Wings of Ice - 1: Blood Moon

Blurb:
Orion's life has always been a little shaky, but he doesn't think it would ruin his life. Until his best friend goes missing. The rules of his cave is never to leave without permission, but none of his friends have gained that yet. With nothing more to lose, he goes to search for his friend, enduring hardships, love, anger, and pain.
Recherché kind of, kind of, kind of HATES her life.  I mean, who wouldn’t if you had parents who were outlawed and sorta used you as a slave sometimes?   That’s Recherché’s life in a nutshell.  When her parents sent her to get food in a snowstorm, she made the most of it and escaped. But then, was it really the right choice?  Because she is an outlaw too.  She joins herself in a golden adventure and meets new friends and allies.
Aqua/Darter/Conch is a weirdo to the rest of their family.  Their father is some SilkWing that they don’t even know about, and they’re sometimes angry at Queen Coral for loving a SilkWing.  But when an outsider pleads to them for help, they agree and plans to hide their friend.  But that friend is someone who shouldn’t be there.  Will A/D/C risk it all for their friend, or will they give her up in order to stay loyal to the SeaWings?
==Characters==
Recherché
Orion
Aqua/Darter/Conch
==Prologue==
WISHGRANTER
WIP (coming soon)
== Chapter 1 - An Usual Turn of Event==
ORION
Orion’s earliest memory was smoke, smoke, smoke, more smoke and death.  His next earliest memory was of his mother Wishgranter holding him close to her chest and then she was dragged away bleeding in chains.
He was raised in a cave with three other dragonets, sweet NightWing Gemini, bored LeafWing Aven and jumpy SeaWing-with-NightWing-ancestry Moontide.  Their guardian was a HiveWing named Dawnfly.  She was nice but she never cared for them like the way he remembered Wishgranter.
There was an entire network of caves and each one was like a separate house.  Most of the other dragons were aggressive, and that was how…
When Gemini was hardly 1, she didn’t know about the tunnels and ran into random caves.  Their male guardian, a SkyWing named Swift went into an unfamiliar cave, got Gemini to safety but he was followed by the angry MudWing named Swamp.  Swamp killed to restore his calmness while Swift killed in order to protect.  At the end of the fight both dragons killed each other.
The leader of the tunnels was a quiet SandWing-SeaWing named Creosote but her quietness didn’t fool Orion. She was vicious and killed at least 20 of the tunnels’s residents about 90% of her victums while they were sleeping.
So Orion wasn’t super surprised when Dawnfly and some SandWing named Poison told them they were going to train as assassins.
“Listen up,” Dawnfly had said.  “You’ve all reached the age of 5 years.  Well Aven is 6, but that’s irrelevant.  Its time you start to train what you were brought up for.”
Dawnfly wasn’t too harsh on them but Poisons methods of training were like rubbing salt into an open wound. And sure, Aven hated the training but it was today that her life would be ruined forever.
“Whew,” gasped Gemini as she flopped onto her bed.  “Today’s training was no bed of roses.”
The four dragonets in that cave all shared a room.
Moontide nodded.  “I can't believe Poison wanted us to fly 4 miles nonstop and then have a full sparring session right after.”
“Hey,” Orion said, noticing. “Where’s Aven?”
Both of the dragonesses looked around.  They didn’t seem to bothered though because Aven was always a little slow especially after hard practices like today.
“I dunno,” said Moontide with a shrug.  “She seemed really determined today.”
That worried Orion. Aven (despite being the best out of all of them) hated her assassin training and she was a bit lazy.
“It’s allright,” said Gemini.  “I'm sure she’s just talking to Dawnfly about her training.”
“Why don’t we get some reading in?” Moontide suggested.  “Dawnfly will kill us if we don’t have those 6-page essays on enemy tribe weaknesses.  I haven’t been doing that much research on any.”
“Good idea,” Orion said, happy to get his mind off of Aven’s disappearance.  He sat on his bed and started reading an outlawed book: Secrets and Tricks of the Tribes: The Weak Points of the Sea Kingdom and Hidden Vaults and Essential Rooms.
Suddenly Aven came into the room with a tired, happy and sad expression on her face.
“There you are!" said Gemini.  “Are you ok? What happened, were were you?”
“Oh nothing important,” Aven said with a wave of her talon.  “Dawnfly sent me to tell you dinner’s ready.”
“Thanks, Aven,” said Moontide, walking out the door with Gemini following.
Orion started to walk out the door but he realized Aven wasn’t following.  He stopped at turned around.
“Aren’t you coming?” he asked.
Her natural hard/bored gaze softened.  “Aw, thanks Orion, but I’ll catch up with you later,” she said.  “Just go join our friends in dinner.”
Orion wanted to ask her why she wasn’t coming because this wasn’t like her but Aven didn’t like to be questioned when she made it clear that she wasn’t to be prodded.  She was his friend though and something serious was on her mind.  Besides he was closer to her than to Gemini or to Moontide.  If something wasn’t right he was going to ask her or at least make her feel better.
“Why aren’t you coming?” he asked quietly.
Her gaze widened, and she turned away.  Orion thought he saw guilt?  Sadness? Desperation?  Shame?  He saw some unhappy look in her eyes that she didn’t want him to see and it chilled his blood.
“Don’t question your big sis,” she said with a good-natured grin although he could see that it was forced as she tried to hide a wince.  “Go eat.  I'm just going to be a bit late”
But Aven never showed up for dinner at all.  Moontide tried to ask their guardian why she didn’t come but Dawnfly either scolded her for “minding business that didn’t belong to her but to someone else” or changed the subject.
When dinner was done, Aven still didn’t show.  Dawnfly said to head to their room and that they had 30 minutes before lights out.
When they got to their room the lights were off and Aven was already asleep.  That meant they had no choice but to leave the lights off so she could keep sleeping.
Orion had nightmares of knives, Wishgranter and grapes.   He nightmared that Aven didn’t like him anymore and she chased him to the endsof the continents to kill him. 
Right now he was in the middle of a nightmare that Poison gave him an assignment to kill a clam that rested in poisonous water.  But all of its guards had the faces of all of his friends, and even Wishgranter.
“No!”
Gemini’s cry woke him. He groggily got up and looked at Gemini who was leaning over Aven’s bed.  There were tears in her pale green-emerald eyes.
“Aven’s gone!”
==Chapter 2 - Escape==
RECHERCHE
When Recherché turned four her terrible life only got worse.
Her parents Milkweed and Anaconda were already all over the Wanted posters when she’d hatched.  It didn’t help that she had flamesilk when Milkweed didn’t.  Now she had to go to every crime spree so she could use her flamesilk either to bail them out of a pinch or to create the crime. 
When she turned four, her parents took her to an arson event they'd been planning for a while.  They ended up burning down Honeypot Hive in Pantala, even though Recherché didn’t even come close to agreeing to it.  Now her face appeared on the Wanted posts, and it scared her.
After a long day of raiding a coastal village in the Sand Kingdom Milkweed and Anaconda led Recherché somewhere in the Ice Kingdom where they would recover and lie low until their next crime spree.  They landed in an icy cave to take shelter from the snowstorm and Anaconda set down the two big bags of stolen treasures.
“Light,” Milkweed snapped.  “We need some flamesilk if we want to stay warm.”
Mom’s just jealous she doesn’t have flamesilk, she thought bitterly as she let out some blazesilk.  It let out light, but it didn’t burn on anything because there was nothing to burn.  It also didn’t let out any smoke.
“Go get some firewood,” her father ordered.
“Wouldn’t we just be making a smoke-signal if we have a fire?” Recherché pointed out.
Anaconda and Milkweed looked at each other.
“Give us a blanket of glowsilk then,” Milkweed said.
Recherché let out a very long strand of glowsilk and handed it to her mother.    “Help me weave a blanket,” she said.  She let out some goldsilk and started weaving in the glow silk to make it warmer.
“Your mother can finish that,” Anaconda said sternly.  He was huddled very close to the blaze silk because it gave off heat.  “Go hunt for all of us.  If there’s not enough for all of us, you will get the last pick.  And if you even dare to eat your catch, we will know and you will be in HUGE trouble.”
“In this weather by myself?” Recherché complained.  But Anaconda didn’t smile.  He wasn’t joking. Even though they were outlaws, they were often put into positions that made them starving, which, for example, was now. 
With a sigh Recherché left the cave into the snowstorm.  She’d heard Milkweed say that she used to eat fruit before becoming an outlaw and Anaconda did too, but Recherché couldn’t understand that.  Fruit was pretty disgusting.
She pounced on mink-weasel-stoat-thing and instead of taking it back, she ate her kill.  She wasn’t about to take it back to her ungrateful parents, NO SIR.  She wasn’t even going back to her parents, not ever. Next, as quickly as she could, she made a very loose, makeshift cloak out of blazesilk.  The fire warmed her scales but it hissed in the snow and ice.
The sun began falling and it was only getting colder.  She spread her wings and made her way to the desert, the Kingdom of Sand.  She dug a small hole for herself to sleep in and wrapped herself in her cloak.  The Kingdom of Sand was surprisingly cold at night. In the morning she went hunting and caught a cobra. She continued flying south.
After reaching the coast, she went northeast and traveled around the Rainforest Kingdom right next to the border of the Mud Kingdom.  She finally reached the Kingdom of Sea, and there she felt truly safe.  She was far away from her parents.
Well, at least the Ocean is pretty.
She jumped into the water and purred as she splashed around.   She liked water.  It was much cooler and colder and friendlier than blood.  It was also clear. Who didn’t love clear liquid.
Suddenly, a net was thrown on her.  She began to struggle but it only made the net tighter.
Three SeaWing soldiers appeared out of the water.
“It’s that stupid outlawed hybrid dragonet!” the first one, a pale gray and dark blue one said, his blue eyes gleaming.
“Nice catch, Leeds,” the second one, a pale green male said.
The last one, a dark blue one smirked.  “What, catfish got your tongue?” she asked Recherché and all the others laughed. Recherché could only glare angrily.
“We should take her to Queen Coral,” the pale green one said.
Recherché felt her heart stop.  If that happened, she’d probably be executed.
“No,” said the female, shaking her head. “We should look at the Wanted flyers and see which ones pay the most.  We should cash her in and share a large reward.”
Leeds — the gray and blue one — said, “No, Queen Coral said that if we ever catch her, bring her to her.”
The female grumbled.  “We could get a lot of gold for this one,” she growled.
“Were loyal to Queen Coral,” the green one reminded her.  “Let’s bring her to the Summer Palace.”
“Loyal, schmoal, Megla,” the dragoness snorted.   “Don’t you want-”
Suddenly Leeds grabbed Recherché and started flying to the Summer Palace.  She could only watch as she was lifted from the ground in an awkward position, still tangled in the net.
“Urrgg, I thought we were taking her to those wanted posters!” the dragoness complained.
“Shut up, Naiad,” Megla snapped.  “All you do is grumble, whine, and complain.  I can’t believe Princess Auklet likes you.”
Naiad muttered some things annoyedly as they continued flying.  They reached a large, hollow dome.   Recherché knew that the ruins had been fixed recently, but it was no longer hidden.
As they reached it, Recherché couldn’t help but gasp.  The ruins had been fixed very thoroughly and it looked very pretty.  Suddenly, the net she was in was thrown onto one of the floors.
“Yipe!” she exclaimed as she hit the floor.  She blacked out before anything could happen.
==Chapter 3 - An Unlikely Friend==
DARTER
It was in the middle of the morning when Darter met Recherché.  He wasn’t even in the Summer Palace, where she was dropped; he was in the Island Palace.  He was messing around with his sisters Princess Keto and Princess Ocean when Moray called them over.
“Come along,” she said with a tiny glare in her eye.  “Prince Cliff of the SkyWings is here to discuss…  The Jade Mountain situation.”
“See you, Darter,” Keto said with a wave as she followed Moray.  Darter was a bit annoyed.  Keto was always with Cliff.  And whenever he visited, he never brought along his sisters.  Darter rather liked Fire, Rose, and Cardinal.  They were sweet, athletic, and fun, and Cardinal was a good flyer.  She won every time Darter and he raced.  He preferred the princesses to the princes.
“I should go find Seahorse,” Ocean said quietly.  She leaped into the water and away.
Darter liked joining Fin and Cerulean in pearl hunting, but they didn’t let him.
“We don’t allow SilkWings to do SeaWing traditions,” Fin had sneered.
“I'm not just a SilkWing!” he had protested.  “I'm also a SeaWing, son of Queen Coral, prince?  Still confused?   Your little brother?”
“Go away, Little Brother,” Cerulean had said with a groan.  His wife Whitetip had gone with them instead of Darter.
Speaking of wives, Anemone had gotten married to Tamarin and Turtle got married to Kinkajou.  His sister Tsunami got married to Riptide, and some other 12 of his brothers got married to some other dragons, yada yada yada. The only other marriages worth mentioning was that his brother Octopus got married to his husband, a MudWing named Jacana (Darter thought he was weird and quiet), and his brother Crab got married to a LeafWing named Pollen.
Darter wasn’t alone in his SilkWing half, though.  Keto and Ocean were also from the same father, and so were two of his brothers named Cuttlefish and Fluke.  Queen Coral never told who the father was, only that he was her new love.  That all changed last year.  She stopped seeing her partner and he thought that either his father died or he and her had a falling out.
With a sigh he hopped into the water and left to the Summer Palace.  His mother was there often to write or publish her stories.  His friend Anchor, a NightWing-SeaWing hybrid, usually was there.  he liked to write stories and tried to get Queen Coral to publish them.  He’d completed more than 70 stories and tried to get about 50 of them published, but only one or 2 of them made it.  Darter had read nearly all of them and liked most of them.
When he got to the palace, he saw one of the guards named Leeds drop a caught-caught thing on a platform and fly away with two other dragons, Naiad and Megalodon.  As he got a closer look, he realized that the thing caught in the net was a dragon.  It was a green female SilkWing-RainWing hybrid.
There wasn’t a lot of dragons here in the Palace and he went over to the net-caught dragon.  She was fainted, but Darter recognized her as the wanted dragonet on the Wanted posters; her name was apparently Worm.
Darter looked around; the few dragons who were there at the palace weren’t on that platform or exactly looking at it, or even in that built-section of the palace. 
“Hang on,” he whispered to her.  He went down to the level with the battle supplies and grabbed a knife.  He flew back to the tangled dragon and sliced her net. It was so tight that some areas were raw from rubbing or bleeding from the rope pressing to tight.
“Hey,” he said, “You ok?”
Her eyes blinked, and then she jumped.
“I have to get out of here!” she exclaimed.  She looked at Darter and got into a defensive position, nearly ready to attack.   Her eyes were narrowed but had a pained and kind expression.
“Wait!” exclaimed Darter. A group of councilors flying over caught his eye.  “We have to get out of here!”
“What-” she started, but she was forced into a room in the island.  “Who are you?” she asked him.
“Today I'm Prince Darter,” he said.
“…Today…?” she said.
“I'm genderfluid,” he explained.  “I also take on different names for different genders.”
“Oh,” she said.  “I'm Recherché.”
“The one on the Wanted Posters,” he said.  “It said Worm was your name.”
She glared at him.  “My parents call me ‘Worm,’ it’s my given name. I call myself Recherché; its my official name.”
He nodded.  “I like it,” he said.
She sighed, then said, “You're not going to give me to the dragons who want me or report me to Queen Coral, are you?”  She tipped her head to the side questioningly.
Darter saw there was desperation in her eyes, and he realized she was scared.  She was in a place she didn’t know, and if he wanted he could report her.  she wasn’t in a position to defend herself either.  She could only rely on luck, and this odd, strange, SeaWing prince named Darter. And he made up his mind.  This Prince Darter was going to save her.
“No,” he said.  “I'm not.  I'm going to hide you.”
Her eyes widened when she realized what he said.
“You are?” she asked.
He nodded.  “I am.”
Suddenly she lunged forward and gave him a huge hug.  “Thank you so much,” she said.  “I'm finally going to be safe!”
== Chapter 4 - Searching==
ORION
“Aven’s gone?!” Moontide bolted up and glared at no one in particular.
It was taking a while for Orion to process this.  Aven. His best friend.  His older adopted-sister.  Gone.  Gone.  GONE!!
“Yeah,” said Gemini, tears plopping off her snout to the floor.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Orion said, trying to look on the bright side, although it was really hard.  “She-”
“All her belongings are gone,” Gemini mumbled.  “Even her Venus Flytrap, Fang.”  She pointed to where Fang’s pot had been, and there was a ring of dirt where it had been.
Aven had strong leafspeak, which she used to grow Fang.   She said that Fang was actually very sweet and cuddly inside and that was the reason she gave him his ironic name.  Of course, none of the other dragonets thought it was ironic because they never saw inside him.
That settled it.  Aven was really gone.  She never brought Fang anywhere.
“Where’s Dawnfly?” Moontide asked quickly.
But Orion wasn’t staying. He knew Dawnfly and Poison had something to do with Aven’s disappearance, and he wasn’t going to tolerate and stand around doing nothing.  Not at all.  He was going to do something, whatever that something was.
He ran into the cave Dawnfly and Poison discussed teaching methods, and the two were talking.
“Where’s Aven?” he demanded.
His guardian and teacher ignored him.
“…Right, but they need to figure out a possible route if they get in that position,” Dawnfly said.
“Yes,” Poison replied, “The should practise on a dummy.  They-”
“WHERE’S AVEN?!” Orion roared.  Both teachers looked at him.  Smoke steamed out of his nose.
“Don’t tell-” Dawnfly started.
“Her assignment,” Poison said.
“Assignment?” he gasped, taken aback.
Dawnfly glared at Poison, and then said, “Creosote gave her an assignment to kill a HiveWing named Termite. She thought that Aven was good enough.”
“What?!”  Orion was getting mad.  “You never told us!”
“No,” Poison agreed, and continued talking to Dawnfly.
They’re not going to tell me anything, he realized.  There was only one thing he could do.  He had to go after her, to find her and tell her to come back or at least keep her safe.  What if she gets hurt?  What if she gets killed?
But none of them had ever left the cave-tunnels.  He’d heard the sky was blue and the air was great.  Only problem: he didn’t know the way out, and the other dragons living in the caves were aggressive.  He could also get in huge trouble if he was caught, because one of the rules was that dragonets under 7 years were not allowed to leave the network.  As far as he was concerned, they were the only dragonets living there.
Then he realized if they wanted to, he could try and find Wishgranter if he was hoping she was still alive.
He could wish and wonder all these things, but if he didn’t know the way out, all his thoughts would never become a reality.  He decided at least he should tell Gemini and Moontide, unlike Aven and Dawnfly.  They deserved to know that he was leaving and Aven was at her assignment.  They were probably worried sick about her.
He went back to their room and discussed all that knew.  He also told them about his plan to “retrieve” Aven.
“You're leaving?” Gemini whispered.
Orion nodded.  “I have to, if I want to find Aven and bring her back,” he said.
“This hurts to say this, but… shouldn’t we let Aven do her assignment?” Moontide asked.
“No!” Orion and Gemini both yelled.
“Okay, okay, sorry, I asked; Three Moons!” Moontide said.
“I'm not going; I'm sorry, Orion,” Gemini said.  “I should be going.”
“It’s alright, Gem,” said Orion.  “No one’s forcing you to go, it’s your decision, and anyways it could get really, really dangerous.  Besides, who’s going to cover for me?”
“I'm going to stay,” Moontide said.  “Who’s going to look after Gemini?”
“I'm not a baby!” she exclaimed.
“Sorry, sorry,” Moontide said.  “I just… I don’t want to break any more rules.  We’d be in huge trouble.  Don’t get me wrong, I seriously want to go after Aven and make sure she’s alright, I really do.  But the punishment for getting caught can be as severe as death.  Besides, will we even be alive out there?  And Aven is the most independent out of all three of us.  She might be able to take care of herself and not need our help. But Orion, are you really going to go? What if…?”
“I don’t care,” he said stubbornly.  “I'm still going.”
“Fine,” said Moontide, “but let me give you something first.”
She went to grab a metal box under her bed and used her claw to pick the lock.  “I never found keys for the boxes so I had to pick the lock with my claw,” she explained.  “Makes it more foolproof too, if you ask me.”  After going through 2 more boxes and locks, she pulled out a small, wearable pouch made of durable leather.  She handed it to Orion.
“Thanks,” he said, putting it around his neck like a necklace.  Even if nothing will fit in this tiny thing, I still appreciate Moontide giving it to me.
“It’s animus-touched,” Moontide explained.  “It’s bottomless.  I was looking for Poison in the caves and tunnels when some SkyWing dropped it.  I picked it up, tested it, and stored it away for good cause.  Well, this cause is good.  Use it well because it’s my most prized possession.”
He went over to the rack of assassin tools and put in his only weapons, 5 small kunais and a regular pocket knife.  Even though his five kunais were knives, Dawnfly said that no matter what profession you were, a pocket knife was something you should bring.
Gemini suddenly hugged Orion very tightly.  “I have a map of the tunnels and caves,” she said quietly.  “I stole it from Dawnfly.”
Why didn’t you tell me earlier, so we all could’ve escaped this horrible place a long time ago? he thought, getting mad.  It started to melt away as he thought, Gemini may have only just found it.  And like Moontide, she may have been waiting for a good cause to use it.  Besides, it isn’t like her to steal.
“Thank you,” he said to Gemini as she handed him a tiny cloth, folded map.  He put it in his animus touched pouch.
“Good luck,” Moontide said, “And don’t die on your way out of the tunnels.”
“Gee thanks, I feel very brave and wanting to go on this journey,” he said sarcastically.
“You know what I mean,” she said, giving him a hug.  Gemini joined in too.
I’ll miss them, he realized sadly.  “I have to go,” he said, breaking out of the hug.  “Cover for me if Dawnfly asks.  With a sad sigh he ran into the network of tunnels and opened up his map.
* * *
According to his map, he was almost out of the tunnel-caves.  But according to the environment he was in, he was lost.
He double-checked his map. He was pretty sure he was lost.  The map had helped earlier, but now it was only causing problems and confusing him.  He was still following it, but was 99% sure he was lost.
Suddenly, at the end of one tunnel, a very, very bright patch of light shined.  Orion tucked his map into his pouch and raced for it.  It was the exit!  He was out of this deathtrap!  His eyes needed to adjust to the light.
When he stepped out, he was in full awe.  It was beautiful outside, in a way he couldn’t describe.  Now, he knew he had to go into those giant cylinder-shaped things to find Aven.  It looked like Dawnfly’s tribe, the HiveWings, and another tribe with butterfly wings (which he remembered Dawnfly called them SilkWings) flew in and out of them, along with LeafWings.  Hives, he remembered what Dawnfly had called them. With a lightness in his step he jumped into the air and began to fly.  How friendly will these dragons be? He thought.
He entered a hive and gasped in awe.  The construction looked a lot different from the caves he had lived it.  First of all, it was a lot brighter because there were windows everywhere. Second, it was made of wood and pulp and silk and a bunch of other materials.
“Hey buddy, are you here to stand around or are you going to buy something?”
Orion was startled and realized he was in front of a shop.  The shopkeeper was looking very irritable.  The sign above the booth read “Flatid Branch of the Sugar Dream”.
“Oh,” he said.  He realized he didn’t have any money. “Um…  Sorry.”  He stepped out of line and began walking around the hive.
“Excuse me,” he said to an orange and dark blue SilkWing walking somewhere.  “But what hive is this?”
She gave him a weird look as if he grew seven more heads.  “Don’t you know this Flatid Hive?”
He was about to say something but she walked away.  He continued walking through the hive when he realized he had no idea how to find Aven. He didn’t know the first step to finding her.
“Hey,” he said running back up to the orange and dark blue SilkWing.
“What?” she asked irritably, spinning around to face him.
“Do you know where a HiveWing named Termite lives?” he asked.
“Termite?!” the SilkWing gasped.  “What do you want with Lady Termite?!”
“Um…” from the way the dragonet was reacting; it must not have been good that he need her at all.  “Uh, I need to deliver a letter to her.”
“She lives in Darkling Hive,” the SilkWing said warily.  “I'm going there to meet my friend.  I can take your letter to her if you want.”
“I’ll go with you,” he said quickly.  “I need to deliver it to her personally; it’s my orders.”
“Suit yourself,” the SilkWing said with a shrug.  “What’s your name again?  I'm Paintette.”
Orion spread his huge wings, about to fly.   “Orion,” he said with a smile.  “My name is Orion."
===Chapter 5===
DARTER (Aqua/Darter/Conch)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Genre (Mystery)
Category:Genre (Romance)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Content (Dreamclaw21)
Prologue
Chapter 1: An Unusual Turn of Events
Chapter 2: Escape
Chapter 3: An Unlikely Friend
Chapter 4: Searching