The 20th Century dawned, storm winds billowed over England, subjecting Cheshire to black clouds, cold rain and the crash of thunder and lightening over the darkened countryside of the Chadminster Estate.
Two dragonesses walked with a human servant out of the gardens under leather cloaks to protect from the rain; one dragoness, Elizabeth, was older, an albino, with a mask covering part of her scarred face; the younger, her kinsman, was a regular white, with fair skin and a disapproving expression upon her face. The human carried a shovel tiredly over his shoulder, the bottoms of his boots thick with wet and sticky mud as they trooped back home.
"But godmother, please!" the younger protested. "We can do such good with those rings. We, we could take the throne of England and save our people!"
"No, Emily." She snapped. "...That ring is evil. No good can come of such parasitic relics. We've lost the other one. We don't know whose on the other end anymore, whose suffering for our benefit." She shook her head. "I was such a fool. I should have known never to rely upon those rings."
"But we do know who stole it, that idiot who fled north with it!" Emily continued. "If that bastard choses to wear it, well, he deserves it, he's a thief! Let him rot in Scotland!"
Elizabeth turned and smacked her goddaughter, her actual parents and Elizabeth's cousins, Lord Eric and Lady Margaret, had begrudgingly agreed to dispose of the Ring of Fortune after its twin had been stolen. However, it was very clear that they were just as willing to try to continue using it, just as they were willing to attempt to put its twin on the dragon she had been betrothed to, it was an opportunity to end a feud, and she'd blown it: How Elizabeth had paid the price when she tried to offer it to him as a wedding ring those many years ago.
"...But what if he doesn't wear it?" Elizabeth asked: "What if he sells it to some poor sod and they wear it, or give it as a gift to some loved one? What if he just throws it in the sea and is done with it? At best, the Ring of Fortune is useless now, at worst, we could be subjecting anyone to a cruel and blighted fate. No! I shan't do it. I'll have no part in it! I never want to see those rings again!" Her face darkened. "If you have any decency, you shan't go back there."
"But... Godmother." Emily begged. "Without it, our luck will fade. What of our family? What of England?!"
Elizabeth paused, their family had been tied deeply into England's fates since the days of Edwyn the White, their family's progenitor, back when England was a broken collective of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; they'd seen their home evolve from a tiny, Anglo-Saxon kingdom, into a united English nation, into the British Empire which ruled a third of the world: More than just a small share of that growth was down to luck, and the Chadminsters had been enjoying the blessing of the ring's luck for more than a thousand human years.
"...I don't know." She finally replied: "But England is strong, she'll manage I'm sure. Times may be hard for our island nation, and for us, but we must stay strong with her." She sighed. "That ring is useless, Emily. We have to let go of our dream to rule this land. It's never going to happen, and if it does, how much have we given up to get there? How many people have suffered for our dream? We're not the same dragons as our ancestors. We're not good dragons anymore, and I want to spend what's left of my life making peace with the lord."
Elizabeth stopped, curling a wing around her goddaughter and hugging her tightly.
"I love you, godmother." Emily whispered. "And I'll make this work, I'll find a way to live up to our family name."
"I'm sure you will, my child." the albino dragoness softly cooed. "But the rings are not the way. What good is our intentions if we're to achieve our desires on the backs of the suffering of innocents? Forget them, my darling, we do not need their luck." She pulled away. "...Don't, please don't go back there. Don't disturb the resting place of my son again. I don't know if I could forgive you if his grave was desecrated for such a foul intention..."
With that, Elizabeth and Emily returned home to the warm, but Emily was not satisfied. While the household slept, she crept out into the dead of night, a shovel in paw; she was not prepared to let such gifts go to waste, she'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission...
There was a patch of disturbed dirt underneath a large, stone statue of a young dragon. It cast a shadow over Emily as she carried a shovel in her forepaw. The young dragoness shuddered: This was wrong, she felt sick to her stomach digging up the grave of her own kinsman, even if he was a bastard... But she had to: She needed that ring! She longed to have its beautiful, magical metal resting upon her talon again; its gifts would save England, and her family...
She took a breath, it would be better if she did this quickly. Emily plunged her shovel into the ground and started digging, her forelegs ached and her scales shimmered with rainwater as she toiled.
Eventually, she struck a small, wooden jewelry box. Emily jumped at it, pulling it from the ground and opening it, revealing its sole content: A single, golden ring, with a faintly glowing white crystal set into it. Her heart fluttered as she took it, and slipped it on, sliding it down to the base of the toe so it rested soundly against the joint. She smiled, twirling her talons and watching the gem sparkle on her paw. And yet, she felt no luckier than before. Her heart sunk, if only slightly: It was a beautiful ring, but it wasn't lucky.
She sighed, now all she had to do was wait...
Author's notes:
EDIT: Changed the prologue to make it less spoilery of things to come; I also changed Elizabeth's and Emily's conversation; now, Elizabeth is totally opposed to any notion of the rings being used, and so Emily actively disobeys her godmother to take back the ring.
Edit2: Darn, I'm quite indecisive about this chapter, aren't I? I've edited the chapter again now, this time to move the location of the ring from a random tree, to the grave of Elizabeth Chadminster's dead soon, David Chadminster. It makes Emily's plight into villainy much more obvious, and digging up a grave is much more impactful than digging up some random spot in a field; plus, it means nobody would chance upon the ring by accident: Only someone who knew it was there would dare to dig up a dead dragon's resting spot.
