Into the World
Nightpiercer was laying in the hatchery in a far corner while the other dragonets played, they never included him so he had given up trying. He always had to fight for any food brought by the adults- which was fairly easy, the many other dragonets that lived within the hatchery never wanted to eat anything he had touched because they thought they would get sick. He was the plague, they would often try to play a made-up game called "Cut the Stinger" and would try to cut off his stinger. If it didn't hurt so much I'd let them. Maybe then he would be accepted.
A bug skittered across his nose and his ears perked up he immediately caught it under his talon and dragged it across the ground. It was rare to find insects to play with or the stray mouse. Sometimes mice found their way from the new tunnel Stonemover built. But normally the grown-ups snapped those up.
"Hey!" A small yet bossy voice called to him and, as usual,he ignored it. "I'm tawking to you!" A group of younger dragonets ran over to him, cornering him as the one that called to him stepped on his talons.
"Ow! Stop that!" He growled, moving his talon away quickly and sitting up, the bug was crushed under his weight in the process, he felt the soft squish under his talons and quickly picked it up, wiping it on the rocks under him in disgust.
"You kiwwed it!" The dragonet cried out in a long wail as she scooped up the bug, poking it gently. "You killed Wainbow!"
"Do you even know what that is?" He snapped in irritation, his spines quivering in annoyance. The older of the dragonets hissed at him and gave him a firm shove in the side which made him fall over with a surprised huff.
"They know what a wainbow is dumby!" The black and purple dragonet growled angrily and raised her talon slamming it on his head and holding his muzzle shut. In response, he opened his wings and raised his haunches in the air in an attempt to squeeze away. The other two closed in and nipped at his scales but he was saved by the bell as usual as a Guard came and shooed them off. Nightpiercer was bigger than all the dragonets, he was kept here because no one wanted him and they didn't want a dragonet running around without parents. The guard glared at him for a long moment as he got up and rubbed his snout where it had been pinned before finally breaking the silence.
"You should leave."
"Huh? I mean, what?" Nightpiercer paused with his talon on his snout as he looked up at the Nightwing before him, his name was Prideful.
"You're big enough, go out there and find someone that will take you in. You are getting too big for the hatchery and you are making the mothers uncomfortable" He gestured to the dragonets that were making faces at him, but stopped as soon as the Guard pointed to them. "They are afraid you will hurt their dragonets or sting them.
"Oh… Uhm, y-yes Sir.." He stood up from his place, wincing when he shifted against a scale that had just been chewed on, he kept his head down respectfully though his tail trailed behind him dangerously, he didn't know how to curl it or that he even needed to after all he had no examples here.
The foul smell of the smog-filled his nose as he stepped out of the protective cave of the hatchery. It had been protected from the smog for the most part and whenever it got to smoggy within the cave the guards cleared it out with their wings. He looked back at Prideful who gave him the slightest nod, this gave him enough courage to walk out of the cave completely into the open. He saw dragons lined on jagged rock ledges, pushing each other for their own space while others simply landed on the hot stones to rest.
Okay… I can make friends… I'm nearly four I'm pretty much all grown up! That's what he would keep telling himself anyways. He walked across the hot stones away from the Volcano and towards the ocean, he assumed it would be cooler there meaning tired dragons would go there. Maybe he would find someone rested enough to talk to without getting his face burned off.
Ash and soot fell from the sky almost like rain, and he could hear the occasional coughing fits from dragons… he always heard the stories that they were great and powerful. What was so great about this? He looked back and noticed that he was leaving footprints from all the ash which blanketed the hard sharp stones under it, the prints had a red tinge to them. His talons were bleeding from walking on the sharp volcanic stones, he hadn't even noticed. As he lifted his talon to look at the bottoms he heard a soft thud, muffled by all the ash. He looked up quickly, expecting it to be some hostile Nightwing that was to scold him about his tail, but instead, it was a dragon many years older than him. He blinked and tilted his head… He was always told he couldn't speak unless spoken too because he was a Hybrid and not a pure Nightwing. He had his own class system in this classless Kingdom.
"Who are you?" The scratchy deep voice demanded with such authority he nearly fell back.
"Nightpiercer..." He didn't want to push his luck with this dragon… One Hybrid dragonet going missing would be swept under the rug and forgotten about, he kept his answer simple and quick.
"Nightpiercer? Fitting name. Hmm, shame…You'd be a rather strong dragonet if it weren't for that tail." The large dragon turned away from him walking slow, proudly across the stones.
"Wait, the tail doesn't make me weak!" He bounded after the larger dragon, ignoring the pain in his talons as he landed heavily on sharp stones that easily penetrated his scales. The large dragon had a few scars along his haunches from fights years ago. He wasn't paying attention to him in the slightest ignoring him up until Nightpiercer got close enough to pin the tip of his tail down with his talon. "I can still be use-"
The dragon spun around quickly, nearly snapping his snout off in the process. "You don't fit my standards of dragonet, you do not need to be concerned about it unless you want me to chop off your tail.."
If he cuts off my tail I'll at least look normal… "Uhm… s-" He started nervously as he formed the answe in his head, but he was cut off when a dragon landed roughly behind him, running over quickly in bounding leaps. The dragon was someone he didn't recognize, but the dragons in front of her moved away in a hurry. Was it the Queen?
"Morrowseer!" The dragon roared as if she had been yelling at the dragon all day, she wasn't much bigger than him but dwarfed by the dragon she was scolding. "I thought mother told you to stop saying that to dragonets leaving the hatchery! You're going to scare him and it's kinda creepy."
The larger dragon named Morrowseer growled and lowered his head before correcting himself, moving his wing apologetically. "My apologies Princess Stargazer. It's just odd to me why your mother would allow such a thing to live in her Tribe..." He turned and moved away taking to the air before the Princess had a chance to scold him more.
"Annoying smog-brain..." The Princess muttered under her breath seemingly forgetting he was there for a moment. "Hello, I've never seen you before, you're the hybrid I heard about?" Poor thing, mother cheated on his father and then they both got killed, how unfortunate.
"Please don't bring that up…" He shook his head and put his talons over his ears, he didn't want to hear about his parents, he barely remembered them but it was still a hard topic.
"Bring what u- Oh! Oh, you can read minds! Right! That's why you have that tear! I forgot your parents did that!" Stargazer seemed excited by that, poking his tail by the barb in curiosity as she circled him, even poking the barb which made him jump and spin around.
"Don't do that! You will get stung!" Is she crazy?! He stared in astonishment as the Princess started laughing, most would have seen it as a threat and he would have been pushed away, she thought it was… funny?
"So what? Stonemover has a tunnel to the Sandkingdome even if you did sting me I'd be fine. Can't say the same for you though. Mother would probably kill you on the spot if she found out it was you!"
To the Sandkingdome? "I thought the tunnel went to the Rainforest…" That's what he was always told anyway by the other dragonets.
"Really? Do you know nothing? Why would we want that? That would just be inviting creatures to come in and eat our eggs." Stargazer chuffed and sat down, graefully curling her tail around her talons. "Hey, do you wanna go hunting? Mother won't let me leave if I don't go with someone."
"Well uh… Actually…" How do I explain without sounding like a complete idiot? "I've never actually flown before so, I don't think you'd even want to take me, I mean why even trust me I could be a Sa-"
"'-A Sandwing spy?" She mocked a gasp of surprise and dramatically put her arm over her eyes. "Oh no! How could I have been so foolish? Allowing myself to get so close to a Sandwing spy that has never left the Hatchery! This is the end of the Nightwings!" Her dramatic acting drew the attention of a few dragons lounging by the murky water, grumbling in irritation at her loud acting. "You're fine, even if you were a spy I think I could handle you if you tried to attack me… I know how to teach you to fly real quick! Follow me!"
"Uhm… Are you sure about this Princess Stargazer?" He looked down the steep slope they were climbing, he felt dizzy as the ground far below seemed to tilt and spin from side to side.
"Of course I'm sure! You'll do great! And forget the formalities I won't tell anyone, just call me Stargazer okay?" She turned around and bit onto his wing, pulling him up the rest of the way suddenly, his other flaring for balance when he nearly went tumbling over the other side into the lava pit below. "Now jump."
"What?!" She's crazy I knew it! "But I can't fly!"
"Do it, it's an order!" She let go of him and jumped off flying in place over the pit below him teasingly, he swore he caught a small grin plastered on her scaly face.
"What if I fall into the lava?! You're crazy!" His talons clutched the ground under him as he swayed in the hot air currents, his eyes stung from the smoke and ash surrounding him coming up from the lava below… it smelled horrible too like someone had left an egg in the water and let it rot.
"Then you die. I don't appreciate you calling me crazy! Now jump before I tell the guards you are threatening me!" She did effortless loops in the air in mockery of his lack of flight ability, twirling and spinning gracefully. He'd call her beautiful if she wasn't telling him to jump to his death.
"Fine... But if I die it's on you!" he took a step towards the edge and felt the ground crumbling under his talons, cracking as it collided with the walls of the Volcano. He knew she likely wouldn't care if he were to die but it was at least something to say in defiance. He opened his wings, flapping them hesitantly before he leaped off the edge, his wings open to slow him down. He felt the heat rushing towards him as well as the bright glow of the lava growing brighter as seconds passed. He flapped his wings frantically, huffing in the heavy air. He felt muscles in his chest that he had never used before as they worked hard to do what he told them to do. His wing clipped onto Stargazer's as he passed causing her to fall a few feet before she caught herself.
"Fly fly fly!" He's going to die at this rate. Her thought was panicked, not happy about the fact in the least. The Princess cared about his well being despite no one else caring other than his long-dead mother. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the quickly approaching lava, pain in his tail caused him to reel slightly spinning out of his own control for a moment, then with one final thrust of his wings he stopped falling. He flapped steady but faster than he probably should as he stared at the lava, if he let his tail drop it would burn. He looked up at Stargazer who cheered above him, looping in the air excitedly. "You did it see! I knew you could!"
"Sure, your thoughts said otherwise." He remarked with a slight grin as he lifted himself up and away from the lava to join her in the sky. "You said you wanted to go hunting right?"
The Princess' eyes brightened at the question.
"Yes! We should take Stonemover's tunnel though, I don't think you'd make it over the ocean you're still a weakling for your age. You should be much bigger! Like me."
"You're barely even bigger than me!" He laughed lightly, ignoring the other dragons staring at him in disappointment... No doubt they were hoping he would plummet into the lava like his parents. "I can fly over the ocean it can't be that far can it?"
"You'd be surprised, well then if you don't want to do it I don't think that I can make it over the ocean with all this excitement. Come with me, we can hunt in the mountains."
Defeated, Nightpiercer let out a long sigh nearly coughing when he reached the limit of his exhale. "Come on come on!" She dived towards the lava and pulled up slowly for a burst of speed as she went towards the far side of the island, it took him nearly a minute to catch up with her, landing heavily beside her. She wasn't even breaking a sweat and he felt like he could nap for the rest of the day. "I through here, I know it feels weird, but trust me, it's perfectly safe" There was a very…. Unnatural hole in the ground surrounded by stones. It felt like it shouldn't be there that it shouldn't exist, but when the Princess went in he was quick to follow.