Blood warning. Potentially depressing topics.
I got so many bruises from throwing myself against the crystal bars of the cage. They dotted my scales like comets, burning up in the night sky. I eventually gave up, accepting my fate that Father was probably going to let me rot away down here.
Sword brought me food. Just some smoked fish and water, but I had only eaten that pastry all day. "It's about sunset," Sword said as I wolfed down the meager provisions. He seemed distant. "You should be getting around to... well, you know..."
"I'm afraid I don't follow." I kept my voice clean and crisp. No need to show him my fear.
He seem affected by my words, but recovered from whatever emotion struck him. "Never mind. Forget it." were his last words as the door to the sanctuary softly clicked closed.
I caught myself gazing at the golden dragon- my mother, or perhaps some abstract WishWing. My father's ramble wasn't the clearest thing. My eyelids drooped, sleep tugging at them just after sunset. Being put in prison by your aristocratic father was exhausting, apparently.
I was woken by Father's voice. I scrambled to the corner, suddenly scared of him. After how he threw me... I was certain it was something animus-related. Could this place be magicked, and he's harnessing it or something? Or could my father have a great, secret power?
The idea had been entertained by me as a child. My father fit the description we were taught in school- "They were treated with the upmost respect, for their contributions to IceWing society. They were influental, but they had very busy work to do, planning their Gift. Now, onto the Night Age..."
"I am truly sorry you have to stay down here," Father said, looking irritated. "But you have... duties to attend to."
He swept his tail along the floor, kicking a rusty bucket into the cell. He raised a talon, and pointed to it. "Put pearls in it."
"Excuse me?" What was he even saying? Where would I get pearls? I couldn't just make them appear out of thin air. "Put them around the rim, if you would," he said smugly, as if he had unearthed some secret, "And put in some gold leaf, too."
Father's lost his mind. I was sure. He was corrupted from his power, or something like that, and he went insane. It was the only plausible reason. It wasn't like I could spin hay into gold like that story a maid told me once.
"And HOW under the THREE MOONS would I do THAT?" I was losing it. Breakdown. It had only happened once before, five years ago, at the moment where I drowned, the moment I realized my father did not think of me as his child, only as an annoyance.
"I know you've done it," Father cooed, still wearing that overly pleased face. "Use your Wishes, Vigilance. If you have those golden flecks, you have your Wishes. Don't lie to me, son."
"W-what in the-" A gleam caught my eye. It arches through the air, quicker than a wink. It takes a second for the pain to catch up with Father's unusually sharp talons, but when it does, moons does it truly hurt. I clutched at the deep scratch. Nothing I wasn't used to, but it took me off guard. He must be seriously keeping me here, if he would make such an obvious injury.
"If you somehow forgot how to do your beastly magics, I would suggest you learn them again." He hissed, a deep sound in his voice that didn't feel like him. He turned, still snarling, and pushed the cage door back with the strange, probably-animus force. I didn't even try to scramble after him, knowing that it would just give me more injuries, and pain.
I stared for hours at the old bucket. I grappled with it, traced my claw around it, trying to will pearls into existence. Nothing. Nothing except a feeling of crushing hopelessness. All I could do was feel my scratch and feel hungry.
I did this for Nobi lol
"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?"
