Hare

It had been only two days after Hare had attacked and killed that crazed junkie and spy to protect the leader's family. It was a hard time for her, trying to calm herself down and ignore the thoughts that seemed to sprang to her mind.

Right after she had ran off to her room, whispers seem to tear at her mind.

'You just killed two dragons, what would father think?'

'Blood is on your talons now, you stole two lives,'

'Father would be horrified by you! Look at you, your scales are stained pink now!'

The mindless, hurtful thoughts clawed at her for hours, even when she forced herself to sleep. It was another nightmare, one where she stood over the crazed dragon's body, her father refusing to look at her. Then he disappeared, swallowed up in a large loud of smoke, fire seeming to come up from the ground.

It got higher and higher, closer and closer to her, before she finally woke up with chills. Even during her training with Adobe and Scorch (although the latter of the two just watched again), she was so caught up her mind, Adobe got five hits on her.

Meetings were put off, but she stayed with the two heirs, hoping work would detract her. She found it barely worked out, since all Roadrunner really did was write on scrolls or raiding the kitchen.

Aureus was a different story. He was a lot more focused on her it felt like, making sure she was fine and even offered to hear her out. She didn't know what was stopping her from that, maybe it was because she didn't want to tell this new dragon everything. Malamute didn't even get to know her all that well, but Hare seem to always think of her as her best friend.

Best friend... that was a honor most of the time, right? To be so close to a dragon that you would always count this as a sibling. The albinic was slightly angry at herself for not learning more about her.

Hare was busily writing in a scroll, trying to keep her body and mind as busy as possible. She felt like she took her mother's early schooling for granted, remembering how Malamute once stated she actually didn't know how to read or write.

A small memory of Mala asking her to read her a story came to her. Malamute said she loved the story written; but was upset at the fact she couldn't read it for herself. Fuga and Kholondo always seemed to exclude the group of 'freaks' from lessons or group activities, keeping them as busy as possible so they won't cause a problem.

A growl escaped her as she remembered how badly they were treated, before slightly ease up as the small memory from before came back to her. Mala said Stonehopper read it to her and Humu all the time since he taught himself how to read after being fed up from bullies.

It was a story about a lost SeaWing princess finding her way home. It was a sweet yet simple story written roughly 400 years ago, back in the days of the SandWing Succession, when there were three princesses. There was a huge, thirty year war with nearly every tribe getting involved.

It was written by the SeaWing Queen, Coral, for her lost daughter, one of the Dragonets of Destiny; Tsunami. After the war was stopped, she and the other Dragonets established Jade Mountain Academy, and thus marked the beginning of a land hopeful of peace.

Of course, that didn't happen, but that was a different story.

Hare blinked her eyes, realizing she got caught up too much in her thoughts. She looked down, seeing a poorly drawn picture of Malamute, who she guessed was Fuga and Kholondo, and two small doodles of SeaWings she guessed was Queen Coral and Princess Tsunami.

She gave a sigh, and put an 'X' over both the scribbles of Fuga and Kholondo, and rolled the scroll up. She held it up, letting out a small plume of fire, which caused the paper to quickly ignite and turn to ash.

The albinic sighed again, mostly to try and ease her mind, pressing a talon to it to try and calm down a slowly forming headache.

A small knock was on the door, making her look back with interest. The door was pushed open, Adobe standing in the way. He smiled a bit, staying there since he couldn't fit inside.

"Someone's up early. You ready to go get your mark?" He asked. Hare thought for a moment, flinching lightly as her head same a small pound of pain. Adobe noticed it, his keen black eyes having a glint of worry.

"We don't have ta-"

"No! No, don't worry about me. Yeah, let's go, I didn't want to accidentally wake you up again. Apologies if that makes us late."

Adobe gave a small amused chuckle. He rose a brow, a small amused look on his face.

"How old are ya again, kid?"

"Five," she answered, slightly confused by the question. Why did he want to know how old she was? Adobe just chuckled and shook his head.

"You kids are gettin' smarter and smarter, I swear. I remember bein' five and still tryin' to figure out how to help my dad wrangle up herds of sheep."

Hare a slightly surprised by his answer; Adobe use to being a shepherd? Well, it did explain the slight accent in his voice that didn't seem to come from being up North. The admin then turned, looking over his shoulder slightly to her.

"I'll be waitin' outside. You know your way around to get to the door, right?" he asked, knowing how much of a maze this place could be. The place was an old, tall, skinny hospital made into the gang's hideout, so there were multiple hallways and doors. Every bit of this place was narrow and made getting out very confusing.

From the outside, you could mistake it as an apartment building; but once you knew it was an old place for dying, sick dragons, a few pieces felt as though they connected. It explained the maze of hallways, the feeling of being watched at times, and even the fact the meeting room looked like a chapel.

Hare nodded, and went to get her clean up her stuff. She found herself subconsciously wanting to waste time, a feeling of nervousness slowly coming to her. Adobe had told her that once she proved she earned her spot, she would go get her branding done.

Branding... a word for marking something or someone as being own by someone, Hare wasn't going to lie, she was worried. She had seen how some branding had gone wrong; where the brand was push too hard and tore spots onto the wing.

Her body began to twitch as her normal composure suddenly dissappeared. She had heard about how a dragon had to loose a wing from their brand getting severely infected. What if that happened to her? She would be useless, and probably would be killed for not doing her job.

'If I do bad,' Hare felt herself shake, her blood running cold, 'what will they do to me? Fuga would have starved me, so would Kholondo. Would they do that too? Or rip me apart? Maybe they'll tear my wings off and throw me into the desert to die.'

Hare felt her heart begin to pound against her chest, her vision blurry, breathing becoming less smooth.

If she didn't do her job, they would kill her, she knew it. They would get rid of her for being weak, or being useless to the gang. Camel Spider would stab her with his stringer, and once she died, she would have to face her father, who would surely disown her.

Her legs felt weak, her breathing sharp and shallow, like she couldn't breath enough fast enough. Her vision seem to get darker and darker as more thoughts clawed at her.

Centipede would be furious at her, and yell, and chastise, and tell her how disappointed he is over, and over. He would leave her again, along with her mom, and then she would be all alone, with no one to help fix.

As this point, Hare found herself gasping for breath, on the ground, claws digging into the floor. She couldn't breath, she couldn't see, which made her even more scared. She couldn't hear, but she felt it.

She felt the feeling of talonsteps coming towards her. They were sure stepped, steady and strong, then they stopped, and we're quickly paced, like running. They got stronger, until they were quiet. Hare didn't have to see to know hey were right in front of her.

Oh moons, what if they report to Camel Spider or Eve? She was going to die for not working, she knew it!

She felt talons grip her, and picked her up, laying her down on what she guessed was her bed. She felt warm scales, feverish kinda, against her cool ones. She couldn't hear or see the dragon, but something told they left.

Who was that? Adobe? Maybe it was Scorch, though, it seemed unlikely. She felt a talon be placed on her face, and she felt her barely breathing lungs stop. This was it, whoever it was went to go get Camel Spider, this was where she died to go see her betrayed father.

"Breathe, you're okay."


'Roadrunner?'


"Take a deep breath, you're havin' a panic attack. Ya need to calm down."


'Calm down, right, just... relax.'

"There we go."

Hare took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her mind down. Slowly, she felt herself come out of the freezing spell, her vision clearing and her heart beating to a more normal pace.

She saw Roadrunner seemingly scrunched inside the room, trying not to break anything. She looked up, seeing his dark brown eyes. He had a look of worry, which was quickly wiped away as he soon realized she was looking at him.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice holding a bit of nonchalant attitude. She took a moment, shakily pushing herself up to sit. Once up, she looked to him, her ruby eyes holding confusion.

"Master Roadrunner?"

"Don't call me that, sounds weird coming for you," he didn't meet her gaze, clearing his throat a bit, "anyways, what?"

Hare took a moment, as thought thinking. She took a breath, "Why did you do that?"

"What, help you?"

Hare gave a nod. Roadrunner groaned a bit, looking down a bit. "I was walking by, and just... happened to notice you gasping on the floor. I knew you were having a panic attack and just... decided to help."

"How?"

"How what?"

"How did you know that I was having a panic attack? I could have been seizing, or chocking; yet you knew what it was in seemingly a heartbeat."

Roadrunner looked away, as though he was looking to the door. Hare knew something was up, seeing a faint flicker in his black eyes. He looked back, a bored look on his face she knew at this point to be fake.

"So what if I did? Look, don't tell anyone, I don't want dad thinkin' I'm some kinda softy or whatever. Adobe is lookin' for ya too, by the way."

The albinic paused for a moment, looking at the dusty brown SandWing, before nodding. Roadrunner awkwardly turned, find it hard to actually move in the narrow and tight room. Eventually he finally got out, leaving Hare to think for a moment.

'Something is up with him. I shouldn't pressure though, I need to go see Adobe and get my branding over with. After that, I need to focus on protecting the two heirs.'

~~~

Hare hissed in pain as she moved her wing, the burn still stinging as the faint, nauseous smell of burnt scales covered her. It wasn't as bad as she thought; only stinging for a moment.

However, now that she hough about it, she had worked with blown and torn muscles, so she wasn't that surprised on how high her pain tolerance jumped.

She looked to her wing, seeing the now black, charred burnt scales, fixed to resemble a camel spider. This was it, she was now officially apart of The Coyotes.

There was no going back now.