Mature Content
This page may contain profanity, violence, mild gore, or other forms of mature content.
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WARNING: THIS BOOK IS A WORK IN PROGRESS (WIP) AND MAY HAVE SLOW UPDATES! IT IS ALSO UN-EDITED! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Prologue[]
Keep going, never stop. Keep going, never stop. Keep going, never stop. Keep going, never stop.
Those were the words than ran through the LeafWing's mind, over and over and over again.
The vast ocean waves glinted with light from the setting sun beside her in the sky, almost blinding her if she looked over that way. The sea went on forever, or so it seemed. She'd heard stories of another place, with more dragons living peacefully together. Laurel had said it was all a myth. But where would Clearsight have come from? That was the idea that kept her going. That kept her sane and not dive into the ocean abruptly to kill herself.
I could have stayed. Stayed to help my tribe. Stayed to fight and win. But she hadn't. Wasp will end up wiping us all out, she thought with a searing jab of regret, she doesn't care whether we all die. She just wants power.
The dragoness blinked tears out of her eyes, but they came anyway. Flowing in rivers, it seemed, down her face, filling her mouth with more salt than the usual spray of waves.
The sadness weighed her down, making it even harder to keep herself in the air with her already sore wings. The last rest stop had been one out of the two islands she'd found on her journey, but that had been hours ago.
The LeafWing kept flapping her wings for some time before she felt the light patter of rain on her scales. By now, the sun had set, leaving the dragoness in blurry darkness. Still, the cool non-salty water refreshed her, giving her a push of speed and strength.
But the rain kept coming, harder every few seconds, until it was no longer refreshing but like icicles piercing her body, stabbing through every crack and opening in her scales. The rumble of thunder sounded overhead and there was a bright and sudden flash of light. Not a storm! Please Clearsight, anything but a storm!
She squinted her eyes through the battering rain and pieced together the forming of angry black clouds ahead. Her eyes widened in horror but she closed them quickly, blinking them a few hundred times to get the stinging water out.
As the twister moved toward her, her breathing grew rapid with a surge of adrenaline. She turned sharply in flight, propelled by the wind, flying the opposite way of her destination, yet away from danger. The surge of strength didn't last long though, and before she knew it, her tired wings were being pounded with rain once more.
Like a leaf in the wind, she was helpless. Watching in fear as impending doom came forward. She was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
Aquila did a spiral in the sky, the early dawn light reflecting off his silver freckles and silver stars under his wings. It was a drowsy morning, the storm from last night made everything cloudy and humid. Silentflight and Cleardreamer were on the hunting patrol with him.
He breathed in a sharp breath of air, grateful for the escape of the thick smoke that most NightWings lived in. He hated the volcano. He hated his queen. Three moons, he even hated most of his tribemates! He longed for a reason to go. To leave the place and never go back. But he couldn't. He didn't have an alibi, an ally, not even a full plan (though he was coming close to one)!
Silentflight scanned the black sandy beach with his emerald eyes. Aquila watched as he fixed his gaze on a kiwi bird pecking at the water's edge. True to his name, he dove down silently with great speed and accuracy, With his mouth open, he landed and bit into the kiwi's small body. He dropped it mercilessly and shot back up to the other two NightWings.
"Nice catch!" Cleardreamer complimented the older dragon.
"Thanks. Have you guys caught anything?"
"Just a hawk. How 'bout you, Aquila?" Cleardreamer asked.
"Nothing yet, but-" Aquila cut off as a shape in the bushes on the shore caught his eye. He looked back at his tribemates when he saw Silentflight following his gaze. "-but I'm going to go hunt something now."
Silentflight frowned at him skeptically in his usual blank way, but Aquila tilted his head smiled an innocent, toothy smile.
Silentflight sighed and waved a talon. "Go on, do what you have to do."
"Come, Cleardreamer. Let's head back." Silentflight motioned to the NightWing dragoness with a flick of his tail and Cleardreamer happily flew forward toward the volcano.
How does Cleardreamer do it? Aquila thought to himself, How does she manage to be so cheerful, when she's practically living in a dark, suffocating hole. He sighed inwardly and shook his head.
Silentflight snapped Aquila out of thought with a powerful flap of his wings. The older dragon's voice dropped a few octaves and, in the most menacing tone, said, "And if you decide to try anything, I will not hesitate to inform Morrowseer." And with that, Silentflight flew off to catch up with Cleardreamer.
Aquila stared ahead at the two dark NightWing shapes grew smaller with every wingbeat. The mention of the young tyrant Morrowseer, had, well, shaken him. Some thought of Morrowseer to be the queen's son. Others thought of him as a dragonet prodigy. Either way, he didn't want to be on the queen, Morrowseer, or Silentflight's bad side.
Aquila scanned the beach for the shape he'd seen earlier. After a minute or two of searching, he located the green lump of whatever it was and flew down towards it. He flew over the rotted-out palm shading the thing and landed softly on the wet sand, soft, cool waves rolling over his talons.
He poked the lump with one claw and it to his dismay, it groaned and rolled over. He gasped when he saw what it was. A dragoness lay in the sand, half buried and looking quite battered up. It looked as if she had encountered something near-death. But that wasn't what surprised him.
The dragoness had leaf-green scales, like some SeaWings or RainWings he'd seen. But she couldn't have been a hyrbid. She had slightly darker, dappled scales on parts on her neck, tail, and legs. Her dark green horns were curved, and she had a light green underbelly. She had a leaf-like shape at the end of her tail, that was as green as her underbelly. But her wings; her wings were leaf-shaped, like nothing he'd ever seen before, the membranes a gradient that went from pale near the joints to darker green the farther out it went. She was beautiful, no doubt. But in a unique way.
"Hello," Aquila said softly.
The dragoness blinked her eyes open and stared up at him. "C-Clearsight? Am I dead? Where am I?"
"My name is Aquila, who and what are you?" He stared into her forest green eyes, getting lost in them. He didn't think he'd ever want to leave.
"My name is Cypress. I am a LeafWing a-and I come from Pantala, a far away continent."
Aquila's eyes widened as millions upon millions of thoughts and questions sped through his mind. Another continent?! But that's not possible! More dragons? Queen Battlewinner had said- Aquila stopped himself. He stared deeper into Cypress's eyes and said,
"Hello Cypress. Welcome to Pyrrhia."
Chapter 1[]
It was a beautiful afternoon in the rainforest. The last of the morning's dew was just burning off and happy parakeets chirped in the trees. A toucan squawked loudly and crashed through the leaves, landing on a high branch and rustling it’s feathers. Beams of sunlight streamed through the jungle canopy, looking as if some divine creature was to ascend.
In the farthest east part of the jungle, was a quaint treehouse. Crafted with bent sticks and many layers of leaves for insulation. It was large enough to hold 5 dragons with a bit of room left, but it only housed four.
The home itself was made of thick jungle wood branches, bent through the duration of heat to curve it in order to fit it in the tree. It was nestled in a nook, parallel with one of the tree's ultra thick branches.
Vines of purple morning glories were weaved through the window frames and around the door. Inside, a faded red and yellow rug lay on the floor’s center. A table was stationed at the back of the first room, with a red-clay flower pot holding many blooming yellow tulips. Every wood structure was made of jungle wood, in that house.
In the back of the house, an opening led into a hole in the tree where a small, dragonet-sized bed was on the far left of the room. A pale green cotton blanket covered it with matching pale green sheets. On the far right of the room, was a larger bed to fit two adult dragons. It had a shrunken dark green blanket with dark green sheets. Both mattresses were stuffed with a mix of moss and feathers, crudely sewn up and broken at the seams in some places after years of wear. A soft, muted teal carpet covered most of the floor in that room. Teal glass lanterns hung over each bed and at the doorway, offering light to those inside.
In the front room again, two chests filled with food, belongings, and other items were placed under the windows at each side of the room. The windows also had flower boxes with orchids of all colors.
The most charming thing about the house was the smashed pineapples, their sticky goo dripping down the outsides of the house.
“EVERGREEN!” a LeafWing dragoness roared through the doorway. “CLEAN THIS MESS UP RIGHT NOW!”
Up above, a young hybrid dragonet was rolling over laughing in a tree. She almost fell off, but propelled herself up at the last minute with her pale green starry wings.
She swooped down and landed at the door, peeking her head in cautiously. Immediately, she was met by her mother staring down at her disapprovingly.
“Evergreen,” she started, jaw clenched, “remember what I told you last time you thought it was a good idea to string my sewing yarn all around the house?”
Evergreen looked down sheepishly. “Yeah… should I clean the pineapples up?” She stared up at her mother with big, innocent eyes.
The dragoness sighed and shook her head, “You’re just like your father,” She said quietly as her dragonet raced outside to clean up her mess.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
“Cypress!” Evergreen’s father called as he tromped into the house, “I’m home!”
Her mother looked up from leaning over Evergreen’s bed and went into the front room. Evergreen heard them hug each other with their wings.
“How were sales today?” Cypress asked.
“Good,” replied Evergreen’s father, Aquila, “a nice SandWing bought a bunch of your quilts for a lot of money today. For their mother or somethin’.”
“I got some new kinda bread-meat-cheese thing that some dragons are calling ‘pizza’. Thought it’d be good to try. And Cypress, hon’, I got you some of those seeds you're always asking for. And I got our little Evergreen a new toy to keep her occupied until her sibling hatches.”
Evergreen’s ears pricked from the word toy. She jumped out of bed and bounded into the other room. “Toy?” She asked hopefully.
Aquila laughed and handed her an item. It had two thick discs connected together with a long, thin string in loops around the discs.
Evergreen stared puzzled at it and looked up at her father, “How’s it work?”
Aquila smiled at her and took the toy in his hands. He unraveled a bit of string and tied a loop in it. Then, he put his claw inside the loop and dropped the disc. The toy fell, but rolled back up the string when it reached its length.
Evergreen gasped happily at the ingenuity and the newness of it.
“The dragon who sold it to me called it a yo-yo. Thought you’d like it.” Aquila told her.
“Thanks dad!” Evergreen exclaimed, running back into the back room and sitting on her bed, trying out the yo-yo.
Eventually, Evergreen got tired and lay down. Cypress came in, tucked the blanket over her, and hugged her good night.
Chapter 2[]
In the rainforest, in the back room of a tree hut, there is a dark wooden box without a lid. Inside it, cushioned and swaddled by layers of the softest moss, leaves, petals, feathers, and cloth, is an egg. It’s dappled in shades of greens and black, like the jungle’s floor on a sunny day. With scattered stars that, in the dark, seemed to glow with a light of their own.
A small heart beat inside the egg, with the finishings of newborn dragonet scales and wings and eyes and horns and little tiny claws. It was about to hatch, to be introduced to a world full of faults and to a family full of love. To a caring mother who almost died to have a family, and a loving father who left everything he ever knew to have them. And to a sister, who’d protect him from danger with her life one day, who would teach him jokes and pranks and about all the different types of fruit in the rainforest.
He would be born to a family who would experience much loss to come. To a family that will fight for their lives. To a family he will fight for. To a future’s opportunity of a family of his own.
Inside this fragile, dragon egg, is a loving brother, son, and future husband. The dragonet inside this egg will come soon.
Chapter 3[]
to be continued...