Poptart

The Doomed Seer
^{GHOST-Appetite of a People Pleaser}

Relationships



"Due to her extremely kind and generous personality, Poptart inadvertently causes severe inflation within Sornieth! Her habit of showering everyone she meets with gems (and other such goodies) significantly decreases their value as she continues in her endeavors of bringing happiness to the world around her."
- What Crime Would That Dragon Commit? "Aw man, how could I ever forget? I mean, I can forget, because the second half of that party is a complete blank in my mind, but I definitely remember which one! Flicker had to clear out her cave arena for a little bit, so clearly I took the advantage to host the biggest party everrrrr. I made sure Tazetta and Celeste came along, they were not going to miss out! They squirreled away to some other hole like a quarter of the way in, but they definitely ended up closer. We had sooo many visitors, it was the biggest turnout I ever had. A bunch of celebrities even showed up-- hell, even an Archiver showed up with his girlfriend! He was chill about like, the several million laws we were breaking. Which, uh, in retrospect, should've been pretty suspicious. Because he was an awful guy. And I knew. I knew what he was going to do. But no one ever listens! And I couldn't focus on my awesome party with him there! I'm told I kinda started screaming at him? And we got into a pretty brutal fight? I wish I could remember it. I wish I could've stopped him. That-- that damn prophecy was the whole reason I wanted it to be the best party!

"Um. Sorry for the late response and the... tangent. I try not to remember that often. It was the best and the worst."

---

"Alright, sis, open your eyes!"

Little Poptart removed the makeshift blindfolds over her eyes, looking over the room that her siblings had led her to. It was a simple stone room with a high ceiling that resembled a basement, carved from a pleasant shade of limestone. Her older sister led the other two Wildclaw hatchlings down the stone staircase, and Poptart ogled at the high shelves with many labeled vials. But what she was most impressed by was the bowl-shaped marble carving in the middle of the room. Using her tippy-toes, she peered over the edge and down into the deep, deep waters.

"Tadaaa! It's the scrying place Dad took me and brother to!"

"S'crying?" Poptart dropped back onto her back claws. "What's that?"

As though that was his cue, the oldest of the three hatchlings ruffled his feathers. "The scrying workshop was specially made by Water dragons like us," he said, stumbling over some words. "Its primary purpose is to show predictions of dragons, but it's also used for prophecies--"

"Prophecy!" Poptart's eyes lit up like a Pearlcatcher seeing its pearl for the first time. "I wanna prophecy!"

The older sister gave Poptart's head a rub. "That's what we're here for, starfish! We're gonna give you your first prophecy, since you won't stop bugging me about mine!"

"Yaaay! Pro-phe-cy! Pro-phe-cy! Pro-phe-cy!" Poptart chanted, and began circling the dish.

"Just for the record," The brother stated, "I still think we should've gotten an adult to help us. Don't you need to do something before she dives down?"

"Don't be a sea slug." The larger sister whacked her brother with her tail. "I know what I'm doing... I think. I think you need to recite something, or maybe eat something specific?"

On the other side of the dish, Poptart was still chanting. Her big claw hit something hard, and Poptart looked down to see a glass vial rolling away. She quickly caught it and took a closer look. It was unlabeled, and the liquid inside was a weird black hue.

"What's this?" Poptart darted back to her siblings and handed her brother the vial.

"It looks like some kind of oil or secretion," the brother said. "Maybe it's Wavehopper slime?"

"Whatever it is, I think that's what we need!" The sister snatched the vial out of her brother's talons as he protested. "You need to drop in oils and stuff before you dive!"

The sister popped the cork off the vial and held the vial over the marble dish. The black liquid oozed out slowly. Once it was empty, she threw the vial to the side and began dumping in other vials that were around the dish. Finally, she stirred the solutions with her arm.

"Seems good to me," said the middle sister. The oldest brother looked at the dish nervously, while the youngest sister looked on in wonder.

"Alright, starfish, just remember- You need to dive deep down for a good prophecy, but you also need to keep enough air to come back." The sister gave her sibling a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Also, keep in mind that this will be your first prophecy." The brother ruffled his feathers again. "It might be a little scary, but you have to keep it to yourself."

"Thanks you guys!" The tiny Wildclaw hugged her siblings. "Will be back before you know it!"

The Water wildclaw hopped onto the rim of the dish and froze. The water suddenly looked a lot deeper and darker than before. With one last reassuring glance to her siblings, Poptart dived into the water and pushed down.

Before long, she lost all visibility in the water, and the surface was a faint speck far above. But she still had no visions, and began to wonder if her sister had messed something up.

Her ear began to ring. No, it wasn't her ear ringing; was that a whistle from a prophecy? Poptart pressed on into the cold, black water.

Suddenly, noises and feeling erupted all around her. It felt like she was stuck in a whirlpool of screeching, howling dragons. Four figures rushed by the hatchling, and she was certain they were her beloved family, reaching out and trying to grab her as they were whisked by. With a sense of relief followed by fear, Poptart realized she had found the prophecy she had so badly wanted.

She wanted a hopeful vision, though. Not this whirling, screaming, painful nightmare.

Poptart became aware of a choking feeling on her head, as though the water was trying to force her to stay under. Was it even water anymore? It felt too thick, too oppressive to be her element. It almost felt as though it were alive.

Desperately, the hatchling began to swim back to the faint light of the surface, though her movements were more like clawing her way out of a canyon. With each motion, the light grew, and suddenly she burst from the liquid, holding onto the rim of the of marble dish. The liquid slowly slipped away, as though it was saying it would be back another day.

"A storm!" She cried. "A horrible, horrible storm!"

She felt claws on her talons, dragging her back onto stone. The hatchling began to panic, but realized it was only her siblings.

"Brother! Sister! A storm--"

"Hush, sister. You can't share your--"

"But it's important! A bad storm is coming--"

"Calm down, starfish!"

"A BIG STORM WILL DESTROY US!! I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!"

Poptart began to sob, whining into her sister's feathers about the choking, whirling storm from her vision, until her voice was reduced to simple hiccups. Her sister stroked her mane, looking at her brother and back to her crying sister.

"Poptart, don't worry." She stopped stroking to lift her little sister's head up. "There's no storm coming. It's been clear all week."

"You probably just had a bad reaction to whatever sister put into the dish." Her brother shrugged. "It was just a bad hallucination, not a prophecy."

Poptart turned to look at her brother's face. She knew what she felt, and it was strange that her brother had brushed it off as a hallucination.

"Look, we'll go get you some snails!" Her older sister gently placed her head on the ground and hopped up. "You rest here, and we'll come back! Come on, brother!"

Poptart weakly protested, but she was too tired to move and her siblings were already at the top of the stairs. Her sister waved, and left the door open.

A few minutes later, a howling wind slammed it closed, and Poptart was alone with her horrible prophecy.

She already knew her siblings weren't coming back.