Valkyrie

Valkyrie sprawled against the snow-laden ground, her scales making her appear like spilled wine on white cloth.
She silently contemplated herself in the pastel dawn light.
She was beautiful.
The young imperial knew that full well, just as she knew she was a weapon. A pretty weapon, of course, for what use would she be if she wasn't?
She lay her head down upon the snow, examining the icy, snow-scattered water. Broken glaciers floated like loose puzzle pieces over the iron ocean.
Valkyrie blinked, slightly startled, as gray shapes appeared through the mist, but she didn't rise, as it was beneath her dignity.
Her brilliant, glowing eyes narrowed slightly as the dull shadows took on shapes.
Wings, legs, tails swaying, little pinpricks of light that must have been eyes...
Now, she stood, her recently narrowed eyes widening.
"Lady Valkyrie! Get out of there!"
She turned to see a panicked spiral- one of her guards- frantically speeding towards her.
"This way!" he called, and she paused before followed, understanding what was going on at once.
"My lady, please," he begged, looking at her, white eyes wide.
This time, she did tread in his footprints, and relief spread across his face like a spiderweb, before he turned and pelted away.
The prim female looked over her shoulder as she went, head tilted slightly, until the spiral pushed her behind a hill of snow.
She flashed him one, deadly look, and his paw fell away from her at once.
She would have asked him where he was taking her, but she naturally assumed it was to safety.
He served no other purpose to her.
"Get down, please, my lady," he said, softly, flattening himself to the snow.
Valkyrie thought about it before obeying, mainly to show she was the one in control here, not him.
Eventually, she did lower herself to the ground, eyes still tapered to white slits.
"Tell me who they are," she commanded.
"Pirates," he answered, peering over the edge.
She turned that over in her head.
Pirates indeed.
Her eyes flitted around for a way out, and she dug her paws into the snow, pulling up and over.
"Dig." Her voice was an almost silent command.
The spiral looked at her, confused, but picked up on her idea and helped her tear a hole in the snow, which was so very deep, it could hide a full-grown imperial, much less a week old one and a spiral.
A scream sliced the air, and Valkyrie lifted her head, ears flicking upward.
"Get in, my lady! My duty is to protect you!"
Valkyrie looked at him, her mind contemplating her choices, before she obeyed.
As she slid under the surface, she heard a yell behind her and turned, startled despite herself, and blinked as a huge, heavily scarred guardian knocked her spiral guard out.
Valkyrie's eyes narrowed dangerously, ears flattening slightly to show her displeasure.
He snarled and whirled towards her, but the imperial daintily slipped away, her movements light and lilting.
He snarled and whirled towards her once more, and because it was far below her dignity to flee, Valkyrie whipped around in a crimson circle, her tail slashing forward and striking the guardian across his cheek, hard.
"Leave, peasant," she snapped, her voice disdainful, because she had no time to spend on mere warriors. She wanted the perpetrator- the captain. Vicious delight swooped through her at the idea of what revenge she would take on that foolish dragon.
Leaving the startled pirate behind, the lady took to the air, becoming a string of rubies through the nearly-solid air.
As she flew over her dilapidated castle, she caught sight of her younger sister, and swooped downward.
"Aadya."
"Valkyrie! I- I can't find Weeknd and Aden!"
"Hush," she ordered. "Calm yourself."
Aadya lowered her flowered head, "I'm sorry, sister."
"Where did you last see our brothers?"
"I saw them this morning." To her disgust, Aadya's voice trembled slightly.
Snorting with irritation, Valkyrie swung her beautiful head around, wrapping her tail around her younger sister as she did so.
While Aadya still had plenty to learn of the pride of her pedigree, Valkyrie had to admit she...felt a certain fondness for the young imperial.
"What about our parents?"
She heard a choking noise- it sounded like ripping paper.
Stunned despite herself, the beautiful lady looked around and realized tears were tumbling head-over-heels down Aadya's cheeks.
"Aadya, this is not the time," she said sharply, drawing her tail up and dabbing her sister's cheek with the plume of her tail.
"But they left us, Valkyrie! They- They're gone."
Valkyrie stared at her, before she fully understood what her parents were doing. Of course they had to escape. They had to be alive to continue their honorable line.
Satisfied, but unable to voice this, her older brother Weeknd darted over, breathing a plume of gold fire at the nearest pirate.
"Valkyrie, Aadya-"
"Where's Aden?" she interrupted. "And are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine. Are you?"
"Perfectly, as you see. And our eldest brother?"
"He's been taken."
Valkyrie stared at him. "Wh-" She shook herself and nodded. "Alright. Take Aadya to safety."
"Valkyrie-"
"Hush, I know what I'm doing, but Aadya certainly doesn't. Get her out of here, Weeknd."
When he hesitated, she snapped, "Go!"
So, Weeknd wrapped his wing over Aadya and pulled her towards the ships waiting at the docks.
"Valkyrie-" protested Aadya, pulling free for a moment to hug her elder sister, and then Weeknd tugged her onward. "Goodbye!"
The lady nodded her head imperiously, before turning to face the pirates, who had finally taken notice of the group of imperials hiding behind a few scattered stones.
Half-wits.

Valkyrie marched forward, head held high, and said authoritatively, "Tell me where my oldest brother is."
The pirates chuckled, and then they sprang forward, fangs bared.
Valkyrie tensed, and then she darted to the side, twisting and bending like a current of water, evading her enemies attacks with ease.
However, she was a lady, used to fighting with honor.
These were pirates. Honor wasn't exactly in their dictionary.
As Valkyrie turned from her felled foe, a splintering, fiery pain rocketed up her ankle and a scream tore at her throat, but she did not let it loose. No, her self-control was still fiercely intact.
Without turning around- she didn't need to, to know that the pirate had his filthy teeth sunk deep into her hind foot- she lifted her heavy tail and slammed it down onto her enemy's skull, sadistically satisfied when she heard a crack.
He relinquished her.
She turned towards the others and raised one eyebrow in obvious, cool disdain.
Valkyrie was a lady, certainly. But she was still a warrior.
However, she was clever enough to realize she'd never fight her way through the ranks of imbeciles; not because she couldn't take them on. The ships would simply set sail while she was occupied with intimidating idiots who had potatoes for brains.
So, casting her eyes around, Valkyrie sprang around a crumbling wall and shoved against it with all her considerable strength.
The already-weakened wall toppled, crushing many a dragon beneath its stupendous weight.
While the remaining pirates scattered in confused disarray, Valkyrie slipped away towards the ships, ducking underneath snow and behind rocks to avoid her enemies.
Eventually, however, she came to terms with the fact that there was no way she could get close enough to the ships without being noticed.
She was huge and bright red in a snowy landscape, after all.
So she dug under the snow, tunneling steadily towards the ships, determined to uphold her family honor.
With a sudden twinge, Valkyrie hoped her older brother had taken Aadya out of here safely. For both of them.
She shook the sudden weakness away, clawing away lumps of snow.
It was only so they could continue their noble line. That was the only purpose they served.
After what felt like hours, her arms ached and her claws felt unnaturally delicate, she finally hit something hard beneath the wall of powdery white.
She didn't miss a beat, uncovering as much as she could, before realizing with a jolt that it was a stone.
She was near the edge.
So she poked her head warily above the surface, peering around with narrowed eyes, and smiled grimly in satisfaction upon seeing the pirates still plundering her elaborate home.
She scrabbled swiftly out of the snow's clutches and darted up the ramp, her paws pattering slightly against the wood, and she pelted into the first open door she saw.
She paused only long enough to discern that the sounds from within the room were completely innocent- only the groan of wood on water and the squeaking of rats- and shot inside.
Barrels lined the walls, mold-covered food layering the floor... It was a storage room.
With a delicate, disgusted curling of her lip, Valkyrie sprang to the top of the barrels to avoid getting her lovely paws dirty.
There she crouched, waiting, and planning.
"This doesn't exactly seem like your kind of place, my lady."
Valkyrie whirled around, nearly toppling off her perch, but her grace and discipline saved her.
Bright cyan eyes greeted her, gleaming out of chiseled features, shimmering red scales surrounding them and stretching all along his lithe body, wings looming even while folded.
With barely a second's gap between his words and her movements, Valkyrie pounced.
As she sprang forward, she seized the cap on a barrel, ramming it under her adversary's chin and into his throat, and pinned him to the wall behind him.
"Silence," she snarled softly, her voice a low command used to being obeyed.
The imperial- for she could now see that's what he was- raised an eyebrow at her, despite his position.
"I'm afraid you'll have a hard time shutting me up." He smirked faintly, seemingly unbothered by the vulnerable position he was in and that Valkyrie could kill him just- like- that.
Valkyrie jammed the splintering edge of the wood into his neck and said sweetly, "Really? I bet I can think of a few ways." She ran a claw delicately under his chin, gathering his blood on her clawtips.
She felt a surge of satisfaction at his small intake of breath, and blood beaded at his throat. That's more like it.
"Who are you?" she growled.
"Be it far from me to tell a lady what to do, but your logic is a little skewed. How am I supposed to answer that if I can't talk?"
Icewarden, he's a piece of work.
Her eyes narrowed and she dug her hind claws into his tail.
His expression didn't change, his smirk intact. "I could ask you the same question, actually. In fact, I will! May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"
Valkyrie was ready to tear his esophagus out.
However, she knew she couldn't kill him, as he might know where her brother was. If he didn't answer, this was going to get long, and painful, and drawn-out. And she was going to make sure he couldn't make a sound ever again.
Of course, she might do that even if he did tell her where Aden was, just because he was being deliberately aggravating.
"My name is no concern of yours," she returned tartly. "Tell me what I want to know, and I won't hurt you too badly."
The imperial raised his eyebrow with familiar conceit.
"Hurt me?" he asked, amused.
She jabbed him in the neck again, bending her face closer, eyes narrowed in hate. "Yes, hurt you."
She would be delighted to do so.
"To be fair, you haven't told me what you want yet. Unless all you wanted was my name?" He chuckled slightly. "You know, most dragons just make introductions for that."
She refused to be goaded into doing something stupid.
"Where are you keeping Aden?" she snapped, ignoring his last comment.
He cocked his head in confusion. "Who?"
"Aden. A lord you've kidnapped. Where have you taken him?"
"Is he your mate?"
She growled. "It's no concern of yours what he is. Only where he is. Now tell me if you wish to live."
He shrugged. "I mean, if you wanted to talk to the captain..."
"Take me to him."
Valkyrie rose off of him, still glaring at him threateningly, tensed for any sign of movement.
"Wait," she commanded, before he could leave the room. She cast her eyes around for some means of blackmail.
Then she snapped fierce eyes upon him again, arriving at her conclusion. "If you tell anyone where I am, I'll tip oil on your food stores and set fire to it."
She blew out a slight puff of flame to emphasize that she could, in fact, do such a thing.
"Aren't you coming with me?" he asked, with mockingly raised eyebrows. "Not afraid of him, are you?"
Valkyrie had had enough.
She struck him across the face, gouging bloody marks across his cheek. "Go!" she snarled.
The imperial sat down and began tending the wound she gave him.
"What are you doing?" she hissed furiously. "Go!"
"Go where?"
"To get the captain!"
"He's here."
She stared at him, and then it clicked.
Oh no. Surely not this loud, annoying, conceited buffoon wasn't-?
"Captain Maximus at your service," he said, with obnoxious politeness, and swept an insolent bow.
This had to be a nightmare.
She gazed at him for a moment, taking in the astounding information that this irritating dragon was in fact the leader of a band of scruffy thieves.
Her wariness grew all the larger and she studied him with more detail, still exasperated, but her mind was her greatest weapon, and she used it.
The first thing she noted was that he only looked unnervingly larger her. Not quite. They were essentially the same length, from what she could see, but his wingspan was almost twice the size of hers, and his were folded and hung with red silks and a golden wingpiece crafted with amazing skill. He was dressed in a cranberry coat with a short, sharp cutlass at his hip and a dark green seafarer's hat stuck jauntily on top of his head, with a red feather tucked in it. Golden rings circled his tail with no apparent pattern, and perhaps most startling about his appearance was the vicious, thin scar stretching across his left blue eye, damaging the skin on top and lower. However, to her slight shock, the iris didn't seem to be damaged at all. The scar only seemed to cut into the skin above and below it.
Pity. A blind eye would have helped her should this come to a fight.
As she noted this, the events from a few moments ago began to replay, and she realized with a slight jolt of surprise that his speech was cultured and educated. A pirate with an education? What enigma was this?
His blue eyes sparked with sardonic amusement from underneath the cap, and she felt her anger swell once more, but her icy silver eyes remained as cold and stony as ever.
She settled herself calmly onto a clean space of floor she could find and wrapped her tail around her paws, watching him suspiciously for any sign of antagonistic action, of which he gave none.
Just watched her with that infuriating smile, even as he tended to the various wounds she had inflicted upon him.
She cleaned her claws of his blood, still analyzing him.
"My name is Lady Valkyrie," she started, deciding she would let him know that much. "And you have attacked my home and taken my brother hostage."
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I want him back."
"Oh, so he's your brother?"
"I'm not playing games with you," she retorted, eyes flaring with temper. "What have you done with him?"
Maximus eyed for a moment, clear blue eyes bright with interest. "Now what makes you think I'd tell you that? I am a pirate, darling."
"Don't call me that," she said simply, but that was only a distraction so she could mull what to do in this situation. She could hardly threaten him. He was the captain, and therefore most likely more skilled than those idiots she'd fought down in the snow. And violence really wasn't her style, as much fun as it was.
Bribery, she decided. No pirate can resist treasure.
"Oh, but it suits you so well!"
She ignored him, as was in her breeding. "What price?"
Maximus raised one eyebrow. "My dear lady, my dragons are in your treasure stores right now. What makes you think you can offer me something I don't already have?"
"I know this might be a foreign concept to someone such as yourself," she said icily, "but the families with bloodlines as old as the First Age generally have more than one palace."
The captain smirked slightly. "You have my full and undivided attention, my lady."
She had meant to take him down a notch, and her ire grew when his apparently did not. Her discipline was the only thing that saved her, as well as her intelligence.
Her treasure was the only bargaining chip she had. However, the nearest castle of hers was in the Frigid Floes, and the one this idiot's crew was currently razing was settled deep within the Fortress of Ends. It would take weeks to get to the Floes from here, and while she was unwilling to go with the pirate's crew, she could not leave her brother to their mercy.
Now came to the matter of the price.
What would capture his fancy? Gold? Retired familiars and skins? Unhatched eggs, perhaps?
Not the last one, she decided. She would not send innocent hatchlings to live with this oaf.
"A stack of gold ore."
"Is that all your brother is worth to you?"
Her eyes narrowed. "I already told you to name your price, and I don't like repeating myself."
It suddenly occurred to her that this was just what he wanted. The only possible reason he could have for taking a hostage was to demand payment in return. Playing right into his claws irked her to her core.She almost would have been convinced her pride would not allow her to go through with this, until she remembered that Aden was the eldest and therefore heir. His safety was her priority, because one of the first lessons she was taught was to protect her bloodline with ferocious loyalty.
"Two stacks of platinum ore and..." his eyes studied her for a moment, "an agreement."
Her eyes narrowed. "What kind of agreement?"
"Let's call it a favor, which I can cash in at any time I please." He raised his eyebrows flirtatiously at her. "Deal?"
Valkyrie felt she had been doing too much compromising as of late, and this idiot having any kind of hold over her rubbed her scales the wrong way. She hated it.
However, she didn't see that she had much of a choice. She had to protect her blood.
And a small, warmer part of her that her parents had done their best to drive out also had no wish to see her brother in this place. Alone with this- this moron. Who knew what viciousness hid under his aggravating exterior.
So, it was for these mixed reasons that the beautiful lady of the south lifted her head and pierced Maximus with frosty silver-blue eyes chipped from the moon.
"Deal."
But afterwards, when Aden is safe, I will make your life a living hell.
The unspoken message glinted in those same frozen eyes, and if Maximus saw it, he only smiled.
"On two conditions," she added, because she simply could not stand to let that smug expression stay where it was.
"And they are?"
"He will be treated as well as you..." she let her eyes travel disdainfully over him and the filthy interior of the room. "...possibly can."
Maximus nodded sagely. "Of course. And the other?"
"I want to see him. Now."
Maximus lifted an eyebrow and appeared to analyzing her for a moment. Valkyrie held her chin high, her gaze unwavering.
"Alright," he agreed, after another moment, and rose, sidestepping her to reach the door. "It would be my pleasure."
Valkyrie stepped after him, back into the sunshine, and let her upper lip curl in distaste as Maximus's crew began hauling her family heirlooms onto this tub.
Rats. All of them were rats.
And Maximus was the fattest, hairiest, grimiest, most flea-ridden one of them all, prancing about in his fancy stolen apparel and snarky comments designed to make her want to throttle him.
With a surge of sadistic satisfaction, Valkyrie noted several injuries she herself had inflicted upon them, bandaged with rags and whatnot, but still quite discernible.
She slipped past them with her deadly elegant grace, not looking at any of them for fear of soiling her dignity.
A couple of them tossed her looks of wariness or fear, but none spoke, as she was with their moronic captain.
Maximus led her down into the cargo hold, and Valkyrie had to stifle a gasp of shock. Barely a ripple in her expression, but horror grew behind her eyes.
It was far larger than it should be. There had to be some kind of magic here, because the cargo of the ship looked as though it could store a small castle built for imperials.
Columns of gold coins, broken bottles that still glimmered, corked potions full of liquid that shimmered, mussed feathers, discarded maps, mice skittering here and there, molding crumbles of food, scarfs, hats, scales, and even a few small birds, which twittered away as Valkyrie and Maximus stepped down onto the wooden floor.
"What is this place?" she asked slowly, silvery eyes scanning every inch.
"My hoard," said the captain lightly. "Impressive, isn't it?"
"Only because it's complied of hundreds of honest dragons' treasure, I'm sure," she bit back. "Also, I thought I asked to see Aden, not your packrat tendencies."
He had the audacity to chuckle slightly and waved her on, further into the maze, and led the way, picking his way over silver cups and red-jeweled masks.
Valkyrie padded after him, her well-manicured paws making no sound on the bits of metal.
"Took me years to get where I am now, darling, you could look a little more impressed."
She gave the back of his head a look of cold fury, even if he couldn't see it. "If you think for one moment that-"
"Relax. I'm teasing you."
Valkyrie's ears flattened at being interrupted, but Maximus was saved from the sharp side of her tongue when he rounded a bend and presented her with a row of cells, the middle of which contained her eldest brother.
Her heart clenched.
Aden lay on the ground, his head raised warily as if he had heard the footsteps and was trying not to show weakness, but his left wing was twisted at a strange angle and there were multiple cuts and bruises patchworking his scales.
Maximus, without a word, unlocked the door, and Valkyrie darted forward, but had enough presence of mind to place her tail in the doorway so he couldn't lock her inside too.
"Aden," she said, bending down to him, her mind already searching for a solution to the problem. "Tell me where you're hurt the most."
"Get me out of here, Valkyrie," he growled through clenched teeth, and she narrowed her eyes dangerously at him.
"I asked you a question, Aden," she snapped. "You being injured doesn't give you the right to ignore me."
Aden propped himself up and fixed her with a cool stare. "I'm oldest and heir, little sister. You answer me."
"Yes, well, I'm free and you're trapped in a cage," she retorted tartly.
Aden held her gaze for another moment, then sighed and gestured at his wing. "This wing. I think it's broken."
"Captain," said Valkyrie briskly, turning around and facing the jerk who stole her home and beat her brother. The heir. Her charge. How dare he. "You promised he would be taken care of. I want bandages, medicine, and water here at once."
Maximus, who was lightly fingering the cutlass at his hip with his tail, glanced up at her with those bright blue eyes and smirking lips.
"What? No please?"
Valkyrie stepped toward him, fury radiating off every inch of her crimson, well-dressed body.
He snickered slightly and raised his head to meet her eyes.
"We had a deal," she said with the type of coldness that burns the skin.
He turned, flicking her ear gently with his plume of a tail. "You really should learn to recognize when someone's teasing you. That's your brother, right? Has he forgot to tease you all these years? He's been forgetting his duty as a brother."
Valkyrie bit him.
He winced, cursing, and yanked his tail away from her.
"You really shouldn't talk to strangers if you don't know what they're capable of," she returned, voice a sugar-coated knife.
He rolled his eyes, before turning and picking up a small pot of salve and wad of bandages from the shelf, and Valkyrie's only hesitation was caused by her utter disbelief in how stupid he was for it.
Then she seized her chance.
Valkyrie swung her tail up and over, bringing fifty-some pounds of solid scaly flesh onto his skull so hard she walloped him into the ground and knocked his obnoxious hat askew.
Aden lurched to his paws and then hissed lowly in pain, and Valkyrie, now nosing through the healing salve and bandages Maximus had been about to pick up, glanced at him just long enough to make sure he wasn't dying before tossing him the healing ointment, having decided it wasn't spiked with poison.
He caught it, looking somewhat surprised, before his eyes grew wide at what she was doing now.
She removed the keys from his belt, then lighted daintily over to his side.
She then proceeded to shove him unceremoniously into the nearest cell, shutting the door on her unconscious enemy and smirking in satisfaction as the door clanged.
She glanced around, nosing for some kind of sticky substance, which she soon found in couple random jars of glue- honestly, what did this captain keep in here?
She slathered it over the doors, sealing it shut, because she didn't trust the keys alone to keep him in. She locked it for safe measure and took the key along with her.
Aden was staring at her, an amused smile flitting across his face. "Ah, now I remember why you were chosen to be my guard."
Valkyrie snorted and took the salve away from him with a snap of, 'you're doing it wrong.'
He waited while she tended to him, wrapping his injuries carefully in bandages, before she set his wing with various things she found around the hoard. She secured it to two metal spears- why they were metal, she had no idea- and snapped the heads off so he didn't poke himself. She cushioned it with various silks and stuffed animals she scavenged.
"Valkyrie-" his eyes slitted with pain, and her gaze snapped to his face, worry unwillingly beginning to bubble in the pit of her stomach. "-how are we going to- get out?"
She gave the hoard a quick once-over, checking for any escape routes, but if this was the prison as well as the treasury, she doubted there would be more than one exit.
"I'm going to take the ship," she decided. "Slip out while I'm killing them," she added bluntly, with as much emotion as a rock, and turned, ready to make her winding way through the maze of junk and treasure.
"Wait, you can't-"
"Aden, you know as well as I what training I have received. As both your guard and your sister, I am telling you to stay down."
"But-"
"Aden," she snarled, pinning him with one of the looks she reserved for when she wanted complete and utter silence. "You will get off the ship while I take care of them."
Aden glared at her, tail twitching, but held his tongue.
Valkyrie nodded imperiously, sweeping past the mountains of treasure, but she stopped short upon spotting a heavy golden locket inlaid with a fiery ruby the size of a chicken's egg. A Talonclasp Pendant.
Her Talonclasp Pendant.
She was at the pile in a moment, lifting it from the bed of shimmering coins, and confirmed that it was in fact her family heirloom. The one her father had taken from a prince of the BeastClans, though Valkyrie was unfamiliar with the details.
Fury laced through her veins and she slipped it over her neck, the cool metal slipping easily along her scales to rest against her chest.
I'll kill them all, she fumed, marching along with renewed energy. This incident renewed the knowledge that these hatchling-killers had wrecked her home, robbed her, and worse, taken the heir to her family fortune.
She padded on, murder in her heart. Ruthless, cunning, heartless, vicious, and beautiful.
All had been used to describe Valkyrie, usually with a good amount of fear, if they knew what was good for them. When accompanying Aden to parties or meetings, she was as stone as a statue, a beautiful statue, a statue who could kill without mercy, because her heart was a shriveled lump of coal. Aden had always been the talker, the diplomat, the lover. She had always been the claws, the teeth, the brain.
They made a good team.
So when she stood on the prow of the boat, her dress and tunic fluttering, her amulet clinking, and her tail draped with false laziness over the side, Valkyrie smiled. Even Weeknd and Aadya, who had disobeyed her orders to leave and been clawed for it, exchanged nervous glances. Even though they had helped her bring this crew under her absolute control. Even though they knew they were under her protection nearly as much as Aden was.
Because below her, on the deck, cowered Maximus's oh-so-mighty crew, the braver ones brutally injured or unconscious, her claws stained with their blood, and that sight filled Valkyrie's black heart with the vicious joy of a predator.
"Get off my boat," she told them sweetly, and they stared at her.
They weren't listening to her. Her eyes narrowed, her voice hardening to obsidian. "Get. Off. My. Boat."
A guardian stood, her bright eyes narrowed and one covered in a patch. Her wings were shredded, blood pooling around her paws, and Valkyrie arched an eyebrow at this pitiful sight.
"Where is the Captain?" she cried, her voice cracking, and she swallowed, mustering a glare filled with hatred at the queen, the empress, the goddess.
"He's fine," Valkyrie purred. "Maybe if he was more skillful or more clever, he would remember to watch his back. But he's not dead," she continued sweetly. "I promise you I won't give him that easy an out."
She swept her tail towards the icy shore. "But as for all of you, you were pawns, unknowing soldiers under a thief with a fancy title. I will allow you to go."
"And what are you, my lady," ground out a mirror, raising his head, "if not a murderer with an elaborate name?"
Valkyrie snarled, propelling herself off the ship's prow to land with predatory silence on the boards directly in front of the impudent sailor. She swung her claws at his cheek, not particular if she took out his eye, before a pained cry from behind her halted her, her nails less than an inch from the smaller dragon's face.
To her fury, he did not cower before her.
Valkyrie whirled, her blood ice as she recognized the cry.
Aadya.
The lady of the south took her in, searching her carefully, but discerned no injuries.
"Valkyrie... Please..."
She gazed at her, tail swirling around her paws, not understanding what Aadya was asking.
Her eyes were overbright behind her swaying golden veil, and Valkyrie stared at her, not comprehending the moisture gathering in her little sister's eyes. She didn't understand at all.
"Aadya," she snapped, the bite in her voice instinctual, before she winced and did her best to soften it. The tone came out strained, as though it had forgotten how to do anything other than tear.
"Aadya," she said again, padding a few steps towards her, helplessness engulfing her as Aadya... Aadya began to cry, and Weeknd tentatively slung a wing over her, as though unsure of how to comfort her, to comfort at all.
"Aadya, you're embarrassing us." Valkyrie didn't know what else to say, and was unprepared when Weeknd shot a blistering glare at her, making her bristle slightly.
"Hasn't there been enough bloodshed?" asked Aadya at last, raising her flowered head, eyes wide. "Haven't you had enough?"
Valkyrie blinked, her tongue frozen, which never happened. Never, ever.
Aadya shook her head, choking on a sob, waving her tail helplessly, until at last Valkyrie decided that because she didn't understand at all, she could not focus on the prisoners.
She waved her tail dismissively at them, saying with a voice that was steady and sharp, but forced, for once, "Leave. Now."
"We won't leave our captain-"
"Leave," she snarled, turning on the speaker and glaring at him with such fury-filled eyes that he backed away a few steps.
A few of the less loyal sailors seized their companions and couldn't seem to leave the ship fast enough, their friends struggling in their grips.
But Valkyrie had only eyes for Aadya, a wreck of a dragon now, who had hit the deck, tears pouring out of her Ice eyes thick and fast. And she didn't know what to say.
Aadya swallowed, hacking, and Valkyrie slowly ascended the steps to bring herself closer to her sister, her weakling of a sister, her disgrace of a sister. That's what their parents had always told her, and by the rules Valkyrie had been taught, Aadya was indeed a stain on their name. Weeknd had always toed that same line, and she and Aden had been the perfect, pure-blooded pair of their children.
"Aadya," she said again, not lowering herself to be on eye-level with the younger dragon, but gathered her chin in a few claws and tilted her head up to look at her. "What is the meaning of this."
She sucked in a sobbing breath, then exhaled, then gulped in another. Valkyrie waited.
Aadya rose to her paws, rising to look her elder sister in the eye, and Valkyrie felt a flicker of approval.
"I don't know how you do this, Valkyrie," she said, voice brittle.
"Elaborate."
"I don't know how you kill and tear and torture for fun. I don't know how you manipulate and scheme and- and do all these horrible things with no thought for anything other than your pride. Than our family's pride. I- I don't understand you, Valkyrie. I don't think I want to."
The heiress of the Aurum family gazed at her younger sister, a lady of her court, one of the charges she was sworn to protect at all costs, and Valkyrie suddenly wondered with a terrible jolt if she had failed in that. Not because she had let a hair on Aadya's mane get touched, but because she had...torn her down, emotionally, mentally, over and over again.
Because she was better than Aadya. Stronger, faster, smarter.
But she had failed to protect her...because of that belief.
Valkyrie stood, stupefied, as Aadya went on, her voice shaking.
"I love you, Valkyrie. I do. You're harsh, and you're cruel, and I think whatever good heart you may have had once has been stamped out of you, but I love you."
Valkyrie didn't speak. Couldn't speak.
"But I don't belong in this life of yours."
Aadya turned away, brushing a tear from her cheek. "You've always known that."
She turned, bunching her muscles underneath her, and took flight. Valkyrie watched her go, stupefied into silence, and didn't even blink as Weeknd stepped into her personal space and nuzzled her cheek- another goodbye.
Without a word, he turned and flew after Aadya on silent wings, because he was her guard as much as Valkyrie was Aden's.
Or was he abandoning the family pride too? Valkyrie stood at the prow of the ship, guiding it further and further into the ocean, not knowing where she was going, and not caring either.
As a blanket of stars stretched overhead, cold light illuminating the empty ship, Valkyrie finally abandoned the wheel and allowed the ship to float where it would, guided only by the sails snatching at the crying wind.
She descended the stairs and couldn't summon enough energy to make herself a proper nest- she collapsed on a pile of rope and tucked her face under her tail, dry eyes closing and shutting out the rest of the world, because it was a blanket of silence wrapping around her, tighter than anything she'd ever felt.
I don't understand you, Valkyrie. I don't think I want to.
"Sulking?"
Valkyrie jumped to her paws, whirling at the speaker until her claws were at his throat, slamming him against the wooden mast, before finding herself gazing into the blue eyes that started this whole mess.
She'd forgotten about Maximus.
She released him, backing away, before turning and slinking back towards her makeshift nest of rope. She didn't have enough energy to fight him, to force him under her will, and to her dull surprise, she found that the idea didn't appeal to her as much as it once might have.
"I don't sulk," she replied stonily, settling herself regally on her nest. She probably looked pathetic, and the thought made a fire kindle in her chest, making her white eyes bore into his, complete and utter defiance shimmering red off every glinting scale.
After a moment, he cracked the vestige of smile and wandered closer, making the female tense and clink her claws together threateningly.
He settled himself before her, lazy and languid as a cat, and said, "So. Where might you have left my crew?"
He squinted around. "Also, forgive me, I'm still a little hazy after being knocked over the head, but where are we?" The smirk he sent her way infuriated her down to her core, but still not enough to make her strike; of course he knew exactly who had sent him spiraling into unconsciousness, and of course it didn't faze him. Of course the loss of his crew and the fact that they were floating in the middle of nowhere didn't bother him.
What in Sornieth did?
She examined her claws idly, feeling extraordinarily drained, so perhaps that was why she was putting up with this doofus. "You stole my treasures, so I dumped your crew in my tundra. Consider it an honor."
She smirked at him. "I hope they dressed warmly. As for where we are..."
She shrugged, tail flicking, her voice a drawl. "I have no idea."
Maximus's eyebrow shot upward- at last, a reaction that wasn't a smirk. "My lady, what on earth possessed you to ditch everything and let the boat drift? Surely your treasures mean more to you than that."
No way was she telling him the truth. Even if she deigned to bestow a single wisp of her thoughts upon him, Valkyrie didn't know if she could. If she even knew why she had stranded herself in a watery wasteland.
"Decided I'd take a trip," she said, flashing her teeth in what may have been a cutting smile, or just an excuse to show her fangs. "Wouldn't it be fitting for a pirate captain to be drowned?"
Maximus snorted and settled his head on his paws, the corded muscle of his back and shoulders defined under the silvery light of the moon. "Oh, I don't think you'll kill me, my lady."
"And why is that? I've been contemplating nothing else."
"Because if you did, you couldn't find your way to land, and as much as drowning would fit a pirate, I don't think it's quite the ending for a princess such as yourself."
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes at him and ultimately decided his patronizing assumption was worse than his incorrect reference. "I can read the stars just as well as you, Captain."
"I'm sure you can. And during your period of, ah, not-sulking, did you happen to pay attention which direction you drifted in? That's rather important too, you know."
She glared at him. She had found something she hated more than being told what to do- Maximus being right was the most irritating thing she had ever come across in this miserable world.
"I hate you," she said, her snarl soft, and he chuckled.
"Why? Because you happen to be thawing a little and that just upsets you so much?"
Thawing? She was Valkyrie, Lady of the South, Heiress of the Aurum family, and her core was frozen all the way through. Dragons cowered at the mention of her name. She was a force of nature.
She did not thaw.
"What makes you think you know me?"
"I don't." He winked. "But I'd like to. And believe me, I know a tortured soul when I see one."
She lashed at him, and he dodged with a snake's ease and a cat's lazy indifference.
"You don't know me at all," she hissed. "You're just messing with my head. You'll lose your own playing that game."
"I'll take my chances."
Maximus tilted his head slightly at her, a soft smile on his chiseled features, forcing her to notice the wounds she'd carved onto his face had completely disappeared. "So, Lady Valkyrie. Where would you like to go?"
She stared at him. Why was he being so...strange? Why was he offering to take her anywhere? Why wasn't he fighting to take his ship back? Of course, he'd end up dead if he tried, but... What was up with this pirate and why was he so insistent on helping her? It was unnerving.
Perhaps he'd realized how foolish it would be to test her.
But Valkyrie, gazing at those brilliant eyes, knew that couldn't be the case. For one thing, he'd proven he was not smart enough to do as she wished. For another, whenever she struck at him or tried to force him to submit to her will, he just did the most infuriating, unexpected thing he could: laughed.
She hated that she did not understand him. That she couldn't twist his will around her claw and yank until he became her puppet.
She moistened her lips and said, with a trace of her former imperious self, "I need to find my sister and brother, and punish them for their disloyalty."
And she did. She had a duty to perform. Just because Aadya made her wonder if the life she had dismissed so easily was perhaps something to be examined more closely, did not mean she would comply to weak, soft-hearted Aadya. She was Valkyrie, independent and ferocious. She did not listen to sniveling cowards.
He listed his handsome head at her, and she met his eyes steadily, gaze stony, but she had a feeling he could see right through her, down into her soul. If she had any soul left.
I think whatever good heart you may have had once has been stamped out of you-
She didn't care.
The blue eyes laced with silver and shadow turned thoughtful, and for a moment, she thought he would question her. He would die if he dared.
"Is that what you want?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Do not presume to think you know what I want better than I do."
"I didn't," he answered, with a snort. "I just know there's a difference between wanting something and being conditioned to want something."
Valkyrie hissed in his face, and to her ire, he didn't blink; just gave her a lazy smirk.
"I want to find Aadya and Weeknd," she snarled again, voice hardening to obsidian. "And you will take me there."
Maximus arched an eyebrow in such a way that she knew what he was about to say a moment before he said it.
"Why would I do that?" he purred, and she knew from the smug look on his face he was doing it purely to irritate her. Seriously, why hadn't someone killed him before she had? He was far too obnoxious to let live.
Unfortunately, she needed him.
"Because I'll rip out your spine if you defy me," she said back sweetly, voice as saccharine as she could make it. If he wanted to go toe-to-toe with her, let him. She'd make sure those toes got chopped off.
His laugh was deep; rumbling. It came from his chest and his whole torso shook with the weight of it.
She glared at him through narrowed eyes. Did he not think she would go through with it? She would. If he tested her, she would fulfill her earlier promise and make his life hell before she ended him.
"Your argument is a compelling one," he said, with another snort of laughter, though she still couldn't see what was so funny. "Very well, I'll take you where you need to go. It would be my honor to escort the Lady Valkyrie to whatever bloodthirsty mission she wishes to carry out this time."
She didn't miss the sarcasm, and her ears flattened.
"I'm shocked you know how to make smart decisions."
He laughed again and turned away, and as though he hadn't learned from the last time he turned his back on her, he didn't spare her a glance over his shoulder.
She revoked all mention of him being smart.
"I'm quite full of surprises, Princess." He winked, and it made her heart do a weird little flip that was entirely foreign to her.
"I'm not a princess," she responded, with a frown. Once she could overlook, if there were truly other important matters to discuss, but twice... She was a warrior and a lady, not a simpering doll primped to be placed on a throne she hadn't worked for.
"Humor me." "Remind me why this was a good idea."
Maximus chuckled and helped her across a trickle of a stream- or he would have, if she hadn't tossed him a disgusted look and crossed herself.
"You'll see. This place is the friendliest in the world. Your sister would probably gravitate here, especially since it's close to the Southern Icefields. Try not to crush any eggs, will ya?"
"There are eggs here?" Valkyrie halted, scandalized, and scanned the appallingly green land around her for any sign of nests. She wanted to ask why they weren't in their Nesting Grounds, but she hated the idea of showing Maximus she didn't know what she was doing.
Apparently, she didn't have to.
"The Wind dragons use the entire Zephyr Steppes as their Nesting Grounds," he added, with a faint smirk. "Something about the breeze being good for hatchlings, in case you were wondering." He smirked at her, as though he knew how much it unnerved her that he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Had her scales turned to glass when she wasn't looking? How did he do that?
Valkyrie snorted and pulled her tunic around herself. "Of course. I don't know why I expected anything else from a clan that wasn't Ice. Do they not take the care of their young seriously?"
Maximus glanced over at her, and she detected...almost surprise in his expression, and she snapped, "What?"
He shrugged. "Just surprised you'd care."
She snorted. "Even dragons from the Southern Icefield care about hatchlings, Captain. We're not savages."
He shrugged and smiled slightly, turning away.
Valkyrie huffed and padded past him, ignoring the faint smile on his face. "This place is weird."
He chuckled softly and she whirled on him, wanting him to flinch away or something, but he merely raised a sassy eyebrow and waited for her next move.
"Why's it weird?" he asked, after a staring contest that just seemed to amuse him further.
Valkyrie paused, deliberating.
The earth felt spongey, soft, under her paws, and it was far too green. Green, everywhere. It was unnerving. And then there was there were the bamboo poking their hollow heads out from behind flat steppes stacked on top of one another, and the lush grass turning into rolling hills, and the constant laughter on the wind. The dragons, however, were strangest of all. They laughed, they chatted like they were old friends- with everyone-, and this place was full of nesting females curled contentedly into their mates' side.
Valkyrie tilted her head, curious and hostile to this new way of living.
Mates were chosen based on how well their hatchlings would turn out. Who would have the best genes, the best colors, to keep their glorious bloodline going and when mixed it was done with the utmost caution, so as not to soil the beautiful creation that was worked on for years, from parent-to-hatchling. Their blood was what made them different, special, superior.
These dragons acted like they'd chosen each other based on something entirely different than their pedigree or political power.
"Everything."
He looked at her, eyebrow quirked in question.
"Everything is strange here. The dragons are more numerous than they are in my home, they talk to one another as though the whole clan is one big family," her lip curled with scorn that would have made the Shadowbinder proud, "and look. There."
She pointed to a bright blue snapper with a male spiral in dull red and orange tones beside her. "Their blood should not mix- anyone can see that- and yet, they have three eggs between them right now."
She shook her head. "This is why they're inferior. I've heard of this, but to see it with my own eyes..."
She gazed at the pair, unabashedly disgusted by the sight.
It happened that her head had shifted closer to Maximus, letting her see those wild, clever blue eyes rest upon her with an unreadable expression deep within their neverending depths- it was like looking at pieces of the sky brought to earth, somehow tamed by the obnoxious, insufferable pirate that was now her guide.
"What?" she asked, with less coldness and more question than she liked.
He nodded to them. "In all honesty, I'd prefer to have a mate who made me laugh than one who made pretty babies."
Valkyrie didn't deign to glance the Wind dragons' way again. "That's the talk of an idealist. The dragons among my court are proud to produce pure offspring."
Maximus raised an eyebrow. "How about your sister? Was she pure?"
Valkyrie, through her shock, hissed. How did he know about Aadya's preachy little sermon?
Reading the question in her expression, so easily it unnerved her, he shrugged and answered, "The boards aren't terribly thick. Plus, ah, I slipped out about an hour after you so kindly deposited me into that cell."
He nodded with mocking politeness at her. "Thanks for that. It appears I do need to repair my dungeon."
"Obviously, since you escaped," she snarled softly, but it was only to disguise her reeling from his words. Aadya. Aadya. Aadya had not been pure, not at all. Valkyrie had always sensed it, always known her uncleanness lay simmering beneath the surface, but...
He was looking at her, waiting, and it sparked her ire.
"Aadya's choices were not the fault of my parents. She was weak." The words tasted bitter in her mouth, but they were true. "She ran away."
Maximus met her eyes, a faint challenge glimmering there like a sapphire. "I find dragons don't run away without a hell of a good reason."
"Because they're scared. Because they can't take the heat of the life they were granted," she hissed in reply, and he smiled slightly as he beckoned her to follow him towards a few impure dragons who thought mixing their blood just so they could laugh- if Maximus was to be listened to- was a good idea.
She fell into step beside him, eyeing everyone in the vicinity to make sure they weren't about to ambush her or rob her. She wasn't exactly trying to disguise her distrust, but Maximus's laugh at her made her scowl. "What? And where are we going?"
"Nothing, nothing... And we're going to talk to the Alpha of this lair."
Valkyrie sniffed. "They don't have lords and ladies, I suppose."
His teeth flashed white in a smile. "Not anywhere near here, I'm afraid. Also, there he is." He nodded towards a guardian with scales so bright it was almost blinding, but Valkyrie didn't blink. Obviously this flashiness was some poor form of intimidation.
"Have you seen an Ice lady pass by these parts?" Valkyrie demanded, sparing the Alpha a look, just in time to see the guardian raise an eyebrow and look to Maximus, who shrugged. She glared at him, and he raised his eyebrows with an air of such innocence it implied devilry.
Ugh.
"Yes, actually," said the guardian slowly. "Looked pretty upset. Who might you be, again?"
"That's not for you-"
Maximus slapped his tail across her mouth and said, with his usual easygoing charisma that apparently won dragons over in a heartbeat, though she couldn't fathom why, "She's her older sister, just looking to take her back home. That's all."
Valkyrie spat out his tail and glared murder at his profile, but besides the upward quirk of his lips, he kept his eyes on the Alpha. Presumptuous, insolent fool.
She noted the guardian eyeing the two curiously, but didn't comment, because just then he began, "Yeah, I almost mistook you," he nodded to Valkyrie, "for her, actually, until I saw the wingspan. Large red imperial with yellow runes, right?"
"Yes, that's her. There should have been another imperial with her- also large, and red, and with orange runes." Her voice dripped condescension of his flawless description, but other than a narrowing of his eyes, the guardian nodded assent.
"I saw them heading for the Reedcleft Ascent, that way."
"Thank you, friend," murmured Maximus, with a polite nod, and then took after Valkyrie who had strode off without a word. Considering he was lower than her in rank, she did not feel the need to curtsy or overstay however long it took to find her treacherous siblings.
"Word to the wise, Lady," murmured Maximus in her ear as he caught up, "when you want something from someone else, stalking around like the Imperial Queen of Sornieth isn't usually the most effective method."
She stalked onward, biting in reply, "Word to the wise, Captain, if you ever try to silence me again, you will lose your tail." Her silvery eyes flicked sideways to see his reaction- for some reason, it was important- and found him rolling his eyes.
She halted. She was not going any further until he told her exactly why he was so different- how he could laugh at her when she meant every word of her threats.
Or did she?
"Do you think I won't go through with it or something?" she asked, slowly, pushing that unnerving question to the back of her mind where she hoped it would dissipate into smoke and never bother her again.
Maximus stopped and turned to her with a faint smile. "No, actually, I don't."
Valkyrie's eyes narrowed. A challenge. This was something she understood. She parted her jaws, tilting her head, and her own challenge was a drawl, "Go ahead then."
He held her eyes, even when they bore into his, and then slipped his tail between her teeth. Just like that.
Valkyrie kept right on holding his eyes, staring him down, but he didn't give in. Just raised his eyebrows with an air of polite expectation.
It irked her.
However, as her teeth grazed his tail, they slipped over a healed-over wound- one she had put there, back in his hoard, right before she'd knocked him out. Right after he'd told her he was teasing her.
He hadn't been afraid of her even then.
He wasn't afraid now, as he pinned her with a warm blue gaze that glittered with intelligence and daring, as though he knew her even better than she did.
He didn't fear her. He never had.
And that made her afraid.
Valkyrie spat out his tail, whirled, and took off up the slope without a backwards look.
Wisely, for the next few hours of tracking Aadya and Weeknd, Maximus kept his distance, apparently content to let her rage and slash plants to bits in her sporadic surges of frustration. They met a few creatures along the way that were less than friendly, and Valkyrie was delighted for the fights that ensued; as delighted as one could be when she was drowning in consternation.
He made his usual annoying quips, but for the most part, she blocked him out. He convinced her to let the BeastClans live, even a particularly vicious Tigerblood Foo. Valkyrie didn't need as much convincing for that one- she recognized herself in the wild beast, and she respected it.
For the next few days, she avoided speaking to Maximus as much as she could, until finally he plopped down beside her and said flatly, "Okay, you raging and being a bloodthirsty dinosaur is fine, but this," he waved his tail vaguely in the direction of her face, "is not."
"A 'bloodthirsty dinosaur'?" she repeated, and he snorted, waving it aside.
"So we've progressed from death threats to the silent treatment? Should I be grateful?"
She arranged her tail over her paws. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me, since you know me so much better than I know myself?"
He lifted an eyebrow. "I never said that."
"You've been implying it ever since I met you on that insufferable tub you call a ship."
"The tub you've been riding around on for two days."
"Out of necessity, yes." She flattened her ears, not entirely liking what was he was insinuating.
He snorted but didn't press the subject. Instead, he leaned forward until he forced her to catch his eye- her ears tipped backwards dangerously- and quirked a questioning brow. "So?"
"What?" Her voice came out as a sharper hiss than she meant- like a pearly knife dragging across a mirror.
"Touche. Will you tell me what's up with you?"
She frowned and looked away, tail twitching irritably.
"Valkyrie."
"You have heard the saying, 'never poke a sleeping dragon,' right? It sounds like one of those sayings you're always quoting at me." She shot him a scathing look, and he grinned.
"That's why I'm poking you while you're awake."
She huffed. "That's not the point, Maximus, as I know you are aware."
He shrugged and waited for her glower to become less heated.
It did not cool, and he rolled his eyes, tail thumping the ground with a little more impatience than he usually let her see. A smirk curled at one side of her mouth- ha. The knowledge that she could aggravate him too was unbelievably satisfying.
"So...what? What is this? Are you mad because...you didn't...bite me?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, sure his confused expression was an act. "No."
"So what is it?"
For the first time in her long, perfect life, Valkyrie hesitated. To her chagrin, he noticed, and his eyebrow flickered upward with curiosity.
She rose, turning her head towards the land they still had to cover. "I'm mad," she began, her voice plunging several degrees, "because Aadya and Weeknd are still bounding about this subordinate-"
"Oh please."
She turned to him frostily. "Excuse me?"
Rolling his eyes and rising to his paws as well, he met her scrutiny head-on, and a shiver worked itself down her spine. "Are you seriously going to make me believe you can scare my entire crew off and be afraid of speaking what you're actually mad about?" He quirked an eyebrow, voice laying on the sarcasm as thick as cake frosting, and it made her tail twitch in familiar irritation. "You've always been so willing to let me know what displeases you."
She glared at him.
Damn this male.
Fine. If he wanted to go toe-to-toe with her, she'd step on those toes. She'd break those toes.
"Fine," she spat. "Fine. I'm angry because you're different. I'm angry because you laugh at me. I'm angry because I've never met anyone quite like you and I don't know what to do with you half the time. I'm angry because your ideas contrast with mine in every way possible and sometimes they halfway make sense!" The words burst from her, coated in a fine layer of exasperation, and Valkyrie tried to continue sounding incensed, but her voice was teetering dangerously on the verge of confusion. Pathetic.
I'm mad because I don't understand you and for some reason, I want to.
She nearly said it, nearly caused an apocalypse, but reeled the words back in time. She waited, chest expanding and deflating with the force of every breath, her glare puncturing holes right through him.
Maximus blinked, and Valkyrie realized with a sudden surge of pleasure that she had surprised him. She liked knocking him off-balance. It was satisfying, when everything he did put pressure on her, never allowing her to have complete control over the situation.

(working on it :P)

Tigerblood Foo

Familiar

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2240

Rusty Golem

Familiar

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500

Firemane Manticore

Familiar

Grace and ferocity all bundled into one: this fiery feline knows how to battle, and knows how to win.

2525