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Usually, Odile didn’t like visitors. They were a waste of her time when she had more important things to do. They prattled on about useless information or begged for unpaid favors or pleaded for a family member or friend or something to be freed, which never ended well. Some were fine, though, such as her visitor today. Or, that was what Odile had anticipated, at least.

“Odileee”, Lir called, in an odd singsong voice. “You have a friend at the door”.

Odile huffed with a frustrated lash of her tail, swiveling her head around to look at him. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

Lir tossed his head back dramatically, sauntering towards her. “Well if you can’t take a few minutes out of your day to accommodate one important visitor”, Lir sighed, going on and on.

Odile growled to herself. She would like to make Lir stop, but the dragon’s mind was far too tangled and weird than what she preferred to delve into. And maybe there was a small part of her that didn’t want to do to him what she did to Rigel, but she wouldn’t acknowledge that.

“Fine. Who is it?”

Lir rolled his eyes with a little “hm!” and shuffled his wings. “Abaddon”.

Odile’s ears perked up. Finally something to actually do. If Abaddon was there for a task, anyway.

“Well? Fetch her”, Odile said impatiently, to which Lir shrugged, slowly turned and opened the door to leave. In front of the doorway she spotted Rigel, eyes wide as ever. He passed a quick glance to her before turning to follow Lir, and the door shut behind them.

It wasn’t too long before Abaddon entered Odile’s room, the two massive dragons seeming small in Odile’s large, spacious mansion, complete with dull colors and enough room to cause voices to echo. Or accentuate the sound of approaching talons.

Odile turned to face the black dragon, other colors rippling through her scales. Certainly more beautiful than Odile herself, Odile thought. Although it was easy now to surpass her, especially with her scar. She nearly came up to Odile’s height, which was a feat in itself, but she seemed more muscular and built than Odile’s slim, delicate yet sturdy figure. Abaddon was a fighter and a leader. Odile was tied to her history as a dancer.

“Odile, we need to talk”, Abaddon sounded, breaking the semi-silence.

“You seem bothered”, Odile noted, the tip of her tail twitching.

“That’s a light way to put it, I suppose”, Abaddon hissed, looking like any moment she could release the brightly colored flames from her vents, fuming in anger.

Abaddon had been shaken. Now that was a surprise to Odile.

“I’m assuming this has something to do with that HoodWing”, Odile guessed, scratching at her neck, doing her very best to look unbothered.

“Yes. Her”, Abaddon growled. “Look. We can’t continue with this. We just need to leave her be”.

Odile’s gaze narrowed. Or her one good eye, at least. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means what it sounds like. She’s not worth it”.

“You hire me for something and decide it’s suddenly not worth it?” Odile questioned, standing. “That doesn’t make sense to me”.

“It shouldn’t matter. I can pay you more, I just want to call this off. I’m done pursuing Celeste. We made an agreement”.

Was Abaddon..scared? Maybe not quite fearful, but worried certainly. But what about? For who? Odile figured she wouldn’t want to get the answers out of her; perhaps it was something Abaddon didn’t want to talk about.

“I thought you said this HoodWing was dangerous. That no matter what you wanted her dead”.

“Not anymore”.

Odile rapped her talons along the cold floor. “Then I suppose you wouldn’t care if it was purely my business, then”.

Abaddon’s wings twitched. “Don’t do that”, she said in a low voice, squinting at her. “Celeste is more capable than I originally assumed her to be. I respect that, and for that I’ve agreed to leave her and her brother be”.

“You agreed”.

“You’re a part of that agreement, Odile”, Abaddon said in a slightly raised voice. “You’re no exception”.

“If Celeste is as capable as you say, wouldn’t you want her on your side? I could get her for you. She’d be your loyal follower”.

“I don’t want anything to do with that”, Abaddon hissed. “It’d be an artificial vow”.

“She’d believe it with all her heart, I assure you”.

“My decision is final”, Abaddon growled, meeting Odile’s half-gaze. “I don’t want your mind-games involved with this. I suggest you drop it; you don’t understand the situation you're involving yourself in”.

“You are the one who involved me in the first place”, Odile said, a puff of smoke flickering from her nostrils. “Don’t worry, Abaddon. If she asks I will assure her this was all my decision”.

“Odile”, Abaddon snarled, leaning in.

Odile walked past her, a wary gaze flicking behind her every other second. “I’ll send you a letter whenever the ordeal is over with. Trust me, Abaddon, you have nothing to worry about”.

——

It was raining. Hero hated the rain. It was so gloomy and windy and wet. Not to mention it made it hard to fly when Celeste insisted they flew.

So eventually, Celeste let them land, seeing how her scrawny little brother kept getting buffeted and pushed around by the wind. Hero let out a long sigh of relief when they landed underneath a bridge next to a river, its stone protecting them from the relentless raindrops.

Hero shook out his gray wings, water splattering onto the bridge, darkening its color. “Where are we even going?” Hero questioned, huffing as he rested on the ground next to the water.

“Far away from here”, Celeste answered vaguely, stretching. “Hopefully we can catch a ship away from Trithemis. Maybe find someplace peaceful to live, like on the Northern side of Pyrrhia or a nice home on Pantala”.

Hero wilted, recalling the run in with one of Abaddon’s lackeys, and how in an instant Celeste had plunged her fangs into his neck without a second thought. Hero curled his tail in. He shivered.

“Cold?” Celeste questioned, noticing it. She padded over to him and sat next to him, draping her larger wing over him. “Sorry I made us fly in the rain”.

“It’s okay”, Hero mumbled, resting his head on his talons.

Celeste gazed down at him for a few moments before laying her head next to his. “What’s the matter? You look sad”.

“It’s rainy. And cold. And I’m tired of flying everywhere. My wings hurt and I wish we could go back home”.

Celeste sighed. “You know we can’t do that”, she said, gently wiping a raindrop- or tear?- from Hero’s cheek. “We can find somewhere else to live. Just me and you, and we won’t have to be separated again”.

To Celeste’s obvious surprise, Hero buried his face in the grass and started crying, any sound he was making coming out in little choked sobs. “Why are those dragons after us? Can’t they just leave us alone? Why are they so evil?”

“They will”, Celeste said quickly, lifting his chin to prevent him from getting any more grass stains on his face. “Don’t worry, we’re safe now. Trust me”.

Hero gazed up at her with his wide, red eyes. “Did you kill anyone?” he whispered.

Celeste frowned.

The heavy thud of talons sounded on the top of the bridge. Celeste froze and placed her talons around Hero’s mouth, keeping him quiet. She scooted them closer to the wall of the bridge, looking up.

“I know I saw two HoodWings flying this way”, one voice sounded. It was shaky and jittery- like this dragon was kind of crazy and anxious and scared yet confident all at once. It made Hero want to crawl in a corner.

“Maybe you need to get those glasses checked”, said another voice. This one was older, deeper and more worn, yet almost contained the same qualities as the first.

“Be quiet, you two”, a third voice said. This one was low and smooth and scary, and really serious and almost angry. “Keep an eye out”.

Celeste leaned in, keeping her gaze where the voices were. “Follow me. Be very quiet”, she said, her voice barely audible to even Hero.

Hero nodded, and slowly, they stood. They both kept low, creeping close to the grass and stepping lightly. She guided him along the edge of the bridge towards a nearby tree, then a street that was barely visible. The only lights were lanterns that barely pierced the fog.

They approached, and Hero felt his heart lift. They couldn’t possibly see them through the fog now- they could fly off and find a better place to-

Hero yelped as heavy talons crashed into his back, followed by a scream from Celeste and suddenly she was knocked over too- he heard her body hitting the grass.

“Keen eye, Rigel”, the commanding voice said, and he looked up to see a towering SoleiWing; blue with an ugly scar on one eye. She looked like a villain if Hero ever saw one.

The one that held Celeste down was darker than her, with blue around his talons and long twisted horns. The third one was smaller, and a lighter blue that looked like water. He had curved white horns and round glasses. The third one chuckled and Hero identified him to be the one with the shaky voice.

“This wasn’t so hard, was it?” the one pinning Hero down said. “Abaddon was worried over nothing. I don’t know what was so difficult about-“

Before the tall one could finish her sentence, Celeste raked her talons on the underside of the one pinning her down, and he roared in pain, reeling off of her, letting her get up and leap at the tall one, knocking her off of Hero.

Hero scrambled to his feet, taking a moment to breathe, but it didn’t last when the shaky-voice one grabbed him and flew for a moment, only to throw him next to the river. Hero coughed and looked over to see Celeste tangled in a battle with the tall one, both viciously clawing and biting at each other.

Hero lunged to run at them, wanting to help Celeste, but he felt pulled back by his tail, and slipped onto the wet ground. The two dragons laughed above him, and the one with the twisted horns grabbed him by the leg and tossed him into the river. It was shallow enough for Hero to stand in, and he stood again, but not before the shaky-voice dragon leapt over and grabbed Hero’s head, shoving it under the water.

Hero flailed, lashing out blindly with his talons in the desperate attempt to swat his assaulters away, hearing muffled voices above the water as bubbles swam around his head.

“Rigel stop!”

“Hero!”

“Keep her down!”

“Stop it!”

“Leave him alone!”

“Don’t let go!”

Hero felt his lungs straining for air, and he quickly realized his kicks and swipes were futile. The dragon holding him down seemed crazed by the battle; if he could just-

Hero fell limp. He forced himself to hold his breath for a little while longer- enough to convince them. It certainly convinced Celeste, since he heard an anguished scream from the surface. His heart hurt and he wanted to leap up right then to show he was okay, but he had to wait a few moments more.

Eventually he felt the SoleiWing’s talons release him, and the blue shape turned to join the other two. Hero held his position for a second before slowly rising from the water, watching silently. The tall one loomed over Celeste, and the white jewel thing on her forehead started glowing.

Hero’s ears folded back and his brow furrowed as Celeste seemed to freeze up, her eyes widening and her eyes sort of reflecting the glow of the jewel. Hero didn’t know what it was, but that dragon was doing something to her, and he wasn’t about to stand by and let it happen.

With a yell, Hero ran towards and leapt on the tall dragon, causing the glow of the jewel to flicker away.

“Leave my sister alone!” he yelled, raising his talons, only to plunge them into the dragon’s scarred eye.

She roared in pain, rearing onto her hind legs with bright blue flames flaring out from her vents. She flailed, screaming in pain before finally tossing Hero off, and he landed with a ‘huff’ on the grass, the breath being knocked out of him.

Celeste quickly got up and shoved the tall one over, before whipping around and plunging her fangs into the darker one’s leg. He hissed and opened his wings, flying up and away from Celeste. The bright blue one yelped and grabbed the tall one, dragging her off and prompting both of them to fly off, and the three SoleiWings disappeared into the dark, thundering clouds.

Hero panted, looking up at where they left before he felt Celeste’s wing pull him close, hugging him too tight to even move. He glanced back, at the sky, his heart beating wildly in his chest.