Wings of Fire in MHA

A/N- Imma try something new. When you see things like this, assume its inner thoughts, since its a bit easier for my monkey brain to comprehend. I'll probably change it eventually, I won't :)

The next day Rose and I were busy mending the holes that were torn in the fence by the wind last night when Thorn and Fone Bone came over.

"Gran'ma Ben, can we talk to you?" Thorn asked and Rose nodded as I continued of the fence as Fone asked why she made such a small fence since it wouldn't keep the rats out, but she explained how it was a boundary and then surprised even me by apologizing to hm for how she treated him last night, since they might have not made it out of the forest if he hadn't called for the dragon.

As they finally got to what they wanted to show Rose I snatched it out of her hand "What was that for?!" Thorn and Fone Bone cried but I turned the paper so that only Fone could see it. His eyes went wide in terror as he tried to snatch it away but I held the paper up in the air and burnt it to a crisp.

"Here's the map." He said as he gave me a thankful look as Thorn looked confused on why he was so freaked out, though Rose seemed to get it as she looked a few seconds away from punching Fone Bone.

"This is a map?" Rose scoffed at the faded marks that barely looked put together. Fone Bone insisted though as he pointed out various landmarks around the valley that were on the crude map. "Looks like it was drawn by a five year old." Rose grumbled as Thorn finally spoke up. "It was . . . I drew that map when I was in Deren Gard with the dragons."

I froze, of all the stupid things she could say out in the open like that I thought as Rose dragged them inside "Don't say another word! The forest has ears!" She hissed as I immediately did a full circuit around the farm checking the forest for anything that could be listening.

"Where did you say you found that map?" Rose demanded and Fone Bone told her how he and his cousins found it after they were run out of Boneville.

"We were lost out in the desert then Smiley Bone found it right before the Locusts came and separated us." he said and Rose froze. "Locusts?" she asked and he nodded his head.

I could see the gears start turning in her head as she mumbled "Locusts- It can't mean that anymore . . . "

"WHAT! WHAT CAN"T IT MEAN!" Thorn yelled with tears in her eyes "Gran'ma it's time to tell us the truth!" Thorn looked ready to sob but she still stared down Rose waiting for an explanation.

"Fone Bone, be a dear and fetch me a cup of water." Rose said softly and he complied "I'm waiting grandmother." Thorn said as Rose nodded "Yes I know, I just don't know where to start." "Well, start with my dreams." Thorn said as she started to wipe her eyes now a bit calmer.

"YOU told me dragons were make-believe, but you knew that wasn't true." "I had nowhere else to turn." Rose explained "After your parents died, I HAD to hide you with the dragons, the two of us needed to disappear." she said as Thorn struggled to comprehend why it was all hidden from her.

"I was trying to protect you." Rose said as Thorn started to cry "I was trying to protect the whole valley." 

"Who were you hiding from?" Fone Bone asked before I could stop him "Don't rush me Bone." Rose said firmly "I'm not too fond of discussing family matters as it is."

"It started back in the big war-" she began 

"We were fighting with the rat creatures over who owned the valley. We had it and they wanted it."

"Back then the valley was ruled by the kingdom of Atheia. The Rat creatures lived in the eastern mountains and the Dragons lived in the west."

"It went on for years, brutal fights broke apart families, and we all lost friends." She said "Then one day the rats disappeared into the mountains, but we knew they would be back eventually so we prepared."

"But we weren't prepared. When they returned they attacked faster and more frequently. Leaving close to no survivors in what was known as The Nights of Lightning."

"I was in the North trying to work an alliance between the Dragons and men, when I heard the news that Atheia had fallen and all of the royal family had been killed." She paused as she held a small pendant in her hand.

"Slowly with the help of the dragons, we pushed the rats out of the valley and a treaty was signed. The rats stay in the mountains, and the humans agree not to rebuild the kingdom." She finished as Fone Bone raised his hand and asked "Then why did you have to hide Thorn?"

"Because the royal family was completely wiped out." she said "That must explain her dreams about being kidnapped! Tell her Thorn!" Thorn then told Rose about how she dreamt of being taken into the mountains at night by people whose faces she can't see, all having hoods over their faces. "Gran'ma I think one of them is you." She says finally looking at Rose with tears flowing down her cheeks as she continues.

She remembers them being betrayed in the mountains, and rat creatures attacking them while she was taken to the dragons. "The hooded figures in your dream were your parents, they along with a nursemaid died that night." Rose said as Thorn looked ready to cry again but she had Rose continue.

"Traveling at night and in secrecy, they made it to the north to a mountain pass called Dragon Stairs. I met them there and was escorting them to the Dragon fortress in Deren Gard when we were betrayed. The rat chieftain Kingdok led a band of warriors and attacked us, your parents stayed behind to fight as I took you to the dragons."

"It was the nursemaid who betrayed us." Rose went on " I rushed back but the massacre was over, even the traitor was torn in two. Your father was dead, killed by the rats. And your mother, my only child, also lay still in the star light. . ." Rose finished as Thorn looked ready to throw up.

She started to sob but then Rose sprang up "Your mother and father were King and Queen of Atheia, and I was queen of the land before THEM!" She said as Thorn gazed in wonder "You Thorn Harvestar are heir to the throne, and I will NOT let anything happen to you." she said before losing her energy and sitting back down.

"I thought we could keep you safe here, live out our days raising the cows and farming this little plot of land . . ." She sounded wistful, almost sad "But if the locusts are back then war is unavoidable, and I have failed."

Thorn sat in silence for several minutes, crying and slowly trying to come to terms with her past, when Fone Bone looked at me "Where does Carter fit into all of this?" He asked as Thorn looked at me. 

Screw you, you little shit I grumbled as I made myself comfortable at the table "I was travelling, lost in the desert when I stumbled across what was left of the massacre site. I buried Thorns parents in the snow, but the body of the nursemaid disappeared." Rose stilled at that, she always wanted to know more but I knew as much as she did "When I arrived, Lunaria had not yet died. With her final breath, she begged me to find someone named Rose, and to protect Thorn."

-----------------

The cold bit at their skin, but the Hooded didn't notice.

They knelt in the shadow of the cave, high in the mountains where no one but ghosts and whispers lingered. Their fingers rested on the stone, steady despite the lingering tremble in their limbs—not from fear, but from something far deeper.

Disbelief.

They closed her eyes and cast their mind inward, slipping between the veil where the Locust dwelled.

"I made contact," They said softly. "The child's dream was open… exposed. I took the form she trusted and moved to her."

There was a pause as her voice grew quieter, more uncertain. "And then… I was cast out."

The cave darkened. Windless air pulled in around them like breath being drawn.

"Elaborate."

The voice wasn't sound—it was infestation. A thousand whispers spoken through the bones of dead leaves.

The Hooded One's brow furrowed.

"It wasn't the Red Dragon," They said. "Something else arrived. A shadow that wasn't part of the girl's memory. It took the shape of a dragon, but not one born of this world."

They hesitated.

"He burned the forest… but the flames didn't consume. They hurt the dream, not the dreamer. His presence was unnatural… powerful. He wasn't made by the gods—he was inserted."

Their hands curled into fists.

"I've never seen a mind so anchored in the dream. He reacted like a guardian, like a spirit tethered to her fate. I spoke to him, but he offered no name. He burned me out."

A long pause.

"I've never been thrown so forcefully from a child's mind before."

A whisper unfurled behind their ear—cold and ancient.

"You entered the child's mind… and found another already protecting her."

The cavern grew darker. The shadows on the walls began to twitch like flies.

"Not one of Mim's children. Not dragonspawn. Something else."

"Yes," The Hooded One said. "He wasn't of this world. But he was not without purpose. There was weight behind his presence, and he spoke as if he had been… sent."

A low, grinding hum echoed in the stone.

"He has been marked. As has she."

The locusts seethed just beyond the veil.

"A pact has been made. And he walks within her orbit, interfering. We must know why."

The Hooded One nodded once.

"He'll dream again," They said.

"Yes."

"Next time, enter his mind."

"And learn who dares bargain with the bones of fate."