Chapter 3: Hex's Choice
“Wake up,” Hex whispered as she nudged the other members of the Hatchling Clan.
“Whuh?” Ivorn groaned as his eyes blinked open. One by one, the hatchlings groaned and stood up, muttering about the dispurbance.
“Not so loud!” Hex hissed under her breath as she looked warily at the sleeping forms of Fenn and Elric on the other side of the house. “Now is our chance! We’ve been here long enough, let’s get moving!”
“But I like it here!” Lydia whined. “Ivorn, tell her we don’t want to go!” The spiral buried her face into Ivorn’s shoulder.
“Uh, Lydia doesn’t want to go,” Ivorn said. “And I don’t really either. It’s nice not to have to work so hard to get food.”
“Let’s think about this logically,” Realm piped up, looking apologetic. “We’ve been travelling for so long, it’s safe here. Fenn and Elric are nice. We can still be the Hatchling Clan, but I think we’ve found our home.”
“But-” Hex protested.
“You’re outvoted,” Realm said sadly. “I’m sorry.”
Hex let out a frustrated growl, not caring anymore if she woke Fenn and Elric. She leaped over the railing that separated the inside of the house from the outside and raced out into the night. The way her feet hit the grassy hills was calming, she felt like she could run forever, until she was long gone from here. Long gone from anywhere she didn’t belong.
She didn’t understand what her friends saw in Fenn and Elric. They were there when Elric attacked her. Did they not see the way the two of them looked at her? Flinching away as if she was some horrid thing that would destroy them all. They pretended to be nice, they always corrected their expressions when they noticed Hex watching, but she knew the truth, and she refused to be unwanted. She had been unwanted when she hatched, alone in the Scarred Wasteland and forced to fend for her own survival. She was unwanted now, by Fenn and Elric. Now, it seemed as though she was unwanted by her friends.
“Hex! Wait!” Realm’s voice could be heard on the wind just as the terrible thought crossed Hex’s mind.
Hex just ran faster. She didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. She did not even turn back to look at him. With time, however, she began to tire. She may have felt like she could run forever, but her legs were still small and growing, and before too long she was forced to slow.
It was then that Realm caught up with her. He had been flying, and letting the wind do most of the work for him. He was barely out of breath, which Hex thought was unfair as her lungs begged to be filled.
“I’m sorry about what happened back there,” Realm said. “I know you have this idea of us going off and building our own clan, but Lydia and Ivorn, they aren’t made for travel the way you and I are. If it was just me and you, I’d follow you anywhere you wanted to go, but we have them to think about too. I know you spent a long time alone, but we’re a clan. We can’t just think about one dragon.”
“They hate me,” Hex gasped. “It’s not about doing things alone, though I would like it more that way. It’s Fenn and Elric. They hate me. They’re scared of me.”
“Going away won’t fix that,” Realm pointed out. “Lots of dragons are scared of plague dragons, anywhere we go, dragons will be scared of you. Remember how long it took Lydia to look you in the eye? We can travel the whole of Sornieth and you’ll still find dragons who are scared of you. But you’re strong. You’re a fighter.
Show Fenn and Elric that they are wrong to be scared. They are already giving you a chance, show them they were right to. And if time passes, and they are still scared of you, then both of us can leave and find somewhere else. But please, can we just stay until Ivorn and Lydia are comfortable? We can’t just abandon them.”
Hex was silent for a long time, catching her breath and turning Realm’s words over in her mind. “Okay,” she said finally. “But if they keep looking at me like I’m a monster, I’m
going to fight them.”
“That’s the Hex I know,” Realm smiled.
“I still need to run a bit before I go back, I need to get these feelings out. Do you want to come with me?” Hex offered.
“I’ll be flying right behind you,” Realm agreed.
Hex took off, confident that her friend was right behind her. Realm had been the first friend she had met, and she knew he would follow her to the ends of Sornieth if she asked. He was not leaving her now. They ran until sunrise, not needing to say a word to each other, before returning to the house, ready to take on anything.
I debated whether I wanted to keep Fenn and Elric's initial aversion to the plague flight as strong as it was in my head when I created the lore, since it came from a lot of problematic tropes in media of having an "inherently evil" group, and Plague occupied that space in my mind for a little while (it's one of the reasons why I leaned so hard in unpacking the Nature vs Plague conflict in Beneath the Boughs, because I was trying to counter that idea). In the end, I decided to keep it in because a) it's a good character flaw and will provide a good opportunity for character growth for Fenn and Elric, and b) it seems like a good way to acknowledge my own personal growth since then, since I have changed a lot since those days.
I obviously will be writing it with way more nuance than I would have if I had written it back when this lore was happening in my head in 2016, and not actually be making plague the "evil flight," but I want some of those prejudices to be present and worked through a little bit. Besides, everything about Hex's lore was about proving herself to everyone and showing she was not evil, and she would not be who she is without that struggle (Looking back, I feel like she was very much inspired by Brambeclaw/Bramblestar from Warrior Cats and Coryn from Guardians of Ga'Hoole).
