Chapter 1: A New Beginning

Inside the SkyWing hatchery, eggs were hatching. One by one, the tiny dragonets broke through their eggs and stepped out into the outside world, where their parents embraced them with their talons. Soon, all of the eggs hatched. All of them, that is, except for one.

Suddenly, a crack appeared on the egg. The crack grew larger and larger, until it spread across the egg, and all of the sudden, the egg exploded into a million shards. And there stood a tiny dragonet, with strange coloring. Its back was lined with golden scales, and its underscales were a bright crimson, like the bloodshed of a massive battle. It climbed out of the shattered egg, talons wobbling and shaking. His father was overcome with joy as he hugged his newborn dragonet. Little would he know that this very tiny dragonet would change the world as he knew it, and would create the first and greatest empire ever created in Pyrrhia. This was the beginning, the very beginning, of the Empire of the Sky, which would become the largest empire ever to exist on Pyrrhia. And that tiny dragonet would be the ruler of it all.

~~~~6 years later~~~~

Eagle stomped down the hallway, playfully chasing his laughing classmate down the hall, who had taken his shield when they were play-fighting. He took flight, chasing him down to the very bottom of the stairs, where the encountered a very angry looking SkyWing queen.

"Q-queen Scarlet!" his classmate said worriedly. "I-I didn't expect you t-to be here!"

"Please forgive my classmate," Eagle said calmly. He grabbed his shield from his classmate's shaking claws. "Thank you, friend, and Queen Scarlet, I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Wait just one moment," Queen Scarlet said slyly. "What are you thrilling little dragons doing here, all alone?"

"Are we in trouble?" asked his classmate. "Because my mommy wants me to eat dinner soon, and if we get detention, then I'll miss supper!"

Eagle rolled his eyes. "Idiot," he thought, "If he had a brain, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Meanwhile, my inventions are things that are actually worth using time for, unlike this silly nonsense!"

He didn't notice Queen Scarlet intently tapping his shoulder.

"What do you want?!" he snapped. He widened his eyes when he saw Scarlet's disapproving eyes gaze down at him. "I'm sorry, your Majesty. You see, I thought you were my classmate, and-"he started.

"No worries, it's fine." Queen Scarlet said. "Although, can you please join me to watch the thrilling arena battles?"

"Sorry, your Majesty, but-"

"Oh no, I insist." She grabbed his arm pleadingly and made a false pleading face. "I would be heartbroken if you didn't attend."

"What have I got myself into?" he worried. He forced a smile. "Uh, sure!" he said. He walked alongside Queen Scarlet as she almost dragged him towards the arena.

Scarlet squealed with glee. "Oh, how thrilling it must be to go to the arena the first time!" She looked at Eagle. "Speaking of which, is this your first time to the arena?"

"No." he thought. "Yes." he lied.

"Well then, this is a thrilling opportunity to experience it then!" she said, adding fake cheerfulness in her voice. "We're here!"

"Three moons," he thought, "this place is massive!"

"VERMILION, COME OVER HERE!" Scarlet ordered.

"Y-yes mother, right away." he stammered.

"Poor dragon," Eagle thought. "He must be overcome with fear, with such a mean mother. I wonder how he copes. Perhaps I should observe how he reacts and deals with things. It could help me with my brain studies, but then I would probably need to observe more than his reactions-"He was snapped out of his thoughts by Prince Vermilion announcing the battle.

"Announcing, Peril of the SkyWings!" he yelled. Thunderous applause followed, and Eagle saw a young SkyWing walk into the arena. "And for the opposing side, Clay of the MudWings!" The crowd booed when Vermilion said the name, and he saw a burly MudWing walk into the arena. "Yes, yes, calm down." He gazed up to the crowd. "Now... fight!"

Eagle watched the two dragons circle each other. Soon after what seemed like an eternity, the MudWing pinned Peril on the ground. He didn't kill her. "Strange," he thought, "doesn't he care more about freedom than honor? And how is he pinning her down? Doesn't she have firescales? I need to investigate further; this could help me with my armor-"His train of thought was again interrupted, this time by a massive commotion. He had just enough time to turn his head before he saw the blob venom hit Scarlet's face. Drip. Drop. And then Scarlet's face began to melt. He saw Burn quickly flap away, with the rest of the arena following them. He tried to resist the urge to grab one of Scarlet's scales to research them.

"I could learn so much! I could learn what causes it, and how to neutralize it! All I need to know is what it's composed of, and then I could observe it, and find what makes it melt stuff and what it can do and I can even find out how to replicate it! All I need to do is take a scale..." he reached a shaking talon towards her scales. "Wait; better use my new research tool."

He quickly flipped out his metal pincers that he used to study objects without distorting their original quality, and picked a venom-covered scale off the ground, as Queen Scarlet was clawing scales off her face. "YES!" he thought. He put it in his bag, and it burned right through. "Shoot," he thought, "I need to find how to transport it..." He eyed a vase. "It doesn't seem to burn through stuff that doesn't come from an animal. I know for certain that metal can withstand it, but I wonder if the vase can..." He dropped the scale in it. Perfect, it worked!

He quickly flew off, and he heard Queen Scarlet screaming behind him. "YOU COME BACK HERE! AAAAAHHHHHHH!" she yelled. Eagle rolled his eyes. Screw her, he never liked her anyway. He continued to fly across the plains, and eyed Peril and that MudWing holding talons, along with a collection of various other dragons from other tribes. He also saw the dragon that spit the venom on Scarlet. It was a RainWing.

"How curious." he thought. "What am I doing?" I shouldn't be thinking of experimenting on anyone! They have rights and families, no, I shouldn't be thinking of doing such horrible things!"

He shook his head, and flapped his powerful wings. He flew south, headed to the Mud Kingdom. "Wait, almost forgot my scientific instruments," he thought. He turned around, headed for the castle, and saw a fire rise from a tower. He watched another tower collapse, crushing 2 SkyWings, and also pushing over another tower.

After a while, he also eyed a SkyWing caught between the stump of a collapsed tower and the collapsed tower itself. "Wait, I'll help you!" he yelled. He pulled out a knife from his bag, and hacked at the tower as an attempt to free the SkyWing. "No use," he thought. Just then, he eyed a few scavengers passing by with long sharp objects, and they started hacking away at the stone tower. Surprisingly, the rock fell off, bit by bit, as they continued hacking.

He eyed a stick, and used some extra rope to secure the knife to the stick to imitate the scavenger design, and he also tried to imitate what they were doing. It worked, in that it broke stone quite efficiently. Now he observed the tower. The tower was about to fall into a ravine, and half of it already fell into it. He saw the wooden frame inside of the tower, and eyed the angle of the fallen tower. The tower was far from tipping over into the ravine, so he flew into the tower, and a beam almost crushed him as it fell. He found the approximate spot where the SkyWing was stuck, and started to hack at the stone. It gave way. "By the brightest night, I never thought I would say this, but scavengers are BRILLIANT!" he said. He saw the SkyWing, and realized that it was a girl.

"I'm here to help you." said Eagle. He reached out a talon. She grabbed it, and he realized she was panting and out of breath. Most likely, she was winded. He helped her out of the tower, and watched as it fell into the ravine. He eyed it curiously. "I thought it wouldn't collapse into the ravine!" He then eyed the dirt underneath it, and understood. "How can I be such a nitwit? It's obvious; according to my studies, the stability of a structure relies on the foundation! The fallen tower must have weakened the dirt, and therefore weakened the overall foundation!"

The SkyWing he was supporting gasped, and he put her on a rock. "You okay?" he asked. She nodded. "What's your name?"

"My name is Appalachia." she answered.

Eagle grinned. "My name is Eagle. What happened?" he asked.

She sighed. "My family... well, there was a huge fire in all that panic that somebody lit, and my family helped me out of there. They didn't make it." Tears started to brim her eyes as she thought back to what happened before.

Eagle gave her a pitying look. "Hey, don't feel bad. You know, my dad was the only one that knew how I felt. Everyone else just looked at me like I was some abomination." He thought back to his younger years and clenched his talons into fists. Those stupid dragons, making fun of him because of his color, of all things! It was just natural, yet he was discriminated for it! He stamped his foot, not realizing that he was doing so. And then he felt sad about how he never got a chance to say goodbye before he left the Sky Kingdom. His father was probably miles away now.

He realized that Appalachia was looking at him intently, as if he had changed from a spear into a shield. "Perhaps we're more similar than we thought." she said.

Eagle nodded. "Perhaps."