Desert Shrew

This is the last book of the (core) series. I am probably going to write other shorter books. I am planning a Shadowcrawler Legends, Betsy Legends and another book I am not revealing yet... Read The Flow of the Water, Sparks in the Sky, Dancing on the Jewels and Phenomena's Light.
==Prologue ==
Locust watched the house burn down. Her neighbors, Cactus and Frost, were screaming out. She hated the couple, they were low living scum, but somthing in her didn't want them to die. She rushed inside the smoldering wreck that once was identifiable as a house, praying to the moons they were okay.
"Cactus, Fros'! Where ar ya! Quick, say somthin'! CACTUS, FROS'! PLEASE MAKE ANY NOISE YA CAN! JUS' LE' ME KNOW WHERE YA ARE!" She bellowed. 
"Locust? Locust!" A quiet voice came from the room next to her. Locust hurried in and found a Sandwing lying on the floor.
"Cactus! Thank the Moons." She exclaimed. The other female Sandwing blinked.
"I-I can't...Frost, he went to try stop the fire...but his frostbreath doesn't work if he's too hot...please, my son...he's over there..." Half a metre away from Locust was a light yellow egg with white swirls. The small figure of a dragonet was visible inside it. Next to her, Cactus shuddered and went limp. Not knowing what she was doing, she picked up the egg and ran past the billowing smoke.
A few hours later, Locust was looking at the egg.
"So, ya lil' lizard, you see, I hate dragone' like ya...wha' shall I do with ya, 'uh? Ya'll be safer alone." She didn't know why she was talking to the egg but she was. She picked the egg up and flew over to an Outclaw tent. She gently put it down and said, "Maybe I'll see ya again one day, lil' lizard, bu' ya'll never know i's me tha' rescued ya. I'm sorry, your better withou' me...the Outclaws'll look after ya as well as ya parents woulda. Goodbye..." She flew off, feeling slightly guilty. Pincate would've told her to adopt the poor orphan but she wouldn't have been a fit parent. At least it would survive.
== Chapter One ==
Shrew absentmindedly watched Jewel. 
"What do we do? We need to defeat Shadowcrawler now, he is becoming more power hungry and dangerous now he is an animus. We do not need two insane animi..." Phenomena was freting.
"Don' worry. I' will be fine. We have a prophercy stating our success." He smiled at the anxious dragon.
"We do not...it actually states we have a slim chance of success...unless it goes correctly..."
"We're screwed?" The silver hybrid nodded. Jewel started crying, ever since Shadowcrawler had taken over her, she'd been an emotional mess.
"Hush, Jewel. I's okay, you're okay, we're okay. We'll all be fine..." He tried to confort Jewel but it didn't seem to be working. Stormjumper came over with the wolf, Lightning. Lighting jumped on Jewel and licked the Nightwing's face, causing her to laugh. They all laughed. Shrew looked at Phenomena who had just walked over.
"Shrew, Stormjumper, listen! This is serious, do we stay or leave?" A thudding noise sounded behind him and he turned around. Shrew was sitting there with a large rock and scroll which he passed to them.
I think we should we stay. It's safe enough here at the moment and leaving could pose more of a threat.What? Just because I am unable to walk or speak doesn't mean I'm an idiot who's opinions aren't worth listening to...hang on, the first part was correct.
The orange Skywing chuckled soundlessly. Sparks, the dragon who stole Flow from him. Shrew just wanted to find love, it was just stolen again now Jewel's mind was broken.
"You have a point...yes I agree, we should stay. " Phenomena said. "Does everyone agree?"
"Yeah, why no'?"
"Sure." So they stayed.
== Chapter Two ==
"Arggh!" Phenomena shrieked. Shrew spun around and saw Phenomena on the ground, clutching her head like she was having a migraine.
"Wha's wrong?" He looked down at Phenomena while Stormjumper helped her up. Phenomena's eyes changed to an extremely light lilac that was almost white.
"We can not stay here. Tomorrow at mid day, they will attack. We will all be taken to the Nightclaw lair where they will kill us. We will fail if we do not leave now!" 
YOU HEARD HER! LEAVE! Sparks wrote.
"Okay, we just need to figure out how to move you and Jewel." Stormjumper said.
Jewel can fly and walk perfectly. Leave me here. Shrew saw Stormjumper give him a deathstare that made Sparks shut up.
"Phenomena...could you breath ice in a sorta bowel shape strong enough to carry a dragon but thin so i's ligh'? Leave holes in i' where we can weave vines in..." He said slowly. Phenomena nodded. "Storm, could you grab some vines? Take Lightning to if you mus'."
"Sure!" Stormjumper happily bounced away with Lightning.
"And I'll confor' Jewel." He said to himself.
What do I do? Sparks wrote quickly.
"Umm...you help Phenomena ge' the ice shape righ'." He said. Shrew watched Sparks pull himself along the ground, towards Phenomena. 
Shrew entered the room in the very back on the cave. Jewel was sitting in there.
"Hey Jewel, how are you? You feeling good?" He asked.
"Yes..." Jewel whispered. He walked over to her and sat next to her.
"We have to move...those Nigh' things are coming. Bu' we'll be fine, we have plenty of notice." He put his wing around Jewel, who flinched back at contact. He looked at her sadly.
"Th-Thanks for letting me kn-know, I'm s-sure you have better things to d-d-do now..." Shrew looked back at the Nightwing once and left the room. Would it ever be the same between the two?
== Chapter Three ==
"Come on, one, two three, LIF'!" Shrew yelled. He, Stormjumper and Phenomena groaned in the effort. 
WOO! WOO! YEAH, GO ON, YOU GOT THIS! WOO! 
Shrew read the bit of paper Sparks was holding up. The Skywing's ink dipped claw bleed black onto the silver ice.
"I-wish-Jewel-could-help!" Stormjumper grunted.
"Jeweldancer-is-by-far-the-strongest!" He saw Phenomena almost drop the weight, before she swiftly regained herself. 
"Phenomena-where-do-we-have-to-go?" He asked.
"Not-too-far..."
"C'mon-Jewel." He said, Phenomena echoing his words.
Ten pain stricken minutes later, the group flew down. They made a camp and hid it so it couldn't be seen well from the air.
"Is it safe here?" Sparks asked. Shrew turned, eager to know if they were safe.
"I can not be one hundred percent sure but...I believe we have a good chance of survival here."
"Yeah, I feel so much reassurance a' tha'..." He muttered under his breath. He looked up and saw two of the three moons were out. "We should ge' some res' now." He said this a little louder.
Of course, Shrew couldn't get to sleep. He had too many thoughts whirring around in his brain. He stood up and walked around randomly.
"You awake too?" A voice cut through the dark silence, it was Sparks 
"Obviously."
"Oh, I thought you must be walking around in your sleep...I'm joking if you couldn't tell." There was an awkward silence.
"I think I'm gonna try sleep now, goodnig." He went to go back to sleep.
"We're in the same boat, aren't we?" 
"Huh?" He spun around, wishing he could see in the dark like a Seawing.
"You know, now you no longer love Flow, who's my insane love...you love Jewel, it's as obvious as how you're awake. Jewel is also insane now, though not violent insane...just not right in the head. We both have insane, crazy, mad, however you want to put it, partners..." The voice of Sparks sounded sad, miserable in fact. Shrew had never thought that.
"Yeah, true...another thing in common is how we both have great tas'e, Flow is truly beautiful, don' worry I don' love her anymore... here's for the dragons who fall in love with the insane." He suddenly had an amazing, wonderful, fantastic idea. He grabbed the small bag he had with him and fished around for somthing. He pulled out two large bottles containing amber liquid.
"Yes! Sparks, wan' to drink away your worries?" He asked.
"N-No thanks..." Sparks yawned. Shrew shrugged to himself and took a drink out of one of the bottles. It felt warm as it went down his stomach. He soon realised he finished it and quickly finished the next. A fuzzy haze took over him and that was he remembered.
== Chapter Four ==
"Shrew, Shrew. Wake up, do not make me force you awake." Shrew woke up to Phenomena standing over him. Even though he knew Phenomena was gentle, he found her intimidating as she was significantly taller than him.
"Wha'-Wha' happened?" He remebered the alcohol he had last night. He put his talons to his aching head and looked down at himself. He was patterned with bruises. Phenomena flinched for no reason.
"You only woke everyone up, insulted us all, drunkenly climbed a tree, fell onto Stormjumper, then was kicked half to death by her. You also started talking about Flow, causing Sparks to claw your face and you tried to-uhh-well it involved Jeweldancer and it was lucky you failed..." Shrew groaned, knowing exactly what Phenomena was talking about.
"You've gotta be joking, please don' tell me you're serious..." Phenomena nodded at him slowly.
"Please do not ever drink again. Correct me if I am wrong but did you take those bottles from my kitchen?"
"Yeah..." He looked at Phenomena, confused. Phenomena looked down, seemingly nervous.
"Well, I know what you went through...I spent eight years alone. Eight years of isolation. Eight years of sadness. My sister was my only company before this but she...died. I started to become depressed, I would drink alot of alcohol, too much. It would stop me hurting myself. Purposely. It was unsafe and unhealthy so oneday, I stopped."
"Whoa, I wouldn't have picked you to have a pas' like tha'...I'm no' sad usually, i' was jus' tha' nigh'. I guess i' was bottled up? I dunno." He looked at the other dragon and smiled half-heartedly. Suddenly, the rest of the group was there. Stormjumper was piggybacking Sparks and guiding Jewel. 
"Oh, hello Shrew." Stormjumper had stopped jumping around and was eyeing Shrew coldly.
"Look, I'm sorry abou' las' nigh'..." He said. Phenomena walked up to Stormjumper and whispered somthingin Stormjumper's ear. Stormjumper quickly became warmer again.
"Oh, it's fine! I understand." He knew what Phenomena had said to the bubbly dragon and looked at Jewel. The one dragon he wanted stopped looking at him. He sighed.
== Chapter Five ==
Shrew was quick to discard the empty bottles, a reminder of what he'd done. He stared at the cloudless sky. The expanse of blue was vast and endless. He heard voices, then a scream. He quickly made his way towards where the group was.
Shrew went through the thicket of bushland that led him to the camp. Novastar, Black-Ice and Permafrost were standing there, surrounding the rest of the group. They were also accompanied by two large Mudwings and-. Shrew couldn't believe his eyes, Chameleon was standing there to. One of the Mudwings went forward and grabbed Jewel's arm.
"Your a pretty little dragon, aren't ya?" The Mudwing said in a slimy voice.
"Yeah, but that Seawing animus, Flow, is much more precious. She's like a piece of amber. She came from an unworthy, ugly beginning but became a beautiful individual. Oneday, master will want to breed an animus dragonet and I will be the father! Did you know that, Boulder?" Shrew felt a rush of sympathy for Flow, if Shadowcrawler forced Flow to have eggs with that horrible Mudwing... Sparks held up paper.
If you put one talon on Flow, you'll have another thing coming. 
Boulder smashed a rock into Sparks' head with a sickening thud.
"As if she'd want a weirdo cripple like you." Boulder turned his head to Shrew, he knew Boulder saw him. He felt thick talons roughly throw him in the middle of all the dragons.
"Ha. I feel like I know you....oh well, it'll come to me." Chameleon said after Shrew regained himself from Boulder. "Hmm, we have a scrawny little Sandwing, a hybrid even smaller than the Sandwing, a freak of nature, a feeble Nightwing who Shadowcrawler has thankfully broken, a fireless Skywing who is mute and unable to move... That's all of them" Shrew realised that Phenomena's vision of them getting captured was about to come true. He lept at the other dragons, breathing fire on them all, distracting them.
"GO, LEAVE! COME ON, I'LL HOLD 'EM OFF A LITTLE LONGER! JUS' GE' OU' OF HERE!" He bellowed.
"No, Shrew! We can not leave you..." Phenomena yelled back.
"I DON' CARE! I'S YOUR ONLY CHANCE!"
"Thank you, Shrew! We'll try get you back!" He saw Stormjumper grab Sparks' unconsious figure and take flight. His head suddenly hurt like he had caught it on fire and his vision went fuzzy, not unlike when he got drunk. The world went black.
== Chapter Six ==
Music was sounding. It was deep and dark. 
Shrew woke up in a dimmly lit room. He blinked, trying to become used to the dim light and wondered where he was. He raised his head and realised how much it was hurting. He touched his temple, which was wet with blood. He realised that music was playing and turned around. A hooded figure was sitting on a chair, back to Shrew. The dragon was tapping his claws against what appeared to be a wooden table with strange black and white tiles stuck to it. The music stopped and the dragon turned around. The faded black hood of the cloak fell back revealing a midnight black face with eyes of deep purple.
"Ahh, Shrew. I've been waiting for you to wake. You may know who I am, I am-" The dragon started.
"Shadowcrawler." Shrew spat the name out as if it was a bad tasting bit of camel. The Nightwing let a booming laugh.
"Your a clever little smart a***, aren't you?" There was silence.
"Your gonna kill me, righ'?" Shrew asked, trying not to let his fear show.
"It depends how lightly you tread." Shadowcrawler said it like a fact. Shrew looked at the table thing.
"Wha' in the three moons is tha'?" Shadowcrawler laughed again.
"Wow, you modern dragon are really uneducated in music." Shrew didn't understand what Shadowcrawler meant. The Nightwing beckoned him forward. "This is a piano."
"Wha' the hell is a-"
"A piano is a musical instrument that I guess died out years ago. When you press a key, it makes a note sound. You can play musical compositions on it, do scales, create tunes..." Shadowcrawler started pressing the keys, creating a pleasant tune. "It's an art form, playing the piano, very few can master it. I was the teacher in my tribe, I even taught the royal family. I was a natural, a progedy, I was born to preform! Until he came..." The music became the same dark tune as before. Pure hatred, anger and sadness showed on Shadowcrawler's slightly wrinkled face.
"Wha' happened?" Shrew asked another question. He didn't care that this dragon was evil and violent, he was curious.
"Before I answer that question, I need to explain somthing. I am old, in fact I'm older than five thousand years old. And what tims era was five thousand years ago?" Even though Shrew was terrible at history, he knew the answer. An answer that set his blood cold.
"The Scorching..."
== Chapter Seven ==
"Correct. You see, I'm a special dragon, a special dragon trying to get revenge. I have a different past. One riddled with betrayal, heartbreak and murder. Sounds like a story, huh." Shadowcrawler said.
"Honestly, yes." Shrew looked at the other dragon.
"I could explain what happened but I think I'll show you what happened." Shrew was confused, how could he see what happend five thousand years ago?
"Bu' h-"
"I enchant this brooch to allow Shrew to see what happend to me in the past, the thing that has driven me to get revenge." A strange sensation took over him and sucked him into nothingness.
Shrew landed on the ground. He stood back up and looked around. It was night time. He was outside, grass littered the ground and a nice breeze blew over him. The weather was somewhat different, it was hot and dry yet it was quite obviously autumn as the trees had orange leaves. Two dragons, barley older than himself, were sitting together nearby. One was a beautiful charcoal dragon, wearing delicate crystal earings. On her head, between her horns, was a white moonstone, the centre piece of her tiara-headress thing. The other dragon was, to his surprise, a younger Shadowcrawler.
"We were young, I, a humble commoner with a talent for piano, she, a beautiful dragon, the eldest daughter of the Queen." Shadowcrawler's voice boomed over the seen.
"You will be my king oneday. I don't care if mother betrothes me to some random, I only want you." The princess declared quietly.
"Don't worry, nothing will seperate us, Clarity." The younger Shadowcrawler smiled at the beautiful dragon.
"You see, this was before the idea of daughters challenging the Queen, in fact, even the idea of a Queen was fairly knew. Clarity was the eldest of seven, therefore the heir of the throne." The older Shadowcrawler explained.
"Speaking of mother, she wants you to write a music piece on our war with the Skywings and Rainwings. I suggest somthing triumphant, she wants to believe that we will win."
"Anything you wish, my beautiful princess, a gift from the moons would barley be worthy enough for you." Clarity blushed at the young Shadowcrawler's words.
"Even without the mother-daughter battles to the death, it was not a peaceful time. This era was riddled with war and bloodlust, one battle would end and another would begin. We may have defeated the scavengers when I was two, but it was anything but peaceful." The two youngish dragons twined their tails together. Behind the two, a cloaked dragon with a hood shielding their face from veiw crept up to them. They were holding a sharp dagger. 
"NO!" Shrew cried out, attempting to alert the couple.
"You go unheard, Shrew. This is the past, you can't change it..." Shadowcrawler said sadly. Shrew watched helplessly as the dragon stabbed Clarity, throwing her bleeding body to the ground. The young Shadowcrawler screamed and ran at the departing assasin. The dragon's cloak fell off, revealing a golden Sandwing. The Sandwing said somthing the younger Shadowcrawler but for some reason, Shrew didn't hear it. Shadowcrawler flew off with the assassin's hood, the Sandwing went in the opposite direction moments later. Shrew suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for Shadowcrawler. He felt the same sensation that brought him there and he vanished.
== Chapter Eight ==
Shrew found himself back in the present. He realised his mouth was hanging open and quickly closed it.
"I know, I know...a shocking past, right?" Shadowcrawler, the normal one, said.
"H-How are you planning to ge' revenge...?" Shadowcrawler was silent for a moment.
"I...don't take this the wrong way but...I was planning a tribal genocide against the Sandwings...because, you know, the assassin was one. I can spare you and dragons you want me to..." Shrew would obviously save every Sandwing dragonet, Locust and Pincate even if they hated him, his parents if they were alive...what was he thinking, his whole tribe could die.
"You can'! I don' care if you have some sorta grudge agains' my tribe, i's old and forgotten. You can' jus' go murder them all!" He shouted.
"Of course. This is alot of information to take in. What if another tribe brutally murdered Jeweldancer? Would you want them dead? She's my daughter, I would avenge her, but would you?" Shadowcrawler gave Shrew a look. Shrew hadn't thought of that.
"Uhh...but you've already impaired her mind. She'll never be the same, no' ever..." He said softly.
"I can lift that. That was just a defence, I never meant it to be permanently. As I said before, she's my daughter, even if she dislikes me." Shadowcrawler reached behind the piano and pulled out two glasses full of a crimsion liquid. "Would you like some wine?" Shrew instintly shook his head.
"No, thanks. I'm good..."
"The more for me then...So, I believe I have someone that you, and the rest of your group, want back dearly. Flow!" Shrew's heart started to beat heavily, what did Flow have to do with anything? A blue dragon came into the room.
"Flow, three moons i's good to see you!" He shouted happily.
"Oh, hello Shrew. How have you been without me. Now you can't use me for my magic, it must be pretty tough..." Shrew drew back as if he was hurt, and he was emotionally. Flow looked slightly different, her eyes were narrow and cold, her scales were shiny as if they'd been polished, she held herself is an intitled posture that made her look taller, her build was even slimmer than before, as if she were malnourished. Flow looked intimidatingly beautiful.
"I can bring her back, Shrew. I can retrieve her soul and make her the good dragon she was. All you have to do is join me...and stop fighting for a lost cause. I will win, if you like it or not, but if you hand Pyrrhia over easily Flow will be as sane as when you first met her. Join me." Shadowcrawler extended his talon to Shrew.
"And watch Pyrrhia collapse in your reign, and be doomed to live in this moon forsaken lil' lair of yours? No thank you. As much as i' pains me to leave Flow, I'd rather burn in hell then join your side! I don' give a damn if your avenging a los' love, i's in the pas', i's over, she and her murderer are dead!" Shrew declared bolder than he felt. "Goodbye Flow, I'll find ou' how to save you, oneday I'll come back." He turned around and fled. He heard Shadowcrawler bellowing out words in rage but he didn't turn his head. He had one goal, to reach the exit.
== Chapter Nine ==
Shrew ran through the dark tunnels. He had escaped once before, so how hard could it be to escape a second time? It was dark, darker than night and he couldn't see a thing. He ran straight into a wall. He felt his shoulder crack at the impact, blinking away tears Shrew went on. He finally found the exit tunnel after stumbling around in the darkness. He walked up the steep incline and realised Shadowcrawler must have gotten rid of any light source in the lair, it definitely wasn't that dark last time. He popped his head up out of the tunnel and felt the sun shine on his face. He smelt the scent of nature, flowers, trees and plants of all sorts, and smelt the slight saltiness in the air. 
"Whoo! Yeah, I'm the bes'. I conquered Shadowcrawler's stupid lair! And I really shouldn' be shouting tha' ou'..." Shrew said to himself. He spread his wings, about to take flight and a sharp pain came from his wing joint. He collapsed to the ground with a shriek. Shrew looked at his wing joint, with some difficulty, and saw it was broken. He knew he now had to walk and find the rest of the group.
After some time, Shrew heard voices. 
"We need to go find Shrew! We can't just leave him to die!" The voice of Stormjumper sounded.
"But they have most likely already killed him. It would be pointless to put ourselves in danger for a dead dragon." Shrew was shocked, the voice of Phenomena was bitter and angry. There was silence for a moment, apart from the scratching af a claw on paper.
"Haha, even Sparks believes there's enough chance to try rescue Shrew! I told you so!"
"Sparks, we can not just go rushing in to Shadowcrawler's home to find a dragon that may already be dead." Shrew saw this moment was a good one to reveal himself.
"Bu' the thing is, Phenomena, I'm no' dead." Shrew stept past the bushes hiding the group from veiw and found Phenomena, Stormjumper and Sparks sitting there, gaping.
Three moons Shrew! You know how to make an entrance! Sparks wrote.
"How did you escape unharmed? We thought you'd be badly injured, some of us thought you were dead!" Shrew could tell Stormjumper was trying hard to keep her tone serious, yet she was jumping around like a drunken camel.
"I didn' qui'e escape unharmed. I busted the join' of my wing, see?" He showed them his broken joint.
"Hmmm, it is dislocated...I have read about how to fix dislocations but I have never tried it before, so I do not want to attempt to in case I damage your wing even more. Just try not to use your wing, we will try get a healer...OWW!" Phenomena collapsed onto the ground.
"Another vision?" He asked. Phenomena nodded.
"We are not taking you to a healer unless you want your wing chopped off. Shadowcrawler will mind control the healer and force them to hurt you more..."
"Oh, i's fine. Hey Jewel." Jewel walked over to the group.
"H-Hi..." The aching of Shrew's wing was not stopping. He wished he could see a healer.
== Chapter Ten ==
The moons rose into the sky. One was full, one was half and the other was nothing but a tiny slither shaped like a claw. Shrew collected leaves, feathers, grass and moss and created a pathetic bed. It was wet and bumpy but it was better than sleeping on the ground.
"Goodnight Shrew!" Stormjumper yelled.
"Nigh' Storm." He yawned and closed his eyes.
"Goodnight Sparks!" Stormjumper yelled again.
"Goodnight..."
"Goodnight Pheno-"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!?" They all, even Jewel, yelled at Stormjumper in unison.
"Lightning would of appreciated me being nice..." They had released Stormjumper's pet wolf back to the wild, to Storm's dismay. Shrew tried to get in a comfortable position, which was hard with an injured wing, and drifted into a restless sleep.
Shrew woke up. He didn't want to open his eyes but the sun was beaming down on him. He slowly opened one eye and realised somthing wasn't right. Having just woken up, Shrew thought he must have just been confused. He opened his other eye and sheer panic took over him. His arms, legs, tail and wings were tied to a tree, he looked around and saw the rest of the group were sleeping in a similar position. They were in an unfamiliar clearing.
"Where are we? WAKE UP YOU OBLIVIOUS IDIOTS! CAN' YOU SEE WHERE WE ARE?" He bellowed. Everyone else woke up with a start.
"What? Where are we? What happened? Shrew, tell me why we are!" Phenomena yelled, somewhat calmly. Stormjumper, on the other talon, was not calm.
"Where are we? WHERE THE-" Stormjumper started. Jeweldancer was also panicking, somthing the old Jewel wouldn't have done. Sparks was looking rather bored, Shrew looked at the Skywing, who shrugged. 
"HA, THAT'S RIGHT, PANIC YOU INFERNAL DRAGONETS!" The voice of Shadowcrawler boomed. Of course it was Shadowcrawler who put them in this situation, who else would it be.
"SHADOWCRAWLER, YOU CACTUS LICKING BLOB OF CAMEL SPI'! LE' US GO, NOW!" Okay, maybe Shrew could have handled this a bit calmer, but he didn't care. Shadowcrawler laughed and flew down to them.
"What are you going to do, dragonet?"
"I'm not a dragone'!" He spat in Shadowcrawler's face. Shadowcrawler wiped his face and smiled callously.
"Well, you act like one. I'm done with bargaining with you dragons. Rember your former friend, my murder weapon?" Before Shrew could respond, Sparks started making a weird noise behind him. 
What have you done with her? Sparks scratched into the dirt with his free talon.
"Nothing. Yet. I was just about to ask who is going fight her." No one said anything. "Isn't anyone volunteering? Oh well, I'll choose...how about Sparks? Let's see how the lovers are against eachother."
"NO! That's evil. An animus against a dragon who can't even walk." Stormjumper shouted.
"Fine. How about my daughter, Jewel?" Shadowcrawler hissed. It was Shrew's turn to protest.
"No. I'll fight'" Shrew didn't know why he volunteered, he wasn't a brave, strong or special dragon, he was just the average half decent Sandwing.
"But you're injured..." To his surprise, Jewel spoke up.
"I'll have to do." He knew he was facing death, but he was ready.
== Chapter Eleven ==
Shrew watched as Shadowcrawler started to cut off the ropes holding him in place.
"Try anything and Jeweldancer will suffer a slow and painful death." Shadowcrawler hissed.
"You're a monster, she's your daughter! You can' kill your own daughter." He hissed back. Shadowcrawler just smiled nastily and went back to slicing the ropes away. After a few seconds, Shrew was free. Even though he knew he should run, the thought of Jewel brought him back to staying.
"FLOW! COME HERE RIGHT NOW! I'VE GOT YOU A VICTIM!" A blue shape suddenly flew towards them, it was Flow. Shrew saw Novastar and the other mind controlled dragons form a loose circle around the clearing. There were large gaps between each dragon that he could escape through but Shrew was pretty sure Novastar, Black-Ice and Permafrost had powers similar to Storm's, meaning would get struck by lightning if he dared. It was time to fight.
Standing in the middle of the clearing was he, Shrew, the weak little Sandwing against Flow, the insane animus.
"Aww, did I hear that little Shrew is injured? What a shame, maybe if you're lucky you'll get another scar to match that gourge on your face?" Flow said sadistically. "Though, I could just give you one, huh? How's that offer?" 
"Flow! Please, don' do this! You're a good dragon with a good hear'! You're better than this!" He pleaded.
"Begging? No, I'm an evil dragon with an evil heart and no soul. I am getting world domination! But you're standing in my way..." Before he could shout out, Flow was on top of him. He felt a rock hit his dislocated wing over and over again, causing him to scream.
"No! No! Please stop!" Flow had an insane glint in her eyes as she laughed like a maniac. He watched helplessly as Flow held out the rock and enchanted it.
"I enchant this rock to turn into a sharp knife that makes a dragon experience the worst of pain but be unable to kill. I enchant it to continuously plunge itself into Shrew." The rock turned into a dagger that glinted gold in the sunlight. It flew out of Flow's talon and stabbed Shrew. It felt like he was being burned from the inside, he felt paralysed at this surreal pain, semi-consious to his own screams. He could see his blood staining the grass crimsion. 
"Please have mercy...please..." He breathed. Flow giggled.
"Of course Shrew, of course." He didn't hear her enchantment, all he knew was the sharp pain of a blade penetrating his heart. Everything disapeared, the last thing he heard was the insane laughter of a lost dragon.
== Chapter Twelve ==
Shrew woke up. He gasped and looked around, he was in a strange land. It was somehow foggy and clear, bright and dark, silent and loud, all at the same time. He heard a strang humming noise but could not pinpoint where it was coming from. The noise grew louder and louder until it was deafening, and it all went silent. Shrew saw the figures of dragon walking up to him, each with a strange golden aura and a translucent quality to their scales. He stumbled back, unsure what was happening or where he was.
"It's okay, Shrew." One of them boomed.
"Wh-Who are you?" Shrew's voice echoed through the blank land scape. The figures became more distinct and more detailed, untill he could see every dragon's distinct features, every scar, blemish and quirk. It was the two at the front that caught his attention, two that were oddly familiar.
"Shrew." They said in unison.
"Mum? Dad? Is i' you? Is i' really you?" He asked quickly, hoping it was true. They both nodded. The female Sandwing, his mother, had beautiful tawney and golden scales, and the warmest smile, a smile that seemed to light the whole world. His father was an Icewing who had crystal blue scales, strong rippling muscles and eyes that were dark colbat blue.
"Yes, sweetheart. We're your parents. My name is Cactus, this is Frost." Shrew's mother's voice was sweet and airy. His father didn't say anything, he just signaled the other dragons. A female Skywing with large amber eyes stepped up. 
"Hi, I'm Selenite...Queen Ruby killed me..." She said. Her voice was tiny, as if she hadn't used it in a while. 
An elderly stone grey Seawing with a clawed snout came up next. He said,
"Hello young dragon, I'm Spout. I traveled with Flow and Sparks before you met them, and was assassinated by Chameleon." Two dragons came next, two Seawings.
"Our names are Seaweed and Manatee." The emerald green female said.
"They were before Shadowcrawler callously murdered us in a hospital." The male's voice was sharper than a knife. A Seawing, a dragonet that was leaf green in colour and had pink bands around his tail bonced forward. 
"I is Shrimp!" He squeaked. " Sadacawa hurt me and then I bled and then I went to sleep and then I got here!" Shrew saw there were two other dragons, both charcoal grey Nightwings.
"I'm Clarity and she's Eclipsemoon..." The Nightwing with silver scales beside each of her eyes said.
"Clarity was Shadowcrawler's mate, I was used by him to have an heir, Jeweldancer." Eclipsemoon sighed.
"You're Jewel's mother?" The dragon nodded. Shrew's father, Frost, suddenly spoke up.
"We are the dragons majorly affected by Shadowcrawler. He set our house on fire to 'kill more Sandwings', which I am not. Shrew, my son, if you didn't realise, you're-"
"In the afterlife? I's kinda obvious I'm dead..."
"Yes, but you're not dead yet. You can come back to life because sacrificed yourself, just like the prophercy."
"Bu' I wasn' in-"
"You were, just not clearly...you can make your own decision my son, are you going to go back to life?"
"I don' wan' to leave you..."
"Shrew, darling, we will always be with you and one day we'll truly reunite." Cactus said sweetly.
"I guess they aren' rid of me yet...I'm going back, they need me, huh?" At his words, Shrew began to disolve.
"Son?" His father said before he was fully gone
"Yeah?"
"Not all Icewings are cactus lickers." Frost chuckled, Shrew smiled and disapeared.
== Chapter Thirteen ==
Shrew awoke for the fourth time that day. He looked around and saw his group and Shadowcrawler's servants locked in battle. He saw Jewel had got some of her warrior spirit back, as she was dancing around shouting encouraging things at Storm, Phenomena and Sparks, and shouting insults at the Nightclaws.
"C'mon, you got it dragons! That's right! SMASH THEIR HEADS INTO THE GROUND! THEY ARE NOTHING MORE THAN DIRTY LITTLE MOON CURSED B-" Shrew turned his attention to Sparks wnd Stormjumper, who were fighting rather peculiarly. Sparks was riding on Storm's back, how she could take his weight, Shrew didn't know. Sparks was slashing, clawing and biting those they passed and Storm was zapping lightning around at random. They were most definitely in their elements. Phenomena was avoiding the battle all together. Shrew noticed Phenomena's eyes were closed and realised she was trying to see the future. Shrew saw her muttering under her breath, he caught a few words.
"As the sun drowns under the horizon, so will Pyrrhia. Unless... OH IN THE THREE MOONS, HOW AM I MEANT TO KNOW HOW WE SAVE EVERYONE IF I DO NOT KNOW A DAMN THING!?!" The last words were easy to hear, Shrew had never heard Phenomena talk like that. He tuned back onto Jewel.
"YOU ROTTEN MORONS WILL PAY FOR KILLING SHREW! YOU'RE ALL BLASTED IDIOTS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!" Shrew felt his heart rise, she still liked him! He looked around the battlefield for Shadowcrawler, and saw him, with Flow, watching the events unfold. Flow looked ready to murder everyone, but Shadowcrawler was holding her back. Shrew heard two simultaneous shrieks of pain and looked back at Sparks and Storm. Stormjumper had seemingly sent a bolt of lightning at the two Mudwings, killing them instantly. Shrew saw Sparks gape at the two smoldering bodies and back at Stormjumper. The Skywing wrote somthing on the paper he carried.
"No it was not overkil! Well, I didn't mean the KILL in overkill but...oh, right...they were most probably innocent, maybe they weren't? Hopefully they weren't...oh I feel terrible now. But...NOW ALL EVIL WILL FEAR US, THE MIGHTY SPARKS-JUMPER." Storm started jumping around and Sparks had a look on his face that plainly said 'I did not agree to that name, or this....but this if fun...' 
"THAT IS IT! Wow, that is crule, I do not want to hurt anyone, but he has hurt many others..." Shrew heard Phenomena exclaim. He decided to walk up and ask what it was, forgetting he was meant to be dead. 
"Wha' is i'? Phenomena?" He asked.
"What? Ahhhh! Shrew? Three Moons, Shrew, you are alive?" Phenomena looked surprised, obviously. 
"Yeah I'm alive, I'm walking and talking, aren' I?" 
"Whoa, but I saw Flow stab you...look, there is a wound on your chest." Shrew looked down and saw a neat half healed cut just above his heart.
"So there is...I'll explain wha' happened later. Wha' matters now is wha' you're planning to do." Phenomena flinched, for no reason, and said,
"I am the one who needs to kill Shadowcrawler, if we want it all to go our way...I need to slowly freeze him in order for him to feel remorse before he dies and give Flow back her soul. If I do not do that, Flow will kill us all, apart from Sparks whom she still feels a small emotion for and pleads him to kill her. The two futures branching off that are one where Sparks survives a crippled dragon, and Flow survives an insane dragon. I must follow the path where I kill Shadowcrawler, and then we all end up happy..." 
"Wha' happens in our happy future?" Phenomena just shook her head and smiled.
"You will see." He watched the hybrid walk up behind Shadowcrawler. Shadowcrawler seemes to realise, but all too late. Phenomena blasted her silver ice onto Shadowcrawler, leaving only his head and one talon. Everyone fighting went quiet.
== Chapter Fourteen ==
"I enchant this ice to melt!" Shadowcrawler declared. Nothing happened.
"My sister, Wonder, enchanted my ice to be the perfect capture device, when incased with it, animus magic has no effect." Phenomena announced, lying on the ground having just collapsed. Shrew saw her quickly look over at Flow, who was stunned and did the same, only making more of an icy prision then actually freezing Flow, obviously trying not to kill her.
"W-Well played, I applaud you." Shadowcrawler said to Phenomena. Shrew saw new emotion enter the Nightwing's dark purple eyes, guilt and sadness. 
"Father..." Shrew saw Jewel walk up to her frozen father. 
"I'm sorry Jeweldancer, I'm s-sorry I wasn't a better father...I'm sorry to everyone I have harmed. This all started as a quest for revenge but somwhere, I got lost, I s-started to become power hungry...I wish I didn't." The midnight black dragon took of his faded hooded cloak, with some difficulty as it was frozen to him, and gave it to Jewel. Shrew saw Jewel look at it for a moment and put it on. There was a loud banging noise and everyone looked over and saw Flow, hauling her body at the ice.
"You. Will. All. Pay." Flow mouthed through the ice. 
"Right, it was my fault she lost her sanity. I enchant Flow to get her soul back." Shrew saw Flow's eyes grow warm and her snarl relax. She suddenly seemed to comprehend what had happened and she looked horrified in herself. Shrew turned back to Shadowcrawler, the ice had started to make it's way up his face.
"Isn't there anything you can do to stop it?" Jewel asked Phenomena, who shook her head.
"No, if we breath fire at the ice, we will badly burn Shadowcrawler and kill him anyway...it would be far worse suffering..." Shadowcrawler looked at them.
"I wouldn't wa-want you to save me anyway...this is my punishment, I have lived an extremely l-l-long life and I have done b-bad things, it's my time to die." Shadowcrawler turned his full gaze to Jewel. Shrew saw love and compassion in the dark dragons's eyes that even Shrew couldnever match. "My dau-daughter, in the left pocket sewn inside the cl-cl-cloak is a golden pendant, you can use it to c-control dragons-"
"I would never want to do that..." Jewel cut in, less sharp then the old Jewel would've.
"Of course not. It also g-g-gives the power to take away the mind control. There is only one dragon m-mind controlled who is not here, Queen Ruby...after you revive all these dragons, get Fl-F-Flow to destroy the pendant." Shadowcrawler was shivering badly, the ice had coated his head, leaving only a few scales, his eyes and his mouth untouched.
"Wha' abou' Sparks' voice, legs and Jewel's mind?" Shrew asked. He knew that Jewel wasn't completely normal and Sparks definitely couldn't walk or talk.
"I made s-sure they'd get themselves back if I died. Jewel's m-m-my daughter and I quite like Sparks, I on-only did that to them so they we-weren't in the way..." The ice took over the few free scales on Shadowcrawler's face, leaving it slowly advancing across his mouth and eyes. 
"Father!" Jewel yelled. Even though Shrew still hated Shadowcrawler, he understood that he was Jewel's father, so she obviously didn't want him to die. Shadowcrawler looked up at the sky.
"Clarity! I'm sorry! Look at me, look at what I've done! I'm a monster! Clarity, my princess, please understand that I'm sorry! I'm sorry Clarity! I'm sorry..." His last words were full of remorse. The ice took over his eyes, but not before a tear dropped onto the ground. Shadowcrawler's frozen eyes, went blank, he was dead. Jewel seemed to regain her former self, her eyes looked more alive. Shrew saw how her eyes were clouded with greif and put his wing around her, wincing at his still dislocated shoulder. 
"I'm glad you're not dead, Shrew..." Jewel whispered to him. Jewel's words were heard by the dragons around him and they all seemed to realise Shrew wasn't dead.
"He will explain later, everyone..." Phenomena said softly, sounding slightly sad. Shrew was grateful for Phenomena, this was a moment that he needed by himself, with Jewel.
== Chapter Fifteen ==
They went around, using the pendant on all the mind controlled dragons, whilst Phenomena and Sparks worked on freeing Flow. They first went to Novastar.
"How-the-hell-do-I-get-this-thing-to-work!" Jewel murmered, yes, Jewel was definitely back.
"I think you press that button there..." Shrew said, leaning over to press the pendant. A bolt of golden light shot out and hit Jewel, whose eye's went misty. "Nope! I' must be this button!" He pressed the button on the other side, sending a bolt of purple light at Jewel, turning her eyes back to normal. Jewel slapped him, playfully and Stormjumper sniggered.
"Oh, now you're in trouble. The famous immortal dragon is now going to meet his match, the mean-no I meant-amazing Jeweldance! Oooohhhh, can I press the button, Nova is my friend, remember." Jewel snorted whilst Shrew have Storm the pendant. Shrew had told the group what had happened when he was killed by Flow, they had believed him as he knew detailes about the dead dragons that they had never told him. Novastar, the white Nightwing, was standing there, frozen. So were Black-Ice and Permafrost, who were a small distance away. Shrew sudpected that when the dragon, who had the the other dragon in control, died, that made the controlled dragon freeze. Even inside his head, it confused him, but it made sense! Storm pressed the pendant, sending the light at Novastar. The white dragon immediately unfroze.
"W-What happened? Where am I?" Novastar asked, confused.
"Oooohh, I'm gonna have alot of fun with this...NOVASTAR, YOU TRAITOROUS DRAGON! FEEL THE WRAITH OF STORMJUMPER, THE TINY TERROR!" Stormjumper ran over to Novastar and started kicking him in the shins.
"Argghh! I'm sorry! Argghh, Storm, stop! Argghh!" The dragon started trying to run away from Stormjumper, failing and getting caught again. 
They went and freed Black-Ice and Permafrost. Black-Ice turned out to be Novastar's mate and was extremely similar to the white Nightwing, except she was a black Icewing. Permafrost had the same condition as Novastar, but looked more normal as Icewings were white anyway. Permafrost was far louder than the other two, when Stormjumper had started kicking her, she had said, 'It's nice to see you to, Storm!' and started a kick war with her. As for the frozen Chameleon, they decided to leave him frozen, so Chameleon became a sort of statuel Stormjumper, Black-Ice and Permafrost had said goodbye and flown off to their own base, they took the pendant to release Queen Ruby. They would keep the pendant safe until the next time they all saw eachother, so they could destroy it.
Flow came running up to them and hugged Sparks, who had joined them earlier as it turned out that Sparks couldn't breathe fire and felt useless there.
"SPARKS! I'm so, so, so, so sorry about what I've done!" The blue Seawing exclaimed and broke off from the hug.
"It's fine Flow, it's all good. You did that to protect us...it wasn't your fault. You're so brave, and that's what I love about you." The two hugged again.
"The thing is, Sparks, is that I'm not a brave dragon...I just did a brave, and disastrous, thing." Flow said.
"Join the club, Flow." Shrew said, raising a talon lazily. Flow suddenly ran over to him to and gave him a hug, shorter than the two she gave Sparks of course.
"Oh Shrew! They told me what happened to you and...I just can't believe I killed you! I'm sorry!"
"Like Sparks said, I's fine. I'm here, righ'? If you didn' give yourself over, we would have all been dead."
"I'm so glad I get to still hear your annoying voice, what would we do without it?" Flow said, they all laughed. Flow took Sparks' talon and lead him away. One might think Shrew was jealous that Sparks got Flow, but he wasn't because in reality they were a much better couple. Anyway, Shrew got Jewel. He was happy.
== Epilogue ==
Ten Years Later
Flow was sitting outside the Wings of Light base, watching the dragonets play in the lake. Queen Ruby had kindly donated a small section of her land for them to create a proper base for their cause, which expanded to rid Pyrrhia of all evil. 
"Mummy, can we play with egg?" Flow was brought back to reality by her son, Seamount.
"No, sweetheart, you can play with the egg when your sister has hatched." She moved her wing to inspect the egg she had wrapped in it, it was slightly smaller than Seamount's had been and was completely red.
"Okay!" The orange and blue figure of Seamount ran back to the lake, where Destinyflame and her little sister Spiritspeaker were causiously paddling. 
"Oooh, look, that's my mother over there!" Destinyflame, who was slightly older than Flow's son Seamount exclaimed. Destinyflame's one defected wing was hanging limply by her side.
"Yay!" Spiritspeaker clapped her talons together. Flow turned around and sure enough, Jeweldancer was walking over, with Shrew, Sparks, Phenomena, Novastar, Permafrost and Black-Ice.
"Whoa, Jewel! Why did you bring most the Wings of Light and Night of the Storm here?" Flow asked as Jewel's dragonets ran up to the Nightwing.
"Hi darlings, go play with Seamount." Jewel adressed her dragonets before turning her attention to Flow "Phenomena can explain that." Jewel sounded more brisk and nasty than usual. Sparks went to Flow's side.
"Jewel, don't take your anger out on Flow OR Phenomena." Sparks said. Jewel just snorted.
"Jeweldancer had a vision....I had the same vision ten years ago...but I did not say anything...we're in trouble, again...and it is someone we know now or will know soon." Phenomena looked worried.
"You should have said somthing when you got the prophercy, Phenomena! 'Beware of one in the midst of future, He is going to crack' It's not a happy prophecy." Jewel also looked scared. Shrew spoke up.
"Flow, there's worse news...how Jewel described the vision...it sounds like i's one of the dragone's..." Shrew's scarred face had lost it's usual amusement too, this definitely wasn't a joke.
"Describe the vision...." Flow said. Jewel shifted position, Flow thought she looked uncomfortable.
"My power isn't good...I only saw words and a blurry picture that went by quickly. Phenomena can't remember her vision in much more detail..." The group of old friends stood in silence, the only sound the splash of water as their oblivious dragonets played in the water. Flow felt Sparks put his wing around her back, she was worried. All was not well.
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It's finished! Yay! The last sentence is a reference to the last sentence in the Harry Potter books 'All was well' but, not all is well so yeah...I will continue writing with these characters, the next story is an epistolary.Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Content (KittenQueen15)
Category:Mature Content