Glory shuddered as she stood in front of the tunnel, specks of bright morning light hitting her scales through the rainforest canopy. The scent of smoke and decay could already reach her from here. The NightWing island was understandably not her favorite place in Pyrrhia, and going into it with the dragon who had held her captive there didn't make it much better.
She glanced over at Mastermind, fidgeting his wings back and forth. He mainly seemed happy to have his harness off, and to be somewhere different for a change. He was carrying a large, empty sack with him that he'd been given; presumably to hold scrolls. If he was thinking about trying to escape, Glory couldn't tell. Deathbringer stood next to him, giving him a cautious glance every so often.
Glory looked back to the tunnel. A small waterfall ran down from a nearby ledge, splashing against a large rainforest tree. From the other side, it looked like any other tree in the forest, but from this angle, Glory could clearly see the small black disk a short distance up the tree. She hated this thing. It clearly wasn't supposed to be here. If she looked too closely at the edges, where the rest of the world just . . . stopped, she started to get nauseous. Still, she couldn't deny its utility. Maybe not so much this one, but the one that led to the Sand Kingdom made it very convenient when talking with Queen Thorn. Now it would provide a quick way to send messages back and forth to Sunny. Queen Sunny.
Suddenly, a flash of movement caught Glory's eye from the side of the tunnel, partly hidden by the bushes. She immediately tensed up, and without thinking, leaped out at the enemy. Her claws landed on scales, and she looked down at the surprised figure of a young RainWing. "Eek!" he squealed. "Your majesty!"
"No, wait!" Deathbringer suddenly cried out. "He's with me! He's part of the Ninja Guard!"
Glory rolled her eyes, and stepped off her frightened subject. The RainWing quickly scooted away, re-cloaking his scales and becoming almost invisible against the rainforest background. The 'Ninja Guard' had been Deathbringer's pet project recently. He'd chosen a number of interested RainWings, and had been working on turning them into assassins, or spies, or something of that sort. Glory had said that the rainforest didn't need spies or assassins, but Deathbringer had insisted, both because a invisible personal guard would be useful, and also really cool. With RainWing camouflage and venom, one would think that they'd be naturals at it. Unfortunately, it was a bit more difficult than Deathbringer had expected.
Glory remembered what had happened when Deathbringer had invited her to watch their assassination training mission. One cut herself on one of her weapons, and another cried after what realizing what he'd done to the Blister target could've happened to a real dragon. Kind of pitiful. There were tears and comforting hugs everywhere, and the target wasn't even that realistic.
"Can we not bring your assassins-in-training along with us?" Glory asked. "There's going to be no one but us on the island."
"But Mastermind—" Deathbringer started to protest.
"Knows very well how RainWing venom works, and what would happen if he tried to attack me. You can also just use one of your spinning blades on him or something if it comes to that. Starflight's father or not, he'll be dead in seconds if he tries anything funny." Glory sent Mastermind a smile, causing the NightWing to gulp.
Deathbringer shrugged his wings in defeat. "Alright, Ninja Guard dismissed," he ordered. Glory could here the slight rustling of leaves around her, but it could have just been the wind.
"Thank you," Glory replied, "and please stop calling them the 'Ninja Guard.' It's really stupid, and gets on my nerves."
Deathbringer grinned. "Do I get on your nerves?" he asked, nuzzling Glory's neck gently. Glory rolled her eyes and smiled, spirals of gold and pink flashing through her scales.
As Glory noticed Mastermind awkwardly turning away from the two lovers, she was brought back to the current task. She needed to find the scrolls, and figure out how to stop this drought. Maybe eating fruit would work for now, but it wouldn't be long before the rainforest would start to shrivel up.
Glory gently pushed Deathbringer away from her. "Don't worry. I'm sure you can take care of any big, scary NightWings yourself. You'll just use your seductive grin on them and they'll run right away."
"Oh?" Deathbringer asked, surprised. "I'm the seductive one? Last time I checked, you were the one who convinced me to betray my queen and kingdom, even if they totally deserved it."
Glory chuckled as she flew up towards the entrance of the tunnel. Even if it did give off creepy, evil feelings, being with Deathbringer just made her so much more comfortable. He just gave off that sort of vibe around him. It was part of why she cared for him so much.
After Deathbringer gave him a quick nudge with his tail, Mastermind took off, landing directly behind Glory, with Deathbringer following closely behind him. The chill of magic stretched and squished against Glory's scales as the darkness closed in behind her. As she approached the end of the tunnel, Glory could feel the dry heat of the NightWing island, sulfurous air entering her lungs like a kiss from Deathbringer on a bad breath day. Strangely enough, the dryness wasn't as striking as usual. She quickly realized why — the normally humid rainforest was much more parched than usual.
Glory was relieved to finally reach the exit of the tunnel, into a dark cave. Her tail brushed against the floor, pushing aside a thin coating of ash. "Deathbringer?" she asked, hoping for a little bit of light. She felt Mastermind's cold scales brush up against her uncomfortably.
"Yeah, just a sec," Deathbringer commented. With a gush of air, a small burst of flame left the NightWing's mouth, lighting up the cave for a moment.
Glory looked up to see the petrified shape of Morrowseer above her. It made her shiver, seeing his frozen talons, reaching towards her as if he wanted to finally kill her in his last moments. There was a dragon turned to stone, sort of. Glory flicked her tongue, looking up towards the solidified NightWing defiantly. He'd thought he'd had so much power, treating the Dragonets of Destiny only as his playthings, his tools. Well look at him now. Glory, the 'useless RainWing mistake' was now the queen of his tribe, and he was like this.
"Oh yeah, he's still here," Deathbringer yawned as the light from his flame started to fade, leaving the three again in darkness. "Maybe someone should move him."
"Eh, I think he's a good warning, just in case some poor RainWing or NightWing dragonets find this place accidentally," Glory commented. "Hopefully, he'll frighten them off."
As Deathbringer let out another burst of flame, Glory moved around Morrowseer's corpse, into the cave behind him. Mastermind and Deathbringer quietly followed, following down the small cave until they reached the end. When she exited the cave, her eyes only had to adjust slightly to the dim light. Clouds of ash loomed over the island, obscuring most of the sunlight and resulting in the island being surrounded by a hazy glow. Pockets of lava were still on the ground, and while most of it seemed to be cooled, a few flows closer to the volcano were cracked open, allowing an dim orange glow to escape.
Though it had been two years since the volcano had erupted, the effects were still clearly apparent. A large portion of the crater seemed like it had fallen off during the eruption, covering the land below. The air was toxic, and it was difficult for Glory to breath. She let out a quiet wheeze. It certainly wasn't healthy to breath this in for a few hours, much less one's entire life. She wondered if anyone would ever inhabit the island again. Hopefully not. She glanced over towards Deathbringer and Mastermind. Both of them seemed slightly grim, but seemed to have adapted slightly better than Glory had.
Deathbringer took in a deep breath of the abrasive air, and let it out slowly, feigning pleasure. "Home sweet home," he muttered.
Mastermind looked a bit less pleased. Even being imprisoned, Glory guessed he had grown used to the rainforest and it's cleanliness. He didn't really seem like he wanted to be here either.
"We can leave as soon as we find those scrolls," Glory suggested.
Mastermind nodded, and pointed a ink-stained talon to the thick walls of a fortress, poking through a field of solidified tunnels. "My laboratory is over there, so the library should be not too far, just a short passage through the tunnels."
"We're not here to go to your sick laboratory," Glory reprimanded, "and chances are that the tunnels have been filled up with cooled lava anyways. Are there any other ways in?"
Mastermind's claw moved slightly to the left, and pointed to a the stone ceiling of a building, pushing out from layers of black rock, layed on top of one another. "That might be the library ceiling, or close to it. We might be able to get through from the outside."
"Great," Glory responded, already spreading her wings to take flight over the island. She didn't want to waste more time here than necessary.
The flight across the small island was short, and it wasn't long before the three touched down at the roof Mastermind had pointed out. The lava around it was cooled, but hardened. There was no way they would be able to break in that way. As Glory looked around for a possible entrance, she noticed something.
"Hey, over here!" she called to Deathbringer. He quickly waltzed over to her. The RainWing queen pointed at a small hole in the ceiling, just large enough for a small dragon to get in. "I think we can open this up."
Working together, the two dragons dislodged a large stone from the roof, causing it to tumble into the library beneath. Mastermind winced as he heard it crash against the floor. Hopefully, it hadn't harmed any precious scrolls beneath.
As the three entered the remains of the library, Deathbringer let out a small burst of flame, allowing Glory to see. Finding a small torch, he set it on fire, dimly illuminating the room. Rubble was scattered all over the room, but most of it had stayed somewhat intact. Scrolls were all over the floor, having fallen off the collapsed shelves. Still, Mastermind didn't seem to be daunted by the mess, he instead looked right at home.
Starflight would have loved this place, Glory thought to herself, had he still been able to read, of course. She still blamed Morrowseer for that, and burning alive to become a frozen husk didn't seem like enough punishment for him for everything he'd done, to both the Dragonets of Destiny, the RainWings, and every other dragon who'd been killed in the war because of his plan. Still, there wasn't much he could do about it. It's not like she could bring him back to life to kill him again. Then again, there was that one IceWing queen Winter had mentioned . . .
A sudden interruption from Mastermind tore her mind away from vengeance, and back to the library. "This might be helpful," the NightWing suggested, handing his queen a scroll.
It titled Great NightWing Prophecies: Volume Two. Glory opened it to find a series of successive prophecies, many in rhyme.
"We lost almost all our scrolls about two-thousand years ago, the same time we lost our powers," Mastermind explained, "so there's very few scrolls which will be completely accurate, and there aren't any studies on visions nor prophecies either. There was a NightWing, Scrollwriter, who attempted to write down as much as he could afterwards, but it wasn't anything close to what we had."
"Scrollwriter?" Glory snorted. "Where do you get these names from? They seem pretty accurate. Deathbringer?"
Mastermind flicked his tongue. "Call it some leftover sense of prophecy, I guess. We also train dragonets from birth to fit them, which makes things a bit more likely. Conformation bias, if you will." He glanced over towards Deathbringer, standing up on his hind legs to grab a scroll from the top of a shelf. "Hey! Don't touch that!" Mastermind suddenly yelled out.
Deathbringer glanced back, startled by Mastermind, and suddenly lost his balance. As he scrambled at the shelf to try and regain it, his claws only grabbed ahold of scrolls. He fell back, knocking the scrolls off the shelf. They fell onto his head harmlessly, but Mastermind didn't look pleased.
"Uh, sorry?" Deathbringer apologized halfheartedly, invoking a cackle from Glory. Mastermind grumbled as he walked over to where Deathbringer was, and carefully picked the scrolls up to put them back on the shelf. He suddenly stopped at one of them, and yelled out a triumphant "Aha!"
"What is it?" asked Glory, hopeful that he'd found something useful.
"I've been looking for this for ages! I mean, before the eruption, but I had given up hope!"
Glory peered over at the title. "The Refraction of Light through Various Minerals?"
Mastermind nodded. "Yes, I was doing some research on that a while back, and found this great scroll. But my assistant decided to put it back in the wrong place, and I could never find it again after that. Such a pity."
Glory sighed, her eyes rolling. "Can we just find the scrolls we're looking for?"
After a little grumbling, Mastermind went to pick up a few more scrolls.
"A Guide to Explaining NightWing Powers," she read out as he handed them to her. "Creating Visions. Anything else?"
Mastermind didn't look hopeful. "There might be one or two, but that's pretty much it, since the Black Scrolls seem to all be missing. I think that we might find another few volumes of Great NightWing Prophecies, but that didn't look like what you wanted. But why look at those scrolls when there are so many other great scrolls here?"
He started to pull out a random scroll from the sense, invoking a slap from Deathbringer on his paw. "We're not library browsing here," Deathbringer reprimanded.
"Wait," Glory said, "what are the Black Scrolls? And why are they gone?"
"They're a set of antique scrolls that we used to have here," Mastermind quickly explained, still rummaging through the scrolls like an excited dragonet, occasionally shoving them into the quickly growing sack he'd brought along. "They were written around the time we moved to the island, as a way of preserving our history and saving the information in some of the older decaying scrolls. I saved a few of them I thought were the most important when I left the island, although I had to leave most of them behind. It looks like the entire shelf they were on has been emptied, though. A shame, there was a really good one on prophecies, visions, and interpretations. I suppose all of them must be real, now that I think about it."
"Wait, the shelf was emptied?" Glory asked. "Are you telling me that someone's been in here?" She glanced up to the hole in the roof she and Deathbringer had expanded out. That must not have been natural. Someone had broken in.
Mastermind nodded. "Most likely." He frowned, deep in thought. "Oh."
"Oh?" Glory questioned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well," Mastermind coughed uncomfortably, "I think Tiger might have moved them."
"What?" Glory asked, growling. "Why would Tiger be here?"
"I might have mentioned the Black Scrolls to her," Mastermind conceded, "they are very old and valuable, and I felt bad about a bunch of them being left behind on the island, so I told her I was worried about them."
"You sent a dragonet here?" Glory roared, red and orange highlights forming along her horns. "Of course you did. You haven't changed a bit! You care more about your stupid scrolls and research than the life of a dragonet. We should have kept you in that quicksand pit."
"She did it by herself!" Mastermind protested. "I didn't ask her to. She never even told me that she went here!"
Glory twitched her tail for a moment, unsure whether or not to believe the NightWing. Eventually, she started to calm down, realizing that he was telling to the truth. He wouldn't have come here if he'd thought the scrolls were already gone. She still wasn't happy with Mastermind. She'd bet a pile of mangoes that 'rescuing' his scrolls was his ulterior motive in convincing Glory to bring him here.
"Hey," Deathbringer suddenly interrupted Glory with a whisper, his ear perking up, "do you hear that?"
Glory listened closely, unsure what Deathbringer meant. All she could hear was the gentle crinkling of paper as Mastermind unrolled and rerolled scrolls before putting them into his back. "What?" she asked sarcastically. "The sound of Mastermind's brain whirring around?"
"No, seriously," Deathbringer replied, slightly concerned, "I think I hear someone outside the library."
Glory was skeptical, but she trusted Deathbringer's instincts as an assassin. She motioned a wing towards the hole in the ceiling, and quietly walked over towards it as she camouflaged here scales, blending in almost perfectly against the stone walls. Taking care with every step, Glory climbed up a bookshelf towards the hole, and slithered through it. She looked around the roof, half-covered in layers of black stone. At first glance, she seemed to be alone, but it wasn't long before she spotted a dark blur against the black stone. A poorly disguised RainWing.
Glory rolled her eyes, and pounced at the dragon, keeping her claws sheathed so not to hurt them. They yelped is surprise as Glory easily pushed them to the ground with her weight advantage. The intruder squirmed, trying to get away as Glory held them down beneath her paws.
"Deathbringer!" Glory shouted out. "It looks like one of your assassins-in-training has been following us! I thought you told them to leave?"
Glory turned to face the dragon, and her expression changed to surprise as she saw who it was. "Toxin?" she asked, startled. What was she doing here?
The hybrid dragon hissed as she glared up at her queen. "Get off me!" she commanded.
By now, Deathbringer had climbed out of the hole, leaving Mastermind behind in the library. It wasn't as if he could try and escape with his big sack of scrolls. "I thought Glory was the one giving orders around here," he commented, "being Queen of the RainWings and NightWings and all."
Glory stepped off Toxin, allowing her to get back to her feet. She gave Glory a glare of hate and disgust.
"What are you doing here?" Glory demanded. "Are you trying to help Mastermind escape? I found out that Tiger has been down here."
"I was checking to make sure you didn't throw him in lava or something awful like that. He's my friend."
"He's a prisoner," calmly replied Deathbringer. "Probably not the best influence on a young dragonet."
"And," Glory added, "he's just studying you, and might be using you to escape. Do you really think he actually cares about you?" Memories flashed before Glory: RainWings being forced to use their venom; heavy chains around her snout; and Kinkajou, staying positive and hopeful, even through everything that Mastermind had done.
"HE'S NOT!" Toxin spat at Glory. "He's my friend, and I'm not letting you hurt him!"
"Half of the queens would have had your head for that comment," growled Deathbringer. "You should be lucky Queen Glory is so forgiving."
"Deathbringer, that's enough," Glory said. She knew that Deathbringer was just trying to help her, but she didn't want to scare Toxin like that. Glory wondered if they actually did that in the Night Kingdom, executing dragonets. Considering that they had an underpopulation problem, it seemed sort of unlikely, but she wouldn't have put it past Morrowseer and Battlewinner. Morrowseer had certainly tried to execute her.
Suddenly, Mastermind poked his head from the hole, and squeezed his body partly through. "You do realize I can hear you all, correct? Your argument is well within my hearing range."
Glory's mouth twitched in a mixture between frustration and embarrassment. She hadn't exactly meant for Mastermind to hear her harsh criticisms, even if they were completely true.
Toxin walked over to Mastermind protectively. "He's my friend, and you won't hurt him, and I don't care if you're the Empress of Pyrrhia, and that's final."
Glory looked at them, the four year old dragonet, attempting to physically protect the fully-grown NightWing. It would have almost been comical, had Toxin not been so irritating, and Mastermind not just a plain awful and manipulative dragon.
Deathbringer tapped Glory on the wingblade, and motioned for her to follow him. They walked a little a few steps off from Toxin and Mastermind, then spoke privately.
"You know," Deathbringer said in a hushed voice, "Mastermind really isn't that horrible a dragon. Yeah, I know he put a lot of RainWings in horrible conditions, but well — I genuinely don't think he meant to hurt you. I'm not even sure he realized what he was doing."
Now Deathbringer was trying to convince her to forgive him?
"So what?" she asked. "He still did those things, even if he didn't realize how awful it was. He not going to get any forgiveness from me."
Deathbringer frowned slightly, in a sad way. "Yeah, but you forgave me, didn't you? I've done some pretty awful things, too. You know I've killed dragons."
"So have I," Glory responded. "It's not really preferable, but that's how I protected my family." If she hadn't killed Fjord, Clay would definitely be dead.
Deathbringer nodded. "One of the things I always tried to do as an assassin is avoid killing dragons whenever possible. It made me feel less guilty; I thought I was doing the right thing. There's a surprising amount of ways you can remove important dragons from the picture without actually killing them."
"So? You've told me all this before."
"Well, I've thought more about it," Deathbringer continued. "Not killing dragons directly still doesn't make me a good dragon. I've ruined lives; more importantly, I helped keep the war going for as long as it did. Sometimes I wonder, if I had decided not to be a part of Morrowseer's machine at all, how many more dragons would still be alive? When would the war have ended? I'm not asking you to forgive Mastermind for what he did. Not yet. But maybe he deserves a chance to become a better dragon."
Glory thought for a moment. Deathbringer did have a good point. Logically, Deathbringer himself had done much more damage than Mastermind had. But Deathbringer had risked everything to make up for his actions. Mastermind hadn't. She glanced towards the NightWing again, fidgeting with his talons. Maybe one day, she could forgive Mastermind for what he'd done to her. She hadn't been trapped in the Night Kingdom for that long, and it was all old memories now. But what about Kinkajou? It would certainly take more than a few words.
Glory and Deathbringer rejoined the other two, where Toxin quietly growled.
"Look, I'm not going to hurt him," Glory sighed, "and I'm not throwing him into the volcano. I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that I'm that type of queen. You were there for the conversation; he came here of his own will. That being said, Mastermind is coming with Deathbringer and I to Jade Mountain to figure this out and find these Black Scrolls."
Deathbringer looked at her with surprise. Glory glanced back. "What? You asked me to give him a chance." she whispered to her mate. "This is his chance."
"I'm going with you," Toxin demanded. "It's my vision."
Glory thought about it a moment. She didn't particularly want the dragonet with her, especially if Mastermind was coming too, but it made a bit of sense. Toxin could describe what she'd experienced better than any of them could. Still, she might want to add in an extra RainWing just in case the two tried to escape together, maybe one of Deathbringer's 'Ninja Guard.' Papaya would work.
"I'll think about it," Glory replied, even knowing the answer was already yes. Toxin didn't need to be any more disobedient to her queen than she already was.
"No, it's my ri—" Toxin started to protest.
"I said I'll think about it, and that's final. If I let you come with us, then we'll meet at my pavilion tomorrow morning."
Toxin gave Glory a glare, but the queen ignored it. She didn't want to give Toxin anything to argue on.
Glory turned back to Mastermind. "So, are we done here? Do you have the scrolls you think are useful?"
Mastermind quickly nodded, and dove back down into the library. Within moments, he squeezed the cloth bag through the hole, making a large clunking noise as it hit the stone outside. Glory guessed that not all the scrolls in there were about prophecies and visions, but she let it slide. She didn't care for another argument at the moment.
"Great," Glory muttered, letting out a small cough. The oppressive air here was getting to her. "Then let's g—"
"Wait," interrupted Deathbringer again. "We're not alone."
Glory frowned. Another dragon had followed them. Deathbringer pointed a claw in the distance, out on the hardened black lava, near a pile of rubble that looked like it could have been a collapsed building. The sight of sky-blue scales caught her eye, though the color was tinted in the orange glow of the island.
"Toxin?" Glory asked quietly. "Is that the dragon you saw in your vision?"
Toxin looked, and quickly nodded. Glory frowned. She thought the sky-blue hybrid was supposed to be at Jade Mountain. What was she doing here?
"C'mon," Glory quickly said, spreading her wings out. She wasn't sure if this dragon was dangerous or not, but it wouldn't be bad to be cautious. "Deathbringer, come with me. Toxin, Mastermind, stay here."
Toxin didn't seem to like the idea of staying behind, but much to Glory's relief, she didn't protest. Glory and Deathbringer quietly took off, flying towards the mystery dragon.
As they landed, they could tell that the dragon was pushing aside rocks and rubble. She gave the two approaching dragons a quick glance, then turned back to the rubble. Is she looking for something? Glory wondered. "What was this place?" she quietly asked Deathbringer.
"I think it might have been Princess Greatness's room," Deathbringer decided, "but it's been a while, so I might be a little bit off."
As she approached closer, Glory could more clearly see that the dragon was a hybrid, unlike any other dragon on Pyrrhia. She seemed to be around Glory's age, and had small strips of flat white scales all over her body, which looked somewhat like the glowstripes Glory had so often seen on Tsunami. Every so often, one would flash up, seemingly at random. She was definitely part-SeaWing, then. Was she trying to speak in Aquatic?
The thin, wispy spines, the ball of spikes, and the pale white color in her scales clued Glory into the other side of the dragon's tribe. Half-SeaWing, half-IceWing. But what was she doing on the NightWing island? Glory noticed a thin silver chain hanging from the dragon's neck, a perfectly spherical deep purple stone hanging from it. A nasty-looking pebble shaped burn scar appeared in her scales behind it. Along with that, a thick iron shackle with three chainlinks hanging from it was fused around her left foreleg.
Even as Glory and Deathbringer got closer, the dragon didn't look up at them again, still engrossed in her search.
"Go away," the hybrid growled, not bothering to make eye contact, "it's not your time yet."
Deathbringer cleared his throat. "That is no way to speak to Queen Glory of the RainWings and NightWings. You are to address her as 'Your Majesty,' 'Your Highness,' or 'Sexy Rainforest Queen.' Oh wait," he teased, "that last one's only for me."
Glory slapped Deathbringer in the snout with her wing, feigning anger, even though she couldn't help but chuckle. "If you call me that again, I'm going to announce you as 'Sparkly NightWing King' from now on."
Deathbringer grinned. "'Sparkly NightWing King?' I sort of like the sound of that. Especially that 'king' part. Imagine that, a humble assassin becoming king of two tribes."
The sky-blue dragon seemed not to care about their banter, and continued digging around in the rubble.
"Excuse me," Glory asked, turning away from Deathbringer. "What's your name? You probably shouldn't be here. We normally don't allow dragons on the island."
The hybrid finally seemed to notice her enough to care, and snorted at the interruption of her searching, turning her head up towards Glory. A cold wind seemed to blow from behind her, Glory turning her head away from it. A blast of lightning ricocheted across the grey cloudy sky, and the ball of spines on Aurora's tail seemed to grow, hooks twisting and growing out from the ends.
"Aurora," the hybrid responded emotionlessly. She tilted her head at the RainWing queen, and raised a paw. A metal sheath had risen up over each of her talons, thin steel knives growing out from each of them.
Glory felt her heart suddenly speed up, as a tremor shook the earth beneath her paws, pebbles clattering as she tried to keep her balance. She lifted her head, looking straight into Aurora's blank stare. It only took her a moment to realize it:
The two of them were very out of their depths.