Deathbringer's Acceptance

Chapter 1

Deathbringer winced as Glory squeezed a bundle of herbs around the wound on his forearm where Tsunami had torn off an impressive amount of scales, breaking the skin and leaving ugly teeth marks in its wake. Living in the rainforest for a long time had taught Glory a lot of things. She knew by now that wounds like this, while rare, needed to be disinfected and bandaged up, or Deathbringer would risk infection.

Glory growled with irritation as Deathrbinger tried to move away from the stinging juices, "Stop moving, I'm trying to help." She hissed, tossing the herbs on the ground and grabbing a coil of banana leaves to wrap around his injury. Unfortunately, she couldn't do much for every injury. She watched as the Nightwing ran his tongue over the spot where a few fangs were missing, "I don't even know what you were thinking, challenging Tsunami to a fight like that." She said, wrapping the dressing around his arm.

"I didn't think she was that good, or that strong for that matter." Deathbringer said as she relinquished his brutalized limb, which no longer looked like he had been attacked by an angry dog, "Thanks."

"You've done a lot of stupid things during your time here, but this is probably the dumbest thing you've ever done. She could have killed you!" Glory said as she started packing up the medical supplies she had brought out, "Tsunami does get a little carried away sometimes, she always did when we were kids."

Deathbringer looked away and out the window, he had gotten used to Glory shouting at him for something or other, this wasn't anything new. He had other things to be concerned with right now, "Glory?"

Glory stood up to place her supplies in the small box she had mounted on the wall, containing bandages, herbs for disinfecting wounds, and extra blowdarts. All of which in case of an emergency, "Yes?"

Deathbringer had been on edge the entire flight here. He knew it was only a matter of time, likely a few hours, at best, before news spread about the mistake Deathbringer had made to the entire rainforest. He didn't have many friends, but he knew he had to tell someone before the storm. I hope Glory understands. "We need to talk. Right now."

Deathbringer didn't wait for an eye roll or a sarcastic comment from Glory, he started talking before she could do either of those things. He told her everything, every single detail, leaving out only one very important part on purpose. Luckily, nobody knew about his mother, Quickstrike's death, and he was going to keep it that way. Thank the moons Tsunami didn't somehow find out about THAT. At the start of his story, Glory didn't pay much attention, focusing on her task, but as he reached the part when he was about to kill Tempest, she sat down by him, listening as he told her something he thought he would never have to relive again.

"And... That's about it. After that, some more nonsense happened, and soon after, I met you." He tried to smile.

Glory sat there quietly, processing everything he had said. Every second that passed by only frightened him more, until thankfully, she finally spoke, and he felt like he could breathe again, "And you haven't told me, or anybody about this, for years?" She asked.

"This isn't something I care to share, Glory. And I-"

"I don't care!" She said angrily, "You killed a very important dragon! You can't just move on with your life, pretending this stuff didn't happen, Deathbringer. I know you don't like to think about it, but the truth is, you're right. It's like you said: Your job was to keep the war going for the Nightwings."

She sighed, rubbing her temples as she continued her lecture, "Think about the Rainwings: All of them, somehow, look up to you! They honestly think you're a great dragon, even the Nightwings, and you know how much they hated you back when they first got here."

"I couldn't lose that!" He protested, "I didn't want to hurt the dragons who I've worked so hard to get them to trust me! I don't want them to be afraid of me again!"

"Well, they should be!" Glory said she was shouting now. The fact that she was still a few inches shorter than Deathbringer made him slightly less afraid, but angry Glory wasn't a very fun dragon to be around, "You had all this time to put what you did out in the open, to admit to your awful mistakes and show others know you're a better dragon now, but no! You kept your snout shut. It's been almost ten years since you Nightwings came here, ten years! This should have been said the second we settled in, you were right by my side the whole time, I could have told them if you asked me nicely, or even cared to admit it!"

"Okay, okay! Maybe that was a little bit stupid of me."

"A little bit? A little bit?! Deathbringer, this is probably THE stupidest thing you ever could have done! You know that this doesn't just affect you, it affects me also!" Glory snarled, "Every dragon is going to be asking me things like: 'Why isn't that dragon in prison?' 'Why are you letting that murderer work for you?' 'Are our dragonets safe around him?' I'm going to be up to my neck in questions like that, and that's just the best-case scenario! If we had a prison, so help me, I would put you in there!"

Glory took a breath, her scales turning blue as she tried to calm herself down, she sighed, "I'm sorry, but Deathbringer, if everyone was as mad as you told me they were when Tsunami told everyone, then that's bad news for you."

Deathbringer snuck a glance out the window again, relieved no one was there, "Are you going to put me in prison or something?"

Glory sighed, "No, unfortunately, all of my friends believe every dragon deserves a second chance, and unfortunately, I still think you do as well."

Deathbringer smiled, "Excellent, so will you help me out of this, your majesty?"

Glory snorted, "It's GLORY to you, and as for your question, let me put this in words you'll understand:" She grabbed his ear, pulling it tight, "NO! This is on you, and it's up to YOU to fix it! I can't help you out of every mess, so it's up to YOU to make things right! Get out of my throne room!"

Just then, a rolled-up scroll flew through the window, rolling conveniently at Deathbringer's feet. Picking it up, Deathbringer read it quietly to himself. "Oh, it's a threat. Lovely."

"What does it say?" Glory asked, peering at it.

Deathbringer pulled it away from her, blowing a small blast of fire at it, vaporizing it, "Never you mind. It's not something a queen needs to see."

"My hero."She with a roll of her eyes, "Just go, please. I have enough to deal with right now as it is, and now you've just doubled all of that. Figure this out, and then you can come back. Oh, and your teeth should grow back within a week."

"Thank you, I suppose?" Deathbringer said, sweeping ash away with his tail, "Don't you worry, I'll get this taken care of in no time at all..."