Wings of Fire: The Chaos Order

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By 
== PRE-PROLOGUE ==
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Subzero
“Subzero. We meet again,” A familiar voice spoke from the shadows. A dark green dragon stepped out.
“We can’t keep meeting here, Overlord.” Subzero said.
“Why not?” Overlord asked, a twinge of hurt in his deep voice.
“Not if the rumors are true about you wanting to challenge Queen Victorious.”
Silence. After a few seconds, Overlord sighed. “They are true, I want to be Pyrrhia’s first king,” he said. He seemed to think for a long moment. “You know, you would be a good ruler too,” he said unexpectedly.
“What? I would be a horrible queen!” she exclaimed.
“But your tribe could win battles easily with a frostscales on the throne,” he pointed out.
“But a queen needs to be brave! I’m nervous and jumpy!” Subzero said.
“You’re brave enough to come here,” Overlord said. He had another good point.
“But I’m still in the Ice kingdom! If you were found here, you’d be in trouble. I wouldn’t, as long as I pretended I had captured you,” she said.
“Queen Subzero. It really fits,” he said.
“But still! I would be a horrible queen!”
“Not as bad as the only other option, Princess Frostbite. Even with her ‘Gift of Light,’ she is still an idiot. Speaking of animi, your tribe really wastes them.”
Subzero held her breath. He couldn’t have guessed. Could he? What if he never really gave me skyfire, and it was just a random black rock, not stone from the comet a week ago?
“Do you know what other tribes have animi?” Subzero asked, trying to at least get off the subject of IceWing animi.
“Let’s see... NightWings, of course, IceWings, BeetleWings, SkyWings, and the SandWing population recently died off, right?”
“Actually, I’ve heard rumors that they haven’t quite died off,” said Subzero, glad to be off the previous subject.
Suddenly it looked like lightning had struck Overlord. “What if we take the thrones, and then join our tribes together? Then our relationship wouldn’t be forbidden!” he exclaimed.
Subzero had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea. Then if she took the throne she wouldn’t have the pressure of being a sole ruler. What?! Of course I don’t want to take the throne!
“We should do it! Oh, and before my tribe’s warning system for dragons who want to take the throne goes off.”
Subzero hesitated. Then she made her firm decision. She was going to say no. But for some reason, her mouth decided to obey her subconscious instead, and out marched the word: “Okay.”
~ ~ ~
Subzero looked at Overlord’s surroundings by the mental link he had established. Luckily for her, they couldn’t intrude in each other’s private thoughts using it, they could only see each other’s surroundings and have long distance conversations. She saw the Night Kingdom’s palace, and Queen Victorious.
She went back to her surroundings, and saw the Ice palace very close. She landed outside the door and burst in. Strangely enough, the guards weren’t at the front door.
She didn’t have time to dwell on this, though, because suddenly she saw metal bars in front of her. She looked around in horror. On all sides were bars, and Queen Snowstorm was right in front of the spontaneously appearing cage.
Subzero stumbled back from her mother’s almost completely white scales. “Thank you, Frostbite, for the automatic cage system you hid in this hall,” said the queen.
“You’re very welcome, mother,” A voice said. It was Subzero’s sister, Princess Frostbite.
“I know what you were planning to do, my daughter,” Snowstorm addressed Subzero, “You were going to take my throne. But that wouldn’t be such a fair fight, would it? Thank you also, for uncovering Subzero’s meeting with Overlord and her animus powers, Frostbite.”
Subzero gasped. She checked Overlord’s surroundings. He was in a similar situation, maybe due to the warning system he had mentioned. Help, she heard him plead.
I can’t, check my surroundings, she responded.
“What you are planning to do with the kingdom is treason in it’s worst form,” her mother continued, “So I will punish you accordingly. Bye, Subzero. You were never my daughter.”
As a mysterious darkness rushed towards her, she thought she heard a whisper. ”I’m sorry, sister.”
~ ~ ~
Subzero?
Yeah?
Where are you?
I’m underground somewhere, I can barely breathe, and I’m scared. You?
Same. I think our tribes must have discussed our punishment. I can’t use my animus or mind reading powers.
But you can still see the future? Can you see how we can get out?
Subzero, I can see nine hundred years into the future...
Yeah, I know, carry on.
And I can’t see a single future where we get out. Subzero, I think we will be trapped here... forever.
This chapter is dedicated to Dusk, without whom I would not know about this wiki and not be able to continue my fanfiction.
== PROLOGUE ==
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About five thousand, seven hundred, and fifty years later...
Amazon
Amazon was underground. He was playing hide-and-seek with his brother and sister, and his sister’s two friends. He had conveniently found this underground hiding spot in a shallow cave that wasn’t visible from many angles.
He shifted uncomfortably. The spot might be good, but the crevice was very small and damp. There was an annoying spot that water dripped from every few seconds, conveniently placed to aggravate him by dripping on a recent scrape he had got. He couldn’t move in a way that would prevent it. The drops stung every time they hit his scales, though by now the stinging had subsided a bit.
He heard someone moving near his hiding spot. He stiffened, trying to make sure he was not heard. They got closer to his hiding place, right next to the bush that hid it from view at most angles. Then he heard a lunging sound, a branch snapping, and three wingbeats. They were gone.
Suddenly Amazon’s foot slipped into a crevice he hadn’t realized was there. He tried to dislodge it, but it wouldn’t come out. He felt a sharp pain and blood trickling down his leg. “Help!” he yelled. He heard someone approaching.
“What happened?! Where are you?!” the voice of Smokeberry, his sister’s friend, yelled.
“I’m in a crevice covered by a blueberry bush, I cut my leg pretty bad in a smaller crevice and can’t get it out,” he said quickly, realizing she was right next to him.
“Okay, I see the bush, I’ll go get help,” Smokeberry said. Amazon heard her scamper away.
Just after he couldn’t hear her anymore, the entire bottom of the crevice gave way. He tumbled down to a much bigger cave, earning him small cuts all over and a bruise on the shoulder that he landed on. He got to his talons.
He was in a long, narrow cave with a strange faint light coming from the farthest point he could see, which wasn’t the end of the cave. He looked up and saw that he had fallen a long way. It looked like he could fly back up and get out now, but he hesitated.
Because that mysterious light always meant the start of an adventure in fiction scrolls. He started down the corridor, his mind screaming all the way: Adventure! Mystery! A story!
~ ~ ~
He eventually saw the end, and saw two torches faintly. He was exhausted, this corridor was longer than he had thought. He kept on going though, despite his exhaustion and his bad leg. And eventually he did reach the end.
Suddenly he found slithery words whispering in his head as he stared at a metal circle engraved in the wall. The only other things in the room were the two torches. The slithery words were barely — no, not at all — intelligible: Ihehchat thhes methalecthirthleho oonothbae athafated bthiiy ehneewom ith thhee ehgtthries ethepmee...
But one message became clearer as he got closer to the metal circle: Thhouth mee thhouth mee thouch mee touch me... He touched it.
Amazon was blown backwards as a two giant dragons appeared: an IceWing and a NightWing. He was astonished by the size of them, more then twice as big as Darkstalker was described from legends. “Wh-who are y-y-you?” He choked out.
“My name is Overlord-“ the NightWing, who was very dark green, spoke. That name gave him shivers. “-and my name is Subzero.” The white IceWing finished.
“Thank you for your help,” Overlord said. It didn’t seem to Amazon like Overlord was thanking him, as Overlord was in a perfect position to do a death blow. Amazon readied his venom.
“Yes, that’s right, your hybrid kind has BeetleWing venom,” Overlord said with an expression like he was remembering something.
“H-hybrid kind? B-b-beetleWing venom?”
“Yes, your kind is a hybrid tribe, hybrids of the SeaWings and BeetleWings, and inherited BeetleWing venom... hmm, I see you’ve heard of BeetleWings before, but not much, as there’re extinct.”
“Wh-What do you w-want?”
“What do we want?” Overlord snarled with a suddenly very different expression, “This is what we want!” Amazon saw the talon swiping towards his throat as if in slow motion, and he felt the hot, sticky liquid trickling down his throat as if in slow motion.
He knew he should feel pain, but he seemed incapable of feeling anything at the moment besides the fact that everything seemed far away and detached
The last thing he ever heard came from Subzero, though he heard it from far, far away. “What we want...
...is revenge.” Then his world tipped into darkness.
This chapter is dedicated to Daggadash, who is a very loyal reader of the Chaos Order and has always been happy to comment to support it. After all that happened, she still wanted it to continue.
== CHAPTER I: IMMORTALS ==
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Peacemaker
Peacemaker was nine hundred years old. About. A bit more. It was hard to keep track. Sadly, no hatching day parties since he had faked his death about eight hundred and ten years ago. He didn’t really want dragons knowing there was a soulless immortal dragon on Pyrrhia. Kind of freaked them out.
At least, he thought he had no soul. He was created by magic, so he probably didn’t have one.
A few years ago, he had remembered that there was a dragon called Jerboa II that Moonwatcher had mentioned while she was alive. He had nothing else to do, so he started researching Jerboa II, because she might have been important to how the Jade Winglet, The Dragonets of Destiny, and the four other pantalan dragons had defeated the Othermind. No one had ever found it out.
He hadn't found out anything about the othermind, but he certainly had found that Jerboa II lived almost three thousand years ago.
So she must have been an immortal, too. She might tell me why I’m immortal! he had thought. And after a year of searching for her, Peacemaker had found her at last.
She had taken pity on him, him having looked for the truth for hundreds of years, and told him. Finally told him the truth. And now he wished he was an animus, so he could enchant himself to forget it.
Peacemaker was Darkstalker. Somewhere inside of him, buried under this somehow self-aware, dragon-made body, was the soul of the most evil dragon of all time. Buried deep, but now that he knew about it, he couldn’t forget it was there. Every breath he took was also Darkstalker’s, a breath that Darkstalker would remember taking if he ever broke out of Peacemaker’s body. Every step he took, every wingbeat... well, you get the picture.
He had been having nightmares about it ever since, dark blue IceWing blood on his oversized Darkstalker-like talons, him looking into the mirror and seeing Darkstalker, etcetera. In fact, just a few minutes before, he had woken up screaming.
He tossed and turned in his bed for a bit, but he couldn’t go back to sleep. He got out of bed, and decided to go to the river for a drink, because he had accidentally slept with his mouth open and now it was parched. He opened the door, and stepped out with difficulty (he had recently been growing too big for a door meant for when he was seven hundred years old). He took off towards the river.
Peacemaker lived in the only forest in the Night Kingdom, which kept his cabin from being seen. This forest had one hundred and fifty too many snake species for most dragons to go exploring, and on the off chance that they did, they probably wouldn’t find him. Hopefully wouldn’t.
Two hundred years ago, the NightWings had decided they wanted to go back to the Night Kingdom and have their own queen, and the RainWing queen hadn’t stopped them. Since then, the other tribes had gotten more hostile to the RainWings because they never participated in wars and now they didn’t have the rock solid alliance with the NightWings.
However, Peacemaker had disappeared into this forest before he could learn the RainWings’ reaction to their hostility, so he filled it in by assuming, hoping they had started getting less soft.
After all this time, his personality had changed despite the spell, and he was no longer the soft dragon that he was during the first half of his life. In fact, you would almost think that he was using a really good disguise for Peacemaker but totally messed up on the personality part, except for the fact that he still really liked strawberries.
As he was flying to the river, he felt a weird tingling in his talons. It grew stronger, and he eventually stopped and determined that it was still getting stronger when he stopped, meaning it had nothing to do with the river. What could it be? he wondered.
Was it something that happened when immortals got one thousand years old? Had he kept track of the years entirely wrong? Except that he knew what year he was born, and he knew what year it was a few years ago. He didn't know exactly what year it was now, but it was easy to see he couldn't be one thousand years old
After he got to the river and took a drink, the tingling started to hurt. He felt compelled to use his magic to explain it, except that he didn't have magic. And he checked, no new magic either. It was driving him crazy.
All of the sudden everything went black and the tingling stopped. Where am I? Peacemaker wondered. A dim light lit up everything around him. He wasn’t in the forest anymore. It looked more like just a vast plain of emptiness. It was kind of eerie, the dim light.
He turned around and saw a SandWing approaching. Jerboa. He remembered the triangle patterns on her wings from seeing her before. “Why are you here?” he asked, “And where are we.”
“I’m here to discuss the arrival of the new immortals,” Jerboa said gravely, ignoring the second question, “They have been reawakened from their prison. Their names are Subzero and Overlord.”
Those names gave him shivers. “New immortals?” Peacemaker asked.
“That tingling you felt, that was them getting closer to their arrival. Only us two immortals felt it, it was such a curious feeling that I felt compelled to use my magic to explain it to me. I bet you would have felt the same if you had magic.”
Well, he had felt the same, even though he didn't have magic.
“Who awakened them?” Peacemaker asked nervously.
“A RainWing named Amazon.”
“Amazon?”
“I have no idea why his parents decided to name him that. Must be one of the RainWing’s exotic fruits.”
“So what are they like?”
“The general idea that I got was that Subzero is a nervous frostscales, and Overlord is more... confident.” Peacemaker noticed her hesitation on how to phrase that last part.
“So... what do they want?” he asked.
“Revenge for being imprisoned for thousands of years,” Jerboa answered.
“What kind of revenge?” Peacemaker asked, extremely unsettled.
“Like they-killed-Amazon-even-though-he-was-the-one-that-let-them-out revenge,” Jerboa said.
“What? How evil are they? Is their soul completely bad? What if every immortal’s soul will be completely bad at some point!?” he asked in a horrified voice.
“Peacemaker, even if that was true, you wouldn’t have to worry. You don’t have a soul.”
“Oh. How do you know?” he said, realizing that what he said had kind of sounded childish. Even after all these years, some of the spell’s effects could never wear off.
“Because Moon told me how Kinkajou worded the spell. It didn’t clarify that you had a soul, so that meant and means that you don’t have a soul. Plus, I’m not even sure that animi can make souls.”
“Okay. Well that’s horrifying. So... back to my question. How evil are they?”
“Well, I think we all know how evil the last dragon to be imprisoned underground for thousands of years was.” Peacemaker nodded. But just then, just before she continued, he felt a shiver down his spine. The shiver that the animi had felt nine hundred years ago when Darkstalker reawakened. It felt like someone — or something — was slithering over his grave. And then the words came out of Jerboa’s mouth.
“Well... I think these ones are worse.”
== CHAPTER II: DESTINY ==
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Ash
Ash was walking down the street with the usual swagger in his step, causally ignoring everyone. Especially the ones who didn’t see him much, and therefore decided to stare at his weirdly colored scales like they hadn’t already done that about ten times. It was annoying, at least when he remembered that they existed (which wasn’t often).
He was going to a spear store to get a spear. Obviously. He needed to hurt this one thug that had looked at him funny. He didn’t like funny looks. In all seriousness though, that thug really was dangerous (Plus, if he tried to injure everyone that looked at him funny then everyone he saw would have massive scars).
Ash couldn’t ever remember being injured, but that one thug had seriously tried to injure him a few times. Apparently an alley that Ash went down a lot was in the thug’s “territory”, so he was apparently perfectly justified in trying so hard to beat Ash up that Ash had actually stopped completely ignoring him. Only 90% ignoring him.
He knew everyone was always waiting for him to occasionally self-consciously glance down at his dark gray-blue scales. They would be waiting for a looong time. He wasn’t that type of dragon.
But he was the type of dragon that wanted answers. He had always looked for answers about why his scales were this color. His parents were both quite clearly SandWings, and his dad didn’t seem to know anything about why his scales were like this.
The one clue he had that his mom might know why and how he was different was that she never seemed worried when Ash told her that he had gotten in a fight. However, it was probably nothing, as she acted just as mystified about Ash’s scale color as his dad did, and why would less concern have anything to do with it? Everyone’s parent was like that in the Scorpion Den, he had just thought that his mom was different for some reason.
He arrived at his destination. Serpent’s Sword Shop. That name was, like, not cool, but it was the only shop with spears where the shop owner barely glanced at his scales. Not that he normally cared when dragons stared at him, but it was kind of awkward when the dragon staring was the one he was trying to buy something from.
Serpent was at the counter when Ash came in, helping another customer chose the right shield for herself. “Assshhh.” Serpent said. It wasn’t so mush saying it as slithering it out of nowhere, as Serpent talked in a serpentine voice and his mouth barely moved when he was talking. “I will be with you ssshhhortly,” he slithered.
Serpent had a recent ability that had started to appear rarely in the SandWing tribe, after a animus experiment gone wrong or something. It was a rattle like a rattlesnake, instead of the normal tail barb.
It was more of a decoration than an ability, and the only thing it was useful for was telling the dragon’s approximate age by the number of segments, and somehow making the dragon dart here and there slightly faster. It rattled when the dragon was agitated, and it was twitching violently on Serpent now as though the customer was annoying him by taking too long to decide.
Ash browsed the spears, looking for the coolest one under seven gold pieces. He saw a few good ones, and he eventually decided to pick one with a platinum-steel mix for the base and a navy blue gem embedded in the bottom.
Serpent had finished with his other customer by then, and he came over. “Isss thisss what you want?” he slithered, “or are you ssstill browsing? Or perhapsss you would like thisss?” He gestured to a spear a bit cooler, but almost a gold piece more.
“No, this will be all,” Ash responded.
Serpent darted behind the counter virtually as fast as a King Cobra striking. “Very well,” he slithered, “That will be four gold and ssseventeen sssilver.”
Ash dropped five gold pieces instead, which was two silver pieces more, and said, “Keep the change, bro.” He exited the shop.
He swaggered down the street, totally ignoring everyone. Eventually he reached the alley of the thug that he needed to teach a lesson. He took out his spear and waved it around. “Wherever you are, you street rat, come out and fight me or you’re a coward.”
A nearly white SandWing stepped out from the junk in the alley. “Sure I will,” he said smoothly, “With help, of course.” And then a tail barb crashed down on his leg from behind.
And rebounded right off.
Almost as if... as if his scales were stone. As if they couldn’t be penetrated.
As if Ash’s scales were invulnerable.
~ ~ ~
He bolted out of that alley and into his house faster than you could say, “What just happened?”
He heard the white SandWing jeer behind him, “Yeah, that’s right, run home to your mommy,” but he knew that both of those rats were scared.
He bolted in the house, but halfway to his dad’s room he stop and realized that he was going to get some serious points taken off his “cool” factor for running just now. Oh well. They can go eat snakeskins, because my scales are invulnerable, apparently.
He continued to his dad’s room and opened the door. “Hello, Ash,” his dad said, “did you get the spear?”
Shoot! He had left the spear with the thugs, and they had probably stolen it. “No, but umm... dad, do you know anything about why this is?” He stabbed his leg with his tail barb, and sure enough, it deflected right off.
His dad stared at him, gaping. Apparently not then. “Erm, I’ll go ask mom? I guess?” His dad didn’t respond, he just continued staring at him open-mouthed. “Okay then. Good talk.”
Ash walked back down the hall to the living room, and found his mom sitting there. “Hey mom, I just found something out—“ he began.
She interrupted him, “I know what it is. Your scales are invulnerable.”
“What, how did you—” he started, astonished. There really was something to my observation of her not being worried about fights?
She interrupted him again, “Nevermind that now. I... can’t tell you, sorry. They told me when you knew, then it would be time... I know what you have to do now, and it’s not staying here in the Scorpion Den.”
“What? What is it then?”
“Go to the Night Kingdom. They only have one forest, ask them where it is. Find the only river in the forest. You will see what to do from there. Go—” Ash’s mom took a breath, and he could see that she was crying for some reason.
“Go find your destiny, Ash. It’s not here.”
== CHAPTER III: BETRAYALS ==
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Violet
Violet was running away. Away from Pantala. Away from her home. But when you had been betrayed many times and you never really had anyone who was there for you, it didn’t feel like home.
Violet had often wondered if she was cursed. That would not only explain the terrible circumstances she always found herself in, but the way her parents kicked her out of the house before she was even six months old. Maybe they had known she was cursed.
But then again, she did apparently have a curse that didn’t want her to die, and she had somehow managed to survive and find her way straight to the SilkWing queen’s court. Lucky me, She thought bitterly.
That memory. That horrible, horrible memory that she wished the curse could erase from her mind. The memory of standing there, over Mirage’s body, and being blamed for the death of the only dragon that had ever cared about her. The memory of realizing that there was no living dragon that cared. Maybe Queen Libytheidae did, but not enough to realize that Violet never would have killed Mirage.
And that was when she had decided. Decided that she was done with Pantala. If she was cursed so that she would never find a dragon who she could trust, or who wouldn’t die within five weeks of knowing him, so be it. Maybe she’d find somewhere to live where there were no other dragons. Somewhere on the continent that would be below her talons very soon.
And the most promising sight she had seen all day was right in front of her, on the Night Kingdom shores that her boat was washing up on. A forest. A chance to live alone, with no other dragons who she ever would decide to trust, until the day she died.
A seagull flew in front of her boat, and, realizing it’s occupant, shrieked. She jumped back, startled by a flash of Déjà Vu. That seagull had looked exactly like one that had flew in front of her and Mirage on the night where... Mirage had died. She remembered it clearly.
She hadn’t been able to sleep that night, but that hadn’t been anything new. Her best friend, only four days ago, had tried to murder her for a position in Queen Libytheidae’s court. Violet didn’t think that it was abnormal to have sleeping problems after that type of thing.
She had found Mirage in his cabin, and he had instantly known what was troubling her. “Let’s take a walk.” He had said. And he hadn’t known that if those words were not spoken, he might still be alive.
They went into the gardens, and went up to the edge of the cliff separating the gardens from the ocean below. That was when the seagull flew in front of them and squawked. Mirage suddenly let out a gasp of pain, and Violet turned towards him. She saw immediately what the problem was. He was peering at on of his talons, and it had a thorn lodged deep in it. “I’ll go get some water.” She said.
How bad that decision had been.
She came back, only to find her only two remaining friends right next to each other. One with a knife. One facing the other way, with a thorn lodged in his foot.
One of the last words Mirage had ever said came before Violet could say anything. Mirage turned around, saw Cecropia, and asked, “Why?”
The response came, and Violet didn’t understand it. “I know where you came from, what you did in your kingdom. Even if SandWing business is irrelevant to us, the fact that you are a killer isn’t. Everyone may think you are a fine addition to our kingdom, but I know your story.”
“But I didn’t—” He started, but it was too late. Mirage had a knife in his heart. That, and not the trial, was the true reason why Violet was no longer in the SilkWing palace. Even if she hadn’t been convicted of the crime, she would have still run away from Pantala. Run away from the source of all her misery.
~ ~ ~
Violet was in the forest, the signs of tears still on her face from her flashback earlier. She was trying to follow the sound of the river to see what it was like, but it somehow seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. She thought she was getting close, but it was hard to tell.
Focus. She stopped walking and concentrated. The sound seemed a little stronger to her left, now that she was concentrating really hard. And concentrating hard just made her think about how she had been concentrating on not thinking about her past, and her sadness deepened.
Eventually, after a little bit of walking, she came upon the river. It looked like it would supply for her if she wanted to live here. But that wasn’t what drew her attention. Because there was a dragon — a SandWing? A SeaWing? A Hybrid? For some reason was hard to tell from a distance — standing next to the river and muttering.
Violet crept closer, trying to figure out what this dragon was doing. As she got closer, the dragon started looking around. Did she hear me? Or I guess it could be a he. Violet thought. One thing that was clear was that this dragon was of no normal tribe, as they were a SeaWing type color with an otherwise SandWing type appearance.
Suddenly the dragon looked back... and saw her. She jumped, and he — Violet could tell it was a “he” now — let out a yelp of surprise. He instantly brought his tail up in a defensive position, before a weird expression crossed his face and he let his tail fall back into its curled position for some reason. “Who are you?” He asked.
“My name’s Violet. I’m here because life is cruel and so are other dragons, so I was going to see about getting away from them by living here.” She said, forestalling the second question she knew he’d ask. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“My name is Ash. I... don’t really know why I’m here. Oh, and before you ask ‘What are you?’, a SandWing. I don’t know why I’m like this.”
Violet suddenly caught a glimpse of a big talonprint near him, giant compared to that of a normal dragon. “What’s THAT?” She said, pointing at it.
Ash looked where she was pointing, and gasped. “What, how did I not notice... wait, I probably uncovered it when I stepped on that vine. Well,” He said, turning to Violet, “I think this may be what I’m here for.”
~ ~ ~
“So let me get this straight. You find out you’re invulnerable, your mom says some weird things about some “they”, and you steal a spear back and travel halfway across the continent.”
“Yep. But let me get your story straight. You really got kicked out of your house before a year of your life had passed, found your way into the SilkWing queen’s court, almost got murdered, your boyfriend who happened to be a falsely accused murder from my tribe did get murdered, and you were convicted for the murder.”
Violet struggled not to cry, hearing it put like that. “Yes. And why did Cecropia think that he was a murderer if your tribe knew he wasn’t?”
“We just found out that it was false all along, but I guess it was too late.” He looked at the ground.
Violet changed the subject, “So you’re going to go in the direction those talonprints were leading?” The talonprints had disappeared after just a few steps, presumably because whatever it was had wings and had flown off.
“I don’t see what else I could do.”
“Well, let’s go then.”
“Wait, let’s go? Why are you coming?” He eyed Violet suspiciously.
“Oh, wait, no, I have a busy schedule. A lot of things that I have to do. Gotta get back to my home that I DON’T HAVE.”
“Okay, but you know you might die, right?” He said seriously.
Equally serious, Violet looked him in the eye. “Right now, for me, I think that might be an improvement.”
== CHAPTER IV: HEROES ==
:
Peacemaker
It should have been a normal day for Peacemaker. He had gotten up after falling back to sleep for about an hour, he had eaten breakfast, read a fiction book called The Tribes of Sun Island, and now he was eating lunch. He was eating his second favorite type of snake and, of course, some strawberries.
But he wasn’t enjoying lunch as much as usual. He knew that the conversation with Jerboa hadn’t been a dream, and that more RainWings could be dying this very moment as Subzero and Overlord started their inevitable quest to get revenge.
They hadn’t exactly decided what to do about the reawakened immortals. Jerboa said she would try to help with spells from behind the scenes, but she was in a sticky situation because she had recently adopted a MudWing dragonet. “For some purpose in my life,” as she put it.
So it may have been up to Peacemaker. Him, and a few bonus spells from Jerboa for support. The world was doomed.
He suddenly lost his appetite. How could he be here, eating strawberries, when the world might depend on him? He got up. If he was the only one who had any advantage (besides Jerboa, but she also had a disadvantage) then he would have to stop sitting here, safe in his house, and go do something. First though, he needed a weapon.
He got up and walked in the direction of his weapons room. He passed his room, and looked at the twisted sheets and messy nightstand. This might be the last time I ever see this. It suddenly sunk in. He was doing this. He had already made the decision. He continued down the hallway.
When he got to his weapons room, he took two swords and two daggers. He was tempted to take the bow, but he was a horrible shot with that thing. He looked around one last time to make sure that there was nothing else he wanted to take. He walked out of that room.
He was almost to the front door, but it suddenly occurred to him how quiet it was. Too quiet. The forest outside was always making noise, from the screeching of birds to the buzzing of insects to the hissing of snakes. But now it was quiet.
He slowly reached for the door handle, nervously. He started creaking it open. Had someone found him, after all these years? And then he opened the door, quickly, in one strong motion. And saw two dragons on the other side.
They screamed. He almost screamed. “Who are you?!” He asked. How have they found me? And why is one a SilkWing and the other... something besides a NightWing. A hybrid? He looks completely like a SandWing, but with the completely wrong color. He doesn’t look like a hybrid.
“Who are you?!?! And why are you half the size of Darkstalker?!” The SilkWing asked. Peacemaker had never really thought about it, but he WAS half the size of Darkstalker. After all, he was half as old as him. It must be frightening to these two... dragonets? Dragons just out of their dragonethood?
And then he saw them look at his wings, and he knew that they were aware of who he was before he even told them. “My name is Peacemaker. You might have heard of me.”
~ ~ ~
“You’re Peacemaker. THE Peacemaker. And you’re still alive.” The SandWing — Ash, and apparently he was fully SandWing (As far as he knew) — was pacing back and forth.
“Why are you here, though?” The SilkWing, Violet, didn’t seem fazed at all, unlike Ash. In fact, in the hundreds of years he had lived, he had seen quite a few depressed dragons, and he thought she seemed double as sad as the others he had seen. It didn’t matter now, though. What did matter was HOW IN THE THREE MOONS THEY HAD FOUND HIM.
“How did you find me?” He asked, resisting the urge to bellow the words out in the aforementioned arrangement.
“Ask this one. I don’t know.” Violet pointed to Ash.
“I... don’t exactly know either.” He said.
“Then who DOES?” Peacemaker asked.
“My mother. Probably. But she’s kind of far away.” Ash said.
“I hear what you’re saying, but it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
“Well basically she told me to come here, but she also said something about a ‘they’ and she looked like she was talking about invisible NightWing prophets that were in the room and that only she could see.”
Wait... does that mean that... the reason he came here has something to do with Subzero and Overlord? ”Ookayyy. Why are you here?” He turned to Violet, and she flinched back a little, as if suddenly noticing his size.
“I don’t have anything to do. I don’t have a home, and I can’t and won’t return to Pantala. I was thinking about living in this forest, and then I ran into Ash. If there is giant talonprints near the river, I’m not just going to shrug it off and find somewhere else.”
“But I flew back from the river.”
“With talonprints leading in the direction you flew.” Violet responded.
“Oh.” He conflicted about wether to tell them about Subzero and Overlord, but he didn’t know for certain that that was what they were here for. And that type of information was not the type that you told just anyone who comes across your cabin in the woods, even if the first time it was found in centuries was right after the information was shared with you.
“Well, I guess you should come in so we can figure out why you’re here.” He said. Neither of them moved, and Ash shot a suspicious glare at him. He realized that it had probably sounded like he was baiting them into a trap.
“Well, if you stay out here you’re probably going to be bitten by a snake. Seriously, this forest has like two hundred species.”
He moved aside and they nervously edged in. He took the swords and knives off his back, realizing that it probably didn’t help their nerves. He knew what he could also do to help the nerves. He walked over to the shrinking bracelet on the counter before they could say anything, and, for the first time in his life, put it on.
Woah. Was this really how Ash and Violet saw his house? Everything was four times too big. He turned around, to be greeted by the sight he had expected. They were staring at him in amazement.
A long time ago, he had figured that this might one day be helpful for associating with other dragons. He had it made by a SeaWing animus for a lot of money, but he never figured he’d get a chance to use it. It was just insurance in case he ever needed to have a conversation with normal dragons, which now he did.
“No, I’m only immortal, not an animus, don’t worry,” He said, “Someone else made this.”
Ash and Violet both looked skeptical. “Hmm... okay, I guess.” Violet said.
He was still bigger than them, this bracelet turned him the size of a twenty-year-old dragon. But it was better than nothing.
“So has anything weird happened to you lately?” Ash asked.
Peacemaker held his breath. This was it, the point where he had to decide. What they were here for could be something else, but this was the only thing he could think of. It was an impossible decision. And he made it.
“Well, something happened to me last night...”
== CHAPTER V: TRUST ==
:
Ash
Ash couldn’t believe what had happened in the last two days. Someone tried to kill him, he found out he was invulnerable, his mom told him he had to journey halfway across the continent and find some random forest, he spontaneously met a depressed SilkWing who happened to be in the forest at the same time (Like, seriously, he didn’t believe in supernatural stuff but what type of coincidence had THAT been?), he met moon-cursed PEACEMAKER, Peacemaker shrunk to the size of a twenty year old dragon and shrugged it off like it was NOTHING, and now he was finding out that there were two more immortals worse than DARKSTALKER. Actually, moon-bleach that, worse than the OTHERMIND.
All that and he had barely got a moon-cursed SECOND OF SLEEP.
He realized Peacemaker was looking at him expectantly. “Did you ask me something, bro?” He asked.
Peacemaker looked at him strangely, like he had never heard someone call someone call someone else “bro”. Then again, he had only lived with other dragons hundreds of years ago, so maybe he hadn’t.
“I asked if you think that’s why you’re here.”
“I guess... I mean, unless you have any neighbors who heard about two more new MOON-BLEACHED IMMORTAL SUPERVILLANS WORSE THAN DARKSTALKER in their sleep, I guess it’s the only answer.”
“I already had time to panic. That’s why I’m acting calm,” Peacemaker said, obviously picking up on the subliminal question, “And don’t curse.”
“I can do what I want,” Ash retorted, “You’re not the boss of me.”
“Please, don’t fight. Things are bad enough as it is,” Violet said. Ash saw Peacemaker glare at her. “Let’s actually discuss what matters, which is that two immortals may be destroying the world as we speak.”
“So you think you’re meant to stop it?” Ash asked Peacemaker.
“Yes.”
“Well aren’t I most likely also meant to stop it?”
“Maybe. But I don’t think so. You’re barely a full-grown dragon.”
“Come on, you just don’t want to admit that you need help.”
“I don’t know who or what orchestrated this meeting, and for some reason I don’t want to just assume that it’s good.” Peacemaker said. Ash felt a chill down his spine. Who could have put this meeting into place? His mother had seemed to trust whoever it was. But they may have deceived her. And there wasn’t many who could know about Peacemaker. Hmm...
“Well I’m coming.” Violet spoke up. They both stared at her. She glared back. “Maybe I know what misery feels like, each second I’m standing here. Maybe I want to save other dragons from that. Maybe I want to not give in to my past, and to do good with my life, even if the universe hasn’t done good to it. This is my chance, my chance to make my life have some worth. Because right now, it doesn’t have worth.”
“Well then,” Peacemaker said, looking a bit surprised at the sudden impromptu speech, “How can I trust you?”
“You can’t. You can’t trust me, you can’t trust Ash, you can’t trust anyone that may be out there. But you can trust us more than anyone else, besides maybe Jerboa, because you know that we aren’t under a spell from Subzero and Overlord, which the whole of the rest of Dragonia might be by now.”
Ash had never felt more scared in his life. Well actually, he wasn’t sure if he had ever felt scared before.
“How do I know you aren’t under their spell?”
“Because then you’d be under it too, because Subzero and Overlord would know where you are.”
Peacemaker looked at both of them. “I need time to think,” He growled, retreating back down the hallway into what must have been his room.
Violet looked at Ash and shrugged. “So what do you think we should do while waiting?”
“Maybe we should go outside. I don’t think staying in Peacemaker’s house while he can’t see us will make him trust us more.” Ash replied.
“I can hear you, though,” Came his muffled voice from inside the room.
“We KNOW,” Ash retorted.
“I guess we should go outside, then,” Violet went over to the door and opened it without waiting for an answer.
Ash could just hear Peacemaker mutter, “If you feel like getting bit by a snake, go ahead.”
He rolled his eyes and followed Violet outside.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” She asked, facing the other way, when he came up behind her.
“About who put this meeting into place?”
“Yes. Do you think it was Jerboa?”
“My mom said it was a ‘they’.”
Suddenly she tilted her head, as if she were listening to something. Ash soon heard it too. It sounded like something was trying to fly through the woods, and crashing into a lot of branches.
“What is that thing?” Ash asked, though he wasn’t really asking anyone in particular.
“Sounds like another dragon...” Violet trailed off, and Ash could see why. Because it certainly was another dragon. There was a SandWing coming at them straight out of the trees.
And Ash recognized her. But just barely, because she was covered in wounds.
“Cactus?” He asked.
Cactus just managed to land and say a few words, “IceWing — NightWing — attacked — Sand Kingdom — fallen” And then she collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
== CHAPTER VI: FALLEN ==
:
Violet
“So I think we can gather that the NightWing and IceWing are the immortals,” Peacemaker was saying.
“Yeah. But how did they conquer it SO MOON-BLEACHED FAST!?!” Ash said, looking like the world was ending.
“I think we all know the answer to that question,” Violet broke in gravely. Her response was met with a serene silence.
Eventually she broke the silence again. “Have you two considered the possibility that they may have tracked this SandWing — Cactus — or, even sent her here? Your mom knows about this place.”
“But aren’t you the one who said that if they knew where this was, we would be dead or mind-controlled? Maybe my mom’s still okay!” Ash said.
“Maybe,” Peacemaker and Violet said at the same time. They each gave the other a dirty look.
“We need to get moving, though,” Violet said, “They could capture your mother at any time, or maybe they already have her and just need to question her, and then we’re their puppets.”
“But what about this SandWing — Cactus, right? — we can’t just leave her here,” Peacemaker said, “And it’s not like we can just drag her along while she’s unconscious.”
“Wait a second...” Violet said, and tilted her head. She thought she had heard dead leaves crunch outside. “Shut up!” She whispered urgently as Peacemaker opened his mouth to speak. She could definitely hear footsteps outside. They were coming from the direction of the door.
She walked over to the door. She opened it slowly... to be greeted by a big lizard staring at her indignantly. “It’s just a lizard.” She called back to Peacemaker and Ash.
She walked back over as Ash breathed a sigh of relief and Peacemaker suddenly gasped. “What?” Violet asked.
“I know what Cactus can do... if she agrees to it once she wakes up, of course.”
“What?” Ash said.
“I have a lot of valuable things here, that would not make for a particularly good existence if the immortals got their hands on them.”
“Okay..” Violet said, “So...”
“So she might be able to guard my house!”
“That might work! But first, we’ll have to wait ‘till she regains consciousness.” Ash said.
~ ~ ~
That proved to be quite a few hours of boredom before Cactus finally woke up. But she finally did, and was greeted to what must have been a strange sight, with three dragons casually playing cards in another corner of the room.
“Hello?” She said weakly. They all looked over. They rushed over, excited that they didn’t have to play the card game again after two hours of playing it.
“Ash? Does this mean I am where I was supposed to go?”
“Where were you supposed to go?”
“I don’t know, but your mother said you would be there... where am I?”
“Um...” Ash started slowly, “Well... you’ve heard of Peacemaker, ri-”
“Oh just quit stalling!” Peacemaker interrupted, speaking a lot faster than Ash, and showed her under his wings.
“What the — how — you’re — of course you are immortal, actually, it only makes sense.”
“Wait, what?” Peacemaker asked.
“Darkstalker was immortal, too.” Cactus said plainly.
“But how did you know I’m immortal?”
She stared at him.
“Oh, okay, nevermind.” Peacemaker said.
“How did you know where we were?” Violet asked.
“Ash’s mother told me. But who were those two dragons? Do you know?” She looked at Ash.
“Well... their names are Subzero and Overlord...” Ash started to tell Cactus everything that had happened. When he had finally finished, she didn’t looked as shocked as Violet had expected her to.
“Okay, so am I coming with you, or what am I supposed to do?”
“We were thinking that, well, I have a lot of valuable possessions in this house that I would not like Subzero and Overlord to get their talons o—” Peacemaker started.
“Okay I’ll do it.” Cactus interrupted.
“Do wh—”
“You were about to ask me to guard those possessions, right?”
“Ye—”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“Yes, but can we trust you?!” Peacemaker said in exasperation, probably from how much she was interrupting him.
“Yes, you can. I know her, remember?” Ash told Peacemaker.
Violet said, “But can we trust you, Ash? Can you two trust me? Can you and I trust Peacemaker? No, we shouldn’t. But we have to trust someone, if we hope to survive. And if you knew my full story, you’d realize that if I’m saying this, I mean it.”
“Well alright then. I guess it’s settled?” Peacemaker said.
“Yep, it’s cool with me.” Ash said.
“Yes, it is settled.” Cactus said.
“Alright. Let’s go somehow figure out how to possibly theorize ideas to kill some immortals.” Violet said.
~ ~ ~
Violet, Ash, and Peacemaker were flying straight towards the Sand Kingdom.
They barely talked along the way, except for one point when Ash said to Violet sadly, “Do you think we’ll find many dragons trying to resist? Probably... not.”
“I’m sorry, but you’re right. Probably not.”
But what they saw when they got there, was not dragons trying to resist. It wasn’t an orderly society of mind controlled dragons. What they saw at first was not anything close to what they expected to find.
== CHAPTER VII: SCALES ==
:
Peacemaker
“Alright, just to clarify, there is not supposed to be a bunch of wanted posters on the walls of the Sand Kingdom palace, particularly ones that somehow have both of our names on them, right?” Peacemaker asked Ash.
Ash looked to terrified to answer.
“I’ll take that as a no. So HOW THE HECK DO THEY KNOW?!?!”
Violet clamped her talon over his mouth. “I’d wager that most dragons who can hear us are not friendly,” she hissed quietly, “At least, not anymore. And my name isn’t on there for now, but it certainly might be if we attract attention.”
He looked around. The place was deserted (no pun intended) and it didn’t look like there was anyone to hear him. Still, Violet was right, they had to be careful.
“Alright, so... what do we do?” Ash whispered, recovering from his shock.
“Maybe we should sneak in the palace,” Peacemaker suggested, “To see exactly how bad this is.”
“Yes. Good plan,” Violet said.
“Wait, What?!” Ash asked, his voice still low despite the indignation in it, “We can’t just sneak into the SandWing palace without even discussing whether it’s a good idea!!”
“Well, we need to have seen our enemies to fight them,” Violet said.
“Yeah, but... well... if they catch us, think about the consequences.”
“If we don’t see them, we can’t fight them, and think about the consequences of that,” Violet retorted.
“Guys, guys, stop fighting,” Peacemaker said, “Violet, he has a good point. We should think about it before rushing in. Ash, she also has a good point. It’s our only option if we have a chance of defeating them later on.”
“It was your idea. You should be supporting me,” Violet said accusingly.
“I’m supporting you both. Now let’s try to make a plan to get in.”
~ ~ ~
The plan was simple. Ash would coat himself in wet sand so he could get in and pretend to be a normal SandWing. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was all they had. Now the execution, that was going to be the hard part. They had to find an oasis that was unoccupied, then somehow get the sand on him in a way that it wouldn’t be obvious or fall off immediately.
Yeah, it was a terrible plan, actually. But they couldn’t think of anything else. The only magic they had was the bracelet, and turning Ash to a twenty year-old version of himself hardly seemed like it would help.
But Peacemaker was fiddling around with the bracelet when they finally found a good oasis, and had a moment of inspiration. What if Ash’s scales faded to the normal SandWing color when he was older?
It was a long shot, and it probably wasn’t true, but a few hundred years ago, Link’s mistake had taught dragons that time manipulation was at least possible, so maybe the bracelet would show Ash’s future self, and maybe his future self would have ordinary scales. That was a lot of maybes, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
He took the bracelet off.
“Hey Ash?” He said as Ash was scooping up sand on the edge of the water.
“Yeah?” Ash said without turning towards him.
“I have an idea that probably won’t work, but if it does it’s better than our current plan.”
Ash turned towards him, “I’m listening. WOAH okay you’re big again.”
“Can you put this on quick?”
“Your shrinking bracelet? Is this some kind of prank?”
“No, it turns people into their twenty year-old self no matter what age they are, but I don’t know if it’s accurate when they’re younger than twenty. If it is there might be a chance... could you just try it on?
“Alright,” Ash said. He put it on... and then he was a normal-looking twenty-year-old SandWing.
“What the—“ Ash said, looking not only like he was surprised at what had just happened, but like he had seen a ghost. His voice was also a bit deeper, “Does that happen when you put it on and WHY ARE MY SCALES NORMAL WHAT THE SHATTERED STARS?!?!?!”
Peacemaker was amused at Ash’s reaction, surprised that his idea had worked, confused on what Ash meant by ‘Does that happen when you put it on?’, and mortified at Ash’s language.
“First of, don’t use that language. Second off, this must mean your scales are normal later in your life! My idea worked! Third off, what did you mean when you said, ‘Does that happen when you put it on?’?
“I meant, everything turning black and white for a second.”
“Wait, what? No, that’s odd.” Maybe it could have hurt to try.
“Guys I’m back and WHAT the othermind is going on???” Violet said from the side of them. Peacemaker turned towards her, Annnndddddd now she is cursing, too. At least, I assume that was a Pantalan curse.
“You got the edible cactus that me and Ash told you about? Good. Let’s all settle down. I’ll tell you everything,” he said to Violet, “And you why I think this is happening,” he said to Ash.
~ ~ ~
When he had finished telling them everything, Violet said, “Well alright, I guess. So are we going to the palace then? So Ash can spy on Subzero and Overlord?”
“Well, that was the point,” Peacemaker said, “Also, seeing you as a twenty-year-old dragon is really awkward, so I’d appreciate if we could do it soon,” he continued, turning to Ash.
“Believe me, I feel even more awkward,” Ash said.
They took off toward the direction they came from, the palace. It was a fairly long flight, but Peacemaker couldn’t think of any conversation topics, and it seemed they couldn’t, either. It made the flight seem a lot longer.
When they finally touched down on the sand outside the palace, Peacemaker was very tired. He hadn’t gotten any sleep for about twenty-two hours, and he was pretty sure that the others hadn’t gotten any sleep more recently than he had.
He did think that maybe Ash had at least slept better than him and Violet the last few nights and therefore may not have been as tired, though. Ash was the only one that had been pretty much carefree the night before. But he was still surprised when Ash said that he didn’t need any sleep before sneaking into the palace.
“But you have to be tired, too!” Peacemaker argued.
“Yes, but you two haven’t been sleeping well, and I haven’t joined that club quite yet,” Ash said, “You two should find a cave or something to camp in until morning, and I’ll sneak in the palace. They could be up to something important! Seriously, I’ll be okay. I’ll spy on them for an hour or so, and then I’ll find your cave. No prob.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Violet said.
“Ugh! Fine!” Peacemaker said, “Go do what you want. We’ll find something in this direction.” He turned around.
Violet said to Peacemaker, “Excuse me, we didn’t agr—”
“Right, sounds good,” Ash interrupted, “I’ma go infiltrate my kingdom.”
== CHAPTER VIII: PROPHECY ==
:
Ash
Ash was instantly regretting his decision to not rest before he spied on the immortals. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to get past the guards. Like seriously, he didn’t think there was a way. How would he even start? He could say that Subzero and Overlord had ordered him to search for traitors and he had to get in again to report... but he would need some sort of proof, no doubt.
So maybe he could sneak in and say he was there all along? But that wouldn’t work, becau... Wait a second, someone was approaching the guards at the entrance. They were a little ways off, around the corner, and from Ash’s hiding place he could barely see someone else struggling against them.
Hmm... looks like the guards haven’t noticed them yet... maybe I can kill two birds with one stone.
He snuck along the alleyway next to the main street, and reached the dragon who was trying to drag the other along. Luckily the dragon fighting back was a good fighter, and they had kept the other one in place while Ash got near.
But the dragon that was struggling looked familiar... could it be... and then Ash saw that there was no SandWing barb on the dragon’s tail, and instead, it was a rattlesnake rattle. Wait, is it really...
“Serpent! Stop struggling!” The other dragon said, “You’ll eventually get caught anyway, even if you get away from me!”
Serpent jerked his tail out from where it was, under the other dragon’s foot. He jabbed the other dragon in the eye with it... and the other dragon opened his mouth to roar in pain.
A million thoughts rushed through Ash’s head, all in one second. The main one was: If the dragon managed to make a sound, the guards would come running around the corner, and Serpent would be captured. He had to do something.
Ash rushed in to the battle and stabbed the dragon in the arm with his much more painful tail tip. As he expected, the dragon fainted from the pain without making a sound, besides the thud when he hit the ground. Serpent didn’t hesitate and started running away.
But Ash was going to kill both those birds with one stone, not just one of them. He lunged after Serpent and grabbed his leg, bringing him closer. Serpent tried to dart away again, almost succeeded, and turned around and raked his claws down Ash’s face when he didn’t.
EVERYTHING HURTS AND WHY IN THE THREE MOONS IS MY INVULNERABILITY NOT WORKING AND IS THIS WHAT HAVING A WOUND FEELS LIKE BECAUSE I WANT TO DIE, he thought, totally keeping his cool.
“Serpent!” He hissed under his breath, “It’s me, Ash.”
Serpent faltered for a moment. “Assshhh... is it really — but it can’t be...” Ash knew Serpent really knew that Ash knew it was him, even if he knew not how it could be that Ash knew... that he knew... that Ash... um, nevermind.
“It’s this bracelet,” he told Serpent, showing Serpent the enchanted wristband.
“Well. What do you think you are doing?! I need to essscape, Assshhh.” Suddenly his expression changed. “Oh no... I forgot... you were changed, weren’t you...” Serpent hissed, “Why did you knock thisss dragon unconsssciousss?”
“Um, because I’m on the right side?” Ash said, confused, “I need to infiltrate the palace. You’re my ticket in there, and I’ll make sure you escape afterwards.”
“You can’t be on the right ssside. You have a normal tail,” Serpent slithered.
“Wha—”
“My rattlesssnake-like tail end preventsss animusss magic from working on me,” Serpent slithered.
Ash opened his mouth, about to say something. Then he closed it. Ash opened his mouth, about to say something again. Then he closed it again. He repeated this four or five times.
“I don’t know why it worksss either. But you have to deal with it. Ssso... how do I know you aren’t brainwassshhhed, and why wouldn’t you be?”
Ash attempted to explain everything, but no sound came out of his mouth. He took a minute to regroup his thoughts, and then told Serpent everything.
“Well... that isss cccertainly a ssstrange ssstory...” Serpent slithered, “It would cccertainly be hard to make that up ssso quickly. Ssso you need to get into the palaccce? I guesssss I have to pretend like I’m a prisssoner then. What isss your plan to get me out?”
“Easy. They don’t know that your rattle blocks you from animus magic, right? You pretend like you’re a prisoner on the way in, and like you are mind controlled on the way out.”
“Hmm... yesss, that could work, but won’t they remember me?” Serpent slithered questioningly.
“Well, the guards will probably have changed shifts by then,” Ash said.
“Alright then. I guesssss we ssshhhould do it now, then,” Serpent slithered.
“Right. Just pretend like your my prisoner, and I’ll play it cool.” Pretty much the only thing I’m good at. Besides maybe fighting.
~ ~ ~
“Yep, really. This is the prisoner,” Ash said, “I have no idea how he can resist animus magic, but he’s the one that they asked for.”
“Alright. They’re in the middle of another death sentence right now, so I assume he’ll be next. Come on in.”
Ash tried not to show his apprehension and disgust, “Alright.”
He walked in, feeling like he was doing a bit worse at playing it cool.
He walked through a big hallway and diverted to the side to go the area where he thought the dungeons were. He had only been in the SandWing palace once in his life for a urgent gathering of all SandWings, so he wasn’t sure.
It turned out he was right, because they soon reached the dungeons. Ash and Serpent found a cell with a broken lock where Serpent could temporarily stay in. Their plan was that Serpent would pretend to try to break out so the guards wouldn’t pay attention to the lock.
Ash hurried to the main hall afterwards, trying to make sure he didn’t keep Serpent waiting for long.
Eventually, he reached the door to it, feeling a bit light-headed from lack of sleep. But he had to see this. He had to know what they were up against.
He quietly opened the door. He looked at the SandWing throne. Or the two SandWing thrones. That wasn’t the way it was before. And there also wasn’t supposed to be two gigantic immortals with very contrasting colors sitting on the two thrones.
Ash found it hard to really think about how big they were or how he should be internally panicking or anything. He was too tired to think complicated thoughts.
He could think about exactly what it was that he was seeing, though. He saw a NightWing facing the two immortals, staring through them. Or maybe through the fabric of the universe. Then the NightWing opened his mouth and gave what Ash would later realize to be a prophecy.
He said,
Beware the chaos order
Flee and keep your mind
Beware every other dragon
Or else you will surely die
The first to tumble is the kingdom of rain
The second kingdom, full of sand
If they aren’t stopped soon after
They will take all of Dragonia’s land
Out of the darkness three heroes emerge
To try to bring back the light
They may succeed, and if they do
They will be the second chapter of the fight
And just as that dragon finished, three things happened. First: Overlord’s eyes connected with Ash’s, and there was a deep flash of hate that didn’t bode well for the plan. Second: Subzero lunged forward toward the NightWing, either trying to kill him, or save him from the third thing that happened. Third: The NightWing’s body turned completely grey and immaterial for a few seconds, before the NightWing crumbled into dust.
And then Ash blacked out.
== CHAPTER IX: JERBOA ==
:
Violet
“Why isn’t he back yet?” Violet paced around the cave.
“Do you think he couldn’t find us?” Peacemaker asked.
Violet raised her eyebrows at him, gesturing towards the palace only 1,000 feet or so outside of the cave entrance.
“Well, it’s still kind of far...”
Violet glared at him, “Well I think we should find a way to get in. Ash has stayed awake too long anyway. He has to have fallen unconscious from sleep deprivation by now, and that probably also means that he’s in the dungeons.”
“Well how are we going to do that?” Peacemaker asked.
“Well I don’t know. But we have to figure it out.”
“Hmm... the only option would be knocking out the guards and trying to go undetected, or storming the palace.”
Violet rolled her eyes. “One of those options sounds better then the other.”
“That was rhetorical,” Peacemaker said, “Obviously I already knew that storming the palace was a horrible idea.”
Anyway, what are we waiting for? For Ash to escape on his own? Because I don’t think he’s breaking out of a prison belonging to...” Violet trailed off, realizing something.
“Belonging to...?” Peacemaker prompted her. But then she could see the realization hit his face, even before she said the word.
“Animi.”
Animi. Animi didn’t need bars to imprison dragons. Animi could imprison dragons inside theirselves.
And that’s when it came back, and hit her once again. The sadness that kept pulling her down whenever something bad happened. Because something bad always happened. And it always would happen, at least to her.
But again, she had to stay strong. She couldn’t be happy, the universe made sure of that. But she could help restore happiness to the kingdom that had already fallen to the immortals. Or maybe kingdoms, plural. She had no idea if the immortals had conquered the Rain Kingdom, since they were awoken there.
Anyway, she had barely known Ash. He was almost just one more SandWing that had ended up mind controlled.
“Is there any way to fix him?” Violet asked. “I would think the immortals are too powerful for that.”
“Well...” Peacemaker started, “Actually... remember my vision?”
“Yes, get to the point.”
“Well... do you remember who was in it?”
“Oh, right.”
“That’s right. I think we need to take a trip to go see... Jerboa.”
 “Wait wait wait. I’m not sure a simple protection spell can take the presumed mind control off of him.” Violet said, interrupting the author trying to code the chapter break.
“Then we won’t use a simple one. Anyway, it can’t hurt to try,” Peacemaker responded.
“Well... maybe.”
“We should go right away. Before they have time to come after us. After they think to ask Ash where we are, we’re done for.”
“Alright, I see your point. Let’s go.”
They both emerged from the cave and took off towards the coast of Pyrrhia. It was going to be a long flight.
Eventually, Violet broke a long silence by asking Peacemaker, “Why do you think Jerboa didn’t have a wanted poster on the side of the palace like you and Ash?”
“I have no idea. I guess she’s just not that relevant to them. I’d imagine that if Overlord used his mind reading and prophecy to see everything while he was trapped underground, they’d know about everything that happened while they were trapped. It’d probably get tiring to remember all of that,” Peacemaker responded.
“Do you think Overlord even had those powers still, though? Do you think he even was awake?” Violet asked.
“Probably. The immortals wouldn’t be a threat to anyone if they were trapped, so I don’t know why whoever trapped them would take those powers away,” Peacemaker said, “Speaking of, why do you think someone did trap them?”
Violet thought. She said, “It was probably them wanting to take over the world, just like with Darkstalker.” She saw Peacemaker wince, and realized that the name “Darkstalker” was probably not a good thing to say around him.
“How do you think Amazon brought them back?” Violet asked, trying to change the subject.
Peacemaker seemed to think for a while. They flew on in silence. After a while, he seemed to figure something out, “Are we sure that all the tribes besides SilkWings and HiveWings go back to the beginning of dragons?”
“I guess not. Why?” Violet asked.
“What if RainWings became a tribe soon after Subzero and Overlord’s time?” Peacemaker suggested, “And what if they did in the same way as SilkWings and HiveWings: They started as hybrids? Think about it. They do look somewhat like both SeaWings and how BeetleWings are described. All you need is maybe a small part of a few other tribes, and then you get something similar to a RainWing!”
Violet thought about that. “Well, possibly, but what does that have to do with why Amazon could free them?”
“Well, I was thinking, what if the dragon or dragons who trapped them worded the spell like this: no dragon from any existing tribe can set them free.”
“Well, it’s a stretch, to say the least, but maybe there’s a chance it could be true,” Violet responded.
They continued on in silence for a while. Eventually Violet saw a shape on the horizon. Peacemaker obviously saw it too, because he said, “That’s Jerboa’s hut. I remember it.”
They soon landed in front of it. Violet didn’t know about Peacemaker, but her wings were pretty tired. It didn’t matter anyway, they were here. Also she didn’t matter anyway.
Peacemaker walked up and knocked on the door. The door immediately opened. “What do you want?” A voice snarled before it opened all the way. Violet felt her body rising up without her moving. Peacemaker’s was too. She tried to flap her wings but realized her body was frozen.
Apparently Peacemaker had realized that he was frozen too, because he looked like he was trying to move. But he also apparently realized before her that he could still talk. “Jerboa, it’s me, Peacemaker.” The door was fully open by then, and Violet saw a dragon standing in it. But the spell still appeared to be on them.
“How do I know it’s you?! And how do I know you’re not mind controlled!?”
Peacemaker didn’t seem to know what to say. “I... don’t know...”
Suddenly they both dropped to the ground. They both slowly got up, coughing.
“Good,” Jerboa said, “A mind controlled dragon, whether he was or was not you, wouldn’t give up that easily when questioned about his identity.”
She’s pretty smart, Violet thought, Then again, she has lived for three thousand years.
“Well, Sorry about that. I had to make sure that you were you. Maybe I should get rid of the ‘rising up in the air’ part of my protection spell. Who’s this?” Jerboa asked, pointing to Violet.
“Her name is Violet. It’s... a long story.”
Jerboa smiled. “Come on in. I might just have time for a long story.”
== CHAPTER X: AMBUSH ==
:
Peacemaker
“Then we flew for a while, and here we are.”
“So. Let’s get down to business then. How are we going to cure Ash?” Jerboa asked.
“I don’t know. You have 2,000 more years of experience than me, I was hoping you could figure something out.” Peacemaker responded.
“Well... I could try wording it like, ‘I enchant Ash the SandWing to have always been immune to animus magic spells from anyone except me,’ but I doubt... well actually I just did word it like that; but anyway, I doubt that animi can mess with time.” Jerboa said.
“You really have been entirely disconnected from the world for a lot of your life, haven’t you?” Peacemaker shook his head. “Haven’t you ever heard of Link?”
Jerboa looked up, seemingly try to think if she had heard the name Link before. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Well he was an ani—” Peacemaker broke off as a MudWing dragonet approached Jerboa and announced, “I hungy!”
“Hold on, Quagmire. I’ll get you something to eat in a second. I’m talking,” Jerboa told him.
“Actually, if it’s okay with you, Jerboa, I’ll get him something to eat,” Violet offered.
“Alright. Get a fruit or vegetable, though, I gave him enough meat today already.”
Violet got up from the couch they were sitting on and went over towards the kitchen. Quagmire hopped along joyfully.
“So you were saying about what’s-his-name?” Jerboa asked.
“Actually,” Peacemaker said, “It doesn’t really matter. Long story short, animi definitely can mess with time, but it might not be such a good idea.”
“Oh. So that spell... could have actually worked?” Jerboa inquired.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Well... that’s the only thing I can think of. And I would need to enchant something to tell us if it worked... but I don’t want to use my animus magic unless absolutely necessary. Maybe... ugh! I keep forgetting that you’re not an animus!”
“Well...” Peacemaker sighed, “It doesn’t seem like there’s any choice. If it did work, then they’ll just kill Ash as soon as they find out.”
“Maybe you two should just wait to save Ash until you save everyone else. After all, it’s not like you know him that well.”
Peacemaker was about to say “NO! Of course not!”, but he realized that it might have some sense. He considered it. “I think Violet should have a say in that too,” Peacemaker said eventually.
“Alright.”
Peacemaker went got up and walked into the kitchen, before realizing that Violet was walking out. “Hey, Violet?” He said. Quagmire looked up behind her from a few apples he was nibbling.
“Yes?”
He told her what Jerboa had suggested.
“Actually, that’s probably the thing to do,” Violet said. Peacemaker thought he detected a hint of sadness in her voice, but her voice always sounded sad so it was hard to tell. “I know from experience that when bad things happen near me, there’s no way to fix them.”
“So that’s it then, I guess,” Peacemaker said, “Our three is down to two.”
Violet looked down. “I guess so.”
Peacemaker gasped.
“What?” Violet asked.
“I bet Ash will figure that we came here!” Peacemaker exclaimed, “Subzero and Overlord could be on their way here right now!”
Violet’s eyes widened. “What do we do? Hmm... wait, what if we asked Jerboa to teleport us to the Sand Kingdom?! We could try to take the kingdom’s defenses down while the immortals are gone! Then it’ll be a more fair fight. We have to make sure they are, though.”
Peacemaker was astonished at how quickly she had come up with that idea, especially since it was a pretty good one. “Woah, woah woah! Slow down. Let’s talk with Jerboa and see what we can do.” He wasn’t sure about how quickly they had gone from ‘casual conversation’ to ‘let’s talk advanced war strategy before we get killed because our enemies are probably on their way here right now’.
They went back to the kitchen. Quagmire walked behind them, tilting his head curiously. Peacemaker realized Quagmire probably shouldn’t be hearing them talk about battle strategy at such a young age.
Peacemaker turned around and said, “Hey Quagmire, you didn’t finish your apples.” Quagmire turned around and studied them as if he had just noticed them, and started nibbling one again.
When they came into the living room, Peacemaker told Jerboa what they had been talking about.
“Well that was fast,” Jerboa sighed, “I guess this is the next big war for Pyrrhia, then. The next story.”
“So do you have anything you could do to help?” Violet asked.
“I can give you a few weapons,” Jerboa offered, “Look. I’m no prophet, but I can tell that you’re going to do good in this fight.
“Peacemaker, don’t forget you’re immortal. You can easily use that to your advantage.
“And Violet, you have a power that I haven’t seen in a long time. Your destiny. It may not seem like a power at first. But if the universe won’t let your destiny be death, and instead, only misery, then challenge it to keep true to that.
“Listen. You both have advantages in a fight. No, all three of you do. Ash is out there, and there’s a possibility of him not being mind controlled any more. A good one, too. If you can’t find him, you have a good chance. If you can, it’s an even better chance.
“Right now, you’re the new Dragonets of Destiny. You’re the new Jade Winglet. You’re the new Pantalan heroes. You’re the heroes of this story. And you’re going to save Dragonia.”
“Wow,” Violet breathed, “How the heck does one get that good at speeches?”
“Well,” Jerboa answered, “I’ve had a long time to practice them.”
~ ~ ~
Peacemaker and Violet were right outside the SandWing palace. They had talked with Jerboa, and she gave them a weird circular communication device enchanted by her mother, Jerboa the first, thousands of years ago.
It was meant to help if they ran into serious trouble, but Peacemaker didn’t see the point, as they probably wouldn’t have time to use it. Anyway, maybe it would be helpful for one reason or another.
At least Jerboa had turned her hut invisible to enemies, so if Peacemaker and Violet failed, the good side would have a chance to live on.
“Alright. On one, we rush the guards,” Peacemaker whispered, “Ready?”
Violet hesitated. Then she nodded and unsheathed her sword. Peacemaker unsheathed his, too.
“Three,” Peacemaker whispered, “Two. O—”
Suddenly, he was cut off. Cut off by a very familiar voice saying, “Sup?” The voice laughed, and Peacemaker felt a chill down his spine. “Found you.”
== CHAPTER XI: CHAOS ==
:
Overlord
“The plan’s working, Subzero,” Overlord told her.
“That’s good.” Subzero sighed. “Do... do you wonder...”
“What is it?” Overlord asked, confused. Was she doubting the plan?
“I... I just don’t know if it’s worth it.”
“What!? Subzero, we talked about this! Remember what they did to us! 5,000 years! All we had to do was look at the near future and talk. Remember that 1,000 year period where we didn’t say a word because we were so sick of it all?”
“Overlord.” Subzero said softly, “You know as well as I do that it’s not the fault of the dragons alive now.”
Shattered STARS, Overlord hated it when she used that voice. “We deserve to rule the entire world, with what we’ve been through! There needs to be a purpose to our life, now that we’re back!”
“I know, Overlord. But... does anyone really have to die for it?” Subzero asked.
Overlord thought about that. He knew she was wrong… but he didn’t really know why. “Just... I don’t know. 5000 years, Subzero. And it would have been eternity if the IceWings and NightWings hadn’t been so dumb as to word their spell that way.”
“I don’t know... maybe you’re right.” Suddenly something seemed to occur to Subzero. “Do they know, um, that I’m not an animus? Peacemaker and that other dragon, I mean.”
“No, I don’t think so. Why?” She seemed to be changing the subject just to avoid an argument.
“I don’t know... I was just wondering.”
“Oh,” Overlord said. There was an awkward silence for a moment. “...Do you think Ash is almost back?”
“I don’t know. Are you sure my plan worked?” Subzero asked, “What if they really didn’t think we would come to Jerboa’s hut?”
“Yeah, Ash contacted me,” Overlord reassured her, “Even if I wasn’t sure, I think it was a great plan. The only reason it wouldn’t have worked is if they had been stupid, and in that case we wouldn’t have had much to worry about anyway.”
“Why aren’t we controlling them right now?” Subzero asked.
“Animus protection spell. That snotty animus prince is on it right now, trying to crack the spell.”
“Oh.” There was another awkward silence. This whole conversation was awkward. “Um, that’s good.” It sounded somewhat like a question, but probably only because she was feeling how awkward the discussion was too. But... why was it awkward? A lot of discussions with Subzero involving magic seemed to be awkward.
Could it be for an important reason? A reason he’d never known? No. Please, it had to be anything but that.
“Subzero, I feel like there’s something you’ve been hiding from me. Something you’ve always been hiding from me.”
“N-no. What a-are you t-t-talking about?” Subzero stammered, suddenly looking a lot more nervous.
“I don’t know. And that’s the problem,” He said. No no no, I have to be wrong!
“There’s nothing that I’m hiding from you, Overlord. What would it be?”
“Maybe a power. A power that I also have.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Maybe the reason that you’ve never let me make you an animus... is that I would know that you were an animus then.”
“Wh-what? No, of course not!” 
“Admit it, Subzero,” Overlord said, walking towards her and glaring, though inside he was screaming, NO! NO! I NEED TO STOP! I CAN’T PUSH HER AWAY LIKE THIS! “You’re an animus.”
The color (metaphorically) drained from Subzero’s face. She was shaking. She paused. Whether for a second, a minute, a day, or a year, Overlord would never know. “A-a-a... alright. I... I am.”
Overlord backed away. He didn’t know what to say. He knew it for sure now, but it certainly was no victory. And that was a huge, huge understatement. “Subzero... you should go.”
“Why? We can still be friends. This doesn’t matter. I just never wanted anyone to know, that’s all. Please, Overlord.” Her eyes glistened with tears.
“How can I trust you after this?” Overlord asked, “This ruins everything.”
“I... I thought you knew you could always trust me,” Subzero said, sounding so hurt that it tore Overlord’s heart apart, “Even if I hid this from you, I also hid it from everyone I’ve ever loved.”
“I thought I could trust you too. And I want to trust you, Subzero. But I can’t. Not after this. Just go. You trying to stay will only make things worse.” He knew he probably looked on the verge of tears too.
Subzero stiffened, and the sadness changed to something colder. Much, much colder. “I thought we were friends. I thought we were much, much more than friends. But if you would make this type of decision this fast, maybe we were never more than friends. Maybe we were never even friends in the first place.
“So, Overlord. I say this not as a friend, but as what we apparently are now. I say this as an enemy. Why should I go, and not you? We both want control of the world, and only one of us can get it after this.”
Overlord was shocked. So this is it, huh? This is where we finally are finished with each other. He looked down. “You said it yourself, Subzero. You don’t want the world as much as I do.” He looked up again and snarled, “Go. Now. Before we have to fight. I guarantee you, you won’t want your first fight with another animus to be against me.”
Subzero looked as completely shocked as she looked furious. She obviously hadn’t expected it to come to this level. “Alright. I’ll go now. You’re right. I guess I don’t think taking over the world is worth it if it requires controlling all these dragons. I’m sorry you think it had to be this way. I’m sorry you think we had to be this way. But you should be more careful what enemies you make, Overlord.”
And then she was gone. She had teleported away like Overlord had to do so often. Teleported away to who knows where. Overlord hadn’t wanted to make an enemy of her, but she had left him no choice. Now he would have to do this alone.
For the second time in his life, Overlord started crying.
~ ~ ~
Something he wouldn't learn until much, much later, was where Subzero had gone. She had gone to make use of her first enchantment ever, and one of her only enchantments ever.
Her earring. It allowed all enchantments that would be considered negative by the wearer’s original form to be cast off the wearer, no matter how the spell had been worded. That meant that any negative spell cast after the earring spell would be taken off of the wearer.
After that, Overlord would also learn the name of the dragon who Subzero intended to use it on, and he would, most certain of all, regret making an enemy of Subzero.
== CHAPTER XII: ENEMY ==
:
Ash
Kill them. They are threats to us.
The words swirled around in Ash’s head, again and again, as though they were actually present commands instead of past ones. He was relaxed. As long as he did what Overlord had said, he would be fine. It was so relaxing to not have to make his own worrying decisions.
But then, Ash felt a chill down his spine as he confronted Peacemaker and Violet. Literally. He turned around.
“Subzero? Why are you here?” Ash asked. He noticed that the guards that were supposed to be behind her had disappeared. “I am right in the middle of confronting these two...”
“I am here to right a wrong against you,” Subzero said cryptically, “Now hold still.” She took her earring off and moved it towards his ear.
Of course I will hold still. His body automatically obeyed, but he was still really weirded out. “What...”
Peacemaker and Violet were looking on in a mixture of shock and confusion.
Suddenly Ash felt a sharp pain in his ear, and much more than that. He felt... free. He was free of the spell. All the clouds, the thoughts of obedience, the relaxation he felt in obeying their orders without worry, all of that was swirling away, gone forever.
“Why did you do that? And why did you use an... earring?” He felt uncomfortable with the confused stares of Peacemaker and Violet on his back.
“This is the earring that protects me from animus spells. It overrides any weakly worded spells or spells that were cast after the spell on it.”
“Wow,” Ash said. Subzero took the earring off of him. “Wait, what did you do that for!? Why did you even free me of the spell in the first place!?”
Subzero said, “Taking the earring off doesn’t cancel out the protection it previously gave you. And I’m not ready to talk about why I helped you. As for Violet and Peacemaker, you can explain everything to them.” And just like that, she disappeared, leaving an extremely awkward-feeling Ash to explain what he knew to Peacemaker and Violet.
~ ~ ~
“So then Subzero just showed up, put an invulnerability earring on you for a second, took it off, teleported away, and you still don’t know why? That was really Subzero?”
“Yea,” Ash said.
Violet said, “So... we’re back together, then.”
“I guesso,” Ash responded, “Man that was horrible, being stuck under their control. And the worst thing was, they weren’t just controlling my body. It was my mind, too.”
Peacemaker and Violet looked horrified.
“Well, what did you expect? They are animi, after all. They can do almost anything they want.”
There was a heartbeat before Violet said, “Something just occurred to me. If they can do anything, why isn’t all of Dragonia under their control already?”
“Maybe animus magic is more limited than we think. Or maybe it has something to do with what just happened,” Peacemaker said.
Ash thought about that. Suddenly he remembered something. The prophecy! He needed to tell them about it. “Hey, guys?”
They both looked at him.
“You’re never going to believe this, but while I was in the palace, I heard a prophecy.” He started telling them about what had happened when he went in, and then backed up and told them about the Serpent thing, and then got back to the palace part, and then told them about what happened when he went in the main hall.
He told them about the prophecy. He thought he got a few things off, but not on the end.
“And I remember this really clearly, because it was the most shocking when I realized what it meant,
Out of the darkness three heroes emerge
To try to bring back the light
They may succeed, and if they do
They will be the second chapter of the fight.”
No one seemed to know what to say after that.
Finally Violet said, “I guess we really are the ones meant to stop them, then. Or maybe it’s not them now, just Overlord. You know, after what just happened.”
Ash was surprised at what Violet said. He hadn’t thought that maybe the two immortals were enemies now.
“What do you think ‘They will be the second chapter of the fight’ means?” Peacemaker asked.
“No idea,” Violet responded.
Ash asked, “And what about ‘The Order of Chaos’?”
“Well,” Peacemaker started carefully, “Maybe because they are spreading chaos al—”
Before Peacemaker finished answering, a small metal circle in Peacemaker’s hand made a clicking sound.
“What’s that?” Ash asked. He hadn’t noticed it before.
“It’s a communication device. Jerboa gave us it,” Peacemaker replied.
That’s right, they saw Jerboa. I wonder what else happened while they were there.
A voice spoke out of it, “Passcode?”
“Ignite,” Peacemaker said, “And why do we have a passcode again...? It’s not like it would help...”
“Wrong passcode,” The voice (Presumably Jerboa) said, “Ignite is not correct.”
“What? We don’t have another passcode!”
“Aaaaaaand you saying that is the best insurance I’ll get that your mind is still your own. Sounds untrustworthy, so you probably wouldn’t say it if you were untrustworthy. I have news. But first, what’s happening to you?”
“Well,” Peacemaker said, “So we were about to charge the guards...” He went on to tell Jerboa all the odd stuff that had happened, and about the prophecy.
“So you really found Ash?” Jerboa asked, still sounding guarded. Probably because of the still distinct possibility of them being mind controlled.
“Right here,” Ash said, “Also I found them, thank you very much.”
“Alright then. We have no time to lose, because the news I have is bad.”
“What is it?” Violet asked.
“The Sea Kingdom has fallen.” All three of them gasped at this.
“How did you find ou—”
“But that’s not all,” Jerboa interrupted, “Because the first pantalan kingdom has fallen. The Hive Kingdom.”
== CHAPTER XIII: FIGHT ==
:
Violet
Peacemaker dropped the device.
It shattered, the pieces flying everywhere.
There were guards stationed farther back than the ones Subzero had presumably gotten rid of. This did not escape their ears.
“Freeze!” They said, rushing over to where Violet, Peacemaker, and Ash were, behind a building.
Violet was the first to speak, “I don’t think so.” And then, just like that, the battle began.
At first it was just the two guards, and Ash and Peacemaker were tearing through them like knives through butter. Ash still had the platinum-steel spear, and it turned out that whoever made it had done a good job, as his guard was the first to fall.
But the guards had obviously called for reinforcements, because five more guards rounded the corner, and three more rounded the other corner. They were trapped.
Ash stabbed his spear into one guard, but another jumped him from behind, and Violet could no longer see him in the fray. Peacemaker was gaining many wounds, but Violet lost sight of him when the guards pushed him around the corner.
Violet was dealing with multiple guards of her own. And she had no weapons. It wasn’t exactly what you would call a fair fight... for them.
Yeah she had gotten a lot of battle training back in the Silk Kingdom.
Violet put her weight on her front talon, beating her wings for balance as she swung her back talons around and tripped the guard. She got back on the ground and tugged the spear from the guard’s talons with a front talon as she blocked a blow from another guard’s spear with her other front talon. It did draw a bit of blood, though.
She then preceded to stab both guards in the stomach hard with the spear, and nimbly rolled out of the way of an axe blow that she had barely seen coming from the guard behind her.
She took the other spear on the ground and fought against the guard with the axe. Now that she actually had some weapons, he was on the ground faster than you could say, “He was on the ground faster than you could say, ‘He was on the ground faster than you could say...’” Alright, nevermind.
Both Peacemaker and Ash were finishing up their guards. Ash finished the last one off with his talon, seconds before Peacemaker knocked the last one he was fighting unconscious.
All three of them were breathing heavily and bleeding in a few places. Suddenly they heard someone speak from behind them. “Well, if these guards are that incompetent, I’ll just have to deal with you three myself.”
They all whirled around. A SandWing was standing there with two swords.
“Ash?” Violet asked under her breath, “Do you know who this is?”
Ash responded, mirroring her volume, “He’s a snotty prince that abused his power and always was telling everyone that he deserved animus magic. I’ve only seen him once or twice, because he almost never came into The Scorpion Den. Honestly, I bet he would have sided with the immortals even without a spell.”
The prince overheard the last part and said, “I did. Though they said that I would immediately die if I betrayed them, which is unfair!” he whined, “They shouldn’t be able to tell me what to do! Though,” He added quickly in a scared voice, “I wouldn’t want to betray them. After all, they gave me these two awesome indestructible enchanted swords of awesome awesomeness!”
And with that, he lunged for them, and the next part of the battle began.
Despite all his acting like a little dragonet, the prince was clearly very skilled in combat. Even with all her training, Violet couldn’t make sense of the blur that was attacking them. The prince was twisting his swords every way, easily parrying all of their blows while landing plenty of his own.
It was almost like he could fully concentrate on both swords simultaneously. He landed a slash with his sword right on Ash’s chest, a few seconds later Peacemaker was almost missing his eye, and still in a few seconds Violet had a new scar on her wrist. All that and they had only given him a nick on the ear.
Oh, and also don’t forget that that was all without using his swords’ weird powerful waves of smoky purple magic, which started constantly slamming them against the wall when they came into play.
After much of this, and nothing really changing the tide of battle, the prince finally managed to knock the splitknife that Peacemaker was using three feet away. He didn’t hesitate, parrying Violet and Ash’s blows with one sword as he plunged the other straight into Peacemaker’s heart.
“NO!!!” Violet screamed, trying to stop the blow somehow. But it was too late. Peacemaker’s body crumpled to the ground.
Now in a blind rage, she made ridiculously hard blows, using up all her energy. This didn’t work well at all, and she soon had all too many cuts. She felt herself getting faint.
She realized she couldn’t go on like this, and she knew Ash wouldn’t stand a chance on his own if she fell. Wait... Ash! The bracelet! I need to get it off him!
She struggled to get to Ash while still defending. Trying to do this earned her a big cut across her face and a half-cut-off ear. She grabbed the bracelet.
Ash looked down to see what Violet was doing, but that caused him to almost get one of the prince’s swords in his stomach, so he looked back up and instead said, “What are you doing?!” To Violet.
“Your scales.” She said quietly, knowing that saying more was unnecessary.
She saw the prince charging up the purple magic in his sword for a big blast. But that will barely do anything, we’re right against the... she looked back, and saw that the wall was very far away indeed. Oh. They weren’t against the wall anymore. The prince must have been letting them advance little by little, so little that they didn’t notice it.
And then the blast came, sending Violet flying back. It was directed at her, so Ash stayed in place, but his wristband snapped off as the one gripping it was flung into the wall. The wristband shattered, and it felt like Violet’s head did too.
She was dimly aware of the blue-grey color of Ash’s scales returning, rippling out from his wrist as he shrunk to his normal size. The prince struck Ash with a sword, but it sparked and bounced off. He tried the other sword, but the same thing happened.
And then something extraordinary happened. The swords floated out of the prince’s hands, and suddenly angled themselves sharply toward Ash’s heart area. They rushed at it... and shattered.
“Wh-what?” The prince looked shocked, “Th-they aren’t s-s-supposed t-to break... t-t-they’re indistructible...”
Ash glared at him. “It’s time to get rekt.” And then Ash stabbed his tail into the prince’s heart.
Ash closed his eyes for a moment, as if to come to terms with the fact that he had just killed someone, and then rushed over to Violet’s side. “Are you okay?” He asked.
Violet was the opposite of okay. Her head felt like it was splitting apart.
Darkness pressed at the edges of her vision.
“I...
I ’ m
f i n e...”
And then the darkness pulled her down, and the world went black.
This chapter is dedicated to Daggadash, who gave me the idea for the prince.
== CHAPTER XIV: PRISON ==
:
Peacemaker
Peacemaker woke up. Or revived, or whatever you want to call it. As long as you didn’t call it comfortable.
He blinked, his eyes blurry. As they cleared, he looked around and saw stone walls. And metal bars. Oh gosh, are we in a prison cell?
Ash was sitting across from him, looking winded. Violet was next to Ash, unconscious.
“Did we... lose?” Peacemaker asked, his voice raspy. It was always like this after he had been dead. Like he had been dead for a million years instead of about an hour.
Ash’s head whipped toward the sound of his voice. “So you are alive!” He exclaimed. “I was wondering how your heart wasn’t beating... with you being immortal and all...” He blinked. “So... this is how it works for you, then? That’s horrible... I had no idea...”
“That I had to die in order to heal fatal wounds?” Peacemaker finished for him.
“Yeah,” Ash said. There was a moment of silence. “So, yeah, we lost. Apparently we’re in the RainWing prison, because, as none of the RainWings could try to fight, there’s no one to help us escape.”
“Or at least,” A creepy voice slithered from the across from them, making Peacemaker jump, “That’s what they thou—”
“Hold on,” Ash interrupted, “I’m getting to that part.”
“Who is that?” Peacemaker asked, “And why does his voice sound so weird?”
“That’s Serpent. He is immune to animus magic, which is why he is in here.”
“You told us about him, righ—”
“Yes. But before you ask anything else, I need to tell you why we are in here.” Ash interrupted
“Okay, why then?”
“So, when you were dead...” Ash explained Violet taking the bracelet off, her getting knocked against the wall, Ash killing the prince, and Violet going unconscious. Then he explained that more guards had swarmed him, and, even though they couldn’t injure him, he had been too worn out from the battle to fight them off.
Then he explained that they were in the RainWing prison, as none of the RainWings had managed to rebel, so they were less likely to escape there.
“So... it’s... over? We lost?”
“No,” Ash said in a quiet, but determined voice, “This isn’t it. We have a plan.”
“So...? What is it then?”
There was a sigh from the cell across from them. Peacemaker looked over weakly, and saw Serpent. Ash was right, that rattle looked weird.
Ash echoed the sigh. “Our plan’s not great, but it’s all we have. So, there is a guard here that is on the right side...” He continued on to explain the plan to Peacemaker. He was right, it wasn’t an ideal plan, and it counted on a lot of luck. They didn’t know if there were many dragons who would be willing to fight back. But they had to try.
“So there is a RainWing that actually manage—” He cut off as Violet stirred in the corner.
Her eyes fluttered open. They were clouded with pain, but they couldn’t be a more welcome sight for Peacemaker. “Where...” Violet didn’t look able to finish.
“I know,” Ash said to her quietly, “I thought we had won too.” He sighed. “I’m going to have to say all that again now.”
He told Violet everything that he had told Peacemaker, minus the part she had experienced too, in low tones. Violet looked a bit better by the time he finished, but she was clearly still in a lot of pain.
Peacemaker and Ash looked at her helplessly. Neither of them were medics, and even if they were, they didn’t have anything to use to help.
“So... what were you asking?” Ash said to Peacemaker eventually.
“I was saying, ‘So there is a RainWing that actually managed to shake off the mind control? Did they have an immunity spell or something?’”
“Oh,” Ash said, “The guard isn’t a RainWing. He was visiting the rainforest when the immortals took over.”
“What? Then what tribe is he?”
“Well... he’s of the one tribe that has no natural defenses. He’s a LeafWing.”
~ ~ ~
The LeafWing — Sycamore, as Peacemaker found out from Ash — was currently guarding them.
And he was also completely useless.
Seriously, a LeafWing? Couldn’t it have at least been a SilkWing, or something with a natural defense? LeafWings were absolutely useless in a fight. Sure, they were a pretty ferocious tribe, but their complete lack of battle abilities made them very venerable.
Literally any other tribe and Peacemaker would have been happy. He just couldn’t see how a LeafWing could lead a revolution. And plus, Sycamore didn’t have any immunity like the rest of them did. Even if he had broken out of the previous spell without it, who was to say the immortals — or maybe immortal, now — wouldn’t just word another spell better?
But Sycamore was also the only hope they had, so they would have to work around his limits.
“How much time until we do it?” Ash hissed at Peacemaker. For a moment, Peacmaker was confused — why would Ash think he knew? — before he realized Ash was actually talking to Sycamore, and making it look like he was talking to him so Sycamore didn’t get in trouble.
Sycamore hissed something back, too quiet for the guard next to him to hear and almost too quiet for them to hear. It took Peacemaker a second to decipher what he had said: “Tomorrow most of the guards will be on other assignments.”
Ash gave a barely perceptible nod, even though Sycamore wouldn’t have been able to see it.
The other guard tilted his head curiously, and Peacemaker held his breath as he turned to Sycamore.
“Did you say something?” The guard asked Sycamore.
“No,” Sycamore responded. He whipped around and barked at the three friends, “Hey, prisoners, why are you whispering?” Despite his words, he winked.
“We don’t want you eavesdropping on all of our conversations!” Peacemaker shot back, playing along.
“Yeah, mind your own business!” Ash said.
Violet said nothing.
“Hmph.” Sycamore said, winking one more time before turning around.
Peacemaker looked at Violet. She hadn’t said anything in a while. She looked distracted. Violet was looking at Sycamore with a strange expression on her face. It looked like... happiness, sadness, and a bit of confusion. But the happiness part wasn’t really like happiness. It was... strange. Plus, Peacemaker wasn’t even sure Violet could feel happiness anymore.
Oh well. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they were going to have one chance at escape tomorrow. The fate of the two continents of Dragonia rested on their shoulders.
They all looked at each other with a silent understanding. They were connected now, more or less. They were bound by their mission: save the world.
They were more than just three dragons with a mission who happened to bump into each other now. They were friends. They were united.
They hadn’t been in here long, but they weren’t planning to stick around any longer. They were doing this tomorrow, and they would either get out and destroy Overlord, or they would die trying.
More chapters coming soon!
Category:Literature
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Unfinished)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Wings of Fire