Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 44

Muderbasket

Deathbringer followed Glory in a mad rush as they left the island behind them and fled west. It was hard to think beneath the pain of his broken arm, but he thought he saw Glory shift their direction northward, which made sense, the dropoff place for the greentop flowers was a city closer to the sand kingdom.

Though his pain-filled mind couldn't understand why they didn't just go to base 4, which was far far closer.

He didn't argue though, as he followed Glory's green tail, green meant fear, right? If it was green then that meant he wasn't the only one terrified out of his mind. He'd wondered if he would ever feel true terror again, and here it was, as crisp and horrible as a dragonbite viper.

Deathbringer decided that he didn't like that comparison.

They reached land, and Glory led them downward as she searched for some type of shelter, Deathbringer was fine with plopping onto the sandy shore immediately, sighing in relief at the rest. Each wingbeat had sent a flare through his arm, and he wasn't sure if he would want to keep flying.

Glory gave him a glance filled with pity, which made Deathbringer sort of mad because he didn't want to feel pitied.

"So, is Echo here?"

Deathbringer shrugged, wincing as he moved his shoulder and resolving to not do that. "you won't know unless he takes off the ring."

Glory nodded slowly, "Echo! It's safe now, take off the ring!!!"

A long moment passed in silence as Glory tried to figure out where he was. And then suddenly he was there. It wasn't like rainwing camouflage, where the dragon would slowly melt out of their surroundings, he was simply not there one moment and then suddenly the space to Deathbringer's left was occupied. Almost as if Echo had been suddenly transported from an alternate dimension.

That's an interesting way to think about it actually... it did feel like you were in another place entirely when you wore the ring, so perhaps that's what the enchantment was, being able to slip into another reality.

It was both an intriguing and disturbing thought, and it was the thing that finally pulled Deathbringer out of his misery. Time to get up probably.

Glory and Echo were chatting about something that seemed pretty important, so he lifted his head, feeling very dead inside, trying to catch the tail end of their conversation.

"-on with the previous plan then."

Echo nodded, "alright, I'll make sure to let her know..." he glanced over at Deathbringer, "are you sure he can make it?"

Glory shrugged, which only reminded Deathbringer that he couldn't do that anymore, "either he makes it or he doesn't, we'll see it as him proving himself. Just don't tell Tsunami the details, I want to explain it myself."

"Alright..." Echo sounded a bit hesitant about it, but he looked to the southwest, "I guess I'm off then?"

"Yeah, I'll see you around, just don't get lost on the way, we need to get that plant back to base before it dies." Glory explained.

"Yeah, the ring is just... really weird. It's almost as if I don't even exist." Echo frowned. "I'll let Foam have a look at it I guess."

Glory nodded and Echo left, heading in the direction of base four. At that moment, Deathbringer really wished he'd been paying attention to their plans in the first place. This was most certainly not what he remembered them planning.

Where in the three moons was Glory taking him?

She didn't move onward, only sat down in front of him with a thoughtful look, the kind that Deathbringer knew was part of her true self. He felt happy at that moment, that she trusted him enough to let that much through. "On a scale of perfectly fine to excruciating, how do you rate your pain?"

Deathbringer frowned, "somewhere around flaming death pits and dragonbite vipers."

Glory nodded shrewdly, "I'm not going to pretend to be a doctor, but we do need to know if it's broken or just... wonky."

Deathbringer sighed, "alright, and how do you expect to find that out?"

Glory stood up and paced over to him, looking at the arm in question with a critical eye. "I have no idea, but on the bright side, you still have two back legs and another arm, so I'm sure you can live a normal life even if I do screw this up."

"Might as well add my tail and wings to that list..."

Glory grinned, "well at least you didn't destroy all of your limbs."

Deathbringer grumbled and held out the offending limb, it hurt to move it, and it was still stuck at an unnatural angle. Eventually he got it pointing what should have been forward, but the angle the joint had bent at was making it more like straight down.

Glory examined it, "you know, it might just be wonky."

Deathbringer growled with pain as she grabbed the bottom half of his arm with both her talons, bracing herself against his side for leverage. She didn't warn him, and generally, it was better that way, he probably would have called it quits shortly before because of how worried he was about the coming pain.

And it did come. His pain meter flew up from Dragonbite vipers straight to the absolute nether reaches of the underworld in less than a second.

---

Morning Glory

Glory heard the loud pop as the joint moved back into place and Deathbringer fainted at the same time. She looked at him with wide eyes as she looked over his arm, yeah, it was broken too. Broken and dislocated. That took a special type of skill to do, and three moons was Deathbringer skilled.

She watched him for a good minute before he began to stir, blinking and wincing and gasping for breath all at once.

Perhaps Glory should be a doctor.

Deathbringer got himself under control and tried moving his arm, which proved to be a mistake, "I'm pretty sure it's also broken, as well as wonky. You sure are skilled in the art of dying in the most dramatic way possible."

Deathbringer sent her a shocked look, "no way! I am going out with a bang, this is nothing, I tell you. Now just for that, I'll have to live and find a more impressive way to die."

Glory shook her head, "alright, well can you fly? We sort of have a schedule to keep."

"I'm sorry that my dying is so inconvenient."

"And I'm sorry that my living is so inconvenient."

Deathbringer gasped and Glory grinned, taking off into the sky as he followed behind. "How dare you use my words against me! You know, I poured my heart and soul into that sentence."

"Yes, so did I, perhaps we're more in sync than we realize."

They flew west, toward possibility. Glory wasn't sure what to do with this strange assassin, but he was too open, too easy to talk to. Almost as if they were two souls destined to meet.

She wasn't sure what to do with him after bringing him to a doctor, but she knew that she did have to send a messenger to Aurora about the surprisingly decent stealth skills of the CaveWings. As their queen, she did need to know how to best utilize their abilities. 

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Glory and Deathbringer get to awkwardly banter at each other for another hour with every vote :D