Dead Men Tell No Tales

__NOEDITSECTION__Featuring:
Executioner, Horus, and many more!
Made for the Wings Of Writing prompt challange, Word Count: 2,615
== Dead Men Tell No Tales ==
=== Prologue ===
The dragon was running as fast as he could, his breath coming in gasps as he dashes through the bazaar. His wings tucked to his back, long claws digging into the loose sand. The dunes melting the sky around him into waves of pure heat, Sandwings and Skywings around him, looking to buy and sell. He  looks around, a pale silver amulet, in the shape of a tree, wrapped around a black stone, grasped in his claws. His sand-pale scales glimmer from radiated heat, as he dashes swiftly through the long corridors of colorful tents, and stalls. Looking behind him, the guardian Outclaws who rule over the Scorpion Den giving chase, their armor glowing with heat. The sound of baglama in the distance as he starts to run. He leads them around, starting to speed up, dashing out of the bazaar, and into an open street.
He looks around quickly, before spreading his wings, and jumping into the air, flapping them quickly as he tries to gain altitude, the black gems in his frill shimmer like living shadows as he soars away from the Scorpion Den, the sky starting to shimmer with reds and yellows behind him, as the sun starts to set, the sand shimmering with thousands of colors of the sky. He wings his way east, leaving the guards behind quickly, but not before having a long spear thrown through his wing. He grits his teeth, pulling his wings to his body, he dives quickly, dark blood running down his scales from the wounds.
He growls as he lands, hard.  He limps into a cave in a small hill, his pale body sleek with blood running from wounds on his back. The long talons on his claws pinching some of the cuts closed. Scanning the dark cave, he grunts as he pulls himself along, looking for someplace to rest, his tired wings slumped at his sides. He pulls the silver chain over his head, resting the stone on his breastbone, the stone glows gently for a moment, and he passes out.
Long talons reach out of the dark cave, pulling him gently to the back, long thin scales pulled taught over tight muscles, the pale red and brown skin the color of freshly cut wood.  Thin black spines on a long, thin face. Dragging him back into the deep darkness. With a small flap of four wings, the long thin tail equipped with a stinger disappears into the deep cave, and into the dark ground.
=== Chapter 1 ===
He wakes suddenly and violently, his wings being thrown too either side, lashing out quickly. The tall, thin dragon who was standing by him, mixing herbs together, jumps back, tail lashing up quickly, scanning the exit behind him.
“Who are you, and why am I here?” Horus the sandwing says, and for the first time in his life, he is ignored. The hybrid going back to mixing herbs, and shuffling though his stuff.
“I said, who are you, and why am I here? And more-so, how is this cave so bight, we are underground, and the last time I checked, it was night.” Horus says again, this time getting an answer, the voice responding having a thick accent of unknown origin.
“Ah, so you have woken up? Well, my name is Executioner, and you collapses on my doorstep, so I had to help. The cave is lit by fire globes, fed by wood, so it almost never goes dark.” Executioner says, his yellow eyes glittering playfully in the flickering lamplight, as he goes over to Hours.
“My dear Sandwing friend, I should ask you the same, who are you, and how did you come across me? For what I assume, you look like you came from the Scorpion Den, and judging from your wounds, they do not like you.” He motions to the bound wounds on his legs, back, and wing.
“Uh, it’s a long story.” Horus replies, sheepishly looking away. “But my name is Hours, and I found your cave on accident, I was looking for a place to spend the night, and I saw it.” He responds to the hybrid, his green eyes shadowed and veiled in the light. He shrugs, and rolls over, struggling to his feet.
“I don’t want to bother you much longer, thank you.” He says to Executioner, but the hybrid made no motion to move.
“Ah, but you won’t get far, with a wing like that, it’s going to make you crash in a heartbeat.” Executioner says, not looking up, as he unwinds a bandage from Horus tail, putting more of the herbs on it, then replacing it back, and tying it closed tightly, his long claws nimble and swift.
“Why are you helping me?” He says, as Executioner forces him to sit and drink something out of a talon sized bowl.
“Because, I saw you needed help, so I did, and because you have the mark of the tree, although I think you probably stole it. But even then, I only know one other dragon in the Scorpion Den who has that, and they didn’t deserve it.  They only have it because they killed the last holder, but I think it’s safer in your claws.” The hybrid says, turning around to grab something, a flash of a pale tattoo on his shoulder glistens.
“The what? This old thing? I found it in some old Hybrids house, looked expensive so I took it. I didn’t know it was some part of an old thing.” Horus says, looking at the neckless in his talons, the black stone glimmers slightly, flecks of starlight trapped in a shadow of a moon.
“Hmm, you stole the amulet from Ghidorah, a furious Sandwing, Icewing Hybrid. He won’t be happy that you took it, but he can’t find you now.” He muses, his yellow eyes twinkle as he turns. “Well, if you so wish to join the brotherhood, I can teach you to fight, as well as any true protector of the amulet should.
Horus nods, and looks at Executioner, before looking back at his talons, and wrapped wing. He seems to consider something for a moment, before opening his mouth.
“I accept.”
“Thats the right thing to say.”
===Chapter 2===
“No, No, No, your positioning is wrong, your claws go here and here, your feet here.” Executioner says, shifting Horus’s talons along the shaft of the pike, the feeling becoming more natural, then, having his foot kicked out from under him, forcing him to shift his weight to make up for it.
“Thanks…” Horus says, shifting to the better position, the lamplight flickering on his sand pale scales as he resets his position, shifting his feet to where they were suppose to be.
“Ok, try again, better this time.” Executioner says, leaping at Horus, tail lashing out with his stinger, a sword in his talons. He leaps quickly, but Horus parries his sword with the pike, before swiping up with his tail, and stopping it an inch before the hybrids heart. Executioner smiles wide, dropping his sword with a loud crash, and claps his talents together.
“Finally, after five months, you have beat me at everything multiple times, I think you are ready now.” He says, eyes smiling.
“Ready for what?” He says, confusion thick in his voice.
“Ready for the ceremony, and for your arrival into our Brotherhood.” Executioner says, before leading him upwards, and into the dry air coming off the edge of the desert, the dry, sandy soil under his talons warm. He squints his eyes, and leaps into the hot air, his golden wings propelling him into the bright sky. He scans around for Executioner, as the Hybrid jumps into the sky, two larger wings flapping gently, as his smaller pair go out like rudders.
They turn, and make their way east, flying over the mountains, using the winds high above the surface of the continent to speed up travel, just opening their wings and gliding in and out of them. They meet no resistance on the way, quickly moving on from the Sky kingdom, to the Mud kingdom, before landing near a large town-like city, filled with bustling Mudwings, and the occasional Seawing, against the backdrop of brown and amber. Walking into the town, Executioner dips his head, acknowledging some of the Mudwings like old friends. They nod and dip their heads back, but mostly just keep to themselves, not bothering to stop the two odd travelers.
They make their way to a tavern, with a sign overhead saying.
The Pale Tree Inn.
He knocks on the door three times, before the door opens to a dark interior, like a gaping maw of a terrible creature. Executioner disappears inside, dropping his cloak on a peg near the door. Horus takes a gulp, looking around for a moment, before stepping inside.
He walks for a moment, in the dark, his dark eyes straining to see through the shadowy mist inside, before a globe-light is lit, and the shadows jump away, as if burned. Before him sit seven dragons. Executioner, an unknown Seawing, A grey and blue Nightwing with pale yellow silver-scales, A Mudwing covered head to talons in tattoos of all sorts, A Rainwing, Skywing, and an Icewing, looking throughly unhappy in the heat.
“Who are they?” He says, looking over them, his green gaze filled with confusion.
Executioner dips his long head and neck, saying “These are the rest of the brotherhood. The Icewing is Iarnă, the Mudwing is Kai, the Nightwing is called Sielu, the Rainwing is Panther, the Skywings name is Awan, and finally, the Seawing is Kahawai.
All the new dragons bow their heads, Executioner introduces Horus, and explains why they had gathered there.
“After the tragic death of Akrep, we had to find a new protector for the amulet, but that bloody killer, Ghidorah stole it from his body. After Horus here, stole it back, and landed on my doorstep, I knew he was the one to wield it. I have trained him, like I trained Akrep, and I think he Is ready for the ceremony.” Executioner says, looking around at the other dragons, all looking at each-other.
Thats when Horus realizes they all have the tree tattoo, although not all in the same place as Executioner. Kai the Mudwing, covered head to talons in thick ink, has it swirled right in the center of his shadowy chest.  Iarnă the Icewing, has it on the side of her wing, right near the connection to the arm.
They talk among themselves for a moment, keeping their voices low, as to not be heard by him.
After awhile, they sit back up, nodding their heads, and say in unison, voices loud, sharp, clear, and soft.
“We accept him into the Brotherhood, does he know the vows?” They say, all eyes looking at him.
“Uh, yes I do.” He says, looking at them back, before dipping his head.
“Step forward, and recite the vow.” Says panther, his tattoo wraps around his foreleg, the patterns on his scales a deep blue-grey, like midnight shadow.
Horus steps forward, looking at the deep shadows behind them, and kneels, saying. “I accept this truth, and vow to keep it wholly, in its entirety. May those of our past, look upon us now, and smile.”
He looks up at them, and they smile. Awan extending her talon out to him, her tattoo in the center of her palm. He pulls himself up, dipping his head. They motion for him to follow them, and he walks into another room.
Panther says, after awhile. “For your tattoo, where would you want it?”
Horus responds, “My stinger, for those who appose us to see, for their final image. Our pale tree.”
Panther nods his head, grabbing a stick with ink on a sharp point, using steady talons, and a good eye, to form a perfectly dark, smooth, straight image of the white tree. He grits his teeth, but doesn't say anything for the long while it took. When he stands up again, the fire-globe has burned low, and the other Brotherhood members have long since left, to go back to their respective tribes. He dips his head respectfully to Panther, as the Rainwing leaves The Pale Tree Inn. He stands for a moment, before Executioner joins him, nodding to the Hybrid, they walk out of the inn, and into the sunrise, taking off together, wings spread, only a few inches apart, yet still so very free in the huge expanse of the world.
They travel for awhile, not using the winds to get back to the desert, but traveling deep into the mountains, finding refuge in the tall cliffs, and low valleys, the Skywings were too lazy to explore on their own.
Executioner hunts down a boar, killing it with a swift movement of his stinger to its head, painless, and effortless. He drags it back to the small camp they made, lighting a fire and roasting it, tearing off a leg to eat it.
“So, I never asked you, but why do you have two pares of wings?” Horus says, looking at Executioner, before taking some of the boar in his mouth.
“Hmm, well, my father was a tribe you’ve never heard of, called Hivewings, they live across the sea, on a content just like ours. But they only have three tribes, Hivewings, Silkwings, and Leafwings.” He says, looking Horus dead in the eyes, his eyes sparkling. “My mother was a Sandwing, just like you, although she died a long time ago, I still miss her. You remind me of her, the same spirit.” He responds, tilting his head towards Horus.
Executioner gets up after eating his fill, he turns around, setting the ground under him on fire, before stamping it out, and laying on it. His soft snores fill the air soon after, of which, Horus puts out the fire, and lays down, back turned to Executioner, his body soon going dormant as-well, as sleep finally overtakes him for the exhausting day ahead of him.
Around the sleeping dragons, the shadows swirl, the amulet glows blue for a moment, and the shadows calm, settling over them like a blanket, shrouding them from any new from above, to the side, or any other, unless it was practically standing on-top of them.
Horus smiles in his sleep, the shadows draw closer, and the amulet glows again, this time, staying lit slightly.
===Chapter 3===
The shadows form around him, like a pale tree, and the shape of a bone mask with two long horns, and two black eyes, and then the shape of a dragon in flight, wings spread wide, claws out.
His eyes burn with a deep black fire, his wings spread out beside him.
“You will not torment this land any longer Ghidorah, may your reign of sovereign terror end here.” He growls out, before stabbing his stinger into the dragon in-front of him. The dragon growl weakly, before spitting up blood, and collapsing in a pile on the ground, the fire in his red eyes going out quickly.
Horus pulls his stinger back, before gently cleaning the blood off his sword and tail and walking away, the black tree on his stinger a threatening image, before he disappears into the darkness, only a shadow of gold.
The sound of wings flapping can be heard, but it is not of two, but four. And the dark hybrid perched on the house nearby takes to the sky, his thin, tall body, swimming through the air, as he quietest beams at his apprentice.
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Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Content (XXX Icestar XXx)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Genre (Adventure)