Drops of Blood

=Drops of Blood=
======Written and characters by Shadowstar37. You can find the characters' pages here, here, and here.======
== Prologue ==
Queen Scarlet’s wings swept along the floor as she walked proudly through her palace. It was hers now, after years of plotting. She had overthrown her mother six years ago, and she was now the greatest queen the SkyWings had ever known and would ever know.
Despite having twelve or something daughters, she was never worried about any of them challenging her. They were all too compliant to do that - other than Tourmaline. The other one that would have been a problem had been dealt with. Her death also helped Scarlet frame one of her least trusted advisors, and now her biggest threat was dead and a possible traitor was in the depths of prison.
Scarlet knew she’d have to deal with Tourmaline as well at some point, but that wasn’t something to worry about tonight, a warm summer night with no clouds, most of the dragons in the Sky Kingdom outside enjoying the night, including Tourmaline and the rest of Scarlet's dragonets. Scarlet herself had just returned from an evening flight, and was now headed for one of the tallest towers to watch the stars and organize more plans for the arena.
There was a nearby open window, but as Scarlet was about to fly out of it, she saw a blur of pale red-orange scales in her peripheral vision. She whirled around, and saw the unmistakable tail of her second-to-eldest daughter, Sunstone, disappear around a corner. Narrowing her eyes, she followed her silently to the palace’s entrance, where Scarlet saw her daughter’s wings begin to spread, clearly about to take off.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” Scarlet asked menacingly, stepping on her daughter's tail. Sunstone spun around, fear and shock glinting in your eyes.
“Mother!” Sunstone gasped, and stumbled back. “I was just… going… to take a flight?” she stammered. Scarlet snorted. Sunstone had never been the best liar. Scarlet had seen her sneak out of the palace multiple times, and had definitely noticed when she went into her room and avoided Scarlet for months.
“I've seen you sneak out multiple times,” Scarlet hissed. “I know that you’ve been doing something behind my back. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. And you might as well tell me the truth now of your own will,” she whispered, coming closer, “unless, of course, you want me to make you tell me the truth. I do have quite a new arsenal of weapons…” she trailed off menacingly.
Sunstone stared at her fearfully and shrank back. “I… have a daughter,” she whispered.
Scarlet glared at her harder. She wasn’t especially terrified of a new heir, and Scarlet had slightly suspected this after the months of her daughter hiding in her room, but the problem was that if Sunstone had had a relationship with another SkyWing, word would have reached her.
But someone else was a parent to Scarlet's new granddaughter. “Who is the father?” she hissed.
“A… a RainWing,” she admitted, looking down in defeat, as if knowing she couldn't lie her way out of this one. “He’s from another tribe, but I love him, and I’m proud to have a daughter with him. You won't be able to make me stop loving him.”
Scarlet sucked in a sharp lungful of air. “You. Have. An. Egg. With a dragon. FROM ANOTHER TRIBE?” she shrieked. “How dare you betray your tribe this way! How dare you! You could have chosen any SkyWing in the kingdom, and you choose a lazy RainWing?” Scarlet spat out, then stared at her daughter in disgust. What could have possessed Sunstone to fall in love with a RainWing, of all dragons! They weren't even allies!
“I love him! I care for him! He’s better than any SkyWing!” Sunstone protested, then snapped her mouth shut, realizing what she’d said, horror flashing across her face as she unconciously shrank away from her mother.
“Well… you know how this kingdom deals with traitors,” Scarlet said lightly but threateningly. Sunstone’s eyes flashed with fear, and she leapt out of the palace, talons reaching to the sky, but Scarlet grabbed her, and threw her against the hard ground outside the palace. She closed her talons around her daughter’s neck, and started to dig her talons in. "You should have known that this kind of action would only end badly for you," Scarlet said with a slight grin.
She expected Sunstone to scream, which would have pleased the SkyWing queen, but instead, her disappointing last words were whispers. “If you ever see my daughter… tell her that I loved her, more than anything.”
Scarlet scoffed in disgust, and the SkyWing queen snapped Sunstone’s neck and flung her away. One daughter dead. Ten left to go.
Chapter 1
=== Reddrop ===
Redrop blinked open her eyes into the bright morning sun in the rainforest. She smiled as the warmth of it washed over her in the clearing she had slept in, and stretched her enormous SkyWing wings.
She heard the sound of a dragon coming through the undergrowth, and out of instinct, her scales shifted into the area around her, turning her invisible. She waited for the dragon to come, then relaxed when she saw her father walking through the trees towards her. She shifted back to her regular red color, and bounded to meet him.
"Father!" She exclaimed excitedly. Coati, a brown RainWing with white stripes, smiled at his daughter, then set down the dead leopard he held in his talons. Redrop sniffed the meat excitedly. She loved leopard, and her father knew it. She started taking large, tearing bites out of the meat, pausing to look up at her father and mumble a "thank you" around the meat. Coati just smiled and dug in beside her.
"Your mother loved leopard when she hunted here, too," Coati said to Redrop. Redrop sat up and listened eagerly. Her father didn't often talk about her mother, a SkyWing princess named Sunstone. And so Redrop treasured every bit of information she received. "She would always love it when I hunted with her, and the first time she tasted leopard, she was in disbelief." Her father chuckled. "You saw her hunt a few times. She was beautiful." 
Redrop looked up at him as he went on, absorbed entirely. She remembered it. She remembered, one year ago, watching her mother hunt, and come back, and share a leopard with her. Redrop remembered her smile, her flickering pale orange scales. and she missed her mother.
Her mother had said she would leave and come back in a few days. But a few days later, on the day she was supposed to come back, Coati and Redrop had heard the gossip from other RainWIngs: Princess Sunstone of the SkyWings was dead, killed by Queen Scarlet. Now, all that Redrop had was Coati. And he would always come back for her. He wouldn't die. He couldn't. And Redrop believed with all of her heart that he would stay alive for her, and be back every day with food.
Until the day he didn't.
== Chapter 2 ==
=== Dust ===
Dust's eyes blinked open, and the tiny dragonet crawledout of her bed. She listened intently for her parents, dreading what she would hear. How would they be this morning? Would they notice her? Would they fight again?
It took her a moment to realize: They weren't awake. In their seperate rooms, the only sound was their slow breathing. Neither Hyrax nor Brittlebush was awake in the bright desert morning light. Dust sighed in relief, although she knew the tranquility wouldn't last long. At some point, they would wake up, and fight again. They had fought yesterday, and so their emotions were still high.
Dust hated her parents fighting. She loved them, but Brittlebush was often away to sell on the black market, and when she came home, Hyrax would state again that he wanted to join Burn's army again, and that that was what he was supposed to do. Then they would fight for hours. Hyrax always decided he wouldn't leave yet, not without a bribe to get back into the army, but Dust was always terrified that he would leave and tear her family apart in doing so.
She snuck out of the house into the bustling streets of the Scorpion Den. It wasn't hard to find small lizards or discarded scraps of food that the richer dragon in here left behind them. She grabbed a small lizard and a few small scraps of discarded meat, then rushed back into he rhome, locking the door. Dust snuck into the kitchen and curled up on the table, quickly devouring her meal.
As she finished, she heard her parents opening their doors. As the two SandWings swept into the room, Dust ran to her room and curled up as small as she could and listened as her parents started to yell at each other again.
== Chapter 3 ==
=== Redrop ===
Redrop stared into the trees, waiting, hoping for her father to emerge.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)