Strings of Sin

Chapter 2

"But the others are mean and dumb," Stardom recalled his experiences with this generation of nightwing dragonets.

"If you are smart enough to know that, then maybe you'll be smart enough to fix them one day, maybe even get them out of the way," The Carnagebringer stated plainly. "Now go have fun, and when you come back, I hope you've learned a lesson."

Stardom left his father alone and exited through the dark purple door. He didn't want to look back at Dignity and wondered where he would go now. The nightwing town where the middle class lived would be his only option to find others like him. He left the isolation of his father's sacred lands and went past the mountain of his birthplace. He didn't want to look, but he wouldn't want to ignore his mother, smiling down at him from the mountain's peak. He looked up the rocky slope, and bad memories came flooding back. And he ran away, so his mother's strings didn't try to pull him back.

And then the small town came into his view, and new memories filled his mind. The dragonets were here in this poor town, and all the dumb adults were too. He heard the distant sound of bells and cheers. And then there was that annoying music.

Stardom went down the dirt path that led into the lowly town, and then dragonets, foolish, stupid dragonets, came into his view. He watched two nightwings, his age, throw coins in the humble well. They wished and played around, believing in fairytales still and stupid magic; Idiots they were, and Stardom couldn't understand why his father didn't value him more than these morons. He walked past them and caught sight of medium-sized buildings. Spruce and cobble were used to spice up the outside of these magnificent structures, but Stardom knew that their insides were plain and bare; the Idiot adults who paid for these houses probably wasted all their money to make the exterior pretty, hoping that nobody would come inside to see how poor and stupid they actually were. And then there was that annoying music again.

The smarter, nightwing dragonet sped up his pace and saw a group of nightwing dragonets in front of an adult bar. The little, annoying Idiots were trying to bribe an even stupider, nightwing adult to let them in. The nightwing adult was clearly drunk, and of course, took the money and let the Idiot dragonets in. The dragonets did some weird handshake and went inside, and Stardom sped up even more, embarrassed that he was even associated with this term of four-year-old dragons. And then the annoying sound of music came back.

Stardom turned to look at the dragonets standing on the porch of a house. They were all playing with strange toys, and one was holding a strange cube. The Idiot, holding the cube, was trying to impress their friends by flipping the sides all the same color, but of course, he was only using a cheap trick to look smart because nobody Stardom's age was smart. And then the annoying music was right next to Stardom.

The sound of high-pitched shrieking filled the air as nightwing dragonets played their woodwind flutes; Stardom turned behind and saw them following him. They were all into the same, stupid, popular song that wasn't even good. And the Idiots on the porch, with their stupid toys, began to do the stupid, popular dance that all dragonets did. They waved their claws like Idiots, and Stardom couldn't take it anymore. They were all the same to him and all stupid, and he... ran away.

Stardom ran from this stupid generation of nightwing dragonets and hated them all. He hated the stupid adults who thought that he was dumb just like them, and he hated his father for making him spend time with the class beneath him: these dragonets were below him, they didn't know anything, they were nothing like him; he could never make a friend with any of them because of their stupid imaginations and hopes and dreams, their stupid stunts, breaking the law, and their stupid toys and dances... and that stupid music!

The smarter, nightwing dragonet found his way to the center of the poor town, and that is where he was cornered by the Idiots playing their woodwind flutes. They seemed to come out of everywhere as they surrounded him; it's almost like they knew something was up with Stardom. The little playground behind Stardom seemed to be his only escape, and he climbed the wooden towers. And then an Idiot, only a little older than him, peeked his head out from the roof of the wooden tower. The others behind Stardom stopped.