Glorious Politics

AN: It's been a long while since I last uploaded anything, I know. A little over a month, actually. Originally, I just gave myself a break because I felt I needed one. Between working 45-50 hours a week at work and writing, I felt I didn't have much free time to myself. I only planned to take two weeks, but...I got into a phase. I started working on something else. Something kind of special. I'm not going to say too much about it, but I will say it's not Wings of Fire related. And after GP is finished, possibly before but when it gets close to the end, I'll start posting chapters of it on here. I'm hoping people like it because I think it's going to be a good one.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. I'll be going back to regular updating after this, so no more unannounced breaks for the time being.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. Nimbus, Sobek, Mistral, and Veneno are my OCs. Bloodwalker belongs to SpyroAndSisuFan. Certus, Solstice, and Swiftback belong to Epsilon33. Bear belongs to Schwanze. The concept for the character Soulseer partially belongs to SpyroAndSisuFan. Mystic belongs to Flerovium.

Chapter Fifty-One:

All it took was a single step out into the hallway for her to realize that she was already breaking her promise to Mistral. She'd sworn not to try and get close to Deathbringer until their communication spell was in place, yet here she was, breaking that promise not even two minutes later. A quick look both ways showed a pair of guards standing at the entrance to the throne room to the right, and to the left…

Yeah, he hadn't even made it to the far side of the corridor…

Mistral was staring at her in dumbfounded bewilderment from about halfway down the hall, clearly not believing what his eyes were telling him. She flashed him an apologetic grin, mouthing the word 'sorry'. Then, she looked over her shoulder to see Deathbringer standing just behind her, glaring at the Icewing. Once he saw her looking at him, however, the Nightwing gave her a genuine smile. "I guess someone's a sore loser," he joked, and Glory found that statement to be oh so ironic coming from him. "Come on, I've got a good restaurant picked out for us." He turned right, smiling at her still, and not looking where he was going, as evidenced by him running into someone before he even took two steps. He jumped back, shaking his head in surprise.

And Deathbringer wasn't the only one gawking at the large Nightwing standing there. Glory distinctly remembered looking right when she came out of the room, and she definitely hadn't seen Foeslayer standing right beside them. "Good, 'cuz I'm famished." The fact that Deathbringer, who wasn't a small dragon by any means, had just run into her didn't seem to phase her in the slightest. In fact, as Glory watched Deathbringer stand up, relaxing ever so slightly out of the combat stance he'd been momentarily spooked into, Glory could see just how big Foeslayer actually was. She knew Mistral was just a smidge taller than DB—half a head, if that—and Mistral was one of the biggest non-Mudwings she'd ever met for his age, but that just meant that DB was still up there.

But Foeslayer towered over the Nightwing assassin. Flashbacks to the few times she'd seen Morrowseer popped into her head, for Foeslayer would probably give that behemoth a run for his money. Standing, Deathbringer's head only came up to the base of Foeslayer's neck, just above her shoulders. Deathbringer was a big dragon, but standing next to Foeslayer, he looked more like what she imagined she looked like standing next to Mistral.

Like…she knew Foeslayer was big, but moons was she big…

"How have I never noticed how freakishly huge you were?" she muttered, still somewhat blindsided by this revelation. And wondering how it'd never clicked in her head before. Maybe because she was smaller than average for a dragon her age, so she was used to being surrounded by dragons that were a lot bigger than her? And only now that she could see the comparison between a big dragon and a huge dragon, did the shock finally hit.

Foeslayer laughed lightly, a highly amused twinkle in her eye as she gazed down at the two of them. "I am two thousand years old, Glory. I know I was frozen for most of that time, but I'm still a lot larger than the average dragon because of it. And no, I have no idea how that works, so don't ask. I can only assume my body still grew, even if very slowly, while I was trapped in the ice." She shrugged. "Or maybe dragons back in my day were just larger than they are now? For all I know, I could be normal-sized for my time, and you lot are the small ones." The amused grin she flashed them hinted that she didn't quite believe that, and that she was fully aware that she was quite large. "I'd bet on the former, though."

Deathbringer looked the larger Nightwing up and down, as if sizing her up. "The real question here is how I've never noticed."

Foeslayer snorted. "Maybe this would explain things? Just imagine a roof over my head." She sat down, still towering over them, but then her posture slumped a bit and her neck angled down until she was about the same height as DB. A silent 'oh' left Glory's mouth as she imagined being in Foeslayer's house. The Nightwing's head always seemed close to the roof, but she hadn't realized Foeslayer had actually had to put effort into making herself smaller, so she would actually fit into her house. Racking her brain, Glory couldn't think of a single time where she had seen Foeslayer outside of a building until recently.

"Wait a minute…" Both Nightwings looked at her, one curious and one amused. Like Deathbringer had before, Glory looked Foeslayer over, taking in new details that she hadn't cared enough to notice before and connecting them to things she knew of what 'Hope' had been like. "The whole time I knew you as Hope, you were a layabout, not really doing much and staying inside a lot. How in the world are you so…jacked?"

DB recoiled in surprise before looking back at Foeslayer, who was laughing her tail off at Glory's question. Once she calmed down, she motioned with her head down the corridor. "It's a bit of a long story. Shall we walk and talk?"

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Deathbringer objected. "Hey, woah…who said you were coming along? Me and Glory were about to have a private night out."

Foeslayer just snorted in amusement, looking at the smaller Nightwing as if he was a dull child. "And you can enjoy your private night out…as long as you're within my eyesight. I may be new at this whole 'bodyguard' thing, but I tend to take my assignments seriously. Glory is going nowhere without me, especially if you plan on taking her outside of the palace." At DB's dubious look, Foeslayer just rolled her eyes. "Look, you won't even know I'm there. I'll just have my dinner on the other side of the restaurant while you two catch up and make out or whatever you plan on doing."

Glory blushed heavily, her jaw dropping. Deathbringer likewise blushed and ended up averting his gaze from both females, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "There'll be no making out involved, I promise. I just wanted to talk with her in a less formal setting."

"Keep telling yourself that," Foeslayer teased. Then, she stood back up and began walking down the corridor, looking over her shoulder at them when they didn't immediately follow. "Well, come along young'uns. Stop draggin' your claws and let's go. I wasn't lying when I said I was starving."

As the other Nightwing continued walking down the corridor, DB turned to Glory with a small grimace. "Can't you just order her to stay here?"

Glory shrugged. "I could…but I'd rather have my bodyguard with me. No offense." She winked at him and started following Foeslayer, having to almost run to catch up because of her longer strides.

Behind her, she heard Deathbringer mumble, "But I used to be your bodyguard, too…"

"Yeah, but…" she began before trailing off. He looked at her curiously, waiting for her to finish. She had to be careful what she said right here, not wanting him to think she didn't trust him. "With everything going on, I'd say three pairs of eyes are better than two."

He shrugged. "Fair enough, I guess."

As the three walked through the palace, none of them really said anything. Glory would greet a few of the guards or her friends if they passed by, and Deathbringer would do the same. Foeslayer, however, remained silent until they were outside.

Once they made it outside the palace gates, Foeslayer paused and closed her eyes, taking a moment to bask in the sun. "Even now, it still feels weird to not be nocturnal," she commented. Then, she shook her head to clear her thoughts before looking at the two younger dragons. "Alright. Story time."

"This oughtta be good," Deathbringer remarked, looking genuinely interested, and Glory herself gave the ancient Nightwing her full attention.

"I guess I'll start from the very beginning, back when I first joined the Nightwing military. Training was harsh, as expected. And it took eight months to get through. Our instructors focused more on physical conditioning and survival training in the beginning. The first three months were nothing but exercising and such. That's where I got 'jacked' as you so eloquently put it." Foeslayer teased Glory, who ended up with a slight blush. "An example of how harsh the training got would be our test at the end of those three months. We were sent to the mountains north of the Nightwing capital and given a strict set of rules."

"First," she continued. "We couldn't fly. Second, we were only given the basic supplies any soldier would have in the field. Anything else, we had to find in the mountains themselves. Third, the instructors would patrol the skies, acting as enemy patrols. If they spotted us, they would swoop down to engage. Those who were captured or 'killed' by the enemy patrols would fail and have to start over. And finally…we had to survive in those mountains for two weeks. That meant hunting for our food, finding clean water to drink, avoiding the instructors, and all that while not being able to fly."

"Geez, that does sound harsh," Deathbringer remarked sarcastically. "Of course, life on the old Nightwing island was harsher, and that was a daily fight for survival, too."

Foeslayer glared at him. "I don't think you comprehend how hard it is to survive in those mountains. They might not be as tall as the Claws of the Cloud mountains, but they're still tall enough to have snow. And there's less wildlife that lives in those mountains. And there's only a clawful of small lakes scattered throughout the entire range. And yes, I appreciate that living on a volcanic island is a daily struggle for survival, but for a civilization that tended to live in luxury, these were conditions that hardly anyone had ever encountered before. Only about seventy percent of all trainees survived that test without serious injury. Ten percent would straight up die, and the remaining twenty percent would end up with severe frostbite or suffer some near-fatal wound." Foeslayer huffed, her eyes narrowing in mild annoyance as her gaze went forward again. "It was meant to simulate the struggle to survive in the Ice Kingdom. Our instructors told us that the average time a downed Nightwing could survive behind enemy lines was four days. That was at the beginning of the war, though. A few years later, and I heard the average time went up to three weeks with a whole lot more missing soldiers being able to get back to friendly territory."

"I guess that survival training paid off, then." Foeslayer nodded at Glory's comment. "How did you fare?"

The ancient Nightwing smirked. "Honey, I married an Icewing. He gave me some tips about surviving in such harsh climes. I had a bit of an unfair advantage, I guess. The instructors never found me, and I was in the best shape after those two weeks compared to everyone else. Don't get me wrong, I'd lost a lot of weight due to the lack of food in those mountains, but I wasn't skin and bones like a few ended up as. The next two months were spent recovering from that ordeal, getting proper food and rest and then getting back in shape. The final three months were when we got to the actual combat training."

"To make a long story a bit shorter, I'll skip to a few months into my first deployment. My battalion was fighting in the northern reaches of the Sand Kingdom, about a hundred miles from the Ice Kingdom border. We were the farthest north out of any Nightwing force, which come to find out, left us rather exposed. The Icewings cut off our supply lines and ended up besieging our position. Without new supplies coming in, we had to ration our remaining food reserves, but even then, that only lasted for about two weeks. And then we went another two weeks without food. As my comrades starved, I noticed that no matter how long I went without food, my body didn't suffer as theirs did. I remained as well-built as you see me now. At first, there were accusations that I was stealing food, but I hadn't been. I reminded everyone that my husband was an animus. He probably put a spell on me to protect me from the harshness of battlefield conditions." She went quiet for a second before shaking her head.

"Even I bought that explanation. Eventually, however, reinforcements arrived and were able to break the Icewing lines and allow us to retreat further south. The few hundred who survived were sent back to the Night Kingdom to rest and recover, including me. Despite the fact I wasn't suffering from malnutrition or any form of sickness like the rest. The first thing I said to Arctic when I got home was to thank him for the spell he placed on me. I remember the confusion in his eyes when he told me that he hadn't used his magic since our escape from the Ice Kingdom. He asked me what sort of spell I thought had been placed on me, and I told him what had happened." She glanced back at the two of them. "That's when we first began to suspect that Darkstalker was an animus."

"So Darkstalker put a spell on you to prevent you from starving?" Deathbringer asked, wanting confirmation that he understood.

"Prevent me from starving, from dehydrating, from catching any sort of disease or sickness, and apparently, from losing any muscle mass." Both younger dragons blinked in surprise.

"That's actually…really sweet. And that's really weird to put that label on a dragon like Darkstalker, but…" Glory trailed off with a shrug.

"He was just trying to protect his mom," Deathbringer finished her sentence, making Foeslayer nod.

"I have to admit, though," Foeslayer began, "that I didn't think that way when we first figured it out. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the thought. And I appreciated that I didn't have to worry about starving or anything like that while on the front lines, but…it made me feel…different. I mean, as if marrying an Icewing animus and pseudo-intentionally starting the whole war wasn't bring enough attention onto me, I now had to deal with a reputation for being protected by animus magic while everyone else had to deal with the constant struggle for survival. I felt like it wasn't fair, and they definitely felt the same way. I got ostracized for it."

"Damn…that's rough." Deathbringer's words seemed sarcastic, but his tone and expression was genuine enough.

Foeslayer nodded. "It was. But my…condition opened a lot of doors for them. I got sent on a lot of solo missions. Scouting, especially. And, well…when I got my own command, I still did a lot of the scouting myself because I knew my body wouldn't suffer from such long forays into enemy territory. That, in turn, gave me a reputation as someone who actually cared about her troops, an unfortunate rarity in those days. It didn't take long for my command to be the most desirable position in the entire northern front. Not because it was the safest or anything, but simply because I cared."

"Is that why you were labeled a war hero?" Deathbringer asked. "Because you had a good command and a lot of scouting missions under your wing?"

Foeslayer actually laughed and turned to smirk at the younger Nightwing. "No, I became a war hero because a had more solo missions under my wing than any other dragon. And yes, that does count the scouting missions, but if that was the only reason, I wouldn't be a war hero. Put simply…I had a knack for getting into places I wasn't supposed to be and…ending certain threats before they could actually become threats."

Deathbringer blinked several times, shocked by her answer. "You were an assassin?"

"Of a sort," she grinned. "I was special operations. Me and my team were called 'Ghosts'. Sort of like Thorn's Outclaws but much, much more dangerous. We snuck into enemy outposts to kill their commanders, steal intel, destroy supplies, or just to kill as many dragons as possible under the cover of night. You know, the usual."

Both Glory and Deathbringer shared a look. Neither of them had expected the layabout friend of Moon's to end up being a spec ops operative of the highest caliber. When Glory had heard that Foeslayer was a war hero, she had expected the Nightwing to be responsible for a single, heroic act that ended up saving a battalion or single-clawedly holding back an assault until reinforcements arrived. Something big, but not overly grandiose.

She hadn't expected her to be one of the most dangerous military operatives the continent had ever seen. "And, uh…just how many of these missions did you have under your wing again?" she asked, slight awe and nervousness tinting her voice.

"Solo? Or in total?" she asked.

"Uh…both, I guess."

Foeslayer hummed, a thoughtful look on her face. "Let's see…it's been such a long time since then, but if my memory serves me right…" A few more minutes of thought later gave them their answer. "One hundred and fifty-eight solo missions over six years. And nearly twice that total."

Silence reigned between the three of them. Aside from the background chatter and noise of the semi-crowded streets, there was not a word said between the three until, two minutes later, Deathbringer whistled in awe and said what Glory herself was thinking. "Good thing you're on our side, then…"

Foeslayer just grinned.

"I have to say, though, you seem pretty open about all this stuff," Deathbringer commented. "There isn't any lingering negativity there? I mean I'm sure you saw and did a lot of bad things."

The older Nightwing nodded. "Yeah. But I had two thousand years to process it all. That's a luxury that most veterans don't have. I've accepted my actions and what I am. I may have some lingering regrets or shame, but they don't keep me up at night. Not anymore, at least." She paused for a moment before changing the subject to something more lighthearted. "So...where's this restaurant, exactly?"

AN: Not much happens, I know, but we do get an in-depth look into Foeslayer's character and the things she went through in the war two thousand years ago. Yes, her and her team are a pretty obvious video game reference, but I figured it'd fit given the circumstances.

What do you think of her backstory?

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22