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The back of his neck itches.
It’s been itching for the past month so this is no surprise to Peacemaker, but the sensation hasn’t gotten any less annoying with repetition.
Moon said that it was just his adult spines coming in and that every dragon goes through something similar at his age, but Peacemaker could swear that his own growing pains were lasting far longer than any of his friends’ had. The friends that grew proper spines at least. Louquet and all the other Rainwing dragonets just kept the stubby little ones they were born with.
Not like Dutiful, Verity, and Starfire. After two weeks of constant distracting irritation all three of the Nightwing dragonets managed to get their adult spines fully grown. Gleaming, sharp, twice their old size and blessedly stationary.
Which is why, being half Rainwing himself, Peacemaker is doubly annoyed that his own are taking so long and growing so large and numerous. Every tree Peacemaker had passed this last week suffered the same unfortunate fate of being used as his own personal scratching post. A trail of scraped off bark had littered Peacemaker’s wake in the hybrid’s desperate bid to gain just a moment’s relief.
His home is faring even worse with nearly every corner of the house bearing scratch marks and gouges. Peacemaker feels a little bad about it but Hope doesn’t seem to hold it against him. When she catches him all but destroying the doorframe to his bedroom Hope simply waves off his guilty expression, her eyes glowing with a strange nostalgia that she alway seems to don at the weirdest of times.
‘Yelling at you about tearing up the house isn’t going to help anybody, I know better than to expect you to stop until your ruff’s fully grown. Being in this insufferably hot and humid Rainforest can’t be helping either.’ Hope reassures as she digs her claws delightfully deep into the base of his neck. Peacemaker goes all but limp at the motion and completely forgets to ask what she meant by calling his spines a ruff.
X
The veritable forest of spikes along his neck brings Peacemaker a few more stares and furtive whispers than usual but the sheer relief he feels at having them fully grown outweighs any strange looks they might bring. Besides, he’s the first Rainwing-Nightwing hybrid in centuries, stares are hardly something Peacemaker’s unfamiliar with.
X
When Peacemaker sees an Icewing for the first time the sparkling white dragon is walking alongside Moon with a closeness that betrays their familiarity. The chilled nonchalance with which he struts is completely at odds with the death-glares he draws from every Nightwing he passes by.
Unlike his tribemates, however, it isn’t anger but shock that draws Peacemaker’s stare, having spotted the snow coloured mane of spines so eerily similar to his own. After all those months, Peacemaker finally solves the riddle of why Hope had called his spines a ruff.
X
Kinkajou’s face drops the first time he ever refuses a strawberry from her. One would have thought Peacemaker had slapped her by how devastated the Rainwing looked. Peacemaker doesn’t really see what the big deal was, he just hadn’t been in the mood.
Don’t get him wrong, Peacemaker still likes them plenty. Strawberries are small, juicy explosions of tastiness, what’s not to love right? But it got a little annoying when it seemed like it was the only thing Kinkajou ever expected him to eat. Peacemaker wasn’t a fanatically picky two year old anymore, for all that he liked fruit he still enjoyed a fresh wolf haunch every now and then.
Like usual, Kinkajou had burst out of nowhere without any warning, squawking louder than a cockatoo with an armful of berries she was so certain Peacemaker would all but drool over. Upon hearing what felt like the hundredth well meaning, albeit slightly demeaning, spiel about how, ‘a sweet little dragonet deserves some of the sweetest fruits in the rainforest’ however, Peacemaker couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes and cutting off her saccharin ramble with a brisk, ‘No thanks’.
And sure, maybe the polite thing to do would’ve been to feign a little bit of interest after Kinkajou had gone out of her way just to get him something she thought he’d enjoy but Peacemaker really didn’t think she’d be this disappointed. Kinkajou immediately starts hovering over him worriedly, asking if he was feeling alright, laying a talon on his forehead to check his temperature and acting completely bizarre for what a simple refusal should have provoked.
Gently pushing Kinkajou away, Peacemaker tilts his head as he regards her with exasperated confusion before proclaiming, ‘Moons Kinkajou what’s with you, it's just a strawberry!? If you’re so worried you can put them on the table and I’ll have some later.’
Upon hearing Peacemaker’s light-hearted rebuke, Kinkajou stops and, in a rare show of consideration for the excitable Rainwing, actually listens to him for once instead of bowling forward with the latest thought that crossed her mind. A lime-green splotch of discomfort tries to entrench itself on her wings before Kinkajou swiftly banishes it out in favour of her usual bubbly yellows.
‘Ah right sorry, sorry. I guess you’re just growing up is all. I forgot that you can’t stay the cutest hatchling in Pyrrhia forever huh.’ Kinkajou explains, hiding most of her dejection behind a teasing pinch of Peacemaker’s cheek that he swiftly smacks away with a claw.
‘I think it would have driven mother crazy had I requested strawberries for every meal like I used to, so no.” Peacemaker confirms with a wry grin before continuing invitingly upon seeing that Kinkajou’s frill remained scrunched up tight in discomfort. ‘Buuuut, if you come back in a couple of days maybe we can turn these into a pie? It’s been a while since I baked and even longer since you’ve helped.’
At his words, Kinkajou finally relaxes completely, any lingering unease being quickly traded out for her trademark excitement at the prospect of a fun friend filled activity to look forward to.
X
The pie ends up being as delicious as always and having Kinkajou around to natter his ears off about all the mis-adventures she’d gotten up to that week makes the time it takes to prepare fly by. At his uncharacteristically small slice though, Peacemaker can’t help but clock the flash of concern that momentarily crawls its way onto the Rainwing’s expression. Kinkajou, as annoying as she can sometimes be, is one of his oldest friends but just like before, when Peacemaker tries to ask her about it she just brushes him off. So Peacemaker lets it go as best he can. After all, what could truly be that worrying about strawberries and pastry, right?
But something about that look, of the fear that entered her eyes over something as mundane as pie, lingers in the back of his mind like a splinter long after she leaves.
And it makes Peacemaker’s scales burn.
X
The muffled sound of half-choked sobs freezes Peacemaker in his tracks just as he enters the living room.
Hope doesn’t cry. Peacemaker’s mother is indomitable, implacable, competent, composed and every other description of put-together. Yet in the earliest hours of the morning just before the claws of dawn have hooked their light into the sky, Peacemaker sees Hope utterly undone. Hope’s wings had folded around her like an adamantine wall to shield her from the world and the shoulders Peacemaker thought could uphold the entire world shake with untold grief.
Thoughts of getting up for water forgotten, Peacemaker rushes to his mother’s side blathering whatever nonsense words of consolation he can come up with. Instead of helping, like Hope’s own platitudes would so often achieve when she offers them to Peacemaker, Hope recoils at the sight of him, her face drawing up in guilt and horror.
The hurt he feels at her rejection must show in his eyes because Hope immediately buries Peacemaker in a hug a moment later with a stream of whispered, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh, my beloved disaster I’m so, so sorry’. The embrace soothes over the pain Hope’s stricken expression had briefly lanced through his heart and Peacemaker grips her tight in return. It doesn’t matter what Hope is mistakenly apologising to him for or that she’s calling him a ‘disaster' for whatever reason. What matters is that Hope needs this hug right now and Peacemaker will always, always, always be there to give one to her.
Just like she’s always been there for him.
Enveloped in the darkness of his mother’s wings, Peacemaker isn’t able to spot the small hourglass sitting on the kitchen bench, as innocent and innocuous as a bloodied knife.
X
When Peacemaker sees the Dreamvisitor he finally understands what the old professors meant when they talked about draconic ‘treasure instincts’.
His year group is on a tour of the royal pavilion to discuss the current court and all the vital functions they serve to keep the tribe running smoothly. It had been a terribly boring trip so far, with their teacher droning on and on about history and the responsibility a ruler has to their people. Why anybody would willingly volunteer to spend their life in court honor-bound into solving every little problem their subjects might have is beyond him. Peacemaker would much rather have skipped out on today's lesson entirely to mess around in the garden back home if he didn’t think Hope would have tanned his hide for missing class. So he had plodded along with the rest of his fellow dragonets, fully distracted by the dragonfly that had landed on a nearby flower until the words royal treasury caught his attention.
In truth most of the ‘royal artifacts’ hadn’t impressed Peacemaker all that much. From ceremonial Rainwing staffs to ancient Nightwing stone tablets speculated to be some of the oldest documented use of written draconic; as the list went on Peacemaker had felt his eyes begin to glaze. Oh sure they were old and symbolically they held a lot of meaning to the conjoined tribe but they weren’t what most dragons would traditionally consider valuable. The Rainwings had never been a tribe that cared for flashy jewelry and most of the really good stuff the Nightwings used to have apparently got blown up by the volcano all those years ago.
That is until their guide revealed a star-shaped sapphire that gleamed with untold power. Its edges were carved with an unnatural precision and every facet was cut with such smooth perfection that Peacemaker just knows that it had to have been made with magic. The guide calls it a Dreamvisitor, one of the few animus artifacts left within the world and Peacemaker has to exert all the self control he possesses to not snatch it for himself. Deep within his bones, something tells Peacemaker that he needs to have it. That it deserves to rest in his talons alone. But no matter how stunning the Dreamvisitor looks, Peacemaker is no thief and once the sapphire is safely locked away again he forces attention to turn from it.
Eventually the class moves on and as they’re flying through the canopy back to the Nightwing village, Peacemaker wonders what on Pyrrhia came over him.
X
After seeing the Icewing with Moon, Peacemaker comes home all but exploding with a head full of questions for Hope about who exactly his father was.
However when he trots through the door Peacemaker sees Hope caught in yet another bout of grief although this time he spots her claws clutching desperately at a strange hourglass he’s never seen before. And just like with the Dreamvisitor from the royal treasury, he feels that pull to possess something his subconscious claims has long belonged to him.
X
Peacemaker is bruised, bleeding, and lightly burned but the embers of satisfaction that glow in his chest make every ache and pain worth it. Although it's slightly harder to hold onto the warmth of victory with the disappointed look Moon is giving him.
A look, Peacemaker might add, that is completely unjustified. It was Swiftclaw that had started it.
Peacemaker knows what Moon and Kinkajou and Qibli and Turtle and all the other well meaning adults would say; that you should never turn to violence unless it's your last resort. That ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’. Yada, yada, yada. But if Peacemaker’s being honest with himself, he’s pretty sure he’s earned himself at least one itty bitty little fight for all that he’s been patient and forgiving in his life.
It's easy for all those other dragon’s to preach peace and forgiveness when they’re all full blooded member’s of their tribes. When they have camouflage and fire and frost-breath and acid and tail-venom and the unwavering knowledge that they have a tribe that they’ll always belong to. But Peacemaker doesn’t have that luxury. Sure he has his kickass mom and a bunch of good friends but every week it seems like one dragonet or another will sling some snide comment that Peacemaker has to have the self-control to shrug off. When they throw insult after insult about the hybrid mongrel that doesn’t belong anywhere and lacks every special tribal trait to prove it, there’s only so many times Peacemaker can turn the other cheek.
So when Swiftclaw dived into him mid-flight and sent Peacemaker careening to the ground to the uproarious laughter of his friends yet again, Peacemaker had finally had enough. After all, if Peacemaker didn't have the quick reflexes that his mother had drilled into him and landed wrong he could have broken a wing. So, after scrambling up to his talons, mud-splattered and burning with humiliation, Peacemaker had lunged. Swiftclaw obviously hadn’t been expecting the meek and mild hybrid to start a fight and was caught completely off guard. While this allowed Peacemaker to initially gain the upper talon, Swiftclaw was still a dragonet with all the teeth, claws and fire awarded to one and refused to go down quickly. The two seemed evenly matched at first trading swipes and bites along with whatever plumes of fire Swiftclaw could gain the breath to exhale to get back on even ground. But, for all that lacking fire put Peacemaker at a painful disadvantage their fight was a grappling brawl not an elegant duel. And in a brawl what really settled a match was weight, something Peacemaker had inherited from Hope in spades.
By the time a full grown dragon had scattered the surrounding flock of onlooking dragonets and managed to pull the yowling fighters apart, Swiftclaw could barely stagger to his talons; dazed from when Peacemaker had repeatedly slammed his stupid skull into the dirt. Peacemaker had bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile, his own body balanced and rearing to continue their fight, and felt a curl of pleasure when he saw Swiftclaw flinch.
Moon of course, mind-reader that she is, presumably picks up on all of this from him without having to say a word and purses her lips as she sternly instructs him, ‘You will offer Swiftclaw a sincere apology for your behaviour tomorrow.’
‘Maybe when Swiftclaw stops calling me a good-for nothing half-breed I’ll think about it.’ Peacemaker responds with a surliness he would usually keep contained were it not for the unfairness welling up within him at Moon’s complete refusal to even consider taking his side.
Moon was practically his sister, she should know that something like this was a long time coming from how often he’d complained to her about how Swiftclaw and those like the dragonet tended to pick on him. It’s not like he wanted to get into a fight but if Peacemaker hadn’t put his talon down today the derision from dragons like Swiftclaw would only get worse. Sure he got out relatively unharmed this time but what if he hadn’t? What if the next time Swiftclaw’s friends decided to join in too. Peacemaker might be licking a few wounds now but at least it sent the message that he wasn’t some helpless victim that wouldn’t bite back.
His name might be Peacemaker, but so often peace was only brought about by those that had the strength to make sure it stuck.
Moon looks down on the curled up spikey ball of defensive aggression and although the worry doesn’t leave her eyes she does press a cool cloth into his side to ease the burn there.
‘Why didn’t you get an adult? You know we would’ve stepped in if you let someone know.’ Moon admonishes more gently this time her sympathy still couched in the chains of disapproval.
‘Yeah because I’m sure the fiftieth time Swiftclaw gets told off after shoving my face into the mud will be the time that he finally listens.’ Peacemaker shoots back sarcastically but already he can feel his temper beginning to settle now that Moon isn’t scolding him so harshly.
And to that Moon gives him a look of such consternation that tells him she can’t find a way to dispute him but in spite of all of his justifications she still can’t bring herself to agree with him either. Eventually Moon just gives up entirely and settles on a lost sounding sigh.
‘I just don’t like the thought of this becoming a habit. You’ve always been such a kind-hearted dragon so seeing something like this really worries me.’ Moon admits, her voice filled with a sincere concern that tugs on Peacemaker’s heartstrings so much more effectively than harsh reprimands ever could. With a feather light hug of her wing Moon puts the final nail in the coffin of Peacemaker’s resistance with a whispered plea. ‘I just hate seeing you hurt Peacemaker. Please don’t do something like this again.’
Peacemaker loves Moon, he loves all his friends and family. The thought of causing anyone he loves to worry makes him feel sick to his stomach. Maybe Moon is right. Maybe there was another way to have solved what happened with Swiftclaw that didn’t involve trying to punch his teeth in. Unable to meet her eyes for fear of the guilt that’d bloom in him should he spot the worry residing there, Peacemaker promises, ‘I’ll try.’
But in spite of the reassuring squeeze that Moon gives him at his declaration, Peacemaker can’t stop the thought that follows. After all, from what he learnt today I don’t think I’ll have to.
X
When Peacemaker gets home Hope doesn’t say anything about the fight he got into. Not as she checks his wounds and tightens up the stitches. Not as she applies an old family poultice to his burns or ties off his bandages. Peacemaker almost wishes that she’d just yell at him to get rid of this stifling silence they’re stuck in.
Instead, once all her medical supplies are packed away, Hope simply pins him with a stoney stare that Peacemaker could never lie to and asks him, ‘Did he deserve it.’
Peacemaker’s head bows to the floor as his mind flits to all the answers he could give her. Does he try to explain his side of the story? He feels like he was justified but after all the forlorn looks Moon had given him this afternoon, Peacemaker doesn’t really know if that’s the answer Hope is looking for. And surely Moon had already told Hope all the facts of what had happened, right? Did she want to know that he had learnt his lesson and that he would never ever attack anyone unless his life was at stake? No, that doesn’t feel like it either. Hope had never been subtle in teaching Peacemaker how he should act and what she thought he should know, she would have just asked him upfront if that was the case.
Ultimately Peacemaker takes the question at face value, meets Hope’s stare head on and answers her as plainly as she had questioned him, ‘Yes.’
Upon seeing the honest, resolute conviction in her son’s eyes Hope finally cracks a slight smile, ‘Good. For all that I admire Moon, I know that words won’t always work in every situation.’
Pausing for a moment, Hope lowers her stance to meet Peacemaker’s gaze head on and let him see the barely restrained, protective anger she had kept so tightly leashed. ‘If the only way for my dragonet to protect himself from getting hurt is to teach some uppity little brat a lesson, by all the moons I refuse to condemn him for that.’
All the tension in the air melts away and Peacemaker preens under the glow of his mother’s absolution, the knot of guilt that had been planted by Moon’s earlier disapproval already beginning to unwind. Before Peacemaker can start to feel too self-righteous however, Hope grabs him gently and lightly knuckles the top of his head. Peacemaker squawks and squirms at the playful manhandling until Hope lets him go; but not before she commands in a mock-growl, ‘But don’t let that power get to your head, little one. If you ever step out of line and use that strength to hurt someone for no good reason, you’ll have much more to fear than Moon’s soft rebukes from me.’
X
Shaking off his interest in the mysterious hourglass gripped in Hope’s talons, Peacemaker clears his throat to grab her attention. Just like the last time he stumbled onto her like this, guilt burns its way onto Hope’s face when she notices her son before she swiftly slips the hourglass into her tail and out of sight. Filing away that oddity as a mystery for another day, Peacemaker goes to speak before they’re interrupted by the very Icewing that brought into question who exactly his father was.
‘Foeslayer, open up!’ a strained shout echoes into the quiet evening before a thundering series of knocks ring out from the front door.
The Icewing from earlier bursts through the door. His eyes spin with rage and betrayal even as Moon dogs his heels begging him to calm down and, ‘For once in your life just sit down and talk with me, Winter!’
The Icewing, ‘Winter’ Peacemaker supposes, is incensed however and refuses to listen, his tail lashing aggressively as his eyes furiously search through Peacemaker’s home until they land on the hybrid dragonet. Silence falls on the room like a funeral shroud.
A mania tinted laugh escapes from the Icewing before it’s choked back into submission. Words slip out in a forbidden whisper before he can even think to keep them un-uttered.
“Merciful Ice dragon, it really is Hailstorm and Pyrite all over again. You turned the Nightmare of my people into a frost-fallen dragonet.”
Anger, fear, and horror rip across the Icewing’s face like a snowstorm before an expression of betrayal colder than the northernmost peak of the Ice Queendom freezes onto his face. Without another word the Icewing turns and walks out the door, seemingly uncaring of the chaos left in his wake.
Moon’s expression looks infinitely conflicted as she turns between Hope and the door before sending Hope an apocalyptically apologetic glance and tearing off outside in pursuit of the Icewing.
In the dust of the stranger’s words, unease bubbles up inside him as all the odd little discrepancies of the last few months begin to piece together in his mind. Hardening his confusion into resolve, Peacemaker spears his mother with his best imitation of her exacting stare. ‘Who is Foeslayer… and why did that Icewing call me the Nightmare of his people?’
For the first time in his life, Peacemaker sees Hope look completely and utterly afraid and, for a moment, he almost wonders if she might run to avoid answering his questions. But only for a moment. Seconds later, Hope’s eyes close with steely resignation as she takes a deep breath and opens her mouth to speak.
X
Words had flowed from Hope as rapid and destructive as a floodgate breaking after centuries of pressure. They told the tragedy fate had woven of her first family, the thread of magic that had tied it all together and the silver lining of Peacemaker’s existence that she had salvaged from the ruins. A consolation prize from the universe after a lifetime of bad luck. With a whirlwind of thoughts and tears streaming down his face, Peacemaker had fled from the impostor wearing his mother's scales. It wasn’t true, it couldn't be true! Peacemaker is a Rainwing-Nightwing hybrid, Hope is his mother and dragons can’t be born from scraps of magic paper! Kinkajou spoils him rotten, Moon adores him like a sister and both of them love him for the dragon he is, not the fairy-tale monster they’re afraid he might become if they don’t!
But in spite of his obstinate denial, something cracks in Peacemaker’s chest all the same and for the first time in his life a tongue of flame leaps out of his maw. It should taste like victory.
Instead, all it leaves is a bitter ash confirming everything he never knew to fear.