Passerine

like carillon bells, the House of Augustus rings
The tolling of the bells sounded in the distance, its echo reverberating throughout the land and shaking her to her very bones. 
with the echoing hymn of my fellow passerine;"
She did not need to close her eyes in order to picture the palace, for even with them open, she could see it before her as clearly as though it was actually there; the place of her misery and torment, with its cold stone walls and lofty towers, the spires so tall that they seemed to pierce the very sky. 
Behind her, the fading song of multitudes brought her back to the present, an auditory reminder that she was escaping from it all. Her wings beat the air at a frantic pace; she flew as swiftly as they could carry her, a feat made more difficult with her close proximity to the ground. She had drawn so near to it that her talons skimmed the vegetation, snagging leaves and scraping against branches.
they took to it
Taking to the sky, as a dragon of her tribe was built for, would certainly allow her to travel more quickly, but she could not risk it. With scales the red of the cardinal bird, she was already conspicuous enough. 
She imagined the red speck that she was, darting through the shadowed forest and maneuvering around the grasping limbs of trees. Then she imagined herself again, that same red speck moving through the sunlit sky, a drop of blood smudged onto bright blue cloth. 
Why draw more attention to herself? No, for her safety and protection—for the sustainment of her life—she could not risk it. 
like a fox to a burrow, like an eagle to an aerie
The life of a fugitive was new to her. She had once been but one among the many brought to the palace as an egg or hatchling, too young to remember indifferent guardians or the greater appeal that money offered compared to another crying mouth to feed. She was taken in and raised as a servant, and in exchange, she was given basic necessities and granted small luxuries that the poor could only dream of. 
She had a place to lay her head within the shelter of the palace, as the beasts of the earth had their dens and the birds of the air had their nests. A pampered life 
but my god, it's getting hard to even hum a single thing.
confined to the palace keep forbidden from venturing beyond those imposing walls
`cause you were the song that i'd always sing;
you were the light that the fire would bring,
Her eyes are the colour of fire, but there is no light in them.
* uhhh so this takes place in my au's past, when the skywings were super aggressive and warmongering
** so honestly not that much different from the canon of the first book
* anyhoo, a lot of the resources were funneled towards the skywing military. most of them, in fact! and what wasnt set aside for the military would often be given to the nobility!
* this meant that the common folk were suffering! there was poverty! hunger! the restless hoi polloi! 
* lots of plebs were penniless and food insecure and super stressed bc of it! quite a few of them were like "oh dang, what do we do?" and then went :eyes: at their kid or two or three or seven
* kids proceed to be brought to the skywing palace. they are sold for money. parents are like "aight, im outta here" and leave
** which might sound cruel, but it was actually one of the kindest options for the poor
** like these parents brought their kids to a place where they were guaranteed a roof over their head and some food in their bellies, which was more than what they could provide
* right so these sold-dragonets were put to work in the palace. some became common drudges and spent their time scrubbing floors and whatnot, some were recognized for aptitude in specific trades and apprenticed to masters of it.
* the lucky ones were those who demonstrated a capacity for war. they were either great strategists or great athletes, and were always the most valued among the bunch
** such dragonets would be transferred from the servants quarter of the palace to the part where soldiers were kept 
* passerine was NOT one of them! she wasnt stupid or weak, per say, but she also wasnt clever or strong. she was just average. in everything.
** to the servants quarters she went!!
* wait i need to put a mature label at sm point things go down
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Category:Females
Category:SkyWings
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