Moth

Moth stayed in her room for the rest of the day. Why? Why did they have to do that to me? 

"Princess Moth," a voice said. Moth jumped and turned suddenly. 

"What," she asked, perfectly aware that she probably looked terrible. She'd been crying all day, and her cheeks were stained with tear streaks. 

"Your parents requested you for dinner," the maid said simply, and Moth couldn't help but look her up and down.

She was a RainWing, and was probably around 10 years old. She had relatively good looks, even though she kept her scales at a professional black and white like all of the other palace workers. They all had to take a class to learn how to control their scale color and always keep it bland.

Moth paused, thinking. She had a year. A year before she was married to an old, disgusting RainWing who was willing to marry a dragon over twenty years younger than him without even meeting her. 

A year to find a dragon she loved, or at least she liked enough to marry. Moth was overcome with another strong wave of resentment toward her parents. Why did it only become a problem for her to find a lover that was a RainWing now? 

She would deal, she could find someone she was willing to marry. Moth knew that there were countless dragons that would jump at the opportunity to marry a princess. She frowned, not wanting to even think about the thought of a loveless marriage. 

"Ahem- Princess Moth?" 

Moth was ripped out of her thoughts by the maid in the room with her. "Oh, of course. I'll come immediately."

The maid nodded gratefully, happy she wasn't caught up in any drama involving the princess. She followed the maid out of the room and tried to rearrange her appearance as she walked, hoping no one would see her looking like a piece of trash fished from the bottom of the ocean.

She'd just managed to clean off her cheeks when they entered the large dining hall, filled with all the nobles lucky enough to secure a spot dining with the queen. Sitting at the end of the long table was the Queen, with her husband next to her. 

The next two seats on either sides of the table were reserved for the two princesses, much to the frustration of some of the more straightforward nobels that would have loved nothing more than to sit next to the queen herself.

Moth's younger sister Artistic already sat at the table, looking incredibly bored. Moth walked up to her spot and sat down with as much dignity as she could muster. Queen Beautyrise's smile was more of a smirk as she looked at her daughter. 

"Ah, Moth. Late, as usual," she said, distaste clearly audible in her voice.

"Mother," Moth said politely, dipping her head in treating.

"Alright, time for the first order of business," Queen Beautyrise said, clapping her hands together to get the attention of every dragon at the table. "Did you know that my daughter is to be wed?"

She sounded so excited, too. She smirked as the entire table applauded, and Moth felt like she wanted to melt into the table. Why did there have to be so much attention on her right now?

Then it was King Thunder's turn to speak. He kept his face comfortably blank as he spoke. "Today, a messenger was sent by to us by the MudWings. Similar messengers have been sent to all other tribes as well." 

The entire crowd assembled at the table shifted uncomfortably, and Moth felt her own unease start to bubble up. There had been little to no contact with the MudWing time as of late, and Moth wondered what had been so important that they'd started interacting with other tribes again. She knew there'd been some unrest in the tribe lately, and her parents had been avoiding them, hoping that the unrest wouldn't spread into the RainWings and NightWings as well. 

"Queen Fawn and King Bayou are dead." 

Moth froze when she heard the words. Did that mean that Princess Hazelnut was now queen? Moth had met the MudWing princess once when her parents had been going on a diplomatic meeting with the other tribes, and they'd taken her along. She liked the MudWing princess, she'd been very kind to Moth and seemed to have a very great family life. 

She'd even boasted that her mother had told her that when she challenged her for the throne Fawn would just back down. Moth had actually preferred her company over the other princes and princesses. Almost all of them had been the queen's siblings and nieces. And the SkyWing prince, Queen Skyfire's nephew, Prince Chickadee, had been the most spoiled dragon she'd ever met.

She knew that the deaths of both monarchs of a tribe, especially ones as loved as Fawn and Bayou, didn't just happen suddenly overnight for no reason. And what could that be?

After her father waited for the nervous whispers at the table to die down, he answered that question. 

"Yesterday, they were overthrown and murdered by Argil of the Strong Theory Union. King Argil has now declared war on the SkyWings." There were gasps echoing throughout the room and even more unrest among the gathered dragons. "Furthermore, he has the audacity to advise us to remain in our borders and not get involved." 

The whispers grew louder, and Moth felt fear crashing in on her. The message had said nothing about Hazelnut. Was she already dead? Or locked up in a prison, awaiting her fate? Moth felt like the walls were closing in on her, and her heart was beating a mile a minute. 

Pyrrhia was at war. War. Even if it had nothing to do with the RainWings or the NightWings. She trembled in her seat and looked up into the eyes of her younger sister. Artistic had a thoughtful look on her face as she sat there. 

Moth was just about to look away; the food would be served soon when she saw Artistic's snout twist into an ugly snarl, and she clenched one of her hands into a tight fist. Slightly confused, Moth hurriedly looked away. 

She didn't want to have to deal with whatever dark thoughts her sister was thinking. Come to think of it, she'd never really seen her sister very much besides at meals. Artistic looked very similar to Moth, with the main appearance of a NightWing. 

She was similar to Moth as well in the way she had a mane of soft fur around her neck (it was very weird and hard to explain where that had come from, and she was pretty sure it had to do with how much of an odd mangled mess her genetics were at this point due to the insane mix of RainWing and NightWing in her. Regardless, it was the reason she was named Moth.) but it was a soft purplish color instead of gray. 

Her stomach was also a light purple and could shift around slightly to different shades of blue pastel colors, due to the RainWing in her. That was where the name Artistic came from. Moth looked back up. Artistic's odd burst of anger had already disappeared, and when she saw Moth looking, she smiled. 

Moth gave her a small wave. The one good thing about her life in the RainNight Kingdom was her sister, and she hoped it would never change. 

But all good things in Moth's life seemed to have a habit of getting messed up.

⊰ ꩜ ⊱

A/N

:p kind of a lame way to end a chapter, i know. chapter production might get a little slower due to my Co-Writer leaving for camp for a month D: anyway, although this chapter is a little bit of a filler chapter, trust me. the next chapter in Moth's POV is going to be full of juicy ✨drama✨