Here's chapter 2, which I decided to get in before Christmas hits. Thanks to everyone who's read up to here, glad to see people are enjoying the story so far. In this chapter the story properly settles into the timespan which it will be following. There's a bit of info on Marble here as well as her two friends. In response to your review Literally, glad you liked chapter 1, and don't worry, I don't usually have my replies too long. If necessary I will pm you instead.
I hope you all enjoy the beginning of Marble's journey, as we take a look into the life of a NightWing in the Sand Kingdom...
Years after the fateful night of hatchings a new sunrise was spreading across the great island of Pyrrhia. The vast dunes of the Sand Kingdom would soon yield their coolness of the night to the sun's scorching onslaught. Nocturnal animals slithered into their shaded burrows while their diurnal counterparts began a search for breakfast. Near and within the mighty Sand Stronghold the forms of soldiers could be seen flitting in and out, a changing of the guard to relieve the night watchers who had been on duty since hours before. Inside one of the small living chambers of the sandstone fortress, an older dragonet tossed and turned in her bed of blankets. The sun had already fallen through one of the room's windows and onto her dark scales. As she made another twist, her closed eyes were turned to the outside sky. With a startled yelp, they flew open.
Marble, as this dragonet was known, stopped herself from tripping over the smooth stone floor. She quickly untangled herself from the myriad of purple blankets she used as a covering as she often did at sunrise. Marble was getting better at waking up less clumsily, but she hadn't yet been able to wake up on the right side of the bed, as the expression went. For some reason she never seemed able to comfortably wake in the mornings. But the daytime routine was hers, as it was for all other denizens of the Sand Kingdom.
Picking up a glass of water on a nearby wooden table, Marble went about her schedule and mused to herself as she often did. Even when she was a hatchling she'd often take time to think. Before meeting her two best and only friends in the wingery thinking took up most of her idle time. Back then it began as basic ideas, such as why there wasn't much water in the desert, or why SandWings had stingers. Of course there had always been the big subject as well. Right from her moment of hatching, she was different. At first, naive, she'd thought she was a SandWing like all the others. Her scales may have been shades of black and grey but she just chalked it up to being sunburned in her egg (Marble covered her face with a foretalon as she recalled her silly innocent theories). One day, when she asked her aunts why she didn't have a stinger like the other hatchlings, they had sat her down and explained.
Hearing that she was born of an entirely different tribe was a blow to her younger self. But as she pieced it all together, she listened to her aunts and accepted this. The knowledge that she was out of place didn't make her fear. Instead, it merely pushed Marble to work harder. She made a vow to herself the day after the revelation. She'd do her best to serve the Sand Kingdom and Queen Scorpion, no matter where her blood had come from, for it was the Sand Kingdom that was her home, and Queen Scorpion kept the kingdom safe. Her aunts had also told her that she would have much to do when she got older and plenty of opportunities to prove herself.
Marble had chosen her path back then. Fueled by those who mocked and hissed at her NightWing heritage, one thing surged through her blood with fiery vigor. She wanted to fight. Already more restless than other hatchlings Marble was an impatient ball of energy in the wingery. Always her mind buzzed with curiosity, her little wings fluttering as she moved from thought to thought. She could hardly stay still during the more boring lessons such as math and literature. But she always looked forward to gliding sessions during which they learned the first steps of how to fly. Catch-the-prey was another favorite activity of hers in the wingery. As they were too little to catch anything larger or fiercer than desert mice the teachers would use masses of a special sugary dough sculpted after various animals. Thanks to the hard-won recipes of the SandWing royal chef, the dough was very solid and didn't melt under the sun. Catch-the-prey was often played around noon. This was because the young wingery dragonets would have burned out all the sugar by the time afternoon naptime rolled around.
That was another activity Marble hadn't liked much in the wingery. Most all the other dragonets slept clustered together, but pushed her away when she tried to join. Often she was still a little too energetic to sleep anyway; sometimes she'd just lie down and flick her tail back-and-forth in thought before a teacher came by to shush her. Although she loved to learn about the world in the wingery's lessons Marble remained lonely for much of her time there. Several of the SandWing dragonets of her class regarded her as strange in comparison to themselves. They knew she was a NightWing, and NightWings were a mysterious, dangerous tribe. All they knew about her was that her egg had been picked up during one of the raids of the Night Kingdom and brought to the desert. As far as they were concerned, she was out of place.
At first the dragonets who disliked her took to pushing and shoving at her as well as calling her names. "Outcast" had been a favorite mocking call. They jeered about how her real parents had abandoned her because they knew she was worthless, and that she didn't belong in the Sand Kingdom. Some dragonets would have kept their heads down and taken the abuse quietly, but not Marble. She learned to respond to bullies with tooth-and-claw aggression. Eventually this deterred the bullies and made them avoid her out of a mix of dislike and fear. The downsides of this were the fact that nicer dragonets would avoid her as well, not to mention she'd been in trouble more than once with her teachers for fighting.
She was better disciplined now. Marble no longer laid a claw on others when she got mad except in scheduled fight practices. She used the philosophy that if she kept walking a straight line and trained her hardest, someday she'd be a general in the SandWing army. All the soldiers at her command would respect her and obey her orders. That was Marble's final goal, to rise in the SandWing army until she could direct it's entire might against any who would threaten her home. It would be the ultimate proof of her loyalty, and maybe, just maybe, even the ones who called her outcast would accept her as a true member of the Sandwing tribe.
With a stifled yawn Marble picked up her camel-leather school satchel and walked out of her small but cozy room. It was one of several similar ones within a section of the Sand Stronghold near the hatchery. The rooms functioned as spaces for orphan dragonets and occasional visitors. Most were the same basic layout, but a few larger, fancier spaces were reserved for esteemed guests.
A few other dragonets Marble's age were also walking down the hallway towards the SandWing school. All were orphans just as she was. Unlike her, they were all SandWings. Many of their parents had been soldiers that had died during conflict. Some had lost theirs to illness or poison. As far as Marble knew, she was the only one of them to have been deliberately left behind as an egg.
Most of the other orphans were civil to Marble. They at least shared in one thing, which was that they had all grown up together without parents. None were what Marble could really call friends, though. Most had their own tight-knit groups and didn't speak with her much. As Marble walked down the hallways a few of the orphans moved away from her as a subtle show of dislike. This was more frequent when she reached one of the main pathways to the school and intermingled with SandWing dragonets from elsewhere in the stronghold.
Before long, though, a smile came to Marble's snout as she spied two dragonets heading towards her from one of the adjacent hallways. At a glance, one might have thought them just another pair of SandWings like the many others around them. But this was not true. A longer look would reveal some strange deviations from standard SandWing build. One had scales hued orange-red, a fiery coloring never seen in SandWings. His head had a different shape to a SandWing's as well. Slimmer, sharper, it showed clear resemblance to a SkyWing's skull structure. The rest of his body was built much like a SandWing; sturdy wings and well-muscled limbs. He strode with confidence in his strength, despite the odd glance he got from some of those around him. His eyes, colored brown, were bright and full of happiness.
The other dragonet walking beside him looked a little less conspicuous. His scales were shades of tawny-amber with a suggestion of his brother's bright orange. His wings were oddly proportioned for a SandWing, being rather large and of a slightly different shape. His build was slimmer and more agile than his brother, which showed as he kept ahead of him. His posture was more demurred, but his wily smile and darting yellow eyes hinted at a playful intellect.
The brothers were known as Torque and Adder, respectively. Offspring of parents from different tribes, they were hybrids. As far as anyone knew they were the only ones in the SandWing Tribe. Marble wasn't a SandWing but was seemingly of standard NightWing genes. Like her, Torque and Adder were regarded differently by their fellows. Less so than Marble thanks to their half-SandWing blood, but they still looked odd enough that the other dragonets knew they were different. Like Marble they had been bullied somewhat during their times at the wingery and school. Some dragonets loved to tease Adder about his oversized wings, or Torque about his mix of Skywing features. Unlike Marble they had mostly ignored the jabs and barbs from these spiteful numbers. Torque was something of an optimist no matter how much of a sandstorm might be blowing around them. Through this he would buoy up his brother whenever they were feeling sad. Adder meanwhile was known for his sharp wit and ability to find ways out of a jam. He enjoyed socializing with others and would often try to ease those around him with jokes.
The pair first met Marble years ago in the wingery, on a sunny autumn midday. Many of the young dragonets were racing around with sugar rushing through their veins from a recent session of catch-the-prey. Torque and Adder were no exception, the latter darting around like a dragonfly and fluttering his wings. He was trying to fly, though even with his large wings he was still too young to really do so. Torque merely ran and jumped around while trying to avoid knocking things with his tail. In the chaos of noise and motion, one dark blur stood out. It was Marble as she zipped by all the other dragonets, laughing joyously in exhilaration of the energy at her command. None of the other dragonets paid her any heed except when they needed to move out of her way.
Her first meeting with Torque and Adder couldn't really be described as such. It was more of an impact; after all, Marble had run headfirst into Torque, who then stumbled and knocked over his brother onto the ground. After a moment of separating themselves from a tangled heap Marble regarded her obstacles with a mix of fierce anger and annoyance. She braced herself for an incoming assault of verbal and physical proportions from the two unknown SandWings, tail lashing and claws clenched in the sandstone floor. But, to her surprise, none came. Instead she received a quiet apology, barely heard over the din, from Torque.
Over the next number of minutes Marble came to realize that the pair were not the same as the other SandWings. She noticed their subtle differences and realized they were the hybrid brothers she'd heard about in passing once or twice. The tension of the moment was broken as Adder greeted her awkwardly and made a quip about their clumsiness. Marble's flaring temper cooled as she came to realize that before her were two other dragonets that were nice to her... that maybe, she could even be friends with.
Since that day the trio had been nigh inseparable as they went about their daily adventures. It was thanks to them that Marble learned to react less to the mean words sometimes directed her way. Her once unstable and explosive anger became a tempered force to be wielded like a spear when times called for it. But with two best friends by her side, Marble found she didn't really need anger's fuel very often. Torque and Adder helped to dim the bad parts of her days and make things brighter.
On this day she was already grinning at the thought of experiencing the upcoming momentous occasion with them. As the brothers approached Marble called out to them cheerfully, "Hey guys! You excited for the choosing today?"
Adder jolted forward, slowing down to walk beside her. He nodded, waving his tail in the air as he spoke.
"Yeah! I can't wait, today's the day we start on the road to become the awesome dragons we're meant to be!"
His brother interjected, having come up to walk by Marble's other side.
"Adder, we've always been awesome. It's a fact. I mean, we all know how well you fly." Torque placed a foretalon on his own chest with a grin, "I, of course, am a master of invention," he gestured finally to Marble, "Not to mention we've got the best fighter in all the six kingdoms on our side. With us three, how can the SandWing tribe lose?"
Marble rolled her eyes good-naturedly at Torque. Of the three of them he gave the most speeches and had the most hope. No matter how much scorn the other dragonets threw at them, he always kept his head high and proud. He was often creating strange models of contraptions, part of his dreams of creating wondrous things to help the tribe. At times he even sounded silly as he spoke of his grand ideas. But his joking and dreaming cheered up both Adder and Marble whenever they were down.
Adder poked Torque with his stinger gently, "I dunno, brother. I mean, how can three dragonets make a difference?" he spread out a foretalon wide in a gesture, speaking ominously as they walked, "What if, right now, a huge swarm of locusts came streaming into the fortress? So huge that it flooded everything! Imagine, the locusts are getting in everyone's faces, eating their stuff, and going right for Queen Scorpion!"
He finished with a dramatic exclamation, which caused a few dragonets nearby to look at the trio with annoyance. A knowing grin spread across Marble's snout as she replied with her own confident answer.
"Why, that's easy. Adder, you'd be able to slip through all those buzzing bugs and fly right to the royal chambers in no time. Torque would be able to shield me with his armored wings as we followed you," she pointed to herself, the crazy scenario playing out in her mind, "and I, of course, would eat every single locust that got in our way. With my teeth and claws I could mow those bugs down like dry grass!" she balled one foretalon into a fist and knocked it flat against her other palm, "Bam! We get to Queen Scorpion just in time, fight off the locusts around her so the soldiers can mobilize, and the day is saved."
Torque was beaming, always one to love a good story. He jumped between Marble and Adder, pulling them into a hug. "All thanks to the legendary trio of Torque, Marble and Adder!"
The three best friends laughed together afterwards, momentarily lost in their fun before the gravity of the day's events would weigh on their minds. In no time they'd emerged from the stronghold's compressed hallways and reached the bulky archway indicating the entrance of the SandWing school. Or, to be precise, the final school for dragonets before they were chosen for their training to become what they would be as dragons.
Known as Scarab School, the structure stood apart from the main bulk of the SandWing Stronghold. A large outdoor area surrounded it, the grounds allocated for various uses from flight training to game areas. Inside the building were a number of classrooms used for the teaching of academic subjects. It wasn't the grandest school in Pyrrhia, but it had been around for a long time and produced many fine dragons through it's education.
This day in particular was important, for the eldest year dragonets would be chosen for their lifelong destinies. The choices would be made based on physical and mental grading accumulated through their schooling. Some would become soldiers in training and honed to become great weapons of the SandWing army. Others would go to apprenticeships for integral jobs, such as blacksmithing, cooking, construction and other professions. Yet more would be chosen for diplomatic positions, and the rare few would be trained to become experts of espionage.
Marble, Adder and Torque made their way to a large, barren field of sand used for assemblies. Dozens of other dragonets were already milling about and talking amongst themselves about the upcoming selections. Choosing day always created a stir as the dragonets speculated about what they would be chosen to become.
The trio settled themselves into the disordered clumps and looked around eagerly. The choosing would only begin upon the arrival of three important dragons. For now the field was occupied only by the restless dragonets.
As Marble waved her tail idly, wondering at all the things she could be, a whisper pricked at her happy wondering like a sliver of steel.
"Look, it's the freaks. Bet you they'll be chosen for something boring and out-of-the way. I mean, if I were Queen Scorpion I'd be a little embarrassed about having them around."
A frown creased Marble's features as she recognized the venomous voice. It belonged to a slim male dragonet with pale scales of eggshell-white. A quiet smirk could often be seen fixed on his snout, as if he were privately snickering at a joke only he knew. He was at that moment surrounded by three dragonets of similar age. Their scales were mixes of tan-brown, spattered with spots of darker brown along their sides. Two were female, and one male. They were siblings, born of the same clutch. One of the females with darker scales was known as Terracotta, while her sister was called Scimitar. Their brother, larger and fiercer-looking than both had the name of Shard.
As for the conniving dragonet holding them enthralled, his name was unusual for a dragon. His mother had named him Cyrus. Apparently it had been taken from a very old stone tablet in the SandWing treasury. The tablet told the story of a brave warrior by the same name who rescued his kingdom from the clutches of invaders. But to Marble, the Cyrus she knew held not a drop of the nobility the tablet spoke of.
He'd always held a disdain for Marble and her friends since first meeting them in the wingery. While tolerant of Torque and Adder at times, he downright disliked Marble's presence. He saw her as a danger to the tribe, a thing of potential bad luck. Cyrus knew well the stories of NightWing powers and the downfall of their great city. That one of them was being raised in the Sand Kingdom made him certain that Marble would bring trouble to the tribe one day. Torque and Adder's friendship with her had by association made them, too, out-of-place hazards to Cyrus. He never expressed his emotions bluntly, but instead whispered and gossiped what little poisonous words he could. To him, the poison was his way of trying to push out the misfit trio. He was certain he could drive them away someday.
For the time being Marble and her friends did their best to ignore the spiteful dragonet. Nothing was going to ruin this day for them.
Several minutes of idle chatter passed amongst the students. Then, suddenly, a silence spread across the ragtag groups. Dragonets scrambled to line up in neat formations. The three choosers were here.
At the front of the approaching dragons was a figure familiar to the students of Scarab School. A gruff old SandWing by the name of Dustwind had been principal of the school for as long as they could remember. Dictated by tradition he was always present at every annual choosing day. His role was merely to read out the choosings as a formality. The two dragons following behind him held more tangible importance.
The first of these two drew gasps of awe and whispers of admiration from the assembled dragonets. General Cragscale was a massive dragon, even for a SandWing, his hide covered in gnarled scars that adorned his dark tan scales like medals of his many achievements on the battlefield. He was here to select dragonets for positions in the SandWing army. His dark eyes swept along the waiting ranks in calculation as his orderly thoughts moved along. A few of the dragonets, he noticed, were glancing in a way they hoped was inconspicuous at his left foretalon. If rumors were true - and this one was - he was missing two claws from it.
The dragon tailing behind him was a younger female of slender build and light yellow scales. Her name was Scorch, and she was the SandWing Stronghold's quartermaster. She didn't speak much, but inside her mind was constantly going over her plans for nearly every day and night. Her intelligent efficiency and diligent working was what had made Queen Scorpion choose her for the daunting position of quartermaster. Scorch would be overseeing the choosing of dragonets for professions and other jobs centered within and around the Sand Stronghold. Another task, which she would do after most dragonets were chosen, was to inform the very small number of dragonets selected for espionage training of their choosing.
Marble was trying her best not to hop in place with excitement. After today she would properly start down the path towards her ultimate goal. She could practically see it already.
Unfortunately, as the three dragons came to her section of the formation, her thought came true. Though it happened mostly as she dreamed, and very rarely when she was awake, Marble would get strange flashes of scenes both unknown and strangely familiar to her. It wasn't until one of these scenes had come to pass that she realized they were glimpses into the possible future. The visions, as she thought of them, began when she was but a hatchling. The first time one of them came true was mundane enough. She'd dreamed of her aunts surprising her with a new blanket on her birthday. Marble also saw, after they'd given her the gift, that Sunbeetle had bumped a nearby table and pricked her talon on the sewing needle she was holding. Upon her birthday when presented with the blanket she at first thought it merely odd coincidence. But then, as she saw Sunbeetle beside the table, she witnessed what was happening before it had even occurred.
She had opened her mouth to warn her aunt but by the time she did Sunbeetle had already hurt her talon. Marble had been lost in the strange sensation of, indeed, seeing beyond the present and into the future. Since that momentous occasion there were many incidents like it sprinkled throughout Marble's life. She never mentioned a thing about it to anyone, not even her best friends, because from what little she knew of NightWings she got the feeling it would be a bad idea. Supposedly, many NightWings had been born with powers. Some could read minds while others, like Marble, could see the future. But after the exodus of the NightWings thanks to Darkstalker superstition had grown that NightWing powers were dangerous and not to be trusted. Marble kept her mouth shut in fear of what might be done to her if others discovered she possessed such powers.
At that moment her visions pulled Marble out of the past, through the present and into the future. She clutched her head and stifled hisses of pain as the scenes flashed through her mind with the sharp clarity of glass.
Herself, flying proudly with Torque and Adder in a battalion of SandWing Soldiers. Two dragonets she suspected to be IceWings walking down a glimmering staircase together, talon in talon. Another IceWing, an old female, with a mangled wing and terrible hatred blazing in her eyes. Adder walking through desert dunes with a large camel-skin of water, a determined set to his features. Herself rifling through a strange house built of dark wood and stone as if seeking something. One of the IceWings from the previous glimpse, horrified snout splashed with crimson blood and staring at her with eyes she felt she somehow knew.
"Soldiers."
With a muffled gasp, Marble's eyes fluttered open and she returned from her tumble into the thrashing waves of the future back to the calm of the here and now. She staggered in place for a moment. Torque supported her with a wing, eyeing her silently with curiosity and concern.
General Cragscale stood in front of their rows, indicating a number of dragonets with his damaged foretalon. Much of the formation had been moved off to be allocated their choosing by Scorch while a few dozen remained behind. Many of the dragonets stared at Cragscale's terrible scars with open mouths.
The general snorted and addressed them all, waving his grotesque injury in the air, "All right, take a good, long look." he paused, then snatched his arm back, "Got it? Good. Don't worry, you'll have plenty more interesting sights than this to see when you're done training."
As Marble's recent shock faded away she smiled to herself. Many of the dragonets around her were staring at the scarred stumps with revulsion. To Marble, the missing claws were nothing; she reckoned to herself that some of the dragonets would faint if they saw her aunt Sidewinder.
A sarcastic smile grew upon Cragscale's snout as he straightened his back and swept his gaze across them all to announce,
"Congratulations, cadets. You've all been drafted to join the SandWing army."
Head whipping back and forth from her equally awed friends, Marble stifled a whoop of victory at the news. It would be pretty undisciplined to act so silly in front of her soon-to-be commanding general. She decided to distract herself by having a look at the other dragonets she'd be training with. Gazing along the ranks of fidgeting recruits, Marble's rising excitement froze as her sight landed on one dragonet she knew all too well.
"Oh, no..." she whispered in exasperation, covering her face with a talon.
For standing two rows down, a smile positively saccharine with triumph on his snout, was none other than Cyrus.
Life's not all sunshine and rainbows for Marble it would seem. As hinted in the previous chapter, she possesses powers of a seer. She can see into the future, but her powers are of average ability, not like Clearsight's level where she could more or less monitor all futures at will. There's a bit of hinting at what'll be coming up in the story in the visions she had this chapter. Feel free to guess at what they might mean in reviews if you wish.
That's it for a while, I look forward to continuing along when my time is more free. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thanks for reading this far. Also, a bonus to anyone who recognizes the reference in Cyrus's name. Here's a hint; he's named after a certain heroic Redguard from the Elder Scrolls series.