7 hours earlier

53 years ago, dragons appeared. Nobody is really sure why or how. When they came into existence, they attempted to become the dominant species of the world. They hunted humans for food, and humans tried seeking dragons out and killing them. It was the stuff of old Viking legends. However, in a very unlikely turn of events, the dragons fell and lost the war. They failed, and ever since then, dragons have suffered the consequences.

Wolf the IceWing was currently in the extremely unfavorable situation of escaping a building with soldiers inside of it while holding 7 loaves of bread. How in the world could he possibly get out of such an incredibly ridiculous situation? Very very sneakily, and luckily. After all, it's not like it's incredibly hard to spot a practically glowing white dragon the size of 2 men inside your well-lit claustrophobic empty halls. Not very hard at all. Not to mention the sevenloaves of bread in his arms.

Wolf was part of a small Dragon Rights group called Basilisk, which existed in an abandoned gigantic fallout shelter from The Scorching. It was very short on money, and it despised the government and its views on dragons. In fact, the government of the U.S. even installed this new program to advance humans even further ahead of dragons. It was called the SuperHuman program. They said it was merging the dragons' superior physical abilities, and the humans' superior mental ones, but there are two major problems with this. One is that it was really probably made to keep the dragons in check from trying to initiate The Scorching again, and it's basically to say that while dragons may be physically superior, humans are mentally. Which Wolf knew was completely wrong.

So now here's Wolf, trying to escape a fully attended military base with seven loaves of bread to bring back to his not-people for them to eat. While he was closer to the front door of the building than the roof, he was leaving by flying, because it's a whole lot harder to be seen flying away into the night then just waltzing through the front door with several fully trained and armed guards next to it. So roof it was for Wolf.

Wolf peeked over the large wooden crate that he was currently barely huddled behind. He saw the regular guards at the door, and then some other entering in rows. He decided now was his best chance to climb the stairs, since the soldiers might be coming over there soon and will probably see him just sitting there behind the crate. Wolf quietly stepped up the stairs, making sure none of his scales caught and reflected the light shining down from the skylight above. When he made it to the top, Wolf looked around for a way to get to the roof; another staircase, maybe an open skylight… and there it was. On the other side of a long, empty hallway, there was an elevator. Wolf quickly left the top of the stairs and started race-walking down to the elevator, when a large bang erupted from directly below him. A gunshot. Wolf whipped around to the staircase, hoping that the bullet wasn't meant for him, but saw nobody. However, he did hear footsteps racing up the stairs.

"We're under attack! Get to the armory!" somebody shouted.

Running out of options as to where to go from here, Wolf flew directly up to the high ceiling, hoping nobody would think to look up in this urgent situation. Luckily for Wolf, nobody did, and Wolf saw dozens of soldiers running up the stairs, shielding themselves. Who is even attacking? No small gang or group of criminals would be crazy enough to infiltrate a military base… what do they expect to happen? For them to win? There has to be something else happening here…

Wolf then saw the attackers. They were completely covered in a dark red body-suit with clothes over it. The clothes on it where regular clothes, like how anyone would dress. But the really odd thing about them was that they weren't armed. The shots were by only one man, who had dropped his gun. The men kept moving forward, slowly, up the stairs. Right underneath Wolf. Then, as if someone jabbed them with a stick, they started moving forward again. Soldiers rain into the hall, getting into a defensive formation and pointing their guns at the incoming attackers.

"Stay back! We'll shoot!" One shouted.

"They're unarmed, sir. How are they even going to attack?"

Then who fired the gunshot? Wolf looked down at the soldiers beneath him. They're probably wondering the same thing.

The one in the back, presumably in the lead, said "hold your fire….

Hold…"

The people got closer and closer, moving slightly faster every moment.

"ENOUGH!" one attacker shouted, and sprinted the other way, but couldn't even make it down the stairs. He exploded, but not seemingly from a source, like there was a bomb strapped to his back or chest. He was the bomb. The soldiers were crouched down, slightly dazed. That's when the people made their move. Sobbing, the people ran forward and exploded.

All the glass shattered in the entire area of the building, and Wolf almost fell from his perch. He used the moment to zip to the elevator and looked down at the bodies of the soldiers. Completely destroyed. What kind of terrorist attack is this? And where else are they going to attack? Wolf asked himself.

It didn't matter now; Wolf had to escape as quickly as possible. There was nobody in the hallway at the moment, so Wolf could call down an elevator without much trouble. As he got into the large glass elevator, Wolf started to absent-mindedly stare at the corner of the hall, near the stairs, as if waiting for something. Sure enough, something came. A dragon. A black dragon. A dragon unlike any he'd ever seen. All of his scales were a deep black, but unlike a RainWing's, they seemed like they're always black, like they were unchanging. He also didn't have the ruff behind his ears, and his tail and wings didn't look right. This dragon was not a RainWing. It looked almost like a SandWing or an IceWing, but completely black. As Wolf kept looking at this dragon, he realized it wasn't entirely black after all. He had glimmering silver scales on his wings, and right next to his eyes. Wolf reached the top floor, and opened up a skylight and jumped out. Wolf looked through one of the windows, at the destruction left behind, and he noticed the black dragon looking directly at Wolf. Wolf shuddered, then turned back. He flew up to another rooftop, holding the bread tightly in their bags.

Wolf stopped on one rooftop to look down at the city. It was raining. The lights from the cars and building illuminated the night. The city looked like a large Christmas tree. Wolf sat down, placing down the bread bags, and admired the city. Wolf looked around, and then turned and looked at the building rooftop next to his. The black dragon was on it, and the very edge, perched there, overlooking the city the same way he was. The silver scales shone in the rain, glimmering.

It was then, noticing these scales, that Wolf noticed the dragon had been looking right at him. Wolf backed up in surprise, but the dragon did not chase him. Instead, the dragon jumped down from the building and swooped away into the night. Wolf exhaled. He looked back at the city. I wonder what that dragon's deal is. I've never seen one like him.

"Hello, Wolf."

Wolf stood up with a jolt and turned around to see the black dragon.

"Ahh- um, hey! Who are you?!"

"Calm down, Wolf. I'm not going to hurt you."

"How- how do you know my name?!"

"I know lots of things about you. I know you work for Basilisk. I know you stole that bread. I know you think the city at night like this looks like a large Christmas tree."

The dragon had a look in his eye, a look Wolf had never seen before. His talons fidgeted as if they were buzzing like a bee's wings.

"Do- do you know who killed them?" Wolf stuttered out. "Who killed the soldiers?"

"ah, yes. Yes." The dragon thought for a moment, turned away from Wolf, then he whipped around again. "The man who organized this crime is named Johnathan Craney." He said. "And he will strike again."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Wolf asked in awe.

"Not all things should be answered directly. Have a good night, sir." The dragon said, and flew away, disappearing into the night.

Looking after him, Wolf stared up at the stars. Wolf knew he had just met someone who was beyond him.

-/-

Wolf arrived back at his "home." It was only accessible by opening a hatch disguised as a slab of concrete built into a part of an alley. Wolf was excited to show off his findings to his friends Lilypad and Tide. There were all species of dragons at Basilisk. RainWings, MudWings, IceWings, SeaWings, and SandWings. Wolf slowly trudged through them, sitting, looking bored, tired, or sad. Basilisk was not much to behold. Most dragons would consider them a poor excuse for a foundation, that they were poor, and had to steal food and boil the bacteria out of rainwater with their fire. That wasn't true. Basilisk wasn't that poor. Wolf wondered how humans could get by without things like fire and wings. Most people would tell you it's because of their superior intellect. Wolf wasn't so sure.

Wolf arrived by Sedge, the MudWing in charge of Basilisk. He was very big, the biggest of his group of sibs, and he always bragged about how he was the one who helped all of his siblings out of their eggs. He had lots of scars, but he was still the toughest person and best fighter Wolf knew. Inside his room, Sedge was being bandaged by a RainWing healer named Amazon.

"How did you do on the train food heist?" Wolf asked, stepping into the room. Sedge had organized a robbery from a worker's train that stopped nearby.

The large MudWing laughed. "right now I have 17 broken bones."

"what about the food?" Wolf asked hopefully. "Did you get any?"

The MudWing stared at Wolf. "You really don't pay attention to the news, do you?" He asked, his voice solemn.

"No… what happened?" Wolf asked slowly, his heart sinking.

"It was a complete failure. 7 of us died."

Wolf didn't know what to think. Who could've died? Wolf scanned the large room in the center of the underground to find Tide and Lilypad. He couldn't see them. He dashed into their room. Nobody was in it. Wolf whirled around to look for them, but the hulking shape of Sedge was in his way.

Wolf looked up at Sedge. His face was grim. He looked down at Wolf with pity.

"no," Wolf whispered. "No."

"I'm…" Sedge started, then stopped. He looked away. "I'm sorry, kid." He walked away slowly, limping slightly on one of his hind legs.

Wolf's head spun. He backed away and hit the wall of Tide and Lilypad's room. He slowly sank down, until he was sitting on the floor. Wolf had experienced too much today. The explosion. The mysterious dragon. This. He wasn't even able to show Sedge the bread, which now lay next to him on the floor. He wasn't able to talk about what he had seen. He wasn't able to ask about a dragon that is completely black. Wolf stared at Tide's pillow. He could see the SeaWing laying there in his mind, reading a book to him about how dragons somehow found a way to split continents apart. Lilypad on the top bunk, skeptical, but wonderous.

-/

"It's true! They were going to rip North America off of South America and reshape it to be a dragon." Tide had said. "Nobody knows how, but they actually started it. The Panama Canal was destroyed! Look!" He showed Lilypad a picture of what was once the Panama Canal.

"Oh yeah?" Lilypad challenged. "How did they do it then, mastermind? Did they one-by-one move the stones?"

"I don't know," Tide said. "But I would have loved to see whatever power they had."

"If they had so much power," Wolf said, looking up at Tide. "Why didn't they just eliminate all the humans right then and there?"

Tide thought about that one.

"That's a good point," Lilypad said, pointing down at Tide. "Why didn't they turn one dragon into some kind of death bringer?"

"Like a god?" Wolf said.

Tide and Lilypad looked at him.

"I… I don't know. But the history books don't lie."

Wolf and Tide both got onto the top bunk. All three of them huddled around the book, looking at pictures of dragons and war zones and the horror that had happened in The War of The Scorching. All three of them. Sitting on that top bunk, huddled together, thinking of the past and dreaming of the future.

That top bunk was now empty. The mattress was sunk in where Lilypad used to sleep, and her pillow was flattened. Tide's bed was equally indented. But now the room was empty. Two orphaned dragonets, who lived on the streets, who were willing to fight for a better living. They had died. They had been killed. For trying to get by. Wolf clenched his talons and stood up strong in the room. His eyes were blazing, which was odd for an IceWing. They were normally cool, calm and collected. Wolf was not a regular IceWing. He had been raised among other tribes. The IceWings were by far the richest tribe, of all the dragons living in the world.

"This is not fair," Wolf said to himself. "We were born to this world. We deserve to live in it. No matter how much the humans want to dismiss us, to punish us for events that happened 53 years ago. I will find peace in this world." Wolf turned to see Sedge in the doorway. He had a crutch and was leaning against the doorframe.

"What's your plan?" Sedge asked Wolf.

"I don't know yet," Wolf said. "But I'm not going to stop and let reality do whatever it wants to me."

Wolf suddenly remembered.

"I saw an… odd dragon today." Wolf said to Sedge. "Well actually, I saw much more than that. When I was stealing this bread, some men ran into the base. They charged soldiers and detonated themselves, killing themselves and the soldiers. When I was leaving, I met an odd dragon on a rooftop. He seemed to know… everything. And he was completely black."

"Oh god." Sedge said. "That's terrible. Who do you think could've done it?"

"The dragon said the guy who did it is named Johnathan Craney," Wolf replied.

"And he knows this how?" sedge asked

"I said! He knew everything!"

"sounds like a RainWing con artist to me." Sedge retorted.

"He knew my name, and also, he wasn't a RainWing! He looked like an IceWing without spikes, or a SandWing without a barb, or something like that!"

Sedge looked down at Wolf. "Sounds like you need to get some sleep, son." He said.

"No! I'm serious!" Wolf yelled. "I sound crazy, but it's true, I swear. I have no reason to lie!"

"Today has been a rough day for you, Wolf. Try to get some sleep. Please." Sedge said, unmoving. He left the room, and closed the door, leaving Wolf in complete darkness. Wolf couldn't see anything, but he could see Tide and Lilypad sitting on the beds, looking at a book about The Scorching.