Chapter Text
Prologue
|~ Pearl ~|
Lying wasn’t something Pearl liked. She hated it. More than she hated her mate, Neptune.
She stepped over crunchy leaves, Dry and brown. Her glowscales were off as not to warn anydragon of her presence. She had to rely on the blue tones of her night vision.
Why did I have to tell him, tell the whole kingdom, Pearl thought. Her mind flashed to the notes, death threats, Saying that they would crush her unhatched dragonet. All because of animus magic. All because of that one Nightwing with the blood of Darkstalker.
But they fixed it, we were safe. he was far away now. No one really knows where but he won’t be coming back any time soon.
Despite this, animus magic is hated, anydragon with magic in their blood is hated and Threatened if they even think about having a dragonet.
The royal lineage must go on through this dragonet clutched against Pearl’s chest. Sleeping soundly from the battle against it’s own shell not even an hour ago. He was so tiny, so fragile.
She had to get him to the raining village. He would be safe there, protected by a tribe that doesn’t hold grudges. Protected by a tribe that wasn’t erased by that crazed animus.
The dragonet stirred, startling Pearl out of her trance. She sat down and looked at her son. “Oh, Gill. You deserve better than to have hatched into my family. You will be better off with the nice dragons that won’t hate you for where you come from.”
“squack?” Gill responded, not understanding Pearl’s pain.
“It’s okay, we’ll be there soon, just hold on tight.” Pearl grabbed a long vine and wrapped Gill to her chest, this was she would have all four of her claws.
The night drew on. The moon reached it’s highest point in the sky. It reflected off of the puddles of water, casting a silver light onto Pearl’s belly.
She had been running for so long. Pearl was sure that she knew the way, but she was starting to doubt herself anyway.
Gill was asleep again, his breathing covered by Pearl’s. Her heart beat with every step she took.
She glanced to her right an saw a small pond. She decided that being dehydrated would be bad if she got caught by a patrol. So, she stopped and took a drink.
She heard a rustling of leaves above her head as she drank. A small bird chirp followed. Pearl didn’t see any reason to respond to the chirp. The bird chirped again, and again, and again. It sounded more annoyed every chirp, like it wanted her to respond. But she didn’t.
She lifted her head to look around and find the bird, but all she could see was… a small ripple of air?
Eyes, she saw eyes, then a mouth, then wings and a body, a body of a raining. It lunged forward grabbing a hold of her arms. Pearl shook the dragon off, throwing it to the side.
“Gah!” The raining yowled in pain as it hit the tree, “at least give me a warning before throwing me!” The rainwing stepped into the puddle and disappeared into the water. small wakes formed behind the invisible dragon before it stepped out and became undetectable.
Pearl spun around, trying to find some sort of indication of where the other dragon was. She heard a hiss from behind her and spun around. She saw the gaping jaws of a rainwing, fangs ready to shoot.
Just as the black acid left it’s mouth, Pearl jumped back to save her face from the venom. She knew that venom could only kill if it hits the eyes or mouth so she was careful to clamp her eyes and jaws shut.
She braced for the sizzling pain of the venom melting her scales but it never came. Instead, she heard a screeching sound coming from her chest, but not from her, but from her dragonet.
Screeching filled the ever silent forest as her dragonet was hit with the venom. He wriggled out of the vines and fell to the grass. a large hole sizzled from the small dragon’s right wing. Pearl covered her ears to keep her from hearing anymore. her dragonet’s wailing penetrated the cover. Tears forced their way down her cheeks, and onto the grass. Her brain forced her to flea, leaving her dragonet behind.
The last thing she saw that damned rainwing picking up Gill and disappearing into the trees.