Chapter Text

It had been a beautiful night in the vanilla kingdom.

When his morning tea had been interrupted by screams of sudden and massive forest fires, Pure Vanilla had initially been afraid something much larger and more dangerous was afoot, but it had just been some young typhoomerangs getting into a spat. Though the incident (which had required him and Orchids peacekeeping and healing skills almost all day) had delayed his departure by a day, he was sure the other Ancients would be fine until he left the next morning. Orchid didn’t deserve to immediately fly several hours to the Golden Cheese Kingdom after working so hard all day.

Its not like the Beasts attack was happening that night.

So long as Cacao’s sources were correct, they still had 3 nights until the night of the Beast’s raid on the Golden Cheese Kingdom. Pure Vanilla had sent a terror mail to inform his friends of his late arrival, and he knew they would understand. His kingdom and his people would always come first. It was his duty to protect them.

As Orchid rested in her heated stone nest by the foot of his bed, Pure Vanilla stood on his balcony, listening to the night life of his kingdom and allowing his eyes to open to watch the fuzzy blurs of light and colour he knew were his subjects. The faint lights of houses and shops extinguishing one by one, so many people settling in to gentle sleep despite the chaos the world had been thrown into just a few short months ago.

The fires had been put out with relative ease despite their size, though it had still taken most of the day. The night sky was clear and shining with starlight, the weak glow of the crescent moon overshadowed by its sparkling friends. He had always loved the stars. The little dots of light shining so brightly he could see them even with his awful vision.

One last night before he and Orchid would be flying off into true battle for the first time in… well, he wasn't quite sure how long. It had been years, certainly.

It had been a beautiful night.

It was then, of course, that the sky burned red.

Nothing so peaceful as a beautiful night could last forever.

Rarely did Pure Vanilla wish he had been gifted with clear sight, but this was one of those moments. Perhaps, had he been gifted with the sharp eyes of Golden Cheese, he would have seen the Beasts coming.

The Beasts were smarter than that though.

Pure Vanilla understood instantly what had happened.

The Beasts had played him, tricking dragons into starting fires to keep him from his friends and then attacking while all the other Ancients were too far away to help him. Approaching at night, knowing the ancient guarding the city wouldn’t see them coming without his dragon, who had been exhausted from putting out fires and helping heal the injured all day.

The attack on the Golden Cheese kingdom had been a ruse.

How had they not guessed?

Of course the Beasts wouldn’t risk attacking the five Ancients and their allies head on. It was better to pick them off one by one. Starting with the blind healer.

Perhaps if he had been gifted with the strength and fearlessness in battle of the other ancients, he wouldn’t have been so scared. He was not though. He was Pure Vanilla, the healer. He did not rush into battle like his companions, he fought when necessary yes, he was far from defenseless, but when put next to the other ancients?

There was no time to waste on fear.

His kingdom was burning, there was no time for anything besides getting into the air as fast as possible.

Pure Vanilla was no great warrior, but he was still an Ancient and a dragon rider.

“Orchid!” he shouted as he turned to rush back into his room, rousing his dragon from her slumber, “we’re under attack!” Immediately alert, he heard as Orchid rose and ran to his side, shaking the sleep from her heavy head.

Luckily, he hadn’t found the time to dress in his nightgown yet, so he didn’t have to waste time changing. He had been sitting on the balcony in the black turtleneck and simple white pants he had been wearing while dealing with the fires earlier.

Those fires seemed so small now, comparing them to the great wall of red that was consuming his kingdom.

Pure Vanilla allowed his eyes to fall shut as Orchid led him quickly through the halls of the castle to the armory. He called to every staff member he passed, telling them to sound alarms, call the other riders, send a terror to the Ancients, evacuate civilians. Whatever he could think of that may help minimize the damage. There wasn’t time for complex plans, he just needed to be in the air.

The Vanilla Kingdom had very few soldiers considering its size, and since none of their dragons could fly as fast as Orchid, they had left the previous day to make it on time to the Golden Cheese Kingdom.

There were only 6 dragon riders in his kingdom at the moment, including himself. Pure Vanilla and 5 children, who he had convinced to stay home and defend the Vanilla Kingdom during the attack on the Golden Cheese Kingdom.

How foolish he had been.

His small kingdom was not overflowing with riches, he was the least powerful warrior of the ancients, and his island kingdom was isolated, providing no notable geographical advantages in the war. He had assumed the Beasts had no reason to go after his kingdom.

Unless their only goal was the weaken the Ancients. Losing their healer would certainly make taking down the others easier.

They had allowed themselves to become tunnel-visioned on stopping the Beasts attack on the Golden Cheese Kingdom, and had forgotten to consider any other angle. Stupid, that was the only word for this situation, and the only person to blame was himself. Now the kids were in danger, his kingdom was in danger, Orchid was in danger.

He should have seen it coming a mile away.

Orchid pushed open the doors to the armory and he rushed inside after her. His old armour, unused for years, had been taken out and cleaned up for his flight to the Golden Cheese Kingdom.

Running his fingers over the smooth, scaled armour felt something like a dream. He had not touched it in so long, it hardly seemed real. Pure Vanilla did not open his eyes as he removed the armour from its stand piece by piece and fastened it over himself.

Made from Orchids scales, it was one of the finest suits of armour in the world. Lighter than leather but tougher than groncle-iron, flexible and sleek, perfectly matched to his dragons unique skills. Pure Vanilla hadn’t worn it a dozen times.

In only a couple minutes, he was covered neck-down in glittering white scales. He allowed himself one moment to open his eyes, watching his tiny, foggy reflections in the metal of the two small knives hanging on the wall. He couldn’t really see himself, but he knew he looked nothing like himself, like the healer he knew he was. It was something he could feel in the way his heart beat too fast, in the way his palms were slick and sticky all at once.

There was no time for his own morals, his own hatred of violence. It was time to defend his kingdom with everything he had. Pure Vanilla grabbed the knives and buckled them into their scabbards on either side of his hips before he threw on his helmet. Just in case.

Orchid growled lightly from her place by the door. The king closed his eyes and swung himself onto her back, comfortably fit in the space between her head and her wings.

His dragon raced for the open door to the courtyard. She was the fastest dragon there was and in seconds, Pure vanilla felt the familiar lurch of takeoff and they were in the air. The unnaturally warm night air rushed past him, sliding over his scaled armour and slipping its smoke choked wind through the cracks. He resisted the urge to cough.

A roar, some distance ahead of him. The great, proud call of a Monstrous Nightmare.

The Beasts were here.

The sound of wing beats approaching from behind him announced the kids arrival, he signaled Orchid to slow down with a tap. “Pure Vanilla!” Gingerbraves familiar, achingly young voice yelled over the wind, “whats happening!? Is that the Beasts!?”

“It’s definitely the Beasts!” Wizard yelled back, “we went over this!”

“Little ones!” Pure Vanilla shouted, there was no time for those two to start bickering, “where are Custard and Chile Pepper?”

“They’re helping evacuate,” Strawberry’s soft voice was hardly audible over the wind.

“We thought it was best Custard not get too close,” Gingerbrave added, “we don’t want him getting hurt.”

Pure Vanilla wanted desperately to scream in that moment, to be able to send the three children flying by his side home. Tell them they shouldn’t be made to fly into danger any more than the boy who was hardly 4 years younger than them. He knew he needed them though. He alone was no match for the Beasts.

He didn’t feel much better with 3 children as his only allies, but they were all he had.

“Okay, we have to be smart about this,” the king said, voice more commanding than the kids had ever heard from the usually gentle healer, “The rest of the Ancients won’t get here in time to help, so we’re all we have. We cannot win this fight, but we can stall long enough for everyone to get out of the kingdom and hide in the forest. Once they’re hidden, they can last long enough with Custard and Chile Peppers protection for the other Ancients to get here with the armies.”

There was a beat of silence.

“So we just need to hold them off long enough for everyone to get away.” Gingerbrave said softly “haha, yeah, easy peasy, we can do this!” He forced a laugh.

Pure Vanilla would have loved to reassure him. To tell him that everything would be fine.

Instead, he opened his eyes to see the Beasts, squinting through the quickly growing smoke. They were almost at the edge of the main city, burning every building they came across. If he strained his ears, he could hear the wing beats of their dragons.

From left to right, he took stock of his enemies as best he could.

They were alone, was the first thing he noticed. They were confident enough in their plan to not bring along any of their allies.

Based on the blurry colours of the dragons, he assumed their order was Mystic Flour, Silent Salt, Burning Spice, Eternal Sugar, and-

Shadow Milk, the last of the Beasts, was missing.

He supposed he should have expected it. The final Beast never showed himself. Nobody had ever seen his dragon. Still, he would have expected the Beast to raid his kingdom with the others.

Not a great start. Pure Vanilla hated the uncertainty of the missing Beast. Was he somewhere else entirely? Or was he simply laying in wait for the perfect moment to strike?

Burning Spice’s Monstrous Nightmare let out a fierce roar, its body lighting up in flames as it charged straight for Pure Vanilla.

Shadow Milk could wait, they had more immediate problems.

“This will be ENTERTAINING!” the Beast shouted.

“I’ll deal with him, you three split the others between you. Break them up as best we can.” Pure Vanilla shouted, smiling as best he could, though he knew they wouldn’t see it through his helmet. He hoped they heard it in his wobbling voice and knew he was trying to smile for them. Did the kids even have armour? He felt sick. Orchid pumped her wings and they gained height quickly, he heard as the kids split up beneath him.

It had been so long since they last fought, but he and Orchid knew each other as well as they always had. He leaned down against her neck as she tucked her wings to her sides and dove with a familiar shriek of wind splitting around them. He felt the warmth of her charging a blast and held his breath as she shot it straight ahead, flying through it.

The crackling of fire stopped in place when the Ancient and his dragon vanished, heavy wings treading air. The Monstrous Nightmare was massive, larger than any Pure Vanilla had ever met. Definitely a titan wing.

“SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!” Burning Spice growled, swinging his massive, flaming parashu around his head. Nothing responded, and for a long, awful moment there was silence.

A high pitched whistle broke through the night, but the Beast couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. His head turned rapidly from side to side as he tried to find the origin of the sound. A blast of purple fire hit his axe without warning. The sky next to him seemed to shake as something flew right by his head, there and then gone in the space of a blink.

His parashu fell to the ground, crashing with a deafening boom and extinguishing.

“I will DESTROY YOU FOR THAT!”

The Beast’s dragon reared back its head, letting loose a great jet of fire as it spun in circles, searching for a target that was no longer there.

As they circled back around for another shot, avoiding stray flames with practiced moves and impossible speed, Pure Vanilla opened his eyes to check on the kids.

Close to the castle, a great rocky beast that he recognized as a Sentinel grappled with a massive pink-red blob he knew was Strawberry’s Crimson Goregutter. Sentinels were strong, deadly intelligent dragons with counters for almost every attack, but Crimson Goregutters were one of the biggest, toughest dragons out there. They’d fight to the end for their riders.

She’d be fine for the time being.

To his left, he could see a lot less. Based on the almost complete lack of noise, Gingerbrave was fighting Mystic Flour. Her battles were known to be silent, the soft clicking of her Triple Stryke’s tail the first and last thing her victims would hear from her. The sky was filling with thick smoke and Gingerbrave and his Stormcutter took full advantage of it, flying circles around the slower Triple Stryke, swinging its tails with deadly speed but failing to hit the more agile flier through the smokescreen.

He’d have to attack eventually. The Beasts dragons were older, stronger. They could only play these games for so long before their own dragons tired and were overwhelmed. Still, he’d be fine for now. They had the advantage of fully rested dragons, while the Beasts had likely been flying several hours to reach his island.

Great blasts of thunder rang out from his other side where Eternal Sugar and Wizard fought. It was a noisy fight- Wizard was screaming something and the Death Song was trying to sing over the noise of the Skrills booming storm and Eternal Sugar seemed to be singing as well- but through the fog and the brilliant blasts of lightning Pure Vanilla couldn’t see anything. No screams of pain yet though.

Wizard was smart, he’d be fine until Pure Vanilla could make it over there to help.

Burning Spice sat tall on his dragon, waving his fists in the air as he shouted, eyes narrowed as he searched for any sign of his enemy.

They dove, Pure Vanilla flat to Orchids neck as she took another shot.

If they knocked the Beast from his dragon, surely it would run. No dragon would willingly follow such a cruel rider. That long, high whistle broke the night and Burning Spice turned towards it just in time to get a plasma blast to the chest. Pure Vanilla winced at the thought of seared flesh and broken bones, but the Beasts, especially Burning Spice, had proved themselves practically unkillable, surviving blows even the Ancients would struggle to shrug off. He’d live. Pure Vanilla wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be relieved about that.

He heard the scream as the Beast fell from his dragon, twisting his body with Orchid as a rush of air gave away the Monstrous Nightmare’s frantic swipe in their direction, massive talons rushing by inches from Orchids tail as she dodged.

The Monstrous Nightmare let out a roar of anger at its missed attack as it dove, catching the Beast in its claws and throwing him back into its saddle. Pure Vanilla gasped in horror as the Beast cheered at the catch.

“Good catch, Tiger!” the Beast yelled with shocking amounts of true affection, earning a rumbling growl of happiness from his dragon. “I thought you flew a LIGHT FURY Pure Vanilla, not a terrible terror! What kind of PATHETIC plasma blast was that!” The Beast laughed cruelly, sharp eyes scanning the battlefield for his enemy once again. “COME ON, FACE ME AND TIGER LIKE A REAL DRAGON RIDER!”

His dragon roared in delight, tapping its horns to its riders chest in a gesture that seemed almost like genuine care for the Beast. The bond of a true dragon rider and his dragon. Not tamed with force or violence or mind control.

The Ancients had made many assumptions about the Beasts dragons, clearly most of them were wrong.

There was a scream of terror from Wizards battle, followed by a cruel, high laugh that had to be Eternal Sugar. He tapped his finger against Orchids neck and she made a sharp turn towards the kid, pushing her wings to their limits as they raced through the sky.

Orchid shot through the air like a bolt of lightning, invisibility wearing off just as her claws met the neck of the Death Song. The blow threw its head off course, the amber it shot from its mouth just missing Wizard. Eternal Sugar’s head shot to the side along with her dragon, but he and Orchid had already vanished. The distraction gave the Skrill an opening, and Pure Vanilla heard the bang a lightning blast making contact behind him.

Burning spice had seen Orchid reappear and had followed them, Pure Vanilla could feel the heat of the Monstrous Nightmare on his back. Orchid swung left as a jaw full of teeth bigger than Pure Vanillas hands snapped inches from her wing. He tapped his foot to her side and she twisted her wings, tucking them to her sides as they fell upside down. He gripped her neck tightly as she shot a plasma blast right into the Monstrous Nightmares belly.

The huge dragon reared back, nearly throwing off its rider. Orchid righted herself and Pure Vanilla let out the breath he had been holding as they fell. He never liked that gambit, but against larger, stronger opponents (of which there were many for he and Orchid. Light Furies were not the largest of dragons) it was an important asset.

A blast of fire came roaring their direction, just missing Orchids head but scraping the edge of her wing. She grumbled in displeasure and Pure Vanilla patted her neck in apology.

Orchid had 2 shots left.

“Make it count,” he whispered into Orchids ear. She growled her reluctant agreement. Neither of them liked to hurt dragons if not necessary, but taking out just the rider clearly wasn’t an option here. They needed those two out of the air.

The Light Furies wing’s beat powerfully as they climbed, circling above the Monstrous Nightmare. It was strong, terrifyingly so, one swipe of its claws could knock them out of the air for good and its teeth could take off his dragons head with one bite, but it was slow, clumsy in the air. Orchid flew circles around it and it couldn’t spin fast enough to catch them with an attack.

How ironic was it, that one of the world most powerful, deadly dragons ended up with the Ancients healer?

The Light Fury, his kind, wonderful Orchid. In the old days, long before the age of dragon riders, people told ghost stories of the Light Fury. The unholy offspring of ice and death itself, the beast that haunted travelers through snowstorms in the coldest regions, that had never been seen but was known by the death that followed it like a cold gust of wind. They said that the Light Fury never showed itself, never stole food, and never missed.

They were right about some things.

Orchids scales warmed beneath him as she swooped under a massive talon and dodged snapping teeth, charging her second to last shot. They suddenly pulled upwards, the Monstrous Nightmare unable to react fast enough as they made space for a dive bomb. There was that familiar high whistle of air as she dove, wind parting like water around her sleek form as she spun to the side to avoid a jet of fire.

“Don’t hold back,” he whispered.

The shot hit the monstrous nightmare perfectly in the shoulder of its wing, a massive explosion of light and fire. There was a scream, an angry roar, and the Nightmare was falling. It fought uselessly to stabilize its self with its remaining wing, sending its bulk spinning. The crash shook the earth and stars. Pure Vanilla could feel it vibrating through the depths of his bones.

Orchid suddenly dropped right, barely dodging the blast of flames that flew by their head. It reached high into the sky, exploding above their heads. A signal to the other Beasts as much it was a final attack.

Burning Spice and his dragon were alive, just downed.

Perhaps they should have hit him harder, but there was no time to think about that. No time to bite his nails over the morals of hurting the Beast or his dragon.

“Good shot Orchid,” he praised, and her growl was enough for him to know she was just as conflicted as he. “Let’s go help the kids, I don’t know how long that will keep them down, but it should give you a chance to recharge a few shots-”

Behind them, in the direction of the castle, Pure Vanilla heard something he never thought he would hear.

The sounds of battle cut through by a high whistle, the sound of something moving impossibly fast, forcing the air to yield to its speed. A second later a great bang shook the earth, followed quickly by the sound of stones cracking and rubble falling.

It was the sound of a Light Fury. Nothing else moved fast enough to make that sound, no other dragon shot with such raw power, such precision out of a dive bomb.

Orchid was the only Light Fury left.

There were screams as the rubble from the attack fell. There were people down there.

He twisted his body in perfect sync with Orchid as they turned towards the attack at impossible speeds.

It had to be the fifth Beast.

The kids would be fine for now. He had to believe that.

The last Beast, the one they Ancients knew the least about.

Shadow Milk had shown up after all.

He was tricky, smarter than the other Beasts in his attacks and infinitely less predictable. Nobody knew what he would do next. He struck by night, destroying towers and buildings seemingly at random. Nobody ever saw the attacker, only heard the crazed laugh afterwards as he flew away. Then, weeks later once people no longer feared a second strike, he’d come again. Sometimes, he’d mix it up by attacking many nights in a row. One or twice he had attacked a village only once, letting the citizens stew in fear as they awaited a second strike that would never come.

The Ancients had no information on what he truly looked like or what dragon he rode. All anybody could say after an attack was that a stranger with mismatched blue eyes and a scar had recently come to town, who was quickly decided to be Shadow Milk after the stranger with curious blue eyes came up in a few too many of the villages he attacked. He had a taste for chaos, dressing in disguises to sew fear and distrust throughout the kingdoms. Spreading lies and rumors while dressed as a hundred different people.

Some attacks would go weeks before being connected back to him. Lightning marks that had to be a Skrill, but no storm, Claws marks perfectly in the shape of a Fireworm Queen’s, but no fires. Every attack was more confusing than the last.

Some even claimed that it had to be Pure Vanilla attacking them, because they had heard his dragon, or seen the plasma blast that no other dragon could recreate. One had been absolutely convinced that Orchid was not the last of her kind, and the final Beast must have trained one himself. There was no chance of that though, Pure Vanilla was certain Orchid was the last of the Light Furies.

The leading theory among the Ancients had been that Shadow Milk managed to get his hands on one of the few remaining Dramillions, but Dramillions were notoriously loud dragons. The biggest attacks, the ones that caused true destruction rather than simply spreading fear, were always dead silent.

Nothing one moment, and the next a building was collapsed in a great blast of pruple-blue flame.

Many had claimed to hear a high, terrifying whistle before the blast. The Ancients had ignored that evidence, believing it fearful rambling of villagers who had just been attacked by a Beast and nothing more.

It had to be a Dramillion. No other dragon besides his own could fire a blast like that.

It had to be. The whistle was a coincidence, an illusion, a trick, something. Anything but another Light Fury.

Pure Vanilla had seen the Light Furies go extinct with his own eyes.

Orchid swooped low, grabbing a terrified child in her claws and getting out of the way moments before the tower collapsed on top of them. Catching up to the evacuating citizens, Orchid carefully set the child down next to their terrified parents. Their gratitude fell on deaf ears as Orchid turned to scan the sky for their hidden attacker.

“Think you can find them?” He asked, and Orchid responded with a great roar. She listened for several moment. Nothing. She turned to the left, roaring again. The nubs on top of her head flicked, searching the sky with sound, but went still as she turned sharply. She followed whatever she had sensed with her eyes, growling low in her chest. Being sneaky was hardly an advantage against a Light Fury.

A shriek of air, Orchid threw herself into the air to avoid a plasma blast aimed at Pure Vanilla’s head. Too close.

“A particularly sneaky Dramillion then,” he whispered, “we can take that down in one shot, can’t we?” Orchid shook her head, growling in a way he knew meant he was wrong.

“Orchid? What do you-” a laugh rang out from somewhere behind them. Insane, that was the best word for it. High and scratchy and utterly deranged.

Orchid spun just in time to avoid a shot that would have hit him clean off her back. He hadn’t heard anything. Not the heavy movements of wings or the subtle swish of a Dramillions tail.

In shock, he opened his eyes, trying to spot the Dramillions vibrant scales and dark stripes.

Nothing.

Except- no, there was something, just for a moment. Something pitch black, invisible except for how it blocked the light of the stars behind it. If the brightness of stars hadn’t been one of the few things his poor vision could see, he probably wouldn’t have noticed. It moved as fast as Orchid, faster than any living dragon should be able to fly.

“But- it can’t be. Orchid, have I lost my mind or was that what I think it was?” He whispered in shock, hardly realizing he was speaking. Orchid rumbled an agreement beneath him. She had known since she used echolocation to find it.

Night Fury.

They were extinct, had been for many years. The less fortunate of the two Fury species. One Light Fury had managed to survive the old hunts, he had freed her himself, cradling the fledgling gently in his arms. Listening to the endling Fury cry as he stepped out of the cage filled with broken eggs and old bones, carrying her over the bodies of the hunters who had taken her. He had been hugging her tight like only a terrified child could. Supposedly, no Night Fury had been so lucky.

He and Orchid had spent years searching, but hunters had thoroughly wiped out the Furies.

Pure Vanilla knew almost nothing about Night Furies. So few surviving studies existed on the elusive species, and most were several millennia old, written in languages long dead. Besides them being a sister species to the Light Furies, sharing the plasma blast and a body built for speed and stealth, he had no idea what to expect.

Another screech of air, another shot. Orchid dove and Pure Vanilla ducked just in time for it to fly over his head. Had he not been flying on a Fury himself, there was no chance they wouldn't have been hit by now. He made a mental note to give Orchid all of her favorite treats later, if they survived this.

“We need to take it down, but we can’t when it can see us be we can't see it. Do you think you have 2 shots in you Orchid?” Without hesitation, Orchid shot what should have been her final blast and Pure Vanilla held his breath as they soared through the flames.

Orchid was an expereinced fighter with many years of battle beneath her wings, in situations of stress she could recover firepower much faster than a younger, less experienced dragons. It was a long shot, deadly inconsistent, but it was their only chance. Hopefully it had been long enough since her first shot for her to recover it.

They circled far above the heads of the evacuating citizens. Waiting for the other to give itself away.

Orchid was as patient as her rider, and for several minutes she flew in complete silence.

Suddenly, the air shifted, whistling as something dove for another one of the castles towers, aiming to knock it onto the people below. Shadow Milk had gotten impatient. Pure Vanilla heard the screech of its dive towards his citizens, and Orchid spotted the slightest glow of purple-blue as it opened its mouth to charge a blast. She was right on its tail.

The Night Fury must have heard her coming, it swung itself to the left just in time, but threw off its own shot, missing the tower and the people below and hitting the gardens instead. Sad, but flowers could be replanted. His people were not so easily recovered.

Orchid’s own blast missed its wing, but it didn’t move fast enough to completely dodge. The blast hit its tail in a brilliant explosion of purple, sending it spiraling through the air, wings flapping loudly as it scrambled to regain altitude, injured tail lashing back and forth uselessly. It roared and screeched as it tumbled uncontrollably through the air, the first noise it had made the entire fight. Pure Vanilla could smell burnt scales, as sickening as every time before.

Orchid hovered in mid air, her scales and his armour regaining their white colour as her invisibility wore off.

“Good job, you saved them. I’m so proud of you-” something hissed in the distance, and before either of them could react a plasma blast struck Orchids side. The Night Fury had managed one last shot before it crashed into the forest surrounding the city and they hadn’t heard it coming.

Sometimes, he wished he and Orchid used a saddle. It would certainly have him falling off of her less often. Invisibility came at a cost, he supposed.

Orchid fell hard and fast. he couldn’t hear anything besides her terrified roars and the rush of wind in his ears. Pure Vanilla reached for his dragon, but she was too far, spinning wildly in the air as she tried to regain control of her flight.

Moments before they would have hit the ground, she managed to get her wings straight, slowing her fall but unable to stop her momentum. Teeth grabbed onto his arm, luckily protected by the dragon scale armour, and pulled him close to his dragons chest. Faintly, he could hear the shouts and gasps of his people, pointing at their king as he fell from the sky.

Orchid hit the ground hard, wings wrapped around her rider to protect him. Pure Vanilla pulled himself out of her arms, bruised but fine, and rushed to check over his dragon. He ran his hands softly over her sides and wings, searching for injuries. She winced as he ran his hands over her left side. Bruising for sure, and something might have been broken, but it was hard to tell through his gloves. Orchid grumbled out her dissatisfaction with the movements, trying to push him out of way with her head and standing on shaking legs.

Dodging her head, he rushed back to make sure her tail fins were fine before allowing her to grab him by the arm with her mouth, teeth retracted.

“I know you think you’re fine, but I am the healer here and will be the judge of that,” he laughed, glad she was fine enough to hate his fussing. The shot had been from quite a distance, so it must have hit a lot less hard than he initially feared. Luckily, they hadn’t been too high up either, and Orchid had managed to slow a lot of their fall. Still, that injury on her side concerned him. He knew how hard a plasma blast could hit.

“I don’t think you’re going to be able to fly-” Orchid roared her displeasure with his diagnosis, kneeling and trying to force him back onto her back with her tail. “Orchid! I cannot have you getting hurt out there- yes I know the kids are still up there, I’ll find a way to get up there and help them but you-”

There was an explosion above him, the sound of screaming that had to be Strawberry. Opening his eyes, he saw another of the castles towers collapsing as a clearly exhausted Crimson Goregutter flew shakily out of the wreckage. Silent Salt’s Sentinel was seemingly unaffected by the fight, while Strawberry and her dragon looked just about ready to collapse.

In the distance, he saw similar turns in the other kid’s fights. Gingerbrave was fleeing, Mystic Flour tight on his tail. He imagined her dragons tails getting closer to the exhausted Stormcutter with every swing. Wizard and his Skrill were out of fire power, no more lightning lit up the sky, and he could guess it wouldn’t be long before Eternal Sugar managed to get a hit on him. Skrills were fast and the smoke provided good cover, but how long would that hold up against a Beast?

In a great roar of red fire, Burning Spice’s monstrous nightmare lifted itself from the ground and rejoined the fight. The Beast let out a battle cry as he began burning down trees and buildings alike, swinging his parashu wildly, destroying everything in his path.

Four beasts, seemingly unaffected by the fight, verses 3 exhausted kids and an injured Light Fury out of shots.

They were doomed, weren’t they?

As he stared at the blurry scene in horror, Orchid ran up behind him, ducking her head low enough to squeeze her large head between his legs and throw him onto her back. He had no chance to protest as she threw herself into the air violently, roaring at the Beast that had hurt Strawberry. Orchid had as big a soft spot for little ones as he did.

Growls rumbled through Orchids chest as he struggled to stay on her back through her wild flight, charging head-first into the Beasts Sentinel despite the way her wings trembled and her tail shook, legs flailing wildly as she struggled to stay in the air.

“Orchid! Calm down! You cannot fly like this-” Lazily, as if hardly considering them worth its effort, the Sentinel swung its heavy stone tail in their direction. It was aimed at Pure Vanilla, but in her flailing Orchid ended up in its path instead. Its tail hit her square in the side, right where the Night Fury had hit before, sending them both flying into the nearest wall of the castle. Gods above was Pure Vanilla glad he had chosen to wear his full armour. He cried out in pain as his back met the hard stone.

The wall collapsed beneath their weight. Luckily, very little ended up on top of them as they laid sprawled on the newly exposed floor of one of the castles many hallways.

If there was any chance before that they rejoined the battle, it was gone. Orchid roared in pain where she laid a few meters from him, wings curled around herself protectively to defend her injured side. Pure Vanilla didn’t feel much better himself, though his armour had absorbed the worst of the crash through the wall, he almost certainly bruised his ribs (and everything else). It was hard to tell what exactly he had hurt when the best answer to ‘what hurt’ he could think of was everything.

Fighting through the dizziness and the pain, he pushed himself up with weak arms so he could see through the new hole in the wall, blinking smoke and dust out of his eyes. In the distance, he could make out the blurry blobs of colour he knew were the Beasts and the kids. Silent Salt was flying back towards their allies, who were now chasing the kids through the skies almost joyfully. Their dragons roared in amusement as the kids screamed in terror.

The Beasts were playing games now.

The fight was won and Pure Vanilla had lost.

At least the civilians were almost certainly out of the city by now. Hidden among the dense trees. With Custard and Chile Pepper guarding them, they could surely last long enough for the other Ancients to hear of the attack on the Vanilla KIngdom and come to their aid. They had to. It couldn't all have been for nothing.

Pure Vanilla’s arms gave out beneath him and he fell back to the cold stone ground. He let his eyes fall shut. All he could do was hope the kids managed to somehow evade the Beasts and escape into the forest with the others. They had survived crazier odds.

Those kids had lived through so much already, they didn’t deserve this. How could he have been so stupid?

Orchids tail flicked in his direction. He laid a hand on it. There was great comfort in knowing his oldest friend was still by his side, he relished the small contact.

How long, he wondered, until the Beasts came to finish him off? He and Orchid had no way to fight back, no way to defend themselves. His free hand reached weakly towards one of his knives, but he was shaking too hard to get a grip on it.

A roar, impossibly familiar, suddenly ripped the sky.

Then there was a second, and a third, and then countless others, joined in a symphony so beautiful it brought tears to his eyes.

It had to be hundreds of dragons, more even. Pure Vanilla, overcome by a sudden surge of adrenaline, pushed himself up to look once again to the sky, hoping desperately he was hearing correctly.

Far in the distance but approaching quickly were 3 dragons. He could just barely make out their colours- yellow-gold and red-green and silver-purple. Behind them was more dragon riders than Pure Vanilla had seen in one place in over a century.

It was the armies that had gathered at the Golden Cheese kingdom, led by 3 of the ancients.

Somehow, they had heard, and they had come.

His friends had come for him.

His smile was wide and wet from the tears that dripped freely down his face. The kids would be safe, his people would be safe.

Dark Cacao was the first to break formation, dropping into a sudden dive and putting himself between Mystic Flour and Gingerbrave. Her Triple Strykes tail slid off his Razorwhips metallic scales uselessly.

Hollyberry followed, her massive Rumblehorn throwing her great weight into Eternal Sugars’s Deathsongs side. The lighter dragon was sent flying, letting Wizard and his Skrill flee.

Finally, Golden Cheese and her Armourwing rushed forward to confront Burning Spice with a great stream of fire, the two large dragons clashing in midair as he rushed to meet her attack.

As the armies approached behind the ancients, the Beasts seemed to realize their plan had failed. If they had brought their own allies, perhaps they would have stayed, but alone they were overpowered. Defeated by their own pride. Silent Salts Sentinel abandoned its chase of Strawberry. It let out a great roar and began to fly away, shooting a single blast of fire high into the sky.

It was a signal of retreat, and the Beasts obeyed. They fled their Ancients and followed Silent Salt high above the kingdom.

For a moment, the world seemed to pause. The Ancients and their armies hovering, waiting to see if the Beasts would attack again. The Beasts seemed to turn, and he thought they were all looking towards the forest that bordered his kingdom.

Were they waiting for their last member?

The 4 dragons let out great roars, calling for a fifth that did not answer.

The Night Fury was alive, Pure Vanilla had heard its roar as it crashed. It did not respond to its allies calls.

When the Ancients began to fly towards them, the Beasts chose to turn and soar away from the Vanilla Kingdom as fast as they could. He was porbbaly making things up, imagining hesitation that wasn't there, but they seemed almost reluctant in their retreat.

A roar echoed from the forest, weak and quiet but undeniably the Night Fury. The Beasts were too far away too hear it, and Pure Vanilla figured nobody but him noticed either. Dragons calls were to be expected from the woods. Nobody in earshot but him would think to listen for the sound of a Night Fury.

The moment the Beasts were out of eyesight, Pure Vanilla’s arms gave out once again and he knew there was no more hidden reserves of energy in him. He laughed, a low, breathy thing. He hardly had enough space in his lungs to breathe. The laugh sent him into a painful coughing fit.

Golden Cheese was the first to find him, her eyesight was as sharp as a birds, but the others came quickly when she yelled for them. “I found him!” she had shouted, hurting the healers ears and getting an annoyed grumble from Orchid. In moments, he was surrounded by 3 ancients, 5 kids, and 8 dragons.

“I’m fine, really, just, uh, a bit bruised.”

“By the looks of it, you got thrown through a wall, you don’t get to say you’re fine. The Beasts made it sound like you were dead, but I knew you two were tougher than that.” Hollyberrys loud voice was far more subdued than usual, but she still managed a weak joke as Dark Cacao gently scooped him up, bridal style. It was, perhaps, slightly embarrassing how easily he lifted him, but he was too dizzy and aching to really feel embarrassed.

“Orchid- check on Orchid,” he coughed as Cacao climbed carefully back onto his dragon with him in her arms, “she got hit pretty hard.” His head was spinning. Razorwhips were smooth, fast fliers, but he was used to Orchid and probably had a head injury. It felt like they were flying at a Groncle’s pace through a hailstorm.

“Don’t worry Pure Vanilla, she’ll be fine. Hollyberry is working on moving her safely. She’ll help her. She’ll bring her all the way to White Lily if she needs it. Orchid couldn’t be in better hands.”

“But- but the kids- little ones- and the- and the civilians- did they get away? I need to check them all for injuries- I need- I need to-” he was blabbering almost nonsensically, fear dripping from his every word, coating his tongue like honey. His mouth was sticky with sweetness and the smoke was invading his lungs. He couched painfully. When had his helmet been removed?

“They are all fine, Pure Vanilla. The kids are with Golden Cheese, she’ll make sure they’re all patched up and resting, and everybody else is checking on the civilians. Just rest, by the time you wake up I promise everything will be okay.”

His heart was beating far faster than was normal and his palms were sticky with sweat and every part of him hurt. “Cacao…” he whispered deliriously, head lolling backwards to try and meet his eyes. His vision was too blurry to truly make eye contact, but he tried. He then forgot what he was going to ask and let his eyes shut to think instead.

Was he concussed? He was pretty sure this was a concussion.

Dark Cacao might have responded to his non-question, but he didn’t hear it over the blood rushing in his ears.

He blinked, and when his eyes reopened he was in his bedroom. The medical wing had been destroyed, a voice very far away said, seemingly talking more to themselves than him. His armour was gone and bandages had been wrapped around his chest. Something cold was laid on his head. Ice pack. Probably.

His eyes flicked to the side, to the large window-doors that led to his balcony, looking out over the glowing fires that still hadn’t been put out and the burning light of sunrise over his kingdom. His eyes drifted to the dark green mass at the edge of the window.

Somewhere out there, he blearily remembered, was a Night Fury. He still hadn’t truly processed that fact, mind focused on the rush of battle and then distracted by Orchid’s injury.

He could feel it, deep in his bones and blood, deeper even, in his very soul. A connection, some strange, small part of him was pulling towards that forest. It pushed against his ribs like a dragon hatching from an egg.

There was a Night Fury in the woods.

Probably the last one.

And he was going to find it.

Pure Vanilla’s eyes slipped shut and he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Waiting for an invisible opponent got boring quickly, Shadow Milk realized. Circling above the evacuating civilians of the Vanilla kingdom almost lazily, eyes scanning over the sky. Light Furies were, evidently, as frustrating to find as ever.

Without a storm, Marionette was limited to her natural camouflage, so Pure Vanilla should have had a distinct advantage. However, the silly king and his even sillier dragon had never seen a Night Fury before. Shadow Milk was still in control of this fight.

This did not help his boredom.

He knocked his foot lightly to Marionette side, gesturing towards the evacuating civilians. A large group of them were conveniently standing right beneath one of the castles tall stone towers. So many people in one blast, how could he pass up such an golden opportunity?

Marionette twisted her mouth in an imitation of a smile (a very good one for a dragon, she had learned from the best!), turning towards the tower silently and slowly gaining altitude. Pure Vanilla probably hadn’t moved far from their original position, so they were safe to make space for a dive bomb. More power so the tower would crumble in one blast and fast enough nobody would have a chance to move. It was so perfectly set up! He needed to applaud the choreographer.

Air whistled around them as they dove, that subtle heat rising in Marionettes chest as she charged a plasma blast. She opened her mouth to fire and- something shrieked behind them. The Light Fury was right there and coming down fast.

Pure Vanilla hadn’t strayed far from his people it seemed.

“Shit!” he whisper-yelled, throwing his weight to the side as he and Marionette twisted out of the way of the blast.

For half a second, he thought they had succeeded. Their own attack went awry, hitting in what was probably a garden (a terribly boring garden, really. Looked to be mostly whites and yellows. And yet despite all the boring pale flowers, not a single milkcrown! He had to talk to the set designer of this place someday, really), but at least they had gotten out of the way.

He heard the bang before he felt it, the sound of that so familiar explosion of light and fire, right next to his ears.

They were hit.

Marionette jerked under him, her weight thrown sideways as she lost control of her flight, veering hard towards the forest bordering the kingdom and quickly losing height. Her wings flapped as hard as they could but they only continued to fall. Shadow Milk twisted to see where they had been hit and was horrified to see the flames still licking at the end of her tail. He couldn’t tell in the dark how bad the damage was, but what he could see didn't look good. There was no way she flew with her tail like that.

His arms gripped her neck as tight as he could to keep balance as she flailed, sending them spinning through the air. He leaned down to be heard through her wild roars and screeches. His oldest friend, hurt and terrified. “I know it hurts, but we’ve got to land. Spread you’re wings as wide as you can and don’t think about your tail, let it drag. You can slow our fall without it, even if you can’t fly,” he said, “I know you can do it Dolly.”

Somehow, Marionette managed to hear him despite the wind rushing through their ears and her own panic. Her wings shot out to their full spread and her tail went limp behind them. Hopefully, the wind had put out the flames, but he couldn’t turn to check.

Their fall didn’t slow much, the tops of the trees still quickly approaching, but at least they weren’t spinning wildly anymore.

Marionette turned sharply and without warning, shooting a plasma blast towards the hovering form of the Light Fury. The turn threw off their already shaking glide and left Shadow milk scrambling to keep hold. A saddle sounded so nice in that moment, but he and Marionette had never liked them.

“Marionette! WHAT was THAT for?!” he yelled, getting an angry roar in response as they began falling once again towards the forest. That shot had destroyed all their effort to not crash violently to their deaths, and it risked seriously hurting the Light Fury! They were trying NOT to do that! Marionette spread her wings wide again, trying to slow their fall into something mildly controllable. They once again settled into a shaky downwards glide, losing altitude quickly. They were past the point of slowing and without a tail there was no way they gained any height.

Shadow Milk’s eyes widened when he saw a patch of blue through the rapidly incoming green, a small lake. It looked deep enough despite its small size, but he couldn’t be sure from this height. They would have to act now if they didn’t want to miss it. “Think you can aim us there?” he shouted over the wind, pointing towards the water, almost directly beneath them now, “dive for it! It looks deep enough to not kill us!”

Marionette growled, but listened. She pulled her wings tight to her sides like she was going for a dive bomb and angled them steeply towards the water.

Shadow Milk held his breath as water rushed over them, cold and uninviting, but strangely calm. Almost nice after the crazy rush of battle and falling uncontrollably through the sky. He waited to hit the rocks at the bottom and die a painful death. Such a boring death, not at all what he thought was scripted for him. Death by something fun like laughing too hard would be far more appropriate, and after his fall he always assumed he would die violently, killed in battle before he and the other Beasts could complete their mission (he remembered, for a moment, how he used to imagine his death. Before it all. All he had wanted was to have his family with him and Marionette by his side. He had always hated being alone. The Fount was a sentimental old fool). Of course, he’d prefer not to die at all, but if he had to die-

Shadow Milk realized he had been considering his own death for far too long.

The water around him was cold and biting, but he was alive. His eyes shot open. Marionette did the same, looking around the shockingly deep lake. A few small fish swam away from them rapidly, gathering around the edges of the lake. Far below them, a soft sand ground was overgrown with greenery and decorated with small rocks and shells. It was so perfect, almost like a fish tank.

A smile grew on his face, very different from his normal sharp one.

Marionette swam them to the surface, wings pushing them rapidly through the water. Their heads broke the surface and Shadow Milk let out a cheer and a laugh as Marionette paddled to shore, letting out her own roar of excitement.

Sand was definitely going to be in his armour for weeks after this, but Shadow Milk didn’t care as he let himself fall sideways off Marionette into the sand, collapsing on his back and letting his limbs spread around him. “WE LIVED!” he shouted, laughing wildly “I can’t believe that worked!” Marionette followed him into the sand, rolling around like a content cat and throwing sand everywhere. The rumbling purr coming from her chest sounded like his own laugh.

“Hey- hey- no! MARI YOU ARE THROWING SAND IN MY MOUTH-” he was cut off by a yelp of pain, Marionette going stone still next to him. She began flailing around in pain, wings sending sand flying and tail lashing.

The joy of surviving the crash was quickly forgotten as he rushed to Marionette’s tail, which he couldn’t get a good look at as it swung wildly. “Marionette!” he tried shouting, but she didn’t seem to hear him as she writhed in pain.

The moment her tail was in reach, he jumped onto it, pinning its length to the sand with his weight. The sudden presence on her tail made Marionette pause, panting in pain. Her wings twitched at her sides instinctively, itching to run and get away from whatever was causing her pain, but she stayed still as he looked over her tail despite definitely being strong enough to throw him off. It wouldn’t take a quarter of her strength to send him flying, and he let out a sign of relief that his (admittedly somewhat insane) idea worked.

Shadow Milk bit his lip to keep from swearing. His eyes went wide in terror.

It was bad, worse even than he had expected.

He was prepared for a lot of things. Burned scales, broken bones, maybe even burn deep enough to hit flesh or a ripped tail fin. Plasma blasts could cause serious damage, even to something as strong as dragon scales, Shadow Milk knew that first hand. Still, all of it he could have dealt with with the supplies Mystic Flour had forced him to carry in his small bag, which he was forced to carry since he and Marionette refused to use a saddle like the others.

Marionette’s tail fin was utterly destroyed.

Scraps of burnt flesh clung weakly to her tail, but nothing recognizable as one of her fins. Deep burns crawled up her tail and her remaining tail fin, eating through her scales and into blackened flesh. At least the other half of her tail was still in one piece despite the damage.

It would heal.

The burns would heal.

A missing tail fin could not be healed.

While most dragons rely to some degree on their tails to fly, Furies are especially dependent on theirs. Their incredible speed and agility in the air is largely due to the four fins on their tails. Without any one of these fins, a Fury would be rendered completely incapable of flight.

Shadow Milk remembered every word of that book. He had written it himself.

A downed dragon is a dead dragon.

Shadow Milk without his dragon was a dead Beast.

Snapped out of his panic by a nudge to his shoulder, he turned towards Marionette. She tilted her head in question, but he could read the fear and pain in her large eyes as clear as any prose. A shaking purr rumbled out from her chest, as if trying to comfort him despite her pain.

Shadow Milk dug through the bag slung over his shoulder, never more thankful for Mystic Flours pestering. The supplies were meant for emergencies, when she couldn’t make it in time to heal them and they had to do it themselves.

Bandages, some sort of cream with instructions written in Mystic Flours neat handwriting on the back, gauze, a bottle of small and large pills he assumed were painkillers with a note telling him (him specifically, not just the Beasts in general. SHADOW MILK was written huge across the top) in large letters that the bigger ones were for dragons only, more gauze, and a small kit for emergencies sutures. Shadow Milk knew vaguely how to use all of it, but he had never really cared for healing. There were about a million and one more interesting things to research.

He grimaced and moved so that he was straddling Marionettes tail, as close to the damaged end as he could get without causing more pain. She let him pin her tail with minimal complaint. He pulled out the cream, gauze, and bandages after throwing one of the large painkillers to Marionette.

It just had to last long enough for the others Beasts to find him, or for him to find them.

He could do this.

He had to.

Shadow Milk grit his teeth and got to work.

—

Pure Vanilla woke up to a kingdom no longer on fire, absolutely no sense of time, an ache in his chest, and no Orchid. He could not hear the sound of his dragon, waking or sleeping, anywhere near him.

When he pushed himself out of bed in a panic for his oldest friend, he was met immediately with large, steady hands at his shoulders, pushing him gently back down into bed. He let himself be laid down without argument, opening his eyes to try and discern who was at his bedside.

To his shock, it was not any of the Vanilla kingdoms nurses or doctors (all of who he knew quite well), but Dark Cacao.

“Oh- hello, Cacao- is everything alright?” He rasped through his dry throat when the other Ancient turned to meet Pure Vanilla’s eyes with what was probably anger. He could feel it radiating from him like the cold winds of his snowy Kingdom.

Dark Cacao breathed slowly before responding, composing himself. He got the feeling he was trying not to yell and only barely succeeding.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, voice low and full of more emotion than Pure Vanilla had ever heard from the usually stoic Ancient. He sounded less like he was going to yell and more like he was holding back tears. Pure Vanilla opened his mouth as if to search for a reply but was cut off. “It was me who led us down this path,” Dark Cacao whispered, like a confession. A sinner in the booth, admitting something terrible to a priest that would never truly forgive him.

“Dark Cacao,” Pure Vanilla finally managed, “you cannot-”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I almost got you killed. I almost got Orchid killed. Those brave children and thousands of innocent people could have died today Pure Vanilla-”

“I know,” Pure Vanilla interrupted, “I know, trust me. Gods above I know. It was terrifying, I thought we were all dead.” he laughed, just on the edge of crazed, coughing and trembling as it sent his chest shaking painfully. “But you cannot allow all the blame for this to settle on your shoulders, it is too heavy a burden for any one of us to carry.”

“We thought you were dead and I was the one who-”

“Dark cacao, now is not the time for blame. We must regroup and move forward in our war with the Beasts.”

There was a long, painful pause.

“I suppose you are correct, Pure Vanilla. As you always seem to be.” Dark Cacao relented, slumping in his chair by the other Ancients bedside. Based on the empty glass that smelled faintly of alcohol and the yellow blobs of what was probably feathers scattered throughout his room, he assumed the other Ancients had their turns watching over him as well. Or at least Golden Cheese’s bird had been in to see him.

Dark Cacao reached for something on his nightstand, lifting a glass of room temperature water to Pure Vanilla’s lips. He drank it gratefully, soothing his dry throat.

The moment Dark Cacao sat back down, Pure Vanilla remembered his initial panic in waking up.

“Orchid! Where is Orchid?” he shouted, once again fighting to push himself out of bed even as his arms shook and dark Cacao rushed to gently push him back down.

“She’s fine, Pure Vanilla, lay back down. You are hurt and I was told very sternly to keep you in bed. You bruised your ribs, as well as quite a few other places. You were lucky to get out without any broken bones, even with your armour,” Dark Cacao said, keeping one of his hands firmly but softly on top of Pure Vanilla to stop him from bolting or whatever other insane plan he had concocted to go find Orchid. “You’re right to worry, she was severely wounded by your fight with the Beasts, but Golden Cheese got her to White Lily quickly. We’re lucky your kingdom is closest to the nest.”

“She’s okay?” Pure Vanilla’s voice was small and high with fear, his eyes wide as he stared up at the other Ancient.

“Other than the fact that we wouldn’t let her see you? As healthy as she could be.”

“I will have to make the flight out to thank the Bewilderbeast myself for his aid,” Pure Vanilla whispered, holding a hand to his rapidly beating heart as his breathing evened out. “Wait- does that mean she is-”

“Waiting outside for one of us to let her in? Yes. She fled the nest and flew back here as soon as she was healed, beat Golden Cheese home by many hours. It took several barrels worth of bribery fish to convince her not to barge in here to check on you herself, but you needed rest.” Dark Cacao smiled, the small, barely visible thing that pure Vanilla knew meant he was amused. The other Ancient showed little emotion, but Pure Vanilla had learned over the years how to interpret the minute changes in his expression and voice. Dark Cacao was one of his most trusted friends and allies.

“Stay in bed,” Dark cacao said sternly as he stood, “I will go find Orchid for you.” Pure Vanilla sat up against the pillows the moment the other Ancient was gone. He hated to lay still for so long, but his ribs protested the idea of doing anything more than sitting up.

Outside, he could see he colorful forms of many dragons flying around. It seemed they were helping repair the damage from the attack and put out the small fires that had been missed by the earlier efforts to extinguish the Kingdom.

Outside, he could see the forest that bordered the city. The feeling was still there, deep in his chest but fighting outwards.

The Night Fury was out there, and so was its Beast.

Pure vanilla needed to find it. He wasn’t sure why but he knew he had to. Something was drawing him out to the forest, and whether it be curiosity, guilt, or something more like fate he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he needed to find that dragon.

The door to his room slammed open, crashing against the wall as Orchid forced herself into the room. Down the hall, he could hear Dark Cacao shouting something, but he didn’t care as he opened his arms wide to accept his destiny.

Orchid jumped, practically flying across the room and onto his large bed. This was pretty much the only reason he had chosen to keep the unreasonably massive bed despite being the only one who slept in it.

The Light Fury stepped gently over him, careful no to put pressure on his chest as she nuzzled at his hair and face. A deep purr rumbled through her chest as her wings wrapped protectively around them, stopping anyone from getting to close.

Pure Vanilla wrapped his arms around her neck as best he could, careful not to jostle his injuries. The smile that split his face was wide and tear-stained.

“I missed you too, Orchid,” he whispered.

—

“Well..” Shadow Milk said, looking down at his work, "you can't say I didn't try." Marionette growled behind him, trying to twist her body to look at her tail without throwing Shadow Milk off. “Don’t get growly with me Dolly, you know I never bothered to learn this stuff!”

It was, generously speaking, a rough job. Shadow Milk had probably gotten more of the disinfectant/burn cream/he-wasn't-quite-sure-cream stuff on himself than her tail, and had wasted half the bottle because he forgot to wash her tail off before hand and ended up pushing sand into the wounds, leading to an incident that had led to both of them, once again, getting soaking wet. The gauze was technically there, but he couldn’t figure out how to make it stay where he wanted it to while he tried to bandage it so it had shifted around a lot. Tail fins were hard to bandage! That part was mostly not his fault!

Mystic Flour would have hit him over the head for this, probably before ripping the medical supplies from his hands and doing it herself in a quarter of the time. Eternal Sugar and Burning Spice would have laughed until their lungs gave out. It was hard to remember how Silent Salt would have reacted. How long had it been since they spoke?

Marionette finally got tired of waiting for him to get off, gently titling her tail to throw him onto the ground as kindly as possible. She brought her tail around to her face, twisting it this way and that. The reality of her injury seemed to sink in as her eyes widened. Shadow Milk laid a hand gently on her neck, petting her smooth scales in calming circles.

“I know,” he whispered, “we’ll figure it out. We’ve just got to make it back to the others and I’m sure Mystic Flour will figure it all out.” They both knew a missing tail fin could not be healed. There was nothing to be done. Still, they allowed themselves to ignore that truth. The Beasts had come back to complete their mission after being sealed beneath a tree for millennia (though their mission has been put on hold for now, soon enough they wold be free of their debt to her. They would find a way to destroy her before she destroyed them and soon it would be time to complete their true mission once again), if anyone could do the impossible it was them.

The Beast of Deceit and the last Night Fury would not so easily be grounded.

Finally, as the sun passed its apex, Shadow Milk let his eyes leave his dragon and take in their surroundings. He had been so focused, he hadn’t taken a moment to figure out where they were.

They were in some sort of large pit, high stones wall rising around them in a rough circle. Branches from the surrounding forest stretched out over the pit, leaving only a small patch of sky right in the middle to light up the area. The lake took up more than half the space in the strange hole, fed by a thin waterfall on one edge. Looking around, the land surrounding the pit was pretty barren. Half sand, half grass, a few large-ish rocks and some thin trees. Absolutely nothing useful.

They were rather deep down, but Marionette was strong.

“Lets get out of here,” he said, pulling himself onto the Night Furies back when she kneeled down for him. He grunted with the effort, more tired than he realized from the long flight, the following battle, their crash landing, and his time spent crouched on the ground trying to wrap up Marionette’s tail. His legs ached from his position atop her back. She rumbled her concern, tilting her head to meet his eyes. “I’ll be fine, stop worrying,” he scolded. Marionette growled but didn’t argue further, she knew which wounds to poke at when it came to Shadow Milk.

Backing up close to the wall furthest from the waterfall, Marionette took a running start and launched herself into the air. Her wings flapped powerfully, sending waves through the lake below. They made it about halfway up before her flight began to falter, unsupported by her injured tail. The Night Fury threw herself into the wall, trying to latch on with her claws and pull them up the stone.

They fell, Marionette hardly managed bring them safely down to the ground in a shaky glide. She staggered as she landed, nearly falling onto her side.

Without pause, she tried again. Throwing herself up the wall and pumping her wings powerfully, but unable to get more than a few meters off the ground.

Many attempts later, she was panting and exhausted and no closer to getting them out of the pit.

“Okay, flying is a no go. There has to be another way out,” he said, moving to get off Marionettes back. She growled, wings rising to keep him trapped where he was. “Really? Now? I’m fine, let me down!” Marionette made no move to let him down.

“Fine, can you at least let me see? We don’t have forever, and walking there is going to take soooooo long,” Shadow Milk grumbled, but patted her neck in reassurance. They had lived through worse, and they would make it through this. Marionette relented, letting her wings drop and walking slow circles around the grass to let him look around without leaving her back.

He had heard it, while he was dealing with Marionette’s wounds. The sound of the Ancients arriving and the Beasts fleeing. He wondered what tipped those idiots off, how they had discovered their plan. He had been so careful in planting that rumour about their attack on the Golden Cheese kingdom, high in the cold mountains where rumours were scarce and likely to be believed. Shadow Milk hated when people went off script, especially monsters who had the audacity to call themselves dragon riders.

The Beasts had, luckily, agreed on a meeting place before the attack on the Vanilla Kingdom, so that if one of them were to be separated, they could find each other there afterwards. It was on the opposite side of the island, as far from the kingdom itself as they could get without leaving its island.

They had also agreed to only wait until the night of the full moon. The chance of one of them dying or being captured was slim, but it had to be acknowledged. Shadow Milk just never thought he’d be the one making them wait.

Shadow Milk knew there were only five more nights until the moon began to wane, and it was a several hour flight to the meeting place even with Marionettes incredible speed. That wasn’t even considering the potential time delays caused by the amount of dragon rides probably swarming around the kingdom. 

Dark Enchantress was going to kill someone for this failure.

She’d probably have his head for missing such a perfect opportunity to take out Pure Vanilla.

Refocusing, Shadow Milk studied the walls of their prison. Too smooth, not enough grips for he or Marionette to climb out (not that he had the physical strength to rockclimb to the top, but whatever), none of the trees were strong enough to hold their weight, and none of the rocks were tall or large enough for them to use as a boost to fly out. There were some roots hanging down from the trees above, but they were far out of reach, even if they could hold his weight.

Suddenly, his eyes caught on a small chink in the rocks, just about a meter over his head and obscured by greenery.

He gestured for Marionette to bring him closer, pushing the bottoms of the hanging plants and revealing a dirt tunnel in the stone walls. Just as he expected. It was just about big enough for him to get through, but it would be a squeeze. There was no way Marionette would make it in. Still, it might lead to the surface. If he could get there, he could find a way to get her out too.

Shadow Milk hated to remember it, but he had once been The Fount of Knowledge. If anybody could think of a way to get them out, it would be him.

Dropping the plants, he stood carefully on Marionettes back. His muscles protested the movement angrily, and he could almost feel his bones trembling, but he pushed through. Tomorrow would be a bad day, but for now he could still stand. Reaching up, his fingers gripped the edge of the hole, but barely.

“Dolly? Some help please?” Marionette was still grumbling her displeasure at his insistence on pushing his body, but she understood the necessity of getting out as soon as they could. Slowly, the dragon stood on her rear legs, balancing her front claws against the wall for stability as Shadow Milk stepped carefully from her shoulders to her head.

With Marionettes help, Shadow Milk managed to pull himself up with shaking arms and collapse onto the dirt ground of the strange tunnel. Shouting a thanks down to Dolly, he began to crawl forward through the tunnel, which sloped gently upwards. By the look of the walls and the small size of the tunnel, it had been dug by a juvenile Whispering Death a few years before. It had been unused since then. Crawling was only marginally less painful than walking, but at least he didn’t have to worry about being mauled.

A dirt wall came up in front of him as the tunnel turned suddenly upwards, light shining down from above. Shadow Milk giggled to himself as he crawled the last few meters to freedom, standing at the end of the tunnel and looking-

upwards, to where there was still a good few meters of space between him and the surface.

“Dammit,” he whined, reaching upwards despite the futility of it. His hands couldn’t reach the top even when he jumped, which only caused him more pain. There was no way he was walking tomorrow.

Muttering under his breath about the stupidity of it all, Shadow Milk turned and crawled back the way he came.

Marionette was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel, waiting to catch him when he inevitably fell while trying to gently lower himself back to the ground. She set him on the ground and watched with a rumbly mimic of his own laugh as his legs gave out under him. When he looked up at her from his new position flat on the ground, she was making a very convincing replica of the human expression known as ‘I told you so.’

“Shut up,” he rasped, “I know you did.”

Marionette rolled her eyes. He had taught her too many human expressions of annoyance.

The sun was making its way down through the sky, casting the pit partially in the faint glow of sunset, but mostly in stark shadows from the walls encasing them.

Shadow Milk growled at the setting sun, pushing the heels of his hands into his eyes in frustration as he barely held back the urge to scream.

Without warning, Marionette grabbed him by the back of his soft armour like a misbehaving kitten, dragging him off to the edge of the pit where two large rocks and a dent in the wall made something resembling a shallow cave. She set him down to warm the ground with fire, spinning in a circle around him to make a space large enough for both of them.

Shadow Milk took the time free from her grip to remove his armour, the soft scaled leather made light with him in mind. His arms still shook with the effort. He threw the armour unceremoniously to the side.

When Marionette laid down, he was quickly pulled to her side and tapped by her wings with no chance to escape. It was warm, comfortable, familiar. He always felt so safe, tucked into her protective embrace.

“Fiiiiine, have it your way. Tomorrow, we’ll find a way out.” Shadow Milk said, letting his tired eyes shut. “Tomorrow for sure.”

Chapter Text

Walking through the woods blindly trying to find a Night Fury was, evidently, a really stupid idea.

Pure Vanilla hadn’t exactly considered the logistics of his quest when he left his room that morning, sneaking away the moment the worried eyes of his friends were turned. He was an Ancient, he really didn’t need to stay in bed nearly as long as the others seemed to think he did. His ribs still sent angry pulses of pain through his limbs with every step, but they were easy enough to ignore. Pure Vanilla had done far more with much worse injuries, he was far from fragile.

The previous day (when his ribs had violently protested even the thought of moving from his bed) had given him a lot of time to research, he had spent practically the entire day curled up with Orchid in his room slowly running his fingers through books the dragon had retrieved for him. One day was plenty though, and Pure Vanilla had quickly grown antsy sitting around.

Especially since his research had turned out all but pointless. The Beasts were as impossible to learn about as ever, and Night Furies proved just as frustratingly non-existent in written record. All he had found was old journals from people who had maybe been attacked by Night Furies, all from before the age of first dragon riders. No real information on the species, just tales of purple fire and an invisible monster that was as much a part of the night sky as the stars themselves, a dragon that brought death everywhere it flew.

A few more hours in bed may have driven him mad, and he was sure the other Ancients wouldn’t let him help with healing the injured, much less fly out to help in the repair effort, so if he wanted out of his room, there was only one thing to do.

This was how Pure Vanilla found himself stumbling through the forest, tripping over rocks and roots and walking into every fifth tree. He had never come out this way without Orchid before and for good reason. What did he even intend to do once he found the Night Fury and the Beast? Why was he so convinced they were even still in the forest?

Something appeared out of nowhere in front of him and Pure Vanilla once again found himself sprawled on the ground, not even sure what he tripped over. He groaned partly in pain and partly in sheer exhaustion. Every fall made his ribs hurt worse and made him regret getting out of bed slightly more.

The sun was slowly crawling towards the center of the sky and Pure Vanilla had found no traces of the downed dragon. Not a branch out of place, not a claw mark or a scorched tree, not the sound of anything but the usual wild dragons found around his kingdom.

Frustrated, Pure Vanilla pulled himself up and felt his way to a tree to sit down against it for a moment. From his bag, which he had luckily had the foresight to bring despite his rush to leave the castle, he pulled out water and dried fruits. He hadn’t eaten breakfast, having done nothing that morning besides dress, pack, and quickly check on his sheep on his way out (who were luckily completely unharmed, other than a few small injuries caused by other sheep in their panic during the attack), and he wasn’t sure if he’d return in time for lunch or dinner, so he thought it best to tuck something to snack on between the few supplies he grabbed.

A couple minutes into his small rest, he heard the sound of something large coming towards him. Padding its ways quietly through the forest, but making little effort to conceal its presence. Whatever it was, it seemed to know exactly where he was.

“Orchid, I know its you,” Pure Vanilla shouted in the direction of the approaching dragon, who quickly gave up subtlety, noisily crashing through the underbrush as she ran to him.

The Light Fury wasted no time in beginning to grumble her displeasure at his sneaky escape, raising a paw to tap him forcefully on the head. A gentle scolding, but a scolding nonetheless. Her nose made its way to his chest, gently poking at his injuries to ensure he hadn’t made them worse. He pushed her head away before she could notice that he had aggravated his ribs while tumbling through the woods.

“Yes, I know, but there was no way you wouldn’t hand me in to the others if I told you I was leaving!” Orchid tapped him slightly more aggressively when he laughed.

“We’ll, we are already out here,” Pure Vanilla said as he stood, packing away the snacks he hadn’t touched, “might as well keep looking!”

Orchid growled, but followed him deeper into the woods. With her tail gently guiding him around obstacles and soft rumbles warning him of things he had to step over, navigating the forest became much less dangerous. The ache in his ribs began to fade back to bearable levels without constant falling irritating them.

“Hear anything?” he asked, stepping carefully around a rock at Orchid’s warning. She shook her head with a growl, but suddenly paused, head lifting as her ear-nubs twitched. After a moment she turned sharply north, leading them farther into the woods and away from the city.

Pure Vanilla tripped, losing track of his surroundings while trying to keep up with Orchid’s sudden speed. Pure Vanilla knew in that moment that despite her grumbling, she felt it too. The pull outwards, the sheer wonder of the knowledge that there was another Fury. He wondered how it felt to be lonely, even with so many friends around you.

Realizing he had fallen behind, Orchid knelt and allowed him to climb onto her back. They moved quickly through the forest, sprinting after some faraway sound.

A roar, high and piercing and angry cut the forest. It sounded so much like Orchid, but in the same breath nothing at all like her. It was so, so angry and yet so terribly scared. He had never heard Orchid roar quite like that.

They were close.

Orchid slowed down, crawling towards the source of the noise with her body close to the ground and Pure Vanilla bent low over her neck. The sound came again, that haunting roar terrifyingly close, the dragon had to be right in front of them it was so loud.

It sounded pained.

Orchid quickly jumped towards a few large rocks, just big enough to hide them, putting her back to them so that nothing could come at them from behind. Her pupils narrowed to slits as her sharp eyes scanned the area around the, waiting for the attack. Waiting for teeth and claws and fire and scales like liquid night, melting out of the soft midday shadows around them.

No Night Fury came barreling through the forest towards them. From behind them, there was the sound of claws scratching at rock, a few shaky wingbeats, and then a crash and a shout.

It had to be Shadow Milk and the Night Fury.

Cautiously, Pure Vanilla turned to peek over the rocks in the direction of the sound. There was nothing, at least not that he could see. But where…

His mouth opened to ask Orchid to take a look when something so dark moved in the corner of his vision, he would have mistaken it for a shadow if he hadn’t been searching for it.

Looking down, Pure Vanilla found not grass as he had thought, but a deep hole in the ground. It was huge, with sheer stone walls overgrown with moss and tree roots, and a small waterfall feeding a wide, crystal blue lake below. The trees of the forest cast hypnotizing patterns of dappled shadow on the grass and water at the bottom.

It was beautiful, a secluded cove cut into the world.

And there, stood in the grass with the blue and black clothed Beast on its back, was the Night Fury. He wished he could see it clearly, it was hardly more than a black smear in his vision, but still it was incredible. Beautiful in the way of a venomous snake, of a snarling wolf, of Atropa Belladonna. Beauty that killed.

“Okay, that one didn’t work, but trust me on this one Mari, I have a GREAT feeling about it~,” the Beast singsonged. The Night Fury- Mari? Merry?- growled, clearly less impressed with whatever plan the Beast was talking about than its rider. “Live a little! You know I’m a genius, right Dolly?”

The Night Fury- Dolly???- sudden began to run, sprinting towards the lake and by extension, Pure Vanilla’s hiding place. He held his breath in fear but couldn’t make himself duck down, despite knowing his white clothes were far from stealthy. There was something hypnotizing about it, watching the extinct dragon launch itself into the air towards him in a motion almost identical to Orchids. In all his years he had never seen another dragon move like she did, but here it was, right in front of him.

It got closer, closer, closer, but then stopped. Its powerful wingbeats became shaky and weak as it lost control of its flight and began to fall.

The Night Fury turned tail and fell back into the hole, gliding shakily to the ground and landing with a stumble. It roared, stomping one of its front paws into the ground angrily as its tail lashed behind it.

Why couldn’t they just fly out?

“Orchid,” he whispered, “could you take a look?” He climbed off her back slowly and crouched next to her as she carefully peeked over the rock and into the cove with him.

“OKAY! Plan… uh, 16? is that right?” A rumble, “okay yeah, yeah, 16! Plan 16~ everybody, sure to be the best of the whole show!” Another grumble, this one noticeably annoyed. “I KNOW the others sucked, why do you think I didn’t make them plan 16, which is obviously the best number!” The Beast continued to talk to his dragon theatrically as he climbed carefully off its back, walking slowly (why so slowly? It was hard to tell from so far away, but he almost seemed to be leaning on his dragon, supporting his weight on it instead of his own legs) towards its tail. He did… something or other, before slowly walking back. The dragon nosed at his side for a moment, almost as if checking for injuries, before gently helping him climb back onto its back.

Orchid had gone still beside him, a high, sad sound coming from her throat almost like a whimper.

When he turned to her questioningly, Orchid responded silently by pushing her tail into his hands until her grabbed it. She did not look towards him, eyes locked on the Night Fury below. “Tail?” he asked, confused. One of her tail fins in his grasp was suddenly pulled closed, flattening itself to the side of her tail. “Is that…” he ran his fingers over her tail, noticing how uneven it appeared with only one side open, “oh gods, we didn’t… did we?”

The tail fell from his grasp as he shook in horror. The idea that he and Orchid had injured the Night Fury so terribly. A scar that would never heal, such an integral part of itself, violently ripped away. He couldn’t imagine the pain it was going through, losing the sky.

The roar came again and he watched as the Night Fury once again threw itself into the air, pushing its wings to its limits. It hardly made it halfway up the cliff before falling. The landing was rougher, sending both it and its rider tumbling across the ground and landing in a heap.

Shadow Milk yelped, briefly rushed beneath the weight of his dragon before it quickly got up, turning to check on the Beast. “Okay- okay! I’m fine, thank you! Dragon spit is impossible to wash out and you KNOW that!” he shouted, trying in vain to wipe to sticky saliva off his face, a battle every dragon rider knew well.

Pure Vanilla fought to remind himself that it was not some innocent dragon they had wounded, it was the dragon of a Beast. One who, by the sounds of it, was friends with its Beast. Not poisoned, not mind controlled, not beaten into submission, trained. Somehow, the Beast had tamed his dragon like a true rider, and the others Beats likely had as well. They had earned their dragons loyalty, their care. Why any dragon would be loyal to such monsters, people who craved nothing but chaos and death... it was incomprehensible, but it had happened. The Night Fury was as much a Beast as the one who rode it.

The shock and horror of his own actions still made him feel sick. Orchid made a sound of sadness next to him, lightly bumping her head into his.

“Dark Enchantress is soooo going to kill us,” Shadow Milk said suddenly after nearly a full minute of lying on the ground motionless. He laughed, but it was less deranged and more sad. “If she doesn’t, Mystic Flour will,” he said with a light laugh, more genuine. The Night Fury growled, and Shadow Milk nodded and hummed along as if she were speaking, “yeah, you’re right, they’ll all team up and kill me together. No way Spicy or Sugar would let her get all the fun after I scared them like this. I- I… don’t know what Silent Salt would do. He’s quiet these days…” Another lengthy pause, another sad laugh. “They are all, aren’t they? I can’t tell if its since the fall or just since the tree, but none of them talk to us like they used to. Its so quiet. Even when they’re loud, its always somehow quiet.”

The Night Fury made a low, mourning sound. A sadness deeper than words. “Do you think Misty cares? Or was all this just habit from how she used to be? She used to be so worried whenever one of us managed to get hurt, but now it just…” he sighed, “Remember that time Sugar accidentally stabbed me while we were messing around with Salt’s sword? If Misty wasn’t so focused making sure I didn’t bleed out, she probably would have killed us both!” The Night Fury let out a low, happy croon at the… apparently fond memory.

Pure Vanilla’s brow furrowed at all the new information suddenly dumped on him. Shadow Milk spoke of the other Beasts like friends, people he cared about and who had cared about him. Their relationship was clearly more than just allies, villains with a shared purpose. Then there was the matter of this Dark Enchantress. The name was almost familiar, but Pure Vanilla was sure he had never heard it before. Who was she, and why did she seem to have power over the Beasts? Who could possibly be strong enough to command loyalty, command fear, from the worlds oldest, most dangerous dragon riders? 

The Beasts were a mystery to the Ancients, an enemy they knew almost nothing about. Their motives, their leader, their origins, for many months after their appearance, even their names and dragons were unknown to them. Thorough research had revealed very little, nothing but old fairy tales, meant to scare little children into going to bed or eating their vegetables.

The Beasts were evil, rode dragons, and wanted to destroy various things for various reasons that were never consistent between sources. After some big evil act (which was also different in every story), they were sealed away for the rest of time along with their dragons and followers, never to return. Sealed how? Where? When? All unspecified, but may have had something to do with a tree if what Shadow Milk said was related to their sealing. That was the most their research had been able to reveal. Searches for more information were still underway throughout the kingdoms, but nothing more had been recovered in months.

They had one lead left, but he had been the Beasts first victim. Elder Faerie had been in a coma since the Beasts first attack, and was not expected to recover. Without their Kings permission, the Faeries refused to break their vows of secrecy and share what they knew of the Beasts, and even if they would, only the Guardian knew the story in its entirety. It was a frsutrating situation, but White Lily was doing all she could to gain the Faeries trust and heal their king.

“Okay,” Shadow Milk clapped, snapping Pure Vanilla from his thoughts, “lets get those off your tail now. Plan 16, failure. I knew it was stupid from the start, of course, I am a genius after all. Don’t know why we even bothered really,” the Night Fury grumbled loudly, but turned to let Shadow Milk get to its tail without standing up. Had he also been injured in the crash? Pure Vanilla somehow felt worse, despite knowing it was a Beast he was so upset about hurting.

Squinting, Pure vanilla tried to focus on the Night Furies tail. Now that he looked he could tell it had been bandaged, thoroughly wrapped in a thick layer of off-white. Shadow Milk unwrapped the outermost layer of bandages, letting his dragons remaining tail fin unfurl from where it had been bound, though it was still mostly hidden by bandages. At least that explained what ‘plan 16’ had been.

Flopping back onto the ground, Shadow Milk sighed dramatically, throwing his arms over his face. His Night Fury curled up next to him, laying its head next to his on the ground.

They were trapped, isolated from their fellow Beasts and unable to leave without help.

Pure Vanilla stared as he ran over his options in his head, most stupid, all insane. Some were reasonable, but all of those involved telling the other Ancients and losing his chance to- to what? What was it he was so worried about losing if he told the other Ancients? It was clearly the only reasonable choice.

He knew the answer to that, he just didn’t want to admit it.

He wanted to study to the Night Fury, learn about the dragons he was too late to save.

He wanted to befriend it, he wanted Orchid to have another of her kind, or at least something close. He dared not consider the possibility of it being male- that was a inappropriate train of thought he dared not pursue for the sake of Orchids decency.

(...would such distinct subspecies even be compatible? They were pretty similar- nope. Nope. Not thinking about it. Pure Vanilla felt his face flush and forced his mind to move on)

Strangest of all, he didn’t mind that such things would require him to also meet the Beast. Something about the way he spoke of Dark Enchantress, the slight, genuine tremble to his voice even as he tried to laugh it off. The soft way he spoke of the other Beasts, fondly but with an air of sadness. Loneliness bleeding from his words like fresh blood. The way he interacted with his dragon like an old friend. They reminded him of him and Orchid.

Pure Vanilla wanted to learn about Shadow Milk.

He had a strange feeling that absolutely everything the Ancients assumed about the Beasts was wrong.

Suddenly, a low, angry growl reached his ears. When Pure Vanillas head snapped to the side to look, he caught two yellow-green eyes so bright even he could see their glow, pupils slit in warning.

They were staring right at him.

Orchid stood, waiting only long enough for Pure vanilla to clamber on her back before running as fast as she could away from the cove. They were in the air the moment they were out of sight of the Night Fury.

-

Pure Vanilla didn’t even make it back to his room before he was caught. Wizard spotted him and Orchid while they were stuck in a cloudless patch of sky, and he came up on Storm to meet them. They slowed enough for the young Skrill to catch up.

“Pure Vanilla!” Wizard shouted, “you’re okay! The other Ancients were all super worried!” At the very least, this was a great chance to make sure the kids were all okay, even if it ruined his plan of not getting seen flying in and just saying he had been wandering the gardens to clear his head.

“Oh, I hadn’t intended to frighten them, Orchid simply needed a quick morning flight to stretch her wings and I figured there was no harm tagging along to take a look at the damage myself,” well, that was a much better lie than he usually told on the spot. Still, there were about a thousand holes in the story and he had no idea how to strengthen it. Pure Vanilla hated lying, and had never been very good at it anyways. “I’m very glad to see you uninjured, Wizard. Are Gingerbrave and Strawberry around? What about Chile Pepper and Custard? I’ve been meaning to check on you all but Dark Cacao wouldn’t let me out of bed,” he asked, smiling weakly as he poorly tried to redirect the conversation.

Wizard ignored his questions, both him and his dragon staring at him with matching (adorable) expressions of suspicion, their eyes narrowed and noses scrunched in concentration. He and Storm were perfect for each other, the young Skrill was basically just Wizard in dragon form. Pure Vanilla resisted to urge to coo at the young dragon rider, barely holding back a smile.

“What was so important you had to take it on your ‘quick morning flight?” Wizard asked, gesturing at his small bag.

Scrambling to come up with a decent excuse, knowing whatever he said would absolutely get back to the Ancients, Pure Vanilla blurted out “just some basic medical supplies in case we found someone in need?” It came out more questioning than he would have liked. It wasn’t even a lie, he did have those, he just also had harder to explain items like food, a flashlight, dragon-nip, and a knife (one can never be too careful in a forest full of wild dragons, even if most of them were pretty tame), all of which he had even less reason to bring on a ‘quick morning flight’ than his med kit, which was already somewhat odd.

From the expression on Wizards face, he could tell the child did not believe him in the slightest. How many years old and he still couldn’t lie properly, it was ridiculous. Regardless, Wizard seemed to decide against questioning him further. Thank the Gods.

“Custard is perfectly fine, somewhat shaken but fine, Chile got a bit bruised up protecting some kids from rubble when the towers started falling but nothing bad. Both their dragons are fine. Drop was grazed by one of the Triple Stryke’s tails and ended up a bit numb, but he slept it off. Gingerbrave got hit by one of its tails too, but the Ancients got here before the effects fully kicked in and he’s recovering well, just a bit sleepy now. Strawberry got the worst of it, the Sentinel threw her into a wall and she broke an arm. Tamagotchi’s a bit beat up, but nothing worse than bruising, he’s very upset he can’t fit inside to see Strawberry though.” Wizard said, counting people off on his fingers as he listed them.

Pure Vanilla let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, knowing the kids were all fine was an incredible relief.

“and you, little one?”

“I’m not little, also I’m fine-” Pure Vanilla turned towards him with a stern expression and Wizard sheepishly looked away before correction himself, “okay well, I might have been a tiiiny bit shocked when the Death Song got to Storm and she lost control of some lightening, but we’re fine now! Just a few small burns and scratches!”

“I’m glad you’re okay, little one. I will-”

“Pure Vanilla!” A familiar, booming voice shouted. Hollyberry flew up on Barrel to meet them and the two strike class dragons slowed down for the larger Rumblehorn, “where did you fly off to? You had us all worried that missing Beast got you or something!”

“MISSING BEAST?!” Wizard exclaimed, though it was somewhat muffled by his scarf. His eyes were wide beneath the brim of his oversized hat.

“Yeah I KNOW! How does a whole Beast go missing!?” Hollyberry shouted back, how she had so much energy at their age was a mystery to all the Ancients. “A bunch of civilians saw it attack, and nobody had a clear view but some even say it crashed into the forest after shooting Pure Vanilla! Nobody saw it leave, so we’ve got our eyes out in case its still hanging around!”

Pure vanilla shut his lips tight as Wizard and Hollyberry shouted over him about Shadow Milk, trying his best to keep his face curious, but concerned. He added only the smallest inputs to the conversation to avoid lying and risking having what he knew exposed, what he was planning. Whenever he wasn’t talking, he dug his teeth into his tongue.

“Back on topic, Pure Vanilla! Where in the world did you run off too?”

“Just on a quick morning flight with Orchid, but we got a bit distracted and went farther than we thought! Its wonderful to fly again after a day in bed. I’m sorry we worried you all, we just- uh,” Pure Vanilla’s soft smile went tense as he tried to think of a reason for his morning flight to have stretched well into the afternoon.

“I saw him returning, and he asked me to accompany him and tell him how me and the others were feeling after our fight with the Beasts, but we ended up talking longer than we expected, right Pure Vanilla?” Wizard suddenly said, smile a tiny bit too wide, but it was hidden by his scarf.

“Yes, of course, I hadn’t been able to go see them yesterday, and while I understood their physical wounds had been thoroughly tended to, I was worried such an awful experience may have shaken them emotionally.”

Hollyberry smiled widely, laughing in her boisterous way. “Good, good, maybe just tell us next time, yeah?” she joked, but dropped to a more serious tone when she added, “Dark Cacao already blames himself for your injuries, he was all stoic about it, but we could all tell he was terrified when you disappeared. Thought the Beast snuck in to finish the job. Please don’t worry him more, Pure Vanilla, you both need rest, don't think I can't tell when you're in pain.”

Pure Vanilla had rarely seen Hollyberry so serious in their many years as friends. He nodded firmly and promised to apologize to Dark Cacao for causing such stress. The other Ancient already felt such guilt for things that were not his fault, and Pure Vanilla felt terrible having made it worse.

When Hollyberry left, he turned back to Wizard. The child had that look of suspicion on his face again, squinting at him like he was trying to dig into his head for secrets with nothing but the power of his gaze. It was mostly ineffective, coming from a diminutive child in robes several sizes too large.

Pure Vanilla had an awful feeling Wizard would not stop investigating his disappearance until he knew the truth. He was a remarkably smart child, but he was also incredibly stubborn.

“I believe I should go apologize to Dark Cacao now, Wizard. If you would like to meet with me afterwards, I would like to talk to you and your friends.” Pure vanilla asked, already thinking of the many apologies he needed to deliver. The last few days had been nothing but mistake after mistake, hadn’t they?

“I’m pretty sure Strawberry and Gingerbrave are still resting in our room, we could all wait there for you?”

The moment Pure Vanilla agreed, Wizard turned to leave, Storm soaring quickly off towards Strawberrys room in the palace. The Ancient laughed to himself at the fond memories of the day those three came into his life, and how they had refused to be separated into individual rooms. It had been months, almost a year, and the kids still wouldn’t sleep unless they were within arms reach of eachother. It was cute, but it always reminded him of the tragedies they had already faced in their short lives before he found them.

From there, it was a quick flight back to his room, landing silently on the balcony. He stood there for a long moment, painfully aware of the presence just past the glass doors even with his eyes closed. Pure vanilla opened the door and it moved instantly, heavy footsteps rapidly approaching before strong arms suddenly embarrassed him. They let go before Pure Vanilla had a chance to hug him back.

“Cacao-”

“I’m sorry,” Dark Cacao whispered, “I couldn’t stand the thought of your capture or death being on my hands only days after you narrowly escaped death due to my ignorance. Please inform us next time, instead of running off without a word.”

“I will,” Pure Vanilla said, explaining again where he had been, “I’m sorry I worried you.”

Dark Cacao was silent, so he continued.

“Please, Dark Cacao, let yourself rest. I can see the dark circles beneath your eyes and the state of your hair, have you slept at all since the attack? Me and Orchid will be fine, the Beasts are gone and have not been seen anywhere near the Kingdoms since they fled. We can defend ourselves, I promise you.” Pure Vanilla smiled softly, reaching up to cup Dark Cacaos face and drag him down to bump their foreheads together. It was as dragons did, and Dark Cacao seemed to relax at the familiar gesture of comfort. He so rarely relaxed after the betrayal of his son and the loss of his second dragon.

“I- I should probably sleep, you are right that I have not rested in some time. I can’t let this experience shake my resolution to defeat the Beasts,” the taller Ancient finally said, standing and removing himself from the embrace. “Thank you again, Pure Vanilla.”

Orchid stepped out from behind him, pushing past to get in front of Dark Cacao. She stretched her neck upwards to bump her nose to his forehead, purring low in her chest. Orchid had always been fond of the other Ancients. If they were flock to her Vanilla, they were flock to her as well.

Pulling away, Orchid instead began to shove Dark Cacao towards his own room. Forced to relent to her strength, the Ancient allowed himself to be dragged away. “Pure Vanilla,” he managed to call out before Orchid removed him from the room, “please don’t disappear again, Pure Vanilla. We were all sure we would lose you that night, I don’t think I- I don’t think we can take another heartbreak.”

Dark scales and glowing green eyes, a tail with only one fin, and the sad laugh of an injured Beast burned in mind. Pure Vanilla smiled softly and promised not to go running off without telling people first.

Once Dark Cacao was gone, dragged down the hall by Orchid, Pure Vanilla set about putting away his bag and changing out of his riding clothes. His usual white and gold robes slipped comfortably over him, light and flowing. They were impractical for adventuring in the woods or flying with Orchid, but he always preferred to wear them when it was an option. Brushing out his slightly windblown hair, Pure Vanilla left his room in the direction of the kids.

Luckily, he hadn’t given them a room too far from his own chambers. His part of the castle was smaller, homier, reminiscent of his childhood as a simple shephard, before he met Orchid, before he became an Ancient. Pale yellow-browns and off whites decorated the low halls, the cold tiles covered by soft carpet (because Pure vanilla almost always preferred to be bare foot, a decision everyone questioned but never out loud). The smaller size of the halls also made it easier to navigate on his own, though by this point in his reign he had the entire castle memorized. The walk was short and refreshing, and it gave him a moment to truly think over his words.

Pure Vanilla knew he was close when he heard the sounds of bickering. What exactly of, he couldn’t tell, but it was comforting in its familiarity. It was like any other day. Like tragedy had not nearly struck at the heart of his kingdom. He smiled as he knocked on the door.

It was Strawberry who answered, greeting him in her soft voice. When he opened his eyes, he found that her usual hoodie had been replaced with a loose t-shirt to accommodate for her broken arm, which was held close to her chest in a cast with several blurry scribbles that were probably names already written across it. Behind her, he could see Wizard and Gingebrave’s argument had developed into a pillow fight. Wizard seemed to be winning, having overcome his height disadvantage by climbing onto the bed and attacking from above.

There was a crash and a shout as Wizard blamed Gingerbrave for his falling off the bed.

Strawberry grimaced for a moment, but sighed affectionately at her friends behavior.

The door opened further as Strawberry turned to check on the boys, Pure Vanilla followed and shut the door behind him. Gingerbrave and Wizard had resolved their fight and were sitting together on the edge of the bed. Strawberry joined them, sitting on Gingerbrave’s other side. The three of them stared at him expectantly. He wondered if Wizard had mentioned the point of his visit, or simply that he was coming.

Sitting on the floor so that he wasn’t standing over them, Pure Vanilla opened his mouth to speak but found the carefully chosen words he had laid out in his mind over and over again choked in his throat. They looked so young, sitting on the bed before him. Strawberrys cast had signatures, but also childish doodles of dragons and berries and cats. Wizards wide scarf was sitting off to the side, exposing his young face as he ‘subtly’ stuck his tongue out at the taller boy next to him. Gingerbrave, squished in between his two friends, smiled widely at Wizard, showing off the gap in the edge of his smile where he had recently lost one of his canines.

It was only the Beast’s egos that had kept these children alive.

They had been playing, chasing them through the skies for their own amusement. They had known they would win in the end, and hadn’t bothered to fight with their true strength or bring their armies.

At Pure Vanilla’s order, these children had been the only dragon riders in the city when the Beasts attacked, and at Pure Vanilla’s orders, they had flown into an unwinnable battle. A battle that very well could have cost them their lives, that would have if the Ancients hadn’t realized their mistake early and made it to the Vanilla kingdom in time to save them before the Beasts got bored of playing.

And here he was, trying to- what? Befriend one of those very Beasts? He should have ordered Orchid to kill the both of them the moment they found them in that cove, but he knew he never could have.

He bowed his head as his eyes wet with sudden tears. They rolled down his face silently, his eyes closed in shame.

“Pure Vanilla!” Three young voices shouted, jumping off the bed and running towards him in shock and confusion.

They sat around him in a circle, unsure of what to do. They whispered, worried and confused and scared. Pure Vanilla lifted his head, allowing them to see the mess he had become.

“I’m sorry, little ones,” he finally forced out of his throat, “I’m so terribly sorry.”

There was silence, then a choked sob and a sniffle and suddenly something heavy was thrown into his chest. Small arms wrapped around his waist as Gingerbrave all but climbed into his lap to hug him. Tears wet his robes as the child buried his face in his shoulder, sobbing loudly. Quickly, Strawberry joined the hug on his right. Her one arm wrapped around his side while the other was pressed carefully between them. She cried softly as she rested her face on his arm, eyes shut tight. After a moments hesitation, Wizard joined on his other side, wrapping his arms tightly around him as he tried to hide his teary eyes beneath the brim of his hat. His quiet sniffles gave him away.

Overcoming his shock, Pure Vanilla moved his arms to hug the three crying children back as best he could. Sometimes their bravery made it far too easy to forget how young they truly were.

“It was scary,” Gingerbrave whispered. “I wanted to save everybody but there was nothing I could do. I thought we were going to die-”

“I know,” Pure Vanilla said, holding them impossibly tighter, “I’m so sorry you had to do that, children. It was my fault. You should never have been forced to fight those monsters.”

Strawberry lifted her head from its place on his shoulder, staring at him until he met her eyes. “You can’t blame yourself for this any more than you can blame Dark Cacao,” she said, her small voice containing wisdom far beyond her age. Strawberry had always been shy, but she was as brave and intelligent as her friends.

“If there was any other option, we know you would have taken it,” Wizard added, “you had no choice. The Beasts would have razed the city and killed everybody in it if we hadn’t distracted them. It was terrifying, and I think we all wish it wouldn’t have happened how it did, but we understand, Pure Vanilla.”

“I forgive you,” Gingerbrave whispered, uncharacteristically quiet. “I know you wouldn’t ever do that if there was another way.”

Strawberry and Wizard spoke up together, voices overlapping as they voiced their forgiveness. Pure Vanilla cookie smiled weakly, tears still falling down his face.

“I do not deserve your forgiveness,” he began, ignoring the teary protests of the children still in his arms, “but I would be a hypocrite not to accept it after what I told Dark Cacao. Thank you, little ones. I will prove myself worthy of this someday, I promise.”

Pure Vanilla sat on the floor even as his knees and back and ribs began to ache, content to endure any pain so long as it meant he could continue to hold the children in his arms as they cried, letting out the fear and anger they had held since the battle. Never once did he consider leaving until they were ready to let him go.

The Night Fury and its Beast, haunting him through his dreams and his days since he first heard them, vanished from his mind. They would return as surely as the moon would rise in the night, but for a few blissful minutes, all he could think of was comforting the children he had become so attached to.

Pure Vanilla hugged them ever tighter and smiled, even as tears ran down his face.

Chapter Text

The moon was high and nearly full, shining brilliantly in the dark sky.

It was the fourth night before the Beasts would leave the meeting spot and abandon hope of Shadow Milk returning.

After a full day of trying, Marionette was no closer to flying out of the cove, and Shadow Milk was no closer to finding another way out. Even if his stupid legs hadn’t been acting up, there was simply no way out. No roots hung low enough to climb, no ledges were close enough together to jump between, and no tree branches dipped low enough to grab.

Of Shadow Milks 19 plans, each had failed more spectacularly than the last. Binding Marionettes remaining tail fin to make them more even, letting her throw him as high as she could, binding all four of Marionettes tail fins, even making a fake tail fin out of leaves and having him sit on her tail to hold it on (the plans had, admittedly, gotten somewhat silly towards the end), each had failed to get them out of the damned hole, and most had gotten them hurt in one way or another.

It was a little past midday when they gave up. Marionette’s wings were aching and cramping, her claws were chipped and her scales were scraped from their rougher landings, and her bandages were slowly turning pink as she irritated and reopened the burns on her tail. Shadow Milks legs were killing him, despite his efforts to avoid overusing them. They were stiff and sore and refused to hold his weight, he couldn’t stand if he tried. They were both hungry and thirsty and beyond exhausted.

Shadow Milk sat by the fire they had scrounged together from fallen leaves and branches, carefully cooking a small fish above it. He had speared it through the side with a sharpened stick. Had Shadow Milk ever cooked a fish like this? Yes, actually. When? A few thousand years ago and with the help of Silent Salt, who was doing most if not all of the work, but that was besides the point. He was pretty sure he remembered how to do it safely. Probably. Okay, maybe he hadn’t really been paying attention to what they were teaching him, but he thought he got the gist of it.

The lake was luckily clean enough to drink, and the small population of fish was enough for him and Marionette for a few days if they rationed it. They would have to be painfully careful with how much they ate, but it would be fine for a few days.

They would get out of this pit soon, he’d think of a way out before they ran out. They would get out and between his foraging knowledge and Marionette’s hunting prowess, they’d have full stomachs in no time at all.

He didn’t need to consider what would happen if they were stuck longer than that, because they wouldn’t be. It was only a matter of time before he solved the puzzle of this silly little hole and got them out.

When he deemed the fish probably-cooked, he removed it from the fire and used a small knife from his bag to remove the less desirable parts and throw them to Marionette, who swallowed them eagerly, licking her chops with hunger clear in her eyes.

Without waiting for it to cool, Shadow Milk dug in ravenously, hardly taking the time to chew as his body suddenly remembered that he hadn’t eaten since two nights prior. He had never been great about eating consistently, but that was long even for him. Between Marionettes injuries, their escape attempts, and his own leg-pain, he had barely noticed the clawing feeling in his stomach. His hands burned where they held the fish and his mouth protested every scorching bite that he forced down his throat, but he couldn’t make himself stop. It was the best and worst meal he had ever eaten, his mouth watering with every disgusting bite. He had never felt more like a beast.

He tossed the remains to the side, suddenly feeling nauseous. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut tight, fighting the urge to vomit.

With Marionettes support, he slowly limped his way over to the lake, drinking the clear water and washing the taste of burnt fish from his mouth. His throat burned from the cold water, but the nausea subsided.

Shadow Milk let himself sink to the ground, resting his legs as Marionette turned to allow him to examine her tail in the dimming light of the fire. The bandages were pink with dried blood and dirty from their escape attempts. They were lucky none of their failures had crashed them into the water and ruined the bandages entirely. Shadow Milk had one more wrapping worth of bandages if he was careful, and he was completely out of gauze. His supplies weren’t meant to last more than a few hours, just enough time for him to get to Mystic Flour.

Carefully, he peeled back the bandages and gauze and looked over the damage. Blood had scabbed over the worst burns on her tail, and much of the loose skin from what remained of Marionettes tail fin had fallen off, leaving only a long, narrow ridge of tattered skin against the edge of her tail where the fin had been.

It was hard to tell on her black scales and skin, but the area around the injuries seemed discolored. An angry, reddish hue, contrasting the blue undertones of her scales. Infection. Shadow Milk had no idea what to do if infection settled in. He grimaced, biting his lip before letting out a long, heavy breath.

He wanted Misty.

Not Mystic Flour, no, he wanted his Misty. Gentle, softhearted, quiet older sister Misty. Always ready with bandages and a soft smile when one of her siblings got hurt. Shadow Milk shook the childish thoughts from his head. They had left that life a very long time ago. Mystic Flour was his sister, even if she was colder now. The girl he remembered was dead and buried beneath a silver tree.

As gently as he could, he smeared the last of the mystery-medicine-cream on Marionette’s tail, wincing at every whine of pain that escaped her clenched jaw. The gauze was ruined but he didn’t have more, so instead he wrapped the wound in the last of the clean bandages and then layered the bloodied gauze and old bandages on top.

It was fine, soon they’d be back to his siblings and Misty would fix everything. She would insult his poor medical skills and then do it all over with her gentle, steady hands. Misty would make it all go away like she always did when they were kids. Marionette would be healed and his legs would return to their normal levels of hurt and everything would be okay.

He was thinking like a child. Shadow Milk grit his teeth and blinked the tears from his eyes.

Assuming they got out tomorrow, they would have to walk straight through the next two nights without pause if they hoped to make it to the meeting place on foot with their injuries slowing them. Any delay and they would miss the full moon.

He took a painkiller for himself and threw one of the large ones to Marionette. The last two. They might as well sleep in comfort, who knew when they would next sleep.

Shadow Milk didn’t protest when Marionette forced him to climb onto her back and carried him to their shallow cave, laying down and setting him by her side. Her thin, leathery wing covered him, hiding him from the world as he slept.

Hidden in the false night of her wings, tears rose to his eyes and Shadow Milk didn’t stop them.

—

The next day Shadow Milk was pleased to find his legs mostly-functioning, if somewhat painful to use. This opened up several news escape options.

Ignoring the vague pangs of hunger despite last nights meal, he and Marionette worked through the morning on plans 20, 21, 22, and 23.

All of which failed.

Miserably, he might add.

He wished his older brother and his stupid giant dragon and ridiculous muscles was with him, Spice could have gotten them out of this pit easily, it would even be worth the weeks of teasing for losing to a pit. He wanted Sugar, she and Angel could have sung until a thousand wild dragons came to rescue them and she would have hugged him without asking like she always did, waiting for his fears to melt away in her arms. He wanted his eldest Sibling. Silent Salt was strong and clever and everything else, if anyone could have thought of a way out of this hole it would be them. He wanted their quiet, steady presence, always so comforting.

Maybe Shadow Milk just wanted to be with his family, and he didn’t care how much easier getting out of the dumb hole would be with them.

Shadow Milk groaned in frustration as he failed to reach a large root that had grown down the side of the cliff.

He was just the tiniest bit too short to reach it, even standing on Marionettes head, who was balanced precariously against the wall. Had he been able to reach it, he still probably lacked the strength to climb it to the top, but he had decided to figure that part out when he got there.

Back to the ground, nearly falling as Marionette tried to safely lower them. His legs were starting to seriously hurt again. Shadow Milk fiddled with his long hair as he tried to think of another way out.Twenty four failed escape attempts, all stupid, most insane.

Marionette went still beside, him, staring towards the top of the cove on the far side of the lake. A quiet growl started up in her chest, hardly audible. The same direction she had been growling at the day before.

“Mari?” he asked, slowly moving closer. She moved quickly, spinning around to grab him by the back of his clothes. She dragged him to the shallow cave they slept in, placing him against the back wall and standing in front of him protectively, dark wings spread wide and eyes contracted to slits. From there, they could see the entirety of the cove, but nothing could see them from above, and the shadows would make her practically invisible. He tried to ask what she sensed, but the glare she sent her way shut him up.

Marionette was not an easily scared dragon, she was fierce, and had always had more of a taste for battle than her rider. Whatever was coming was enough to scare her into hiding, so Shadow Milk sat quietly and let her watch.

He peeked around her, watching the sky. Perhaps there was a wild dragon coming towards them? In their injured states it might have been a tough battle, but he didn’t think any wild dragon could scare Marionette so badly. They had faced down everything from a pack of angry Speedstingers to a rampaging Screaming Death while injured. Marionette was not one to back away from bad odds, so what could possibly be coming?

From one of the large, fluffy clouds that covered most of the sky, something moved. It seemed almost to be a part of the cloud, breaking apart from the rest, but as it came closer he recognized its true form. Wings and a tail so painfully familiar in their shape. Shadow Milk knew immediately who it had to be.

It was one of the first thing he did when he clawed his way out of the Silver Tree: fly as fast as he could to the everywhere he knew Furies hid, from the darkest, deepest forests to the coldest mountains of the arctic. Even the looming presence of Dark Enchantress hadn’t been able to keep him from his quest.

He had hoped, desperately, that they had not continued to be hunted after the Beasts were sealed. His hopes were crushed when he quickly learned that the Fury hunts had not only continued, but without the threat of the Virtues, had gotten much, much worse.

Marionette was the last Night Fury. Gone for millennia, chained and helpless, sleeping through the extinction of her species. He couldn’t possibly imagine her pain.

And of the elusive Light Furies, only one remained, and by some terrible stroke of fate, it was under the control of one of the Ancients.

Those ‘dragon riders’, cruel caricatures of what once was. He wondered coldly what he had done to force the poor Light Fury’s loyalty. Had he beaten it bloody until it knew nothing but obedience? Had he killed its flock and stolen its egg from its nest, raising it to know no life besides the one he gave it? Was it Deathgripper venom, his greatest sin? He saw no collar, but perhaps the technology had evolved in his absence and the collar was no longer needed. What a cruel twist of the dagger that would be, the last Light Fury, enslaved by Shadow Milk’s own creation.

Shadow Milk grit his teeth in anger, considering the terrible ways the endling Light Fury was being treated. His heart ached at the violence he imagined.

Pure Vanilla was here to finish him off with his stolen dragon, and Shadow Milk knew he had to save it someday. The last Light Fury would be free if it cost Shadow Milk his life or if it demanded he bathe the world in blood all over again.

Sadly, today was not that day.

Knowing how good Light Fury hearing was, Shadow Milk turned to grab his armour as quietly as possible. Slowly sliding the light, scaled leather over his bodysuit. If this came down to a fight, they would be at a serious disadvantage. Shadow Milk could only hope they would be able to scare the Ancient off before he realized how easily he could defeat them. Posturing like a scared animal, it was pitiful, but it might get them out of this alive.

He hated it, he hated it so much, but if they wanted to save the last Light Fury he and Marionette had to live, and in their current state they had no hope of winning a fight with the Ancient.

If Pure Vanilla came back with friends though… Shadow Milk wouldn’t stand a chance. At a Light Furies top speed, Pure Vanilla could be to his kingdom and back with reinforcements in less than an hour.

Scaring them away wasn’t an option. They had to dispose of the Ancient here and now, and hope nobody came looking for the body before he and Marionette could escape with the Light Fury.

Looks like today would be the day they saved it after all.

They might have to restrain it somehow, depending on how deep its loyalty to the Ancient had been beat into it. Maybe Marionette could lightly shoot it, just enough to knock it out. She did have excellent control when she wasn’t-

Pure Vanilla stopped circling and descended slowly into the seemingly empty cove, landing softly in the center of the grass. The Light Fury, unlike in their previous battle, was fitted with a lightweight saddle and a couple of saddlebags.

The Ancient climbed off the Light Fury carefully, slowly padding around the clearing with an expression of confusion. They hadn’t been spotted yet. The Light Fury followed close behind, anxious, head flicking side to side almost nervously as it searched for them with its sharp eyesight and hearing. Marionette had more experience with her own kind though, and knew how to keep them hidden.

She was beautiful up close, her subtle, snow leopard-like patterns shimmering in the daylight and the topsides of her wings sparkling faintly, like freshly fallen snow. Shadow Milk had almost forgotten. Light Furies were elusive, even in his time. Still, he knew more about the species than anyone else.

Studying dragons and sharing what he knew with the world had been his life’s work, his purpose until he realized the cruel truth of the world. Still, that thirst for knowledge, that insatiable curiosity, had never truly left him.

Now that she was close, he could tell she was female from her size, as she was clearly somewhat larger than Marionette, meaning she was larger than a male Light Fury, who were about the same size as female Night Furies. Light Furies stored more muscle and fat than Night Furies in order to thrive in the cold regions they inhabited. Their larger size also helped them fly more easily through rough weather like blizzards that no Night Fury could hope to stay stable in.

Shadow Milk had dedicated his life to studying dragons of all kinds, but he had always had a bias towards the ever mysterious Furies. His books on the subject had been some of his proudest achievements. They were all ashes now. He had burned them himself, along with the rest of his academy.

He tapped subtly on Marionette’s side, part of their silent language of simple commands, wait. When her eye flicked to the side to see him, he gestured for her to take out Pure Vanilla, and leave the Light Fury. Getting the Ancient out of the way was their priority, and once he was gone they could try to subdue her without violence.

‘No more petty revenge shots,’ he tried to communicate with his face. By the eye roll he got in return, he thought she understood.

Slinking silently through the shadows around the edges of the cove, they waited for the perfect shot. It came when the Light Fury found the remnants of their fire, sniffing curiously, probably trying to use it to track them. The moment The Light Furies back was turned, Marionettes eyes snapped to Pure Vanilla and she opened her mouth to fire.
Faster than either of them could react, something rushed at Shadow Milks head. Marionette abandoned her shot to push him out of the way of the plasma blast. It crashed loudly into the stone behind him, leaving a large, blackened hole. The Light Fury was fast, or it had spotted them before and had been waiting. Clever girl.

“Orchid!” Pure Vanilla suddenly yelled, shocking Shadow Milk out of his thoughts, “and after I just told her not to do that…” he said under his breath. ‘Orchid’ as she was apparently called, growled, glaring in his direction.

Then the Ancient turned to him, eyes closed almost peacefully, without armour, seemingly without weapons. He didn’t look prepared for battle in the slightest. There was a slight tension in the way he stood, a hint of anxiety in his face, but he didn’t make any effort to defend himself.

What was his play here…

Shadow Milk stood and his legs protested violently, but he forced them not to shake. He grinned like he was in control. He had no weapons, but he held one of his hands behind his back as if he were hiding something. His other hand crossed over his chest as he bent in a theatrical bow.

“Pure Vanilla!” he giggled, “we’ve been expecting you.”

Frantically, he tried to rewrite his script, find a new way out of this. Without surprise, their chances of taking out the Ancient were small, but not nonexistent. Still, a full on fight would almost certainly lead to more injury than it was worth, slowing them down even further and leading to them not making it to the other Beasts on time.

Their best bet was to scare them off then, and then hope they found a way out before they came back with armour, weapons, and the rest of their little friends. It was a bad plan that relied far too heavily on them getting out of the cove, but it was the best they had. Shadow Milks only advantages here were his knowledge of Furies and his blood-stained reputation.

Marionette stood intimidatingly behind him, her back ached and her eyes slit in warning. A low growl rumbled from deep in her chest. Shadow Milk rose to his full height, despite the waves of pain it sent through his already aching legs. He let his face split into a wide smile, teeth in full view.

Orchid assumed a similar position to Marionette behind Pure Vanilla, her long body curled around him like a snake. Pure Vanilla stood still, eyes closed peacefully like nothing was wrong.

The Ancient raised his hands as if in surrender, demonstrating his lack of weapons. Shadow Milk felt his smile drop in confusion for just a moment before he was able to right it.

“I am not here to fight you, Shadow Milk.” The Ancient said, foot raising slightly to kick at the Light Furies leg until she stopped growling. A monster lying about its teeth, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. How cruel, as if he could ever hide his claws.

Shadow Milk laughed, long and wild. “All you know is violence, dragon rider, I would sooner walk into a Changewing nest than believe a word you say!” he shouted, baring his teeth like the Beast they all knew he was. It was hard to feel anything but anger as the Ancient played at innocence.

Pure Vanilla didn’t respond, instead, he began to move. Slowly, projecting his movements like you would while approaching a wild animal. His hands fell from their place in the air and Marionette roared. He waited for her growl to begin to quiet before he continued moving, reaching slowly to open the larger saddlebag. The smell hit him immediately- It was full of fish. Not too many, but a decent sized meal for Marionette, something she hadn’t had in far too long.

Shadow Milk glared, eyes narrowing as his teeth stayed bared in a sharp grin, “stop playing games and just try to kill us already, cmon I’m getting bored over here! You do know games are meant to be my thing, right?”

Pure Vanilla unclipped the basket of fish from his saddle, setting in on the ground and pushing it towards him with his foot. “I’m not playing games, I’m offering you food. That lake couldn’t possibly have enough in it for both you and your dragon, it-”

“Don’t call her that!” he snapped, dropping his joking tone, “Marionette is my friend, she’s family. Not that you’d understand that.”

Hands raising once again, Pure Vanilla smiled. Like it was funny. Disgusting. Dragons were not mindless beasts to be owned, they were loyal, intelligent, and fiercely protective of their riders. Shadow Milks ever present smile twitched in anger.

“What a lovely name, Marionette it is then," Pure Vanilla smiled.

Marionette growled, lips pulling back to reveal sharp teeth. Shadow Milk cursed himself for slipping on her name.

From here, he could see into the basket better. On top of the fish there were little paper baggies of other food, such as dried fruits and meats, what looked like some sort of pastry, and bottles of clean water. It was far too good to be true.

“No tricks,” Pure Vanilla said a before Shadow Milk could accuse him of trying to trick him, “I just don’t wish to see you and Marionette starve to death.”

The food was super-duper poisoned.

“So, whats your genius plan for when this little poison trick doesn’t work?” he asked, “come back with the rest of your so called dragon riders, let them finish what you started? Can’t believe I got taken down by the only Ancient with such a weak stomach, he can’t even order a killing blow!” Shadow Milk laughed and laughed, throwing his head back like this was the funniest thing in the world.

“I won’t bring the other Ancients,” Pure Vanilla said, smile falling into a soft frown, “and I will not hurt you, Shadow Milk. Please, take the food. I couldn’t bare to see the last of the Night Furies starve, not after what happened to the Light Furies.”

A thousand sarky comments rose in his throat, but something in the words struck him, even though he knew they were all weightless lies. Pure Vanilla did not care about Marionette, nor did he feel any remorse for the death of the Light Furies. He wanted to save the last Night Fury for himself, steal and subdue her for his own selfish greed like he had with the Light Furies.

Still, he was right. The fish in the lake would maybe last them another day, and Marionette was already hungry with how little she had eaten. He could hear it in the night, the way her stomach groaned, he could see it in her walk and the slight tremble of her muscles. They knew each other better than anyone else, she couldn't hide her pain from him any more than he could hide his pain from her.

Their chances of escape went from tiny to nonexistent if Marionette continued to deteriorate without proper food.

If he wanted to get out before Pure Vanilla returned with friends and weapons to kill him and take Marionette, they needed the food.

Slowly, taking careful steps forward like a beast stalking its prey, Shadow Milk approached the half-blind Ancient. Marionette followed, slinking behind him, never taking her eyes off Pure Vanilla.

Pure Vanilla stood quiet and still, like he was trying not to scare them off.

Quick as a Speedstringer, Shadow Milk reached forward and grabbed the basket, holding it protectively to his chest.

Marionette peeked her head over his shoulder to sniff warily at the basket, letting out a low rumble. Her eyes widened and she stuck her head eagerly into it to grab a fish, pulling back to quickly swallow it whole. Not poisoned then, she would have smelled it.

In the corner of his vision, Shadow Milk saw the curious way Orchid was watching her, sharp eyes tracing her form and absorbing her every movement. He wondered if she had ever met another of her kind, or if she had hatched into the world alone, with nothing but her abusive rider for a flock. Shadow Milk held back a snarl at the idea.

He set the basket on the ground, grabbing the little baggies and bottles to get them out of the way. Marionette dug in eagerly. She had been starving, despite how she tried to hide it.

Shadow Milk turned back to the Ancient, keeping guard while Marionette filled her stomach with impressive speed. He was smiling softly, useless eyes squinted as he tried make them focus on Marionette.

“What do you want?” Shadow Milk finally snapped, he couldn’t make this interaction fit into his mental profile for Pure Vanilla. The Ancients were cruel, evil, mockeries of the old dragon riders, violent distortions of what the Virtues had once been. The Ancients did not feed injured dragons with soft smiles and kind, curious eyes.

“I can see the bandages on her tail, and you have been shaking since I arrived. I’m sure you know I am a healer, I would be more than happy to look over your injuries and do what I can-” Pure Vanilla was cut off by a growl from Marionette, who had finished the basket of fish. Her tail lashed behind her and her nose wrinkled in a snarl.

“Okay, I won’t push today, but please consider my offer, I hate to see any soul in pain. I will be back to see you tomorrow, if you are still here of course,” Pure Vanilla smiled, climbed back into his saddle, and flew off. Circling the cove, he looked back only once before leaving.

Shadow Milk watched in confusion as he flew away, still with absolutely no idea what the Ancients game was, why he was playing with his food.

Shadow Milk did know one thing for sure though-

They had to get out of here soon, or they were as good as dead.

—

Despite his reluctance, Mari managed to force him to eat some food.

It was fine. He refused to sing its praises, but he would admit (to himself, never out loud) that it was far better than badly cooked fish.

The berries were sweet and juicy, he ate them far quicker than he would ever admit. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of meat the jerky was, but it was perfectly tough and well-spiced. The water was luke-warm, but it was cleaner than the lake water and felt good on his aching throat.

The pastry was… confusing. Shadow Milk couldn’t figure out what it was, something invented in his time in the tree most likely, but when he risked taking a bite he found that the flaky dough was filled with tart blueberry jam and fluffy cream. He scowled at the memories it brought to the front of his mind, but kept eating, not at all eagerly shoving the entire thing into his mouth. It was, admittedly, delicious. He had always preferred sour blueberries over sweet ones.

The basket was emptied quickly. It was shameful, and Shadow Milk felt sick thinking of it. Taking handouts from an Ancient, how far had he fallen?

After a moment to rest, he stood, feeling much stronger with a full stomach. He and Marionette went back to their escape plans. It was more important than ever that they escape now, not only were they quickly running out of time to make it back to the other Beasts, but Pure vanilla knew where they were and knew they couldn’t leave.

They had full stomachs and the fear of death on their side.

Today would be the day they got out.

The sun reached the middle of the sky, they crashed to the ground, harder than any of their previous bad landings. Shadow Milk was thrown from Marionette’s back and landed with a scream. It hurt to stand, so Marionette gently helped him back onto her back without any of her usual grumbling.

They had to get out.

The sun was halfway down the sky, Marionette’s latched onto a hanging root with one of her front paws, claws stretched to their limits. She lost her grip when one of her claws broke, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Shadow Milk lost his grip on her neck and fell hard, nothing but his light armour shielding him from the fall. The grass was soft at least. He forced himself up to go and check on Marionette, who’s claw had broken far too close to the base and was bleeding steadily. She walked with a limp to match his own. Pure Vanilla would be back any minute.

They had to get out.

The sun began to fall. Marionette couldn’t glide to the grass in time and they crashed hard into the lake. Shadow Milk had nothing left in his bag to replace the soaked bandages, so he just left them to dry on their own. Marionette stood, shook herself out, and knelt so he could climb back onto her back. His clothes were thoroughly soaked, but the sun was still strong enough that they would hopefully dry before night.

They had to get out.

The sun disappeared over the horizon. They were almost there, but Marionette fell sideways and crashed into the wall, hard. She cried out in pain as her injured tail met the hard stone. They fell to the ground.

They had to get out.

They had to get out.

They had to get out-

The tip of her tail was bent at an unnatural, painful angle. The sickly red tint of infection had spread, and the not-quite-dry bandages were more pink than white. He reached for the bottle of painkillers, but it was empty.

They weren’t getting out.

He had known it for awhile, and had hoped regardless. Hope was not meant for monsters such as himself, how could he have forgotten?

Shadow Milk knelt on the ground, burying his face in his hands as he cried. The moon was rapidly rising and now there was no chance they made it back in time to the other Beasts. Marionette was hurt and there was nothing he could do to help her. He was still soaking wet and his legs hurt more than he could ever remember them hurting. Tomorrow, Pure Vanilla would return and would kill him, or worse, drag him back to that accursed tree where he would never see his families faces or hear their voices again. Maybe the faeries would show him kindness and just kill him for what he did to the Guardian. He knew in his heart they wouldn’t show him such mercy. The Ancients would take Marionette. They would beat her bloody and shoot venom into her blood until she obeyed as well as all their other broken pets. They would never see each other again.

Marionette limped over, broken tail dragging along the ground. Laying next to him, she pushed her head into his lap, letting his arms wrap around her neck and squeeze as tight as he could, which wasn’t very tight. He whispered sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry and she just purred, weak and shaky, until he fell silent.

Somehow, they dragged each other to the cave and slept.

—

The next day they did not try to escape.

Marionette couldn’t attempt flight with a broken tail, and Shadow Milk couldn’t stand if he tried. They were out of options.

Instead, they sat quietly in their corner and basked in the comfort of each others presence. Wondering how much longer they would have even that.

Somewhere far away, on the other side of the island, farther than they could travel on foot before the full moon even if they escaped right that moment, the Beasts were waiting. Shadow Milk would never see them again. He hoped they would rescue Marionette and care for her when he couldn’t. He hoped he never saw them again, because that would mean they continued to live and be free. Somewhere even farther away, his minions were awaiting their return. They had no idea he wasn’t coming back. He hoped Black Sapphire would continue to care for Candy Apple in his absence. He hoped they would stay together and keep each other safe just like they did before he found them all those years ago.

Marionette purred quietly as he scratched softly at the scales behind her jaw, humming an old song. It didn’t exist anymore, it had been lost sometime in the last few thousand years. Nobody remembered the lyrics, not even him.

The sky was clear and blue, so Orchid stood out like a Scauldron on dry land when she appeared over the cove. Gliding down on silent wings and landing softly in the grass. Her sharp, pale blue eyes immediately locked onto them, they had made no effort to hide this time. They probably couldn’t move if they tried.

After a moment of heavy silence, Pure Vanilla spoke up.

“Shadow Milk…?” he asked, cautiously sliding from Orchid’s back. He sounded almost scared, like he expected some trick from the Beasts sudden change in attitude.

Shadow Milk laughed, to keep up appearances.

“I knew he wasn’t done with us,” he joked to Marionette, “we’re irresistible, everybody knows it!” She didn’t seem to find it funny.

Ignoring his comments, Pure Vanilla slowly unclipped another basket from his saddle, identical to the one from yesterday. He noticed then that Pure Vanilla was once again without armour, weapons, allies, or shoes. The Ancient found the first basket laid in the grass, empty, and replaced it with the full one, hooking the first basket back onto his saddle.

“Shadow Milk?” He asked again when neither Beast nor Night Fury made any effort to move. His eyes open, narrowed as he tried to focus his awful vision on them. A step closer, Marionette growled, but didn’t stand. He moved closer, eyes finally catching the dirty, damp, bloody bandages on her tail, he gasped and rushed closer.

Marionette roared, but still didn’t stand, just glaring at him from her position on the ground.

“You’re both hurt, and by the look of those bandages you’re out of supplies” Pure Vanilla stated, as if it was something that needed to be said, “please, let me help, I’m a healer.”

Shadow Milk’s first impulse was to laugh in his face, but he bit his tongue and thought about it. Reluctantly. If Pure vanilla wanted to do something, he could do it. In their state, there wasn’t much either of them could do to stop him. Injured as they were, they had no way to fight back, they didn’t stand a chance against one Ancient, much less four.

Whatever game Pure Vanilla was playing, their best chance for survival was to let themselves be dragged along. Play the puppets until their opportunity to break script came.

For some insane reason, Pure Vanilla wanted to play hero, so they may as well take advantage before he had a change of heart and dropped the act.

The Beast let himself slump, defeated, against Marionette’s side. Looking away, he grit his teeth and spat out “fine. Not like we have much choice.” Noticing what he was doing, Marionette joined, letting her growl fall silent as she turned her head away, but flicked her tail out towards the Ancient.

Shocked they had agreed, the Ancient quickly ran to grab medical supplies from his saddlebag. Orchid followed him back to them, grabbing the basket of food in her mouth and dragging it along with her.

Instead of going straight to her tail, Pure vanilla instead knelt by Marionette’s head. “Is it just your tail that’s hurt?” he asked in a sickeningly kind voice, “or is there somewhere else I should look as well?”

Marionette hesitated a moment, but raised one of her paws, showing where her claw had broken dangerously close to the base. It was caked in dried blood.

Cooing sympathetically, Pure vanilla pulled a few things from his bag and began working on her claw. He cleaned it with water from a bucket Orchid brought him, gently wiping away dried blood and making comforting sounds whenever Marionette flinched or growled. Never once did he keep going when she seemed to be in pain. Once it was clean, he gently trimmed down the rough edges and applied some sort of ointment to keep away infection before wrapping it gently. The Ancient narrated every step as he did it, always in that stupid, soft voice.

Shadow Milk still could not figure out why he was doing this for the life of him. There was no point to it, no reason. No reason to play at being so kind, so gentle.

Pure Vanilla finished with Marionette’s claw and moved towards her tail, whispering a low warning that it might hurt before he knelt and began to remove the ruined bandages. Concern was clear in his gaze as he noticed the dried blood, the red hue of infection, the broken end. The sadness in his eyes was sickening in his fakenesss. Pure Vanilla was a good liar, but nobody could lie to Shadow Milk. The Beast saw right through him, into his cruel, blackened heart so thinly veiled behind a facade of kindness. People were always like that, pretending to care about dragons until it didn’t benefit them to be kind. As soon as this strange game was over, Pure Vanilla would show who he truly was.

The Ancient narrated his actions as he gently cleaned her tail, wiping away dried blood and grime and who knew what else. Eyes narrowed, he ran his fingers softly over the wounds, feeling out the damage to her tail fin as his face twisted in horror.

Taking a deep breath, Pure Vanilla worked. Applying things Shadow Milk couldn’t hope to name to the burns, pulling some sort of pills from his bag and forcing them into Shadow Milks hands, telling him to give one to Marionette twice a day with food until they ran out, having Orchid find a large stick for Mari to bite while he set her broken tail and made a makeshift splint to keep it in place, and finally wrapping it all so carefully in clean bandages, it put Shadow Milks messy work to shame.

Finally, the healer sat back, sighing. “Its rough, but there’s only so much I can do out here.” he said with a grimace, “the break is luckily a lot smaller than I thought, and should heal in a couple weeks so long as she doesn’t strain it, so no trying to fly, no hanging from her tail, and absolutely no hitting it off things. If she can keep it from dragging on the ground as well that would be ideal. The infection is bad, but it hasn’t progressed that far yet. I’ll have to redress it whenever I can, and you’ll have to be sure she takes those pills I gave you, don’t forget to take them with food!” Pure Vanilla kept talking, but Shadow Milk got distracted trying to decipher the hidden threat in his words and forgot to listen. Dolly was always listening though so it was probably fine.

Maybe the pills were poison? Did he apply something to hurt her later while he was working on her tail? Maybe he set the break in a way that it would never fully heal? That was a really roundabout way to hurt them though, when he could just as easily have Orchid kill either of them with one good shot-

-ow Milk?”

Pure Vanilla was waving a hand in front of his face. He was tempted to bite it, but hummed in feigned disinterest instead.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” he said, making a shooing motion towards the Ancient. He turned to look over her tail and claw himself, eyes narrowed and body tense as he tried to subtly check for anything the Ancient had done to her.

Taking a step back towards Orchid, who had been sniffing curiously at Marionette until she growled at her, Pure Vanilla smiled weakly. “I would never harm Marionette, I promise.” he said, holding a hand over his heart.

Shadow Milk scoffed, slumping backwards against Marionettes side. He glanced back towards her tail, seeing how neatly it was wrapped, how carefully. As nice, if not nicer, than Mystic Flours work. There was nothing outwardly suspicious, but that didn’t mean nothing had been done to hurt her. He felt the anger in his stomach bubbling over, pushing at the edges of his mask.

Marionette made a low crooning sound, careful. She knew the danger of the situation and knew he was probably about to say something stupid. He winced when her nose gently poked his side, it was meant to be a gentle warning but she had forgotten her own strength and his present weakness. She purred an quiet apology.

“Shadow Milk?” Pure Vanilla called, face twisted in fake concern, “are you hurt? If there’s anything I can do-”

“Shut up!” the Beast snapped, teeth bared in a snarl, “I’m PERFECTLY fine thank you very much for asking.” Marionette began to growl behind him when the Ancient dared to take a step forward. At the threat, Orchid also began to growl, back arched and wings half-furled at her sides. Shadow Milk realized his mistake, he was meant to be playing the obedient puppet, but he had let his mask crack in his anger. His stupid, fragile legs had always been his greatest weakness, physically and mentally. Most people knew better than to mention them. If he had pissed off Pure Vanilla, they were doomed, even more than they were before.

Pure vanilla backed off, noticing either the tension between the dragons or Shadow Milks own anger and, luckily for him and Marionette, unwilling to risk a fight. The Ancient led Orchid away with a hand on her side, her slit pupils dilating as her growl faded to a low rumble. She nudged her head to his shoulder, a silent question, which the Ancient responded to with a nod.

“I- I think its best we leave now, Shadow Milk. Please eat, and make sure Marionette does as well. Tomorrow, I will return when I can with more food, and to change her bandages. If you are still in pain tomorrow, please tell me, I can help.” The Ancient said as he climbed back into his saddle. Shadow Milk didn’t respond, and Pure vanilla didn’t press. Orchid opened her wings and jumped into the air, soon disappearing into the clouds.

“Whoopsy-daisy”

Marionette whacked him on the head with her wing, uncaring for his dramatic whines of pain or the way he collapsed, near-death, to the ground in agony. An arm thrown over his face and his other limbs splayed about on the ground. Clearly in terrible pain and dying from her mistreatment.

She hit him again.

“Yes I knooow we were planning on playing along but-”

Again.

“Fine, yes yes yes yes, if he gets upset and comes back to finish us off its my fault!”

Marionette crooned, and he sighed. “Sorry,” he whispered, “hows your tail? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

She shook her head no.

Shadow Milk looked to the clouds where the Ancient and his stolen dragon had disappeared, gritting his teeth in anger and confusion. He was meant to be a genius, but he couldn’t wrap his head around the Ancients motives, his inexplicable kindness.

There was no reason for him to play pretend for so long. Pure Vanilla could have killed him the first day he found them, he could have killed him just moments ago. He had been given a thousand opportunities to hurt them, to take Marionette, to drag him back to the tree, and he had taken none of them. Instead he had just looked on with that stupid, silly smile and even sillier words of false sympathy.

Marionette dragged the basket over, once again confirming none of it was poisoned. She smelled the pills as well, and was certain they were safe.

Shadow Milk glared at the clouds, desperately searching for answers.

Pure Vanilla was not kind. He was not trying to help them. No good person had ridden a dragon since before the Beasts fall, and the cruel owner of the Light Fury endling was no exception. The Ancients were monsters, and destroying them was the only thing the Beasts and Dark Enchantress agreed on. The Ancients power was the only wall between them and their inevitable betrayal of that awful woman. They needed her to defeat the Ancients, but once they were gone, the Beasts would be free to kill her and return to their true mission.

Shadow Milk fought to ignore the truth he saw in Pure Vanilla’s eyes whenever he opened them. The shining blue and gold so brilliant against his tan skin, full of kindness and concern and love, devoid of the anger and hate and painful regret Shadow Milk saw in his own reflection. The soft way he spoke, voice tinged in worry but never empty of care. The crows feet that wrinkled his eyes when he smiled, all soft and worried and disgustingly fake.

Pure Vanilla was as much a liar as he himself was.

Silly Nilly should have known better.

Nobody could trick the Beast of deceit.

Shadow Milk knew the true nature of humanity far too well to be deceived so easily.

Chapter Text

It was long before sunrise when Pure Vanilla began preparing for his trip, dressing in comfortable white riding clothes and packing a couple small saddlebags with emergency supplies and food for the long flight.

After nearly an hour of arguing with the other Ancients (who were still in his kingdom to oversee the repairs while he was resting, despite his repeated insistence that their strength would be much better used defending their people from the Beasts, who had not been seen since their attack on his kingdom), his friends, the children, and his entire court, Pure Vanilla had convinced everyone that this trip was best made alone.

With just him and Orchid, they would be faster, much harder to spot, and wouldn’t risk upsetting the Faeries. They were somewhat… on edge, at the moment. It was fair, considering the state of their king and kingdom, but it made interacting with them a tense affair, even more so than usual.

Before the sun began to rise, Pure Vanilla hopped on Orchids lightweight, white-leather saddle and they flew off, leaving his kingdom behind.

The moment they were out of eyesight from the city, Orchid made a sharp detour out into the woods. He had, perhaps, packed slightly more food than he needed for the trip. Luckily, nobody had noticed.

Orchid didn’t waste time circling, descending from the clouds into the cove as soon as she spotted it. When he looked down, Pure Vanilla could make out the dark form of Marionette, presumably with Shadow Milk on her back, but with the Beasts dark clothes it was hard for him to tell.

The Night Fury paced the outside edge of the cove restlessly, movements jerky and anxious. Something had changed about her behavior, but Pure Vanilla couldn’t begin to guess at what had caused it.

At least they were moving around, unlike that unsettling stillness of the day before.

Still, it was concerning, and the fact that the Beast didn’t seem to be walking pointed again to some sort of leg injury. Another thing to worry about. Soon, he’d have to convince Shadow Milk to let him look, before it got worse. The Beast’s countless escape attempts could only have made it worse.

Sharp green eyes snapped towards them when they landed, stark against the pitch of Marionette's scales and the darkness of day before sunrise. She did not growl though. He had earned something resembling the beginnings of trust. It was small, but with time, he could nurture it into something more.

Sliding carefully to the ground, Pure Vanilla felt his way to the larger of the two saddlebags, unclipping it and beginning to carry it towards the Beast in what was quickly becoming their routine. Orchid trailed him like a shadow, never more than a step behind. She was cautious, but he could feel her excitement like electricity in the air whenever she saw the other Fury.

“Marionette,” he called when he was halfway to the dragon, “would you mind if I changed your bandages and checked over your injuries again? I would like to make sure they’re on track to heal well.”

After a moments pause, the Night Fury came slowly forward. There wasn’t much he could make out of her appearance with his poor vision, but he knew she was beautiful. Smaller than Orchid, but sharper. There was a feral sort of grace to the way she moved, jerky like a puppet on strings but sinuous like a cat in the same motion. Her scales were so dark it was like a piece of night had fallen from the sky, a living shadow walking among them. Perhaps that was just his poor vision though. 

In his youth, when his vision was poor but still largely functional, he had seen Orchid's true patterns, a thousand shades of grey and white swirling into beautiful rosettes, wings shining like fresh snow on top but matt like a cloudly sky on the underside. He wondered if Marionette had similar patterns. His heart ached knowing he would never truly see her, just as it ached when he thought of how he would never see Orchid how he remembered her, how he would never clearly make out his friends faces again. Sometimes he wished he had been born with such poor vision, and didn't have any old memories to cling to.

When they were closer, Shadow Milk slipped gracefully from her back like a shadow all his own, but Pure Vanilla could tell he was in pain from the sound of his breath, shaking along with his body. The Beast tried to hide it, but Pure Vanilla’s had decades of experience with stubborn patients. With Marionettes ‘subtle’ support they moved closer, the dragon clearly supporting most of his weight. She was limping as well, off balance as she tried to walk while holding her tail off the ground and keeping her weight off her broken claw.

They stopped about a meter from him, Marionette sitting and bringing her tail around the front, setting it gently on the ground before him. Shadow Milk continued to rest his weight against her shoulder, knees almost buckling as he bit his lip to stop from crying out. Pure Vanilla longed to just force him to accept his help, but doing so would destroy whatever small trust he had earned.

Careful not to move suddenly, Pure Vanilla set the basket of food within Shadow Milks reach before turning to grab his medical supplies from the second saddlebag. Orchid kept vigilant watch over his shoulder as Shadow Milk slowly reached towards the basket before quickly pulling it to his chest. Like he was stealing food from the jaws of a trap, backing away before they could snap closed around him.

Shadow Milk sat on the ground with a poorly-hidden sigh of relief as he cautiously opened the basket, still expecting some sort of trick. He let Marionette smell it thoroughly before either dared eat.

Pure Vanilla began to approach Marionette’s tail, moving slowly and as non-threateningly as he could. She continued to eat undisturbed by his approach, though her eyes did flick in his direction every few moments, wary.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Shadow Milk remove the pills he gave him yesterday from some well-hidden pocket, feeding one to Marionette with one of the larger fish. It was a huge step towards gaining their trust; the Ancient resisted the urge to cheer. He failed to hold back his grin as he carefully unwrapped the bandages.

Luckily, this wouldn’t take long. They needed to be on their way soon, the journey to the Nest wasn’t a short one, and any delay would arouse suspicion. With the bandages out of the way, he brought his fingers gently to her tail.

The splint, cobbled together with sticks and bandages but functional, was luckily still in place with no noticeable damage. With any luck it would hold for the next couple weeks with only minor maintenance. The break had been relatively clean and would, so long as Marionette continued to be careful with it, heal perfectly and leave no lasting damage.

Pure Vanilla felt carefully over the burns on her tail, which the day before had been ragged, open wounds festering with infection and poorly covered by bloody bandages. The skin around them was still warm and had an ugly red tint beneath the cool black scales, but the burns had finally scabbed over. Changing out those dirty bandages had done wonders, and so long as they kept the infection in check, everything would heal well. It hadn’t spread at all since he first saw it, which was the best he could have hoped for in such a bad situation.

Shadow Milk hadn’t touched his food yet, he noticed as he carefully redressed the wounds after he was done caring for them. Pure Vanilla frowned, but continued working dutifully.

The tail fin was, by far, her worst injury. Completely ripped from her body, leaving only a jagged ledge of leathery skin along the edge of her tail. There was nothing to be done for a missing fin, but he made sure to check what remained for infection or further damage.

He didn’t dwell long, afraid of the expression he could feel on his face. He felt bile rise in his throat and a choking pressure on his chest whenever he thought too deeply about what he had done. What he had told Orchid to do to the closest thing she had to another of her species.

Gritting his teeth, he swallowed his nausea and stood with a crack, his knees popping from the strain of kneeling so long. Orchid made a rumbly, almost laughing sound behind him. “You aren’t all that young either you know?” he scolded with an affectionate tone, smiling softly as he failed to hold in his own small laugh.

Shadow Milk had that expression again, confusion and rage and hatred concealed behind a mask of a smile. It was a good mask, better than any actor Pure Vanilla had ever met, but his breathing gave him away. The way he moved, always just slightly too tense. The way he reached for Marionette without noticing, lightly brushing his fingers against her scales.

Marionette held up her paw when he approached, never once growling as he moved close to her. She still didn’t seem happy with his presence, but neutrality and tentative trust were an improvement over aggression and fear. There wasn’t much to be done for a broken claw, but he carefully redressed it to stop it from being irritated or becoming infected while it healed and regrew. Shadow Milk watched him while he worked, as he always did. Sharp blue eyes never moving from the Ancient.

Those eyes… they were haunting. Such brilliant shades of cyan and cerulean, almost unnatural in their brightness. It was the first thing he noticed about the Beast when he was close enough to see him, so shockingly vibrant he could make them out clearly even with his awful vision. Almost dragon-like. They sat at the very edge of what could be considered human.

When he slept, two pairs of eyes watched him from his dreams. Blue and Blue and Green, so bright that he swore he could still see them on the backs of his eyelids when he woke.

Pure Vanilla stood, once again turning to the Beast studying him, intelligent gaze never wavering. Shadow Milk let himself go lax when he noticed he was being watched, playing at carelessness. Those sharp eyes never faltered though, never glint of anger never leaving even as he slumped lazily against his dragons side.

“Shadow Milk,” he began, “are you certain you will not allow me to help you? It is clear you are in pain.” His voice was soft and pleading, but the Beast was stubborn in his refusal.

“There’s nothing to heal, silly Nilly, don’t work about little ol’ me!” Shadow Milk giggled, smiling wide and toothy as he gestured dramatically to himself. “Marionette’s the one that got hurt,” that you hurt, went unsaid,“I’m in tip-top shape!” There was a wince whenever he moved too fast or too far, and never once did he make any effort to stand. Pure Vanilla could hear his pain in the way his chest rattled with every breath.

The cove flooded pink and orange as the sun rose in the distance. Pure Vanilla could not win this battle quickly, so it would have to be shelved for later. Tomorrow, or whenever he next managed to get out here. He’d help Shadow Milk eventually, but it couldn’t be today.

“Okay,” he sighed, “but please, tell me if you need help, I will help you.” Shadow Milk opened his mouth and took a breath to argue, “Marionette wouldn’t want to see you get worse because you refused help, Shadow Milk.”

Shadow Milk’s jaw snapped shut with a click as his argument died on his tongue.

Pure Vanilla climbed onto Orchids back, settling in the space between her head and her wings. He shouted one last “don’t forget to eat! And make sure Marionette has her pills!” before they flew off, disappearing into the clouds just as the sun rose over the horizon.

Eager to see White Lily and the King, Orchid soared through the clouds at nearly her top speed. In what felt like moments, the island that was his kingdom was replaced by nothing but endless sea. It seemed so small when they flew. Beneath them, the ocean was a vast, never ending expanse of clear blue water, and their home nothing but a tiny speck of dirt floating along.

There was no need to speak as they flew, dragon and rider basking in the simple comfort of being together. The feel of wind on their faces and the infinite blue in every direction, broken only by the fluffy white of wandering clouds.

The sun was reaching its crest when the weather began to noticeably cool, leaving the few small, rocky islands they passed snow-tipped and icy. Soon, they began to spot the great blue-white forms of icebergs in the water below, and minutes later they came to the great fog that separated the King from the rest of the world.

Without hesitation, Orchid dove into the fog and let her other senses guide her to her King, finding the way with nothing but instinct. Pure Vanilla felt the cold, wet fog as it settled on his exposed face and hair, but his riding clothes were thick enough to keep the dampness out.

It was there, in that great blinding fog, that Pure Vanilla finally spoke.

“She’s incredible, isn’t she?” he asked, and Orchid knew he spoke of the Night Fury in the cove. She rumbled her agreement. He had seen the way she watched Marionette, eyes wide and curious and never moving from the Night Fury. There was an affection in her gaze he dared not try to name, not yet. “I wish I could see her properly, but even what I can see… I can see why you’d think her beautiful,” Orchid made a playful sound of anger at his teasing.

There was a long pause, his next thoughts resting heavy on his tongue and heart. “He’s not evil, is he. Not really, not fully” Pure Vanilla finally said, voicing what he knew they had both been thinking for some time, “I don’t understand anything he does, but I see the way he cares for Marionette.”

Orchids eyes fell shut for a moment as she nodded, a low croon rising in her throat. Somewhere between happiness and mourning.

“He calls me a dragon rider with such scorn… it only creates more of these impossible to answer questions.” Orchid made sounds of agreement as he spoke his thoughts out loud, hoping that if he just said them enough, they’d start to make sense. “I can’t forget that interaction with Burning Spice either, it just plays on repeat in my mind whenever I think of him. They both care for their dragons and clearly their dragons care for them. They are dragon riders as much as we are, not hunters or traffickers or flyers… and they seem to believe we are not.”

Orchid gestured as best she could while flying, head flicking to point at him and then opening her mouth with a growl, teeth extended, as if to attack.

“Yes, you’re right, I hadn’t really thought of it in the moment, but nearly all their attacks were aimed at me, not at you. Was it the same against the children?”

Orchid thought for a moment, before slowly nodding. She was thinking the same thing as he was.

“So they didn’t want to hurt you or the fledglings… there is no doubt they care for dragons. Why attack us though if their goal isn’t to hurt dragons? Are they after power? Money? Territory? I just-” he sighed, laying his head against the cool scales of Orchids neck for a moment to calm his racing thoughts, “I can’t understand them. Shadow Milks accusations of violence, the way he spits dragon riders at us like its acid… I can’t wrap my head around it. The truth is so far buried, I wonder if even we can dig it up.”

Orchid made a quiet roaring sound, eyes narrowed towards him.

“Yes, yes, of course we can, what am I thinking. If anyone could it would be us,” she nodded happily, and Pure Vanilla let the conversation end there. They were getting close, and it would be best no Faeries hear them speaking of Shadow Milk. The Ancients would be upset if they found out about the Beast he was hiding, but the Faeries would be furious. There was no forgiving the Beasts crime against their king.

Another impossible to answer question: why attack the Faeries of all people? The Faeries had been peaceful guardians and caretakers of dragons for aeons, and they weren't even really dragons riders. Stranger yet, why would the Faeries be their first victems? Their home in the Silver forest was distant, secluded, and nearly impossible to access without permission. From any strategic angle, attacking one of the Ancients first would have been smarter. It was a strange, ridiculous way for the beasts to introduce their war to the world, so why?

Pure Vanilla's head was really starting to hurt with all these facts that didn't fit together.

They flew in comfortable silence for several minutes, watching as the thick fog began to thin, faint sunlight filtering in from somewhere high above.

Orchid went tense beneath him as she sensed something flying towards them. Listening closely, Pure Vanilla made out the fast approaching sound of wing beats. Small, but powerful, very fast, and with a metallic edge to them.

“Faerie,” he whispered, knowing Orchid figured it out as well by the way she calmed, but not entirely. The faeries were strange people any day, it was always best to tread carefully in their presence, and with the state of their king…

Orchid doesn’t stray from their course, letting the faerie circle around them to approach from the side. Letting them approach on their own terms. They were close now.

“Light one!” A high voice suddenly shouted. They dropped all caution as they fly right up next to them, and Pure vanilla opened his eyes to the somewhat familiar sight of Silverbell Faerie, one of the only faeries he knew by name, thought he had only met the young faerie a handful of times.

“It’s so good to see you two,” he sung in his soft voice, smiling kindly as he did a small flip in the air, pale silver wings curling around his before shooting outwards to once again catch the air, “we were all saddened when Orchid left without coming to see us, but we understood she was worried for you.”

The baby Razorwhip on his back turned its blind gaze towards Orchid and made its own happy cooing sound, which Orchid returned. She was very well-loved by the faeries, who had assumed Light Furies extinct before they met her. Silverbell had once explained that their failure to prevent the extinction of the Furies was considered one of the greatest shames in the Faeries long history. 

They spoiled her rotten whenever she visited, showering her in praise and gifts alike. Orchid had always been fond of visiting the Faeries.

Silverbell flew just above Orchids wing, his own small wings flapping to keep up even as Orchid slowed for them.

“Your Razorwhip seems smaller than it was the last time we met, and its scales are a lighter shade” Pure Vanilla questioned, “is this a new hatchling?”

Silverbell lit up at the question, “Yes, Stargazer was ready to begin his own journey, and though it was sad to part as always, I am glad he made it safely to his adolescence. This little one is Mist, she’s from our newest clutch of Razorwhip eggs, the first-” he paused suddenly, face dropping, “the first clutch to hatch here in the Kings Nest, rather than in the Silver Forest.”

The Razorwhip on his back, Mist, was evidently very young, just about old enough to begin flying with one of the Faeries. A few months old at most. Her metallic scales were a shining white-silver, and her still blind eyes, the few times they flickered open, were beginning to develop into a beautiful pale purple.

“I’m happy for you, Silverbell, even if such a beautiful event must come at such a tragic time,” Pure Vanilla said, bowing his head in sympathy to the Faerie Kings condition. Though he had never met the man himself, he knew of the great respect his people and White Lily held for him.

“His majesty would be so sad to have missed a hatching,” Silverbell said mournfully, “he has never missed one in all his years as King.”

How long exactly that was, nobody knew, not even the old kings most trusted Faeries. Some claimed the Elder was as old as the Silver Forest itself, but others said that he just happened to look very, very similar to all the Kings before him. The King of Faeries was as mysterious as his people and the secrets they guarded.

Other than White Lily, no outsider had ever met the Faeries until just months ago when the Beasts attacked for the first time and the Faeries were forced to flee to the Ancients kingdoms for aid. Most people had never heard of the Faeries, and among the few who had, they were thought of as little more than childrens stories.

The faeries had been around for as long as history could remember, perhaps longer still. Even the old riders, long-forgotten by time and remembered only through beaten leather books of old fairy tales, riders who had been gone for millennia before the Ancients became the first riders of the new world, even they were long predated by the Faeries.

Nobody knew how long the Faeries had been preforming their sacred duties, but it had been a very, very long time indeed. Hidden away in their forest protected from time itself.

“He would be proud of you all for ensuring it happened at all. I may not have known him, but I am sure of this. You and the other Faeries saved him, every dragon under your care, and a hatchery full of eggs. You didn’t lose a single soul to the Beasts attack, Silverbell, I am sure he could not possibly be more proud of this hatching, even if he wasn’t there to see it.” Pure Vanilla said firmly, leaving no room for argument from the young Faerie.

There was a moment of silence as the fogs thinned to nothing around them, Orchid shooting forward into the open air and towards the land, remnants of fog trailing from her wings. Before them, a large, snow-covered island rose from the water. It was beautiful in its simplicity, all grey stone mountains and pure white snow, falling down towards pale, freezing ocean. The waves crashed violently against the tall stone cliffs, but the sound was muffled and distant.

The land sloped gently upwards to the east, creating the large hill on which the Nest was built. The home of the King of Dragons, a massive fortress of sheer blue ice, great spikes rising high into the sky and disappearing into the clouds.

White Lily’s dragon sanctuary, the King of dragons nest, and the current home of the Faeries. It was the only place the Beasts would never dare attack. No ordinary dragons, no matter the strength or size of their armies, could hope to stand against the King in his own territory.

“Thank you, Pure Vanilla,” Silverbell whispered softly as they flew high towards the Nests upper-entrance. “It is a hard time for our people, and I think I needed to hear that.”

“I speak only the truth,” the Ancient said simply before they entered the Nest, rising above the top and diving through the hole. Silverbell smiled, grateful but still tinged in grief, before he turned, disappearing somewhere into the nest. Probably reporting to the other Faeries of his arrival.

“Let us go greet his Majesty,” Pure Vanilla said, “I have many things to thank him for.” Orchid nodded her agreement and they began descending, spiraling carefully around the edges of the sanctuary towards the ground far below.

They landed on one of the upper levels, stood at the edge of the ledge that hovered over the impossibly deep lake at the center of the Nest. The brilliant green grass was soft beneath his feet when he dismounted, and even after all his visits it still managed to shock him. Such glorious life, hidden away in a castle of ice in the coldest part of the world. It was incredible.

Orchid roared, calling out her presence to the whole of the sanctuary.

Any dragons who hadn’t already been watching them turned, thousands and thousands of eyes from nearly every species of dragon, staring right at them. Most dragons had never met a Light Fury, and Orchid was an amazing dragon. She was something like royalty herself whenever she visited the nest.

Between the other dragons, the doting faeries, and White Lily, she was always rolling in fish by the end of the day.

The water below began to ripple as something massive rose from its depths, sending the earth beneath them and the sky above shaking with its unfathomable size. White spikes broke the surface first, soon followed by the rest of the King of dragons.

The Bewilderbeast stood before them, head taking up the entirety of their vision as he rose halfway from his pool to see them. Pure Vanilla opened his eyes in silent wonder, despite having met the King many times.

The Kings massive mouth opened just slightly, gently blowing cold wind over them. The grass around them turned white and Pure Vanilla was sure a similar thing had happened to his already windblown hair. There was something like a smile on the great dragons face as they shivered and shook themselves free of frost.

Pure Vanilla bowed low, watching from the corner of his eyes as Orchid did the same next to him, head tilted downwards and eyes closed in respect. The King huffed, almost like a laugh.

“Your majesty,” he said with reverence when he stood, hoping the king could hear in his voice how truly thankful he was. He had been so scared after the fight, hearing Orchids fading whines of pain as Dark Cacao carried him away. His restless sleep had been haunted by her, watching her shining white scales disappear and be replaced by the dark shadow of the Night Fury.

“There are no words for my gratitude, but I-” he choked, a sob pushing against his throat like a stone, “if there is ever anything I can do to repay you for what you have done, any way at all I can thank you for saving my Orchid, I am at your service.”

Finally looking up towards the large pools of blue that were the Kings eyes, Pure Vanilla smiled at the soft expression that met his own. The Bewilderbeast blinked slowly, like a content cat, and the Ancient knew he was understood, even if no words could ever capture the depths of his feelings.

Orchid stood from her bow, holding her head high as she let out a roar loud enough to hurt his ears. The dragons of the nest joined her in thunderous concert, all looking towards their King. The Bewilderbeast acknowledged them with a nod, eyes closed as he bowed his own head to his subjects.

Just as the noise faded, a new sound met his ears. The flapping of many wings, quickly approaching. The King turned to watch, letting out a low, happy sound. Pure Vanilla knew then who was coming, and he immediately found himself giving up all effort at respect as a wide smile split his face. There was only one person who made an entrance like this.

Pure Vanilla turned to the swarm of dragons, trying to find White Lily in their masses. He squinted, struggling to force his eyes to focus, and eventually caught the bright green and white of her curved staff as she held it high above her head for him. His smile only widened as he raised his hand to wave back, or at least somewhat in her direction. Orchid loudly roared her excitement next to him, always eager to see Lily even if their last meeting had been less than a week before.

They got closer, and Pure Vanilla could make out the dragon she was standing on, a small, blue-green Deadly Nadder that, by the way it flew, seemed very proud to have been chosen by the sanctuary’s guardian. He resisted a laugh at the young dragons smug movements, it must have been rather new to the sanctuary.

White Lily flew no one dragon, the Bewilderbeast was her companion, and all the Kings subjects bowed to her just as they did him.

The Nadder landed hard, wings flapping powerfully as it fought to keep steady. White Lily never wavered in her stance on its back, walking gently down its wing and swinging herself gracefully to the ground. Turning, she held the young dragons head in her hands, whispering a thank you. It preened at the praise, spikes flaring as it chirped and cooed excitedly.

The rest of the flock continued their flight, and the Nadder made a shocked noise before it scrambled to take off and catch up to its friends. White Lily laughed softly into her hand as Orchid stepped in place, eager to run forward, but he other Ancient stayed faced firmly the other direction. Pure Vanilla could practically hear her teasing smile as she kept the Light Fury waiting.

Orchid roared, not waiting another moment to run towards White Lily.

Finally, White Lily turned and opened her arms to let the Light Fury tackle her at full speed. They fell to the ground, Orchid carefully stood over her as she sniffed at her face and licked her hair. “I’m fine, I’m fine, Orchid, really,” she insisted, which did not dissuade the dragon in the slightest. Chances were she’d be washing dragon spit out of her clothes for the next few weeks, if it came out at all.

The Light Fury had always been a protective dragon, most of all to Pure Vanilla, but her over protectiveness had quickly extended to his friends as well, especially his childhood friend White Lily. With the constant fear of the Beasts return, and the certainty that the Sanctuary would someday draw their cruel attention, whether it be for the King, the Faeries, or White Lily herself, Orchid had been worrying relentlessly for their oldest friend.

Pure Vanilla walked over perhaps slightly slower than necessary, giving Orchid her moment to brood before he gently pushed her off and offered a hand to White Lily.

Orchid grumbled quietly on the side as White Lily grabbed his hand, reaching for her dropped staff with the other. He pulled her up, opening his arms with a soft smile, and she took the offered hug, wrapping her arms gently around his back. He let her go after a quick moment of softness, White Lily was never a fan of long hugs as he was. Not because the slight pressure of her arms was crushing his already aching ribs, no, he was too healed for something so small to cause him pain.

“It is good to see you again, Pure Vanilla,” she said, mouth falling into a soft frown when she noticed him wince at their hug, barely keeping his hands from instinctively flying to his side and biting his tongue to keep from crying out, “are you okay? You know you shouldn’t have come here if you’re injured, that flight can be rough-”

“I’m fine, White Lily,” he interrupted, “I’m still a bit sore, but I wasn’t as injured in that fight as we assumed, and I have healed well.” His ribs were still in somewhat rough shape, and he found most movement painful, but he had many years of practice hiding his wounds, and in comparison to many of those old injuries, a few bruised ribs were nothing.

White Lily gave him an unimpressed look, mirrored by Orchid. “Please, come sit and have something to eat, that journey must have tired you,” she said, eyes narrowing pointedly. Pure Vanilla smiled sheepishly, but let himself be led away towards the caves that weaved through the ice and stone of the sanctuary. She always saw right through him, and he did the same to her.

“Orchid,” White Lily said a few minutes into their walk, “if you’re interested, I believe feeding time is in just a couple minutes.” The Light Furies ear-nubs rose in excitement, she always loved eating with the Kings dragons, catching fish out of the air with her unbeatable speed and agility, but she looked to Pure Vanilla first, worry twisting her face.

“Don’t worry about me Orchid, go eat, I’ll be okay” Pure Vanilla said, petting a hand reassuringly down her spine. A conflicted look came over her as she stood tense, but after a moment she shook herself out and turned to run back towards the outside. They had rarely been apart since his injury, other than when he snuck off and when she decided it necessary to fret over someone else for a moment, and even that she only did when she was completely certain he would be safe without her.

It was good to see her calming down after the battle, some of that ever-present tension loosening its grip.

White Lily led him quietly to her small home built within the caverns, a collection of caves decorated with some comfortable furniture and enough bookshelves to rival his castles library, but stuffed into a tiny fraction of the space. Most of the books weren’t even on the shelves, instead left around in half hazard piles on every available surface.

“Tea?” she asked once he had sat in his usual chair, warming himself by the fire tucked carefully into the blue ice.

Between the cold he hadn’t noticed he was feeling and the aching of his limbs and chest from the long flight, Pure Vanilla found himself slumping in his seat by the comfortable fire, eyes suddenly heavy. Perhaps he was more tired than he thought? It took him a moment to realize she had spoken, and another to shake himself from his daze, but he quickly corrected himself and turned to accept her offer.

White Lily had always preferred the strength of coffee, but she had learned how to make Pure Vanilla’s favorite tea when they were kids. The tea bags in her kitchen were kept there almost exclusively for him, because she didn’t know how to make tea any way other than how he took his.

“That would be lo-”

The sound of rapid wingbeats interrupted him, approaching at speeds he would have thought were Orchid had it not been for the metallic sound. Something was wrong if a Faerie was willing to fly the twisting tunnels at such high, dangerous speeds.

An attack?

The Beasts?

Pure Vanilla stood so fast it made him dizzy, rushing to the door with his eyes wide in panic and his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe through his sudden fear.

Were the beasts after White Lily and the King? Were they after the Faeries?

What if they were after him? Had he brought death to his best friends doorstep, her sanctuary, without even knowing it?

Seeking revenge for the Beast he brought down, who they probably thought he killed. Their friend and ally as well as the last Night Fury.

If it was the Beasts, Pure Vanilla had an awful feeling he would not be leaving this fight alive. When he took down Shadow Milk, he made this fight personal, and he doubted the Beasts were the forgiving sort.

Mercurial Knight came to a skidding stop before him, stumbling and falling to his knees. His Razorwhip was clearly distressed, head whipping back and forth as its wings twitched at its side, anxious to fly.

“Mercurial Knight, whats wrong?” he shouted as White Lily ran out behind him, but the Faerie couldn’t find the air to speak between his heaving breaths. It must have been them, what could have possible brought the knight here in such a rush other than the Beasts? Pure Vanilla had never seen the stoic fairy so distressed.

“Are the Beasts attacking?” He asked instead, chest tight.

Mercurial Knight shook his head and Pure Vanilla remembered how to breathe.

“Were not- under attack,” the Faerie wheezed out as his breathing returned to normal, “but-” he paused with a cough.

Mercurial Knight forced himself to his feet, bowing to White Lily on shaking legs before standing tall. Instead of addressing her however, he turned towards Pure Vanilla.

“Our king is awake, and he needs you, Pure Vanilla.”

—

The sanctuary was in chaos, Faeries flying everywhere as they rushed to inform everyone of the Kings state.

Mercurial Knight filled them in as they ran towards the Kings temporary chambers, where he had been tended to during his coma since the Beasts first attack.

Elder Faerie had awoken suddenly and without warning, but his breathing was ragged, clearly pained, and he shook terribly whenever he tried to sit up. He had hardly spoken a word to his subjects, doing nothing but demanding White Lily be brought to him.

The Faeries were in a state of panic, rushing this way and that as they fought to learn the details of their Kings state, which were known only to the small handful of Faeries who had been there when he woke. Luckily, there were clear paths through the caverns to reach the Faerie King.

They arrived at Elder Faerie’s room, led silently in by Mercurial Knight, who closed the heavy wooden door behind them. This was one of the most well protected rooms in the sanctuary.

Pure Vanilla had never met Elder Faerie, and he regretted that their first meeting should be so tragic. The regal Fairy King was dressed in a simple gown, bandages visible across almost all of his exposed skin. It had been months, but his wounds had failed time and time again to heal. Silverbell was stood anxiously at his bedside, and a large Razorwhip fledgling was sat next to him.

It was beyond typical flying age, but still very young. Pure Vanilla watched as the Faerie King reached a shaky hand towards it, letting the small dragon lean forward the last bit to meet him. Slowly, he pet a hand over its metallic head and down its long neck. The Razorwhip pushed eagerly forward, moving closer to the bed to nuzzle softly against his arm.

Elder Faerie was forced to pull away as he began to cough, one arm covering his mouth as the other wrapped over his bandaged chest. The coughs shook him violently, clearly painful. He knew then why Mercurial Knight had sought him out.

Many considered Pure Vanilla some sort of miraculous, magical healer. A figure of worship and divine praise.

He was no more magical than any other, but he had never managed to completely tame the rumors of his healing powers. In truth, he was nothing more than an old doctor with a vision problem.

“Elder Faerie…” White Lily whispered, stepping closer to the bed. A deep sorrow bled from her voice, like she already knew the ending of the story unfolding before them.

This was not something that could be healed.

“White Lily,” the Faerie said weakly, but with a smile in his voice.

“You’re…”

“I know,” he laughed, low and sad but with an edge of humour, “but it has been my time for a very long while.”

The two Faeries began shouting, voices blurring as they fought to be heard by their stubborn king.

“My Liege! You cannot say that! Pure Vanilla is the worlds greatest, if anybody could heal you-”

“You just woke up! That means you’re getting better, please Your Majesty you cannot just-”

“Silverbell, Mercurial Knight, my most loyal Faeries…” The King said, looking softly towards his subjects, who quieted quickly at the mournful sound of his voice, “have I never told you that time eats all its children in the end? I have evaded its cold touch for far too long.” Shocked into silence, there was no interruption as the King turned to address White Lily.

“My dearest friend, White Lily. I am afraid that I must ask more of you than I already have.”

“Anything. I promise I will do all I can.” She moved to kneel at the edge of the bed, Silverbell backing away to allow her at the Kings side with the Razrowhip. Elder Faerie took her hands in his, bringing them to his heart as he bowed his head.

“Lead my people when I am gone,” he said, ignoring the gasps from around the room as he continued, “I have no heir, and though there are many Faeries who could be excellent rulers, better even than I perhaps, there are none in this world I trust more than you to be the guardian.”

It was like the air had been sucked from the room. There was silence. Unending, deafening silence. Not a creak of stone or a single breath or the scurrying of some small creature. Even the constant sound of wingbeats and wind and waves seemed to silence just for that moment. The Faeries went tense, Pure Vanilla could feel the way they trembled.

Guardian… something about the way he said that word resonated with power. Something ancient, something older than Pure Vanilla could hope to understand.

“The… guardian? Elder Faerie I don’t understand, I could not possibly make a better Queen to your people than one of your own.” White Lily said, trying to pull her hands from Elder Faeries strangely strong grip.

“Pure Vanilla,” the Faerie King said without looking towards him, “please lock the door. I have many secrets to share, and it would be best they stay within this room for the time being.”

The heavy lock clicked shut.

Elder Faerie took a breath, deep. In and out. In and out. He breathed for several moments. In and out. In and out-

He began to cough, clutching painfully at his chest as Mercurial Knight and Silverbell rushed to care for him. The Faerie King shooed them away, taking a final breath before he began to speak.

“There is much to share, and I do not know how long I have to share it,” Elder Faerie began, voice even and without a hint of fear for what he knew was coming quickly, “I will start with what only I know, and hope that anything I cannot share is known by one of the Faeries, or tucked away somewhere in one of our libraries.”

White Lily interrupted, “they will not share with us, Elder Faerie, they are sworn to secrecy-”

“Only their King can free them from their vows, which is why this must be done first.” Elder Faerie’s eyes narrowed, “Mercurial Knight, bring my crown and my sword.”

After a moments hesitation, Mercurial Knight slowly bowed before he turned to retrieve the requested items from where hey had been safely stored on a table across the room. Gently, he handed them to Elder Faerie. Whether he was trying not to damage the precious relics or the King himself, it was impossible to say.

“This is far from proper,” the old King chuckled, “but we are so short on time. Someday, when the Beasts are dealt with and the world is safe once again, the Faeries will take you to the Silverwood and complete the ceremony, where you will receive the Razorwhips blessing, as well as the forests. For now though…”

Elder Faerie gestured for White Lily to approach, grunting in exertion as he sat up as tall as he could. Slowly, reverently, he brought the crown to his head one final time. Crafted by the finest metalworkers in all the world from the purest of silver, engraved with detail grand and tiny, angular and curving. It was as graceful as metal would ever be.

Bedridden, hair unbrushed, dressed in nothing but plain white robes and far too many bandages, Elder Faerie hardly appeared the powerful King they all knew he was, but with the crown upon his head… it was as if the attack had never happened, as if Elder Faerie was not on his death bed.

Pure Vanilla could not see it himself, but he knew the shine had returned to the Kings eyes by the reactions of the people around him. The small, shocked breaths. Tinged in mourning. Grief from the future.

“White Lily,” Elder Faerie said, “Ancient hero, my dearest friend, savior of Faeries, keeper of the Sanctuary, and Guardian of the King of Dragons-”

Elder Faerie raised his sword, thinner and sharper and faster than any made by clumsy human hands. He made it look effortless, but Pure Vanilla could sense the pain that flashed through his arms. A quick stutter of his breath, the labored rising and falling of his chest, the smell of sweat as he pushed and pushed and pushed at his failing bodies limits.

Breathing heavily, Elder Faerie turned until his feet met the floor with soft thumps, and he looked upwards towards White Lily cookie for only a moment before in a flash of movement, he stabbed his sword into the ground.

Both hands on the grip, Elder Faerie bowed his head to White Lily.

“-I name you Queen of Faeries and Guardian of the Seal.”

There were gasps from either side of him, but neither Faerie protested. Pure Vanilla felt his own face contort in shock and wonder at the Faerie Kings words.

Guardian of the Seal

How familiar those words were. They rang through his head like church bells.

How they brought to mind his dreams, night-black and emerald green and piercing blues.

Just what were the Faeries keeping sealed, he wondered with rising horror. No, no- his thoughts were running rampant, drawing unreasonable conclusion from nothing. Pure Vanilla would not assume. He would wait for the facts to prove him wrong.

The Faeries were protectors and guardians, not jailers. Not of the last Night Fury. They would never have doomed a species to extinction, it went against everything they stood for.

“It will be your duty to lead and protect the Faeries, to guard the Razorwhips and all dragons, and to shield the world from its most ancient evils. In turn, the Faeries will answer to you, and you alone. They will reveal our secrets at your command, and do all they can to protect you and yours.”

Elder Faerie released his sword, letting it stand free, stabbed into the stone floor as if it were soft earth. He did not raise his head as his hands reached upwards, gently removing his crown from his head. One last time.

“White Lily,”

She bowed, allowing the bed-ridden king to place his crown gently on her head. It was slightly too large, resting more on her ears than her head, but it lost none of its beauty by being slightly ill-fit. She was ethereal, twisting crown of silver on top her stark white hair.

“Queen of Faeries.”

Mercurial Knight was the first to kneel, bowing his head and bringing his right hand to his heart, fingers curled into dragons-claws. Pure Vanilla and Silverbell followed quickly, but the Ancient could hear the Faeries soft sniffles, tears rising to his eyes against his will.

White Lily seemed to glow in the dim room, red eyes shining beneath her crown of white and silver. Tears rose to her eyes as her old friend bowed to her, hand to his heart.

“I will miss you, Elder Faerie,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“Must it really be the time? Pure Vanilla-”

“No, there is nothing to be done. I have lived many ages, White Lily. The years have finally caught up to me, and now it is my time to rest.”

“I wish-” her words were broken by a quiet sob, “I will protect your people, my friend, I promise. Enjoy your rest without worry.”

“Thank you, but there is one last thing to do before I can let myself fall to gentle death.”

Pure Vanilla held his breath as the King turned to stare directly at him. He could not see him, but he could feel the weight of his stare. Burdened with knowledge older than old. Looking through skin and bone into the soul beneath. Pure Vanilla felt his sins crawling over him like bugs, and for a moment Elder Faeries eyes seemed to flash green, piercing emerald on a canvas of purest dark.

“It is time I share the story of the Beasts.”

—

The story was a long one, broken frequently by coughing fits and long moments of rest for the dying King. Pure Vanilla’s ribs began to ache from the extended period of standing, but he found himself hardly noticing, absolutely entranced by the tale laid out before him.

The tale of the Beasts.

“A very, very long time ago, we Faeries were the only people to live peacefully with dragons. In all corners of the world, dragons were violent, vicious beasts, and people little more than their prey. Wars raged across the continents. Dragons killed people for food, people hunted dragons for parts, both demanded revenge for the bloodshed. It seemed that the fights would go on for eternity. We kept ourselves hidden from that dangerous world, believing that peace between species could never be made anywhere but our Silver Forest.

“We were wrong though. Somewhere in what is now your territory, Ancients, something amazing happened. Even I don’t know the details, but somehow a young, human child befriended a fledgling Night Fury. He and his four friends left their village of dragons killers, and they became something much more powerful than we could ever have imagined.

“Riding on dragon-back, they traveled the world, spreading what they had learned and teaching the world to no longer fear dragons. There were years of peace under the guidance of the Virtues. They protected people and dragons alike, driven only by their need to see the world bettered.

“No faerie ever truly met the Virtues, but we did once meet the first of them, their leader in a sense, though he was their youngest. Blueberry Milk, the Fount of Knowledge, and his Night Fury, Marionette. Curious, insightful, he was everything we could hope for in a Faerie friend. He had come to us with questions about his dragon and her elusive species, and we were all too happy to indulge his every curiosity. It was with our knowledge that he began the first true studies on Furies, and how he started his quest to end the Fury hunts for good.

“Nothing great can last forever though, and the Virtues reign was poignantly short. What exactly happened, I cannot say, but it drove them to madness. They began to believe that all humans were evil, and that none but them thought of dragons as any more than dangerous beasts or exotic pets to be controlled.

“They renamed themselves the Beasts, and they along with their allies began to attack the very people who had once worshiped the ground they walked. ‘Saving’ dragons from not just hunters, but from innocent dragon riders, and when they ran out of riders to attack, they went after civilians. Villages and cities and farms, turned to ash for a crime that had never been committed.

“I am… ashamed to admit that the Faeries made no effort to stop the Beasts reign of terror, not at first. For far too many years we chose to hide in our forest and protect our own, but inevitably their wrath turned to our peaceful home, and we were forced to witness the consequences of our inaction when our forest began to burn. We were overwhelmed, taken by surprise and no match for their strength.

“It was then that something incredible happened. A gift from the gods above, or the spirits of old, or perhaps the Forest itself, it is hard to say, but regardless of its origin, we witnessed a miracle that day.

“We were on our last legs, fighting to defend ourselves from the Beasts sick justice while keeping them away from our dragons who they sought to ‘free’, when a surge of power overtook the dragons of the Silver forest. Our Razorwhips, yes, but also all the others, even those too young or too injured to fight, they all fought like Furies. Their eyes glowed silver as they joined our battle with impossible strength, and soon we had the Beasts cornered in the very heart of our forest.

“Great silver roots shot from the ground like claws, growing up and over the Beasts and trapping them within the quickly forming trunk of the Silver Tree. The last I saw of the Beasts was a pair of furious blue eyes, and the last I heard was Blue- Shadow Milk's voice, calling me a traitor.

“Since that day, the Faeries have been not just guardians of Razorwhips, but of the Silver Tree and the great evil sealed away inside. Somedays, we could feel the earth shake as they roared their fury at being trapped, but most they slept soundly in their shining jail.”

White Lily’s eyes squinted in thought before she gasped and turned to Elder Faerie. “The day me and the King met you… that was what you were so scared of!” she shouted, “thats why the tree was cracking, and only the Bewilderbeast could reseal it.”

Elder Faerie chuckled weakly, exhausted from his long story, “yes, that was the closest the Beasts had ever been to escaping, and nothing we did had been able to seal the crack, but the young King’s ice kept it sealed for many more years.”

Pure Vanilla turned the story over in his head, pieces of a puzzle he hadn’t realized he was building coming into place. The story certainly explained a lot of Shadow Milks comments and behaviors, but it left so many loose ends, so many holes. Dark Enchantress was the largest, there hadn’t been a single mention of her, and he couldn’t help but find it impossible to believe the Beasts had simply gone mad and turned on the world they had loved so dearly. Shadow Milk certainly didn’t seem insane, at least not entirely. He cared, about his friends, and Marionette, about dragons.

Though he knew it was unreasoble, a small spark of anger formed in his heart when he thought of how the Faeries had hidden the last Night Fury from him. Kept her locked away while Orchid mourned the loss of her species. It was stupid, irrational anger, but it wouldn’t go out. He ignored it instead, turning to the Faerie king with a simple question to take his mind off the burning hate rising in his chest.

“Does that mean…” Pure Vanilla asked slowly, thinking over the Beasts history as he knew it, “that is why you were attacked. The Beasts didn’t come to you, they escaped from your kingdom.”

“Yes,” Elder Faerie sighed, “the ice cracked suddenly, and before we could summon White Lily for aid, a great blast of fire destroyed what remained of the seal. Shadow Milk and his Night Fury escaped, and they razed our kingdom in a blaze of hatred. Mostly, he defended what remained of the tree while his fellow Beasts woke from their no longer eternal slumber, but when he saw me-” his voice cracked and he looked down in shame.

“We had been friends, of sorts. He was so curious, and I was so eager to teach him and to learn about the world outside from him in turn. Something in him broke when he saw me, I saw it in his eyes, and I was here before I could even notice I was being attacked. I am lucky to have survived, luckier still that my dragon was not harmed.” It was well hidden, but Pure Vanilla noticed the way Elder Faerie tensed whenever he mentioned Shadow Milk. He wondered how close they had truly been.

Elder Faerie began to cough again, clutching his chest in pain.

“Ask the Faeries,” he rasped, “we have some information on the individual Beasts and their dragons, we know enough for you to fight back. I wish I had time to share it myself but-” he was cut off by another fit.

“Save your energy, Elder Faerie,” Mercurial Knight said, moving to help the King lay comfortably in bed again.

“Stop fretting,” the old King of Faeries scolded gently, “I will be fine, I have known this was coming for a very long time.”

Head dipped in mourning, Mercurial knight stepped back, standing with Silverbell by the door. His Razorwhip climbed over his shoulder to nuzzle against his cheek with soft cooing sounds, sensing his grief.

“Leave me now, Silverbell and Mercurial Knight. I wish to be alone with White Lily for a moment, and my poor Willow has already seen far too much for her age.” The young Razorwhip rushed forward to nuzzle her nose along the Kings face one last time, blinking carefully to avoid her poisonous tears reaching his skin. Elder Faerie made a choked, sobbing sound as he hugged his dragon one last time. 

Willow whined a final goodbye before she was led from the room by the two Faeries.

Pure Vanilla moved to follow behind, but a shout stopped him.

“Wait!” Elder Faerie called, coughing violently as the words scratched through his throat, “Pure Vanilla, I have something I must ask you. Please, come here.”

Standing next to the bed as White Lily watched from behind, Pure Vanilla allowed himself to be grabbed, head pulled downwards by weak arms.

Elder Faerie whispered, quiet enough that White Lily would not hear and just barely loud enough for Pure Vanilla to understand, but the sheer emotion in his words was enough to send the Ancient stumbling backwards.

“Tell my Blueberry I’m sorry.”

Wide eyed, Pure Vanilla stared blindly at Elder Faerie for several long moments.

There was a subtle desperation to him, breaths ragged, tense in fear, but there was also determination, resolve. The Faerie trusted him to make things right, to correct an ancient wrong. To save the person Elder faerie failed to protect.

Pure Vanilla nodded firmly.

He didn’t know how Elder Faerie knew of his position with the Beast, or how he knew he had no plans to kill or turn him in. The Faeries were people of many mysteries.

“I promise,” he whispered back.

He would not harm Shadow Milk, because he was good. Deep, deep inside beneath the corruption and the masks and the hatred and the lies, he was still kind and curious and wonderfully clever. Marionette too- she was wild and dangerous, but she was also loving, protective, and fiercely loyal.

They were not evil, not yet. Just- broken, hurt, scared.

They needed support, kindness, love.

A friend.

Pure Vanilla left the room, leaving Elder Faerie alone with the Queen of Faeries.

Through the door, he heard ragged breaths and whispered, tearful words.

Through the door, he heard sudden silence.

Through the door, he heard quiet sobs.

Pure Vanilla walked away, leaving his friend to mourn in peace.