Here again with a new chapter. I'm thinking of making this a weekly upload, just every Friday so that I can get into a rhythm with this story. I've really enjoyed writing it so far, and I hope you all are able to enjoy it as well. Here's the next chapter, and i will get into fight scenes somewhere down the line, but i wanted to take my time in introducing this character into the wings of fire universe, so might be a few more chapters before that happens. I hope you enjoy.
I do not own anything other than my OC.
"Regular text"
"Thought/Flashback"
3rd person POV. Focus: Wither
The Dragonets didn't bother him for the rest of the day, staying to the other side of the island, sunny giving him a smile every time he had glanced over. He sighed as Starflight mentioned that it might take 2 days for clay to be good enough to fly to the others, his sharp hearing able to pick up their conversations. He looked to his instrument, his only solace he usually had when he wanted to ignore the outside world, before stowing it away as night fell, all 5 of the dragonets getting together in an admittedly adorable pile on each other. Clay on the bottom, Tsunami second, then Glory and Starflight, then finally Sunny. He went to a different beach, settling down as he tried to calm his nerves to sleep. It was early morning when he awoke, the 5 dragonets still sleeping in their pile. He got up, moving over to a small pool of water still left behind by the storm. It was clear, beautiful, and reflected his face. He gazed at it, a single claw touching the water as the ripples started moving, obscuring his image, before the images in the reflection became a scene, he was very intimately familiar with.
He was few days away from turning 3 years old, just coming back from his breakfast. "Mama! I caught a stag beetle. Can I keep it?" An adult dragon with similar scales to his own, but with green instead of red in her veins and eyes, turned to him, smiling. "Sweetie, you know what I said about keeping bugs." Young wither sighed. "I know, mama, but it crawled right up to me! It wants to be my friend!" She chuckles, unfurling wither's talons in her own to let the stag beetle go, the bug extending its wings and flying out of the window of their small modest hut. She takes his talons in hers. "Wither, my darling son, don't worry. I know the others tease you for not having your respira yet. They'll all be so jealous after your coming-of-age ceremony next week." Wither frowned. "But mama... They pick on me... It's lonely." She pulled him into her talons, her wings wrapping around him. "Shhh, my little gem. Even if everyone leaves, I will always watch over you. You'll never be truly alone." He smiles, nuzzling into her warm scales.
"Wow" Wither snapped up, whirling around to see Starflight who was looking at the pool, the image rippling away. Starflight rubbed his chin. "Do you have some kind of power to do that? What kind of power is that? This is quite inter-..." Starflight went very still as he finally recognized the look of utter rage on Wither's face, his teeth bared. Starflight started to shake. "I-I'm sorry... I-I didn't mean to be nosey, I just wanted to ask a few questions..." Wither leaned in close, glaring straight into Starflight's eyes and growled. "...You... were not meant to see that." Starflight shivered, swallowing lightly. "I-It was a beautiful scene..." Wither backed away, turning away from the dragonet, whispering. "... It was personal." He stomped away as Starflight stared at him, the young Nightwing realizing he might have made a mistake.
Wither needed something to break, some outlet for his anger at the nerve of that nightwing. Typical of his kind, always shoving their arrogant snouts where they didn't belong. He went to the oldest tree on the island, one that only had a few years left, it's stump thick and solid. Wither slammed his talons into the wood, taking out his anger on the tree. His claws shredded into the wood, his tail ripping the bark off with each whack, and after about 15 minutes, the tree was on the ground, it's stump reduced to splinters. He panted lightly, growling that the dragonet had seen one of his most personal memories... No, he couldn't blame the young one. Starflight probably didn't even know what he was seeing. It still angered him that the dragonet had invaded his privacy like that, but then again, Wither often eavesdropped on conversations when he had the chance.
Wither sighed. Was he being too hard on these dragonets. They did just lose everything they knew. And he was stuck with them for now... He shook himself. "No. Stop. Stop thinking like that, Wither... I can't get attached. I can't get involved... I can't go through this again." He sighed, laying down on the beach as the sun moved over the sky slowly, every minute feeling like an agonizingly long hour. He took deep breaths to calm himself down, in and out, in and out. This was the first time in a long while that he had to do this to keep himself from imploding. He sighed. Starflight didn't deserve to be given a cold shoulder just because he stumbled on something. Wither dragged himself off the sand and wood splinters, picking a couple of the splinters off of his under scales, before turning around and nearly crashing into Glory who was right behind him.
He gazed down at the rainwing, tilting his head "Do you need something?" Glory frowned at him, holding herself as tall as she could. "What did you say to Starflight? You shook him up pretty badly." Wither found himself sighing for what already felt like the hundredth time today. "He saw something personal of mine that he was never meant to see. You can understand I was justifiably angry about such an invasion of privacy..." His expression turned to annoyed. "I also feel like my rules with you 5 are being completely ignored." Glory shrugged. "We've got at least a day before we can leave and nothing else to do, and we haven't really followed rules very well so far. Sunny said your name was Wither?" He nodded. "Yes... Is this conversation going anywhere?" Glory frowns lightly. "... Those 4 would do anything for me, and you are a very big dragon... but I've taken down big dragons before." Wither looked down to her, not missing the barely covered threat. "I am fully aware of rainwing venom, Glory. And... that's why I want you all gone. It's more for your safety than anything else."
Glory looked at him skeptically, Wither looking to where the other 4 dragonets were. "... I'm a very dangerous dragon, Glory. A part of what you all explained that worried me was that you all slept next to me in my cave... You 5 are lucky nothing went wrong last night." Glory bristled. "You mean you would have killed us if you were cranky in the morning?" He shook his head. "No, I could have killed you all by accident in my sleep." Glory blinked, looking even more confused as Wither sat down. "What do you mean by accidentally?" Wither looked to her, a sad look in his eyes. "It's happened before... dragons get too attached to me, and because I can't control myself in my sleep, and some dragons have an uncanny ability to irritate me to no end... they die. My isolation is self-imposed for a reason, Glory. I'm... Too dangerous to be around other dragons. And don't mistake my answer for dodging the question. The less anyone knows about me, the better." glory looked to him skeptically, before nodding. "... I still don't trust you, but fine. Keep your secrets. We'll be out of here and forget about you soon anyway." She huffed, going back to the others as Wither's gaze followed her. "... A part of me has a horrible feeling that that statement will not be true."
He looked up to the sky, finding that it was later in the day than he had expected. Around midafternoon. He moved his way back up the beach, looking for any crabs to snack on. They were oddly scarce today... Oh. That explained it. Clay and Tsunami were on the beach with a makeshift net made from fallen palm leaves and were catching crabs in it, Tsunami using her nimbleness to heard them while Clay used his thick scales to prevent the crabs from harming him. Wither gave a ghost of a smile, remembering when he would do that same with insects as a youngling. He approached, his face going neutral again as they caught another crab. "I hope you aren't planning on taking every single crab with you. I have grown accustomed to having them readily available as snacks."
Tsunami looked to him, frowning. "Well, we haven't eaten much, ever since we got out of Scarlet's arena, and Clay will never be not hungry." Clay nods. "True. I'm always hungry." Wither frowned lightly, before it clicked. "So, you 5 were the reason that the arena freaked out before the storm hit?" She nodded. "Yeah. Scarlet put me and Starflight in the Arena, but then the Nightwings came and took him away. Then... Clay was there all on his own, facing a flaming death dragon." Clay frowned. "Hey, Peril helped us escape." Wither thought for a moment, before nodding. "Ah, a dragon born with too much fire. I've run into one of those before. Nasty if the dragon under those scales loves killing others. I didn't realize that egomaniac of a queen had one under her talons." Tsunami couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, Scarlet was a bit full of herself." Tsunami looks to Wither, looking a little worried. "... If you were to choose which of the three sandwing princesses to make a queen, which would you chose? We want to meet them all first, but we're still trying to figure it out." This caught the attention of Starflight and Sunny. they all leaned over to hear Wither's answer.
Wither took a long moment, before barking out laughing, which startled the 4 of them, and also got Glory's attention as he laughed, before he took a deep breath, his face deadpanning. "If you want my honest, blunt opinion... None. All three of them should be killed, thrown in a ditch, and left to be infested and gorged on by maggots." He stretched his neck, cracking his spine slightly.
The 5 dragonets stared at him for a long while with various expressions. Tsunami showed agreement with the opinion, nodding her head. Clay looked concerned at the mention of killing. Starflight looked more worried than ever before. Glory was impassive, but Sunny was on borderline horror. Wither looked to them all, before shrugging. "Just my thoughts on the matter. I have no intention of getting involved." Sunny cried. "But it's horrible to think that way about any dragon! I mean... To want that sort of fate, no matter what they did..." Wither shook his head. "Sorry to say, little one, but my thoughts on what they deserve are actually on the mild side. There are some dragons who would want them to never die but live for years in constant torment or pain. I could name a few from what info I have... Just to be clear, I have never met any of these three, but I have heard and gathered enough information to know that much about each of them. I might isolate myself, but I make a point to stay in the current knowhow."
Sunny frowns, before looking to him. "... What happens to you once we're gone?" Wither shrugs with his wings yet again. "I go back to my normal daily routine of peace, quiet, and not having nosey dragonets getting all up in my personal life." He paused a bit too long. "No offence." Yep, they definitely took offence to that. Glory and Tsunami bristled, Clay looked worried, and Starflight looked downcast. Wither carefully pinched his talons on the inner corners of his eyes, mumbling to himself. "This is why i hate talking to other dragons, especially dragonets." He takes a deep breath. "Regardless of what I say, you 5 have a destiny. I don't. So, it would be better if you just forget about me after you leave." The dragonets look to each other, concern written on their faces.
Wither waited as the 5 huddled to discuss, before his ears picked something up. something flying towards them. His head snapped up, making the dragonets Jump as he scanned the horizon, before looking east, Recognizing the shape of a Seawing. "Seawing incoming... Well, I suppose this is better than sending you with just the directions. Having a Seawing take you there will ensure the guards don't skewer you all at first glance..." the Seawing in the sky suddenly dove into the water, Wither looking puzzled. "... strange. Seawing patrols typically fly a bit further out..." Tsunami looked to the others. "I'll go check it out. You guys stay hidden." She bounded into the water, submerging as the other dragonets moved to find somewhere to hide. Wither looked to them, gesturing to his cave. "Go in there. I'll be fine out here." He curled himself up, the 4 dragonets seeing the action of his scales sliding together, giving him the appearance of a large boulder on the dirt and sand. The other dragonets went to the cave as wither kept an eye open, only open wide enough that someone could mistake his black eye for a hole in the stone.
Tsunami came out with the Seawing shortly after, calling to the others. "Guys! This is Riptide. He's gonna take us to the summer palace." The other 4 dragonets tentatively came out of the cave to meet their friend and their escort, Riptide wringing his talons lightly. "Is this everyone?" Sunny nodded. "Yeah. Just the 5 of us." Riptide sighed. "Okay. For some reason, this island has been labeled as off limits from the guards for years, even before queen Coral's reign. We all thought some sort of monster lived here." The others glanced a look at each other, tsunami about to speak until glory stepped on her tail to keep her quiet. "Clay is recovering from a dislocated wing. We might need some help steering him." Riptide nods. "We can talk details on the way there. I just hope we get there before we all get arrested or killed." the others look worried but didn't say anything as riptide went to clay's side to help the mudwing lift into the air.
The other dragonets followed, but sunny stayed behind for a minute. After waiting a little bit, she turned to Wither, smiling. "Despite what you want, I wont forget your kindness in letting us stay here. Even though you are quite rough on the outside." Wither rolled his eyes, getting up from his position. "Yeah, yeah. Get going, you little ball of trouble." Sunny giggles, smiling and waving, before she took off into the air. Wither watched them go, frowning lightly. Should he have gone with them?... No. they weren't his problem anymore. Now it was just his peace and quiet.
3 days later
He admitted to himself, he sort of missed the dragonets. Though their time together was very brief, it was nice to have some company around every once in a while. He idly chewed on his stingray that he caught for lunch, tearing its flesh and swallowing as he thought back on the 5 dragonets. Sunny was the one he liked most, heart of gold and not afraid to show it. Wish there were more dragons like that. Clay was easily identified as the guardian and protector of them. Tsunami was impulsive but could make a fine warrior someday. Starflight, while nosey, had the right idea of constantly seeking knowledge. And Glory... she was dedicated and loyal. They all fit together, free from the biased opinions that being raised in a tribe would bring. He sighed. Starflight deserved an apology for snapping at him, if they ever met again. He nodded to himself, thinking over them again. "They might actually pull it off. That will be a day to see." He ate the rest of the stingray but looked up as he heard wingbeats. He squinted and saw a group of dragons approaching. He recognized Tsunami, then saw that she was accompanied by a much larger Seawing with a harness attached to a very young Seawing dragonet, a platoon of Seawing guards and... A Sandwing with two more sandwing guards on either side.
He stared for a long moment as the group of dragons got closer to his island, and realized they were not changing course. "... You have got to be kidding me."
Well, there you have it. Out of the frying pan and into the fire for poor Wither. I'm hoping to have a good blend of both serious moments and comedy mixed into this story, so I hope I'm able to deliver on that front. The next chapter is going to be a flashback, focusing on Tsunami and how the day went so that this is happening. I want to make this as friendly to those who haven't read the original books, as well as give cadence to those who have, but It is hard to determine when I'm going into too much detail. But in the meantime, review if you'd like, And I'll see you guys next Friday.