After that strange encounter, Deathbringer found himself following a thin river around the mountains. He stopped to catch a fish or two once, and then kept going. That river lead all the way to Jade Mountain, and he felt his head click. Jade Mountain!
The perfect hideaway landmark for a bunch of rebaling dragonets and some RainWings.
Deathbringer tucked himself into the trees and shadows, squinting at Jade Mountain, trying to ignore the mud between his talons. A ton of RainWings were sleeping in the sunlight, while other SandWings, a few SkyWing, and some SeaWing were on some kind of watch duty. (The dragons shot nasty looks at the slumbering RainWings now and then.)
Deathbringer smirked.
Bingo.
Of course, Deathbringer had to wait until nighttime until striking. So he waited and waited, and whenever he got discouraged or bored, he reminded himself most of the parts of being an assassin was waiting. Deathbringer sharpened his chakrams.
He watched as an IceWing, and SandWing, a SeaWing, two RainWings, and two NightWings soared in the sky together, laughing.
He watched as a blue SeaWing barked orders to RainWings, poking them angrily if they got distracted.
He watched as a NightWing and a RainWing leaned into each other while watching the sunset, smiling.
He watched as dragons took their place in a watch duty, eyeing the trees with suspicion.
He watched as the sky faded into deep blue, and faint stars were almost visible.
Now was the perfect time.
Deathbringer snuck stealthily up, melting into the shadows as he made a beeline to a RainWing that was snoring quite loud. He swept past the colorful dragon and made his way up the mountain until he found a ledge that was attached to a cave, running deep into Jade Mountain.
He couldn't help but notice that the rock beneath him felt not as painful, but still similar to the volcano. He remembered dark, starving, hopeless days when everything seemed lost. He remembered the first few days of immense guilt of Quickstrike's death. He remembered after long days, his talons would ache and scream at him. He remembered the first time he saw a NightWing fall into lava. Deathbringer would never forget the dragon's shrieks.
Deathbringer shuddered and pushed those depressing thought away.
He checked each cave, and he came across two sleeping NightWings.
"Male and female, eight and four, the dragonets who aren't blind or jumpy and dreaming or rainbows and sparkles."
They looked like Moonwatcher and Starseeker all right. It didn't look like they were dreaming of rainbows or sparkles....On the contrary, the female dragonet was breathing quickly, and her brows were furrowed, and she kept clenching her talons like she was having a nightmare.
They both looked like they were having nightmares.
Deathbringer felt a stab of sympathy for the dragonets, and he wished he didn't have to kidnap them.
A scraping noise from behind him.
Deatbringer swivled his head around, but didn't see anything that wasn't there before. He shrugged and kept going. He had dragons to kill, after all.
He searched through more caves, until he came across an exceptionally large cave with six dragons sleeping inside: a brown MudWing, a royal blue SeaWing who's claws kept twitching dangerously, a kind of weird golden-ish SandWing without any tail barb, a NightWing with leaves around his eyes and horns, another NightWing that was sleeping close to the blind NightWing, and a RainWing.
A. RAINWING. Where was the SkyWing? What a disgrace! Who's idea was it to have this foul creature instead of a SkyWing? An idiot's, thats who's.
Deathbringer pulled out a chakram from his punch and pressed it against the RainWing's neck,
and then
he saw
her
face.
He froze. He forgot his voice, his name, his tribe — this RainWing was the only thing that mattered in the world. She was gorgeous. Not, like, your average pretty dragon. She was perfect. He got this odd tingly feeling in his chest, and got the impression that he was madly in love.
"YOUR MAJESTY, WAKE UP! ASSASSIN!" a voice panicked.
The RainWing's eyes flew open, her talons snatched the chakram and she lunged onto Deathbringer in one quick motion, pinning him to the ground with the chakram lined on his neck.
Another RainWing, around the same age of the first one, materialized out of the air, frowning at Deathbringer.
The SeaWing's head snapped up too, and she growled at the sight of Deathbringer.
Gee Deathy way kill in the shadows.
Morrowseer will have your head if these hot girls don't take it first!
"Thanks, Lily," the RainWing said to the other.
"No problem, Your Majesty! Bromlaid and Dazzling were sleeping through their watch hours," Lily replied.
Deathbringer didn't really want to die, so he tried the old-fashion charm. "Hello, ladies," he said with a grin. "Lovely evening tonight, isn't it? But, of course, not as lovely as you."
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Mistake," she said in a loud whisper to him.
"Call us that one more time you'll see how lovely we can be," the other RainWing snarled at him.
Uh-oh.
"Now, NightWing, you can go dawdling back to your little village with your wings sliced off and an eye gouged out and tell Morrowseer it'll take more than a sneak-in-the-night assassin to kill us," the SeaWing hissed.
"Oh, I'd rather not," Deathbringer said pleasantly. "If I went back, I wouldn't be able to see your beautiful faces."
"Now you're just asking for it, buddy," Lily said to him.
"What an idiot," the other RainWing growled to the SeaWing.
"This is the best Morrowseer could do? He must be desperate," the blue dragon said. "I'm OFFENDED he thought a wimp like this guy could kill US."
"Hey!" Deathbringer protested.
"Either we maim and torture you or we kill you," the dragon pinning him down said. "Which would you prefer?"
"Well, I can't say I appreciate your selection of choices," he began.
"If you can't decide, we will," she said.
"Let's torture him," the SeaWing declared.
"Very well," the other dragon nodded, approving.
"What have I gotten myself into?" Deathbringer muttered.
Lily smiled kindly at him. "Your doom," she replied.
YOU ARE READING
Starcrossed
FanfictionStarseeker is a NightWing, but he doesn't feel like one at all. He and his mother had been hiding a terrible yet lovely secret. But now the NightWings found her. His sister has the lost powers of the NightWings, and now his tribe knows about her. No...
