The Rainforest Monster

This fanfiction is a work in progress, it is not finished
I will update as much as I can
Sorry for any misspellings or grammar issues
Please do not edit! Thank you :-)
== Prologue ==
In the Rainforest Kingdom...
Deathbringer stood in his usual spot, waiting for a report from his dragons. A little ways away from Queen Glory, who was dealing with RainWings and NightWings - mostly NightWings - complaining or asking for favors.
Two NightWings and a RainWing flew up to Deathbringer. "Deathbringer," one NightWing, Dusk, said. "We heard strange noises coming from the tunnel. To the island."
The other NightWing nodded. "And it seemed like there was magic being used - the feeling around the tunnel was stronger than usual." He looked to the RainWing.
"I could ..." The RainWing's voice trembled.
"Yes, Banana?" asked Deathbringer.
"I could ... ca-camouflage and s-sneak into the t-tunnel," Banana managed. "B-but it's ... s-s-scary."
Deathbringer nodded. "Dusk, Banana, you two will investigate. Report back to me as soon as you can." The two dragons nodded and swooped off.
A few hours later, the dragons returned. "Nothing," Dusk said.
"Nothing," Banana echoed.
"All right," Deathbringer said, though he couldn't shake a feeling that something was off. "I'm sure everything's fine." He positioned himself beside Queen Glory as the other dragons flew off. After all, Deathbringer thought, trying to calm himself, what kind of thing would be there? What could go wrong, with a wonderful queen, loyal dragons, and attentive guards?
== Chapter 1 ==
“Nectar!” Beautiful cried. She darted down, just barely catching the tiny RainWing dragonet before she toppled off the edge of the tree house. “I told you not to walk outside of the tree house,” she scolded. “You could’ve died!” Beautiful's scales rippled with worried green and blue.
“Bootaful,” Nectar cooed. “Sabbladay Bootaful.” The baby babbled all the time, but in Beautiful's opinion, it never got any less adorable. She smiled, light pink dots starting to cover the emerald and azure.
“It’s hard to stay mad at you,” Beautiful admitted. She adjusted the way she was holding Nectar, then walked into their tree house, through the pink, purple, and blue bromeliad-framed doorway.
Beautiful set down her sister on a patch of moss and leaves. “Stay here, okay?” she said.
“Yim yim,” Nectar replied. “Yim Bootaful yay!”
Beautiful held a claw up to her mouth. "Try not to be too loud, all right?" she asked. "I'm going to get Mama." Beautiful looked at her sister, waiting for her to respond.
"Yim," the blind dragonet replied, quieter then before. "Yim yim Boooootaful." She snuggled into the plants deeper, her scales shifting to match them as she relaxed. In moments, she was invisible.
Beautiful smiled, the last of the blue and lime green fading from her scales, replaced with calm blue - similar to worried, but slightly darker. She lifted off, alternating between flying and wrapping her tail around tree branches and swinging from one to another - tree gliding, one of her favorite things to do. Maybe her second-favorite - no, third, she corrected herself. First hide-and-seek, then flower hunting (a special game that she and her best friend, Carnation, had invented), and then tree gliding.
She was aiming for the healers' hut - her mother was a healer - when something knocked her out of the sky, sending her plummeting toward the ground.
== Chapter 2 ==
A million thoughts raced through Beautiful's mind, but the most important one was, what's happening? She fell faster, faster ... she tried to flap her wings, but she wasn't fast enough ... she hit the ground, her head spinning. Don't pass out, don't pass out, she thought as a bag was shoved over her body. She was sure her scales were bright green with fear, but the bag was too dark to see. She was lifted into the air, then pushed onto a hard, cold surface, scraping her scales as she slid down a steep tunnel-like passage - wait, she thought. Maybe it really was a tunnel. Could the mysterious thing - the monster, as she was starting to think of it as - be taking her to the abandoned NightWing island?
Beautiful had heard dozens of stories from the NightWings about the island, about how they'd lived on a huge, smoky volcano that threatened to erupt every day, how their throats always burned from the ash, how most dragons weren't able to have children. But why would a monster take her there?
Secrecy, she answered herself immediately. No one ever went through the tunnel. They knew what was on the other side, and were perfectly content staying in the rainforest. But that meant that it would also be the perfect place for a monster to hide.
The strange prickle she always got when she flew near the tunnel disappeared, and the scent of smoke filled the bag. She coughed, grimacing as she sucked in a throat-scraping breath. Then she was jerked into the air again, and set down on an uneven surface. The bag was ripped off, and she looked up into the face of a dragon. 
The dragon had webbed talons, a black head and wings, SeaWing light-up scales, and icicle spikes below his horns and on the tip of his tail. A hybrid, Beautiful realized. 
The dragon's eyes were sunken holes, and one of his horns was broken. And when he grinned, Beautiful could see that he was missing several teeth. She tried to open her mouth to do anything; bite him, use her venom - when she found she couldn't. She reached up and felt her snout, but there was nothing binding it shut. It just wouldn't open.
"I know," the dragon said in a raspy voice, as if he had read her mind. Maybe he had, she thought. He had silver teardrop scales next to his eyes, signaling mind-reading powers on a NightWing. Beautiful hadn't thought much of them at first, because she had been too scared, but now she noticed them. "Surprising, huh? Only I can speak - or open my mouth - inside the volcano. Wasn't that a clever enchantment I cast?" An animus, she realized. Animuses (Animi? she wondered) could enchant anything - and anyone - to do what they wanted.
"Mm-hmm," he confirmed. "I am an animus. And now ... enchant this dragon to obey my every command," the hybrid said, pointing a chipped claw at Beautiful. No! she thought. But she could somehow feel the enchantment taking over, how she was no longer in control. "Open your mouth, but don't use your venom," he said. Against her will, she felt her mouth opening. "Stop wanting to use your venom on me, forget about disliking me, and only think about obeying and pleasing me," he added.
She could feel her thoughts washing away ... then suddenly, the hybrid didn't look ugly anymore. His broken horn seemed heroic, his sunken eyes seemed mysterious, and his raspy voice sounded beautiful. How can I help him? she wondered. What can I do to make him happy?
"Now go and capture two seven-year-old RainWings," he ordered. "Go through the tunnel at the black-sand beach there, use your camouflage, knock the RainWings out, and bring them to me." Beautiful nodded, excited to be doing something he wanted her to. "Oh, and remember all those instructions perfectly," he added. The words instantly ingrained themselves in her memory. "One more thing," he said. "Believe that your name is, and has always been, Hopestealer. Believe that you are, and have always been, a NightWing. And just in case, I enchant this dragon so unless I say 'be able to use camouflage', she looks like a NightWing. And forget that I ever enchanted you to do anything." His words sank in until they felt like they had always been there. Her name was Hopestealer, she was a NightWing, she would always help the hybrid no matter what, he would never enchant her to do anything. Nothing was more important than helping him.
But something nagged at her in the back of her memory, something that wasn't quite right. She couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but it was there. If I can't remember what it is, then it's probably not important, she thought. She pushed the strange thoughts to the back of her mind.
"Be able to use camouflage," the hybrid said. Her scales shifted colors. Huh, she thought. That’s weird. I’m a NightWing. I’m not supposed to have color-shifting scales. Maybe it was something special about her. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed cool, whatever it was.
“Now go,” he commanded. Instantly, the RainWing – NightWing, as she thought of herself and as everyone else saw her – flew off toward the tunnel. She ducked in, changing her scale color to match the darkness of the passage. She emerged into bright sunlight and shifted her scales to match the rainforest. She saw a middle-aged-looking dragon and hid behind a tree, shifting her scales so she looked like a RainWing. She tried to flatten her spikes, but they weren’t there. Oh, she thought in surprise. I guess maybe when I use camouflage, I look like a RainWing too. She approached the other dragon.
“How old are you?” she asked in a friendly voice, her scales pink and yellow. The older dragon’s scales turned surprised green for a moment, then shifted back to golden. He smiled down at her.
“I’m seven and a half,” he answered agreeably. “Why-” he was cut off by the RainWing-turned-NightWing bashing him on the back of the head. He fell over, unconscious. She dragged him into a bush and went off to find another RainWing.
The next one she found looked about the same age as the last one. “How old are you?” she asked the second dragon, whose scales were a calm blue. They turned pink when she looked down at the younger dragon.
“Oh, I’m six,” she answered. “How old are you?” The enchanted dragonet wondered whether to reply or not, then decided to.
“Four,” she answered. “Good-bye!” She flew off.
The next dragon she tried was nine, the one after that eight, the third a ten-year-old that looked young for his age, and the fourth another nine-year-old. But the fifth was different.
“How old are you?” she asked for the seventh time. The other RainWing’s scales turned slightly red and green with annoyance and distrust.
“Why do you want to know?” he snapped.
“Just curious,” she answered softly. She tried to look as small and harmless as possible. It seemed to work, because his expression softened.
“Sorry,” he said. “I just turned seven. How old are-” She whacked him on the back of the head, found the other she had hidden, who was just starting to stir. She hit him on the head again, then dragged the two into the tunnel.
She emerged on the other side, then with difficulty lifted the unconscious dragons into the air and brought them to the hybrid. He smiled when he saw who she had brought back. “Stop camouflage,” he told her, and her shifting scales – and RainWing looks – disappeared, and she looked like a NightWing again.
He turned to the other dragons. “Enchant these dragons so that when they awake, they no longer remember anything about their old life. All they remember is that they want to serve me, and they have for all their lives. They don’t want to use their venom on me. And their names are Darkbringer and Blacksight, and they are NightWings. Oh, and enchant these dragons so they look like NightWings.”
“Good work,” he said. “Now get three more ten-year-old ones. And be able to use camouflage.” Her scales changed color again. She flew off, once again, through the tunnel.
== Chapter 3 ==
As Beautiful/Hopestealer passed by a tree house with red berries growing on it, a dragon came out. “Beautiful!” she cried.
“What’s beautiful?” the RainWing/NightWing asked.
“What do you mean? Your name is Beautiful,” the adult said.
“But you don’t even know my name. How can you know it’s pretty?” she wondered.
“No, no, no. Your name is Beautiful, spelled B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L,” she said.
“No,” the four-year-old disagreed. “It’s Hopestealer.”
“What?” the older dragon cried. “What do you mean? How do you not remember? Do you even remember me?”
The NightWing/RainWing was confused. “No, who are you?”
“Beautiful, I’m your mother,” the dragon said.
“I told you, my name’s Hopestealer, and how can you be my mother? You’re a RainWing, I’m a NightWing,” the dragonet answered.
“Okay, something’s wrong,” the adult dragon said. She disappeared into the hut, and a moment later, something whizzed through the air and pricked her shoulder. She didn’t know what was happening until her head started spinning. Sleeping dart, she realized as she collapsed on the balcony of the tree house.
Beautiful/Hopestealer woke up to her wrists and ankles bound to a mattress of leaves with soft vines, and her snout tied shut with another. A NightWing was standing over her, with the adult RainWing and two others huddled in the corner. The NightWing slipped something onto her wrist and untied the vine around her snout.
“Okay, first: what’s your name and your tribe?” the NightWing asked.
“Hopestealer, NightWing,” she replied easily.
“Next – how old are you?”
“Four,” she answered. This was still easy.
“Now, why were you in the rainforest?” She knew she shouldn’t tell – she shouldn’t, then they’d never let her complete the mission to help the hybrid. But the words felt like they were forcing themselves out of her throat. In a panic, she glanced down at her wrist and saw a thin metal bracelet.
It’s enchanted, she realized as her mouth opened and said, “To catch three ten-year-old RainWings.”
“Why?” Once again, the words forced themselves out.
“Because the hybrid told me to,” she answered.
“What hybrid?”
“A Sea-Night-Ice,” she said.
“Why does he want them?”
“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully.
“Where is he?”
“On the abandoned NightWing island” yanked themselves out of her mouth.
“Okay, I know what’s wrong,” the NightWing said. “Take away any spells ever put on this dragon.” The black dragon slipped the bracelet off her wrist as all her memories came flooding back.
== Chapter 4 ==
“Mama!” Beautiful cried, launching herself off the bed – well, trying to. The vines yanked her painfully back down. As she struggled to twist her head enough to spray venom on them, a talon set itself on her shoulder.
“I’ve got this,” her mother, Elegance, said. She sliced her claws across two, then sprayed small droplets of venom on the other two vine-ropes.
Once she was free, Beautiful sprang up and threw her wings and front legs around her mother. “I’m sorry, Mama,” she said. “And now there are two other RainWings stuck on the island, and they’re gonna work for the hybrid, and their families are gonna get worried, and then they’re gonna feel terrible afterward when they get their memories back, and–” she was cut off by her mom tapping her snout with one claw.
“It’ll be all right,” Elegance assured her. She smiled gently at her daughter.
“That’s right,” another healer jumped in as Beautiful pulled away from her mother. Peacock, if Beautiful remembered correctly. “We can go with tranquilizers and retrieve the hybrid and RainWings. And Peacedreamer here can fix them. See, they’ll be all right.”
Beautiful relaxed slightly. “Thank you,” she said. “Maybe we can get them before they do any damage.”
A third healer stepped forward, examining Beautiful from head to tail. She looked no more than ten years old – like one of the dragons I was sent to capture, Beautiful realized with a jolt of guilt. “I’m Radiant,” the young healer introduced herself. “I’m new here – I started a few weeks ago. I’m just checking you for any slight injuries.” The healer checked her over once more, then nodded. “You look fine,” she announced.
"Thank you," Beautiful said. "Can I help you rescue the RainWings?" she asked the healers.
Elegance began to shake her head, but Radiant interrupted. "Please let her," she said. "It'll help her let go of some of the guilt I can tell she is feeling right now. I know you're her mother, and your job is to keep her safe, but please let her help."
Beautiful smiled gratefully at Radiant, and the healer smiled back. Thank you, Beautiful mouthed. Radiant smiled wider and nodded.
__FORCETOC__
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Content (BlueberrytheRainWingSeaWingLeafWing)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)