Foxfire

Foxfire
 By Eunoia
|statusdeceased|age38 at death|gender|orientation|tribeIceWing|occupationQueen of the IceWings|locationIce Kingdom|themeDarkside <tabber>
 = 
likes
* her animus magic
* Radiance (later)
* Snowfox
* Snowflake
* Overcast
* Arctic
dislikes
* Radiance (pre-coronation)
* The dark
* The color yellow
* SkyWings
* Diamond (at the very end)
stats
strength
perception
endurance
charisma
intelligence
agility
personality
As a young dragonet, Foxfire was very enthusiastic, ready to learn about the world. She was quite interested in politics and royal history, so much that there were whispers about her becoming Queen when she was only five. As Foxfire grew older, Radiance’s bulling and physical abuse began to get to her. She became much more paranoid and jumpy, and she developed a fear of her sister. 
After becoming Queen, Foxfire’s paranoia spiked, mainly due to the voices of Radiance, Diamond, and Arctic in her head. She began to publicly execute dragons the ghosts were even the slightest bit suspicious of, for reasons such as, “presumed treason”, “looking at me funny”, and “holding a knife”. It sounded ridiculous to outsiders, but the nobles and advisors who lived in the palace were always in fear of execution, finding excuses to keep away from the Queen who had Enraged the Ghosts.
|-|  = 
early life
Foxfire was the daughter of Queen Snowfox and her partner, Snowflake. She was born in 3,018 AS and loved by both her mothers. However, her older sister Radiance was instantly jealous of her baby sister, as their mothers suddenly directed all of their attention to Foxfire. 
The two were fiercely competitive throughout their dragonethood, so much so that, when Radiance was five and Foxfire was three, the former ordered an assassin after Foxfire. Radiance was nearly exiled from the Ice Kingdom as a result of this, but she begged her mothers to reconsider, stating that she "might spread the royal genes" and that, if she was taken off the radar, there would be more danger for Snowfox from unknown heirs. 
adolescence
A year later, Snowfox was killed in her sleep by a floating dagger. It left no trail or evidence of passage, except for a message written in royal blue blood on the wall: Don't turn your back. Don't trust your own claws. The Darkstalker is coming for you... After this, Snowflake descended into madness over grief, and Foxfire developed depression and an intense hatred of the NightWings. Snowflake ultimately killed herself and Radiance ascended to the throne. Her first order was to imprison Foxfire in the deepest dungeons of the palace. Right before the guards could snatch her, Foxfire was already hurtling out of the palace doors. She had expected this ever since Radiance had attempted to assassinate her and had already had a plan. She fled to the border of the kingdom of Sand, and became a refugee in the Scorpion Den. 
adulthood
After living in the Scorpion Den for three years, Foxfire had begun to dislike it, as it was very menacing and cutthroat. She met a dragon named Jerboa, who has been planning to escape Queen Scorpion's rule there. The two agreed that the Scorpion Den was horrible, and decided to found their own town. They took a large group of SandWings who were also displeased with the Den, and settled by the Great Five-Tail River. They named their town Possibility, and Foxfire requested to not be mentioned or identified, as she was still fearful Radiance was out to get her. Per the Princess’s appeal, the settlement was entirely credited to the SandWings.
A year later, when Foxfire was ten, she discovered she was an animus dragon. She had been trying to heal a wounded SandWing, and out of frustration, she'd wished the young dragon would "heal up like nothing was ever there". As new skin folded over and scales smoothed out the burns, the two dragons stared at each other in amazement. She was an animus. The last animus. For although Prince Arctic had been kidnapped and their animus dragon had no IceWing dragonets, it must have been passed on through Snowfox's recessive genes. Foxfire had nothing to fear now. She could challenge her sister and win the throne effortlessly, though she would first have to gain the trust of the IceWings. That was, if she wanted to.
She traveled past the great Ice Cliff and developed a new identity: Frostburn, raised among the SandWings. As Foxfire explored the Ice Kingdom, she began to notice something; everywhere she went, the IceWings were depressed, hungry, and not willing to talk. When they did, it was about how horrible life was. They said that Queen Radiance had become Queen before she was ready, and that the ghosts of the past were puppeting her to cause war among the IceWings. 
Foxfire decided she could no longer delay the inevitable and that she had to save her kingdom from her sister. But... by killing her? Could she really kill a dragon? Foxfire had a strong hunch that if she committed murder, no matter how justified it was, she would descend into madness like Snowflake had. So Foxfire decided to fix that. She enchanted herself a necklace with these exact words: "I enchant this pendant to sap all feeling of remorse and guilt and grief from me when I challenge my sister. I also enchant this pendant to give me intense fighting skill and make me win all battles I fight in." 
One week later, Foxfire arrived at the IceWing palace. She turned herself invisible and snuck past the guards. Upon arriving at the throne room, Foxfire seemingly materialized out of thin air, right in front of Radiance. The young Queen was flustered and enraged that her sister was still alive, and that after only 3 years, her reign might be brutally ended. Regardless, the law stated that Radiance must accept the challenge.
It was a quick battle. No sooner had the two stepped onto the floor, Foxfire's pendant activated itself and a cold, ruthless glare seeped into the young IceWing's otherwise innocent eyes. As the announcer signaled the begin of the battle, Foxfire darted across the arena, quick as a flash, and blew frostbreath right down her sister's throat. The ice in her eyes grew darker as she calmly settled down and waited for her sister’s spasms to recede. The panic in Radiance's eyes as her life drifted away was a moment that would scar the IceWing Kingdom forever.
The new Queen was horribly inexperienced, and though she had many well-meaning advisors, Foxfire was still overwhelmed by the stress and pressure of ruling an entire kingdom. Foxfire was always at the breaking point, shouting at her advisors and writhing in her sleep at the phantom of a thought.
It was on one of those sleepless nights when she heard the first voice. 
The night had begun like any other when Foxfire nudged her light-globe next to her bed and wearily inched herself on the soft polar bear furs. She drifted asleep quickly, exhausted from the nerve-wracking day, when she had yet another vision of her sister. The dreams had been recurring often. Most of them were quick, bloody, and guilt-inducing. Yet they were the only sleep Foxfire had gotten in weeks. 
As Foxfire watched her sister spill out her life yet again onto the frigid floors, Radiance spoke, for the first time since her death. "You know, little Foxfire..." creaked a voice so much like that of her sister's, but so unfamiliar at the same time, "the pendant you enchanted is still there... put it on, and all your troubles shall lift away...". As Foxfire backed away from her sister's corpse, too terrified to even run or shout, Radiance slowly faded from the dream, and the only hint of her existence was the blood spilled on the floor and the haunted shadows in the young Queen's eyes.
Foxfire awoke with a start, not daring herself to breathe, but at the same time seeing the moonstone pendant in her peripheral. She inched away from it, but all the same, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the haunting lure of the magic. She'd sculpted it with her own claws, after all. Her intentions had been pure. It couldn't do any harm. Right?
As she slowly nudged her talon toward the sparkling silver cord and slipped it around her neck, words flowed out of her mouth and an ethereal glow filled her eyes, enveloping the room around her in a ghostly mist. No one to date has found out what it was that she said.
In the weeks following her nightmare, Foxfire gained a newfound confidence. The new Queen proved to be energetic, charismatic, and quite like the young princess she was before her exile. However, some of her jokes had a dark streak to them, and she began to remind some of the older members of the court of someone...
Foxfire began hearing Voices in her head, and although the nightmares and visions eventually disappeared, the feeling of dragons watching her lingered, ever looming over her mind. 
The Voices began to become louder, stronger, and sometimes the air around Foxfire's head shimmered, though only she could see it. This continued for months, and on Foxfire's 15th hatchday, she figured out what was going on. 
After a long day of parties and Queenliness and presenting herself to the public, Foxfire was worn out, tired, and fed up with all of the regality and politeness of the royal court.
"Ha!" One of the voices laughed. It was the young female one, the one that was strangely familiar. Foxfire could have sworn she'd heard that sarcastic laugh all her life. "If I were still Queen, the Ice Kingdom wouldn't be this boring. I'd have more parties, but with actual food, not this "one speck of whale liver" nonsense." 
"Nonsense. This is how the Ice Kingdom should be." The second voice spoke. Female, regal, and sounding quite old, she sounded like she could be Foxfire's grandmother. "Besides, when you were Queen, the Ice Kingdom was in chaos! Your own sister killed you to end your madness."
"RADIANCE??!" The shock on Foxfire's face was torn between amazement, terror, and dumbfoundedness. 
The three Voices introduced themselves as Radiance, Arctic, and Diamond. As they seemed trusting at first, given they were in Foxfire's head and knew everything about her anyway, Foxfire decided to confide in them about their problems, her troubles, and the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders. She was still untrusting of Radiance, however.
As the weeks continued, Foxfire began relying more and more on the three ghosts for advice. They served as her best advisors, her loyal friends, all until she met Overcast.
He was the color of a stormy sky, eyes a clouded blue, and it was easy to see why Foxfire immediately fell head-over-heels for him. He was quiet, not normally noticeable, and shy in a serene way. She introduced herself to him and the two of them hit it off immediately.
Despite murmurs and whispers of dissent from both Diamond and her Council, Foxfire and Overcast developed a tight-knit relationship together, based on love and mutual respect. However, Diamond's incessant protests drove Foxfire absolutely mad. She had demanded that Foxfire "marry an actual IceWing", other than "some random nobody with a head too big for the palace". On the other talon, Radiance and Arctic sided with Foxfire and so Diamond's complaints went nowhere.
Foxfire took off the pendant so that she could feel true emotion again, and though the voices of the ghosts became less frequent, they never truly disappeared.
Nonetheless, there was trouble brewing, and the three ghosts started to become more and more distant, and they would not tell Foxfire why. Radiance especially gave her sister the cold shoulder. Foxfire had never told Overcast anything about the ghosts and she didn't plan to, because she thought it would make him hate her. She wished she had done so when she found him dead on the floor.
Lying in a pool of cold, sticky blood, Overcast lay with his neck slashed open in a grotesquely confused state, like he'd had no idea why was going on when he died. Foxfire was riddled with grief and fury, and when she asked the ghosts for help they said they would try their best to find the culprit, but there were no guarantees. Radiance in particular was acting up, but, as Foxfire was blinded by sorrow and anger she could not tell. 
The council members could not tell her anything either, and out of rage Foxfire had them all executed publicly, save Overcast's sister, Gannet. Foxfire, despite Radiance's protests and to the delight of Diamond, began putting to death anyone who irked her, whether the offense was "stepping on my foot" or "breathing too loudly". Diamond encouraged this, often pointing out perceived "offenders".
This continued for months, and the period of great unrest and slaughter became known as the frozen terror in IceWing history scrolls.
Eventually, as IceWing numbers began to dwindle and Foxfire continued neglecting her duties, famine and sickness hit. The seals were dying, no one knew why. It seemed there was a plague among the fat, blubbery creatures. Now they were skeletal, coughing and wheezing when an IceWing managed to find one, and causing fatal illness upon consumption. Even Caribou's seals were killing anyone who ate them. 
No one could stand this anymore until the three ghosts demanded Foxfire to use her magic to fix it. Radiance was the sole dragon who truly understood what was going on. She corned her sister in one of the hallways of the palace and told her that the Seal Plague was caused by Foxfire's turmoiling emotions. The health of the ocean was determined by the ruler's mental state, she explained. It was the same reason why the Ice Kingdom was in famine during Radiance's brief rule. Panicked and flustered, she confessed something that shattered Foxfire's trust in dragons forever. 
Diamond had killed Overcast. When the palace was sleeping and the snow was gently dusting outside the windows, Diamond had stalked into Overcast's room and lurked in wait, like a NightWing, waiting for its prey to emerge. She'd slit his neck and left him there on the floor, and Arctic had seen it all. He'd told Radiance but made her swear not to tell Foxfire, as he was afraid of what his mother would do to all of them and how it could affect Foxfire's emotional well-being. 
Foxfire reacted badly. Very badly. After processing the information that the dragons she trusted most, the dragons she relied on, the dragons that comforted her in her time of need, had betrayed her, she decided that she could not live with that knowledge any longer. Without confronting Arctic and Diamond, she silently, in the dead middle of the night, flew to the highest mountain in the Ice Kingdom and used her magic for the very last time.
”I enchant this mountain so that the moment I die, the sea will return to normal. I enchant the Ghost of Queen Diamond to slowly dissipate into nothingness, and the Ghosts of Queen Radiance and Prince Arctic are freed from their shadows and they may do what they want for the rest of their time. I enchant all of the IceWing gifts to slowly lose their power, so that my tribe will never fall prey to the lure of magic again.”
And Then She Drew Her Claws Across Her Neck
And Blue Blood Gushed Out Like That
Of Her Mothers And Her Sister
And Her Life Flowed Out Like A Waterfall
Into The Soft Snow Of The Mountain
post-death
After her death, it occurred as Foxfire promised. Radiance, Arctic, and Diamond faded into starlight and the gifts in the secret treasury started to disappear, one after the other, over the course of thousands of years. Now only a few are left. Gannet took over as first temporary, then permanent, Queen of the IceWings. Foxfire's story was beloved to be a myth by many IceWings, and was relatively unknown amongst dragons of other tribes.
|-|  = 
description
Foxfire’s top half is a pale purple that on her horns, borders on white. The line of scales above her underbelly and her wingers is a darker shade, accentuating the green that lies on the underside of her face. Her stomach and the bottom of her tail are white and fade to a pale green. 
Her eyes are a deep blue-violet like the sky after the Aurora passes. Her gaze was that of one who has lost everything, and after the death of Overcast, Foxfire’s face often gave off a deeply perturbing aura that could never be exactly pinpointed. Her spikes were razor sharp, able to cut with merely a touch, and towards the end of her life, her ribs were very visible.
Her voice sounded like an arctic melody, with undertones of deep magic and longing. You could not feel Foxfire breathing on you, and while her lungs were moving, it never seemed that oxygen went in and out of her mouth, though in fact she just breathed naturally shallowly.
|-|  = 
Snowflake
* A generally healthy mother/daughter relationship 
* Never judged each other (like, EVER)
* Was the parent Foxfire generally came to when Radiance was being a bully
* Trusted Snowflake with her life
Snowfox
* Though Snowfox was noted to be brutal and cruel, she was kind to both her daughters
* Favored Foxfire secretly
* Somewhat distant, but always loved her dragonets
* If she hadn’t died most likely Foxfire would never have challenged her
Overcast
* They often helped Foxfire with her duties when Arctic wasn’t available
* He was always there for her
* Foxfire helped them through a bit of a rough patch
* They discovered that they were LGBT together (Overcast , Foxfire )
Radiance
* Utterly despised one another as dragonets
* Foxfire would only understand the favoritism of her parents later
* Mixed feelings about Radiance’s death, she didn’t regret it but still wished there had been another way
* After they reconciled they became best friends
* Out of the three ghosts Foxfire leaned on Radiance the most (figuratively)
Arctic
* Was viewed as both a brother figure and a father figure by Foxfire
* He got some emotional help from Radiance
* He genuinely worried about Foxfire’s mental health and out of the three ghosts he provided the most advice/counseling
* Still harbored resentment towards his mother but understood her motives
Diamond
* Was never very distant to Foxfire but never really bothered to develop an actual relationship
* Very snobby, regal, and condescending towards dragons in general, would often point out the flaws of a particular dragon here and there
* Hated Overcast for no particular reason other than the fact that he wasn’t chosen by her
* Was always pushing Foxfire to be better, stronger, smarter, the best dragon she could be
* Didn’t really care about anything other than the fact that Foxfire could keep her alive
* Pushed her to make the weather-foretelling-bowl-thingy (that didn’t work out)
|-| = 
Foxfire-Eunoia.png|By Eunoia
Foxfire-Revek.png|Base by Revek
Foxfire-Eatwurmz.png|Base by Eatwurmz
FoxfirexOvercast.png|Base by Eyeballtea
</tabber>
== Trivia ==
* The name “Foxfire” is a term for the Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis based off a Finnish Myth that the Aurora is a fox spirit that's tail sets the skies on fire
* I created her and her history as an alternative reason why animus magic may have died out in the Ice Kingdom, because I never really bought the "NightWings stole our animus" story
* The dragonet of Snowfox Clearsight mentioned in Darkstalker is Radiance
* Foxfire was crowned ten years after Darkstalker’s first “death”
* Her color scheme is based off the Aurora (surprise, surprise)
Category:Content (Tigerbat6099)
Category:Characters
Category:Work in Progress
Category:IceWings
Category:Status (Leader)
Category:Status (Legend)
Category:Occupation (Government)
Category:Deceased
Category:Mature Content
Category:Animus
Category:Females
Category:LGBT+