If Oasis Had Not Been Killed By the Scavengers

Made for WanderingRaven's contest!
==Prologue==
"Stone! Heather!" I yell. Dropping all treasure, I run as fast as I can back to Valor.
It is almost morning by the time I get back. I collapse on the ground, panting heavily. Someone crouches down beside me.
"Rose? Are you alright? Where's Heather and Stone?" my father says.
I don't answer. Father helps me get up and walks me to our house.
"Where did you go?" he asks once I recover. "Where's Heather and Stone?"
"W -- we went to steal tr -- treasure..." I say. The thought of treasure made my stomach cringe. "Heather and St -- Stone... Are dead."
And I burst into tears.
(Author's Note: Stupid treasure.)
==Eruption==
I sit in this pot of lava, unable to move. My scales are burning and my insides are freezing.
And the ground is shaking like a stampede is taking place.
Two dragons burst through the tunnel, one of them carrying the armor he made.
"Took you long enough..." I hiss, "Mastermind... Explain."
"I -- I'm sorry, Your Majesty!" Mastermind squeaks, fiddling with his useless armor, "I thought -- my calculations -- the volcano isn't supposed to be erupting!"
"It is..." I say, "it is erupting... Now..."
"What do we do?" my daughter, Greatness, asks frantically.
"Evacuate... Go, everyone... Escape now..."
"But what will the other tribes think if NightWings suddenly go back to the mainland asking for refuge?" Mastermind says, still holding his stupid armor. The armor is supposed to hold lava close to me so that I can walk around. Walk out of this pot -- this prison, which I call "throne". But it is useless, like all of his inventions.
"It is not the time to care... NightWings must live... Greatness, stop that," I say to her, who is trying to push the cauldron, "You have little time left... Do not waste your time on me... NightWings need you... You are their Queen now..."
I reach up and take the crown on my head, the crown which represents responsibility. It is hers now. I place it on top of Greatness.
Greatness looks bewildered. "Are you sure --"
"Of course I am sure..." I rasp, "Now go... Queen Greatness..."
They retreat back through the tunnel. I sink in my lava until only my nostrils are in the air.
I am going to die here. That is not what I pictured when I bacame Queen.
I promised to lead the NightWings away from the island.
I promised to lead the NightWings to glory.
I promised to make the NightWings the greatest tribe in Pyrrhia.
And now I have given up. Ever since that encounter with the IceWing, I have been as good as dead. I cannot move. I can only give orders through Greatness.
As the volcano erupts, I still cannot move, and there is no one to listen to my orders now.
I hope my tribe survives this. I really do.
I charge across the fortress, searching for the exit. The ground is rumbling like crazy now, and bits of rick and dust fall out of the ceiling occasionally.
Mastermind pauses at the entrance to his lab.
"I need to get my stuff," he says.
"Make it snappy," I say, "And fly out to the mainland, you know where to go, don't you?"
"Yes," he replies before shutting the door.
I put on a burst of speed and fly out of the fortress, where most of the NightWings are.
"Listen to me! Your Queen is speaking!" I bellow.
They turn their heads towards me. Okay, now what do I say?
"Queen Battlewinner is dead." There are some surprised yelps. "The volcano is erupting. We must evacuate now!"
"But Mastermind said --" one dragon says.
"Mastermind is wrong. You can see it! The ground, the fortress, everything is shaking! We must fly South and go the the mainland!"
"But aren't there dragons in the fortress too?" another dragon asks.
"Then go get them, pronto!" I point at him. There is hardly any time left. We have to go!
"Follow me!" I yell, "It's really time to go! We'll gather on the outskirts of the Sky Kingdom!"
I rise into the air and fly as fast as I can. Out of the corner of my eye I see that not many dragons are doing the same, albeit my orders.
I sense a dragon beating his wings beside me, and turn to face him. It is Morrowseer.
"You're a terrible Queen." he says.
"Not as terrible as you might be," I retort, "I've only been appointed Queen for, like, five minutes? What did you expect?"
"A lot of dragons are still back on the island, thinking that you turned crazy or something. Aren't you going to make sure they are safe before fleeing yourself?"
"Why don't you go make sure," I snarl, "Where's Secretkeeper? She's pregnant, right? And you ditched her?"
"None of your buisness," Morrowseer says.
And the volcano erupts. Lava flies from its mouth like molten gold. Clouds of smoke pour into the air.
Luckily, we're far enough away that we won't get hit by the sparks. "I do hope the rest of them meets us there," I comment, "See? They can save their own scales. A lot of them are flying too."
A few hours later, I land on the rocky areas of Pyrrhia. I have made it out alive! I can't believe it.
Morrowseer stays in the air, still flying.
"Hey, come down now!" I call to him, "We're supposed to wait for the other NightWings!"
"You're so terrible at this that I don't even want to point out all the things that have gome wrong," he says blankly. "I have to go find that traitor, Stonemover. Where's the tunnels he'd promised us? ..." he grumbles as he goes.
Now that I think of it, there were a lot of problems in my plan...
(Author's Note: Queen Greatness, you're great...)
==Aura==
I love my life in the Scorpion Den. I may look weird and I don't have my tail barb, but I have the best parents one could ever have.
One day, we have a visitor. That's strange, because we hardly get visitors except for mother's clients, who I'm never allowed to get close to. This time, instead of a SandWing in the Den, it is a NightWing. Like father.
He is big, at least five times bigger than me! Mother ushers me back to my room, like she always does. And I press my face to the fabric of the tent to hear what's going on, like I always do.
"Stonemover," the visitor hisses with great hostility, even though we are the hosts here.
"Long time no see," I've never heard my father sound so calm yet so cold and menacing! "Morrowseer." The last word is almost spat out like a piece of rotten meat.
"You too." Morrowseer says, "Took me ages to find you. Where were you when out tribemates were in danger? The volcano exploded! And the tunnels we asked you to build was still a WIP!"
I hear Morrowseer standing up.
"Where were you? If you're so great and awesome, why didn't you save your tribemates?"
"I tried to save them by looking all over the continent for you! The NightWings gave you life, fed you and raised you, and you go and run off with a lowly SandWing? I --"
"Lowly? Is that what you said?" my mother snarls. From the shadows casted on the fabric I can see her raising her barbed tail, ready to strike. And how that makes me wish that I have a tail barb too!
Father presses a talon to hers, calming her down. "NightWings gave me my life and raised me, and fed me once a month. As soon as my animus powers were discovered, they tried to abuse it and to turn me into a soulless magic machine. I'd rather die in the volcano than that!"
I wince. I never knew that father had to go through that! He had always told me that animus powers were like my missing tail barb, some kind of defection that doesn't make him any different. Now I know the meaning of his expression when he said that.
"Well, first of all, food is scarce." Morrowseer objects, "And when you hatch with powers, isn't it the right thing to do, helping your tribe? You--"
"Foos is scarce enough for you to eat every day." Father raises his voice, "Didn't I do enough, creating food and delaying the eruption as much as I could? You and Battlewinner were so greedy of my powers that you seem to think it belonged to you guys."
My father pauses to catch his breath, then continues.
"Do you ever wish to be an animus? Would you rather claw out chunks of your soul bit by bit for the benifit of dragons who had never been grateful, not even once? To make Battlewinner the best queen ever and the NightWings the best tribe ever when all you have left is an empty shell, full of evilness and have to be executed? Would that make you the hero of your tribe?"
Before Morrowseer can reply, he says, "I'd rather be the hero of myself, my wife, and my daughter. Now go."
I don't hear the rest. I'm already on my bed, burying my snout in the sheets.
Mother and father enter. "Sorry, it took a little longer than we expected," mother says sweetly, "are you alright, Beetle dear?"
"Yes," I answer.
"Hey, why are your sheets wet?" father asks.
"Uh, I drooled over them. I'll go wash," I say, carrying the sheets in my talons and hurrying off.
(Author's Note: Though told from Sunny (Beetle)'s PoV, this is actually about Stonemover.)
==Challenge==
I have been wandering the desert with my mother ever since I was born.
My mother likes to lecture me about my ancestry (The granddaughter of Queen Oasis!!!), how dangerous the throne is (Never try for the throne!!!), and how bad the world is in general (My own sister refused to help me until I gave her my earrings!!!).
"Hey, what's that thing in the sky?" I point out to my mother, "It looks like a fourth moon."
Whoosh.
BOOM.
And my mother is dead.
Oh, well, I think, time to join the world.
I take the stone that killed my mother as my amulet. Skyfire, I'm going to call it.
No more hiding, mother, I make the decisions now.
And my decision is to take the throne.
"No way," the guards at the entrance sneer at me, "Queen Oasis only has three daughters. Which one of them has a dragonet as old as you?"
"I am the daughter of Prince Smolder and Palm, and therefore the granddaughter of Queen Oasis," I say, "and I'm here to challenge her for the throne! Why wouldn't you guys listen?!"
"Alright," one of them laughs, "let's call Smolder and let him decide." He vanishes behind the palace doors.
The other guard and I stare at each other in awkward silence until the door opens again.
The first guard emerges back to his post, followed by Prince Smolder, my father.
"You mean... This is my dragonet?" he says nervously, "But... I never thought I had dragonets!"
"See?" the first guard says smugly, "Now get out of here before we chase you away."
I take a breath. This is harder than I thought.
"My father is Prince Smolder and my mother is Palm." I declare, "When Palm tried to run away with Smolder, she was found by the palace guards -- maybe even you two -- and barely escaped with her life and mine. She gave away her earrings at that time, though I don't know the details." I glare at the three dragons, "Enough? Now let me in."
The three dragons stare stupidly at each other. Finally the second guard says, "I'll alert the Queen."
Now either I die or I become Queen of the SandWings, I think as I enter the palace doors. Either way, it's better off than roaming the desert.
(Author's Note: Who do you think won? My guess is Oasis.)
==Echoes of Laughter==
Clay is up to his old tricks when Crane and I get home.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Umber squeaks excitedly.
Clay smiles and blows another spurt of flames into his talons, which are cupped together. The fire dances on his talons like a tiny fireplace.
"Ooh!" Marsh says.
Reed has been reading in a mud puddle. He lifts his head and says, "Why don't you be useful and light up an actual fire? Sora and Crane are home with food."
"Oh, right!" Clay says, squishing the fire out and jumping up. "Thanks, sis! That looks tasty. You know what, everything is tasty." He gestures towards the crocodile in my talons.
I smile, putting the crocodile down in the middle of our mud home. Clay breathes out a plume of flames on the prey. Reed emerges from his puddle to join us. "I always like food when Clay cooks it," he says, "his fire is just... different. Better than mine, at least."
"Of course!" Umber taunts, "Clay is our bigwings! What are you?!"
"Hey!" Reed whacks him playfully with his wing.
"Alright, stop that and eat!" Clay yells.
We all dig happily into the food. After the meal, Clay and Crane ask me to go on a walk. "Sure!" I reply.
We walk out of our mud mound, Clay in the lead. Across the swamp, many groups of sibs are enjoying the evening sun, which casts a glow around everything in sight.
"Don't you simply adore this sight, Sora?" Crane suddenly pops out beside me.
"Yeah," I answer, "it's beautiful."
We sit in silence for some time.
"You know what?" Clay says, "I've never said that before, but I don't think I would've enjoyed life without you girls. And Umber and Marsh and Reed, but they're a talonful." he added with a smirk, "But I wanted to say that I love you. I love my sibs."
"And I love our bigwings too," I say.
And we laugh into the sunset.
(Author's Note: My fav of the 5 chapters. Clay is a great bigwings. My headcanon is that Clay's sibs would be more happy and outgoing and you-name-it if it isn't for the war.)
(Hint: Put the first letter of each chapter together!)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Genre (Short Story)