Gloril - Tumblr Posts
they're girlfriends. i keep drawing them ican't stop
when you colorpick your girlfriend
Peril had told her a story, once. From some old geezer of a SkyWing, with a name Glory had forgotten less than a minute later.
Now, she's looping in ever closer spirals around a dragon whose touch could kill her, scales flitting in and out of the blue of the skies. Peril adjusts her wings in the wake of another one of Glory's circuits, her eyes still roving the skies above when Glory blinks into existence below.
"One of these days you're going to fly directly into me, and all I'll be able to do is say I told you so."
Glory doesn't respond with anything more than a flash of a grin, half distracted by piecemeal memories of that tale. It was about some dragonet that flew too close to the sun. Built wings out of wax because he didn't have his own.
She wouldn't mind it, she thinks as she inches closer, the heat radiating from Peril's scales not at all tempered by the wind. Let it scorch her wings and char her scales; she wouldn't want to go out any other way.
You guys knew this was coming
Glory x Peril fanart. First of all, I would like to apologise for thinking it was a crack ship. Also, I love it. This is inspired by @inspiredwriterstory’s fic idea, so go check that out. Also HAPPY LESBIAN VISIBILITY WEEK!
"I don't think it even knows we're here."
"Is it venomous?"
"I've lived under a rock most of my life, I wouldn't know."
...
"Do you think I could pick it up?"
"That doesn't sound safe."
"Hah, I'd like to see it try to hurt me."
...
...
"You know, I always thought you were a bit like a snake."
"I don't know, actually."
"You're a RainWing. Venomous teeth, slithery tail, and you move a bit like one. And you're dangerous and awesome and blazing, too."
...
"A cool snake, though. Not this one."
"Yeah, this guy's pretty lame, isn't he?"
...
"...What do you think he's do—moons, this is disgusting—hey! Stop laughing!—"
Peril wasn't sure how long they had been sitting here. She wasn't quite sure who had brought up melting the chain first, either.
She knew she could. It wouldn't be hard.
"We could leave, right now."
She wasn't sure who had said that first. Maybe they were both thinking it.
Glory wasn't usually this quiet, this still. Peril could see how tense she was, even as she draped herself across the marble tree. Glory looked like the prisoners in the arena. It reminded Peril a bit too much of cowering, but that didn't seem right. It wasn't at all like what she knew of Glory.
Still, she recognized the stillness that meant a dragon was doing everything they could to stop trembling, the muscles like a coiled spring and ready to run.
There was never anywhere to go.
Peril wasn't meant to be this still either. Her job was to be feared, and that meant stalking towards her opponent with a grin, goading them into fighting back, doing anything she could to make the fight entertaining. Anything to see Queen Scarlet nod in approval and declare her efforts thrilling.
She could melt the chain, and Glory could leave, and they'd vanish into the mountains, into a freedom Peril didn't dare to dream of.
Her talons were close enough that only another step would sever it. She didn't. Maybe it was because she was afraid. Afraid of being caught, as she had been every time she visited Glory. Afraid of the possibility the chain wouldn't melt, and their half baked plan would fall apart immediately. Afraid of what freedom meant.
She wondered if Glory was afraid too.
"It looks exactly like we left it."
All of it: the scattered scrolls Starflight abandoned, the broken stalactites from the struggles, the smoke signal that had long burned into ash.
Dune's body was gone; Glory didn't think about what happened to him.
Peril stepped in carefully after her, fumbling around errant scraps of paper. She brought a talon up to a torch in the wall, and it burst to life a moment later.
"It's... dreary." Peril's voice was slow, as if she was sounding out the word as she spoke it.
"That's one way of putting it! Six years wasted here. We ended up leaving because your mother was planning to kill me."
"Oh."
The following silence made Glory's stomach twist in a way she didn't feel like deciphering. She still didn't know how to talk to Peril, but perhaps that was just because she'd spoken to a total of seven dragons over the years. Peril was probably equally maladjusted.
She huffed out a breath, shaking out her wings before stooping to gather the scrolls. "Well, we're not going to get you reading by standing here. I don't want to spend any more time here than I have to."
That was why they were here, Glory reminded herself. Material to practice reading, to teach Peril some of what she'd been missing out on, maybe some kindling to vent her frustrations later.
She was already in the next room before Peril responded, voice so quiet Glory barely heard it.
"Thank you."
"Do all RainWings hate the rain this much?"
That earned Peril a scoff, one that meant Glory was amused, not annoyed. That was Peril's best guess, anyway, but she liked to imagine that she was getting good at interpreting all of the little huffs and eye rolls and flicks of the frill Glory liked to do. "I have no idea, but this is why we're never going to the rainforest."
"I thought it was because you were afraid I'd burn it down."
"Right, the rainforest burning down."
Peril giggled despite herself, the slight jolt to her momentum swinging her gaze towards the mountain range. Glory seemed to see the same thing, immediately darting towards the mouth of a cave in the cliffside.
She landed on the edge and immediately made her way in to get out of the onslaught. "Never thought I'd be this happy to be in a cave."
Peril settled down on the ledge a moment later. Now that she was no longer flying, she could hear the water sizzle away on her scales. "Is there enough room in there for two?"
Glory squinted into the darkness. "Yeah, I'd say so. There are some tunnels too..." she trailed off as she turned.
Peril blinked, waiting.
(She stood there in the rain, lit by her own scales, steam fanning up like dandelion puffs in the wind, when they drifted in through the skyhole and covered their scrolls in a delicate blanket of white. Beautiful. Was there any other word for it?)
Glory smiled, a soft and rare thing compared to how she usually liked to bare her fangs. "Come on in."
"Was learning how to fly hard for you?"
"What?"
"You lived under a mountain your entire life... there wasn't much room for flying, was there?"
"When we were smaller the space seemed bigger. More space to spread our wings."
"I can't imagine being kept from the sky for so long..."
...
...
"The sky's not that exciting. Too big and windy."
"Really? It's blazing is what it is! I have so much space, just look at the things I can do!"
...
...
"I don't think we were designed to fly upside down"
"It's not hard to do, I can teach you."
"...Sure."
...
"I'd like that."
"You know, I'm starting to think that I'm not very good at hide and seek."
The cactus studied Peril without judgment. That was nice of it. It looked very stately sitting there, despite how fluffy it looked. The desert wasn't too bad, the texture of sand familiar and the sky so open she felt like she could fly forever.
"You aren't going to find me by talking to a plant."
Peril jumped, then yelped; her snout bumped into the cactus—it was not as fluffy as it looked—the spines caught fire—
The fire was gone as quickly as it arrived, the cactus unperturbed beyond a patch of missing fluff. Peril raised her head, feeling not nearly as as dignified. "I'm starting to think you have an unfair advantage."
Glory snorted, her voice towards the right, Peril came up empty as she scanned the dunes. "You did well when you were hiding!"
"Burrowing under sand is the worst experience I've had in my life."
The cactus suddenly seemed a lot more judgmental.
"After the murdering, I guess."
"After the murdering," Glory affirmed, but she broke down into giggles a moment later, a tremor that shook her frame just enough to mess up the camouflage. Peril spotted the fluctuating landscape immediately, triumphant.
"Aha! There you are."
Orange eyes blinked out of thin air at her, narrowed. "Oh you planned this."
Peril grinned. "I would never."
Peril was clearly hesitant, stepping into the river. Her talons lingered over the surface before finally plunging in, followed immediately by a hiss of steam. Glory wasn't sure if she'd ever tire of the sound.
"I don't think I've ever seen so much water in one place." Peril murmured, looking out across the wide expanse of sluggish water as it winded away through the hills.
Glory nodded along, remembering the small stretch of river she had access to under the cave. It was always frigid, and she hated it. The time Webs got it in his head to teach them all how to swim didn't help. Like the rest of the cave, it held plenty of unpleasant memories.
"Careful not to evaporate it all," she said in response, shifting closer to the water's edge. Her reflection was a little murky, disturbed by Peril's ripples.
Peril tilted her head as she looked back. "Do you think I could do that?"
"Would definitely be impressive. Peril, the destroyer of rivers."
Peril laughed, allowing herself another step forward. "Do you want to come in too? It's different, but it feels kind of nice."
Glory hesitated, then batted away all her doubts a little too harshly. "Yeah, sure." This was not the river Kestrel had shoved her in or the one Tsunami splashed her from. Not the one where the blood and smell lingered for hours afterwards when they tossed food waste in.
Still, she braced herself for the prickly chill of the water as she dipped a talon in, only to jerk back. The lukewarm temperature that greeted her was somehow worse.
Despite it all, she found herself smiling. "I see what you're doing."
"What?" Peril's glance back was furrowed with confusion.
"Going to boil me like a frog in a pot?" Between her increasing giggles, she could tell Peril had no idea what she was on about. It only made her laugh harder.
She was okay. She could handle a little bit of water.