A princess, bowing deeply as the previous SkyWing King placed a golden crown over her head.
-
The whole kingdom cheering with glee.
-
A future of glory awaiting the new SkyWing Queen.

...

That's how Carmine had imagined it.

Ever since she was a dragonet, she'd always imagined that scene in the same exact way.

But now... she was the one watching, cheering with supposed and fake glee as the golden crown was lowered by King Forge over Princess Saffron's head.

Carmine fiddled with a her talons, and stole a sideways glance at Wisp, who was sitting next to her.

Her whole life, she'd been told the same things: Think royal. Act royal. Be royal.

She had been promised a role of power in her tribe. She had grown up thinking that was her place in the world.

Carmine looked away from Wisp, her mind shattered.

In her dying breaths, Queen Titian had managed to steal the one thing Carmine had always taken for granted:

...her power.

-/-

"This is madness!" The Councilor of Resources bellowed with anger.

The whole Council muttered under their breaths, but it all died down when Queen Saffron shook her wings for attention.

"The SeaWings have taken more and more liberties in the past months. Soon, they'll be claiming the coast villages as their own, and we can't let them do it. So..." she trailed off, glaring at the Councilor of Resources, who lowered his head, "we can either stand here, waiting for something to happen, or crush their plans before they are even put into action."

General Peak looked uneasy. Copper's father was now growing older and frailer, and his troubled gaze just hinted at the fact that he was unsure of his chances of surviving another war.

"Your Majesty, I'm confident you realize the SeaWings will always have the advantage if we fight them in their territory. We can't follow them underwater, and they have shown to use that to win battles more than once," the General said, composing his face to look more dignified.

The Queen smiled maliciously. "Perhaps you're too scared to fight a war, Peak, but I'm sure you'd find that a few of your fellows would take your place in the blink of an eye if offered to," she said.

The threat worked, and the old SkyWing general looked down with defeat.

Seeing that no one wanted to say anything more, Queen Saffron took the floor again.

"Dear councilors. You seem to have forgotten one important particularity of this conversation. We are SkyWings. We never back down from the chance to prove ourselves. Our soldiers would be proud to die in battle for their kingdom. And the SeaWings have nothing against us," she paused, letting that settle in. "I'll tell you one thing. Let us attack the SeaWings. Let them cower under the cover of the waves, and then, let us boil the sea with our fire and burn the parasites out of their shell."

The idea left a few dragons baffled. Mostly because it was insane, but also because of the fear that Saffron might actually take it seriously.

"Council dismissed," the SkyWing Queen declared, and one by one, the councilors left with their heads lowered.

During all this time, Carmine hadn't said a word. She had been feeling nauseous for the past days, but also because she didn't know what to say.

She was the Councilor of Law, and in the six months in which Saffron had been Queen, she didn't have the chance to ever speak up. The Queen would bend every rule in existence to get what she wanted. General Robin, her brother, had been demoted to Major for 'annoying her'. Forge had been exiled from the palace because he 'reminded her majesty of her deceased aunt', and Carmine had barely been able to see her father ever since.

But despite all of this, the princess had purposely avoided one dragon: Wisp.

She couldn't bare to look at him. They had fought the day of Saffron's coronation. It was the day that she told him that Lance was now Captain of the Royal guards and had been shattered by fear ever since. Apparently, the experience had left Wisp traumatized and he had become defensive about everything.

Carmine walked away from the Council room quietly, avoiding to look at Queen Saffron or her now 'most trusted advisor', Captain Lance. The princess hypothesized that the idea of waging war on the SeaWings had come from the latter SkyWing rather than the volatile Queen.

Lance watched her leave, but Carmine was quick enough to look away before meeting her eyes. She had been defeated by her too and she was the dragon that had tried to kill Wisp all those years ago.

As she strolled down the hallways, Carmine felt something new; She felt alone. Ever since she had fought with Wisp, they had barely talked. Now her Kingdom might even be heading into war and she had no idea what that would mean for the SkyWings. Maybe she'd even lose the few friends that remained to a war that shouldn't be fought to start with.

That's when she realized that, maybe, just maybe, she wasn't completely alone.

The SkyWing princess took a spiral of stairs and turned down a few corridors before finding the room she was looking for.

Six months ago, Carmine had fought with Wisp about her now nonexistent powers. He had told her that it didn't matter. It didn't change who she was. Carmine had scoffed, told him that he had no right to say so when he was about as defined by his power as she was. The conversation had degenerated from that point onwards.

But one last important thing was said, just before the SkyWing princess stormed out of the conversation.

Carmine entered the room. There was the dragon that made her feel hopeful for her future, hopeful for her marriage. She spied a red-shelled egg laying peacefully in the SkyWing hatchery. Carmine walked towards it and held it in her talons, closing her eyes as she let her sadness disappear.

Six months ago, Carmine had broken the news to Wisp that she was with egg.

"Greetings, little one," Carmine whispered to the egg, "your mother is here. Your mother is right here."

She breathed as she heard footsteps approaching the hatchery, and held the egg even tighter.

"And everything will be just fine."