Legends--The Forgotten Path

This page is created by Nyferine-RaidenWandersinger, and is now given over to The Vaumora
== Forward Note ==
Important note to the reader 2: this story takes place in Pyrrhia, and it happened the Darkstalker era
== Prologue ==
Hundreds of years before the time of Darkstalker’s prologue
Snow-owl POV
Princess Snow-owl turned around the corner and bumped straight into a Nightwing. She leapt backwards in surprise, inhaling up a frosty breath, claws scraping across the icy palace floor. A nightwing in the Ice palace?
“Woah there!” The nightwing returned Snow-owl’s surprised look. He was small, smaller than most of the nightwings Snow-owl had seen before, but stiller larger than her. 
His scales were black with random dark blue scales. On his wings were a splash of pale silver scales like a whirlpool of eyes. His irises were a soft, deep purple unlike any icewing eye color. 
“Uh,” The nightwing managed to squeeze out, “I don’t think there’s any need to shoot freezing death breath on me! I live at the Ice palace too!”
"You live at the Icewing palace?!” Snow-owl frowned at him, “You are a nightwing, not an icewing!” He can’t be a royal icewing. “I don’t remember any royal nightwings becoming an icewing prince, or did Queen Crystalline start letting random guests enter our palace?”
He flinched awkwardly: “Well, I am part icewing, in fact.” He raised his wings, and Snow-owl gasped in admiration. 
Below his wings, where is should be ordinary nightwing scales, was in fact whitish blue scales, running from his front limbs to his back legs. Also, Snow-owl noticed that his front talons were also speckled with the same pale blue. Her first nightwing-icewing hybrid ever, and he was magnificent. 
“Wow.” Snow-owl breathed in, “It’s………beautiful. Like a white line of stars upon a night sky.”
The nightwing smiled sheepishly: “Well, that’s not usually the first thing other icewings say upon meeting my scales.” 
“Then other icewings all have bad taste and are totally mean. We are known for our humor and kindness.” 
He gave her a serious face: “You are definitely the icewing with the best taste in here. And a strict and mean icewing! I haven’t seen that my whole life! Indeed!”
She smothered a laugh and put out a stern face as well: “Well, sarcastic nightwings aren’t so popular this year either, right?”
He laughed and she grinned, and Snow-owl felt like a part of her had finally dropped.
In the Icewing Kingdom, climbing the ranks was tiring. As a small part of the royal family, only the Queen’s niece, she was in the third circle, and had to claw her way up to first.
In less than six years, she was on top of the rankings, ranking fifth in the dragonet first circle area, and she was doing well. 
Now, she was competing with Prince Polar and Princess Diamond. Princess Diamond was the eldest daughter of Queen Crystalline of the Icewings, and the Queen’s favorite. Why? Because Diamond was an animus! 
Animi were really rare in Pyrrhia, and the only animi alive now were Prince Albatross of the Seawings, Jerboa of the Sandwings who was missing, and of course, Queen Crystalline herself and Princess Diamond. 
Queen Crystalline had already given her animus gift to the tribe, but Princess Diamond haven’t yet.
Queen Crystalline treated her eldest daughter like piece of priceless treasure. She, Snow-owl, could never compete with that. She had no special powers at all, but Diamond still had a gift to give.
But even though she knew she could never beat Diamond to lead the rankings, she still tried.
To sum up, daily life in the Icewing Palace was hard, tiring and in a way, boring. Snow-owl had been working non-stop for the last week or so, training with commander Frost, and Diamond was still grappling with her. Heck, Snow-owl haven’t smiled in a couple weeks now. It was all train, train, train, no stopping. 
And yet…… in this harsh world of ice and snow, dragons can laugh. This was amazing, the feeling of a ray of sunshine on her scales, waking her. 
Snow-owl caught her breath, just as the nightwing held out his front talons: “Well, nice to know you anyway. I’m Darkgleam, Queen Crystalline’s friends’ dragonet. That’s why I live with my parents here. You are a first circle dragonet, so I bet you live at the palace too.” 
He pointed at the chain on her neck, which only contained on circle, “If you ever want to…… make a new friend, you know where to find me.” He smiled at her: “So what’s your name? How come you live here?” 
Snow-owl gave him a huge grin: she could definitely surprise Darkgleam with her identity.
She pulled herself up to look tall and menacing, spreading her pale purple wings to make herself look bigger: “I am Snow-owl. But if you want to stay here, you better call me princess.” With that, she flew around Darkgleam, enjoying the look on his face. 
Snow-owl ran for the nearest balcony and leapt off: she was late for Frost’s classes.
*   *   *
Darkgleam POV
A year had passed, and Darkgleam was beginning to like Princess Snow-owl. 
She was sarcastically funny, even for an icewing, and she was hardworking too, way better than Princess Diamond anyway. 
That vain animus icewing was proud, scornful to others, and ranted on and on about how she will be queen when she grows up and how she will lead Pyrrhia with her magic, etc., etc.
Princess Snow-owl, however, was quiet to other icewings (a.k.a all the other dragons in her world expect him), but to Darkgleam she was kind, outgoing and attractive, telling him everything in her life. 
She was more like a soft nightwing than a harsh icewing. 
Darkgleam wove though the ice palace, hurrying to Princess Snow-owl’s room, which was really high here.
His father and mother were Queen Crystalline’s friends. Sharp-glare was a minor noble and was the queen’s friend when they were still dragonets, and Queen Crystalline met Shatterclaws the first time she journeyed out of the ice kingdom. That was why, when the nightwing and icewing had Darkgleam, Queen Crystalline invited them to the ice palace. 
But even though Sharp-glare had high rankings, Darkgleam didn’t even have an ordinary circle, he belonged to the “hybrid rank”, and he shared it with no other dragon, and he wore a special chain with a dragon carved onto a white plate. 
All the other icewings mocked him and cast weird glances at him when they think he didn’t notice, but he did, and he felt frustrated every time that happened: why can’t all the dragons treat hybrids with a little respect?
All the dragons except mother, father, Queen Crystalline, and Princess Snow-owl.
Sharp-glare and Shatterclaws loved Darkgleam and treasured him, but that was not unusual. Queen Crystalline only treated him well because he was the son of her friends. 
But Princess Snow-owl? She actually respected him, not because Queen Crystalline told her to, but because she loved him, and he loved her back. 
After ages of turning and flying, Princess Snow-owl’s room appeared in front of Darkgleam. She was probably studying battle techniques alone at the moment. 
He carefully knocked on the blue ice door, and Princess Snow-owl immediately threw it open, as if she was waiting there the while time. 
She greeted him with a smile that warmed his scales and made him feel like he was in the night kingdom again, warm and humid. Really rare in this world of ice. 
Princess Snow-owl was sleek and tall, and she definitely looked like a royal, with that silver one-circle chain that fitted perfectly on her neck, and icy blue eyes that darted around, always on high alert. 
Her scales were mostly snow white, but her horns and talons were the same color as her eyes, with pale moon purple for her wing membranes. She was the most beautiful dragon on Pyrrhia.
She grinned mischievously: “I put a fake ice adder in Diamond’s bed this morning and waited for her to come to her room. You should’ve heard the screams! She nearly used her animus magic!”
Darkgleam laughed along with her, feeling the happiness sink in: he couldn’t have a better life in the Ice kingdom.
*   *   *
Diamond POV
Princess Diamond hated nightwings, especially hybrids. With their black and dark scales, how could any tribe have dark scales? 
What was wrong with white and pale colors? Black was disgusting, like the color of dirty snow. 
She could almost bet it was that Darkgleam who put that stupid fake ice adder in her bed. Stupid hybrids and their horribly disgusting habits. 
Diamond wanted to use her magic and scrub away all of Darkgleam’s blackness and jerkiness, sculpturing him into a standard icewing.
Oh, that will be great, a talisman that turns any dragon it touches into the perfect, strict, rule-following icewing, even jerky nightwings, bovine mudwings, lazy rainwings, etc., etc.
At that second, someone knocked on her door. Probably a messenger notifying a princess. But Diamond was busy! 
Her gifting ceremony was a month later, when she’ll be seven, and soon after, her brother Prince Polar and sister Princess Snow-owl will step into adulthood too. 
Diamond planned on enchanting something to heal frost-breath injuries, because the icewing dragonets always played roughly and often seriously injured each other. 
The dragon poked their head into the door and said: “Hi, sis! Want to train? Frost is ill today so I’m free!”
Diamond sighed and turned to Princess Snow-owl: “Sister, just go away and bother someone else, will you? My gifting ceremony is drawing near so go stick your snout somewhere else.” 
Regal and commanding tone. A nice start to become queen of the icewings.
Oh, Diamond often dreamt about her being queen and leading the icewings. She will learn carefully from all the queens before her, and she will be the best queen ever. In all the history of the icewings, in all the history of Pyrrhia! 
Her sister’s stunning blue eyes regarded her. The only thing Diamond wanted from Snow-owl was her irises. 
Her sister had the most beautiful shade of blue to her eyes, like sparkling icebergs under a starry night. One glance of that eye could be scary, if adjusted the right way. 
Finally, Princess Snow-owl opened her snout: “Well, if you’re not coming, I guess I have to train with Darkgleam.” She backed out of Diamond’s room’s doorway.
Princess Diamond once again turned to her study desk—she had work to do, endless planning until the ceremony.
== Part one: A Blessing of Power ==
=== Chapter 1 ===
A few years before the time of Darkstalker's prologue
Pristine POV
Those idiotic Blessings of magic ceremonies. That was the only thought in Princess Pristine’s mind as she flew down the Ice palace. Today, all the two-year-old icewing dragonets are going to test whether they are animuses or not, which was usually boring—the icewings haven’t tested out an animus for decades now. Worse, the dragonets had no choice but to obey—rule breaking icewings get shunned by the tribe. 
Oh, the icewings always expect themselves to be strict and obedient and rule-following, especially the royal dragonets: respect all the first circles, respect all the royals, do not speak about icewing weaknesses, be strict and commanding, show no compassion for others—that’ll cause you to lose in battle, etc. If someone wrote down the list of rules for an icewing, the paper would’ve been larger than Pyrrhia. 
As she hurried down the hallways, she saw an icewing appear on her right. His horns and scales were a really light shade of sea blue, and startling blue eyes peered at her. He looked about two to three years old. 
The icewing bowed his head politely: “Good morning, Princess Pristine. Queen Diamond wanted you to attend the Blessing of magic ceremony as well?” His voice was soft, unlike the other icewings, and seeped with unnatural caring and kindness. 
Prince Arctic was the only icewing prince worth knowing in the whole history of the icewings. Prince Hurricane was handsome and dumber than an absent-minded walrus, Prince Icefloe was too aggressive, and Prince Sharpshard was too boring. But Prince Arctic?
Pristine nodded slowly as they soared out the balcony: “Yes, Prince Arctic. Even though my father is a hybrid I’m still royal.” 
Royal icewing dragonets and tested for animus powers at two, first circle dragonets at three, and ordinary dragonets at three and a half. The seventh circles are tested when they’re four. 
The icewing prince tilted his head: “Oh, of course, princess Pristine.” 
The pair flew through the corridors in silence for a while. The sun lazily slanted outside, casting a faint, orange glow on the pale blue ice and dyeing the seas pink. It was already dawn. 
Finally, Prince Arctic broke the ice: “What would you donate to the tribe if you were an animus?”
Princess Pristine wrinkled her snout at him: “My family doesn’t carry the animus gene for one, so its not likely that I would be an animus. You have more probability of being one.”
She turned her slender neck towards the sunrise: “And even if I am an animus, I’ll enchant something to make our tribe stronger, like a necklace that grants any dragon it touches have superpower or something.” 
Prince Arctic hummed to himself: “Well, you definitely have better ideas than me.” 
The sun was now yellow in the crisp, blue sky as the two dragonets as they drifted towards Lemming Island, where the Blessing of magic ceremonies always took place.
Pristine’s talons crunched on the cold ice as she and Prince Arctic landed on the huge icefloe that more than 100 hundred dragons could fit on, tethered to the Ice Kingdom by Lemming’s Gift of Inheritance. 
On the very south of the icefloe was rows of ice globes, each nestled on a snow base that never melted, at least 20. A few ice plants popped up here and there, decorating the bare island. 
The Gift of Inheritance was given by Princess Lemming about five hundred years ago, and it had been a part of icewing animus magic ever since. 
A young icewing dragonet could rest their talons on a ice globe, and if her or she was an animus, the globe will glow an eerie bluish light. All without wasting their precious soul.
Personally, Pristine didn’t want to be an animus. She thought that animi could decide for their own what to do with their magic, and not by their queens. There are plenty of animi that haven’t gone mad by using their magic too much, and many dragons that are evil without blessings of magic. 
But the real reason for not wanting to be an animus was simple: Pristine wanted to lead a normal life (as normal as princesses’ lives could go at least), she wanted to serve her tribe, but in her own ways, like fighting the Sandwings as a soldier. 
But if she did have animus powers, she’ll probably make something for the tribe and be done with it. No pressure. 
Queen Diamond (a.k.a aunt Diamond to Pristine) was waiting on the throne specially dedicated to Lemming Island as part of the Gift, and it made Queen Diamond as menacing as always. 
The enchanted ice globes sat patiently on their foundations, like an ice egg waiting to hatch enormous power. 
All the royal dragonets were there: Princess Snowfox, Prince Hurricane, Prince Icefloe, Prince Sharpshard, and Princess Sika. Of all the Ice Kingdom princesses, Pristine was the eldest, Snowfox just a week younger, and Sika the youngest. Queen Diamond was especially wary of her nieces because they were the most likely to challenge her.
Although Pristine and Sika had no intention of being Queen, Snowfox was quite keen and often went around bossing Sika. 
Apart from the prince and princesses, there was a small band of first circles and other circles, lounging around. Pristine immediately spotted her friends Snowleopard and Bobcat, playing in the snow. But she wasn’t interested in joining them now—she had one thing to do. 
Waiting in the shadows of the throne, was mother. 
=== Chapter 2 ===
Arctic POV
Prince Arctic watched with depression at how Princess Pristine bounded towards Aunt Snow-owl. 
Mother and daughter embraced, and Arctic could just make out a faint smile on Pristine’s snout. 
The eldest princess hardly expressed emotion, walling her thoughts up, and sometimes even Aunt Snow-owl couldn’t tell her daughter’s emotions. 
Princess Pristine trained as an icewing assassin and at the same time, an advanced soldier. She was a great fighter for a dragonet her age, and she was hardworking too, much like her mother. But she was a solitary dragonet, and she always wears that blank expression that is unnerving but somehow beautiful. 
Arctic sighed as Pristine walked away with Aunt Snow-owl, talon in talon, whispering to each other in shushed voices. 
Arctic often dreamt that Queen Diamond could love him like that, actually caring about him instead of treating him like a special decoration. 
Suddenly, a voice snapped Arctic out of his thoughts. The speaker glowered over the bunch of two-year-old dragonets on her ice throne, sweeping everyone with her icy stare. 
Queen Diamond flicked her tongue in and out as she addressed the crowd of dragons: “Icewing dragonets!” Her voice was like a sheet of thin ice, sliding across the island, crisp and cool, “I hope you are all aware of what you are here for. This is the Blessing of Magic Ceremony, and you will be tested for animus magic, which is a rare gift pasted down in the tribe.”
Queen Diamond clapped her talons, and immediately all the adult dragons backed away and went behind Queen Diamond’s throne, like they were trained to do so. 
The Icewing Queen now turned towards the waiting dragonets: “If you have animus magic in you, you will move into the palace today, and will do great things of the tribe, as you all know. If you’re not an animus……well, I just have to say bad luck, then. Magic is rare, so it’s okay if you turn out to be ordinary.” 
The last word was spat out by Queen Diamond. It was definitely not pleasing if the dragonets turned out to be normal. 
“Now go to the ice globes, one per dragonet, with the royals at the front, seventh circle at the back.” The queen commanded, “If you can’t find an empty globe, then wait for the next round.”
The dragonets all did as she asked, and soon Arctic found himself in front of an ice globe. 
It was carefully carved and chipped from ice, both the globe and the pedestal. 
The whole thing radiated power, beckoning to the dragons, ready to deliver an infinite amount of power. Just staring at it was hard. 
When all the icewing dragonets had found a place, Queen Diamond ordered again: “Now put your talons on the globe. If the globe flashes , then you are an animus, and you’ll help our tribe and donate great gifts. Do it one-by-one, so we can see who has animus powers. Starting with the seventh circle.”
The last dragonet between the ice globes raised her claws and carefully laid them on the globe. No reaction. The dragonet next to her touched the globe gingerly. Still no flashes. 
The same for all the seventh circles, and then the sixth to second circles. That was normal since the lower classes don’t have the animus gene. 
Now it was the first circles’ turn. Still nothing. 
Arctic could tell that the adult icewings were getting restless. If the first circle dragonets don’t have animus magic, then the probability of having an animus in this generation was shrinking, and Queen Diamond would not like it. 
Now, it was the royals’ turn. Starting with the youngest, Prince Sharpshard. No flashes. 
Prince Icefloe. No flashes. After what seemed like an eternity, it was Arctic’s turn.
He gazed at the little ball of ice in front of him. It looked so ordinary, but at the same time held so much potential. 
What would he give the tribe if he was an animus? Protection or Attacking weapons? He sighed, lets cross that bridge when we come to it, then. I hope I’m not an animus, I hate attention from the other icewings. 
Arctic held his breath as he rested his talons onto the ice globe. At first nothing happened. Then, gradually, Arctic felt a faint tingling in his claws. 
Then quite suddenly, the globe exploded in light, washing over the whole island, drenching all the dragonets with a fine, ice blue glow. The ice plants glittered in the sudden light and even the shadows cast by the dragons were enveloped with brightness. 
Finally, the light dimmed, and shrunk to a small bright dot in the middle of an ice globe before returning to an ordinary ball of ice.    
He was an animus. 
That was the sole thought in Arctic’s mind as the adults erupted into wild cheers. He was an animus, one of the most powerful dragon of all in the ice kingdom. 
Arctic lifted his snout slightly and peered around. All the other dragonets were gaping at him, some with jealously, others with surprise, some even expressed slight fear. 
He swiveled his head around to look at the adults, and his gaze rested on Mother. 
Queen Diamond had the most triumphant look on her face as she stared at Arctic, and he felt a small twinge of pride. Now you can take an interest in me, mother. You can’t ignore me now.
The Icewing Queen cleared her throat, and immediately all the dragons went quiet. 
Queen Diamond’s eyes glittered dangerously as her voice rang across the island: “Very well. It seems that my eldest son, Prince Arctic, has inherited my animus power.” She gave Arctic an unsettling, quirky smile as she continued, “Keep the procession up. We might have more hidden animi in our tribe.” 
Mother then nodded to him: “Our tribes’ newest animus. Come and stand next to my throne.” 
Arctic bounded towards the queen’s throne and settled on Queen Diamond’s left to gaze at the rest of the dragonets, maybe I could be special in my tribe too.
But then, a thought nudged at Arctic’s mind: would he lose his soul? Legend says that animus dragons will lose their soul if they use too much magic, so will he? Fortunately, the Icewings perfected animus magic, but what if he lost his soul anyway?
Suddenly, another blinding flash illuminated Arctic’s eyes, sweeping him over and over as he shielded his eyes from the glare. His thoughts dwindled to one—what another animus? Who? How?
The glow faded, and Arctic slowly lifted his talons off his forehead. 
All the dragons were staring at one dragonet, and Arctic locked his surprised eyes on her too.
Princess Pristine.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Genre (Romance)
Category:Genre (Adventure)