The Color of Night

Chapter-34 Death and Friends

By the next morning, several dragons had come back to the platforms in curiosity.

It took some time, but eventually Glory was able to explain. The whole night she and Deathbringer had spent it either arguing or planning a cover story to how he had come back to life.

One of their ideas had been to pretend he had been alive the whole time. But they quickly dismissed it knowing that everyone saw how much blood had been spilled. And anyway, no one had ever survived their throat being slit.

Eventually they came up with a mostly reasonable explanation.

Glory found a healing plant that had cured them both after she had placed a petal on his mouth and another one on hers. The plant instantly died, and it had been the only one left. This was partly true, which made it easier to believe. Yet, it also took away the part where a RainWing animus came in and helped them.

Most dragons believed it, although there were still a few that remained suspicious. Glory made sure to talk to each of them individually so that no doubters remained.

In a few weeks, things went back to well...normal.

More normal than Glory would have liked. As her and Deathbringer flew to the newly built royal hut, his remarks kept making her headache worse.

"Hey, my hatching day is the day after tomorrow. Mind if I request a hatching day gift from the queen?" He said with his smug face.

Her headache was like a pounding in her mind. It hurt a lot. There were so many things to get done, and here was Deathbringer talking away. She didn't mean to be harsh, but there was a lot of pressure on her.

Glory's scales turned red, "I do mind in fact. I have lots of things to do that day. Don't forget that it's Shadowclaw's last memorial service. We haven't gone to pay our respects. And it's been two weeks!"

Deathbringer's face fell for a second. He remembered all too well the incident. But his smirk came back on almost immediately.

"We can go. But after that I demand a day with my queen."

Glory faced him with a frown, and in an instant she changed her scales to become invisible.

"Agh!"

The queen chuckled as she watched her bodyguard fly everywhere to try and find her.

"Hey! I heard that!" He exclaimed.

Deathbringer was too fast, and soon Glory found herself trapped in his arms.

"Aww, you look cute when you're mad. Too bad you don't get mad that often," he said sarcastically.

Glory rolled her eyes and huffed.

He just had to be trained as an assassin didn't he? Couldn't he have been the errand guy or something?!

With not much effort she slipped from his grasp and continued to fly on her own. Her scales instantly missed Deathbringer's warmth, but she pushed the feeling away.

Not now. Not when my friends are so close.

Glory had sent another messenger to Jade Mountain to report Darkstalker's death and their current situation.

A RainWing had just come over to her while she was sleeping to report that the Dragonets of Destiny had arrived. Even though they weren't really dragonets anymore.

"I got an idea! Why don't we-" Deathbringer got cut off by Glory.

"Deathbringer," she said with a talon on her forehead, "I have a headache and I don't want to be all grumpy when I greet my friends. So please, make an effort and be quiet."

The queen's bodyguard shut up and put on such a straight face that it kind of scared Glory.

She looked at him in surprise. "Whoa, I've never see you actually shut up when I tell you to. That's a new one. Why now though? This behavior could've been very helpful a long time ago. "

Deathbringer glanced at her but kept flying without a word.

"Deathbringer? I demand an answer."

He let out a sigh and said, "I just don't want your headache to get worse. That's all."

She raised an eye ridge and shifted her wings so that now they were slowly gliding down to the rainforest canopy.

What's wrong with him? He wasn't like this before- Oh.

"Deathbringer, you don't have to feel guilty. Just because I have a headache it doesn't mean I'll die."

He frowned and responded with, "Doesn't matter. Pain is pain. I don't want to hurt you. I already hurt you enough by not staying by your side. So now, I'll be next to you wherever you go and do whatever you want me to do." He added a small smirk for a more powerful effect.

Glory rolled her eyes but kept flying.

Is it going to be like this from now on? I'm not sure if I like it. It's kinda weird, Deathbringer never did anything I told him to, and now he does. This is-it's not him. I want things to go back how they were before. When he still cared for me but wasn't so overprotective. Now he's just going to be a pain on my tail.

The queen turned her head to face his bodyguard, but before she let out a sound she was tackled by a golden scaled dragon while flying midair.

"Whoa there, Sunny!" Glory chuckled as the hybrid's warm arms embraced her in a tight hug.

"I missed you so much Glory! You have no idea how it has been!"

Sunny reluctantly let go of Glory due to the fact that Deathbringer was eyeing her up dangerously.

They hovered above the rainforest as the SandWing princess started rambling.

"When we came back to Jade Mountain it was crazy! Webs couldn't handle them at all! And with no classes the dragonets were going absolutely wild. Moon and Qibli practically interrogated us as soon as we landed. I have no idea how they knew about Darkstalker! They just kept telling us to let them come here and I didn't know what to do. It was I-N-S-A-N-E!"

Glory nodded along but perked her neck around them.

"Where are the others?" She asked.

"Oh," Sunny replied, "I'm the only one that couldn't wait, so they are still in the royal hut. Come on, let's go!"

Glory chuckled at Sunny's enthusiasm. She had missed her friends too, and now she could understand that nothing was more important than her friends.

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I'm so sorry for not posting earlier, but I've been really busy.

I'm in the swim team of my school and practice is until 6:00. So I get home like at 6:45. And then I have to take a shower and do my homework.

*sigh* it's been a long week.

The other thing too, I'm going out of town for Easter. And there might not be WiFi over there so I wanted to at least get this through to you guys.

I promise I'll work extra hard when I get back.

Again, I'm really sorry this wasn't long or anything.

Okie Dokie

Wish me luck. Leaving at 8:00 am.

-Sofi