PART FOUR
tw: death, murder, dragon torture
Silpha didn't expect a thing. He hopped out of class, wings held to his sides, stepping a bit lighter than one would expect from a dragon of his size. He had just finished an exam- and it was an absolute pain to get through. An absolute PAIN- from the studying to the work and all those questions...what dragon would care that much about the history of Pyrrhia? There was only one large question on his mind: where was Hive- Mother from, and maybe specifically what Hive-Mother was. He didn't dare ask the teacher lest they looked at him strangely. After all, he had told everybody that he was half SandWing.
Other dragons looked at his siblings, raising eyebrows, noticing the diaphanous wings and the black scales on their bodies- but the charming smile on his face often made them ignore the issues of his parentage. He sometimes heard dragons spitting at him in the hallways- Hybrid. Get out of here! and similar words. Most of them thought that the strange bodies and natures of his siblings was just what happened if two different tribes combined- although Silpha really, really doubted that. The wings was of course Hive-Mother's doing, and everything else- from Pronuba's large size to Mistral's breaking bones- that was just bad luck. He didn't want to blame Hive-Mother for what she had done to them, didn't want to blame her for what they had ended up as. He didn't know her, and all he did know about the foreign dragon was that they were from across the ocean and Boreal had loved her deeply. Despite his complicated feelings about his father, he did respect their love for Mother, and wished someday that he would have a name to know them by. But to the rest of the dragons in the school, they were just some SandWing that he had never met.
He wouldn't admit that he hadn't even seen the desert before.
He met up with Pronuba in the hallway. Like usual, Pronuba dipped his head to be more on the level of the average dragon- Silpha saw himself as rather tall, but he guessed that Pronuba saw him just like all the others. As normal, his other brother followed like a hatchling following after its mother. He didn't like looking at them much- all he felt was pity, a deep wish that he was able to help them out. Over the first few years of school his siblings rarely spoke to him- now that they had been there for a while sometimes he would be approached by one of them, but never for long. Pronuba was one of the quieter ones, preferring to stay a good distance away from everybody else. Silpha just had to wonder why he was coming up to him now.
Silpha. Pronuba said, giving them a friendly tap on the back with their tail. Four wings folded across their back, he took up most of the hallway- a few dragons looked at them a tad annoyed, but moved into one of the other corridors instead of tangling with them. Haven't spoken to you in a while.
Silpha smiled, looking up at him. "Well, I guess so. I don't have a class right now- so we can chat for a while if that's what you want." He nodded, looking around a bit sheepishly. "There's a NightWing in here- you may have seen them, overprotective father and all that." Silpha's scales tensed up- her. He wouldn't forget her, and the way he spent almost a year in fear of her and those feral eyes- she didn't even seem like a dragon. She was a wild beast, barely tamed, ready to lunge out at whatever came close to her and even slightly got on her bad side. "I've met them. Gave me some trouble, too." he admitted, not going into the full description of what Allsight had done with him.
"I...like them a lot. Not in personality, mind you- but something about them...allures me." he began, brown eyes focused towards the floor. "They're like...a foreign beast, beautiful in design and in how something is...off about them. I'm not sure what it is, but I want to know her. Have you ever felt that? Wanting to know somebody so badly that you don't really know what to do?" He was rambling a bit- he didn't know how to describe this allure Allsight had on him. He seemed stuck, running over his tongue in a manner that Silpha had never expected from him. This was the dragon that fought the teachers during lunch time, the one that won almost every fight just by standing up!
"Keep away from her, man. She's bad news." He shook his head rapidly.
"I can tell. Her father came so close to scratching my eyes out." he said, eyes widening. Silpha felt dread- remembering Allsight's words from when he first arrived. "I don't like you, and neither does Father. Stay away from me if you wish to keep your head." Now that her father didn't like Pronuba either... "Please tell me you didn't talk to her. Or get too close to her. Pronuba, she's mad, and while she's interesting, I wouldn't tangle with her if I was you." The silence that followed answered all his questions. Allsight knew, she was mad at him, and so was her father. All he had to hope now was that her threats were just that- threats- and that she was all bark and no bite. Maybe she had some sort of enchanted object that she planned to use- that was the worst case scenario, since he thought he could take her in a straight fight just off frostbreath alone. An enchantment would put things in her favor- but he reminded himself that all he knew of enchanted items was from history class, and that they were immensely rare in the world away from scrolls and parchment. Maybe the two of them could beat her and her father if it came to that. He really wasn't sure.
"Are you okay?" Pronuba's voice said, kicking him out of his mind. Shaking his head to clear it, he sighed. "Just be careful around her. It should be fine- and if it comes to tooth and claw, I'll help you out."
It was a few days later. Half of the classes and teachers were out on some sort of field trip- somewhere in the desert, or the swamps, or somewhere. He wasn't sure, only that his sister Silverfish was supposed to go, and at the last minute they dropped out and decided to stay in school. He wasn't sure why, and didn't dare to ask- maybe it was because none of the rest of them were leaving. He knew so little about them, only that they had escaped the curse of their bloodline like he had, and didn't really speak to him much. Thinking about it, he didn't speak to many of his siblings except Mistral.
The group of them had gathered to watch the students fly off, along with the rest of the dragons that were staying behind. There weren't many of them- and even less teachers than normal, so classes had mostly been postponed or canceled for the day. Silpha appreciated any free days- after a few consecutive days of class, he felt like he was going mad. It didn't take long for the dragons on the trip to leave- away they went, black and blue and tan wings soaring away towards the distance. He wondered if Allsight had left- their run in with his brother had still shaken him up a bit.
"How about we leave the school for a little while?" Mistral asked, tilting their head to the side before pulling it back to normal with a wince of pain. "I know of a field near here- the trip was supposed to pass over there, and it's not far from the school at all. If you all have time, we can head over there, maybe..." It took a few moments for an answer, but eventually the group of them nodded. It didn't seem too bad at the time- just a local field, maybe some talking, asking one another about life and tests and maybe how they planned to cheat on the upcoming geography exam that totally wasn't going to be fun.
"I may be a bit late." Mistral admitted, looking at her wings. They were misshapen, as if the bones had broken and then healed back incorrectly- it looked painful, and he did doubt she was able to still fly with those. "I can try to fly after you, but it may not be that fast." His younger brother hopped up to her, rubbing his head against hers with a few squeaking noises. She smiled, rubbing her head back against his smaller one, looking at the black scales framing his face with a small tear coming from her eyes. "Let's head out after lunch. How's that?" Silpha asked, flicking his wings.
Nods across the group. Food did taste good, after all.
They flew to the field at a slow pace. Mistral lagged behind, breathing heavily- when they finally arrived she almost collapsed onto the ground, wings spread outwards with terrible tears and breaks in the bone. She checked herself over for broken bones as she usually did- only finding one broken claw, she moved on to join the rest of them with a slow drag of her legs. Silverfish had brought a picnic blanket for them to lay on- and there was a small squabble between him and Pronuba until they decided to just let Mistral have it.
Somewhere near the field, dark wings were approaching at a rapid pace.
"So basically, you need to make sure you know the major landmarks. They love to test on the landmarks-"
She fell from the sky, the angel of death. Black wings, dark body, eyes of a demon or a creature from the abyss. These were the eyes of a madman- the eyes that you would see before you died, the gaze that would pierce through your soul as it was slowly ripped out of you. She didn't have one of her own, and she would make her own- piece by piece, part by part, from whomever fell to her sick mind.
Allsight was here. She landed near the group of them- they stood up, darting away from her, how she spread her wings to take up a larger space than she should. She opened her jaws, teeth bared, breathing heavily with licks of fire coming out of her jaws in an uncontrollable fashion.
"You filthy hybrids! Unbelievable! Upsetting Father, bothering me, doing stuff, existing, UPSETTING FATHER!" She tossed her head around like a bratty hatchling, some embers falling out of her jaws as she screamed. "I've tracked you here! You're all together! This is perfect!"
"Go away!" Mistral said, fear in her voice- Silpha realized that she had never met Allsight face to face like this. Mistral was the weakest one of them- one strike from the NightWing would do some real damage to them.
"No! I'll only leave once I'm DONE WITH YOU!" She sprang into the air- Pronuba tensed his muscles, running up to meet her.
That was when she started to speak, the words coming out of her mouth with a sickening sound:
Enchant my scales to be impervious to harm.
This is when it all ended. The five of them versus an animus- and only three of them were able to fight. They could just enchant them all to kill one another- or to die on the spot- or to explode- or...anything.
"And now the fun starts!" Her eyes focused onto the surprised Pronuba, who had just started to back off the instant he heard the words leave her jaws. He was almost three heads taller than her, yet seemed to shrink away from her form. She pointed at him, thinking for a moment before speaking: "Enchant this dragon to fight the first hybrid he sees, and make him unable to close or remove his eyes." Pronuba stayed still for a moment or two before slowly turning around, eyes wide- as if they were being forced open, unable to blink or even move from staring straight forward.
Silpha's second brother was the closest as he turned around, and with a screeching roar Pronuba descended upon him, jaws open and claws extended in a look of absolute rage. He was much smaller- and he crouched away, taking steps back until Pronuba crashed into him with great force. Instincts kicked in, and claws raked against scales- the larger dragon's great strikes taking out whole chunks of the smaller one's body, the smaller one latching onto his throat with wide eyes and labored breathing. With another strike of claws an eye flew out and landed near Silpha's front claws- he wanted to toss it away, but something was keeping him there. He couldn't run, he couldn't move, all he could do was stare and breathe. Was he enchanted? Was it shock? He could barely even register it, the vision of his brothers tearing one another apart fresh in his mind.
The second brother struck again, using his claws and digging them into the larger neck of their attacker- and they appeared to hit something, as the dark liquid leaking from Pronuba's neck appeared fatal. Allsight watched this happen with a smirk on her face, as if she enjoyed what she was seeing. Silpha tried to close his eyes, only to find that he couldn't do that either.
It may have been seconds, it may have been minutes, but the smaller dragon was left dead on the ground with their wings and half of their scales separated from them. Pronuba sank to the ground a few moments after, their throat taken out- unable to breathe and losing blood at a rapid rate, they fell to the ground just beside the other dragon. It was a sorry sight- and Silpha couldn't stop himself from thinking about the irony of it all. The dragon with the mentality of a hatchling...always following their siblings or teachers, barely understanding half of what they were told, and most of the time holed up in their dorm playing with hatchling's toys as if they were new to him. They were Pronuba's second shadow- and now they had killed each other.
Allsight walked up to the smaller dragon and continued to speak. "Huh. I didn't think you would be able to get him back. No matter.
Enchant this dragon's name to be removed from the memories of everybody who knew them, along with being removed from any scroll or other form of writing containing their name."
Silpha had known their name for years, but now couldn't even remember what it was. He didn't even want to think about it- surely she couldn't remove their name from everywhere! Somebody would remember, somebody! Maybe even Father, who named them...
He had then realized that he had ran. His legs took him away- he could see Silverfish nearby, and Mistral going as fast as they could with their weak body. The picnic blanket Silverfish had brought was covered in blood, and so were the claw-prints the NightWing made as she ran.
Allsight leapt for Silverfish right after, speaking another one of her vile enchantments- Enchant this twig to strike this dragon until they stop moving. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the twig leap up and start striking at them- he didn't see when it stopped, and admittedly he didn't want to see when it stopped. That would mean that he was the only one alive- well, Mistral was too, but the way Allsight was bearing down on them...
She leapt on top of them, Silpha hearing the cracking of her bones as they did so. He expected to hear her speak- but instead there was just a terrible noise of Allsight slamming her claws into them over and over again, waiting after every few moves for the bones to heal. Her strikes moved in a rapid crack-crack of bones, the clicking of limbs trying to move back into place- the guttural screaming of the hybrid as everything in her body shifted and moved, becoming a knotted twist of bones that never should exist-
Silpha turned around, deciding it was time to stop running- and he barreled straight into Allsight, who fell away from Mistral for a moment before standing back up to glare at him. No words were exchanged- she pointed to Mistral and the unrecognizable tangle of bones she had become, flesh barely staying onto broken limbs. Her neck was the last to break- and he did feel a bit happy that she hadn't had to go through much more of that. Turning back to the NightWing and the blood and viscera covering her scales, he realized that he was no longer able to move.
Vines wrapped around his feet- she had whispered an enchantment, and in his addled mind he hadn't even heard her. In that small time it took for him to realize she knocked him over, more vines wrapping around his wings and front legs, holding him down. One of them twined itself around his jaws, stopping him from breathing frostbreath as he planned to- but the invulnerability in the animus would stop that before anything happened.
"But you..." she said, almost spitting out her words- "you're alright. You stayed away from me and Father, stayed away from bothering my family. Therefore, you were less trouble than the rest!" She smiled, a smug look on her face. "So, I can kill you like your siblings, or I can give you a nice gift."
The vines around his jaws loosened so he could speak. He spat- "I don't want anything from you. Except, maybe, to have never met you."
She laughed. "Admit it. Do you want to die?" He didn't- he was too young to die, and he hadn't even gotten out of school, would never be able to tell Father what had happened, would never be able to figure out what or who he was. The look in his eyes was enough for the mad dragon, and she opened her jaws in a toothy grin. "Then I'll give you a gift. You can be the one to live! You'll be rewarded!"
"How about you just let me go?"
The vines tightened around his muzzle again. "No."
"I have three gifts for you." she began. "Stay still while I reward you. Remember what could have happened to you." His head was dragged over to look at Mistral's broken form again, and them to Silverfish's still body, and to the pool of blood all over the once pristine field before going back to staring into his worst enemy's eyes.
"First. Enchant this dragon to never be able to undo, counter or resist any spells made by the NightWing animus Allsight, or to do any spells on them."
That already sucked, but he couldn't do anything against her spells anyway.
"Second," She picked up a blade of grass, holding it solidly in her claw. "Enchant this blade of grass to turn into an ornate necklace with a stone of high grade ruby, framed by valuable silver. Furthermore, enchant this necklace to bestow the user with immortality- but they will still be able to die, only be brought back to life in the same body at the same state as they were when they first received the item. The necklace is not able to be taken off, and if it ever is, it will disintegrate into dust and reform in the same way back on the dragon's neck."
He didn't even know what to think about this one, even less so as she slipped the object over his neck, and he felt it rest against his scales. It was the most valuable thing he had ever seen or owned- fit for a queen, not somebody like him.
"And third." she said, laughing. "Enchant this dragon to become an animus."
The vines slipped away- Allsight had cut them with her claws. They stared at one another- Silpha not even knowing what to do- until Allsight started to laugh.
"You win! You lived! You're alive! YOU HAVE DONE IT! CONGRATULATIONS. Now, I'm not done with your family. Your father's an IceWing- I'll get over that cliff if I die or not. And your mother- they're not Sand, are they?" She slammed her claws into his chest, leaving deep marks. "WELL? Who's your mother? Who's the dragon whose blood will be next on my claws?"
"I never knew them." the new animus said, holding his wings over his face. "But...they're not SandWing. They were from somewhere across the ocean."
Her eyes lit up. "Across the ocean! Well, they'll die or I'll die! But I'm invulnerable! I cannot die! I can fly across the ocean and...and..."
She darted upwards into the air, cackling the whole way, soaring off.
Oh, how Silpha hated the sound of their voice! The voice that killed his kin and sent him into his own personal hell! At first he thought she really had gifted him- given him something that to her wasn't that bad- but he didn't yet realize what she had done to him. The first thing he did was pick up a few more blades of grass before giving it a try, understanding that if he actually wasn't an animus this would sound rather silly: "Uh. Enchant these blades of grass to become jewelry made of gold and silver, perfectly normal. And uh, enchant this one to appear the same in every way to the necklace I have around my neck now, but to not have any of the same enchantments." And that was it- his claws were full of valuables that he clipped onto his horns and claws and draped around his neck, decorated like a king, but not even close to one.
He looked back at his siblings, dead on the ground, then back at the direction of the school. He couldn't go back there- not like this, not now. Too many memories, too many feelings, too much pain for one dragon to handle.
He spread his wings, tears forming in his eyes, before flying in the opposite direction.
