It should’ve gone differently.
The Battle of Hornet Hive: it’s one of the most famous—or infamous—battles in recent memory. It’s a legend, a story to aspire to, and a fable that warns.
It was on this battle that the fate of the Tree Wars—the fate of the LeafWings and SteelWings and HiveWings—the fate of Pantala, even—hinged. On it rested the hopes and dreams and desires of thousands of dragons. On it depended the efforts of a chancellor, the wishes of a queen, the ambitions of a tyrant.
The Battle of Hornet Hive is an epic story of love and loss, of courage and cowardice, of missed chances and wasted efforts, of what happens when one flies too close to the scorching Pantalan sun.
It is a story of the end of one age and the start of another.
It is a story of shadows falling on Pantala, of twilight wreathing the land in blackness. It is a story of the shadow that resides in all of us and blurs the line between good and evil.
It is a story of the fall of heroes.
The end starts now.
Introduction[]
Pantala is burning.
The continent has been drenched with the blood of dragons for years. The plains and forests are filled with screams of the dying.
It is war, a fierce war, a war started by a dictator in an effort at world conquest.
Wasp, Queen of the HiveWings and now the SilkWings, is the dictator. She is ambitious and ruthless. She stops at nothing to get what she wants. She strikes first and asks questions later; she always counterattacks. She has no mercy.
Thousands of loyal HiveWings are at her command, bristling with venomous stingers and wickedly sharp spears. They are lethal soldiers. They follow the Queen’s orders. Anything else is treason.
Many HiveWings are horrified at the new regime; some protest. Most are sensible enough to defect to the SteelWings or LeafWings, along with some SilkWings who see through Wasp’s facade of greatness. These defectors, along with the defending tribes, collectively make up the Alliance.
Sequoia, Queen of the LeafWings, is the defender. She refuses to fold up beneath Wasp, as Monarch did, and holds steadfast against the HiveWing incursion. She is fierce and tempestuous, believing if the LeafWings do not act and fight the same way, they will be destroyed. She is often seen on the front lines; despite her numerous sustained wounds, she refuses to be taken to the healers. She needs to fight, after all.
Thousands of LeafWings have been deployed in the field. They fight with sharpened claws and biological weapons. They are vicious. They will show no mercy to the enemy that grants none in return.
Blacksaber, Chancellor of the SteelWings, is more weary and reserved. He watches his steps, keeps an eye out for errors and lapses in judgment. He is calm. He is patient.
Many SteelWings consider him a spineless sap.
Whatever one chooses to believe, Blacksaber has sent thousands of SteelWings to fight for Pantala. They don their claw-blades and ceramic armor, and tip their tail-shards with poison. They will fight for the homeland, for the LeafWings, and for Pantala.
HiveWing and SilkWing defectors often choose to fight as well. However, they are more pacifist; they serve as healers and medics, as suppliers and constructors. They help the war effort in any way they can.
For years, the HiveWings and Allies fought claw to claw, neither side gaining ground with the exception of an incursion or two. It’s gridlock. Stalemate. Neither side can win—
That was, until the legends appeared.
Skyfighter and Magnolia. The SteelWing and the LeafWing. They are generals; both grew up under the shadow of the war, and both rose meteorically through the ranks—after all, with generals dying on the front lines, strategists were rather in short supply. As it turned out, Skyfighter and Magnolia were excellent planners, and they blazed a trail through HiveWing territory, capturing even Wasp Hive. Wasp was forced to retreat, and the Allies celebrated, believing the end of the war was near.
They believed that once the legends had captured the entire continent, Wasp would be executed, and the HiveWings would cease to be a threat. Peace would come to the troubled continent once more; their dragonets could sleep in peace for the first time in many, many years.
However, the cunning HiveWing tyrant had a legend, too.
Solenopsis is a legend on his own. Like Skyfighter and Magnolia, he rose quickly through the HiveWing ranks; he thinks carefully and does not give in to impulse. He knows better than to do that, after all.
He’s obtained intel that the combined SteelWing and LeafWing armies are approaching Hornet Hive.
Hornet Hive is the most populous of the Hives; the residents will have no idea what’s coming. Solenopsis isn’t worried about the honorable SteelWings; however, he is concerned with what the LeafWings will do with the innocent HiveWing civilians.
He’s taking an army of his own to Hornet Hive; he will greet them there.
The titans will clash. An empire will fall, or will forever be rooted in history. Freedom’s flame will burn as brightly as the sun, or it will be extinguished.
This is a battle that will determine the fate of the world.
Chapter 1: The Legends[]
WIP
From above, Razorclaws Forest was a tangle of deciduous tree leaves, bright green and rustling with the summer breeze. To an unassuming HiveWing patrol, it signified nothing but boredom. Perhaps two patrollers, while soaring over the expanse of green, will give family anecdotes to each other, or discuss Wasp’s plans to destroy the trees after they won the war.
But beneath the canopy, an army was on the march.
About nine hundred SteelWings were on the move, wearing painted ceramic armor and carrying weapons or supplies slung on their backs; perhaps they will describe their family to each other, or discuss Wasp’s inevitable death at the talons of their glorious general.
Skyfighter led the army at the helm, his armor painted a deep, rusty red. His scales were bright white like polished marble, each edged with black; his four narrow wings were striped with silver. A sharp javelin was strapped to his back, and a sword hung from his waist. He kept to a trotting pace, glancing back wearily every once in a while to make sure his army was keeping up. Skyfighter, like all dragons, had been a bright youth once; however, a year of war had taken its toll, and the proud soldier had been reduced to a shell of his former self. A long scar ran down his snout and right eye, rendering it blind; his remaining eye, dark orange like the winding canyons of his home, was blank and emotionless.
The LeafWing that kept to his left, an adolescent dragon with bright green scales flecked with mahogany, was an adjutant; Sycamore had volunteered to be the SteelWing’s assistant several months back. He kept glancing at the general worriedly, as if afraid he would be killed without warning, and jumped when Skyfighter stopped and raised a talon.
The entire army shuffled to a stop, muttering and buzzing their wings.
Skyfighter unslung his javelin, glancing around, ears flicked up and alert. For a moment he saw something move in the shadows, but it was hard to make out anything among the dense foliage—and then a HiveWing leapt from the undergrowth, a dagger clutched in her talon, her snout twisted in a sneer.
The SteelWing general whipped around as the assassin attacked, twisting aside as she shot past him. He extended his javelin, pointing it at the HiveWing as she clambered to her feet. The surrounding soldiers backed away.
The assassin growled, deep and low. “So I have found the mighty general.”
”You have,” Skyfighter said. Had the assassin stumbled upon them, or did Wasp know where the SteelWing army was? Either way, the army should get out of here, fast—before they were found by others.
“Prepare to die, coward,” the assassin said.
A hint of a smile tugged at the general’s mouth. “That’s what they all say.”
The HiveWing snarled and threw herself at her target, her dagger extended. Skyfighter jabbed his javelin at the assassin, forcing her to weave out of the way; he kept his weapon pointed at her as she circled round him.
He thought to himself, A dagger’s hardly a warrior’s weapon, HiveWing. Has your tribe gone desperate?
The HiveWing twisted to his right, trying to take advantage of his blind side. Skyfighter kept the javelin on point.
The HiveWing sprinted forward, thrusting her dagger. Still a WIP