Thorn: Life in the Scorpion Den

==Note to the Reader==
This is a fanfic about Thorn's early years. Enough said. I hope you enjoy! - Misty
==Chapter One==
To be a young dragonet in the Scorpion Den meant that she had to be tough and resilient. If she got pickpocketed or cheated out of giving two coins too many, that was her own problem. She should have been more wary, because this was the Scorpion Den. There was no time to be a mewling RainWing.
Thorn gritted her teeth as the merchant set his jaw stubbornly and glared at her through ebony eyes. "This is three gold pieces less than what I wanted," he snarled. 
"You said seven would be fine!"
"Seven is enough to pay the taxes that Queen Oasis sets," he growled. "The three extra are for me. Cough it up, dragonet, or you can discuss it with my claws and fire." Smoke curled from his nostrils threateningly and his talons grated themselves across the wooden desk of the booth.
Thorn couldn't help but wince at the pale scars left in the wood.
"Alright, alright." She selected three small coins and placed them carefully in front of the SandWing, even though every instinct was telling her to snatch them back instantly. She could only watch as the merchant pocketed them with a smug expression.
"Wise choice. Now get out of here!"
Thorn grabbed the small basket of fruit and fled from the booth, before the merchant could change his mind again about the price. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the familiar, broken down shack that her family lived in. 
A well-oiled sign read Emu's Oasis Water, and it hung above the door, which was only a tattered rug strung up at it's corners. Thorn brushed the rug aside with a claw and set the basket on the stone table.
"I'm home, Mother!" 
Her mother, the pretty SandWing caretaker of Emu's Oasis Water, made her way towards Thorn through a clutter of tables and stools. "Just when I think it can't get any crowded around here, it does," Rainshadow said, smiling down at her daughter.
"Where's Father?" Thorn asked after a quick embrace.
Rainshadow flicked her talons towards the door, which was flapping in the slight breeze. "Emu is out to buy some more cactus bread. We're almost out. How was your shopping trip?"
"It was terrible, Mother, really, really terrible. That awful fruit merchant made me pay ten gold coins for this basket of figs, even though the price was seven." Thorn flicked her tongue out indignantly.
Rainshadow sucked in a breath. In the Scorpion's Den, every coin counted, even the smallest sliver of a copper. The horrid leader of the Scorpion Den, a cruel dragoness nicknamed 'Queen Venomclaw,' demanded tribute to be brought to her in the form of food, water, brightsting cacti, but mostly she wanted money. It was even worse that Queen Oasis demanded seven gold coins as taxes for every month. What she did with the precious gold was unknown to any dragon but herself, but Thorn suspected she just stashed it in the Royal Treasury. 
With a practiced expertise, Rainshadow set the figs in an ornate pattern on a chipped and cracked plate as they waited for Emu to return. Thorn helped herself to one, not particularly enjoying the taste, and watched the hustle and bustle of the other SandWings. There was one tussle that drew more blood than was intended and bystanders quickly moved on as the groaning SandWing lay on the sand, blood trickling out of his wounds. He would be fine, of course, but the next few days would be agonizing.
After a while, the tattered rug of the door flew open and Emu dashed inside, looking wild and unkempt. "Get everything you need - only the essentials! - and get as far away from this place as possible!" he roared at them, opening cupboards and seizing any food he could get his claws on. 
Rainshadow immediately obeyed, snatching some skins of water and strapping them around her chest. She grabbed a leather bag and stuffed it to the brim with fruit and dried meat, and then she nodded to Emu. "What's going on?"
"There is a platoon of SkyWings approaching the border," Emu answered shortly. "All of the dragonets are evacuating with their mothers, but the rest of the SandWings are ordered to stand ground and fight with the rest of the army. Queen Oasis has decreed it."
Rainshadow grabbed Thorn, who let out a startled yelp, and brought her close to her side. "Listen to me, Thorn," Rainshadow said in a whisper. "You have to follow me wherever I go, alright? Don't go back to the Scorpion Den until I say so."
"Yes, Mother," Thorn answered meekly.
Rainshadow quickly hugged Emu and then took off out the door. Thorn squealed and followed her, muscles working hard as her mother flew at top speed into the sky. She let out a gasping cry, and Rainshadow turned. "Come on, Thorn, you can do it!"
Months of under nourishment and low water had made the entire family weak, and it affected Thorn most of all. She felt her breath rasp in her throat and she nearly choked on it. "Mother, I can't! Help me!"
Rainshadow darted towards her just as Thorn's wings gave way. "You can ride my back for some ways, until the Scorpion Den is out of sight," she told her. Thorn couldn't answer, but she wrapped her claws around her mother's neck. The Scorpion Den retreated into a small smudge on the horizon, and then it vanished all together.
Rainshadow landed in a puff of sand and collapsed on the dune. 
==Chapter Two==
They waited for the entire day and winced every single time they heard a scream, or a shout of pain. Thorn had recovered from her over excursion and was now wringing her talons anxiously. She hoped that everything was alright and the Den would still be standing when they came back.
Rainshadow raised her head and flared her nostrils as the smell of smoke assailed them. "You should have some cactus bread, Thorn," she said. "I have some here in the satchel."
"I'm not hungry," Thorn answered. "Mother? Can we please go farther? I don't want the SkyWings to find us."
Rainshadow sighed, but there was worry etched into her expression. "Alright. We'll go, but you have to tell me when you get to tired."
The two SandWings began walking as the moon rose higher and higher above their heads. It became considerably colder, but neither of them wanted to quit at the thought of the SkyWings close behind them. It was only when Thorn let out a screech of horror that they stopped.
"Mother, look!"
There was a reddish, fiery glow in the west.
Something there was on fire, and they both saw the scarlet and orange gleam of SkyWings scales hovering above it.
WIP
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Content (Mist the Moon Dragon)
Category:Fanfictions