Buster

Starshine made her way back to the fallen castle quickly but carefully, landing in the courtyard where she'd made her initial entrance. Without Moonbeam's gift of sight, the Pearlcatcher's blind eyes had glazed over once more, returning her to her blind state.

In her mind, images flashed before her, creating a rough patchwork of the castle at all different times in its history, complete with the ghostly silhouettes of dragons, fairies, fauns, and unidentifiable entities zooming past at different speeds, along with the constant, ambient sound of chatter intermittent with out-of-place silences.

In a way, she wasn't blind at all. In theory, if she could meditate well enough, she could focus one of her visions into a static loop, allowing her to see just fine.

But she wasn't that skilled of a Seer. Not yet, anyway.

Starshine slowly made her way through the castle, pausing each time she heard the sound of rubble falling to the tile, but most of the time it was just a brick or two, knocked loose from the castle's rough landing. Anyone else who was in the castle must have found some other way out before it was sucked into the portal… or were buried too deep in the rubble to make any sound at all.

Either way, she knew it wouldn't be long before other native creatures, both beast and dragon alike, would be drawn to this location. She could only hope to scout it out before they arrived.

A new sound caught her ear; something she hadn't been hearing before in her visions. A soft humming filled the air, through a crooked archway at her right. As she approached the source of the noise, she felt a strange sensation on her skin. The best way she could find to describe it was like feeling Déjà vu on her flesh; she'd never felt anything like it, but got a clear vision in her mind of another place, just through this magical gateway.

Starshine was standing before a portal. There were many in the castle, and as Allegro had stated, the magic was still intact, meaning many of the portals were still active.

Portals that connected this fallen castle to the foreign realm from which it had been ripped.

Starshine took a step back. She wouldn't have thought it to be the case, but now that she'd actually confronted one, a portal to a strange world suddenly seemed very unnerving.

The hum suddenly grew louder, and a feeling of static broke over her skin.

Starshine took another step back just as something else took a step through the portal, and onto the small platform it sat upon.

"Oh! This is a lot better than I expected! I though this place would have been reduced to a heap of bricks!"

The voice seemed to come from ground. Starshine looked down, but there was nothing in any of her visions that was helping.

"Who's there?"

"Well me of course. The name's Buster. And who are you, dragon?"

"I'm Starshine."

There was an awkward pause before the little voice suddenly said, "My gosh, you can't even see me. I apologize, I didn't realize."

Starshine nearly flinched as something cool and soft touched her tail. It felt like a tiny hand.

"I'm a Messenger Toad," said Buster.

"A talking toad?" Starshine asked.

"Well, we used to be fairies, but that's a long story," replied Buster. "For another time, perhaps. But right now, as you may have probably guessed, I'm here to deliver a message."

The toad pulled her tiny hand away and said, "You call yourself Starshine?"

"That's what I said."

"And you can see this room, although you are blind?"

"… Kind of…"

"I expected there to be two of you," said Buster.

"There are," said Starshine. "My sister is back in the den, caring for an injured dragon we pulled out of the rubble."

"Someone didn't make it out?" Buster sounded alarmed. "Did they say what their name was?"

"He said his name was Allegro."

Buster sighed loudly. "Of course. He would be here the evening the castle was to fall." She didn't sound surprised. "Is he alright?"

"His leg is injured, but otherwise he is well," Starshine told the toad.

"Thank goodness." She paused for a moment before returning to the previous topic. "So then you are one of the Seers. I am here to help you find the Prophet."

"The Prophet?"

"A dragon has foreseen this event," Buster continued. "She is here, hidden in the shadows just as you are. That's why you and your sister's visions have brought you to this place: to find the Prophet."

"Do you know where she is?" Starshine was eager to learn more about why they were here. Both she and Moonlight often pondered why their visions had brought them to this place, this seemingly empty corner of the shadow domain.

She's nearby," Buster told her, "with quite a few friends, by now. If my brother made here, they should be expecting you as well."

"Another Messenger Toad?"

"That's right," confirmed Buster. "But before we go, I'd like you to take me back to your den… I'd like to speak with Allegro."

"He's a friend of yours?" asked Starshine.

"A family friend, in a sense," replied Buster.

Starshine nodded, lowering her palms to the ground for the tiny creature to climb aboard.
They were making their way back to the courtyard when something strange caught Starshine's attention.

"Do you smell…… smoke?"

Buster hopped down the Pearlcatcher's back and into the courtyard, gazing up at the sky.
Above them, the clouds had shifted to a hazy gray with flickers of orange. A thousand shining eyes peered down from the circling mist, like a thousand twinkling stars in a polluted sky.

"The smoke gyres," whispered Starshine. "They've found us."

A gust of wind from below knocked them both back through the doorway. A huge dragon, obviously an imperial, opened a pair of glittering green wings and slowly landed in the open courtyard. His body was covered in bandages, concealing most of him, and on his face he wore a blue mask that matched the color of his own hide.

"Stay where you are," he said, his masked face looking in the direction where Starshine lie curled around Buster. "Don't let the smoke gyres see you."

He turned, gazing up at the sky, before opening his wings and soaring upward into the circling mass of smoky birds. The young Imperial was quite a remarkable flier; he used the power from his great, leathery wings to form gusts that knocked the smoke gyres off-course, causing them to scatter. After giving chase for a couple of minutes, the birds began to depart. The blue and green Imperial circled the sky above the castle, chasing away any stragglers.

Once all the gyres had left, he returned to the courtyard.

"Who are you?" Starshine had returned to her feet and was standing in the archway with Buster sitting on her shoulder when he finally landed again. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Randale," said the Imperial. "I've been following the smoke gyres, trying to find my brother… but they led me here instead." He lowered his head. "Who are you?"

"I'm Starshine," she said coldly. "This is Buster, and this is her castle. Unless you have business with one of us, you should probably be going soon. This place isn't safe."
Randale looked up at the sky slowly. Now that the smoke gyres were gone, the swirling clouds around the small red vortex could be seen again.

"This is the place," he gasped. "Where worlds collide… This castle came through that rift, didn't it?" He turned back to the dragon and the toad that stood before him.

"What do you know about it?" asked Starshine.

"That this is my brother's doing," he replied gravely. "It was a mistake, and something awful is trying to come to this place… but I can stop it. I just have to find my brother before he finds this place!"

He looked around wildly, somewhat in a panic.

"You need to elaborate," said Starshine. "How is this your brother's doing? And what happens if he finds this place?"

"It was a side effect of an unsuccessful ritual, something he tried to do before he understood how the magic worked," said Randale quickly. "There's a seed of darkness inside of his soul, and the ritual has awakened it. It wants out… and the only way for it to exit his vessel is through a portal to another realm!"

"The castle," Buster whispered in Starshine's ear. "All of the portals are stable gates to another realm. The seed must know this, and it will want to lead him here."

"What's with the birds?" asked Buster, pulling away from Starshine's ear. "The gyres?"

"He sees through them," said Randale. "My mother was familiar with the spell. He sacrificed his sight to use the sight of a thousand birds."

"What's he looking for?"

"I don't know, exactly," Randale admitted, "but I'd assume it would have to do with a portal, one that can take him to another realm and release the seed."

"We can't leave this place unguarded," Buster said suddenly. "If this dragon can see through the birds, he's already seen the castle and the rift that it fell out of. He may be back soon, and if the ritual he performed created a tear between realms this powerful, who knows what he may be capable of." She hopped off her companions shoulder and over into the courtyard to stand beside Randale.

"I'll stay here with him… Bring your sister and Allegro back to this place. We'll have to make it your new den."

Starshine lowered her head in a single nod. She knew it was the only choice they had now. It would be far too dangerous to leave this castle unprotected. The Pearlcatcher made her way to the edge of the courtyard and spread her wings.

They had a lot to discuss.