The Words Of The Old Hybrid

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This story uses my fantribes, SwiftWings and CaveWings.
“Gather ‘round, dragonets.” The soft call of the old hybrid carried across the bonfire, summoning the Outcasts, both dragonet and adult. The hybrid sat on her rock, the one that protruded from the ground, giving her a vantage point from which to tell her old tales.
“Look, the stars, they dance tonight.” The grey dragon said in her hoarse voice, worn from years gone by. She pointed with a wobbling talon at the billions of stars swirling above In the cloudless sky. Wide eyes watched her, amber, honey, and brown beside crystal blue and purple. Grey scales side by side with brown and green.
“Every star, every constellation, gives light to the dark.” She said, looking back down at the dragonets. They all sat facing her, completely enraptured in her words.
“Oh, and the moons!” She clasped her talons together, looking up at the two orbs of light that glowed in the sky. “Legend says that every time the stars dance, and a moon is missing, they have come down to dance among us.”
“But how do they dance? I’d bet it’ pretty hard ta’ dance with no legs.” Came a curious sound of a young dragonet. He had the feather mane of a SwiftWing, but his build was small and his shoulders bare. He had no wings.
“Young one, you look with your eyes. You must see with you heart.” The hybrid reached down from her rock and pressed her bent talon to the young dragon’s chest. He looked at her with awe-filled eyes.
“You are right, the moons must change their shape, but they still shine.” She sat back up, wrapping her tail around her talons. Gold feathers covered her dark claws.
“On the night when there is no light from the moons, those nights, ah, those beautiful nights, they walk among us, dance with us, show us through the dark.” Her voice was as rough as the stone under her claws.
“They have scales like you and me,” she hopped off her rock, walking among the dragonets. She gently touched a young SwiftWings’s scarred neck and shoulder. “And four talons to dance,” she brushed her tail by a CaveWing dragonet missing her front leg. “And two wings to fly back to their place in the sky.” She rested her own black, torn wing on the back of the young SwiftWing.
“But they are not without pain.” She said, as the dragonets inched closed to sit beside her. She tented her wing over them as they moved closer to her sides.
“A great long time ago, before Great Queen Amethyst built the Pavilion, before even Rain walked among the Savannah’s grasses, the Moons were alone. They only had each other, and that was all they needed.” She smiled down at the dragonets as they sat at her dark talons. The wingless SwiftWing sat next to a tailless CaveWing, who stretched her wings over him and a tiny black hybrid beside her.
“They would come done every day, and frolic in the grasses, in the caves and in the trees, playing with their siblings. The eldest, Kulinda, was very protective of his younger sisters. The middle, Mwitu, was willing to try anything. If you told her to explore the deepest caves of the mountains, she’d do it without a second thought. The youngest, Tamu, knew every plant and animal of the island. They were closer then lions in a Pride.
“Everyday, The three of them would come down and rest, then go back and light the sky every night. And they lived like that, happily, for season after season. Just the three of them.
“But pain will find anyone.” She looked up at the two full moons, and the empty space of a new moon.
“One day, when they were dancing across the grasses, a viper struck Tamu on her wing.” The dragonet’s eyes where huge as the hybrid continued her tale. “A great nasty thing it was. Black as night with red eyes and two long fangs, loaded with venom.
“Tamu was unable to return to the sky that night. Kulinda and Mwitu took turns caring for her every night, but she never fully recovered. She could still dance, but she was stuck on the ground. Mwitu and Kulinda didn’t know what to do. They wouldn’t leave her, but if they did not go make to their place in the sky, the night would be very dark. There would be no light to guide dragons.
“Tamu did not want her siblings to be held back, or to see a dark sky when she was alone. She told them, ‘mwanga katika giza ni thamani.’ That ‘Light in the dark is precious.’ She told them to go back to the sky until she was able to join them.”
“But Tamu has to get better!” Said the tiny black hybrid. It was obvious he was of NightWing descent.
“She did get better. Every day Mwitu and Kulinda came down and visited her, and every night, she watched them dance across the sky, while she raced the Savannah grasses, growing stronger and stronger. She grew to love the Island, almost as much as her place in the sky. She explored the deepest caverns the Mountains had to offer, and raced the fastest cheetahs of the Savannah.
“But her wing was never strong enough to carry her back to the sky. She didn’t really want to leave anymore either. She thought she could never return to the sky, and that the Island was her home now.
“Every night, she watched her brother and sister in the sky, and every day, she played with them. They brought stories of the dancing in the stars and clouds. The stories made Tamu sad, reminding her she could never go home, until one day, Mwitu came up with a wild idea.
“She thought, that Kulinda and herself could carry their little sister to their place in the sky.”
“It didn’t work!” Cried the scarred SwiftWing. “Tamu isn’t up there tonight! See, she’s missing!” She pointed at the sky despairingly.
“You are wrong, young one.” The old hybrid lifted her shaking talon to point at the moons. “She is up there right now, watching us.” She pointed to the smaller of the two moons. The one she pointed to had two large craters, just barely visible, at the edge of it’s circumference. “That’s were the viper bit her.”
“Mwitu and Kulinda were able the carry Tamu to the night sky, but they were not strong enough to carry her back down in the day. So now, she watches from her place in the sky, and her siblings come down to lead us and dance with us.
“She is still recovering from her wound, but when she is healed, she will come down and dance across the grasses like she did, all those seasons ago.”
The dragonet’s eyes were drooping with sleep, and a few light snores came from a few of them. The adults slowly, soberly gathered the young ones, carrying the sleeping ones, and herding the waking ones. The bonfire had slowly died down, now just a few lingering flames and cooling embers. The old hybrid got up, rattling her old bones, as she moved closer to the last bit of fire.
A feathered mane, streaked gold with age, and studded with thin crystal-like horns graced her head and neck like a crown of wisdom. Her scales were a grey tent over her protruding bones, and her torn wings were as black as the darkest cavern.
“All those seasons ago...” The soft voice echoed across the dark paths.
A pale dragon, tall and thin, emerged from the shadows. His eyes glowed like stars, and his scales looked rough and uneven. He strode around the fire to sit beside his old friend. An even paler scar was evident across his wing, like a torn muscle.
“Tamu will return, won’t she?” The hybrid asked, the story-tellers’ authority she held moments ago gone.
“Soon, when she is healed.” The pale dragon replied. “Then she will return.”
The hybrid merely nodded, then pushed herself to her feet. She dipped her head at the pale dragon.
“Goodbye, Kulinda.” She said, resting her shaking talon on his, before turning and slowly limping down the path, to her tent.
Kulinda watched her go, then trotted down each path of the Outcast Hole. His pale scales shone in the dark, as he patrolled the paths. He slowed as he reached the edge of the town, looking over his shoulder.
“Goodbye.” He whispered, before he leapt into the air, reaching into the sky, winking out of existence. A sliver of moonlight shimmered into view in the sky. His words echoed on the wind.
“Goodbye.”
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Genre (Short Story)
Category:Genre (Tragedy)