Immortality

DISCLAIMER: THIS FANFICTION IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ok thanks
Author's note: This takes place thousands of years after the second Tree Wars.  HiveWings have gone basically extinct, but SilkWings now have HiveWing-like abilities and black scales (though not on all dragons).  This is due to inter-tribal breeding.
-ℂ𝕠𝕤𝕞𝕠𝕤
----
ɪᴍᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟɪᴛʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇꜱ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴄᴇ, ᴍʏ ᴅᴇᴀʀ.
==Prologue==
Everybody wanted to be Damselfly, except, of course, Damselfly.  The perfect princess, beautiful and clever, the 'going-to-be-queen-one-day' dragon.  
Damselfly was thoroughly sick of it.  Being a princess, even a queen, just wasn't enough.  The HiveWings were satisfied with their mundane lives, content to grovel under a new queen every hundred years or so.
Damselfly would not be like them.  No, she would not be a regular princess, ascending to the throne.  She would find a way to be remembered.
No matter what it took.
==Chapter 1: The Cocoon ==
ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ʜᴜɴᴅʀᴇᴅ ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ...
Essex stepped into the dimly lit circle, her wingbuds flexing nervously.  There were no other dragonets or cocoons on the floor, which surprised her.  She looked around, then up at the stands.  Her mother and father sat up there, their wings overlapping, eyes glittering in the dark.  Mother smiled at her reassuringly, but her father just seemed... disinterested.  Essex gave Mother a smile, but the room started to twist and turn around her.  Confused, her head dipped down, and she saw pale threads of silk spiraling out of her wrists.  Her body relaxed wherever the cool strands touched, and she closed her coffee-brown eyes as they enveloped her.
She awoke on an island. Startled, she looked around. Was it over that quickly? But, where was she? She blinked as a gust of wind and rain hit her in her face. She wiped it off, and squinted into the grayness all around her.
Wait, was that a dragon? In this weather? It seemed impossible. But no, there was a dragon, starkly black against the gray sky and ocean, swooping towards her.
"Hello?" Essex quavered, but her voice was swept away by the wind. She stepped to the edge of the island, looking back at the wings she should have. Rather than the full-on wings she should have had if she had gone through Metamorphosis, there were her familiar wingbuds, dusty orange and tightly furled. She flexed them, confused. She distinctly remembered entering the Cocoon. So why...?
Remembering the black dragon, she looked up. It had landed on Pantala's shore, and there were more dragons...? Essex squinted closer, trying to make them out. Unconsciously, she took a step further, and her talon plunged into icy cold water. She gasped, attempting to pull it back, but the muddy water seemed to pull her in.
Essex fought against the unnatural current. Quicksand? she thought wildly. The water had pulled her in up to her chest, and it was moving ever faster. Essex gasped at the cold, and inhaled a mouthful of saltwater. She sputtered, trying to swim, but the waves crashed over her so powerfully, she could barely move. She struggled as she was sucked under the water. The saltwater stung her eyes, and she closed them, knowing that this was the end. Her lungs protested, and she sucked in what she knew would be stinging, cold saltwater.
Air. Essex took another gasping breath, and opened her eyes. Rivulets of water ran down into her eyes, and she unconsciously wiped them away. In front of her was the coastline of Pantala, and if she squinted, she could just barely see the island where she had been.
"Leefromichou? Wayroot?" Essex startled at the voice coming from behind her, and she whipped around, spraying water droplets everywhere.
There was the strange black dragon she had seen flying over the sea. And in front of her was clearly a LeafWing and a SilkWing, but none she recognized. She squinted closer at the SilkWing. Strange. Most SilkWings these days had some black scales or powers, thanks to the long-extinct HiveWings. It was rare to see a SilkWing without one, or both.
She shrugged, and turned to the black dragon.
"Hello?" she said cautiously, tapping the dragon on the shoulder. No reaction. "Hey, dragon, who are-"
"My name is Clearsight." the black dragon interrupted. Essex reeled back. Clearsight?! The Clearsight? The Clearsight who saved their entire tribe? The Clearsight who wrote the Book?
The Clearsight who had been dead for thousands of years...?
==Chapter 2: Nightmares==
Essex gaped at Clearsight.  She looked exactly like the statues.  Jet-black scales with silvery scales like stars under her wings.  She looked just as kind as all the statues as well, though as of the moment, her face was crinkled with worry.
"I am from far across the sea."  Clearsight continued, and Essex jumped.  In her reverie, she had almost completely forgotten the situation.  
"Anyone speak Dragon?"  Clearsight asked, her brow wrinkled.  Essex's eyes widened.
"I do, Lady Clearsight!" She threw her wingbuds open, planting her claws into the wet earth.  Clearsight's silver gaze did not waver from the other two dragons.
"The... old language." said the strange SilkWing.  Essex's gaze bounced back and forth.  How did Lady Clearsight not hear me?  Or... notice me in the first place?  She waved a talon in front of Clearsight's eyes, which were wide.
"You do know it!" she exclaimed, her wings spreading and eyes filling with hope.
Is this a dream?  Essex rubbed her eyes.  Am I still in the Cocoon?  She paid no attention to the rest of the conversation, instead trying to wake herself up.  She slapped herself in the face, tried to throw herself off the cliff, and drink the saltwater, but nothing worked.  She was invariably transported back to the wind-swept cliff.
Before she realized it, Clearsight and the other dragons had vanished, clearly into the thick tangle of trees that started not far from the coast.  Essex watched the hurricane approach, accidentally inhaling a gust of rain.
What would she do now?  She was stuck here.  What if she never woke up?  She buried her face in her talons, closing her eyes.  A strange hum sounded in her ears, slowly growing louder and louder.  She steadfastly ignored it, focusing on the sound of the wind and the rain... which she couldn't hear anymore.
Confused, she opened her eyes to darkness.  She stood, glancing around.  It looked like a cave, draped in moss.  Dim sunlight shone through a gap in the ceiling.  The ground around her was scattered with bones.  They were too small to be dragon bones, but were unnerving nevertheless.  Roughly scratched on the walls were strange pictorals, such as a crown, a Hive, and, the most unnerving of all, a huge, vine-wrapped tree with what looked like dragon skeletons hanging from it.  Essex shivered.
"Just a dream, just a dream." she whispered under her breath.
"Is it, little SilkWing?"  Essex tensed, eyes darting in all directions.
"Aw, don't be afraid."  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the sun flash on pale scales, and whipped towards it, baring her teeth.  Nothing.
"Leave me alone!  It's just a dream!" Essex cried, backing into a wall.
To her horror, her wingbuds adhered to the wall, leaving her immobile and helpless.  Her claws and back were... growing... into the wall.  She thrashed, but each movement made it worse.  The stone began to move like something living, seeping across her face.  Essex panicked, as she could no longer breathe.  
Her vision began to fade, and she couldn't help wondering...
Was it really a dream?
==Chapter Three: Wings==
Essex opened her eyes, blinking in the strange half-light.  Her body seemed cramped together by a thin, flexible barrier.  She could see shadows moving on the outside.  Struggling, she moved one of her claws to the edge of the barrier, and tried to slice it.  It burst open suddenly, and light came flooding in.  It was pale and weak, but after being in darkness, it felt blinding.  She began to wriggle out through the small gap, which expanded as she crawled out.  Finally, she pulled her tail out, and lay gasping on the Cocoon floor, exhausted.  After what felt like hours, she wobbled up to her feet.  Twisting her head to look behind her, she attempted to flex her wingbuds.  Instead, she gasped as her new wings, orange with patterns of black and gold, unfolded and spread out.  
Elated, she looked around.  Instantly, her heart dropped.  Mother and Father... weren't here.
Maybe they're late? Essex theorized.  Or something came up...
Or they just forgot.
She sighed, her new wings drifting to the ground.
"Essex!"  A blue-green dragon rushed towards her, waving her violet-and-copper veined wings.  Essex's head began to pound and the room began to swirl.
A midnight-black shape, standing over this dragon, holding a knife drenched in golden blood.
Blue scales, white dots, highlighted by the burning fire behind them.
A silver-and-jade statue, staring down with disapproving eyes.
Essex herself, eyes blank, spread-eagled, unmoving.
Red eyes.
Essex came to, clutching her head.  The blue dragon was next to her, one white-speckled wing canted over her.  
"I'm so so so so so so sorry, Essie!"  she cried.  "Was I talking too loud?"
"You're fine, Speckle.  Just... post-Metamorphosis dizziness, I think."  Essex smiled lopsidedly at her best friend.  Inwardly, her mind was spinning.  What in Clearsight was that?
She stood up, throwing out her new wings and pushing it from her mind.
"Wanna go flying?" She cocked her head at Speckle, raising one brow.  Instantly, her friend's face lit up, and she opened her white-dotted wings.
"Yesss!  Let's goo!" she cried, hurtling out of the Cocoon.  Essex followed at a more sedate pace, laughing at Speckle's antics.  The Hive was filled with bright, flashing SilkWings, all bustling to get to where they needed to be.  A light wind blew through from the open top of the Hive.  The Cocoon extended into a ledge, where Speckle currently stood.  
Speckle looked back, and, before Essex could say anything, she dived off the ledge, vanishing in a heartbeat.  Essex cautiously made her way up to the edge of the ledge, and peered over.  That was a fatal drop.  She shivered.
Maybe I should just take the stairs...
Her wings flexed uncertainly.
"You can do it!  You can do it!"  Speckle chanted, rising up and watching her with reassuring golden eyes.  
Essex took a deep breath, and leapt over the edge.
==Chapter 4: Flight==
Essex hurtled through the air, flailing desperately.  She could see the treestuff floor coming closer and closer, and panic took over.  Inadvertently, she flung out her wings.  Instantly, they caught the air and slowed her descent.  Some of the primal panic left her, but she would still hit the ground pretty hard at this speed.  She flapped her wings, which brought her up inch by inch.  A warm breeze swept over her, and her body moved beyond her volition, floating her upwards.  She glanced up, and saw a blue speck hurtling towards her, growing larger by the second.  Speckle banked in front of her.
"Oh my Clearsight!" she gasped, "I thought you had died!"  
Essex floated uncertainly. "Well, it's certainly harder than it looks."  She attempted to just glide on the wind, and gasped as it spiraled her higher and higher up, to the top of the Hive.  She managed to land, digging her claws into the soft treestuff.  
Around her, the forest rose almost as tall as the Hive, and if she looked closely, she could just make out the LeafWings flitting here and there through the trees.  The wind strained against her new wings, and she swayed, exhilarating in the feeling of freedom.  Speckle soared up, landing neatly next to her.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"  Essex could only nod, mesmerized by the world around her.  She ached to fling open her wings and soar through the air, into the sunset.  She closed her eyes, but the colors kept swirling and swirling, until she was blinded by a kaleidoscope of golden and black and violet.  
She gasped softly, reopening her eyes to the comparatively dim world.  The stars were beginning to rise, pinpricks of fire, and Essex glanced back at the light-filled Hive.  
"Ready to go back?" Speckle asked, turning away from the forest.  
"Sure."
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)