Wings of Fire: Dragons, Steel, and Pom-Poms

VI - Aftermath and Lingua

>In the waters beside a large scavenger Den_

Mako floated with only her eyes just above the surface and stared with horror at the scene that had just played out. Reverberations from the sky explosions were still echoing back from the hills up the land. She and the dragonets were a good distance away from the swarm of strange boats floating around, but still close enough to easily see what happened above the shore.

A small group eight or so of NightWings had appeared from low-hanging clouds over the den, which was confusing enough in of itself. What were NightWings doing here? What did they want with a scavenger den? They were not involved in any way with the War, and went to the pains of never revealing the location of their kingdom, or indeed themselves, to project that fact. That was common enough knowledge amongst all read dragons.

At first, she would admit that she was a little bit disappointed at their appearance. The reclusive dragons clearly intended to burn the den, and probably the swarm of 'boats' in the water as well. Which would obviously mean that she and her pupils wouldn't get the chance to observe them.

While the declaration she had made earlier to the dragonets that the monster-chasing quest turned scavenger-watching trip would entail homework was indeed a means of exacting a small amount of revenge on them; She was also serious that it would have been a benefit to their collective education.

After all, not many dragons got to, or rather even bothered to, observe a scavenger Den in its natural, non-panicked state.

But unfortunately, it would seem as though that opportunity would not come to fruition.

She wasn't going to lose sleep over it though. scavengers were still just pests, after all.

But then something happened that she just might indeed lose sleep over.

The sky around the diving NightWings had suddenly exploded.

Mako winced as the leading dragon's wing was torn asunder, and they plummeted shrieking to the forest below.

She had the place of mind to shield the dragonets from the awful sight by ordering them underwater, as an inexplicable flying creature dove from the sky and did something to another dragon that sent them spasming down to the ground below. While all dragons were accustomed to the sight of blood and gore at a young age, Mako didn't think that they needed to see other dragons dying like that.

She was glad she got them all underwater before another one of the NightWings was violently eviscerated by another blast, and she nearly lost her stomach. She had never imagined that a dragon could die like that.

When she looked back, the sky explosions had stopped. All the NightWings were dead. Ripped apart in midair less than five minutes after they had appeared.

The three dragonets all resurfaced once they had detected the end to the continued smoky blasts. They collectively gasped, no doubt spotting the horrible flying thing that had turned back and was flying over the swarm of massive boats.

"What is that?" She heard Clam ask.

"What happened?" Said Oyster.

Mako took a few moments to even register their questions, much less formulate answers.

"The... The NightWings were killed. I think the scavengers on the boats somehow summoned explosions onto them. I don't know what that buzzing thing is, nor do I really even know exactly what happened."

"The scavengers killed the Nightwings? How?" Oyster whispered fretfully.

"Well... they did attack them." Clam replied.