Don't Scream

The reason this is here is because of murder and possible gore. ^
== Introduction ==
This is a story about a few of my OCs. This is how they all meet and try to solve a mystery... or three. 
Dygn is an assassin, who was forced to kill her one true love (but that's another story). Her true love wasn't killed, and they live happily, until Sabinio went missing.
Slither is a dragonbite viper who has learnt Dragon, and desperately wants to find an animus who can change her into a dragon (ideally make her an animus too...)
Claws is a dracowolf (basically a werewolf, but she's a dragon) and she desperately wants to fit in, but due to her uncontrollable ability she was thrown out as a dragonet.
== Blurb ==
Three figures stalked the night,
Three moments caught in moonlight,
Frozen in time, and none will find,
The truer puzzle that lies behind...
== Prologue ==
The softer sounds of his wingbeats mimicked the echoes of screams in the night. The wind blasted at the forest, causing trees to succumb to this haunting melody.
Nobody else was around, so the killer and the victim were alone. Blood staining his claws, he tore at the dragon under his talons. His victim fought back, battering into him with the strong muscles of a SkyWing. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a flicker of torchlight. He brought his tail round in an arc, slitting the throat of his victim, causing them to fall to the floor, finally dead. The moss squelched beneath his talons. He clicked his tongue, rising into the air, pulling the bag of weapons he packed over his head in case he needed them. He noticed the torchholders were scavengers. Where did they get that fire from?
That question left his mind as he thought about his other two victims. He was going to have to hurry if he was meant to kill them before sunrise. He though about asking Codename:Fang to assist him. Then he realised with a growl that Codename:Fang was fired for falling in love with one of her IceWing targets. And then running away. So she technically resigned, but that didn't matter. She couldn't help him here. 
He snorted, and one of the scavengers looked up from the corpse of his victim. It pointed and squeaked something, and then some flaming sticks were shot towards him. He tried to dodge, but one caught him in his eye. He roared in pain, before flapping away and crash-landing on a mountainside. He removed the thing in his eye, and studied it with his one working eye. It had a sharp barbed point and it was made of hard wood. He flung it aside, and crossed the border between the SandWings and the SkyWings. He landed on the sand, and shook himself out, panting heavily. Were those scavengers still following him? No. 
He looked up to the sunrise, and growled in annoyance. His mission was not complete. He thumped the sand in frustration, and it clouded up, and he blinked, eyes streaming. 
His twitching claws reached out and grabbed what he thought was a shrivelled up branch to steady himself. As he opened his eyes, he realised he was staring into the lidless eyes of a dragonbite viper. 
He had grabbed its tail, and he watched in delirious silence as the snake went for his neck. He felt a sting, and he fell over, watching the viper slither away, free from his writhing talons. 
The last thing he saw was Codename:Fury standing over him, shaking her head. 
== Chapter 1 - Midnight goes missing ==
Dygn was happy. She'd lived with Midnight for a month, and it was a month of greatness and.... relaxation. She'd never felt relaxed before, after spending her entire life killing and sneaking and being on edge all of the time.
She'd woken to the beautiful sunrise, and the wind was picking up a bit. What was less amazing was that the wind made a noise like a scream. It only happened for a short amount of time, and she was sure it wasn't, but she couldn't shake the feeling it was a scream.
She resettled her wings, and decided it was time to start the day. Getting to her feet, she rubbed her eyes and went downstairs. To her surprise Midnight wasn't there. Probably having a lie-in. That night flight we had together must have really tired her out.
Sitting down at the table, she began to carve a bowl out of the block of wood that she'd prepared for herself the day before. They'd burnt all of the bowls in an attempt to keep warm the last winter, and the fruit was ripening. Her talons worked up and down, carving smooth lines and scratching out the bowl shape. When she was finished, she carved her name on it. She went to get another block, and began to make Midnight's bowl. When she was done, she set it down by hers, and carved 'Midnight' on it. She noticed that Midnights bowl was less crude and more smooth, and she spent a few extra minutes making sure she wouldn't get splinters when she ate out of her bowl.
When she was done eating and tidying, she went upstairs to fetch Midnight. She remembered when they'd first met, Midnight had been in the patrol that first met her when she was entering the Ice Kingdom. She hadn't known that her target had been right there in front of her. If so, she would have killed her right there. Luckily she hadn't and they had become friends, because Dygn was observing her and finding out her weaknesses. One day, though, Midnight had just opened her heart and told Dygn her problems, because she saw her as a friend. She also found out that Midnight was a Hipoto. She found that exciting, but she still didn't know what Hipoto was. Her hearing Midnight's problems her realise that she couldn't kill her. They ran off from everything.
She opened the door, and froze. Midnight was not there.
== Chapter 2 - Desert-Fried Jerboa ==
Slither slunk through the grass. Her kind were usually desert-dwellers, and she personally hated it. It was too hot, and had too many spiky things.
The dragons that flew overhead were scary and huge, which made her grateful that when they did try to attack her, she had venom that could kill them dead. The venom was originally for killing mice so they couldn't get away, but this was one of the main reasons why everyone she came across hissed at her. She couldn't help having too strong venom, or the fact that she could shoot it.
She was terrified of dragons, but often studied them from a distance. If they came too close, she would hiss, and make sure they knew she was there.
She'd snuck away from her parents, because they were boring and hateful. Why spend her life on the ground when she could take to the skies? She would never understand why other snakes never shared her dream. Surely everyone would have wanted to fly?
She slithered through the grass, back to the desert. I suppose I have to get home. No desert-fried jerboa for me otherwise.
Suddenly she heard a dragon land behind her. The sun was rising, and she was hungry. She'd have to get back soon. Dragon of course were way too big for even a tangle of snakes to eat, so her kind would eat desert animals. 
She whipped round and noticed that the dragon who had landed here was purple, a strange colour to her eyes. She had never seen that colour on a Sand dragon before. Then, she noticed the tail that ended in a point and the four curved, butterfly-like wings. Not a Sand dragon. A Butterfly dragon? The dragon sounded frustrated , and it thumped the dust. A bit stupid, it might go in his eyes. 
Then the dragon yelped as the dust billowed up, into his eyes. She slithered closer. Perhaps if he was blinded for the second she could get a closer look at this strange gem-like dragon.
Suddenly, she felt claws wrap around her body, and she was lifted up. The dragon was still blind, and she felt him squeeze tight around her. He opened his eyes, and when he saw that what he held was a dragonbite viper, a moment of horror crossed his face. He squeezed tighter and she lashed out, trying to get free. Behind her, a black dragon detached itself from the shadows, watching. Her fangs caught under the dragon's scales on his neck. She managed to wriggle free, but it was then she saw the familiar black starburst on the dragon's neck. She had bitten him! The black dragon came over and stood over the body. As she slithered away, she saw the dying dragon's last breath, and the black dragon shaking her head.
"So foolish..." she heard the black dragon say. "Codename:Silence, you absolute fool. What a shame your biggest mistake was your last. Otherwise you may have learnt something."
Slither shrank back, horrified. Sometimes she wished she didn't speak Dragon. There was not a drop of sympathy in that dragon's voice, and that was scary.
She turned tail, and sped into the strange tunnel that lead to the Rainforest, where she knew there were no dragons.
At least, she thought so.
== Chapter 3 - The Queen of the SkyWings ==
The rain hammered down. An annoying rainforest habit, apparently. She wished that she'd never promised to be there at the welcoming ceremony. Queen Glory invited her, and she'd said yes. The patches of fur all over her were soaked. She shook her talons out, which were drenched in mud. She was glad she'd left her jewellery at home, rather than putting it on. They would have been stained, which would not have left a good impression on the SkyWing queen. 
Claws shook herself down, like a dog. Dogs were apparently related to wolves ,but she couldn't see the link. The only dog she'd seen had been a small black squishy-faced thing. A pug. That was what her parents had called it.
She saw the light of the pavilion through the dense trees up ahead. She took to the sky, and rinsed the mud off her talons as she got closer and into the clearing. She landed, sopping wet on the platform, and entered the room. 
There was Queen Glory. She bowed low and spread her wings. 
Queen Glory beckoned her forward. "Did you bring it?" she whispered in her ear.
"I did." Claws replied, softly. "It's in my pouch."
"Good." the Queen sat up. Aloud, she said "Go to the dressing rooms and put some jewellery on, Queen Ruby will be here any minute."
Claws bowed again, and went to leave the room. "Yes, Your Majesty."
Before the Queen left her view, she caught sight of Deathbringer, appear out of the wet. She heard Queen Glory's laugh, and decided that was the time she should leave.
She got to the dressing room, and looked around for the trunk of jewellery. She saw it, and opened it. It didn't give much resistance. Easy stealings for a thief.
"I highly doubt that."
Claws spun round, but there was no one there. "Who said that?" 
A RainWing materialised, and his scales settled to a deep jungle brown. He raised his eyebrows, and that was when she noticed the teardrop scales. 
"You're a hybrid?" she asked. "And a mind reader?"
"And a prophet." he said.
She stared at him. "Wow. Guess I'm not the only one with strange powers."
He laughed. "No? I don't have strange powers. You're the dracowolf. I don't kill dragons with my power."
She flinched and his face went serious. "I'm sorry if I offended you."
She shook her head, but she saw from his face he knew that she was lying. "I don't like to talk about my power."
She began to sort through the gems. She lifted out a black pearl necklace. The Queen must have got this from the SeaWings. 
"She did." the hybrid said, his scales slowly shifting through the colours of the rainbow. "She got the emerald bracelet from her too. Oh, and the sapphires."
She continued rummaging, pretending to ignore him. She could actually feel his presence, listening in the back of her mind. She shoved him out, and drew iron bars over it. She took a sneaky look over her shoulder and saw the pained expression on his face. "OW." he said. "You didn't have to be that forceful."
She shrugged. Then, she found what she was looking for. A beautiful gold chain, with rainbow gemstones. She looped it around her neck. "How's this?"
"Great." he smiled. "I think the black and white pearls will go very well with it."
"I can't wear two necklaces." she said.
"No, I mean the bracelets."
After a bit of searching, they found the zebra-striped pearl bracelet.
She turned on the spot, going into her graceful position. Her wings went back, and she couldn't help but notice the hybrid's smile. 
"You look so different."
She laughed. "No I don't because I have furry patches all over my body. No one else has that."
She grinned at him, showing all her teeth. "Well wish me luck, whatever-your-name-is."
"It's Stealth."
"Fitting."
She left, and saw a flash of red. She's already here. The Queen of the SkyWings.
== Chapter 4 - The Murder ==
The rain began to fall around her, each droplet the size of her eye. She shook the water off as best as she could and continued to slither deeper through the undergrowth.
A flash of light blazed across her vision, off to the right. Lightning. The bang was quick to follow, leaving her head ringing. She kept going, until she saw another, more stable bit of light. She saw... a dragon? It was no doubt, as she drew closer, it was a dragon. She continued to snake through the bushes, and made her way up the tree, clinging to it with all of her muscles.
She made it to the top, and coiled around a branch, which was reasonably sheltered from the relentless water. She listened out for dragon activity and heard the unmistakable growling language of the dragons.
"Holy smoking moons that was wet. I'm very grateful for your hospitality, Queen Glory. But I'm not quite happy about the weather."
"We can't control it." another voice said, that Slither assumed was 'Queen Glory'. "And we welcome you."
Slither worked her way along the branch. What were they saying?
The branch was wet, and she felt like she was slipping. 
They were still saying things, but she couldn't hear, even though the rain had stopped. Her tongue flicked out again, and she sense that there were 7 five dragons in the room, even though through the gap of the roof she could only see three. Camouflaged dragons... How is that possible? I want to be able to do that! Maybe when I find an 'animus' I can ask them to do that for me.
She suddenly felt the creak through her bones, and the branch snapped. She tumbled onto the platform, where the dragons were. She shook herself out, and coiled up and round to face the three visible dragons.
One was red and orange, and there was another on a sort of throne made out of leaves. The other was sparkly and grey with fuzzy patches all over her wings. There was also a thick black scar on her back.
The green dragon on the throne did a double take, then her purple scales turned a sickly pale green. She could see the conflict on her scales. Did she know about her kind? Surely no dragonbite viper had ever come into the jungle?
The red and orange dragon was also terrified. The only other visible dragon was watching her with curiosity, and she wondered how she felt.
Then the red dragon screamed. Slither growled, a sound she had had to practise to learn how to make. The grey dragon was still sat down, unblinking, watching her.
Slither was deafened, the scream was too loud. She reared up and hissed. The dragon leapt out of a hole in the side of the pavilion. 
She made her way over to Queen Glory, and faced her. They were both silent, and then the Queen shot out a jet of black liquid from her fangs (which reminded her so much of herself!) and it soared over her head, smacking into the floor behind her and eating a hole in the wood behind her. She wiggled quickly closer to the throne, and the Queen scrambled back. Suddenly she felt a blow to her side. She was being picked up by invisible talons. And then, a huge black dragon materialised, claws wrapped around her, squeezing her tight. She felt her bones begin to break.
She cried out, in the dragon tongue. "Look out!"
There was a blade of silver moonlight, slicing towards the dragon holding her. She felt the impact and the black dragon juddered. 
"Stealth!" the grey dragon yelled, rushing forwards. The dragon's body fell like a tree. She wiggled loose, and rose to her full height. She studied the now-dead body. Her tongue flicked out. She sense another dragon in the bushes where the knife had come from. "Over there! The murderer is there!" she yelled, and there was a clatter of invisible claws that soon became fading wingbeats. 
The grey furry dragon looked at her. "Did you just speak? How can you speak?"
Slither ignored her, and began to pull the knife back out. This was hard as it was buried to the hilt. She flicked her tongue again. "It wasn't a Rainforest Dragon." she said. "It was a Butterfly Dragon."
== Chapter 5 - The Ex-Assassin ==
Dygn wrinkled her snout. The rain was vanishing, but not quick enough. She had waited the rainstorm out, and now, she felt, was the time to leave.
She though about discussing Midnight's disappearance with Queen Glory. She steeled herself and lifted into the sky, changing her scales to invisibility. 
It didn't take her long to reach the Queen's pavilion. She landed on the rope bridge connecting two of the buildings, and spread her wings to break the bridge's momentum, a trick she had been taught at an early age. The bridge stopped swaying, and she heard a scream. Her talons pounded across the wood, and she spread her wings again to stop the bridge from shaking about.
She reached a platform, and ran inside. Or, rather, she tried to, but was whacked in the face by a SkyWing. She looked up blearily and she recognised the dragon's face. "Queen Ruby!" she said. The Queen was already out of earshot, in the sky and winging away at top speed. She growled and wandered in. She saw immediately something was amiss. She saw the all-too-familiar colour staining the wood on the floor. Then, her eyes hovered over the body, and the snake. She recognised it instantly. That's a dragonbite viper... 
She'd see those before, during her missions in the desert. The dragonbite viper was accompanied by a grey fuzzy dragon she hadn't seen before. Then, there was Queen Glory. She had turned a pale green, but a shade of red was creeping over her head. That combination made Dygn's eyes hurt.
She crept forwards, and then the snake snapped round, to stare her in the eyes. If she was visible, her scales would have screamed terror, and somehow this snake knew she was there.
She backed up.
"Come out. I know you're there." the serpent spoke, staring her in the eyes. "I can see the talonprints in the blood."
"I didn't do it." she said, giving up, and showing her usual dark green colours, keeping them neutral and plain.
"I know you didn't." the viper said. "The dagger came from the other direction. And the thrower looked different."
Every dragon was looking at her.
"They say the Invisible Assassin can look like any dragon from any tribe." a RainWing piped up, appearing slowly in shades of red. "You killed my grandmother, Rainstorm. And you made it look like a SandWing had done it. You are the Invisible Assassin, am I right?"
"I'm more of an Ex-Assassin." Dygn said, determined to keep her cool. "And I have never seen a SilkWing in my life, truly."
"Why should we trust anything you say?" another dragon said, this one was a NightWing. "You killed so MANY dragons, you must know what a Pantalan dragon looks like."
"Go ahead and label my words as lies, but I can tell you I only just arrived."
Dygn felt a creeping feeling in her body. This was going horribly wrong.
"Excuse me." the fuzzy NightWing said. "But I shall deal with her. You can all go back to your things now."
The group subsided, and there wasn't a direct comment thrown at her again.
The NightWing placed one talon on Dygn's shoulder. "Follow me." she barked, and Dygn couldn't shake the feeling of terror she was experiencing.
They flew down, reasonably far from the pavilion, Dygn thought.
The strange dragon opened her wings, and landed on the forest floor. "You're the Invisible Ex-Assassin, right? Dygn?"
Dygn nodded. 
"Then you, should be a master on these. That is why we need your help."
"We?" Dygn asked.
The dragon bent her head down, and the dragonbite viper snaked out from behind one of her horns. "This is Slither. And I am Claws. You are going to help us - I hope - and we will find out who killed Stealth."
Dygn scratched her ear. "My friend... uh. She also went missing."
"So two mysteries to figure out. Awesome." Slither said.
== Chapter 6 - What? ==
Slither uncoiled herself from one of Claws' horns and slunk down to the forest floor. "I hope you're going to help." she said, tongue flicking out. "You'd be so useful." she tried to make a reassuring face. 
Dygn nodded, before tensing suddenly. Slither followed her gaze, but looking back at her expression it seemed that she was in pain.
"Are you ok?" she asked. She felt Claws tense too, and then Slither herself felt dizzy. It was like her entire being was... warping slightly.
Dygn seemed to be in the most pain, and Slither studied the dragon, trying to find the source of her pain. Which was weird. Weird. Her head didn't feel right. Weird. Why did she keep saying weird? Thinking. She was thinking.
She spotted something on Dygn's arm that she knew hadn't been there before. In fact, the black mark was slowly spreading. It stopped, and her brain began to return to normal. "What was that?"
Dygn was bent over, coughing. Claws shook her head.
Suddenly, with a light whumph, an ice dragon appeared. She spread her wings awkwardly, before coming over to Dygn.
The strange dragon placed one talon on Dygn's shoulder, and Dygn looked up. "I can make things right." the dragon said softly. "I helped you."
"Helped me?" Dygn said, looking up. "Midnight, why?"
"I figured I could teach you something." the dragon called Midnight said. And then she slowly faded away, until Dygn was looking at nothing again. "Did you... did you see that?" she said.
Claws and Slither nodded. "It's getting dark, we should head to my hut." Claws said.
"But why? Couldn't we use the night-time to search for clues while others are asleep?"
Claws looked uneasy, from what Slither could see. Or was that guilt?
Slither looked over Dygn's shoulder and saw one of the moons slowly rising. They were in the shadow at the moment, but soon it would breach the top of the tree they were standing near.
They began to trek across the jungle floor, and reached a hut weaved from strong palm leaves. It looked waterproof, and certainly very camouflaged from any dragons that might pass by overhead.
"Mother! Father! I'm home!" Claws yelled.
Two dragons - both night dragons - poked their heads around the door.
"What." one dragon said. "You brought home... a snake?"
Claws nodded, shrugging as if she didn't care. "I'm allowed to."
"And... the Invisible Assassin?" the other said, terror spreading across his face. He clutched his head and ran inside again.
Dygn winced.Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Mature Content
Category:Genre (Mystery)
Category:Content (Queen Dusk)
Category:Genre (Tragedy)
Category:Genre (Horror)