/!\ WARNING /!\ This is a very dark AU! There is a lot of violence and maybe graphic violence! Recommended for ages 13+! Section 1 violence: Somewhat similar to normal WoF books, maybe a little more violent. Prologue He looked up at the moons. They were a beautiful thing in his eyes. They were his comfort whenever he saw them. They couldn’t do anything wrong. He saw them as his companion, his company when he was lonely. But they were gone too soon. Every 12 hours, sometimes less, sometimes more, they disappeared, then reappeared. It wasn’t enough time for him. He wanted them forever. Roughly 15 yrs before Brightest Night 1 Quickd3ath XCIX was cold. And hungry. But at least he wasn’t wet. Or, as wet as he would be if he wasn’t sitting under a tree. Quickd3ath was a nightwing-almost completely black, except if you looked closely, he appeared slightly greenish. But no one would want to do that, he thought, once I make a name for myself. Quickd3ath had been trained by his parents to be an assasin. His parents had lived on the mainland, unlike the rest of the tribe. His parents were ded, kiIIed by another assasin; no one had seen it coming. His father was only born under 1 full moon, and could read minds; his mother, none. Quickd3ath himself had been born under 2 full moons; so he could read minds and see limited futures. Quickd3ath had woken up from a nightmare-or just some bad feeling. But it was too late. He saw the assasin standing over his parents, about to kiII them, with his back to Quickd3ath. He launched himself at the assasin, but it was too late. He had already sIit their throats. The words always rang in his head. Too late. Too late. Too late. Quickd3ath did kill him. It was the very least he could do to avenge them. But now he was alone. And he needed to put his skills to work. Quickd3ath had decided that he needed to go to the Scorpion Den. He had no choices left. If he stayed in the forest any longer, he was pretty sure he would either di3 of boredom or go insane. He shivered again. Just one more night, he thought. And then I won’t be cold and wet. 2 Quickd3ath flew high over the desert. The Scorpion Den appeared low on the horizon. The sun had just started to rise behind him. Quickd3ath would have loved to stop and rest, but with the treeline and the Scorpion Den the only places in sight where he could do so, he couldn’t. He started to wonder what would happen when he got there. He couldn’t just fly over the wall. And, presumably, there would be a guard at the entrance. He couldn’t just say, “Hello there, can I enter your city? Hmm? For what purpose? Oh, just to become the greatest assasin of all time.” Could he? His train of thought was interrupted when he felt the storm clouds gathering in his mind. He hurled himself at the ground, knowing what was coming. He almost made it when the lightning struck, and he plunged into darkness. The first thing he saw after the darkness was the world. At least, he assumed it was the world. Its round? he wondered. The second thing he noticed was himself. Presumably. He was quite large, larger than the world itself, with his talons poised over the world as if he was the master, and everyone else were his puppets. Except for his eyes. They were black around the outside, fading to a light blue toward the center. In the middle, there were black diamonds, blacker than even his scales. Then it was gone, and he was back in the sand of the desert. “Ow. Ow, ow, ow, ow.” He had jammed about half of his claws when he landed, and he had twisted his right arm, too. He had less chance of beating any guards in the Scorpion Den than he did before, if it came to that. Altogether, not a great start to the day.
