The Cyanide War

Minor warning, so far there is a bit of violence in this fanfic
== Cover ==
Base and background by Joy Ang, Basefill by BirbShibeZeFool (Me)
I might not use the background, I might use a background made by someone on the official wiki
== Prologue ==
A scream ripped through the blanket of silence that had been laying heavily over the forest. A RainWing-SeaWing hybrid dragon’s head shot up, their gaze scanning the forest.
What was that? They thought uneasily. They took a step back, and then shook their head, bracing themself. They strode forward, cautiously, in the direction of the scream. After a little bit of traveling, the dragon tripped over a large shape laying on the ground. They nearly passed it, but something held them back. They paused, gazing at the dark lump. With a startled jolt, they realized what it was.
A body.
Blood soaked the ground from a deep gash along the neck.
They gasped, stumbling backwards.
There was something familiar about the wounds. Almost a mark, something they had never seen before and yet knew exactly what it was from.
They knew the stories.
A bright colored dragon, cyan and pink. Almost like a ghost.
It was back.
They had to warn everyone.
They ran in the direction they thought was the nearest settlement. Soon, they stumbled into a neat little town tucked into a valley in the mountains.
A MudWing that was sweeping the streets paused in her work, squinting at the hybrid dragon. Hybrids weren’t unusual, as the tribes were quite friendly with each other at the moment, with no wars going on.
“Eh?” The MudWing rumbled, taking a few steps toward them.
“It—it’s back,” they wheezed. “Cy…” They collapsed, panting.
The MudWing’s face went pale. “Oh, mother of snakes, that’s bad. That’s really, really bad.”
“Warn… everyone,” they panted. “Before… it sets… the tribes against… each other.”
The MudWing sped off, screeching the news. The hybrid dragon closed their eyes, slipping into peaceful blackness.
.   .   .
They woke up later, with the MudWing fiddling with a small jar of something next to them.
“You’re awake. That’s good,” The MudWing sighed. “I’m Caiman. What’s your name?”
“Stream.” They answered, propping themselves up on their talons.
“So. About The Demon.”
Yes. The Demon.
It was back.
And it was only a matter of time before It destroyed the world.
== Chapter 1 ==
The light wind whistled through the few palm trees, kicking up a small amount of sand and sending it swirling into the sky, and the desert’s heat beat down on the sandy terrain. A large oasis sparkled in the light.
A greenish-blue and purplish-blue SeaWing burst out of the clear water, shaking her wings furiously.
“Come on!” She yelled. “It feels amazing!”
A SandWing with a dark back, speckles, and small triangles along scales on his side sat up, dropping the bowl he was cleaning.
“I dunno,” he sighed. “I don’t really want to be super wet…”
“Oh, stop being like that. You know you want to,” The SeaWing teased, flicking water onto the SandWing with her tail.
“Ack! Jellyfish! Stop!” The SandWing yelped, covering his face with his talons.
“Come on, Quinoa!” Jellyfish grabbed the SandWing’s wrist and pulled him into the water. Quinoa floundered about, before popping up above the surface of the water.
“Arrgh. Okay, fine, it does feel amazing,” Quinoa admitted when Jellyfish surfaced next to him.
“See? Told you.” Jellyfish smiled, splashing Quinoa again.
“Hey!” Quinoa cried. He slammed his talons into the water, causing a fountain of water to fall upon Jellyfish. Jellyfish smiled and ducked under the water. She popped up underneath Quinoa and shoved him upwards out of the water.
“AAAAAAAAAAH!” He yelped, crashing back down. He floundered towards the shore, climbing up the beach, and fell over.
Jellyfish hopped out of the water after him, and shook her wings. She trotted over to Quinoa and lay down next to him. She stretched, and then froze, her gaze locked on something in the sky.
Quinoa squinted in the bright glare of the sun, gazing in the direction Jellyfish was looking. There was a bright glinting flash, and he realized it was an IceWing, flapping its way through the desert.
“What…” Jellyfish breathed. “It’s far too hot. What is an IceWing doing ALL THE WAY OUT HERE?”
Quinoa shrugged and stood up. The IceWing seemed to change its course, making a beeline straight for their oasis.
“Uh-oh,” Jellyfish’s eyes widened.
“Stop being paranoid,” Quinoa nudged Jellyfish with his wing. “It’s an IceWing in the middle of the very dry desert. Of course they’re gonna head straight to a nice, cold pool of water. Plus, fish.”
Jellyfish looked skeptical, but didn’t say anything.
The IceWing crashed onto the sand near the pool and flopped into the water, gasping for breath. He drank a whole bunch of water, before dragging himself up the beach into the shade of a palm tree. He then seemed to notice Jellyfish and Quinoa, as he tensed, looking at the pair with caution. The IceWing looked to be about Quinoa’s age, only seven.
“Well, hello there,” Quinoa called to the IceWing.
The IceWing squinted, as if trying to decide whether Quinoa was being friendly or accusatory because he drank water from her oasis.
“Um. H-hello.” He finally stammered.
“Why are you all the way out here?” Jellyfish demanded. Quinoa winced at the ferocity in her tone. It was unnecessary. “What happened in your magical snowy place that demanded you needed to come over here?
“Jellyfish,” Quinoa warned under his breath. “Calm down.”
“You should be calming up,” Jellyfish whispered back fiercely.
The IceWing looked very nervous. Quinoa then noticed slash marks across his side, which he was trying to hide with his wing. It was still leaking the deep blue blood IceWings bleed, so that meant it had to have been made fairly recently.
“I—they’re dead.” The IceWing burst out. “All of them. Gone. Killed. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, I can’t…” his rushed speaking trailed off. He sank to the ground, shivering.
Quinoa flapped his wings, swiftly crossing the oasis, and landed beside the trembling IceWing.
“Calm down,” he soothed, wrapping a wing around the poor IceWing. “What’s your name?”
“V-Verglas,” the IceWing shivered.
“Now. What exactly happened?”
Verglas looked up at the sky, terror in his eyes. “It killed them all. The Demon. At least, It tried to kill us all. But it missed me. It’s after me. It won’t stop until It’s killed me. Forever, I’m in danger. You’re in danger if you shelter me. Everyone is in danger. It will kill us all. All of us. No one is safe. Nowhere is safe. Nothing is safe, nothing nothing nothing is safe we will all die!” Verglas leapt up suddenly, his voice raising into a shriek.
“A-and who was The Demon?” Quinoa asked, but he had a horrible feeling that he knew exactly what the IceWing was talking about. He had only read about It in stories, and it seemed impossible that It could be real, but…
Verglas twisted his head to stare deep into Quinoa’s eyes.
“Cyanide.”
== Chapter 2 ==
Tarantula Hawk trailed reluctantly after the HiveWing in front of her. She gazed around at the lush, leafy trees, and felt the soft green grass beneath her talons.
She didn’t want to leave here. But, of course, they had to move.
Again.
Why? She didn’t know. But her mother, Honeybee, had her reasons, she supposed.	
“Tara! Come on! Stop dawdling!” Her mother’s sharp voice cut through Tarantula’s thoughts. Tarantula and her mother looked nearly exactly the same. They both had reddish brown scales, with yellow underscales, and a black strip along their sides. The difference was, Tarantula had yellow eyes and black speckles on her wings and front talons, whereas her mother had brown eyes and no speckles.
“I’m coming, Mother! Just give me a second!” Tarantula snapped. “And I told you, I want to be called Tarantula. Not Tara!”
Honeybee rolled her eyes but said nothing, and stalked off. After a moment’s hesitation, Tarantula hurried after her. They walked in silence for a while, Tarantula ignoring her mother, and her mother ignoring Tarantula.
“Why do we have to move so much?” Tarantula eventually grumbled.
“I told you already.” Her mother answered simply.
“Because I said so isn’t really a reason.” Tarantula scowled. “It’s just you being difficult all the time.”
Honeybee halted and glared at Tarantula. She lifted her head and glared back.
“Be quiet. We are moving because I said we are. That’s final.” Honeybee snarled.
I’m tired of this, Tarantula grumbled in her head. She followed her mother for a while, before quietly halting.
I don’t have to do this anymore if I don’t want to. Waiting until her mother was farther ahead, Tarantula crept backwards, before leaping into the sky and heading in a random direction off to her left.
The trees ended, and the grass began to give way to yellow sand. Tarantula hadn’t realized she had gotten all the way to the desert. She glanced up at the sky, seeing that it was nearly sunset.
Let’s see Mother try to find me now, Tarantula smirked. Suddenly, she realized something. She wheeled around in the sky, before deciding to land. She was thirsty, and hungry, and her wings were now deciding to hurt.
Still.
It was better than listening to her mother drone on and on about their plans for today, about how Tarantula was still a dragonet so she should shut up and listen because she didn’t know anything, blah blah blah useless nonsense that Tarantula heard every single day and she certainly didn’t need to hear it ALL THE TIME.
Tarantula did remember something called “the Scorpion Den,” some place that was chaotic and full of criminals. It sounds so free! I’ll go there, if it still exists. She hoped it did. Not everywhere was destined for peace.
She leapt into the sky, ignoring her aching wings, and flew in the direction she hoped the Scorpion Den was in. If she remembered the map correctly, and knew where she was.
Luckily, after about half an hour of flying, when she was getting convinced that she had gone the wrong way, she spotted lights in the distance.
The Scorpion Den! A thrill shot through her body as she thought of the freedom. If she went hungry, she could just steal. It couldn’t be THAT hard. Right?
She flew onward, her wingbeats steady. Eventually, finally, she reached the Scorpion Den. Pretty much falling to the ground, she collapsed onto the ground with an oomph. Looking up, Tarantula gazed at the city. Despite it now being dark, there were still dragons hurrying about, a lot of them advertising their products. Most of the ones who weren’t yelling about their amazing murder skills or fresh oranges or sharp knives were probably thieves or assassins.
Tarantula trotted into the city, gazing around. Stalls lined the streets, about a third of them selling brightsting cactus (because all the SandWings meant accidental tail scratches were bound to happen). As she watched, a SandWing the color of the sand in low light stole a pomegranate from a stall. The SandWing running it yelled at him, scowling, but didn’t chase after the thief.
The easy theft gave Tarantula confidence. Creeping up to a stall with different foods like coconuts, oranges, and peaches, Tarantula studied the owner for a moment. He looked kind of squishy and round, a little lazy-looking.
That’s what I need. A lazy store owner who won’t chase after me.
She crept around to the back of the stall, where a few crates of oranges were stacked up. She reached out for one, her talons brushing against the skin. Her mouth watered at the sweet scent.
“HEY!”
Tarantula jumped as the stall’s owner roared at her. She froze, and then fled. The SandWing leapt after her, his claws grazing her tail, leaving a scratch mark. She yelped, running faster. Eventually, when she had gotten far enough, she slowed down, panting. She glanced around and saw that the storeowner was nowhere to be seen.
That was just bad luck, Tarantula sighed. I’ll try again.
She tried at least eight more times, but all of the attempts ended with similar results. She collapsed against a wall, panting. She had a few more scratches on her tail, one on her wing, and a bite on her forearm. Luckily, no tail barbs had stabbed her.
She wasn’t cut out for stealing. It was hard. She hated it here. And to think she was excited to come here just a few hours ago!
She covered her face with her talons and let out a muffled sub, before drifting into an uneasy sleep full of angry vengeful shadows hunting her down for stealing their oranges.
. . .
Tarantula blinked awake, faint early morning light drifting across her scales. Most of the dragons were asleep by now, with most stalls locked up and most of the dragons on the streets being homeless dragons or thieves robbing the homeless dragons.
She felt kind of lonely. Most of the dragons were SandWings, but there were a few MudWings and SkyWings, along with a few NightWings.
Which was why the lone LeafWing slipping through the streets caught her eye. She felt uneasy when she saw the LeafWing, but she didn’t know why. It was just like a normal LeafWing, but with brown speckles on her neck and running along her back and tail. Her wings stood out, as they were the color of leaves in the autumn.
Tarantula shook the thought away as she got up and stretched. Now was the time to steal, while everyone else was asleep.
Creeping through the stalls, she tried to break into some of them, but failed every time. After trying nearly every stall, she gave up, and plopped down next to a sand-colored building with what looked like bloodstains spattered along the side.
She felt so hungry.
She had last eaten, what, three days ago?
Tarantula sighed. She still wasn’t going to go running back to her mother. She had plenty of horrible memories from that. She didn’t want to think about how her mother never cared about her.
“You.” A voice snarled.
Tarantula whipped around, startled. It was the SandWing she had tried to steal from first.
“No one tries to steal my stuff and gets away with it,” he snarled.
Tarantula tried to say something, but the only thing that came out was a pathetic squeak. Absolutely terrified, she whirled around and fled. The SandWing pounded after her, slowly gaining ground.
A surge of adrenaline flowed through her, and she put on a burst of speed, skidding around a corner. She kept running through sidestreets, trying desperately to outrun the vicious SandWing.
She didn’t see the wall when it came into view, and she smacked straight into it, bouncing off, her nose beginning to bleed.
Behind her, the SandWing took a menacing step forward, fuming. “You stupid little dragon, I’ll teach you to steaooow!” The SandWing’s words ended in a yelp of pain. He twisted around, and Tarantula saw the LeafWing from earlier, her teeth embedded into the end of the SandWing’s tail, close enough to the barb so that he couldn’t use it on her face. The LeafWing snarled, and whipped her tail across the SandWing’s face as he slashed his talons at her face.
The SandWing was bigger and burlier, but the LeafWing was faster, more agile, and clearly more intelligent. Within moments, the LeafWing sent the stall owner running for his life, wailing.
The LeafWing stared after him triumphantly, spitting out a dark sand-colored scale. “Overzealous idiot,” she muttered. “Are you OK?” The LeafWing turned her attention toward Tarantula. The LeafWing looked older than Tarantula, but younger than her mother.
“F-fine. I’m fine.” Tarantula recovered from the shock quickly, sitting up.
“You don’t look fine,” The LeafWing observed, eyeing her scratches and bites. “I’m Maple, by the way.”
“Um. I’m Tarantula. Well, Tarantula Hawk, but… I prefer Tarantula.” She straightened up, wrapping her tail around her hind legs to hind the wounds.
Maple snorted with laughter. “Well, you certainly are living up to that name.”
“Hey! I got caught off guard, that’s all!” Tarantula protested.
“Maple!”
Maple turned around to look at the MudWing who had trotted up. The MudWing (who had greenish scales) whispered frantically in her ear. Tarantula caught a few words, like “IceWing murders,” and “It’s back.”
“Well. That’s bad.” Maple’s eyes narrowed as the MudWing finished. “Tarantula. Come with me. Caiman’ll see to your wounds, and I’ll get you something to eat, and some water, but then I’ll have deal with something.
Maple and the MudWing started off down the streets, and Tarantula scampered after them, wincing at the pain in her muscles. They soon stopped at a neat little building that looked like all the other buildings. The MudWing produced a key from somewhere, and unlocked the door, stepping inside.
“Caiman’s a doctor. She can tend to your wounds. I’ll be back with some food, but there’s water in that bucket over there.” Maple flapped a talon towards a large bucket that was tucked in the corner. She stepped outside the door, exchanging a few words with the MudWing, who Tarantula assumed was Caiman, and left.
Tarantula took a good, long drink from the water bucket, relief flooding through her body as the cool, clear liquid trickled down her throat.
When she turned around, the MudWing was grabbing a few jars and setting them on a table. When Caiman noticed that Tarantula was finished, she motioned for her to come sit on a mat near Caiman.
Tarantula trotted over and sat down nervously on the mat. Caiman grabbed a ball of cotton and dipped it in one of the jars, which had some sort of ointment in it. She carefully, gently applied the ointment to Tarantula’s wounds, and then bandaged them up. Just as Caiman had finished, Maple walked in the door, holding a few pieces of fruit and some camel jerky.
As Tarantula began to eat, the two dragons began to discuss quietly, murmuring something about… streams? Or something named Stream?
Tarantula simply didn’t worry about it. These two dragons had actually just cared for her, despite just meeting her. They had literally just cared for her more than her mother had her entire life. They had acted like Tarantula actually mattered, like the world was a better place with Tarantula in it.
Maybe she did like it here.
== Chapter 3 ==
Quinoa took a step back, his heart pounding. Oh no.
He remembered the history lessons. Ages ago, about half a century after the second defeat of Darkstalker, something else bad had happened. Entire groups of dragons had been massacred. Dragons had thought that it was Darkstalker, and that he was back, angry and vengeful. But it hadn’t been Darkstalker.
It was Cyanide. Or The Demon.
After multiple groups had been murdered, It had found a certain dragon. It stayed in their mind, making them go crazy, and the puppet ended up murdering a lot of dragons. Sometimes It took over the body of the puppet, murdering much more efficiently than the dragon could do on its own.
Eventually, the puppet was killed by The Demon. After quite a discussion, the queens agreed that Darkstalker’s bracelet was to be found, and enchanted with a scrap of Darkstalker’s scroll, the last remaining animus magic that worked.
The new puppet took the bracelet with them into their mindspace when The Demon took over the body. In the transition, before the puppet took control of its own body, it managed to get the bracelet around The Demon’s back leg.
The Demon was still inside the puppet, just asleep. The puppet had gone to a small island, alone, to protect everyone. So The Demon could never escape.
But It had.
And the bracelet was gone. So was animus magic.
I have to find a way to kill It.
Quinoa didn’t exactly know why he had to do it. It was just a feeling. But how would he kill it?
He guided the trembling IceWing to his little hut. Well, it was sort of a hut. It was partially underground, so if the shelter broke, there would still be a space in the sand to hide as long as it didn’t collapse.
He left Verglas in the hut, where he soon fell asleep.
Quinoa felt sick. What if Verglas held The Demon, but wasn’t aware of it, or was aware of it and didn’t tell him? The Demon could take over in a moment and kill both of them. He just had to hope that It wasn’t inside of Verglas.
He padded out of his hut, nearly crashing into Jellyfish, who was hovering by the entrance.
“Ack!” Quinoa yelped, nearly toppling over as he stopped.
“Sorry. But, excuse me, should we be freaking out right now?!” Jellyfish cried. “We literally just heard that an ancient mass murderer has come back! We’re screwed!”
“Calm down, jel. You won’t die.” Quinoa murmurded, her wings brushing Jellyfish. “I won’t let you. We’ll just… we’ll go far away if it gets really, really bad. To another island. Maybe… maybe even another continent.”
“There aren’t any more continents, you goose.” Jellyfish grumbled.
“Well, apparently there was an entire other continent that we didn’t know about until the othermind became a threat to us. Does the word Pantala ring a bell?” Quinoa strode forward and took a sip from the oasis. Jellyfish snorted, and strode towards the oasis, slipping into the water.
. . .
“Quinoa. Quinoa. Wake up! There’s a sandstorm coming. It looks really bad!” Jellyfish whispered frantically, shaking Quinoa’s shoulder, jolting him out of his peaceful slumber.
“What?” Quinoa yelped, leaping up. Immediately, he sprinted over to the open windows in the tiny hut, pulling them shut. Already, a bit of sand had tumbled into the hut and created a small pile in front of the windows. The wind picked up outside, soon growing into a deafening roar.
“What’s going on? Is it The Demon?” Verglas shrieked, cowering in the corner.
“It’s just a sandstorm,” Quinoa reassured him, trying to sound braver than he felt. A sandstorm had killed both of his parents when he was only two years old. Ever since, he had been especially afraid of sandstorms.
“It probably won’t be that bad,” Jellyfish added.
It was bad.
Jellyfish and Quinoa dug at the mountain of sand blocking the entrance, while Verglas darted around and whimpered every so often.
Finally, Quinoa’s talon broke through to fresh air. “I feel the surface!” He cried, pulling his talon out of the hole and digging harder.
Jellyfish leapt over and dug at the same spot, and soon, they had created a hole large enough to get through. Jellyfish popped out of the hole, and Quinoa let Verglas go next, before squeezing through the hole and tumbling out at the other side.
He gasped at the sight of his oasis.
Most of the palm trees were entirely gone, with a few strewn about that had been ripped out of the ground. The oasis wasn’t sparkling and clear anymore. It was foggy and dark, and the water level was higher because of the amount of sand that had settled in the bottom.
“Oh, no,” Quinoa breathed.
“We can’t stay here.” Jellyfish sighed. “But the closest place we can go is…”
Jellyfish and Quinoa looked at each other, before Quinoa finished  her sentence.
“The Scorpion Den.”
== Chapter 4 ==
WIP
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)