What Happened to Fern the MudWing

Fern was awoken by the sound of heavy wingbeats. Her blue eyes popped open, scanning the room carefully. It was still dark, so she could barely see anything. The mahogany-brown MudWing got to her feet and then cautiously stepped over her sleeping sibs. As she did so, Fern counted each of them as she stepped over them. One, two, three, four . . . but where was the fifth?
As Fern stepped out of the mud-made house, she saw that the sun was just coming up. She looked straight across the muddy, mossy surface of the Mud Kingdom and saw nothing. Strange. She was sure she had heard wingbeats. Probably just a dream, she suspected. She reached out and straightened the two ferns that was tucked behind each of her ears. As she turned around to go back to the house, a huge boulder shot out and crashed right into her, knocking her to the ground. Fern was momentarily blinded, making everything a blur. But when she got her vision back, she realized that it wasn’t a builder, it was her only sister, Terra. 
Terra was all muscles, and even though she was younger than Fern, she weighed a ton more. Her chestnut scales gleamed in the early dawn.
“Terra! What are you -” Fern started.
“Come quick! There’s something that you have to see!” Terra interrupted.
Before Fern could answer, Terra took her by the forearm and dragged her halfway across the forest. A couple minutes later, Terra skidded to a stop. Fern looked around and saw that Terra was peering over a small shrub.
“What did you want me to see?” Fern asked her as she got to her feet.
“Shh! Look!” Terra hissed as she pointed ahead.
Fern squinted in the direction that her sister was pointing to. And then she saw it. 
It was their youngest sib, Oakley, sleeping peacefully on an oak tree stump, while the sun slowly crept up his back. His scales were a reddish-brown color, while his underscales were a light tawny-brown color. He was the kindest dragon Fern had ever met. (She personally thought he was the nicest out of all her siblings.)
She had always felt bad for him, though. Although he was extremely nice to everyone, her siblings had always taunted and teased him for being too nice. Which was sometimes true, Fern thought. He was also a bit small and vulnerable for a MudWing, making him an easy target for her sibs while they were training. Fern always tried to cheer him up by saying how good he was, but he always seemed to look on the bright side anyway, which was why Fern liked him the most.
“What’s the big deal?” Fern whispered to Terra.
“Really? You don’t think it’s funny?” Terra asked, giving her a “are you that stupid?” kind of look.
“I just don’t see why it’s that funny,” Fern said skeptically, “he just chose to sleep here, that’s all.”
Terra sighed. “It’s just that, it’s kind of stupid of him to come sleep out here, not in our house where everyone else sleeps, you know?”
Well, maybe he's not like everyone else, Fern thought.
“He’s just such an idiot,” Terra continued, “he’s not even like a MudWing.”
Fern rose to her full length, spreading out her mahogany-brown wings.
“You take that back,” she growled.
Terra wrinkled her snout, confused. “Why?” she said, “it’s true.”
Fern whacked Terra hard with her tail.
“WHAT THE-” Terra shouted.
“Go. NOW,” Fern interrupted.
“What? No!” Terra said, planting her feet to the ground.
“Don’t make me get Quake to drag you back,” Fern taunted. Their bigwings was the only one that was stronger than Terra, and the only one that actually scared her.
“But-” Terra started, and then after a pause she sighed, “fiiiiine, but I still don’t get the big deal here.” And with that, she spread out her wings and lifted off into the air.
After Terra had flew off into the distance, Fern crept down the brush to the oak tree stump where Oakley still lay there, sleeping. When she was a few feet away, Fern sat down on the mossy pathway. She watched his chest rise and fall peacefully for a little while. 
A little while later, a beautiful monarch butterfly fluttered past Fern and landed lightly on Oakley’s nose. Fern watched curiously from her perch. All of a sudden, Oakley made a small sneezing noise and then popped his blue eyes open.
Oakley smiled at the little butterfly and scooped it up in his talons gently. He yawned and stretched his wings and then shook off the morning dew that sprinkled across his back. He then noticed that Fern was watching him and gave her a big, toothy grin.
“FERN!!!” Oakley shouted excitedly as he bounded toward her.
“I’m happy to see you too,” Fern giggled as he crashed into her.
The one-year old dragonet smiled brightly at her and opened up his talons to show the butterfly. Surprisingly, the butterfly didn’t look scared at all. In fact, it looked like . . . like as if it were at peace.
“Wow,” she whispered.
“It’s so pretty, isn’t it?” Oakley said.
He stroked it lightly one talon. He then opened up his talons all the way. The butterfly stretched out its tiny wings and then fluttered away.
“Let’s go back to the house,” Fern said finally.
“Oh. Okay,” Oakley said, although from the look on his face told her that he didn’t want to.
“We’ll come back later,” Fern offered.
Oakley smiled and nodded. They both took off and flew back to the cave.
When Fern and Oakley slid down the narrow hole of their house, all of her sibs where up and about.
“Where have you been?” Puddle, her second oldest brother, asked as they entered.
But before she could answer, Terra interrupted.
“Oh, nothing, just sleeping together on a tree stump,” she said slyly. “So, yeah, if you need them, they’ll be there for the rest of their lives.”
Terra shot Fern a nasty smile. Fern was tempted to go bite that smile off her face.
“What were you doing?” a deep voice growled from a dark corner.
Quake slowly emerged from the corner of the cave. Fern shivered with fear. She had always been afraid of her gigantic brother. His scales was a greyish-brown, almost like the bark of a tree, and his body-scales where a creamy-white color. Fern looked at his face, and then flinched. There were three reddish-pink scars on his face: a long, thin one that streaked across his nose, another one on his left cheek, and a small one on his chin. And then she remembered why he had those scars.
It had been a sunny day three years ago, and Fern and her sibs had been flying around the Mud Kingdom, taking in the warm weather. Terra and Oakley hadn’t hatched yet, so it was only her, Puddle, Quake, and Pine, who was Puddle’s twin. Fern was only Oakley’s age at the time, making Quake five and Rubble and Pine four. Quake had wanted to go hunting for some fish at a nearby pond. Rubble and Pine said they hadn’t liked fish so Fern had volunteered. Fern remembered how Quake’s whole face had brightened up and how his bright green eyes had been shining.
So Fern and Quake had banked toward the nearby pond, and landed. The pond had been connected to a nearby ocean, so it was almost completely salt water. Fern had been scared of the pond at the time, with it’s odd ocean-like look. Fern had remembered Quake’s exact words:
“Come on, Fern, there’s nothing to be afraid of, see? Watch!”
Fern wished she could’ve stopped him, yet she didn’t. She had always thought Quake was right when he had reassured her of things, but this time he had been wrong.
Quake had bounded toward the pond and dunked his large head into the salty water. All of a sudden, there had been a blinding light. It was like lighting.
Quake jerked his head out of the water and reared up on his hind legs. He had let out the loudest roar of agony Fern had ever heard. She had wondered if the whole of Pyrrhia could hear him. Fern had never been so scared in her life. Quake fell to the ground, and had curled into a small ball. He was shaking all over.
“Quake!” Fern had shouted and ran over to him.
After a few moments he had stopped shaking and became quite still. She new she needed help.
Fern had remembered how Quake had been rushed into the healing tent after that. She remembered how she was told that the pond had been infected by electric eels. It turned out that a whole bunch of them had electrified him. It had been a few weeks until Quake had recovered. But he wasn’t the same fun-loving, kind bigwings that Fern had once knew. Now he didn’t like to talk much, barely moved from his corner of the cave, and had huge electric eel scars streaked across his face. He didn’t like to go hunting anymore, and never even touched a fish. It seemed as if he didn’t even want to live anymore.
“I said, what were you doing?” Quake growled even louder. He slithered out of the dark corner and into the light. The streaking scars on his face were as red and raw as the day he got them.
“Oakley and I were out hunting,” Fern lied. She heard Terra snort loudly.
Quake gave her a suspicious look, grunted, and then hobbled back to the dark corner.
“Did I miss anything?” Pine yawned as he appeared in the main entrance.
“You lazy old goose! Were you seriously sleeping this whole time?” Rubble said as he tackled his twin brother.
----
It was mid-afternoon, and Fern, Oakley, Terra, Pine and Puddle were flying around the outskirts of the Mud Kingdom. Terra, Rubble, and Pine had been racing each other, high in the clouds. Fern had been gazing down at the land below, looking for anything to eat. She then spotted a small pond, that seemed somehow connected to the ocean . . .
Fern took her eyes off it and then started fiddling with her black pouch that slung around her neck.
“Hey, is that smoke?” Oakley asked suddenly.
Fern looked up and saw that Oakley had stopped and was facing the other direction. She twisted around and squinted ahead.
“Hmm . . . maybe some dragon accidently set something on fire?” Fern guessed.
“I think we should check it out, just in case someone’s hurt,” Oakley said.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said, “lets go.”
Fern called out to the rest to come, and when they all came, they all followed Oakley to the fire. 
As they became closer to the smoke, Fern saw that it was coming from one of the mud houses in the neighborhood that they lived in.
“Oh dear,” Oakley said as they got closer, “I hope nobody’s inside.”
“Yeah me too,” she said, “I hope it’s not-”
And then she saw it. It was their house that was on fire. Oakley must’ve figured it out too because the look on his face was pure horror.
“But Quake’s in there!” Oakley shouted finally.
He was right. Their bigwings had stayed in the mud house while they had gone exploring.
“Who would do this?” Oakley asked her.
Fern sighed. “Quake, that’s who.”
Oakley looked confused and terrified at the same time. “But why?” he whispered through tears. “Why would he do this?”
Fern didn’t answer. She had no idea. As they all landed a few feet away from the flaming house, she knew what she had to do.
“I have to go in there,” Fern said in a strong voice.
“But why?” Terra interjected, “I mean, do we seriously care about him anymore? If we were in a fire, would he come running?”
There was a long pause. Pine and Puddle exchanged glances at one another. She could tell that they agreed with Terra too. Fern looked at Oakley. Tears ran fast down his cheeks.
“Please don’t leave me,” he said in a choked voice, “please.”
Fern didn’t want to leave him either. But she knew she had to save Quake, nice or not, he was her brother.
“I’m sorry Oakley,” Fern said, and she meant it. “But I need to save Quake.”
“Then let me at least come with you!” Oakley pleaded.
“No,” she said abruptly. “If you die, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Fern squeezed Oakley’s talons. Then she looked at the others.
“Wait here. I’ll come back soon,” she told them.
For a moment they all looked as sad and torn as Oakley, but then nodded. She then turned to Oakley.
“I have something to tell you,” Fern whispered. She took a deep breath. “I’m an animus.”
Oakley gasped. “Really?” he whispered. “But there’s never been a MudWing animus, never.”
“Well, there is now,” she said, smiling.
Well, there was a MudWing animus, Fern thought, and then her smile disappeared at the very thought.
“That’s amazing,” Oakley continued, “have you ever cast any spells?”
Fern thought for a moment. Then smiled. “There was one spell I did cast, it was my very first spell, actually. One time I was so mad at Puddle for eating this boar that took me solong to catch. I was so upset that I picked up a late stick and wished for it to start hitting him so hard that he . . . that he would throw it back up.”
Oakley looked horrified. Seeing the look on his face made Fern add, “I then realized this and quickly made it stop, don’t worry.”
“Anyway, I have something for you,” she continued, “here.”
She took out a thin, gold chained necklace out of her pouch. A beautiful blue topaz hung at the end.
“Whoa,” Oakley whispered, “this is beautiful, but why do you want me to have this?”
“This is why,” she said, then took another deep breath, "I enchant this necklace to protect Oakley from any harm.”
Fern put the necklace around Oakley’s neck.
“Just a little something to remember me of,” Fern said.
Oakley nodded and smiled, sadly, down at the necklace. “Thank you. I’ll never forget this."
Fern smiled back. “I’ll be out soon, don’t you worry.”
But as she turned around and started running toward the fire, she didn’t think she would be out anytime soon, or probably not at all. She turned around briefly and smiled sadly at her siblings: Oakley, who had tears streaming down his face, yet smiling back at her. Pine and Puddle who both shared expressions of hope and worry, and Terra, who looked torn.
And with that, Fern climbed down the now burning-down what-used-to-be their home. Flames scorched her body, and she wished she had fireproof scales.
I should’ve enchanted my scales to be fireproof, Fern thought angrily.
Even though the flames burned her scales with sizzling agony, she kept going. Smoke started to fill her lungs, and she couldn’t breathe properly. Finally, she saw a huge lump that was almost on fire. As she got closer, she saw that it was Quake.
No, Fern thought.
Quake’s body was all burnt up now and it looked almost completely black with ash. After making sure that he was dead, Fern slowly turned around and made her way back to the entrance hole. 
All of a sudden, she felt something burning on her throat. She looked down and realized it was her black leather pouch, on fire. Fern’s talons flung to the pouch and tried to pull it off, but it was no use. Her scales were all ready on fire. Fern fell to the ground in pain, and curled into a small ball. The last thing she saw was angry red flames, and then came darkness.
==Trivia==
*Fern is an animus because her distant relative was an animus IceWing (most likely from the royal family) which is why Fern has blue eyes.
*Although Oakley also has blue eyes, he is not an animus.
*Pine, Puddle and Terra all split up after Fern and Quake’s death and went to new troops.
*After his siblings abandoned him, Oakley set off on his own and currently resides in Possibility.
Hope you like 😀
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Genre (Tragedy)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Fanfictions (Canon)