Eclipse watched as the dark form dove away from him towards the swathe of forest that rested at the base of the mountain, "Hey! Stop!" If someone was skulking around they could know something about what happened to Queen Ember, and he wasn't about to let them get away. He owed that much to the rest of his family. He flapped his wings hard, gaining altitude instead of directly following the other dragon downward. The extra height would give him extra speed, so he could hopefully catch whoever this was before they vanished into the night. He felt immensely grateful for the rigorous training his father had put him through to improve his flying skills as he climbed high into the air and positioned himself so that he could fall into a steep dive.

He couldn't help a slight grin at the rush of wind as he tucked his wings into a spiral and fell back into the dive; quickly gaining speed and distance on the black scaled form he could just catch sight of nearby the canopy of trees below. His own dark scales allowed him to blend well into the deep blue of the sky, while his SkyWing blood gave him the pinpoint vision needed to track the slight silver and white accents he could see on their scales.

The other dragon was small and certainly fast, which slightly threw off his trajectory. He still fell close enough that he was able to snap out his wings and buffet the smaller dragon across the neck and jaw. "Stop running!" His voice came out as more of a low growl, fully intending to intimidate them into stopping if he couldn't do so physically. As his wings caught the air and pulled him slightly back into the sky, he kept a close eye to see what the other would do. He honestly wished that Skua had been out here with him; his friend was actually a guard and certainly would've known more about what to do in a situation like this.

Eclipse felt the ground under his claws give a bit as he landed in the soft forest dirt and heard the faint whimper come from the NightWing as he got closer. He felt slightly bad at having caused her to get injured in the fall, but since that his intent in the first place was to get her on the ground he supposed it counted as a success. He took a step closer even as she bared her teeth at him and flared her wings. He was much bigger than she was, but he knew never to underestimate an opponent no matter how unassuming they might be.

He flared his own wings, the moonlight coming through the canopy catching on the galaxy-like patterns on their underside. He raised his neck up and bared his teeth in a low snarl. A snarl that almost turned into a snort at her stuttering attempt at a threat. "My mother is a NightWing and she doesn't have any powers like that." He didn't let his guard down but looked over her closely. He had no idea what an assassin might even look like.

He narrowed his eyes, tail twitching nervously, "Why were you around the palace so late?" he felt a growl building up in his chest, "Were you responsible for the death of the Queen? Trying to come and kill another one of us?" His tail went from twitching to lashing at the thought of standing in front of the one who killed his aunt. His claws dug into the ground and he prepared himself to lunge forward at even the slightest move from the NightWing.

As the NightWing, Dreamseeker, introduced herself and relaxed her stance Eclipse let himself do the same. He folded his wings in but still kept his head held high, "I'm Eclipse, Queen Ember was my aunt," he huffed out a breath, a bit of smoke and flame puffing into the air in front of him, "If I found out you were somehow responsible you would be dead," he said perhaps a bit too harshly, it'd been a rough day, and chasing down a rogue NightWing was not how he expected to spend the good majority of his night. The trees mostly covered the light of the stars and moon, so if she did have something to do with it and attacked him, well he didn't think anyone would find his body soon. He banished those thoughts with a shake of his head.

He quickly assessed her now that she wasn't flying or threatening him. She certainly seemed much too small and timid to be responsible for something as horrific as Queen Ember's death, and she said she was looking into it. He felt a flash of confusion, "Why do you want to figure out what happened to her?" he turned his head curiously, "What does that have to do with you?"

Maybe she knew something that none of the SkyWings did. She could have been closer, she could have seen something. Before he let his hopes get to high he focused fully on Dreamseeker, waiting to see what she might have to say.

Eclipse opened his jaws to respond to her comment before snapping them shut. He didn't remember saying she might be responsible out loud. That was a problem for later. Just add it to the long list of problems he needed to deal with. "I don't know why you'd want to kill her, I don't know why the dragon who did kill her wanted to," he could feel that same rage bubbling up, not at Dreamseeker, but just the situation as a whole, "I just know that someone killed a member of my family, and for all I know there was no reason at all!" His voice grew to a near shout towards the end of the sentence as all the frustration of the day finally overflowed.

He turned away from the NightWing for a moment, regaining his composure with an angry huff and a deep breath. He turned his head back towards her at her rather hot comment; noticing her favoring her leg and made a mental note that, in the event she proved trustworthy, to help her out with that. "I value peace but I know the one who did this definitely doesn't," he frowned at her as she asked about trust, "You haven't exactly given me a reason to trust you. You were sneaking around my home in the middle of the night. That's not exactly trustworthy behavior."

He took a moment to just sit down and think; gazing up through the trees as if the stars above him might have the answers he needed. They knew nothing, not who did, not how, not why, and no one had even started anything else. What were they waiting for? The weakness that came with Ember's death would be enough for another tribe to attack them, yet nothing had happened. Maybe they were waiting for another moment of vulnerability.

He sighed, the anger he felt giving way to a deep sadness. He hated the fact that this was what he had to be concerned about. If the next coming dawn would bring even more death to the people he cared for. He looked back towards Dreamseeker, "Did you find anything?"

Eclipse shrugged, the last of the anger fading away just leaving him feeling exhausted, "I suppose not unless you had a good reason. Everyone is bit on edge as one would expect." It was in this kind of situation he wished his other friends were here, they'd definitely know what to do or say. His thoughts continued to run in circles as his claws dug into the dirt underneath him and his tail flicked slightly with nerves.

"It was a dart. I went up and saw the healers with it. I had like a thick, black fluid on it." As Dreamseeker trailed off he let himself just rest for a moment. Dropping his head and sitting down with his wings resting on the ground. He felt way too tired to keep up the proud and intimidating facade that he had put up at the start. He continued to stare at the NightWing, he never was the best when it came to judging character, but she definitely didn't seem like a threat. He knew Skua would probably scold him for deciding something like that so quickly, but he was too tired to care.

He jumped slightly at Dreamseeker's exclamation and his jaw dropped slightly. She knew something about what this poison was, that gave them a lead! He sprang to his feet, a rush of energy coursing through his veins, "That's brilliant!" he resisted the urge to rush forward and wrap his wings around the smaller dragon, and instead settled for grinning widely at her, "That's more than we had to go on before. You have to come and tell someone, I can vouch for you getting into the palace." He would also make sure she got her leg looked at by one of the healers.

He flexed his wings, getting ready to take off once again back towards the palace.

Eclipse could see a bit of nervousness from Dreamseeker as they both flapped their wings and headed back towards the palace, "We could tell my mother, Brightstar, or my friend Skua, he's one of the guards. Both of them are trying to figure out what happened to Queen Ember." His mother would certainly want to hear about a potential lead, she could get the researchers at the palace to look into it, and she might be more receptive to another NightWing than his hot tempered friend. He figured Dreamseeker might have an opinion one way or the other, she was the one who knew the information after all.

He kept his pace slow enough so the smaller dragon could keep up, but he couldn't help the excitement that added a bit of power to his wings. Soaring up the side of the mountain he landed on the familiar balcony that lead into his room. He passed through the doors using a light flame to ignite some of the lanterns that hung from hooks on the walls.

He turned back to Dreamseeker, "I figured it'd be easier to come in through my room than trying to convince the guards to let us in," he frowned slightly, "Who do you think we should tell?"

Eclipse gave a nod, paused for a moment, he remembered thinking that, but not saying it out loud. Weird. He shook his head slightly, his mother was of the reasonable sort, so hopefully she wouldn't jump to any conclusions. He walked towards the door, past neatly packed shelves of scrolls and racks of knick knacks that he'd collected over the years, and opened it; peering out in either direction down the halls of the palace to make sure their weren't any guards immediately nearby. He could see a few at the ends of the halls, thankfully their backs were to them, at least for now. He knew that he would be able to tell the guards to simply leave them be given his status, but he'd rather get to his parents room without too much trouble.

"Once we go see my mother she can come with us to see the healers for your leg," he winced slightly, "Sorry about that by the way. I really didn't mean for you to get hurt." Apologizing wasn't really his strong suit so he was glad to get that over with. He took a deep breath before flicking his tail towards Dreamseeker to follow him a short ways down the hall.

The walls were lit with torches held in neat sconces and neatly made tapestries hung in even intervals down the length of the hall. Thankfully his parents room was only a short distance away and he was able to push the door open and slip inside. The room wasn't lit but he could see the forms of both his mother and father wrapped around each other, sleeping soundly. He felt a pang of regret at waking her, but he knew she'd want to be told about this as quickly as possible. "Mom," he whispered into her ear, gently poking her side, "Wake up."

Her large black head immediately snapped up and focused on Eclipse, before quickly falling on Dreamseeker standing behind him. "Eclipse? What's going on?" She gently untangled herself from Storm, "Who is this?" She pushed herself to her feet, dark eyes fixed on the smaller NightWing. Her gaze intense and questioning.

"This is Dreamseeker," Eclipse whispered, as his mother's eyes flickered to him briefly, "She knows something about what happened to Queen Ember."

At this, Brightstar's eyes immediately snapped back towards Dreamseeker.

Eclipse watched his mother carefully as Dreamseeker explained what she knew, trying to gauge any kind of reaction she might have. He watched her brow furrow and felt a slight sinking feeling. If she didn't know what it was then they'd probably have to go and try to get the information themselves. He'd never been to the rainforest, but he'd read enough scrolls to know that some dangerous creatures lived there. Not the RainWings, but other things. Clearly given what he saw happen to Queen Ember's scales it must've taken a great deal of trouble to get a hold of whatever this poison was.

He gave Dreamseeker a nod and encouraging smile as she glanced his way before looking back towards Brightstar, "What do you think?" he kept his voice low, hoping not to wake his father, "Do you think it's worth looking into?"

Brightstar continued to stare hard at Dreamseeker, "Yes, this is certainly more information than we had before," she frowned, deep in thought for a moment, "I've never heard of any kind of creature that spits a poison like that, but it is certainly worth looking into." She looked down towards where the smaller NightWing was favoring her leg, "Come. We'll have one of the healers look at your leg, and you can tell me where you read this information." With that she stepped out of the room, waiting in the hall for the two young dragons to follow.

Eclipse looked back towards his father for a moment, who looked grief stricken even in sleep, his wings and claws twitching with restless energy. Storm and Ember had been closer than most siblings he knew, and if he was hurting this much from losing his aunt, he couldn't even imagine what the older SkyWing must be feeling. He didn't care what it took, he'd find the one responsible for hurting his family.

As he turned and followed his mother out he whispered towards Dreamseeker, "You certainly got her attention. If anyone can get the right dragons to look into this it's her." He gave her a faint grin and offered her his shoulder to lean on as they began the walk towards the healers.

As Eclipse and the two NightWings began the walk to the healers, past a few guards who immediately snapped to attention at the appearance of both him and his mother, he responded to Dreamseeker's concern, "My mother is very good at reading others, insightful," he let out a slight huff, "She would have been able to tell if you were lying I think." He smiled lightly as he looked towards where Brightstar lead the way, "She is not a dragon to immediately pass harsh judgement without knowing everything she can."

They rounded the corner and down a short staircase that led to the healers chambers. Thankfully there were no injured dragons that couldn't go back to their homes after the stampede that occurred after the attack, cuts and bruises were among the worst that he'd seen. He took a moment to appreciate the emptiness of the room, if he knew anything about some of the allies of the Sky Kingdom, they would definitely be seeking some kind of revenge. As the trio walked in Eclipse recognized the SkyWing that had been with Queen Ember, Cloud, who had several scrolls open across the floor and desk near the back of the room and the dart that had killed the queen nearby. Their brow was furrowed in deep concentration as one claw ran lightly across the words inked onto the pages.

"Cloud," Brightstar called out, startling the other dragon out of their thoughts, "Would you come take a look at this poor dear's leg. I believe it's sprained." As the healer gave a nod and pushed the scrolls quickly aside; rushing about to grab the necessary supplies to wrap the leg, Brightstar turned back to face Dreamseeker, the her gaze softer than it was before, "Now if you wouldn't mind telling me where you read about this poison?" She sat down lightly with her tail wrapped loosely around her front legs, almost cat like in a way, her expression cautiously hopeful.

Eclipse felt slightly disappointed at not knowing exactly where the information had come from, that made it a little more difficult to verify, but it was still more than they knew before. He didn't have any idea what they would do about getting to the rainforest, not many dragons traversed the area beyond the RainWings that lived there.

"That's alright," Brightstar gave a faint sigh, "It is something to look into and I'm grateful for that." She sat lost in thought for a moment. The scribes at the palace could potentially have some kind of scroll that mentioned these creatures, but she didn't know how long it would take them to find the information they needed, and by then it might be too late to waylay those who wanted revenge. Even if they didn't know who they wanted revenge against.

"It might be a bit of wishful thinking that the RainWings would help us," Eclipse looked between his mother and Dreamseeker, "They've never been interested in helping out with anything before." Admittedly he only knew what he'd read about them, but the scrolls were usually fairly accurate and most of them had similar accounts. They would just have to see when they got to the rainforest; not that he would be going. He didn't think there was any way he could convince his parents to let him go out into virtually unknown territory after an assassination. He was surprised there weren't guards on him every second of the day.

Brightstar stood and began to make her way towards the stairs, "I'll make sure the guards are aware of your presence so you'll have no trouble whenever you wish to leave." She turned and made her way, presumably, back to Storm and a restful night sleep.

"What're you going to do now?" Eclipse turned his full attention on Dreamseeker, "Think there's still something else to find?" He was curious as to what this young dragon would do since she seemed to have much fewer restrictions on where she could go. Maybe she'd go to the rainforest and try to find this creature since she was so interested in figuring out the cause of Queen Ember's death.