Chapter 35:
Gory Glory

The SkyWing Queen was holding the severed head of Queen Glory of the RainWings.

The left side of Glory's face was completely shredded beyond recognition. Her eyes were closed tight, but everyone doubted it was Scarlet who did that; she'd never have that kind of respect for any dragon she murdered.

"NO!" Sunny cried with exasperation.

"GLORY!" screamed Deathbringer.

"The taste of her blood was divine, thrilling!" Scarlet began shouting so all of Glory's loved ones, especially Deathbringer, could hear. "Would I do it again? YES! Oh, she's gory Glory, indeed!" The SkyWing Queen then began singing "The Dragonets Are Coming" in her shrill, rasping voice, a song they all knew very well but with her own take on its lyrics that would send chills down all their spines and would give them nightmares for years to come:

"Oh, it's true, the dragonets are dying!

They're not saving the day!

They're coming to rest, for they know how to die!

Oh, the dragonets are dying!

HOORAY!"

"No! GLORY!" Deathbringer continued screaming, as several SandWings loyal to Blaze held him back, along with Cobra and Vulture. "GET OFF ME! I'm going to rip her apart for this! Damn it, let go of me!"

"She's gone!" Cobra yelled. "And you know going to battle Scarlet is suicide! Glory wouldn't want you to lose your own life just to avenge her."

"We must wait until the time is right to attack Scarlet again," Queen Glacier said, then she added, with a vicious snarl, "and avenge Queen Glory."

"Oh! 'Gory Glory'!" Scarlet's laugh sounded like some sort of sound a demonic creature would make mixed with a sound like ice shattering. "I'm a genius! I should become a writer!"

"Nobody would read your writing unless they wanted to be kept up all night having nightmares!" a SandWing screeched.

"Go to Hell, Scarlet!" Deathbringer roared. "I'll kill you! I swear I will! You will not get off easy for what you did to Glory! MY WIFE!"

"You mean gory Glory! That's all she is now!" Scarlet raised up her front talons and shouted "Here! CATCH!" before throwing Glory's head through the air at Deathbringer. He caught it without thinking and began screaming.

"You sadist bitch!" Tsunami roared.

"Thank you! I do what I can! Now who wants to lose their head next?! The taste of gory Glory's blood in my mouth is the most thrilling thing that's ever happened to me! She is just one of the dragons I'll kill—" Her head suddenly spun around to Peril, who felt a chill rush down her spine when their eyes met. "—and you'll be next!"

Everyone's heads spun around to see who Scarlet had said that to.

PERIL? Rattlesnake's brain screamed. We ordered her to stay behind in the Rainforest! But I suppose we need all the help we can get if we are going to kill Scarlet.

"I said let go me!" Deathbringer roared. "Scarlet must pay for what she did now! It wasn't your wife who died! How dare you hold me back?!"

Cobra slapped him hard. "Get a hold of yourself!" she barked. "I know you feel dead on the inside, but going to fight Scarlet will only get you killed. You were there when she enchanted the RainWings to gut themselves. What's to stop her from using her magic to kill you too?"

Now Peril saw Glory's severed head in Deathbringer's talons, and her head spun towards Scarlet in a rage.

"SCARLET!" the firescaled SkyWing screeched.

"So you returned, ex-champion. Do you intend to grovel at my talons or will you be the next dragon I kill?"

"You will be the next dragon I kill!"

Peril shot through the air like a flaming dart.

"Peril!" Clay cried. "No! She is an animus!"

"I don't care! She'll be dead after this! This is for Queen Glory!"

"Help her!" Queen Glacier ordered her animus.

Before the animus IceWings could reach the two SkyWings, blood dripped to the ground, and the distinct odor of burning flesh reached their noses.

"She did it!" Sunny gasped as Scarlet began screaming.

"Enchant my scales to heal!" she cried as her face began burning, for Peril had raked her talons through her flesh. "Quickly!"

Peril watched, horrified, as Scarlet's burns healed, and the odor of burning flesh faded away.

"You see? You can never kill me! I can enchant any injury to heal before it becomes fatal." She rose up high above them all. "You will never defeat me and this war will never end! All these dragons dying for the past two decades has been very thrilling. It will never stop and I'll kill everyone of you to ensure that!"

Vulture grinned. "Not if you die first."

"I'll never die before I have lived over a hundred years. The SkyWings will have me as their Queen for decades to come. Nobody can kill me. NOBODY!" she roared. "You are becoming as big a nuisance as gory Glory was. Enchant this old dragon's blood to become pure scorpion venom."

"No!" Cobra cried. "Father!"

"Vulture!" Blaze gasped.

At first Vulture had seemed alright, but then he dropped from the sky as if he'd been forced down by an unseen force. He began convulsing horribly as his family surrounded him.

"No, no, no!" Cobra cried. "You can't die! Somebody help me! You have animus!" she yelled at Queen Glacier. "They can undo Scarlet's enchantment, can't they?"

"I'm…proud of…you Cobra…" Vulture said in between his death throes, and then he was gone.

"G-Grandpa?" Qibli sobbed. Rattlesnake held him close. "N-no!"

Cobra stood up, holding her blade where Scarlet couldn't see it.

"She'll pay for this." Cobra wiped away tears. She spun around to glare at Scarlet. "He did nothing wrong, damn you!"

Scarlet shrugged. "He got on my nerves. Why shouldn't I have killed him? That's what any competent Queen would do, crush anyone that gets on their nerves. You'll be the next one to die if you don't shut up."

Cobra blinked. So that is what father grinned about, she thought. Something was moving behind Scarlet. Something as red as fire, and it wasn't Peril. She was still by Clay's side. Your time has come, Scarlet, she additionally thought when she realized who it was.

She flicked a message at Blaze with her tail, one that Scarlet didn't seem to notice, or at least care about since she didn't understand SandWing sign language. Tell Queen Glacier to have her animus enchant Scarlet at all once to lose her magic, but have them be quiet about it. They can't tip her off.

Queen Glacier nodded back and using her own IceWing sign language, she passed the message on to her animus. It was all up to them now.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at them. "What are you all doing down there? Discussing how you are about to die?"

She snapped her claws as if she expected the ground between all her enemies to collapse and kill them all, but nothing happened. What? she thought and tried again not once or twice, but six more times, and it had the same result. Why aren't they dead? The ground should have swallowed them up by now.

"It worked!" Queen Glacier declared triumphantly. "She has lost her magic. Now we can defeat her!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" Scarlet roared. "I don't know what trickery you did to take my magic away, but I'm still stronger than any of you. I could kill half of you before I break a sweat!"

Cobra sniffed. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying for her father. "She will kill you before any of us die."

"She who?" Scarlet snapped.

"Her," snarled Rattlesnake.

Scarlet turned around, ready to kill whoever was behind her. Her face immediately felt as if it were on fire, as a black sludge splattered all over it. All hell broke loose as Scarlet began flying around like a mad dragon, looking for something, anything, to stop the horrible burning before it became fatal. It was RainWing venom and it had gotten through the eye holes of her iron mask, which was melting against her face (which he had put back on prior to enchanting Vulture)..

"I-It can't be!" Deathbringer gasped.

"QUEEN GLORY?!" the IceWings gasped together.

The RainWing Queen flew toward the army of dragons, Deathbringer in particularly.

"H-How? I don't understand! If you are alive, then what is thi—" His words trailed off as he looked to the severed head in his talons.

"If y-you are alive, then w-who—?" Queen Glacier stammered. "W-Who is that?"

"A little trick," said Queen Glory. "I plotted everything with your animus. I told as few dragons as possible, just to ensure we tricked Scarlet. She needed to believe she'd finally killed me for this plan to work."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Deathbringer cried, embracing her powerfully. "I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest when we saw her up there with your head!"

"That was all part of the trick. When we were planning this ruse, Princess Snowfall enchanted a rock to be a perfect clone of me, right down to matching my personality, while I'd hidden away in one of the open dungeon cells. All it took was an animus enchantment to make me invisible so I could get past Scarlet and her guards."

Deathbringer hugged her again. "Don't ever scare me like that again! If you are going to fake your own death, I want to know about it ahead of time. It crossed my mind, Am I going to have to raise Firefly, Anaconda, and Shadowrain alone? What kind of life would it have been without Glory?"

Glory hugged him back. "I'm sorry. I felt horrible the whole time you all thought I was dead, but we didn't have time to tell everyone. Only Queen Glacier's animus dragons and I knew the plan. I wish I could have told you, but I had no chance to get a moment with you. I will understand if some of you can never forgive me for it. I can barely forgive myself for what I had to do."

"Oh, I love you anyway," Deathbringer whispered. "Don't ever leave my side again."

"I won't," Glory whispered back, then affectionately licked him on the cheek. "I promise."

"But…what happened to Scarlet?" Sunny asked.

"She's as good as dead. Even if she has some cure to RainWing venom we don't know about, she's lost her magic so she can't heal herself whenever she's hurt anymore. If she survives what I did to her, which I for one don't see how she can, seeing as how my venom got in her eyes, and that is a death sentence, then we will be able to kill her."

Queen Glory frowned as she looked over to Cobra, who was still weeping over Vulture with Qibli and Rattlesnake by her side. She walked over to them with Deathbringer.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she whispered. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"N-No," Cobra stammered. "Scarlet is dead. My father's murder has been avenged…that is the most closure I will have. I just wish, you know, something could bring him and Sirocco back so we could be family again, but I know animus dragons don't work that way…"

Glory heard the other dragons approaching. "I would say this is a time for celebration—" She felt herself choking up, and it took the sight of all her friends for her to to find the courage to continue. "—but that wouldn't be right. Not for Cobra and her children. They have lost two loved ones to Scarlet now. We will celebrate nothing."

Cobra looked over to her. "T-that wouldn't be fair to the rest of them," she said softly. "Scarlet has been defeated. You all deserve to celebrate your victory. If all past Queens had chosen not to celebrate a victory just because of losses, then there never would have been post-battle celebrations in the history of Pyrrhia. My father would want us to celebrate this victory."

"You're positive?" Glory asked equally as softly. "I don't want to disrespect your family right now. You are all going through a hard time." She embraced each of them one a time, which at least made them smile. Glory hadn't expected them to show any happiness.

"Yes, we are," said Rattlesnake. "Don't expect us to show up at the celebration, but we don't want you to not celebrate our victory. You all earned the right to celebrate what happened here. You, especially, have lost a lot, Queen Glory."

Glory knew she was referring to the dozen RainWing prisoners, and Secretkeeper, whom Scarlet had murdered one month ago. Even if Scarlet did die this time, she would never let it go. She wished she could kill Scarlet again and again and again for all the suffering she has put those close to her through recently. Glory had never hated another dragon so much in her life; well, besides Morrowseer, anyway.

"I will not force you to come to the celebration," said Glory, "but know that the three of you are more than welcome if you decide otherwise. You deserve to celebrate this victory as much as any of us. I will not forbid you from coming to it, if you want to."

"But…" Qibli began slowly. "…where will it even take place? There are no places to celebrate in the Rainforest Kingdom."

Glory desperately looked to Deathbringer for an answer.

"There are bars all over Pyrrhia," he said. "That would be a good start."

Glory's ruff flared. "A bar? Even if we are all the right age to get in there, what makes you think all of us have a way to pay for drinks? I'm not exactly rich. The RainWings have no treasure. And I don't think Queen Glacier will be willing to buy every dragon here a drink," she added with a glance over to the Queen of the IceWings.

"Your wife is correct," said Glacier. "I will only buy drinks for mine and Blaze's soldiers." She looked across the field of IceWings and SandWings, numbering at least a hundred. "I'm sorry, but you will have to find a way to pay for your own drinks. I'd have nothing against it personally. However, my ancestors would not appreciate me spending the Royal IceWing treasure on dragons that do not live in my kingdom. I do not wish to disrespect my tribe's traditions."

"I understand," said Glory. "Nor would I force you to. I'll think of something."

"I've got you covered," Deathbringer said suddenly. "I never told you why I ran away from our island, did I?"

Glory's head spun around towards him. "You never said you ran away from them to start with."

"Yes, I did. I had enough of Queen Battlewinner."

"So you went to Queen Scarlet. How is she any better?"

"She wasn't. I regret letting her pay me to murder her own son. I still haven't forgiven myself for what happened to Drakon, and I honestly don't think I ever will." He immediately changed the subject. "However, I did not leave empty handed, because I knew I could never return to the island anyway. So I threatened a few no-name NightWings to help me steal as much of the Royal NightWing treasure as we could carry, then when I got to my intended hide out, I did all three of them in, just to be safe."

"So then you can afford drinks for my friends and I?" Glory asked.

"Yes. I'll just have to retrieve some gold from my hiding spot under your pavilion before we all go to this bar."

"Will it even hold this many dragons?" Tsunami asked. "Or more importantly, even be able to serve us all?"

"They will," Deathbringer said. "If anything, they enjoy serving soldiers from the different tribes. It may take a while depending on how many dragons are working, but they'll get us all served. We'll just have to take up the outdoor serving area, I'm afraid."

Cobra and her two children suddenly approached them.

"We talked this over," Cobra said hoarsely, for she had been wailing over Vulture's death for some time before Glory spoke to her. "The three of us will join you, on one condition. We have an honoring ceremony for my father before the celebration even begins."