It is said that in timeline 1-3-872, within the twisting, mazelike streets of Salem City, a menace stalks the shadows. When the city is enveloped in a nightlong bonanza of dancing and festivities, the partygoers must be careful not to wander into a dark alleyway alone, lest they be the Snatcher's next victim.

An absentminded dragon, intoxicated by the festivities, wanders aimlessly between a pair of buildings, trotting down the worn, brick-laden path without a care in the world. Completely unaware of the pair of eyes watching from above.

Another dragon drops down behind them, their appearance that of any one of the Snatcher's previous victims, though the partygoer is none the wiser to this. The dragon creeps closer, eyeing their prey, each step guiding them further and further into the darkness of the alleyway.

By now it is too late for the unfortunate partygoer, the Snatcher has them cornered. Before they can even utter a peep, the Snatcher grabs hold of their snout, and pulls.

In an instant, the victim is rendered mute, watching in horror as the Snatcher holds their face, now a mask akin to those worn by the street performers just outside. The Snatcher pulls off their own mask, revealing the pale, faceless ice dragon hiding beneath their disguise. A mirror of the unfortunate fate that has befallen their victims.

After examining their new prize, the Snatcher dons the victim's former visage, the mask melding with scale and flesh and transforming the Snatcher into the spitting image of its former owner. With a quick blow to the head, the victim is left unconscious in the alleyway, as the Snatcher strolls out as if nothing had just occurred.

It seemed like just an urban legend. A story told to dragonets to scare them into avoiding dark and dangerous places. But the faceless dragons that had been appearing all across the once peaceful Salem City were more than enough evidence to the contrary.

Dragons were growing scared, and the city was starting to lose its lucrative tourism market. All because of a magic face-stealing villain.

Grove let out a sigh, taking another sip of coffee from a mug with the words "Best Detektiv" scrawled in messy paint across its side. A gift to her mother, the former head of the family business; and now it was hers once again. She was a LeafWing, nearly two decades old, with brownish-green scales and brownish-orange wings, orange spots running down her sides.

"The multiverse never ceases to amaze, does it?" she mused. For as outlandish as this case seemed, it was far from the strangest thing out there. Infinite worlds made for infinite weird cases for infinite wannabe detectives to throw their caps at. And this one had been no exception.

Dozens of sleuths had tried their talons at capturing the Snatcher once and for all, and every last one had either come up cold or wound up as another of its unfortunate victims. And here Grove was thinking that she could succeed where they had failed.

The young detective rolled onto her back on the soft cushion she lay upon, staring up at the bright fluorescent light dangling above her. Her mother would say she could do it. Her grandmother would be writing her epitaph.

But the agency was in desperate need of a big win, her clients still had yet to trust that she could live up to her mother's renown. If she pulled this off, they would have clients by the wing load.

IF she pulled it off.

She heard a knock at the door, and abruptly shot up, slamming her head against the underside of her mahogany wood desk. She groaned, rubbing her sore skull as she stepped over to open the door to her office.

Standing just outside was a short, stout IceWing with sky-blue scales and a pale blue underbelly. A short black top hat sat on his head, and a golden pocket watch dangled from a chain around his neck. He stared up at her with a somewhat worried expression, though she could tell that he was trying his best to maintain his composure.

"Miss Grove, I apologize for my tardiness. The shuttle ran into some engine issues, and..." the IceWing began, nervously fidgeting with the edge of the pocket watch. Well, it wasn't much of a pocket watch if he wore it around his neck all the time. A neck watch?

"It's alright Puffin. Perfect timing even." Grove interrupted. She grinned, feeling the pull of a new mystery washing away her former doubts. "I think I've just found us a new case."

AN:

This story snippet was written as a part of my Halloween special for the r/WingsOfFire subreddit. You can head over there to check out complete reference sheets of Grove, Puffin and the Snatcher!

An Update on the Wings of Fire: Salvation Rewrite:

It's been a while since I have last posted here, but in that time I have been hard at work on the rewrite to WoF: Salvation, and I thought I would give a little update about my plans going forward.

The previous version of the story had ten "episodes" planned for it (though I only made it most of the way through nine), with more to come afterward. In the rewrite, I have broken it up into ten individual volumes, with each being roughly ten chapters for a total of one hundred making up the first major arc of the story. I have plans for beyond that too, as well as for other side stories, but for now my primary focus is on finishing volume one. I have already completed the first drafts of the first four chapters of it, which cover up to the second chapter of the original version of the story. I feel like this new version is showing a lot of promise, but I want to give myself the time I need to make it the best it can be and thus I am not sure when I will even finish the first volume.

Because of that, I have been considering releasing each volume separately as they are finished, perhaps getting a bit into the next one prior to each release to give myself some time to think on each one and make any final changes that I need to. Each volume would be released as a separate ten-chapter story all at once, each one having a cover commissioned from a different artist in the fandom based on a design I have come up with. I'm also thinking about branching out distribution to sites like AO3 and Webnovel (which was suggested by a writing tutor at my college) to help expose my story to a wider audience.

With college going on right now, and other projects such as the continued development of my Roblox game Deeprock: The Endless Abyss also taking up my time, I am unable to work on the story at an all too rapid pace, but work is getting done bit by bit, and I am very excited to share some of the new ideas I have for this story. I've already thought of new ways to improve each individual volume and fix some of the weird plot points they had, while also greatly expanding the worldbuilding.

With regards to this small collection of side stories (if you can even call it that), I'd say that it is currently questionably canon. Already I am planning on reworking elements of the Spottail story and how it ties into volume nine, hence why I have opted not to continue the current version, and I am not planning on continuing this story about the Snatcher anytime soon. Tales from the Multiverse will become a repository for any story snippets or ideas that I come up with while I am working on the rewrite of Salvation, that way I can have something to show that I haven't abandoned the project and also practice further improving my writing skills; and while I don't have any other story ideas planned for it yet, the idea of adding more is not out of the question.

I still have a lot more work to do, and it will probably be a good while before I post anything else on this site, so if you want to keep up to date then feel free to check me out on r/WingsOfFire, as I stay relatively active on there, and will post art and stuff relating to WoF: Salvation from time to time.

With that, I wish you all a happy Halloween! Until next time!