Of Night and Sand (Angel)

Of Night and Sand is a fanfiction created by Angel Of Madness 001, and it follows the Wings of Fire timeline if the SandWing War of Succession had turned out the way they wanted it to, along with a few other plot changes. This will have spoilers for Arc 1, as well as some of this coming from my imagination and what I think would happen. If you think something else would happen, feel free to tell me in the comments, but don't start an argument about it, please. This idea was given by Dewspring, with additional ideas given by Cloud of the IceWings. 
Now, please read this little tidbit of information on the AU before you read the story. This information is critical to understand things and why they happen the way they do. 
User blog:Angel Of Madness 001/Of Night and Sand: Background Information
== Summary ==
Clay has always wanted to be a great, destined hero of the dragon world. Him and his four best friends-Tsunami the SeaWing, Glory the RainWing, Starflight the NightWing, and Sunny the SandWing. They're a ragtag group, but they're ready to stick it out 'till the end. 
What happens if one of their stories...ends abruptly? It's a thought Clay never realized he'd have to worry about. But the NightWings are the ones in charge, so their rules have to be followed. When the dragonet's guardians are given special instructions that puts one of his own friends in danger, can Clay finally figure out how to step up and be the brave dragon he needs to be? 
It's life or death for one of the dragonets. After all, there's more than one way to fulfill a prophecy...
== Prologue ==
6 years after the brightest night . . .
Kestrel snorted, fire spurting from her nostrils and illuminating the rather dark tunnel she was in. There were more torches up ahead, but the entire place felt cramped and dark all the time to her. Her rusty red scales seemed almost black in this poor lighting. Her sharp claws made faint little scratching sounds as she approached the main cavern-the one where all the others branched off from. 
"This whole prophecy thing is stupid," she found herself muttering. At night, long after everyone else was asleep, Kestrel would often be whispering curses upon the NightWings, upon Queen Scarlet, upon everything in this stupid world that the moons' light touched. At least now she'd get the chance to release some of that fury here, trapped down beneath the Sky Kingdom in a hidden mess of rock and darkness and, soon to be, death. Kestrel paused to sit up and examine her front claws. Here in the main cave, everything was a little more well lit-though still far too dark for Kestrel's tastes-and her claws almost tauntingly tried to reflect the torchlight into her eyes. They were dulled and slightly dusty, something she'd expected when she was assigned to underground dragonet care duty.
"What, do they think they're doing me a favor?" she hissed in the blank space around her. Nothing responded but the call of her own echo, softly whispering around the cave and into Kestrel's ears until she felt like she wanted to claw them off and drown herself in the underground river. "I'm the strongest member in the Talons of Peace. You need me." Moons, what a stupid thing to say. Why hadn't she just taken off when she had the chance? The SkyWing egg was broken when we found it. Hvitur was dead, the arrogant, idiotic fool. I wasn't thrilled about this job, but I at least naively hoped there'd be one SkyWing I could care about. Instead, Kestrel found herself here. In the caves, watching her own talons reflect the torchlight, on her way to kill the 'replacement' Webs had found. 
"Who? The Talons of Peace? Ha! You'll be so sorry once we're all out of here and you're the only one who will suffer from that hideous black wyrm!" A bossy, angry female voice called from down one of the shorter tunnels. Kestrel growled. Was chaining up their rebellious SeaWing still not enough to teach her some manners? Normally, Kestrel would have just left the SeaWing dragonet, whom Webs had named Tsunami, alone to her own shouty devices. But tonight, she needed to have the SeaWing be quiet. Even the slightest shout about Kestrel would send the dragonets hiding to defend themselves. Ungrateful worms. Don't they know how much each of us gave, just to be here to keep their sorry tails alive?! Kestrel, still growling, headed up the tunnel where they'd chained up the SeaWing dragonet.
Just as she'd left her, the dark blue dragon was still struggling against her chains. Her gills were fluttering and pulsing with what Kestrel assumed was pure rage, and the expression on her face was full of so much hatred and venom to kill hundreds of dragons with a single glance. "What, come to torture me more?" Tsunami taunted, "Come to actually chain Clay next to me, or just to drone on about how much you tragic dragons have lost for peace?" Her voice grew pathetically mocking near the end, and Kestrel wasn't sure if killing this SeaWing too would ruin the prophecy. Morrowseer surely has a backup. He has one for the mistake, clearly. Kestrel waited before responding, leaving the long silence to be filled by the crackling of the few torches in the room and the gurgling of the river. 
The river. The same sound as when I hid my poor baby there...how different my life could be right now! If only he'd still been where I left him at the riverbank. Kestrel tried hard not to let herself get dragged into old memories, but it was hard. How could she take care of these five dragonets when she knew that she couldn't even save her own two? The burns across her face and palms seemed to ache, even when they were scarred over long ago. She tapped her claws on the ground. "I had hoped," she started, dragging out her words in her own, gravelly voice, "That a night out of the water would teach you something," Kestrel snarled. "Clearly, you need more teaching." 
Tsunami opened her mouth to say something, but Kestrel silenced it with a swift swipe of her talons. It was blindingly fast, and it hit Tsunami so hard mentally that she didn't even react for a moment. Drops of red blood whizzed through the air off of Kestrel's claw, and she flicked it a few times to get as much loose blood off of it as she could. A thin red line like an angry viper paraded across Tsunami's cheek, all the way from her ear to the corner of her mouth. For a moment, the room was silent again, and then Tsunami cried out in a voice laced with equal parts anger, fear, and pain. "CLAY!" she yelled, inhaling for another yell. "CLAY! GLORY! ANYONE! KESTREL'S-" 
Kestrel grabbed Tsunami's snout roughly, turning it to face her. Wild anger and fear raced in Tsunami's eyes as Kestrel stared her down. "You will be silent until morning. No more snarky comments. No more shouting. If I hear another sound out of you, I'll come back and claw you again-harder." Kestrel pushed Tsunami back and turned around, leaving the cave. To her amazement, Tsunami was quiet. As the silence of the underground prison loomed over her once again, Kestrel was facing down the proper tunnel. It was the one that led to where the dragonets slept-And where she'd expect them to be at this hour.
She silenced her talonsteps and tucked her body as small as it would be, making sure nothing was scraping the claustrophobic walls. She needed to be stealthy and silent for her mission. Morrowseer had given clear instructions on what was to be done, and a clear time frame for when it needed to be completed. Kestrel nudged her snout into the archway and peered inside. And what she saw filled her with pure, white-hot rage.
Glory and Clay were gone. Only Sunny and Starflight were in the room, laying on their stone ledges. Sunny was quietly trembling, while Starflight seemed to be twitching nervously. "WHERE DID THEY GO?!" Kestrel roared at the two. Sunny squeaked and hid under a blanket on her ledge-Starflight tried to look away. Kestrel stomped towards Sunny and grabbed the blanket. Sunny tried to hold it closer to herself, and Kestrel tugged harder. The blanket ripped with an almost sickening tearing sound. "You. Come with me," she hissed, grabbing the golden-yellow dragon's wrist and dragging her behind. Starflight yelped and suddenly got up to follow them, Kestrel assumed. Her first thought was Tsunami being involved in all of this somehow, so she dragged the two dragons towards the room with a snarl. 
"Where is Clay? And your little RainWing friend too?" Kestrel spat at the three of them. Her face scrunched up and glared at them, smoke billowing out of her nostrils and mouth as she spoke. The dark gray clouds wreathing Kestrel's head were merely adding intimidation to her already-terrifying display. "I want answers. NOW." She growled, raising her talon to strike at them. Starflight ducked down, and Tsunami fought against the chains harder, causing more red drops to splatter through the air and onto the floor. Sunny gasped in horror and suddenly started talking quickly.
"We're so sorry Kestrel please, Clay went in to the river because we over heard you saying that you were going to kill Glory and none of us want that to happen so please, please don't kill her!" Sunny was at Kestrel's feet, head bowed and sobbing loudly and openly. She was trying to inhale but couldn't get enough air in, ending with a loud wail of sorrow and emotional pain. Starflight crept closer and gently tented his wing over Sunny, trying to make her feel better. I should've guessed these idiot worms are trying to save each other.
"So, where's your useless friend the MudWing is going to die over?" she hissed, leaning down into Sunny's face. Sunny couldn't even answer-She was full of tears and sobbing, yelping and starting to hiccup. All Kestrel could do was try and pry an answer out of them, perhaps she would need to even use force to-
She glanced and saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Kestrel stopped being aggressive towards Sunny and stalked over to the motion. Ever so carefully, she reached the place and waited. Watched. Stared at the wall for something to happen. And she saw a quick, small, panicked flash of white teeth and knew something was hiding there. Kestrel struck out, reaching for where a snout would be if this was a dragon.
Sure enough, she grabbed smooth scales like a dragon, and they shifted to bright green and white where she was grabbing them. Bright red eyes mixed with white suddenly opened and stared back at her. Then the rest of the RainWing became visible-Ranging in shades of green, white, red, and orange, all mixing together in a rather ugly cacophony. Like a bunch of flowers and birds had thrown a party and didn't care there was other dragons around. Kestrel would have smirked, if she wasn't so angry. "Found you," she hissed in Glory's face, puffing a ring of smoke at her. 
Even if Glory could have said anything back, Kestrel didn't care. Tsunami was shouting behind her, the chains furiously clanking and rubbing and screeching as they moved. Kestrel risked a single glance back and saw that the SeaWing was going to end up strangling herself like this. Starflight was numb with petrified horror-And Sunny was crumpled over in tears, forming a small puddle around her. She was crying, begging, pleading for Glory's life. And Kestrel only had one response. 
"Maybe you should be mad at Webs for bringing her here at all."
Kestrel was swift to move Glory from grabbed on the wall to pinned on the ground, claws and all. She forced Glory's head down, keeping her talon on it so that the RainWing couldn't move or twist around. "Glory, the mistake I should have corrected the moment Webs brought back your cursed green egg. Don't you regret hatching? Regret the pain you'll inflict on your so-called friends? Don't you wish you'd never been here at all?"
"I do wish I'd never been here at all," Glory choked out through the haze of smoke and the oppression. "Because of you and Dune and that DRAGONET EATING MORROWSEER," she howled. Even in her last moments, the RainWing was a vicious fighter. Kestrel wouldn't stand for it. As her talons moved, time seemed to slow down all around them. 
Sunny outstretched, crystal-like tears welled in her eyes and streaming down her face like overgrown raindrops, mouth open in an agonized screaming plead for Glory.
Starflight still numbly, dumbly staring like his brain had been incinerated, wing still outstretched as if the little SandWing were still next to him. 
Tsunami, mouth open in a howl of rage, outstretched as far as the chains would go, trying to break free and attack the dragon who was hurting her friend.
Glory, scales pale white and green, trying to edge away from Kestrel and perhaps save her own life.
But it didn't matter. Wouldn't matter. Kestrel moved her talons, and with a clean sounding crack, she lay limp. Her head was still, mouth closed and eyes shut. All of her scales rolled through a rainbow of colors for a moment, before fading down to a grayed-out lime green. Everything around her was still, and as Kestrel stepped back, blood began to spill from wounds that Kestrel had given her while pinning the RainWing, staining the stone around them all red. 
Sunny lunged forward, crying, "NO!" She howled into the open air around them. "Glory, please! Glory, get...get back up!" she pleaded. She buried her face in her friend's cold head, the ruff adorning her neck flopped over to the side like an empty sack. Kestrel didn't even pause for a moment of grief. She was destined to end up like this. Just a mistake made by Webs, and something to be corrected and forgotten about. She stalked out of the tunnel, Tsunami's rageful cries and Sunny's sobbing still reaching her ears even when she was in the guardian's caves. 
"Webs," she hissed in the blue-green SeaWing's ear. "Webs, get up."
"Hu-Wha?" he said sleepily, rolling over to face Kestrel. "Did something go wrong?" he said, worried and tired. "Do you need my-"
"I need your help, but not in that way," Kestrel snapped. "I've already killed your mistake of a RainWing. But our thick-headed MudWing will drown in the river if you don't haul him out. Get up and out there!" she yelled grabbing Webs and throwing him off his ledge. "Go! Before Morrowseer has to bring us two dragonets and a NEW GUARDIAN!" 
Webs frantically scurried away, and Kestrel heard a large splash afterwards. He'll catch him. Tomorrow, we'll have our replacement dragonet. And tomorrow...maybe I'll finally be happy with this duty.
== Part One: The First Sunrise ==
=== Chapter One ===
1 year later . . .
Clay had known only seven other dragons for the first six years of his life. Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, his best friends and loyal companions, and Kestrel, Dune, and Webs, the guardians of the dragonets. Or as he liked to call them, the minders. But there should have been nine dragons, Clay's brain echoed back to him. He was in his egg, ready to hatch soon, and heard muffled and different voices from outside. Something about an IceWing named Hvitur, a broken SkyWing egg, and a MudWing named Asha who brought them the bloodred egg. After shouting, one of them said something about a RainWing egg, and Clay stopped listening. He'd meant to ask the other dragonets about it, and if they'd heard those voices, but just the mere thought suddenly made his stomach lurch. 
The night Glory died...it was too painful to even think about. Here the dragonets were, one year later, and still mourning their friend's death. The sassy, laid-back RainWing had been one of his favorite friends. She'd shown the four of them how many colors there were in the world, and her being with them made the caves feel a lot less dark. Clay remembered her drawn-out laughter, the way her ruff would flare up around her like the way Tsunami's gills pulsed, the narrow fangs that showed as she smiled. And now it's all gone, he thought, staring at the ground. 
He'd been in the river, then-Risking his life to save Glory's. It felt like he might drown down there in the ice-cold river, and that perhaps Glory would die anyway. All the doubts running through his head...it made his brain feel like it had been splitting into a thousand pieces. He'd come to a space with a bit more room and paused for only a moment to catch his breath and warm up a little, and that's when their SeaWing guardian, Webs had burst out of the water and grabbed Clay. His grip was strong, but not mean-just worried. "Let's get you back to the cave. The others are worried about you." I fell for it? Really? Clay had thought to see Sunny, Starflight, Tsunami, and Glory eagerly hug him. Maybe Kestrel had decided not to kill Glory, he'd hoped. 
Instead, he'd come out of the icy river to a nearly empty cave. For a moment, he thought he'd ended up in a different cave system-but then he saw the chains around a stalagmite that had once been holding Tsunami in place. Ice had run through his veins as he slowly turned his head around. A trickling trail of dark red edged towards his claws, and against his will, Clay's eyes followed the trail and he had yelled. Glory's body had been changed so much, a dull gray-lime instead of her dark turqoise, and his whole world had come crashing down on him. That night, he'd heard Webs gently setting her body outside, half-buried with flowers adorning the body. 
Now the dragonets were still five strong, but it wasn't the same without Glory. She'd been replaced-Like a piece of a story that didn't match and got erased and rewritten. The dark red, angry SkyWing's name was Flame, and he was much like a mini-Kestrel as Clay feared. Still, he felt some connection to keep the SkyWing close and safe, no matter how much he turned away Clay's brother-like affection. He turned into the main hall where a dismayed sound of mooing echoed from the dinner hall-and his heart grew two pairs of wings to soar twenty feet high in his chest. His friends were in already, each one eating a cow part. Except for Sunny, who was paused at a crack in the cave wall, staring at it and flicking her tongue in and out near-constantly. Clay trotted over to the pale golden SandWing and put a wing around her, feeling her warmth sweep through his scales where they touched. "Hunting lizards again?" he asked.
"Yeah, 'cause you guys only eat cows and pigs-Too heavy!" she pointed to her tongue with a 'blah' noise. "Maybe you should try talking to Flame again," she suggested, wiggling her claw partway into the crack. "He seems to be in a better mood when he's just eaten." 
Clay nodded thoughtfully. Maybe I should. Yeah, let's try that. He patted Sunny and left her to her lizard-hunting expedition, heading for gray-red dragon that was their SkyWing. "Um...Flame?" Clay said, slowly. Flame looked up at Clay, yellow-golden eyes like matching suns boring holes deep into his soul. "What do you want, Ochre," he muttered. 
"I'm Clay," he corrected. Clay didn't understand why-But Flame was usually calling the dragonets by a wrong name. Clay suspected it had something to do with Morrowseer, because anyone who consistently called Tsunami "Squid" was in need of help. "Why do you call us other names?" he asked, sitting down on a raised rock by Flame. In response, Flame scooted ever-so-closer, though Clay thought he was imagining it. "Like...call me Ochre?"
"Not meant to talk about it. That lizard thought I'd forget," Flame said, studying the rocks on the ground. He picked one up and tossed it into the air, then whacked it with his tail and watched it sail across the cave to land at Starflight's talons. Flame was like a very hard nut-Didn't want to be opened and was incredibly hard to open. But Clay was sure he could do it and it'd be worthwhile. From the way Flame talked about his mother sometimes, it made Clay long to be liked by the SkyWing in that way. 
"Lizard? What lizard?" Sunny piped from suddenly nearby, a dark blue tail sticking out of her toothy smile. "Look, I caught one!" she eagerly announced to Clay. Flame snorted a burst of fire. "Whoop-de-doo. Why don't we decorate the caves yellow and have a party in celebration," he said sarcastically, laying his head down. Sunny squealed and jumped eagerly. "Ooh, good idea Flame! I'll see what Starflight and Tsunami and Glory think!" she called, then scampered off. Poor Sunny. She's still in denial. She says she can still hear Glory and see her. It's like she has an imaginary friend. Clay sighed and felt bad for his friend-dare he say, little sister-and he wished she would get over Glory soon. Well...nobody is truly over her yet. I still think even Webs is a bit saddened still. Clay tried to clear his mind and focus on other thing he meant to talk to Flame about-but whatever it was, he'd forgotten.
Flame stood up and slowly padded off, and Clay frowned. It's nice that he's not like Kestrel-well, he's more like a slightly different Kestrel-but...can't he show a little affection? The mere thought of her name had brought the great rust-colored dragon herself to the dinner cave. "So the SandWing ran off again?" she asked. Starflight lifted his head from a distance, but didn't say anything. Neither did Tsunami. Clay shuffled his talons as they bumped against the stony floor. 
"Um...yes?" he tried, voice breaking a tad bit. He barely had time to throw his talons up before Kestrel lunged at him with a growl. Smoke blurred his vision and stung his eyes. It choked his lungs and hurt his mind. "That was rhetorical, MudWing," she hissed. "Don't you learn anything?" the burn marks scored across her palms rubbed against his own. It felt like they were rubbing against his brain, too, with the way he seemed to lose words as she stared at him. 
"Knock it off, Kestrel!" Tsunami yelled from across the cave. "Before I decide to knock you out!" Clay was stunned. Yes, his dear friend had been more agitated ever since Glory was killed, particularly towards Kestrel. There was also a thin scar on the SeaWing's cheek that Tsunami never explained-and Clay never asked. She'd been threatening Kestrel a lot more lately, probably because the dragonets weren't dragonets anymore: They were adults, though not yet fully grown still. 
Kestrel's throat made a rumbling sound, but she dropped Clay and stalked out of the cave. Clay guessed she was going to hunt down Flame and spend more time with him, a gesture that Flame had openly expressed his hatred of in the past. Tsunami walked over to Clay and grinned. "You've gotta learn when a dragon isn't serious, Clay."
"But...but then what if one is being serious and I think they're not!" Clay argued back. 
Tsunami threw her head back and laughed. "Then that's just too bad for them! They're going to take it up with the SeaWing queen, me!" she said, arching her neck in what was meant to be a graceful gesture. "It has to be just like the story says. Maybe Morrowseer is going to-" her dreamy-sounding voice suddenly stopped dead in it's tracks. 
Clay suddenly wished he hadn't mentioned the word dead again, because his stomach rolled over and over again. Morrowseer. Glory. Dead. Flame. Webs. Kestrel. Blood. Pain. River. Poison. Glowworms. Tsunami. Crying. Sunny. Scrolls. Clay's mind was stuck living the same nightmare over and over again-the nightmare he could never ever wake up from or forget. It was all too real and all too irreversible.
=== Chapter Two ===
Clay watched Tsunami as her brow deepened, and she began to growl ever so faintly. He began edging away as her gills fluttered and pulsed, and without warning she suddenly let out a howl of rage that echoed across the tunnels and caves. Clay spooked and gave a small jump. He'd always wanted to keep Tsunami safe, and she was so much like a leader-sister figure to him, but she could be scary. Tsunami hissed, her pale tongue slipping in and out from between her teeth. "I'll make Kestrel eat her own tongue once we're out of here," she said. 
Clay recoiled, tucking in his head. "Tsunami, I don't even think we could do that even if we were free," he said, his eyes darting around. Tsunami tossed her head and took a deep breath, slowly calming herself down. 
"I'm fine. We're fine. Everything is fine," she said, closing her eyes. Clay watched as she reached out and grabbed a piece of meat and tore into it, snapping and tearing at it like a wild animal. Like before, he loved Tsunami, but she was downright terrifying sometimes. Every now and again, Clay's mind looped back to what could have happened if he'd just kept going. If he hadn't been caught. If he'd made it out and all of his friends made it out and Glory had never died, would they still be together a year later, laughing? Would they all be dead? Prisoners? Soldiers? Living with their families? "Tsunami?" he asked, the last thought in his head. 
"What," she snapped, then sighed. "I don't mean to be snappy with you, Clay. I'm just...I'm just so mad about everything right now." 
Clay nodded slowly, before quietly saying, "Do you still wonder if our families miss us?" After the question, Tsunami was suddenly quiet. Clay had seen her like this before, it meant she was extremely deep in thought. Or she was debating murdering someone, and he edged away a bit just in case it was the latter.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Alternate Universes
Category:Content (Angel Of Madness 001)