A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Shattered Lives

I wasn't sure what time it was, must have been about three or so in the morning. Hunter burst through the door in a panic, waking everyone up. He ran straight into Shadow and Nina's room, who booth quickly ran after him.

“What's going on?”, Adelind asked yawning and still half asleep.

“I'm not sure”, I replied, “stay here, I'll go check it out.”

I slipped on a pair of tan fatigues and ran out of the barracks. No sooner had my snout reached the air than a heavy, metallic smell flooded my nose and almost made me double over. The stench was almost overpowering. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but I certainly wasn't going to take a sniff to find out. For some reason, the smell was all too familiar, like I'd smelled it only days ago.

As I started down hill, I noticed several dragons darting for the hatchery. I also noticed the closer I got, the stronger the smell got. That set of more alarms than I had the mental capacity to count. I knew what had happened before I even got there, and my getting there confirmed what I already knew.

The eggs in the hatchery had been crushed. I recognized the smell from when all of my kids were born. There were at least six or seven pairs of mated dragons outside the hatchery, all of them, and in specific the mothers, were sobbing to one another so bitterly it made me feel gulity...that my kids were still alive. It was the most vile feeling I'd ever had. I saw Nina sobbing just feet from the door, I didn't see Shadow around. I also saw the hatchery guardian Mark. He was laying in chains just feet from Nina, his forepaws covered in blood and he was smiling sickly.

At that moment, I wanted to walk over and rip him apart, but I restrained myself, I was more worried about Nina. I walked up to her and nudged her. She looked at me through her tear filled gold eyes and threw herself into me, her crying increasing. I sighed and hugged her tightly as Shadow walked out, his cheeks were red and there was smoke pouring out from between his barred teeth.

“Oh no”, I thought, “Shadow don't you even think about it.”

“He did this!”, Shadow shouted, “he killed my cubs and I'll kill him for it!”

Before I could even think of letting Nina go, Shadow was in the air and had bashed into Mark. They rolled for a few seconds and Shadow was instantly up again and lunging, Mark's back leg collapsed under my friend's strike.

“I”LL KILL YOU YOU BASTARD!”, Shadow screamed.

He reared back to strike again but this time I bashed him into a wall and pinned him. Shadow squirmed like a squid trying to get out from my grip, but he wasn't having much luck.

“LET ME GO!”, Shadow howled, 'I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!”

“Shadow”, I said, “If you don't stop this then I WILL crush you, do you understand me!?”

“YOUR DEAD MARK!”, Shadow screamed.

Shadow struggled and fought to free himself. I countered by sinking my claws as deep into his skin as I could and pushing down, “Shadow, I will crush you if I have to, calm down.”

“Just so you know Shadow!”, Mark said loudly, “I took great pride in ridding you of your eggs!”

“Shut up Mark!”, I shouted, “or I will tear you apart.”

I knew that something was out of place here. I didn't know what it was, couldn't figure it out at the moment, but I sure did feel it. Before I could do anything, Shadow slashed my face with his razor tipped tail and sent me reeling. I could feel the blood running down my muzzle and one eye went cloudy.