Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 11: For the Dancing and the Dreaming [Part 1]

-This one will have a few time-skips, so the chapter isn't extremely boring. Due to the nature of this chapter, it will be longer than the previous ones, and it will have a lot of thinking. I'm sure those of you who watched HTTYD2 can figure out what the 'nature' of this chapter is just by looking at the title.

This will be a two-part chapter focusing entirely on Aurora's POV for obvious reasons. Also, look out for hints spread throughout part one and two that sort of give foreshadowing for future chapters. I can't tell you what they're hinting at 'cuz that would ruin the fun!

Also, chapters 11, 12, and 13 will be more 'fluff-focused.' In other words, the growing relationship between Aurora and Myrkr—we all knew that was going to happen. For those of you who aren't interested in the romance-ish stuff: I'm sorry, but it won't last forever. For those of you who DO like romance, well, here you go!

-NFD

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I was struggling for breath now, unable to shout for Dad anymore, and my sprint had mostly turned into a stumbling trot. I wasn't used to this much physical work, but I hadn't expected Myrkr to be so heavy either. I was really out of shape, wasn't I?

My throat felt raw and dry from panting so hard, my legs felt like stones, and my chest hurt, but I wasn't going to give up on Myrkr. He was too important to me to let him die without pushing myself to my physical limit. I'd already expended all of the magic that I could spare in forcing my body forward, so that wasn't an option anymore.

Come on, Myrkr. Just a few more steps. Hold on...

Those few steps felt like an eternity, but I made it around a dense thicket and into the small clearing next to the pond. I spotted Dad and Splinter talking to each other, the former pacing anxiously. "Dad..." I whimpered breathlessly, barely audible.

It was almost as if Nana Moon was smiling down on me; Dad just happened to glance in our direction. "Aura!" He shouted, running the rest of the way toward me with a horror-stricken face. 

"H-Help," I wheezed, collapsing where I stood with a breathless moan. "Myrkr... help..."

Dad finally noticed Myrkr's body laying over me, his eyes widening to their fullest. "Holy crap!" He barked, quickly and carefully lifting Myrkr's limp body and placing him on the ground next to me. Blue light immediately began flooding his wounds as Splinter rushed to her son's side with a horrified whimper.

His legs, shoulders, and back were all sliced open in numerous places, many still leaking blood. The worst parts were his throat and underbelly, which were clearly abused the most thanks to their softer scales. His flanks and face were sunken in as if he had been starving for weeks, giving him a ghastly appearance. I could see the bones in his body with frightening detail due to how starved he seemed, especially the fractures in all four of his legs—no doubt to prevent him from running away.

It hurt a lot to see him like this, much more than I had expected. I couldn't tear my eyes off of his broken body. Even as the surface wounds closed and left behind only scars, the pain in my chest didn't fade. I watched with tears in my eyes while Dad used the remainder of his magic to set the shattered bones in his legs in their rightful places.

He shakily lifted his forepaws off of Myrkr's still bloody form, his body trembling from fatigue. "I couldn't fully heal his legs," he said to Splinter after a few deep breaths. "T-They'll need to finish healing on their own. No walking until then."

"Thank you," she whispered, her nose buried into the base of Myrkr's neck, tears leaking from her closed eyes. "B-Both of y-you."

"Aura," Dad murmured shortly. "Come with me." I managed to stand on my exhausted paws with his help, leaning on his unsteady form to walk toward the pond. He gently laid me down in the shallow part of the water, using his forepaws to rub the blood out of my hide. The water around me started to turn red. "What happened?" He asked quietly.