Author's Note: Hello, I am well aware that this update took nearly 20 days to come out, but I haven't got to work much at all on this chapter, as I've been focused on my main stories here, finishing a book then starting another take a lot of focus!
The Princess
Shadowhunter waited for Red and Condor to finish their sparring, which they did with both being out of breath and huffing as they felt the newest cuts and bruises on their body, and then he approached them.
"Good fight you two, now that you're done beating up each other, do you want to hear some interesting news?" Shadowhunter asked smoothly, and both perked up at that. Very rarely one gets actual news in this place, the tedium and repetitiveness of daily life adds onto making everything that much more unbearable.
"Ooh, what might it be?" Condor asked, tapping his chin with one of his claws. "Did your father finally decide to take over the island and he's going to wage war?"
"What? No, no, he hasn't even talked about the thought of ruling this place for two weeks so far," Shadow said with a chuckle in response "This is far better."
"Don't you dare to be a mysterious Nightwing on us here, okay? Spit it out already!" Red asked impatiently, leaning closer with excitement.
"A princess from one of the kingdoms came to visit us," Shadow whispered excitedly with a big grin on his face.
Immediately after saying that, Shadowhunter did a quick peek into each of their minds so see their full reaction, both internal and external.
"A princess!? You know which one?" Ooohoho, I hope that Ruby had a daughter and sent her here! Then I can challenge her daughter, kill her, and mom will be happy because Ruby would be PISSED! Or Glory's kid, that works too. Wait… Mom would want to beat them up too…
"Royalty is visiting us? Most interesting…" Hm, tough to quite pinpoint what royal it could be, 10 tribes and 8 queens given Glory rules two, and based on the latest additions to the island the Silkwings don't have one. Although I haven't seen a big troop that'd protect a royal while I was on the way here, nor there is much of a general panic around. So what if the princess came by herself or with little company? If so, I think I know who it could be that might fend by herself, or at least the type of princess.
"..." Shadowhunter, get out of my mind and let me panic in peace.
Shadow laughed at the last one, very often he tries to peek into Dauber's mind but more often than not he just gets blocked off, and when he actually gets to peer a bit like when she's surprised or distracted, somehow it appears to ring her mental alarms.
"Yes, I know which of the many princesses came over here, and she's at the base of the mountain. From what someone told me while I was on my way here, she sent messengers to our parents in particular." Shadowhunter said with a grin.
"Okay, odd, now tell WHO'S THE DARN PRINCESS!" Red demanded with a mad expression.
"Chill, I was getting there," Shadowhunter retorted. "It's simply no one less than the one that summoned the barrier around us and trapped our parents on this island."
Red's eyes widened and Shadow read amused how her mind was suddenly not quite feeling as eager to pick a fight now. Condor nodded his head as he had guessed that, and Dauber tensed up.
"Anemone…?" The Hivewing muttered, making sure she heard that right.
"Anemone the Animus, yes, the fish with nearly unlimited power. Do y'all want to go and meet her and see what she's up to with our parents?" Shadowhunter said with a big grin and he then flared open his wings and took off.
Merely a moment later he heard the familiar flapping of Red's big wings as she quickly took off too, Condor trailing behind.
"Isn't this dangerous…?" Dauber tried to argue but everyone else ignored her, so with a groan she followed.
"Most likely the anti-animus spell wouldn't affect herself, she could fry us all with about five words!" The bug dragon complained as she flew at the back.
"But if she wanted to cast a spell and zap us, she wouldn't have needed to go to the middle of the island to do it, she could've done it from the comfort of her underwater home while chomping down clams," Condor immediately replied, and Dauber had no argument for that.
"And don't worry, if she tries out anything…" Red said threateningly, although Shadowhunter knew she was feeling anxious.
They reached the base of the mountain from the southern side, and there just oh so casually sitting down near it was a very pale blue Seawing, enough that at spots these scales looked white. And pink being a dominant color when it came to her wings and the frills running from her head and through her back.
And she had so much jewelry on, a ring on practically every claw, a bracelet on each leg, a couple collars around the neck and a circlet on her head… Just so over the top. Shadowhunter immediately focused his power on Condor's mind to amuse himself as he saw his thoughts moving at full speed after seeing such amounts of treasure, but the Nightwing knew very well that his brilliant friend wouldn't actually go and steal from an Animus, because that'd be stupid, and Condor is not a stupid dragon.
She turned towards them, tilting her head at the approaching dragons.
"Hm, four dragons, a Nightwing, a Sandwing, a Skywing and a Hivewing. Not quite the 4 of these tribes I called for, but maybe the ones I am looking for?" She said as she stood up, looking completely unbothered about the fact of being in an island where many must quite hate her, perks of having absolute power.
"Well, depends on what you're looking for, if by any chance you're looking for a good time, then you truly would look out for me," Shadowhunter said in a flirtatious tone, and Dauber slapped one of his legs with her tail, meanwhile Red didn't hold back at all her loud laughter upon hearing that. And Anemone just raised an eyebrow at this.
"Do you normally try to make out with any girl you just met?" The Seawing asked him.
"Nah, normally other girls around here are not Seawing princesses. By the way, you're quite pink," Shadow said with a bow of his head.
"And you're talking to someone who's already taken," Anemone replied, with Shadow disapprovingly shaking his head at that.
"Tsk, tsk, so I lost my chance even before taking it, oh well," he said, really not minding it one bit.
"Seriously, Shadow…" Condor said, shaking his head at his antics but he clearly looked amused.
"Enough with these silly antics," Red said, taking a strong step towards Anemone, who just looked at her without any worry. "WHY are you here exactly? If it is to kill us all, or sink this island to the bottom of the sea for your fellow fish dragons to eat our remains, then I, Princess Red, will stop you."
Well, Shadow had to admit that these words got some effect on the princess, with her looking outright baffled by his friend's words.
" Red," Dauber hissed at the Skywing. "She can probably just make you end up sleeping with the fishes if you don't calm down."
"She's right," Anemone stated pridefully. "But I won't do that if you just conveniently happen to be some particular dragons."
"And who are you looking for, princess?" Condor decided to ask and just get onto the actual topic.
"Well, I am looking for the children of Scarlet, Vulture, Wasp and Darkstalker, do you happen to know them?" She asked with a sarcastic tone.
They all looked at each other for some seconds before Shadowhunter cleared his throat. "Well, these names surely sound familiar. By the way and totally not related, our names are Red, Condor, Dauber and Shadowhunter," he said pointing at each respective name bearer.
"Well, it's nice to meet you then, I guess," Anemone replied with some slight amusement.
As he talked about this, Shadowhunter tried to peer into her mind to learn more details beforehand, but he got taken aback when he couldn't read anything there besides a simple hum. His eyes quickly looked at her jewelry and he noticed one of the rings had a small black rock embedded on it.
"Oh, you like this ring? Quite the unusual rock, ain't it?" Anemone said, raising that webbed talon and showing the ring in a very sarcastic manner, clearly knowing what he was trying to do and looking for here.
For once, he didn't have a response quite ready after the Animus caught him trying to peer inside, but he got saved from needing to answer by the appearance of another Sandwing.
Vulture arrived, the lord below the mountain. He and Scarlet had come to an agreement with her getting the upper half of the mountain and him getting the caves at the base and below, in exchange since he had a significant amount of skilled followers, they would at times help Scarlet at tunneling her half and building things too.
Based on what Shadowhunter had gathered from Condor's mind, the deal was also smart because it meant Vulture would always have ears up there, ready to snitch or act up if anything of note ever happened.
And here the robed Sandwing appeared to have come alone, but Shadowhunter was able to feel more minds on the surroundings, most likely hidden in case Vulture ever needed support.
"Princess Anemone," Vulture said, bringing a talon to his chest and giving a dignified bow. "I didn't expect a visit of such caliber today, it's a pleasure."
Shadow always struggled at reading Vulture's mind, it was on full overdrive seemingly all the time with calculations, quick thoughts and thinking of eventualities and countermeasures… The Nightwing struggled even more than usual today at it.
"Hello, good to see that you arrived fast after my message," Anemone said, giving a nod.
"Well, princess, I basically live the nearest, right down here in the mountain, being the closest I would arrive fast," Vulture explained with a smooth tone.
This brat... Banished me when I was this close to bringing down Thorn, and now a decade later she appears and acts as if nothing happened. Yet with all that jewelry there certainly must be some enchanted pieces, or all of them are, I can't take that risk. His mind said with frustration.
"Vulture," Anemone began to speak. "Is that Sandwing over there that's dressed quite like you, your son by any chance?"
He eyed her cautiously, thinking about the best way to reply.
"That's Condor, but he might be my son, or just work for me in my organization and you wouldn't know which answer it is. If he were my son, why'd you ask?"
"Because I came here to offer a great chance in life for a couple of the children here. More details when the others arrive," she replied calmly, and Vulture thought with uncertainty about what this "chance" might be.
Then a strong flap of wings signaled the approach of someone else, and Scarlet landed some distance away by herself, looking at the Seawing with annoyance. Meanwhile the princess winced in disgust upon seeing the Skywing's honestly terrible face, truly bad to the bone.
Shadowhunter didn't even bother with reading her mind, it was the most unpleasant place he'd ever been to in his entire life. He never thought anyone could think so much of blood, death, gore and revenge until he had peered into Scarlet's mind years ago.
"I couldn't believe the one you sent to tell me you're here, but it seems to be true, a visitor from the outside and it's the one that got us all into this mess, how thrilling," she said glaring down.
"Scarlet, I would say that your daughter sends her regards, but that'd be a lie," the princess said smugly as smoke came out of the Skywing's nostrils.
"Don't mention that good for nothing "queen" to me!" Scarlet exclaimed, angered. "Ugh to think of the chance that in 10 years she might've turned my tribe into softies. I left behind a great foundation but nooooo."
"I love epic duels as much as any other, but based on what I've heard from your arena, it's probably for the best," the Seawing said with a shrug.
Red would've jumped at Anemone right then and there, if Shadow hadn't read her big murderous feelings right before that so he quickly blocked the way with his bigger frame, which made Seawing and Skywing look over there.
"Red, remain still," Scarlet ordered in a very bad mood, as her daughter quickly stepped back now.
"Your daughter?" Anemone asked Scarlet.
"Yes, and if you meet up with my other one, tell her this daughter is much better than she ever was," the large Skywing said, gritting her teeth.
As this happened, Shadowhunter felt like a dozen dragons quickly approaching, so he looked back and indeed there were about 48 wings quickly approaching as twelve Hivewings landed, either brandishing weapons or their own natural weapons on their bodies. And Wasp was at the back of this group, looking cold as always.
She looked ahead and spotted Dauber among her friend group, and after a single look, the younger and thinner Hivewing quickly rushed forward and stood upright on that group too, trying to look threatening with her many sharp points.
"Well now this is actually interesting," Scarlet commented looking over that way. "The bug actually came out of her anthill."
"So I've been told that you are the one that threw me into this… Place," Wasp stated, her voice honestly sounding really threatening, and she had kept her many wings open so with the combined wingspan she looked quite massive. "Then I will ask you… What are you doing here?"
Her tone had shifted to a much deeper and snarling voice, her eyes just showing cold ire.
The princess had managed to not flinch and replied after a moment. "You were "told"?" She asked with some confusion before recalling something. "Oh right, I guess we never actually met before I freed you from that bothersome plant," she said in thought.
" And then immediately after you kicked me into this island," Wasp hissed with the same tone.
"Well, the plant was a bigger threat overall, but you had done enough to deserve this place anyway. Maybe don't mind control your kingdom next time?"
As they argued with each other, Shadow just had to peek into Wasp's mind, she very rarely ever comes out of her hive-under-construction. And even more rarely she also happens to be anywhere close to his mind reading range.
And oh moons was her mind interesting, and unlike her daughter, there didn't appear to be any mental blocks.
For how menacing and cold she looks, Shadow was able to see as clear as the moons that she was absolutely scared, filled with paranoia due to the fact of talking to a dragon so much more powerful than she ever got to be. She'd heard of the potential that an Animus had and she imagined one of these enchanting her to be under their will, to have her own control and grasp of things fade again. Wasp wanted to control the Seawing in front of her instead.
The Nightwing wisely decided to never say out loud what he'd just saw her, because in all honesty? Dauber would probably literally stab him.
The sky above them darkened for just a second as something massive flew up there, partly covering some of the light. And Shadowhunter smiled at the sight as his father swooped down.
He actually landed the closest to the Seawing princess, looking quite comical to see what basically was a pale blue and pink blob standing next to the colossus that was Darkstalker.
"Anemone!" Darkstalker said with a big grin on his face as he looked down to her. "It is so great to see you again. I almost didn't recognize you until I noticed your unmistakable pink! Years have been kind on you and your growth," he said with a voice filled with warmth and kindness.
Anemone looked back up to him, and Shadowhunter didn't even need to read her mind to know she was feeling obviously confused and conflicted about this reception, but after a few seconds she actually shyly smiles.
"Hello Darkstalker," the sea dragon said, truly taken aback for the first time since they started talking to her. "It's good to see you too. And I mean it to see you, I thought that 10 years of growth from my part might've made you look not quite as big, but I'm only reaching your ankle."
Darkstalker laughed in a hearty manner with a twinkle in his eyes. "Truly unbelievable to think that it's only been 10 years since I took you as my pupil. And then some time later the pupil banished the master!" Based on his voice, it sounded like Darkstalker was proud of the Seawing for beasting him.
Anemone chuckled with some awkwardness at that, giving a nod. And then Darkstalker walked closer to Shadowhunter.
"So I see that you've met my son already, his name is Shadowhunter. What did you think of him?" His father asked with a curious tone.
"Your son said he wanted to share a bed with me," Anemone quickly replied and Shadowhunter let out a gasp, actually stammering a little as his father looked at him.
"I did not say that at all but instead a very vague statement that can be interpreted in multiple ways. But I would not mind if she actually wanted to do something," he explained himself, and his father shook his head amused.
"Forgive him, Anemone. He inherited a good part of my charms, but not so much the subtlety, but he is still a good kid," Darkstalker assured her now.
"Well, that's good to hear. I kinda came over here to talk specifically about your kids, and if they're good ones? Even better," the Seawing said, and Darkstalker leaned closer with interest.
Shadowhunter could feel several minds shifting. Vulture had tensed up very slightly and was mentally preparing to give a signal if the Animus attempted something against his progeny. Scarlet was having a mental battle in her mind, imagining Red vs Anemone with all details. And Wasp was eyeing Daubur while mentally thinking "Why would anyone ever come over for her?"
Anemone cleared her throat slightly after getting everyone's even clearer attention, and she spoke in a more regal and formal tone. "I am here in official business to announce that these 4 dragonets have been formally accepted into the Jade Mountain Academy back at Pyrrhia."