Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

In a dusty and run-down bar, the hour striking midnight as the last sober flees with a turn of their tail…

As the last blackout drunk is dragged away, leaving two alone in the dimly lit room.

The RainWing scowls and eyes down the bartender, whose eye is silently twitching and his brow furrows slightly as the sensation.

The SeaWing cleans the last cup and puts it away, readjusting their cloudy glasses and eyeing him down.

“Get out,” he mutters quietly.

Dignity perks his head up. “Hmm? What was that?” He retorts with a punchable smirk.

“Get out,” he repeats, though he only gets less stern, his voice faltering as his gaze leaves the RainWing’s piercing yellow eyes.

“For a twenty-four-seven bar…” Dignity mumbles to himself, kicking the seat behind him away with a hind leg and stretching, “that’s quite peculiar.”

“Stop talking like a dunce and leave already, I’ve got to get home. There’s gonna be nobody else here and I pledged to myself that I’d take the job off tomorrow,” the bartender replied.

“Quite a shame…” Dignity whispered, walking towards the door, letting his steps carry him a bit closer to the SeaWing that was also walking out from behind the counter. He could clearly notice, of course, snarling quietly as the RainWing continued.

“I bet nobody will miss you,” Dignity blurted out, raising his head and looking coyly at the bartender, who was attempting to meander around him. Dignity unfolded a wing in front of the SeaWing, stopping them from moving forward. “Ah-ah-ah,” Dignity said.

The SeaWing’s eyes glanced down at the wing and back up at Dignity. “What… Are you trying to do…?” He asked, his balance shifting from one foot to the other uneasily.

“Shh,” Dignity replied blatantly.

“What does that mean?—”

“Shh!” He hissed, his frills flaring as he instinctively bared his fangs.

The bartender, much to Dignity’s amusement, was shut up, staring at him with a hint of fear in their eyes.

His mouth opened and closed, wanting to protest to the RainWing, but could do nothing but stand speechless as the RainWing stalked towards him.

“I could kill you, right now,” Dignity threatened, “and we wouldn’t know each other’s names.”

“Wh-” The SeaWing started, but Dignity cut them off. “So, let’s get this over with. Do your best, or your worst, it makes it all the more easier,” he raised his head and stared him down as he spoke, his curled tail swaying as he took another step closer.

The SeaWing’s lip trembled. Dignity took this as an opening for yet another threat. He hissed and fluttered the frills on his head, whispering connivingly, “coward…”

The bartender had no more to say, clearly, and Dignity finally struck the first blow, leaping onto him and biting down on his neck.

He screamed and lashed about, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he slammed his large tail on the ground and pushed at Dignity.

“Off! Off, I say!” The bartender screamed, clamping their mighty jaws down onto the wrist of Dignity, who was attempting to swipe at his snout.

With a loud and unbridled hiss, the RainWing sprayed venom onto their chest, burning a hole that sizzled with the stench of burning flesh.

The SeaWing roared and whipped their tail around again, managing to catch Dignity’s hind legs and slide him off of the bartender.

But he did not rest.

Who ever said he did?

For the final act…

As the SeaWing, no matter how he wanted to be strong, was starting to waver.

Dignity slipped out from underneath his grasp, watching his heavy eyes stare down his executioner.

The bartender was exhausted, struggling to keep their eyes open as they became lightheaded with the blood pooling out of their body.

Dignity raised his right talon up to their horn, excruciatingly slowly, savoring their fear.

He swiftly dug his thumb claw into the hollow, bioluminescent scales of the SeaWing, hearing them choke out a gasp of pain.

He hooked his claw in deep and used the rest of his claws to grip his left horn tightly, putting more and more leverage on his talon as he began to pull.

“No…” The SeaWing whispered weakly, “what are you doing…?”

He did not reply.

With a strong pull and a sickening rip, the SeaWing let out one last shriek before collapsing.

Blood welled steadily down their face as Dignity unlatched his thumb claw from the side of the SeaWing’s head, which from the force of the pull had dug it deep and grazed his skull.

He held the detached horn in his hand as crimson blood trickled down his talon.

He smiled and stood up, chewing on the fleshy and blunt end of the horn for a second before tossing it behind him.

Enough of that hell, onto making the next, he thought, slamming open the door and stepping outside. 

The Sky Kingdom.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

“Love you, Gyre,” Aonyx leaned down and pecked her mother on the lips, her wings folded neatly and her Sailor’s Badge nestled in the string of her pouch, looking pretty as always.

“My guiding star,” her mother croaked, “may the night sky guide you.” She reached out and cupped one of her daughter’s talons, stroking her knuckles and smiling warmly.

Aonyx looked away and smiled back. “Mama, you know I always come back safe. It’s a fact,” she assured.

“Dear…”  Gyre’s scales wrinkled slightly into a frown, her weary eyes opening to gaze into hers, a dreary sapphire blue, aged long past their prime. “...You mustn't worry me, no?” She murmured. The quietness of the house’s presence was starting to thrum into her, her mother’s awfully soft-spoken voice rambling.

“You always say you shall come back, but how do I know you will return every time?” Gyre continued, “So you have to promise me, my love, that you will return.”

Aonyx couldn’t bear to open her mouth. Saying anything would get a bad response from her mother, and she knew it.

“For your mother… Do you promise?” The elderly SeaWing added.

“Of course, mama,” she pecked her mother on the cheek and turned tail, stalking through the dimly lit halls of the house.

The soft sounds of the waves receding and coming back up the sand filled her ears as she opened the old mahogany door and stepped outside, her webbed talons grazing over the rusty knob.

The door creaked open, the sounds of the waves rushing into her ears.

A distant albatross called out in the cloudy sunset, spreading its wings and flying off as Aonyx watched.

The sky was filled with deep, nebulous blues and scarlets and purples, blackening like ink across paper at the top as the first star showed its face, twinkling softly.

A perfect day for sailing.

She quietly padded down the staircase from the porch and across the sand, staring down at the ground she walked on.

She stepped across the old dock, the feeling of moss between her claws as she stepped onto the boat as it rocked back and forth.

‘Aonyx… Why do you choose to sail? You have wings, you fly, no?’  Her mother’s voice rang in her head. It was quite the bittersweet memory, a testament to her will.

‘Because, Mama, the sea calls my name.’

‘...I should’ve always known, haha.’

She took the loose blade lying on the bottom of the raft and pinched it between two claws. She severed the rope that bound her to the dock, picked up the oars, and began to sail.

Aonyx loved the night, to be honest.

The way the stars looked was always beautiful, and it felt like every single cloudy day’s skies cleared up just so give way to night.

The raven of the world, the night. Diligent and persistent, coming and going with such beauty, such awe, it leaves you wondering if it’s your final good-bye.

And all her stars made stories and music and chords and love and they were told they were made to believe…

The waters babbled quietly as a small wave rocked her boat. Aonyx lifted up her oar and pressed it back into the water again, feeling her arms struggle against the meandering currents of the sea. Not as strong as usual, but still a hassle.

At least the war was over.

This time, she was out here to celebrate.

She thought for a moment, since the time seemed right to do something in honor of the peace, and she began to mutter under her breath, a tune she knew well.

“The Rain in the trees,

The Moons of three,

These stars of promised peace and harmony,

In the mountain Skies,

The dawn in our eyes,

As the last cruel one cries…

For all of the Skies and Seas,

The Sands and leaves,

They call me…

As Ice and Mud to Water and Ash,

We find ourselves away from the past…”

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

“Low prices, low prices!” Mantidfly roared, leaning forward on the counter and rang the little trinket of a bell he had loudly, the cacophony of bystanders and shoppers overpowering his own voice.

He scowled and rang his bell again, this time with more force. He couldn’t say that his bell was actually for getting people’s attention that much, he really just liked the sound that it made.

“The best antique store in Where No Mountain Rests!” He roared one more time, ringing the funny little bell again and again.

A shy looking SandWing walked into his booth and looked around, taking a moment to examine a porcelain scavenger figure and checking the price before setting it down, reaching into a bag to count some scales and pass them over.

“How are you today?” Mantidfly asked, shoving the scales into his hands and taking a pair of scissors out from behind the counter to snip off the price tag of ten scales.

“Good… Was looking to get my mom a present. It’s her birthday and she loves these little things,” they responded, taking the figure and placing it into a bag. Mantidfly hummed in intriguement as they spoke.

“Have a great day, stay safe out there,” Mantidfly bid farewell with a smile, waving one talon around as the SandWing turned tail and left.

He emptied the scales into a small bag on the floor to his left and hummed to himself.

“War is over…” He made up the line, his tail swaying back and forth as he tightened the drawstring on the bag again and leaned over the counter.

“We’re all… Uh… Happy…” He watched a couple of shoppers’ eyes skim over her selections, causing a small roar from a few dragons behind them as they stopped in place.

“Them RainWings are gone…” He stopped himself for a moment, “wait no, not gone.”

“Them RainWings are okay now… They’re goin’ about their day…” He mumbled.

“And… We’re all going to be okay…” He frowned to himself, Mantidfly, that was horrible. You should be killed on the spot for that, he thought.

He sighed dramatically and watched a NightWing couple enter the store. How did he know they were a couple, you may ask? They had large silver bracelets on their tails that read ‘ HIS’ and ‘ HERS’ .

Most corny couple of the year, that was for sure.

“Need help looking for anything?” He asked, tilting his head and watching the NightWings as they walked side by side awfully slowly.

“Hm, no,” the lady spoke, tilting her head up sassily. She intertwined her tail with her partner and kept on walking, still maintaining that comically slow pace.

Mantidfly sighed to himself. They could’ve asked nicer—nevermind, it’s not a big deal.

The boyfriend picked up a frosted pink glass bowl and examined it, he turned to his girlfriend and asked the worst thing he’d heard in his entire life. “What do you think, mommy?” His voice was obnoxious and high-pitched, and seemed to violate his ears with each word.

Oh three moons, get out. Get the hell out of my store already.

“It’s great, kitten… I think we’ll get it.

Mommy likes it very much.”

NO.

He clutched his temples and sighed through gritted teeth. He knew they shouldn’t be allowed to keep this up, but what was he going to do? It was clear that this wasn’t even any cute age-regression thing. This was just straight-up freaky.

The two walked up to the counter and set down the bowl.

“Hey… There…” Mantidfly tried to start, but then quickly shut himself up and realized these were the last people he’d want to talk with.

“How much?” The girlfriend asked, tapping a claw on the rim of the bowl.

“Fifty scales,” he responded blankly.

The NightWings’ eyes both widened as they stared at each other.

“Do you have fifty scales?” The girl asked.

“Do you?” The boy asked back.

The silence was killing them all.

“Shit…” The girl pinched the bridge on her snout and sighed. “Don’t tell me you spent even more on those dumb little figures…” She groaned.

“I… I’m sorry, mommy…” The boyfriend murmured back.

The girlfriend suddenly went deadpan, staring at the other NightWing and glancing back at Mantidfly.

She whispered something into his ear while staring at Mantidfly, the boyfriend  nodding.

…

The girl opened her mouth, grabbing the bowl.

“...Bye,” she said.

“What?⸺”

The two whisked around and sped out the door, bowl in hand, their stupid little tail bracelets gleaming in the light of the oil lamps in the shop.

“HEY!” Mantidfly sped after them, he chased them for a good few seconds as they neared the exit to the shop.

The girl’s talon slipped on the edge of the step down from the store and…

CRASH!

The bowl clattered in a thousand different pieces as it shattered across the wooden floor.

The woman stared in shock, at the (used-to-be) bowl and then at Mantidfly. Her boyfriend was starting to sniffle and let out puny whines, covering his face as if crying would do anything to help them.

Mantidfly was fuming at this point. He stormed up to them while scowling.

“Get out of my store,” he growled.

The NightWings didn’t move.

“GET OUT OF MY FUCKING STORE BEFORE I CALL THE GUARDS!”

The two scrambled to their feet, running out of the store with the pieces of the bowl still spinning around.

Mantidfly sighed to himself and turned around.

He couldn’t be bothered to clean it up.

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

Tap.

Taptaptap.

Celastrina’s eyes hovered to the stone door. “Come in,” he muttered, his claws gently curling around the letter on his desk.

His visions had been hitting harder than ever, but he knew nobody could know. He was more concerned with trying to continue his dwindling bloodline, the amount of NightWings in the world scarce beyond his liking.

Demilune opened the stone door, the bottom sliding against the wooden floor.

“What is it?” He asked, exercising his eyes in letting them stare right into her soul.

“Professor…” She whispered.

“Professor Celastrina,” he finished.

She held her lips together for a few moments, out of annoyance from Celastrina’s confidence in what she had to say.

“...Professor Celastrina, yes… I have news for you,” she stepped into his office, minding her every step as she approached his desk. The rotten wood creaked under her talons, making her wince. The room smelled awfully of mildew and old books, not like Celastrina hadn’t gotten used to it, but his student Demilune sure hadn’t.

Celastrina’s lips curled into a smile in subtle amusement. News he hadn’t heard yet? He’d only been outside, what, a week ago? What was it he needed to hear?

“The war is over, Professor,” Demilune murmured, leaning over her mentor’s shoulder.

His eyes widened.

“The war is over… They have done it, the RainWings are at bay,” she added.

“They…” Celastrina started, his voice barely audible, even in the silence of his office.

“Yes…” Demilune affirmed, nodding.

He winced in pain as another vision shot through his head. A RainWing of blue and white scales, with the brightest yellow eyes in Pyrrhia, holding something. A moonstone and diamond necklace, hovering over a grandiose pedestal.

A promise of eternal life.

An infinitely spanning kingdom.

A test of morals.

The Parhelion.

“No…” Celastrina whispered.

“Professor…” Demilune mumbled in worry, concerned by his sudden display of anxiety.

“I—I must go.”

Celastrina kicked his chair away from him, giving his student no time to move out of the way.

“Professor! Professor! ” Demilune shouted, running after him.

Celastrina paid her no mind, closing the door on her and stepping out into the stone hall.

The mentor ruffled his four wings angrily and stared behind him. It pained him so much to neglect his pupil but he knew that he had to stop this.

Demilune pulled open the door and scampered out into the hall, facing his back.

The hybrid didn’t even look back at her.

She panted and stared at him, her expression torn between anguish and confusion.

Celastrina followed through the candlelit corridor, eventually pushing away the vines that lead out of the cave.

She wouldn’t try to stop him, and he knew that.

He knew what he was doing, and he knew what he had to do.

The brightness of northern Jade Mountain opened up to him, the Claws of the Clouds Mountains looming in the distance.

It pained him to leave, not even emotionally, as the bright light stung his eyes and the sounds overwhelmed him, but he knew where he must return…

The Windshear Exhibition.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

The road. Oh, the road. The road to the Sky Kingdom was a lot harder than he anticipated. The place he had originally settled in the northern Rain Kingdom, barely miles away from the border of the Mud Kingdom, was nothing. The land was forgiving, not to mention the RainWings he’d grown accustomed to. But the Mud Kingdom? Oh, he forgot that those fat old mud dwellers could be relentless.

Dignity strided out of the bar, a smug grin plastered on his face. The streets were empty besides some drunk person sobbing violently in an alleyway, but he knew that they wouldn’t be worth the kill.

He did have a plan in mind, of course.

There was… A museum of sorts. An artifact storage, if you will, in the Sky Kingdom.

It wasn’t quite open to the public but over the years it had caught some unwanted attention for valuable Animus artifacts.

Ones of strength, wisdom, mind-reading, manipulation, status, riches…  They all were kept in the marble walls of the Windshear Exhibition.

There was one there that had caught his eye a while ago.

RainWings. Docile for some time. They lived in harmony and barely overstepped their bounds. They hid among the trees in silence and constructed villages in their forests of solace.

He was proud to admit, he was courageously the one that started it!

The Parhelion. An artifact of the Windshear Exhibition. A golden necklace with gems of moonstone and diamond. It was powerful in itself and basked in the glory of the walls of the Windshear Exhibition. It was specially kept away, and many of its secrets were not to be brought to light, its only shared information being the power to grant a powerful kingdom and immortality. Its creator, Windshear, was told to have created it in a test of karma and morals.

Whatever that meant, and, not like that mattered, of course!

Dignity had set himself on a mission: to retrieve the Parhelion and become more powerful than ever. It was in the heart of the Sky Kingdom, which would definitely make it more difficult, but he was determined.

So, one early summer night, he joined a group of RainWings, and in lack of hierarchy and in chase of free-will, set out for redemption.

He was quite proud of what he had done, he had to admit. Especially with how the SkyWing Royals cared to go about it, scampering their way down to the other kingdoms and meekly revealing some scroll an old illegal hybrid immigrant at Rapaleu Goods, soft little SandWing messenger with way too many doves, and a bratty SkyWing queen with a whiny attitude towards being liked had put together.

The RainWings down there definitely did a good job feigning acceptance, and the three along with their plethora of guards flew off almost immediately to the next kingdom… Without any offer to help clean them and their land up after the war or anything.

He swore, the second those officials left, all the RainWings looked at each other… And laughed.

‘A scroll?! Are you kidding?!’ one roared. ‘’Oh! We’re here to stop the RainWing war!’ Good job with that!’

Dignity had just smiled and crept away. He knew where he needed to be.

And so, he ended up at the northern Rain kingdom, strangling guards and passers by who seemed to know a bit too much about what he was doing, though, most of the time it was just for the thrill of the kill.

He’d done kills amongst a murderous melody, taking the breath of what should’ve been somebody’s last, getting the upper hand in the world of dog-eat-dog and in the shadows of what should never be brought to light.

It was awesome. It was remarkable. Its rewards were a lot less physical but in the sentimental value of the fun that it brought.

He was never caught. He could do this for as long as he pleased, as long as he kept himself not in the glaring view of the public eye, he was able to keep his killing spree going for all of his life.

He was caught off-guard from flying.

There was a MudWing guard stalking around, growling and lashing their tail. Beside them was a worn and charred torch, which they kicked away.

Dignity studied them with keen eyes, watching as they turned around again and whipped their head towards the sky.

He expected them to try and stop him, but… They just rushed back towards their guard post.

Dignity blinked once, twice, a few more times, and then looked back up towards the mountains. Why be bothered to engage if there was no promise of a good chase? He was already back at the post, and he could see a few other MudWings sitting around and chatting near a smoldering fire, basking in the thin mud.

It was quite the jeering thought of what would happen to try and kill them. He knew he would’ve gotten spotted immediately and would die like a dog at their talons. His mind quickly skipped to the idea of torturous methods, but he brushed them aside with the reassurance that there were little people that would really do that, and he was one of them.

His eyes widened with realization. There was somewhere he needed to go.

With heavy wind under his wings, a zephyr chilling him in the dawn of the late summer skies, he angled and veered himself to the left, heading towards the Claws of the Clouds Mountains.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

Day was soon upon her as the seas of what had to now be the Sky Kingdom arrived. She could see the rolling hills revealing themselves in the almost unreal dawn over Pyrrhia.

Quite the juxtaposition to herself, she seemed to enjoy this day. It was weird that the day after a war could bring such a beautiful light coming up the way. It felt weirdly coincidental.

She thought back to her mother for a second, but then shook the thought off. It was her time to explore. She promised she’d come back, but not when…

…

As much as it pained her, she knew she was an adventurer at heart. She wished she could tell her mother that she would be okay, but she knew she could whenever she got home.

Whenever that was, sure…

What a horrible person she felt like.

The churning of the shores up ahead caught her back up to reality, her eyes widening as she spotted a dock nearby. She picked up the oars and rowed with the strength of what she’d deem a beast, turning and heading towards the dock.

She turned herself once again, coming to a perfect stop as she left an oar’s end in the water, slowing her down. Aonyx clambered out of the boat, took out a piece of rope near where she had sat, and tied it up.

She smiled and flapped water off of her wings. She did hear that there was a town nearby she’d like to check out… Where No Mountain Rests. A good stop…On whatever journey she was on, really. Would make do nicely.

A SkyWing with ruby red scales flew overhead, roaring loudly. As Aonyx walked forward, rows upon rows of mountains unfolded before her, all touching the skies in different directions and sizes.

The sun rose behind her, casting shadows down her dark indigo and black scales.

She couldn’t stop thinking of her mother.

－✪－

The earth turned to dirt road, and soon to cobblestone, as Aonyx wandered down the path towards Where No Mountain Rests. SkyWings smiled and passed by, a SandWing roared to her left, the lanterns above were nice and fancy, and the shops were arranged in neat little rows that were less than just counters… They actually went somewhere!

Aonyx adjusted her sailor’s hat and smiled excitedly, not caring which street she went down anymore. She was just following the thoroughfare and hoping to pass by a hotel or something, hell, even a hostel would work for her!

Money? She reached two claws inside her pouch and felt around. Enough scales to keep her going for days, and, if she bargained enough, weeks.

Badge? Striking as ever, still pinned nicely on the strap of her pouch.

Boat? …She stared behind her apprehensively.

I’m sure it’s okay.

She looked in front of her once again.

The path only leads forward, Aonyx. No time to dwell back. You’ve got your own time to enjoy, she thought.

A bell rang loudly, which caught her attention.

A… HiveWing?

He was ringing a bell loudly, trying his best to shout over the crowd.

“Best antique store in Where No Mountain Rests!” He roared. He took a moment to ring the little trinket bell he was holded, smiling enthusiastically.

…

Wait, wait, wait.

She had an idea.

Aonyx went inside the store, and the HiveWing quickly rushed to the counter at the back, grinning from ear-to-ear.

She examined a few items half-heartedly before approaching the counter.

“Hello there,” she greeted him.

“Need help finding anything?” The shopkeeper inquired. “Don’t mind the mess,” he added in a whisper.

Aonyx turned around and stared with confusion. She didn’t even notice, there was, in fact, shards of pink glass lying in disarray near the front of the shop.

“I… Won’t…” She murmured.

“Ahem,” Aonyx started again, “do you need any help running this shop? Maybe like—an extra worker?” She asked.

He blinked once, twice, and then the smile that had gone away reappeared on his giddy little face once again. “Well, yeah, sure! Say, I could use your help and maybe I could give ya a few bucks! How does that sound, girl?” He offered, leaning over the counter with a prideful expression.

Aonyx quietly nodded. She knew that she’d used up all of her confident-talk for the day.

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

“Finish it up, finish it up,” Mantidfly yelled from across the store, catching Aonyx’s attention.

The SeaWing nodded and dumped contents of the dustpan into the trash, tapping it against the rim one-two-three times.

Mantidfly walked up to Aonyx, grinned and pulled out a shiny golden scale from a pouch on his wing. Her eyes widened as she stared down at it, her sapphire blue eyes looking down at the money and then back up at Mantidfly, who looked awfully pleased with both himself and Aonyx.

“Mantidfly, I… I barely did anything,” she retorted.

“Take it,” he nudged his arm forward, poking her chest.

She fumbled with her hands for a moment before pinching the scale between two claws and tucking it away, staring Mantidfly down in honorous wonder.

He only smiled warmly back, nodding without a word before turning tail and walking away.

“Your shift is done for the day, I’ll give ya the rest of what you earned by the night, alright?” He called.

“Mhm,” Aonyx called back, echoing her voice.

He could hear the quiet pitter-patter of the SeaWing’s claws as she walked around, until stopping.

“Mantidfly…” She murmured.

“Yeah?”

“Uhm… Where do I go?”

“Er…”

“Mantidfly…”

“Look, Aonyx. I’ll… Uh… Fix ya somethin’ up in the back of the store give me a minute.”

“What, like food?”

“No, no… You’ll see.”

Mantidfly dashed off and down to his house. Why’d I forget?! She told me, just like an hour ago, that she was coming from the Sea Kingdom! She doesn’t have a place here! Shit… She’s gonna be sleeping in the back of the store like some misbehaved dog… What was I thinking?!

He paced up to his door, keys subconsciously already in hand, and stuck it into the lock and fiddle around for a bit. The door cracked open and he rushed inside, taking a moment to leave it only open by an inch.

Mantidfly picked up a blanket and a few pillows off of his couch, looked around, and rushed out of his house.

He kicked the door close behind him and ran back to the antique store, trotting through the dimly lit corridor of items before reaching the mostly empty back, where he hadn’t seen any customer go in weeks.

He set up this little excuse of a bed—it was more like a shitty nest than anything—and raised his head.

“Aonyx!” He roared.

…

It took a moment, but he could hear her moving around. She squeezed her way through a few tight halls, refusing to look a creepy taxidermy moose in the eyes, and stepped in front of Mantidfly, who was knelt over this little mess of blankets and pillows.

He smiled nervously and gestured towards it. “Hm?” He asked, practically begging for some sort of consolation for such a terrible job.

Aonyx’s jaw twitched for a moment as she looked over him and his work apprehensively. “It’s…” She had to see the look in his eyes, she just had to.

“It’s…Good,” she said slowly, an awkward expression playing on her face.

Mantidfly smiled warmly, not even caring about the sarcasm in her voice or that she really didn’t think so. What was even going on in his head, anyways? A headless chicken?

…You know, maybe.

Aonyx’s eyes did not leave Mantidfly as she stood in front of him.

“Oh, wait… Sorry…” It clicked in his head so clearly, “I should go, hehe.”

He couldn’t really hear what happened behind him after that, but…

Hey, uh…

At least he did something?

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

It was raining.

He hadn’t been outside for long but the feeling of rain was something far too new for somebody who hadn’t been out in the rain for decades.

Celastrina narrowed his eyes to the ground and grimaced at the feeling of the water soaking the tufts of fur on him and the velvety texture on his wings.

He would tell himself that he knew this was going to happen, but it didn’t.

Wet, cold, and sad.

In no way close to the Windshear Exhibition.

He pressed a few claws to his left temple and stood up, glaring through the mist and fog that enshrouded the mountains.

He couldn’t see anything.

…Only gray against gray.

－✪－

He was near Sanctuary.

It was the place he used to live at, no matter if it was one of many that he traveled between like a bird with no sense of the sky.

His golden eyes narrowed at the high-rising walls that shielded sun and cloud and the dragons that circled the skies and scrunched his brow.

His fur is sopping wet and darkened and in the darkness he looks like some sort of assaulted deer.

…

Somebody’s looking out at him, watching him.

All he can think about is how truly scary he probably looks.

Through a window.

Their eyes won’t leave him.

His claws dig into the ground for a moment in frustration at how they won’t let down. He concerned himself with how he’s practically possessed to not back down to something so trivial.

Moonlight.

He noticed his shadow somewhere in the bright moonlight, figure blurred and hardly a dragon.

It settled along his scales and patterns of fur on his wings and his eyes and all of his features.

His eyes look bright in this darkness of night.

It was so dark already.

…He hadn’t even noticed the figure was gone.

Celastrina flinched, his gaze trailing down to his talons. A question of disposition. A feeling of fear.

Get moving.

There’s got to be somewhere out here to rest in.

…

Celastrina’s tail grazed over the stone side of the mountain as he neared the small grove that led way to a cave about an echo’s worth ahead, his expression not as amused as he thought it might be.

He hummed to himself and slipped out of the rain, not bothering to shake himself off but instead let it seep around his feet and ankles and his tail with a babbling dripping.

It was cold but there wasn’t anything he could do about it right now, there was no way he would be able to start a fire, partly because of the wetness of himself and the cave and also because of how there was nothing to light a fire with besides himself⸺if he wasn’t so drenched.

He settled himself down in a far corner of the cave where he saw a wall of stalactites loom up to the ceiling in their own personal and small darkness.

There were footprints of water on the stone ground and a small puddle of rainwater formed around him, and he watched the abyss pool around him. 

No reflection to be seen. It was far too dark.

He heard the footsteps of a dragon outside chasing something, roaring loudly over the pouring rain. Probably a student somewhere near Jade Mountain.

They would be of no trouble to him.

They paid his cave no mind.

He wouldn’t be able to sleep until maybe an hour later.

If only he could get a vision right now.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

Wet.

Wet and cold!

Some storms had been sweeping over the south, he heard from passing conversations these secretly phenomenally talented meteorologists of MudWings have. Maybe that was all that they ever talked about, since the only other one he caught in on that wasn’t about the stupid old weather was about some whiny mother wanting to get her dragonet enrolled as a guard! And getting your kid in the army now? Especially after the war just ended? What are you gonna be doing out there? Doing steps with some demented SeaWing and singing nursery rhymes as you launch some trebuchet filled with stinky fish off into your lousy excuse of a sunset? In what? Some celebration of a war you wrapped up with a single piece of string and a shot of a confetti cannon as you all held talons and pretended you did something?

Infuriating. These MudWings were so boring that he practically growled whenever he heard one speak. No wonder he and his tribe went to war with these guys. They were insufferable.

He was somewhere in the swamp and had water rolling down his white and blue scales. He had to get out of here. If he stayed around these forest burners’ excuse of a thriving kingdom for any longer he swore he might just combust like dynamite.

Dignity was somewhere in the north-western Mud Kingdom. He was supposed to be heading to the Claws of the Clouds Mountains but some winds and his lack of direction in the dark stirred him off-track and he ended up in some middle-of-nowhere town that had a population of less than thirty from what he presumed.

There was nobody around to talk to him so late at night which was good, since MudWings seemed to be especially chatty because of their weird culture of day-and-night drinking, so the silence was all he could ever ask for and what he never thought he would be asking for at the same time.

A raindrop hit him on the eyes and he hissed loudly, to no one in particular, of course, but he almost muttered a curse and stopped himself for no apparent reason.

If only he could find a place to sleep, that’d be awesome.

But then again, he was a RainWing, he could wrap himself from a tree and camouflage and wait for day.

Dignity snapped himself out of thought to whip his head around for a moment to survey the marshlands.

…

Nothing but swamp.

Only stumps of trees that these bastards of MudWings cut down in a panicked frenzy during the (still ongoing) war.

He finally took it upon himself to mutter a curse to himself just for the matter of free will. 

Dignity forced himself to stand up and stretch his wings, focusing his eyes as hard as he could to see the mountains. 

It was hard to see, considering that he mostly followed the correct direction based on the position of the stars (and it was cloudy as sin out,) but he swore to himself that from where he landed was the right direction to head, and no matter which way he went, he could always get himself back on track in the morning whenever he could actually see.

He huffed loudly, stretched his wings against the blowing rainy winds, and flapped them once, twice, winced at the struggle of it all, and then finally lifted himself off of the ground with a spring off of his hind legs.

He continued the way he headed with the quietest second thought, just keeping his eyes straight ahead and waiting to be out of this forsaken town.

There had to be something better up ahead. He knew that the Mud Kingdom had to have something interesting here besides their extravagant weather predictions, wherever they get their talent from.

…

There’s going to be nothing.

Calling it right now, absolutely nothing.

More boring than your day-to-day life back in the Rain Kingdom.

Maybe a kill could make this better…

Hah!

Hahahah!

What am I thinking?

‘Kill somebody out here?’

There’s nobody out here!

He grinned to himself and let his eyes flick around at the dimly seen ground below him, snickering.

But hey,

Makes my job a hell of a lot easier.

…

I’ve got to be close.

Sooner or later, at this point.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

The day cracked its first rays of light upon the hills and he started to see the mountains appear again.

Dignity grinned and snickered to himself, veering off to the left. Right where he needed to be.

He landed at the foot of the mountain and surveyed the rocks until he saw a slight crack. He nudged it with a talon and watched the large piece of stone fall away for him.

There’s a small shudder and a churning from somewhere deep inside the cave, accompanied by the rattling of chains.

“Di-ni-ee…” The dragon whispered from deep down the tunnel. She repeated his name over and over again pleadingly.

“...Murrelet,” he responded coldly, stepping in front of her.

Her clouded cyan eyes are gazing up at him with a look of fear and distraught, the clamps around her jaw holding her snout in place bruised blue and purple and scabbing, though thin drops of sapphire blood still dripped slowly down her head. Inside, her teeth were rotten and bloody, her gums revealed and stained blue. Her tongue is limp in her mouth and her throat is visible and practically shredded with what he was forced down her throat… Sharp metal objects, that was.

There are rings around her horns with attached chains that hang loosely and fail to keep her head up. There’s tears rolling down her face and they won’t stop flowing as the realization that her tormentor is back cements deeper within her.

Another round of hopeless torture.

Another thread of sanity ripped.

Or two, three, a hundred threads, if there were even any left.

Dignity grins and steps forward.

“Murrelet,” he says again.

A tense quiet is all that meets his ears.

“I need you for something,” he continues.

Murrelet shook her head and whimpered, pleading mindlessly though no words were able to form.

“Are you able to help me?” He growled.

“No… No…” She mumbled.

“Murrelet,” he repeated, hissing and lashing his tail.

“I can’t help…”

“Does it look like you have a choice?”

…

Murrelet shuddered again, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked up at him.

“There’s a reason I keep you alive, Murrelet.”

“You have no choice…”

“ Hush! That’s not the part I’m concerned about. You’re capable. You’re enduring. There’s something within you, something wrong with you, more wrong than me. And I’ve done some horrible things.”

Murrelet churned again uneasily and gasped at the pain from the chains that bound her.

“That’s right, keep on struggling. See what it does for you. You put yourself in this position all those years ago,” he shamed her, growling and looking down at her.

“I… Didn’t want this…”

“ You ran away from Queen Tengliu’s Palace, you abandoned your royal family… And for what? You knew you were gonna end up in the slums of the kingdom, and you knew that somebody there would make you regret everything.”

“Silverstorm…”

“Yes, Silverstorm! Didn’t he ruin everything?!”

“But it’s… It’s his fault…”

“Think about everything, Murrelet! Think! Three moons, these worthless giddy three moons, think! This is all your making! You got yourself here! You’ve got no life behind you and I am your punisher, so… Do you want to have a change in pace or what?!”

Murrelet sobbed and sniffled, her snout wrinkling as she tried her best to frown. “Dignity…” She wept.

Dignity yowled in frustration and dug his claws into her forehead, forcing her to look up at him. Blood seeped around his talon and down the bridge of her snout.

“You. Don’t. Have. A. Choice. AM I CLEAR?!”

Murrelet swung her head around wildly, forcing out Dignity’s bloody talon from her head and roared.

He expected more of a challenge from her, but… She suddenly stopped, pondering and weighing her options, still acting like she had any.

She blinked once, twice, and then met Dignity’s blazing golden eyes once again.

“Fine,” she said, “I’ll help you out.”

Dignity grinned in amusement and unfastened the chains around her head and body. She fell limp to the ground with her legs giving way, though Dignity offered no help, instead opting to watch her struggle on her own with calculating eyes.

The silence between them was deafening, the loose chains being knocked around at Murrelet’s scrawny IceWing feet as she managed to steady herself, looking like a skittish foal.

“We’re going to Where No Mountain Rests,” Dignity blurted out.

“...Why?” Murrelet mumbled back.

He looked away as he spoke.

“I got told by another RainWing there was somebody I wanted there.”

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

These days were slow. Awfully slow.

It was going to be the last day working for this little scatterbrained HiveWing, who was weirdly the first HiveWing she’d ever met, and it gave her the worst impression on what every other Lost Continent dragon was going to be like going forward.

He’d been trying his best, especially for her. Recently he’d been trying to push himself to make her feel as at home as possible, except it was the equivalent of trying to make a fort out of nothing but a piece of paper, three scales, and your neglected childhood toy.

She knew he couldn’t keep this up for long, she really knew, but it was…Fun⸺no, fun was not the right word, in what world was this fun⸺entertaining-to-not-the-most-positive-connotation to watch this spectacle.

She sat with her tail curled around her right ankle, watching Mantidfly from the little nest he prepared her as he struggled to bargain with some stoic SandWing. The HiveWing, for the fifth time at this point, raised his arms to gesture to the items around him and bring up the same argument that had already been dismissed every single time it was brought up.

“But… But… You see, sir, all these items are hand selected by me and in great condition! I will not let such a low price bring my shop down! I need these prices to keep putting these… Uh… Beautiful items on the shelves!” He reasoned to the SandWing, putting on his best pitiful face.

The buyer, once again, without a word at this point, pointed behind them at an old scavenger doll with one eye sprung out and the insides ripped out like some sort of rabid animal got to it.

“It’s the design!” Mantidfly roared, slamming his talons down on the counter and leaning over, anger brimming in his expression.

The SandWing flinched, an argument point forming.

“You know, I don’t trust buying from somebody who can’t keep their cool. That’s not very professional,” they brought up, smirking.

Mantidfly snorted and raised his head to the SandWing, growling low in his throat.

“...Fine. Fifteen scales,” he admitted, sliding back over the silver bird cage with a look of defeat on his face.

The SandWing smiles, emptied fifteen some scales into their talon, and pressed them down onto the counter and slid them to Mantidfly’s side, looking awfully pleased with themself.

Mantidfly slouched down and rested his head on his talon, watching as they left the shop and then headed towards the exact next spot on the block, clutching a palmful of scales with a grin on their face.

Aonyx frowned and walked up behind the counter and wrapped her tail around Mantidfly’s ankle.

He looked at her and sighed.

“Aonyx, I’m sorry about all that. I’m not a good bargainer,” he muttered.

She looked at him with compassionate eyes. “It’s fine,” she said back, then continued quietly, “it’s all for the money.”

Mantidfly’s expression changed to something more of confusion, looking her up and down before meeting her gaze again. “What do you mean, ‘all for the money?’” He asked.

“It’s… Uh… I’m just here to help so I can get money, right…? So I’m not gonna be in—like—your business at all-”

“Ohh! Right-right-right-right! Gotcha,” Mantidfly interrupted, leaning back and doing eccentric gestures at her.

“Yeah,” she said coyly.

“Well, uh… You needa be off, huh? You got… Places to be?”

A MudWing entered the store and raised their head to look around as they spoke.

“Yeah, about that,” she began, “I kind of-”

SLASH!

There was a dribbling of blood onto the floor of the shop.

Aonyx’s eyes widened as she slowly turned to face the source of the sound.

The entrance was knocked in, and the MudWing’s eyes were wide open and looking at nothing but the open air, but she swore it looked like they were glaring right into her soul.

A RainWing.

Their talons clutching a bloodied blade over a deep red gash in the MudWing’s throat, holding them in a headlock with the back of their head pressed against his chest.

He had a manic grin on his face, his golden eyes looking straight into hers.

The MudWing let out a dying, gurgling gasp as he dropped the body and stalked over to her, his zaffre and yellow wings kept spread defensively.

“You,” he hissed, spreading the frills on the side of his head and glaring at Aonyx. Mantidfly looked around in dazed confusion and ducked out of the way, though he still watched as Aonyx was forced to the wall behind the counter.

“What’s your name?” He asked, though he looked like he knew the answer all too well already.

…

“A…” Aonyx began.

“Don’t say it!” Mantidfly whispered from her right.

“Aonyx.”

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

Mantidfly covered his mouth, partly in shame and in fear.

The RainWing didn’t notice him yet and paid him absolutely no mind, instead only approaching Aonyx more and more, growling low in his throat.

“I was told you were the one I was looking for,” he said.

Aonyx shook her head and whimpered, shifting uneasily.

“Why would you need me for anything?” She asked.

“You can help me.”

Aonyx looked miserable. He didn’t know she could be driven to such a brink of fear but it was clear that she wouldn’t do anything to try and stop this. If it was anyone, it was him.

If it was anyone…

Mantidfly clenched his teeth together.

“Sad. Sad enough to torture forever,” the RainWing sneered, stamping a foot on the ground and using another claw to score across the side of her face, making Aonyx veer away and yowl out in pain.

“You could be a valuable asset, Aonyx,” he offered, saying her name like an insult, “very valuable.”

“Stop it,” Aonyx whispered.

“Stop it,” he echoed back in a mock voice of hers, “there’s some things that can’t be done, girl.”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Aonyx retorted, a bit more fervor ringing in her voice.

“You have no fucking say in this!” The RainWing hissed, raising his talon again and slapping her, making her head whisk the other way and another yowl escaped her throat.

“And neither does that bastard,” he said, turning around and gesturing towards the convulsing body of the deceased MudWing. “And… And…” He turned back, his eyes setting their target on Mantidfly’s huddled figure.

…

“Who are you?” He growled, looking down at the HiveWing as he stirred uneasily, tail flicking against the floor.

He gave no response, instead refusing to meet his gaze. He couldn’t bear the feeling. He could feel the weight of a thousand sins just looking at him.

“Who are you?!” He leaned forward, his breath hot on Mantidfly’s snout and making him shudder. Both of their tails lashed unrhythmically as the RainWing raised up a talon before descending it quickly on Mantidfly’s head, holding him against the ground.

“Answer me, you sick coward,” he growled.

Mantidfly tried to open his mouth but to no avail, squirming around and flaring his wings.

I’m not going to die.

Not like this.

He relaxed himself for a moment, letting the RainWing lower his guard, before springing up from under him, lowering his head to where his horns faced dangerously in front of him and rammed into the RainWing like a mad bull, snorting and pushing against him, propelling each limb off of the ground with the utmost force he could muster.

He howled in wild laughter, clawing at the back of Mantidfly’s neck as Aonyx wailed distraughtly, flinging herself onto the back of the RainWing, though, with a spread of his wings, he knocked off the SeaWing and left her writhing on the ground.

Mantidfly could hear some sort of gurgling. One that wasn’t friendly at all. It grew into some sort of loud hissing as he looked up and in his peripheral vision saw the RainWing unlatching his jaw, their sharp fangs glinting in the light of the store and perfectly above him.

“MANTIDFLY!” Aonyx screamed at the top of her lungs.

He knew nothing about RainWings. He’d only ever gotten here during the final hours of the RainWing war. What could possibly be happening that he needed to worry about?

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” She wailed.

He pondered for a moment before attempting to slip out from under him, though it was too late.

The hissing reached a peak and he felt something dribble onto the back of his neck and horns. It felt like nothing until it started to sting⸺and burn.

Venom.

RainWings carried venom.

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

The thin shade that enveloped the cave beholden new light, landing on Celastrina’s scales and making him open his eyes slowly.

There was some empty hunger within him, and an odd exhaustion for whatever reason.

He stretched his four wings and stood up, clenching his teeth together and moving his short antennas.

A light pitter patter echoed outside the cave. Another student, maybe.

He sighed and sat up. Do I really have to deal with all of this during my first morning out in the sun?

“Who’s out there?” He mumbled out into the wind.

…

Stepstepstepstep.

He sighed loudly. “Come out. I don’t like games,” he added.

…

Stepstepstep.

He narrowed his eyes and whipped his head around, growling low and his throat and ruffling his fur.

Something was coming.

He stayed silent.

…

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

TUMBLE TUMBLE!

Celastrina was flung to the ground by some dragon, hissing and spitting and lashing his tail as this mysterious dragon unleashed a barrage of blows upon him.

He couldn’t tell how he didn’t see this coming, and it made the attack all the more confusing as he was hit again and again, his snout being pummeled by cold fists.

“AGH! YOU- OFF ME!” Celastrina yowled, his hands flying around with wild abandon in a desperate attempt to stop the assault.

He tried to open his eyes but only got a glare of clenched white teeth before getting hit again on the bone around his eye socket, which whipped him to the side as he roared loudly, trying to start up some flame in his throat.

There was a manic, masculine laughter from the dragon attacking him as they descended a hind leg onto the center of his torso, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him gasping for air, a small sputter of flame flickering in Celastrina’s mouth.

The dragon said no words. They only kept on laughing. Hitting, hitting, hitting, and hitting him again. They grabbed a hold of his horns and pulled his head forward before slamming him against the ground, leaving him screaming in pain as they did it again.

Celastrina turned and stirred a bit more, struggling to flare his wings from the pressure between the two. He unhinged his jaw and snapped it at the air, managing to open his eyes and see who he was facing.

An IceWing, with white and silver patterned scales like a tiger and mint green eyes. He had a torn ear and shrunken pupils, his mouth open in a manic laugh as he swung his claws at him again. A streak of blood fell across the ground and Celastrina roared once again in pain. He knew he couldn’t keep going on like this as he felt himself growing light-headed from the blood loss.

Celastrina lunged himself forward, managing to knock at the IceWing a bit but failed to get him off.

He looked at him again. He had a golden ring around one of his fingers with a death’s-head hawkmoth on it, a blue topaz gem in the center.

There was something that was keeping him awake.

Something that made him unbreakable.

“You… What are you?!” Celastrina roared, trying to look him in the eyes but he was looking right past him.

He only kept laughing.

“What are you?!”

He howled in amusement and bit down on his neck.

Celastrina yowled and unleashed a torrent of flame into the air, managing to catch the thick fur on the IceWing’s neck and start to crackle.

He yelled in fear and put it out, jumping away from Celastrina and growling, assuming a defensive pose and baring his fangs.

“Who are you?!” He screamed to the IceWing, driven to the brink of frustration and fear.

“Aha… AHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! SSSILVERSSTORM! ” Silverstorm screeched, guffawing loudly and whipping his head up and around.

“What…” Celastrina started, though the second he blinked, Silverstorm had spread his wings and taken off, heading off into the horizon swiftly.

He blinked twice, dumbfounded, his mind still catching up to what happened.

“Ah, fucking hell!” He growled, spreading his wings and taking off after him.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

Mantidfly screamed at the top of his lungs, thrashing his head around as the sizzling of the venom filled the store.

There was no adrenaline between the injury. Pure, agonizing, beholding pain.

Dignity grinned madly and flicked the frills on his head out, snickering to himself and slipping off of him.

Aonyx shrieked again, “NO! NO, NO, NO!” She flung herself onto Dignity again and hit him on his back.

Dignity unfurled his wings and let the claws at the tips of them score across her face, making her roar loud enough to burst ears and spread her own wings in defense.

Mantidfly gasped and rolled over, the sizzling growing quieter. He gurgled and choked, holding on to a thin strand of consciousness.

His talon seized Dignity’s ankle but he only glared at him and kicked it away, sneering.

“Pathetic, both of you,” he scolded, “I can’t believe that these were the people I’ve spent my days looking for.”

He looked at Aonyx, “a little wanna-be sailor SeaWing with no survival instincts?” He turned to Mantidfly, “and some rat of a Lost Continent dragon with a shop he doesn’t know how to run. Should’ve stayed lost, tch.”

“Don’t… Don’t-don’t-don’t-don’t-” Aonyx stuttered like crazy, pleading desperately with Dignity without knowing a single word to say. 

All sense of self was lost.

Cruelty only left a wake of despair and hunger. 

Insatiable hunger.

…

The air was tense.

Aonyx couldn’t speak and opened her mouth wide and started letting out a wailing sob like the dragonet she was, tears streaming down her face as she roared and shrieked and cried, her eyes squeezing together as she threw her head back and sobbed, covering her face with her talons.

There was pain in her. Some deep-driven pain. One that even Dignity couldn’t bring himself to be cruelly ignorant to.

She didn’t stop crying.

There was no movement, no lunging, no fighting. No clash of horns or teeth or claws or fists or tails or flame or ice or venom. Nothing. There was some absence of maliciousness in her. An absence of a drive to fight.

An absence of a crucial need.

Dignity chuckled to himself, walking forward as she only continued to howl in the sorrow of the defeat that had always appeared inevitable.

Mantidfly gasped from behind him and rolled over again, his body spasming as the venom stopped corroding his flesh, leaving a bubbling, bloody hole through his left shoulder that stank rancidly of venom and burning dragon meat. The veins and arteries the deep gash through his arm left started pooling out blood on the wooden floor, staining it a crimson red.

He was sure to die of blood loss within at most an hour, surely.

Mantidfly exhaled and passed out, leaving Aonyx screaming as she opened her eyes and stared right past Dignity and at the HiveWing.

“Shut up!” Dignity raised a talon and whacked her across the face, his claws scraping against her muzzle and leaving trickles of blood running down to her mouth.

She squeezed her eyes shut from the pain and toppled over, clutching her snout and continuing to bawl her eyes out.

“Fucking pathetic. And stop crying!” He roared, Aonyx only answering his request with a loud scream.

Murrelet shifted uncomfortably somewhere across the store.

He looked up and glared at her without a word.

…

“Dignity…” She said quietly.

“Shh,” he answered.

“HELP ME! OH, THREE MOONS HELP ME!” Aonyx wailed, trying to beg to the new voice she heard.

“Don’t do anything FUCKING SMART!” Dignity yelled through gritted teeth, stomping down on her jaw with a talon and letting her struggle to scream.

He looked up at Murrelet, her dull cyan eyes cloudy with tears and her poor sight as she looked at Dignity with her wings pressed to her chest.

“Dignity, don’t do this,” she begged.

“OR WHAT?! OR FUCKING WHAT, MURRELET?! WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE TO SAY THIS TIME?!” He sneered loudly, “ You have absolutely NO SAY IN THIS! YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS IN MY EYES! YOU DO NOTHING BUT STAND AROUND AND WATCH UNTIL… THE TIME. IS. RIGHT. AM I CLEAR?!”

Murrelet did not move, did not cry, did not do anything. Her jaw trembled for a moment before she solemnly nodded, watching Aonyx as she thrashed about and let out muffled screams.

Dignity growled in frustration, raising the talon he had over her mouth and balling it into a fist.

Aonyx flailed a bit more, spreading her wings and squeezing her eyes shut as she threw her talons out at the air with wild abandon.

Dignity aimed and brought down his fist upon her snout quickly, a sickening crack splitting the room and driving it into silence.

He stared back at Murrelet, her fur ruffled uncomfortably and eyes staring right past him⸺or into him, there was no saying. He opened his mouth and spoke,

“They’re both down. Help me drag them out behind the store.”

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

…

(She’s passed out, what do you expect?)

(Oh wait, here we go.)

－✪－

Aonyx groaned and shuddered, though everything seemed restricted to her.

She opened her eyes and looked around, the putrid smell of rot and garbage hitting her nose.

The room was awfully dark, the only light filtering through dim enough to make everything appear colorless and stale.

…

“Ow…” She hissed, a crescendo of pain hitting her snout gradually as she came to her senses. She reached up and tried to clutch her nose but found that some of her claws were in the same amount of tear-jerking pain as her muzzle.

A wind blew over her, making her exhale sharply. Her night-vision was okay⸺maybe she could use that?

She focused her vision the best she could, letting the objects in her surroundings come into view… A high stone fence, dirty and littered. A mulchy dirt floor that stank of whatever at this point, and…

Mantidfly!

His eyes were open but focused on nothing, his face twisted in a look of distraught. He lay on his stomach with his wings sprawled across the ground and whole body ragdoll like he was thrown. He was covered in cuts and bruises that were doing a horrible job scabbing, and…

And…

She could almost scream.

There was a large, sickeningly gruesome hole in his left arm, the viable source of the horrible smell. Blood was still welling out and pooled across the ground. Any second now, he could die. Any second.

How long were they out?!

She scrambled to her feet and rushed to his side, crouching over. “MANTIDFLY! MANTIDFLY! Oh three moons, MANTIDFLY, GET UP!” She shrieked, shaking him in an attempt to rouse the HiveWing but to no avail.

How… How do I stop the bleeding?! 

She looked around and down at herself, her thoughts attempting to race but in such a way to where she found that she couldn’t think at all.

It couldn’t be me, it’s someone else! She stood up, whipped her head around a few times, and then rushed out into the streets, screaming madly.

“HELP! HELP!” She wailed, tears streaming down her face.

Dragons turned heads and muttered amongst themselves, Aonyx struggling to form any more words as the fresh adrenaline was quickly wearing off, bringing back storms and waves of pain.

Nobody moved.

Nobody came to help.

There was only a loud bustling as people looked around for any authorities.

Finally, a SandWing strolled through the crowds of people and walked up to Aonyx, his large shadow covering her from the sunlight.

“What is it?” The SandWing growled, letting his talons stomp the ground impatiently.

“The… The…” She raised her head and looked, noticing Mantidfly’s store, the entrance broken in and the windows cracked.

“I… I-I was working at that store… O-over there… SNIFF— A-And there was this dragon… A… A RainWing… He killed a dragon in the store… A MudWing… And then h-he… Said… That he was looking for me… And he started fighting me… And the owner… A HiveWing⸺H-His name was Mantidfly… And… And… And the RainWing… I… I can’t remember anything after that, I’m sorry!” She burst out into violent sobs, the SandWing looking worriedly at her.

A few other officers, another SandWing and a SkyWing, trotted up behind him and looked at each other with conflicting glances.

“She came from behind the store,” the SkyWing added.

“Do you know where the HiveWing is, ma’am?”

“H-He’s there too… He’s about to die…”

The officers rushed off behind the store, roaring and yelling to one another.

Aonyx looked back, her face stained with tears, and in her peripheral vision, she saw a RainWing with golden eyes glaring at her,

Knowing what she did.

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

…

(Okay yeah, you get the point.)

－✪－

Coming back to his senses, he felt nothing but pain.

Nothing less and nothing more than pure, agonizing pain.

His arm throbbed unbearably and it felt like there were a million tiny blades scattered across his body.

Quietly, he heard two dragons speak.

“Look, Attacus, we can’t be sure about giving him pain medicine yet. Tribes respond differently and Lost Continent dragons are absolutely no exception.”

“Erebos, I am a SilkWing. Do you expect that I’d know less than you do? I come from the same continent as him!”

“Oh, here we go again! You are my apprentice. You just came to this continent, I mind you. I’ve been studying medicine practically since I popped out of my egg!”

“And when’s the last time you’ve ever seen a HiveWing?!”

“A month ago! During my fucking studies, Attacus! You think in this day and age with all these little bug bastards rushing over to our continent we’d just ignore them and let every single one of them go untreated for anything?!”

“THEN WHY WON’T YOU GIVE HIM THE MEDICINE?!”

“BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW IF IT’S SAFE!”

“AAAAAAAAAARGH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

“GUYS! GUYS! THREE MOONS, WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?! WE’VE GOT SLEEPING PATIENTS!”

“Oh shut up, Brince, this is why your parents don’t love you.”

“Hey!...Uh…My parents were very special people, okay?!”

“Your parents gave you up.”

“It’s… Different!”

“Sure.”

“B-B-But we’re all gonna get in trouble! Bonapartia is gonna come… And… And… We’re all gonna get fired!”

“Brince,”

“Oh shut up, Erebos,”

“I have worked here for decades. I have done some absolutely, positively, ASTRONOMICALLY VILE shit here. And do you see me taking my leave anytime soon?”

“...”

“Exactly. So now what I want you to do, is turn your happy ass around and walk right back to the room your patient is in. You’re in the middle of trying to save her.”

“ Grr… Stupid…”

“WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“NOTHING!”

“AS IT SHOULD BE!”

The door creaked open, a NightWing with pitch black scales and swirls of purple stepping through the door. They had white fur arm and leg warmers and a pair of small round glasses, a raised snout, painted claws, and gold teardrop earrings. They were carrying a briefcase around the base of their wing and had a small notepad clutched in a talon.

A young and stout SilkWing with amber-ish brown and white patterned scales and golden eyes trailed in behind them, holding another briefcase by an arm and balancing a bag on his back. His antennae were unfurled and a light beige color, his wings beautifully patterned as well.

“See? I can deal with this just fine,” huffed Attacus, setting down the briefcase and sliding off the bag on his back.

“He’s got…” Erebos didn’t say a lot else, only pointing to the soaked through bloody bandages around his shoulder.

“It’s just medicine, Erebos,” Attacus retorted.

“Look, Attacus,” Erebos pinched their brow and turned back to look at the apprentice, “it’s a giant venom wound through the ENTIRETY of his arm. Your only excuse here is that you come from his continent. The dude is clearly in pain. We can work together later to come up with something that’ll work⸺”

“Erebos! Erebos! I’ll just… Ask him!” Attacus offered.

The NightWing looked awfully displeased, looking back at Mantidfly’s blank gaze.

“Right now?” They confirmed.

“When else is a better time?” Attacus defended.

“...” Erebos looked back and forth from the apprentice to the HiveWing.

“...Sure. Try away,” Erebos stepped back and let Attacus walk up to Mantidfly.

Attacus put on the giddiest and most awkward smile imaginable, speaking through gritted teeth. “Hey… There… Buddy… Pal… Schnookums… Bud… Friend… Best… Friend…?” He muttered.

Mantidfly let out a weak groan.

“Can you tell me…” He poked Mantidfly’s cheek with a claw.

“Don’t touch him!” Erebos whispered behind him.

“S-Sorry,” Attacus pulled their talon away. “Can you tell me if you’re able to have Pyrrhia tribe medicine…? Specifically painkillers?”

…

“Nnnh,” Mantidfly mumbled back.

“It’s no use, Attacus,” Erebos said condescendingly.

“Fine, I’ll just give him the damn medicine!” Attacus announced, rushing over to the bag and pulling out a bottle of something.

“Attacus! What in these three moons are you doing-”

Attacus dashed back to Mantidfly’s side, popped open the bottle and forced Mantidfly to down it, making tears prick in his eyes at the taste and the forcefulness.

“ATTACUS!”

“Haha, do you trust me now? I made this one myself!” He replied with a smile.

“ATTACUS!!”

Mantidfly doubled over coughing violently, his whole body spasming.

Attacus backed away and watched, Erebos pushing them to the side and scolding them.

Within seconds… He actually felt better. Like he could actually think straight.

He let out one last cough and then looked back up, finally feeling that he could focus his eyes properly.

“Wh… What happened?” Mantidfly asked.

Erebos stared in shock at the HiveWing and then at Attacus.

They said, “No fucking way that worked.”

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

The chase was on, and the chase was fast.

Celastrina panted and dashed after the figure in the distance who had already landed. His laughter was still echoing in his mind and as present as ever.

He growled and leaped off of another rock, watching as the figure took off into the sky again, he did too.

Silverstorm.

He didn’t recognize the name at all.

This… “Silverstorm” seems insane. Attacking me randomly and running?

What happened to him?

He was getting closer. He could see his white scales appearing and could hear his laughter getting louder… Louder… Louder…

Until…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHH!!”

Celastrina flapped his wings one more time and spread the claws on his talons, flinging himself onto the IceWing midair and wrapping his wings around him. The two plummeted to the ground as Celastrina started trying to think.

He pushed himself off of Silverstorm, fear and realization coming upon him as the ground got closer and closer. He spread his wings but they got pushed up against the air current.

It was only a matter of time until⸺

CRASH!

－✪－

It wasn’t long at all until he woke up. Mere seconds, actually.

Silverstorm had pounced onto Celastrina despite the pain and was now growling rabidly and sinking his teeth into the NightWing’s flesh and tearing away like a wolf.

“Aaaaaah… AAAAAAH!” Celastrina raised up his talons in defense but the IceWing just growled and teared again, this time piercing his neck.

…

He jolted slightly, his eyes widening as a vision came upon him.

One of him dying.

Silverstorm paid his sudden fear no mind and kept on attacking, using their overgrown claws to score and rake down his bloody chest again and again.

His vision blurred and unfocused again and again, Silverstorm’s maniacal laughter ringing in his ears as he crushed bits of his flesh between his claws and pulled at his scales with his talons.

If he kept on going…

…

If I’d stayed alive for this long,

Something like this couldn’t kill me.

There’s got to be a way.

He felt his throat grow warm, trying his best to charge up the flame as quickly as possible. Being a hybrid meant it was similar to how it was being a MudWing. It took what felt like centuries to let the little spark in you grow into a wildfire.

He growled, little embers emerging from his mouth and dying in the air and on the cold, lifeless ground.

Silverstorm didn’t pay attention. He only sank his claws into the hybrid again and tugged and pulled and ripped.

Celastrina let out a long, unbridled roar before tilting his head down to face Silverstorm, blasting a torrent of fire at his face.

The IceWing screamed and writhed, swatting at the flames and still laughing like an idiot.

Celastrina coughed, the fire in his throat dying out as he looked up to see Silverstorm. He was on fire.

He lit a dragon on fire.

He fell over on his side and off of the hybrid, flailing around as his laughter slowly turned into screams, flame crackling and burning and scarring.

Celastrina stumbled to his feet and backed away, watching in shock and awe.

The entirety of the vast hills were lit up in the sunset by the bonfire, though they both appeared tiny against the Claws of the Clouds Mountains.

Silverstorm kept and kept on screaming, though his voice was slowly dying into gasps and croaks.

FWUMP!

Silverstorm collapsed to the ground, the flames idling and eating away at his body.

His jaw trembled for a moment and his left eye twitched, though he couldn’t bring himself to feel any remorse.

His left eye twitched again. Another vision.

The Parhelion.

Danger is coming.

He turned to his right and looked at the taller mountains.

Danger is coming!

He took off quickly.

I need to go!

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

He growled and pinched his brow, grumbling under his breath an incoherent string of complaints, Murrelet watching from the side with her arms pressed closely together, keeping a safe distance from the RainWing.

“Stupid fucking SeaWing… AND THAT DAMN RAINWING!” He roared.

“Dignity…Be quiet! We’re not supposed to be here!” Murrelet whispered.

Dignity let out a low growl and flicked his frills in intimidation. “Don’t tell me what to do, you rat of an enchantment,” he insulted.

Murrelet whimpered softly and lowered her head.

“Pathetic,” he sneered.

“I am only to stand and watch until the time is right…” Murrelet muttered to herself.

“Exactly,” Dignity huffed, raising his snout at her and giving the IceWing a cruel glare.

…

“I’m finding that fucking SeaWing and storming that hospital. You know I am, Murrelet! Come on now,” he announced, jumping to his feet and whacking her ankles with his tail, making her yelp and quickly get up, following behind the RainWing as he walked out from the alleyway and into the streets of Where No Mountain Rests.

He walked with a dignified purpose, taking long strides and not breaking any pace as he pushed past bystanders who growled at him, though he didn’t even look at them. Murrelet was close on his tail, muttering apologies for Dignity’s doing.

“I know she went that way. The police station was right there. Murrelet! Do you know if there’s any resting places nearby? Hotels? Hostels? Motels?” Dignity rambled on, turning his head to look at Murrelet.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never been here before…!” Murrelet chirped meekly.

“Useless!” Dignity turned back around and kept on walking.

They kept on walking in silence until Murrelet spotted a shop sign.

“Dignity?” She asked.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, you bastard⸺”

“There’s a cartography shop,” she claimed.

Dignity stopped in his tracks.

“Where?”

“Over… There…” She raised a talon and pointed to a shop to the right of them both, a large sign looming above it reading: 

“ CARRAO’S CARTOGRAPHY AND MAPS”

Dignity turned around, looked the shop up and down, and then a wicked smile spread across his face.

It suddenly cleared up as he looked at Murrelet before growling, “you’re still useless to me, you know that?”

“Yes, Dignity.”

“Now let’s go,” he walked up to the shop and slammed open the door, the bell on the top falling off and hitting the floor.

A shy and chubby looking MudWing with glasses and a leather hat with a single osprey feather tucked into it sat behind the counter, holding their talons close to their chest and looking surprised—and also quite scared—at Dignity.

Murrelet stalked in behind him with her head hung low. She gave the MudWing a pitiful look as Carrao tried to start up some talk.

“U-Uh… Hello…!”

“Shut up,” Dignity hissed, flicking his frills and baring his fangs.

Carrao blinked a few times before lifting a claw and trying again.

“Say… Could you maybe pick up the bell⸺”

“I said shut up!”

…

“...Sorry, tell me if you need anything,” he replied meekly.

Dignity growled and walked away, walking up to a map of Where No Mountain Rests.

He tore it off of the stand, earning a very shocked and baffled look from Carrao, and started looking at every corner of it.

“That one isn’t for saaaallleeeee…” Carrao whimpered under his breath.

“Don’t… Be rude to him…” Murrelet whispered to the cartographer, her tail between her legs as she slowly shuffled to the counter.

“Why are you coming up to me?!” Whispered Carrao.

“He… He’s holding me…”

“Holding you what?! ” Dignity whipped his head around and glowered.

“Nothing! Nothing…” Murrelet shrunk back.

“You’re not fucking smart, Murrelet.”

“I am not.”

“Hmph.” Dignity crumpled up the map and shoved it under his wing. He motioned for Murrelet to follow him with a flick of his tail.

Carrao opened his mouth to protest but then quickly shut himself up, only watching with a frown and a twitching tail as Dignity walked back out with Murrelet.

Dignity chuckled to himself, pulling out the map.

“We’re right here,” he tapped with a claw at south-western part of the map.

“Mantidfly’s shop was right there…” He moved his claw up and tapped the paper two times.

“And right there! ‘Cadmium Hotel,’ and it’s the only one in miles! Let’s go,” Dignity shoved the paper into Murrelet’s arms.

“What am I supposed to do with this…?” She asked.

“Put it away, dumbass.”

She wordlessly tucked it under her wing, looked towards the sky for a sense of direction, turned to the right, and walked forward.

Dignity followed, making sure to do the same thing just in case she was wrong.

The two kept on walking down the street, sunset slowly coming upon them. Dignity looked towards the sky and then back at Murrelet, willing himself to not feel any appreciation for her.

I’m the one who is in control here.

I am the one who pulls these damn strings!

I can’t get caught up with praise as a captor,

I am in control here.

He repeated the thoughts over and over to himself as they approached a large hotel, a sign hanging in front of it, “ CADMIUM HOTEL ”.

“Remember, Murrelet,” Dignity shoved her to the side and glowered out her, pointing a claw and jabbing her chest with it repeatedly.

“We are not here to get a room or anything. We are here to find Aonyx… And get payback on her wimpy little ass! It’s an expensive hotel, the officials paid for it, it’s nearly time for them to shut their doors and let these people sleep… And it's as big as all the three moons!” Dignity scolded.

Murrelet nodded and hummed in agreement meekly.

“And so we cannot slack off. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Dignity.”

“Now let’s go.” Dignity turned and shoved open the door.

“Hello… Welcome to Cadmium Hotel,” a petite little NightWing was seated behind the counter, looking up at the two of them. “Are you here for a room…?” She asked.

Three moons, you’re terrible at your job, Dignity thought. “No no, just here to visit,” he said.

“Uh… You’ll need to sign into our system for that,” she replied.

…

Dignity shot daggers with his eyes at the NightWing, walking off as if he didn’t hear her, Murrelet flinching and following after him.

“Uh, sir! Sir!” The NightWing called, leaning over the counter.

Murrelet paid her another pitiful look, which she was starting to realize might be her way out of everything, and followed Dignity up a flight of stairs.

－✪－

Dignity growled, walking up to the next door and knocking. “Fucking manners in this building. There’s like, what, a thousand rooms in here?!” He rambled, looking

at Murrelet.

She shrugged.

Dignity scowled and looked back at the door as a sleepy MudWing answered. He slammed the door on them and walked towards the next one.

“We’re never gonna find Aonyx at this rate. Not at all,” he grumbled.

Wait.

What if…

He stopped and looked at Murrelet.

“Murrelet,” he said.

“Yes, Dignity?”

“Go run down back to the lobby and ask that little NightWing where a SeaWing named Aonyx’s room is. If she asks why, say we’re visiting and that we weren’t given a room number. Got it? And if she doesn’t want to and insists on making us sign into this damn system, come get me and I’ll deal with it. Alright?” Dignity instructed her.

“Of course.” And with that, Murrelet turned tail and ran off.

Dignity sat himself down against the wall with his legs sprawled out awkwardly and his arms crossed, sulking as he waited for Murrelet to finish.

…

… …

… … …

“Next floor. Fourth room,” Murrelet poked her head around the corner. Dignity looked up at her, grinned maliciously, and then got to his feet and followed her up the stairs. He stopped outside the room, not bothering to think twice, readied himself with his horns facing towards the door like a raging bull, and then broke it down with a mad roar.

He heard that familiar, puny scream.

He had won this round.

“YOU!” He snarled, charging across the room and leaping onto Aonyx who was still in bed and trying to sleep.

“LOOK WHAT YOU FUCKING DID!”

“I-I’M SORRY! PLEASE! PLEASE! LET THIS BE OVER, OH THREE MOONS!” She screamed, thrashing her head around.

“You ASSHOLE!” Dignity punched her in the hollowest part of the bone on her head. Something he had practiced for. Aonyx screamed though there was no crack of bone, and a morbid realization came upon him.

He’d already broken her snout.

The last time he saw her? Whenever he forced his fist down on her snout from straight above? That sickening crack was more than just scale.

Dignity started to chuckle and then full-heartedly laugh, guffawing at the idea that he had done such a thing to somebody he hated so much.

He nearly toppled over laughing. Aonyx watched in fear before looking up to see Murrelet as she gave her the same pitiful look.

Her breath quickened as she looked around, forced Dignity off of her, and then ran past Murrelet and out of the room. Down the hall and out of the hotel.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

Aonyx panted, tears threatening her eyes as she ran down the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her, running out of the hotel as the little receptionist looked at her worriedly.

She ran outside and tried to catch her breath, feeling her legs tremble as if they were about to give way.

Aonyx looked around, but then a voice split the air that made her eyes widen.

“Lost?” The voice was old and masculine, though she didn’t feel as much fear as she thought she would but instead some sort of morbid comfort.

She turned and looked towards the source of the voice, seeing an old scarlet and orange SkyWing with feathers pierced on their wings and ears. He had soft, wrinkled sage green eyes and a rusted golden horn ring. There was an amulet around his neck with an eye engraved on it.

She could cry. Anyone to talk to right now. Anyone besides that damn RainWing. The one who (she was pretty sure) was named Dignity.

“Oh please, help me,” she begged, looking up at the SkyWing with tears in her sapphire eyes.

The SkyWing smiled. “He says you’re pathetic?” He asked.

“W-Who? How do you know?!”

He laughed warmly. “Come closer, dear.”

She sat down quietly beside the SkyWing with her head hung low.

“Aonyx, is it?”

She nodded.

“Nice to meet you,” he placed an unnaturally warm hand over her back, smiling and continuing, “my name is Windshear.”

“N-Nice to meet you,” she replied with a nod of her head.

“Say, Aonyx, how has life been for you?”

…

“It’s… Been…”

“Tell me whatever you need to, dear. Get it all off your wings.”

She let out a long sigh.

“My mom’s been really sick. She’s getting old and stuff and it’s really making it hard for her to do a lot of things. And I… I sailed away from her to here. I don’t know what I was thinking but I got caught up in some business and have a killer RainWing after me. And I’m scared to go back home because he might follow me… And… Kill… My mother… Gyre…” She rambled.

Windshear nodded, listening intently.

“He’s here right now, isn’t he?” Windshear guessed.

“Yeah… Yeah, he attacked me,” she admitted, looking down at a cut on her arm.

Windshear lifted up her arm and frowned.

“That’s not all,” she continued, pointing to her snout. “He broke my muzzle. It’s trying to heal right now but he hit it again. It’s getting a lot harder to breathe…”

Windshear sighed. “My dear, I am so sorry,” he stroked her head as Aonyx looked towards the ground.

“I would tell you about my woes, but… I believe that that is for another time.”

“Okay,” Aonyx replied.

“Dignity will not hurt you, he won’t be able to get to you as long as I am here,” Windshear reassured Aonyx.

And the silence of the night enveloped them.

“You can tell me stuff,” Aonyx said.

Windshear looked down at her warmly. “Is that so?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“Hm, well then,” Windshear looked up at the sky, “you better believe me,” he said with a chuckle.

“Of course, Windshear.”

“I… Am a being of animus magic. I do not fully exist,” he explained.

Aonyx’s eyes widened in surprise, though she did not interrupt.

“I was a very rich dragon. I created an exhibit of animus enchanted objects mostly revolving around ones I made myself. The Crimson Eye, you know? Three Moons’ Teardrop? The… Parhelion?”

Aonyx nodded.

“All my doing. It was hard to make them all. The exhibit is north of the Mud Kingdom, if you want to see them. It’s quite near here.”

“Making the objects did take a toll on my health, though. You understand how animus magic works, yes?” He looked down at Aonyx.

“Yes, I do.”

“I became… Violent. I had a grandson. His name was Shikra. He carried the same animus blood as me and had the same powers that I possessed. He used his power to… Neutralize me in a way. An immortal being. A spirit, if you will. He rid me of my body and gave me enough magic to form a soul. He…” Windshear looked away.

“Shikra died in the process,” he admitted.

“He gave me such a life to where I’d be able to live forever, but with no magic left to use. I cannot die, and I cannot be injured. A ghost in the mortal world,” he explained. “And there is… Something troubling me as well,” he muttered.

“What is it?”
“The Parhelion,” he said, “it’s an object that I created. It’s a necklace of gold and the diamonds of the moons. It was a way to test morals and such. I keep it away for good reason, since it is what pushed me over the edge. I was not thinking right. I ordered my son Cordovan to lock it away within the exhibition. And I see everything, I must tell you. I’ve watched over this world for centuries. My son and grandson… They’ve been long dead. I can’t even tell you.”

“And Dignity,” he said, “wants it. I’ve been keeping an eye on him ever since I saw his first kill. And I know he’s out for it.”

“Do you know who the dragon who follows after him is?”

“...Murrelet. A troubled soul,” Windshear’s gaze looked distant. “I do not know much about her. I am sorry,” he admitted solemnly.

Aonyx sighed. “It’s alright.”

“Do you need help… Getting home?” He asked, looking towards her.

“I think I have business here to finish.”

“Do you want…” He reached into a pouch and pulled out something. A handful of scales, glimmering in the moonlight.

Aonyx’s eyes widened. “No, no… I think I’m good—”

“You’ll need it,” he insisted.

She was quiet for a moment before meekly reaching and taking the scales from the palm of his hand and pocketing them.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Run, Aonyx, he is coming,” Windshear announced.

She flinched, looked at Windshear, and then at the door.

“Run,” he repeated.

“O-Okay.”

And with that, Aonyx stood up and ran, taking off and heading north.

Maybe she could do something to help.

Maybe…

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

Attacus and Erebos stared at each other and over Mantidfly. The SilkWing grinned giddily and the NightWing sighed and pinched their brow.

“Okay. Now we can ask the questions. We were told by the officers that the girl who rescued you was acting hysterical and wouldn’t speak,” Erebos said.

“Wait… Aonyx?” Mantidfly asked.

“Does it look like I know?”

Mantidfly grumbled and looked away.

“Did the medicine work?” Attacus asked, leaning in with a smile.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Well… Then…” Attacus stretched his wings, “I’m gonna have to make some more of that!” The SilkWing announced, standing up and promptly walking out of the room.

“Attacus! Get back here!” Erebos sneered quietly.

 “Whaaat? Can’t hear you over the sound of my awesome medicine! Soo-rry!” Attacus yelled.

“Fucking… Attacus! ” Erebos grabbed Attacus by his tail, stopping him in his tracks and making him yelp in pain. “Get back here, we’ve got a patient to deal with,” the NightWing growled.

“Fine, fine,” Attacus grumbled, walking back over to Mantidfly’s side and sitting down, though his gaze was distant as he rolled his eyes.

He unlatched his briefcase and pulled out a few jars of medicine, examining them.

“So… What should I give ‘em?” He asked, his eyes fixed on the corked bottles filled with liquids of dark scarlets and dull blues.

“(Three moons, I thought we were going to ask questions,) maybe some more of that pain medicine…” Erebos said quietly.

“Too bad. That’s the only one I had,” he said.

“Well…” Erebos replied, “we do know that it’s probably mostly safe to give him Pyrrhia medicine. Though…”

“We can’t be sure that everything works?” Attacus finished.

“Exactly.”

“Hmm…” Attacus clinked the glasses together and set them back inside the padded inside of the case, taking out two more, one of sky blue, and the other of a dark purple, and raised them close to his eye to read the labels.

“Do you think it would help if you read out the contents of that painkiller you gave him for me?” They asked.

“I would, but the ingredients list is at home right now. Didn’t think I’d need it,” Attacus admitted with a shrug of his shoulders and a very (satirically) forlorn expression.

Erebos exhaled loudly in disappointment, his eyes burning holes through the back of his head. His talons scraped against the ground and his tail twitched uneasily.

“Fine,” they said with a slowness that gave way to some unexplainable maliciousness, like he was about to let out the growl of a leopard and jump onto the SilkWing. “Let’s just… Try some of the other medicine,” he growled through bared teeth, glancing at Mantidfly.

“I’m sure I don’t need it, I feel better already,” Mantidfly said meekly, his head lowered.

“Better safe than sorry,” Attacus called, his head still turned away from the two as he scavenged through the case. Erebos looked at Mantidfly and nodded without a word in agreement with Attacus.

Mantidfly sighed loudly and shook his head, watching as Attacus finally pulled out a small vial filled with some very thick golden liquid.

“Are you sure that’s the right one?” Erebos said, peering down at it.

“Best herbs around,” Attacus insisted with a triumphant smile.

The NightWing snatched it from his hand and clutched it between two claws, putting it up to their dark magenta eye and looked at it, surveying every still air bubble and patterns in the tonic.

“This just looks like honey,” Erebos concluded.

“AND SO WHAT?!” Attacus growled, the velvety fur on him puffing out.

…

Erebos blinked at the apprentice for a few moments before pushing Attacus out of the way and putting the vial back. “Find another one, honey isn’t going to do much good,” they instructed.

Attacus grumbled something under their breath and walked back over to the briefcase, pulling out a scarlet glass with a sculpted cork.

“You made this one, right?” Attacus asked.

“One of my best,” Erebos replied with a smile.

“Alright! What does it do?” The apprentice asked.

“Just a painkiller,” they replied nonchalantly.

“‘Just a painkiller?’ You said this is one of your best!” Attacus retorted.

“It’s… Strong… Just the first one I actually found out how to make right,” Erebos explained, looking over it.

“Not a good excuse for being one of your best, but sure,” the SilkWing grumbled, popping the cork off and walking over the Mantidfly.

The HiveWing took it and drank it quickly, the sour taste stinging his throat and making him produce an awful face. He handed it back quickly and Attacus returned the empty vial to the briefcase. “Make some more of that, will you?” Attacus asked, Erebos nodding affirmatively.

“So…” Attacus announced, “ now we can ask the questions, huh?”

“Oh three moons, finally,” Erebos sighed.

“Alright,” Attacus folded his hands and sat in front of Mantidfly. “So let’s start. Tell me, Mantidfly, can you give me a play-by-play of what happened the day of the attack?”

“Uh… It was a normal day. I was working with a SeaWing named Aonyx, she had come here just to make some money—a trip away from home. It was a normal day until this MudWing in the store suddenly got his throat slit by this RainWing. I don’t know… I think his name was Dignity?”

Attacus nodded.

“So he kills the MudWing… And then he goes after Aonyx. They fight for a bit and then he notices me. Uh⸺forgot to mention, he has this little IceWing with him. Didn’t catch her name. And so he comes after me and I didn’t know this, but turns out RainWings have like…”

“Venom?”

“Yeah, venom. And it really burns. It hits me on the arm, and I’m all like ‘AAAAAGH!! AAAAAAHH!!!’ And then I passed out. Wake up, I’m here.”’

Attacus looked surprised, and blinked a few times as he finished speaking. “Okay. Interesting. I’m not the best…Like…Detective or anything. Didn’t go to college for this, but I’ll just give you some stuff of what we’ve picked up about you and Aonyx’s case so far. Ahem!” Began Attacus.

“Aonyx brought you out from behind the back of some antique store. Presumably yours. She was all hysterical and talking about how a RainWing came in and was fighting you guys. They ask where a HiveWing is, (you,) and she says you’re behind the store and about to die. Officers come get you, bring you to the hospital, and Aonyx gets a free room in one of the nicest hotels in the city for two nights,” Attacus rambled.

“For free?! ” Mantidfly gasped.

“I know, lucky little bastard.”

“Don’t call her that,” Mantidfly grumbled after a few moments. Attacus just looked away ashamedly.

“And so…” Attacus started up again, “we’re assuming that the story you and Aonyx put together is true. We’re looking for this RainWing to arrest him. Could you give us some sort of… Description? Scale colors probably won’t help. Unless they’re like… Bold bold.”

“Very tall and mean looking,” Mantidfly described, “got golden eyes and a pretty angular figure. White and blue scales. Always mad. I don’t know how much they’re around, but the guy’s got this little shy looking IceWing following him around. Can’t remember a lot of what she looks like.”

“I’ll go tell that to the officers,” Attacus announced, standing up. “I think that’s all, I’ll leave Erebos to look after you.”

“You’re not the one in charge,” sneered Erebos.

“...Right. What should I do?”

“Just go refill the case. I’ll be leaving for a bit. The door is gonna stay open. If you need anything, just holler, alright?”

Mantidfly nodded.

“And… Also,” Erebos pulled out a piece of paper. “Completely forgot. This little Aonyx left a letter for you…” The NightWing passed it over to him.

Mantidfly unfolded it, turned it right-side up, and began to read.

Addressed to - Emerald Sparrow Hospital and Hatchery 667

From - Aerosol County, 99

MANTIDFLY! I DON’T KNOW WHEN THIS WILL BE ABLE TO REACH YOU, BUT I HOPE IT DOES SOMETIME SOON. YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS HOSPITAL, I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE’S A PLACE WE NEED TO BE AT. THE WINDSHEAR EXHIBITION.

WE NEED TO STOP DIGNITY.

- WITH FAIR TRAVELS, AONYX

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

The walls of the cave had curled in. The last sounds audible for a while were the quiet sounds of his sleeping brother.

Celastrina’s eyes could barely move. He can barely focus on everything. He’d been shaken by a vision earlier that day and his gaze blurred with tears of blind fear.

He let out a soft exhale and tried to lean back, but his body wouldn’t let him move.

He could only think about his father, right beside him, awake as well. His four wings shaken up as he watched the entrance carefully.

Danger.

Danger was all he could ever know.

Respite was respite. It was temporary. He knew why his father would never fall asleep.

The hunt always continued.

His brother churned and squeezed his eyes, gasping for breath as he spread his wings out. Suddenly, he woke up letting out loud screams, looking shaken with fear to his core.

His father rushed over and wrapped his arms around him, shushing him. “Shh, shh… It’s okay, Ulysses,” Lotis said. He stroked his head and placed his head over the dragonet’s shoulder. Celastrina only blinked slowly. Unable to think.

The exhaustion had been starting to weigh down on him a few days ago. He had no strength to weep or roar. He couldn’t complain at all. The hunger had sunken deep within him, and he was convinced that, by his visions, he was going to die in a matter of days. If he was lucky, maybe a week or two.

Lotis looked over at Celastrina and frowned. He tried to look at Clearmoon but he couldn’t see her in the dark.

He furrowed his brow and went back to stroking Ulysses until his cries turned into puny whimpers, and he finally slumped into his arms.

Lotis set him back down on his bed of leaves and lay back down to sleep. Celastrina’s eyes finally focused on the entrance to the cave.

There was something disturbing the sound outside. The air wasn’t as it should be.

Somebody was here.

Celastrina shifted uncomfortably. He looked towards his dad, who was already up with his wings spread in a defensive position.

“Honey,” he whispered to Clearmoon.

…

“Honey!”

“Ghh…”

“Get up. The watchers are here.”

“Y-You’re kidding… Again?”

“No time to complain! Get Celastrina!”

Clearmoon staggered to her feet and dashed over to Celastrina, scooping him up in her arms. His tiny four wings hung limp above the ground, Clearmoon haphazardly taking a few seconds to tuck them back into the hold of her talons.

She shot a worried look at Lotis, who was already heaving Ulysses up by under the shoulders, placing him on his back.

“Hold on tight,” Lotis instructed.

“Why are we leaving…?” Ulysses protested.

“It’s not safe here anymore. We need to go.”

The four stalked out of the cave, their bodies low to the ground. In the distance they saw the lights of tens of torches, all dancing and turning and searching. For them.

It’s a pain to see in the dark, well, only for him. He can’t find his eyes adjusting to the dark the way he wanted them to. Clearmoon was navigating through the night with clear precision, her eyes focused on every object coming up the way.

Lotis has an arm out, feeling around in the dark. He was straining his eyes as hard as he possibly could as Ulysses tried to help him by telling him what he could see in his surroundings, though his help went in vain as Lotis was not paying attention at all, only shushing him loudly with a sneer under his breath.

Ulysses whimpered and looked down at his father’s neck in sorrow, the four continuing to move without another word.

…

They were starting to pick up on some sound. Two dragons talking.

“These stupid hybrids. They run all the way out here without any knowledge that we’re coming right this way. They bring these little rats practically holding them by the tail over all of us, and get shocked whenever we actually catch them.”

“Pssh, tell me about it. This is my fourth successful run yet. I caught a glimpse of one of the kids. The one with the lighter scales, right?”

“Yooliseeyeeseeyisuhliseeyus or something, I don’t know, I don’t give my kids dumb ass names.”

“Ha!”

“Wait, wait wait wait. I swear I hear ‘em right now.”

“What, are you gonna rip ass or something?”

“No! Shut up!”

One of the dragons chuckled for a moment before going dead silent.

…

Everyone stood still.

Clearmoon looked deathly terrified, her eyes fixed on the silhouettes of two dragons looming over all of them. There was no torch light to accompany them. These hunters knew what they were doing.

…

Celastrina’s head started to throb.

A vision was hitting him. He couldn’t make out anything in it, but the pain was enough to make him start to cry.

“THERE!”

Torch lights approached from all around, Clearmoon immediately yowling and springing up, dashing away without a second thought about Lotis or Ulysses.

Lotis screamed in fear, whipping his head around and searching for Clearmoon, though she was already off.

Ulysses started to wail as well, Lotis taking Ulysses off his back and holding him close to his chest. He tried to run off but was stopped by a SandWing stopping in front of him, blocking his path.

His eyes darted around, panic setting in. He prepared to fly off, stretching his wings and lowering himself to the ground.

Just as he lifted himself off the ground, flapping his four wings as fast as he could, an arrow whistled through the air, piercing his neck.

Ulysses screamed. Lotis choked. His wings went stiff as they plummeted to the ground.

The SilkWing toppled over, limp, his son whimpering and looking at the hunters approaching.

He let out one last blood-curdling scream, before an IceWing walked up with a blade and cut down the bridge between his eyes and all the way down his muzzle.

Ulysses’ eyes clouded immediately, his figure going limp in the IceWing’s arms.

The IceWing blinked carelessly at the body, before using the knife to cut the flesh around his neck. Crimson red flowed out in lines of the cuts as the IceWing cut deeper, sawing the blade back and forth like he was carving out a turkey or a chicken.

Ulysses’ body started to fall, though, the IceWing steadied him again. Not out of love, but in convenience. Pure, cold convenience.

He circled the blade one more time before digging his claws into the flesh that there still was, pulling it away. His neck bone was revealed, the IceWing digging his blood-stained talons into his neck, grabbing on, and pulling.

Sccrrsssh… CRACK!

He pulled Ulysses’ head off.

He sat looking at it, unamused.

“How long do you think it’ll take?” He asked a SeaWing watching from his right.

“How long will it take what?”
“For the meat to come off?”

“Feed it to the scavengers. It’d make them a decent meal.”

“Got it.”

The IceWing got up and stretched their wings, tossing the dragonet’s head over to the SeaWing.

“Verglas.”

An IceWing from the watching crowd raised their head.

“Go catch the others. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Verglas nodded, chuckling wickedly to himself. “You got it!” He roared, dashing off.

Clearmoon panted, tears streaming down her face as she held Celastrina to her chest, not bothering to shush him, not bothering to complain, only running as fast as her legs would carry her. Flying would mean being seen, especially seeing that the moon so low in the sky meant that day could be coming any minute now.

Celastrina didn’t stop wailing. His head hurt beyond imagination and he felt that if he tried to stand, he would collapse on the spot.

They didn’t pick up the quiet footsteps matched in the rhythm of Clearmoon’s pace.

“HA!” Jumping out from the shadows, an IceWing with two machetes and bandaged wrists descended onto Clearmoon quickly, machetes crossed as he landed onto Clearmoon’s back, digging the blades in as far as they could go.

The NightWing screamed, releasing Celastrina from her grasp who rolled over, fear-stricken as he watched in fear as the sunrise began, the first rays of light casting over the IceWing beating the sharp ends of the machetes into his mother’s back. He was laughing maniacally, raising them up as sprays of blood were lifted from her body, before he swung again and dug the blade in again, ripping it out and letting the blood fly again.

Clearmoon screamed at the top of her lungs, Spit bubbling from her mouth as her wings lay limp against the ground.

Celastrina struggled to his feet, whimpering but not crying.

He stumbled for a moment before turning around, running away as Verglas was distracted, beating the two blades into Clearmoon’s torso again and again.

Verglas finally slowed down, panting as his blood covered face hung low over the corpse, the sunrise laying claim over him for the day.

The rest of the group approached, glaring at Verglas.

“Don’t… Touch her mouth,” he warned, “poisonous…”

“Her body isn’t necessary, Clearmoon. You let the little one get away.”

Verglas sneered and looked up at the leader of the group, Mastigure, his glossy black eyes glaring down at the IceWing.

“Do you have no appreciation? For the fact that I killed the mother? Huh? Huh?! ”

Dragons inhaled sharply and looked at each other in worry at Verglas’ tone.

“We have no need for the mother. And she’s not good to eat. Toss her in the ocean on the way out of here.”

Verglas growled, lifting up her mangled body by under the arms.

“Fine,” he said, “but without me, you’ll never catch the last one.”

“We’ll see,” Mastigure said, looking away.

“Yeah. We’ll see,” Verglas repeated back, snarling quietly.

－✪－

Celastrina lay in a cave somewhere in a lesser mountain off to the right of Claws of the Clouds.

…

He frowned.

Some memories never do go away.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

He finished up carving the bones out of the body, tossing them to Murrelet who looked down at them in the dim, filtered light from behind the store.

“This has to be the last kill, right? This is enough meat?”

“Enough meat is never enough meat to you, Murrelet,” Dignity hissed.

He set down the dagger and ripped out a chunk of flesh from the SkyWing’s rib meat, chewing on the raw, bloody and tasteless chunk.

“Love SkyWing meat,” he said.

Murrelet shuddered.

“Don’t give me that look. They’re better than those rotten-fish-tasting SeaWings.”

“It’s…Not that…”

“Pssh. No fun,” Dignity said, spraying chunks of meat everywhere as he opted to forgo his hands and lower his head, sinking his teeth as deep as they could go into the SkyWing’s scarlet scales.

He pulled and ripped, chewing and biting on the juicy flesh until he swallowed it, looking back down at the corpse.

“Don’t know how long it’ll stay fresh. Might try to cover it up as like… Uh… Lamb… Or something, and bring it to a butcher. They know what they’re doing.”

Murrelet nodded, refusing to look at Dignity as he unhinged his jaw and took one last giant bite before swallowing and picking the blade back up.

“Help me carve this thing up,” he said.

Murrelet flinched at the request, feeling sick to her stomach at the thought of mutilating a dead body.

Dignity glared at her. “Murrelet, come on,” he snarled.

Murrelet shook and twitched her tail, eyeing the body. Something in her wouldn’t let her hurt a person, even if they were dead.

“Oh what, do you think you’re above this?” Dignity nagged.

“I…” Murrelet whispered.

“Murrelet!” Dignity hissed, “Don’t make me roar any louder. There’s only so much sound to stay private here.” He eyed the alleyway that led out to the streets as he spoke. “Or, worse to worst, one of the bastards in that store hears us, comes outside, and beats both of us to a bloody pulp. Do you understand?” He mused, jabbing a claw at her chest and then at the back of the building they lay behind.

“Can’t you just do it on your own?” Murrelet retorted.

“Why do you think I brought you here? To sit around and watch me just slit dragons’ throats and chew on them like I’m some sort of dog?!”

“Yes!” Murrelet roared.

…

“Kind of…!” She added.

Dignity glowered and tossed the blood-soaked blade into her talons.

“Cut,” he demanded, “butcher, lacerate, Murrelet.”

She looked down at her talons, which already had crimson red trickling down them, and then at the limp body, guts strewn around and the bones cruelly yet precisely ripped from the body, only leaving deep red outlines of where they should be.

Murrelet took a deep breath, weighing her options, before stepping forward, leaning over, and cutting.

“Just cut it up into like… Chunks. All I need is for this to look like it was never a SkyWing,” Dignity explained.

Murrelet nodded, sawing the blade into the neck of the SkyWing. She sliced out a talon-sized chunk before handing it over to Dignity, who cradled the piece in an arm pressed to his chest.

The smell of blood and death was strong as she sat over, cutting. Her talons were stained a brutally dark red, flesh and meat, blood, veins. She cut again. The blade cut through like an oar in water.

She fished around for a spot to cut, her claws scraping against the teeth of the SkyWing.

…

Something felt off.

She went back and tugged lightly on the teeth.

Rip.

The fang of the SkyWing fell right into her hand.

“Don’t mind that,” Dignity said, “SkyWings are fucking weird, their teeth fall out when they die.”

Murrelet shook for a moment, her own teeth feeling numb as well.

“Oh, don’t give up now, Murrelet! You were doing so well!” He growled.

“I-I’m sorry,” she said, lowering the blade back down.

“And cut out the rest of the teeth. We don’t need them.”

Her eyes widened as she looked back at Dignity.

“Cut…?” She asked.

“You’ve got a blade, don’t you?”

She looked down at it.

“Cut, Murrelet.”

She sighed, put the blade up to the gums of the SkyWing, and began to cut.

“They’re dead, it’s not like they can feel pain anyway,” Dignity mused.

“I know, it just… Like… Makes me feel like it’s happening to me, like a phantom pain,” she replied.

“Oh, grow up!”

“I’m trying, Dignity.”

She cut at the gums around the SkyWing’s top right molar, exposing the part of the tooth stuck within the skull before wiggling it around between two claws and pulling. She cleaned it of its bloody gum before setting it aside and moving onto the next one.

Dignity smiled watching her, waiting for her to finish with the teeth.

…

Murrelet sighed and lowered the blade, discarding the last tooth. The SkyWing’s mouth was flowing a stream of red blood, with only the roots of teeth visible in bloody furrows of gums.

She looked back at Dignity. “Can’t you take it from here?” She asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Dignity walked over and picked up the blade.

Murrelet stepped away and looked down at her bloody hands, her ears flattening timidly.

“Is there anywhere for me to wash up?” She asked.

“Lick your hands clean,” Dignity suggested.

She felt like she could throw up, but instead just looked at Dignity and then back down at her talons.

“What, did I stutter?” He added.

“No, sir.”

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

(I do not feel like changing this funny little section at all, mostly just for the humor of the book since it does get tiring writing all of this. Also, I will not let this get lost somewhere in the making of this book. Thanks for the idea, Ace. Love you lots… Platonically.)

“Im sad” aonyx says

“Grah Im evil” dignity says

Dignity then kills aonyx

Mantidfly falls from the sky and gasp “no aonyx dignity kill her nooo”

“Mwahahahahahaahahah youll never defeat me” says dignity

“No” and mantidfly kill dignity

But now he sad aonyx dead

And somewhere else celastrina breaks his back like a fucking old man

“Well i guss this really was the cruelty of mind to all dragonkind” mantidfly says “hit it, murrelet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And then him and all of where no mountain rests parties all day and all night

“Dignity! Join in!” mantidfly says

Dignity’s dead body spasms and compulses and leaks a pool of crimson blood, his eyes glazed over. Murrelet only now notices and lets out a high-pitched scream.

“Oh”

Mantidfly then has a life-threatening seizure and dies afterwards

The end

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

The shore rolled up and crashed and receded. A cold breeze swept across the sand, bringing wet seed pods and another layer of indifferent sand.

Aonyx hummed and looked up towards the moon, her sapphire eyes gleaming in the twilight that spread across the open beach of the Sea Kingdom, a promise of refuge. A promise of home.

She pulled out a silver, book-shaped locket from the leather pouch around her wing and neck, thumbing at it with a claw while another talon pinched it between two fingers. She hooked her claw underneath the opening between the case and popped the locket open, her eyes taking a moment to fixate on the picture inside.

…

Her father.

Altus.

He had deep, abyssal eyes devoid of color, his brow slightly into a worried and awkward expression, which played in nicely with the unsure smile on his face. His ears were pinned back timidly and he had his signature sailor’s hat resting atop his head, holes for his black horns cut out.

There was no color in the photo. The only traces were from the faint blue the moonlight brought up from the water’s edge. There were small folds in the paper that cast white, jagged lines through it like scarred lands and mountains.

She closed the locket.

The sea churned again as the water rolled up and fell away again, leaving the wet sand shimmering in the night.

The stars were singing her name…

The memory faded.

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

His eyes widened as he inhaled through gritted teeth, staring down at the note. He crinkled the paper between his tense claws, looking back up at Attacus and Erebos, who were staring in confusion.

Attacus glanced at Erebos repeatedly, Mantidfly struggling to find the words to explain. In full truth, he wasn’t even sure himself.

“So…?” Attacus began.

“...Uh,” Mantidfly looked back down at the note. ‘We need to stop Dignity,’ he read it over in his mind. “It’s… Something important,” he grumbled.

“Is it something you need to leave the hospital for?” Inquired Erebos, raising their snout.

“Yes,” Mantidfly answered.

“Can you not?”

“Not really⸺I think it’s important.”

“You think?”

“Uhm…”

Erebos snorted. “Hey, if you can’t figure it out yourself, let me read it,” he offered.

Mantidfly’s heart thumped in his chest for a few moments as he looked back down at the paper. “I-I’m sure it’s not something you have to look at— hey! ” Erebos took the paper out of his talons and held it between two claws, their eyes scanning over the words.

“Hm,” they made a few small noises to themself as they read before lowering the paper and meeting Mantidfly’s gaze.

“Dignity is a murderer, but…” Mantidfly quickly frowned at the idea of a counterstatement as Erebos spoke, “given your condition, it’s quite dangerous to send you out. These types of injuries take forever to heal and it’s only been what, a day?”

He looked away ashamedly.

“As much as I know you want to, and most certainly feel like you have to, the chances of you dying out there are the chances of… How do I put this… Not being struck by lightning.”

“Can I read?” Attacus whispered quietly in the middle of Erebos’ explanation between a tense quiet.

“No,” Erebos whispered back.

“W… W-W-” Attacus tried to complain, but stuttered too much as Erebos already started again.

“Ask away if you will, though, I’m open to any thoughts of how you could leave,” Erebos added.

“G-Guard…?” Mantidfly suggested meekly.

“Considering how Dignity is a ruthless killing machine, they’ll probably just drop like a fly along with you,” Erebos explained.

The HiveWing thought for a moment.

“A royal guard…?” He tried again.

Erebos tapped their chin. “It would be hard to get the queen’s attention… If your whole situation was not that important. But your case has really gotten a lot of traction, and even reached the royals’ concern. So…”

Mantidfly grinned.

“I’ll have to work it out. It won’t take long.”

He sighed and settled back down. “Well then, can you get to it?” He asked.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Erebos answered, turning around and walking out the door, Attacus watching and raising a talon before lowering it and sat waiting with him.

－✪－

“I’m back,” Erebos announced, slipping back into the room. There was another pair of footsteps behind them which made Mantidfly’s eyes widen in anticipation.

“You’re a bit loved, so…” Erebos moved out of the way, and a SandWing shuffled in.

“We managed to get a royal guard. Former from the Sand Kingdom.”

The SandWing bowed deeply, his pitch-black eyes devoid of emotion.

He had a large sword nestled in a case on their left wing, the handle covered in colorful and intricate patterns. His armor was slightly aged but in good condition, the mark of the Sand Kingdom scratched off, and a few brightly colored feathers tucked into the helmet, on the neck of the armor in faded letters, GUARD SOL. He had golden yellow scales, a white snout, and rosy cheeks with a necklace made up of large triangle-shaped topaz beads with no space between them, and a golden emblem of the sun hanging at the end, a large piece of gold in the middle.

“Sol… Huh?” Mantidfly mumbled nervously. He felt his chest thump his intimidation as he stared into his pitch black eyes, his eyes flicking back and forth from his sturdy body to his large sword.

“Guard Sol,” he corrected, his voice low and proper.

“Guard Sol,” Erebos echoed with a nod.

“Nice to meet you,” Mantidfly bowed his head.

“‘Tis an honor,” Sol bowed once again.

Three moons, this guy is rich, he thought, looking down at the piece of gold in the necklace almost the size of his talon.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yep! Yep! B-Better than ever!” Mantidfly said quickly—almost retorting.

“You guys can… Head out now if you want. You needa catch up with Aonyx, right?” Erebos questioned.

Mantidfly nodded. “Yeah. I’ll… We’ll… Be out,” he affirmed, standing up and wobbling on his feet for a moment, inhaling sharply with pain. It felt unbearable, his arm feeling like it was collapsing in on itself with the hurt of a thousand tiny needles, like the worst fiberglass, poking and prodding and making it impossible to take another step without crying.

I forgot. Shit… Injury on my arm…

Sol watched in confusion before walking over to his side and supporting him. Mantidfly’s face flushed in embarrassment, Attacus just looking away white Erebos stared at them stoically.

“Don’t look at me,” Mantidfly sneered through gritted teeth, hobbling out of the room with the SandWing holding up his arm, looking like a hatchling taking its first steps. Tears pricked at his eyes as he gasped in pain again, Sol paying him a worried glance.

“I’m fine,” he grunted.

“You’re walking too fast,” he advised.

“You’re walking too slow!” Mantidfly retorted.

Sol didn’t say anything else, and that made him even more mad that he didn’t want to argue.

“Say something!” Mantidfly growled.

“I’m here to help,” he said blankly.

He sighed and looked away, too ashamed to keep talking.

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

Celastrina hummed, clutching his head softly as he leaned over a small bush somewhere in the mountains. He opened his eyes and gazed out, seeing the scattered buildings appearing up ahead. The ones of Highswamp’s Retreat.

He’d used to live there, actually. The town was filled with a notable line of animus dragons, descending from Highswamp and carried on to a SkyWing by the name of Windshear. He’d never met him, but he only stumbled upon his son, Cordovan. His demeanor was one of strong resolve and prosperity. One that promised a carried blood-line no matter what, despite his animus gene remaining dormant. He settled down with another SkyWing named Bluebird and had a son by the name of Shikra. He was also an animus who became an advisor under the rule of Queen Turnstone, but it was proclaimed that he went missing somewhere in the lower forests of the Ice Kingdom.

Celastrina had never met his son before, but was still around by the time that Cordovan got told the news that his son went missing. He rambled on about it to anyone who would listen, and one of those ‘anyones’ just so happened to be Celastrina.

He never got any vision about it, though, no matter how hard he tried. He’d thought long and hard about what he was doing working there ever since that, running around fixing items and bargaining and keeping his stance steady. He was paid too little to stand around in a marble room where the ceiling stretched too high into a golden glass dome and watch the one of thousands of artifacts that were all slowly losing their charm.

And so he left.

He set off with one final bow to Cordovan, who crossed his staff over his chest and dipped his head solemnly, his wife close to his side watching with weary, emerald green eyes.

From there, he swore to himself as he found his refuge somewhere near his birthplace in the old Night Kingdom, he swore: to help the world for the better, as Cordovan had helped him find his place.

…He lived there for longer than he could remember. He settled inside a cave and lived there for decades. Things came and went, news flew over his head, and he lived in the secrecy of a life he once wanted all along.

…

He was rambling.

He would maybe get to meet Cordovan again, surely. It hadn’t been that long since he’d stepped outside, right? He knew that he was a hearty and strong SkyWing. Surely he’d be hanging in there after all these years.

At least Shikra’s son…

…Did he ever have a son?

Something, something! Celastrina thought, whacking his head a few times. A cousin! A spouse! Don’t tell me that legacy is dead!

Windshear? No! He’s been dead…For centuries now!

Three moons, just get to the exhibition already… There’s gotta be someone running that place.

Celastrina spread his wings and took off, heading towards the Exhibition.

－✪－

He kept on flying. The Mud Kingdom had appeared for a bit but was slowly falling away into a mountainous range, though they mostly appeared just as valleys.

He could see Highswamp’s Retreat in the distance as he flew, the various high-rising buildings appearing on the horizon. They mostly appeared empty at first, but slowly, he could see the figures of tall-looking SkyWings coming into view, flying around from one building to the next, kids following behind and chattering silently.

He smiled. It barely looked different than the first time he’d seen it.

Now if he could just land…

“Kheheheheheheh…” An ugly laugh, coming from behind him. It crept into his ear and sent shudders through every nerve in his body.

Celastrina tried to look behind him, but he couldn’t see anything. His gaze went cold with fear.

“The news went around, huh? You’re the one they sent, huh?”

Celastrina couldn’t speak. All the words he wanted to say seemed to suddenly catch in his throat.

“Haha… Hahahahahah… Help me out here, Murrelet!”

Claws dug into his back and he felt his wings be pressed against his back. He spun in the air a few times as he began to plummet, the pain digging deeper and deeper.

Celastrina roared and pushed off the dragon, who hissed with the likeliness of a RainWing as he spread his wings and fought against the air.

He was thankful that he was such a long way from the ground, or else he would’ve been dead by now.

He turned around to face the dragon as he started to get his wings working, though it was a horrible struggle. His wings felt beyond exhausted and ached with horrible pain, his head spinning and back stinging.

It was a RainWing. He had white scales with accents of royal blue. The tip of his tail, the membranes on his wings and frills, and his eyes were a golden yellow. Behind him was a particularly beaten looking IceWing, who was busy descending to the ground.

The RainWing stared at him, a baffled look on his face as he saw Celastrina catch himself. They both stared at each other in tense silence for a few moments, the RainWing’s eyes burning into his.

“Stupid…” The RainWing growled, “stupid, stupid, STUPID!” He snarled and gnashed his teeth, staring at Celastrina who kept a serious face.

“AAAAAAAAAARGH!” He yowled, pushing himself forward and flying as fast as he could. Celastrina ducked out of the way and hit the ground in an ungraceful landing, staring up at him the RainWing, who dropped down after him and unsheathed his claws with mad fury.

Celastrina rolled away as his claws dug into the ground. He took a few seconds to stare in bewilderment before looking back up at Celastrina and flinging himself upon him again.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” Celastrina roared as the RainWing struck him on the side of the head, claws scoring across his cheek and spraying blood upon the grass.

“You really wanna know? YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW?” He roared, flicking his frills furiously and staring him down with a furrowed brow and shrunken pupils.

Celastrina exhaled and moved away slightly, watching with troubled eyes the mess of a RainWing in front of him. He laughed again. A wild, crazed laugh. It was like he had too many eyes. Too many teeth, too many arms, too many claws, tails, wings, legs, eyes, horns… A mess of wild instinct, of insanity. A display of pure hatred that let itself form into a beast that betrayed everything it ever knew.

That bared its teeth towards life itself.

Whosawnowrongintakingeverythingthatlifegavesomercifully⸺

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

He sprung, his claws outstretched as he descended onto Celastrina, ripping wildly at his face with rabid sounds that sounded nothing close to a RainWing, even to a dragon.

He spat and rolled over, managing to catch a glimpse of Murrelet, her cold blue eyes staring into the depths of his soul. Lifeless… Lifeless…

“YOU! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” The thing’s voice was stained with hurt, one that came not from apology or remorse. Not one from guilt or another in the wrong. Denial. The result of immoral, cold denial.

He couldn’t see straight anymore. His head hurt as it started to swirl with visions. Thousands at once, clogging his mind and making him unable to keep his eyes focused on the RainWing, whose scales were starting to turn into a blood red with unbridled rage.

It snapped its jaws again, inches away from his face and nearly grazing his snout. It clawed at his abdomen with its hind legs and reached under its wing and pulled out a blood-stained dagger.

“I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU! WITH MY BARE HANDS, THESE HANDS THAT I’VE KILLED INDIFFERENTLY! TO THOUSANDS, YOU BASTARD! THOUSANDS! ”

Celastrina focused his eyes as much as he could, sweat pouring off of his face as he felt his breathing accelerate to a dangerous pace, his talons mindlessly reaching around for something to fight back with. He wouldn’t calm down—he couldn’t.

A vision.

It raised the knife, clutching it tightly between both talons before throwing it down.

Aiming for the bridge between his eyebrows.

Celastrina roared with a primal fury, raising two talons and clutching the knife mid-descent. He felt warm blood seep down his wrists and inhaled sharply with horrifying pain, wrinkling his brow but staring with an unwavering gaze at the monster in front of him.

It panted, its gaze suddenly snapping into one of bewilderment. It stood still for a few moments before a low growl rose from its throat and it tried to shove the blade back down.

Celastrina grunted and pushed his arms right back, letting out a sneer and delivering a kick to its groin.

Murrelet watched in stunned silence. Murrelet watched in shocked silence.

She held her breath and waited.

She waited for the next blow.

Chapter Text

★DIGNITY★

Stupid! STUPID! GAH! STUPID! Dignity’s thoughts raced, the fight over his knife pursuing with wild fury. The hybrid snarled at him and whipped his tail against his ankle, making Dignity sneer and exhale sharply in pain.

Feeling no other choice, he flicked his frills with a rattlesnake-like sound echoing from his throat, opening his mouth and revealing his fangs.

The hybrid’s eyes widened. “Y-You wouldn’t,” he stuttered.

“Of course I would, idiot!” Dignity laughed, his fangs pointed up, threateningly angled at the hybrid’s face.

The land stood still, the world was silent, until Dignity finally let out one last hiss and sprayed his venom upon the dragon.

He shook and thrashed beneath Dignity, the venom hitting his snout and burning with a roaring sizzle. Dignity’s head whipped around, fangs still out and bared as a rope of venom hit his arm as well.

The hybrid screamed in fury, using his unaffected talon to pummel Dignity’s chest, though it felt hard as steel.

“Haha…” Dignity began to laugh, tucking his fangs back inside his jaws as he stared down at the shaking dragon, his deep dark eyes staring with disdain into his soul.

“Gh… You…!” He snarled, quivering like a dead leaf as he spread his wings in some desperate attempt of intimidation. Dignity only laughed before clamping a bloody talon over his mouth, making the hybrid’s pupils shrink in fear as he tasted his own blood.

“Funny, is it not? Not even a big strong hybrid like you can get past me. Even born under the moons?” He reached up and flicked the silver teardrop beside his eye, making him flinch slightly.

“You really cooled my temper with how weak you’re acting. I expected a lot more of a fight out of you. Just… Rolled away and played a little game of ‘tug-of-war’ with my knife? Is that all you can do, hmm?”

The hybrid thrashed around a bit more, his screams muffled.

“You should tell me your name, really. It’s the least I can do before I kill you.”

He let go of his mouth, the hybrid gasping for air before baring his teeth at Dignity. “You asshole!” The dragon sneered.

“‘You asshole?’ Your parents clearly didn’t love you, huh?” He chuckled, slapping the hybrid across the side of the face, “now don’t make me mad again. I was just getting nice.”

“C-Celastrina,” he grunted out, refusing to meet Dignity’s eyes.

“Celastrina? Yeah, whatever that means, good for you,” Dignity growled, kneading his claws into Celastrina’s torso with a brutal force meant to hurt.

Celastrina whisked his head around, roaring in pain. He could hear his cries being muffled by some sort of rising, crackling sound. Getting louder and louder and louder.

He narrowed his eyes at Celastrina, who had a look of focus on his face. A second of waiting too long, Dignity had already pulled out his fangs again with a hiss, and Celastrina unlatched his jaw.

Dignity sprang off of Celastrina, kicking his hind legs in an attempt to throw him off balance. He managed to score across his talons, but also just set him standing on his feet.

Dignity flared his wings, whisking around and angling his front teeth at Celastrina.

A plume of fire emerged from the hybrid’s mouth, traveling towards him quickly. At the same time, Dignity let out a shuddering hiss as he sprayed venom from his fangs, landing right across the side of his face.

The flames reached him. They burn like all hell. He stumbled back, feeling the scorching and burning and ravaging pain of the fire spread across his body. Murrelet’s arms caught him, but her screams of panic and worry died out over the flourishing flames.

A chill spread over him. Not a strong one, like that ‘IceWing-death-breath’, a cool one, like a cold wind.

The flames dispersed, sizzling out and leaving the burn marks on him exposed. A small frost was creeping over his body, stinging and leaving a biting cold that hurt like the worst afterpain known to man.

“DIGNITY!” Murrelet screamed again, shaking his shoulders with a trembling voice. He turned around and looked at her, seeing her distraught and torn face. Tears streamed down her cold, white cheeks, her eyes bleary and shiny as she sobbed. There was some genuine worry in her, despite everything… Everything…

Her fur was matted, and the pain in him seemed to mute immediately, some sort of… Care coming upon him.

No no no, why do I feel bad?! That’s the last thing I should be feeling!
Murrelet embraced Dignity, weeping into the crook of his neck. Dignity snarled, coming to his senses and pushing her off of him.

“Fucking hell! Why are you hugging me?!” He roared angrily.

Murrelet sniffed and blinked a few times, a few more tears rolling down her face. She squeezed her mouth shut and lowered her head, whispering, “sorry, sir.”

“Now we gotta go,” Dignity continued, looking back at Celastrina who was cowering and creeping away. The venom had hit his arteries, making him appear covered in deep gashes that formed in weird, bubbly-like formations in his flesh.

He turned back towards Murrelet. Her eyes were starting to clear as she raised up a talon to wipe her face. “It’s best we make camp not far from here, we’re right next to Highswamp Retreat anyways,” Dignity commented.

“Where might Aonyx be…?” Murrelet asked.

…

Dignity thought for a while, trying to piece together something. The last time he’d seen her, she’d fled the hotel and headed out somewhere. Presumably north… North-east?

His eyes widened at the sudden thought.

No way she knows about the Parhelion.

No way she knows about the Windshear Exhibition.

He suddenly glowered, looking away from Murrelet, who gave him a confused and worried glance.

“Three moons…” Dignity growled, clutching his brow between two claws.

Where could she be?!

“Dignity?” Murrelet stressed, not taking her gaze off of the RainWing, whose scales were starting to turn a white and red swirl.

“Oh my… SHUT UP! I’M THINKING! ” Dignity roared, huffing with frustration.

“We don’t know where Aonyx is, I’m guessing?” Murrelet inferred.

“Yeah, ‘we,’ ” Dignity grumbled, “I’ll figure it out later. Our only bet⸺and easiest bet⸺right now is to check Highswamp’s Retreat. And who cares if she’s not there? Turns out we can get it without that little bitch.”

Murrelet flinched at the word Dignity ended it off with, but said nothing.

Chapter Text

★MURRELET★

The two sat around a fire, the fire before them crackling with newly-born warmth.

Murrelet’s face glowed orange in the light, though the same brightness only cast a dark shadow across Dignity’s face in the dipping sunset.

“You wouldn’t call me a bitch, right?” Murrelet asked, her eyes fixated on the licking flames that danced and floated around in the burning wood.

He glared up at her. “Bitch,” he answered, his voice dripping with hatred and disgust.

“...Oh,” she mumbled, frowning slightly.

Dignity picked up a stick laying near him and prodded at the fire like an old homeless MudWing, a frown on his face as he only watched the flames die.

“I don’t want to sleep in the cold tonight. You better find a way to keep the fire going,” Dignity growled, looking up at Murrelet.

Murrelet sighed and took the stick from Dignity’s hands, which he offered out to her not-so-generously. “I’ll figure something out,” she promised, lowering her snout to the heart of the fire and blowing into it as hard as she could, causing the flames to brighten slightly with even huff.

Murrelet sat back up and stared at the fire for a few moments longer, the silence hanging tense in the air.

“You really think Aonyx is here?” She questioned.

“Ghh…” Dignity bared his fangs and looked away, resting his head on a talon, “I’m not sure, but since we’re here… We could convince ourselves that there’s some offhand chance she got the word and showed up here.”

“Convince ourselves…” Murrelet echoed back under her breath, her gaze never meeting Dignity’s.

The RainWing quickly picked up on it and gave her a glare. “Look, what else can we do? We’re here already, and we don’t even need her.”

“Then why are we looking for her?”

“Because she’d make it all the more easier.”

…

Murrelet sat in forlorn thought before mumbling, “but all you guys do is fight.”

Dignity sighed and raised his head towards the sky in exhausted frustration. “She’s a tool, Murrelet. A tool like you. You push her past her limit, maybe drug her a bit, slap her around, and then you have another little hostage that you drag behind you. And what do they do, Murrelet? They help me. They help me get places, they help people feel bad for them, and that helps me be feared, ” He explained.

“I’m just a burden to you, no…?” Murrelet muttered, her voice cracking.

“A good burden, and don’t take that as a compliment. I only keep you around because you have no choice. Look! You got shelter, you got company, you got food, for the sake of these stupid three moons! Have I not done enough? Huh?! Where would you be without me, Murrelet? Where?”

In a place far from you. Living somewhere where all my needs are met. In a loving family. Taken care of. Caring… She extinguished the thought and looked back up at Dignity, whose pupils had shrunken with loathing for her whining.

“Nowhere, Dignity,” she choked the words out, though he didn’t seem to notice her apprehension.

“Exactly,” he huffed, “now keep working on the fire. We’ve gotta go to the Windshear Exhibition tomorrow and pray that we find Aonyx there.”

“And what about Mantidfly?” Murrelet kept on asking.

“Enough of the ‘what ifs’, it doesn’t matter, Murrelet! That dude is done and dead in some hospital across the whole damn continent! Probably on his deathbed croaking like a demented crow, that’s what.”

“Mm,” Murrelet nodded half-mindedly, her eyelids starting to feel heavy on her.

“I can’t believe you talk about these people so much as if we’re friends…A-As if we’re family with them, or something!” Dignity snarled. “Look at you, probably fucking fantasizing about living out in the country side with that geeky little HiveWing!” He nagged, waving a talon in front of her exhausted face.

“Huhh…” She made a small sound, her head nodding forward for a moment.

“Three moons, I can only imagine what you’re daydreaming about now. Come on, Murrelet. Get to your damn bed already.” Dignity walked around the fire and raised her head up, laying her onto her back as her head immediately rolled to the side and fell asleep, wings sprawled out limply across the ground and tail slung over one of her legs.

“Pathetic,” he growled, walking back over to his side of the fire and picking up the stick near Murrelet. He poked at the flames a few times and tried to blow on the fire like he saw the IceWing do, but found himself unable to breathe and got a slight burn on his snout, making him yelp in pain and veer his head back.

“I need rest…” He grumbled to himself, curling up next to the dying fire.

The sun dropped down and the first star showed its face.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

A cool breeze pushed past her, the sun shining through a window.

Her eyes flicked open and she rose off of the wooly bed, looking around and blinking away sleep. She felt warmth on his skin. The warmth of late summer and the welcoming joy of the world in one where she could rest.

For now, at least.

She pushed herself off the bed and stretched her legs and wings, letting out a small noise as she finally folded her wings once more and stared out the window.

The first time waking up here. In Highswamp’s Retreat.

An extravagant town, if she even knew that much about it. All she knew was that the Windshear Exhibition was here, and that’s where she needed to go.

Ever since her talk with the… Ghost dragon, he was all she could think about. His form seemed too real except for the fact that he lingered in the air like some lost, wandering soul. A soul made of smoke. His eyes seemed distant though they somehow stared into her at the same time, they watched, they watched keenly. And somehow the interaction was something she processed nearly perfectly, despite how much pain she was in and how blurry her mind felt, despite it all, it still somehow managed to work. The right time, the right place, the right person meeting the person they expected to meet. All right and all ends met but still two more factors were missing and they were out there wandering the world, all looking for her, and this time she actually wished that no ends met⸺but also that nothing fell apart. Not her. Not now.

All that she had left to do was go to the Windshear Exhibition and wait. Talk with people and wait for something to happen.

Wait for the inevitable.

－✪－

She landed on the perch in front of the risen dome, a red carpet lay in front of her leading into the building. There was no sign indicating what the building was, but she checked a map and what there was… Were guards.

Two SkyWings. Both their helmets tilted low enough to obscure their stoic faces. She approached both of them, looking beyond shy as she suddenly felt her throat twist and tighten and she lost all ability to speak.

The one on her left turned and looked at her, their helmet lifting up to reveal their piercing orange eyes.

“Uh,” Aonyx stuttered, struggling to find any words to say or where to start at. The story was beyond complicated, too complicated to the point where she struggled to get even a single word out. “I’m… Uhmm… The uh…” She mumbled.

The two guards looked at her, double the pressure causing her to feel the crushing weight of shame they brought.

“Trust me, I’m supposed to be here…” She finally got out, though it only made her sound more guilty, her voice barely above a whisper.

The one on the right tilted their head.

“The officials of… Where No Mountain Rests… They said… I could come here…” She whispered. That’s not even true. I came here on my own terms.

They seemed to slightly believe her, but it didn’t look legitimate in the slightest expression she saw.

“There’s… There’s a RainWing…!” Her voice suddenly took on an urgent tone as she spoke, “and he’s coming to steal the Parhelion. It all sounds crazy, it really does, so I don’t know if I can explain it, but I got told he’s here to steal the Parhelion.”

Any and all sorts of belief vanished from their faces.

The silence was killing her.

“I know! I know! It’s crazy! You all think the RainWings are good, right? The resolution fixed them all, right? Well, I don’t think it did! This RainWing broke my snout, for three moons’ sake! He’s been hunting me down and I only got the time to know that he’s coming here, probably dragging along his little IceWing hostage, and is gonna go steal the Parhelion!”

…

“She speaks her part,” the one on her right said.

“Wh… Huh?” Aonyx looked confused. Is that a yes? No?

“You’re granted permission. Until midnight,” the one on her left said, bowing and moving out of the way. “Do not go where you’re not allowed to tread. These halls are laced with history. The history of magic,” the other said.

Aonyx nodded. “Of course,” she said, “I’ll be good.”

She let the other guard move out of the way before stepping inside, feeling the cool air and antique scent wash over her.

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

“We’re here? We’re really here?” Mantidfly asked Sol, who nodded and gave him a warm smile. “Highswamp’s Retreat,” Sol confirmed.

“That’s what it’s called? I thought it was just the Windshear Exhibition!” Mantidfly stumbled forward, whisking his head around at the different buildings.

“All we need to do is find her?” Sol questioned.

“Yep! We just need-a find Aonyx and then go stop Dignity,” Mantidfly added.

“Who even is Dignity?” Sol gave Mantidfly a confused look, “We’ve been going all this time and you keep on talking about this Dignity guy…” His warm, kind face looked riddled with distrust and worry.

“Oh,” Mantidfly clenched his teeth together and inhaled sharply, looking away with a sort of trained awkwardness for something like this. “Dignity is… Uhm… How do I put this? A not really friendly RainWing,” he explained.

Sol looked unphased, instead just repeating back to him in a disapproving tone, “‘not really friendly RainWing.’”

Mantidfly blinked a few times before the tone caught onto him.

“N-No! You gotta believe me, dude. He was the one that attacked my store. He put the big ‘ol burn through my arm.”

Sol tilted his head and asked, “aren’t the RainWings nice now, though? Ever since the resolution?”

“Tsk, I wish,” Mantidfly retorted.

“I actually met one of the writers of the scroll…” Sol added offhandedly.

“D-Doesn’t matter!” He forced a rude tone out of himself before continuing, “...Who was it?”

“Harpithia,” Sol answered.

Forcing some sort of fake knowledge and awe out of himself, he mused, “oooh, Harpithia! I’ve heard about her. Isn’t she the uh… The SandWing? Yeah… Ahem.”

I have never heard that name in all my years living. Who the hell is Harpithia? He thought. Then again, I only came to this continent like a month ago.

“Wait, no, I’m getting the name wrong. Isn’t it…” Sol started, but Mantidfly cut him off with a genuine urgency, “doesn’t matter, we really have to go catch up with Aonyx.”

Sol nodded without another word, following after the footsteps that Mantidfly left behind.

－✪－

He flapped his wings one last time, landing on the large marble perch in front of the Windshear Exhibition. Looking up, he felt⸺bewildered. Overwhelmed, even.

A tall dome. Complete with golden patterns of clouds and birds and lines of silver through the reaching glass that all arched towards the top of the building.

The guards at the front barely gave him any question. Sol just told them that Mantidfly was with him and they gave the SandWing the most gracious bow he’s ever seen, letting them in.

“MANTIDFLY!” The voice caught him off guard, alongside the rushing footsteps, but he was quickly swept up by Aonyx in a deep embrace, her wings wrapped tightly around his back.

“Woah, woah, woah! Hey there, Aonyx!” Mantidfly chuckled, returning the embrace with a comforting smile and pat on the back.

“I’m… I’m so glad you’re okay, I’ve been worrying that you wouldn’t get the letter and that you wouldn’t show up, and oh, three moons…” Aonyx rambled.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here. Now what do we have to do?” He asked.

“I’m not sure yet. Really it’s dumb because I expected you to come later. Whole fight with Dignity…”

“Another?!”

“Yes, another! Anyways—uh—fight with Dignity and you’d come in all heroic and stuff… And… Kill Dignity…?” Her voice faltered, a feeling of denial washing over her.

“I guess I didn’t,” Mantidfly followed after, narrowing his eyes to the floor.

…

“B-But at least you’re here now!” Aonyx broke the silence, giving the best smile that she could manage.

“Haha, yeah. I’ll do my best to help you. Are we just waiting right now?” He continued.

Aonyx nodded. “We sit and wait for something to happen,” he affirmed.

“That’s… Oddly morbid,” Mantidfly commented.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

…

More silence.

Something was itching at Mantidfly. This tense silence that sank deep into him and gnawed at his brain. It spread over him and sank low. Low into his heart. One that made him feel nervous… Beyond nervous.

Something was bound to happen.

Aonyx was right.

Her eyes bored into his and for a moment he saw something beyond the dragon in her.

His claws dug into the ground, his eyes darted around.

Aonyx’s face dropped into an expression of grim fear.

A dragon, quick as a shot, descended onto his back.

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

The barren ground stayed motionless as Celastrina lay beneath a tree.

One of his eyes was bleeding steadily, his scarred and ravaged abdomen folding in on itself as he sat, trying to keep his horribly cut claws straight on the ground.

Everything hurt. Everything hurt like hell. It had to be the worst pain he’d felt in a while. Worse than the sinking hunger and ache of his legs from the hunters. This was worse… Far worse.

He could barely see. The gashes and wounds across his face would be enough, but the exhaustion that set in⸺one he would not be able to lift⸺made it far worse.

And it was too cold. Autumn was coming, and soon, Winter would show its face as well.

…He would have to go to Highswamp’s Retreat later. No matter the chance of Dignity being there.

If only he could sleep right now…

－✪－

He didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep. Despite the chilling cold air or early fall and the excruciating pain that crept over the worst parts of his body, he somehow forced himself to sleep.

Nothing hurt any less, though. Nothing stopped hurting. All he felt was light-headed and slightly wet—wet with blood.

It stuck to his body as he tried to lift himself off the ground, the metallic smell creeping into his mouth with a bitter taste.

“Ghh…” Celastrina groaned, raising up his talons to rub his eyes before flinching at the pain as he made fists and the realization of his left eye.

He would have to go to Highswamp's Retreat soon.

He stretched, feeling the prick of a thousand cuts, before spreading his wings and taking off north.

Flying in pained silence.

－✪－

Celastrina sat himself down on a ledge around the side of a raised building, holding the bandage between his teeth as he slowly wrapped one of his talons. He broke it off with a claw and then proceeded to wrap his other talon, no blood staining, but the pain piercing deep.

He knotted the bandage and tore it off before apprehensively raising it to his eye and thinking for a moment.

He lowered his talon back down, he didn’t have enough.

There was one place he had left to go to.

He made fists with his talons a few times, testing his grip before he stood up and braced his feet against the ground, flapping his wings and taking off.

He landed at the perch to the museum, the guards usually at the front nowhere to be found.

Celastrina whisked his head around in confusion before dashing inside, some sort of vague panic and danger ringing in his head.

Growls rose from beyond the entrance. Snapping jaws and flying claws.

Roars of pain. Screams of disdain.

And that tell-tale IceWing, with the matted fur and bruises covering her body.

The RainWing.

Her eyes widened as she stared upon him, quickly turning around to face the white and blue RainWing, who was digging his talons as far as they could into the neck of a screaming and hissing HiveWing.

There was a SeaWing watching from the side, wailing and throwing her fists onto the assaulter, but with little to no prevail.

Celastrina seemed to stand still for a moment, in cold, fearful silence.

He had to do something.

No matter the situation.

The artifacts.

He’s been here for long enough. He knew enough about the place.

Tour after tour—day after day…

It wasn't a ‘what’ he needed, it was a ‘who.’

The Death of the Valley.

His talons quivered for a moment before he sprang off, rushing down the halls. He came to one of the glass cabinets, staring at that precious diamond.

He braced himself with a deep breath, his heart pounding, before whirling around and smashing the glass with his tail and hind legs.

Artifacts clattered out, and the Death of the Valley fell to the ground and rolled for a few moments.

Despite the pain, he didn’t stop, picking up the gem and clutching it between his wrapped talons, tears staining his face with the shards of glass pricking and stinging his legs and tail.

“DEATH OF THE VALLEY!” He yelled at it, hitting it with a talon.

Nothing happened. His heart paused for a split second in dread.

“DEATH OF THE FUCKING VALLEY, HELP ME!”

He felt it rumble in his talons for a moment, before a large beam of light shot out.

Bones formed, shaping the head of a dragon around the diamond, which was resting on the forehead.

Celastrina gasped and veered away, but couldn’t bear dropping it. He’d never activated such a deadly artifact, but he was told to never drop it while it formed.

He repositioned his talons as the body of a dragon morphed in front of him, arms—four of them—reaching out to gently hold Celastrina’s wrists.

It had two regular eyes, but as they opened, revealed hundreds of others, all in an icy white with no sign of color.

A growl rose from their throat, snapping their jaws in the tense air.

Hooked teeth.

Millions of hooked teeth.

Their arms formed some sort of curled fur, in large spirals that enveloped all of their upper wrists and neck and chest and legs and tail.

Their wings unfolded, dazzling white feathers pouring out as they formed.

They rose off the ground and let go of Celastrina, growling and stretching their wings before reaching up a talon to the air in front of Celastrina.

He flinched in realization before reaching back into the pile of dropped artifacts and broken glass, picking up a curved rod that bent under gravity and wobbled slightly.

“You want this?” He asked, his voice shaking with fear.

They took it from him quickly and clutched the rod tightly, staring at it with intense focus and strain.

The two stood in silence for a moment, the fight beyond them the only background noise as the unease of how little time he had set in.

With a burst of light, the rod changed within the dragon’s talons, blades forming along the end of the weapon.

They jingled with the tell-tale sound he came to knew. One he knew to watch out for. The one of a wind chime.

Celastrina felt he had to ask. “...Silence, isn’t it?” He meekly asked.

Silence nodded, clutching the newly-formed weapon and looking at him, awaiting order.

“...Stop the RainWing out there,” he commanded, looking back at the thing ravaging the unknown HiveWing.

Silence bowed down, growling in acceptance, before springing off, clutching the rod between their front pair of arms.

Celastrina felt dizzy. Blood was pouring out again. His bandages were coming undone already.

He let out a small groan, wobbling on his legs.

In his spinning vision, he saw the bruised IceWing the RainWing kept give him a worried look, rushing over to him.

“Hey, HEY!” She roared, trying to catch him, but arrived too late.

“Oh three moons, stay with me…”

“Stay…”

Chapter Text

★MURRELET★

The snow whisked by, bringing another layer of snow as she sat in the perch of her window, her fur neatly brushed and washed as a guard sat by her side, head bowed to where only the snowy owl feathers on their helmet were visible.

“Valkoinen,” she muttered, looking at the guard who paid her no mind.

He stood silent.

Murrelet sighed and rested her head on her talon, a bored and worried expression on her face.

“Valkoinen…” She tried again, watching for any sign of recognition in the royal guard.

The IceWing only dipped their head and trotted over to her side. That was all she needed out of him.

She laid her head down and let out a small grunt, leaning over and stroking one of the guard’s talons with her thumb claw.

She looked up at him with longing in her eyes. “I should leave this place soon, shouldn’t I?” She asked.

Valkoinen’s mouth crept into a frown.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea…” She mused, sighing and stretching herself in front of the IceWing.

“Now’s not the time for such physical closeness,” Valkoinen said, lifting up the talon that rested over one of his.

“Queen Tengliu would be mad. You’re worried about that, aren’t you?” She continued, sitting up and leaning forward attentively.

Valkoinen didn’t say anything. He adjusted his helmet and nodded without an answer in question.

Murrelet sighed.

“Well I think it’s a good idea,” she commented.

“Queen Tengliu would be mad,” Valkoinen commented.

“Ha! I knew it!” Murrelet laughed, beaming at the stoic guard and pointing a claw at him.

“You’re forbidden to leave the castle by yourself,” Valkoinen added.

“Who says I can’t?” She nagged.

“I shall stop you,” he answered.

“No fun…” She grumbled, stretching a hand over his chin and trying to lift up his helmet.

She caught a glimpse of his sapphire blue eyes for a moment before he grabbed her hand with a held resolve and lowered it, letting the helmet fall back down.

“I really wish you could come with me…” She sighed.

“If you could.”

Murrelet chuckled a bit, laying down her fur with a talon before standing up, facing the window and stretching her wings.

“Soon I will, Valkoinen⸺and my life will be the best it could ever be.”

Chapter Text

 ★DIGNITY★

The sound of wind chimes.

Calming and entrancing…In a way he could never like.

Dignity dug his claws into the HiveWing once again, earning a quieter gasp of pain and a convulsion of his body.

This wasn’t working out. He wasn’t getting enough of a reaction.

The wind chimes again.

Eternally beautiful.

He hated it.

He slashed over the dragon’s mangled face once again. It wouldn’t be long before…

“What a cruel, bored beast,” the voice slithered down his spine, coming from behind him. His pupils shrank as his lacerating claws suddenly came to a halt, making one last squelching sound into the pulpy flesh.

Cruel? Bored?

He looked in every direction, but couldn’t find anyone. Murrelet was gone. Nowhere to be found.

Aonyx was staring at him with a horrified look, played off as a poker face.

“What?” He growled.

She only shook her head and backed away, clutching both her wings to her chest.

“I swear on these useless moons, Aonyx⸺”

A thousand blades scored across his back, the weight of a dragon descending upon him with six talons sinking into his flesh all at the same time.

Aonyx screamed and rushed for Mantidfly, pulling out his mangled and torn body and cradled it with desperation he’d never seen before.

Dignity gasped and felt himself crushed under the weight, the sinking pain of broken bones catching up to him.

His arm was broken.

They broke his arm.

Dignity screeched and flared his frills, flinging and thrashing about wildly.

“WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He roared.

“Silence.”

“I WILL NOT BE SILENT!”

“Silence.”

Two claws dug into his right eye, crimson blood leaking down at the sickening feeling of the soft organ crushing driving him into a state of numb agony.

He couldn’t even curse them out anymore. He let out a roar of pain and scratched his claws at their wrists, leaving scathing marks.

The warm blood seeped down his face and flowed into his mouth, making him spit and gag on the metallic taste.

The sound of wind chimes rang through the halls.

Another blow to the back of his head.

Dignity’s head spun, blinking and roaring and scratching around for something to grab onto, weakly whacking his tail against the hind legs of the dragon.

They climbed off of him.

He gasped and veered his head up, feeling like he was about to pass out.

He was grabbed forcefully by his horns with one large talon, the squeezing pressure they put on it enough to snap both off at once.

They turned him around to face them.

A thousand white eyes, all blinking and staring with furious rage. Hooked teeth and horns, and curling white billowing fur. A gray diamond positioned in the center of its forehead.

Its claws were beyond sharp, its eyes boring, snarling and snapping its jaws as it wielded in its… Second pair of arms? A curved rod with about twenty-five blades hanging off of it.

They took their eyes off of him, looking at the quivering SeaWing behind him.

“No…” Aonyx mumbled.

“You do not wish for him to die?”

…

“Answer me.”

“I…”

“There is fear in your heart.”

“What do you mean…?”

The swinging of the rod, almost menacingly.

The chiming of the blades.

The dragon’s expression darkened.

“En garde?” They asked.

…

They swung the rod forward, letting it hang inches away from Aonyx’s face.

“You have no other choice.”

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

Aonyx’s pupils shrunk as she stared upon the dragon. Its million eyes looked at her from every single angle, its fangs bared as it let out a low snarl.

“Please…” She mumbled, clutching her wings closer.

The dragon tilted its head.

“Spare him…” She looked down at Mantidfly.

They lifted their head towards her and spun the weapon once again. “Be more specific,” they growled.

“H-Him…” She pointed to the body of Mantidfly, finding herself horrified and not at all numbed after all this time by the deep gashes and wounds that ruined his body. The twisted bones, the missing teeth, the clouded eyes, the torn membranes…

The dragon nodded. “Very well, then,” they accepted, moving their rod aside and picking up Mantidfly’s body, dropping Dignity in the process, holding him by under his arms and wings. They set him against a wall to their left before returning to stand in front of Aonyx, Dignity’s eyes fluttering shut as he passed out. His jaw lay hanging open, one of his eyes gouged out and covered in dried blood.

Aonyx rose to her feet, feeling unbearably unsteady, staring down the strange, tribeless dragon in front of her.

Its curled, spiraling white fur blew in the wind from outside, flaring its feathered wings as it unsheathed its rod.

“A fair fight?” It asked.

She thought for a moment.

“G-Give me a second,” she stalled, running off.

No way I’m really doing this. I’m being way too compliant to fight a dragon. Especially with all this time they’re giving me… No way they’d kill me. Considering how fair they’re being, right? She thought as she looked over the artifacts, her heart pounding with adrenaline and fear.

Her eyes caught on a particularly dangerous looking sword, the plating’s name scratched out and all the letters beyond readable.

It’s worth a shot, she told herself, reaching for the handle of the great sword.

She pulled it off its stand and wobbled for a few moments. It was a stunning sword, of course, with its bright golden accents and embeds of ruby on the blade and handle. But heavy? Unbearably.

She huffed and leaned forward, putting in some arm strength to hold it steadily.

Hello.

…?!

“W-What?” She whispered, trembling. Her head whipped around, searching for the source of the sound.

A sort of electricity billowed around her.

Fret not.

“I-I am fretting! What is happening?!” She protested, clutching the sword as tight as she possibly could.

The sword?

…

Aonyx looked down at it. “R-Right… Magic stuff. Look, if you could be quiet and let me fight and all that… I’d really appreciate it. I’m not up for any of this animus stuff. Not right now,” she asked.

…

Give me a name.

“Excuse me?”

You know what I mean.

She turned around to face the scratched out pedestal. Something—not everything about this, no, far from it—clicked in her head.

“I give you a name… Because… You don’t have one?”

More than that.

The electricity grew.

“I don’t have time for this.”

Then choose another weapon.

“N-No…! Umm…”

Three moons, she thought, is… Is what I’d want to name my child a good option?

“Is… A name for my child good?”

Go ahead.

“Cloudburst.”

Cloudburst?

“Cloudburst.”

A pretty name. One of the better I’ve been given.

The electricity grew.

Now. Let’s get on with this, shall we?

“...As you wish.”

KRA-KOOOOOOOOOOM!

Aonyx flinched and clutched the sword tightly, looking at her opponent who gave her a bewildered expression.

“Was I not supposed to do this?!” She tried to roar over the crackling thunder.

Their ten eyes blinked all at the same time.

“A fair fight,” they repeated, voice barely audible.

“A fair fight indeed!” She yelled back triumphantly, raising the sword with newly-found strength.

“Forgive me…” It whispered, clutching its rod and bearing its teeth.

And shot off the floor with talons stretched towards her face.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

Aonyx staggered back for a moment, the second of fear being washed away as the dragon descended upon her, the brief period of disdain suddenly feeling like one of respite.

She held onto the sword as tightly as she could, yowling and swinging the heavy blade the best she could at the white beast.

The sword collided with their neck.

CRA-KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A bolt of lightning shot out from the ruby in the center of the blade, glowing a crimson red as the electricity slowly died away.

Aonyx screamed in fear, thrashing about and rolling away from the dragon who growled and lashed its tail against the ground, though it did not offer up any yell of fear or agony.

“C-Cloudburst…?!” She panted, staring down at the ruby, brighter than a thousand suns as the sound of thunder died away, leaving only the ringing in her ears.

Do not waver.

“I’m scared!” She wailed.

Silence gets back up rather quickly. Strike while you can.

“Who is Silence⸺” She took a moment to look back up at the thrashing white dragon with too many eyes, “⸺oh, that thing?”

Silence.

“Silence… Got it.”

She stepped forward on shaky legs, staring at the dragon who spun around to stare at her and glower without a word.

Aonyx lifted the sword above her head, letting her pinned ears fall back as she swung the sword as quickly as she could upon them, closing her eyes and bracing for the worst to come.

CLANG!

Stone.

Cold stone.

She gasped and quickly opened her eyes, Silence rolled out of the way, wings spread as they continued to glare at her, clutching their curved rod that chimed whimsically.

Too late.

“Yeah, I know that!” She yelled at the quietness of the open dome, her insane-sounding voice echoing off the walls of the exhibition.

She raised the sword again and stared at Silence, though she kept quivering and her brow was furrowed far too much to the point where it looked like an expression of fear and not triumph.

She was not built for this.

Anyone but her.

You do this all for The Parhelion, don’t you?

“How do you know?” She asked, her voice dripping with anger and bitterness.

…

Don’t ask questions.

“I will ask questions⸺”

Silence leaped forward again, swinging the tens of blades towards her face. They scored across one by one, each leaving brutal marks that bit deep within her, blood pouring down her face.

I can’t keep going like this, she thought.

Giving up so soon?

She staggered away and fell down, gasping and raising a quivering hand to clutch her chest.

I’m no fighter, she told herself.

Get back in the game.

It’s no use, she mused.

Get back up.

Or what?

Get. Back. Up.

Why should I?

Or else you die.

The message shook her right out of her thoughts, looking back up at Silence who was already creeping towards her again.

“I’ve never seen such a puny fighter. That putrid RainWing fought better than you,” they growled, spinning their rod in one of their front talons.

“Y-You don’t get to say that—”

WHA-POW!

Aonyx let out a blood-curdling scream as the rod whipped against her back, the blade driving deep and leaving a long, deep bruise riddled with cuts across her shoulder and back.

“We abandon fairness if you use other forces,” Silence threatened.

She waited for some response by Cloudburst, but was met with nothing but dead silence.

“What would you do…?” She asked meekly.

“I suppose that you were already told,” Silence growled, all ten of their eyes locking in on her fearful gaze.

She backed up a bit more, a trail of blood trickling and smearing from where she crouched.

“Pathetic,” Silence sneered, raising the rod back up once more.

“I-I’m sorry…” Aonyx sobbed.

“Never be sorry,” Silence snarled.

Aonyx clutched the sword tighter and inhaled sharply through gritted teeth.

If I die, I should at least do something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, she thought, staring at Dignity’s body, unconscious in a pile of crimson blood and dark green venom.

She slowly inched to her right, never taking her eyes off of the RainWing as her sword dragged against the ground.

“What do you wish to do?” Silence asked.

“I thought you hated me,” she mumbled, kneeling over Dignity’s body.

“What are you doing?” Silence questioned again.

“Something.”

“Something what?”

“Something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”

She raised the sword.

“Show mercy,” Silence’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“Show no mercy,” Aonyx growled back, her eyes refusing to meet her opponent’s.

With a swift motion, she plunged the sword down, driving the blade as deep as she could into the flesh of Dignity’s cut-covered neck.

Aonyx stood clutching the blade that sank into Dignity like a crutch, her back rising and falling in an arrhythmic pace.

She finally raised her head, staring at Silence with a scarred face of anger. Slowly, she started to smile. Smiling with triumph, with pride. She checked Silence's expression to see if they were scared. Maybe, just maybe, she could win...

But she saw no fear.

Silence only growled as each of their eyes flicked open and narrowed at her.

Aonyx's smile was slowly washed away,

As Silence launched off of the floor and back at her once more.

Chapter Text

★MANTIDFLY★

Ringing in his ears.

Warm with blood.

Mantidfly groaned and gasped, struggling to open his own eyes.

He tossed and turned and tried to raise himself off the ground, but his wings felt bound to the floor.

He shook himself a bit and felt a throbbing pain in his head from the motion, unable to make anything out besides the light beyond his eyelids that made everything appear a dark red.

A thump against the ground, alongside the scratching of a blade.

He heard Aonyx scream.

As well as a terrible ripping of flesh.

He opened his eyes.

A white dragon. One with six arms and billowing, curling white fur, with a gray, shimmering diamond stuck in their forehead, above their eyes. It had too many eyes, too many arms, and claws too sharp… A dragon with the wings of a bird and curled fangs like a boar, with curling, spiraling horns and a bended rod adorned with hanging blades.

One of its smaller eyes locked onto him and before he could blink they were all looking at him.

Aonyx let out a small sob and whimper, backing away as a sword hit the ground.

“Oh three moons, Mantidfly…” Aonyx wailed, her voice shaking and stuttering.

He raised up a talon to wipe his face, taking note of the dripping blood and gathering scabs around his nails.

“Do not listen to her,” the unknown dragon spoke, voice cutting through the air and driving the room into a cold silence.

“She’s out of her mind,” they said.

Aonyx let out a puny scream in protest.

“She already broke the rules of fairness,” they continued, “she broke it with that damned sword. ”

Mantidfly looked over to Aonyx, seeing her face riddled with anguish. She held the handle of a sword that was pressed against the ground. A grand sword with jewels of ruby and gold.

What could she have done? He thought, continuing to stare at Aonyx’s bloody face. She was bent over the sword, staring into the largest red gem and rambling under her breath, taking moments to inhale sharply as tears poured down her face.

What could have that sword done?

What could have happened to anyone?

I was out for too long… He looked back at Silence, whose eyes did not close.

And Aonyx looks horrible. I’ve seen her bad, but never like this.

And who is this?

He had to ask.

“W…Who are you?”

The dragon pressed a talon from their middle row of limbs to the ground.

“Silence.”

“Silence…” Mantidfly echoed, observing the dragon with a hesitant gaze.

They drew up their rod.

“She told me to spare you,” Silence informed.

Mantidfly sighed in relief, though he still quivered like a leaf.

“But…”

Silence turned towards Aonyx, who was still glaring at the sword with a look of urgency as she babbled nonsense, the only word he was able to make out being ‘Cloudburst.’

“She has forbidden fairness in a dire attempt to win,” they sneered, voice suddenly taking on a vicious tone, “so it is only for the better that I also abandon such a futile thing.”

Mantidfly felt his heart drop.

No way they’d kill me.

I can’t die like this. Not right after I finally get back up. Not after I just cheat death.

I’ve made it this far. I can’t die… Not like this.

His pupils shrank as Silence approached him.

Sweet Angel of Death, spare me…

They bent down before him, fur fluttering in the wind.

“The least I can do is take you out kindly,” whispered Silence, staring at him with their millions of gray eyes.

…

“Make it quick,” Mantidfly whispered back, feeling Silence’s hands creep around his neck and take hold of his horns.

He closed his eyes and waited.

“But kindly only means quickly. And death never comes without pain.”

He couldn’t care anymore.

“And this is the kindest I know.”

SNAP!

Chapter Text

★CELASTRINA★

Screaming.

Screaming was what drove him awake.

A high-pitched, wailing scream that echoed throughout the halls. One of anguish, of pure unbridled fear.

His talons hurt like hell. It felt like there were blades stuck just beneath his skin, under his knuckles, in his joints…

The dragon crying sounded like the one with him before. The one from his vague memory of what was happening before he passed out.

He raised his head up and began walking.

They were slow steps. Slow, uneven breaths and slow blinking. He was practically dragging himself across the ground in unsteady limps, trying to find the source of the sound.

Murrelet was out there.

Her wings were sprawled across the ground, crouching and looking up at Silence. The white dragon was covered in blood, corpses of dragons laying around him.

The HiveWing was down. Dignity’s head was practically crushed and had a large gash driven deep into their neck. The only one alive besides the other two was the SeaWing, who was huddled in the corner clutching a large sword covered in chunks of bloody flesh. Pools of crimson were everywhere.

He kept walking forward. Silence stared at him from shadowed eyes. His fur was caught in the wind again as he sat down in front of the injured hybrid.

Celastrina’s wings dragged against the ground as he finally sat in front of Silence, staring up at him.

“What… What did you do…?” He gasped.

“What I was made to do.”

“You killed them all…”

“Abandoning fairness is to come with dire consequences.”

“Three moons…”

Silence drew back his blade and hid it from view.

“‘Tis what I am made to do, as I will say again.”

“But… It shouldn’t be like this… They weren’t the bad ones.”

“The SeaWing wished to face me. She abandoned the rules of fairness.”

“How so?”

“The sword,” Silence said with a tone of hatred, turning around and glaring at the bloody SeaWing.

The sword?

“I-I can explain!” Shrieked Aonyx.

“No need,” sneered Silence, whisking around to face Celastrina once more.

…

The room was silent before Silence spoke.

“In resolution of battle,” Silence had to add, “partial resolution, and the return of my captor, I shall present the choice.”

Silence bowed down, letting their great gem stand vulnerable.

“Let me serve you furthermore,” they offered, “or—kill me—kill me and send me back to my gem.”

Celastrina frowned.

“Is there any kinder way?” He asked meekly.

Silence opened their eyes and stared at him.

“It’s your choice, not mine,” it said.

Celastrina sighed and clutched his head, staring around at the corpses of dragons. The magical dragon’s damage was irreversible and undeniably gruesome, but…

He looked down.

A fair point did stand.

No, no…

No…

He shook his head and pointed a claw at Silence’s gem, tapping it twice.

“I want you to return to your gem. Let all of this be over,” he commanded.

Silence nodded. “Very well, then.” And he drew his rod, placing it gently into Celastrina’s talons. It was a neat weapon. ‘The Death of the Valley,’ he was pretty sure of its name.

Take him out? Like this?

No vision came to him.

He slowly wrapped the rod around his neck, letting the blades dig deeper and deeper.

Silence let out a hiss in pain, making Celastrina flinch and pull his hand away.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” He mumbled, grabbing the length of the rod with shaky hands and continuing to shove them deeper.

“I didn’t know any kind way to do this…” He sobbed, finally grabbing the handle and taking a moment to stare at the gashes he inflicted on the dragon.

“Do it,” Silence coaxed, “come on, I’ve done this before.”

Celastrina felt tears roll down his bloody face as he closed his eyes and tensed his muscles, tearing the Death of the Valley out of Silence’s neck with a horrible wet slicing sound.

THUMP!

Silence hit the floor limply, his body starting to fade away in glittering light.

The diamond clattered against the ground, Celastrina rushing to pick it up.

He clutched it against his chest,

And began to quietly sob.

Chapter Text

★AONYX★

The shore rolled up, a chilling breeze whisking by.

Aonyx flapped her wings one last time, letting out an exhausted pant as she landed on the sands of the beach.

Her sapphire eyes were stained with worry and exasperation as she staggered across the ground, kicking up sand and dirt and covering her talons with muddy grain and tiny rocks.

Gyre.

She was sitting by the sea, her head lowered as she watched the waves roll by.

She walked faster, calling out her name over the thunder in the distance and the quiet rain.

“Gyre…” She panted, finally running up to her side. The older SeaWing looked up to smile warmly at her with clouded eyes.

“Oh three moons, Gyre…” Aonyx sobbed, embracing her deeply as her chest shook with sobs. “Oh, you would never believe what happened.”

“My sweet girl…” Gyre rasped, running a few claws under her ears and over her horns.

“I… I’m not feeling too well…” She admitted, tears making her cheeks and the patch of scales under her eyes burn.

“Are you cold?” Gyre asked, cupping her cheek with a calloused talon.

“I’m not cold, I’m not cold…” Aonyx wept, giving her mother a teary-eyed smile.

“What’s wrong, my dear?” Gyre asked. The worry in her voice could almost make her cry.

“Momma…” She exhaled, staring down at her talons.

Gyre raised her chin to look at her.

“I don’t know if I can go on much longer.”

Her mother tilted her head, but slowly, realization crept over her face.

“I-If you die…” Gyre said, her voice barely above a whisper as she pressed both her talons against her chest, face riddled with worry and empathy.

Gyre took a moment to stand up, wrapping a wing around Aonyx as she lead her to a bank of the shore, staring at her with warm eyes as the water barely grazed Aonyx’s talons.

“I suppose I’ll go with you.”

Aonyx felt her heart drop.

“Momma…? What do you mean?”
“Aonyx… You are my pride and joy. I have dedicated my life to you. Ever since Altus, I have let you guide me through my life. You mean the world to me.”

A few tears trickled down Aonyx’s face as she smiled and nodded.

“Yeah…” She wept, staring at her mother with loving eyes.

“My daughter…”

Gyre wrapped her talons around hers.

“I want you to help me die.”

Aonyx’s eyes widened, her grip tightening on her mother’s.

“If you really want to…” She said quietly, “I guess I’ll help you.”

“Fetch the knife, dear.”

Aonyx struggled to her feet, feeling shaky. The world around her seemed vivid and surreal as she walked over to the dock, her gaze locked on the starry, cloudy sky riddled with rain and lightning.

She walked up to one of the docked boats and reached into the bottom, pulling out the old pocket knife with Altus’s initials engraved into it.

Aonyx walked back over to Gyre and took her wrinkled talons holding the blade out for her to see.

“I got it, Momma… I got it…”

Gyre, without a word, raised the knife to rest right under her sunken chin, staring at Aonyx.

Those clouded eyes staring deep into her soul.

Aonyx sniffled and whimpered, using her shaky talons to slit her neck.

She drew the knife away as quickly as she could, and Gyre did not give any look of uncomfortability, only laying back into the receding and approaching waves.

Aonyx knelt over her, sobbing as she bent down to cradle her and embrace her once more, feeling her warm blood seep against her own neck as it diluted into the water.

Another layer of beautiful, shimmering water. In all the dazing heat, she raised the blade back up and brought it to Gyre’s chest, staring at her and awaiting approval.

A solemn nod.

Aonyx began to cut.

She couldn’t see anything in the blood and water, but she could hear the quiet and arrhythmic beating of her heart.

Gyre winced in pain.

Aonyx let out another cry and clutched her mother’s head, calling out for her. “Momma, momma… Are you fine…? I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t be doing this…”

“It’s all right, Aonyx… Don’t be afraid, my girl.”

She let out another wail as she grabbed the knife and drew it deeper.

“Oh three moons, please…” She begged towards nothing, finally hearing Gyre’s choking gasps get quieter.

She looked up at her mother with shrunken pupils and stared at her limp body, the rain falling on the water making her feel wet and uncomfortable. Kneeling over her mother’s cut up body.

She turned the knife around to point towards her chest, and wavered.

She took a deep breath and plunged it deep into her chest.

The stars were singing her name…

Her vision faded.