Shell
I hadn't been back here a decade. The place felt the same though, the same damp smells and trickling of a distant stream further down. Urchin didn't feel nervous, they'd recognize me surely though.
I could hear Basilisk hissing slightly, kind of like a snake, his frills fanning upwards uneasily. They didn't stop circling around us like hungry sharks waiting to strike. Showing fear would be a mistake, "Where is your leader?" I demanded.
Out of the shadowy haze stepped out a very weary green dragon, across their nose was a large pulsing red wound, probably from a previous skirmish. "Commander Mantis, at your service. I trust the timing of your visit is related to your last escapade."
I had almost forgotten about that. It didn't matter with the Queen pursuing us, sure she was relatively inefficient and was as airheaded as they come but there was a reason why in recent years her daughter had practically become the defacto leader.
"Where's Commander Robin?" I asked, my heart sinking just slightly when I didn't see the familiar Skywing and Mudwing hybrid standing out amongst the crowd, his blazing red scales and his enormous height and size made him hard to miss. Sure he could simply be out on a mission, but I wasn't blind, it had been a long time since we last met.
"Commander Robin?" asked Basilisk snarling a spiked up skwying, "You know these half-dead dragons?"
No duh. We wouldn't have come here if I didn't know these dragons, honestly Basilisk could be so daft sometimes. "Commander Robin was unfortunately caught and deployed into the war effort. Luckily it was the Mudwings who found him, but… we haven't heard from him since. This happened nearly 6 years ago." explained
Even though I told myself I'd be mentally prepared for the news it was still shocking. Robin couldn't be dead, despite what felt like denial by her part it was never confirmed he was dead. He couldn't be. He had practically raised me no matter how rambunctious I got, he was going to be the one who led us to the glorious future. He couldn't be dead. When I got out I though he would be there to greet me.
Such a childish hope.
"What about Eerie?"
"Also dead." replied a darkly colored nightwing who I believed was her sister. My memories of Eerie were blurry. I tried to control my breathing, that's okay. We weren't that close anyways. The hostility had warn off from the dragons gathered around letting them step into the light, Basilisk was not happy though and gave every dragon that tried to examine him his grumpy face.
Someone had to be still alive though right? "Melon? Laurel? Atlas?" I called out the names of my old friends, a voice in the back of my head was mockingly laughing at me being so naive to believe they could still be around. "Bluegill?"
Mantis turned his large head towards the others, until eventually a dark reddish brown dragon appeared, "Atlas is still alive… he's just missing several limbs…"
"Laurel died in combat." said another dragon in a mournful tone refusing to initiate eye contact.
"I don't know what happened to Bluegill, he went missing as well, but…" the dragon speaking suppressed a growl, "Melon." They spat the word out. "Was the one that betrayed all and got Laurel killed, just for a chance to live at some fancy royal palace in the middle of the sea. We didn't need him anyways." I recognized her as the clingy dragonet only several years older than me who generally clinged onto Melon constantly. Or well had…
Unease rippled throughout the crowd at my last question.
"P-Peaches." I didn't even try to disguise the shaking now.
"She didn't make it. Peaches blew up in that accident."
"She was only four! Please tell me she at least made it to 10."
Their expressions said otherwise. Though nobody said anything, that's all I need to know. Her voice echoed in my mind, she had always been incredibly mature for her age. She had never been the prettiest of the silkwings nor the smartest, but she was calm. Still her childlike enthusiasm was always present, she was teh youngest out of all of us. We had all sworn to protect her much to her distaste, claiming boldly that one day she would protect all of us. It had been such a cute thought.
And now it was all gone.
Their promises wiped away towards the abyss, nobody would remember them. They would only remember who succeeded and each year it would wear down the beach even more until it was nothing but dull rocks.
Everything seemed to melt away, everything was gone and blurred, fear started to course through my veins. This couldn't be happening, my breath control was getting all out of wack. I shouldn't have stayed there for so long. Robin had voiced his concerns against me staying there, they didn't deserve it, the kid would have just grown up evil anyways. I shouldn't have felt guilty.
But I did. And now it was all gone.
I could faintly hear and feel dragons crowding around me, shaking my shoulders and shouting my name, "Urchin! Urchin can you hear me?!"
That only caused me to panic more though, what was I doing? This wasn't right…. Why was I here I wasn't supposed to be here, my head seemed to split open with a headache. A scream escaped my lips and Basilisk jumped into action leaping over to my side and snarling, "Get away, or I'll slowly and painfully drown each and every one of you."
"I'm a seawing though." pointed out a light gray-blue seawing.
"Thank you for volunteering." said Basilisk, his voice didn't sound triumphant though, more dull and irritated, "Who wants to see my demonstrate how to drown a seawing, I've always wanted to experiment some more."
Basilisk wasn't the biggest dragon but he had this face that could perfectly scrunch up into an intimidating expression along with a "Who wants to be the first to feel that?"
The crowd began to disperse, and I felt Basilisk's talons grab my own as he began screaming at the rest, mostly the new commander… new… new…
"Come on…" said Basilisks sounding surprisingly gentle, "They have a room for you to stay in." He half led, half dragged me throughout the underground layers, too similar to pretend it was a different place, too different for it to be the same one.