A Brighter Future Ahead

AN: I'm back with another one of these, and I just realized a few days ago that this one is getting close to the end, too. I expect maybe eight chapters left, give or take. Man...I'm going to have to figure out what to do with all my non-existent free time once this one's done.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire.

Anaconda:

The Rainwing Queen hummed in thought. "Hmm…Interesting," she mused as she read the scroll the other Rainwing in the room had given her. Said Rainwing was the spy she had sent to the Sea Kingdom to keep an eye on her wayward son. "And you said it was a Nightwing that stole Queen Diamond's enchanted dagger?" she asked for confirmation.

The spy nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty."

She nodded slowly, a plan starting to form in her mind. "I want that Nightwing found and brought before me," she ordered, and the spy bowed. Before he could leave, though, the Queen continued. "Preferably before they learn that Darkstalker is no longer in the village." With that, she dismissed him.

When he was gone, Anaconda smirked victoriously. It may be a bit premature to celebrate a plan's success before it actually succeeded, but since it was pretty much guaranteed to work… She chuckled to herself. "I take it that means you have a plan, mother?"

She turned to regard her adopted daughter with a smile. "Yes, Zephyr, I do, and I have to admit it's positively inspired, even for me," was her ecstatic reply. The young Skywing animus sat up and paid attention to show that she was interested. "It's really quite simple, but it involves the mother of all deceptions…"

She then proceeded to explain her plan. First, she needed to find and convince that Nightwing assassin to change their target. Instead of Darkstalker, she wanted them to kill Clearsight. If that didn't get her ace ready to slaughter countless innocents, the second deception most definitely would.

When he searched the assassin to find out who they were and why his precious soulmate was dead, he would discover the scroll Indigo wrote to the Seawing Queen on his corpse. And then nothing, not even Fathom, would be able to stop Darkstalker from killing that meddlesome Seawing.

She wasn't sure how Fathom might react, but he didn't matter to her anymore. What mattered was the events and what Darkstalker would be willing to do for revenge. The Seawings had put the entire plot into motion, the Icewings had enchanted the dagger to kill him, and the Nightwings had killed Clearsight. His hatred would no doubt consume him, and she highly doubted he would care about burning the three Kingdoms to the ground.

As the saying went, 'Three birds with one stone.' Or in this case, 'Three tribes with one weapon of mass destruction.'

She was positively giddy with excitement by the time she had finished explaining the plan to her daughter, and Zephyr was radiating pure awe at the flawless plan Anaconda had just concocted. "Wow…That is inspired," she whispered reverently.

Anaconda nodded. "Isn't it? But of course, it never could've worked if not for the enchantments you put on Clearsight. Her gift is rather useless if she isn't allowed to see such things." The young Skywing beamed with the praise.

The rest of the day passed normally, at least until about an hour after sunset. Guards dragged a struggling Nightwing into the pavilion, and Anaconda couldn't stop her evil grin from appearing. "Found him skulking around outside the village," one of the guards reported.

She huffed in amusement. "I know of everything that happens of Pyrrhia, Nightwing. Did you honestly think you could escape notice in my Rainforest?" The Nightwing just glared at her, and she rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be like that. I've no intention of harming you in any way, and when we're done talking, you'll be free to kill your mark."

Apparently, the Nightwing hadn't expected that. He tried to hide his surprise, but she had caught. Seeing he wasn't fooling her, he decided to speak up. "And why would you let me kill Darkstalker? I thought he was your personal weapon of death?"

"Oh, he is," she assured him, "But it won't be Darkstalker that you'll be killing. No, I want you to kill Clearsight."

He narrowed his eyes. "My Queen made it explicitly clear that I was not to harm the seer. I will not commit treason."

She chuckled darkly. "Yes, you will. If you don't, you'll be responsible for the deaths of your entire family." His eyes widened momentarily before he regained his composure. "We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

One of the first enchantments Anaconda had asked Zephyr for was so she could read minds like some Nightwings could. And so, she could hear the names of his family and where they resided in his thoughts. She was sure he was trained to guard his thoughts from other mind-reading Nightwings, but she didn't have any telling marks that would reveal the truth. And nobody knew of the enchantment on her except Zephyr. Not even her biological dragonets knew. "You don't know anything about my family," he countered.

"No?" she challenged. "I know they reside on an island to the east of here with the rest of the Nightwings now that the Talon Peninsula has been abandoned. I know you have a wife named Modesty and a young daughter named—"

His expression had turned to one of horror when he heard his wife's name, and just before she was about to say his daughter's name, he broke. "Alright!" he pleaded, "I'll do whatever you want! Just don't hurt my family, please!"

The Queen leaned down closer to him, and they locked gazes. "Do this for me, and no harm will come to them, I swear." He sighed deeply in resignation but nodded gravely. She motioned for the guards to release him, and he stood, though he made no move against her. "You can find them on an island off the south coast of the rainforest. They've adjusted to a normal sleeping schedule, so they should be asleep when you reach them. No one will see you coming, I promise you that."

He nodded once more, grabbing his personal effects from the guards who had restrained him. Then, he left, and Anaconda could only wait to see what would happen next.

AN: So I just want to warn everyone right now that this story is about to get DARK. That includes torture, character death, and a slight dose of genocide, so get ready for things to get real...

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22