Cover by Star
Written by Siren.
This story is based off of my friend's OC. The protagonist of this story belongs to her and her alone.
Note: This fanfiction is canon turned on its head and shaken around a lot until a few important pieces fell out, then dropped back on its feet and called a piece of readable literature. Read at your own risk.
- - -
Colorchanger was born in the rainforest. She remembered it much better than most dragonets remembered the places they were born, perhaps because she’d been so abruptly taken away from it. She could remember the rustling leaves above her head, the thin trickles of sunlight that she drank like water in the desert. The warmth of her mother’s wings, the squawking of birds and monkeys. She hadn’t liked the squawking back then. She’d had no idea how much she would miss it.
She could remember the first time she’d changed colors, the warm prickly feeling that started on her spine and ran down the rest of her scales, filling them with a satisfying warmth and happiness. The feeling didn’t spread to a few scales, which were left hard, cold and metallic. She had heard a whisper, both out loud and quiet, somehow. Her name, Colorchanger.
She remembered the noises, the way her mother had grabbed her and shoved her into a hole. She remembered her own frightened squeaking sounds--pathetic--and the cold, rough dirt, so different than anything her tender scales had felt before. The NightWings talons had been worse though, and worse still was the metal scrap they had banged on her head, sending the frightened young dragonet unconscious.
Colorchanger barely recognized this dragon as herself. She was weak, small, completely dependent on others. Pathetic. Colorchanger had got over that stage of her life fairly quickly. She’d figured out that no one was going to protect her, so she’d learned how to protect herself.
Once Colorchanger was a year old, able to fly(wobbly) and breath fire(weak fire), they figured out that she could read minds, and put her to work for a dragon named Thoughtknower. Her mentor.
She could never quite bring herself to hate Thoughtknower, no matter how many times she tried. Perhaps it was because young Colorchanger, desperate for love and affection that she hadn’t gotten from anyone in that awful place, had bonded herself to the first dragon who showed even a hint of caring about her. Perhaps it was because Thoughtknower had kept her from the full attention of the crowds at one year old, and she was a smidgen grateful for that. She wasn’t sure. But in any case, Thoughtknower hadn’t been particularly interested in training her. That was when she’d realized that she was going to have to figure things out on her own.
Colorchanger had been living in the Night Kingdom for five years, but soon, she would escape.
- - -
Colorchanger stood in a smoky cave with about seven dragonets inside it, trying to gather her thoughts. She was supposed to be leading a class, despite the fact she was only five years old. The one useful thing about having a real mindreader, for the NightWings at least, was that it made it a lot easier for the rest of them to fake their powers. She tilted her chin up and stared into one of their eyes until they looked away. She loved doing that. It gave her a sense of power, of being the one in control, even though she knew that she wasn’t.
Her ruff flared up as she saw Morrowseer come in. His eyes met hers, and she could hear his voice in her mind, always loud enough to break through her mental barriers. I can’t believe we give a hybrid and a mindreader all this power. She could betray our entire plan. If the queen didn’t demand it…
Colorchanger glared back at him. Just try it, Morrowseer. I’m more powerful than you are and you know it.
Thoughtknower, perhaps noticing the tension, quickly interjected. “Everyone!” she said, spreading out her wings. “It is time for one of your most important lessons as a NightWing: How to Fake mindreadering.” How to Lie to the World Because We Somehow Lost Our Powers, whispered a bitter thought. Colorchanger soaked it in, knowing that no matter how freaked out dragons were by her powers, they still wished they had them. They recognized that they made her special and strong, even if they would never admit it out loud.
A small dragonet piped up, “But Colorchanger has powers!” Every eye in the audience stared at her. She glared back at them with her piercing violet eyes and a wave of red swept across her scales. Thoughtknower whispered in her ear, “Remember, don’t change colors in front of other dragons. It makes them uncomfortable,” which made Colorchanger want to push her in lava, but she reluctantly turned her scales to a uniform black, feeling the shiver of cold that she got whenever she turned dark colors prickle along her spine.
Thoughtknower smiled at the dragonet, but Morrowseer interrupted, frowning deeply. “She does, but the rest of us don’t, which is why you need to learn how to fake it. Thoughtknower?”
Of course he started with Thoughtknower, instead of the actual mindreader. Morrowseer hated her even more than most NightWings, probably because he was supposed to be the big star, the one who had delivered the prophecy that was going to save them all. Instead, they found a real mindreader in the jungle and all his careful laid plans for power were tossed out the window. He would never be in charge now, not as long as Colorchanger was around to serve the queen. Not that she particularly wanted to, but if she had to, at least it irritated Morrowseer.
Thoughtknower turned to the audience of dragonets. Watching. Waiting. Listening. “So, the first thing you have to do is make them feel like you do. Casually drop things into conversation, things you can tell by their body language. Don’t do it too often though, or they might get suspicious.”
A dragonet raised his arm. “I need to ask something,” he said gruffly, with his chin height reassuring everyone that he knew what he was doing, like every NightWing ever, better than everyone else. At least that was what they thought.
“What is it?” Morrowseer asked. Teaching ridiculous dragonets. I should be above this. Colorchanger winced, and quickly brought up her mental shield. She didn’t have time to listen to everyone's thoughts right now.
“Well, I just want to know what sort of things we should say,” he asked.
Morrowseer growled, “Weak. NightWings shouldn’t ask questions.” Colorchanger paced back and forth, trying to keep her scales under control. Thoughtknower glared at Morrowseer, then smiled.
“I’m glad you asked that, Cloudwatcher. That leads very well into my next point.” Thoughtknower poked Colorchanger with a talon, and she winced in pain, a tiny spot of white appearing where she had been poked. “Colorchanger can tell you about that.”
Colorchanger took a deep breath. She didn’t want to do this, but Morrowseer had made it perfectly clear where she’d go if she disobeyed. Straight into the volcano. “Thoughtknower was right. The most important thing you need to do is pay attention to their body language. A lot of the time, a dragon’s feelings are reflected on their scales, even if they’re not RainWings.”
One of the dragonets scoffed. “All dragons except NightWings of course.”
Colorchanger sighed. There was always one dragon who thought they could hide their thoughts, and it was always up to her to prove them wrong.
She focused on the dragon’s eyes. He started shifting, and his secrets and thoughts started rushing through his head, as they always did when Colorchanger stared at someone. I hunted three times this week. I stole Eclipse’s homework so she would have to go longer without rations. Last week I followed Fierceteeth and Strongwings out to the rainforest. The dragon started shifting, but he couldn’t remove his eyes from Colorchanger’s. Yesterday I didn’t feed the RainWing prisoners.
What? Colorchanger thought. What does he mean, RainWing prisoners? But she knew enough not to let her surprise show. She would figure it out later.
Colorchanger turned her gaze away from the dragonet who had challenged her, and back to the rest of the class. “Did you see that?” she asked. “Even a NightWing can’t hide their feelings.”
“So imagine how easily other dragons’ thoughts will show,” Thoughtknower said, interrupting Colorchanger. Colorchanger knew that her mentor didn’t like it when she made NightWings seem just like other dragons, but she couldn’t help it. “Thank you, Colorchanger, for the lesson, but we will not require your assistance any longer. Go back to your cave.”
Colorchanger knew there was no point in arguing, so she walked out of the classroom back to her room. Tomorrow, she promised herself, I’ll find more about the RainWing prisoners.
- - -
It had been weeks since Colorchanger had heard the dragon thinking about the supposed RainWing prisoners, but she hadn’t found out anything. She hadn’t taught another class since then, Morrowseer had been gone, doing who knows what, Thoughtknower had been busy talking to Mastermind and the queen through Greatness, and none of the other dragonets stopped by to see her, so no weak minds to read.
Colorchanger had tried creeping out of her room, but there were guards posted at her door, and she couldn’t use her camouflage to sneak past them because of her NightWing silver scales. She had tried reading her guards’ minds, but they didn’t seem to have been told a thing.
But Colorchanger had a plan.
She stepped out into the tunnel. The two guards immediately raised their spears. “Get back in there!” he shouted, and his thoughts pretty much stated the same thing, as did his partner’s.
“Certainly,” Colorchanger said with a smile. She let colors flood her scales, which visibly unnerved the guards. “I just wanted to tell you that she--” Colorchanger pointed at one of the guards-- “thinks that you’re an absolute simpleton and should only hunt once a month to save food for the smarter dragons, and he thinks that you should just jump into lava to save the island from your boring personality. Just thought you should know.”
The NightWings glared at each other, their thoughts loud and clashing almost painfully against Colorchanger’s brain, but she didn’t drop her smile. “I am not a simpleton!” one of them shouted.
“And I am not boring!” the other one yelled back. “All of my thoughts are extremely interesting, not that I can say the same for yours.”
“How dare you!”
“No, how dare you!”
The guards started growling at each other, and it looked like it was going to come to a fight. While they were distracted by their argument, Colorchanger shifted her scales to camouflage. The scales by her eyes and under her wings were still visible, of course, but the guards were two absorbed in roaring at each other to notice a few disembodied silver scales traveling briskly away.
When she was far enough away that she couldn’t hear their voices, Colorchanger let her scales shift back to black. Against the fortress wall, it was dark enough that she was pretty well hidden even without camouflage.
Colorchanger started to relax, and then she heard shouting coming down the tunnel. She instinctively switched to camouflage, just in time for a MudWing to run by with a RainWing on his back, with another, younger RainWing struggling to keep up behind them. A horde of NightWings followed closely behind, waving spears and shouting threats.
Those were two of the RainWing prisoners, but there are more back there, Colorchanger realized, hearing all of their thoughts echoing down the fortress. If I follow them, maybe I’ll finally get to see the rainforest. But if I go down the opposite direction, maybe I can rescue the rest of the RainWing prisoners.
- - -
Colorchanger ran the way she’d seen the dragons come from. If she had a chance to rescue her tribe, her real tribe, then she had to take it. She ran along winding corridors until she heard dragons talking. She slowed to listen.
The dragons discussed something about a dragon named Deathbringer, but the real information was in their thoughts. Colorchanger could barely process the information. They have 17 RainWing prisoners? They’ve been experimenting on them? NightWings plan to invade the rainforest? RainWings have venom?
The NightWings eventually walked away, and Colorchanger continued along the tunnels, thinking. Do I have venom? She thought probably not. In the extensive NightWing library, she had seen detailed drawings of all the tribes, and RainWings had fangs, which was where they shot their venom. Colorchanger didn’t have fangs, so she probably didn’t have venom either.
Finally, she came out into a smoky cave, where a RainWing with sad gray-blue scales was lying dejectedly on the floor. There weren’t any guards nearby, so Colorchanger took a chance and let the colors of her scales show, a bright red angry color. The RainWing’s scales flashed a surprised orange as Colorchanger appeared.
“Let’s get you out of here,” she said, stepping forward. Then she stopped. She wanted to rescue her tribe, and get them all out of here. But she couldn’t. Based on the minds she’d overheard, she needed a spear to get the prisoners free, and she probably couldn’t steal one without catching the guards’ notice, and even if she could, it would take a while to get even one dragon free.
“I’m sorry,” Colorchanger said, stepping backwards. The RainWing slumped back down. It was the hardest thing Colorchanger ever had to do. “Someone will come for you,” she promised, camouflaging her scales, and walking out of the cave back to her room before the guards noticed she was gone.
- - -
It had taken Colorchanger a while to realize, but now she knew. She had to escape. If their one mindreader left, it would take down quite a bit of their advantage. And she had to do it now, while Morrowseer was distracted by his ‘dragonets of destiny’.
She’d had her eye on a NightWing, one no one paid attention to and one who would definitely tell her how to get off the island if she threatened him a little.
Bravery was putting one of his various strange objects on a shelf when Colorchanger surged into view in front of him, blocking the door. He jumped back, knocking over a shelf as he did, and opened his mouth to shout.
“Don’t,” Colorchanger said. “Or I’ll melt you with my venom.” Colorchanger had tested whether or not she had venom after her visit to the RainWing prisoners, and sure enough, she didn’t have a single drop in her. This dragon didn’t know that though.
“You--you don’t have venom,” Bravery stammered, but his thoughts said otherwise. “You’re a hybrid.”
“Would you like to test that theory?” Colorchanger asked, baring her teeth at him. “Now, get me off this island, and I might consider not killing you.”
It was amazing how a large dragon like Bravery could be so afraid of Colorchanger, just because she threatened to do something it was physically impossible for her to actually do.
They walked along deserted tunnels until they came out onto the island, and Bravery pointed towards a craggy hole in the rock surrounded by NightWings with armor and spears. “There,” Bravery said. “Get past them, and you’re home free. Now, can you please let me go?”
I can’t get past that, Colorchanger realized. “There had to be another way off. Show me it. Now.”
“Fine,” Bravery said. “If you fly from here directly west, you’ll get to the mainland. But don’t expect me to come with you.”
“I don’t.” Colorchanger turned around, ready to leap off into the air, when she heard a malevolent thought behind her. She turned around, just in time for Bravery to knock her into the ground.
“We should’ve killed you when we found you,” he growled. Colorchanger’s one free talon scrabbled for something, anything to save herself. “The queen will just have to deal with you being dead.”
“I’m your niece, your sister’s daughter,” Colorchanger gasped, playing the last card she had.
Bravery paused, only for a second, giving Colorchanger just enough time to grab onto a sharp rock and jab it deep into Bravery’s throat. Bravery didn’t scream, he just clutched his neck and then fell to the ground, dead.
Colorchanger stood above his body for a minute, in shock. What she had said about him being her uncle was true, even if she didn’t want it to be. Then she shook herself. I can’t do anything about it now. I have to go, before they find him.
She took off into the sky, with only one backward glance for the volcano she’d once called home.
- - -
Colorchanger had left the Night Kingdom two weeks ago, and she was still lost.
She had read maps of Pyrrhia, yes. But it was much easier pouring over them on paper than it was trying to recall maps to figure out where she was in real life.
After she had crossed the ocean, she had guessed that she was in the Sky Kingdom because of the mountains. She had gone even farther west and a bit south, trying to get to the rainforest, but she must have gotten lost, because now she appeared to be in the middle of the Scorpion Den as the Outclaws celebrated Thorn’s new queenship.
Their celebrating was loud to Colorchanger’s outer ears, and even louder to her inner ears, even though she was trying to block the clamor of everyone’s minds. Colorchanger staggered around, trying not to catch anyone’s attention, but also trying to find a quiet place where she wasn’t completely surrounded by sound.
Finally, Colorchanger noticed a place that was completely devoid of sound, as if it were sucking in all the noise around it. It felt strange, but Colorchanger didn’t care. She ran over to the house where the lovely silence was emanating from and opened the door into pitch blackness.
She had just closed the door behind her when a thing slammed into her chest. Colorchanger dropped to the ground, coughing as if there was something blocking one of her lungs. She could still breathe, but barely.
“Who are you,” a voice said, and Colorchanger saw two glowing eyes appear in the shadows. Whoever it was had a mind that felt off for some reason. Darkness threaded through the dragon’s every thought, but it was kind of the same with Morrowseer’s thoughts. Colorchanger concentrated further, and a wall seemed to slam down on the dragon’s thoughts, blocking them off, but not before she’d gotten a crucial piece of information.
In the thoughts of every other dragon she’d met, there was a shimmer that Colorchanger thought of as a representation of a soul. Some dragons, like Mastermind, had a tiny glimmer, while others, like the RainWing Colorchanger almost rescued, shined brighter than a shooting star. This dragon had nothing but a void.
“Mindreader,” the dragon hissed, then leaned closer, but Colorchanger still couldn’t see any part of her except for her eyes, and maybe a glint of gold. “That’s interesting,” the dragon said. “A mindreading NightWing/RainWing hybrid. I bet you have quite the compelling story.” There was a flicker of motion in the darkness, and the choking feeling left Colorchanger’s chest.
“I’ll tell you it if you show yourself, and tell me who you are,” Colorchanger said after she’d caught her breath. This dragon who seemed to be able to hide her thoughts intrigued her.
“Certainly,” the dragon said, and with a flourish, a lot of the darkness disappeared, and Colorchanger could see the dragon. She had black, black, black scales, even darker than a NightWing’s, but what really caught Colorchanger’s attention was her four bronze-colored wings that looked almost like a bee’s.
“You have four wings,” Colorchanger said.
The dragon narrowed her eyes. “I am aware of that. I am The Queen.”
“The Queen? Really?” The dragon, The Queen, apparently, glared, and Colorchanger decided it would be best to just tell her story.
So she did, and at the end, The Queen looked pleased. She held out a talon to Colorchanger. “Do you want revenge?”
Colorchanger considered it. The NightWings were half her tribe, after all, so she shouldn’t. But they had imprisoned RainWings and experimented on, had used her for her powers, and killed her entire family and kidnapped her to their awful island.
There was only one answer to give. “Yes.”
The End