Are You There?[]
Fanfiction by Tundra the IceWingSandWing
Credit to:
- Ravenrising34 for letting me use Foxglove
- Pokeballmachine for Geb
- Ronin Miyamoto for Mire (Ronin)
- UndertaleTrashowo for Gannet
- SunsetTheSkyWingOwO for Sunset
- Lacyrocks7 for Daybreak
Prologue[]
Queen Stygian backed away from the softly glowing intruder, helpless as he made his way towards her. He must not find out must not find out must not find out MUST NOT FIND OUT! She repeated in her head.
"Why, Queenie," his mocking voice slicing through the air like the scythe he was carrying, "I thought you knew how to greet an old friend." He twisted his scythe, snout twisted into a smile that his dark hood was unable to hide. "Come on, say hello." He darted forward and gripped her chin, bringing them face-to-face, and Stygian batted his cold talon away, hissing. The intruder only laughed. Stygian stepped backwards again, mistakenly pressing herself into a wall. The intruder took advantage of this and snatched her arms, pinned them against her wings, and held them there. Stygian was about to breathe fire when the intruder shifted his scythe so it was lightly brushing the scales on her neck. Stygian closed her mouth, and then kicked him in the stomach. He looked barely affected, and put his feet on hers. He then caught her tail in his, and his chilly tail winded around hers, pulling it onto the ground. Stygian bared her teeth, but the scythe resting against her neck prevented her from doing anything. The intruder's eyes were now visible, a deep and dark violet, with white pupils. "Your power... its too dangerous. You and your egg are going to be disposed of." He eyed her stomach. He thinks I'm still with egg! It would be a reasonable mistake- her belly was still swollen. But she had laid the egg just earlier that day, and it was secure in the royal hatchery. Stygian closed her amber eyes. Her daughter would be safe. MoonGlow would be safe. Stygian's sister SpiritWalker would take the throne. SpiritWalker had no power whatsoever. She wouldn't be a target. But her daughter... Stygian's visions confirmed that she would have completely silver scales. Not a speck of black on them. Quite similar to her father... CometStreak was an albino NightWing, who was murdered by this dragon, who was going to kill her too. Bleak, the intruder, hated oddities. And Stygian was one.
"Death will come slowly," Bleak held the scythe against her neck, drawing a paper-thin line of blood.. His cold underscales scraping hers sent a chill through Stygian's bones. Suddenly, Bleak sank his teeth deeply into Stygian's neck.
Her screaming echoed through the empty halls.
Her screaming intensified.
It turned into a low moan that faded into the blank halls.
An IceWing walked through the halls, red-stained teeth and a pleased smile, as he opened a window and flew into the night.
~A few hours later~
"My Queen, everything went well at the festival tonight-" said a royal advisor, cut off by the horrific scene in front of him. Stygian was splayed on the ground, a pool of blood staining her midnight-dark scales. But the queen was still alive. With a shuddering gasp, she rolled onto her side. Her mouth opened and words streamed forth.
"'Aren't we all friends?'
says the naive child
not knowing what blood will be lost
'Don't we all matter?'
asks she, slowly turning into dust
Without rhyme or reason
Kingdoms will fall
An act of treason
will end us all
But the child who asks
'Are you there?'
She will save us
So be warned and prepare."
And with a final exhale, the queen was no more.
Chapter 1[]
~Six years later~
Moonglow awoke to the sound of clicking talons against marble. Suddenly, her aunt SpiritWalker (who was also the Queen of the NightWings) burst into her room.
"Moonglow!!!" SpiritWalker called. "Time to wake up!" SpiritWalker seemed regal and queenly in public, but around her family she was an enthusiastic ball of energy.
"Okay, okay, Aunt Spirit..."
After getting on a purple translucent scarf, she stepped out of her room, walking past the various hallways. According to Aunt Spirit, her mother, Queen Stygian, had died just a few hours after laying her egg, at the talons of an IceWing. She never went into her mothers old room. It seemed to have the presence of a bad omen.
As Moonglow soared up to the top of the palace, just to have a view of the sunrise, she thought she saw a cloaked figure standing there. Aunt Spirit? Too short. One of the NightWing servants? They weren't allowed on the roof. ...a ghost? Not translucent.
"Uh, hi there! I'm Moonglow-"
When the dragons head turned towards her, Moonglow suddenly noticed that the dragon had extremely bright, electric blue eyes.
Like an IceWing.
Moonglow shot away as fast as she could into the clouds. She couldn't tell if the IceWing was following her, due to the wind whistling in her ears. Ever since hearing the story of her mother's murder, she was deathly afraid of IceWings.
Finally, Moonglow stopped and rested near the ocean, on a craggy spire of rock that reflected the light rather well. She found that her scales blended in with reflective, shiny things. She looked up at the sky, trying to see if there was a dragon there, but the spray from the ocean got in her eyes. She couldn't hear from the crashing of the waves, or even smell, for the salty ocean air was surrounding her.
Too late, she realized she was in a rather bad spot.
Moonglow looked up again, squinting, and saw the dragon with those bluer-then-bluer-then-blue eyes. She shrieked, lost grip of her rock, and promptly fell into the ocean.
Chapter 2[]
Moonglow awoke to talons applying a weird, yet soothing substance to her arm. "H-huh?!" She meant for it to be an exclamation, but was just a whisper. "Shhh." the dragon said, her talons resting in place for a moment before continuing to rub the gel on her. "What- who- who are you?" Moonglow said hoarsely.
She heard a soft sigh, and then the dragon said, "I am Aloe Vera. Call me Aloe."
"I'm Moonglow."
"May I only call you Glow?" the dragon questioned.
"Oh, of course... wait, what tribe are you?" Before Aloe could answer, Moonglow strained her neck and saw a green face with warm brown eyes, curving horns, and graceful, swooping wings shaped like leaves.
"A LeafWing." Aloe answered.
"Let me guess, you're rubbing aloe vera paste on my scales."
"Exactly."
Suddenly, talonsteps were heard, and a SandWing rushed into the- oh! Moonglow was in a underground cave!
"Aloe, how is the NightWing doing?"
"Moonglow here has woken up."
The SandWing surveyed Moonglow, taking in her pure silver scales.
"A young oddity, eh?" Moonglow was offended at being called an "oddity," but the SandWing noticed her expression. "Hey, I'm not insultin' ya. I'm weird too." The SandWing spread her wings, and surprisingly, they were translucent. Her tail stinger also looked more like... a HiveWings? "I'm half HiveWing." She pointed at the LeafWing tending Moonglow's wounds. "And Aloe there can only summon aloe vera, which is why they named her that."
Aloe nodded. "We provide shelter for every odd dragon in Pyrrhia. You know, there's a NightWing-SeaWing hybrid about your age. Her name's Halfscales. There are... many more dragons here. You should go meet them when I wash the aloe vera off you." Aloe suggested kindly.
A few minutes later, Moonglow bounded outside the cave into an underground hallway. She saw the SandWing-HiveWing in one cave, who's name turned out to be Polistes, holding a big but frail-looking IceWing egg.
"It'll hatch soon." she muttered before putting it back down, with a few other odd-colored eggs.
In the next cave, a four-winged SkyWing was grumpily letting a SandWing doctor measure her wings. She saw Moonglow looking and snapped, "What?! I have four wings! And I'm not some hybrid! Leave before I burn off your big ugly silver snout-" The SandWing doctor shushed the SkyWing, making her stretch out another wing.
Moonglow sighed and was about to go back to Aloe out of pure boredom when suddenly, a green dragon ran into her.
"AAAAAAA SORRY I WAS GOING TOO FAST!!!!!!!" the green dragon exclaimed, her turquoise eyes wide.
"Its fine-" Moonglow started, until she noticed the dragons second half. The front of the dragon was completely emerald green. But then, starting from the place her wing branched up and her arm went down, she was pitch black.
"Oh! My name is Halfscales!" the green and black dragon stated, spreading her green-fading-to-black wings.
"I'm Moonglow."
"Moonglow? Huh! Nice name!" Halfscales exclaimed. "I like the name, but its a bit of a mouthful. Like my name! You can call me Scales. And I can call you Glow! Scales and Glooww, the perfect rodeoooooo!" Halfscales sang. "...or maybe Glow and Scaleess, the friendship that prevailsssss!!"
Moonglow stood there, blinking.
Scales suddenly burst into song of horrible off-keyness. "SCALES AND GLOWWWW, THE PERFECT RODEOOOOOOO! GLOW AND SCALESSSSS, THE FRIENDSHIP THAT PREVAILSSSSSS! THEY DO THINGS TOGETHER, (THOUGH SCALES IS OBVIOUSLY BETTER), SCALES AND GLOWWWWWW, THE PERFECT RODEOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Scales grinned at Moonglow, and she started half-heartedly applauding. Three moons, Scales is hyper...
Suddenly, a MudWing poked his head into the hallway, with an expression of high confusion.. "Uh.... is everything okay in here?"
"Everything's fine, Mire!" Scales assured the MudWing. He still looked baffled, but he answered with a simple, "Okay," and left.
Halfscales then turned to Glow again. "That was Mire! He's a nice guy! I still don't know why he's here, he seems perfectly normal, but I don't care!!" Halfscales suddenly tugged on Moonglow's silver arm. "Lets go see the nursery! Not the hatchery because it's BORING but the nursery is where all the dragonets who are like one are and they are cute and entertaining!" Halfscales gasped for air at the end of her long sentence. Moonglow only nodded, and she let Halfscales lead her to the nursery, wondering just how her normal day had turned into... well, this.
Chapter 3[]
Meanwhile, in the island above where the tundras of the Ice Kingdom, the dunes of the Sand Kingdom, and the mountains of the Sky Kingdom meet...
Bleak flew into the narrow tunnel in Skeleton Island, an escort of IceWings flanking him.
He landed on the smooth stone of the hidden hall and proceeded forward, the IceWing flank's footsteps in sync with his. After a few minutes of walking, Bleak stepped into a room, where a semicircle of SkyWings were in view.
Bleak nodded to the young SkyWing in front of the others. "Prince Firestorm."
The SkyWing nodded back. "Bleak." The room lapsed into silence, until Firestorm spoke once again. "Bleak, you were like a better father for me. Taught me how to lie, made me a painter in the art of trickery. I have... one more favor to ask of you. Remember Queen Stygian? The seer queen, with exceptionally strong vision?"
Bleak nodded. "Yes. She was dangerous. I murdered her."
"Well..." Firestorm said, shifting his talons. "She had a daughter."
Bleak stiffened. He knew he should have checked the royal hatchery, just to make sure the egg wasn't already laid.
"She is silver. All over. Not a speck of black on her." Firestorm stated. "And I know we made an agreement to murder any oddities, to cleanse Pyrrhia of bad blood. So, Bleak, dear mentor... could you murder her? If I go missing, my overly protective mother will bring the whole plan screeching to a halt. But you, Bleak, the IceWing queen doesn't care about your whereabouts." The prince looked at the older IceWing. "Could you?"
Bleak looked at his apprentice. "Firestorm..." he paused. "Firestorm, I would be more then glad to, but I cannot."
"WHY?!" Firestorm roared. "I thought we had an agreement-"
"We do." Bleak snapped. "But I am getting old. You can see it in my face, Firestorm. My scales are edged in silver. My wings are wrinkled with age. I do not have the stamina I used to. I cannot fly across the continent three times." He took a breath. "But... I know someone who can." Bleak stepped aside, revealing a young dragonet with electric blue eyes that seemed to pierce the soul. Firestorm flinched away from her arrow-straight gaze.
"This is my daughter, Mink. She has been trained in assassination. Stealth. Poisons. She could have slit your throat and your guards throats all in seconds." The SkyWing guards suddenly eyed Mink uneasily.
"She will be the one to murder Moonglow."
Chapter 4[]
Moonglow and Halfscales arrived at the small hatchery, where suddenly, a trio of tiny hybrids leaped onto Moonglow.
"Pretty!!!" shouted one, a small SkyWing with butter-like wing membranes and underbelly. "I'm Candle!"
"And I'm EVERGREEN!" shouted a LeafWing-IceWing. "And that's Shimmy!" He pointed at a HiveWing-SilkWing.
"Its SHIMMER, you dingus!" The little dragonet shouted, and soon they were tumbling all over each other.
Halfscales doubled over laughing. Suddenly, a small, albino SeaWing tugged on Halfscales's wing. "Haffy? You okay-dokay?"
"Yeah, Im fine, Salt." Salt blinked their red eyes, and nodded.
Suddenly, a dark, tall dragon entered the room. A NightWing.
"HalfScales." His voice was commanding. "Your mother needs you."
"Y-yes, fa- er, SharpHorns." Halfscales, for once, sounded scared.
Moonglow stepped over. "W-whats going on?"
SharpHorns ignored her, and with a slight flourish of his wings, he was gone.
Moonglow put a talon on her new friend's shoulder. "Hey, wait. What was that all about?"
Halfscales only looked at the ground. She mumbled, "I gotta go," and walked out of the nursery.
Moonglow went out of the room, and, after poking her head out to check if anyone was there, started silently following Halfscales. It wasn't a long distance away, and Halfscales went down to a circular room where short tunnels stretched out. This must be the little caves the families live in. Most of them had candlelight stretching out of them. Halfscales entered one, and Moonglow watched her proceed down and turn the knob on a little door, and enter.
"Scales, you're here!" said a happy voice that seemed about four years older then Halfscales's,
"Hi, Urchin." Halfscales replied.
"Halfscales." said a deep voice. Sharphorns. That must've been her father. He seemed to have pain in his voice.
"Halfscales, get over here." snapped a higher voice.
"Y-yes, mom-"
The higher-pitched voice hissed. "Do NOT call me that. I am SEAGLASS to you. You DARE to call me mother, you sick mess-up?! After all you've DONE?!"
"Actually, I would prefer not to."
Urchin burst out laughing and Sharphorns let out a small chuckle while Seaglass tried to process if it was compliment or insult.
She must have figured out that it was insult.
A sharp slap sounded, followed by a thud.
A gasp from Urchin.
Moonglow rushed over to the keyhole, putting her eye through it. Halfscales was lying on the floor, her wing at a weird angle. Seaglass, a bright green, rather fat SeaWing, was glaring at her black mate, Sharphorns, as he glared back. Urchin, a dark green, seemingly pure-blooded SeaWing if not for the black specks under his wings, was talking and soothing Halfscales. She must have been slapped by Seaglass's tail. Her breathing was heavy. This isn't some minor injury. This calls for a healer. Moonglow herself was a decent healer. Whatever the case was, Halfscales needed help quick.
Moonglow opened the door with a slam, ignoring her pounding heart and the thoughts inside her head screeching don't do it don't do it don't do it, and knelt beside Halfscales, ignoring the wild looks Urchin, Sharphorns, and Seaglass shot her. She checked her pulse. Still going. She examined her wing, the place of injury. Dislocated. She grabbed it. "This is going to hurt, Halfscales..." she muttered to her friend. Halfscales nodded a little bit. Moonglow tightened her grip on Halfscales's wing, and mustering all the strength she had in her, thrust it down back to its socket. Halfscales screeched.
It popped into place.
Halfscales breathed a sigh of relief, and her ragged breathing returned to normal. "Thank you... Glow." she whispered before falling asleep.
Moonglow realized everyone in the room but Halfscales was staring at her, their expressions ranging from confusion to shock, and in the case of Seaglass, anger.
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she screeched. "You LITTLE INTRUDER!"
Moonglow rushed away.
Chapter 5[]
Mink flew to where she had last seen the silver NightWing. She cautiously hovered above the clouds, listening for anything. She didn't want to get jumped like how she had been.
Mink had been so, so close to murdering Moonglow. The NightWing had tumbled into the ocean and smashed her head on the rock, knocking herself out. Pathetic. Mink had picked her up and was about to snap her neck, when suddenly a SeaWing had leapt out of nowhere. Dark green scales, and some really dark, almost black patches under his wings. Sort of handsome, but not really her type- no, she would not dwell on the manners of the scales. He had shoved her out of the sky and taken Moonglow, bringing her to some underground cave. Mink had waited thirty minutes and then had ventured into it. It was a complex cavern, with many holes. She had gotten out of there as soon as she heard voices.
She didn't tell Father that she had failed. He would have punished her brutally, perhaps freezing one of her limbs, or tying her wings and hanging her by her tail from the ceiling. Or her least favorite, him deepening the blue scars under her eyes that everyone mistook for tattoos, for they were clean cuts. Mink instead told him that Moonglow had followed someone into the ocean, to an underground cave system. Perhaps a friend. Father had taught her how to lie, and with his growing age, he was easier to fool.
She had come up with a cover story- she had been exiled from the IceWings for making a protest for peace with the NightWings. She was seeking shelter, and would like to stay, as she had seen someone go in there. Father had approved of it.
Now to put it into action.
Mink dove into the hole, and popped out into the underground cave. She shook her scales. Now, to find someone. She ventured forward, making sure to make her stance look tired and weary. Soon enough, somebody ventured through one of the holes. It seemed to be a middle-aged Sandwing-Hivewing hybrid. She got into a fighting stance as soon as she saw Mink, tail arched like a scorpion.
"Who are you?" She rasped, eyes narrowed. Mink raised her talons in defense. "I am a tired exile. That is it." Mink wished to murder this sin of a dragon right on the spot, but she would be attacked if she made the wrong move. She needed to use deciet.
The hybrids eyes seemed to soften a little, but she kept her stance. "How did you find the entrance here?"
"I was trying to seek help from a silver NightWing who kept flying away from me. She fell into the ocean and hit her head, so I picked her up to see if she was alright. Then a green SeaWing slapped me away and brought her into this tunnel. I wanted to rescue her, but I had the feeling that if I came in immediately after I would be assaulted, so I waited a day and then went inside."
The hybrid relaxed and sat on her haunches. "That about matches up with Urchins story. He thought your were gonna snap her neck so he took action, but I guess that's not what happened." The hybrid sighed. "Urchin really needs to pay more attention to things." She stood up and turned around, beckoning Mink. "I'm Polistes, by the way."
"I'm Mink." She followed.
"I started a shelter for exiled, mutant, or hybrid dragons. Everyone has a place here." Polistes told Mink. Mink ignored the rest of Polistes's words as she processed it- a whole foundation of impure dragons- and then she grew excited. Father would love her for this. She just needed to tell him, and then, this hotspot of mutants would be cleansed. And he might smile at her. Give her wing an approving touch. Possibly even say, "I love you, daughter." Mink was embarrassed about how much she wanted that from Father. And this... this would be her doorway to it.