Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 16: Recrudescence

-Here we are at the beginning of Vaskr's/Stormfly's story arc! Their arc will be shorter than Auroon's/Aurora's arc. This arc starts a little over a season-cycle before the last chapter, back to just after the family left home behind.

This arc will have references to the first arc that some of you will catch. For example, some islands might be the same or specific events that have an uncanny resemblance. 

If you have any questions, let me know. I don't believe in stupid questions. Otherwise, enjoy!

-NFD

~~~

"Look at the bright side," Astra crooned. "You don't have to worry about being alpha or worrying about abusive dragons."

"We don't have a home!" I hissed. "We were useless against those things, and they're hunting us!"

She narrowed her eyes. "Panic isn't going to help you; it's only going to scare the little ones. Do you want that?" 

I stopped pacing, making an effort to calm down. "No," I muttered. "Of course not."

"We're the adults here. We need to be strong so that the kids don't become afraid. We need to look like we know exactly what we're doing. Moon doesn't count as an adult; she's too immature." She flinched. "Moon, get out of my head!"

It all happened so fast; dragons started disappearing from the nest, more and more vanishing every night, then the nest had gone totally insane, running around as if their tails were on fire and aimlessly attacking anything in sight. Nothing I'd done made any difference. It was almost like there was an unknown sickness that caused fear and disorder in anyone it touched. It was incredibly stressful trying to maintain order.

Then, one day, I heard the frighteningly familiar shrieks in the air, instantly waking me up. Impossibly, there were Scoots and things of blank darkness attacking every dragon in the nest. The monsters didn't kill anyone, but many of our dragons turned against friends and families with eyes that glowed with white light. 

I didn't want to risk my life for the nest, not when they treated my daughter and son so terribly, and especially not after Anari had lost her life saving me. At least, I assumed she had lost her life; she had told me to escape and save the kids, so I obeyed and flew as fast as possible back to the den without looking back, gathered everyone, then immediately fleed from home in a random direction. A large, dark, nameless thing had pursued us, got a hold of Shadow, and pulled her off Moon's back.

Oh, man, that was the mistake of a lifetime.

After a thoroughly terrifying display of Moon's fury, none of the other monsters or Scoots dared to come anywhere close to us. We escaped without any further incident, though the guilt of leaving Auroon and Aurora unaware of our disappearance and leaving Anari to possibly die weighed heavily on my mind. 

I returned two nights later to a nest void of any dragon life and air that caused fear to bloom in my chest. Inside the den, I had smelled Auroon and Aurora, telling me that they were there very recently, but not where they went. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long since the fear-air was getting to my head. I just hoped they would be safe...

"Stormfly," Astra warbled, worried. "You're stressed; you need to rest."

I shook my head to dispel those disturbing thoughts. "I'll be fine."

"No, you won't," she insisted. "Let's head back." I sighed and reluctantly obeyed.

Our chosen shelter was a deep cave within a mountainside on an island covered with sharp rocks and forests. For some odd reason, fish were scarce around this island, so we were forced to get most of our food from land-prey. It wasn't ideal, but it had worked for the past three nights so far.