A Brighter Future Ahead
AN: I don't really have much to say up here, so I'll just get into it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. Cobra the Rainwing and Trench the Seawing are my OCs and belong to me.
Trench:
He was a soldier. He understood the ways a dragon could kill another either with weapons or their own teeth and claws. Magic, however, was something he didn't really understand. He didn't like dealing with it, and he didn't like thinking about it. However, Queen Diamond assured him this plain-looking dagger could kill Darkstalker.
And he couldn't understand that. "How is this regular dagger supposed to kill a dragon said to have impenetrable scales and be immortal?" he asked the Icewing Queen.
She merely scoffed at him. "How many times must I repeat this? It may look regular, but it is anything but. It is enchanted to kill any dragon regardless of any defensive enchantments."
He rolled his eyes. "So you keep saying, but I still don't understand how," he stressed.
"Then perhaps that's for the best if your simple mind can't comprehend such things," she spoke imperiously down her snout to him. "Though if you'd like a demonstration, I'd be more than happy to enchant you to have impenetrable scales and use it on you," she suggested.
"I'll just take your word for it, shall I?" he allowed.
"Yes…I believe that is for the best," she replied. "Now begone. I've shown you what you wanted to see."
He didn't move, glaring at her for a short moment. The Icewing guards in the room all tensed when he didn't immediately comply, but he just scoffed and walked out of the room without another word. He could feel her cold gaze on his back as he left. She didn't like him, but he was alright with that.
The feeling was mutual.
He started heading towards his quarters since it was late but stopped when he was about halfway there. He looked left for a moment as that's the direction he needed to go if he wanted to go to his own room, but instead, after a few moments of deliberation, he headed right. He walked through the halls, not entirely sure why he was doing this, and stopped outside of a room with two Seawing guards. He nodded at them, and they opened the door for him.
He stepped in and sat down before the room's only occupant. Needless to say, Cobra was rather surprised to see him. "I wasn't expecting a visit from you anytime soon," she commented, genuinely surprised. "I thought you didn't like me."
"I don't," was his immediate reply.
"Then…did you need something?" she asked uncertainly.
He sighed and shrugged. "Honestly? I think I just need to vent," he admitted. She gestured to herself and gave him a look that said, 'And you choose me of all dragons?' "Normally, I'd just talk with the Queen, but she's busy right now, and you make better company than the Icewings, at least."
"Queen Diamond getting on your nerves?" she joked.
He chuckled mirthlessly. "I swear if we didn't need her magic, I wouldn't even give her the time of day," he declared. "She has such a superiority complex!"
Cobra laughed a bit at that. "That's because Icewings are snobbish by nature, and she's the Queen of all the snobbish dragons, so…" She shrugged.
Trench just snorted. "Yeah, that sounds about right…" And the conversation continued from there. As he said, he just vented, and Cobra made a surprisingly good listener. She would comment on a few things, and it almost always made him chuckle. She was using jokes to lighten his mood, and he found himself…appreciative of that.
The Icewing, the war, Darkstalker, magic, he vented about all of it, and by the end of it, the sun had gone down. However, Cobra didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed to be in as good a mood as he was. "Feel better?" she asked, with a small smile.
"Yes, actually," he admitted. "Thanks…for listening. I needed to get all that out."
Cobra nodded at him and opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a furious roar. "WHO STOLE MY DAGGER!?" the Icewing Queen roared. He just sighed in defeat at having to deal with the Queen of the Snobs again, but then what she actually said registered. He slammed the door open just as she turned the corner, and she locked her glare on him. "Where is it?" she demanded, furious.
"Are you trying to say someone simply stole your animus-touched dagger!?" he asked incredulously. Her angered snarl was the only answer he needed. "What happened?" he demanded, forgetting his dislike of her and getting down to business.
She simply motioned for him to follow, so he did. She lead him back to the room he had left her in hours ago, and the sight that greeted him…wasn't pleasant. "I left for an hour to go have dinner with Queen Pearl. I left three of my guards to make sure this," she gestured to the scene before them for emphasis, "wouldn't happen!"
A few Seawing guards were already on scene, so he turned to them. "Lock down the Palace!" he ordered. "No one gets in or out! Someone check on the Queen and make sure she's safe! If something happens to her, I'll have every single one of you executed for incompetence!" he roared at them. The quickly dispersed to do his bidding, and he walked into the room to study the crime scene.
All three Icewings were dead, but the position of the bodies told him the story. He walked up to one and observed the wound and blood pattern. "This one died first," he declared. "The blood pattern suggests he was stationary when he was killed." He walked to the next one over. "This one tried to help his comrade but was wounded before he could. He stumbled, and a second hit killed him." Then, he walked over to the third one, studying it a bit longer than the other two. "The other two couldn't see their attacker, but by the time they were dead, she found where they were hiding." Her body was close to the window, and there was frostbreath damage on the sill. There was also blood there, and it wasn't blue. "She was able to wound the attacker before they killed her, too."
He turned back to the Icewing Queen, and she appraised him under a new light. "Impressive…but will any of that help us determine who stole my dagger?" she asked pointedly.
He rolled his eyes again, the answer obvious to him. "Whoever did this was a professional," he proclaimed. "The fact they took the weapons they used points to that, but judging by the wounds, they used chakrams to kill them from a distance—meaning they were an assassin. As for who…" He picked up a black scale that was in the claws of the third Icewing and showed it to her.
Queen Diamond snarled, her expression one of seething hatred. "Nightwings…"
AN: So...things just got complicated. Diamond made a dagger that could kill Darkstalker, and the Nightwings stole it... Only bad things could come of this. We'll see just what in the next one.
Until Next Time
AdmiralCole22
