Flames in the Dark

Please do not edit or steal.
Disclaimer: this is a wip and new chapters will come at irregular intervals. I will also probably revise chapters often until I believe it is perfect. I am currently planning on finishing this but I don’t know. Also, any names that may be similar to or the same as names to other characters are completely accidental. Thanks for understanding. 
Note: this is currently paused due to... difficulties. 
== Prologue ==
The three eggs lay silently in the nest. 
“Do you think they’ll hatch tonight?” Flicker whispered. The deep blue-black eggs didn’t have a crack showing on them yet. The red and gold flecks marked the otherwise NightWing eggs as clear SkyWing hybrids. 
“Of course,” Peak yawned. “They were laid a year ago today.”
Flicker watched the nest worriedly from the back of the cave, where she sat with her sister. She remembered the day when Peak first came with the news: that was the day when Flicker started to be concerned about her nieces’ and nephews’ upbringing. 
“Peak?” She asked. “What’s wrong?” 
The dark orange SkyWing turned her snout away from her sister, resting her head on her arms in the corner where she had flung herself to the ground. “I’m with eggs,” she grumbled.
“What!” Flicker exclaimed, caught off guard. “Peak, that’s amazing!”
“I don’t want dragonets,” Peak snapped. “I just wanted it to be me and Sharpteeth.”
Sharpteeth was a NightWing, although that had never bothered Flicker. Why care about what tribe a dragon was from, if you loved them? Many dragons weren’t fond of that opinion, including Flicker’s own queen. Peak, though, agreed with her, and when a rogue NightWing showed up in the mountains Peak took a liking to him immediately. 
“But surely you'll…”
“Yes, I’ll take care of them,” she snapped. “I’m not a monster.”
But Peak had been unenthusiastic about being a mother, and Sharpteeth wasn’t any better about being a dad.
Outside, Flicker knew that the sun was rising; daybreak wasn’t far. One of Pyrrhia’s three moons- full tonight- was still shining above the horizon, visible in the semi-dark sky. Moonlight flooded the cave.
And then something… happened to one of the eggs. 
One of the two in front, the smoky blue turned a silvery, unnatural cream color. The flecks of fire were still there, bright against the rest of the egg. 
“What in the- Peak, did you see that?” Flicker jumped to her feet. 
“Maybe it’s broken,” her sister growled. 
“How could you say that?” Flicker gasped. “Wait, shh, it’s hatching!”
Peak grumbled indignantly when she was pushed aside. 
Four cracks splintered the shell where the dragonet was trying to push through. The second egg was starting to shake. 
The same strange color-change thing was happening to the last egg now. It was behind the two others, and less moonlight was hitting it.
Then Flicker had to blink for a moment, because all the light in the cave disappeared. Flicker spun around, a snarl in her teeth, to see a huge black dragon blocking the entrance, silver star scales lining his wings.
“Sharpteeth!” Peak cried. She ran up to throw her large wings around him. 
The NightWing struggled out of her grasp. 
“I’m here for the dragonets,” he rumbled. 
Peak looked at him weirdly. “Really? Why would you want them?”
“I’m bringing them to the NightWings, where they belong.”
“I though you said you didn’t live with them!” 
“I was being honest. I didn’t. Now I do, and I’m bringing my dragonets with me.”
“I thought you were going to stay with me!”
While they were speaking, Flicker watched as the dragonets climbed out of their eggs. The egg in the back was half silver, half midnight black, and a dark purple snout was working its way out of the shell. 
The dragonet from the silver egg was entirely out, flapping her wings- which, Flicker noticed, were larger than average. But they had star speckles like a NightWing’s, and her light tangerine scales had darker shades of purple and gray like storm clouds on the horizon. She had a curious expression and tiny raindrop-shaped scale next to her eyes, tilted upward so that she looked permanently happy. 
The dragonet that was shaking off shards of the normal egg was a shiny ebony black, like shadows, but with large dots of gold and red and orange. She seemed to be more NightWing than her sister, but still clearly a hybrid. 
The last was a male, and at first Flicker wondered if he had any SkyWing in him at all. But then he shook off the remaining eggshell and she noticed his longer limbs and how his star scales were red and gold, like embers or traces of fire.
“I’ll take that one,” Sharpteeth said. Flicker jumped. She hadn’t seen him come up. 
“You can’t just take them!” Flicker protested, as he held up the male and inspected his wings.
“Yes, I can,” he said. “I am their father, after all. And I’m only taking this one. The others look too much like SkyWings.”
“It’s okay, Flicker,” Peak told her shocked sister, brushing up against her. “Three will be too much of a talonful. Two will be just like us: sisters, calm, quiet.”
Except we had a mother and father and family who loved us, and these two will only have me and each other. And we didn’t have a brother taken away from us at hatching.
The little purple dragonet batted at his father’s nose, and Sharpteeth straightened up. “It’s time to go.”
“But you’ll come visit me, won’t you?” Peak asked desperately.
Sharpteeth gazed down at her, and there was a tenderness in his eyes that assured Flicker that he loved her sister. “Every night Perception is full,” he promised, naming the middle sized moon. He would be able to see Peak often, but not too often.
The NightWing was nearly out the door when a wave of protectiveness flashed through her. “You’ll at least name him, right?”
Sharpteeth studied the newborn dragonet he held in his claws as tiny talons swatted at his snout. “His name will be Smokeslasher,” he said at last. With a gust of wind he opened his wings and flapped away toward the shining moon.
“I love you, Sharpteeth!” Peak called after him, although Flicker figured he was too far in the distance to hear her.
Flicker turned away from her dreamy sister and stared despairingly at the two female dragonets. They were investigating their wings and taking a shot at walking, oblivious to their uncaring mother. They were so young, and without their father, their brother, or even their mother’s love.
Please let have a normal dragonethood, and above all, let them be okay.
== Chapter One ==
The sky was warm and clear and blue, and it was a perfect day for flying. 
Dawnflight stretched her wings as far as they could possibly reach. She enjoyed the wind in her face and talons and tail. She supposed that was from her mother.
There was a flash of black in the corner of her eye and Dawn turned her head and smiled at her sister, Embermoon. 
I’d rather it be nighttime, Dawn heard Ember think. Dawn rolled her eyes. Her sister was a head shorter than her, much quieter, and a complete night owl.
“Just enjoy the day!” Dawn called, spinning around so she was gliding on her back. “It’s perfect.”
Ember tried to muffle a yawn. “But it’s cool at night, and it’s so warm right now, and warm is fire when I’m trying to sleep…”
“Okay, I get it, you’re half NightWing,” Dawn joked, as they both did whenever a weird habit inherited from one of their parents showed up. 
“Sometimes I’m not sure I am,” Ember admitted, not for the first time. “I don’t have any cool NightWing powers like you.”
“But you look exactly like them, and I don’t think my limited mind reading counts as a ‘cool power’,” Dawn told her, also not for the first time. 
Their Aunt Flicker had told them about their hatching many times. Dawn’s egg had turned a strange silver-orange-pink color, while her sister’s had not. Flicker believed this was a sign of her mind reading abilities. 
Except, Dawn couldn’t really read minds. Sometimes she got a thought from another dragon, and it was always stronger and more often at night. She had found that the fuller the moon was, the more thoughts she heard. But she could never choose when she heard someone’s thoughts. 
When she was younger, she’d believed that her powers would grow when she was older, and that all NightWings’ abilities were weaker before they were full grown. Now that Dawn and her sister were five, though, she had to accept that she was as telepathic as she was going to be.
“At least you have something,” Ember shrugged. 
The two sisters soared among the mountains peaks in silence, Dawn diving and pulling up and turning wildly, Ember drifting in ever-widening circles. 
“Ember!” A voice shouted from below. “Dawn!”
Dawn wheeled around and dove for a hole in the side of the mountain. A red-orange SkyWing stood next to the wall of the cave. She watched, a hint of amusement of her face, as Dawn tumbled inside and her sister crash-landed into her. 
Aunt Flicker spread her wings slightly. “Be a bit more careful next time, Dawn,” she scolded. She didn’t use Dawnflight’s full name though, so she wasn’t too mad, or mad at all.
Flicker ushered them towards the large table in the central cave.
“Do we really have to study now?” Dawn complained, dragging her claws. “I was having the best time flying-”
“Where’s Mom?” Ember said to Flicker. 
Flicker simply sat down at the head of the table and straightened a stack of small scrolls. “Out.”
Ember furrowed her brow.
“It doesn’t matter where she is,” Dawn said, bumping Ember’s wing. “She doesn’t care about us, so we don’t have to care about her.”
Ember frowned and huddled into her wings a tiny bit. I wish she cared, she thought meekly. Dawn huffed quietly, a small flame flickering out of her mouth. If the sisters were plants, Dawn would be a pine: confident, tall, and wild. Ember would be a fern; droopy, soft, and shy. 
Flicker flapped her wings impatiently. “Stop talking. It’s time for your lesson, whether you like it or not.” She waited for Dawn to sit down, the hybrid glaring at the table. 
“Today’s subject is the royal SkyWing lineage. A little over a century ago, we had a queen named Queen Cadmium. She ascended to the throne after her mother, Queen Gale, died of sickness. Cadmium survived one challenger- a niece- before her daughter, Carmine, killed her nine years into her reign and became queen. Cadmium was not a strong queen, although she was better than her particularity violent predecessor. Carmine ruled with the ferocity that her mother lacked, but also with a gentleness and protectiveness that was missing in her grandmother. 
“Carmine was queen during the time of the Royal SeaWing Massacre. She sent her daughter Sunset along with a personal guard to negotiate a few coastal villages. Once they were there though, an animus dragon snapped and killed Sunset along with many other SeaWings. Queen Carmine agreed to keep quiet about in exchange for retraction from SkyWing territory and gifts of gems and other treasure. This, unfortunately, was in vain because-”
“I thought we were talking about the queens,” Dawn called boredly. Flicker shot an annoyed look at Dawn before continuing. 
“Carmine’s niece, a dragon by the name of Cloudburst, challenged and killed the queen twenty years ago, nearly fifteen years after the massacre. She was close to Sunset, and carried her grief and anger with her throughout her life. She does not care for the other tribes, and is especially brutal to SeaWings. But the dragons she hates most: animus. Animus dragons and any others that are different than the average dragon of their own tribe. Firescales, no wings, hybrids-” she glanced pointedly at Dawn and Ember- “You name it, she wants it dead. 
“She has four daughters: three from the first hatching, and the last a single egg. None of them are old enough to become queen yet; the youngest isn’t even as old as you two; but it is rumored that Princess Ignite has her eye on the throne and will-”
“Why do we need to know this?” Dawn demanded. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care who the old SkyWing queen was or who it might be. It’s not like anyone will find us here. Flicker, we’ve never met anyone from the village. We’ve barely even left the mountainside!”
“Dawnflight,” Flicker said, and her voice commanded respect over and over again as it echoed over the cave walls until the room was silent. “This is important. Knowing who is in charge out there- that’s mostly why we keep you close to the caves. We care about you.”
“Peak doesn’t care a fig if I live or die,” Dawn snapped. 
Flicker swelled up to twice her size. Dawn crouched low, realizing that Flicker’s temper had finally exploded. 
“To your room. Now. I don’t want to hear from you until your mother comes home.” 
Dawn stomped to her and Ember’s shared cave. She thought she heard a twang of guilt from Flicker, and She loves us way more than a fig, I know it, from her sister. 
She threw herself onto her stone ledge with her tail tip twitching violently on her nose. 
Peak doesn’t care. Flicker barely seems to. Everything is awful, and I hate it.
In the logical part of her mind, she knew this wasn’t true. Flicker was kind to them and loved them. Her life was alright, if you didn’t count Peak and the limited space.
But like the dark blue and purple galaxies on her own scales, Dawn could see the storm clouds gathering on the horizon, waiting to unleash their fury on the dragons below. 
== Chapter Two ==
In the forest, the lava rivers were only a memory. 
In the forest, Smokeslasher’s talons could step on something like dirt. His eyes could see with something similar to actual sunlight. And the smells… 
Smokeslasher inhaled deeply through his nose. Leafy green scent wafted into his lungs. He could smell brittle beetles and furry creatures and seabirds soaring overhead. 
He breathed in again. There- the faintest whiff of dragon scales. Smokeslasher crept forward. 
A large dark shape was slipping through the trees. Smokeslasher froze, watching. The NightWing was twice as tall as Smokeslasher, with gray scales so dark they were almost black. The leaves above him cast shadows along his back so that he looked similar to a black leopard Smokeslasher had seen once. 
The NightWing’s nostrils flared, and Smokeslasher realized that he was smelling for something too. 
Smelling for me? Hopefully not. Whatever this dragon’s prey was, he wasn’t going to let it get away. 
The grass on the ground wavered- but there was no wind. The NightWing whipped his head around toward the faint sound before creeping forward. 
He didn’t hear me, Smokeslasher thought, sliding forward to get a better look at the hunter. 
The grass rustled again. A long pair of ears poked out and swiveled to face the dragons. Both NightWings froze, their snouts pointed at the prey. 
A nose worked its way out of the grass. The rabbit finally noticed the hunter, but too late. The NightWing’s claws clutched the creature and swiftly broke its neck. 
“Great catch!” Smokeslasher said to the dragon, finally recognizing him. “I knew you’d get it, Father.”
Sharpteeth jumped. “Smokeslasher! You shouldn’t be sneaking up on dragons like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Smokeslasher said quickly. 
Sharpteeth narrowed his eyes at his son. “NightWings do not hide in the bushes, waiting to scare passerby.”
“I wasn’t hiding,” Smokeslasher rushed. “Freedomwatcher was looking for you, so she asked me to fetch you because she wanted to speak with you. But I couldn’t find you in our rooms, so I asked Nightfall if she’d seen you, and she said that you had flown out to the forest, so I found you, but you we’re hunting so I followed you quietly and-”
Sharpteeth waved a talon imperiously. Smokeslasher trailed off. 
“NightWings do not blabber, either,” Sharpteeth said scornfully. “Where is Freedomwatcher?”
Smokeslasher led his father back to the mountainous palace. It had only been completed a few years ago; he could remember watching construction workers haul in tons of rock and carving into stone with tools or, sometimes, their bare claws. 
Freedomwatcher was waiting for them exactly where Smokeslasher had left her. She was guarding on one of the tallest lookout towers on the island. From up there, so me could see for miles out to see in every direction. Every direction, that is, except for north, because that was where the NightWings’ palace loomed. 
Sharpteeth gave the rabbit to Smokeslasher and ordered him to take it home before he went with Freedomwatcher. The young NightWing swept into the palace entrance. 
“Hello,” Nightfall gasped to him. Nightfall was same age as him, although a little shorter, and was a beautiful deep blue with silver speckles. She was his best friend, and extremely nosy. Smokeslasher had most of his knowledge about the going-ons of the palace from her gossip. “My mom was really mad at your dad,” she said as they walked to Smokeslasher’s house. “She wouldn’t tell me what it was. She told me to ‘keep my snout in my own business,’ which is unfair, because she is my mother so I should know what’s going on with her. But anyways, I figured out that Mom was on guard duty that night when your dad was gone. So maybe they talked and he said something that upset her?”
“I don’t know,” Smokeslasher admitted. “Father just met with her outside, and she didn’t look too angry.”
“You never notice the details,” Nightfall pointed out as they rounded a bend. “Did her face look like this?” She narrowed her eyes and frowned, perfectly imitating her mother’s earlier expression, and Smokeslasher laughed. 
“Yes,” he said, and Nightfall nodded.
They had arrived at Smokeslasher’s cave. He slipped inside. The rabbit was deposited in a small niche that his father used to store prey before he ate it. He exited his house to discover Nightfall hidden behind a corner, obviously listening in on a conversation. 
He walked up quietly behind her. She was spying on two dragons; year sevens, judging by their size, almost ready to become adults and get jobs. He didn’t know their names, but he was sure Nightfall did. 
One had his wing wrapped lovingly around the other and was whispering in her ear. She blushed, and pushed him away playfully. 
“Come on, quick before they see us,” Smokeslasher hissed. He practically had to drag her away from the couple. She frowned at him with a dejected expression, but her claws were quivering with excitement. 
“You know they wouldn’t be happy to find you watching them,” he scolded.
She stuck her snout in the air. “I am going to be the queen’s own spy one day. I need to practice.” She snorted as Smokeslasher shook his head. “Anyways, Obedience wants to see us.”
“Why?”
I don’t know. He said he had something to show us.”
Obedience was Smokeslasher’s other friend. The trio did almost everything together. Although Obedience didn’t exactly approve of Nightfall’s nosy nature, they got along fairly well. 
Smokeslasher and Nightfall walked through the winding tunnels of the NightWing’s volcanic palace. Obedience and his parents lived nearly on the opposite side of the mountain, so it was a long distance to travel, at least by foot. 
They were about five minutes away from Smokeslasher’s cave when the pair came to an intersection, where several tunnels met and formed a good-sized room. Here Nightfall froze, snarled softly, and spread her wings quickly so Smokeslasher ran into them. 
“What is it?” He asked.
“Who,” she corrected. “Justicekeeper,” she growled. “She’s just standing there, like she’s waiting for us.”
“Ooh,” Smokeslasher breathed. Justicekeeper was another dragonet his age, but he didn’t know her at all. Had he even ever spoke to her? I don’t think so.
“Isn’t she the one whose parents died?” He whispered.
“They were murdered,” she said quietly, an excited glint in her eyes. “By some SkyWings on the mainland. The council named her that because they think she’s going to grow up to get back at the SkyWings, but I think…”
Justicekeeper was glaring at them from across the room. 
“Let’s go,” Smokeslasher hissed. 
The pair hurried into the passageway Obedience lived on. It was only a short walk to his house from there. 
“What were you saying?” Smokeslasher prodded once they were out of earshot. 
“I think she’s really going to get revenge on our tribe,” Nightfall said spookily. 
What!? “Why?” Smokeslasher gasped. 
“There were three other NightWings in the group that went to the mainland. Supposedly they did nothing to help; they watched as her parents were slaughtered.”
“Woah… yeah, I can see why that would make a dragon angry.” 
“Ha! Angry,” Nightfall laughed as she came to Obedience’s door. She knocked and continued speaking. “I tried talking to her once, about her parents, but she snapped at me and told to to ‘buzz off’.”
Well, that’s probably a sore topic for her, Smokeslasher couldn’t help thinking as his friend’s door swung open.
“Hello,” Obedience said. “You can come sit inside, but I can’t do anything until I finish sweeping.” He lead them to the dining area. 
Obedience was in one of the wealthier families of the NightWings. His caves were on the higher end, with multiples rooms for different purposes and less cramped than that of families like Smokeslasher’s. Obedience’s mother was one of Queen Benevolence’s advisors, and her son was planned to take her place one day.
“Anyways, I wouldn’t want to be anything but a NightWing, even if someone is trying to kill me because of it,” Smokeslasher told his friends as Obedience picked up a broom. 
“Of course,” Nightfall and Obedience said at the same time. 
“Why would you want to be anything else?” Nightfall continued rhetorically. “Other tribes are way inferior to us.”
“I mean… Even if we’re technically lying about having powers…” Obedience trailed off, seeing the glare Nightfall gave him. 
Smokeslasher froze. The others kept chatting, but he was silent. Had they forgotten? Or just didn’t listen to his earlier claims?
Either way, he knew they wouldn’t believe it if he told them of his premonition abilities.
He knew it.
== Chapter Three ==
Flying in soon…
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Genre (Adventure)