Rising stars

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### **Prologue**

A dragon slowly opened their eyes. Unable to process their surroundings quite yet, they simply laid there in a state of consciousness. After a few seconds, they could finally recognize the rough area they were in. *Sand beneath my talons... The nearby sounds of ocean waves... I'd guess I'm on a beach, the question is... where?* A pause. *Actually, a couple new questions arise... for example, who am I? What am I doing here? And why does everything hurt so badly?* Mustering up the strength to raise his head slightly, he noticed the massively concerning gash in his chest. *Well, that answers one question... and, naturally, raises a couple more.* He could hear talonsteps quickly approaching him... but couldn't manage to look over at them.

"Ah, you're awake!" They seemed fairly relieved to see him awake... how long had he been out? Hours? Days? Weeks? "Hold still... otherwise, you'll just make it worse." The dragon ordered him, wrapping a few layers of bandages. This dragon had four wings, her scales were a mix of a yellowish-orange and black. Finding his voice, he tried to ask her a question. "*Who... are... you...?*" "Don't worry, you should be alright. Sorry, I was just passing by and couldn't just leave you there, so... Actually, who're you? How'd you wind up here?" "*I... can't... remember. Where is... here?"* "Can't remember, hm?" They seemed unconcerned by this. "Ah well, you'll remember sooner or later. As for where this is, this is a beach on the South-east of Pantala. Also, are you sure you can't remember anything? Not even your name?" "*My name...? I think it's... ...Darkbreaker. Call me... Breaker, though.*" "Hm... Okay. By the way, do you want to stay with me until you're ready to go? It's... been a while since I've had company, though, so..." "*I'd... appreciate that, thanks."* He weakly stood up and walked after her, glad to have met his first real friend.

## **PART 1:**

### **Chapter 1**

**Two years later**

"So you're going?" She asked him. He didn't want to leave her... the two years they had spent together were the only happy memories he had... although, to be fair, they were the only memories he had. "This... is the only way I can find out what my past was. I... I can't just let myself live my life without even knowing who I really was..." She sighed, somewhere on an odd balance between disappointment and sadness. "I promise, though... I'll come back and see you as soon as I can, okay?" "Alright, just... promise you'll be safe, okay?" He nodded. *I have to... Just because I can't abandon my past doesn't mean I'll let myself abandon my present instead.* "Actually, I have something for you..." She reached into her bag and pulled out a bracelet, indented with a singluar topaz. It was oddly thin, but it was at least lightweight enough to not be distracting. "Here. Take it." She passed it to him. "It was my sister's once. She gave it to me, and now... I'd like you to have it. Just bring it back to me someday, okay?" "I will. I'll try not to be too long." He turned with a smile, flying off towards Pyrrhia in search of answers.

It was fairly easy to go there, given the eventual construction of an actual connection between the continents as opposed to hopping from island to island. Even so, the journey took quite a while considering the massive ocean between them. He passed a few dragons on the way through, although he saw fewer of them than there usually were. Even so, he didn't bother trying to remember what any of them looked like. It took about a day of travel to cross, not even counting the occasional stops he took along the way. *I just wish they'd find a way to make this more convenient sometime... With how long this is taken, it might take longer getting there and back than it would take to find out about myself.* He ended up flying a bit off the beaten path to a landmark of a mountain... Jade Mountain, according to his map. Also according to map, it was also an academy... although it seemed to have been closed for quite a while now... How long exactly, though, he wasn't sure.

The closest village he could find was one named 'Prosperity'- Supposedly, the story was that it was built around a rather small oasis and a now long-empty home. He planned to rest here for the night, before actually seeking answers the following day. He admitted to himself that he was, in fact, not sure how he would find his "answers", but surely he could at least find some kind of lead to look into, in one way or another. When he arrived, he found it was, in fact, significantly smaller than he expected... *Although, I suppose the size doesn't nessecarily matter...* However, even in the settlement proper, there didn't seem to be anyplace he could stay the night. *I guess I'll just check the next town...* He turned around to leave, but this thought was interrupted by the sound of a struggle nearby- punctuated with a pained yell, likely from one of the two dragons already there. *What was that?* Instincts of curiousity taking over, he ran off to see what had occured.

### **Chapter 2**

He passed several palm trees in a rapid panic, unsure who- or what- he expected to find, or even why he was so intrigued by this... Although, it was probably too late to doubt his reasoning by this point. A bit out, he could see a couple dragons, concerningly distant into the barren desert... A Leafwing, bleeding onto the sands, seemingly begging to their companion... A Nightwing, talons stained with blood. Unable to hear them properly, Dark approached the two nervously. As he did, he could somewhat make out a conversation between them... the Leafwing seemed to be... pleading, but it sounded angry. He could only wonder what exactly had happened to lead to this... or why he struggled to grasp how the tension was solid enough to hold. Finally, one phrase cut through this tension... the Nightwing, clearly not having noticed him approaching yet... "Well then. About time you died, if you won't tell me anything." A spark within him reignited, a brief phrase within his memory, in a voice he couldn't recognize. "*I'm sorry, but...*" He felt as if some instinct took over him in that moment... as he jumped right between the two, spinning around to face the attacker. "You'll do no such thing." *What am I doing...? This is a terrible idea. ...Well, too late to just back down now.*

"Who are you? ...Another one of them? Alright then, so be it." They unsheathed a shining blade, clearly intent on combat. "Today, the both of you will meet your end!" Regret and fear filled his face. *Why did I have to bother dealing with any of this? Why couldn't I have just not cared? All I'm looking for is the truth of who I was, not an early grave... ...But surely, there's a reason I felt a need to this... a reason that something compelled me to do this... but what?* He dropped down into an amateurish and improvised fighting stance. They lunged at him, with Dark barely managing to dodge out of the way- earning a scratch on his tail for his trouble. *Okay, I was not prepared for this. Alright then... my turn!* He dashed forwards, quickly slashing at his target.... managing to weakly scratch their eye. A bit of his fear showed as he glanced down at his now bloodstained talon, with his opponent acting equally as shocked... before an eerie smile formed. "Not bad... I suppose I underestimated you. But this time... I won't make that same mistake." *As easy as it was to hit him that time, I doubt his words ring entirely hollow...*

### **Chapter 3**

Before he could do anything else, they quickly charged at him and slammed him into the sand, leaving him gasping for air. He clawed frantically at his attacker, struggling to maintain any composure. He gasped and panted desperately, finding the courage to leap and attempt to slash at his attacker's eye again... only to find his attack blocked with ease. They scratched quickly at his chest, before throwing him away back down onto the desert sands. *H-how could I... be so careless...?* "Hm. You got pret-ty sloppy there, wouldn't you say?" The Nightwing asked, his voice somehow both taunting and imposing. "Now, I'll give you one chance, and one chance is all you get, so think carefully about how much you really need to dedicate... How would be the best way to infiltrate them?" *What are they talking about...?* "The more information you give..." They continued. "The better chance you'll have of living to see tomorrow. So, how about it?" "*W-what are you... talking about...?*" He lay defeated, unable to fight back... so now, he did actually kind of want to know what this was about. They slammed their talon down on his throat. "Wrong. Answer."

His opponent raised their talon to deliver one final strike... but then, as if he had done this too many times to count, he stabbed his claw with what little strength he had left at their throat as they stood over him, in one last act of desperation... and while he was unable to make out exactly what happened, it... worked. He lay there a little longer, relieved about his life not being over yet. Although, there were still so many questions to answer... for one, *How did I know to do that? It felt so familiar, and yet... I've never so much as thought of anything like that myself. It's like something... controlled me, but I don't quite know how to put it into coherent words.*

*Well, I suppose that's not important right now... Right now, I need to do what I did all that for- to save their life.* He walked weakly over to the unconscious Leafwing. *Okay, not great... But they'll live. At least, I hope they will...* He took some of the bandages out of his bag, wrapping them around their injuries. *Well, I guess I need to figure out where to put him. And where I'm going to stay, for that matter...* He heard the Leafwing mutter something, seeming more disoriented than injured.