Thrip's Scroll

WIP 
A WoF Fanfiction by Fennecthesandwing21
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|-|Prologue=
The sigh echoed throughout the cave, bouncing off the damp, glowworm infested walls and into the darkness beyond. Drops of water pittered like the feet of a lithe river nymph, falling from the crumbling stalagtites and pooling in dark puddles. Another sigh, a ripple in the reflectionless water, and the pad of a near silent tread.
"There was nothing I could do. I'm sorry. Its over."
A deep crimson dragoness, slender and majestic, crowned with a wreath of carefully plaited gold wire set with rubies. Solemness shone in her sparkling grey eyes, and though the wreath suggested she had only just returned from a celebration, the atmosphere shivered with grief, like that of a funeral. 
Again, the sigh. A green eye eased open in the darkness, followed by a blue. Black scales merged with the shadow as the NightWing slithered toward the SkyWing. She stopped, and the two could almost touch... If it weren't for the bars between them, and the softly shimmering forcefield that waited behind the iron blockade. 
"Then I must use my last day well. Stay with me, Nightingale. I... I need you." She faltered on the last words, and a single tear slid down her cheek to join the countless other droplets in the pools of water below. 
"I'm here. I won't move until... The guards come."
"And by then it will all be over." 
Both nodded, an agreement to be there for each other till the execution. 
Silence stretched out, and the prisoner felt her last hours trickling away like the sand in an hourglass. 
"Nightingale, I have a plan." She said quietly at last, worry crinkling the silver drop barely visible in the corner of her eye.
"A plan? I'm sorry, Huntress, but it won't work. There's no escape." 
"I know." Whispered in reluctance. "But this is not about me anymore. It's about the future of Pyrrhia, of Pantala. Of Dragonkind."
"To... To destroy the Dominance?" Nightingale rose quickly, taken aback. "It's impossible. You know you can't harm him!" 
"But remember... This isn't about me. It's about them."
"Then tell me. Tell me how. Tell me what part I can play in this, how I can HURT HIM LIKE HE'S HURT ME, AND YOU, AND SO MANY OTHER DRAGONS!" Nightingale's voice became a low and dangerous hiss filled with hatred and rage that only one who has lost so much can muster.
"I will send an enchantment. A princess of each tribe will be gifted with the power of an animus in the moment I die. They will each find a scroll, with writing that only they can read, which tells them everything they need to know... But leaves some out, to encourage them to investigate, to become a part of this."
"He is immune though... Their magic cannot harm him or alter him in any way."
"But these dragons... I saw faint visions of them. They are clever. They will find ways... They must."
"Then I trust you."
"Good. You... You've always been there for me. Thank you."
Nightingale nodded in acknowledgment, and gave Huntress a faint smile through the gloom. 
"Stay. Stay with me while I make the enchantment. These cells are so lonely." 
"I'll always stay."
"I know. And... I only wish I could too."
The two sat in silence as Huntress murmured the soundless enchantments to empower the young dragons. Her plan, it could not fail, for if it did all would be lost. 
Darkness shifted into a pale orange glow from a slither of an opening above the cell. Night had trickled away slowly, and yet only as the sun rose did Huntress finish her spells and letters to the dragonets. 
As the light finally bathed the two dragons in glorious golden radiance, their eyes met for what they knew would be the last time. Then, and only then, in the last few moments before the guards arrived to destroy the bright spark of life that shone deep within the NightWing, came the tears. 
|-|Chapter 1=
It was dark when she woke. Faint trickles of light the colour of honey flowed into the hive, but illuminated nothing more than a few specks of floating dust. Thrip groaned and rolled over, pressing her face into her pillow to drown out the world.
Sleep was always so much easier than wakefulness.
A sharp claw prodded her wing, and she bit her tongue to halt the oncoming cry of pain. 
"Get up, you lazy louse." 
Any other father would have woken their daughter with a 'Wakey wakey' or 'It's time to get up'. But of course, Roach wasn't just any father. And of course he had to start Thrip's day with a dash of hatred.
It had always been this way. Even before... Everything changed. Even before Thrip's mother had died. Well, not exactly the same. At least now she only had one horrible parent who insulted and cursed her for who she was.
"We have places to be. Get. Up."
Thrip mumbled something angrily and peeled her face away from the once lavish, now torn and dirtied, pillow. Her back ached from lying on the hard floor of the hexagonal cell, and her wing stung from the wrath of Roach's claws.
The older HiveWing spread his deep, ugly red wings and took off, gliding towards a crack in the top of the Hive, just big enough for a dragon to fit through.
Thrip gave one last look at the empty hive cell before beginning to climb across the wall of the Hive to her father. Her whole life since the exile had been like this. Moving from Hive to Hive, running from unseen enemies, living a lie and hiding from sight. She had been a secret from the start - her mother too ashamed to admit to having a daughter who could not fly. Thrip knew that on her own she could be a normal HiveWing, if it weren't for her weak wings. With an inability to hunt or travel properly, she needed a constant guardian to keep her safe. That guardian was currently her father, who had warned her that if she ever left him, she would die, starve, be killed, or something else that sounded particularly unappealing. It was the thing Thrip hated the most - that without Roach, who was famous throughout the Hives for his scandalous breakup with Thrip's mother, she would be able to blend in just as well as any other HiveWing. And yet, without him, she could die.
She finished her ascent and hauled herself out of the crack and onto the roof of the Jewel Hive. From there, she could see right across the savannhah, to the other hives, and even the Poison Jungle. Since her mother had been killed, SilkWings, LeafWings and HiveWings lived in harmony, sharing Pantala and the Hives and treating all tribes as equals. Roach was disgusted by it, and so Thrip had to keep quiet about the fact she thought the harmony was beautiful.
"Come on. We're heading back to Cricket Hive next."
The largest, most impressive Hive, and the Hive Thrip had been born in had been renamed after Cricket, a HiveWing who had been Thrip's age when she helped bring peace to Pantala. Thrip looked up to her as an idol, and wished she could be even half as brave as the older heroine of the tribes.
Roach led in the air while Thrip ran below. It was tiring, but her leg muscles were stronger than other dragons' and she pushed on.
They were only partway across the savannhah when Thrip felt a little buzz blossom in her heart. She looked up to see that the sun had, in that same moment, just risen fully above the horizon. The buzz spread through her, becoming a tingle of wonder that ended in a final spark that lit in her mind. 
She had no idea what had happened. Only that it had felt, in the last moment when the spark flickered into her brain, like... Magic.
|-|Chapter 2=
They arrived at Cricket Hive mid afternoon, after flying (or in Thrip's case, running) non stop other than to catch lunch. It was a warm day, and sweat ran down Thrip's forehead. 
Roach landed next to his daughter and led her to the side of the Hive, stalking through the long grass with his head only just about the dry green stems. Greenhouses lined the outer wall of this part of the hive, and the two HiveWings crept into a densely overgrown one. 
"Get your things out. I'm off to find something to eat, since you're so incapable." Roach left after throwing about the hundredth insult of the day at her. It never seemed to sting as much as it used too - those harsh words had become all too common for them to be painful anymore.
Thrip settled into a dark corner and began to unpack her small sack of items. It contained just a few worn belongings from her past, when she had been more than just a runaway. As she ruffled through the items, her eye caught on a scroll of pale, fresh paper. 
She unravelled it, and her breath caught in her throat.
Dear Princess,
I know not your name. Only that you are the princess of the HiveWing tribe, and that you have a great destiny ahead of you.
I am Huntress, a thrice moonborn animus, and what many would call a rebel. What do I rebel against? A great evil, one that has hidden for years and is only now stirring... It threatens all dragonkind.
I will start from the beginning, though be warned it is a long tale.''
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)