Tales From The Lost World

Constellation & Raven

The two survivors: Constellation and Raven's story

"Mother! Raven's sneaking out again!" Constellation yelled, not even looking up from his scroll.
Raven sighed and came back inside, grumbling at his brother for giving him away. Constellation chuckled, glancing up for a moment. "C'mon, Mother's gonna hunt tonight just to feed you, be grateful. You can leave your girlfriend for one night."
"Really, Connie? You know she's not my girlfriend."
"Uh-huh, sure." He rolled his eyes and stood up.
Raven growled and shook his wings out, one of his scales flying loose when he hit the wall. He flinched, but grabbed the scale and flicked it at his brother. "She's not, really."
Constellation recoiled and snorted. "Fine, just stop throwing things at me."
They both heard aggressive knocking on the front door and looked confused. They were about to run over and check it when they heard a hiss. It was their mother, whispering in a very urgent manner.
"Hide, you two. It's the prince."
Constellation and Raven both knew what that meant. Queen Scarlet had been trying to find their family for years after hearing of the hybrid family. One, because she hated hybrids, and two because their father was a Nightwing. Prince Vermillion had been leading the search parties for the last few months, and seemed to have finally found them.
Both of the brothers had already created hiding spots for the occasion, and fitted them out to be very solid spots.
They listened to the conversation at the door, which seemed very normal for a search party. They asked to search the house, and then there were heavy talons seemingly all over the house. There wasn't anything suspicious in sight, except when one of the patrol guards found a black scale on the ground, by a scroll that had been dropped. The brothers hadn't bothered to clean up either of the objects, and it ultimately ended up in their separation.
The soldiers rushed back to the door and interrogated their mother while Raven snuck out of his hiding spot and silently went to his brother's spot. They were conflicted, because they didn't want to leave their mother here alone to deal with the consequences. But also, if they left and weren't found, then the soldiers couldn't convict her, because they have no evidence. Then again, Scarlet is very unpredictable, so she might be found guilty without any evidence whatsoever.
They sneak over to see how the conversation is going. Most of the guards are just watching, the rest were outside the door. Vermillion himself was the one interrogating their mother, who was keeping quite cool and wasn't cracking. Eventually, the argument calmed down and the Prince ordered another search. The two brothers didn't have time to hide again, so they went for the window and escaped just in time. They watched the search through the window for a while, and decided that Vermillion wasn't a very dangerous dragon, at least not at the moment. Unless the search party found some kind of evidence, their mother would be free. And both brothers were quite sure there was nothing.
After a few minutes, Raven decided to try and find a window where they could watch their mother. He flew around the house and found a closer window, peering in for a moment. His view was blocked by a large Skywing wing, so he had to go further. He turned to leave his current position and ran directly into the talons of a soldier.
Constellation heard the yelp and quickly flew around to save his brother, but didn't find anyone. He looked around, then also got grabbed.
The pair was dragged inside and thrown before their mother, who still managed to not break, even though she knew she had lost. Even if she wasn't charged, her son's would be taken away.
"Don't know 'em. Must have taken some free lodging while I was away."
"So you wouldn't mind if we killed them?"
"Why the hell would you do that? They're not doing anything wrong. I keep my door open for folks like these, usually don't keep any valuables around anyways. Nothing of value for them to take. Free shelter for those who need it. Plus breakfast if they're around at the right time." Both Constellation and Raven were impressed at her exceptional improv.
Vermillion, on the other talon, was not. He rolled his eyes and slashed his talons across her throat, instantly dropping her body to the floor next to the horrified brothers. They were knocked out soon after and hauled off to the Skywing palace.

Raven woke up, chained in the Skywing prison. The first day was uneventful, but he soon found that both he and his brother were going to be sentenced to death unless they revealed more information about their father. Neither one of them even knew who he was, so of course they couldn't provide any information.
That night, Raven got to work, sawing and biting away at his bonds to attempt to release himself. After multiple long hours of the night, he barely got anything done. But, the bonds were weakened.
Constellation was up first, and of course their punishment of death was to be dealt by the queen's weapon, Peril.
Raven watched his brother dodge the best he could, but eventually the hybrid was brought down before Peril, his leg broken from an awkward fall and unable to escape. Raven freaked out, not ready to see his brother die, leaping off of the platform. The weakened wires snapped from the weight, lifting him free. Even the bands around his wings broke free. He flew down and slammed into the side of the firescales, burning himself for a moment but not too badly. He helped his brother up and broke his wing bands as well, and they flew off together.
As they were flying, Raven looked back and noticed that they were being followed, quite closely. He put on an extra burst of speed, passing Constellation. He heard a scream as the guards caught up, and he turned back to save his brother once again. Constellation got out of the soldier's grasp, but Raven got knocked out and dragged away, leaving only one brother to escape.
Constellation flew until he was safe, and was hit with the realization that the two dragons he knew best were dead. There's no way he could save Raven now, and his mother was already dead. He cried for a while, but eventually got himself together and prepared for his new life by himself.
Raven, on the other talon, was not dead. His execution had been changed, so now he was to suffer the rest of his days in a dark cellar with very small amounts of food and water. The deprivation drove him insane.
When Ruby became queen, she tried to free Raven, but his years of insanity had turned his body into a bloodthirsty husk. He had killed and eaten one of the guards while they tried to free him, then he had escaped on his own, leaving the mangled, half-eaten corpse behind.
Both brothers were alive and free, but their fates were far from similar. One was living a fairly peaceful life out in the mountains, while the other was hellbent on survival.
One day, it all would change. One day.