The Silver Scale Bond

Prologue

       Long ago, a King and Queen of all dragons ruled over the land and all dragons of every color, species, and size, lived together as one kingdom. The kingdom was called the Silver Scale Kingdom and the rulers were named King Moonshadow and Queen Sunflare. King Moonshadow's scales were midnight black with green and blue spikes and a crest of a moon in blue on his shoulder. Queen Sunflare was all red with yellow and orange wings and snout, she also had a patch of black scales around her eyes, she had a black sun upon her right thigh. The markings she and her mate shared seemed to be of royalty, their marks were earned as they became King and Queen. King Moonshadow had a younger brother, Eclipse. Eclipse hated all the harmony between dragons and wanted to separate them and rule over the Silver Scale Kingdom. He believed dragons should stick to their own elements and specialties. Eclipse looked similar to his brother, pitch black scales and green wings, razor-sharp purple tinted claws on his feet, as well as blue spikes on his back and tail.

      One day, Eclipse fought his brother, Moonshadow, for the throne and power over the kingdom. Sadly, King Moonshadow lost, he was barely left alive. Under Eclipse's power, he demanded that Moonshadow was to be locked away and fed scraps, Queen Sunflare was to become his mate and make Eclipse a true king. Once Moonshadow was locked away, a war broke out between all dragon types, which began separating them into tribes. Some were allies, some were enemies. Queen Sunflare was about to lay an egg before Eclipse took over, when he fought Moonshadow, when she heard that Eclipse wanted her claw in marriage to become a true king, Sunflare flew as far as she could away from her kingdom, so she could lay her egg in peace and have her first hatchling, without any harm coming to her egg. She flew to a distant land where her former kingdom was lost in thick black smoke and fire in the distance. Sunflare hoped Eclipse would never come this far to look for her. She came across an area that was full of cliffs and caves, with a river conjoining into a waterfall on the largest cliff, underneath the cliffs was a forest. Sunflare decided to look for a safe place to lay her egg in one of the caves upon the cliff, she was worn out already from the heat and her wings were sore from traveling so far, she landed near the waterfall and chose the cave hidden by vines, a dragon would have to be as close as she was to see that the vines among the mossy rocks was a cave. Sunflare entered the cave, checking if anything lived around or in the cave, once it was clear she gathered some moss and made a nest at the back of the cave. She stayed there for days until she had her eggs, she had only expected to be having one hatchling, but she had two. One egg was red and green and the other was red and black. Worn out and sad Moonshadow couldn't be here with her, she had to rest up leave her eggs behind in a few days to go back for her mate once she was strong enough. She wasn't sure if he was alive or not but she had to see for herself, she and Moonshadow wanted a family since the day they had chosen each other as mates. She couldn't leave him behind, she promised herself that. Even if it meant she could die, get captured or be forced into marrying Eclipse, she had to take that risk.

         "I'll be back for you, I promise. I'll be back before you hatch," Sunflare swore, covering up her eggs in moss to keep them warm and hidden.

She then left the cave and took off into the sky, back to her kingdom, hoping her mate was okay.

☆☆☆

Months later, the war ended and dragons separated into their own territories and tribes. Dragons that breathed fire became the Fire Tribe, living in volcanoes, dragons that breathed Ice became the Ice Tribe, living within the mountains, dragons that breathed Lava became the Lava Pit Tribe, living in molten lava caves, those who breathed snow became the Snow Tribe, living in icy lands, those that breathed powerful gusts of wind became the Wind Tribe, living in open terrains, those who could control weather became the Storm Tribe, living amongst the clouds, those who breathed and spit water became the Water Tribe, living in oceans and on island and beaches, and the ones who could control plants became the Nature Tribe, living in massive forests. Eclipse arranged the night dragons into his own tribe, day and night dragons lived together under his power, he called it the Eclipse Tribe. Former Queen Sunflare and former King Moonshadow were taken as prisoners in the depths of the former Silver Scale palace, Sunflare had resisted and used all her strength to be locked away rather than marry Eclipse and give him true power, yet dragons were forced under his control. When he had taken over, he had changed his name to Scorch. The 8 other tribes lived far away from the Eclipse Tribe, only three tribes lived close together, the Fire Tribe, the Lava Pit Tribe, and the Ice Tribe. The only thing they had in common was their past but it was long forgotten, elders stopped telling stories so everyone could forget the pain of losing their King and Queen, old friends and mates, and their peace.

As the dragons separated, Queen Sunflare could only regret leaving her eggs behind. They could have been eaten by now by another dragon. She laid on the floor, sobbing quietly beside her weak mate.

      "It's okay, Sunflare. If they are alive I'm sure they'll be alright," Moonshadow said in a quiet voice.

      "I hope you're right," she sniffled.

They made sure to keep the news about their lost eggs a secret, so Eclipse wouldn't find out that there are other possible heirs to the throne, if the eggs ever hatched and the hatchlings survived.

☆☆☆

One night a terrible storm hit, blowing violent winds into the shallow cave that Sunflare had left her eggs for months, which were due to hatch any day. The wind knocked the vines away from the entrance and blew the moss off the two eggs. Both eggs twitched and moved around, the red and green egg rolled out of the nest and rolled behind a pile of rocks while the other egg rolled outside and fell into the river. The black and red egg was pulled along by the current, the egg fell down the waterfall but didn't break or crack, the river within the forest pulled the egg along. The current got rougher, the waves got bigger and the storm carried the egg into the open waters. The egg tumbled in the current and rolled itself in seaweed, it kept floating away and it slipped from the storm, washing up on the shore of a river bank in a distant forest from where it began, the egg became stuck in some mud and cattail plants.

       "Hey, over here Spring. There's something stuck in the mud," a blue dragon called, walking over to where the egg laid, where it was wrapped in seaweed and covered in mud.

       "Is... is that an egg, River?" Asked a green and pink dragon.

      "It is! It must have washed up in the storm in the east,"

     "Do you think it's from the Fire Tribe? Or Ice or Lava pit Tribe?"

     "I don't know, that's a long while away, but let's wash it up and take it back to Blossom, she'll know what to do,"

Spring agreed and together they washed up the egg, it was black and red and was close to hatching. River carefully picked up the egg in her jaws gently like her mother, the tribe nursery caretaker, taught her to do and she strode gracefully back to her tribe camp with Spring trailing behind her.