The Dragon Wings Chronicles

Chapter One: Song Ailiseu

Tw:knives, intruders, suicide idealization,

Moonlight drifted through a specially cut patch in the small hut's roof, landing perfectly on the sleeping form of our fifteen-year-old hero. actually, let me think momentarily, I dont believe 'hero' is the right word for this instance... but somehow, 'protagonist' feels even less correct...

honestly, the best word for this disaster of a girl is 'agonist'. she doesn't seem like a 'protagonist', and she definitely doesn't fit the criteria for 'antagonist' and she tends to quite often be in agony... this mental debate is inconsequential, isn't it?

back to what I was saying, the moonlight was illuminating the poor girls sleeping form like a spotlight, and that was before the glowy sparkles condensed into a person and woke her up.

In a flash the girl was awake with a knife in hand, lunging at this strange intruder. the stranger, not expecting the ferocity in which they were attacked, fell to the floor in an effort to avoid the extremely sharp knife in the girl's hands. this ended very badly with the stranger flat on the floor, and the Girl on top of her with a knife to her throat.

"who in the Red Woods are you" the girl demanded, with surprising clarity seeing as she had just awakened.

"My name is Gemmanine Hadensra, I am here, Song-ri to keep you safe on your impending journey."

"I have no intention of taking a journey, quest, or whathaveyou."

"Not yet. you weren't supposed to see me to be quite honest-" at this, the girl-Song Ailiseu-quirked an eyebrow and Gemma blushed and looked away,"- I was supposed in and out, just check you were doing well, and wait for you to leave before joining you on the road. I'm kinda new at this, sorry for waking you up."

the girl took one good look at this odd new being- shrugged- and slumped over; exhausted. this left Gemma, still sprawled out on the floor in an odd predicament. Ailiseu was still holding the knife you see, and to complete the awkward nature of this problem, the girl was still straddling her. only, now she was barely awake.

"Now I understand you probably have questions, so if you could put down the knife-" said knife clattered to the floor next to her ear, as she tensed every muscle in her upper body as to not move an inch.

"Well, I suppose that works. Would you like help getting back to the bed?" Gemma paused, shocked at how motherly she sounded, only to be jolted out of a daze when Ailiseu nodded, sheepish, and slid off of her onto the floor.

After a minute of struggling and Ali not helping very much, she finally got the girl back in the bed.

"Perhaps..." Gemma paused, contemplating, "well, you weren't supposed to know I was here, but you do. so maybe I could come back tomorrow, when you're awake, and we could talk?" As she finished her proposition she glanced at -the now fully asleep- Ailiseu.

"Well! I suppose I'll be back in The morning then." She smiled slightly as her form dissipated back into a shower of light.

_

As Ailiseu slept, she dreamt of a battlefield, Stained red with the blood of the now vanquished enemies. The odd thing was, she wasn't standing on the battlefield, she was floating above. As she looked at herself, she realized she was glowing, and not the pregnant or "I just got kissed by my crush!" kind of glowing, more like her body was expelling light. "well, isn't this strange. I'm floating above a battlefield, glowing, and now I'm hearing somebody wailing in, based on the context, grief."

"Whelp, let's do the stereotypical ghost story thing, and go towards the sound, it's probably important," thought Ali bitterly, drifting towards the sound. What she saw chilled her almost to the bone. A sobbing woman was bent over a body that looked terrifyingly familiar.
Mostly because Ali saw it whenever she looked in a mirror.

Of course, there were a couple of obvious differences. She was taller for one and looked a bit more mature in general, her hair was...blue, a very vibrant blue almost the colour of the sky, but also, somehow, reminiscent of fire. oh, and there was a stab wound in her abdomen.
At that moment she noticed the bloodied knife in the woman's grasp and the mutilated gash on her arm.

'did you kill me?' Ali mentally asked the woman, drifting closer.

At that, the woman's head snapped up towards Aili and she gasped, recognition and shock flashing across her face. To Ali's credit, she kept herself incredibly composed as she recognized an older, more battle-worn version of the woman who had so gracefully introduced herself as Gemma only hours before.

"L-Lark?" Gemma asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"b-but" after that one stuttered word Gemma closed her eyes and took multiple deep breaths, attempting to compose herself.

"how?" she asked, opening her eyes and gazing intently at Ailiseu.

" wait, you do not quite look as she doe- did" Gemma corrected herself, then covered her mouth and looked away as tears welled in her eyes.

"What are you? Are you her spectre come to punish me for failing at my duty?"

Ali was very confused, who was this "Lark" Gemma spoke of? Based on the the dead body, and how similar its features were to her own, she'd say she would finally change her name in the future, but that didn't answer why Gemma was sad, no one Ali knew would bat an eye if she vanished, much less died. In fact, Ali would go so far to say anyone she knew would be relieved to hear of her passing. Goddess, she probably wouldn't be to dissatisfied with no longer existing...

"I'm not 'Lark', not yet at least. I'm Song Ailiseu, we met just a little bit ago. I think I fell asleep while you were talking though, sorry."

"You're asleep?" she asked, her eyes-originally downcast-darted back to Ali, hope filling her eyes.

the girl nodded.

"how old are you?" Gemma asked eyes wide and pleading, borderline frantic.

"I'm almost fifteen, my birthday is tomorrow!" Ali was very cheerful of this fact, especially since she was almost positive she would be getting her first mark soon after her birthday.

"Marens Heart! Less time than I had hoped..." Gemma swore, talking mostly to herself. Ali made an inquisitive sound in the back of her throat attempting to catch her attention as the girl had a feeling that Gemma had something very important to tell her. At the sound that Aili made, Gemma started and looked up surprised. "Oh, right. Ailiseu-ri, when you wake up, you have to remember to tell me-"

And with that, Ali's dream world went black.

____________________________________
A/n
Hey, look what I made!
Btw, this is my first actual story, so please don't hate I'm soft.
I do accept constructive criticism tho, and if you think you might enjoy this story, well, I hope you stick around, more is coming and I'm hoping it'll get better!

-Larksong 💜

ps. coming back to this months later... disappointed is an understatement, Imma re-write this.

Pps. I rewrote it, I like it better now.