Take One for the Team

When a small joke meant to bring some light to his situation goes horribly wrong and gets him thrown in a secret prison that Queen Ruby herself doesn't know of, Thunderbird conspires with a few prisoners of the past Queen Scarlet to bail out and restore peace to Pyrrhia--their own way. If five weak little dragonets could do it, then surely three full-grown, battle-hardened dragons could too, right? Right? Well, that's what cynical Thunderbird, hopeful and simultaneously hopeless Hailstorm, and sassy Mecca keep telling themselves as they make a jailbreak that will change their lives almost as much as the scroll about celebrity Ji--wait, different topic. Anyway, the trio learns that in order to gets things accomplished the right way *cough cough* dragonets of destiny *cough*, they'll have to take one for the team while making it out alive and preferably in one piece--which is a bit impossible with a furious ex-queen and her "thrilling" doppelganger on their tails...
==Disclaimers And Terms - READ THESE!!==
You may NOT use ANY content from this fanfiction without the author's written permission. This includes, but is NOT limited to, use of ideas presented, use or duplication of the images displayed, the use or duplication of quotes, redistribution of the text, etc. The characters presented are entirely fictional. Any and all similarities found are merely a coincidence. The fictional characters are the property of the author. You will need their written permission to use this character, which includes concept, personality, appearance, morals, etc.
The dragon world of Pyrrhia is based around the Wings of Fire series, written by Tui T. Sutherland and published/owned by Scholastic Press, USA.
==Author's Note==
Inspiration can hit at any time. Even when you promised to stop. Granted this isn't going to be a full-on story, please take the courtesy to understand that I'm not going to stick around much longer.
Also, I'd like to thank Nathia Safira for the idea of "wings of fire..." There's not much more I can say about it!
==Take One for the Team==
Ever since Iron was called back to the Mud Kingdom to serve under Queen Moorhen's Territorial Defense--a new organization designed to return the swampy kingdom to its former glory and keep it that way--Thunderbird had been depressed and unbelievably bored. Of course "Queen" Ruby had established many programs meant to revive the Sky Kingdom to what it had once been twenty years ago, save for "ex-Queen" Scarlet's arena and murderous traditions, but Thunderbird took no interest in them. It was either clean up already-decaying corpses or planting trees, and the cynical SkyWing didn't want to hunch over dead dragons or dig tiny holes and put seeds in them. So shortly after the red dragon rose to power near the end of the war, she gave Thunderbird a task he hated even more--infantry training.
Thunderbird loved to fight and make friends and train with other SkyWings and even MudWings and SandWings, but the infantry trained given to him was a squadron full of dragonets who didn't know whether to flinch or breathe when confronted with an attacker. Naturally not being a fan of Ruby's decision, Thunderbird appealed to her for a different task, such as making sure mini-Scarlet had left the kingdom or at least serving on border patrol, but she denied all of his suggestions.
"Whatever I say goes. You're going to serve as an instructor. Nothing more about it." Ruby had finally snapped after Thunderbird's twenty-some suggestions that didn't include young dragonets and picking up corpses (who liked to do that anyway?) and hugging trees. Her scales glinted in authority as her glower bored through his soul. To "not associate herself with the former queen, who had been widely disliked by the dragons of Pyrrhia", Ruby rarely decorated herself with precious stones or jewelry. Granted rubies would never show on her scales, ironically, emeralds and sapphires contrasted horribly, and gold compensated for her mother, Ruby preferred to show off her wealth in silver--when possible. Such metals were not only fairly rare and difficult to acquire, but it also tarnished easily. It wasn't as heavy as gold, but Ruby wasn't the kind of dragon to be weighed down. She was already a physical disappointment to her family's genetics--she was slightly larger and not as tough. Scarlet was capable of full flight and flips while being weighed down by gold--Ruby had difficulty doing the latter without the extra load.
But these things were topics Ruby didn't like drifting through the mountain air. It was obvious from her rise to the throne that she had been waiting for the chance, instead of challenging her mother in a fair fight. However most of the kingdom thought it was fair, because they had loathed the iron grip Scarlet had on their wings, as if she was prepared to shear them off in a single movement. Ruby still had the qualities and morals of any SkyWing--she just didn't go AWOL with it like her mother had.
Although, the entire tribe believed that they should be out on the battlefield to end the war before the pesky dragonets--who didn't even have a SkyWing, mind you--ended it for them, most likely in a way they'd all disagree on. With the SeaWings out of the war and the IceWings teetering on edge, a single assault would crown Burn queen of the SandWings. But something about Ruby's official declination to support the war effort suggested that she didn't want to end the war. She had no other sisters, so the throne was hers unless Scarlet rose from the dead. What was she afraid of? Vermilion and his talk of getting a pet scavenger? It was true that the Sky Kingdom was in ruins--being right in the middle of the Kingdom of the Sea and the Kingdom of Sand and the Ice Kingdom, the mountains experienced most of the battles. But most of it was on the hills and the foot of the tall stone peaks, far from where the kingdom's inhabitants actually thrived.
"But Your Majesty," Thunderbird choked, trying his best to sound like he wasn't totally crushed by her prior statement. "I'm not well-suited for that job. I mean, surely I would be better off--"
"Nonsense," Ruby growled. "You're highly experienced and--"
"Totally not great with dragonets," Thunderbird interrupted, forgetting entirely that he was speaking to the queen of the SkyWings.
Ruby's displeasure was visible almost instantaneously. Like her mother, inky smoke gathered ominously around her horns, her amber eyes skying through the darkness. Thunderbird then realized his mistake--and his disadvantage. Ruby was seated on a throne carved from the rock of the mountains, and she could easily leap down and rip his head off. The only clear escape was behind the throne, to the open sky--an exit that probably wasn't available. The tunnel behind him was also an option, but he wasn't going to get very far.
A high-pitched hiss broke the silence, and Thunderbird had only a second to twist himself out of the line of fire before the rock before the queen smoldered with dying flames. Landing not-so-gracefully on his ankle, the name-sake scarred dragon turned to find Ruby before him, her shadow raining upon him like his fear that this would be the last time he saw the sun.
"And WHO do you think you're speaking to?" the red dragon demanded, flames pouring from her snarl.
"Queen Ruby," Thunderbird answered, practically being forced to cower.
"Emphasis on Queen," Ruby added, stepping back from the orange dragon to return to her throne.
As Ruby climbed the stone with her back turned to him, Thunderbird couldn't help but to add: "You know, even though you're the queen, you're not so ridiculously important to the point that it's justified to kill a dragon if they interrupt you."
Ruby snapped around immediately, fire surrounding her maw. But Thunderbird had already leaped over her head, soaring out into the open sky.
"THUNDERBIRD!!" she roared, the wind catching her voice as she watched the mischievous SkyWing fly away.
Apparently "Queen" Ruby didn't understand jokes. Thunderbird didn't realize this until two SkyWings clad in armor seized him by force, bundled him in iron chains, lugged him to the SkyWing palace, and threw him into the prison near the abandoned arena.
Thunderbird's prison was located underground; the only light available came from the torches upon the wall, unlike the rest of the palace, where sunlight filtered through skylights and open spaces. His cell also hadn't seen maintenance in a while; old scales from all kinds of dragons was visible, scorch marks from furious fire-breathers decorated the stony walls, and dust gathered in mountainous piles.
When the two soldiers dragged him into the yawning cell, they unwrapped the cumbersome chains, but only to add chained braces to fix him to the wall. Other prisoners watched in amazement and amusement as the two SkyWings, slowed down by their bulky and unnecessary armor, struggled to keep the smaller orange dragon still. They eventually won the battle and left, locking the iron bars to the cage shut with a key that they carried with them. Thunderbird slumped in defeat and humiliation after their tails disappeared, and an IceWing's proceeding chilly snicker didn't improve his mood.
"Hehheh," the IceWing muttered through the chains on his jaw. He was laying down with his head rested on his forearms and talons, his spiny tail curling around to mask some of the wounds he bore. His wings were also tucked into his sides, a task much easier for ice dragons than the natives of the kingdom he was imprisoned in. "What did you do to displease your queen? Did you say, 'Thrilling is an overused word' or 'Thrilling is so last year'?"
Thunderbird, who was sitting on his haunches with his back turned to the IceWing, swiveled his head to make eye contact. "Hmm? Oh. Scarlet's not queen anymore." He shuffled his wings at the IceWing's surprised facial expression.
"Really? Why? What happened?" He said excitedly, as if Scarlet's ending reign brought new of his freedom.
Sorry, bud, Thunderbird sighed. Ruby doesn't even know of this prison. Everyone who runs it is loyal to Scarlet. I guess they threw me in here because they assumed I hated Ruby. Seriously, though! It was just a joke!
Thunderbird changed his tone when he spoke. "She took some RainWing venom to the face and--"
"RainWing what?" prompted the IceWing, withdrawing his tail and lifted his head.
"Venom. It's this weird black goop that eats scales like how a MudWing eats cows."
"Huh. Freaky. How did this RainWing get that close to Scarlet to bite her?" The IceWing was now mirroring Thunderbird's position: on his haunches with his wings by his side.
"Well, she didn't bite her. From what I heard from eye witnesses, the RainWing's jaw was almost entirely unhinged, and the black goop just, shot out from its fangs. It was really aiming for Queen Burn, but hit Scarlet instead."
The IceWing nodded blankly, then realized something. "Wait, you actually support Burn, but not your own queen?"
Thunderbird shrugged. "Burn was best fit for queen. Scarlet, not so much."
"But she's murderous and insane!"
"And so is Scarlet."
"Yeah, but more so!"
"But Burn has a sense of military morals. She doesn't kill prisoners chained down to the earth or make them fight to the death. She also doesn't overuse 'thrilling', and sure, she's evil, but she's not the freaking feminine evil like Scarlet."
A SandWing in the corner of the cavern grunted at Thunderbird's explanation, and a SeaWing muttered something along the lines of "They're all evil."
The IceWing seemed to heed Thunderbird's words, his dark blue gaze staring off at a pebble at his talons.
He's probably not used to hearing this from Blaze, Thunderbird mentally snorted. In fact, what's Glacier like?
He was about to ask his question when the IceWing caught his tongue. "So what happened to her? Scarlet?"
"Oh," Thunderbird mumbled. "She either ran off or died, and Ruby, her daughter, claimed the throne. She runs unopposed, so it's hers unless Scarlet comes back."
"Hmm." the ice dragon muttered. "So this Ruby threw you in here. Why?"
"It was just a joke! She has no sense of humor." the SkyWing complained, giving his wings a quick flare of emotion. "And now I'm stuck here to rot."
"Wait," the ice dragon threw himself up within a second, the chains screaming in defiance and awakening all the prisoners in the cavern. "To rot? You mean, you're not ever leaving? I'm not ever leaving?"
"Ruby shut down the prison and even banished mini-Scarlet--"
"Who's mini-Scarlet?"
"That freaky sociopathic dragonet that's Scarlet's little pawn. She's born with an unnatural ability. She basically burns what she touches, and she murders remorselessly in Scarlet's arena." Smoke of rage coiled around Thunderbird's horns as he recalled the coppery dragonet and Kestrel's daughter. Thinking of Kestrel made him shiver.
"Oh. Why do you call her mini-Scarlet?" the ice dragon muttered, aware of the smoke.
"They're both a shade of orange, they're both murderous and immoral and evil, and they both need to die if they haven't already. Although," he added with a snicker, "they're about the same size."
The IceWing snorted in amusement and continued, "Okay. So you were saying?"
"Oh, yeah. Ruby shut this place down, but only Scarlet and her followers know of this prison. For all I know, Ruby thinks I'm in a totally separate prison. We're not going to be seeing the light of day until Death comes knocking."
The IceWing hung his head low in Thunderbird's response, a lonely "Oh." escaping his mouth. Other prisoners piked up at the lone SkyWing's words. They all knew they'd probably never escape, but now that slim chance was crushed into a thousand pieces smaller than the stars spilled across sky. "Well," he sighed. "I have no hope of seeing my brother and sister again."
"Yeah," Thunderbird sighed. "I hoped to see my friend." Thunderbird shifted his body to face the IceWing, who was now moping on the ground, limbs tucked under his body and wings spread wide on the rocky floor. "What's your queen like?"
"Queen Glacier? Oh, she's my aunt. She's pretty protective of Blaze for whatever reason. Probably for the extra land. And she's pretty just, unlike your ex-queen, ironically. She also cares for our tribe. But she's so busy I hardly get to talk to her."
"Huh." replied the orange SkyWing. "Well. I'm tired. Nice talking to ya."
"You too. I'm Hailstorm, by the way," answered the IceWing, but Thunderbird's eyes were already closed.
Thunderbird hoped to stay asleep forever. It was quite. It was serene. And there was no sense of time. And that stripped Thunderbird of his ability to perceive emotions, to think. It was like--well, he couldn't describe it because his consciousness was gone. The only thing he knew was that one moment he closed his eyes, and the next he opened them to a progressed world, whether it be a few hours, a day... who knows. And if his eyes didn't open at all... how would he know that he was dead? He wouldn't be able to think. Was this death?
"Stop those wimpy and suicidal thoughts, SkyWing," a voice growled, and Thunderbird's awakening mind dismissed it as a fluke, a hallucination, and drifted back into the dream world. To which the voice responded with, "It's written all over your face. I'm not going to watch another dragon knowingly dig their own graves while chained to a wall."
Thunderbird, whose access to the time portal having been severed, stretched his six limbs as far out from his body as the chains would allow. Yawning, he opened his eyes, exposing them to the weak light that attacked them with a vengeance, unlike the tranquil blanket of darkness that covered them prior to the stranger's ranting rage. He looked around sleepily, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Over here, idiot," the voice snarled again, he he recognized it to be a female's. His eyes landed on a battle-scarred SandWing to his left, arms folded with her head rested upon them. Her blacks eyes bored into his, and he looked away to Hailstorm's cell, opposite from his. The IceWing was fast asleep and laying on his side, talons reaching out for... something... or from the way he muttered, someone. "You lost me. I'm no SandWing, skyhead."
Thunderbird returned his attention to the sand dragon who was challenging the temper of her captives. "What's your problem?" he yawned. "I was sleeping. No harm in that."
"Yeah, you were sleeping dreams that were grabbing you by the ankles and dragging you under the sands and straight to Khonsu's Earthmoon." she retorted, adding a flick of her tail to her sassy mood.
"Can-su's what?" Thunderbird prompted, lugging his full weight onto his aching legs. "Sounds like a SandWing tale or whatever."
"It sure is," she snapped, rising to match his height. "From a SandWing who killed himself a few years back. His last words were his last life story. He sank to the bottom of an oasis, and it's widely believed he still lives beneath the sands, ready to grab whoever has the soul weak enough to wish for death like he had."
"Oh," Thunderbird mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Reaper of suicidal souls?"
"You can call it that," the SandWing snorted. "And I know it's just a tale, but it's still chilly. When the conditions are the exact same as the day he died, his ghost can be seem wandering the dunes. I've heard dragons say he chants of a SkyWing and a MudWing that wanted to adopt him as a dragonet, and how he wished he had gone with them."
A deep knot of guilt clutched Thunderbird for a moment, but it washed away as he doubted the odds. "Okay, fine. Whatever," he waved his talons in a dismissal gesture, earning a glare from the pale dragon. "It's not like this guy is going to seep through the stone walls and catch me by my tail. Those are just legends. They've never existed, and never will."
Expecting a hurt rebuttal from an overly superstitious fairy-tale believer, the SandWing replied with: "Yeah, but the look on your face a few minutes ago was real," Thunderbird snapped his head at her, puffing a small cloud of smoke. "It had 'I wonder, what's death like? I suppose it won't hurt to find out' written all over it."
"I'm not that stupid," Thunderbird grumbled, turning his back to her and folding his wings.
"Of course you are. SkyWings are probably the third most stupid tribe, right behind MudWings and RainWings." She stretched her wings in majestic vanity, and the orange SkyWing noticed just how large they were. They were almost as large as his, and looked as strong, if not stronger. He also noticed that she was missing several scales along her limbs. Actually--the pattern appeared as if they had never been there. There was only one strip of scales, whereas a typical SandWing would have three or four of interlocking and overlapping scales.
"HEY!" he shouted, awakening several more prisoners in his anger. "If we SkyWings and MudWings are so stupid," he pointed an accusing talon at her smirking face, wings spread as wide as the cell would allow. "Then how come we've lasted so long in the war, to the point of being able to win it?"
"Because you have the SandWings on your side," she answered calmly. "SandWings are obviously the smartest tribe. The only way we can be beaten is if you sky dragons fly away on your overly magnificent wings or if the wimpy SeaWings crawl back to their secret underwater palace."
Hailstorm made a weird noise in his throat as three SeaWings shot venomous glares from across the cavern. The SandWing paid them no heed.
Thunderbird snorted a spurt of fire. He was going to ask of the NightWings, but it was clear that they were faking their intelligence--if they really had any, they'd show their faces and do something. "Alright, SandWing," he started. She raised her head in anticipation, and he continued in a hushed voice: "When the guards come to feed us--they always open the gates, close the gates, and untie the chains before tossing in the food. Their orders are to do it one at a time and cover each other in case a prisoner decides to attack, but they never do that anymore--"
"Which proves my point of SkyWing stupidity." she interrupted.
"Shut your trap," Thunderbird snapped quickly. "Anyway, they now feed multiple prisoners at once nowadays. Attack your guard when you're free. Once we're out of here, we'll see who's the better of us."
Immediately Hailstorm commented, "I don't think that's such a great idea."
"You're not in this," the SandWing said.
"How did you hear me?" Thunderbird demanded.
Hailstorm shrugged. "When you grow up with siblings who plan to kill each other for the throne, you learn to listen, even if you know you weren't on the hook in the first place."
"Huh. I'm still doing it anyway," the SandWing mused.
"Well, there goes your tribe's only source of pride," the SkyWing laughed.
The SandWing glared at him, trying to raise her tail in the threatening position, but the heavy chains prevented him from doing so. However, her bottomless glare was enough to deliver a lethal strike to the soul. She lowered the gaze and added, "Mecca."
"Thunderbird," added the sky dragon with a nod, turning his attention to the muffled commotion heard through the prison walls.
"Sounds like fun," Hailstorm sighed. "Maybe I'll get something other than half a goat."
"Doubtful," Thunderbird replied. "Nothing but those around here."
"Aw," the IceWing looked down at his talons. "Someday..."
Every dragon knew the saying, "Time flies when you're having fun."
Thunderbird knew it as "Time flies like a fat-MudWing-who-had-just-broken-its-crash-diet when you're bored."
Hailstorm and a neighboring SeaWing had already depleted their reserves of arctic animals and had moved on to naming all birds in existence. The IceWing found Thunderbird to be a useful reference when he drew a blank, much to the SeaWing's displeasure. Mecca spent her time sanding every single scale on her toned body and--to everyone's ears' displeasure--sharpening her claws on the iron bars and the bouldery walls that imprisoned them.
After listing every moonblasted species in existence, Hailstorm moved on to boasting of his tribe's supposed superiority, but then noted how he always questioned it.
"It's funny," he said, tapping a long, scythe-like claw to his chin. "How were we supposed to believe something we couldn't prove or see ourselves? Maybe some IceWings found that to be true, but they never elaborated. It's almost like we were--"
"Were being manipulated," Thunderbird snorted from behind his back. Finding the noise in the cave rather annoying and boring, Thunderbird had laid on the floor with his head on his talons and his wings over his ears. "See it all the time."
Hailstorm frowned, shifting on his haunches and ruffling his cold wings. "I wouldn't call it that. It was more like--"
"Like what? What else would it be?" Thunderbird prompted, raising an eyebrow. Out of his peripheral vision Mecca's head rose a few feet from her sleepy position, clearly interested in the emerging drama.
"Well," the IceWing shrugged as he thought for a long minute. "Distorting. Tampering. Bending the truth. Not telling the whole truth. Saying one thing and meaning another. Interfering. Changing to one's advantage. Influence, even." Seeing Thunderbird's blank expression and non-existent response, Hailstorm saw it as a battle won and smiled. "See, SkyWing, what did I sa--"
Thunderbird's hoarse laughter clamped the pale blue dragon's mouth shut--or, as he should say--shutter than it already was. "You remind me of a cornered dragon trying to wiggle his way under my wings. They can never escape the situation; even if you do slip, you're not going very far." The orange dragon's words obviously perturbed Hailstorm; he frowned and shifted once more, seemingly giving the floor an intense inspection. "Oh, get over it. We've all had to do it at one point," Thunderbird grumbled.
"Yeah, but..."
"You'll live. It was your life or theirs." Thunderbird sat up to assume Hailstorm's position. "Anyway. They all mean the same thing: manipulation. How do you like being lied to your whole life?"
Hailstorm exhaled a puff of icy frostbreath through his chains. "Well, it was never proved wrong, so it's not necessarily lying."
"But what if it was wrong?" Thunderbird growled.
"It's not."
"But what if it was?"
"I'm saying it's not, so--"
In his anger at the IceWing's stubborn ignorance, Thunderbird rose to his feet and unfolded his wings--not to their full length, as they would hardly fit-- and flared a column of smoke in the dragon's general direction. "Well, Mister-King-of-the-world, it is, so answer my Heaven's doomed question. If it was wrong--to which it is--would it then by lying?"
Hailstorm refused to answer for a moment, then squeaked, "I mean, I guess it could be--it would be. You're wrong, though. They never showed us why, but it's true. It's kind of like how it's true that the sun rises and sets everyday, although you may not always see it. You may not know how or why it does so, but you know that it does and will do for the rest of eternity."
"Hmm. Interesting comparison," Thunderbird mused. "You IceWings are so used to only interacting with yourselves up in that block of ice, I doubt you ever saw another tribe until this war fell on our heads. Look, pal. Are you IceWings superior at breathing fire? Flying? Swimming? Surviving in the desert? Seeing--"
"Well, that's a-given!" Hailstorm roared, waking up every prisoner and earning an interested look from Mecca. "Of course we're not. But in general, we are. Intelligence, sense, physical skills, endurance, etc."
"In general the only tribe you're superior to would be the RainWings. Everywhere else we're all equal. There may be an individual who proves to be an outlier, but no one tribe is superior. You learn that when you're surrounded by other cultures instead of obsessing on your and yours alone."
Hailstorm rolled his eyes, and that was the end of their conversation.
TO BE CONTINUED
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)