An Epic Wings of Fire Fanfiction || Universes 101

Chapter 14- Don't Deal With the Devil

Aquarius  instinctively bowed before the SeaWing queen. "Hello there, Aquarius," Queen Orca said. "Finally deciding to join the right tribe? " Queen Orca smiled. "Under the right queen, of course." Aquarius glanced around the room, spotting Glorystar out of Orca's vision range. Weird how willing she'd been to come along.

Aquarius hesitated, hearing the sound of talons clinking against the palace floor. He looked up and was surprised to see both Skua and Lapis, smiling at him. "She's right, Aquarius!" Lapis exclaimed. "Look, she gave me my animus powers back that Barracuda took!" A book flew off a shelf to prove her point.

"She really is kind," Skua agreed. "When I was still blind, she drained the WHOLE palace of water, just so that I could hear what was going on! And she gave me my sight back! She can make Obsidian a full IceWing! Give Jasmin back her family!" Skua sighed happily.

Aquarius hesitated. "What do you want in return, Your Majesty?" he asked warily. But it did sound slightly promising. He glanced again at Glorystar. Weird how Queen Orca hadn't sensed her yet. Maybe cats were too small.

"Oh nothing much at all," the SeaWing Queen promised. "And you can call me Orca. I just want to... heal a few old scars, if you get my drift."

"I was in the circus too long to hear puns about scars," Aquarius said drily. "So you've been researching us?"

Orca nodded. "Only to help meet your needs and to defeat that... Barracuda. Such a poor unfortunate soul. To think such a thing could happen to such an innocent little dragonet."

Aquarius narrowed his eyes. "Coming from you? Not hard. What's going on with Skua and Lapis?"

"Nothing's wrong with us!" Skua protested. "What's wrong with you, spooky mask face?"

Aquarius flinched and let out a growl. "You didn't enchant them, did you?" He asked.

"Of course I did," Orca said, tilting her head. "How else would I have given them what rightfully belonged to them?" She flicked her tail, revealing two shattered narwhal horns on it's tip.

Aquarius glanced at the tail, uncertain if she was confused, irritated, or threatening him. "No. I mean changed their personalities. Their minds."

Orca laughed. "Who do you think I am, Darkstalker? Vulture? Don't be rediculous. I don't make up a story just to make me seem great like Morrowseer."

""Maybe you're right," Obsidian said. "But just to make sure, enchant Lapis to..."

A voice suddenly rang in his ears. "Anarchy! Aquarius! Don't listen to her!" It was Barracuda.

"Hang on," he told Orca, and she nodded politely. "Someone's calling."

"Barracuda!" Aquarius growled. "What do you want?"

"I need you to kill Orca! I've enchanted her to be unable to become immortal. You need to do it!"

"She seems alright so far. Why should I trust you?"

"Because I have no reason to lie to you. Those dragons have no way to defeat me anyways, and I won't let Orca be the big bad. She's definitely Darkstalker-like right now. But if I do it then I won't look like the big bad. I've enchanted you  to see the truth."

As the new thoughts filled his mind, Aquarius sighed. "Fine. Bye, Barracuda."

Orca narrowed her eyes. "Don't deal with the devil," she hissed. Whatever that meant. 

Suddenly, a large lioness leapt at Aquarius, catching him by surprise. "Don't you dare harm Orca!"

Aquarius' eyes widened as he realized the lioness was Glorystar. Either she had magic, or Orca had seen her after all. Not her, too, Aquarius thought. "Glorystar! Snap out of it! You used to be so friendly!"

Glorystar let out a snarl. "My apologies. I am so sorry for taking you as a mousebrained reptile. I got here a long time ago, foxdung. Glorystars- or should I say, Glorys, are never over the top sweet. But the Queen here promised to get me back to my clans: NightClan and RainClan." Her eyes widened briefly. "What will they do without me? The NightClan cats are still adjusting!"

Hopefully the enchantment was just to make them believe Orca. Instead of arguing, he lunged straight for Orca's throat. Her eyes widened and she snapped. Orca smirked. "I'm immortal now, fool," she said. Glorystar began pulling him backwards, with Skua and Lapis growling beside the Queen.

"Good luck with that," Aquarius retorted. He realized something needed to be done so that Lapis and Skua wouldn't lose their benefits afterwards. "Lapis! Enchant yourself to be an animus! Lapis whispered the command and gave the all clear.

Orca threw a spear at Aquarius, just as he was turning. He tried leaping away, but the spear would have hit him- but it bounced off of an unseen force. Slowly he began to make out the shape of a translucent cat. "Don't hurt them," the starry cat meowed. 

Orca panicked. "I enchant you to leave! Die!" she screamed. 

The cat slowly shook her head. "Animus magic doesn't really work on the dead, here," she meowed. She then leaped and clawed out one of Orca's eyes. In a swift motion, Aquarius knocked the shocked Glorystar backwards and pierced through Orca's heart. He wasn't the cursed best fighter for nothing. Orca's good eye widened in shock and water began filling the room. 

"I can't see!" Skua screamed. "Lapis!" Lapis whispered something else, and Skua began to calm down. Skua glanced at Glorystar in surprise, who was now the size of a normal cat. 

"Get the play with your magic, Lapis," Aquarius said. "I'll swim Glorystar to the surface."

Lapis smiled. "I can do better than that. Glorystar, get on his Aquarius' back." After Glorystar was on Aquarius' back, Lapis snapped her talons and they were in the forest.

Aquarius winced as he felt Glorystar's claws digging under his scales. "Sorry," she apologized. "I'd better get off your back."

Aquarius shook his head. "It's all right, I don't mind." Cats were kind of nice, actually. He could kind of see why some scavengers kept them as pets. He'd probably stick to one that didn't talk, though. Jasmin, Cricket, the humans, and Skua Moon walked over to the others.

Lapis set the scroll on the ground. "Release everyone trapped inside here," she whispered. Then the dragons came spilling out. RainWings, SkyWings, SeaWings, IceWings, NightWings, SandWings, MudWings, Crickets, and leaf and butterfly ones- Leaf and SilkWings. A dark blue dragon with a crooked grin eyed Obsidian cooly. 

"Not bad, Obsidian," the dragon said, before flying off.

For some reason the amount of SkyWings and SeaWings that came out were infinitely more than  the other tribes. Coming straight from the pages from the play.