As Opal flew back to the mountain in the rain, she heard Shulker muttering under his breath. Opal turned her neck to look at him.
"You ok?" She asked him. He looked up at her eyes the looked away.
"No, I'm not," He replied, "I just got myself killed protecting you."
"You're still alive aren't you?" Opal said tilting her head. She didn't understand what he meant.
"I won't be soon," Shulker retorted, "that's what they do to traitors, kill them before the situation escalates."
"Oh."
Opal understood the conundrum he was in. The VoidWing Queen was probably hunting him down right now.
"But what other choice did I have?" He continued, "It was a kill or be killed situation. But I couldn't bare to see you die. Even less, in my talons."
They both angled their wings to land at the entrance of Unakite. Opal let Shulker enter before her. Shulker paused to let Opal lead the way. Opal shrugged and led the way to her room.
"I couldn't let him kill you either," Shulker went on, "Umbral may be kind at times, but that's very rare. He's usually coldly sinister most of the time."
"So that's his name," Opal said suddenly, making Shulker jump, "Umbral."
Opal wove through GemWings to get to her cave. She paused for a second to see if Quartz was one of them. Opal couldn't see her in the crowd. They continued on to the tunnels that led to the caves. Opal led the way into her cave. Here again, she thought with a smile, will I ever escape this place? She knew in her heart she never would. She loved this cave and everything in it. Opal turned to Shulker.
"You can stay here if you want," Opal told him, "there is a spare nest by the scroll rack I use for reading"
She gestured to the nest.
"You can use that to sleep in."
"Thank you." Shulker said, settling into the nest. Opal smiled at him, and he smiled back.
"Read anything you want," Opal said as she was heading out, "just don't touch anything else in the room."
There wasn't much else in the room. There was only her nest, the diamond painting, the clusters of her family crystals, a mirror and a desk for drawing or writing things.
"You can use the desk to by the way!" She called back to Shulker as she headed to Quartz's room. As Opal peeked around the corner into her friend's room, she saw Quartz sleeping in her nest, curled around the egg. Opal looked at how peaceful she was and decided she didn't want to wake her. As Opal turned to leave, Quartz opened her eyes and lifted her head.
"Opal?" She said sleepily, "come in if you're there."
Opal turned back and headed into the room. It was a cave a little bigger than hers. It was a pale shade of indigo, from the indigo crystals lining the room. A small cluster of fire agate crystals were at the back wall, surrounded by regular stones. There was a large, neat scroll rack on the left wall, far away from the warm crystals. On the opposite wall were three nests, two of which looked used, the other one looked small, couldn't be any bigger than a nest for a small dragonet. Quartz was nestled beside it, clutching the egg in her talons. On the entrance wall, various paintings were hung there. There were five in total. One was painted where birds were flying over an open field, the second one had a cheetah chasing and antelope across the savanna, the third was a self portrait of Quartz, on the fourth was crystals of all shapes, sizes and colours were painted, some overlapping others. The last painting was of a white dragon flying toward the moon, stars dotted the black sky an trees lined the bottom. This one turned out to be Opal's favourite.
"Pretty great, aren't they?" Quartz asked, now fully awake. Opal nodded without saying a word. Below the paintings, in the corner, was a large table with paint pots and brushes on it. Many blank pages lay open on the table, waiting to have something painted on them.
"That is Moonstone's favourite thing to do, if she isn't reading." Quartz said with a smile.
Opal turned to Quartz and looked at the egg.
"How is it?" She asked.
"It's great!" Quartz said, "does it look bigger to you? It looks bigger to me. I don't know if I'm hallucinating or not. Am I hallucinating? I don't think I am—"
Opal burst out laughing.
"Okay, slow down." Opal said, "and yes, it does look bigger. But just a tiny bit."
It just occurred to Opal, that Shulker had never seen the egg. Opal did not know how he would react to them finding this abandoned egg. She turned to Quartz to ask.
"Would you mind if Shulker saw this egg?" She asked, flicking her tail. Quartz looked at the entrance and then back to Opal. Then she smiled.
"Like you need to ask." Quartz said, "of course!"
"It's just, Sea's seen it, I've seen it, Star's seen it." Opal said, "the only friend that hasn't seen it is Shulker."
Quartz nodded. "Let's go!" She said. Quartz led the way back to Opal's room, weaving through GemWing dragonets coming home from lessons. Opal entered into her room to find Shulker by her desk reading The Lost Garnets. Opal smiled. She loved that story.
"Opal!" He cried, his face lighting up as he saw her. "Where did you go?"
"Only to Quartz's room silly." Opal said whacking him playfully over the head with her wing. "I wanted to show you this."
Quartz entered the room just as Opal opened her wing at the entrance. Quartz was walking on three legs, only because the fourth was still clutching the egg.
"Woah." Shulker said, spotting the egg, "who's is it?"
"We found it abandoned by Whispering Stream in Jade Forest." Quartz said, then looked at Opal, "well, I did."
"Poor guy." Shulker said sympathetically. He slowly, reached out his talons, "may I?"
Quartz hesitated for a second. Then nodded and handed Shulker the egg.
"Just, be careful with it." Quartz said looking warily at his long claws.
"It's ok," Shulker said smiling, "I've handled eggs before."
Quartz sighed and let go of the egg. Shulker held it close to his chest and stroked its smooth, orange suface. Opal thought that VoidWings must have cold scales, but that was proven wrong when Shulker huddled beside her one night when her wing was healing. Opal sat down in front of him and looked into his eyes. He was too intrigued in looking at the smooth egg to notice she was looking at him.
"Do you have a name for it?" Shulker asked smiling a little bit more.
"We were thinking, Aragonite." Quartz said coming to sit down beside Opal.
"Aragonite," Shulker said thoughtfully, "a suiting name."
Opal's ears suddenly flew up as Seasnake slithered into Opal's cave. Her amber eyes went instantly to Opal.
"Where have you been?" Sea asked Opal, flaring her wings. "I thought I lost you in the storm! Or some VoidWing had gotten you! Or—"
Her eyes landed on Shulker and the egg. Shulker looked at Sea and hugged the egg closer.
"Oh, I lost you in the rain," Opal said, trying to stop Sea from snapping at Shulker, "I flew down into Jade Forest to see if you were there, but you weren't."
"Oh," Seasnake realised calming down a bit, "sorry. I guess this means you won't be able to practice flying then."
"It's alright," Opal replied, smiling, "I think I will do great anyway."
"Would it be OK if I stayed tonight?" Quartz asked suddenly from behind her, "I would let Moon know, and I think it would be nice to hang out with you guys for a while."
"Of course!" Opal cried, flaring her wings, "you didn't need to ask me that! Three MOONS!"
This made Shulker and Sea chuckle. Sea then eyed Shulker with suspicion afterwards.
Opal settled down in her nest near the scroll rack. Shulker looked at her, wondering whether to give her back the scroll or keep reading.
"It's Ok," Opal said, "I've read the story three times before. And there's more scrolls in sequence to the story as well if you want to read the whole lot."
Opal took out the rest of The Lost Garnets stories. There were four more.
"Story two is called The Hidden Pearls," Opal told him, "story three is The Forgotten Quartz, story four is The Missing Topaz and story five is The Diamond Princess."
"Wow," Shulker said looking at them. Opal could tell in his eyes that he loved these stories. If you asked Opal, The Diamond Princess was the best story in her opinion. Quartz settled down beside the crystals, shifting around as though she was uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry there isn't enough nests for everyone," Opal apologised, " but there is my nest and the bear covers I use when it's cold."
Sea slithered over to Opal's nest without asking anyone else if they wanted it.
"I'll have this nest if that's fine with you Opal." Sea said.
"I can have the bear covers if that's alright," said Quartz.
"Cold stone floors are fine with me." Shulker said with a huge grin, "besides I'm used to it."
"Yeesh," Quartz said, "don't you at least have something to lay on?"
"Nope," Shulker replied plainly, his grin fading, "the Queen could not care less about what we sleep on. Just that we do sleep."
"Ouch." Sea said, "darn it! Now I feel sorry for you!"
"Oh Sea shut up!" Quartz shot back. Sea stuck her forked pink tongue out at her and turned around. Opal was with Quartz on this one. Why is Sea acting like this to Shulker? Then the answer hit her before she even finished the sentence; a VoidWing almost killed her, She thought. But that is no reason to act this way to Shulker! Of all dragons! The other half of her brain yelled. Opal curled in her reading nest, already feeling the fatigue of the day weighing down on her.
"Goodnight Opal," she heard Shulker's soft breath in her ear, "sweet dreams. . ."
And then the world went dark as Opal fell asleep, waiting for dreams.
* * *
Opal was back wandering by Diamond lake again. The soft blades of grass brushed her talons as she paced the edge of the lake. Small blue fish were swimming around in it as they glittered like gemstones. She looked up at Unakite again to look at its green surface. Here and there, there were patches of pale pinkish-red grass swaying between all the green. That's how the mountain got it's name. Opal looked around at the nice bright day it seemed to be. Opal took two steps only to be falling into black darkness. She looked around to see many small, different coloured eyes looking at her. Opal screamed and wrapped her wings around herself. Everything seemed to be alive, rivers murmuring, the walls whispering with echoes of a foreign language, the sound of metal tapping on crystal. Opal wanted it to stop. She closed her eyes tight and kept whispering to herself.
"It's just a dream, it's just a dream."
But nothing seemed to work. Opal curled herself into a ball, trying to escape this nightmare. Then as suddenly as it came, all the noises vanished. Opal was left in a dark place, like black blankets wrapped around the furthest of her vision. Then through the dark, she began to hear a whisper.
"A storm. . ."
Opal turned around slowly to see Stardust sitting there, staring at her with blank eyes.
"A storm will . . ." She said.
"What?" Opal asked, edging closer, "where have you been! I thought you weren't coming—"
Suddenly Stardust seemed to light up, brighter that any crystal could manage. It hurt Opal's eyes just as much as if she were staring at the sun. Star then spoke with a voice that was not her own.

"A storm will rage across the land,
To bring you dragons from across the sea,
They will show you shadows, they will tell you secrets,
And nothing will be as it seems.

A secret buried beneath the Earth,
A secret ignited in the Stars' sight,
A secret hidden in the Mountains,
A secret changing from dark to Light.

A terror hides in the cave,
An evil lurks in the Night,
Face the Rift with Wings and Fire,
Or none of the tribes will see the light."

Opal fell back with a gasp. A prophecy! Do I have prophecy powers now! Everything seemed to fall away as Opal fell out of the dream . . .
Opal woke with a start. It was morning, she could tell, but everything seemed as dark as a starless, newmoon midnight. The prophecy had shaken her down to the bone. She couldn't even tell if that was her dream or not. The last train of thought before heading out was: what in the name of the moons was that!?