All Stars Fall

AN: This is my first fan fiction, and at the time I am writing this, we don't know where the city of the NightWings is. So I am just going to assume that it is in the current SandWing kingdom between the IceWings and the SkyWings. Sorry if this makes no sense.
Stella opened her eyes. Pale light streamed through her tiny window. She got up, today was the day. Stella was told yesterday that an odd object had been recovered by the SkyWing border. She barely knew what that meant, but all she knew was that she, and all other animus dragons, were needed in the great hall to learn about it. It was clearly enchanted, as the first dragon who touched it disappeared completely, and hadn't been seen since. Therefore, she had to wake up stupidly early just so that a few animus dragons could see what it is, and of course she had to be in attendance. Stella walked silently out of her room and into the hallway just outside her room. After being identified as an animus, she had been taken from her family, to live in the palace with the other animus dragons and royalty. She crept down the hall in the dragonet’s side of the palace. Stella really didn't want to wake up anyone. If she did... That would be the worst case scenario. All the other animus dragons were full grown, and she was constantly looked down on for that reason. As she approached the great hall, the hallway slowly got more and more crowded. Just as Stella approached the door and was about to open it, two guards stopped her. 
“Stop, only animus dragons get to go in here, sorry dragonet, you might have to wait a few years” The first guard said, sounding like he was on the verge of laughing. 
Stella quietly peered into his mind, seeing all his thoughts. ‘Haha, little dragon thinks she is all grown up, can’t wait until my friends hear about this!’
“Wait, isn’t she the little animus, Stella?” The other guard said, looking at her colleague with a expression something akin to ‘I told you so…’ Stella couldn’t help but grin at the first guard’s look of complete embarrassment. 
“It’s alright” Stella said quietly. “People mistake me for someone else all the time.” She noticed the guards looking at each other with something like fear in their eyes. Stella frowned, she went through four years of training to master both her habit of reading other dragons minds and seeing the future AS WELL as learning at control her animus ablates, and dragons were still afraid of her. 
As she walked in to the the room, one of the other animus dragons looked up at her. “Well, it seems only fair that our newest member gets the first try at the stone.” 
Stella froze. She had just finished her training a week ago, and they were already giving her a real task?
“Don’t worry.” one of the older dragons added. “We already removed the enchantment. It should be fine.”
 Something about her voice made Stella want to trust her, but the way she said ‘it should be fine’ caused Stella to realize that this might still not be safe. 
“I’m sure it’s fine”, Stella said, trying not to show how terrified she really is. “What do I have to do?” She added just as an afterthought. 
“Just try to re-enchant the stone to show us who enchanted it in the first place.” The first animus who spoke to Stella said. “It should be easy.” Now it just felt like he was judging her for being so young. Almost like he wanted her to fail. 
Stella carefully approached the stone. It glowed with a kind of purple light and glittered like a gem; she almost wanted to touch it…She yanked her claw backwards. Something felt wrong about this stone. Almost like it was being perfect and beautiful on purpose, trying to get some poor dragon to fall into its trap. At least, that would make the most sense. She carefully wrapped her talons around the stone. She felt a small fragment of the enchantment, obviously left so they could find who did this. She pushed at that fragment, trying to see it a bit more clearly… And something happened. Purple light shone all around her, making it impossible to see anything in great detail, but what she did see was the great hall filling with people, the other animus dragons panicking and at the same time, trying to calm everybody down. Then it felt like something was ripping her apart. Stella screamed, but no one helped her, they all were just looking at her with something like horror in their eyes. Then there was a bright flash of light, and everything around Stella disappeared. 
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Stella woke up. Everything around her was completely devoid of all colour. It was all a different shade of grey. “Hello?” Stella called. But somehow she knew she was alone. Stella tried to see if she could read anyone’s mind, maybe that would help her. But there was nothing. How could Stella have done this? Re-activating the stone… And worse. She was alone, and trapped in this… this… place. She didn’t even really want to call it a place. Stella started flying, something was wrong. Everything about this place seemed to scream at her. She landed next to a pile of… something. It was completely dark and shadowy, but something about it felt wrong. Like it wasn’t meant to be there. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt sort of soft, and slightly like a dead sheep oddly enough. She leaned on it and closed her eyes… AND THEN IT MOVED. Stella’s eyes shot open and she scrambled away from it. The thing stood up and began to slowly step towards Stella. It looked like a giant scavenger and it had no face. Stella didn’t know what feature scarred her the most, the fact that it was walking towards her, or the fact that it didn’t have eyes and yet it still knew where she was. 
Who are you?
 She heard its voice, but she never saw it speak. It seemed to speak inside her mind. Stella shuddered.“I… I’m… I’m Stella…” She was terrified. 
Stella… It smiled, showing the only facial feature that Stella had seen, teeth. Lots and lots of sharp teeth. Well little star, how far did you have to fall to end up here?
Stella ran. She stumbled, flew and fell so many times she lost track. But as she ran she heard its voice again. Don’t worry little star, you will come back, asking for my help. They aways do.
After what seemed like days, but was probably more around four hours, Stella stopped running. She collapsed on the ground, crying. Everything finally sank in. She was trapped, alone with no one to talk to, except for that thing. The Shadow. Stella didn’t know how long she would be here, maybe her family and friends might help her. They had to. Right? What if they didn’t? More importantly, where was she? How did she get here? Stella only knew one thing that might know the answer to her questions. But she couldn’t face that thing again. The Shadow said that she would come back to it. And The Shadow might be right. 
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The next time Stella woke up, she decided that every time she went to sleep she would just say it was night, and when she woke up it would be morning. That was the best thing she could do for herself. Try to make it more normal. Even if there were no moons, nor a sun, she could still try to maintain her sanity. So she paused, and thought about going and talking to The Shadow, and thought about its teeth. After that, she put talking on hold and went for a walk. 
There wasn’t much to see. Flat land, if you could call it land, spread out in every direction, with nothing but some hills in the distance. Stella could just barely see something pale, mounded in a small pile. She approached it carefully, remembering how she met The Shadow, but when she looked at it more, it was bones. She gently lifted the skull. The bones were fresh, only about a day old Stella thought. Then she jolted backwards and dropped the skull. The bones were from a NightWing. And… they had markings on them?
 Stella traced a claw along the markings. The carvings showed a path of flowers, leading to a tree that glowed. But whatever it meant, it reminded her of home. They had a large tree in their courtyard. And sometimes it looked like it was glowing in the moonlight, with all the flowers around it… That was it! What if the tree was a type of portal and Stella could go home? She lifted the skull again, trying to remember what the courtyard looked like. She had already been in this place to long. But then she heard a voice. 
Sorry little star, but you won’t find answers by looking at some old bones. Stella froze, slowly dropping the skull she turned around. The Shadow was right behind her, but with a creature this big, how didn’t she feel breath? Why didn’t it breathe?
“My mother used to call me that” Stella said, barely a whisper.
Did she? I would say thats interesting, but its really not.
“Did… Did you kill this dragon?” Stella couldn’t think. She was terrified, enraged and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
No little star, I don’t kill. But it would be a shame to waste the bones. Look, I am not your enemy, and I’ll prove it, I can answer any question you have.  But was that really what Stella wanted? Sure, she was thinking about it yesterday, but what would the answers mean?
“Okay, prove it. What is this place?” Stella still couldn’t think about whether or not she wanted to know the answer.
Limbo. It responded. Time is much slower here, and there isn’t much else except the ground. So that means… How long has it been? If she asked that, did she really want to know?
“Then how do dragons get here? And what are you?”
Thats two questions, but I can answer the first one. There is a stone. No one knows who enchanted it, or why. All that is known is that it leads here. And there is only one known way to escape. It was leading her away from her second question. Almost like it didn’t want her to know what it really was, but it was offering what she had wanted since she got here, a way out.
“Then what is it? How do I escape?” If it had a face, Stella would think it was cringing.
A path of flowers, then a tree. It should be the same on the other side. The only thing is, even being here taxes any animus. Thats why you saw the other dragon dead. The Limbo was feeding on its life force, instead of animus gift. So if you leave, you might have already lost your soul. Even if you do find the tree, someone on the other side must burn their tree at the same time as you step into the light. No one has made it yet. Stella had a choice, stay here for all eternity, or risk killing everyone and die herself. But she hadn’t been here that long, right?
“Ill try it.” Stella once again could almost see it cringing. “But one more thing, why are you helping me?” She honestly wanted it to be a reasonable answer. Like ‘you’re interesting,’ or something like that.
I am bored. I have absolutely nothing to do with my time little star. But don’t be so self assured. You have been here longer then you think.
“How long have I been here?” Oh moons. What if she didn’t want to know the answer? It had been days, but what was it like back in Pyrrhia?
About 300,000 years. Little star, how lost are you? How far did you fall? Stella stumbled backwards. This couldn’t be right… How? All her friends… Her family… All dead? The news sank into the pit of her stomach like a rock. She had nothing left to lose.
“Let’s do this. My life can’t get any worse.” The Shadow smiled. A big, terrible smile.
Oh little star, you would be surprised how terrible things can get.
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They had walked for days, and The Shadow kept making Stella more and more uncomfortable.  It started with little things, like talking about the odds of anyone saving her. Then the bigger things started. Like ordering her around, telling her how she did everything wrong, most of all, saying how long she might be stuck here, and that her mother, father, brother and all of her friends have died already, and been dead for a long time. But Stella knew that she needed its help to escape this limbo, and it was better then going insane alone. Now she could go insane in the company of a sadistic, power-crazy, scavenger-like-shadow-beast with no sense of humour or boundaries as to what it said. The ‘days’ and ‘nights’ dragged on and on until The Shadow found the first flower. It was a dark purple, and had about the same look as the stone, but it was the first thing with colour on it Stella had seen what felt like for days for her, but really had to be millions and millions of years.
“Is that it? The first flower?” Stella asked. She wanted it to be the fifth flower or something. The Shadow had said that it was a long way to the first flower, and a longer way to the tree from there.
Patience little star. Now fly and scout ahead. I could keep up if you weren’t slowing us down by stoping and talking. Wow, it really was acting different. At first Stella thought it was just hallucinations. She didn’t know how crazy she was. Stella pushed off the ground. She flew higher and higher, until the first flower was just a small dot on the ground. But then she saw the second flower, and the third, and forth, until a pattern became noticeable. The flowers were set up in a spiral, and at the centre was a tree. The first thing Stella noticed was how large it was. Some of its branches were level with her face even as she flew. Stella landed on one of the branches lightly, feeling it sway a bit. She looked down, The Shadow was no where to be seen. That was odd, it had said it could keep up with her, but where was it? Stella dropped down from the tree, enjoying the fall for a bit before she spread her wings. She glided down, but just as she landed there was a noticeable popping sound and The Shadow appeared. Not that it was just hiding somewhere, it just teleported.
“How did you do that?” Stella asked.
Do what? The shadow almost seemed as if it was avoiding the subject, like the time Stella asked what it was.
“Teleport, duh. How did you do that?”
I did no such thing. I was waiting here for a long time, why did you take that long little star? There it was again. That name. ‘Little star”. Why did it make her so upset? And if it meant so much to her, why couldn’t she remember it? But whatever it was, the longer she thought about it, the more a cold feeling in her stomach settled in.
“Whatever, how do I get back to Pyrrhia?”
Pyrrhia, huh. So thats what they are calling Terra now.
“Um… I never heard of this Terra place, but how did you not know about Pyrrhia? I thought I wasn’t the only one to end up here?”
You have to understand little star, do you really think that every dragon who comes through the portal is in the mood to talk to a… How did you put it. ‘A sadistic, power-crazy, scavenger-like-shadow-beast with no sense of humour or boundaries as to what it says’? What. She didn’t say that, she thought that. But that would mean…
Yes little star, you seem to have caught on. I can read your thoughts, how do you think I communicate? 
Well that would explain why it had no boundaries as to what it said.
“JUST TELL ME HOW TO GO HOME!” She really didn’t expect to start yelling, but all the anger and frustration of being here for thousands of years really took its toll. Stella started crying suddenly, her eyesight was blurred by tears, but it looked like The Shadow was smiling. But she couldn’t think why.
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The next time Stella woke up, The Shadow was just sitting there, staring at the tree.
“Hello sadistic, power-crazy, scavenger-like-shadow-beast with no sense of humour or boundaries as to what it says.” If it could call her ‘Little Star,’ she could do one better.
Do you still want to go back, after your… ‘meltdown’ before you went to sleep?
Wow. That was harsh.
“Yes, how do I get someone to burn the tree? If it is still there, that is?”
It will aways be there. Other dragons who have not been in limbo might not see it, though. Well that was a problem. If no other dragon had ever escaped, then how would they be able to set her free?
“ So they would have no clue as to what I would be talking about. Then why did you say escape was possible?” She was getting angry, if it had lied to her…
Calm down little star. They would just see it as a normal tree. And the only way you can get them to burn it, is to speak with them in there dreams. Really. Was that seriously the only way? She could only talk to SandWings, SkyWings, MudWings or other NightWings. They were the only dragon tribes who could breath fire.
“But how would I… visit their dreams” it sounded ridiculous.
You should be able to figure it out if you are as good as you should be with your powers. Seriously, what was its problem? But she tried anyways, closing her eyes and trying to reach out to another dragon, not caring about the tribe quite yet. But nothing happened. She tried again, but still, nothing happened. Stella opened her eyes.
“I… I can’t do it.” But why? It just couldn’t be done.
WHAT! It made a sound like a dragon roaring, and dying at the same time. A terrible, bone chilling sound. You need to do this. NOW. The transition from it screaming to a deathly calm was to terrifying.
“BUT I DONT KNOW HOW.” Stella didn’t think that yelling was going to solve anyone’s problems, but it felt better then just speaking.
Then move closer to the tree. You really should have learned this when you were younger. I did. So the sadistic, power-crazy, scavenger-like-shadow-beast with no sense of humour or boundaries as to what it says was an animus. Huh.
“Alright. I’ll try it.” She slowly approached the tree. It did glow, but not in the same way as the stone. The stone seemed sort of inviting, where the tree seemed to be begging to be left alone. Stella flew up to one of the branches. Lying down, she closed her eyes again and tried to reach out to any dragon who was sleeping. Then there was a sort of ripping sensation, and she was somewhere with so many colours, it was blinding. There was a RainWing with her, looking at a many coloured butterfly with an expression of boredom. Not something Stella would ever look down upon. This place was beautiful. So many colours…
“Um… hello?” The RainWing said. Stella blinked, then decided that maybe she should just respond.
“Hey, uh… Where am I?” Wow. She sounded really stupid.
“The Rainforest, duh. Where else would I be? But who and what are you?” The last question seemed to Stella like they were admiring her. Huh.
“I am Stella, a NightWing, and I really need your help!” She was stammering over her words at this point. It was really great to be talking to another dragon after all these years.
“Calm down…” The RainWing shifted its scales to look like Stella’s. An effect that she found unnerving. “Just slow…”
They were cut off when a giant mango fell off a tree and crushed them, then Stella woke up. When she told The Shadow about this, it grinned, something that still freaked out Stella.
Try again little star, remember, it HAS to be a dragon that can breath fire.
So she tried, over and over. And most of the time she got RainWings, who tried to calm her down. Once she got a SeaWing who just kept staring at her, but then she eventually got a SkyWing. He was having a dream where he was just flying. Stella found it boring, but she needed help.
“HEY. Could you land?” Her voice seemed to take him off guard, and he almost fell.
“Uh… Hi? I’m Prometheus, and you are?” He stuck out his talon, almost as if he wanted to shake, but he was to afraid.
“I’m Stella. And I need your help.” She aways said that whenever she met someone in a dream. But this dragon seemed to be more interested in whatever he was doing. Which was normal for Stella.
“Yah, give me a second… And DONE!”
Stella stared at what he shoved under her snout. It seemed to be some kind of soup, but she wasn’t sure. “Uh… What is that?” It had odd lumps and smelled like a fish.
“Soup, duh.” Whatever this thing was that he made in a dream, it wasn’t soup.
“Well, all I need you to do is to burn down a tree in the desert. It should be near the SandWing/IceWing border and sounded by stones. Can you do that?” All Stella could think was how her life might just be in this dragons claws, and now, he was looking useless.
“Um… Sure? Might I ask why?” Here was the worst question he could have ever asked. But he did ask it, so Stella tole him her entire story. At the end of it he looked stunned. “And you want… Me. A useless”, There, he admitted it.”Chef who can’t even make a soup in a dream to help save your life?”
“Well, I might not die, just go insane, but yes. That’s the gist.” He looked so sad and confused. Oh no Stella thought. He is going to say no, isn’t he?
“Sure. I’ll go tomorrow.” Stella thought as long as the tree was burning, she could go through the portal, if not… she would never leave. But then Stella realized that her sleep schedule. It never changed. She aways woke up just before the moons set. Or at least, she hoped.
“Just set it on fire just as the moons set, ok? We only get one chance.” Now he looked scared.
“Ok. I’ll do that.” She might get a chance to leave. This was amazing!
“Ill see you soon, hopefully.” She had to get back. But then he smiled, and she smiled before she knew it. Wow. One dream and she was going soft. Stella’s wings twitched. She didn’t know what it meant, but something told her that she should leave the dream now. “Goodbye” She managed to say before she woke up, falling off her branch with The Shadow standing on it.
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Stella fell. She saw the ground, and realized that she might not be able to stop her fall in time. But if that happened, what would that do to her? Would she die? Stella almost wanted to let herself fall, just to find out. Almost, but not quite. She spread her wings, almost hitting the ground, but managing to glide into the worst landing she had ever made since she was a dragonet. The Shadow seemed to flow off the branch and onto the ground. Stella reminded herself that all she had to do was survive until Prometheus burned down the tree, then she could go.
“How did you know I got someone to open the portal? Was that all you used me for? Or were you just planning on killing me?”
Oh little star, you forget, I hear thoughts, remember? Back when we weren’t trying to stop each other from going through the portal? Wait, stop each other? Sure, The Shadow probably didn’t want her to leave, but what if it got through? Would she really let that happen? No. She wouldn’t, it was right. She had to stop it.
“But why do you need me? I am sure that you could visit dreams on your own, right?”
Yes, but a dragon responds better to a dragon then something like me. Stella saw the tree begin to glow, and leapt through without a second thought. Only when she was on the other side, did she think that maybe she should have made sure that the Shadow had been unable to cross first. But it was to late. Something cold settled in the pit of her stomach. And Stella felt hollow. She trembled, looking around herself, at her old home, all gone. But she couldn’t cry. She tried and she couldn’t. What was wrong with her?
“Stella?” There was a small voice; she couldn’t tell where it came from. “Is a massive scavenger made out of smoke meant to appear?” Oh right. The Shadow. Something colder settled in on her. Stella hated The Shadow. So what would she do? Stella stumbled forward. Towards The Shadow and towards the tree. The fire was already going out, and to her surprise, she saw it growing back. Where charred bark had been, leaves bloomed. But Stella didn’t care.
“You will never get to see this land. You will be in limbo forever. I promise you that much.” Stella felt like they weren’t her words, but she couldn’t tell why.
“Stella?” There was the small voice. She still couldn’t tell why she kept hearing it. But she dived to the bottom branch of the tree, snapping off a branch. Stella stared at it for around 6 seconds, then flew back up to The Shadow as it still struggled to cross the portal.
“You will never get to be happy. You will stay in limbo forever.” Still, they didn’t sound like her words.
You can’t hurt me little star. You would have never done that before. Have you yet seen how far you have fallen? That sentence, why did it hurt her so much? The stick she had glowed an erie purple, and the air around it crackled with energy. The cold feeling grew larger, until she couldn’t feel anything.
“I have enchanted this branch to kill you, how does that make you feel?” The Shadow wasn’t smiling now. Stella through the branch and The Shadow fell back. Screaming. But then Stella saw something odd. All around The Shadow, limbo disintegrated. Until, all that was left was The Shadow. It was still screaming, but slowly, particles of light flowed through the portal and around Stella. She slowly realized what she had done and shuddered. Crying finally. But as The Shadow disappeared, in its place was a small purple egg. The fire was dying, and the egg might be destroyed, so Stella flew s fast as she could and got the egg, bringing it back with her just as the fire went out. She placed it on the ground and out of it came a tiny scavenger made out of smoke. It looked up at Stella then disappeared.
“Stella?” Still, he never shut up. Stella turned around to see Prometheus and a lot of other dragons staring at her. She guessed you couldn’t defeat a sadistic, power-crazy, scavenger-like-shadow-beast with no sense of humour or boundaries as to what it says without attracting attention. “What did you just do?”
“I killed a shadow.” She said before walking off in the direction of the SkyWing border. There was something she had to check.
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Prometheus followed her, but he was really starting to get on her nerves.
“Oh! You should meet Queen Ruby, she is amazing, and I am sure she would get you to the rainforest where you could be with the rest of your tribe, and Queen Glory might be interested in your story and maybe you could visit the SkyWing palace!” Wow. He could talk.
“I think I just have to see this first…” Stella trailed off, there it was. What dragons had originally thought to be a stone, was in reality, an egg. It glowed with the same purple light as the first time she saw it, but this time there was no enchantment. Limbo was destroyed. She picked it up, ignoring Prometheus as he bombarded her with questions along the lines of ‘whats that?’ But she knew that even with it being an egg, it wouldn’t ever hatch. Because there was no more limbo, and the last one had already hatched. So she put it in the first cave Stella found and left it there for someone else to find and ponder over. She had a life now. She might not have any idea what or who any of the dragons Prometheus listed were, but she could find out.
She had fallen. But she honestly didn’t care how far, she could aways come back.
AN: So... That was it! Any and all fan art would be appreciated, and please comment what you think I could improve on. Also: DONT EDIT PLEASE. 
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Content (Pandora32)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)