Under the Mask

== Under the Mask ==
Have you ever wondered, Why don't the Deathwings take off their masks? Or, Why are they born with their masks? Well, this is my take on why the Deathwings have masks.
Note: I OWN Ratri, even though I don't have an OC page for her. All of the other dragons in here, I don't own.
== Prologue ==
Once upon a time... there was a dragon.
Once upon a time... a whole new tribe was created.
Once upon a time.. that dragon had family.
Once upon a time... they died one by one.
Once upon a time... there was a contagious disease.
Once upon a time... there was a mask that dragon wore.
Once upon a time... there were dragon eggs.
Once upon a time... there was an animus.
Once upon a time... there were skeletons.
Once upon a time... there was a queen.
Once upon a time... there was a death-touched egg.
Once upon a time... there was a dragonet.
== Chapter One: "Hallows Eve... She wears Death beautifully" ==
"Aaahhh!" "Pass it here!' "No, pass it to me!" "Kyaaa!" "FWEET! Yellow card, Keres!" It was noon, time for playing games and eating lunch. Most of the school-dragonets, Talons 1-5, were out on the field playing talon-ball. Screams of laughter, regular now for the town, filled the air.
Some dragonets were inside, doing detention or homework. Some were outside. Some were cheering on the players. Some were eating lunch or giggling with friends.
One dragonet sat alone, she too watching the players. If you looked at her from afar, it was as if an invisible, yet malevolent, aura surrounded her. Up close, your limbs would soften and your eyes would droop, your walk changed into a stagger.
She was thin and translucent, more so then any other dragon in the school. A mask covered her face, off-white. You couldn't see her expression, but judging from her body language, she was depressed and very, very weak.
A sigh was emitted from the dragonet, and then a sniffle. She flopped onto the grass, resting her snout on her front talons.
Her name was Ratri.
She was a death-touched dragonet, doomed for life to have no friends, only searing stares wherever she went. Whispers and rumors about her were passed along like a flying SkyWing, horrible rumors if you asked her.
According to the Queen, death-touched eggs hatched "menacing, malevolent, threatening" dragonets-a threat to the DeathWings and their very existence. Death-touched dragonets had poison gas and a weakening aura-along with telekinesis and a lot of strength.
Ratri wasn't sure about the threatening part. She didn't look at all menacing or malevolent-quite the opposite, she looked underfed, oddly thin, and horribly weak. Death-touched eggs were supposed to be thrown into the freezing ocean, with no chance of survival.
It was a wonder that she survived. Her parents had told her nothing about her egg. Not where it came from, not even if they were her real parents. In the beginning, Ratri had felt like a normal dragonet. She was happy and completely unaware of her curse. Her parents had loved her and she had loved them back...
But things were different now. They were out a lot, and when they were home they were cold and didn't speak to her much. Still, she had never doubted they were her biological parents. But one night...
Ratri had crept downstairs, hoping to get a drink of water and then go back to sleep, if she could. She'd never been able to sleep at night back then, a creature of the night. Ratri'd thought her parents were sleeping, blissfully unaware of her. But she had heard voices coming from the kitchen, so she wanted to investigate. 
Her parents were sitting at the table, opposite of each other. All DeathWing dragonets from their hatching learn to read body posture-how else would they tell if somebody was serious or joking or hurt or sad, otherwise? And to Ratri, they looked really, really serious.
"Katana, do you really think it's right to deceive Ratri like this?" asked Monument, Ratri's father. "Hmmm." They had sat there, not moving. In the shadows of the corridor, Ratri held her breath, not daring to make a noise and risk not finding out their secret. "We found her egg in a basket outside our house. It was wrapped in high-quality cloth. And there was a note-'Please don't kill her, raise and take care of her, I implore you!' that's what it said. And we've been doing that ever since."
"What are you going on about?" whisper-yelled Monument. "We can't tell her. She'll run away and die! Don't tell her. She'll find out herself, as she gets older." And Katana agreed. Ratri gasped in the shadows, horrified by what she'd heard.
And Monument had turned his head around, sensing something. Ratri jumped back just in time. She hurried upstairs, her heart pounding out a rhythm of DOKI-DOKI. Was that really true? she wondered. Why? They aren't my real parents??? Then... who are my real parents?
Ratri sat up suddenly and grimaced at the flashback. "So they aren't my real parents." she muttered. "Who are?" That question, two words, held so much meaning for her, plaguing her day and night. She did know that she came from a rich family, noted from the blanket. So Ratri was an aristocrat or a royal-but WHICH one?
Then a ball smacked into her side, knocking the admittedly lightweight and weak Ratri over like a bowling pin."OMG! I'm so sorry!" shouted a dragonet. He came galloping over. Ratri looked at him.
There was no hesitation in his movements and in his eyes, nothing triggered that spark of recognition most dragons had when they met her. Just plain concerned and out-of-breath. As he got closer, his steps should've slowed down and he would go all droopy, but... he kept on running.
Wh-what??!!! Ratri was, to say in a word, bewildered. He was supposed to slow down, that was the effect that Ratri had on all dragons! Being a death-touched dragonet, she had the power to, unintentionally or intentionally, weaken anybody who came near her. Everybody, even the queen, even an animus (though she'd never seen an animus before, Ratri had just assumed). But this dragonet, he came closer and closer, and it seemed as though he would never stop, and he would never weaken.
This dragonet was special, Ratri could sense it somehow.
"Um..." Ratri picked up the talon-ball sphere and handed it to the dragonet, who in turn grinned, revealing polished white teeth, and said "Thanks! What's your name? You seem nice! Wow your scales are nice! What's your name? I'm Ash! Can I be your friend? What's your name? Hey, wanna eat lunch with me?"
Ratri could barely keep up with the rapid-fire way Ash talked, but said "My name's Ratri..." and wondered Why would he want to be friends with me? I'm a death-touched dragonet. Nobody wants to be friends with me, not even Monument and Katana.
 "Woah! That's a nice name!!' Ash plopped himself down right next Ratri and threw off a shockingly electric yellow-red-black backpack, clear bags of sandwiches and cookies spilling out of it.
Not even a typical lunch! He really isn't an ordinary DeathWing. Noted Ratri with restrained curiosity. Ash continued talking, but Ratri wasn't listening. She caught snippets of "parents" and "basket" when she actually started listening after she was done listing all the things about him that weren't normal.
"Wait, what did you say?" interjected Ratri. Ash's face fell, "You haven't been listening?" he asked quite sadly. "No, no, I was listening! What did you say about parents and basket?" Ash hesitated. He seemed to be calculating the benefits and consequences of telling her, apparently this was a very important secret to him. But it was also important to Ratri as well...
"Please tell me, I need to know!" The other DeathWing inhaled, exhaled, then nodded. "My parents work for the kingdom and are advisers of the queen. The Queen-Long live her-had one egg, once when I was younger. It was a very odd egg and the Queen threw it out to sea in a basket, and it probably perished."
"That's all?" Ratri frowned, unsatisfied. That COULDN'T be the whole story. She wasn't dead. If the egg was a death-touched one Ash must have known. Maybe he wasn't telling the truth? But his eyes looked so sincere, so trusting, so innocent...
Too innocent. He was hiding something and Ratri would find out what it was. But for now, she would stay still, in her hiding place.
"Yes, why?" Ash blinked through his thick ash-dusted mask, so fitting for his name.
"Never mind. Can we be friends, though?" Ratri asked, shocked by her own boldness, extending a tentative talon and managing to keep it from shaking.
"Sure!" Ash responded, laughing with ease as the schoolbell rang, signaling the end of recess. Dragonets sighed as some packed up their lunches, other threw one last risky shot, and others-younger, no-rule-bound dragonets raced inside, laughing and shouting.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Content (Mango the Rainwing)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)