Conquest : A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Prologue

The moon shone brightly above an azure lake, casting its silvery rays over the water's surface and lighting up the forest. All was quiet; peace reigned over this part of the mountains. It was eerily silent; no birdsong pierced the air, no wind whistled by, and not a single leaf fluttered.

A lone dragon emerged from the dense thicket of trees.

His fiery scales, large, powerful wings and slanted yellow eyes marked him as a SkyWing. Around his neck was a shiny gold chain, and several rings glittered on his wickedly sharp talons. A scar was slashed across the left side of his snout, stopping at the eye and continuing after it all the way to the very top of the neck.

He approached the lake warily, his gaze sweeping the perimeter. It was painfully obvious that nothing and no one except for him prevailed that night, but he didn't seem to think so. He kept glancing at the rippling dark blue waters nervously.

Finally he reached the edge of the lake and peered at his own reflection. 

Then he spoke. His voice was deep and rasping, and echoed around the place. 'Enough tricks, Azure, show yourself!' he said angrily. 

From somewhere in the middle of the lake, a high-pitched, eerie laughing emanated.

The SkyWing staggered back as a dragon rose from the water.

Her scales were as blue as the lake, her eyes glowing like chips of ice. Her talons were hooked and webbed, and a pale pink jagged scar traced its way across her right flank. Her muscles rippled as she easily struck out for the shore.

At her appearance, other dragons began to emerge.

Some swooped down from the sky; others slunk from the trees; many crept out from bushes and surrounded the SkyWing; quite a few rose out of the lake itself. But all of them had one destination - wherever their leader was.

'You were always easily fooled, Cardinal,' she purred, in a smooth, cold voice. 'Forgive us for playing our little games.' But her icy blue eyes showed anything but guilt or regret; instead, they glowed unnaturally with cruel amusement.

She was waiting to see what he would do next.

'I - of course,' he mumbled, all of his previous defiance gone without a trace. Azure smiled. 'Of course? You dare take up authority; you dare try to pretend you are better than me?' 

Cardinal blanched and bowed his head.

'No, I -' Azure interrupted him. 'Cardinal, you have failed us,' she said softly, dangerously. 'The plan with the SkyWing queen didn't work at all. Fox and Ruby still live. And who was in charge of the whole fiasco?'

Cardinal didn't reply. 

'You,' whispered Azure quietly. Her hooked talons rose off the ground and hovered in the air between her and the terrified SkyWing. 'You are a coward and a fool, Cardinal, and I now understand exactly why your family tried to kill you.'

Cardinal flinched visibly, like he'd been struck, and Azure laughed softly along with the jeers and cries of the assembly. 'I do not understand, however, why you and all of these dragons present here were not able to get rid of them.'

The laughter, catcalls and jeers died away instantaneously. Many of the dragons at the front tried to melt in with their companions, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. It didn't work; Azure's icy gaze trailed over each one of them.

'Your Majesty,' whispered the SkyWing, in a quiet, fearful voice, 'we would've managed it if it weren't for those interfering pests - the Dragonets of Destiny. They were there, they saw us - well, except for that blind NightWing who can't see - they stopped us.'

'And why did they see you?' asked Azure dangerously.

Cardinal kept quiet.

'Guard,' called Azure softly.

A tall NightWing broke away from the watching spectators and marched up to Azure.

His snout was set in cruel, harsh lines; his eyes merciless and cold. 'Honour,' said Azure lazily, not taking her eyes off the petrified dragon in front of her, 'has this dragon been of any use to us?'

Honour smiled.

'No, not that I know of,' he said, smirking cruelly. Azure's unreadable expression didn't change. 'And what do we generally do with useless things, Honour?' the SeaWing said quietly.

Honour went on smiling.

The entire assembly was clearly enjoying the show, and the palpable tang of fear in the air, radiating strongly off the cornered SkyWing. Cardinal kept his gaze intensely focused on the ground.

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion at the back of the crowd of dragons. Azure looked up, frowning, finally tearing her gaze away from her prey. Honour, too, boredly shifted his attention to the scrum.

A dark red dragon pushed her way through the crowd, her vicious orange eyes fixed intently on the three lone figures standing on the shore of the lake. Behind her, several others elbowed past their annoyed comrades.

The SkyWing made straight for Azure, Honour and Cardinal, followed by a tall, thin MudWing, a battle-scarred NightWing with a peg leg and a nervous, twitchy young IceWing who was much fresher and innocent-looking than the others - probably around sixteen or so.

The dark red SkyWing muttered, 'Changbai, don't do anything stupid.' Only her three companions heard what she said. Annoyed, the IceWing snapped back softly, 'I never do anything stupid. If you mean the time when I got smacked in the face by Nightmare's throne room door, that was that traitor Cobalt's fault, okay?'

The battle-scarred NightWing snorted in disbelief, but then a couple of guards broke away from the watching spectators, hurried over to the small group, and sharply jabbed Changbai and the NightWing in the ribs with the hilt of their spears. 'No whispering in Her Majesty's presence,' one of them hissed.

'Your Majesty,' said the ruby dragon, who'd reached Azure. She sank into a low bow and then straightened, trying to maintain her confident pose before the scrutinising, slightly unnerving gazes of fifty or so dragons.

'Hibiscus,' said Azure thinly, 'I trust you have a good reason for interrupting me like this?' 'Yes, Your Majesty,' she said breathlessly. 'It's about the SkyWing queen fiasco.' 

'What a coincidence,' murmured the SeaWing, 'we were just talking about that to our friend here.' She grinned toothily at Cardinal, and then snapped at Hibiscus, 'Well, hurry up, then. What's your great news?' Hibiscus took a deep breath, with the air of a dragon readying herself.

'Queen Ruby of the SkyWings is dead.' 

A/N

Alright.

Recognise some of 'em familiar faces? 

Yup, I brought back Hibiscus, Honour, and that poor peg-legged dragon whom Qibli failed to telepathically communicate with. :)

What do you think of Azure? And what do you think is going to happen to our poor friend Cardinal?

Anyways, totally new plot (almost), new characters, new story - just keep a lookout for any occasional references from Always : Moonbli, okay? 

That is, if you're bored of waiting for me to upload a chapter and are re-reading whatever I've somehow managed to upload.

Anyways.

I love you guys so much, and stay amazing,

The_Cold_Irony <3