Wings of Fire Tales The Sovereigns Cults

Chapter 1 Animus and Legends

Chapter 1.

4 years later...

(Glyph)

"Glyph, please pay attention." Their mother, Nightseer, beckons for Glyph to listen to her talk. "This isn't something to joke or play with. This is serious!"

Ever since the family had found out about Glyph's powers, things had been a little tense, now not just Glyph had the power, but so did Sigil. He had found out when his brother was telling him how he thought it worked. Glyph had told him to tell a rock to turn into a bird. He did thinking how stupid it sounded, yet a second after a beautiful white dove flew in front of them. Their mother had held off on telling them anything, just not to use their powers.

Glyph had a hard time of listening, but Sigil made Glyph promise that if Sigil didn't use his powers neither could Glyph.Therefore, they made sure not to do anything until their mother's consent. Now,that they were a year old, their mother thought it was time to tell them.

Glyph squirms restlessly on the ground as if something was poking him in his tail. Sigil watches his twin try to sit still,but failing miserably. Their mother watches them impatiently, and Sigil ends up slapping his brother on the back of the head with his tail.

Glyph stops moving and groans. He looks up at his mother and lets out a long annoyed sigh. "Fine! What's so important?"Glyph demands with a little more attitude than he had intended.

"You two both have animus magic. You know that. It is also important you know that this isn't a gift. It's a curse. Many dragons have lost themselves with this power. It can cause harm to the ones you love. With each thing you enchant you lose a part of yourself. You cannot undo what you have done. Once you enchant an object, you cannot undo an enchantment without using more power." Glyph's mother sounds worried and terrified at the same time. "Have you heard the story of Darkstalker?"

"Darkstalker is just an old legend! If that was true someone got rid of him, otherwise the world would be ignited inflames!" Glyph exclaims rolling his eyes and sighing. Yet, a part of him hoped none of that was true, his stomach churns at the thought of something like that. "Wouldn't it?" His small voice has turned from triumphant to worry in just a matter of seconds.

"I am afraid not. Darkstalker truly was real.He lived millions of years ago, he was an animus. Just like you two. Back then,animus powers were new to the NightWing tribe. His father, Prince Arctic, was an Icewing animus, that's where he got his powers from. The Icewings had these powers for several years; they knew what to do and what not to do. It was said that you could only cast one spell before you started to lose your soul."She continues.

"ONE SPELL?" Glyph exclaims in surprise."But, we have all this power and we can only enchant one thing? That is SO stup-"

"Then we'd better make sure we enchant something good and important." Sigil shoots Glyph a sharp glare."Enchanting...how exactly does it work?"

Their mother looks down on them with kind caring eyes waiting for Glyph to stop complaining. "Many dragons have to enchant what they want verbally, some however might be able to think their spell."

"What happens when we lose our soul?"Glyph asks ignoring the topic their mother had started.

"Well...no one is too sure, but some say it would feel like something was controlling you and you had no power over it. You slowly start to get more violent and have a thirst for power. Some dragons have even killed their family for a chance to have the power their magic can give them."

Glyph glances at Sigil who looks like he is thinking hard. He stares at the ground frowning. The words that come out of his mouth next shock Glyph. "Does it hurt? Does it hurt when it feels like something is controlling you? Can you stop it?"

"I am not sure what it feels like. I wouldn't, know nor would anyone, know what it feels like. I am also not sure if you could stop it." Their mother answers shaking her head and gives them a depressed look. "All I know is that if you use your magic too much it eats away at your soul. So be sure you only enchant one thing and that it means a lot. Something that could change you or the world to something better."

The rest of the day both Glyph and Sigil thought about what to enchant and what they would enchant it to do.

"What about a rock that could do anything you wanted it too!" Glyph exclaims picking up a pebble and tossing it into the small pond in front of their home.

"No that sounds stupid." Sigil responds scribbling on the piece of paper he had. "What about a bracelet that heals?"Sigil says lifting his head from the paper to look at Glyph.

"Meh," Glyph shrugs and leaps over to where Sigil sat drawing. "What are you drawing?" Glyph asks glancing down at the paper in Sigil's talons.

The drawing was well done and showed two Nightwings next to each other. Their small heads had a crown perched on each head. They smiled with a toothy grin and had several dragons surrounding them looking cheerful and happy. Glyph smiles at the drawing his brother had done. Sigil himself seemed pretty happy with what he had done.

"Who are they?" Glyph asks pointing at the two dragons with the crowns.

Sigil looks at Glyph. "It's you and me! We're KINGS!" He laughs and points to the crowns. "I need to finish drawing the castle though." He chuckles and continues his drawing.

The sound of being a king never interested Glyph,but his twin always had his head in the clouds dreaming of a better life. Glyph was perfectly happy with the life he and his brother had minus the bullies who had kind of stopped but would still push them most of the times.

"Sigil?" Glyph asks looking at the setting sun.

"Yeah, Glyph?" Sigil responds not looking up from the paper.

"Do you like your life?" Sometimes Glyph thought to himself that his brother would leave one day and try and find a better way to live. It scared him to think his twin would leave him.

"Well, it could be better, but yeah I like it." He responds not looking up to meet Glyph's gaze.

"Would you ever leave?"

Sigil hesitates and looks up and meets Glyph's eyes. The look on Sigil's face makes Glyph's hopes sink. "Umm-I mean if I got the opportunity maybe."

Glyph looks down at his talons and sighs."Oh..." He sound hurt. "Well, I guess that makes since."Glyph tries to support his brother and deal with the fact he might leave, butit still scared him.



****************
The next morning-



Glyph sits up and looks outside the walls of his stone home. Birds sing their songs and the slight sound of rain hitting the window fills his ears.

Glyph rubs his eyes and uncovers himself from the fur blanket he had. He starts near the door and sees that it had been open a little. Glyph opens it and glances out to see Sigil sitting surrounded by stacks and stacks of paper.

"Sigil? What are you doing?" Glyph asks sleepily rubbing his eyes and yawning.

From the looks of Sigil's face when he turned to look at Glyph he had been up for a while.

"Just drawing." He simply responds."I was bored, I tried to read but then I decided to draw some sense from the scroll I red." He shrugged and continues to draw and color.

"What scroll did you read?" Glyph asks walking over to his brother tiredly.

"The family scroll." He answers looking up and handing Glyph the scroll. "It was currently interesting, kind of dark for my taste, but it was interesting." He shrugs and continues to draw.

Glyph takes the scroll from his talons and opens it.

Sovereign Family History-

The Dagger of Banesblood-

The dagger of Banesblood, better known as"The Accursed Killer," was enchanted by a dragon named Banesblood. Banesblood was an animus dragon who enchanted his grandfather's dagger to give the user strength and to be filled with aggression. Many believed the magic was filed by the blood of those it killed. The dagger has been passed down from generation to generation.

"Why would you read this?" Glyph asks looking at the scroll then throwing it at the back of his brother's head."It looks boring!"

"I don't know it looked interesting tome..." Sigil responds picking up there scroll and setting it next to him gently.

"Whatever." Glyph scoffs and rolls his eyes. "So, are mom and dad up yet?"

"Dad went out to visit the Queen, but mother is still asleep." He responds.

"Okay. Do you want to do something?"Glyph asks collapsing next to his brother with a thud!

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" He stops drawing and looks at Glyph curiously.

"We could go..." Glyph had to think about it for a second. "Oh! Do you want to play kick the pine cone?"

"Last time we played that we made the whole pine tree fall down. Is that really a good idea? What about we play toss the fish? Or coconut!"

"Coconuts hurt, but fish taste good! Come on!" Glyph jumps up and grabs his brother's talon and heads outside.

As they leap into the air the wind blows and the smell of the rain fills Glyph's nose. He takes a deep breath in to take in the smell and slowly lets out. The beach bellow them hold several wonders they have yet to find.

"RACE YOU!" Sigil calls from next to Glyph and bolts off laughing.

"SIGIL!!! NO FAIR YOU STARTED WITHOUT TELLING MEEEEE!" Glyph whines as he flaps his wings to try and go faster. Sigil looks behind him and watches Glyph fail. "GRRR!"

Glyph flaps harder and ends up next to him.

"Took you long enough. Come on who ever catches a fish first will start!" Sigil dives down into the sea below tucking his wings to his sides. He lets out a triumphant "Whoa!"before he hits the water.

Glyph does the same thing laughing and dives head first into the ocean below. As he ducks under he sees several fish swimming away from him. He chases after him until he notices Sigil following a large fish about the size of their head. He follows his brother and chased it with him.

By the time they catch the fish it would already be time to eat their morning meal, but they decided to wait and see if they could get one game in.

"Come on Glyph throw the stupid fish!!"Sigil calls waving his talons in the air.

"I WILL!" Glyph calls to him impatiently. As he throws the large wet fish another dragon swoops in and steals it.

"What are you dorks doing?" Princess Dawnguard's voice asks snootily. "This looks like a good catch thought."

"Give it Dawn!" Glyph shouts flying towards her but she dodges and makes the fish hit him in the back of the head.

"Get it from me." She challenges.

Sigil tackles her from behind and grabs the fish."GOT IT!" He sticks his tongue out at Dawnguard and laughs.

"Hey! GIVE ME THAT!" She demands. They spend the rest of the morning trying to get the fish from one another.

By the time they stopped Dawnguard was ticked off at them for making her chase and dodge them. Yet, Glyph could see she had fun.It was different to see her when she wasn't around her mother or friends.

"I'll get you one day, Sigil!" Dawn threatens but adds a laugh at the end. "Just you watch!"

"HA! Or maybe I'll get you!" Sigil shoots back smiling. "Maybe I'll be the one to end this rivalry,"

That last sentence sent a chill down Glyph's spine. It made him uncomfortable hearing this come out of his brother's mouth.Normally it would have come out of his own not his brother's.

When Glyph and his brother had gotten back home their food was all prepared and ready to eat. Sigil sat next to their mother as usual and Glyph next to their father.

Sovereign, their father, was a tall strong dragon he was quite large for his age and his voice itself was intimidating. It sounded deep and rough like the rolls of thunder in the sky during a storm.Their father was a well trusted and trained soldier of the Queen's guard. The locket that hung from his neck had been there for as long as Glyph could remember. It seemed like it was a part of him. Not to mention the cloak he had for his job as general.

"Dad, Mom, what's the accursed killer?" Sigil asks out if the blue.

It made his dad stop eating and his mother look at Sovereign.

"Where did you hear about that?"Sovereign asks slowly returning to eating his meal.

"The Family Scroll." He answers holding up the scroll and pointing to the drawing of the dagger.

Nightseer takes one look at the picture and then grabs the scroll. "N-N-Nothing to be w-w-worried about." She stutters when she speaks making herself seem less confident and the twins more curious.

"Then why is it in the scroll?" Sigil asks pointing at the scroll in their mother's talons.

"It's in there because it is an old legend about our family." Sovereign reassures them nodding his head. "The dagger was never anything special."

"Do you have it?" Sigil asks tilting his head to look at their father. Sovereign says no quickly but the look on his face says otherwise.

Sigil wanted to see the dagger. Why? Glyph wasn't too sure. It wasn't anything but an old piece of metal, from a very old family legend.