Loose Threads

by Fatespeaker

Darkstalker's story leaves us with a lot of questions. Who exactly was Queen Pearl, sister of Fathom? How much did the seer Allknowing really know? What happened to Thoughtful and Whiteout? Where did Clearsight's friend Listener go? These are the loose threads, the forgotten dragons. Let their voices be heard at last. (Collection of soliloquies from different perspectives.)

8. Quickdeath

8. Quickdeath

It was the first time I'd been assigned to kill a NightWing. I thought, it can't be any harder than the SandWing or the RainWing. Even if this one is magic. Those two went down so fast, not bloody at all. I thought, one strike when he's not looking, and everything will be done.

How wrong I was.

Maybe you know my name, but you will never know me. I am lost in the halls of the forgotten palace. These empty rooms and quiet stones are the only place for me now.

I had parents, who were proud of my success. I had friends, fellow assassins, who trained and laughed and worried with me. I had a special dragon whose voice made my heart thump fast.

And I had dreams. There were places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do, dragons I wanted to see one last time.

I was more than a name scrawled thoughtlessly into a history scroll. I was more than a minor detail in the important dragons' schemes. What I wouldn't give to have one more day, one more chance to make the world remember the real me.

Ever wonder how I felt that night? I was nervous. I paced in my room for a few minutes, going over the plan. I sharpened my claws on that jagged wall. I wasn't ready to die.

This is the price of my failure: being remembered for it. I'm trapped, etched forever in the margins of history as Quickdeath: the NightWing to tried to assassinate Darkstalker.

Not Quickdeath: the NightWing who tried to impress his friends.

Not Quickdeath: the NightWing who wanted to visit the desert.

Not Quickdeath: the NightWing who was kind of clumsy but worked hard and made his parents proud.

And certainly not Quickdeath: the NightWing who was going to ask his crush out and dance with her under the stars once he completed Vigilance's special mission.

No, I am nothing but a footnote now. A bitter ghost, thrown suddenly into the path of history and then, just as quickly, discarded. To the dragons who study the past and write the future, I am just plot-twist in someone else's story. Not a hero. Not a villain. A detail.

That is all, then. That is all there is to me.

Quickdeath: the NightWing who tried to assassinate Darkstalker.

I had dreams.