"Dead to me" // A WoF Special

CHAPTER 9

Aqua gasped, coughing and fighting for air while she was choked. She slashed her tail around, the claws slowly loosened grip but still brought her to shore. She turned her claws to the dragon. "FREEZE!" She yelled, the dragon behind her froze and she growled realizing who it was: Silver. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" Aqua barked. Silver growled lightly in his frozen state. Aqua sighed. "What do you want from me, Silver?!"  He sat there, saying nothing. "Unlock." Aqua demanded as Silver became unfrozen, he shook his wings and flicked his tail. "Nice to see you, Princess." He said, Aqua growled. "What do you even want from me.." Silver stood there, speechless, looking down slightly. "I need you dead cause you know my identity." He finally said, Aqua flinched. "What?"
"I'm an assassin, nobody but me or my partner(s) are supposed to know. And you are.. n-nothing to me." Aqua sensed hesitation in his voice. Why'd you hesitate..? She thought, Silver couldn't read her head anymore since she worse SkyFire on her armband. Suddenly there was a splash behind Aqua and she was pulled under with a yelp, she strangled around drop underwater and realized it was River. "River?!" Aqua flashed. He chuckled some bubbles. "In the flesh" He replied. Aqua quickly swam away with River back down to the deep palace. She spiralled into her room and landed, breathing the fresh smell of her room. It was quiet with them for a bit. "Aqua?" He finally said, Aqua looked over at him. "Yes..?"
"Who the hell was that.. I watched the whole thing from just before you got choked.." River said growling. Aqua stammered. "Uhm..-" try to lie Aqua! Try to lie! Her mind yelled. "Don't even think about lying Aqua.." River barked. "IM SORRY! I can't tell you! You'll die if I tell you..!" She yelled. River looked puzzled, he stood by the bed. "What..?"
"River.. if I tell you he'll come after you and kill you."
"Why? Is he going after you?!" River yelled, Aqua flinched, wincing slightly. "Yes.. yes he is.. but.."
"But what Aqua?!" Aqua felt a tear roll down her face. "He's the dragon I love.. my lover.. I-is a killer.."

"Your telling me you were in Bonfire's palace? With him? And he helped you escape?"
"AQUA!"
"HELP ME!"
The image ran in her head over and over, she shivered, then nodded. "But while you were escaping you got pulled back, and he didn't help you?" River asked. "No, he tried but we both would've got caught again and thrown back in, since he was being chased by guards." Aqua said flicking her tail softly. "Why is he trying to kill you again?"
"Cause I know his name and identity, he.. doesn't trust me."
"Then why do you love him?"
"I.. don't even know." She said, looking down. River put a wing around her for comfort. "Well.. I don't know how to help you, sorry Aqua.." He said, Aqua nodded then noticed something out the window, a SeaWing flashing in a pattern. "Hey who's that?" She asked, River smiled happily. "That's Viper, she wants to talk to me-"
"Go have fun with her." Aqua said with a chuckle, River nodded and flew out the door into the water, flashing to Viper, Aqua sighed then went out into the water, then darted to her den on the cliffside, she landed, shaking the rain and water off her wings and slipped in. Why do I even have a firepit in here if I can't even light it- She thought. Aqua layed down on the cold grass in the den and opened the scroll about Albatross. She read every word carefully.
ALBATROSS

Before Prince Albatross became murderous, he was a pleasant dragon, jovial and polite. He was not truly happy, as Queen Lagoon had forced him to use his power to serve her (to atone for maiming Princess Sapphire while they were dragonets). He later expresses little to no remorse about this spell, however; at the soon-to-be Summer Palace, he laughed and stated: "Who swims like a feeble old duck, now?" When Fathom's animus power was discovered, Albatross acted as a mentor, and was friendly and funny, making jokes, laughing, and bonding with his grandson until the night of the massacre. He refused to allow the younger animus to cast spells, suggesting some level of care or concern for Fathom's soul. He showed no hesitance or remorse when he massacred his family, indicating that he may have lost his soul to animus magic.

Albatross was a dragonet when he cast his first animus spell, playing with an empty clamshell on the sunrise beach of the Island Palace. His older sisters, Sapphire and Lagoon began teasing him, saying that he was weirdly different from other SeaWings and that he swam like a feeble old duck. Sapphire grabbed the clamshell that he was playing with, telling him that everything would be hers when she was queen, even "stupid beach trash like this." Albatross, burning with fury, clutched the edge of the shell and told it to bite all of Sapphire's claws off. It did so, maiming her. Sapphire was driven mad by this event, and Lagoon kept her on an island in secret. Soon afterward, Albatross became the queen's animus, performing enchantments for her. These included a conch shell that pulsed with light whenever someone was lying and the growth of the Summer Palace. It is thought that he never felt remorse for maiming Sapphire, though this remains unclear.

(Albatross is still mentioned in many history texts, as his massacre is one of the most devastating cases of animus magic in Pyrrhian history)

Aqua flinched, looking at her talons. Would I go insane? I'm sure other animus dragons have thought about it too. He's a legend that mainly everyone knows about, the SeaWing's now just have a horrible reputation because of it. She thought, she was looking and seeing if there was anything in the scroll mentioning what he looked like.

Albatross is described to be "nearly a neck-length taller" than his sister Queen Lagoon, with long, majestic wings. His scales are a blue-gray but so pale that in places they looked almost white, while his eyes are described to be hooded and so deep, dark blue that they appeared black. His odd coloration carries on through the SeaWing royal family, as seen in a few SeaWing's pale colors. Albatross also was described as having small teeth and a long, hooked snout.

Aqua gasped, leaping away from the scroll, she stared at her scales: she looked exactly like him.. it's like she was a younger, shinier princess duplicate of him, and she was an animus too. "SHIT!" She yelled, burying her head in her talons, growling in anger. Then she remembered something Silver said when she got mad at some SkyWing guards:

"Hey, relax, you're okay. You got me Princess." Silver chuckled, Aqua smiled and rolled her eyes, relaxing slowly.

Aqua made a chuckling hmph noise and gazed out her den window. She grabbed the scroll and rolled it up, putting it with her pile of other scrolls. She stepped outside into the cold breeze, standing on the rock that was playing as a balcony. "Alright Silver, enough games, you've always came to me,

now I'm coming to you."