Legends: Monarch

Wings of Fire
Legends: Monarch
Prologue
Around Ten Years Ago…
Queen Thorn was absolutely fed up with her life. She understood it was a one in a million chance that few dragons were able to claim. She was quite the understanding dragon, but that was her limit. She had gone from lowest in the food chain to queen of the Scorpion Den and climbed to the top using what? Connections to a dragonet of destiny? Pfft. She thought she needed to prove something, but NO, just sit there and smile while the entire world is burning, they told her. Sit still, they said. We’ll handle it, they said. Well amazing job kiddos, but she had to step up this time. All the queens did. 
Belladonna broke Thorn’s trance with her eerily quiet steps that echoed around the large stronghold. “Your Majesty.” Belladonna stated, bowing her head. 
Thorn forced a chuckle, trying not to let the fear in her eyes show. “No need for formal words, Belladonna. It’s far too urgent.” She paced around her large throne, which seemed far too large for Thorn’s limber body, tracing her eyes to the open door, which let in breezes of wind that ruffled her frills and shook paintings, sand getting onto the porcelain floor tiles.
She kept her eyes trained there, trying hard to ignore Belladonna’s judgmental stare, until she glimpsed dark green staining the clear skies. 
“Sequoia!” Thorn cried with relief. 
Belladonna’s look was crawling under her scales like ants or dragonbite vipers. 
Queen Sequoia landed on the stronghold grounds gracefully, falling onto her front claws with a confident look, while Belladonna shot her a condescending one. Belladonna casually grew thorns that looked as if they could stab someone as large as Clay with so much as a trip, sent as a minor threat that this meeting wasn’t as important as rebuilding SapWings and PoisonWings relationships and repairing them into one tribe. Still, Sequoia and Belladonna both looked uncomfortable with each other and Thorn couldn’t help from exhaling a breath she was holding as soon as she saw the queens from Pyrrhia that she recognized, slowly falling into a line as they swept into the stronghold.
“Your… Majesties.” Thorn started awkwardly, ducking her head in the presence of such more… awesome queens. 
Admittedly, some of the others weren’t so deserving of respect, but she didn’t mention that. Snowfall had her snout stuck in the air, shooting icy glares at everyone despite being far smaller than the more imposing.
“Thorn.” Coral responded instantly, tipping her head. 
Glory followed, and then Snowfall, although reluctantly. Moorhen offered them large pieces of multiple cows and stuffed a couple in her mouth, chewing eagerly as she listened to Jewel and Luna, who was accompanied by two members of the SilkWing Assembly discuss topics from their continent.
Pantala was it…?
To be honest, each of the queens there were suspicious to the inquisitive MudWing queen. She was ignored and forgotten about, so she had managed to scrape up a mountain load of dirt on every dragon in Pyrrhia, and she suspected the other queens weren’t happy about this arrangement. She nestled in a seat close to Ruby, who she shared tea and these fruit crackers that tasted… okay. Made her throw up in the back of her mouth, admittedly, but okay. After that, they went back to ignoring Moorhen. 
“It’s time we discussed the MAIN issue.” Ruby rallied the queens into silence, thumping the stone carved table with her claw. 
“Jerboa.” Thorn announced in response, lifting her sandy wing, which none of the queens had noticed was draped in front of something. It revealed none other than exactly what Thorn had announced. The animus bowed her head, a silver locket hanging from a chain ringing on her hardened sandy scales. “Your Majesties…” She started uneasily in the presence of the imposing and not-so-imposing queens.
Moorhen tipped her head. “You needn’t treat us like that.” She responded, the small clay tiara on her head nearly falling off. 
She quickly tucked it back into her horns, the chain lacings on said horns glittering as they took hold of the crown.
Ruby nodded. “Jerboa, you are more powerful than us, we would be the ones bowing to you.” She tipped her head as well, angling it in a much smarter way than Moorhen, who was struggling to lace the chains back. “...And?” Jerboa replied, popping a silver cap off of a bottle. “Call me Boa.” She added, tipping her head to the side cheerily. Behind her, a painting rattled and shattered into a thousand pieces, still hanging from the wall. A small, sinister reminder that they should tread carefully. 
Glory stiffened slightly, the sloth, Silver, crawling along her back in a failed attempt to snatch the ants out of the air a long length away. Glory dipped her head, the other queens following. Finally, Ruby broke the silence, staring around the stronghold with an uneasy bitter smile. She clutched a scroll in her talons; the other queens did as well. Jerboa tossed her frills and magicked a scroll as well. Each one unrolled it; Jerboa didn’t touch it. A simple thought unrolled her scroll, and the other queens felt a surge of jealousy at Jerboa’s simple, magic actions that she was obviously showing off.
“Wellllll. This is a dilemma.” Jerboa started, touching the faint ink stains with her claws, a spot of fear worming into her black eyes.
“You think?” Glory replied with an edge of annoyance at Jerboa’s cocky grin, popping off the cap to a bottle of her own, filled to the brim with blue liquid that bubbled and fizzed eagerly. 
Glory took an elegant sip, the liquid coating her tongue with electric blue. “Two nights ago…” She began, the other queens snapping into silence once the young, but mature queen started her speech.
“Two nights ago was when this whole problem started, yes?” The other queens jumped to reply but Glory continued on, not blinking an eye at the muffled meeps they used to attempt to answer. They all sipped the blue liquid as well, sharing sounds of delight.
“We celebrated because we saved a continent just like ours.” Glory shot a warm glance at Sequoia, Jewel, Luna and Belladonna. “But peace wasn’t in the cards. Fate didn’t want it that way. We celebrate because although we knew problems would come rushing in like the tide, we could fight it off. We could. We were certain. But one night we let our guard down to party until another world-ending evil arose.” Jerboa nodded at Glory’s words, snapping a scroll into existence she furiously wrote on using her mind, miming words she didn’t need to write. The other queens scoffed.
“No prophecy this time, we begged. No prophecy on the one night we spent in joy. But it was our fault, letting in the spirits of high above to our midnight dance.” Snowfall scoffed; spirits of high above? Bogus.
“The party was sublime, yes, but as dawn cracked and birds chirped, what was welcomed?” Glory glared at nothingness, aiming her anger at the giver of the prophecies. They were to be thanked, yes, but was it SO HARD TO DEFEAT THE EVIL INSTEAD OF TELLING THE POOR DRAGONS TOO? Glory huffed, and then inhaled. She suddenly spewed the ominous words that were written on her scroll, otherworldly forces goading her.
“Of stars and comets and moon twinkling bright
Wish on star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.
I wish I may… I wish I might, 
to turn the stars and world upright.
For ancient evil will wreak deadly havoc
Devils which have the power of moonlight and magic
Five dragonets born as rejects and hated
But is it in the cards? Or are the numbers all faded?
A contract of blood, a wish on dapples in the sky
A coin in the wishing well, evil disguised
Will have the wish you wish one night
When the sun falls and three flames begin to ignite.” 
Thorn shivered. Hearing it from Jerboa’s scroll was bad, but hearing the doomy world-ending malice-ish prophecy of death said out loud shut down her nerves down to her very core. Glory’s forked tongue flicked out, looking around anxiously. Thorn smothered a giggle upon noticing it was still stained blue, but her eyes betrayed the uneasiness she knew hung in the air like the sick scent of blood. 
Blood?
She hurriedly stared down at her claws. Thankfully, the thin membrane of her claw pads were untouched, but the scent still hung in the air. She scrunched her nose, close to throwing up everything she ate over the last couple weeks. She only noticed the sweet silence a moment later, and she couldn’t even hear the rain pouring outside as dawn slowly rose. She flinched, whipping her head around. It- we- where- what? Thorn’s thoughts were panicked and she wished she brought Qibli along like he insisted. 
In front of her were eleven squabbling queens, but she couldn’t find a trace of blood on anybody’s claws.
What? I suppose I hallucinated? No.
Jerboa was watching intensely in the corner, peering at the fight with interested, calm eyes. Thorn finally found the place she could smell the stench from, blood trickling down Jerboa's arms.
On her palm was a disturbing sketch of a spade.
Thorn drew in her breath. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
The queens had left when the sun was still rising. The argument, which Thorn still wasn’t clear on, turned out to be too much for them, prompting a scoff from an annoyed Qibli who had entered just as the queens were sharing miffed goodbyes.
“Your Majesty-” Qibli started, but Thorn interrupted him midway.
“Call me Thorn.” She said pleasantly, pacing up the stairs, trying to cover the deep crevice of fear that wormed a hold on her heart. 
“Thorn is fine.” She added, hurriedly rushing the stairs faster.
She didn’t want to listen to Qibli, nor the guards, not even Smolder who was trying to greet Thorn near the door. She swept past, nearly stabbing him with her tail, in a desperate dash to get away from everything. She felt her aches assault her limbs as she hurtled into her room and it was all she could do to just drape herself over her bed, which felt like clouds.
She peered at the window, feeling sleep clutch her in their talons. 
Until she saw two white flashes illuminate her dark room.
And another.
And another.
She didn’t need to alert the guards; she heard dragons rushing to see this magical event to and fro, but she didn’t feel a need to leave and watch from the giant window.
It was too… captivating.
Her heart thumped faster against her scales, filling the room with heartbeats that sounded like drums on repeat.
Dum- dum- dum.
She let go of her comfy blankets, allowing her talons to drag herself from sweet, sweet slumber.
Too… captivating.
Dum- dum- dum.
She traced her claws over her glass window as if she could reach for the falling stars, shooting over the wide, clear expanse of sky.
Ah, how great it would be to just wish on one.
And words tumbled out of her.
Her heart beat faster.
The stars shot across the sky like rocks.
“What were the words?” I’m no dragonet. Those childhood poems were useless and dumb. “What were they?” Dum- dum- dum.
“Star light, star bright.” The words arrived as soon as she had hoped, snatching at thin air in a desperate attempt to grab the mystical, flying stars.
“First star I see tonight.” She chuckled, laughing at herself for believing in a childhood fantasy. Ah well, she was tired and frankly if she had one minute to be herself and not some snooty queen she would take it in an instant.
“Wish I may, wish I might.” She felt her heart rattle against her ribcage. Was it warning her or helping her? Was this good or bad? The prophecy warned against this right? So why did the words feel so good, feel so right? Why did they feel as if they were meant to rush out of her if she hadn’t remembered the poem since a thousand years ago? 
“Have this wish I wish tonight.” The words felt like a flowing river, water splashing forever, unable to be stopped.
She saw the brightest star stop. Just stop in the sky as if time had stopped. But the others were still rushing to the ends of the earth. This one had just… stopped.
Dum- dum- badum.
It turned towards her slowly. Thorn watched with bated breath, unable to call for help or drag her eyes away from the captivating event.
And it shot towards her like a rocket. Hurtling towards her at mach twenty like one wouldn't believe. Thorn didn’t even flinch.
This is normal… isn’t it?
As soon as it reached her window, it paused again. Thorn extended her talon, wistfully staring into it like a child, reaching for a wish.
It shattered into a thousand star-shaped pieces, looking exactly like what she hummed and doodled when she was a dragonet. Somehow it passed through the glass, and she stretched to pick one up.
Her claw went straight through.
She felt like she was drifting into la-la land. This felt so normal and so not. She was dazed by the sudden change, but at the same time it felt so… right.
They built upon each other, stacking and turning into a constellation. She didn’t recognize it.
It was a dragon. With huge SilkWing wings and frostbitten antennae. Spikes climbed down the back and she could say it was a remarkable thing she hadn’t seen before. Ever.
She saw light blue ink begin to paint the dragon. 
What?
And in front of her, before she could even stutter, was a dragon. A pretty one at that. She had silky wings and sweet eyes that stared into her like an abyss.
“I’ll have that wish.” Her voice was honey-sweet.
Badum- badum.
Chapter Two
Peacemaker
“Hmm, hmm.” Peacemaker hummed as he picked flowers, a chain around his neck jingling with a chiming ring.
He was already seven, his mother told him, although he had no idea what his hatching day was. And every time he tried to remember, all he got was headaches and terrible gruesome nightmares and flashbacks. It was Wildfire’s idea to make his hatching day the day that he joined the tribe, and Wildfire’s was tomorrow. Being the awesome, almost as good as strawberries friend she was, he wanted to surprise her.
He weaved together a crown of flowers idly, almost unconsciously as his expert claws tied together the stems of marigolds and forget-me-nots, almost drifting into his own little world as the crown bloomed with shades of blue and yellow, and even a little pink as he added in a bright pink flower with petals that faded into white. The trees behind him danced in the whistling wind, birds chirping happily as they rustled about their happy stick nest.
He felt zen. He felt as if he could soar to the clouds if he tried and he felt so… free. He gently placed the flower crown on his head, searching for a pond to admire his reflection in. The sweet singing of the birds, the breeze that cooled his talons… it was all so perfect. He sat down, wanting to weave a bracelet before he found a water source.
He heard talon thumping.
“Try the daisies; they’re colorful and aplenty this spring.” A pleasant, calm voice pushed him out of his nice little dreamstate, but he wasn’t particularly annoyed.
“Wildfire!” He exclaimed almost ecstatically.
“Hey, Peacemaker.” She replied coolly, razing a trail of burnt grass and flowers behind her. The trees that swayed while he picked flowers now had singed leaves and not a bird to be found. 
“Hey.”
The awkward moment lengthened on for a long time… At least that's what Peacemaker thought. It was actually less than maybe two minutes, but they kind of just looked at each other. The flower crown dropped to the ground, forgotten.
She sighed, breaking the silence, not daring to sit down. The beautiful flowers were quickly burning away into ashes at her mere touch, and the expression on her face was one of a dragon who had put up with the unfair nonsense the curse of fire had brought upon her.
“I-I wish I could take it away.” Peacemaker blurted. “I wish that you could weave flower crowns and flower bracelets with me instead of having to sit off so you don’t burn the flowers.”
Wildfire nodded sadly. “I wish too.”
“...Do you know what an animus is?” Peacemaker blurted again, an idea leaping into his (quite empty) brainspace. “If I was an animus, I could enchant a necklace to take it all away!”
Wildfire paused as she considered the idea. Mother had told her not to trust animus-enchanted items, lest they be firescales-stopping Queen Scarlet-loving items, but she trusted Peacemaker with her life.
“Let’s ask your mom!” She leapt into the sky, whirling in the air with giddiness. The silver locket necklace jingled on her neck. It was the only thing that resisted her firescales, and was a gift that Peacemaker had also accepted. He taloned his necklace; the sweet ringing noise of the bell inside of Wildfire’s locket always reminded him of his locket as well.
Peacemaker spread his rainbow wings, turning them an ecstatic yellow-green. Wildfire spread hers, careful not to touch a single tree. Amber scales lined the membrane and her underbelly; fiery red-hot scales adorned her actual body. She launched herself up to where she couldn’t burn anything and two blue eyes gleamed as Peacemaker followed. They did this every day, but it never got boring, as they flew off to go find Hope and bug her about a new question.
“Mom!” “Hope!” Peacemaker and Wildfire screamed as they neared the NightWing, who was calmly peeling bananas. Wildfire slowed to a screeching halt, creating flicking tongues of flame that lined the grass until it was an ashen gray. 
“Hello dear, Wildfire.” She responded to their overwhelming entrance, popping a slice of banana into her mouth.
“What’s an animus?” Wildfire jumped straight to the point. “Yeah! I wanna gets animus power!” Peacemaker added, not noticing the childish mistake.
Hope flinched. She had been hoping that the question would never come up, but after Mangrove had shown Peacemaker the book of animus-enchanted items, she knew it would come eventually. “My darling, Peacemaker… Well…” She was afraid to delve into the secrets of untold power that animus power brought, but Peacemaker deserved to know.
She shook her head.
And finally, she decided on something. She took out a scroll from her pocket, carefully folding messy, jagged writing, hiding it from view. “This, my dear, is an animus scroll. Write anything in it and it will happen.” She didn’t dare write anything.
Wildfire breathed a small tongue of flame. “What’s folded?”
Too intuitive. Hope realized, but she didn’t unfold it. She placed it in her neck pouch, noticing grubby talons a mere moment too late.
“PEACEMAKER!” She shrieked as Peacemaker grabbed the ancient scroll, nearly ripping it. “DROP IT, RIGHT NOW!”
“PEACEMAKER!” She screamed again. “WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T YOU DARE UNFOLD THAT PAPER!” Peacemaker looked shaken by her threatening tone.
One he had never heard before.
“...Mom. Why didn’t you help Wildfire?” He finished weakly, tears threatening to fall out of his eyes. 
He regretfully handed the scroll back.
Wildfire clutched her sobbing face in her talons, the tears evaporating.
“You have no idea what you can do with so much power…” Hope answered, extending her talon to take it back.
“WHY, MOM? YOU TOLD ME, YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULD HELP WILDFIRE… WHY WON’T YOU?” Peacemaker choked through tears.
Wildfire looked calm, not wanting to stop Peacemaker but not wanting to help Hope instead. She looked torn between the right thing and her own selfish needs but… but… was it really the right thing, if using that scroll millions of dragons could start living their best life?
Her blue eyes were even more torn now.
“MOM! WHY CAN’T YOU HELP ONE MEASLY DRAGON? IF YOU HAVEN’T THE STRENGTH TO HELP ONE DRAGON, MY BEST FRIEND, I SHOULDN’T CALL YOU MY MOM!” He screamed at his mom, his normally empty, childish mind clearing for something more important to him.
“You promised…” He sobbed.
“Dear…” She started, pocketing the scroll. “Dear, I understand that you might feel betrayed, I would too, but you don’t understand what power can give you. Power can drive your soul to the darkest edge over and over and over again.”
“I WOULD LOSE MY SOUL A MILLION TIMES IF IT MEANT THAT WILDFIRE COULD LIVE A NICE LIFE! IT’S SAD YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT… Hope.” He said through gritted teeth and tears.
“Hope, he doesn’t mean-” Wildfire rushed to play meditator.
“I DO TOO!” Peacemaker argued.
Hope looked slack with shock. “You- no, I thought you would understand.”
“I THOUGHT YOU WOULD TOO!” Peacemaker finished with the brutally true comment, stomping away, only looking back to see if Wildfire was alright, towards a dark, damp cave.
“Peacemaker!” She flung open her amber wings to chase him.
Ding, ding, ding. The bell inside her necklace rang a sweet tune, and Peacemakers rang back. 
“WHY CAN’T THIS STUPID CURSE JUST GO AWAY? JUST GO AWAY!” Peacemaker shrieked at her. He slapped his claws over his mouth.
“I don’t know.” She chose to ignore the last comment, looking hopeless. She grabbed the locket, like she always did when she was worried. The little ringing bell inside stopped ringing.
Ding, ding, ding. Peacemaker’s bell rattled. His tune was jagged, like a composer who couldn’t see nor hear.
Ding, ding, ding. Wildfire’s bell finally rang back, the two bells ringing in harmony as Wildfire looked at Peacemaker, sad and lost, begging for her fire to be taken away.
Forever, or just when she wanted to? She admitted she did like scaring away the rude NightWings that bullied her.
Her mother never had those problems, did she?
“JUST GO AWAY, YOU STUPID CURSE. JUST. GO. AWAY!” He screamed. “GO AWAY, YOU STUPID FIRESCALES THAT MEANS MY BEST FRIEND CAN’T DO THE FUN THINGS I LIKE TO DO! GO AWAY!”
Suddenly, Wildfire’s blue eyes cleared of their fiery gleam. The grass that she was brushing with her tail didn’t ignite anymore. The fire she felt racing through her blood disappeared.
“Peace…Maker?”
Peacemaker stared at Wildfire, and Wildfire stared back.
Wildfire touched a strand of grass and it didn’t burn. She whirled back to Peacemaker, terrified to talk, terrified to say it was just a dream.
Was it a dream, though?
Her next words were calm and clear, like the oceans she never got to see on a day with a cloudless sky. Power had consequences, but just this once…
Power had consequences, but just this once, it didn’t matter. 
“Peacemaker, you’re an animus.”
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)