Legend of the OmeletWings - Chapter 27: Cracked
#27 of Legend of the OmeletWings
Complete silence filled the pavilion, dragons looked at one another in shock. Not a single word was spoken, not a single claw mark was thrown, but one thing was abundantly certain, the Kingdom of the OmeletWings had fallen.
Em looked at the OmeletWings standing around the pavilion all in stunned silence, not one of them could speak, all of them unable to process what had just happened to their way of life, everything they had ever known, in just one life-shattering moment. Fortunately the King Chef had fainted before he had a chance to have a heart attack, because if he hadn't fainted, the shock of everything he had just witnessed would've certainly been enough to kill him.
And that was it, the other tribes had won, their eggs were saved, none of the OmeletWings would stand in their way now, not after they had seen the truth of what lied within the shells of their precious eggs.
But even in the victory, Em felt only stillness in the air, Ravine, Summit, all the other tribes, they might have won, but as for her tribe, the family that surrounded her, they'd lost everything. She felt the egg in the pouch she was still carrying at her side then looked up at the castle. She knew somewhere within those walls, there was one dragon who had lost more than everyone. Finally, Em could finally begin to see the direction in her story, but for the Queen, her story had all but shattered.
The Queen stumbled into her chambers, her breath coming in hard, she had to grab the edge of a dresser to stabilize herself.
She stood there a moment trying to catch her breath, it was too much.
She looked up at her room, decorated with the finest decor to celebrate the Omelet.
Memories of her beautiful life came rushing back to her, all the Omelets she had eaten, all the moments of fellowship her and her kingdom had shared over a tasty breakfast...
She started panting again, starting to hyperventilate. All a l- _she couldn't bring herself to say it, but it couldn't stay in, it had to be released, _All a... LIE!
Queen Omelet threw her head in the air and screamed as hard as she could. She threw herself against the dressers and drawers in pure agony. Screaming with everything she was, she grabbed her curtains and ripped them down from the wall, tearing them to shreds. Everything she stood for, everything she loved her entire life. "A LIE!" she screamed, "A LIE!" Tears burning in her eyes, she threw herself into the floor and ripped and teared at the curtain with all her might until she was all tangled thoroughly in it and could move no more. Her sides heaved, her breaths came in gasps, she couldn't breathe, she roared into the sky, the pain she felt inside more painful than all the eggs she had ever laid combined. She clutched at her heart wanting to rip it out, this silly instinct that makes one pull away from pain, the instinct that had been rendered useless under so many layings, now in action full force to prevent her from ending this deeper pain in the very fabric of her Soul. Everything within her just wanted to die, all those eggs she had ever eaten - every egg that her tribe had eaten for generations before her - she wished she had been one of them, she wished she had never hatched. "LET ME DIE!" She screamed, "LET ME DIE!"
But no mercy came, all she could do was flop down and cry, cry like she had never cried before, her voice of pain for so many years suppressed by her muzzle no longer able to be held back.
Em stood watching as the dragons of various tribes began perusing through the rescued eggs, anxiously searching out their young. As dragons began to find their offspring, they'd let out heavy sighs of relief, picking up their eggs and holding them so close like they never wanted to let them out of their sight again, more often than not with more than a few drops of tears.
For all these dragons it had been victory, pure relieving victory, but as Em turned her eyes back to the castle, she could feel that sense of grief returning to her.
"Em, are you okay?"
It was Summit.
Em looked at the ground, running her talons through the soft dirt of the pavilion, feeling how shifted around them.
"We won," Em said, "But not for everyone."
Summit looked at her, understanding, "Your family?"
Em nodded, "I know what it's like to lose a part oneself. I can't leave it like this. The Queen..."
Em stood up, looking at the Castle.
Summit immediately stood up after her, grabbing her talons, "Wait, you're going to... now? But you can't... She's just... She can't... What if she does something awful to you?"
"Summit, I'm an OmeletWing, I've known her all my life... She's not going to."
Summit felt the knot growing in his stomach, "The Queen's unhinged, she's just lost her entire kingdom, there's no telling what she will do." He didn't know the Queen, but he knew Em, and he couldn't stand the thought of any more bad stuff happening to her.
A look of sadness filled Em's eyes, "I don't think she can do anything worse than what I've already been through... Something I know I'm about to know again soon," she felt her stomach, "There are things we can't always change, but this is something I can. Trust me, I _know _her. I'll be all right."
Summit looked at Em, tears welling in his eyes. He wanted to be there for her always, to share with her her life, the good and the bad, but he knew that he could never truly share everything with her, that there would always be experiences that she would have to face, and they would be her experiences alone; she had faced levels of pain that he never would, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't know the Queen, but he knew Em, and Em knew what she was doing, this time she knew the risks, and right now it was time to trust her, and that was to let her go to where he could not follow. He had been there for her when she'd need him, now it was time to let her be there for someone else. Letting his talons loosen, he felt his face full of emotion.
"Be careful."
Em gave him a weak smile, and turned around about to depart into the castle. But as she did so, she suddenly stopped and took one last look at Summit.
"Summit, before I go, I got to tell you something. I think you're about to become a father." She felt her tummy gently, aware of the life starting to grow inside.
Summit's eye's went wide, "wait, what?" Almost on instinct he felt a quick rush of joy, but no sooner had that started when he remembered the pain she had suffered during her first laying and that immediately washed away any sense of enthusiasm he might have had. "Em, I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay," she said, she was still trying not to think about it, the deep sadness of self-pity, knowing how this would end for her, but at the same time, there was a sense of peace, "the first time I laid an egg, it wasn't my choice, it was just the way it was, but this time I got to choose, I got to choose you. And from this day forward, I also get to choose the love for our child." She paused, looking at him once more, "Summit, thanks for helping me find my worth."
Summit looked at her seriously, "Em, you were priceless long before I met you... Everything you've ever done or were was special before the moment you hatched."
"I know, but you seeing it in me... I was finally able to see it in myself, and I thank you for that." She looked at Summit, a love for him rising up deeper than she had known.
Finally, taking a deep breath, she turned to leave. She may be heading off on her own in this moment, but she knew she was taking with her all those moments they had grown together; it was now a part of her. And now perhaps, the Queen could be reached out towards as well.
As Em disappeared into the castle, Summit felt a strange sense of calm, somehow he knew Em would come out of there alright, that she could do this. Em's words had given him a sense of closure to all the pain and struggles they had experienced since they'd first come to know eachother, and he knew the next time she stepped out of those gates, this Legend of the OmeletWings would be over and the next stage of their lives together would begin.
Em made her way up the stairs in the castle, all was eerily quiet, but that was no surprise, everyone was already outside, the only ones here in the castle were her and - somewhere down one of these halls - the Queen of the Ex-OmeletWings.
Then she heard it, crying, deep and heavy, the sound muffled through the walls, but still unmistakable.
Em found her way to the Queen's chambers, and opened the door softly.
"Your majesty?" she said nudging the door open a little more, the frame squeaking slightly on its hinges.
What she saw was a pitiful sight, furniture and decorations thrown everywhere, ancient paintings torn, the curtains pulled off the wall, their shreds wrapped tightly around Queen Omelet whose eyes were stained and dried red with tears.
"Your majesty?" Em said again, still leaning against the door's frame.
The Queen looked at her, at first confused, unable to process the sight in front of her, then her face filled with anger, irrational, anguished anger.
"Get out!" She shouted.
"But your majesty..." Em tried again.
"GET OUT!" Queen Omelet screamed, picking up a heavy egg ornament that had fallen from one of the desks onto the floor and hurling it at her.
Em, who was still leaning against the doorframe, was unable to react in time, in an instant, the metallic egg flew underneath her body, and collided with her, right where her back legs connected.
In an instant, Em dropped to the ground gasping for breath. As her eyes pooled with tears, a heat of embarrassment filling her. It really was something to be a girl. She knew this must've been nothing compared to when Summit had been hurt in the same spot (if "same spot" was even a term that could be used in this situation considering (she blushed) that was impossible,) and certainly nothing compared to laying an egg, but she realized it didn't matter who you were, getting injured there hurt.
Queen Omelet looked at Em on the floor a sense of regret rising in her, she hadn't meant to hurt Em - she didn't know what she'd intended to do actually, but it hadn't been this. Em had left the village and turned her world into... this... but this world was the truth, Em wasn't responsible for that. There was no one to blame for this world that had befallen her, she realized with sharp pang, there was no one to hold blame for this pain in her Soul.
Em lay there moaning a moment, feeling the angstiness of her existence. She'd just wanted to help the Queen, does pain always have to be the result of doing the right thing? Summit was waiting there outside worried about her, and he had no idea that this had happened to her, he had been uneasy about what could happen to her her going on her own, and in some regards he was right.
Still, she had known worse, she reminded herself, so much worse it had made her doubt she was a dragon worth being. But she was this dragon, and this dragon had come here for a purpose, so this was the purpose she was going to fulfill.
So, through bleary eyes, she managed to get her feet back under her. The pain was already starting to fade, thank - whatever you thank now that it seems a bit counterintuitive to thank the Omelet - but its fading sting was a numb reminder of how ridiculous her girly weirdness was that this was something she had to overcome in order to do what she needed to do. But whatever, she tried to hide through her face flushed with embarrassment. For once she was lucky she wasn't a boy right now, she thought - once again blushing with self-consciousness that a girl like her should know all she did about boyey weirdness - or she probably would have been down there much longer. Eggs could come at the most inconvenient of times, but this could happen anytime.
Em turned her focus back to Queen Omelet who looked back at Em, wincing away in regret of what she had just done. "I know why you're here," the Queen said, "I understand now. I surrender," there was such a fragility in the Queen's voice it took Em off guard.
Em stood still, taking a moment to gather her thoughts.
Finally, she took a breath, "Listen, I'm not here to do anything to you, I want to help you. I know what you're feeling, and... I want to be here for you."
Queen Omelet's eyes filled with tears. "You could never understand. Everything I stand for, everything I love... It's all genocide." She couldn't keep the cracking out of her voice at the last word, she was a queen, but she no longer cared.
"I know I can't understand," Em admitted, sitting down next to her, "But I do know what it is to lose yourself. When I set on my journey, I had a chance to experience things I had never done before, touch new places, feel new things, I felt so in touch with the world around me and I felt so much at peace." Her eyes drifted off, "But then it ended, all of it, in more pain than I could imagine, everything wonderful I had felt had just been a prelude to the worst experience I could've ever imagined." She paused, trying not to think that even now she was preluding to her next egg. She took a breath and started again, "When I set out on my journey, I wanted to discover that there was more to me than just eggs. But in the end, I laid one anyway, nothing I could do could stop that from happening. I thought that's who I was, all I could ever be..." She took a breath, "But over time, I found myself again." She sat another moment then looked at the Queen, "I know it's hard, but there are things out there more important than eggs, I feel it inside... I know it."
Because she too felt a life inside her, deeper than just the egg, but within the egg, that special spark inside that could not be replaced, that "more important" she could feel it now within her love for her child, the same kind of love everyone deserved. Em took a breath, "It's not what's happened or what you've lost that matters, it's you, you are worth more than all of it."
The Queen's breath caught,_ And Who am I?_ she whispered to herself.
She thought of all the Breakfasts she'd had in the Pavilion, she remembered all the times dragons had eaten together, happy, laughing and bonding over their favorite of meals...
"I just wanted to share with the rest of the world what we had."
And with that, Queen Omelet broke out into tears again, deep heavy sobs.
And as she did so, Embryo stood by her side, holding her talons for a long time as the tears washed her broken Soul clean.