Suzu Tanaka was riding on horseback when the attack began. She was escorting Brittaney Colens, head of the media and Calvin Abrams, head of Police, through part of Southern Sudland and through the small city of Santa Sotto so they could get to the rural village of Pila for a reason only the two in the carriage knew. The ride had been mostly quiet and rather pleasant. The sun was out that day, and the green hills rolled through Sudland like an emerald sea.
But the nice trip was halted by those winged demons. The escort group was approached by other Black Star soldiers. "Seawing and Skywing ahead. Camaelists!" Said one of the soldiers. "Only a few of us have mobile shotguns and flashbangs." She said, fumbling with a singular flashbang she pulled out of her belt.
Suzu immediately pulled out a shotgun of her own. "Don't worry." She said. "We came prepared. Calvin Abrams and Brittaney Colens are in that carriage." Suzu said, gesturing towards the carriage.
Suzu felt proud knowing she was protecting two of the Prophet Axton Lloyd's high-ranking officials. Black Star had changed her life for the better. Suzu originally faced a lot of oppression in Sudland for being Kiboten and her forbidden love with Angela Weis. But when Black Star came and liberated Sudland, the oppression disappeared. Axton Lloyd was truly a savior. He was able to nearly eradicate all forms of human oppression in the countries and kingdoms Black Star liberated. He was able to show people that the true enemies were dragons.
"All soldiers! Help defeat the dragons!" Said George Machado, the appointed field commander of the escort group. The soldiers rode faster on their horses into the village.
When the group rounded a large corner, the Skywing came into view. He was massive, and a scary sight at that. He had lit all the houses around him on fire, creating a ring of fire. He had blood staining his claws and mouth. He saw the soldiers and roared in fury, spreading his wings wide to make himself look bigger. "ENGAGE COMBAT!" Commanded Machado. Suzu and two other soldiers, Marius and Ghada, climbed nearby houses, using their training to get higher to the dragon's head. Suzu loaded her shotgun, slipping the single slug into each gun. Two shots before I must reload. She thought to herself.
Marius ran towards the Skywing, as silently as he could, but the orange dragon turned and blasted fire in his direction. Marius slid beneath the fire and fell off the roof, but the Skywing merely pounced in his direction and reached out to slice Marius with his claw.
Marius closed his eyes and fired his shotgun at the dragon's claw. It was a waste of a shot, but it made the Skywing retract his claw in pain. "PEST!" He roared. The dragon took an inhale and blasted fire at Marius.
Marius couldn't get out of the way. He was caught in the flames and Suzu could hear his screams of searing pain. The Skywing picked up the rubble of a house and threw it at Marius. The screams stopped. When the flames cleared Suzu saw that Marius' body was charred and burned, and his head had been crushed by a rock.
Ghada screamed and ran at the Skywing. Suzu did the same, but didn't scream. The orange dragon turned towards Ghada, not seeing Suzu. Suzu charged towards the Skywing, her finger twitching on the trigger of the shotgun.
Ghada jumped off the roof and rolled on the ground and threw a flashbang at the Skywing's face. The Skywing roared in frustration. "YOU'RE NOTHING BUT PESTS!" He roared. Ghada kept running towards the dragon. Suzu ran behind him and began finding her way through the fire ring he started.
Suzu kept fiddling with her mobile shotgun. It seemed like the straps were a little lose. She kept trying to tighten them, but suddenly, her weapon fell off her arm, and onto the street below. "No!" She yelled. The time it would take her to go get it… Ghada might die too.
But she was suddenly saved when the weapon picked itself up off the ground and began flying towards her. Suddenly, a young Rainwing dragonet appeared, holding it. "Are you going to kill that Skywing?" He asked. Suzu paused before answering. "Yes." She said. "Good." The Rainwing said before handing her the weapon. "I saw him killing these people earlier. He's dangerous." "I agree." Suzu said, still a bit shaken from Marius' death, and not thinking. She was speaking with a Rainwing. "Good luck!" He said and disappeared again.
When Suzu found an opening in the flames, she made a beeline for the dragon's tail. She climbed onto the dragon while he was distracted with Ghada, praying that he didn't notice her climbing. The Skywing was hard to climb, making the ascent slower than it could have been.
When Suzu got to the head of the dragon, Ghada was hiding behind a house, the dragon slowly walking towards her. I've got to get to the weak spot! Suzu thought, almost losing her grip with the Skywing's movement.
But when the Skywing slowed again, Suzu was able to get on top of his head. "HEY!" The dragon suddenly said, swiping up with his claws to try and catch Suzu, but she aimed her shotgun down next to the dragon's ear as fast as she could and fired.
The Skywing began to collapse, and Suzu grabbed onto his horns to keep from falling off. She looked to the tree nearby to see it sprinkled with the blood from the shells going through the dragon's head. It really did not fit the sunny day and green hills atmosphere.
When the dragon hit the ground, Suzu got up and began coughing from all the dust that had been kicked up. The figure of Ghada appeared in the dust as she ran towards Suzu. "Are you alright?" She asked when she arrived, and she held out her hand to help Suzu up. "I'm alright." Suzu said. And then there was silence between the two of them. Marius had died.
They went to collect the body of their fallen comrade. It was still very hot, but they managed to get him out from the large stone brick that had crushed his head. Seeing what was left of him made Suzu want to throw up. They sadly carried his body away. This was the cruelty of the dragons. They wanted to do this to everybody and take this world for themselves.
When Suzu and Ghada caught up with the others, the Seawing had already fallen and was dying on the grass. "You… think you've done anything… by killing two dragons?" She said quietly. Her chest was slashed open and she was bleeding out. "Everything comes… to an end… eventually… Your time as the dominant… race… is ending… Camael will see to that… Your cruelty… will be… your undoing… Black Star's actions… turn more dragons to our view… every day… We are superior to humans… in everything… Your actions… come back to you…" She was suddenly killed by a rifle shot to the head. Suzu looked up to see Calvin Abrams with Brittaney Colens behind him. "Sorry. I couldn't stand hearing the devil speak anymore." He said gruffly.
When the escort group was about to set out again, without some soldiers, including Marius, Suzu spotted something next to the body of the Skywing. The Rainwing dragonet, standing there. Suzu pointed him out to Machado.
Machado, Suzu, and a soldier named William approached the Rainwing, their weapons drawn. "Don't move!" Machado ordered the Rainwing, who looked up and froze, turning pale green. He had been red looking at the Skywing before. "I'm not with them!" He said. "I don't have anything against humans!"
There was silence. "I wasn't raised as a Camaelist!" He said. "I don't even agree with them at all!" He then saw Suzu. "You! I helped you get your weapon back!" He said to Suzu. Machado turned and looked at Suzu. "Is this true?" He asked menacingly.
Suzu looked at Machado, and then the dragonet, and then at the dead Skywing. "No. It's not true at all." She said. The Rainwing started to get flickers of red. "WHAT!?" He exclaimed. "And if he doesn't like Camaelists, he might join Old Monarchy, if he isn't already in that pit of degeneracy!" William accused.
Machato didn't say anything for a bit, and then looked at the dead Skywing next to the dragonet. "Open fire." He said, and Suzu took aim and fired.
. . .
Swordfish and Vine sat at the bottom of the hill, exhausted. It had been two months since the attack on Sainsbury, and Swordfish decided he was going to do what he could to help Old Monarchy. The others had agreed to join him, except for the injured Vulture, who was still healing from his horrible wounds.
Swordfish had done better with learning to fight here than he had back with his father and brother. Polar and Azure had agreed to be the ones to teach them the basics, as they weren't going to be full-on soldiers, but if they wanted to use their knowledge of how dragon armies work and dragon weak spots, they would have to know how to fight their enemies.
Swordfish had become a surprisingly good shot with the mobile rifles. Blizzard was good at them too, but of course she was. Even Commander Seilbrenner had noted how good she was at fighting after the Battle of Sainsbury.
Sainsbury had been struggling to rebuild itself after the massive destruction on its south end. Many had been killed and displaced from their homes. People had realized that it was close to the end of Verlassen that had become abandoned after Camaelists destroyed it, and had begun to leave Sainsbury. Which included Swordfish and the others. They had followed Anthony to a small country town called Aiston.
It was the early morning, but Polar had woken up Swordfish and Vine to do early morning flying so that they wouldn't fall behind. But Polar's idea of an early morning flight was much more intense than Swordfish imagined it would be. The sun was just rising and he felt like lying down.
The sound of a nearby crow cawing stopped him from closing his eyes right there. Vine looked very tired too. Her sun time schedule had been interrupted quite a bit recently, and she was looking a lot less vibrant.
Swordfish was still struggling a little bit to adapt to the new world, but it was going well. It was so different from Pyrrhia, but that was somewhat okay. All of the dragonets here had something they didn't like about Pyrrhia. For Swordfish, it was the situation back home. For Vine, it was how dragons couldn't just live simple lives and always lusted for power. For Rattlesnake, it was the cruelty of the dragons back in the Scorpion Den. For Vulture, it was the problems in the Sky Kingdom with those who still supported Queen Scarlet's policies. And for Blizzard, it was the entire Ice Kingdom.
She had told Swordfish her stories of the past. She had grown up competing with her family to try and get higher into the ranks, but Blizzard hated the pressure her parents put on her to do better than her cousins. She began to see the flaws in the Icewing culture, and tried learning as much as she could about other tribes with much less rules, like Rainwings or Sandwings. She took the first chance she could to get out, and went on the Hunt for Prince Winter. On that expedition, she killed Moonwatcher's mother, and witnessed the death of so many others in Possibility.
She left to go to Jade Mountain just to leave the tribe. She told Swordfish she considered never going back, and living out her days in a place like Possibility or one of those other multi-tribal cities. "Maybe I won't even marry an Icewing." She said with a chuckle. "Just to spite my mother."
But some of the training was hard for even her. The dragonets weren't used to these tall buildings that were in the cities of this world in the past, or their fighting techniques, which were so drastically different from the tactics in Pyrrhia. And fighting in the Old Monarchy issued armor made things difficult.
But Swordfish had been doing better than he thought he was going to do with their techniques. They came more naturally to him than any of the others. And that's what he was doing later today. He was going to have to practice against Rattlesnake. They weren't going to actually harm each other, but Polar wanted to see how it would go.
When the time rolled around, it was after breakfast. The food here in the country tasted fresher than the food that was eaten in the city. Marie said it was locally farmed. Swordfish and Rattlesnake got up from the table when they were finished and began walking to the clearing in the woods Polar wanted to meet them at.
Swordfish attempted to strike up a conversation with Rattlesnake while they were walking. "Hey… um… I don't think I really ever got to apologize for not taking action when Cedar slashed you with the knife. I could've stopped him." Swordfish said, and Rattlesnake looked up to the sky. She didn't say anything.
"And… uh… I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry things had to be this way, with me and… the other me… Abyss said this was for the better… and I wasn't thinking what might happen when I asked the visitors to create a copy of the world. I was doing what I could. Adnachiel destroyed the necklace… and that place… Possibility Education…" Swordfish shuddered, thinking about the cold, dark, abandoned world. Once again, Rattlesnake said nothing.
"Rattlesnake… I know you're right here but I miss you." Swordfish said, finding a sliver of courage. "It's like you're ignoring me. Are you angry or something?" Rattlesnake suddenly exploded into words.
"Of course I'm angry! My friend, Swordfish, died! His clawmate Cedar stabbed him, in an act of horrific betrayal! I survived, and it should've been him. I went through the process of losing someone I really liked. I cried! He died in the healing center!"
Swordfish took a step back, but Rattlesnake kept going, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "And then, an 'exact copy' of him, sent by a 'demon,' comes walking in like it's nothing! He might have all the same memories, but it's not really him, and it NEVER WILL BE! And what? I'm just supposed to go on with my life like he never even died, and FORGET ABOUT SWORDFISH? IF HE CAN JUST BE REPLACED, WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF HIM?"
Rattlesnake took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, her wings were starting to flare open. "So yeah, I'm mad. But not at you. I'm mad at the demons. I'm mad at what happened, and most of all, I'm mad at this world for throwing me head-first into this mess! And if I just accept you as Swordfish, then I'm surrendering to all of that!"
Swordfish fell silent. He didn't know what to say. He had never seen Rattlesnake so angry. Rattlesnake wiped away a bit of tears and stormed off in the direction of the clearing where they were supposed to fight.
Swordfish blinked a few times, still staring after the beautiful Sandwing who used to call him friend. Was she right? She kind of was. Swordfish did not belong to this world. The world he belonged to was long gone. The Rattlesnake he had shared all those memories with had ceased to even exist.
Swordfish tried to put those thoughts out of his mind at the moment and think about the training fight coming up soon, but he was a little scared Rattlesnake might actually hurt him. He watched her poisonous Sandwing barb swish on the end of her tail. Would she hurt him? She wouldn't.
Would she?
Swordfish tried to put things out of his mind again and came back around to the current fears and worries. Gabi's death. Black Star's capabilities. Sainsbury, destroyed. The mysterious and powerful Camael, and his army of bloodthirsty dragons. Swordfish shuddered again. It seemed that wherever he went, something scary followed.
Swordfish was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts when Polar landed between the two dragonets, making Rattlesnake whirl around, surprised. "Good, I found you two." She said. "Fight canceled. We're going back to the homestead." "Wait, why?" Rattlesnake asked, trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.
"The explorer Pancho Urbina has returned from an expedition into the forests on the Dieautish colony of Paisland. He found something… big. Something that could change the course of the war." Polar said, with an excited look in her eye. "What?" Swordfish asked, and the Icewing soldier turned to look at both him and Rattlesnake, her eyes actually showing strong emotion. Something Swordfish hadn't seen in her before. She looked like someone had just granted her animus magic.
"Do you two know the story of Hamza?"
. . .
Frog the Mudwing stared up at his father, Lizard. "Why do we hate the humans?" He asked, curious. "Because they are cruel creatures who hate us and kill us." Lizard responded in his deep voice. "They have turned this world into their home, and have no regard for the other species who live here."
Frog turned and looked at the human that had been chained up. He had been stripped of his Old Monarchy uniform long ago, and shivered without his clothes. "The humans have existed for far, far longer than we have." Lizard said. "Dragons only appeared thirteen years ago in what used to be Jeoul. We fought humans for about a year, before we came to a peace agreement, thinking we could live together in peace." Lizard chuckled light heartedly. "That dream would only last for ten years. We were simply ignoring our duty to wipe out this plague. These bugs. That is why we dragons are superior to them in any way. We embrace war. We are built for it. We have different tribes to adapt to any kind of thing the world and the humans could throw at us."
Lizard scoffed, and Frog could see the fear in the human's eyes. "Yet, these weaklings start to get to some of us. They were more evolved than we were, and we were foolish and trusting. They rely on their technology to protect their measly flesh and bodies without physical defenses. That is how weak they are, my son."
"If they're so weak… then how do they still kill so many of us?" Frog asked, and Lizard looked over at the human with disgust. "Their technology. Their disgusting things they make out of their abuse to the world. Things called boats. Things called carriages. Guns, cities, poisons, flashbangs! Once they are wiped out, their horrific inventions will be lost to time."
Lizard's voice was calm and comforting to Frog as he told the story of the small monster in front of the two, cowering. "The only thing we shall keep, is their culture. We shall make it our own. Such things like government and languages are wasted on humans."
"But are all humans bad?" Frog asked, and quickly made eye contact with the shaking human, sweat trickling down his head. Lizard chuckled again and wrapped his wing around his son. "Yes. Do not be like the Old Monarchy scum." "Who are they, father?" Frog asked, looking up at the comforting brown eyes of Lizard. "Ignorant dragons who believe they can work with humans. They are fools. They are defects. Never be like them." Lizard said, with a mixture of anger and sadness in his eyes. Frog remembered hearing the name "Old Monarchy" when other dragons talked about his mother.
Suddenly, the human started talking. He began yelling in a language Frog didn't understand, but Frog could see the tears forming in his eyes as he yelled.
When he was done, Lizard stepped forward and unfurled his wings so he looked even bigger. "Big mistake." He said threateningly. "Don't you know humans aren't allowed to speak?" And then Lizard chuckled again. "Sorry, let me correct myself. Yibble yobble bahhh." He taunted, saying gibberish.
"Now son, let me show you how to send a message." Lizard said, and then walked around to behind the stick the human was tied up behind. "Human, I hope you know you are about to die, and so will so many others of your kind. Just like my dragon brothers were slaughtered in the camps." The human twisted his head as far as he could, and then spoke in a language Frog understood. "Humanity… will live on… you will never kill… all of us…"
Lizard then grabbed the human's head with his talon, and held it upwards, and then made cuts with his other talon on the human's chest, back, and shoulders. "This is how you send a message, son." Lizard growled. And Lizard began to pull at the human's hair.
Frog watched, frozen, as the skin around the human's face began to slide up, the skin covering the eyes and mouth, as the cuts stretched and the skin snapped. The human began to scream, but was quickly muffled and suddenly stopped.
When the skin of the head was completely peeled off, Frog watched as the exposed flesh began to slowly fall apart. Frog's father took the scalped skin and examined it. "We'll nail this to a tree later. Other humans will see it and know what happened to him, and what will happen to all of them."
Frog kept staring at the body. "You see how weak they really are, son?" Lizard said, back to his lighthearted self. "How do we allow them to dominate us?"
Frog turned and looked at his father. "If they are so bad and weak, why did we live peacefully for ten years?" "We were weak and foolish." Lizard responded. "Our god brought us out of that. He united the tribes to realize what we could be. We realized the evils of the humans and our true power, intelligence, and strength." Lizard clenched his claw, and extended his wings. "Our god?" Frog asked. Lizard looked over at his son. "Camael. The one who will finally bring the rightful race the planet they deserve." He looked up at the singular moon in the sky. "Then… everything will be as it should. The Nightwing prophets have already foreseen it."
"Father?" Frog asked. "What is he? What is Camael?" And Lizard looked his son right in the eyes, and then looked back up at the moon.
"I just said. A god."