Changing Leaves

Changing Leaves is a Wings of Fire fanfiction by L1quid. It is the (rewritten) first book of Pern and the Wings of Fire adaptation of Changing Leaves, the (rewritten) first book of L1quid's series These Alien Dragons. It is in the perspective of Tree.L1quid's notes and outlines for Wings of Fire: Pern
==Synopsis==
Everything's about to change... and there's no turning back.
Hundreds of years after the Dragonet Prophecy, the Darkstalker Crisis, the rediscovery of Pantala, and the discovery of humanity's sentience, things are about to change.
In the Indestructible City, a human is sent to the other side of the world to help his fellow men who live underground.
In the Kingdom of the Sea, a violent SeaWing gets lost from home, and washes up on alien territory.
And in the converged Kingdom of Forests, a young dragon is chosen to become the next Historian, an elusive individual who knows the true history of Pantala to serve of the Council of Forests.
Together, these three will collide with each other in an unexpected way... and set Pern on a course no one saw coming.
==A Guide to Pern==
<tabber>
|-|=
Click on each tab to view the Guide to Pern.
|-|BeetleWings=
Description: a combination of SilkWings, HiveWings, and RainWings
Species Adaptations: can shoot a form of flaming silk known as "flamesilk", can shoot venom from teeth, can detect threats within surroundings with antennae, have stingers in wrists, can shoot acid from tail stinger, poisonous teeth
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern (formerly); continent Pantala, planet Pern (before extinction)
|-|Dragons=
Dragons are the native lifeforms of Pern. They were created when the human settlers genetically modified the original native lifeforms to be larger, stronger, and sentient for military purposes. However, this backfired, when the dragons thought for themselves and overthrew their creators in an event known as "the Scorching".
They are divided into twelve species - BeetleWings, ForestWings, HiveWings, IceWings, LeafWings, MudWings, NightWings, RainWings, SandWings, SeaWings, SilkWings, and SkyWings.
|-|ForestWings=
Description: resembles an amalgamation of a LeafWing and SilkWing, due to interbreeding since the creation of the LeafSilk Kingdom
Species Adaptations: can camouflage into trees and forests, can detect threats with impeccable perception
Homeworld: continent Pantala, planet Pern
|-|HiveWings=
Description: scales in shades of yellow, orange, and red; four dragonfly-like wings; patches of black scales here and there on bodies
Species Adaptations: although many do not have any, some have differing "abilities" based on genes and environment, including shooting venom from teeth, stingers in wrists, shooting acid from tail stinger, and poisonous teeth
Homeworld: continent Pantala, planet Pern
|-|Humans=
Description: skin in all shades of white, brown, and black; bipedal (walk on two legs); two arms, hands, and feet; sexual dimorphism (males are taller than females); wear different forms of clothing, with material from surrounding environments
Species Adaptations: can create tools from surrounding environments
Homeworld: planet Earth (origin), all across the universe (after spaceflight technology development)
|-|IceWings=
Description: scales in shades of white, grey, and blue; forked blue tongues; serrated claws to grip the ice and other surfaces
Species Adaptations: can breathe smoke-like ice from their mouths ("frostbreath" or "freezing death-breath"); can resist all forms of cold and shades of light; very sharp eyesight
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|LeafWings=
Description: scales in shades of green and brown (accenting colors can be any known color); two leaf-shaped wings
Species Adaptations: can gain energy from sunlight, knowledge of plants, some individuals have "leafspeak" (a form of chlorokinesis)
Homeworld: continent Pantala, planet Pern
|-|MudWings=
Description: scales in shades of brown, with orange and gold scales seen occasionally; thick, armored scales; nostrils on top of snout like crocodiles and alligators; muscular and beefy stature
Species Adaptations: can hold breath for one hour (sixty minutes), can breathe fire if body is warm enough, can camouflage into the earth and the waters of swamps/marshes, exceptional strength, resistance to heat and fire if hatched from a blood-red egg
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|NightWings=
Description: scales in shades of black or darker shades of other colors; silver scales scattered on undersides of wings, resembling a sky full of stars
Species Adaptations: can breathe fire, can blend into shadows and dark areas, can foresee the future or read minds if hatched under any of the three moons
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|Proto-Dragons=
Description: a combination of all known dragons of planet Pern; were the size of birds-of-prey before being experimented on
Species Adaptations: varied, although the majority could breathe fire
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern (before extinction)
|-|RainWings=
Description: scales in all known shades and tints of colors in the universe; ruff behind ears; fangs in mouth; prehensile tails
Species Adaptations: can camouflage by changing the coloration of their scales with the chromatophores in their skin, can shoot an acid that degrades all organic matter from fangs
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|SandWings=
Description: scales in shades of yellow and light brown; scorpion-barbed tail; forked black tongues; rippling dune-appearing spine
Species Adaptations: can breathe fire, can camouflage into desert sand, heat-radiating scales, can go a long time without food and/or water, highly tuned sense of smell and hearing
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|SeaWings=
Description: scales in shades of blue, green, and purple; gills on neck; webs between claws; bioluminescent stripes all over body
Species Adaptations: can breathe underwater in all bodies of water, well-tuned nocturnal vision, can use tails to create large waves or to kill enemies
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
|-|SilkWings=
Description: scales in all colors of the universe; four butterfly-like wings with appear at age 6 during a process known as "Metamorphosis"; antennae on head
Species Adaptations: can shoot silk from wrists after "Metamorphosis", can detect threats within surroundings with antennae, some individuals can shoot a form of flaming silk known as "flamesilk"
Homeworld: continent Pantala, planet Pern
|-|SkyWings=
Description: scales in shades of orange and red; enormous wings
Species Adaptations: can breathe fire, can fly faster than an average dragon, high endurance and stamina, can resist all forms of cold
Homeworld: continent Pyrrhia, planet Pern
</tabber>
==Prologue==
When she knew who she was, her world was full of darkness, save for the noise that came from it.
“The eggs are still stable, but I’m concerned about the ones that hatched early.”
“Stop worrying about them, fool! They’ll hatch on their own terms.”
“Like when we are born…?”
A sigh. “Yes, like that.”
She couldn’t understand what those words meant yet, but she could feel panic from one of them, calmness from the other.
But how?
“Do you think we should gather the candidates now?” the nervous one said.
Nothing. Then, an answer.
“Yes.”
There was movement, fading as whoever it belonged to went away.
But there was another movement, one that was loud and coming close.
A soft tap.
“Hrmmmm…”
Something scraping against a harder thing. It wasn’t loud, it was strangely light.
Tap, tap.
More light scraping.
Then a harsh screech that wanted to make her retreat further into the darkness.
“Dr. Peterson, please come down to Hatchery N-7.”
The screech was gone and movement quickly came down, down, down until it stopped.
“You need me?” a bass voice spoke.
A pause.
“Did you check Dr. Sutherland’s notes on how and when these are supposed to hatch?”
“Uh…”
“I’ll take that as a no, then. Find her notes and bring them down here. I think her little idea went awry.”
There was an emphasis on the “idea”, as if it were a bad thing, but she doesn’t understand why. Bitterness emerges from this voice’s mind, alongside the odd calmness.
“Yes, sir”, Peterson replies and harriedly moves away, terror coming from them. I should’ve looked at them, I should’ve looked at them…
The phrase is repeated over and over, as if they were wordlessly torturing themselves.
Now the darkness is peaceful, and she can feel that there are others in it. Not touching them, but feeling them.
But they weren’t in her darkness. So where were they?
She wants to see them, to know them, so she pushes against the darkness, and it oddly cracks.
There is a screech from the calm individual, who speaks into it. “Yes. Mhm. Yes… yes… send them down here right now. I’ll speak to him later.”
A flurry of movement gradually rushes, and she keeps pressing forward.
More cracking.
“I’ll take this one”, a voice says. “No, I will!” another one interrupts the first one.
The darkness is full of noise, and she keeps pushing, and pushing, and pushing, until it all falls away and blinding light blazes her vision.
It takes a bit for her orient herself, and she sees that she is a low, metal basin. She looks around, and realizes that what she was feeling in the dark were those – dark oblong shapes the same size as her, speckled with silver flecks. She waddles towards them, when something grabs her, pulling her backwards.
“Mine, mine, mine!” her grabbers shriek. She fights back hoping to reach them, but she is still pulled back.
“Hey!” someone shouts and pulls her grabbers back, allowing her to reach the oblong shapes, which were starting to crack.
From one of them, a sound emerges. “Rrrr…?”
She purrs in response, and soon the shape falls away, and a small creature with black scales; orange eyes; straight, grey horns; and scattered silver flecks on the undersides of its wings is in its place.
It notices her and waddles towards her. “Prrrr…?”
“Rrrr…” she replies.
Before it can reach her, her grabbers from earlier lunge forward and wring the orange-eyed creature in their paws.
“Rrr!” she says and tries to bite them, but something grabs her.
It is not hard like the others, but softer like the darkness she was once in.
“Easy, Midnight, easy.”
Midnight. That was her name.
“Tom”, a voice nearby says, “why do have one of those dragons? You should’ve gotten one of the brown ones where you can still work for the settlement.”
Midnight turns her head and sees that a tall, posh-looking, two-legged, two-armed, enrobed creature was glaring down at who was holding her – a masculine creature like it, with pale skin; short, neat, brown hair; and was wearing strange coverings in dark shades around its body.
“Put a sock in it, Cliff. The only reason you were chosen was because –.”
“I think that enough”, someone else says, ushering Tom and Midnight away from the noise (which was started to hurt the dragon’s head at this point), up metallic stairs, through winding metallic corridors, and into a soft light that emitted from a large, silvery orb in a speckled black sky.
Where they were was a divet, on one side was a cliff that overlooked it. And in the middle of it were small, large, jutting silver things – almost like it was to keep whoever Tom, Cliff, and Dr. Peterson were safe.
Midnight turned, and saw that who had led them out was wearing white coverings and a mane on their head.
“Thanks, Dr. White”, Tom said.
“At least, you got to choose first before the others did.”
They turned back before grimacing into the distance. Soft chirps came from the ground and Midnight lowered her head to sniff. A strong, earthy smell.
“It’s a bloodbath in there. Everyone wanted to get their own. But maybe Sutherland when right when she said that one must respect the dragon if it was going to be your companion.”
“Uh, sir? May I ask? What happened to Dr. Sutherland?”
White turned back. “She died while making these eggs, son. No one knows why or how, but maybe it’s the universe telling us that her time and role here is over, and that her torch must be passed on.”
“Passed on to who?”
“Us, Thomas. All of us, even you.”
“Uh…”
“Oh, right, I forgot. You’re only referred as ‘Thomas’ when you break the rules.”
Midnight looked up, and could hear jeering behind her.
She turned, and saw that several others were coming out with their own little dragons. Some looked like Midnight. Others were differently colored – such as blue or green – and/or had different features – such as bigger wings or fangs protruding from their mouths.
Midnight felt Tom and White nudge her away. She followed them down the divet towards a waterfall that roared and flowed down part of the cliff face.
“Midnight?” White inquired. “Why that name?”
Tom shrugged. “I… emmm… liked it.”
“Why?”
“Uhhh… because of it’s equated to night?”
“Uh huh”, White sniffed, unassumingly.
They kept walking until they reached the waterfall, where someone was scooping up water into small metallic bowls with a thin arch on their top.
“Lily.”
The figure – a pale-skinned, feminine creature with green eyes, a brown mane, and wearing dark coverings – turned.
Their eyes widened.
“You…”
Tom stopped Midnight from walking any further with one of his paws.
Lily tentatively strode forward, her paws trembling.
“You managed to get one.”
She put one of her paws on Midnight’s snout, and she sniffed it. She smelled like the waterfall itself.
“What its name?”
Awe emitted from her.
“Her name is Midnight”, Tom replied.
“Midnight”, Lily said softly. “Midnight.”
Both met each other’s eyes before one of them looked over the other.
“What’s that teardrop at the corner of her eye?”
Tom peered at his dragon curiously before he recognized it. White also noticed it.
“Sutherland mentioned that she wanted to amplify the telepathic powers of the dragons and create a marker showing it”, they said. “I think that’s her way of doing it.”
“A shiny scale?” Tom gaped incredulously.
“Not just any scale. A scale that only appears when an egg is exposed to and/or incubated under moonlight for a specific period of time. We can’t just have telepathic dragons everywhere.”
“But, what about–?”
“As far I know, these guys are the only ones to have telepathy. None of the others have it.”
“What do you call them?” Lily asked.
“NightWings”, White answered.
“NightWings?”
“Sutherland knew that dragons were defined by their wings and that each type embodied an element or an aspect of nature they were adapted to. The ones with enormous wings and have fire-colored scales are SkyWings; the ones with cold, white scales and a freezing, mist-like breath weapon are IceWings; you get the idea.”
“So, NightWings embody…?”
White nodded. “NightWings embody the night itself.”
“Uh”, Tom started, and everyone looked at him. He swallowed before speaking. “Cliff mentioned that there were brown dragons when I pulling Midnight away. What are those dragons?”
“MudWings”, White answered. “Swamp dragons. Earth dragons. Probably the packhorse of-.”
White was about to finish when someone was calling for Dr. White in the distance.
The four turned, and Midnight saw that a masculine creature like Tom was running towards them, except they had brown fur on the lower half of their face and was wearing the same white coverings as White.
“Dr. Peterson?” White said.
Peterson gained his breath as he spoke, the words coming out in a gasp
“It’s… about… the twins…”
“The twins?” White thundered.
Peterson nodded, fiddling with the endpiece of a thin metal aid that sat on his ears and had a clear piece covered his eyes.
“They’ve gathered most of the settlement to come with him. And they’ve taken one of the backup eggs.”
White turned to the trio. “Stay here”, they said turning back to Peterson.
“Take me to Cottonmouth and Coyote”, they hissed.
“You mean Pollux and Cas-?”
“Yes! Now get me there!”
The two, white-robed creatures bolted down the cliff face into the divet, worry and fury coming from them, until the only ones at the waterfall were Midnight, Tom, and Lily.
As the three sat down in front of the rushing, Midnight noted that calmness radiated from them.
She put her head on Tom’s legs, and his paws starting stroking her.
She purred; it felt good for someone to scratch her neck in the first moment of peace since breaking through the darkness.
Lily joined soon in, and Midnight closed her eyes and slept, resting on the first day of her – and dragonkind’s – life.
==Part One: Leaves and Silk==
5,212 A.S. (5,212 years later...)
===Chapter 1===
“Please tell us about the history of the Communities!” the dragonets wheedled. “Please, Leaf? Please?”
Enthusiastic comrades were heard of in the Communities, but not as vibrant as this group.
“Alright. I’ll you how the Communities came to be.”
Gesturing with our talons, the dragonets settled down.
A cold, crisp wind blew through the miniscule openings in the woven, branch-made hut that was the Sapling Center and our leaf-shaped wings. It smelled of wet, frozen, snow, which of course covered the Community during this season. The only warmth here was the heat that emulated from everyone’s scales.
Colorful snouts and eyes stared at us attentively, as if we were their only source of water in a desert.
“In the beginning, Communities did not exist. ForestWings lived in places known as ‘Hives’, which we all know were horrid places. They were high, but not in the trees. No, they were high in the sky. They were rotten, and you know why they were.”
“Oh! Us! Us!” the dragonets yelped, whipping their tiny talons into the air. Some were trying to be higher than others, hoping that we would choose them.
Of all our time here in the Sapling Center, we knew who had and had not answered our questions. And there was only one that was on that list…
“Sycamore.”
The dragonets quieted down as they let one of them – a small dark green dragonet with leaf-shaped wings – come forward and answer our question.
“Because they incentivized work over taking care of our own.”
“Good job”, we smiled and nodded at them, as something tugged at me. Looking down, we could see that a similarly small pale green dragonet with dark green eyes and leaf-shaped wings was grabbing our front claws and pointing away, towards the Center’s only entrance and exit.
This dragonet was Green, if we recalled correctly.
“Fruit”, they said.
Our brain wheeled, thinking of something to say to the dragonet.
Then, it came.
“Do you want to go to the prey-platform?”
The prey-platform – a slab of branches woven together that hung from thick vines that were tied to thick tree branches in the lower center of the Community – was where food was distributed. Dragons, known as “Platform Workers”, handed out specifically the food that the Hunters had found that sunrise; one piece per dragon in the Community – “food equity” as it was called.
As a result, many of the dragons in the Community were thin, which wasn’t really a problem.
Green shook their head, and pointed again at the entrance. Our eyes followed their claw, which were not actually pointed at the entrance; they were pointed at a tall, four-winged, purple-and-orange dragon who was cleaning a small leafy nest in a corner where the dragonets would sleep tonight.
“Fruit.”
They wanted Fruit, a worker at the Center.
But why?
Unsure, we called out to them, and they stopped what they were coming, striding in an elegant way towards me, like the wind.
Green ran over to them, and they suddenly stopped when they saw them. The dragonet clung to one of their forearms.
Fruit snorted, trying to shake them off them, but Green stayed put like a leech.
They kept prying until they managed to rip the dragonet off and place them into our front claws.
Looking down as the Caretaker went back to cleaning the nest, we saw Green pout with disappointment.
They continued to pout, even as our talons nudged them back into the group.
Now, where did our story leave off?
Hmmm….
Oh, yes!
“Sycamore?”
The dragonet looked up at us.
“Did you answer our…?”
“Yes! Yes!”, they chirped before we could finish my question. “You asked about why the Hives were rotten, and we answered was that they incentivized work over taking care of our own.”
“Hmmm…” Tapping one claw on our snout made us seem forgetful to the dragonets, although we knew where our story left off.
After the momentary pause, we started the story once again.
----Like the huts that made it up, the walkways and platforms that connected the Community to each other was a mess of vines and branches woven together.
They wobbled slightly from the weight of multiple dragons when they walked on it, although everyone knew how to balance on them.
There was one that connected the Sapling Center to the Sprouting Center, where we and the rest of our group resided until we became comrades at the age of six years.
After leaving the Sapling Center, we took off from the platform which the it sat on and flew towards the Sprouting Center. Albeit it was a short flight, we did this since there were dragons on the tightly woven, flimsy walkway.
Icy wind sliced through our leaf-shaped wings like the serrated claws of an IceWing as we soared through the Community overhead.
On one of them, some of the dragons had woven baskets around their necks, full of eggs. Those dragons were part of the Sapling Center, and those eggs came from the Seedling Center. No one knew what happened in there, only that the next generation of comrades was produced there.
The Community’s huts were made of the same material as the walkways – branches and vines – and were built and woven in a way that one perceived them to be one with the forest. Most, but not all, had leafy roofs.
The platforms were the same way, save that they could hold many dragons on it without wobbling as much than the walkways.
As we landed in front of the leafy curtain that marked the entrance of the Sprouting Center, many like us entered it as well.
Our comrades. The comrades we would live with throughout our lives until we were sent Elsewhere.
What they would be in the Community, no one but the Council of Coasts knew.
And after a full day of working at the Sapling Center, we entered the Sprouting Center, ready to await what our future was tomorrow.
----Before sleeping, we comrades had to clean up our leafy nests for the next dragon who would take our place after tomorrow.
There were some whose nests were a mess, like Maple’s, and they had to be extra cautious when preparing for their successor.
We, on the other talon, took great care of our nest each day.
Situated on our left was Thorn, who was told on others when they did something questionable; Stem, who was gentle, was on the opposite side.
Taking out the dead scales from the leaves we slept on, we could see that Thorn was already curled up inside their leafy nest, slumbering away. The first to wake and the first to sleep, their ever-solemn brown snout loomed at us like an Instructor disciplining their students over an infraction.
We sighed and went back to cleaning the leaves and placing them into a small wooden bowl at the foot of it. They were small, pale green lumps; like small, congealed seeds that took on a bright color when sunlight hit them in the right place.
The only light illuminated our sleeping areas was a gentle golden light that come from glass jars containing fireflies that were situated in around and in the perimeter strategically.
We looked around with our eyes, and saw that the others were done cleaning and already asleep, or were doing the finishing touches before going to sleep.
We were nearly done, and optically scoured the nest for any loose crumbs that had not been found yet.
None were found.
And with that in mind, we curled up into the leaves of our nest and let the restful darkness cover and recharge us for the next day.'
==Part Two: Silver Tides==
"Silver Tides" is the second act of Changing Leaves.
==Part Three: Pyrrhia==
"Pyrrhia" is the third/final act of Changing Leaves.
==Epilogue==
This is the epilogue of Changing Leaves.
==Changes from Original Novel==
*In the original novel, the prologue shows the colonization of Eukarya from the perspective of the native dragons.L1quid's notes and outlines for These Alien Dragons In the adaptation, the prologue is a snippet from The Dragon Planet, L1quid scrapped Wings of Fire fanfiction that throws the lore of The Flames of Hope out the window (because they didn't like it and because they think that Scorching lore should've been saved for A Guide to the Dragon World instead of being part of the book's plot).
**Midnight the NightWing's rider is Thomas Blacke, L1quid's old Wings of Fire OC that's been reused in establishing their version of Wings of Fire's lore. The human at the waterfall is Lily Parke, another one of L1quid's old Wings of Fire human OCs that's been reused for the same purpose as Blacke. Two scientists in the prologue are references to authors in the fantasy genre - Andrew Peterson (author of The Wingfeather Saga) and Tui T. Sutherland (author of Wings of Fire).
**The prologue was inspired by the origin of the dragons in Pern: Dragonsdawn and Darkstalker's hatching in Wings of Fire (Legends): Darkstalker.
*In the original novel, part one's name is unknown (as of 01/2024). In the adaption, part one's name is "Leaves and Silk", referencing the LeafSilk Kingdom and how the interbreeding of the SilkWings and LeafWings produced the ForestWings.
*In the original novel, part three's name is "The Feathered Isle". In the adaption, part three's name is "Pyrrhia", referencing how Pyrrhia is where Wings of Fire's interspecies cities are.
----
*In the original novel, the main location is the Great Forest, a deciduous forest which makes up the "body" of Eukarya. In the adaptation, the main location is the Kingdom of Forests (futuristic LeafSilk Kingdom).
*In the original novel, the main species shown are TreeWings, which were inspired by Wings of Fire's LeafWings. In the adaptation, the two main species shown are SilkWings and LeafWings, albeit they are turning into a new species with generations of interbreeding with each other.
==Trivia== 
*The plot of Changing Leaves was inspired by The Giver - both the novel and film.
**L1quid has always wanted to do a Wings of Fire adaptation of The Giver. If they managed to do it, the main protagonist would be Keytalons, an animus male NightWing. However, because it is being done for their series, that adaptation will not be done.L1quid's (old/current) Wings of Fire fan-content
*The cover of Changing Leaves is a modified version of the one L1quid drew for the original series. The pose is Moonwatcher from How to Draw: Wings of Fire in the form of a LeafWing (TreeWing for TAD), and the background is supposed to resemble the RainWing village in a deciduous forest.
**For the original series, the cover's background was supposed to depict the Community of Trees, the capital of the TreeWings. However, L1quid changed it to visually tell potential readers that the series has its roots in Wings of Fire and because it was too detailed for them to draw.
*The rough version of the novel's synopsis was inspired by the synopsis of Wings of Fire (Legends): Darkstalker.
==Notes==
As of March-April 2024, L1quid has merged These Alien Dragons with their other series Archai to create Strangely Dim (because both series' plots were dragging them through the mud).This means that Pern (as a series) is discontinued.
==Gallery==
File:Changing Leaves (front cover (text), wings of fire).png|Front cover (with text), by L1quid
File:Changing Leaves (front cover (textless), wings of fire).png|Front cover (textless), by L1quid
File:Changing Leaves (full cover (title text), wings of fire).png|Full cover (with text) by L1quid
File:Changing Leaves (full cover (WoF version), these alien dragons).png|Full cover (textless) by L1quid
==References==
==External Links==
*These Alien Dragons (bk.1): Changing Leaves - Wattpad
Category:Content (L1quidMarbl3)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Inspired by Fiction
Category:Genre (Adventure)