Peacemaker

Chapter Three

"AHHHH!" Foeslayer shrieked, her wings splayed out in front of her and her legs buckling underneath her weight. A thin streak of smoke was swiftly reaching higher and higher into the air.

"MOMMY!" Peacemaker yelped, running toward Foeslayer.

Foeslayer lifted her talons and tried to grasp her back, where the ebony black venom had sizzled out.

"YOU HAD VENOM?!" Foeslayer yelled, grasping Peacemaker in her talons.

"I-I didn't know!" Peacemaker stuttered, trying to wriggle out of his mother's grasp.

"Are you okay?" He cried, long, wet tears running down his cheeks.

"Silly Peacemaker," Foeslayer said gently, "you are still a dragonet, it was only an accident."

"But I had the chance to stop it!" Peacemaker whined, and Foeslayer spread her wings around him.

The second Foeslayer's wings wrapped around Peacemaker, images began flashing through his head, crisp and clear.

Two dragonets, one, a midnight black dragonet with beautiful teardrop scales besides his eyes, the other, a strange dragonet with white splayed all across her scales like paint. Foeslayer stood with the two, and so did an older dragon, an IceWing.

What? Peacemaker thought, and horrifying images crossed his head, IceWing blood spattered on the black dragon's claws. The one with teardrop scales besides his eyes.

Soon, images that pounded across Peacemaker's head like rain thumping against the roof of their hut, a battlefield of IceWings lay dead across a field. Rain splattered the ground around their talons and washed the deep blue blood away, shifting in the grass like arctic pools.

An image of an IceWing ripped through Peacemaker's brain, he was ripping his tongue out, the same black dragon looming over the IceWing with a look of pure hatred.

The black dragon roared at the crowd of surrounding NightWings.

The IceWing ripped through his chest and tore out his insides, flopping onto the smooth pavilion  and his eyes glazing over, dead. The black dragon looked down at the IceWing, and with a roar of anger, threw the body to the side of the pavilion, where it slammed into the wall and startled a few watching NightWings.

Suddenly, the dragon took off, flying far off into the distance.

"Ow...." Peacemaker mumbled, holding his head between his talons and wobbling as he tried to slip out of Foeslayer's wings. "Are you okay?" She asked, startled when his wings flew to his sides and he tripped over his own tail, falling to the ground with a thump.

Peacemaker blinked his eyes open, startled to realize what had happened. Light filtered through cracks in the walls and he blinked to adjust to the light. A beautiful dragonet sat on a bed made of a willow tree, reading a scroll. She lifted her gaze to meet Peacemaker's eyes and smiled.

Had he been he before?

Firefly! He instantly remembered. How am I here? He questioned, but his train of thought was interrupted by the sweet voice coming from across the room.

Peacemaker groaned groggily and shook his head. Firefly giggled and clasped he talon to her snout. "How did I get here?" Peacemaker muttered. "Don't you remember what happened to you?" Firefly asked, that same voice sweet in his ears like a freshly picked mango.

"No? Didn't I pass out?" Peacemaker asked, not entirely to Firefly.

Firefly set down her scroll. "Well, I found you in the middle of the rainforest! Any panther could find you out there, sleeping soundlessly, you're lucky I found you when my mom let me out to explore. She usually doesn't do that." Firefly said, her eyes dancing like stars. 

I would of protected you.

Shot out that same deep voice in the back of his head. What? What did you say? Peacemaker asked the voice hurriedly, but no answer came. "I have to get back to my mom!" Peacemaker suddenly realized, accidentally shouting it out loud. "Oh, don't worry, I contacted Foeslayer with a messager, she'll be here any second now." Firefly replied. Peacemaker sighed in relief and stood up. His talons still shook and his legs wobbled underneath his weight, but he managed to stand straight. Peacemaker felt a spray of strange emotions wash into his heart.

Anger, jealousy, relief, confusion, and love. 

He shook his head sideways as if trying to dump his feelings out through his ear.

A black dragon entered through the door, and he felt a talon grasp his own. He was gently dragged out the door, and suddenly flying over the treetops. 

"Two days until you start at Jade Mountain." A soothing voice told him. Soon, he was sitting on the porch of the little hut in the night village, watching the stars glimmer in the twilight purple night sky.

The little stars glowing silver and gold in the moonlight reminded him of Firefly's eyes.