[Archived] NightGuard

Chapter 2: Petty Thievery

"Uh oh."

The small group of dragons was only a group of 4. The dragons almost resembled rocks, and some had moss growing on them. They looked very similar to a bat but if a bat were made of rock then that's what these dragons would look like. They stood extremely still, if you didn't know they were alive you would have thought they were statues.

"Look, we don't want an-"

Then the leader roared and spread its wings for intimidation. Well, it certainly worked because Control nearly dropped the Hobblegrunt skull he was carrying.

Delete roared back, and curled his tail around Control for protection.

"I think now would be a great time to leave." said Control.

Control quickly jumped on Delete and held on for dear life as Delete got a running start to take off. Control looked back to see the small group of dragons follow in pursuit. Luckily they weren't as fast as a Night Fury but they still flew as fast as they could to catch up to them.

Control had the skull cushioned in between his stomach and Delete's back, but it was starting to slip. Control tried using his knee to move it into a more secure location, he made it worse. Control unhooked one of his arms from around the night fury's neck and tried to prop it up. This worked but then he started slipping due to one arm hanging on. Delete sensing this, angled himself downward a little bit so Control could rearrange himself.

Control looked back on their pursuers to see they were gradually losing them.

"Hey we're losing them!"

Roo?

Delete looked back to make sure that they were, and launched forward determined to not let them catch up if he were to go slower. Delete stopped going up once they reached the cloud cover, and was now parallel to the clouds that he was flying above.

"So whaddya say bud? We go drop this off with the girls and go get some food?"

Aroo!!

"Well, you're gonna have find our way back because I sure don't remember where they are."

Delete sniffed the air, angled his ears a bit and then headed left. Control looked up to the moon to get his bearings on where Delete was taking them. Ok so the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, and Delete is headed towards the rising moon so we're going east. Is that were the girls are? Huh. I guess i should try to remember these things. Control thought.

It wasn't long before he saw an island come into view with a flickering light on it. Oh they set up a fire.

When they got close enough Albatross, the black and white StormCutter, flew up to them for inspection. At first Albatross thought it was a intruder but soon recognized Control's voice.

"Hey Albatross."

Albatross snorted and flew back to the clearing in which the temporary camp was set up. Delete followed and when Delete landed in the clearing, Control got off and quickly set down the skull. Abby was the first one to notice it.

"A skull? How is that going to feed us?" She scoffed.

"We're dropping it off so we can get food. Oh and while we're gone could you poke some holes in it and put some string through it?"

"Uhhhhh...."

"Delete wants me to use it as a mask."

"Ah."

Not waiting for any more conversation Control hastily jumped back on Delete and they flew off. And when they got far enough from base camp Control opened conversation.

"Ok so now where are we going?"

"...."

"Alright surprise then, that's fine."

Good thing Control wore black (or at least a dark gray) so he blended in with Delete when they were doing a raid. He knew that it was virtually impossible to see them coming, which was why Control started becoming nocturnal. But in order to raid they either found a fishing vessel or raided a island's docks. And the more often they went to an island the more destruction they caused to make it easier to steal. The brunt of the destruction was usually Watchtowers, and sometimes alarm systems.

Delete shook Control out of his thoughts by making a sharp angle downwards. When they were out of the cloud cover Control saw a pretty big island, it looked very populated by the looks of all the houses there.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean this one's pretty populated." Control whispered.

Delete shook this off despite the fact that he was right.

Delete flew low and close to the water to the docks and through the giant statues in front of the island. The closer Delete got, the more nervous Control got.

"Delete I don't think this is a good idea." Control tried turning Delete around but Delete ignored him.

"Delete!" Control hissed. "Turn around!"

By the time he finished they were at the docks. Delete landed stealthily and silently on the docks, making a few creaks as he did. Annoyed and nervous Control slipped off. He spotted a big fishing vessel that looked like it could feed them for a week or so.

"Over there." Control whispered

As Control covertly crouched his way over there. Delete followed, and being a dragon the floorboards creaked here and there due to his weight. Control paused when he heard the floorboards stop creaking behind him. He turned to see Delete and saw him sniffing around in some empty barrels then suddenly growl and slip silently into the water. When Control looked to see what had startled Delete, he saw a person patrolling the area, and he was almost upon him.

Control looked back to the barrels Delete was sniffing in earlier. I'm not hiding in there. But then realized it was either make a ungraceful flop in the water and alert the guard or get in the terribly smelly barrel and get food when the guard passed. Hel chose the Barrel. Control could see out of a tiny hole, speaking of tiny, the barrel was cramped with him in it.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

The guard's footsteps came near and then faded away after a small amount of time passed.

As Control started to climb out of the barrel smelling like fish, Delete raised his head out of the water.

"Yeah nice to see you too."

Delete scrambled up onto the dock, water streaming off of him.

"C'mon let's continue our raid."

"Aroo."

Control crept closer to the fishing vessel, but before he got any further he stopped. Delete bumping into him. It felt like someone watching him, Control looked up. At the top of the cliff where the dock was under, someone was watching him. Control blinked. When he looked again the strange person wasn't there anymore. Odd. No time to dwell on that, he had a mission.

When he got to the fishing vessel, he was relatively surprised to see that it was part empty except for 4 baskets of fish. He looked at Delete who looked at him in return. Control turned back, and walked over to the baskets, made sure it was full, grabbed one, walked over to Delete set it next to him, and climbed on. Delete took off picking up the basket and flew back to the camp.

By the time they arrived it was nearly morning.

Before waiting for Control to slip off, Delete dropped the fish basket and landed next to it. Control grabbed the basket and drug it to the fire. When Control was done he walked over to where Delete was napping and curled up with him, exhausted.