Chapter Text
How the fuck are we going to make a fire in this weather? I thought dazedly before drifting off into a deep slumber.
Fire surrounded me in my dreams, burning, blazing flames licked across my vision. My friends and family loitered around me, glancing at the fire nervously. There were screams as the first one was swallowed by flames, I couldn’t move, couldn’t make a sound as the fire greedily took each and every one of them, until it was just me, flames closing in. My voice finally unlocked, and I let out a scream just as the fire licked into my throat, burning me alive, burning, heat, fire.
And then darkness.
I wasn’t in a dream anymore, but I wasn’t in my bed either. I had the sensation of being suspended in mid-air, but I couldn’t move, nor open my eyes. Ugh, where am I? I heard voices outside. They were speaking in a language I had never heard, yet understood every word of. It sounded draconic, but I wasn’t sure.
“Are you sure that she’ll hatch tonight?” A male… person? Dragon? was speaking, his voice had an undertone of wonder speckled within his words.
“Yes, now shut up Reign. This abomination needs to be killed immediately out of the egg, the only reason it's still alive is because you’re weirdly attached to it.” The voice sounded oddly female, but had a sharp edge I couldn’t place. I shuddered. Kill me? Where was I? I can’t be killed now, I have my entire life ahead of me.
I had a sudden urge. Out. Out. OUT. I need out NOW. Talons I didn’t know I had sunk into the eggshell, like spears to several layers of cardboard. I scratched at it, and a large crack formed on the inside of the shell, at least, I thought so, considering my eyelids couldn’t block out the sunlight now filtering through into the shell. There was a gasp.
“Oh fuck, the abominations hatching.” The female voice from before sounded deadpan, there was no emotion whatsoever showing in her growls. A squeal of excitement quickly followed from the other dragon. “Glitter, quick, at least try to put on your nice face!” There was a small groan.
After the initial crack, I made quick work of the shell, swiftly opening the crack wide enough to squeeze through. I burst out into the open, finally able to blink my eyes open. I was met by 2 pairs of eyes, one gaze icy and scornful, the other bright and hopeful.
The two dragons were both beautiful. One, probably my mother, who was apparently called Glitter, and the one who called me a supposed ‘abomination’, was an icewing. Her one eye, so dark blue it was black, peered at me suspiciously, the other covered by a pale blue eye patch. She wore a necklace covered in pretty ice crystals that each had intertwining patterns within them, the white thread nearly invisible against her stark-white scales. The other dragon, Reign, a rainwing who was probably my father, and whom I immediately gravitated towards due to his seemingly non-murderous feelings towards me. His scales were a vibrant violet, with many large patches of pale green scales around his body. His entire tail was coloured like the ocean, with a beautiful gradient of deep and light blues all over it. He had an ugly scar across his chest in the shape of talon marks. It made me sick just looking at it, he must've been in a lot of pain. Down his legs were even more scars, but they looked more like burn or venom scars then talon marks.
“She's beautiful Glitter, she looks just like you.” Reign’s voice was soft, though his disappointment was hinted at by the ever so slightly dulling of his vibrant purple scales. Glitter scoffed, looking away. Meanwhile, I was now discovering my 3 extra limbs. I had 2 wings and a tail I didn't have before. Woah, I didn't know I had these before. I thought, giving my wings a few experimental flaps and my tail a slight swish. I looked up at my mother, Glitter, covering every detail of her and immediately forming a picture of myself in my head. “You're not an abomination, aren't you Krystal?” Reign said playfully, his talons outstretched to pick me up. I flinched away, and he withdrew, but a smile grew on his face.
“Amazing! Your scales, they changed colour, see Glitter, she does have some of me in her!
“ And now we know that she's definitely an abomination, let's get rid of her now so we don't have to deal with a monster of a dragonet.” Glitter's response was way too cold for my liking, and it made me nervous around her. Her glimmering white scales shone brightly in the little bit of sunlight that broke through the forest canopy. Ok, mental assessment time. I seem to be in the Wings Of Fire universe, if a rainwing and icewing being in front of me is enough of a clue. According to Reign's comments, I look like a regular icewing, but my scales can change colour. That's good, I can blend in easily. I'll have to do some testing later, but for now I should focus on not letting Glitter convince Reign to kill me. That would be kinda bad. I move closer to Reign’s warmth, watching the mesmerising patterns weave back and forth in my vision.
“Your eyes are so pretty.” Reign says, his growls softer, “They’re the same colour as my scales.”
“Oh for animus sake, stop getting attached to the monster and be rid of it. You just need a drop of your venom in its ‘pretty eyes’ and the abomination will be gone. Come on, do it.” I made up my mind. Glitter was horrible. Her bright white scales may be beautiful, but she wanted me gone, and that wasn’t going to happen. Luckily my father stood up for me before I could myself.
“No. I won’t do it Glitter. She’s my dragonet, and she’s beautiful. I love her already and I’ve known her for 5 minutes. I don’t care what you think, she stays safe, you hear me?”
Glitter let off a deep, menacing growl that made me shiver. “Fine, but only because I love you. If you die, she’s dead too.” She paused, leaning in the whisper in his ear. “Stay safe. For both hers and your sake.” She moved a step away. “Now, we must get back to the cave. Make sure your horrible offspring doesn’t get bitten by a cobra on the way there.”
She took off in the direction of the cave, and I grabbed the remainder of my eggshell, hanging the pieces on my wing spikes, before I followed close behind Reign. I stumbled a few times, still getting used to having 4 legs instead of 2, but I managed to mostly keep pace behind the much larger dragons. I thought as I ran.
I’m a hybrid, but which time period am I in? I know hybrids are creatures of disgust and mild interest sometime after the War of Sandwing Succession, but am I in the war, after or before the war, or somewhere in the distant past or future? There are more pressing matters though, like why did my mother agree to mate with a rainwing if she hates hybrids so much, was it a mistake, or is there something else going on here? My thoughts ended just as we came to a smallish cave entrance.
Reign turned back to me. “It looks small, but it’s much larger on the inside, I promise.” I gave a half-hearted nod and slipped inside the opening. The cave wasn’t huge, but it seemed big enough to fit at least 5 full sized dragons comfortably according to my estimations. There were two ‘beds’ in the cave, one filled with leaves and other nature stuff, while the other was filled with ice crystals. Glitter immediately went to the icy bed, while Reign sat down next to me and pondered for a moment. “Hmm, we need to make a bed for you Krystal. Any ideas?” Taking inspiration from his bed, I went back out into the sunset sunshine, grabbing a score of long grass to use as the basis for my bed. I put it in the corner near Reign’s leafy bedding, where he had sat down, watching me work with interest, as I was building a sort of nest thing. Next I found some fresh leaves, and placed them around the nest. Not finding anything else bed material outside, I came back into the cave. I suddenly felt the sensation that had been tugging me for so long. It was way, way too hot. Icewings have frostbreath, right? I let that thought hype me up into trying. I summoned the coldness inside me, blowing it out in a thin stream of ice. Ice crystals immediately formed on the surfaces that it touched, and I eventually stopped when a sizable amount of leaves had frozen completely solid. Last but not least, I scattered the egg shells still hanging loosely on my wings. It's a miracle that none of these actually fell off while I was doing stuff . I examined the eggshell, and the ice-like surface shimmered slightly, revealing stunning rainbow colours in pastel shades. In fear of breaking some of the pieces, I put some of the larger bits aside, a bit outside my best so they didn't get lost or broken.
By the time that I was done, Reign and Glitter were already fast asleep. That was great, especially if I was what I thought I might be. I grabbed a frozen leaf, holding it out in front of me. “Enchant this leaf so that it turns into a green-ish stone anklet in the shape of a snake, with topaz eyes.” My small dragonet voice echoed around the cave. I had been practicing the wording of the spell in my head for hours, not even expecting it to work. The leaf shifted and stretched, and it formed a lean snake, twisting and curling in a way that could wrap around a dragon's ankle comfortably. I dropped the anklet in shock. I was an animus. Every spell I cast was one drop of soul taken from me. Hold on, wasn’t soul based on actions, not spells? I had a really strong moral compass, but was that worth risking? I shook my head, picking up the anklet experimentally. “Enchant this anklet so that it always fits perfectly, no matter who is wearing it.” I slipped it onto my left foreleg, and it adjusted its size, becoming much smaller to fit on my newborn leg. The topaz eyes gleamed in the darkness. It was wildly uncomfortable to wear, I had to fix that. I crafted a quick spell so that it would be extremely comfortable to wear, before making it indestructible and unable to remove unless it was my wish to. There was one more thing to do, at least for tonight anyway. “I enchant this anklet so that the wearer cannot be killed in any way except old age, and cannot catch any horrible diseases. Also, I enchant this anklet so that its wearer cannot be hurt or injured by any dragon or person, intending or not. This includes animus spells. Oh right, and for the record, make the wearer and the anklet immune to any animus spells or animus touched objects, except for mine.” I hoped that would be enough to protect me for at least the night. I wasn’t as scared as I should be. I knew that, but I was fairly confident in my ability to not turn evil. New possibilities and spell ideas filtered through my head, but I ignored them. I needed a good night's rest after all. A little bit of tossing and turning later, my restless mind turned from a roaring waterfall to a trickling stream, and I fell into a deep slumber, just like the night before.