Master of None: A Wings of Fire fanfiction

17.

Way

Anaconda and I always bump into each other in the palace at night. She jokes that her insomnia must be contagious. When she's too tired to keep up an act, she doesn't make for bad company. We talk by the window in the dreary, faded moonlight, surrounded by potted plants.

"So, what did you make Papaya and Macaw search for?" I ask Anaconda, sitting by the window. "Today, I mean–I never got to find out at the party." Precocious talked with strangers the whole time, and I sat there beside him, trying and failing to think of something interesting to say.

Anaconda looks at me oddly. "It's the same thing as always–directions to the Altar of Durian. He couldn't complete the final two days of the wedding without them. Hid it at one of the spots I used to take him as a dragonet. I figured I'd go easy, just this once." She furrows her brow. "It was odd, though–I couldn't find the scroll my in-laws gave Ocelot and I in the archives. I got a copy made as best as I could."

"Do you.... think they'll make it to the end of the wedding?"

"Oh, of course they will," the queen says, shaking her head. "The question is, what will they do to my kingdom afterward?"

"Will they take over immediately?"

She shakes her head. "No, no. Ocelot and I will retire in a decade or so, and then we'll pass it on, just like her parents did to us. One couple may only rule for thirty years."

Most tribes probably think they're the best one, but the RainWings might actually be right. I wonder if that was part of why my parents always tried to keep on good terms with them–so they could learn how they'd managed to do so well and copy their system.

But really, it all comes down to that jungle. No other tribe in Pyrhhia has a buffer between them and any potential invaders that also provides for the kingdom in such abundance.

Anaconda picks a flower off one of the vines on the window, shredding it in her claws. "You know, if it weren't just me, I wouldn't say yes to a war against Sharp-eyes in a heartbeat. If I could, I'd storm his castle myself, kill the dragon, and be done with the whole thing. But if we escalate–if we make ourselves a target–I have to watch the thing I swore to protect burn to the ground. I hope you understand, that's why I'm reluctant."

I shrug. "I know. I get it. If I were in your place, I'd probably have had a nervous breakdown by now, so you're doing better than me."

Anaconda sighs heavily. "Have you ever heard of the Downfall?"

I shake my head.

"It's... something between a myth and a prophecy. A warning passed down from queen to queen for time immemorial. You NightWings, you worship the night sky, don't you? Well, RainWings worship the jungle. The land that keeps our kingdom prosperous. That's why the palace is built around the biggest tree in the jungle. That tree was the first to grow from a batten wasteland--what remained of the continent after The Scorching-- to shelter a group of dragons who were to tend to it. We have royalty, but we don't have hierarchies–the jungle cares for everyone more or less equally; its resources are not to be hoarded too much by any one party. But the old stories, they said that the world moved in cycles. That someday, despite all the checks and balances put in place, there would come a king or a queen who would step too far. Who would let other tribes incur on their territory, who would take more than their fair share. And in turn, the jungle grew furious at this ruler. The fruit stopped growing, the animals died. The rain stopped falling. The trees burned, and the air grew thick with smoke, and by the time the king or queen could see what was happening, it was already too late. The whole kingdom died, them included–and in its ashes, a new Rain Kingdom grew."