Burning Copper (WOF Fanfic)

This a (VERY, VERY SHORT) fanfic (that might become a full story maybe) on what I believe the scavengers' POV could have been when Peril passed them on page 119-120, chapter 9, Escaping Peril. Yes, I live to go into POVs or minor characters in minor scenes. Don't judge me.Contents
#Prologue
#Chapter 1
#Chapter 2
#Chapter 3
#Epilogue
== Prologue ==
Peril didn't quite realise that she was still in pain from the thorn balls until she was up in the air again, flying with muscles that protested with tiny sparks of agony. She gritted her teeth, determined to ignore it until it went away.
She spent the rest of the morning flying into the desert, chasing down a desert fox (who escaped into a hole and was kind of too cute to eat anyway), and then catching a large white bird in midair and eating that instead. She also set fire to a tall cactus because it was giving her a superior look and she felt like it. One advantage of a desert: she didn't have to worry about forest fires or accidentally scorching a field of SkyWing crops or whatever other reasons the queen always had for keeping her in the palace.
THE queen. I do still think of her that way. Qibli's voice kept going around in her head, which was VERY annoying and made the next cactus over look like tempting kindling as well.
"Isn't Ruby your queen now?" Well... yes, technically, but how could you swear loyalty to a queen who didn't even want you in her kingdom?
How could anyone feel loyalty to a queen who clearly just wanted you dead?
Peril swerved to fly back toward Possibility and saw a huddle of camels a short ways off, to the south. Maybe a camel would make her feel beter.
But as she came closer, she saw that the camels were tied to a palm tree and surrounded by bustling scavengers - at least ten of them, setting up tents and scooping water from a small oasis pond.
They all went gratifyingly still when she shot overhead. She studied their upturned faces, which looked like they were mostly eyes. Terrified eyes. She'd never seen such dopey prey; what were they doing out in the open desert, where it would be so easy to catch and eat them?
She'd never eaten a scavenger before. Queen Scarlet always saved them either to fight in the arena or be served at special banquets, which Peril was never invited to, because blah blah setting the guests on fire would be unhospitable blah blah blah.
She circled around again, trying to decide how hungry she was. As she did, she spotted one scavenger sitting apart from the others, a little ways up the nearest dune. This one wasn't looking up at Peril. Its shoulders were slumped and its head was buried in its little brown arms, so all Peril could see was a thicket of dark fur on top of its head, a sand-coloured cloth wrapped around it, and two little brown feet sticking out.
It looked... sad.
That's hilarious, Peril thought. Do camels get sad? Do mountain goats mope? Does a hawk ever have a day where it feels like none of the other hawks want to be friends with it?
Maybe I should burn up the other scavengers and see if that makes this one feel better. She thought about that for a moment, but there was something about the curve of the scavenger's back that was almost too achingly familiar, and in the end Peril turned around and flew away, leaving the scavengers and camels to deal with their own problems.
----
== Chapter One ==
"I know, Pond, I'll be fine," Wolf told his sister, taking her hands in his. "Valor isn't so far away. Me and the others will be able to get there safely. Also, you know that Sword gave me permission to go."
"Yes, I know," Pond said anxiously, "but Big Bro isn't always right. What if he accidentally sent you to your death? Or you run into that big orange dragon who's been seen flying over all of Pyrrhia? Or you run into that mountain full of dragons, or into any desert or mountain dragons, or-"
"I'll be fine!" Wolf repeated, pumping her arms up and down and pulling his sister into a hug. "I've been trained to hide from dragons."
"But the Indestructible City is so far..." Pond faltered, then pulled away. "Fine, you can go. But you'd better come back, because if you don't, I will personally beat Sword up and then throw him to the swamp dragons."
Wolf laughed at this and backed away, closer to the doorwar. "Don't worry about me, Sis. I can look after myself. You should know that of all people."
Pond sighed. "Well, see you, Wolf."
"See you!" Wolf stepped out of the door and made his way to the stables, which held multiple camels and horses. The other traders who were going to Valor with Wolf had chosen camels, as Valor was closer to the desert.
"Do you have enough coins for the six camels?" Wolf asked Myrtle, who was leaning against one of the largest camels. Myrtle was to pay at least thirty coins for the camels, so Wolf wouldn't blame him if he didn't have enough.
"Yep, I have around eighty," Myrtle replied, gesturing to the small silver disks on the wooden desk at the far ends of the stables. At the back of the stand Wolf could distinctively see the hunched figure of an elderly man, bent over, maybe counting his money or something.
"Great!" Wolf exclaimed. "Who's going on the camels and who isn't?"
"We have some carts that the camels will pull," Snowdrop explained from Myrtle's other side. "So we can put our goods in there and also carry the other six."
Wolf nodded and watched as Myrtle climbed up on one, then Snowdrop on another, and three other travellers on other camels. Wolf then clambered up one of his own, which was the smallest, since Wolf was the youngest trader here.
The other six people climbed into the carts and the traders exited the Indestructible City from the - precarious - stairs. It was dangerous, but pretty much the only way in and out of it.
Soon they set off to the southwest, in the direction of Valor, and stopped every now and them for the camels to drink from puddles or pools or small ponds nearby. Wolf was partly leaning against his camel's neck, partly driving it onward with the occasional reminder from Meadow, who was sat in the cart being pulled by Wolf's camel, to steer it. Otherwise the journey to Valor was pretty relaxing.
A few hours later they grew precariously close to reaching the underground town, so stopped for a moment. They rested near a giant mountain with a stream nearby, and one of the travellers, a slightly older man by the name of Redwood who was Snowdrop's older brother, cautiously stepped out from their shelter with his camel so they could both get a drink.
"Don't worry about me, Snowdrop," he waved to his sister, who stared out at him, anxiety in her eyes. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Snowdrop asked. "This mountain looks really familiar."
"Yes, I'll be all right. Don't you worry, Sis."
Wolf decided to poke his head out as well, glanced at the mountain, and remembered what mountain it was, and agreed with Snowdrop.
Jade Mountain.
The mountain swarming with dragons.
Or... Dragon Mountain.
"REDWOOD!" Wolf yelled as a shadow passed over them. The shadow of what looked like a desert dragon, but when Wolf looked up, its scales were golden, it had no tail stinger, and its eyes, which were scanning the mountain, were greenish.
The same green eyes locked on the tiny human and camel, who were drinking from the river, and swooped down low, low, low...
"What?" Redwood asked, only to look up and see the dragon swooping down to him. "Oh, wings above. Oh no."
Wolf couldn't watch. He flinched away at the last second.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A burst of wind swept into Wolf's face, stinging his eyes even though they were closed.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.. Whoosh... Whoosh....
The wingbeats faded into the distance. Wolf dared to turn back.
Redwood and the camel were gone, and the dragon had taken them with it.
----
== Chapter Two ==
"REDWOOD!" Snowdrop screamed, trying to run out to the river. Myrtle grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
"Snowdrop, Snowdrop, he's gone! We can't get him back now."
Wolf felt himself trembling and shook out his hands, trying to stop himself, but that only made him tremble more. He turned to Myrtle, who said, "I didn't realise this was Dragon-Infested Mountain. Come on, we'd better go before we lose anyone else."
So they did. They set off over the mountains and made camp next to a cluster of palm trees, which surrounded a small oasis, in the desert, and tied the camels to the trunks. A few of them filled buckets with water, then bathed in the oasis before getting out again. Wolf could see that all of them were shaken, Snowdrop especially, now that her bigger brother had been taken by the dragons. And they were only, what, three days into their journey? Hopefully they'd reach Valor soon.
Wolf knew that he should mourn for redwood as well, but had it really not been expected? They lived on a dragon-inhabited continent, after all. Things like that were bound to happen. Surely he should worry more about his own life than others'. Right?
Whatever.
He let his camel have a drink from the oasis and then settled down in the shade of one of the palm trees. The others started to set up tents while Snowdrop seated herself halfway up the dune nearest to them. She buried her head in her dark hands, her short hair with reddish-orange highlights made with henna.
Wolf wondered if he should go and comfort her, but then thought that he should probably leave her to mourn on her own.
Suddenly, the sun fell.
Wait, no - it didn't fall. Wolf and all the others - except for Snowdrop - slowly lifted their heads up to see an oddly vibrant copper-coloured mountain dragon with orange veins in her wings flying overhead, circling around them. Perhaps it was wondering whether to eat them.
Wolf hoped not. He was already fearful enough as he was - he didn't want to witness another person get taken by a dragon.
The weird mountain dragon set her eyes on Snowdrop, and that was when Wolf realised - the dragon's eyes were blue. Like the colour of the sky just before the sunset started to show, or maybe it was after it disappeared.
Weird. He remembered the desert dragon with green eyes from earlier before, and how its scales had been golden, too. But this dragon's scales were more of an orange-red colour, like someone was burning copper.
That was when Wolf realised that its wings - they were smoking. In fact, its whole body looked like it was on fire. But how was that possible? How could a dragon be on fire yet not be in pain?
Eventually, after a while, the burning mountain dragon flew away, and Wolf let out a breath of relief that he hadn't even realised he was holding.
----
== Chapter Three ==
"That was lucky," Myrtle said, relief clear in his voice. "We could have all died then!"
"Did anyone else see that?" Wolf asked, still bewildered at the dragon's burning scales.
"See what?" Tropic asked from where she was digging a hollow on the sand that she could put her bucket in.
"That dragon's scales," Wolf said. "They looked like they were on fire."
Meadow said, "Oh, yeah, I remember that, too. It was so weird. And did you see its eyes? And scales?" She shuddered a little. "Creepy."
"I agree," Wolf said, "and if we don't want to be spotted, I'll go with the carts and one of the camels and bring our goods to Valor."
"Hmmm," Myrtle pondered as they all turned to him. Then he sighed. "All right, all right, you can go. But be back by morning."
Wolf nodded. "Of course," he replied and took the five remaining carts - painfully he remembered Redwood - as well as the biggest two camels there. He then attached three carts one, two to the other, and rode off toward Valor, his other hand holding the second camel's bridle. He managed to find the hidden village, went inside, and traded in the money and treasure for even more money and treasure. All the while, his heard was thudding fearfully.
Eventually he returned and split the treasure between the eleven - Snowdrop eventually came to her senses - and all of them made their way back to the Indestructible City. Only once were they seen again, but that dragon also left them alone, so they arrived home safe and sound.
When he entered their house, Sword and Pond were both awaiting his arrival, and both of them also gave him big hugs. They begged him to tell them what happened, so he did, from the moment they left, to the moment they returned.
----
== Epilogue ==
A flash of gold. Kind grey-green eyes. The splash of water. Then the feeling of being dropped down onto sand, the sound of ocean waves bringing him to his senses.
He watched the golden dragon wave him good-bye before flying away. That gave him hope. The dragon hadn't eaten him, so surely there were some good ones in the world?
Redwood set off to Jade Mountain once more.
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)