MAJOR MATURE WARNING OOF.
A fanfic by Delta. No touchie or you will be violently dismembered. JUST KIDDING, but you will have rotten bananas and figs thrown at you. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
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InSeRt CoVeR hErE
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Prologue[]
The blood was warm. It was fresh. It was delicious. I licked the blood off my claws with a little smirk, feeling its warmth explode in my mouth.
Bloodthirsty. Yes, I suppose that would be the word to describe me. I liked the taste of it. The feeling I got from pouring it onto the ground. I didn't like my own blood. Blegh, too gross. Too dense.
But other dragons blood, that was what I craved. I longed for it, day and night. I needed it to survive. It wasn't just something I wanted. No, it was my life. No other dragon could ever handle what I've seen.
The things I've done. The dragons I've torn apart. Of all the dragons in the Sky Palace, I was the one. Even Queen Scarlet hadn't ripped apart as many dragons as me. If you ever insulted me, if you ever stepped on my talons or snubbed me the wrong way or laughed when I tripped, you made a mistake.
Most dragons knew not to mess with me. They knew that if you treated me wrong, even in the slightest, you would one day open your eyes from peaceful sleep to see me standing over you, right before your throat was slit.
Most of the unsolved murder cases in the Sky Palace were my doing. I'm up too . . . what . . . forty now? Not bad, if I do say so myself.For the most part, Queen Scarlet knew that this was me. But she usually turned the other way, pretending not to notice.
That is one upside to having a psychotic queen I suppose. As long as it provided entertainment, got rid of some dragons she didn't like, kept her claws clean, and didn't connect to her, she was fine with it. That first day, the day my parents died, that was the day I discovered I was safe in her palace.
I had free reign. No one could possibly mess with me, not even the queen. Not even the little monster she kept behind her throne at all times. Little beast! THAT TRAITOR! HOW DARE SHE TAKE MY SPOT? I coughed dryly, clawing at my throat with sharp, angry talons. The little beast was the only thing potentially keeping me from taking the throne.
For the most part, I was a good SkyWing. I revered Queen Scarlet, protected her, did all the great evil things she asked me to do, but one night, I had the thought. Why should I bow to someone who I can just as easily kill?
I imagined her blood pouring onto the ground, my claws deep in it.
I imagined the warmth, the beauty of it, her perfect little face, her PERFECT EYES AND PERFECT JEWELS RUINED BY HER OWN SWEET BLOOD.
I imagined it covering my talons, the way blood was covering them now, and it made me smile. The Queen must have sensed something off with me, because the next day, that little MONSTER was behind her, scales smoking, FREAKY BLUE EYES STARING STRAIGHT INTO ME.
In that moment, I knew that I could never kill her, could never take the throne. So those dreams died, as many that I had over the years did, and I continued to kill dragons. The tribes had been at war for nearly all my life, and now the queen was sending me on missions. I didn't mind.
I got to kill dragons. Dragons who wouldn't haunt me! Not that they did . . . I got to taste fresh, blue blood from an IceWing for the first time. That was wonderful. Too cold for my liking though.
Ugh, I much prefer SeaWing blood. Saltier. The thing I loved most about my missions were that I got to kill dragons. As many as I wanted. You got in my way, BAM, dead before sunrise.
But this mission . . . I remembered the Queen's voice slithering harshly, No killing. Except for . . . you know. But why? I had said, trying not to sound whiny. It would be easier! Scarlet had narrowed her eyes to PERFECT ORANGE SLITS, and I knew that conversation was over.
But wouldn't it just be so much easier just to sink my claws into them? Tearing out their throats, and then leaving before anyone knew I was there? Wouldn't that be easier? Eventually I agreed. But I suppose she still didn't trust me. You think that she would trust ME of all dragons, who had been loyal to her for years to do this one thing. But no she didn't, and though it looked like I was alone, I knew I wasn't.
I may be 'bloodthirsty', but I'm not stupid. Even hidden in the shadows, I spotted him easily.
"Stop skulking in the shadows." I snapped at the NightWing, who's large talons are wrapped around a huge branch, his wings folded in tightly so the star-scales are near invisible, his eyes covered by the thick pine needles hanging off the tree, carefully avoiding the mud on the ground.
"I'll stay up here, thank you very much." He said in a low, rumbly voice. I rolled my eyes. Typical NightWing. Pompous, stuck-up. Makes me want to claw off some faces. And let's see . . . who's right in front of me AND JUST ASKING FOR IT?
"Why?" I snarled, digging my claws into the muddy forest floor below us. "Scared of mud? News flash, we're in the MUD KINGDOM. Get used to it." The NightWing sighed, rolling his eyes. I observed him quietly, looking him up and down.
He's huge, bigger than any dragon I've ever seen, with lots of jewelry. I snorted, feeling a flash of red in my vision. What good is jewelry when you have claws like mine? I looked at my viciously sharp talons, hacked into perfect spikes. Every morning I would go over to my 'sharpening rock', and then slam and sharpen my claws on it until they gleamed and were as sharp as IceWing's, maybe sharper.
"I'm not scared of anything." He said stiffly, straightening his back with an offended look.
"Right." I spat, my spines folding up and down. "Everyone's scared of something." A flash of blood. His terrified green eyes locking with mine as he fell, a single talon reaching out towards mine. I broke off that train of thought with a shudder. Those days were long behind me.
The NightWing's eyes narrowed and lines in his face became more prominent. "Not me." He said, sounding fairly amused. "Not . . . of anything." I smirked at the tiny twitch in the NightWing's face.
"Your face suggests otherwise." I said smoothly, taking another lick off my claws. He let out an odd sort of a growl in his throat.
"I don't understand why Scarlet wanted you to go on this mission. You would probably mess everything up." I growled at him, holding out my talon.
"Just give it to me." I snapped with a snarl. He sighed and reached into a bag hanging around his neck, pulled out a small amber ring and flung it to me, so it hit my nose and fell into the mud. I slid it smoothly onto a claw, smirking as my scales began to ripple.
I let out a long, croaking laugh.
"This will be fun."
Chapter One[]
I'm not ready to be a bigwings yet.
That's what I kept telling myself as we walked back from Twig's play. I could hear Lotus and Twig talking as they flounced along the road leading back to our hut, but I barely could hear them. Technically, I wasn't a bigwings yet. Our bigwings had only been missing for two months. But if he didn't show up soon, he would be marked as dead, and I would become the new bigwings.
I could just barely remember the argument that me and Lotus had when we were three, about who was older. We were twins, hatched in the same egg, so it was rather difficult to know, but we finally agreed that I was older after I threatened to rip the head off of Lotus's favorite toy.
But I was seriously considering renouncing my title as "Second oldest". I looked at the three sibs before me, my family, my friends, my troop, and felt a rush of passion. I cared about them so much. How could I lead them? I would never be able to live with myself if I lost another one of them!
How did Soil handle it? I wasn't even the official bigwings yet and I was still feeling the pressure! It felt like huge claws crushing my soul into a tiny ball.
"MIRE!" A voice suddenly yelled in my ear. My head snapped to the left, and I realized that Twig was standing there, his bright brownish green eyes wide. "Helloooooo? Earth to MIRE!!" I tilted my head at him. His dark amber scales glinted in the faint light of the setting sun. I had to look down to see him, as he was so much smaller than the rest of us. His eyes were watering like they always did, and he was shaking with fever.
My eyes were drawn yet again to the icicle-like stumps on his back. Where his glorious wings once were, now he had only whitish bandages stained red. So much had happened at the battle two months ago. We had been fighting IceWing's, claws clashing, dragons screaming in pain and fear.
Our troop were in the aerial assault like we always were. Not a single dragon was spared, not even a constantly sick, tiny dragonet. I could still see the battle in my mind, the glinting of pale white scales in the blazing sun. How it made your eyes hurt just to look at the IceWing's.
The way the mud was churned up, and the way the frozen droplets of water in the air were flung into your face when wings beat. Twig was beside me, fighting back to back with Muck, their claws slashing as they furiously fought of a large IceWing. I dove in, knocking the IceWing out of the sky, and twisted around.
I could still see the second IceWing hurtling towards us, her pale blue scales glinting, her snout twisted into a fearsome grimace. And she was aimed right for Muck and Twig. I tried to jump in front of them, to protect our two youngest siblings, but I was too slow, and she was too fast. Her claws slashed at Muck's throat fiercely, and suddenly, her mouth was snapping towards Twig, who was diving and firebombing her tail.
She gave him an unimpressed look, then her jaws flung open, and she was hissing. I tried to knock her away, but the freezing breath was suddenly hurling out of her mouth and towards Twig. He yelped, flinging his wings in front of him instinctively, and the freezing breath hit his wings square on.
The ice spread rapidly, and he faltered in the air, his eyes wide with horror, before the IceWing was upon him. He screamed for me, trying to fight her off, but she was bigger, more deadly as her tail full of spikes whirled around and hit the wings. Once. Then again. And again. Then, with a horrifying shattering noise, Twig's wings fell off, leaving only frozen, white shards of flesh. Then the IceWing lifted her claws and let him fall.
He probably would have fell to his death, breaking his neck or something like that, but Muck, who was bleeding from the IceWing's deadly claws, swooped below him and caught the shaking MudWing in the air. Twig was so close to death, he had gone into shock as we were flying him back to the medic.
Twig was very popular in the village, probably because he was so strong and was kind to everyone, so after the battle was over, the IceWing's in full retreat, half of the MudWing's were flying next to us as we carried our unconscious sibling from the battle, clearing a path and holding Twig's talons, and the other half were probably hunting down the IceWing who had hurt him. I still don't know if they caught her or not.
To be completely honest, I hope not. MudWing's could be very vicious if they wanted to be. For all three moon's! My brain suddenly yelled. If you want to start making a good impression on your troop, LISTEN TO THEM. I forced myself to look back down at Twig, who was staring blankly at me.
"Yes sweetie?" I forced myself to say, trying to sound calm. Sweetie? I almost smacked myself. Twig's egg was laid like the rest of us, in the same hatching, scheduled to hatch at the same time, but when we all hatched, Twig didn't. Soil sensed it wasn't time. Everyone thought Twig was going to die, and that it would be a kindness to smash his egg. But our mother stopped them, saying to wait.
She was right to do so. Twenty-nine days after the rest of us hatched, Twig crawled out of his egg. But not unscathed. He was tiny, barely the size of a dragon's fist when he hatched, shaking constantly with fever and extremely sensitive to hot and cold.
But only a slight wilt in Twig's demeanor indicated how he felt about that. His huge smile remained.
"Wasn't I GREAT?!" I faltered a little, feeling Lotus's eyes on me. Muck was up ahead of us, sniffing every dark corner curiously. Oh . . . Of course I had been thinking about me, Soil and the whole 'bigwings thing' the whole time. But I couldn't let him know that!
"It was . . . um great! You were great. I loved when you . . . er . . . talked. You were great as the . . . uh . . ." I looked over at Lotus for help, and found her smirking at me, shaking her head slowly.
"SkyWing dragonet." He finished. "I make a GREAT prophecy SkyWing!" He said proudly, puffing out his chest at a small dragonet who was limping past. I laughed, managing not to think about Soil for the first time all day.
"Was Boulder good as a SeaWing?" Twig wrinkled his nose.
"I guess." He said with an eloquent shrug, poking at the ground. "He's a good actor. But I mean . . . I don't know. I was better." Me and Lotus exchanged amused looks. Lotus looked at Twig affectionately.
"I'm sure you are." We turned another corner, and I stepped delicately around two MudWing's curled up next to each other, shivering as they slept. I hesitated, poking at the ground. They must be unisibs. I've always considered taking in unisibs. We are one of the smaller troops in our side of the village, but you have no idea who they are, or what they might be up to.
"Thank goodness there aren't any IceWing's in the prophecy." Lotus mused, sounding like she was talking more to herself. "They would probably try to end the war by freezing everybody." From the corner of my eye, I saw tension whiplashing instantly into Twig's whole body. Lotus! I groaned internally. Bad idea!
"I guess." Twig said quietly, his tail lashing, the only indication that he was upset. I walked over to him and spread one of my wings over his back, smiling, while at the same time whacked Lotus with my tail. She let out a hiss and I glared ferociously at her. A fight probably would have broken out between us if Muck hadn't just then ducked into the small hut where we lived.
I followed after him, Twig curled by my side and Lotus came in last. Our hut was small, but not so small that we barely had room for all of us like some MudWing's had. Our hut was shaped like a large egg, made out of curved tree branches, mud and reeds woven together. There was a large pool of mud in the center, but surrounding it, you could clearly tell where each of us lay.
Muck's section of the house was full of scrolls. A carved mahogany bookshelf stood against the wall, a few scrolls scattered there, one laying next to the pool, stained with tiny droplets of mud. He slid into the mud pool and opened the scroll, Lotus sliding in next to him.
Lotus' side had more of an artistic feel. Several wooden carvings lay scattered around the large wooden loom, several half-woven tapestries sitting in neat piles against the wall, bright colors leaping through the many shades of brown.
Twig had several wooden dolls carved by Lotus in his spot, the several carpets he had laying in a big pile shifted as he settled into them, looking up through the sky hole in the ceiling. We had carved out the hole a few years ago when we realized how much Twig loved the night sky. It was covered with glass, something we had to have imported from the palace, to keep the rains out. Twig's side also had several star charts pinned up on the wall, laying out ever constellation seen in the sky.
My side was rather empty compared to the others, merely having a few empty scrolls with half-written poems scattered throughout them, several quills and bottles of ink in neat rows.