Games of fire

Anemone

Anemone stepped though the corpses. Seawings looked at her though dead eyes. These were the bodies of her family. She could see her mother, wrapped in chains of pearls. Her sister, Tsunami, whom she barely knew. All of her brothers, all thirty-two of them, lying on the sea floor. Dead. And in the centre of all of it was Auklet. She had her wings wrapped around herself, and was crying. Her deep green scales were shiny, despite the fact that she was surrounded by blood. Anemone stepped towards her, but Auklet screamed and stepped back. Anemone looked down at her talons. They were red with blood. The blood of her family. And in her right talon was a knife. She advanced towards Auklet. The young dragonet tried to run, but she couldn't. Slowly, Anemone approached. She raised her weapon. Auklet screamed, and the elder sister bought the knife down.

Anemone awoke with claw marks on the sides of the stone basin she was in. Her heart was beating so fast she could feel it in her chest. She tasted something metallic, and realized she had been biting her lip. A faint trickle of blood was floating through the water. She pushed upwards  and took a deep breath of the cold night air. She rested her head on the side of the stone basin. It wasn't real. She told herself. But it had felt real. It wasn't the first time she had had that nightmare. It's not real. It will never be real. Slowly, she started to calm down.

She pushed herself away from the edge and let herself float in the middle of the small pool, staring up at the ceiling. The black rock looked menacing, not smooth like sea rock. Her room was big, even bigger than her mother's throne room. But the throne room was gone. The whole palace was gone, reduced to rubble by a sandwing animus. An animus named Jerboa.

It was one of the many things that animus had taken from the seawings. Seawings used to be rich, one of the richest kingdoms. Pearls were rare, and highly valuable. They were everywhere in the sea kingdom. At least they used to be. All of that was gone, along with her mother. Taken by the sandwings. But out of all the tribes, the nightwings suffered most.

They had their island, their pride, and their queen ripped away from them in one swift blow, taken by the volcano. Then they were promised a new life, a happy one in the rainforest. With a fair queen.

And she couldn't keep that promise.

But you can't take revenge on someone who's already dead. Glory of the rainwings had been murdered by the sandwings along with all the other queens. Burn didn't try to hide it.

Anemone stepped out of her tank into the cold night air. Across the room, she could see the faint glow of Turtle's scales. She smiled. He was talking in his sleep again. She walked over to his tank and slipped into it.

In his sleep, Turtle wrapped his wings around her. It made her feel better. Her brother was there. Everything would be ok. She wished she could talk to someone about her dreams. Someone who understood. But there was no one who could understand what she went through, every day. Hiding her secrets. Lying to the world. Only three people had ever known about her: her mother, her older sister, Blister and Whirlpool.

All four were dead.

She had killed Whirlpool. Blister had been murdered by her own sister on the brightest night. And no one had heard from the dragonets of destiny after that day.

Shortly, she drifted into a light, restless sleep. For once, she had no nightmares. Just infinite blackness. It was comforting. But it didn't last long.

Barely an hour later, Anemone awoke once more. She was about to grumble to herself and turn over, but something stopped her. Turtle was standing over her. His dark green scales, exactly the same colour as Auklet's, looked almost black. He was muttering to himself about things, things she could barely hear. He was quite clearly worried about something. That was normal. Everyone was scared of what was coming. She should have just mumbled something at him and gone back to sleep, but something kept her awake. His golden armband, the one he always wore, was in his talons.

His scales on his snout lit up, the way they always did when he had had an idea. He held the golden band close to his face and whispered something. Something that scared Anemone more than the imminent games. Something that scared her more than a whole army of sandwings storming the castle.

"Enchant this bracelet to protect me from any serious injuries."

After that, turtle seemed happier, but sadder at the same time. He lay down in the water, and soon he was snoring. Anemone tried to process what had just happened. Turtle was an animus. An ANIMUS. But he didn't know she was, too. Two animi in the same generation. The only two seawing animi documented since Albatross and Fathom. The odds were non-existent. Something didn't click.

Despite trying her hardest, sleep didn't come to get Anemone for a while.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I finally updated
And really couldn't be bothered to think of something that rhymes with blue

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