Chapter 2: Eranomous
4 Years Later…
Eranomous sat quietly as his Mother said goodbye to his brother.
Eranomous was proud of his Brother for being assigned to a position at
Queen Scarlet's Palace, but he couldn't help being envious.
'Sky gets everything and I'm stuck here. '
"Hold on, Skylis, Your father made this for the day you left. " Eleanor
quickly began rummaging through her things.
Eranomous' and Skylis' ears perked curiously. "What?" They said in
unison.
"Here it is!" She exclaimed happily.
Eranomous tried to see what it was, but she moved it away from him,
presenting it to Skylis. Frustrated, Eranomous craned his neck and finally
spotted it.
"Here Skylis, it's a..." She paused trying to remember. "He called it
an 'Adjustable Helmet'."
Skylis' eyes began to glow with controlled excitement. "One of Dad's
'DoWhats'!"
Eranomous' envy grew at the sight of the 'DoWhat'. He had always wanted
one of his Father's 'DoWhats'. Eranomous knew the story behind his Father's
creations. When his father was a little younger he had met some odd dragon,
a SandWing, who created strange things like helmets and other things. Back
then he was confused by this dragon's inventions too, and he kept asking
"They do what?", hence the name. Eranomous remembered him talking about
making the cloaks for the Peace Wings. But all of that felt so long ago to
Eranomous now that it almost seemed like it never happened. Like his father
and the Peace Wings never really existed.
Until now, that was. Now he was staring at the last 'DoWhat' that his
Father ever made... and it was being given to his Brother.
"Mother... I can't tell you how much this means to me." Skylis put the
helmet on and gave them both one last look. "Thank you." He emotionally
turned away, took a deep breath, and left.
The two sat in silence for a moment, then Eranomous turned to his
mother. "Did Father make anything for me?"
Eleanor sighed sounding stressed out. "Eranomous... could you give me
some silence for a little while?"
"I could go hunt?" Eranomous suggested.
"Why would you say that?" She turned and gave him a look that said,
'How dare you.'
Before she could say another word, Eranomous shook his head. "I'm
kidding... I'll go to my room."
Eranomous found himself sitting alone in his room a lot these past few
years. Most of the time he'd read scrolls for entertainment, if he was
really bored he would reenact scenes from his favorite ones… But other
times he would lie on the ground and let time pass. He would see how much
time it would take for someone to check on him.
'I bet I would starve if I just stayed in here.' So this time he just
fell asleep.
In his dreams, he saw nothing but a small burning flame surrounded by
darkness. Eranomous felt like he could hear some sort of whisper from it,
but he couldn't understand what it was trying to say. Suddenly images
flashed of his mother on the ground. The images came so quickly, he
couldn't make sense of it.
He then remembered when this happened with his father. 'NO... I have to
wake up! This can't be real.' The last image he saw was his Mother's face,
staring, blood oozing from her mouth.
"NNNNOOOOOOOO!" Eranomous broke from his sleep and heard noises coming
from outside his room. "Momma, NO!"
When he rushed out he felt his heart stop. His mother lay lifeless on the
floor, but before Eranomous could react he noticed another dragon standing
past his Mother's fresh, slightly burnt corpse. The dragon stared silently
at him, sending a deep fear right into Eranomous' gut.
He wore a strange, smooth, expressionless, and dirty white mask with a
dark hooded cloak covering the rest of his body. He also wore a
strange-looking metal mouth like contraption on his tail that appeared to
look very hot. 'They killed her with that...' The dragon looked a bit
bigger than Skylis but didn't have as wide of a chest and shoulders.
The Masked Dragon remained silent, staring at him. Eranomous felt numb
with fear. 'What do I do?' "Why did you…?" He tried speaking, his voice
sounded as scared as he was. "She was my... she..." Eranomous felt himself
getting choked up, 'Why is this happening? What would Skylis do?'
The Masked Dragon tilted his head. "How does this make you feel?" The
dragon's voice sounded muffled, but calm, too calm for just killing another
dragon. "Ha-ha... what's wrong? This dragon you called Mother was holding
you back... You should be thanking me."
Eranomous slammed his front talons down. "Shut up!" He roared
emotionally, feeling the fire in his chest begin to burn hotter. 'Skylis
would be strong…HE would Kill him!'
The Masked Dragon tilted his head. "Wow, you're disappointing."
"I WILL KILL YOU!" Eranomous snarled viciously.
Suddenly flashes of that flame burning in the darkness appeared in his
head. 'What!?' He tried to shake them off, but then he saw the flame grow
larger. Intense fire burst from Eranomous' mouth towards the mysterious
Dragon, but Eranomous quickly realized he couldn't stop the fire coming out
and it was burning him too.
'My Fire! It BURNS!' Eranomous tried to close his own mouth feeling his
talons burning now too. The pain was excruciating but his screams were
muffled due to his shut mouth. The flames continued to try to escape
through his mouth, regardless. Eranomous never could've imagined what was
about to happen. Fire burst out of his neck, burning right through his skin..
'Stop, please Stop...' Eranomous lost strength in his limbs causing him
to fall on the ground continuing to spew. When it finally ceased,
Eranomous' throat and mouth were charred up. Tears streamed down his cheeks
from the pain. Eranomous couldn't form any words just rough moans. He
didn't even have the strength to get back up.
He laid there in tormenting pain, not paying attention to the time
going by. The SkyWing's mind finally snapped back when he heard several
wing beats outside. Eranomous couldn't form a proper thought.
'Ge....t... uuu...p..' Eranomous rolled himself over and tried to push
himself up. "Aaahhh..." His talons stung and pressing them down only
intensified the pain. 'Get.... up...'
"Something smells charred." He heard an unfamiliar voice say.
"Three Moons, look!" Another voice shouted, this one sounded closer.
Eranomous felt the fear in himself rising again, 'What... do I... do?'
"She's dead... what killed her?" The voice trailed off for a moment
until what Eranomous feared would happen, happened. "There!"
"What is that?"
"It's like a SkyWing... but not..."
"It's a monster!"
"Look at its mouth... it must've killed her!"
The voices blurred. 'A… Monster...' Eranomous dragged his claws across
the ground trying to crawl away.
"Kill it!" One voice ordered.
All of the SkyWings closed in, about to strike, when a roar echoed
through the cave. "That's Mine!" Eranomous wasn't sure who the voice came
from, but he could tell it was female.
The SkyWings backed away. "Queen Burn... What are you doing here?" One
questioned.
'Burn... one of the sisters fighting for the Sandwing throne.'
Eranomous knew her from his scrolls. 'I've never seen a SandWing before… so
that's what they look like...' From what he had read about Burn, he knew he
still wasn't safe. 'She's the most brutal Sister of the three. What does
she mean I'm hers?'
Burn snorted impatiently. "I was told Scarlet had a gift here for me."
She stepped past Eleanor's body setting her black eyes upon the dragonet.
"Oh, My...Look at you. I don't have one that looks like you yet."
Eranomous didn't like the way she was looking at him. 'I'm so scared...
I can't even speak. '
She chuckled. "You will make an excellent addition to my collection. I
must remember to thank Scarlet for this."
Before Eranomous knew it, he was chained up by other SandWings and
dragged to Queen Scarlet's Palace.
Under any other circumstances, Eranomous would be excited to visit his
Queen's domain, but with how his day was going so far, he could only
imagine things weren't going to get any better.
"Take my gift to a cage while I discuss a few things with Scarlet."
Burn ordered to one of her men.
The SandWing nodded and began to pull Eranomous off a different way.
Eranomous couldn't focus on a single thing, everything just passed by in a
blur.
'Skylis…' He couldn't help but wonder what his brother would think when
he returns home and no one there. 'What if he doesn't care?' Another
thought crossed his mind. 'Was that Masked Dragon real or did I just
imagine him? But if he was fake... then does that mean I killed my
mother....' Eranomous only thought of that for a moment. 'No, I never
would've killed her.'
Before he knew it, Eranomous was chained inside an odd small cage.
"Have you ever seen a dragon like this before?" Asked one of the SandWings,
the other one just snorted and shook his head. Both SandWings then stood a
distance away and began conversing with one another on other subjects.
Eranomous tried to step forward feeling some of his strength returned
but was unable to move due to the tight chains holding his neck in place.
'Ow! My neck is so sore.'
In the cage, there was bright sunlight beaming down, but dark all
around him. So seeing any other dragons in there was near impossible.
Eranomous closed his eyes just listening. He heard footsteps of two other
dragons approaching. Their footsteps weren't as loud as Burn's, in fact,
they sounded like the weight of a dragon only a little older than himself.
One of the dragons seemed to be mid-sentence already. "I'm telling you
Skylis, I saw them bringing it in, it's spooky looking." The SkyWing
whispered.
Eranomous' ears perked, 'Skylis!'
What we're the odds? Surely he could do something to save him. He
squinted his eyes trying to see in the darkroom ahead.
"Skkkkkyyy...l..ii..sssss..." he tried to yell, but his voice came out a
broken up gravelly whisper. Eranomous tried coughing to clear his throat,
but when he did fire puffed out, discomforting his already dry throat.
"Brother...." He tried again, this came out clearer.
His eyes finally found Skylis' eyes. "Br..other...Brother!" His weak
voice got louder, but still sounded strained.
Skylis backed up, fear in his eyes. "You... said he was with a dead
full adult female SkyWing?" He said with a shaky voice.
The other SkyWing nodded. "Yup, Terrek told me that she was burnt up at
the throat and face with really deep bite marks..."
Eranomous tried shaking his head. "Nnnn..ooo ...Brot..her...Sh..e..
.....Killl....ed...b...y.. Mas..k..ed...Dra..." Before Eranomous could
finish, Skylis turned around and headed back towards the way he came in.
"Whoa Skylis, wait up for me!" The other SkyWing hurried after him.
Eranomous felt his last glimmer of hope melt away. "No! Noo...Brother!
No Brother! Plea...se...You can't. ..LEAVE ME HERE!"
Eranomous emotions broke, his face dripped with his tears and snot, his
voice painfully ripping through his throat like knives. Fire burst through
slits in his neck burning more of his skin up. "Sky...Don't Leave Me!"
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