Realizing Death Is Near...

Them kids.

Based on a True Story.

A Wing of Fire Horror AU: Gifted Curse.

Before the Scorching, 13,000+ years ago.

Direwolf rose during a desperate age when IceWings were starving and their lands were dying. He sought out the Great Ice Dragon, the ancient power that shaped their tribe long before any written record. In exchange for devotion and service, he received animus power strong enough to pull a dying kingdom back from the edge.

The gift twisted him. He stopped seeing the Ice Dragon as a god and started seeing himself as one. He built a cult around his new identity. Dragons lined up to worship him. Wealth piled at his feet. He claimed mates as possessions. His power fed his ego, and his ego drowned out every trace of humility he once had.

The Great Ice Dragon watched it happen and refused to tolerate a pretender stealing worship that had been theirs since the Icewing's birth. The punishment was merciless and straightforward. Each animus spell Direwolf cast ripped away a part of his soul. The more he used it, the more he hollowed out. His body bled without reason. His mind cracked. His instincts warped until he staggered through his own halls half-conscious, driven by hunger, violence, and a need to destroy anything that still breathed.

The cult that once worshiped him learned to fear him.

The children he sired learned to hide. When he finally lost the last pieces of himself, they banded together and ended him before he tore the entire tribe apart.

The curse never died with him. Every descendant who inherited their animus spark inherits the same doom.