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Darkened Sun
(A fanfiction by Bloodfrost)
This is the actual page for the fanfiction, Darkened Sun. You may be looking for the informational article instead.
| Darkened Sun | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Bloodfrost of the IceWings |
| Background Information | |
| Author | Bloodfrost of the IceWings |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Location | Pyrrhia |
| Song | "Who We Are," Imagine Dragons |
| Character Information | |
| Protagonists | Eerie; Bloodfrost |
| Major Characters | Glint; Gloydius |
| Antagonists | The Camaraderie; Igneous |
| Supporting characters | Flying in soon … |
| Minor characters | Flying in soon … |
| Requested entries |
|
Blurb
Tᴡᴏ goal-seeking hybrids find themselves ripped away from their lives by a mysterious group of SeaWings.
Eerie is taken from her family. Thrown into a cave, she must overcome her fierce independence and use that competitiveness, curiosity, and unpredictability that her parents were always complaining about to help her along the way.
Bloodfrost's family is gone, and now he must face his grief. But he must also be ready to use his spontaneity and risk-taking behavior now that he's stuck in a cave full of aggressive dragonets. When the time comes to make his move, he will have to set aside his stubborn attitude to accept the help and partnership he needs.
As the SkyWing sprang at her, Eerie leaped sideways. Her opponent twisted to counter her move, and Eerie shoved her head into his stomach. Ducking under him, she felt him writhe on her shoulders before tumbling to the ground. Eerie dropped and rolled in the other direction, scrambling to her talons in time to face the SkyWing as the young dragon leaped to his feet.
"That was a coward's move," he growled, glaring at Eerie.
"Oh?" Eerie countered. "I guess it must have been the one you taught me!"
Igneous took a threatening step toward Eerie, hissing as if to build up a gust of fire to engulf Eerie in, but before he could try to burn her to a crisp (I'd like to see him try!), two MudWings and an IceWing rushed in.
"Didn't you hear the bell? Get in position; there's new arrivals!" exclaimed the IceWing. Eerie recognized her as Glint, the nervous dragonet who arrived at the — prison, base, barracks, mysterious location filled with kidnapped dragonets for no apparent reason other than run drills? She finally settled with — camp a few weeks ago.
We haven't had new arrivals in almost a year!
New arrivals meant more dragons who (hopefully) weren't boring and pesky and arrogant and uninterested in anything actually interesting. Though, really, there was a much higher chance that they'd be just as grumpy as always, even after recovering from the shock that they were yanked from their lives and chucked into some random cave with a hundred other dragons from all tribes by some smug old SeaWings who apparently just felt like yelling at them and making them fight.
Of course, even if they were actually cool dragons, she'd probably avoid socializing with them except when she needed to. Didn't anyone else find everyday conversations really difficult?
Eerie opened her wings and flew down to the floor of the cave. Her talons skidded on the granite floor, sending pebbles flying into the air — apparently much to everyone's annoyance — and she skidded over to her position near the edge of the line just before Gale crashed down in front of them. He looked down at them from his nose as if he'd expected a chest of emeralds but found a bucket of catfish instead.
After a few thousand more moments of surveying the dragonets, he raised his head and announced in his booming voice that would hopefully bring down the cave on him someday.
"Welcome your new cavemates like your own!" he proclaimed. "Or not, I don't really care. Just try your best not to kill them — I'm talking to you, Igneous. If you can refrain, try not to drop any boulders on anyone else that annoys you." Gale turned and opened his wings as a group of dragons came flying through the opened cave entrance.
Nine of them were SeaWing captors, which was unusual. Where's the tenth? The other four were different. Two of them were SandWings, followed by a RainWing. A RainWing! They didn't have any RainWings in the cave. They'd probably get shredded by the other dragonets who'd happily get rid of some lazy vegetarians who took up the cave space. Eerie had only seen RainWings in the few scrolls supplied in the imprisonment-ish place, but this one was even more beautiful than she'd thought. His scales were a shifting gradient of dark purple to vibrant orange, but when Eerie looked closer, she saw hints of acid green and black peeking through.
But not even the stunning RainWing could distract Eerie from the appearance of the last dragon. He was clearly a hybrid. The scales on his body were ice blue with hints of red. He had striking pale blue eyes and a narrow, elegant, diamond-shaped head like an IceWing. His wings were a dark purple, similar in color to the spikes all along his back and his serrated, sharp curved claws, which also had hints of deep red.
Three moons, that's blood, Eerie realized with a jolt.
She caught sight of the largest SeaWing, Torrent. He was the leader — and pretty much the smuggest of them all. He had an extremely strong build and had quickly overtaken a notably tough MudWing who had attempted to escape. No one knew what happened to that MudWing, but they could guess he wasn't available for interviews. Eerie had never seen anyone deliver any damage to Torrent, but looking now, she could see nasty scratches all along his side — scratches inflicted by serrated claws.
This beautiful hybrid had put up a fight. A fight that had actually injured Torrent. A fight that connected suspiciously with the absence of the tenth SeaWing.
Who is this dragon?
Bʟᴏᴏᴅғʀᴏsᴛ officially hated his life.
Well, he hated all lives, but he hated his life the most.
He thought that's what everyone thought as well, but for some reason, a bunch of complacent SeaWings wanted his life. They wanted to take it, and they wanted to chuck it into a cave full of way, way, way too many other lives.
Which he wasn't exactly pleased about.
For the past three months, he'd been held in a smaller, darker cave, but at least that one wasn't filled with scales and talons and teeth and incompetent minds.
Bloodfrost looked up at the strange cave. He thought this was under a mountain a day's flight north of Jade Mountain based on what he could take from the long flight there. The cavern had fluorescent moss lining the walls, casting an eerie glow on the wondering dragons. From what he could see, they all appeared to be dragonets, except for the SeaWing captors. He already saw more hybrids than he even knew existed. A couple of yards away, Bloodfrost spotted a dragon with a mostly SkyWing build — with large wings, a long tail, and a long curved neck — but when she stepped out into a lighter space, he spotted whitish-pink scales with occasional red freckles running down her body. Her wings faded into red like her spikes and horns, both of which looked longer and narrower than a SkyWing's — more like a NightWing's — and she had an unsettling scar crossing jaggedly over her eye. She was watching the newcomers with a quiet curiosity.
The SeaWings behind him grabbed his elbows and prodded him to the far end of the cavern. Bloodfrost spotted smaller caves jutting into the walls — most naturally made, but others looked blasted and chiseled into the rock.
They stopped at one of the furthest entrances, a naturally made space large enough to comfortably fit five dragons. Inside, Bloodfrost spotted a threatening SkyWing that was a deep dark red close to maroon, a nervous-looking IceWing the color of cornflowers, and a small SandWing who was hopping energetically from one foot to another. It took him a moment to spot a SkyWing-NightWing hybrid staring at him warily as if she wasn't sure if he'd snap and freeze the nearest dragon.
Maybe I will, he thought, eyeing the SeaWing captor beside him.
This hybrid had black scales with hints of dark red, curved horns like a SkyWing's, and startling orange eyes — each accompanied by a deep crimson teardrop scale. Her top scales were orange, while her underbelly was a dark purple gradient that faded into black. The stars on her wings were each an interesting shade of bright orange, and her wing-membranes were a gradient of purple to dark red. She wore a green moonstone necklace, held around her neck by light chains.
Bloodfrost realized that the SeaWings had left him there without any explanations or introductions, leaving him staring awkwardly at his apparent cavemates. He immediately switched to his calculating stare, which often worked to intimidate strangers into leaving him alone.
Not this time, though.
"Hi!" said the SandWing, bouncing eagerly over to Bloodfrost. "What's your name? Ack! Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet." She sat up in an apparent attempt to look formal. "My name is Gloydius, what's yours?"
Bloodfrost looked down at the fidgety dragonet. She was small — about the size of a three-year-old, though he didn't know much about other tribes' growth patterns.
"Bloodfrost."
"Oh, spooky. Are you a hybrid? You must be. We have a lot of hybrids here. I'm sure you're wondering where here is. Everyone always is. Where are you from? How old are you? Those patterns on your face kinda look like Glint's. Where are you from? Oh, I already asked that — is that blood on your claws?"
Bloodfrost glanced down at his bloodstained talons with an internal flinch, remembering the feeling of his serrated claws digging into the SeaWing's neck, the anger and hatred that dug them deeper, and the fading light of the dragon's eyes as the blood spilled around his claws.
Bloodfrost noticed the hybrid tilting her head, watching him. She didn't shift her gaze as Bloodfrost walked over to the one empty ledge left in the cave. The dangerous-looking SkyWing hadn't made eye contact with him at all — he had his wings folded over his eyes, stewing over something, or everything, or nothing.
The nervous IceWing had stayed back in the shadows, watching him but avoiding eye contact. The luminescent moss reflected very slightly off three small diamond-shaped patterns on the side of her face — similar to his own, except hers were blue rather than red.
That must be Glint, Bloodfrost realized, remembering Gloydius' comment.
Bloodfrost closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, and soon the others followed suit. Eventually, Bloodfrost found himself drifting off to a sleep filled with restless dreams of blood and slippery scales beneath his talons.
Eᴇʀɪᴇ lifted her head and squinted her eyes into the dark cave, listening.
There! Eerie's eyes flitted over to the entrance of the cave, where she'd heard the slight tap of a talon on the stone floor, just in time to see the shadowy shape of a tail flick out of the cave.
Eerie got up and crept over to the entrance. She poked her head out, making sure no one was watching, then turned left — the only direction that didn't lead to a dead end.
Soon, she heard the sound of whispering voices in one of the largest caverns — Torrent's cave. Eerie slowly crept closer, straining her ears.
"He's dangerous!" That was Elver, one of the higher-ranked SeaWing captors.
"He's valuable." Eerie tensed — that was Torrent.
Elver subsided, muttering. Eerie could hear the tapping of their claws as they walked to the other end of the cave, still murmuring to one another in hushed voices.
Eerie took a step further into the cave, trying to listen intently, but she was immediately yanked back into a crevice by cold talons. She growled and tried to bite at her attacker, but claws wrapped around her snout and pushed her further back into the cleft.
"Quiet!"
Eerie stopped struggling. The scales were pressed against her were cool, but not uncomfortably cold like Glint's. Still, Eerie wasn't used to close contact.
Suddenly Eerie could hear voices coming from further down the cave. She recognized Gale's — the other two were familiar, but she couldn't have put a claw on their names.
She saw the three shadowy figures pass by the crevice, right where she'd been standing before; when they were out of hearing distance, the talons around her snout let go slowly. Eerie whirled around to find herself eye-to-eye with Bloodfrost.
"What do you think you're doing?" Bloodfrost hissed.
"Er, following you?" Eerie offered nervously, cautiously taking a step back.
"Well —" Bloodfrost started, seemingly taken aback by her blunt honesty. He growled quietly, then began pacing around the small crevice.
"Do you know who they're talking about?" Eerie asked when the pause got awkward.
Bloodfrost stopped walking. His eyes glinted dangerously in the cave's iridescent light.
"Me."
Eerie glanced towards the entrance to Torrent's cave. As if reading her thoughts, Bloodfrost shook his head.
"We can't follow them. They have eyes watching every inch of that cavern." He started walking back towards their cave, flicking his tail for her to follow. "What's your name?"
"Eerie. You said they were talking about you?" Eerie inquired.
"Yes."
"Because of what you did to Torrent? And the other SeaWing?"
Bloodfrost glanced at her sharply, tensing. "How do you know about the other SeaWing?"
Eerie explained to him how they always sent the captors away in groups of ten when setting out for more dragonets and how only nine SeaWings returned with his group of arrivals.
When they arrived back at their quarters, Gloydius was the only one left in the cave. She radiated panic and dismay in every way, and when she saw Eerie, she immediately darted to her side.
"What? What happened?" Eerie asked, wrapping her wings around Gloydius and pulling her close. Bloodfrost walked around and surveyed the cave.
"They took Glint!" Gloydius stammered. "The SeaWings. They just came in and — we didn't even have time to react! They grabbed her and pulled her out of the cave and Igneous followed them and —"
"What's this?" Eerie turned towards Bloodfrost's voice. He'd loosened a stone in the wall above Glint's ledge and pulled out a single silver key marked with an emblem of an owl.
"Mine," Torrent said from the cave entrance.
Bʟᴏᴏᴅғʀᴏsᴛ immediately crouched, ready to lunge at one wrong move. Gloydius leaned further back into Eerie, who was staring calmly at Torrent, but her tail was lashing across the floor.
Torrent strolled into the cave until he stood a tail length away from Bloodfrost. He held out his talons, beckoning the key over.
Bloodfrost met Torrent's eyes challengingly and stood his ground, keeping his talons wrapped around the key.
"Let's make this easier for all of us. Hand the key over, and none of you three will be in any trouble," Torrent said.
"And Glint?" Eerie asked.
"Well, I suppose she'd be in more trouble than she's already in if you insist on causing trouble," Torrent said, turning his head toward her.
Eerie hesitated, but after a moment, she nodded to Bloodfrost.
Bloodfrost brought the key towards Torrent's talons but stopped a hair away.
"First," Bloodfrost said. "You're going to have to tell us what they're for." He knew they weren't for the cavern entrance. That was unlocked and opened using some sort of contraption involving levers and pushing from dragons inside and outside of the cave.
"No." Torrent replied blatantly.
"No?" Bloodfrost pulled the key away. "Guess that means I get to figure it out myself."
Torrent glared at him, "I think you're forgetting the critical detail that I'm giving you a choice to comply, be on my good side, and keep you and your cavemates out of trouble all with one decision. I can literally rip those out of your claws anytime I want to."
Well, I can rip out your heart anytime I wanted to, Bloodfrost thought. He almost made a move to turn that thought into reality, but a thought stopped him — a flashback to the day his life was ruined; the day everyone he'd ever known was taken from him.
It had been a typical day. Bloodfrost had been left alone at his home where the Great Five-Tail River met the northern ocean, near — but not in — Possibility. Four days prior, his mother Glare had flown off to the Ice Kingdom to receive instructions for her next reconnaissance mission. Harrier, his father, had left a couple of days later — disappearing towards the mountain range in the southeast, presumably commissioned for another assassination.
After tending to himself for a couple of days, Bloodfrost had felt a familiar urge — the longing to see the world. The furthest he had ever gone before was to the western face of the Claws of Cloud Mountains range. But that time, he was going to go further. He knew it.
He did go further — he flew for days, avoiding SkyWing patrols and even coming across a small SeaWings-SkyWings skirmish, which he'd steered away from, aiming towards the Diamond Spray Delta.
But the adventure ended the moment he came across his father in a heated discussion with a group of SeaWings — ten total.
The SeaWings has wanted Bloodfrost's father — who was known in the underground world of Pyrrhia as one of the best assassins on the continent — to kill Burn.
"You know I don't interfere with royal business!" Harrier snapped. The war was profitable for him, and he didn't want any powerful dragons seeking out revenge.
"I don't really see any other choices for you," one of the SeaWings said — Torrent.
"I do," Harrier said, drawing out a wicked dagger.
"Tsk-tsk, so confident, aren't you? I guess we'll have to do this the ugly way," Torrent replied. He flicked his tail, and one of the SeaWings flew off towards a small collection of caves jutting into the eastern mountainside.
Harrier turned away, "There is no ugly way, at least for me. Now clear out." He crouched, ready to leap off into the sky, but paused, snapping his head.
Torrent sneered. "Ah, it appears I've got your attention. Want to reconsider?"
Confused, Bloodfrost glanced around before he caught sight of something near one of the cave entrances — three familiar silver diamonds shapes reflecting in the darkness.
Mother, Bloodfrost thought, growling. He stayed where he was, confident his father would make sure the SeaWings would regret doing any of this.
Harrier glanced around, observing each of the SeaWings calculatingly. After a moment of silence, he sat down, sheathing his dagger warily.
"Good choice. So tell me, what are you going to do now?" Torrent asked, smiling.
"Why don't we just talk about thi —" Harrier started, interrupted by a metal cling from the cave. A gleaming knife reflected in the sunlight, visible inches away from Glare's shadowy silhouette.
Torrent's smile vanished, "I said, what are you going to do now?"
Harrier growled, his two extra claws instinctively flicking towards his dagger again.
"Louder," Torrent prompted dangerously.
"Kill Burn."
"Good. You have eight days. You know where to meet me in four days. Now clear out," Torrent said mockingly.
Harrier had flown off west, Torrent ordered Glare back into the cave, and Bloodfrost was left lurking around their camp. He spent three days waiting for an opportunity to do something — anything — to get his mother free or at least let her know he was there.
On the fourth day, Torrent had also flown off west with two other SeaWings, and the next day, just one of them arrived alone as an advance messenger. Bloodfrost couldn't hear his hushed tone as he spoke to the rest of the SeaWings, but that night, the SeaWings rushed Glare out of the cave for the first time.
Glare glanced around, confusion and panic written across her face, "Wha —"
One of the SeaWings shoved her away urgently.
"Run."
Glare didn't hesitate a moment. By the time Bloodfrost could even comprehend what was happening, she was already almost over the nearby mountain. Bloodfrost gathered his wings to follow but had to pause as the other SeaWing who'd accompanied Torrent burst through the trees above him, landing in the clearing. He lifted up an orange shape in his talons and tossed it toward the SeaWing who'd told Glare to run.
The SeaWing caught it awkwardly in his talons and lifted it to the moonlight.
Bloodfrost gagged — it was a head. Harrier's head.
The SeaWing dropped it with a yelp, hopping back, "But —"
"He failed," Torrent growled from the shadows, dangerously close to where Bloodfrost hid. He stepped out into the moonlight. "He supposedly put up a fight, but Burn still killed him — stabbed him in the heart with her tail."
Torrent swished his tail across the ground, glancing at the cave, "Get the prisoner."
The other SeaWings tensed, some standing still as a statue, others darting their eyes back and forth as if searching for a way to escape.
"What?" Torrent asked the SeaWings sharply.
"Um —" one of them stammered.
"Yes?" Torrent said, threateningly.
"She escaped," another SeaWing finished quickly.
"WHAT?"
"Yes — she escaped, fighting tooth and claw. It's — um — a miracle we're even alive. She could have killed us all." "Really," Torrent remarked skeptically. "All seven of you."
Torrent beckoned to Elver and one of the other SeaWings. They all turned around and bolted into the air, surveyed the nearby land, then turned their way west, disappearing over the nearby mountains.
Bloodfrost had waited for what felt like centuries for the remaining SeaWings to turn away from where he crouched, then he jumped after the pursuing SeaWings … and his mother.
He hadn't found any of them that night, but he'd known where his mother would've gone, so he'd aimed his way towards the Great Five-Tail River.
He'd made it there by the second day, appearing just in time to find Torrent and Elver circling Glare, who'd stood her ground, snarling.
Bloodfrost plummeted down straight toward Elver, and at that moment, Torrent dived down toward Glare with a wicked grin. Bloodfrost tried to adjust his trajectory to his mother, but the third SeaWing crashed into his side, sending Bloodfrost tumbling into the ground.
Bloodfrost jumped to his feet just in time to duck away from being smacked with Elver's tail. He leaped forward and crashed into Elver's side, sending him tumbling into the nearby river. Bloodfrost braced his wings to leap to his mother's aid, but as he launched into the air, the third SeaWing slammed down onto Bloodfrost's back.
Bloodfrost flailed his claws, momentarily dazed, as he tried to push his attacker off of him. At the edge of his vision, he spotted Glare pinned under Torrent's claws. As she opened her mouth to release a gust of frostbreath, Torrent smacked his tail down onto her neck, and with a sickening crack! Glare's body fell limp underneath his talons.
Bloodfrost let out a roar of fury, and his attacker — surprised — let go of Bloodfrost with a jolt. Bloodfrost crashed forward into the SeaWing, who let out a squeal of surprise. Bloodfrost's vision faded to red as he leaped on top of the SeaWing, pinning her beneath his claws. She slashed at his face, and he blasted a burst of frostbreath at her arm — his frostbreath wasn't as dangerous as a purebred IceWing's, but that didn't mean it wasn't terribly painful.
She screeched in agony as the white mist spread across her forearm. As her defenses dropped, Bloodfrost slammed his claws onto her neck, digging them deep into her scales. The SeaWing's screeches dropped away to a slight gurgling as she tried to breathe, or speak, or scream — he'd never know which one. The light in her dark green eyes faded, and she fell limp — as limp as his mother, who lay only a few wingbeats away.
Bloodfrost whipped his head towards that direction. His vision still a hazy red, Bloodfrost found himself staring eye-to-eye with Torrent, who was sitting down calmly beside Glare's body.
"Bravo, bravo. You are very impressive. Maybe I can make some use of you," Torrent smiled another wicked grin.
Bloodfrost charged forward, determined to wipe that smug smile off his face forever, and collided into Torrent's chest. Torrent fell backward, and Bloodfrost pounced on him, raking his serrated claws across the SeaWing's side. Torrent reacted with a hard kick into Bloodfrost's underbelly, knocking him back into the ground, where Elver appeared above him, pinning him down.
Torrent stared down at Bloodfrost.
"Yes. I sure can."
That feeling of culpability — of taking that SeaWing's life as if it was worth nothing … he wasn't sure he could do that again.
But what he did know was that Bloodfrost would not — could not — lose anyone else he knew (and didn't necessarily dislike, he admitted to himself grudgingly), even a weird little triplet of dragonets.
Bloodfrost sprang forward.
Eᴇʀɪᴇ jolted upright, staggered by Bloodfrost's sudden action, and Gloydius jumped backward, whipping around to face the commotion.
As Bloodfrost bolted forward, Torrent leaped sideways, swinging his tail down onto Bloodfrost's spine. Bloodfrost dodged sideways just in time, but Torrent's tail still smacked his arm, jolting the key out of his talons.
With a melodic cling! that roused the reticent cavern, the key bounced across the floor, its emblematic eyes reflecting blue in the caliginosity, and tumbled out of the entrance.
Bloodfrost and Torrent wavered — staring at each other daringly for two or three moments — before both dashing toward the cave's opening. Bloodfrost tackled his way through the entrance first, and — without much forethought — Eerie darted forward and body-slammed Torrent into the rugged wall of the cave before he could follow.
Torrent was on his feet again within moments, flashing his scales blindingly as he whipped around angrily and faced Eerie, flaring his wings.
He frowned. "That's too bad. I thought I'd only have to teach one of you a lesson tonight." He turned to face Gloydius, "Don't make it four, little dragon." Before Eerie could intercept him again, Torrent was crashing through the entrance after Bloodfrost.
Eerie scrambled to follow but paused at the hall and looked at Gloydius. "Stay here, okay?"
Gloydius nodded quickly, stumbling to the back of the cave. Eerie whirled out of the room, still not sure quite what she'd gotten herself into, and followed Bloodfrost yet again.
She stumbled through the ill-lighted passageways, trying to coordinate herself to the maze of hallways.
Eventually, she found herself in the foyer. This was the largest room in the cave, and it held the exit to the outside-world — a large elevated wall of stone opened and closed using some sort of series of contraptions used from both inside and outside the mountain.
She strained her ears, trying to pick up any sign on Bloodfrost. After a moment, she heard the sound of gravel skidding across the stone floor, and she rushed toward the clatter.
Eventually, she was standing in a room she'd never been in before — a matter that probably had something to do with the fact that it was off-limits. It was some sort of towering atrium within the mountain. The space was extremely tall and circular, and moonlight spilled through multiple glazed sheets of what appeared to be thinly cut obsidian or quartz, giving the walls and room a strange red glow. A tiny brook ran through the middle of the room, spilling from a small cascade of water and out into a gap near the edge of the floor, presumably exiting the mountain. The cascade flowed from somewhere near the top of the chamber.
The room's center held a ring of seats — eight total — split in half by the stream. This was where Torrent and his goons met: the council chamber.
Eerie circled slowly, examining every inch of the atrium until she spotted a slight glow emitting from a small outlet chamber. Eerie crept closer and peeked inside.
Bloodfrost was there, clutching the key in his talons, warily eyeing another dragon — a dark sea-green SeaWing dragonet, with an underbelly a medium-light shade of green, and bizarrely almost-cyan eyes.
This was Cobia, Elver's son.
A growl built up in the back of Eerie's throat. She marched into the cavern and shoved Cobia against the wall, pinning him.
He squirmed helplessly against her talons, "Hey! Ow! Stop — this is mean — don't you know who I —"
Eerie whacked his chin, earning a whine of distress. "No need to tell me who you are, son of Elver. However — please do tell me," She dug her claws into his wings, "what does this key go to?"
"Um. Which ones? I mean — er, those ones?" he added under Eerie glare, glancing at the key held by Bloodfrost, who looked all too enthralled by this interaction.
"I wouldn't know. Nope. Father ain't ever telling me anything, so if I'll just be on my way — and how about this. I won't tell anyone 'bout this — and we can both go our own ways and —"
"Shut up," Bloodfrost said sharply. Cobia slammed his mouth shut, shrinking back. Bloodfrost turned to Eerie. "You said this is Elver's son?" Eerie nodded. "Hm," Bloodfrost turned to face Cobia again.
Bloodfrost dangled the key in Cobia's face. "We can go 'our own ways' when you tell us what these go to, and —" he added as the dragonet opened his mouth to protest, "— no nonsense about no one telling you — because I'm sure you've at least overheard the answer. Don't think I didn't spot you eavesdropping on your father and Torrent earlier."
Cobia blinked, his luminescent scales flickering nervously. "Well — I could know a thing or some, but Father and Torr — Commander Torrent ain't gonna let me get away with openin' my mouth."
"Oh, they don't have to know," Bloodfrost puffed a small outburst of frostbreath onto the stone wall beside the SeaWing's head, making him flinch.
Cobia frantically shook his head, "Oh, no no no, the Camaraderie knows everything; no one gets away with anything here!"
"The Camaraderie? That's what they call themselves? You're not serious," Bloodfrost snorted. "Okay, but they clearly don't know everything if you manage to eavesdrop on them, right?"
Cobia seemed to consider that for a moment. "I guess," he replied eventually.
Eerie looked around. She thought it was strange that they hadn't been found yet. The "Camaraderie" consisted of various SeaWings — enough to efficiently search the whole cavern unless it was even more massive than she thought, which it very well could be.
Bloodfrost seemed to sense her uneasiness. He grabbed the SeaWing from Eerie's restraint and pulled him toward the cave entrance. Cobia flinched away from Bloodfrost's cold scales but obligingly exited the room.
They walked warily through the council chamber and crept into a hallway located by the cascade of water. As they walked into another cavern, Eerie could see one of the moons through a small skylight — it shone a strange red tint, which explained the unusual lighting in the atrium. A blood moon?
Eerie turned to ask Bloodfrost, but he was suddenly pushing her into yet another crevice, pulling Cobia with him as he shoved himself in as well.
He really has a bad habit of doing that. Eerie let herself be amused for a moment. She pricked her ears up, trying to find out who they were hiding from. At least this cranny was larger than the last one.
The sound of Elver barking orders was now audible as he hurried through the cave, followed by three or four others. Bloodfrost clamped his talons around Cobia, who probably had tried to sound an alarm, and shoved him to the back of the crevice. Eerie leaped on top of the SeaWing — somehow knowing exactly what he'd do next — in an attempt to cover the flashing light that was suddenly radiating from Cobia's scales, but it seemed as if Elver and the others had already passed into the atrium. Bloodfrost yanked Cobia to his feet, snarling.
"Try something like that again, and you'll learn just how easily frozen limbs snap from a body." Cobia nodded hysterically as Bloodfrost held him up to eye-level.
"I feel like now happens to be a good time to tell me what I — we," Bloodfrost amended, glancing quickly at Eerie, "want to know. Don't you agree, SeaWing?"
Cobia quickly nodded without hesitation, and Bloodfrost let go. The SeaWing sat down reluctantly.
Bloodfrost's a bit spontaneous, but he seems to know how to get things done, Eerie mused. She glanced through to the tunnel leading towards the dorms. I hope Gloydius is doing fine. And Glint.
"Rumor has it this cave used to be a sanctuary for dragons way back even before the Scorching. Some ain't believe that, but it was definitely occupied two to three thousand years ago or so.
"According to Mother, this is where a bunch of SeaWings used to hide, during some war with the SkyWings. They'd use it as a place to surprise them from the south; the SkyWings would post guards at the southern coast — but we were already here, under the mountain, so we could still flank them without anyone spottin' us. But before the SkyWings began patrolling the southern coast, that's where the SeaWings had gone whenever they arrived from or went to the Kingdom of the Sea. They couldn't do that anymore without riskin' exposing the cave. They needed a new way to sneak in and out." Cobia clawed nervously at the stone floor.
"That's where the SeaWing queen's animus dragon came in. He created a bunch of tunnels leading from here to all sorts of places around the continent and so the SeaWings could access practically every region of Pyrrhia.
"These caves were each unlocked with a key, and a select few had them — the queen herself and her most trusted dragons. On one side of each key, there are carved labels marking where they go." Cobia flicked at his tail at the key in Bloodfrost's talons.
Bloodfrost examined the key closer, peering at the small shapes embedded into the metal.
Eerie's eyes widened. "You mean —"
Cobia raised his head.
"Yes. That's one of the Continental Keys."
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