Rust was supposed to be a decoration.
Brought to Burn as an egg a mere few minutes before he was supposed to hatch, he was intended as a present. Killing him the moment he came out of the egg was the original plan. Several guards waited on the sidelines, guarding Burn as both she and Smolder watched the egg with the gifter.
Cracks forming across the red and yellow egg made everyone hyper-focus on it. A small explosion of eggshell followed soon after the cracks formed. Out stepped a small dragonet who had no clue of what he was.
Most of him was sandy yellow, marking out part of his SandWing heritage despite the wingspan and body build that named him as part SkyWing. More SkyWing showed in the form of red and orange stripes along his back and wings. The freckle-like scales that were normally brown for SandWings were bright copper instead, that SandWing detail replacing the frill. A pale red barb was also there, his rust-colored eyes staring at it curiously before they swept across the rest of the room.
"A perfectly odd specimen, as you can see!" said the SandWing who had gifted the egg, an edge of relief in his voice.
Burn stayed silent, studying the hybrid dragonet with dark eyes. When rust met obsidian, something in her eyes changed. "Lead some of my soldiers to where you found this egg. They will capture anyone who tries to return for the egg," said Burn, her statement surprising everyone but they were wise enough to stay silent.
"Escort him out. Everyone else, leave," said Burn, leveling any hesitation with a sweep of her gaze. Dragons scrambled to follow her orders, the dragonet watching carefully but not moving to join them. Her authoritative gaze didn't need words accompanying it to tell him to stay.
"Urr?" he said, staring at Burn who stepped in front of him when everyone was finally gone.
"I'll call you Rust. You're staying with me, got it?" said Burn, ordering the dragonet around like he was a soldier. It took a moment of silent blinking before he was nodding in agreement. "Good, follow me."
Tripping over his own talons for a moment, Rust obediently did as told. They walked through the stronghold, Burn's glare silencing any questions from passing guards. It took a while with a completely newborn dragonet forced to try to keep pace with a grown giant of a dragon but they got to their destination with some time.
Two guards stood by the door, allowing entry to Burn without a second thought. In the room, various odd things took precedent to observe. At the wall, a sleeping ledge became Burn's next destination.
"Come on," said Burn, laying down on the ledge while Rust gave her a confused look. An impatient tap of her talons against the stone gave him the message. Dropping into a crouch, he jumped up and barely scrambled onto the ledge.
Satisfied, she laid her wing over him to make sure he wouldn't run off. "Rest, tomorrow will be busy," she said, still staring at the dragonet.
He took that opportunity to test something. "Ru... Roost," said Rust, pointing at himself.
"Rust," Burn corrected, watching as Rust tried again and got it right. He pointed at her, asking a silent question that she understood. "Burn."
"Burn," he parroted, nodding to himself when she gave him a nod to confirm it. "Rest," said Rust, curling up a little and hiding his nose under one of his wings. Nodding again, Burn watched him as his breathing began to slow. One of her claws lightly traced designs into his shoulder, his breath slowing down at a faster rate until he was peacefully sleeping with an admirer still inspecting his scales.
Waking up to a lack of scales sliding over his, Rust looked towards the door where some commotion was. Burn stepped in a moment later, a few live lizards hanging from her talons. Motioning for him to come closer, Burn sat down and set one of the lizards down.
He watched the pinned flailing reptile curiously, jumping off of the ledge less than graciously to get closer. "I wanna see something," said Burn, talking as if Rust could completely understand her. "Copy me," she said, getting a slow blink in return.
She released the lizard, letting it run for a couple of seconds before skewering it. Setting that aside, she placed another lizard on the ground but kept it pinned. A meaningful look towards Rust made him tense in preparation to pounce. Letting it go, she watched as he scampered after it. It took less time than expected to have the dragonet return with a slightly roughed up corpse.
Putting that one with her kill, she pinned another lizard to the ground. Burn kept it pinned instead of releasing it, opening her jaws to barbeque it alive. With that one also placed with the others, she pinned another lizard to the ground. Without prompting this time, Rust tried to copy her. A few puffs of smoke and sneezed sparks later, a lizard that was only ash at this point was left.
"Here," said Burn, nudging one of the lizards towards him. Something that could almost be called fondness appeared in her eyes as she watched him viciously gnaw on the food. It disappeared as quickly as it came, a battle-hardened and cruel fighter for the throne coming back to her senses.
"You'll be placed into rigorous training as soon as possible. Your potential will be realized," said Burn, more of talking to herself than the dragonet who was preoccupied with his food. "No one will underestimate you. Those who do will regret it."
Blissfully ignorant of the future that Burn planned for him, Rust continued munching away without a care in the world.
{(:)}
Rigorous training consisted of running, attempting to fly, strength exercises, combat drills, trying to teach him to talk, and more. Despite the workload for a dragonet, Rust took to it like a SkyWing to the air. Pleasantly surprising Burn over and over again, he took it as a challenge to manage to do it again and again.
Today, instead of surprising only Burn, Rust got to surprise a small group of soldiers who Burn had called to train. Smolder also watched from the sidelines, his scavenger spectating from his shoulder. Although Rust and Smolder barely interacted, the interest from Burn raised some in her brother.
"Claws up, fire ready, fight!" called one of the soldiers from the side. Once given the order, the soldier in the makeshift ring swiped at Rust. Easily dodging, Rust ended the round in a single move.
Darting around his outstretched talon and under him, Rust whacked the soldier's chest with his barb and darted away. The soldier froze, the rest of his comrades doing the same. If Rust had messed up, SandWing poison would've gone directly into the dragon's heart.
"Rust is the winner! Next fighter!" announced the same dragon, getting the frozen dragon to slink out of the ring and another soldier to come in. "Claws up, fire ready, fight!"
More cautious than her comrade, she didn't immediately go for a strike. Taking the initiative, Rust faked one before trying to take a nip at her. She dodged both of those attempts, swiping at him in return. Dodging, he moved to the side as if he was going to repeat the previous tactic. Assuming so as well, she jumped away and got lower to the ground.
The bait taken, he used the opportunity to jump onto her back. Needle-like claws dug into her shoulders, grounding him as he hovered his tail over a vital part of her. Frozen, she could only watch from the corner of her eye as a barb threatened her jugular.
"Rust wins! Next fighter!"
"Another win! Next fighter!"
"Once again, Rust wins! Next fighter!"
This continued for a while, each soldier trying to not get caught by the same thing to only take the bait for a new trap. Faking them out with a mischievous grin on his face, Rust mainly used his barb to end the fight. His claws and jaws were too tiny to do much damage, although occasionally he would find something he could threaten. Let's just say that claws hovering over one's eyes wasn't a nice sight.
During all of this, Burn had a smirk on her face. A glance at Smolder showed him to be unreadable, his scavenger watching it all with open curiosity. None of that changed after every match so Rust kept fighting as per usual.
Until someone got too aggressive. Until Rust panicked for no conceivable reason. Until his barb went through with the threat.
Everyone stared in open horror as a pale red barb slashed through sandy scales. The owner of those scales gargled her protest, falling over as blood poured from her throat. Red spilled across the sand, Rust staring at it and his darkened barb in a stunned stupor. Some of the soldiers tried to move forward to take their comrade to the healers but it was too late. Silent in death yet loud in her final position, the soldier laid on her side with an open maw of gurgled screams.
"Deal with it," Burn hissed, her smirk falling into a scowl. She was moving as she spoke, corralling a dazed Rust out of the room and towards the courtyard. Smolder and his scavenger watched from the sidelines, a part of the group of many soldiers who hadn't quite processed it yet.
They stepped out into the sun, ignoring the few soldiers around in favor of moving towards Queen Oasis' monument. Sitting in front of it, Burn brushed her wings with his to try to get him to respond. When that failed, she squeezed his shoulder lightly with a talon and traced small patterns on it.
Shuddering with the force of his sigh, Rust leaned into Burn's touch. "I don't--" he croaked, breaking off as another shudder jumbled his words.
"I know," said Burn, her voice quiet against the soldiers who decided to eavesdrop. "I know."
"I didn't mean to," Rust said, his voice breathy and broken. "I didn't mean to."
"I know. It's okay," she said with an extra nudge of her wing.
"It's not," he said, his protest voiced weakly but the proclamation was no less strong.
"Death and killing happen. They happen and we grow stronger from it," she said while staring at Oasis' grave.
If one was foolish enough to look closely, they could almost see the pure grief in her eyes.
"What if I don't want to be stronger?" he said, curling his talons at the thought of more killing. The thought of rust mixing with blood. "What if I want everything to stay as it is? No death, no killing."
"Change will happen whether we like it or not. We have to be strong enough to keep up," she said before dropping her voice lower, keeping her words for only Rust to hear. "I want you to be strong enough to stay at my side."
"Why me?" he asked, also quieting his voice. They both knew the answer to that question. They both knew what Rust's hybrid status did for him within Burn's realm. They both knew what he was to her.
Nonetheless, he didn't need to hear that right now. "Because I know you can be. Because I want you to be," she said, spinning more truths from the obvious answer. "Because you're mine."
Rust didn't shudder at that, he didn't shun the final answer. He knew that he was hers, he knew that he was lucky to be alive and not stuffed like everything in Burn's room and tower. Somehow, that made him feel safe. Not the best response to an answer that implied that he had no freedom but he was born with that answer plastered across everything.
She's my guardian. My mother never knew me and never will but my guardian and protector does. I'm hers to guard and she's mine to protect.
Pressing his nose to her chest with another shuddering inhale, Rust took solace in the warmth that radiated from her. Although she flinched a little from the sudden contact, she let it happen with another squeeze around his shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, Burn's tracing moving to cover more of his side.
I promise you this, Burn. I'll get stronger to stay by your side. I'll be yours until the end.
Loyalty silently sworn, Burn remained unaware of the promises that Rust had created and branded on his mind.