A Brighter Future Ahead

AN: I'M ALIVE!

I know that this isn't the update you guys were hoping for, but the next chapter of Dragons Change will be up within the next few days. If you were curious about why I haven't updated in two months, I'll tell you.

When I last updated was right before midterms. I noticed that some of my grades were suffering so I decided to focus on school and put a pause on my writing for a while. With my major (meteorology, if you were curious) comes a lot of homework and a lot of advanced math classes which meant even less time to write, so...yeah. I apologize for not giving a heads up, but if there's a pause like that again in the future, that's probably why. None of my stories are dead, and I fully intend on finishing all of them.

Secondly, I don't have any kind of story board. When I was writing these, everything came right off the top of my head. Since I haven't written much of anything in two months, it might take me a little bit to get back into the swing of things. I merely ask you to be patient with me in the coming weeks.

With that long note out of the way, here's the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. My OC Copperhead belongs to me.

Darkstalker:

Darkstalker was no fool. He had experienced enough scandals, assassination attempts, and ulterior motives while serving Queen Vigilance to know that there was more to this Rainwing's offer than he was saying. No Queen would allow a dragon as powerful as him in their kingdom unless as a weapon or a corpse. That begged the question:

What did Anaconda really want with him?

During his entire thought process, he never once spoke or broke eye contact with the Rainwing. All the while, Darkstalker was listening into his thoughts to try and find anything suspicious—or genuine—in his words.

There were a few things he found out, though. His claim of being Anaconda's son was true, and Darkstalker could easily sense the pure love, loyalty, and devotion he had for his mother. It was true that Anaconda had ordered Copperhead to observe them and only reveal himself at the opportune moment.

From his thoughts, Darkstalker deduced that Copperhead knew that Anaconda wanted him for something, but he didn't know what.

Finally, after almost five minutes of a constant stare-down, Darkstalker turned away with a deep breath and thought deeply about this conundrum. He vaguely heard the Rainwing whisper cheekily to Indigo, "I guess I won our staring contest."

He scoffed, "Whatever. Fathom and Clearsight are waiting on the beach." It was a clear suggestion for them—all of them—to head back there. Indigo inclined her head and glanced at him suspiciously as she walked back and Copperhead followed after a quick glance at him.

There was no conversation during the walk back to the beach as the air was much too tense for anything friendly to be said. Darkstalker, however, spent the entire time thinking. He couldn't make any kind of decision without more information, and the only place to get more information was the Rainwing Queen herself.

Unless…

He sighed heavily to himself. I hope I don't regret this later.

They arrived on the beach a short while later. Fathom ran over to Indigo as soon as he saw her and threw his arms around her in an intimate embrace. Though clearly surprised at the action, she didn't hesitate to return it. He heard the Rainwing give off a suggestive whistle before laughing his head off at both of their glares.

Clearsight watched him curiously as he approached while throwing occasional glances at the Rainwing. She was more than a little confused when he lead her away from the others with a wing and then gave her a hard look. "I know I'm immediately contradicting myself when I ask this, but…what did you see in your visions?"

She blinked several times in surprise before asking, "You haven't looked for yourself?"

He shook his head, "No. I trust you more than I trust myself—especially with this. Now, what did you see?" he asked again.

She hesitated for only a moment before telling him everything that she saw. He never once interrupted her and when she was finished, he sat in silence as he digested all of the horrible tragedies in their future.

The only problem was: Which path would lead to such darkness? "The Rainwing offered us a place in the Kingdom as long as we answered directly to Queen Anaconda." Clearsight glanced at him and the two Seawings talking amongst each other further up the beach. "After what happened with Vigilance, I'm more than a little hesitant, but…what do you think?"

She shook her head at him, "I don't know. I thought I could control the future before and you know better than anyone what happened." She looked down in despair, "You may trust me with this, but I don't trust myself."

He raised her chin with a claw and looked into her sorrow-filled eyes. "Then don't follow the threads, Clearsight. Follow your heart. What does it believe to be the right choice?"

She was silent for a long time before answering. "It wants to believe that going to the Rainwing Queen is the right thing…but I don't want Anaconda to use you like Vigilance did."

He flashed a small smirk, "No Queen can control me, Clearsight. You know that. If you think going to the Rainforest is the best thing to do, then I'll follow your lead, okay?"

She nodded with a faint smile before leaning in and nuzzling his cheek. "You always know how to make me feel better, don't you?" she smiled.

He chuckled at her response before bringing her closer to him with a wing, and they both began walking back to the other three. Fathom and Indigo were still in each other's arms while Copperhead was shuffling around kind of awkwardly, though he perked up when he saw them approach. "I don't suppose you two have an answer for me? I'd much rather you four come with me to meet my mother than have Cobra dissuade her from meeting you."

"I don't speak for those two, but we'll go meet with the Queen," Darkstalker replied.

A massive grin appeared on Copperhead's muzzle and he began dancing to himself before jumping up and down like an energetic dragonet, "GREAT! When would you like to leave?"

He looked at Clearsight as she answered, "We should at least tell Fathom and Indigo what we're doing. Give us a few minutes?" The Rainwing nodded enthusiastically at her answer.

Clearsight broke away from Darkstalker's wing and conversed with the two Seawings. When she was finished explaining the situation, they looked between each other for a few moments before nodding and walking over. "We'll come with you, too," Fathom confirmed.

Copperhead fist-pumped to himself, "Yes! Alright, stick close and we'll have no problems. Next stop…Queen Anaconda!" He started marching off in the goofiest fashion Darkstalker had ever seen. He raised an eye ridge as he glanced at Clearsight.

She giggled before she started marching off in the same fashion. Darkstalker shook his head in exasperation, "Just to be clear, I am NOT walking like that!"

AN: So what did you think? Is it still up to par with expectations or has my time away lessened the quality? Is Copperhead a believable character overall?

Also, the update schedule is as follows. Before I return for next semester's classes, I plan on posting the next chapter of Dragons Change, a new Bonus Scene (which I plan on renaming Dragons Change: Perspectives), another chapter of this, and then another chapter of Dragons Change.

We'll see if I can deliver all of that within the next month.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22