Silver Blood, Broken Wings, Shattered Heart

Chapter 3: Cracks

One stands out in the group of young dragonlings flying through the sky. This is normal, however, Arianwyn - or "Silver Wings" in the dragon tongue - is used to being the only half-human there. Used to having, as they call it, dirty bronze blood.

Arianwyn, unfortunately for her, does look more human than dragon, having a more humanoid shape but with wings, a tail, horns, and scales freckled on her face and neck and hands. She's also paler than most humans, seeing her more silver blood, slightly taller, with more claw-like nails, and shimmering silver eyes. Other than that, she could pass for a brunette human with odd gray streaks to her hair and very pale skin.

Luckily, the dragonlings her age don't mind. They don't understand all that the Bronzebloods have done to Silver-kind. They just treat her like a friend that looks a little different. Arianwyn loves them for it.

"Race you to the river?" Arianwyn's friend Luxruna - "Bright Eyes" in dragon - asks, her white scales glinting in the light of the bleak white sun that is just rising over the horizon, meaning that soon enough they will have to go inside the mountain, daylight is when the true beasts come out: The Bronzebloods.

Arianwyn, being an innocent child, pays this no mind, and smiles, "You're on!"

She soars down towards the river, silver wings flapping powerfully. The sun slowly rises higher, it's light foreboding, but Arianwyn likes it. Easier to see anything down below, right?

Little does she care to think about, if she can see someone easily. . .they can so easily see her, as well.

She lands among the shallows, splashing fresh, clear water all over her. The minnows and small fish of the river, unshaken when Luxruna had landed, fled in fear. Arianwyn shrugs this off as her own clumsy landing, and looks over to Luxruna, "How are you first again?!"

Luxruna laughs, "I have my ways."

"Surely you do," Arianwyn replies, and swiftly moves her wing to splash Luxruna. Luxruna does the same to her back, before they are both sopping wet and dissolving in laughter.

"DRAGONS!"

It takes Arianwyn a moment to decipher the strange word, before realizing it means Silverblood kind in the Bronzeblood tongue, one that most Silverbloods don't learn until adulthood, but Arianwyn is an exception.

She turns to where the voice came from, and a band of Bronzebloods are looking at them in confusion, a young dragon and a small human girl with wings, a tail, and wearing nothing but a wispy white dress, torn, stained, and too small for her? Not a sight they saw often. The lead one raised its gun, hollering, "Stand down or die!"

Arianwyn grasps for any human words, "No. Friend. Family. No harm. Please."

"A hybrid," mutters one, the second word one Arianwyn does not recognize, "We should bring her back to Lord Teggire."

"No, we stay, you go," Arianwyn pleads desperately.

"What are you babbling about?" Luxruna demands.

"They want to bring us back to one of their cities," Arianwyn tells her, voice shaking, and begs the humans, "Don't harm, or dragon will eat me!" She realized her error just as she said it. She ALWAYS mixed up "you" and "me". Either way might've been the wrong call.

"KILL THE BEAST! THE GIRL IS TO BE BROUGHT TO TEGGIRE ALIVE!"

The Bronzebloods charge at the two innocent dragonlings, their battle cries and thundering footsteps frightening the wildlife nearby. Birds fly away, minnows flee, lizards leap, deer scurry, all fearing only these desolaters of the natural.

Luxruna and Arianwyn try to scramble away, but the Bronzebloods are too fast, capturing Luxruna in a net and simply grabbing Arianwyn.

"NO! FREE US PLEASE!" Arianwyn begs to no avail, "DRAGONS EAT YOU! YOU!"

"This girl must be friends with the beasts, not only sharing blood with them," one mutters, "A little monstrosity if I've ever seen one."

Arianwyn growls, low in her throat the way older dragons do when they get frustrated. Luxruna thrashes and tries to escape the net.

"Keep on trying!" Arianwyn shouts, "They can't keep us trapped forever!"

"I think they can," Luxruna grumbles.

Arianwyn tries flapping her wings to knock her holder backwards, but ends up just scraping him on the face a bit. She still continues, wanting to leave this Bronzeblood a scar.

"RELEASE THEM!" roars the voice of the colony's Elder Dragon, Rythor (Thunder Roar), as he and several of the other adult dragons in the colony charge at the humans. Frightened, Arianwyn's captor drops her and rushes into the woods, reddish blood dripping from his face and neck. A few others manage to escape, but those who don't find themselves laying at the side of the river, still and silent.

Arianwyn runs over to Luxruna and manages to cut the net off of her, but it has already cut deep enough into her scales that glistening silver blood drips from between them.

"What were you thinking, flying off on your own like that?!" Rythor demands.

"W-we didn't know! We were just here, and then Arianwyn tried to talk with them-" Luxruna fumbles.

"Arianwyn! We are not supposed to speak to their kind, are we clear?!" Rythor snarls.

"I thought I could show them reason, convince them to free us!" Arianwyn explains desperately.

"Beasts who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with," Rythor says gruffly, staring down at Arianwyn, "Come, back to the cave, we've had enough trouble for one day."

Arianwyn nods lowly, and follows Rythor and the others back to the deep mountain cave where the colony lives.

Back at the mountain, none the wiser to any of them, the Hourglass of Fate cracks slightly.