𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚜 [ꜱɪᴢᴢʟᴇ] | 𝚊 𝚠𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

|| Prologue ||

Lion the SandWing was flapping his wings fiercely alongside his wife as they fought against the strong winds of the malignant sandstorm.

"Lion, we have to turn back! What about our eggs?!" Sunrise cried, clutching to the satchel that was protecting three gold and red eggs with wiggling SandWing dragonets. The sand and gale were whipping at her glorious blood-red fading into orange ombre sail.

"They'll be fine!! Plus, they're just eggs. We can't go back to Burn's old Palace. We need to build a hut outside of the Scorpion Den. That way we're safe from those crazy Outclaws and thieves," his cold yell was taken away by the sound of the storm but from the glare on Sunrise's face, she heard him perfectly.

"There will still be plenty of thieves and Outclaws anyway, Lion! And those eggs are OUR dragonets. Don't be so selfish," she grunted as the wind, tossed her body. Once she regained her balanced, Sunrise tried curling her barbed tail inward to protect it from the strength of the breeze.

The brown SandWing grumbled to himself. Sunrise is the one being selfish. She's the one who wanted to buy a house in the middle of nowhere. Then his black eyes widened as he saw the Scorpion Den grower slightly closer and closer. "Sunrise. Come on! There's the Den."

The two large SandWings finally arrived and Lion knocked on the door of a large shop or seller. An older SandWing with auburn scales and a gray sail appeared in the doorway, looked at Lion and Sunrise, and sighed. "What do you want Sunrise and Lion?" Lion narrowed his eyes at his old work partner and mentor. "Slither. You look well." "I look better than I feel, Lion. Now want do you want from me now? Money?" "A house. Could you sell us one? And quickly, if you could, our eggs are about to hatch."

Slither raised an eyebrow and let them inside. "I have several for sale. What are you looking for?"

"Well, we...don't necessarily have a lot of money. Is this enough?" Sunrise dumped golden coins and sparkling jewels on the counter.

The older SandWing's black eyes glinted greedily as he snatched all the money. "This will do." 

"We need a house just outside the Scorpion Den, Slither. Enough to fit at least five dragons." 

"Well then I have the perfect place for you."

They followed Slither back out into the storm and Lion laid his eyes on the perfect hut. They walked inside and although it had cheap furniture, it had a kitchen, a living room, and three bedrooms on the second level. It had a balcony and an certain style with the straw roof and wood floors and exterior. 

"Oh Slither, thank you! This is wonderful," Sunrise's dark brown eyes were filled with awe and she scanned their new home. Then, the satchel across her neck started to shake vigorously.

After Slither dropped the house key in Lion's talons and slipped out the door, Sunrise held two eggs out in front of her and he picked up the bright red one. There was a loud cracking noise as the little newborn dragonets broke out of their prison walls. A small whitish gold female SandWing with few bright red scales and dark red wings with and a dark gold sail tumbled into Lion's palm and looked up at him. The serious SandWing could feel himself smiling slightly and he looked over to find Sunrise nuzzling their other two dragonets in her hand, one male and another female.

"What should we name them?" his wife looked up at him, expectingly.

Lion had been thinking of names for the past weeks and he was prepared for Sunrise to ask him this question. "Barren." Lion pointed at the male. "Cleopatra." He pointed at the female next to Barren. Then, he eyed the female dragonet in his talons, proudly, since she definitely seemed stronger than the other two. "And Sizzle."