"Mooooooommmmmm..." Satine groaned, leaning on the golden pillars of the downtown market's head palace. "Shhh, Honey." The royals came here whenever they had to discuss the citizens of Pantala. Which was a lot. Lotus, Ivory, Firefly, Kinkajou and everyone else. And they always left little Satine, the helpless 3 year old silkwing dragonet alone in the market before leaving to go to the pavilion. And Satine LOVED it. Ever since she was a tiny hatchling, the dragonet dreamed of dresses and tapestries. She lived for elegance. Again and again, every day Satine got she would spiral her silk onto weavings and create beautiful creations. Since she was half Rainwing, she was born with her wings and her silk. She loved her silk. Red, yellow, blue, Every dragonet in the kingdom came to her for their formal clothing. If only. She thought Bitterly, Awaking from her half-sleep. Sometimes she did that. She layed on her fluffy blanketed bed, forcing her eyes closed. In the dream was the only place she could be herself. In the real world, knowone would ever buy horribly weaved dresses with trim gold that cost a half a gold coin. She rolled out of bed, marching to her vanity and adjusting her badge. The elegant golden swirls twisting together to form a rose shone from her scales, clashing with the pink, purple, and blue. Yet she still seemed to be immaculate and Pristine, a picture of perfection. Perfect scales, perfect wings, incredibly smart, and cursed with a horrible life. Even as a royal, treated with such respect and given so much loyalty that she could point a claw at a soldier and he would kill himself just to please her. But none of that was the life she wanted. None of that was who she was. But of course her parents didn't get that. They were always saying things like, "Oh, Satine! You look so lovely! Now why don't you go study!" "Oh Satine why don't you leave that dress alone... Urm, we have a feast!" Then just like that, when she returned to her room all of her creations were clawed apart. And then Firefly and Kinkajou would come in, trying to look innocent. "Honey." They'd say. Satine pushed herself up, brushing off her scales and adjusting the single gold necklace looped around her neck. She stalked into the hallway, nodding at the guards position throughout the hallway. She slung her satchel over her back and glided from a balcony to another, finally walking into the royal throne room. She bowed, flinching as she looked up. "Mother." She said, her tone flat. "Darling! You early! I'm just waiting for Kinkajou to hurry up so we can get a head start to the market." She waved her talons away dismissively. Then awkward silence slithered through the room like a snake, biting any possible spark of affection that could have edged through the two dragons. After a few minutes of silence, a pink and yellow rainwing burst into the room, clumsily climbing her way up to the tall platform Satine and Firefly were standing on. "Phew, Sorry I'm late! I was just finishing up a few projects." Kinkajou held a bundle of scrolls up and shared a look at Firefly. Then they both glanced at Satine, clearly hiding something. "Okay... Well, um, urrm.... Shall we go?" Firefly said, covering the scrolls with her wings and edging Kinkajou into the air and pushing her out. Satine was about to follow when she saw a small piece of paper fall from Kinkajous stack of scrolls. "I'll be right behind you." Satine shouted, lifting the scroll to her nose, sure that her parents were hiding something from her. Then they swooped from the platform, vanishing as quickly as they had come. Satine clawed her way to the edge of the balcony too, wrinkling the perfect rugs as red as scarlet blood.
She opened her wings slowly, unfurling the beautiful mosaic of colors. Then she lifted herself into the air, using the steady beat of her heavy wings, pushing her higher with every flap. Then she turned her wings so that they flapped gracefully out of the balcony and into the cold air. The silk kingdom was always cold this time of year. Of course It got warmer in the summer, but in the meantime they all had to fly through air as cold as ice, harvesting foods from the otherside of the continent. Queen Lotus sent patrols out every sunrise to gather fruit. Then scouts would fly across the continent, landing in rainforests and reporting their fruit findings. They navigated with the map that Clearsight drew from Pyrrhia to Pantala that was now brandished across every wall in the palace. But now poor Satine was forced to fly through the sky as cold as Ice, shivering frivolously and beating her already numb wings through the air until she broke into the center of clouds and spotted her parents, flying much quicker than the little silkwing dragonet could. But still, Satine managed to fly without complaining all the way to the royal Silkwing market from her dream. As she saw her parents diving through the clouds and landing down, she imitated them as gracefully as possible. Head first, then touching down lightly with her claws and gracefully wrapping her tail around her talons and holding her snout up, meaning to look regal. Immediately she was trampled by a group of tourist Silkwings. "YOWCH!" She cried. "Do you know who I am?" "Someone who's standing in the middle of the market street." A gray silkwing snarled. As they bustled by Satine, Satine scanned the busy streets for her parents. "Mom? Moooooom?" No response. Finally Satine decided that her parents must be at the meeting, and that Satine should take this opportunity to shop a little. She strolled throughout the market, stopping by an art stall. There were glass sculptures in all colors, rugs and silk tapestries, and elaborate paintings with splotches of gold, blue, pink and purple paint. In the back of the stall a tall and lean grayish- greenish silkwing with spectacles and a sharp face was busily working on a dress. It was plain pink satin with white frills and a shimmer glow. The silkwing was working on embroidering long black roses to the fabric. "Lovely dress." Satine commented thoughtfully. The silkwing turned his head to stare at satine. "Though before you put it on the market, I would add some garnish. "Garnish? Hmmm... That might actually work." The dragon lifted two roses from a table next to him and pinned them to the chest of the dress. She clapped her hands together in satisfaction. "That actually looks wonderful!" She swiveled her head to look at Satine. "Who are you?" "A dragonet who knows my stuff," Satine said proudly. "Clearly! Mind helping me out today? The business has been slow." "Sorry, but I have to go." Satine shrugged. "Though I do absolutely love that dress," Satine says, pointing to the rose dress. She dropped a small clinking bag on the counter of the stall, plus six metallic scales. The silkwing merchant handed her the dress, grinning. "Thank you." Satine said, bowing politely and taking the dress. She stuffed it into a large pink bag and continued down the street. A few stalls later she
|ran into a bakery stall. Two pink silkwings in aprons were bustling around, handing honey drops and sugar rolls and cinnamon cakes and strawberry milkshakes. "Mmmm..." Satine drooled, glancing at the menu. "There are SO many good things! I don't know what to pick!" There were buns glazed in cinnamon and filled with sugar cream, dusted with expensive sugar from Pyrrhia. There were rolls of fruity dried molten sugar, savory honey candy, sweet milkshakes, bagels, and sweet coffee. Satine walked up to the counter and faced one of the silkwings. "Excuse me, may I please have a kiwi fruit cake, a bag of honey drops, two banana sugar rolls, crystalized orange peels, caramel chews, and a coffee?" "Of course." The silkwing replied coolly. A few minutes later the silking arrived with satines order in a small pink bag. "Thank you." As Satine shopped she accumulated quite the collection of items. She also visited a clothing store, owned by a grumpy metallic green dragon who wore a black cape and a gold snake necklace. From the store, Satine had bought two dresses, one shimmering golden silk, the other navy blue fading to light, with sparkling pearls and glitter like the waves of the ocean. Along with two satin capes, one emerald green, the other pearl white. As well as a long gazelle fur, pure white and soft rug. She had also purchased a golden tiara embedded with diamond, opals, emeralds, sapphires, tourmaline, and amber. Satine had also visited a jewelry shop, where she had purchased golden tail bangles, crystal rings, diamond earrings, two emerald and sapphire necklaces, and one ruby wing decoration. And finally, the last store that Satine had shopped at was a bookstore. She purchased six books, A Winged Enemy, A Tale of Poison, The Royal Challenge, Six Dead Queens, Soaring hope, and To Yearn to be Free. All of which were old chapter books that Satine yearned to have for weeks. Or ever since her parents had had their last meeting. In total, after all of her shopping Satine had spent a total of thirty six gold coins, forty two silver, twelve copper, eighteen scales, three rubies, two sapphires, three emeralds, five diamonds, six opals, and thirteen Amber stones. Though her mothers would probably be furious at her for buying so much, Satine was thrilled to finally have all of these things. She settled down on a quiet street and set down her gazelle fur, lifting her cloak onto her shoulders to keep her warm and settling her tiara on her head. Regally she draped her jewelry on, until every part of her sparkled wealth so much it hurt her eyes to look at herself. She opened her bag and tasted some caramel chews. The sweet and salty taste was savory like baked treats, but it was also sweet like candy. Definitely Satines favorite snack. She waited on that street until her parents came. By the time they had found her, little Satine had already eaten all of her snacks but her banana sugar rolls. "Satine!" Kinkajou cried, picking the dragonet up in her claws. Skeptically, Firefly lifted Satines scale pouch and peered inside. She glared at Satine. "Satine! I told you not to use all of your money! You only have FIVE Opals left!" "Maybe." Satine shrugged. "But that IS enough to buy a mango-lime smoothie." She fluttered into the air with the pouch. "Ha, Nice Try." Firefly said, dragging her tail down and retrieving the opals. "This money goes to ME until you figure out how to save you money, for goodness sake." "ARGH!" Satine cries, stuffing her gear into a large green scaly bag. She dragged a cape on, adjusted her tiara, shined and buffed her already shiny claws, and draped a long golden necklace with rubies embedded into it across her neck. "You look beautiful, Darling." Kinkajou cooed. "Yes, you look acceptable." Firefly growled, rolling her eyes. She shot into the air, leaving Kinkajou and Satine alone on the streets. Together they rose slowly into the air, gently and calmly, unlike Firefly who left shredded clouds in her wake of anger. "Your mother doesn't mean anything." Kinkajou finally said, resting one talon on satines shoulder, which made it quite awkward to fly. "I mean, she really loves you. We both do." "Sure." Satine shrugs simply, even though the compliment meant a lot.
"Sooo, what did you talk about in the meeting?" "Oh, um," Kinkajou looked uncomfortable and her talons turned bright lavender. She closed her eyes and blurted out, "The Hivewings are back...for revenge." "WHAT?" Satine cried, frantically flipping in the air to be alone. If the Hivewings were back... She was sure that they would first attack royalty. And if that was true... Satine knew that she was the hivewings main target.
