Prologue[]
Morningrise looked down, at the small MudWing in front of him, sleeping on the ground. A veil, far too big for it's tiny head was draped over it, a golden ring barely on one of it's dragonet talons. It was so tiny, so helpless. But she deserved it. She deserved every bit of it.
The mudwing looked up, and chirped at him. It's eyes were grey and cloudy, marked with a permanent stupidity and colorblindness. It's brown scales were dull, like the dirt of the path. Other nightwings were crowding around the scene, staring at the tiny thing, asking questions like, "Why is there a mudwing here," and "Does it have a name?" Morning stepped back into the crowd, hiding among them. He looked left, then right, scanning the crowd for faces. The only one was a greenish nightwing, he couldn't remember her name, staring at him with disgust and horror.
He stared back calmly, and muttered, under his breath, "Forget my last enchantment." She blinked, shaking her head, and her face formed to the crowd's, filled with confusion, no way of knowing. She looked around, and started to call out, call out for someone, but her voice was obscured by the group's.
Morning turned, and slowly slunk away from the crowd. He left the tiny grey MudWing, confused and scared within the crowd of NightWings. He wasn't sure what happened to it, but he didn't care. It didn't matter anyway. There was nothing more he wanted with that filthy dragon. Morning spread his wings, strong and powerful, and flew away, listening to the crowd as they slowly faded away.
Chapter 1[]
Nightgazer, by all standards, was a typical dragonet. Sure, her family was considerably more wealthy then the standard nightwings', from generations of work and trade and not breathing volcano smoke, but her friends didn't care. They still ran around on the weekends they were off from school, sharing lunches, harassing the sleeping RainWings, and just being the typical obnoxious dragonet.
On this typical morning day, Night woke up early, sneaking out of the half-built house, stealing a handful of jewelry from her mother's "forbidden box" (if Night could get caught), and running through the village to the Tree. The Tree, as creatively as it was named, was a very old rain forest tree, massive in size, and with this absolute monster of a crack running through it, from top to bottom, like the legendary Darkstalker had ran one of his giant claws through it. (No, Night never met Darkstalker, but the older dragons would never shut up about his return and inevitable defeat. Although Night doubted they ever even saw him) The crack was so large, Night and her group of buds could all sit in the open trunk and still have enough room for books, trinkets, a food stash, and room to play scales. It had several platforms set into it, by a few of the older dragonets, creating multiple levels, enough to be a dragonet paradise. Who wouldn't want to be here?
When she arrived, there were already three of her closest friends on the second level; Volcanic, Soulbreaker, and Leaf. Leaf probably wasn't her real name, but she never spoke, couldn't write, and was always green like a leaf. So that's what all the dragonets called her. Night still liked her though. She always had good fruit and never stole any of Night's stuff. Night didn't like Volcanic though, she always stole Night's stuff and never returned it, but they were still friends.
Night flapped her wings and scrambled onto the platform. Her friends were playing scales, where a set of stones, marked with symbols, were used to win prizes from other dragonets. One of the older dragonets had learned it from their parents, and now no one would play with them unless the other dragonets weren't offering anything. Soul threw down one of his stones while looking up, and the other two dragonets gawked at his move.
"That can't be allowed!" Volcanic cried, and reached for her prize, which was a pile of nuts, but Soul saw what she was doing and slammed down on her talons, and Volcanic cried out in pain. Soul reached out and pulled in all of his prizes, leaving enough room for Night to throw her fistful of jewelry onto the platform. The other dragonets were immediately distracted by the pile of shinnies.
"Hi guys, I got a good bet this time, and I'm going to win!" Night had been watching some of the older dragonets play scales, and she was confident she could win this time. Leaf picked up one of the pieces of jewelry, which was a pretty black earring, with an almost glowing blue gemstone in it. It had a strangely large hook on it, like someone wanted to bolt it to their ear and have it never come off. Leaf slowly turned black like the earring, letting her underbelly turn the vibrant blue to match.
"Alright, you're on, Nightgazer." Soul said, swiping up the stones in a pile. He picked them up again, and sorted them into the stack. Night took her spot on the hard wooden floors of the platform. She shoved her stolen jewelry into a pile, and lifted up a gorgeous pearl necklace she saw on Grandma before she died, and placed it into the center, excitedly making her bet. She was going to win this time. There was no way to loose! Soul smiled smugly, and shoved his pile of nuts to the center. Volcanic sided with Soul, watching the pile with great excitement. Night could feel the Leaf's breath on her side, tense and sharp.
The board was set. One glittering necklace from Night, a pile of nuts from Soul, two dragons, staring, ready for a battle to the death, to turn the stones of the pile and beat the other. Two spectators eagerly watching, waiting to cheer and boo at the plays in this intricate game of scales. Nightstreaker looked up, staring into the rainforest green eyes of Soulbreaker, and he stared into her ocean blue. Night nodded, and Soul extended one black talon, reaching for the first stone in the neatly stacked pile, holding it up for him to see. Night bit her lip, and...
"Ey! Scales aren't for you kids, gimme my deck back!" A large, dark-colored RainWing, one, who by her squawking voice and giant arm as she swept the pile, must have been Glamorous, the one and only. Glamorous, who Night had figured out was a RainWing-NightWing hybrid, technically owned the deck, but was always too lazy and ignorant to take it back with her. She was one of the older dragonets, only two years older then Night and her friends, but easily much larger, and certainly wider. None of the smaller dragonets liked her, or many others of the larger dragonets. They always stole the stones, games, food, and upper platforms, hogging them for themselves despite the fact that Night's friends found it first. At least they didn't kick them out of the tree. Glamorous shoved Soul to the side and grabbed half of his fruits in one giant talon. She flew up to the higher platforms, leaving the dragonets with no stones.
"Awwwwwww, it was going to get gooood." Volcanic complained, throwing her head back in annoyance. Leaf picked up the pearl necklace, and let her colors match the rosy pearls. Soul angrily collected his pile, and counted it, checking to see what Glamorous stole. Night sighed, rather upset that she didn't get to play, and she sat back, picking the dirt of her talons. It felt like someone had opened up a moldy orange, it's fumes ruining everyone's fun.
Volcanic muttered for a bit, then asked, "Anyone know where Clumsy is?"
Night looked up, and growled, "Stargazer has a name."
"Yeah but he's Clumsy," Volcanic replied, half-caring.
Night wanted to reply, when something hit the tree's truck with a painful Thunk! Immediately, a familiar voice called from below, as if he hadn't just got brain damage from slamming headfirst into a tree.
"Guys! Guys Guys! Guys! Guys!" Star cried, clambering awkwardly to the top of the platform, turning to glance at the dragonets, "I found something super-duper-epically cool! You've got to seee!"
Volcanic groaned, "I swear, if it's another rabbit, I will-"
"No! No! It's MUCH cooler. It's the coolest thing every, come oooooon!" The tiny green dragonet grabbed Soul's arm and pulled him forward, trying to get him off. Soul begrudgingly went alone, hopping off the platform. Night looked up, and saw Glamorous looking down at the dragonets. Night pulled in her pile of jewels, threw a couple necklaces over Leaf's neck, who started to poke at them in awe. Night slid on some oversize bracelets and a ring, then scooped up the rest of her jewelry, which was only a few earrings, and followed Star. Leaf hopped down after her, and Volcanic quickly joined once she realized she was going to be left behind.
The four dragonets wandered through the forest, seemingly for hours. Star, refusing to let go of Soul's arm, Leaf, turning the many colors of the jewels she wore, the bracelets becoming heavy on Night's arms, and Volcanic complaining the entire time. They trekked through unfamiliar forests, and Night wondered how far Star would go to wander.
Eventually, the group reached a clearing. It was a space in the forest, with soft grasses, and pretty flowers, scattered throughout this small area. In it's center, obscured with vines and plants, was a box. It was a large box, larger than all four dragonets put together. It was made of stone, a pale grey stone, bleached by years of sunshine. It had cracks running up it's impossibly old sides, any markings it could have bore were long gone. It's lid was askew, recently moved, from the fresh-cut ends of the vines that had been holding the lid in place.
"A box? Is that really what you brought us to see?" Volcanic complained, as Star ran up to the lid, pushing it over.
"Of course not! You've got to see what's inside!!" Night curiously approached the box, looking up it's vine covered sides, looking for a marking of some kind. She scaled the vines, putting her bracelets and rings to the side, and looked inside.
Inside the box was a giant dragon's skeleton. The bones were huge, this dragon could have been more then a hundred years old when they died. It had a floppy, rotting sun hat covering the talons. Any flesh remains had long since rotted away, leaving plants to strew the corpse, like a second body. It looked peaceful, much more peaceful than dead Grandma ever did.
"EWWWwwww is that a body?!" Volcanic cried, making a face. She looked at the skeleton like the thing was covered in maggots (which it wasn't), looking down at it, on the stone edge. Soul sighed, and a smug look crossed his face.
"You'll be a skeleton too," He said, causing Volcanic to swat his snout, unbalancing her, causing her to fall off. Night wanted to laugh, she totally deserved that. Star looked down at the skeleton, pushing the massive, thick skull side to side.
"It can be pretty," he said, quietly. He looked at Night and asked, "Can I have a piece of jewelry?" Night knew Star wasn't much of a thief, he was too bad and kind to do it well. So she tossed him an earring, the blue and black one with the thick padlock on it. He smiled, and reached down, placing the earring where the ear of the dragon would be.
Then all hell broke loose.
Chapter 2[]
As far as Night knew, dead bodies don't move. Not the dead meals her father brought, not the dead mouse she killed, and not her dead grandmother. But when Star dropped the earring in the space of the skeleton's long-gone ear, the entire skeleton shuddered. Night leaped back, knocking Leaf off the ledge, and stared at the box in horror.
Like some cursed spectacle, the skeleton rose from the box, shrinking, flesh forming over the bones, plants falling to the side of it. Muscle could be seen wrapping over the bones, that turned paler and paler, as if it wasn't terrifying enough. Scales started to form over the newly-grown flesh, first brown, brown like the earth, then black, black as coal, black as the deep ocean, black as the night sky. Stars came to life on the undersides of the wings, as membrane grew over them. The figure fell forwards, talons pressed to their eyes, hunched over the box. Night could hear Volcanic yelling somewhere, and Leaf's arm clutching her, pressing into her scales.
The transformation stopped, from a skeleton hundreds of years old, to a NightWing, one who wasn't as big, smaller, with deep blue scales. They moved, shifting their talons away from their eyes, opening grey-ish blue eyes. Dull. They stared at their surroundings, left and right, thin slits moving over the dragons. The glittering blue sphere stopped on Night, and she felt her body freeze in fear, like a mouse in the claws of a cat.
The NightWing suddenly sprang to life, launching themselves out of the box, knocking over the sides of it. The landed in front of Night, staring at her. Leaf jumped up, fanged bared, but the NightWing smashed her little face to the side with one giant talon. Night tried to back up, to get away from this thing, this undead dragon. But she wasn't fast enough.
Stone cold talons wrapped around her throat, lifting Night of the ground and into the air. pressing her to a tree. She tried to flap away, beating her tiny wings uselessly in the air. She looked down, and came face to face with the NightWing. A scar covered their left eye, pinkish in color, but the grey-ish eye was still working, like a dying flame. But the other eye was alive, glittering blue like the ocean had been set alight, writhing within in this dragon's eyes. The dragon stared at Night, like a predator, who had spotted their prey.
“What year is it?” They asked, calm, their voice deep like thunder, but soft as the leaves.
Night squeaked, confused and terrified. “Y-year?”
"YEAR dragonet, how long has it been since the Scorching?" The dragon roared, sending ice through Night's spine, and she stammered, "5-5032," somehow pulling the number from her memory. The NightWing dropped Night, and she hit the ground painfully. The NightWing was turning away, sifting through the pile of jewelry at the base of the box, grabbing a gold ring and sliding it on. The dragon picked up the rotting sun hat, put it on, and with one last look, flew away with powerful wing strokes.
Chapter 3[]
Night could only remember the memories back as blurry and filled with screaming. She ran face first into the door, shoving it open, still crying.
"MOM!! MOM!! HELP!!" She screamed, running into support pillars and half-finished walls like a madman, causing a dragon working there to jump and dance to avoid stepping on the dragonet. She was terrified, tears streaming down her face.
"Night? Night?! What's wrong?" Her mother glided down from the upper floors, grabbing Night firmly and holding her close to her chest. "Calm down, sweetie, shhhh, tell me what's wrong."
Night stopped trying to run, and panted, shaking like a leaf. She managed to stop hyperventilating, and said, "There was this skeleton in the forest, and it came to life, and it attacked me, and it asked the year, and it flew away, and-"
"Slow down, tell me what happened. From the beginning." Her mother turned Night's head, to look at her. Night's older brother stuck his head out of his room, his deep gold scales shining, dripping wet. The dragon working there, who had sandy scales, stared for a second, then turned to get back to work.
"M-me and my friends were wandering through the forest, and we found a skeleton, it was really old! and Soul put an earring on it-" Night started, leaning into her mother's comfort, slowly calming down, feeling a bit better.
"Just a second, Night- Goldwreath, can you go into my room and open up the large chest in there. You're looking for an earring. A black iron earring, shaped like a diamond, with a bright blue jewel set in it. It has a massive clasp on it. You can't miss it," She turned back to Night, looking down at her, "Continue."
"Then the skeleton turned into a NightWing! It grabbed me and asked what year it was, then it stole a ring and flew away." Night finished, hugging her mother's arm.
Her mother called, "GOLD! Find the heirloom ring!" and she looked down at Night again. "I see. I don't like that you stole our jewelry, and lost most of it, but that's not what we have to worry about now. You're alright." Night looked up at her mother, who looked worried.
Gold ran out of the room, looking down at his mother, "I can't find either, Mother." Night's mother sighed, and set Night down, who did not take off again. "Gold, can you tell your aunts and uncles that I need to talk to them at sundown? Tell them to meet at my place."
Night looked up curiously, but her mother had already flown to the upper floors, and walked into her room. Gold hopped down, and grabbed Night's arm.
"You caused this, you're coming with me." He dragged a confused dragonet out the house, and down the road. Night had to wriggle to her feet to avoid getting dragged on her rear the entire time. It wasn't far to Uncle Ironbolt's house, which wasn't anymore complete then Gold's and Night's. She could hear her 5 cousins yelling outside, probably arguing over stuff, again. As Night came up to the house, she could see her cousins fighting over some shiny thing, yelling and kicking and fighting. Gold walked past them, not caring, and knocked on the deep oak doors.
Flora, Night's Aunt, who was covered in reds and browns, answered the door, rubbing her head. The rainwing had a thick gold collar askew on her neck, and her pierced frill was drooping. Her forehead was creased with wrinkles, and had a permanent frown.
She looked down at the two dragonets and asked, "What do you want?"
Night bit her lip, but Gold replied, "Our mother wants to talk with you at sundown. Probably about an incident earlier today."
Flora's tail turned slightly white, and she uttered, "Oh no, what is it?"
Gold pulled Night forward, who was looking at the rosy-red flowers struggling in over-watered soil, and immediately came face to face with silver jeweled armbands, slowly looking up to a very, very exhausted RainWing, and Gold chided, "Ask my sister, she's the one who brought back skeletons or something,"
Aunt Flora looked down, staring at Night, who, struggling to spill the shortened version, "Skeleton got brought back to life."
The RainWing stared down at Night with confusion, but before Night could clarify, Gold dragged her off to the next relation. Night was forced down to waving at a confused Aunt Flora, as her brother dragged her away, listening to her cousins screams fade away.
Night once again rolled to her feet, to avoid getting dragged by her butt to the next place. The next place was much farther away, a pre-built mansion on the edge of the desert. The path to the place was long, through very wild rain forest and a few rain-night settlements. They stared at Night and her brother as they passed, hundreds of RainWings and NightWings staring at these two strange, unfamiliar dragonets trod through these run-down villages. (Maybe not that rundown, but Gold certainly complained it was.)
It was midday by the time Gold and Night reached the place. The land was huge, with a pretty garden, filled with flowers from the rain forest and a few, very exotic plants from another continent, or so she'd heard. The mansion was the size of a castle, at least, it was bigger than the Royal Pavilion. The thing was made with dark stones, but accented with pale marble, and every detail had been set with some kind of precious metal or gemstone. A few darker-colored buildings were on the area, they looked pretty well made, but were nothing compared to the circus of a mansion. Some strange dragons were in the massive spiraling garden, caring for the plants. They were green and brown, with leaf-like wings, who stopped to stare at the two NightWings. Night could only stare back, waving a little, as one waved back.
They came up to the door, an old door, one made of iron, carefully shaped and molded into two dragon patterns, who held the giant golden handles. Night knew it to be over a few hundred years old. Gold couldn't reach the knockers on the dragon's horns, that looked like piercings, so he opted to just knock on the door. Night got the chance to look around, to see the strange dragons slowly and subtly work their way to the front of the house, probably to see what was going on.
The door opened, to Night's Uncle, Steelbreaker. He looked down at the two dragonets, silver scales glittering behind his circle glasses. His chest was a warm, lava-like orange, with a silver necklace drooping on his neck. Another of Night's cousins, a small nightwing, who had speckles of orange on her wings, peaked out from behind Steel's legs.
Gold started, "I came here to tell you-"
"I know. Meeting, because your little sister saw a skeleton come back to life." Steel said, looking down at them. Gold stopped, looking down at Night, who stared back up at him. Night remembered that Uncle Steelbreaker could read minds. He'd probably just just seen everything Night did. Gold shrugged, and dragged Night back home, leaving Steel standing at the door, waving slowly.
Chapter 4[]
It was dark out. Night was staring out the window, worried that the strange dragon would show up again. Mother had told Father when he came home, and now, they were waiting for Uncle Ironbolt and Night's cousins to show up. Steelbreaker had shown up earlier, and Redfire, Night's cousin, was sitting behind Night, either staring out the window, or staring at Night. Red was weird. She never said a word, but unlike Leaf, she was silent in every way. Leaf was always active, playing scales, showing off her color-changing ability, and was just fun to hang around. Red, however, was just... so silent. Like a statue, but it turned to stare at you sometimes.
Night turned to look back outside. It was dark, only the slightest blue over the horizon. But orange lights filled the darkness between the trees, some from lamps, some from fire, giving a gentle glow to the night. Night saw movement between the lights, and Ironbolt, Flora, and the five hyperactive cousins stepped up to the house. One of them, Night believed their name to be Diamondseeker, ran up and plastered her face to the window, fogging it up. Night flinched, and Diamond yelled something, before running off again. She heard the door knocker, and decided to heard to the table early, dragging Red with her, who didn't complain, much less react.
The table was a long, quartz table, with ornately craved feet, and decorated with gold and sapphires. It could easily sit twenty dragons, and was so tall, Night's head barely stuck over it. She'd never been allowed to sit at this table, unless it was for super important meetings. Otherwise she always had to sit at the little table. Red sat down, sticking her head up as far as it could reach, and she still couldn't see over the table.
Aunt Snakecharmer, a deep indigo dragon with silver rimed glasses and a matching armband, was sitting at the head of the table, reading a thick, leather bound book. It had a medallion set in the center of the cover, and the golden word, "Heritage," marked at the top. She looked up when Night and Red entered, staring at them with her bright green eyes, and looked up even more when she heard the screams of Night's other cousins.
Uncle Ironbolt walked in, with one of the dragons on his tail, biting it and getting dragged across the floor. One of the dragonets hopped up on the polished table, trying to run across it, their talons skittering across the shiny surface. They ran-slid across the table, only to get gently swept off by Aunt Snake. Flora came in behind Ironbolt, rubbing her forehead, and holding two dragonets on her wings. Night tried to scoot away, hoping to put herself as far away from her cousins as possible. She stood up, and walked around to the other side of the table, sitting next to Snakecharmer, on the far side. Snake looked down at Night, but said nothing. Gold walked in, wearing a stupid thick gold necklace, the one he loved and paraded around the house on occasion before Mother would tell him to take it off. Speaking of Mother, she walked in behind Gold, looking around the room, before spotting Night.
Mother sighed, "Nightgazer, why didn't you wear your pearl necklace? I asked you to put it on." Night looked down. She may had neglected to tell Mother that she hadn't brought the jewelry back, that it was still out by the box. She just stared at the floor, as if it was the most interesting thing ever. Mother made an audible sigh, and sat down, next to Night, Gold next to her. Night looked up again, and realized almost everyone was wearing some fancy form of jewelry or accessory. Snake had her silver glasses, studded with deep black stones on the side, and a faint orange sash. All of the cousins were wearing some kind of jeweled collar, probably because regular necklaces would have flown off before then. One of them, probably Battalion, a slimy dark green dragonet with a frill that somehow went for miles, was crying about how he didn't like his collar, while Aunt Flora was trying to wrestle it off him, her gold necklace jangling on her neck.
Night felt a little awkward, but she looked down, not saying anything. She felt something cold touch her shoulder, and looked up. Mother had slipped of her silver armband and handed it to Night. Night took it and slid it on, feeling a bit better. The last two dragons, Father and Steelbreaker, had entered, Father sitting next to Gold, and Steel sitting next to Snake, taking Red with him, and putting her in between the two.
"Can I have everyone's attention?" Mother called, raising a talon. Flora and Ironbolt managed to get their dragonets to shut up, and Snake passed the Heritage book to Mother.
"So, I-"
"Wait," Flora said, curling in her talons. "This might be too... extreme for the dragonets. Are you sure you want to tell them this?"
Night felt a bit worried, looking up at her mother as she thought. She turned to Father, who nodded, and she said, "You're right. Night, Gold, can you wait in the other room while we discuss this?" Similarly, the other adults were shooing their children out of the room. Night wanted to groan in protest. She'd found the skeleton, saw it come back to life, why couldn't she hear?
"But mom-" Gold started, only for Mother to shush him, guiding him towards the door. Night unwillingly followed, not wanting to draw any more attention as she scampered out. She looked back, seeing the calm, collected face of Snake closing the oak doors behind them, with a bang.
Chapter 5[]
"They have been there for an HOUR, what's taking them sooooo long?" Titanium, a black and rainbow dragonet groaned, staring at the ceiling.
"I'm going to die of starvation!!" Another whined. This one looked like a full nightwing, like Uncle Ironbolt, but they had the facial proportions of a warthog. Night could never remember their name, so she called them Pig.
Gold didn't say anything, pacing back and forth in the main hall. Diamond and the other Diamond, Diamondminer, who was identical to Diamondseeker but half the size (and would scream if you called her Diamond 2), had their heads plastered against the wall, trying to hear what the adults were saying.
Battalion was yanking his collar, and moaning like Grandma would in flight, wriggling on the floor, his tears staining the floor. Red was under a dark ornate table, with a golden vase and red roses in it, just... staring. Somehow the table had more life than the stone cold gaze of the small dragonet under it. Night felt uncomfortable, sitting in the room fulled of idiots, whining dragons, and possible monstrosities. Oh, and a servant, a thin nightwing with dark silvery scales, looked to be on the verge of tears, watching the dragonets cry and whine, making a mess of the pretty marble walls and vibrant carpet.
Night shifted, feeling a shiver run up her spine. She sighed, and stood up, causing Gold and Diamond 2 to look at her, but Titanium, Pig, and Batt kept whining. Night trotted past them, going to the railingless stairs, starting to walk up them. Gold must've figured that Night was going to her room, so he ignored her, continuing to pace on the floor. Diamond 2 plastered her head to the wall again, shifting to a darker blue color. Night walked up the unfinished wooden steps, listening to them creak slightly under her step. She could see below the house, into the spiraling stairs down to the chambers. Night had been in the chambers once. They didn't have an pretty jewels, but the beds were soft, and there were many tools and foods. She also met one of the workers who slept down in the chambers. He was pretty nice.
She continued up the stairs, but she didn't turn into her room. Rather, she went into her mother's room, and looked around. The room was dimly lit, the dark walls and deep red sheets on the bed swallowing the light up. The silver frames of the bed and the walls only reflected slivers of light. The brightest things had to be the drawers, and the dim torch glowing from the giant closet. It felt dark, and a little cold. She could still hear the dragonets whining from outside, but it was muted, like they were all underwater.
Night walked up to one of the dressers, looking at the array of silver lined handles and frames. One of the drawers was sticking out of the dresser slightly. Night opened it up. There was nothing inside it, just the unpainted bottom of the dresser. Night tried to shut it, but it just wouldn't go. She tried again, slamming the drawer a bit harder. Again, it didn't go. Night pulled the drawer out, to try and put it back in again. But something else fell down, making a clunking noise against the bottom. She set the drawer down, and fumbled around for the object in the back.
The box was made out of wood, but it had been painted a deep red, with a rusty golden clasp. It was a large box, as long as Night's arm, but not very heavy. She set it down, brushing off the dust on it. It bore no markings, no name. She spun the box around, and shook it a little. There was no noise, no thunk. She opened the box.
Inside was a glittering jewel knife. The hilt looked like it was made of cloth gold, wrapped carefully around the curved base. The blade glittered like it was fire, the edges ignite with the colors of the sun. The sides were bluer than the sky, fading to the orange. It glistened in the light, perfectly contained within the box, untainted by dust. The edge was laced in nicks and cuts, adding pale strips of white to the edge. It had a thin film of brown on the edge, flaking off.
Night reached for the blade, tantalized by the glittering colors. They were simply beckoning to her, calling. She lifted the cold blade, tingling under her claws. She tilted it, letting the light reflecting over the sides. It tingled, prickling icily in her claws, like they had gone numb. The blade has some kind of strange power within it, one that whispered power into her talons, begging her to pick up the blade and wield it. This bejeweled blade of fire was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, commanding an aura of power. Drawing the small dragonet in, through some seemingly unnatural force, numbing her to the sounds of the outside world.
"What are you doing?" someone asked, jolting Night out of her gaze. She turned, looking to the doorway. Aunt Snakecharmer was at the door, examining the little dragonet, holding a shiny blade. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, the dark shadows hid her emotions. However, Night's little dragonet brain, now realizing that yes, she was just a tiny dragonet with a knife, short-circuited.
She tried to stutter, "I-I-I w-was..." trying to find some valid excuse for getting into sharp objects. It felt like three hundred tiny dragons running around her head while the entire thing was burning down. Maybe it was flooding. All Night knew was her mind was racing, but in circles and words.
Snake reached forwards and grabbed the knife from Night, the tingling feeling leaving, the beckoning fading away. Snake looked down turning the knife over. Now that it was out of her talons, Night felt bad. She looked down, staring at the ground.
"I-I'm sorry," Night murmured, refusing to look at Snake.
"You didn't know. Honestly I can't care less." Snake stated, turning and walking away. Night's eyes shot up, surprised, but Snake had already left.
Chapter 6[]
For all of her life, Night had nightmares. They never stopped, and never got any better, no matter what Night's current conditions were. If Night had no problems or troubles, they were just faceless monsters, chasing Night through tunnels with no end, and would howl and screech in her face when they caught her. They had gotten progressively more deformed and misshapen, howling in stranger cries. If Night was struggling with something, or there was something in her waking world, it would reflect back into hers.
So of course, Night was getting dragged down the halls by a half-skeleton dragon, with her only defense being a glittering knife that was covered in blood, begging her to stab the dragon. But when she did, the dragon would leak blue blood that filled the room and drowned Night in it. Then everything would fall and the skeleton dragon would grab her again, pulling her back into the tunnels.
Night woke up in a puddle of sweat. Her moss stuffed bed would never be the same. Night rolled off, hitting the floor with a thud. As many dragonet priorities would go, food was at the top of the list. The memory of dragon skeletons was already fading from her memory, as most of these terrifying nightmares did. What was strange, however, was the yelling and grunting coming from the foyer. Night padded outside, and instantly saw Mom and Dad fighting.
No, not in that sense, but in a much more violent, silent sense. The two dragons each had a simple iron spear, and were practicing jabbing, blocking, and swinging with them. At times they would frequently pause and go to a small book on a table. They fought in silence, only discussing their fighting during breaks.
Night padded down the stairs, and Mother turned, looking at her little dragonet. She smiled sweetly, "Good morning Nightgazer, there's food for you in the kitchen. Help yourself, but leave some for Gold."