Darkness and Light - A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Prologue

It was nearly midnight by the time Darkslayer reached the unnecessarily bright and golden Daywing palace. After this fight, she would have the whole continent in darkness. Her troops followed closely behind, guided by their fearless queen. Time to die, Daywings. She thought, diving towards the open palace gates. 

Queen Sunrise only had two guards stationed at her palace doors, which was very foolish, in Darkslayer's opinion. She's not vigilant at all, Darkslayer thought with a scoff. I could take these two measly dragons within a heartbeat. She swooped down, landed gracefully and silently, ripping the head off the first unsuspecting guard. The second guard spun around at the sound of cracking bones and splattering blood, but unfortunately, Darkslayer stabbed her head against her own spear.

"Come on, Nightwings. Let's go."

Darkslayer stepped into the blinding brightness, squinting her eyes to adjust to the light. At that moment, a shriek echoed through the empty halls: "She's here! She's here!"

Loud commotion distracted Darkslayer from the dragon that soared down from the ceiling. She was a beautiful dragon, with golden scales and white membrane. Her eyes shined a brilliant blue and she wore a sapphire - citrine crown. 

For a split second, Darkslayer felt unsure about killing this queen. Her subjects already started spilling out of the rooms, and Darkslayer heard them say things like,

"Long live Queen Sunrise!"

"Slay the Nightwings!"

"Go, go Daywings!"

They seemed to really like their queen. Darkslayer hesitated to challenge her, but her ambitions got the better of her. This is my chance. I can kill her. Then everyone will honour me as their queen.

"Queen Sunrise." Darkslayer hissed. 

"Queen Darkslayer." Sunrise regarded politely, dipping her head. "How may I assist you?"

"I . . ." She paused for a moment. "I challenge you for the throne of Pyrretala."

There were less gasps and shocked expressions in the crowd than she'd liked, but she was okay with that. "Well?"

Queen Sunrise looked her confidently in the eyes. "I accept."

Darkslayer's face contorted to a grin, as the crowd started whispering and frantic yells were cut off as their queen shushed them. "It's my decision. And I will fight for our tribe. If I die, then I hope -"

Darkslayer leaped at the queen while her back was turned and tried to grab the queen's neck. Sunrise unexpectedly pushed her off and turned, growling. She leapt for Darkslayer and blasted fire at her, but it missed and hit the Nightwing behind Darkslayer. He yelped in pain and started flapping his wings, trying to extinguish it.

Never mind that, Darkslayer thought. She focused her mind on the fight. It didn't matter if she lost one or two subjects; soon she'd be queen of the continent, queen of thirteen tribes. She jumped out of the palace, as she had limited space in here, waited for Sunrise to come out before pouncing once more at her. Darkslayer raked her claws down Sunrise's snout down to her underbelly, but the Daywing queen's scales were harder than she thought they would be. 

Sunrise's subjects started filing out of the palace to watch the fight happen. Darkslayer felt a stab of pain down her ribs, and she could hardly breathe for a moment. Sunrise's claws were unexpectedly sharp. Darkslayer collapsed on the grass, pretending to die. A cheer erupted from the surrounded Daywings and after three seconds, Darkslayer shot upwards and snapped her jaws around Sunrise's throat. Screams sounded from the audience as Darkslayer let go. 

"Looks like you should've worn your ring of immortality in this fight."

Even if her bite didn't kill the Daywing queen, the fall to the jagged boulders below the cliff certainly would.

Sunrise's death was followed by silence. There was a Daywing mother that was covering its dragonet's eyes. The dragonet was crying.

The assembled dragons started leaving the field. Some dragons howled in grief. Queen Darkslayer ignored them, feeling victory rise in her stomach. YES! She had the world in her clutches now. She roared in triumph.

Just one more step to becoming the most powerful queen . . . the ring. . .