Shadows Behind the Light

Note: This fanfic includes my unofficial fantribe, the ShockWings. You don't need to read that page to understand this, since Lightningtail is new to the tribe too.
Another note: this story takes place about four to five years before the events of The Lost Continent.
Yet another note (maybe a piece of trivia?): This fanfic was originally meant to have a completely different story, about Lightningtail gathering her ShockWing fellas and overthrowing Queen Wasp and everything, but then I changed it. Cuz I wanted to.
Character page (Huge WIP and SPOILERS, click with caution)
Summary: (Please just make it to Chapter 4 when the main plot starts!) A SilkWing died in ShockWing territory. And she was not just a random SilkWing either. When more and more dragons died in the same way, Jelly decided to meddle in. Meanwhile, Lightningtail was having severe mental problems. Sad ending warning. (Don't worry, the crimes get solved by the end.)
Part One ~ The Case of the Peaceful Death
#Takeoff
#Journey
#Land of Shock
#Home
Part Two ~ Dark Horns Underground
#haha
#fefe
#jyjy
Part Two ~ Honeybee Hive
#Untitled
#Cloudburst Again
She was not a big fan of life. Actually, she didn't quite understand anything at all.
By looking into the puddles after rain, she had found that she was bright yellow with black stripes, sky-blue eyes, and four big blue-and-purple wings. She had never met other dragons before. And she didn't know that she was going to soon.
After looking at her reflection for a minute, activity from one of the towers caught her attention. She had never been near the towers before, since they scared her, but today it seemed a bit different. Carefully edging closer, she settled behind a bush and peeked out. The door to the structure bust open, and several dragons came out.
Her heart gave a twinge. Yellow scales, black stripes, four wings, they looked a bit like her! But as she squinted closer, she saw that one dragon was squirming in an attempt to break free of the rest of the dragons, who were dragging him along.
Why would they do that? She thought, quite puzzled. Then she saw the red dragon who was being dragged had black eyes. The rest had white.
Was that why they were forcing him to go somewhere he didn't want to? She thought. Then she thought about her eyes. Blue.
Darn.
What would those dragons do to me?
She didn't dare think. She was right all along -- the towers were dangerous! Time to go. As far away as possible. She had been considering this for a long time now. But hope of seeing dragons and living with them instead of out on the savanna along had kept her lingering near.
Now that hope had gone. The hope crushed her, like it always did.
Just as she opened her wings, she realized with a jolt -- she didn't know where to go. Towers surrounded her on all sides, ten in total. Where should I go? She asked her self. Her gaze moved upwards towards the sun, gleaming happily in the sky.
That's it. The sun's home. She could go to where the sun came from.
Rising into the air, she headed steadily to the East.
The moons were glaring coldly at her by the time she reached the end. The water. Endless water.
She had thought the sun was a blazing ball of fire, like the one she saw on a dead bush once. But the great bright flames went out when it had rained. She never knew the sun came from water itself. Maybe the sun was different. Maybe Sun was used to it.
She decided to rest for the night. She dug out a cool hole on the sandy beach, taking in the scent of the salty tang of the water. She had successfully avoided nine of the towers today. She would just have to get past the last one to get to safety. Get out of the shadows of the creepy structures and into the light of Sun.
She hoped. And slept.
Sun woke her up with Its brilliant glow the next day, warming her cold wet scales. She yawned and got up.
She could see the last tower off to her right. And after that, a stretch of curved land that stuck out like a dragon's tail. That was where she would go.
She flew, and landed when she was close to the tower. She could pad along the coast, and no white-eyed dragons would be able to find her.
She trotted East, sinking ankle-deep in sand with every step.
There was a shadow in front of her, blocking out Sun's light.
She halted.
And looked up.
And saw a dragon.
And another.
The male one landed in front of her, wearing Sun behind him like his own headress, hissing, "Who are you?" He looked striking similar with her, except that he had light yellow wings and black eyes. Black! Maybe he could be on her side. But her eyes were blue...
Her gaze darted toward the female one in the sky. She had scales of all shades of blue, great blue-and-purple wings, but her eyes... Her eyes were exactly the same with hers. Sky-blue like a pond.
Since she had grown up in the savanna all alone, she didn't catch the shock and fear in the blue dragon's eyes.
"I'm asking you, kid!" the yellow dragon hissed again, "What's your name, and where did you come from? From another Hive?" he then looked up suspiciously at the blue dragon, "Do you happen to know that thing down there?"
She stood petrified in place, shaking her head slightly. She didn't know what this dragon was about to do. She tried to make a run for it, but he blocked her way completely, and she couldn't fly past the blue dragon either. She was trapped.
"Can you talk at all?!" The yellow dragon stepped dangerously forward. "Or are you some of those weird creatures out in the grass wearing a dragon's scales?" He looked at the blue dragon again. "Can you explain this?!"
She had no idea what was going on. Then, two more dragons appeared over the hill in front of her. One of them was as large as the yellow dragon, and the other was around her own age. The old one was pink, with something purple on her head. The younger one was purple. Both of them looked like berries after rain.
"Hooray, more friends!" the purple one bounded happily towards them. The yellow dragon twirled around immediately, leaving her temporarily blinded by Sun.
"Jelly, stop!" the pink dragon started running in their direction. "Don't be disrespectful to the Queen!"
Both the yellow and the blue dragon looked startled. Silently they retreated back into the tower.
And she stared at the two newcomers in horror as they got closer and closer.
"Hey there," said the purple dragon, who was bounding across the sand. She backed up a little instictively. "Come kneel before me, as I had just saved your life and you owe me that!"
The pink dragon dragged the purple one back, saying, "Stop making fun of the poor girl. She's been through a lot. What's your name, honey?"
She made a barely audible wimping noise, completely terrified and frozen rigid in place.
"Sorry? Didn't catch that." the pink dragon said softly.
"Lightningtail," said the purple dragon, whose name was probably Jelly, "She said her name was Lightningtail."
"Lightningtail, honey, I'm Cranberry. Come with us, it's not safe around here." She held out a talon.
Not safe! Of course it was not safe! Didn't she see that two dragons yelling at her? Especially the yellow one with black stripes?
But was it safe to go with her? To go with that Cranberry? Maybe she wanted to lure Lightningtail to somewhere and harm her?
Then Jelly squeaked out, "C'mon Lightningtail, don't be a statue! Come with me to the Shock Kingdom! We're gonna have way more fun than out here in HiveWings' territory!"
Lightningtail couldn't help trusting her. Slowly she padded forward, following Cranberry and Jelly to the East. Which was lucky, because that was her original destination too.
Jelly spread her wings to fly, and Lightningtail noticed that she only had two wings, which had sharp zig-zagging edges.
"Let's walk," said Cranberry, "Lightningtail must be tired."
They walked past a huge lake. Along the way, Cranberry told Lightningtail all about this continent, Pantala.
Turns out there were three tribes of dragons: ShockWings, HiveWings, and SilkWings. There used to be four, but LeafWings went extinct in a war forty-four years ago. Cranberry and Jelly were ShockWings, who lived on the East side of Lake Scorpion. Lightningtail was a HiveWing, and HiveWings lived in the ten towers called Hives. SilkWings acted as servants to the HiveWings. She asked Lightningtail why she was out alone, and Lightningtail answered, "I don't know. I've only seen HiveWings for the first time yesterday."
"Strange... Are they abandoning their own dragonets now?" Cranberry muttered, "I've only heard about them throwing out defective SilkWings..."
Jelly shuddered.
"ShockWings didn't join the Tree Wars," Cranberry continued, "But King Current led a small group of elite soldiers with Princess Shockwave once to drive the HiveWings away from Lake Scorpion. Left a huge impression on them. Now King Current is dead and Shockwave became Queen, but a lot of the HiveWings still run when they think they're near." she lowered her voice, "They wouldn't be so scared if they'd seen the rest of our army!"
Jelly giggled.
"But anyways, Shockwave is a nice Queen. It's just the armies. She really should train them instead of letting them lie around all day eating off our taxes."
They walked on until Sun was high in the sky.
"We're almost here!" Cranberry said cheerfully, "That's the palace over there. I'm going to take you to the Queen. Jelly, go home."
"But I wanna come!" Jelly whined. "What if she decides to throw Lightningtail out? Please, mommy!"
"That's not yours to worry about," Cranberry said.
The palace was grand, big, shiny, and a bunch of words Lightningtail didn't know. She was simply amazed by all the decoration and big shiny stuff. The only detail she noticed that there were a lot of holes on the walls. She didn't see any holes on the outside of the Hives... May be it was some kind of fancy interior decoration?
She stopped appreciating it the moment she noticed its only flaw: It blocked out Sun.
How could the Queen live somewhere without Sun? Then she realized that Shockwave probably didn't need Sun as much.
They passed through a complex maze of twists and turns before finally reaching the throne room.
"Cranberry of the Squishies!" the guard at the entrance announced.
"I'm not listening to any more of your complaints! Those go into the mailbox, dude!" said a voice in front of them.
Queen Shockwave was sitting on top of a glorious throne on a platform high above the ground, so that dragons from below had to lift their heads up high to look at her. The Queen herself didn't wear any treasure other than a simple crown. But just by looking at her regal pose and the dark yellow star on her forehead, Lightningtail couldn't help being awestruck. Queen Shockwave was someone who made dragons respect her almost automatically.
"I'm not here to complain about anything, Your Majesty," said Cranberry, "I have found this HiveWing dragonet near Honeybee Hive and took her here. She has grown up alone in the savanna, and she needs a safe place to live."
Queen Shockwave looked at Lightningtail. As soon as they made eye contact, Lightningtail blinked away.
"Prepare for the Light," she ordered the two guards at the foot of her throne. They hurried around the room, pulling pieces of fabric and pressing on buttons until the whole room was as black as night.
"You might wanna close your eyes for this, Cranberry." Shockwave said. Cranberry shut her eyes tight.
Then, without warning, the Queen's whole body began to glow. At first Lightningtail thought of Sun, but this was different. The Queen's glow didn't give off warmth like Sun; instead, it was coldish white like the moons and hurt her eyes. She kept her eyes shut tight like Cranberry.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the light came to an end. Lightningtail opened her eyes slowly. The Queen was in front of her, crouched down so that their eyes were level. "What's your name, honey?"
"Lightiningtail," she answered.
"Okay, Lightningtail, tell me about your life so far."
"My daughter and I --" Cranberry started, but was interrupted by Queen Shockwave. "Shut up, Mrs. Complaints, I asked her."
"Well, I just, grew up in the savanna. And then I decided to go East, and..."
"That's enough. Do you remember anything before living on the savanna?"
"No," Lightningtail replied.
"Hmm..." the Queen stood up slowly, and turned to Cranberry, "She's not a HiveWing. She's a hybrid."
"What?" Cranberry sounded untterly shocked, "What hybrid? HiveWing-ShockWing? But --"
"Hive-Silk." the Queen said calmly, "HiveWings don't have such big wings, and their wing color can't be blue or purple. I guess her parents didn't want -- who was that you said? Lady Honeybee? -- to find out. What do you suppose we do with her?"
All of a sudden there was a commotion outside. Some guards dragged two balls of scales inside, spears at their necks.
"Your Majesty, these two dragonets wanted to get in and wouldn't stop." one of the guards said.
One dragon was deep blue with patterns on his scales which looked like thousands of galaxies. And the other was Jelly.
"Your Majesty!" Jelly was shouting, "Please --"
"What the HECK are you doing?!" Cranberry stomped towards her.
Jelly stretched her neck as far as it can go and looked at the Queen. "Please keep Lightningtail! She has no home and she needs one and she --"
"Alright, alright! I heard that!" Shockwave groaned, "You're just as bad as your mom," she said under her breath. She then turned to Cranberry, "Since you brought her here, why don't you keep her?"
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Mature Content
Category:Genre (Mystery)
Category:Genre (Tragedy)
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