OC: Songweaver
Species: Dragon (NightWing)
Universe: Wings of Fire

One of Songweaver's earliest memories was of the sun.

Songweaver squinted up. "It's so bright," she mumbled.

The rays streamed through the leaves like water, illuminating the whole clearing in bright splotches of gold and green and white. It was nothing like the volcano back at home. The only sun they saw there was right after it rained - when the droplets turned black with ash and cleared the air. Only then did they see the brilliant blue sky above.

"Don't look at it," her mother - Lightseeker was her name - laughed. "You'll hurt your eyes."

Songweaver scrunched her nose and then rubbed her eyes with her talons in an attempt to be rid of the black spots in her vision. "UGH."

Lightseeker turned to one of the other NightWings. Songweaver could never remember who he was, nor did she particularly care. "Have you found any yet?"

"No... Panthers are hard to track."

A butterfly caught her eye, flitting from flower to flower. Songweaver crept over to it, curious.

It had yellow wings, like the sun rays.

This place was so colorful. It wasn't like anything Songweaver had seen before.

She got too close. The butterfly fluttered off into the forest.

Songweaver followed it. Maybe she could catch it and keep it as a pet. Maybe she could bring it back to show the other dragonets. Maybe it would make them hiss at her less.

Flutter, butterfly, she mused. Butterfly. Flutterby. Butterfly, flutter by, flick your wings in crystal sky~

"Songweaver?" Lightseeker called, but Songweaver didn't hear her. Flower sweet, showers bleak, rain caress and winds will speak...

She'd have to write that down somewhere.

Her thoughts were interrupted by bumping into a mass of scales.

She yelped and jumped back.

The other dragon did too. He dove into the bushes and disappeared.

"Wait, come back!" Songweaver pleaded, and reached into the undergrowth. Her talons wrapped around a whip-thin tail. Blindly, she pulled, and it came out, followed by its owner.

A RainWing.

Songweaver jumped back. A RainWing! They were the enemy! She looked around, panicked. Her mother was nowhere in sight. Where had Lightseeker gone?

"Wait, calm down," the RainWing yelped. He looked about as terrified as Songweaver was. "I'm not gonna do anything, I swear! Who are you?"

Songweaver shrank back. "Please don't shoot me with your acid- I didn't mean to bump into you-"

Orange rippled across his scales - confusion, if the scrolls and studies Songweaver had read were accurate. "I- what? Wait, you're a NightWing! Hi!"

"I know, I'm sorry I'm in your territory, I was just helping my mom hunt and then I ran into you- Please don't hurt me, I'll go back now-"

"Welcome to the rainforest!" The dragon beamed and spread his wings, his scales turning yellow. Excitement? Happiness? "Why would I hurt you? We're pacifists! And vegetarians!"

Pacifists?

The NightWings had painted RainWings as enemies. As dragons who were stealing a territory who rightfully belonged to the NightWings.

And here this dragon was, saying RainWings were pacifists.

Curiosity overcame Songweaver's fear. "You don't shoot acid?"

"Well, we do," the dragon said. "But we never use it except before mating. Because it counteracts itself if the dragons are related."

A discovery! Songweaver had to tell Mastermind about this. That hadn't been in any of the studies. "What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Cacao," the dragon said happily. "And you?"

Cacao. He had a name. The more Songweaver talked to him, the less accurate the NightWings' scrolls seemed to be. He didn't really seem lazy, just... relaxed.

"Songweaver," Songweaver said cautiously, studying him.

He was maybe a couple years older than her. Most drawings of RainWings that she had seen were all sleeping or eating fruit, but Cacao seemed very fidgety, restless, anxious, even. His grin was nervous, but genuine.

How could NightWings fight a dragon like this?

Maybe he was hiding something. Songweaver decided to pry a little deeper.

"Songweaver," Cacao mused. "That's a pretty name."

"Thank you," Songweaver said, allowing herself to smile a little bit. "My mother hoped I'd have a chance to live through the war and study the arts. Are you named after something?"

Cacao brightened even more, if that was possible. "I'll show you!" he said.

Songweaver hesitated. What about Lightseeker, and the rest of the hunting party?

No, she could find them later.

Songweaver followed Cacao. It wasn't long before they arrived at a tree, its trunk sprouting with yellow and red and brown pods, the same colors as Cacao.

"It's a cacao tree," Cacao said. "You can harvest the pods, and with enough sugar they make something really delicious." He pulled a brown one off the tree and opened it, showing Songweaver a bunch of gross-looking white stuff inside.

"Oh," Songweaver said. "And you... eat that?"

She decided that she did not want to be a vegetarian.

"Well, it's edible," Cacao shrugged. "It's really bitter on its own, though."

He didn't seem lazy. He didn't really seem dumb, either. Some of the other dragonets back on the island had called Songweaver dumb once, because she didn't know how to use a spear at the time. She still had a scar from that incident.

Maybe RainWings were smart in their own way.

Then again, maybe Songweaver was too gullible.

She decided to try a more sensitive question. "How do you feel about NightWings?" she asked.

Cacao gingerly set the open pod down at the base of its tree. "They never did anything to us," he said. "You guys are more mysterious than anything... but I guess we never leave the rainforest, so everything outside is mysterious. What's outside?"

Songweaver made a face. "A war," she said. "You guys are lucky. You aren't involved."

Yet.

Suddenly, she felt guilty.

~~~

Rainbow, wonder of architecture. Iridescent pillars, holding up a light-painted roof as the diamonds fall from its cloud chandeliers...

Here she was again. Another day, another hunting mission. Songweaver decided she rather liked fruit. It was sweeter than what she was used to. Lightseeker had told her to eat as much as she liked, because who knew when the next opportunity would arise? Each visit to the rainforest brought new flavors, new textures, colors, sounds, aromas. Songweaver wanted to savor all of them.

It was rainy this time. The downpour was cold and merciless, turning dirt into mud. Cacao helped Songweaver up into a tree to avoid the puddle that the forest floor was quickly turning into. Songweaver had been hoping to teach him how to read. Maybe he'd like her poetry, but the ink on the scroll she'd brought was smudging and smearing from the water. It was no longer legible.

Cacao laughed at it. A genuine laugh, not to make fun of Songweaver but as if he actually found the incident with the scroll amusing.

How could he be so carefree with everything happening outside the bubble of the rainforest?

On the island, war plans were being made. Lightseeker tried to hide them from Songweaver, but she knew. Queen Blister made frequent visits. More RainWings than ever were being caught and studied. There were less hunting parties and more scouting missions sent out. Songweaver was placed on guard duty watching an angry RainWing animus named Indigo.

Butterfly, flutter by, fleeting moments of beauty. Clouds cover sun, rain turns soil to torrent. The battle spirals on and on...

She was never able to teach her new friend to read.

~~~

JJ, to answer your question, Songweaver was nice to Indigo because she knew Cacao and she knew that RainWings were vegetarian, that they really meant no harm, etc. But she was also raised to fight RainWings and be secretive and cautious. She left off Indigo's restraints on purpose because she wanted to see what would happen. It's a sort of nature vs. nurture situation