Burning Stones

After many years of planning, writing, and rewriting, I give you… 
CACTUS’S TALE. 
Yes, I am finally giving her a story. 
This takes place 10-15 years after TFoH. Will update every Sunday, probably. 
== HEY! This is a warning! ==
This will include blood, gore, other weird scary-type things, violence, death, etc. I would not recommend reading the following if you feel uncomfortable around those subjects. 
Also no stealing or an arsenal of scary plants will find your user page. 
== Prologue ==
Four years ago…
A NightWing dragonet sat gazing at his talons. A secret; how? He was loyal to his tribe, his dragons, their newfound home. And his queen, finally a NightWing like him, living in the rocky kingdom south of the desert. 
Queen Fierceteeth would execute him for treason if he didn’t tell about his powers. But…
Blackout remembered tales of Darkstalker, Albatross, Arctic, dragons gone mad from use of their magic. 
Blackout was an animus. 
It had only been a scroll, a bit of homework. He was stuck on a problem. Finally, Blackout yelled, “Just answer yourself if you want to be difficult like this!” And to his surprise, ink welled up out of the paper, forming a sum that Blackout never could have gotten on his own. 
“I can’t let her find out,” he concluded. “That’s the only way to keep my soul.” He turned in a circle, searching for something he could enchant. He picked up a small pebble, and whispered, “I enchant this rock so that when it enters the queen’s dining room, she will never believe that I am an animus.”
Blackout clutched the pebble to his chest, feeling something give way. It’s nothing. Just a… a twinge of nervousness. My first ever bit of magic.
Far to the west, on a small, forested island, deep inside an extravagant cave, a dragon the color of water over stone paced. Greens lines covering her forearm writhed as she walked, wriggling as if they were alive. The ink was faded, showing that the tattoo had been done long ago. She knew she would have to redo them soon. 
The dragon adjusted the spikes of metal on her head. Her tribe called it a crown, an honor, a symbol, but to the dragoness it was nothing but a burden. 
CaveWing… Stalactite. Don’t pretend you can’t hear me. It was just a whisper, but a headache crushed down upon the dragon. 
Hello. 
The queen of the CaveWings groaned and dug her claws into her forehead. "Jealousy. Go away." 
A deep chuckle echoed in her skull. How do you think you’re going to make me? Don’t tell me you’ve grown used to your dragon friends. 
No… maybe. At least they listen to me. I’m their queen. Then, bitterly, she added, “As I wish you would, also.”
Really? After all this time you still can't accept me?
The queen sighed. Well, I certainly never asked for you. She lay down, her brain still spinning. Please let me sleep in peace… we can talk later. 
Jealously watched from inside, or afar; she could never tell. It was only darkness, but yet she clearly saw the queen’s side rising and falling in uneasy slumber. Finally, growing bored, she let waves of silver-gray wash over her until she was… 
Was in…
Was inside…
"Mother?" 
The dragon called out, but no one answered. She reached out, but no wall was there to comfort her. She was surrounded by cold, black silence. 
Suddenly a flash of white light blasted her eyes. It felt as if lightning had split open her head. She shrieked, terrified and in agony. She had never felt pain like this before, never known anyone to have pain like this. The others had said The Merging would hurt, but no, not like this, never like this. 
A slow, chilly tendril was creeping into her brain. It circled her skull, growing and gaining… She was on the ground whimpering, scared, alone, and being taken over…
Talons squeezed her thoughts gently, once, twice, and then her eyes were not hers, and her wings were moving without consent. 
“Why… why is this-” she had a moment to say, before vines that weren’t there wrapped her teeth closed and then the only thing she could do was cry, not able to stop the tears. 
“Shh, it’s alright,” she said, but it wasn’t her, wasn’t her, WASN’T HER-
And then she was released. 
Every muscle went limp at once. She fell, nearly unconscious, but awake. The… the thing wasn’t gone; she could feel its coldness lurking, waiting, watching. She hurt, hurt all over, hurt like never before. 
Faintly she felt and heard dragons gathering around her, murmuring comforting phrases and lathering soothing mixtures onto her aching scales. 
“You did good, princess.”
“Don’t worry, it’s a bit painful for everyone.”
“Daughter. You did so well.”
But it was only one that chilled her to the bone. Only one that let her know she would never, ever be free. 
Hello, Stalactite. I’ll love getting to know you.
And where the ocean waters met ice, a SeaWing clutched a pale green egg to her chest. 
Tang was flying for her life. For her dragonet’s life. Her partner’s last words echoed over and over in her mind. 
I’m sorry, Tang. I never thought this would happen. But the sky… It spoke to me. You have to take our egg and run, because otherwise the moons will curse our dragonet with the same powers they gave me. 
Tang wiped away tears with her free talon. She kept seeing the snow that covered Icecap, the way the auroras danced horribly over the crisp white blanket. 
Why? Moons, couldn’t it have happened to anyone else? We thought she would be free from it since she is a hybrid. 
The clouds were no longer dropping sheets of snow, but wind was whipping up the ocean. White-topped waves crested and threw up droplets of freezing cold water. Tang could feel herself slipping into darkness. 
She had been flying for hours. Her wings were too tired; SeaWings weren’t built for long-distance flights, and she didn’t dare swim with her egg. 
But wait- is that… 
Yes, yes yes, it was, land at last. She could see the mountains ahead of her. 
Her eyes were trained on the ocean. Her neck wouldn’t hold up her head, but she was almost there. 
And then bone-crushing, wing-snapping, heart-stopping. Tang fell, not knowing what had stopped her. 
The egg…
***
“-don’t know. Heard her yell, came to see what happened.”
“Looks like she ran into the cliff.”
“She’s up!”
Tang opened her eyes groggily. Half formed shapes wavered in front of her face. She was weak, too weak. 
“Iceberg…” she stuttered. 
“What?” One of the shape-dragons said. 
“The egg… Iceberg. For her… her father…”
“Wait! No, don’t die, there’s a doctor-”
“Too late-”
“I’m sorry…”
== Part One ==
=== Chapter One ===
Cactus huffed. Her talons stomped heavily on the stony floors. The hallways seemed to close in on her, and she shook her head. She needed to get out of here.
Her mother’s voice echoed in her ears. Cactus walked faster. 
A blaze of sunlight hit her face, but she kept going. The sand underneath her claws wasn’t enough. Soon she came to a wall as tall as five or six full-grown dragons, and she stopped. 
The walls were everywhere in the palace. Her tiny room was encased in four walls. Her school was built of towering walls dotted with stained glass. The stronghold itself was just a group of walls, walls, walls. 
Cactus was an open-desert dragon. She spread her wings, soared over the stronghold barrier, and closed her eyes as she flew out to the rolling dunes. 
In the darkness that her eyelids gave, she could almost imagine that she was home. 
Home to the wide open sky and small oases. Back where everybody knew everyone. Where the sand was always only a talon-step away. 
Cactus sighed and opened her eyes. All the fantasizing in the world couldn’t bring her back to Sunlit. Ever since her mother had decided to move her, Dad, and Moth to the palace a year ago, a small feeling of discontentment had been growing inside of her. 
And now Mum wanted Cactus to train to be a soldier. Of ALL the TERRIBLE IDEAS. It felt like an extra stab in the back. 
“Cactus!” Someone rasped from behind her. “Wait!”
Cactus whirled around, her talons clenched. Moth flapped forward. She was tall, like her sister, and strong, still showing signs of a life in the outskirts. She was softer though, and quieter. 
“Did Mum send you?” Cactus demanded angrily.
Moth had the grace to look slightly ashamed. “Yes. But I would have come anyways.”
“She wants me to be a soldier!” Cactus blurted out suddenly. “I don’t want to be in the army. I don’t mind fighting dragons for the kingdom, but I don’t-” She looked down at the swirling sands far beneath her. “I don’t want to have a job here,” she growled. 
“You mean you don’t want to live at the palace,” Moth observed. “But not all soldiers have to live there. You could train, then move back to Sunlit and be a guard.” 
Cactus wrinkled her nose at Moth. 
In truth, Cactus didn’t want to be a guard or a soldier or anything like it. She did like to fight; she had battled Moth and some of the other dragonets back at Sunlit. And she would do nearly anything for Queen Thorn. But there was a hollowness that swelled in her chest every time she thought about staying away from her home.
Becoming a soldier was not part of her plan to get back to Sunlit. 
It never would be.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Genre (Adventure)