Oneshots and Crazy Little Stories

Four Factions

One egg. Two Dragonbloods. Twins.
To any normal Dragonblood couple this wouldn't have been a problem. Twins, two hatchlings from one egg, wasn't all too rare among their species. Egg twins were a little more uncommon than human born ones, the egg being a small space where the embryos couldn't always mature properly.
To any Dragonblood in the four factions this would have been a time to rejoice, but to the royal family it created a problem.
If the twins had been human born, not hatched, then the heir would have been decided by who was eldest. But because they had hatched from the same egg and emerged to the world at the same time, they were both heir in equal measures. The problem: only one could rule.
It had been strict royal tradition that only one heir could rule. In olden days the weaker or least liked twin had been executed, either by a false crime set up by the king or queen or by a supposed accident. People in the faction had begun to see through what was happening and see a pattern, deducing that the royals were not as fair as they portrayed.
With the hatching of the two young Dragonbloods, both of them in dragon form until years later, an uproar began among the people. With no choice but to keep both heirs alive the Queen and her king decided to gift one hatchling to a faction across the river. The Maroon River, so named for its ruddy colouring, split four factions in half. Two one side, two the other. The reasoning of giving the hatchling to the other side was that then both would have a Dragonblood ruler and together they could reign in peace.
That, however, never happened.
As the hatchlings grew they came to learn of Shifting to human and hybrid form at a thought, both seeming to discover it at the same time. They used this to scare small passing children, laughing when the younglings ran away in fear. Their carers drummed this out of them in time, but the mischievous streak never left them.
Then came a drought, bringing famine in its wake. Fishing lakes dried up, crops frazzled in the hot sun and people began to get frustrated. Raids started on the factions, not just from small communities outside of the Kingdom but from each other, too. One day the heir who had been given away followed a raiding party into the faction on their side of the river, only meaning to see what they were doing. Her curiosity got the better of her, though, and she crept her way into a stone built building. With everyone focusing on the raid outside no one saw her as she wandered through halls and corridors. Eventually, and just as she was about to turn back, she came across a locked wooden door. The lock was a quick job for her lock picks, given to her by a burglar before he made his way to the gallows, and she was through the door like a snake. On the other side was a dimly lit room, torches long ago extinguished and glass windows grimy. In the far corner, near a small window, stood a half rotten desk. Upon that desk lay a leather bound book, it's chestnut coloured cover cracked with age.
What she found in there changed her. It changed what she thought she was and where she'd come from. She's been brought up to believe that she was the daughter of the king and queen, both of whom concealed their dragon side, just as she has been taught to do. Now she knew. It had all been lies.
She only managed to read two pages before she was caught and sent home. For years she brooded on the little knowledge she'd found out, becoming sour to her supposed family and losing any friends she had. By time it was her turn to take the lead, after both queen and king has died of a mysterious illness, she had vowed to herself to find out the truth, no matter what it took.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, the twin also wanted to know the truth. She knew that some of her past was a lie and she desperately wanted to know what was true and what was false. She had heard, from many hours eavesdropping, that there was a book with her true past written inside it in the faction beside hers. She had tried many a time to find it, but all her attempts had been thwarted before they had even really begun. Just as if there was a connection between them she also became bitter, the need for knowledge overpowering her.
Both sides people started to live in fear of the two heirs, their wrath at small things dramatic and often ending in dragon fire. When both were in power armies were formed, being sent out into the faction beside the Dragonbloods kingdom to raid for food and search for these books.
it just so happened that the royal who was adopted decided to check out the factions on the other side of the river on a particular day. She, with a small platoon of soldiers, made their way over there and entered the quiet, deserted streets. Scared faces peered from windows, drawing away when they saw who it was. Confident that she wouldn't be hindered she strode through the faction, walking into a circular plaza with tall buildings enclosing it. Only then did she realise the streets weren't as arid as she thought.
That was when the twins met. They stared at each other for long minutes before they both raised their swords. Both knew a little of what their past held by now, mostly from terrified staff who had been there when they had hatched, and neither wanted to harm the other. Eventually they came to a truce; no harming eithers factions and when, if ever, they found the books they would impart the information to each other.
The raids of these two Dragonbloods continued for a year. In desperation the people who's homes were being upturned began to search for the books, too. In triumph they found them, hidden away in the depths of an attic or a cellar, and bargained with the rulers to leave them alone in return for the books. The leaders agreed all too readily, eager for the information to be theirs.
But, alas, all they found in there was little more than what they already knew. The adopted royal already knew of Dragonbloods and what they were, what she was, from scrolls recovered from a burned out library. The other one already knew most of her past that was written, the only part that was new to her was the tradition of one ruler.
They swapped the books and found them more useful than the other had found. Together they decided to abolish the one ruler rule and reign over the four factions, peacefully, much to the surprise of the people.
The books became grails in the eyes of generations after. The words that had turned tyranny to fair and just ruling, handwritten in ink upon paper made from an oak tree. They were treasured long in the royal family, until the very last breath of the very last queen.