One True Queen: A Wings of Fire fanfiction

preface

Epiphany

I wake up alone, in a stranger's guest room.

It's a pretty nice place--the beige, linen sheets freshly laundered, an inoffensive tapestry of a cactus hanging on the wall opposite me by the small, dusty window, and a battered rug on the floor.

I don't know why anyone here would want to take in a dragonet, especially a wounded one. The Sand Kingdom is hard enough to keep yourself alive in, and no one is looking for an extra mouth to feed. Which means my host must be rich--some crime lord, or renowned assassin. (But if they wanted to kill me, why wait until now? I they'd left me alone, I probably would have just bled out.)

I can't think clearly; thoughts muddy and slow.

It doesn't matter. I have to get out of here, now.

"Hello?" An unfamiliar voice calls, cracking open the door. "You awake yet, mystery dragon?" A dusty-gold dragon with a simple black crown atop her head slips into the room, and closes the door behind her.

I freeze; consider just pretending to be asleep, but it's too late for that.

"Who are you?" I growl. I might not be able to walk, but I could probably still incinerate her with a well-aimed blast.

"I'm Queen Scorpion," she says calmly. "My messengers found you, bleeding out by one of their routes--and I'm not in the habit of letting innocent dragons die in my kingdom when I can do anything about it. Especially not interesting NightWing ones. You've been out for a few days."

"What do you want with me?" I snap.

"All right," she says firmly. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. But I'm also not letting you go back out into the desert until you've recovered. You lost most of your back leg in the explosion--that's gonna take some time to get used to, you know."

"No. No, you're lying," I insist, trying to remember anything concrete about the explosion. I knew I got hurt pretty bad, but I didn't think I'd lost a leg...

"Why would I do that? Look, you can see for yourself if you need proof..." She gestures to the bedsheets, and I pull them tighter around myself.

"I'll be fine," I mutter. "I don't need your help."

She sighs. "Look, kid--you lost a lot of blood. You've been conked out on sedatives for weeks--and right now, you can't walk. I find that hard to believe."

"No." I scoot as far away from her as I can get, into the corner where the bed meets the dusty brick wall. "You can't--you're not--just give me back my things, and I'll deal with this on my own."

"I can help you. You'll be safe here until you get better--under the queen's protection. You have my word."

"Why are you doing this?" I demand, glaring at her. I must sound like a total baby right now, but I'm too tired to find more eloquent words.

"Because... you need help, and if I can give that to you, why wouldn't I? Just because I'm queen doesn't mean I'm some cold, heartless monster, like yours is." She chuckles. "She's a piece of work, isn't she?"

Vigilance.

I don't want to think about Vigilance.

"Yeah. She is," I mumble.

"Is there anything I can get you? Some food, or tea? More painkillers?"

"Just leave me alone."

***

I used to be a princess.

I remember a mom and a dad. A nice family. And sure, my parents fought sometimes, but we loved each other, and that was all that mattered.