Cutthroat | A WoF Scorpion Den Fanfic

Prologue

A hiss.

The slither of a tail across the floor.

a barbed tail, to be precise.

"What did I get myself into," The owner of the tail muttered to herself. "Of course it's going to be hard to assassinate the most well-protected dragon in Phyrria. Diamondback, the queen of the SandWings... How can anyone expect me to kill her?"

She sighed. Was this productive? No. Was there a chance of her actually finding and defeating the unfair dictator?

Yes! There was!

About .1 out of a billion.

This was hopeless. The dragon who had hired her (A SkyWing named Citrine, a strange but beautiful yellow-orange color, she remembered) must have been trying to kill her. This was a trap, wasn't it?!

She turned around to go home from this awfully prim SandWing palace/city at night, but was stopped in her tracks when she saw a sinister figure, outlined against the rising sun by the entrance to the stronghold.

It was tall and long-horned, with tiny emeralds embedded over her wide-spread wings and above her piercing black eyes. The silhouette's tail was coiled dangerously and her elegant claws were circled with rings, emeralds and rubies and sapphires and amethysts.

Over her neck hung the Eye Of Onyx.

It was Queen Diamondback.

"Well, well, well," she mused, "What do we have here? A little assassin from the Scorpion Den, eh? Coyote, is it?"

"How do you know my name?" Coyote asked curiously- and fearfully, for that matter.

"Oh, aren't you the best assassin in that cruel village?" Diamondback questioned. "I know everything, tiny girl." She stepped forward, revealing her face. "And I would like to recruit you."

"Recruit me how?" Coyote asked, steeling herself.

"Well, I want you to work for me."

"Never."

"Oh, but the thing is, if you say no to me, I will have to kill you." Diamondback smiled maliciously as two guards stepped out of the shadows behind her.

"Guards," she commanded. "Kill her."

"No."

One of the guards shook her head. "We won't kill for you anymore, Diamondback."

The Queen tilted her head at the guard.

Then she seized her throat.

"Last chance. Repeat after me with no hesitation," she hissed into her face. "'I am completely loyal to Queen Diamondback and will do her bidding for the next thousand years, whether I disagree with her decisions or not. I am completely loyal.'"

The guard shook her head again. "I would be lying."

Diamondback snarled furiously. "SAY THAT AGAIN,   HAZEL!"

Now the guard was furious, too. "MY NAME IS HAZE!"

Diamondback promptly drove Haze's own spear into her heart, having stolen it from her talons. Haze collapsed to the ground.

The Queen turned.

"Can you tell me what she meant by we, Dusk?" She asked the other guard smoothly.

"I don't trust you, Diamondback," he replied. "You killed my sister instead of giving her a fair voice. You didn't even correct her name."

Diamondback made a hem-hawing sound, then responded with a swift stab through the heart with her tail in the same spot as Haze.

And Coyote ran from it.

She ran from the gushing blood and the perpetual fear.

Fear.. that you wouldn't survive.

But her dragonet would get through all of it.

Her little... Jackal.