Shadows of Sorrow

== Shadows of Sorrow ==
This is a fanfiction written by CirrusCat/CaramelandherCats in her free time. Updates every week or so.        
Okay, so I haven't been updating my stories recently...sorry, guys. But I'm starting a new one, to make up for lost time, so my apologies if it's bad. 
It's a WoF fanfic, because I've always *always* wanted to make one. So, here you go!
Note: this is a W.I.P
== Warning ==
This story contains some violent elements, has some mild and censored swearing in it
==Prologue==
Princess Reef was tired of the rules. 
The criticism, the spotlight, the constant reprieve. The pressure of being her kingdom's perfect princess and her mother's perfect daughter. She hated it all.
She swam down the lagoon, her dark blue tail barely a sliver of color in the murky waters. Silvery fish floated past her, seemingly in no hurry at all. 
"'You'll be queen one day,'" Reef muttered, yanking a rope of pearls off of her chest. "'So you must act like one.' Mother, I'm trying! I have to follow the rules, fit straight inside the lines. Can't you get off of my case for once?" 
She flicked her tail and nearly sent the nearest fish toppling. 
Reef just wanted something where she could be herself. Not the princess, not the golden one, not the future queen. Just someone that dragons could see as an equal.
She felt a presence to her left and whirled around in fear, but there was no one there. She stopped, puzzled.
And then it came again - the massive shadow of a SeaWing. Wings flared wide and pale blue eyes fixated on Reef. She tried to run, but the SeaWing stopped her.
Then it came into the light, and Reef saw it was a male. He grinned at her, his teeth cracked and yellow.
"Listen, Princess," he hissed, his voice slithery as an eel. "If you want to survive the next few seconds, you'll have to follow my instructions exactly."
Reef's mouth curled into a vicious smile. This was what she'd always wanted - a change, a step down from being the queen, someone able to be manipulated. But this princess wouldn't let anyone change her mind.
"You say that," she purred, silky sweet, "but how can I know how to trust you? And more importantly...what is my assignment?"
He cocked his head. "So you recognize me."
"Yes, I do." Reef knelt her head. "Cloudsmist. Master thief. Assassin. Killer. Criminal I offer myself as an apprentice."
She waited, her heart pounding.
After a few moments, he threw back his head and laughed. "What makes you think you want to come with me, little Princess?"
She remained stubborn. "My mother only cares about the queenship," she hissed. "She wants perfectionism. She wants only the best of her daughter. Weakness is not tolerated in the court of Queen Lakeshire. Only beauty."
He smirked. "Sounds like you and I will get along perfectly."
And that was the moment Reef became someone else.
She was taken under Cloudsmist's care and given a new name. No longer was she Reef, the smiling, nodding, perfect princess. No. She was SeaWing, assassin, Cloudsmist's top warrior. She was no pacifist, flawless queen. No, she was someone else.
And she loved it.
But her secret was bound to come out soon - especially when Cloudsmist died, passing on his reputation and well-built underground assassination empire to his confidant and friend, Princess Reef of the SeaWings.
So it was only inevitable when she fled from the bases, a newborn clutched in her arms. A female dragon sat upon the throne, smiling cruelly, a fine golden circlet adorned upon her head. Her wings were midnight black, speckled with stars. She extended one glittering silver claw, and her henchmen chased after the former princess.
But it was all worth it, every single moment, when Reef finally found a secluded little cave where she hid her dragonet. A beautiful pale blue female, with eyes like chips of ice and sapphire wings.
"Sapphire. That's what I'll call you," Reef decided, cradling her dragonet's head. Sapphire cooed softly, and her heart warmed.
But then, a shadow, gliding closer.
Reef placed Sapphire behind a small rock, her heart beating wildly.
Silver flashed, and then it was over.
Reef lay dead in a pool of her own blood, her eyes blank, her head sticking out at an odd angle. There was a knife buried deep in her chest, and another was embedded in the rocks behind her. Where Sapphire was.
The figure with the knife eyed the cave coyly. It was the dragon from all of those years ago - the one who'd taken over Cloudsmist's throne and hunted down Reef to get her final revenge.
And now it was done.
"Leave her," the dragon ordered. Her henchmen nodded, and they all flew away into the skies.
Sapphire waited, then crept out from behind her boulder. She crouched behind her mother, feeling Reef's forehead.
"Mommy?" She asked in a small voice.
Then she knew.
She laid her head on her mother's chest, hollow as she cried, feeling as if she was very, very empty.
== Chapter One ~ Ebony ==
Ebony leapt forward in a vicious whirl and slashed her claws across the dragon's throat. It was an elderly SkyWing, his eyes wild.
He lashed out with his tail, creating several new bruises along her spine, but Ebony ignored them. She'd felt much, much worse.
Her claws blurred, and the dragon shouted. Then he went limp, and there was a horrible cracking smile as he fell to the side, dead, his head tilted at an odd angle.
Ebony fell back, breathing hard.
"Well, he didn't even put up that much of a fight." She sank her claws into the damp ground as earthworms wiggled around her talons. "They normally do."
Ebony's mother was the Assassin Queen, the one who'd taken the throne from the legendary Cloudsmist and replaced a traitor with a leader. Queen Darkfall was only spoken of in hushed tones, for fear of offending the deadly dragon.
She shook her claws out and turned to see her mother watching. Darkfall stood with her arms crossed over her chest, one eyebrow arched.
"Mother," Ebony said, bowing.
Darkfall sauntered over and cocked her head at the dead SkyWing. "That break was quite clean. Did he put up a fight?"
"Not much."
"They never do," Darkfall murmured.
Ebony was her mother's top killer, most often taking the lives of the prisoners long-suffering in Darkfall's dungeon. It was something only Ebony complied to - the others either were too afraid too or were locked up.
She glanced at the ground. "Well, he's dead, and we can't go back now."
"Certainly not," Darkfall said. "Ebony, come with me."
The queen tilted her head at the servants, who hurried to light the torches as they started down the stone halls of the complex.
”Ebony,” her mother started, “I have need of you.”
“For what use?” They’d had this conversation many times, and Ebony had memorized their script.
Darkfall tilted her head up at the torch scones, letting her elegant silver horns catch the light. "There's someone I need you to bring to me."
"Oh?"
"Sapphire, that is her name, I believe." Darkfall looked at Ebony with a strange glint in her eyes.
"So you say."
"Track her down, my daughter," Darkfall hissed, "as only you can do. And when you've captured her...bring her to me."
"Is that all?"
"I need her alive. Remember that, Ebony. Oh, and one more thing - do not be drawn over to the wrong side."
"I see."
"You must leave by early light tomorrow in order to catch this dragon. I will wait for you, along with supplies and information."
"And I suppose that's what I am doing."
"On the spot." Darkfall smiled.
"I know you can do it, my child," she said. "Do not fail me...or there will be consequences."
Ebony nodded and hurried off, vowing deeply in her heart that she would get this right.
==Chapter Two  ~ Sapphire==
She dove beneath the waves, her wings flaring out with her. Tiny fish swam around her, waving their tails with fastidious glee. Probably gloating that she couldn’t catch them. Fish were obnoxious, egotistical animals. 
Sapphire couldn’t - wouldn’t - let the real SeaWings of the ocean see her. They didn’t know her. They didn’t know if she was a threat to the tribe or not. They didn’t know that she was a princess. 
But Sapphire had been raised to believe that the world did not revolve around her. And she’d realized that very, very fast - from the day her mother was murdered and her adoptive father was driven off of a cliff, his lamed wings failing him. 
Reef had had just enough time to tell her daughter of the culprit - Darkfall, a dragon supposedly driven mad. Just enough time to warn her of the NightWing, who ruled the underground assassin’s throne. To warn her of Darkfall’s young daughter, Ebony, who could strike a dragon dead within three heartbeats. 
And then Reef’s voice was gone, and the light was gone from her eyes, and her chest stopped rising and falling, and her heartbeat was gone, too. And then Sapphire had known her mother was lost to her. 
Forever. 
Sapphire had cried then. But now she didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t ever cry again. It was as if her tear ducts had dried up with her mother’s empty fate.
And now, her daughter would carry on her legacy. Avenge her mother. Finally get to see Reef’s killers face-to-face and make them sorry for their final wrongdoing, at last.
Sapphire's talons snatched out quickly, and suddenly there was a wiggling little silvery-colored fish in her grip. She killed it with a quick snap - the way her fugitive mother had taught her. Sapphire had been taught to never overestimate or overuse, and this was just an example of it. Even if the fish tasted like rotten garbage. 
She'd just managed to choke it down when she heard the sound of approaching wingbeats. She looked up, and saw a dark shadow of stars and sky. 
NightWings.
Sapphire dove deeper into the dark blue waters, staying absolutely still as small fish and broken pieces of coral waved next to her in a cute little pattern, as if yelling, EAT ME! EAT ME! I'M RIGHT HERE! And then giggling away when she didn't catch them.
She didn't though. Sapphire waited for the shadow of the dragon to disappear, and then she could finally breathe again. 
But then the dragon came back, swooping lower and lower over the water. A chill ran through Sapphire's veins as she realized what was happening. 
Someone's hunting. 
For me.
(W.I.P.)
Category:Fanfictions (Unfinished)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Literature
Category:Fantasy
Category:Fiction