@
ElloLove
It was at that place. That place, where we met...
Two dragons stood on the shore, right on the border between the Windswept Plateau and the Sea of a Thousand Currents. To the northeast lay the waters above the Leviathan Trench, and to the west rose the climbing, jutting Zephyr Steppes. The wind blew constantly here, moving along the surface of the sea, and twisting towards the crescendo on the plateau. The two dragons were used to these chilly gusts, and the roar of the crashing waves. This was once their home. Before all this, back when they had simply been sisters...
"What are you doing here?" demanded the Skydancer.
The opposing Ridgeback's face contorted into a wicked smile, while a deranged light entered her red eyes. "I suppose I was...wandering."
Legacy, the Skydancer, winced. She knew that her sister, Aftermath, was referring to the Wandering Contagion: a location within the Scarred Wasteland. A particularly nasty strand of disease from the Wyrmwound had found its way to Aftermath while she was still a hatchling. It was why she was the way she was, now...
Aftermath cackled. "So, you
do know!"
Legacy's eyes narrowed, her distaste tempered by focus and reason. "Yes. I know what became of you."
"You say that like it's a bad thing!" Aftermath responded, laughter in her voice. Evidently, Legacy's response was humorous to her. Then, she grinned maliciously. "I serve the Plaguebringer now: the mother of blight, who strengthens her children. You should come with me,
Sister."
Legacy bore her teeth on reflex. "
You should find a cure!"
Legacy and Aftermath had once been the best of friends, each laughing with one another, and helping each other. They did everything together, but now... No one had known the reason, but Aftermath began to change. She became crueler, enjoying terrible things, and finding humor in the suffering of others. When Legacy found out that it was a strand from the Wyrmwound that had infected her sister, she'd fled to the Southern Icefield, where the cold warded off such strands.
Aftermath's own mouth pulled into a snarl at the suggestion. While Legacy had fled south, Aftermath had gone north, and found a home within the Scarred Wasteland. "How
dare you suggest such a thing?!"
"I want you
back, Aftermath!" Legacy answered, surpising herself a little bit with her answer. It was the truth, though. "We were so close, and then that disease
twisted you! This isn't who you are...this is what you have
become!"
Aftermath hissed at her sister's words in fury, scoring the ground and lashing her tail. She crashed her claws against the wall of the nearby ascent, and continued her thrashing until her rage finally seemed to settle. Then, as she slowly twisted to regard Legacy once more, an eerie grin spread across her face again. "You don't know who I am...nor who your
friends could become."
"What?" Just what was this plague dragon talking about? Whatever it was, it was beginning to chill Legacy's heart. She didn't like the look Aftermath was giving her... It was a confident, wicked look, filled with malicious intent...
"Your...'Forgotten Victors,' was it? Misfits, outcasts -- those no one cares about. No one...except you... Isn't that right?"
Aftermath was toying with her -- taunting her. Legacy was growling before she realized it, then snapped, "Leave them alone!"
"Ha! And what can
you do about it? What could you do about
me?! The Plaguebringer will have them -- I will make certain of
that. Just watch what they become -- those you think you know!"
"You won't have them!" Legacy roared, but her voice was largely drowned out by the rush of wind from her sister's great wings, as well as the Ridgeback's cackling.
"I will come for them, carrying the Plaguebringer's strand! You won't know when, and you won't know how... But ruin will come to you, and then... Then we will be sisters again...when the plague consumes you!"
One last roar, and Aftermath was gone, riding on the wind and angling northward. Soon, it was just the wind and the waves again, filling Legacy's ears. Her legs felt weak. The trinket she'd come to retrieve from her hatchling days was forgotten. As Legacy thought about it, she realized why she was so shaken. She couldn't lose her new family to the contagion...not again. Aftermath was right. As a hatchling, there had been nothing she could do to stop it from taking Aftermath. And now, the fear she had felt as a hatchling was returning.
Will I lose them, too? The ones who depend on me to keep them safe? Suddenly, her fear disappeared. In its place was a fiery determination, and an unbreakable steadfastness.
No. I will not allow that. They look to me...and I will protect them.
Legacy looked to the empty sky in the direction Aftermath had flown in. "And whether you want it or not...I will save you, one day...Sister..."
So, how's that?