragonet.

"Maybe something else." She said gently, though she was slightly annoyed. "Something a little more special."

"Destinywriter?" Blacktalon offered, but Dreamcatcher just wrinkled her snout.

"No, not that. I've been doing some reading..."

"You actually read those scrolls I bring you?" Blacktalon suddenly said, surprised.

Dreamcatcher scoffed. "Of course I do, featherbrain. I find them very interesting."

"They're literally just a bunch of old scrolls that some mad scavenger-obsessed dragon wrote." Blacktalon arched his brow.

"They're awfully creative for a mad dragon." Dreamcatcher commented, and her eyes drifted up to the scrolls sitting on a small stone shelf nearby. "In those scrolls, they talked about the intelligence of these scavengers. While they did claim to have been turned into one by some animus Magic dragon, the way they described the behavior, it was all very dragonlike. These scavengers have these other powerful scavengers they look up to, they call them Gods. I read about one, her name was Artemis-"

"That's weird, mommy." Prophecyteller said loudly, and Dreamcatcher rolled her eyes.

"I think I like that name." Dreamcatcher said, and looked down at the purple dragonet in her talons, who cheerfully reached for her. "Artemis the huntress."

"It does have an interesting...something to it. Not really a Nightwing name..." Blacktalon thought this over for a moment. "Yet she is odd looking, so it does make sense."

"Quit saying how odd she is." Dreamcatcher lifted Artemis's chin up. "You may be odd, dear, but there's nothing wrong with that."

Of course, Artemis wasn't ready for such wisdom. She proceeded to try and bite Dreamcatcher's talons. Again.

Suddenly, the dragonet was distracted by something much shinier. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, but she began gnawing on a small black and silver pendant. Dreamcatcher scolded her and carefully pulled it by the chain from her talons, staring at the new necklace. She had never seen this one before.

"Probably one of Prophecyteller's trinkets." She muttered to herself, and was quick to pull it away. All the light seemed to disappear from Artemis's eyes, and she suddenly settled down quite a bit.

Dreamcatcher frowned and turned away, setting the necklace near the stacks of ripped scrolls. And just like that, it was out of her worries.

Artemis stared at the necklace, the color blue in her eyes seeming to split and divide until her irises were a hurricane. The dark onyx glinted back at her, like a knowing smile being directed her way. It wasn't her time yet.

But soon.

//2017 September update//
Hey guys, so I'm going to be going through the first couple chapters and eventually the whole book and editing some things to help fix some plot holes and the story overall. Just wanted to give you all a heads up if things seem weird if you happen to read it before I can update again.