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Welcome back, one and all, to the new installment of the series, "Wings of Darkness"! As always, listen to some of your favorite music, bang your head, and enjoy the fic.
The Dragonets stood together as they always did... but this time... it was different. They were ragged, torn, bloodied... beaten. The world shivered as if it had been beaten as well. Even the stars above were wronged... two of the three moons were gone.Clay, though he was beyond injured, stood in front of the dragonets, his wings held out in a feeble attempt to shield them... from the large shadow in front of them that stared at them with a crazed, maniacal look on its face.The world trembled even more as the shadow stepped forward. Clay's muscles tensed, his wings trembling not only from exhaustion but also from trying to hide the fear he felt."Soon, little dragons..." the shadow whispered, pausing before leaping at them. "YOU WILL BE MINE!"Starflight shot out of bed, gasping as he lightly hyperventilated from the panic. He sat there for a while, grasping his chest as his heart almost felt like it was about to beat out of it. His breathing eventually calmed, and his head fell back onto the bed.He could feel the warm sunshine through the window of his sleeping cave... but yet, he saw nothing.Starflight sighed, getting out of bed and opening the door to his room. He stepped out and down the hall that made up his friends' home inside Jade Mountain. He could hear his friends waking up as well as their thoughts. A smile crept onto his face as he felt his talons step onto the smoother floor of the main room, memories flooding back from the last three years.All the Dragonets, now adults, had pledged their lives to keep the world at peace—helping officiate every meeting, hunting down criminals, and just keeping the peace altogether.Icicle and Winter had gone straight to the Sky Kingdom after the war to try and find out what happened to their older brother, Hailstorm. Unfortunately, what they did find only made them more confused, discovering that he wasn't dead, but nobody knew what had happened to him—not even Scarlet's old advisors who survived her before her demise.Icicle was actually out right now with Crane in the Sky Kingdom, looking for more clues on their break.The last couple of years for the IceWing siblings had been... well, eventful, to say the least. After the war ended, Queen Glacier decided to keep Winter with the dragonets, which infuriated his parents. What really pissed them off was when Icicle decided to stay with them as well. Winter often joined Icicle on her searches, but he was almost always training with Qibli when they weren't doing something for the group.It's actually kind of funny—those two are almost polar opposites, but they've become such close friends. They often team up for missions. The progress they've made with each other and their powers is... staggering. It wouldn't surprise him at all if, in the next couple of years, they became the most powerful.And their teamwork...Starflight shivered as he slowly found one of the chairs in the main room and sat down. Last year, Qibli and Winter decided to test how strong they were by challenging Clay to a one-on-two... They had to stop early, almost bringing down the whole mountain during their sparring match.Starflight smiled again as he thought of the MudWing. He'd caught him last week practicing proposing to Peril. After the war ended, the two of them only grew closer. When they weren't busy running around Pyrrhia, Clay would watch Peril practice her new hobby, or they'd go hunting together.Peril had found a hobby in glass-making and sculpting. Her firescales and skillful control of fire made her a natural at it.Starflight winced as he heard yelling down the halls. "Wake up, squid-for-brains!" Poor Riptide. He felt bad for any dragon who happened to fall for Tsunami of all dragons. Riptide and Tsunami had started dating last year, with Riptide claiming, "He was into that..."Speaking of "being into that," Deathbringer and Glory were obviously dating, though they never admitted it to anyone. When Clay figured it out, he almost strangled Deathbringer—Peril had to stop him. Deathbringer and Glory were currently in the rainforest, visiting Glory's mom.Sunny was also out and about with a couple of the MudWing sibs. A rumor had come up about Vulture, so they followed the lead to try and capture him... again.Vulture had been a pain in their side since the war ended. No matter how close they came to pinning him down, he always managed to escape—like he was always one talon ahead.Moon, Kinkajou, and Sora were occupying the Scorpion Den for the week, making sure Vulture didn't show up there now that Thorn and Stonemover were no longer around as King and Queen.Moon and Kinkajou had officially joined the group a couple of months ago. The NightWings were making a fuss that the Dragonets of Destiny didn't have a real voice for them in the group. So, Carinatus placed Moon in to make the NightWings happy... little did they know she did have some bias.Kinkajou decided to join as well, refusing to leave her "best friend," wanting to stick with her. Starflight didn't mind; he owed her for helping him out of the volcano.Kinkajou and Moon were practically already part of the group anyway, visiting them all the time. Giving them their powers was funny though...It took weeks, but Moon and Kinkajou eventually decided on the powers they wanted. Both wanted something unique.Moon decided on something new altogether: being able to pick up objects with just her mind, which was funny to watch her learn.Kinkajou, being the absolute prankster she was, took a page out of Sunny's book. She made it so that when she turned invisible with her camouflage, she couldn't be touched, and solid objects would pass right through her. This led to... way too many pranks.The three—Moon, Kinkajou, and Sora—seemed to get along great, forming a dynamic trio.Starflight's head turned toward one of the other halls as he heard sounds of activity. He stood up and walked into the library he had requested, the smile on his face growing wider.And then there was—"Good morning, Starflight," Fatespeaker greeted with a happy tone.Fatespeaker had stayed with him up till now, helping him along his journey with the handicap he decided to keep. "Morning, Fatespeaker," he greeted back happily.Starflight saw through Fatespeaker's mind that she was looking up from a scroll at him. A green piece of cloth covered his eyes, hiding his surely scarred face.After waking up from the volcano, a new power had emerged in him that he never knew he had. At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks, trying to make phantom images using other people's thoughts. But now he could control it at will, seeing through other dragons' eyes as if they were his own, which he was grateful for.He never used the power without asking, though, as it would be a great breach of others' privacy. Fatespeaker had given him permission to do it anytime he wanted, as long as she wasn't doing something private.Starflight went over and sat down not too far from her with a sigh, noticing another presence in the room as he did."Morning, Turtle.""Morning, Starflight," the SeaWing greeted back, his eyes not leaving the scroll he was reading.Then there were the two royal SeaWing siblings. They went back and forth all the time between the Sea Kingdom and Jade Mountain. Turtle was currently studying in the library, wanting to write his own scrolls someday.Anemone was back in the Sea Kingdom, visiting her mom and dad for the week. She stated that if she didn't visit soon, her mother would get really annoying.Both siblings were officially in the group, helping when they could...This was home...Starflight leaned back, enjoying the silence and the scroll Fatespeaker was reading. That was until his ears perked up when he heard thunder outside the cave. He turned to Fatespeaker. "They've already started training for the day?"Fatespeaker laughed, nodding her head. "I don't know how they do it."Fatespeaker was the only one in the group without powers. She had been offered powers but politely declined, saying she never felt like she needed them.The mountain lightly shook with another loud crack of thunder, making Starflight sigh. "They're going hard again..."Fatespeaker nodded, dodging some of the pebbles that fell from the stone ceiling of the cave."They always do," she said, giggling. "It wouldn't be Winter and Qibli if they didn't."
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A white blur zipped by the side of Jade Mountain, kicking up rocks, dust, and other debris as the air cracked around the white shape, the loud crack reverberating around the mountain.A pale yellow shape came into sight, blurring its way around the mountain as well, going just as fast. The two blurs collided, casting a shockwave loud enough for the entire mountain range to hear.The two bounced off each other and froze in the air a short distance apart.The IceWing and SandWing were both gasping for air as they glared at each other with determination. “Gotta be quicker than that, Winter!” Qibli said with a smirk, still catching his breath.Winter scowled, taking a deep breath that made Qibli freeze. The clouds around them began darkening, and Winter’s mouth started to glow. The wind picked up, howling, as the air turned cold.Winter released his breath, a large, glowing white beam shooting out, rapidly heading straight for Qibli. In a flash, a lightning bolt came out of the sky, meeting the ice beam in midair. The two collided and exploded, kicking up snow and frost that blurred both of their visions.“Oh come on, Igloo-for-brains, you know I’d never let that hit,” Qibli joked, still unable to see anything.Winter smirked, feeling the cold air thicken. “Who said I was aiming for you?”Qibli’s smirk disappeared. “What?” He got his answer when it started to snow—hard. The wind howled even more, the dust turning into a full-blown blizzard that blocked his vision, the wind chill making it feel like sub-zero temperatures.Qibli’s head snapped around when he heard Winter’s voice from an unfamiliar direction. “Think, Qibli. You made it easy for me today...”He started to panic. By blocking that shot, he had distributed the ice beam into the air, allowing Winter’s full power to take control. Qibli heard something, and the next thing he knew, Winter slammed into his side, flinging him into the ground.“Oh, come on,” Qibli groaned, flipping himself over to see Winter smirking at him through the blizzard. “I win today.”Qibli let his head fall back onto the now snow-covered ground. “Shut up,” he groaned in pain.Winter laughed, offering a talon to help Qibli up. “Come on, Starflight told us yesterday that we have stuff to do today,” he said, lifting the SandWing to his feet.Qibli sighed, nodding. “Why did I block that shot? You’ve pulled that trick on me like five times now.”Winter chuckled. “I have no idea. You know I’d never actually let that beam hit you,” he said as he took off into the air.“I know! It’s like it’s just a reflex!” Qibli agreed, their voices fading in the frozen wind.The sun began to shine brightly over the mountains on the southwest peninsula of Pyrrhia, the so-called “Darkstalker’s Teeth.” Sunny was scanning the ground below as she glided, with Reed and Marsh following her.“It should be around here!” Sunny said, frustrated, to the two MudWing siblings. Reed shook his head. “I don’t see any smoke. Are you sure this is where the report came from?”Sunny nodded. “They weren’t sure if it was Vulture or not, but there aren’t supposed to be any dragons out here, so they reported it.” They were investigating a report of smoke in the area, searching for a criminal they’d been hunting for years.Vulture.“It was supposed to be around here!” Sunny repeated, stopping in the air. Reed and Marsh stopped next to her. It seemed like every time they got close to catching the crime boss, he managed to slip away.“Let’s land and search on talon,” Sunny said, gliding toward the ground. “You two go that way,” she instructed, pointing toward the forest below the mountain. “I’ll search this way,” she said, pointing toward the cliffs. The MudWing siblings nodded and glided down toward the woods.Sunny sighed as she landed, looking around. She began to walk, carefully scanning her surroundings, but saw nothing. “Oh, come on, today was supposed to be my break,” she muttered, but froze when she caught a scent in the air.Smoke.She tensed, moving cautiously toward the source of the smell. She spotted a clearing up ahead and growled at what she saw—a fire that had been put out. She walked into the clearing and dipped a talon into the ashes. There was no warmth left. She growled again, frustrated. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”Reed and Marsh must have heard her because she spotted them flying back toward her. “Everything all right?” Marsh asked as they landed, noticing the old fire.Sunny shook her head. “Just a place where there was a fire,” she growled. Reed shook his head. “We didn’t find anyone, but we did find these,” he said, opening his talon to reveal a couple of orange and red SkyWing scales.Sunny was confused. There weren’t supposed to be any SkyWings this far south. She sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk to Starflight about this later,” she said, taking the scales and placing them in a pack strapped to her side. She looked around one last time, but shook her head. “Let’s get out of here,” she said, taking to the air, already thinking about how she would relax when she got home...Not noticing the dragon glaring at the trio from the shadows of a cave on the mountainside.
Sorry for the short chapter; the next one is going to be REALLY long. Also, I want to see who’s going to guess what’s going on with the lyrics first.
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Nobody has yet to mention the titles of the chapters...
The clouds off in the distance flashed, and distant rumbles were heard that would make any dragon get ready to seek shelter. Clay and Peril watched the clouds with concerned looks on their faces, but it was not because of the storm. They were actually watching for the two dragons that produced the storm, having called for their help. They stood on the edge of a small SkyWing town in the mountains.The storm seemed to immediately calm down, with Clay and Peril spotting two shapes fly out of the clouds. One was white, the other the colors of the beaches of the Sea Kingdom. The storms left with them in sight.Winter and Qibli landed in front of the couple, giving the two a serious look. "Starflight said that you needed our help?" Winter asked. Clay nodded his head and turned around, starting to walk back towards the town, with Peril walking next to him and Winter and Qibli following. "There was a SandWing spotted running around that was wearing a hood and cape."Winter started to get annoyed and was about to complain but stopped when Clay continued, "There were dragon skulls on the cape..."That made both Winter and Qibli tense up. There had been a ton of false reports about Vulture's gang since they were really the only threat to the peace in Pyrrhia since the war ended. But almost nobody knew about the detail of the dragon skulls being worn on the gang's clothing."We came here to speak with the leader of the town to become a trading outpost since it will help all the other tribes not have to drag their items further into the mountains. If I had to make a guess, Vulture is hanging around here to see if it's worth raiding later," Clay explained. "Me and Peril are going to sit in the meeting to make sure it goes smoothly. I want you two to try and find Vulture," Clay said seriously. "If you find him, even if he looks vulnerable, do not attack him by yourself; get backup..." Clay said that last part eyeing Qibli especially.Glory smiled, feeling the sun on her scales as she flew over the forest around the base of Jade Mountain, almost home from visiting her mother, Deathbringer flying next to her."I'm telling you!" Deathbringer exclaimed. "Scavengers are more dangerous than they look!"Glory chuckled. "Yes, Death, the walking squeaking monkeys are so dangerous," she mocked. Deathbringer looked offended. "I'm not joking; those things are a danger to us if we aren't careful."Glory remained quiet at that one, remembering how Queen Oasis died and kicked off the war. Her eyes flickered up when she spotted smoke off in the distance. "Are there any dragons that are camping at the base of the mountain?" she asked him, confused.Deathbringer shook his head, spotting the smoke as well. "Not that I am aware of." They both changed their direction, the smoke not being far off from where they were heading. They both circled around the fire but were confused; it was obviously dragon-made, but there were no dragons around it.Glory gave Deathbringer a look, and they both nodded, landing in the clearing. Deathbringer froze the moment he hit the ground, Glory noticing his demeanor. "We are being watched..." he whispered. Glory froze as well. She closed her eyes, expanding her control into the woods around them. She felt a dragon watching them from the bushes. She turned red with anger and used her control to have the branches from the trees wrap around the dragon and lift him up.It was a small pale orange SkyWing with light blue eyes, who shockingly didn't look scared—more amazed than anything. "How did you do that?" he asked excitedly.Glory went from angry to humored, not expecting the excited smile. Her focus changed when she heard the leaves rustling again, a tiny scavenger bolting out of the bushes and running at the duo, waving around a large scavenger-made claw. Glory scoffed, using her powers, vines shooting up out of the ground and wrapping around the scavenger's arms, lifting it into the air so it couldn't move.The scavenger started hollering in its squeaky voice, the duo ignoring it when Glory spotted Deathbringer giving her a "I told you so" smirk. Glory rolled her eyes.The SkyWing's excited face turned to one of panic, and he started thrashing around in the grip of the tree branches. "WAIT, WAIT, please don't hurt her!"Glory got an amused look on her face again. "Why would I want to hurt the scavenger?"The SkyWing stopped his thrashing to speak. "I don't know... a lot of dragons seem to think humans taste good?" He shook his head. "Which is very bad."Glory almost laughed. "Well, I don't even like eating meat, so I don't plan on eating it any time soon.""Well, if you don't plan on hurting us, can you let us go then?" a voice said to Glory's right.Glory's head bolted to the side but didn't spot any dragons. "What?""I asked if you could let us go?" the voice said, this time Glory noticing where it came from: the little scavenger wrapped up in her vines."WHAT?!" Glory yelled, shocked. "How can you speak dragon?" she asked, bewildered.Deathbringer was squinting his eyes in concentration, but then his eyes grew in realization. "Wait a minute... I know you!""Murderbaskets?" the scavenger asked back.Glory noticed that Deathbringer seemed to get embarrassed, and she recalled a strange story he told her a while back about a talking scavenger who kept on calling him by the wrong name by accident and needed his help."You're kidding..." she said annoyed. "I thought you said you were dreaming it?""I thought I was as well!" he exclaimed. "I thought I drank something that night that made me have a weird dream!"The duo's heads turned when the scavenger started talking again. "Well, I'll have you know, I am very real and STILL TIED UP!"Glory looked embarrassed. "Sorry..." she said while undoing the wrappings around the two. "If you don't mind me asking, how are you a scavenger that can talk in dragon?""We are actually called humans and—" she was cut off by the SkyWing, who still had an excited smile on his face. "I taught her, so how did you do that thing with the trees and vines?"Glory pinched the bridge of her snout, already feeling a headache coming on. "Look, I got a friend who would really love to meet you two; he should be back later today."Icicle was standing next to Crane as they were standing around a table, Queen Ruby sitting on the other side of it with a drink in her right talon."We have talked to all the old advisors, and even they don't know what happened to Hailstorm," Icicle said, trying to not show how frustrated she was starting to get. "It seems like Scarlet had been bragging about his capture forever and showing him off, and the next day, Hailstorm hadn't been seen at all, like he just disappeared."Ruby nodded her head. "That is strange. Mother always made a show out of killing her prisoners, especially the important ones, so I doubt that she killed off Prince Hailstorm," she said, pausing to take another sip of her drink. "I have no idea what Mother would do with him to where he just disappeared."Icicle resisted slouching in her chair from frustration, being more proper than that. "You don't think she sold him or gave him to someone else, do you?"Ruby put the drink down onto the table, shaking her head as she did so. "I almost guarantee you she didn't; she never got rid of her 'thrilling presents,' and she hardly ever talked with anyone outside of the Sky Kingdom besides Burn.""Does she have any secret allies that even you didn't know about?" Icicle asked, trying not to sound too proper and hide her desperation.Ruby remained quiet at that question, thinking about how to respond. She lifted the drink back up to her lips and finished it off, sighing as she put it back down onto the table. "Not too long ago... we found something that not even her top advisors knew about..."Crane and Icicle's eyes grew. "What was it?"Ruby's frown deepened. "A room, a secret room hidden behind the throne. It's just that we didn't find anything really alarming in there."Icicle stood up from the table. "May we please look?"Qibli was flying over the small town, searching the alleys from above. The meeting was now underway. Clay and Peril were currently talking with the town leaders, and if Vulture was going to try something... it would be now.Qibli had a scowl on his face just from the thought of his grandfather. "Why do I have to be related to him of all dragons..." he mumbled to himself. "And why would Vulture even bother with a place like this? He didn't really need to rob the trade caravans; he was probably one of the richest crime bosses to ever live."His eyes shot to one of the alleys, spotting movement. He growled, already losing the place where he spotted movement and went to land, tucking in his wings as he landed so he could fit in the tight area. He looked around and inside the windows of the buildings in the alleys, but grumbled even more when he didn't spot anything.Qibli froze when a voice spoke that sounded like it came from all around him, not letting him tell where it came from. There was only one dragon that he knew could do that, and what the voice said confirmed it."Hello... grandson."Qibli started to frantically look all around him for the voice but couldn't find anything. "Where are you?"The voice sounded amused. "Around... nice to see you after so long."Qibli growled, still frantically looking all around. "What are you doing here?""Oh, just tending to some business that needs to get started," the voice said, starting to have a menacing tone to it.Qibli started gasping as he panicked. He needed to get Winter's attention. He wasn't stupid; he shouldn't even be talking with his grandfather."It's a shame that you never took up our offer to rejoin your family," Vulture said, pretending to be upset.Qibli closed his eyes, drawing in a storm to make its way over to the town. Already being able to hear the thunder in the distance, Qibli kept his eyes closed, but he needed to stall now. "Thorn and my friends are my family now.""I can respect that. I would try to stay close to the most powerful dragons in the world too..."Qibli growled in offense. "I am nothing like you!" The storm seemed to mirror how he was feeling, the thunder roaring in rage."And you see, grandson, that's where you are wrong. I have friends who are powerful as well..."Qibli froze as he heard something land next to him, rapidly opening his eyes but almost melting in relief when he saw the familiar white shape of Winter standing next to him.Winter was giving him a concerned look. "Is everything okay?"Qibli went to answer but was cut off when a large flash went off, a loud explosion filling the air on the other side of town.
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Yarr, we be getting a new chapter today... also, I plan on releasing a Halloween special soon, so be ready for that.
Sunny glided around the mountain, slowing herself down to prepare for landing, the sibs right behind her. She whipped her wings out completely, slowing down to almost a halt as she dove down for the flat on the edge of a cliff that led into their home.Sunny sighed happily when she walked into the familiar tunnels that made up her and her friends' home, happy to finally be done with her unplanned trip. The sibs walked in behind her, passing her by as they walked to their own rooms.“Anyone here?” Sunny asked down the hall.“In the library!” Starflight yelled back, his voice echoing.Sunny walked past the main hall and down to the right, walking into the library, spotting both Fatespeaker and Starflight. Fatespeaker was reading a scroll, and Starflight was probably following the scroll by reading it through her mind.Sunny sighed as she sat down in one of the chairs in the library. “You want to talk about a trip and a half,” she said, annoyed.They both broke their thoughts on the scroll. “What do you mean?” they both asked at the same time.“Did you see Vulture?” Starflight asked, flustered, accidentally saying the same thing that Fatespeaker thought, his mind still mixed with hers from reading the scroll.Sunny shook her head. “No, but we did find an old fire and these,” she said as she held out her right talon, showing the SkyWing scales in it.Starflight looked at the scales through Fatespeaker’s eyes, frowning as he recognized them. “What on earth were SkyWings doing around the peninsula?”Sunny shrugged. “Not a clue...” she said, sounding annoyed again. “We tried to find any dragons around there, but we couldn’t find any.”Starflight’s frown deepened. “I should have gone with you, I could have helped you find any dragons in the ar—”“Absolutely not!” Fatespeaker objected. “You’ve gotten better at seeing out of other dragons' eyes, but you're still not perfect at synchronizing your movements with their sight.”“I know, but we probably could have caught Vulture already if I’d helped,” Starflight objected back.Fatespeaker looked worried. “You shouldn’t leave this cave until you can do everything perfectly.”Starflight, sensing that she really only wanted him to be safe, smiled. “And you know just as well as I do that I will never get better if I don’t go outside. I need real practice.”“I don’t think it would have made a difference if you were there today or not, Starflight,” Sunny said while shaking her head. “That fire was cold, and the dragons probably left a long time ago.”Starflight nodded. “Either way, I am going on the next report we get of Vulture.” Everyone stormed out of the hall, hearing the explosion outside. Clay had almost stopped the meeting when he heard the thunderstorm starting up, knowing that Qibli or Winter wouldn’t cause one unless they were being attacked or attacking someone. He had no say in the meeting now that everyone stormed out of the hall in a frenzy from the explosion, going to find out what had happened.Everyone ran and flew over to where they could spot a fire in the town, Clay running with Peril right next to him.They came upon what looked like what once was a warehouse, now nothing but rubble. Qibli and Winter were already there, Winter using his ice breath to put out the fire, and Qibli standing next to the IceWing, looking pale.A large SkyWing came out from the crowd, looking pissed—Marble was her name, the leader of the small town. She grabbed Qibli and whirled him around, growling. “Did you do this?” she hissed in anger.Qibli paled even more. “What—why would we do this?” Qibli stuttered. “We would never do this!”Marble didn’t look any happier. “You just destroyed our warehouse filled with food! Now we HAVE to rejoin the funding of the SkyWings, and I know that you are one of the Dragonets of Destiny!”Qibli backed up from the angry SkyWing. “We would never do this! We were tracking down Vulture, and then this place went up, so we came over to stop the fire.”“Oh, I find it just convenient that—” the leader continued, but Clay started to block out the yelling, sighing as he did so.He stomped his foot into the ground, and two large walls shot up from the earth, silencing the whole angry group. He stomped his foot again, and two more walls rose up. He moved the walls to form a house shape. He stomped his talon down one last time, and two slabs came up out of the ground. He moved them over to form a roof on the new building.Clay nodded. “There, now you have a new warehouse, and it's even bigger than the last one.”Marble still growled. “We still don’t have any food in storage now!”Clay growled back, getting tired of the arguing. “And the moment our group gets some time, we will help you with that!”Marble continued growling but nodded. “If this Vulture is the dragon I’m thinking about, and you’re as powerful as everyone says you are, then how come he is still running around?”Clay shook his head. “We’ve been trying, but he keeps slipping away.”Marble shook her head and walked away. “I guess we’re joining back with the SkyKingdom...”Everyone dispersed after that, besides a couple of SkyWings who stuck around to clean up the mess.Winter walked back up next to Qibli, noticing that he still looked paler than usual. “Hey, you look like you just saw a ghost.”Qibli tried to calm down. “I thought I saw some movement in the alleys while I flew over them. I landed to take a look but couldn’t find anything... that’s when... Vulture started talking.”Winter looked confused. “I didn’t see anyone when I got there.”Qibli shook his head. “I have no idea where he was. He has this strange ability with his voice that makes it sound like he’s all around you.”Winter nodded, remembering some of the puppeteers in his youth who could do the same thing with their voices. “What did he say?”Qibli’s frown deepened. “Not much... he compared me to him... and he talked about having a powerful friend as well.”Winter got even more confused, not liking how that sounded. “Did he say who?”Clay walked up behind them, Peril following. “We are going home. Are you coming with us?”Winter looked over at Qibli for an answer. Qibli sighed, the color returning to his scales. “Vulture is already gone. Let’s get out of here.”
Short chapter, but the next one is going to be much longer.
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My favorite time of the year... FALLLLL! Where all the bugs start going back to hell where they belong and deer season!
Glory and Deathbringer flew towards Jade Mountain, with Sky and the strange scavenger named Wren riding on Sky’s back right next to them.Deathbringer looked back at the scavenger. “So, if you don’t mind me asking,” Deathbringer started, “what were you doing when I first saw you?”Wren cleared her throat. “Some SandWing had captured Sky, and I kinda needed help!” she hollered through the wind in her strange, squeaky accent.Deathbringer was surprised since she obviously succeeded. “Really, how?”Wren got a violent look in her eyes. “He was pretty compliant after he took a shot of rat poison.”Glory looked at Deathbringer, who had an “I told you so” look on his face, with Glory just rolling her eyes at him.They came up the side of the mountain, the ledge to their home in sight.The three swept open their wings and smoothly landed on the ledge, Deathbringer turning around with a smile on his face. “Well, here we are... home,” he paused before continuing. “One second, I’ll go and see if nobody cares that you can come inside,” he said as he started to walk in.“See if who cares?” Wren asked, but Deathbringer ignored her, continuing on his way.Deathbringer spotted Starflight and Moon talking with each other, Moon likely having just gotten back from the Scorpion Den with Kinkajou and Sora. He walked up to the two and cleared his throat.Starflight paused his conversation to look at Deathbringer. “Nice to see you back, Deathbringer. Where’s Glory?”Deathbringer pointed back towards the entrance to the cave. “Just right outside.” He flashed a smile at Moon. “Hey Moon, did it go well in the Scorpion Den?”Moon smiled back and nodded her head. “Yep, Six-Claws agreed with Queen Thorn that he will stay there to watch over it.”Deathbringer nodded and looked back over to Starflight. “What I was getting ready to ask you is, well... Glory and I ran into some peculiar strangers, and we just wanted to make sure that it was fine with everyone else if they came in?” Deathbringer asked nervously.Starflight shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly until he saw what Deathbringer was thinking, almost falling down with how surprised he was. “Why is there a—” Starflight began until Deathbringer cut him off.“It can speak dragon...”Starflight and Moon stared at him, dumbfounded. Starflight nodded his head, trying to grasp what he just said. “You’re... not pulling my tail?”Deathbringer shook his head. “We brought the scavenger here since we thought Winter would love to meet her... and you have got to see this.”Both Moon and Starflight peeked around the corner of the main hall in curiosity, spotting the SkyWing and scavenger. Sky spotted the two and pointed at them. “Look, Wren, more dragons!” he said excitedly. Wren looked like she wanted to run, but she stayed silent.Starflight picked up on her scared feelings. “No, wait, please don’t be scared,” he said with an apologetic face. “We don’t want to hurt you.”Wren got an aggressive look on her face, Starflight sensing that it was just a facade. “How can we trust you?”“Holy moons, she can speak dragon,” Starflight muttered before continuing. “If we wanted to hurt you, then you would have never seen us to begin with. You would have been dead the moment Glory sensed you,” Starflight said, recalling the story in Glory’s mind. Glory quickly turned invisible, making Wren jump back.“Well then why did you want us to even come here?” Wren said, sounding panicked.Starflight sat down. “We have a friend who loves scavengers and has been studying them for years now. He would love to get to meet you,” Starflight paused before continuing. “We never even knew scavengers were smart enough to speak our language.”Sky perked up at that. “OOOH, I can speak in some scavenger as well!” he said, and started saying something that sounded like squeaking and gibberish. He perked up again. “It’s pretty cool.”Starflight, trying not to smile as well, said, “Winter is going to have a blast with you.” Ruby, Crane, and Icicle walked up to the throne that sat proudly in the back of the room. The throne was extravagantly decorated with gold, white, and red—the traditional colors of the Sky Kingdom.Ruby walked up behind it and grabbed something. She pulled her talon down, and a KERCHUNK! sound was heard. The throne slowly moved off to the right, revealing a room below it.Ruby walked back over to stand next to the IceWing and MudWing duo, staring down into the dark room that was outlined with cobwebs and dust, showing that nobody had used the room in a while.Ruby cleared her throat. “Well... let’s go,” she said, leading the way, the two others following her.They walked down the stairs into a small room at the bottom. The room was filled with even more cobwebs but also a bunch of chests and different storage compartments.Icicle walked over to one of the chests, getting ready to open it but stopped to look at Ruby for permission.Ruby nodded her head, and Icicle continued, opening it but finding the chest to be empty. Icicle got a confused look on her face. “Almost every chest in here is empty,” Ruby answered. “The only things in here that we could find were torched or so damaged it didn’t matter,” Ruby said as she opened one of the drawers, showing that it was filled with charred remains of scrolls and letters.“May I try to read some of them?” Icicle asked. Ruby nodded her head. “Knock yourself out; go through all of them if you want to,” she said as she started making her way back up the stairs. “Come and get me after you’re finished. I’ve got a meeting coming up with some SkyWing town that your friends just talked to.”Icicle nodded and turned to look at Crane. “I’ll read in this filing cabinet; you take that one over there,” she said, pointing to the other side of the room.Crane nodded her head and opened the drawer, kicking up dust as she opened it.Icicle started digging around the letters, a bunch of them turning to ash from how burnt they were.“Why are these letters burnt?” she thought as she tried to pick one up, the parchment crumbling as she did so. Scarlet had no reason to do so since she was well... dead. Maybe it was one of her followers or advisors?Icicle kept shuffling around the cabinets but couldn't find anything legible.“I’ve got something!” Crane said excitedly, almost making Icicle jump in an undignified manner. Icicle went to give her a glare but stopped when she saw the two pieces of parchment in her talons. The edges looked crisped, but she could read something on it.“What does it say?” Icicle asked, trying not to sound excited.Crane started reading. “A bit of the words are burnt out or smudged, but I’ll read what I can,” she said confidently. “I thank you for answering my letter so quickly. I’ll be there within a couple of days, like you requested. Make sure you have a list of ~~~~.” She stopped at that part and flipped the letter over onto its back. Crane started to continue. “Our friend is doing very well, like we predicted. I figure within a week she will be ready for us.”Crane switched to the other letter and started reading it. “I am on my way; make sure that ~~~ the moment I get there.” Crane looked up, confused.Icicle tried not to grumble in annoyance but nodded thankfully, taking the parchment from Crane. “Thank you. Did you find anything else?”Crane frowned and shook her head. “Everything else is just ash.” She paused before continuing. “Why would someone burn this room?”Icicle shook her head. “Not sure, but whoever did had something to hide,” she said as she started making for the stairs. “Let’s go show this to Queen Ruby. She might have an idea.”They both walked up the stairs, spotting Ruby in the throne room talking to an annoyed-looking female SkyWing. Ruby noticed the two coming up and held her talon up for the SkyWing to wait. “Just one second, Marble,” Ruby walked over to the two. “Did you find anything?”Icicle nodded her head and handed the letters over to Ruby.She started reading the letters but looked just as confused as they did, which didn’t bode well. “None of these letters are in my mother’s handwriting, but I have no idea what any of these are talking about with a ‘list’ or being ready for something.” She got a dark look on her face. “Well, she did have a list of dragons she wanted to kill, but I don’t think that’s what it’s talking about,” she said as she looked back over.“There is one thing, though; I do know where this parchment came from,” she said as she closely inspected the material. “I have seen this material come from only one place, and that’s the letters that Queen Thorn has sent me.”“So maybe the letter came from Burn?” Crane asked.Ruby shrugged her shoulders. “I am not sure. You might want to talk to Queen Thorn about it, then. You might just get something from her since that’s obviously where the letter came from.”Icicle nodded her head, taking the letters back. “Thank you, Queen Ruby, for letting us search,” she said while bowing respectfully.Ruby waved a talon. “Don’t mention it. I owe the Dragonets of Destiny a ton for helping me so many times.”Icicle got back up and nodded. “If you don’t need us for anything, me and Crane are heading home.” Winter flew in the air next to Qibli, not using their super speed this time, taking a more scenic route back home.Winter watched Qibli with a frown on his face. Qibli had a grimace on his face that never let up almost the whole way home. He lightly shook his head. “Hey man, don’t you know that I'm the only one that looks good while brooding?”Qibli broke his silence. “I just hate him so much,” Qibli muttered.Winter shrugged his shoulder while flying somehow. “Hey, I understand. We all have those kinds of family members.”Qibli gave a slight smile. “I think my family is a bit worse than yours; even my siblings want to kill me.”Winter got a smirk on his face. “I don’t know; even my dad wants me gone.” Winter remained quiet, a new thought hitting him. “Who is your dad?”Qibli almost started to laugh. “I have no clue... who would willingly stick anything other than a knife into my mom?”Winter remained quiet for a few moments. “Dude had to be down bad...”They both almost fell out of the air with how hard they started to laugh.It’s strange to think about. Just a couple of years ago, Winter would have rather died than make jokes like that, or even be friends with the SandWing. But yet here he was.Winter’s annoyance over the SandWing had slowly evaporated and turned into finding it fun to hang out with Qibli.But he was definitely still the mature one.“Want to trade family members?” Qibli joked.Winter almost looked offended. “And be stuck with your mom? No!”Qibli had an amused smile. “My mom would beat your mom.”Winter shook his head. “I doubt it. I once watched her take on six SkyWings all at the same time.” A huge grin appeared on Qibli’s face. “In a fight... right?”Winter was confused until a look of horror appeared on his face along with a large blue blush. “Dude, what the hell!”Qibli started to laugh, but the sight of the cave came upon them. “Think Moon is back?”Winter remained quiet as the duo landed, hearing familiar and unfamiliar voices inside the cave.“Hmm, Moon is back, but who’s the other dragon?” Qibli said as he walked inside, Winter following from behind. They walked inside and spotted a strangely colored SkyWing talking excitedly.Moon spotted the duo. “Hey Qibli, Winter, good to see you back.”Qibli nodded his head. “We just got done over at the Sky Kingdom,” he tried not to think about what happened.Winter continued to walk forward until he spotted the scavenger on the floor, who looked way out of place. An excited look came to his face. “Who found the scavenger?”Sky got an excited look on his face. “Ohh, that’s Wren!”Winter tried to remain calm. “May I please look at her?” he asked politely to the SkyWing.“I don’t know,” the SkyWing said curiously, looking down at the scavenger. “Wren, can he look at you?”Winter almost laughed, thinking it was pet talk until the scavenger opened its mouth. “Is he going to eat me?”Winter's eyes grew. “WHAT!”
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New chapter! I’ve been rolling them out recently, haven’t I? As always, sit back, listen to your favorite song, and enjoy.
Winter led the interesting duo around the cave that he and his friends called home. The strange SkyWing named Sky (of all things), and perhaps the most interesting out of the duo, was a scaven—no, a human, he remembered—named Wren."So, humans actually have a form of social structure?" Winter asked, looking down at a scroll held in one of his talons, covered in scribbles. He looked up to see Wren nodding."Yes," she replied. "While it varies from village to city, they’re almost always like your queens, except for us, males usually rule instead of a queen.""The village I... left... had a leader called a chief, which is pretty much just another word for king," Wren explained.Winter nodded, intrigued, as he wrote down her answer on his scroll.Wren thought for a moment, balancing on Sky’s back as they walked down the hall. "So, may I ask, why are you so interested in humans?" Wren asked the IceWing.Winter looked embarrassed and paused. "Well, at first... I thought you guys were cute," he said, causing Wren to look annoyed and start to protest, but Winter continued, "But later on, I learned that scaven—humans, I mean—were more than we’d thought, so I started studying your kind in my free time back in the Ice Kingdom."Wren stayed quiet after that, finding his response acceptable. Winter looked back at Sky. "So, how did you somehow learn to speak dragon?"Wren seemed reluctant to answer, but Sky spoke up for her. "She found me as a baby and helped me grow up," he said happily.Winter stopped and looked at the human. "You... found him?" he asked, confused.Wren nodded, glaring at Sky. "I found him as a baby in the mountains. I figured his parents tried to save him, since their home was burning."Winter was getting more confused by the second. "Burning?" he asked. "But almost all SkyWing homes are made of stone and almost never burn."Wren shrugged. "Well, it definitely was burning, and a whole lot of dragons were making a fuss about it."Winter looked back at Sky. "Do you remember any of it?"Sky frowned and shook his head. "Not much. I just remember coming up out of some water, and Wren was there."Wren looked a bit offended. "Look, if you think I kidnapped him—" she began, but Winter interrupted with a snort."No, I doubt you’d ever be able to pull that off," he said with a smirk. "It would be almost impossible for you to climb up the mountains the SkyWings live on and make it back down with a baby dragonet."Wren frowned but nodded. "I waited a while for his parents to show up, but they never did."Winter stayed silent at that. This dragonet was about the same age as him, so his parents had likely lived around the same time as Scarlet...Winter shook his head. "While all that’s interesting, I know Starflight had some questions he wanted to ask you as well," he continued as they rounded a corner and entered the library.Wren and Sky spotted the blindfolded NightWing sitting in a corner, looking as though he was staring off into space, yet smiling."What could he want us to look at? He’s blind," Wren whispered. Suddenly, Starflight’s head turned as if he were looking right at her.Winter chuckled. "Trust me, he isn’t as blind as he might seem."Wren grew even more confused as the NightWing opened his mouth. "Hello again," he said. "I trust Winter was pleasant?"Winter snorted, turning and leaving the library.Wren jumped off Sky’s back and landed on the floor, almost shivering as she watched Starflight’s head follow her. "How can you do that?" she asked."Mm, we all have our secrets, don’t we?" Starflight said, smiling as he stood up from the desk and pulled a wooden chest out from underneath it. Wren watched as Starflight pulled various objects from the chest, most of them unrecognizable to her, though some she did recognize—mainly the human-sized scrolls."A couple of years ago, while the war was still going on, my friends and I were tasked by Queen Glacier herself to explore an abandoned temple and grave site, hoping to learn about our past," Starflight said as he dug through the box, looking more blind this time as he struggled with a frown.He pulled out a few more objects and set them on the desk. "We managed to read some things about the place, but there were objects and writings we couldn’t interpret. A lot of it was actually scavenger-sized stuff."Wren realized where this was going. "And you want to see if I know what any of it is?"Starflight nodded. "This is an opportunity I can’t pass up, especially since Glacier specifically requested it. And I’d love to understand it myself."Wren nodded back and glanced over at Sky. "Think you can give me a lift up onto the table?"Sky nodded, gently picked her up, and placed her on the table. She walked forward. "Anything you want me to start with?" she asked as she reached the pile of items.Starflight nodded again. "The strange objects. Those might take less time than the scrolls and other papers."Wren walked up and picked up the first item, a large metal object with handle-like bars sticking out, shaped like a big stick. She studied it for a while but then shook her head. "I have no idea what this is, or actually, what many of these items are."Starflight visibly deflated. "Nothing at all?"Wren continued examining it, turning the strange metal object around in her hands, and then spotted tiny writing on it. "I don’t know what this is, but it does have some writing on it."Starflight perked up, looking curious. Wren nodded and continued. "It says, ‘Remington Model 870.’" She shook her head again. "I still have no idea what this is," she said, setting it aside and picking up another item. "A lot of these have similar tiny writing. This one says ‘Colt M4A1.’"Starflight nodded, grabbing a scroll to jot down notes.Meanwhile, Sky was getting bored, looking around the room. His attention was caught by movement at the door as a golden-colored SandWing walked in."Starflight, I noticed we had some visitors?" she said happily.Starflight nodded and started to introduce them, but Sky wasn’t paying attention; his focus was entirely on the SandWing before him, the rest of the world blurring away."SKY!" Wren shouted, snapping him out of his daze. Sky jumped at the loud sound and looked around frantically. "What?"He looked back at the SandWing and noticed she was looking at him. "What’s your name?" she asked."Sk-Sky," he said nervously.Sunny smiled and nodded. "My name is Sunny," she replied warmly, then turned to Wren. "When Winter told me we had a scavenger who could speak dragon, I didn’t believe it!"Starflight smiled, then glanced back at Sky, frowning briefly before smiling again. "Sunny, why don’t you find a place for Sky to rest while Wren and I work on this?"Wren started to protest, but Sky spoke up before she could. "I would like that," he said quickly, cutting her off and confusing her.Sky and Sunny left the library, leaving Starflight and Wren alone."All right, we can document those items later. Could you try reading one of the scrolls?" Starflight asked.Wren, now slightly annoyed, nodded and picked up the nearest scroll. "'Top-Secret' were the first words she read aloud, looking up in confusion, which mirrored Starflight’s expression."What?" they both said at the same time.Starflight shook his head. "Well, they’re certainly not top secret anymore, considering the people who wrote them are likely long gone."Wren nodded and continued reading. "'Operation Halo Insertion,'" she read the title aloud, then opened the document. "'Commander Nightfall will lead Draconics Team One into Moon Base Alpha on a search-and-destroy mission. Requesting commission of...’" She paused and looked back up. "I don’t recognize a couple of these words."Starflight nodded, writing everything down with growing intrigue. "This is fascinating. Nightfall was one of the dragons buried in that temple."Wren had questions but held them back, continuing to read. "A lot of these are just names of dragons or their roles?""Can you name some of them?" Starflight asked.Wren nodded. "Demolition and Flight Commander: Jasper, Dragon Specialist: Hope, Designated Marksman: Shade, Stealth and Recon: Viper... and the last one just says 'redacted'?"Starflight looked even more intrigued as she continued reading. "Interesting...""What is it?" Wren asked him."Almost all the dragons mentioned here were buried in that temple," Starflight answered."It sounds like they were part of some kind of war, and—wait a minute, it said Moon Base Alpha?" Wren asked, looking confused.Starflight’s eyes widened. "Could you open another scroll, please?"Wren nodded, picking up another scroll, now just as captivated as he was. Clay and Peril glided over the peaks of the Sky Kingdom, flying close together, their wing tips almost touching. Both stayed quiet, simply basking in the moment. The sky ahead of them glowed orange as the sun set over the mountains, the peaks casting long shadows behind them.They spotted the kingdom ahead and began descending, gliding into the town below.The village they landed in was familiar to them, as they had visited many times since moving to Jade Mountain. Many of the faces they saw were familiar, having spent many of their dates in this town—just like now.Peril looked over at the MudWing next to her. "Come on, let's get to Igne’s shop before it closes," she said excitedly.Clay smiled, and they started down the streets, now familiar with them. They passed by many other shops and faces that nodded at the couple, recognizing them.They arrived at a smaller shop with large glass windows on the front, even the door made of glass. When they opened it, they were greeted immediately."Well, if it isn’t my favorite customer!""Hi, Igne," Peril replied with a smile, walking past glass sculptures, windows, and various glass objects. "Clay and I were out in town, and I need some more dyes for my glass."Igne, a large, old SkyWing with many scars on his arm and greying orange scales, nodded. "Wait right here; I’ll be right back," he said as he went into the backroom of his shop.He returned with a few burlap bags and placed them on the counter. Peril went to pay, but Igne held up one of his talons. "Just bring me a couple more sculptures, and I’ll consider that payment. I’m almost out of your sculptures; dragons around here buy them faster than I get them in," he said, motioning to one of the shelves. Peril noticed it was nearly empty.Igne shook his head. "How you get that colorful sheen on the glass’s surface, I have no idea. Dragons love it because it’s so unique."Peril nodded, smiling as she took the bags. "I'll make sure to bring some next time I'm here."Igne nodded back. "You do that. Hope you young’uns have a good time," he said, waving them out the door. Peril blushed at his words.Back on the streets, Clay took the bags from Peril, strapping them to his back. "Let me get that for you," he said, taking the last bag."Oh, what a gentleman," Peril teased.Clay chuckled, and they continued walking, stopping occasionally to browse the vendors and socialize with familiar faces. Their day was winding down; the sun had now completely set beyond the mountains, and the stars were beginning to show themselves once more. They made their way toward the forest surrounding the village so they could safely launch into the air.Clay checked the bags strapped to his back one last time but was surprised when he turned around, and Peril kissed him. "Thanks for carrying those. Love you," she said, kissing him again and hugging him."I love you too," he said, though a faint frown crossed his face as he felt a familiar object in his pack, one of the few items he kept on him. Was now the right time to ask her?Peril pulled back, smiling as she noticed his expression. "What’s wrong?" she asked, concerned by the frown on his face.Clay shook his head, smiling. "It’s nothing. Let’s go home."Peril nodded, smiling back. "I would like that. I want to try out some of this dye tonight."
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Ahh, its nice to get some more chapters out, isn’t it. It’s also a good day to be an American, lol. Anemone sighed as she walked through the cave entrance to her home, her wings sore from all the flying for the last couple days. She almost just used a spell to teleport or make it impossible for her to get tired, but she decided against it, doing it the old and natural way. She just got back from visiting her mom and dad, both of them asked a bunch of questions as always. “are you sure that you are fine deer?”, “Remember, your a princess, they have to listen to you if you say something!” “Now Coral, those dragons saved us,” Anemone shook her head, she almost always gained a headache listening to the flurry of words that made up her mom. She turned her head and spotted a bewildered looking Turtle. “What’s wrong?” Anemone asked confused. Turtle just shook his head and pointed at the library door. Anemone got a hair bit worried as she walked over to the door and stuck her head inside. Starflight was looking down at a scroll and muttering something and on the desk was a... scavenger? She took her head back out and gave Turtle a questioning look, “Just listen,” Turtle said. She stuck her head back in and started listening. “I think this document is talking about the owners of the weapons,” a voice muttered. It came from the scavenger. “What?” Anemone said out loud, getting both Starflight’s and the scavengers attention who paled but then calmed down. “Anemone, this is Wren, she came in early today with Glory.” Starflight introduced. Anemone didn’t say anything at first, “Your sure that Turtle didn’t enchant anything?” Starflight laughed, making Wren jump, “No Anemone, this is real.” Anemone nodded her head, “Huh...” she looked back at the scavenger, “I guess I’ll talk to you later?” Wren didn’t say anything, just nodded her head. Anemone turned back around, “Weird...” She walked away from the library with the same confused look on her face that Turtle had, she walked down the halls, passing by one of the doors that led outside, a garden that Sora tended too. Speaking of Sora, she was in the garden right now, she spotted Anemone and gave her a kind smile, “Evening Anemone,” she said waving. Anemone gave her a nod, “You see the scavenger yet?” Sora nodded her head, “Yeah, I'm getting the SkyWing she came with something to eat right now, apparently he is a vegetarian.” Anemone shook her head, “What on earth, a scavenger that talks and a SkyWing that’s a vegetarian?” “I know, but it’s about time that we used some of these,” Sora said as she picked a squash out of the garden, “We really only use these as additives to our meat,” Sora said as she picked another. Anemone shook her head again, feeling like this was going to be a recurring thing thought the day, “Where’s the SkyWing now?” “He is being shown around by Sunny, I met him quickly,” she said with a smile, “He seemed to be really kind.” Anemone nodded her head for once, “Allright, I just got home, so I am off to bed,” Anemone said as she turned around and left. Turtle scribbled down some more notes in his scroll, muttering to himself, “No, not that, that would never fit in this kind of plot.” He was so focused in his scroll that he didn’t see the invisible blur behind him, quietly giggling to herself at not being seen. Kinkajou roared loudly right behind Turtle, scaring the life out of him and making him throw up the scroll in the air, just luckily enough to not spill his ink everywhere. The scroll tattered back down on the table and Kinkajou spotted it, “So how is you're scroll going?” she asked with a smile on her face like she didn’t just scare five years off his life. Turtle with his heart still calming down seemed to grab ahold of the scroll and hold it near to him, as if he was trying to hide, “Ohh, it’s going pretty decent I think.” Much to his chagrin, she sat down at the table with him, “So what’s it about anyway?” she aske curiously. Turtle didn’t look like he wanted to say what it was, a slight blush forming on his face. “Oh come on, it can’t be anything bad, can it?” Kinkajou asked, now getting even more curious... which was dangerous for those that stop her from learning and Turtle needed to sate it quickly. “It’s a secret, I am not even sure if I want to publish it,” he answered, trying to not sound freaked out. “Ohh come on, come on let me read it!” Kinkajou whined, giving a cute excited shake like she couldn’t handle being so excited. Turtle’s blush started to grow, “No!” he said, now tightly holding the scroll against his chest so she couldn’t see it. Kinkajou went to jump at him but a large brown talon grabbed ahold of her and stopping her mid jump, “Now Kinkajou, if he doesn’t want to share it, he doesn’t have to,” Sora said with a kind smile. “Awww,” Kinkajou whined at being caught, “But he has been working on it for so long, I just wanted to know what it was.” Sora started dragging the RainWing away from the table, “And he will show it to you when its finished, you can’t just go and...” her voice started to diseapear around the corner of the cave that Turtle sat in, watching the dragons leave. He sighed in relief, finally laying down the scroll back down on the table. He would have died in embarrassment if Kinkajou started reading this. He blushed at that thought and stared back down at the scroll, a smile came back to his face as he started thinking more on what he wanted for his story. A very very short chapter, and I am sorry for that, but I have been busy this whole week but I felt like I owed you guys something so here it is, next chapter will be a hair bit longer, but don’t expect a ton. This month is super busy for me. BUT, I am also getting a lot done for you guys, the chapters that follow this month and the content you are going to get is going to be wild! That last scene is actually how I feal a bit with my own stories that I write, hoping to never get caught reading them since it is so different than my irl persona, being a redneck and all... ANYWAYS!
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New chapter and a ton of news. Me and Raskzak started a new Wings of Fire fanfic author guild. If your a WoF fanfic author, then ask me for an invitation, almost every author is invited!
It was nighttime by the moment Icicle made it home, Crane right behind her as she landed on the cliff that made up the entrance of their home in the mountains. The wind was lightly blowing in the high mountain altitude, cooling off her scales and giving her a good feeling, putting a light smile on her face.
She started to walk into the cave and the sound of the excited sibs greeted her. They passed by her as they hugged Crane and greeted her with smiles on their faces.
Icicle continued inside, and made her way into the main room. She spotted Winter in the corner of the room at one of the tables, looking into a scroll and muttering to himself.
He closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, he spotted his sister. He gave her a polite nod in greeting, “How did it go?”
Icicle shook her head which pretty well answered his question before she ever voiced them, “Just more question that needs to be answered,” Icicle started, “We found an old secret room that used to belong to Scarlet, but it had nothing really of use in it besides some old burnt letters,” she said as she handed the one they found over to him to read.
Winter nodded as he read it, his face scrunching up as he did so in confusion. He looked back up at her before speaking, “This is weird.”
Icicle nodded, agreeing, “Queen Ruby said that the parchment came from the Sand Kingdom and to maybe ask Queen Thorn about it, so I am off there next,” Icicle said as she stretched out her soar flying muscles.
Winter nodded, placing the burnt letter to the side and rolled up the scroll he was reading before she got here, “I will probably join you,” he sighed after that, “It just depends what I am going to do with our guest right now.”
Icicle gave him a questioning look for him to continue.
Winter shook his head, “You won’t believe this, but we found a... well, a talking scavenger,” he explained.
Icicle rolled her eyes and went to walk away until Winter grabbed her, “Wait, it’s true.”
She was about to hiss at him to let go but then Qibli stuck his head in, “He isn’t lying, she is in the library talking with Starflight,” Qibli explained like he wasn’t just eavesdropping on them, “Also, mind if I join you guys to the Sand Kingdom, want to visit there for a hair bit.”
Icicle was even more confused, “Sure, I don’t care if you go, might actually help since you know the kingdom more than I do, and wait... what, the scavenger can actually talk?” she said muttering.
Winter smirked, “I always told you they were smarter than everyone thought,” Winter said smugly. Icicle rolled here eyes again, “I’ll make sure I see it then,” she shook her head, “I plan on staying here a couple days to rest, so you still have plenty of time to do whatever you need to do,” she said as she sat at the table he had been sitting at.
Winter nodded his head, glad that she wasn’t in a rush. He re-opened the scroll and placed it back on the table and handed it to her to read, “All of the stuff I have learned so far has been incredible, it probes almost everything I thought about them to be true,” He said passionately as he spoke about the scavengers.
Icicle sighed and grabbed the scroll and started reading it, Qibli walking up and joining them.
Winter started explaining what he learned, “They have society’s like our with leadership roles and different types of systems that lets it work just as one of our tribes does, they even have a capital system with coin and rare metals!” he said that last part with a happy smile.
“They have a written language, schools, specialist,” Winter started mumbling on, “They are just as smart as we are!”
Icicle put the scroll back down with a frown, “Then why does it seem like they do so much stupid stuff, like stealing from us?” she asked offended at the smart part.
Winter smirked, “Icicle, tell me that you haven’t seen other dragons or you yourself do something just as dumb?”
Icicle cringed at that and turned around to hide her annoyance, “Hmf.”
Qibli looked up from the scroll, “I actually think that this is all pretty interesting,” Qibli said as he got done reading some of the scavenger’s version of their written language, “If they have the same capabilities as we do with being able to write, make, and other such stuff...” Qibli hesitated at the next part, “Then doesn’t that mean that we can have some type of diplomatic relationship with them?” he asked.
Winter’s eyes grew, and he lightly nodded, “Hmm, yeah...”
Wren waved the NightWing goodbye as she saw her SkyWing partner walk back into the library, “As interesting as this has been, it’s probably time that we leave,” she said awkwardly as she jumped down onto Sky’s back.
Starflight looked upset and was about to say something, but Sky beat him to it, “Wait a second Wren, I think we should stay here a couple days, I could really use a break,” Sky said, trying his best to sound tired.
Wren looked like she wanted to protest but Starflight cut her off this time, “Ohh, I would love it if you would stay for just a bit longer to help me finish this!” he said excitedly.
She continued to look like she wanted to protest but she nodded, not knowing that Sky wanted to stay here for a completely different reason than being tired.
Starflight sighed, “Oh thank goodness, I would also love to learn how to read and write in your language just a bit to be able to work thing out, and I am sure Winter would as well,” Starflight said as he started to put away the scrolls from before, along with eh new ones with all the notes he made.
Wren had a worried look on her face, “All right,” she said as she turned to look at Sky, “But I don’t want to spend too much time here, all right?”
Sky frowned but nodded, “All right.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tsunami was attempting to calmly swim through the river current, eyeballing all the fish she swam bye. But she wasn’t hungry. She was paying attention for something else.
A disturbance in the water went off behind her.
She quickly used her powers with a stroke of her front talons and sped up in the water, grabbing ahold of the water around her and making it shoot her forwards like a spear.
She heard a water mulled protest behind her, making her smirk. She had likely made Riptide veer way off from his target when she disrupted the water like she did.
Tsunami chuckled at his misfortune and flashed the words “Bye” on her scales, hearing Riptide give off sounds of even more misfortune.
She kept on shooting through the water ahead, knowing that Riptide was trying to catch up from behind her.
She saw a water fall coming up and she dove up and threw her wings out to start gliding, hearing Riptide do the same thing from behind her. She turned around and saw a large bruise on his head.
She started laughing, “you hit your head?” she said in-between laughs.
“Oh come on Tsunami, that was dirty...” Riptide protested at her foul play.
Tsunami gave him an even bigger grin, “That’s what you get for how hard it was to wake you up this morning!”
Riptide started grumbling, “You hogged the bed...”
“Not my problem,” she answered back, she saw the river continue below her so she decided to dive back down into it, “Come on, let's do one more lap!” she said excitedly.
Riptide lightly shook his head, “She is going to be the death of me...”
“Come on slowpoke, I want an actual challenge this time!” Tsunami roared up at him from the water.
Riptide laughed at her anger and decided to give chase, diving down the waterfall below him to gain speed. He crashed into the water with joy, chasing after the princess.
Glory sighed in annoyance as she stood in the middle of the thick forest, a blind fold around her face. She was using her powers to feel the world around her through her plants.
She could hear the sounds of Deathbringer chuckling, but it sounded like it was coming from all around her. She tried to feel for him, but her plants couldn’t pick anything up.
“How are you doing that?” she grumbled. She was able to feel the bugs, the birds, the wind, just about everything through her plants and able to pinpoint the exact location... Deathbringer was obviously close and on the ground, and she couldn’t feel him at all.
“Oh Glory, you know I can’t tell you that,” Deathbringer joked, making Glory even angrier. She could just imagine his annoying smug look on his face!
“I can feel everything, except for you!” Glory said as her scales slowly started turning red, “How?”
“Very carefully.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Glory said as she clenched her talons.
“Does for me,” Deathbringer shot back, his voice coming from a different direction this time.
Glory was now bright red in anger. She jerked her right front talon, making all the plant life near her jerk with it.
She could feel him now.
She jerked her left talon forwards this time, making vines burst from the trees and chase after the dragon. He was quick, she kept chasing him with her vines but could never catch him. He kept running all around her, staying just out of reach. Suddenly, he turned towards her and ran into the opening. “Wait, what are you doing?” Glory said, now panicking.
He remained quite as he dove through the air and tackled her, making her roar in anger. She quickly caught him with her vines and peeled him off.
She ripped off her blind fold and gave him a death glare, Deathbringer giving her an innocent look right back as if he did nothing wrong at all.
She started calming down, realizing that it wasn’t really that bad. That was, until a smirk came to Deathbringer’s face.
“What!?” Glory roared, now not being in the mood to deal with his smugness. What she wasn’t prepared for was the words that came out of his mouth.
“I love you.”
She didn’t know why, but she could suddenly feel the shape that the vines took from the chase they gave around the forest. It was in the shape of a heart that wrapped around them.
Glory didn’t want too, she really didn’t, but she started to blush. Her scales turning pink.
Deathbringer took immediate notice, his smirk growing even farther “So does this mean that you aren’t angry at me?”
She let go of the vines around him, making him fall to the ground in an undignified matter. “OW!” Deathbringer protested, he started picking himself up but a pair of lips met his as he was almost all the way back up.
Starflight sighed as he made his way around the library. He had memorized the paths and isles that he had Clay make for him, even etching on little stone letters on all the shelves so he could better memorize them.
He was currently placing some of the scrolls he wrote himself about his learnings with Wren and Sky.
He had Fatespeaker etche in the sorting system for all the scrolls earlier. This would later help him down the road when he wanted to go through the scrolls again.
Fatespeaker has been a huge help altogether with his blindness. He still for the life of him, couldn’t find her out.
She had no reason to help him. Even from the first moment they met, she had been kind. Her and Kinkajou are the sole reason he is even alive right now. He wasn’t going to protest though. With all the other dragonets being so buys, they had no time to help him, so her help was welcomed greatly.
He had no idea what life would be like right now without her... if only he could do something kind for her as well.