Wings of Fire Ship Stories. (ON HOLD FOR NOW)

Glorybringer

May have accidentally kind of written a little angst? Oops. Also, I have thoroughly revised this, pretty much rewritten it a few times (mostly at two am) so there shouldn't be any spelling or grammar mistakes, then again, nobody is perfect, least of all me. 

     I groggily opened my eyes, slowly registering Silver curled in the crook of my neck and the warm sunlight on my back. Then I noticed the face inches from mine and the gray eyes... admiring? I snapped fully awake in an instant. "Deathbringer! What are you doing?" I demanded, firmly keeping my scales from turning bright pink. I mentally growled at myself. My insufferable self-appointed bodyguard could be clever, maybe even cute, but I would not turn pink at the sight of him. I refused. "Who, me?" He asked, mock-surprised. "Why, I'm doing my job! Keeping you from getting killed!" He said, looking for all the world like he had no idea what I was talking about. I rolled my eyes, "accidentally" smacking him with a wing as I got up to stretch. Silver yawned, readjusting her position to stay in place. I shot Deathbringer a glare, but he just laughed.

     "Staring at me is not part of your job." I said, rather forcefully turning my scales orange in "irritation" though inside I still wanted to turn pink from horns to tail. Which was more irritating than Deathbringer himself. He had the audacity to look slightly embarrassed. Lucky for him, a RainWing messenger interrupted us before I could start ordering him to go do something unpleasant.

     "Majesty," he said, bowing low. I mentally raised my eyebrows and made a note to ask Tsunami how she was managing the RainWing training so well. "Starflight says to tell you he's coming to the rainforest for a visit, along with the others." The messenger stated. I nodded, trying to look more like a queen and less like I had just woken up and been ready to yell at my bodyguard. I used my "Queen voice" to seem more convincing as I issued the command. "Tell him and my friends to meet Deathbringer- to meet me at the Arboretum. I will be there shortly." I noticed Deathbringer lean forward and whisper something in the messenger's ear, but I didn't question him right then. The messenger nodded and flew off.

     I let out a long sigh, wondering again if I had done that correctly, if I could have been less commanding, if the RainWing- oh moons, I couldn't even remember his name. All the insecurities came back, sweeping over me like a dam had broken. Feeling like a failure, I sat down and stroked Silver's thick coat, staring miserably at a nearby tree as if I could burn it down with my eyes.

     Deathbringer sat beside me, close enough to brush our wings together. Silver made a little noise, climbing down to pat his talon.

     "You okay?" He asked, all sarcasm gone and replaced with concern. The rare moments like when he was like this, not sarcastic or joking, but genuinely caring, they always... what? Attracted me? No. I thought to myself. That's not allowed. You can't do that. He can't do that. You're the queen. You can order him... to what? Change his personality? Maybe I could order myself to stop feeling the way I felt about him. I let out a dry chuckle.

     "That is not a reassuring answer." Deathbringer's voice snapped me out of my mental battle, and I realized he had moved closer, close enough to touch our tails and our talons. Or maybe I did that. Shut up. Be quiet, inner self.

     "You need a break." He said matter of factly, brushing his wing against mine.

     "I do not." I got to my talons again, shaking myself so hard I nearly dislodged Silver, who quickly clung to my neck again with a little squeak. "I was simply deciding queenly things that you have no business knowing of."

     "First off, I do have business knowing your queenly things, as I am your bodyguard and am and must be at your side at all times. Second, those "queenly things" must have been pretty deep." He flicked my tail with his own, and I realized my scales were rolling mess of red, black, blue, and hints of pink around my wings. I quickly changed them to emerald and orange, sort of my resting colors.

     "It was nothing." I said firmly, maybe a little angrily. You're acting angry, and for what? Waves of blue and gray threatened to spill over my flimsy disguise of emerald and orange, and I looked away, breaking eye contact and deflating though I hadn't realized I'd bristled.

     "If you don't agree to come with me, I may have to take you by force." Deathbringer said, his sarcastic undertone back, but eyes dead serious.

     "I am fine, and I am your queen. I can order you to go away."

     "I won't leave even if you order me to. I believe we've gone over this. Maybe a couple hundred times." I sighed, sitting down again.

     "You're coming. Get up. Or I'll carry you."
I grumbled something, but got up and followed. Why? I shook my head again as Deathbringer spread his wings and maneuvered through the trees,

* * *
      We flew for a while, ducking under branches, dodging half-asleep RainWings, and nearly smacking into trees a few times. From what I could tell, we'd covered just over half the forest, and my wings were starting to ache. Silver had closed her eyes again and nuzzled into me, but her furry arms were tightly locked around my neck in something of a tiny death grip. Deathbringer was silent, and I tried to push away my thoughts, eyes locked on his dark tail as RainWings called out acknowledgements and hellos.

     Deathbringer finally tucked in his wings and arrowed down towards the forest floor, and I crashed into a cobweb as I followed. I didn't notice a branch in the way and it caught on my wing, knocking me off balance and sending me tumbling, crashing through the rest of the way to the ground before landing on Deathbringer with an "oof". I got off him as quickly as I could and he pulled a large leaf down from the trees. 

     "Can I blindfold you?" He held out the leaf. 

     "Why? I'm perfectly fine with my sight, thank you very much."

     "Because we're almost there, and I want it to be a surprise."

     A surprise? So he'd been planning this? 

     "Um. Yes, sure." I shrugged awkwardly, keeping my scales from shifting and causing me even more embarrassment.

     He wrapped the leaf around my eyes, and  I focused on keeping my scales evenly emerald and orange while he brushed my wings with his to lead me along. 

     "Watch out, we're crossing a stream." I sighed a little, I didn't like water much. Deathbringer held my talon and led me clumsily over stepping stones, and I didn't think my scales were cooperating, if his chuckling was anything to go by.