It Wasn't Me, And I'll Prove It

==video|right|300px|link=Special:FilePath/Placeholder right|300px|link=Special:FilePath/Placeholder 
NOTICE:==
This story is the property of ClawGemDragon. Please do not edit without permission. Thank you!
==Chapter 1: Please Don't Assume==
    Caracal flew swiftly to her home oasis. She was furious. And wanted, apparently, for “assassinating a SandWing general”. How dare they accuse her of such things! It clearly wasn’t her. The only thing she had killed that day was a lizard and a camel. But the foolish guards hadn’t listened. So she ran. If they had believed her before, they certainly wouldn’t now. Running had made her seem guilty. 
“This is just another case of Prickle and Palm,” she fumed. “Never stopping to look at clues. Now I’m probably going to be shut in a dark, dank dungeon with no sun for the rest of my days, all because stupid guards won’t listen. You’d think they’d have learned their lesson by now.”
Caracal didn’t know who the real assassin was. She had only caught one name in the flurry of the guards arresting her: Tarnish. She should have told them her actual name, but they were shouting so loudly that she didn’t get the chance. She had never heard of a Tarnish. It seemed their name was suitable, though. This Tarnish had now tarnished Caracal’s reputation! She had had a perfectly clean record, but now it was ruined.
Suddenly, she heard a noise. Wingbeats. Screaming scavengers! She thought. They’d found her. Three guards thumped onto the sand. “Put your talons in the air!” he shouted. The other two rolled their eyes. 
“Barbary, you loon, that doesn’t do anything.” one of them said.  
“Yeah, I don’t know how you even got into the program with your ridiculous shouting. You never do any actual work.” the other pointed out. 
Barbary pouted. “It makes for a dramatic entrance!” he huffed, waving a talon at Caracal. “It makes us seem scary and intimidating! Now she won’t be scared of us. Thanks a lot.” 
Caracal blinked. “Er,” she began. 
Barbary whirled around. “Silence, prisoner!” he shouted. 
“I’m not even supposed to be a prisoner! You’ve got the wrong dragon!” Caracal shouted back.
Barbary stumbled. “Y-you aren’t? We do? Dama! What do you know of this?” he commanded loudly, pointing at the guard who had called him a loon. 
Dama groaned. “First of all, you aren’t our commander. And second of all, we weren’t even going to arrest her until we interrogated her. We were just going to escort her to Queen Thorn to see what she thinks.”
“We-we were? But- I was so sure! I thought Oryx said-” Barbary stammered. 
“I never said anything of the sort,” Oryx cut in. He turned to face Caracal. “Sorry for the trouble. We aren’t going to hurt you. Please do come with us. And sorry about Barbary here. He’s on trial. Although he almost certainly won’t stay.” 
Caracal nodded slowly. “Alright,” she agreed, “as long as you keep him away from me.” 
Oryx laughed unexpectedly. “Oh, we definitely will, don’t worry.”
And so Caracal followed the three guards to the SandWing palace, keeping well away from Barbary, who shouted during the entire flight. The four of them swept into the palace and made their way to the throne room. Queen Thorn was sitting on the throne, speaking to an elegant-looking dragon the color of pecans. The elegant dragon looked at Caracal. 
“Ah! So we have here the three guards and a dragon who needs to be interrogated.” she said, waving a talon in the air.  
“Indeed. Who might you be?” Queen Thorn asked, addressing Caracal.  
“Caracal, Your Majesty. I promise you I haven’t done anything wrong.”  
Queen Thorn smiled. “I know you haven’t. We are looking for a Tarnish who has scales the color of hazel wood. You have scales the color of buttermilk. Yet another detail my guards forgot. I see you’ve already met Barbary, Oryx, and Dama. This is Lady Guanaco. She is a relative of Tarnish.” 
Lady Guanaco inclined her head in greeting. “Good afternoon. I am Tarnish’s aunt. I raised her until she was three, and then she ran off to one of her other aunts.” she frowned. “I still cannot believe she went so wrong. I raised her as best as I could, I taught her right from wrong, supported her enormously, I kept her away from all those gangs and crime lords. Yet she still runs off and assassinates a general?” 
Caracal scrunched up her snout. “Maybe she thought that what she did was justified,” she suggested. “Maybe that general had wronged her somehow. Maybe that general was planning on doing something bad and she had to stop him.”
Queen Thorn made a hmm noise. “You have a point. We need to investigate this further in order to understand it better. Let us not make assumptions. Oryx and Dama, kindly escort Caracal to a chamber. She is going to be staying here and helping us investigate. Lady Guanaco, please follow them, as you will be given a chamber right next to Caracal’s. Barbary, you may return to your post. I will organize three teams to go gather information. You all must be back here at this time tomorrow. Oh! Oryx and Dama. You two will also have a chamber next to our two guest’s. I want you two to accompany them. Thank you.”
The chamber Caracal was given was a lot nicer and fancier than she was used to. For one thing, it was quite large. Back at her old oasis, she could barely extend her wings in the cramped hut. For another, it was filled with luxurious decorations. Murals on some of  the walls, several camel-skin rugs, tapestries hung nearly everywhere. And another thing. The bed. It was comically large. The bed took up an entire corner of the enormous room (That just shows how big the room was). The bed was made up of soft layers of camel-skin, palm fronds, and wool that was dyed blue. And it was huge. Caracal just could not get over how large the bed was. She could lie on it and fully extend her wings, that was how big it was!
Set up neatly in another corner was a basin of water and a cloth for washing up. In another corner, there was a small vanity with four small drawers. Set on top of the vanity was a jug of water and a glass. In the last corner, there was an entire shelf of scrolls.  
Caracal squinted. There was something strange in there. Not quite a mouse, more like a monkey.. But with no fur? She came closer and jumped. It was a scavenger! A female, Caracal thought, with long fur on its head and it was actually quite adorable. The scavenger let out a few squeaks, and then growled something that sounded.. like Dragon? 
“Grrmffrll! Hello! I am-” the scavenger said something unintelligible, but the scavenger was clearly trying to communicate with her. 
“Moons!” Caracal said, startled. “Sorry. I’ve been told that my accent is atrocious. Apparently. But I do-” something that sounded like strike? Strove? Strive? Yes, that was it; strive.”-to get better at it. I am Rose. I am Prince Smolder’s ‘pet scavenger’, although I think of him as my pet.”
Caracal blinked. “Er, how.. Interesting? Your accent is a little hard to follow, but I’ll try my best to understand you.” 
Rose nodded. “I get that a lot. My friend Wren comes every once in a while to teach me more Dragon, and she says I’m improving a lot. Smolder sometimes helps, but he is such a carrot-face about it. Always laughing at me whenever I pronounce something funny. I much prefer to have Wren teach me. She said that I’m basically fluent by now!” 
Caracal raised an eyebrow. “Wren? Is she also a scavenger?”
“Oh, yes. She is friends with a dragon, Sky. She basically grew up with him. Sky’s such an adorable thing. He loves animals, it’s really quite interesting to watch. Anyways,” Rose said, “I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new here?”
“Ye-es,” Caracal said. “I’m on here on a mission,” she explained. “I need to find a dragon named Tarnish. She has scales the color of hazel wood. Have you by chance seen a dragon with scales that color?
Rose shook her head. “Sorry, no. I only know the dragons in the palace, because Smolder thinks I’ll get eaten if I venture outside the castle grounds. I mean, fair, but most dragons around here don’t like the taste of scavenger anyway.”
Caracal sighed. “Guess I’ll have to ask around later, then.”
“Why do you need to find this- this Tar.. Tarnish anyway?” Rose asked curiously.
“She assassinated a SandWing general,” Caracal answered ruefully.
“Oh. How rude.”
“Very,” Caracal agreed. 
Rose stared at Caracal for a long moment. “Can I help?” she burst out suddenly. Caracal tilted her head. “Huh. I suppose so.. If Prince Smolder agrees to it.”
“Oh, leave that to me. I’m very convincing. He won’t stand a chance against my charming persuasion.” Caracal laughed. Rose looked delighted.
“Should I send you to Prince Smolder’s chamber or-?” Caracal began, but was cut off swiftly by Rose.
“I can find my way back. Living here for 20 years is certainly enough time to know this entire place by heart. And you might get lost, since you’re new. But if you need me, you simply have to ring this,” Rose said, placing a small bell in Caracal’s open talon. 
“Oh- Alright then. I think we could talk at this time tomorrow, maybe.” Caracal suggested.
“Cool! I’ll see you around!” Rose waved cheerfully and scampered down from the scroll shelf, darting swiftly to the door.
Caracal shook herself from head to tail. That was real. She’d just had a conversation with a scavenger who spoke Dragon. Exhaustion crept into her eyes, and she yawned. Caracal realized she needed a nap; she’d been flying all morning. She crept to the bed and lay down, drifting into a light sleep.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Caracal woke up with a start. How long had she been asleep? Ring! Ring! Ring! Oryx poked his head into her room. “That’ll be the dinner bell,” he said, beckoning. Caracal blinked.
“R-right. Of course.” She scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over the bed covers. Oryx scrunched up his snout, smothering a chuckle. "You sure take an unsettling amount of pleasure in dragons almost hurting themselves," Caracal snapped. "You don't like it?" he asked with mock incredulity. "It's my special talent!" Caracal rolled her eyes, following him into the corridor. "You'd be surprised how amusing it is to see dragons doing stupid things," Oryx continued, "It's quite refreshing. Unless, of course, that dragon is Barbary. He's unbearable." "You are quite unbearable yourself," Caracal commented. Oryx surprised her by laughing. "Many dragons would beg to differ. They think I am quite charming," he said, giving her a mischievous grin. He paused, thinking. "Well, except for Dama. She also thinks I am unbearable. But then again, she thinks everyone is unbearable. Thinking everyone is unbearable is basically her entire mood. But I don't think I've ever met anyone else who thinks I am unbearable. You don't actually think I'm unbearable, do you?" he asked, giving Caracal a wounded side glance."Just barely tolerable," Caracal amended, "With a head still able to squeeze through the doors. But just barely." Oryx laughed again."That's acceptable. Oh, look, we've arrived!" he said, pointing. Caracal stopped in her tracks."Is everything in the palace enormously astonishing?" she asked incredulously. Oryx shrugged. "Pretty much. I find it a bit exhausting, to be honest. I'm always getting lost.""Oh, poor you, getting to live in this luxurious paradise with endless amounts of coconuts and tea and dried lizards," Caracal said, "In the Scorpion Den, everyone was stealing for everything. That's why I ran away."Oryx gave her an apologetic look. "Forgive me.. I forget how fortunate I really am.."Caracal waved it away. "No, no, it's alright, I was only joking-""No, I wasn't sensitive enough. I truly am sorry." Oryx said ruefully.Caracal tilted her head at him. "Alright. Apology accepted." she said gracefully.Oryx smiled. "Thank you for sparing me of your wrath," he said, pleased."So, all the rooms in the palace are huge?" Caracal asked casually as they stepped into the dining room.Lady Guanaco looked up from her plate and shrugged elegantly. "Very much so. Although the walls are still quite rough. And the lingering smell of death still hovers above the barracks," she added, then sighed. "A constant reminder of what a horror show Burn was."Queen Thorn gave Lady Guanaco a reproachful look. "We scrubbed those walls till they looked like weathered rocks," she said in a disapproving voice. "Burn kept those heads in place for years. The smell won't go away in a day. I estimate it'll take another year for the smell to fully dissipate, also expecting we'll have to have the outer wall knocked down if the smell lingers longer than that."Caracal shuddered. She had caught a whiff of blood when she had first arrived outside, but she had just assumed it was the smell of prey being prepared for a feast.Dama's head snapped up from whatever she was staring at. "So," she half-snarled, "What unreasonably expensive delicacies are we having for dinner tonight?"There was a touch of insincerity in her voice that made Caracal question what she knew about Dama so far. Oryx had painted her as rough but still pleasurable company, but the undertones of venom Dama seemed to have hidden shone through in that one sentence. Beware, Caracal's instinct shivered. Danger danger beware. She shoved those slimy feelings under the rug. If Oryx trusted her, then surely that meant she didn't mean any harm. Right? She was probably overreacting. She had only known Dama for what, four hours? And Oryx has probably known her for years.
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Fanfictions