Chapter Text
The sky was filled with grey clouds, slowly pulsing more and more with lightning as an IceWing made his way across the desert. His feathered wings beat fast as he clutched the large, fragile egg closer to his chest, checking behind him every so often. He didn’t agree with this plan, having an IceWing infiltrate StormWing and HeatWing territory to recover the prophesied egg, which was now in his talons, but he was the only one left able to retrieve it. The egg pulsed every so often, close to hatching with every passing second, and he pushed himself to go faster. He had to get back before that time came, and before they caught up to him.
The clouds rumbled above him, lightning flashing in the ever darkening sky, it was obvious that the StormWings were pissed, only more motivation for him to get out of here as soon as possible.
A large, warm force slammed him out of the sky, sending him plummeting to the ground. Hvitur skid face first into the sand with a soft thud, temporarily immobilized from the sudden drop. Three SandWings landed next to him, one of them laughing as the other two stared blankly at the IceWing. He opened his eyes to see a large drop inches away, the egg teetering by the edge, seconds from falling. He went to move towards it but a large talon held him down, sharp claws digging into his back and drawing blood.
“Did you really think it would be that easy, IceWing?” the largest SandWing asked, dipping her head down to look him in the eyes as she grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
He only snarled, readying his frostbreath before a blast of fire hit him right in the face, causing him to screech in pain as it burned. The larger SandWing only laughed again, clearly enjoying his suffering before grabbing him by the neck and pulling him up, now face to face with him. Her eyes narrowed before she scowled in disgust.
“You’re one of those peacemongers, aren’t you? Disgusting,” she snarled, and he only glared back, still in pain as his scales pulsed in pain from the fire, his body trying to fix the temperature to no avail.
“They really exist?” one of the other SandWings asked, but the leader gave no response other than the flick of an ear before throwing Hvitur back into the sand and looking at the large egg, which was now pulsing in the storm's dim light. She threw Hvitur back into the ground, planting one hind talon on his back to keep him down once more.
“What have we here… the egg you stole from my allies for your stupid prophecy,” she growled, picking it up oh so carefully before holding it up to examine it, smirking as her forked, black tongue slid in and out.
“Don’t you dare…” Hvitur hissed, glaring daggers at her as his protective instincts flared up, demanding that he get the egg to safety, but it meant nothing.
“So fragile… so innocent… oops!” she cackled, letting it slip out of her grasp and watching it drop into the dark abyss below them as Hvitur let out a high pitched screech, scrambling to get up.
The leader pushed her talon harder against his back before putting her two front talons on one wing, snapping it in one swift motion. Pain flared all over his body, spurring him to work harder in getting free and to the egg. He thrashed on the ground to no avail.
“So much for your little prophecy,” she snarled, before grabbing him roughly by the throat and throwing him into the abyss after the egg. He screeched once more as he fell, one wing flapping frantically as the other hung uselessly by his side, and he braced himself for the pain.
She watched him fall before turning to her companions, now donning a bored expression.
“Pitiful. Let’s go,” she snarled, before spreading her wings and taking off into the brewing storm with her fellow SandWings, going to share the news with her allies.
And then it was silent, the storm muffled by the walls of the ravine as rain poured down, soaking the ground. Everything was murky, almost hard to reach. He couldn’t think straight, but if he just held on-
Hvitur clutched the stone closer to his chest, panting heavily as he heard the cracks and pops of his bones being put back together, the burns slowly receding. It wasn’t going to fully heal, but this was better than nothing.
That was too close, his heart pumped with fear and adrenaline as he slowly opened his eyes, gaze now focused on what remained of the egg. Shards of the eggshell lay scattered, the broken body of the StormWing dragonet peeking out of one of the large pieces. He crawled over and clutched the body close to his freezing chest, mourning it. He lay there for a moment longer before setting it down, leaving it for the world to reclaim.
Now what.
He couldn’t go back, not after that little show. The StormWings and HeatWings would be on high alert, and the threat of her made things more complicated. His mind wandered to a certain place that might have what he needed, a small sliver of hope. He stretched his mostly healed wings, wincing at the throbbing from the once broken one. He could make it, he had to be fast. He knew exerting this much energy after healing would deal nasty, permanent effects, but that didn’t matter. He had a prophecy to save.
Beating his battered wings once more, he took off towards the Rainforest.
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His wings and limbs screamed in pain as he pushed himself, now clutching a color changing egg. He had almost been caught, facing the sneaky and agile RainWings hadn’t been easy, but a quick spell fixed that.
And that spell only added to the pain and weakness he was already enduring. He should’ve been more careful, more preservative of himself and his magic, and now he was wearing himself thin. He wasn’t a powerful animus or well trained, and at this point there would be permanent damage for using his magic so much. His wing was slowly growing more and more numb, like a ton of rocks had been placed on top and were weighing them down. He should stop, he should rest.
But he couldn’t stop, he had to fulfill the prophecy, to save so many innocent dragons from this insipid war.
He approached the hidden cave, rain starting to pour down harder. Even his water resistant wings were becoming sickly and waterlogged. He could hear the other guardians whispering amongst each other, most likely wondering why he was late.
“I’m here, I made it!” he called, stumbling into the room.
All three dragons turned to him, their impatience turning into shock as they got a better look at the IceWing. His once silver scales were a dull gray, one wing laying limply by his side while the other looked torn apart, feathers every which way. His face was covered in a faded burn, while his back sported various scars from the SandWings talons that didn’t heal quite right.
“Hvitur! What happened?” Webs asked, running over to him as Kestrel noticed the egg, quickly snarling in displeasure.
“That doesn’t look like a StormWing egg,” the StormWing snarled, tail lashing. Hvitur shook his head, trying to catch his breath as he sat down, passing the egg to Webs.
“I know-” he started, coughing before continuing. “Burn… she almost killed me… smashed the egg, I didn’t know where else to go but I had to get an egg somewhere-” he explained, Webs gently placing the egg next to the others; one silver, one golden, and one deep blue.
“So you decided to steal from the RainWings?” Kestrel spat. “Of all the tribes, you chose the most insipid, cowardly dragons on Pyhrria!?”
“RainWings are resilient, you know what happens to intruders in their territory! At least we have an egg!” Hvitur argued, instincts flaring as he looked down at the smaller but powerful StormWing.
“Oh great, our strong and powerful StormWing dragonet was replaced with a fruit eating pacifist! You-” Kestrel stopped when they heard heavy talon steps coming towards them. A redwood colored MudWing ran in, covered in deep gashes and wounds as she clutched a bronze egg like it was her lifeline. She promptly collapsed to the ground, cushioning the egg with her talons as her eyes fell shut.
“Asha!”
The guardians rushed over, Webs and Dune trying to stop the bleeding as Kestrel grabbed the egg and put it with the rest. Hvitur examined the MudWing in shock, barely seeing any of her scales under all the wounds and blood. Under all the scratches lay deep gashes in her neck and chest, oozing dark red blood in an amount that was most certainly fatal.
“Got ambushed,” Asha wheezed, having trouble breathing as she opened her eyes once more to gaze up at the guardians. “Blister and… Blaze’s armies… fighting… almost got the egg… but it’s safe now.” The MudWing’s eyes started to glaze over, her breathing starting to halt, and Hvitur couldn’t keep standing there doing nothing as his fellow guardian bled out.
He held her talon with one of his own, placing the rock into her palm as he closed his eyes and focused, imagining her wounds and scales knitting back together and back to how they were before, feeling the magic surge through them along with a sudden wave of pain and nausea.
“Hvitur wait!”
He could barely hear Webs as the world started to fade, his strength finally spent. He let go and collapsed to the ground, hearing Asha’s breathing slowly recovering to a normal pace. He wasn’t sure how fatal that final push of magic was, but it was worth saving her life. He knew how much the prophecy and the dragonets meant to her, and he didn't want the motherly MudWing to miss out on that. He could hear faint voices as everything faded away, pulling him into the darkness.
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“Idiot,” Kestrel said, bent down by the unconscious IceWing. He was still breathing (ragged, but still breathing), scales even duller than before. Asha was much better off now, the gashes less in size and depth and most of the minor cuts and bruises now gone, like they had never been there in the first place. Both had been moved to a smaller cave to rest, now on soft moss beds as Webs treated their remaining wounds.
“They both made sacrifices, and because of them we have the eggs. The prophecy can be completed,” Dune rumbled, walking out with Kestrel.
“I hope you didn’t forget that we still have a RainWing egg instead of a StormWing egg,” Kestrel reminded him with a snarl, clearly still upset over this fact. The two arrived at the five eggs, gathered in a nest under the skyhole. The moon shone down on the eggs, making their shells glow as they pulsed, ready to hatch. The color changing one seemed to be glowing brighter now, shimmering with an unseen magic. “The prophecy states-”
“It doesn’t matter. StormWing or not, they can still complete the prophecy. There’s no time to retrieve another StormWing egg, the Mountain Kingdom will be on high alert after having one egg stolen already,” Dune interrupted, staring down at the eggs as he spoke. “We have four out of five, that’s good enough.”
Kestrel snorted but didn’t argue back, staring down at the eggs. It would be up to the four to stop the war. If they trained them right, they would have no problem fulfilling the prophecy and ending the war.
There was a small cracking noise as the bronze egg started to fall apart, a small talon now clawing at the shell. There was no turning back, it was time.
She had to have faith.