Traveling Shadows: A Wings of Fire Fanfic

By Victory the NightWing

A/N: Many of you think you know the story of timid Shadow, the small, scrawny NightWing with a fractured past. But do you really? It's time to explore the story of Fastwit and Shadowtraveler, friends to the end. And I mean the end.

Please note that this story is, in part, inspired by Bridge to Terabithia, and Victory the NightWing Co. is not responsible for any tears shed during this story.

And with that...let us begin!

Prologue
On winter days, many dragons hole up in their houses, settling near the fire with a good scroll and plenty of blankets to watch the snow fall. Sometimes, they'll even practice their writing homework in case the snow isn't thick enough to warrant a day off school.They wouldn't know; they don't dare poke their heads out the door, fearing they'll freeze their very snouts off or catch frostbite.

They most certainly don't barge through the doors carrying a bundle of blankets and not firewood, slamming the door behind them and scaring their poor wife out of her seat by the fire.

"Determination?" Cautious the NightWing yelped, leaping up from the nest of blankets she had created by the fireplace. Though she'd known he had went to collect some more kindling, the small, round pile of ragged sheets he was holding in between his wings didn't look like any tinder she had ever seen--and the slightly panicked, slightly relieved expression he wore on his dark blue face wasn't exactly helping. "Dear, what's going on?"

He shook his head, moving towards the slowly-dying fire and setting his bundle down, making a light thump on the floor. Cautiously, he stepped back with a small smile and muttered, "Atta girl."

"Determination. Determination," Cautious said, louder this time, as she walked across the stone floor to poke him in the shoulder, stopping halfway through to glance at the large pile of blankets in the corner. At its peak, a round, pitch-black egg sat, clearly due to hatch any day now. The NightWing had been sitting near it, making sure it didn't roll away or begin to crack too soon, though it was nearly forgotten in the sudden situation.

Cautious shook herself with a huff. You can worry about that later, she thought, tapping the floor with a talon expectantly. When her husband didn't answer, she nearly shouted,  "What in Pyrrhia are you doing? What's that, and where's the firewo--"

"Cautious?" Determination interrupted quietly, turning to the purple-and-gray dragon standing, confused, several steps away from the fire. He reached out with one wing to brush hers, instantly causing her to quiet down. This was serious--she could tell from the way he kept looking to her, then the bundle, then back to her. "As you can probably tell, I, uh...had a bit of a detour in the woods..."

The dark blue dragon smiled nervously, clearly trying to soften the blow of what was to come. "It's a little hard to explain, actually. I went to the valley--you know, that dip where the huge pine drops all its smaller branches? The one with all the brush--and when I cleared it away, I..." Determination gestured to the ragged, snow-dusted blob he'd dropped near Cautious's sitting place. "I found that and came back before I could get anything else."

"You found what...?" Cautious muttered, moving away from him to stare at the bundle. Carefully, she reached over and began to move the blankets, shocked at how torn they looked. ''Moons, did this survive a bear attack? she wondered, pulling back a ripped half of a pink (she thought ''it was pink; it was too snowy to tell) veil covering what seemed to be a solid object at the core of layers upon layers of coating. With a gasp, she leaped back, bumping into Determination and smacking him in the face with a wing.

"Surprise," said Determination, attempting to add humor to the situation. "I hope you like your present."

She smacked him again, and this time, it wasn't an accident. "Determination, that is not a present. That is an egg!" Cautious said, her voice steadily rising. "Why was it even in the forest? Did someone leave it there? Was it attacked? Why is the covering ripped?"

By this time, she'd curled her tail protectively around the egg, her motherly instinct kicking in almost instantly. It, surprisingly, wasn't very cold, and she could almost feel it dragonet moving around inside. Already, she had seemingly made up her mind: ''I am NOT going to leave this egg. Never, never, never.''

Determination smiled wryly. "Glad you liked it," he said. "Do you think you could move it with ours...? I mean, you seem to really like having it in the curve of your tail, but...it's likely to be better off like this, and--"

But he didn't have time to finish that thought, as over by the corner, a sudden cra-cra-craaack had begun. The precious, well-bundled egg Cautious had layed had started to tremble, its pitch-black shell slowly crumbling to shards as the dragonet shoved its way from the round prison.

"Oh!" Cautious practically flew to the egg's side, her talons cupping around the breaking object's surface. She could already see the face of the little dragonet making his way through--my dragonet, she thought, I have a dragonet!--and just as its tiny black face peeked over the shell, a shriek unlike anything Cautious had ever heard echoed from behind her.

"Uh, honey?" tried Determination, rushing over to the other egg. "I think this one's hatching, too..."

Cautious whipped her head around, eyes wide open. "It's doing what,now?"

Another shriek told both adult NightWings that the small dragonet was coming, and coming fast. Determination was already wrapping one wing protectively over the small, oval-shaped dark purple egg, though it didn't seem to be helping. The dragonet's head broke the surface, and Cautious gasped with shock.

It didn't look like any dragonet she had ever seen before. Though its tiny, little body was certainly that of a NightWing, its scales were a very dark shade of violet. Flecks of green, a shade the color of emeralds buried beneath ocean waves, were speckled around the dragonet's snout. When it turned its oddly colored head to stare at its rescuers, one eye was very, very dark green, some shades lighter than its flecks. The other, a lime so light Cautious mistakenly thought it was blue at first.

A small squeak from her talons alerted her to the other dragonet, which was now fully out of its shell. By vast contrast to the first to hatch, it was as dark as a starless night. Its wings were draped around Cautious's talons, as though it didn't ever want to expand them. It squeaked again, huddling into her claws, and in that moment Cautious knew this dragonet was quite possibly one of the strangest she had ever seen.

"Astnit!" squealed the purple dragonet, squirming from Determination's talons and wiggling across the floor. It bobbed its little head, as though attempting to get a lay of the land, and squeaked something undecipherable. As if to answer, the shy one called out with a small, weak yelp.

"That was fast," Determination noted, watching them squeal back and forth, back and forth. "They're certainly learning to get along...by howling like wolves..."

"Maybe it was found by wolves," muttered Cautious, sitting down and wrapping her tail around her talons thoughtfully. "I don't think we'll ever know."

As they spoke, the purple-and-green dragonet wobbled on stubby legs to the mountain of blankets Cautious and Determination's biological one sat atop, letting out a squeaky "Ickory!" and putting her front talons on the edge of the pile. The shadowy little one, who hadn't move from Cautious's claws for a moment, lifted its tiny head and peered down at its new sibling.

"Astnit?" it said quizzically, tilting its head. "Astnit?"

Cautious tilted her head, looking to her mate with a frown. "Astnit," she repeated, glancing to the two dragonets, who kept on squeaking. "Why do they keep saying it? Why did the purple one start it?"

"It's certainly very...witty," Determination replied with a shrug, reaching over to grab the metal pole they used for stroking the fire. He stuck the stick of metal into the flames, moving the wood so it would burn slower, and went on, "Maybe that's what we'll call it. Fastwit."

''Fastwit. Fastwit, ''Cautious repeated in her mind. She nodded slowly, cautiously uncupping her talons and walking to stand beside her husband, so as not to let them stumble into the fireplace and become roast dragonet beef. "Yes, I like it. It really rolls off the tongue. And the other?"

Just as she finished the sentence, the shadowy black dragonet stood on shaky, little legs, craning his neck to peer at the newly-named Fastwit. It blinked slowly, leaning forward and forward until...

...it fell, headfirst, down the pile's side, crashing into the stone floor with a small ''thump. ''

Determination gasped, raced over, and picked it up, although it didn't seem very hurt. Shakily, it hugged his arm, breathing heavily and staring at everything with wide, dark blue eyes.

"That little black one almost looked like a shadow! I didn't see it!" Cautious said, somewhat surprised. "Did you see how fast it traveled? Wow..."

Now the two dragonets were sniffing each other, as though confused by the other's presence. Then, Fastwit poked her sibling with a wing, giggling. He looked shocked for a moment, but quickly made a happy little noise and shakily ran in a circle around her, his pitch-black tail flying behind him.

"He's a shadowy traveler," said Determination with a laugh. "Shadowtraveler. Hm..."

Cautious smiled, watching the two hatchlings get to know each other. "A fine name for my fine son," she replied softly, brushing Determination's dark blue wing with her own. "Yes, that will work nicely. Oh," she added, turning to her mate, "and we're definitely keeping the other. There's no way around it."

He chuckled. "Noted."

And with that, Cautious uncautiously thought:

Fastwit and Shadowtraveler.

My perfect dragonets...

What could possibly go wrong?