Shifting Sands (A WOF Fanfiction)

Chapter Two- A Taste of Home

      Going into Sanctuary wasn't exactly enjoyable for a Sandwing. Even if that Sandwing was half Hivewing with a little bit of Night in their blood. Sanctuary was located near a frigid lake fed from a glacier. It was nestled comfortably in the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, and was therefore a paradise for  Skywings, Nightwings, Icewings, Moonwings, Swiftscales, and even the occasional Mudwing. Not to mention night was falling and the temperature was gradually dropping, although they were coming into summer, so the snow was minimal and it wasn't quite as cold. Personally, it wasn't hot enough for Scorpion here anytime of the year. She much preferred gliding over the elegant dunes of the desert on currents all day. Although she rarely had a chance or the time to do that, with business increasing and Jackal needing her help.

      Aunt Jackal had raised her from when she was a small dragonet, only two years old. According to Jackal, Scorpion had showed up randomly on her doorstep one evening, showed her her mother's dagger, then eaten two smoked lizards ravenously and slept for three days. When she awoke she told Jackal everything that had happened, at which point it had been decided that Scorpion would be her apprentice in the art of assassination and toxicology. Thus, the reason that Rattlesnake had hired Scorpion to assassinate Oryx.  She was one of the better known assassins for hire in the Kingdom of Sand. She worked for whoever could pay her better, never devoting her loyalty to one client. Scorpion had become an increasingly popular choice for the shady works and deals in the Scorpion Den. And she enjoyed it. The killing itself could sometimes be dirty or even boring, but most of the time it was a rush of adrenaline, something to keep you focused. Plus you got paid for it.

      Most dragons were at least fairly surprised when they met her, the highly spoken of assassin for hire- Scorpion, who was actually a ten-year old. But the Dragonets had been loosely six when they had stopped the war of the Sandwing Succession, so why not?  She believed you carved out your own destiny, into the perfect shape that you wanted, like a good piece of aspen. Scorpion knew that she wouldn't be doing this forever, but until she could get the next shape, an idea of what to do next, this would do just fine. 

       Her and Jackal's hut was located on the edge of a row of houses facing the East, a medium-sized adobe structure with a woven palm roof. It had one large window in the front with little hanging shards of gemstones such as quartz, amethyst and ruby, along with pieces of smooth sea glass from the beaches on the South shores of Pyrrhia. When Scorpion was four she had made the window her personal project, because she had wanted more sunlight in their home. So she had painstakingly carved into the adobe a large square-shape, created a palm frond blind that went up in the morning to let the early sunlight in, and down at night to keep the warmth inside. Then, through two years of trading with other dragons who either were visiting Sanctuary from the Sky Kingdom with small gems and rocks, or with other dragonets who had traveled to the sea and found the sea glass, she had amounted a beautiful collection of hanging sun-catchers in the window. There still wasn't any glass in it, but that would be expensive, especially the transport, and so Scorpion was still working alongside Jackal to save up for it.

       Small things of beauty were scattered all around their home, from a small potted cactus Scorpion had grown attached to from the desert to a made-up melody she would be humming during study, that the both of them would soon be humming in unison. Most of the dragons in Sanctuary saw Jackal as someone you didn't really want to linger with or visit, especially with her niece there. But the two of them had grown a bond, and Scorpion had seen Jackal's softer side. It usually came out through music. They both loved to sit in the hut at dusk and play their instruments to the smell of whatever was cooking over the fire for dinner. Scorpion would be beating on the bongos and keeping the beat while Jackal created the unique melody with her carved sandalwood flute. 

      All of these things were cycling through her mind as Scorpion pushed her head through the doorway and was welcomed back home with the smell of roasted lizards and burning sage. She breathed in the warmth and the familiar smells, feeling completely at home.

    "I was just wondering when you were going to be coming back to bless me with your presence." Jackal's familiar wry, sarcastic voice sounded from another room.

    "Oh, you know I can't stay away. Whenever I leave you cook the lizards for both of us." An amused snort was her reply. Scorpion grabbed one of the cooked-to-perfection arthropods and munched down. Her aunt had given them a smoky, garlic-y taste that made her taste buds sing. "You cooked them perfectly, as always, Auntie." 

    "What's going on, Scorpion? You haven't even put your things down yet. I can tell something's bothering you." Cameldung.

    "I just got another job from Rattlesnake. I.... I hate doing dirty work for selfish, gold-obsessed sandsnorters like her, that's all." Jackal was a Sandwing, and was a light shade of beige with dark brown and black patterns all down her spine, wings and tail. She had dark, deep eyes, which she used now to gaze at Scorpion condescendingly. 

"Then why do you do those jobs?" She questioned.

    "She pays well." And Jackal got a different gleam in her eyes.

"Doesn't that make you a gold-obsessed sandsnorter?" 

    "I- Well... well at least I use it well and actually help others with the gold that I earn. Do you honestly think that Rattlesnake has actually worked for any of her wealth?" Jackal had a mysterious simper, and it made Scorpion wonder, once again, what the older dragon hadn't told her. Jackal had always kept secrets, so Scorpion actually knew very little of her background, or whether she had any relatives other than herself. 

"I guess you should go get ready for your next assassination then."