Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 68: Lost

"Vaskr? Vaskr, wake?"

Incessant nudging dragged me out of dreamland, which was unusually devoid of the usual nightmares that plagued me daily. Blinking my eyes open revealed none other than Nibbler's face, which looked worried. "Rrrgh... What is it, Nibbler?" I warbled groggily. As much as I didn't particularly like that my uncharacteristically nice dream was interrupted, Nibbler typically only woke me if she had a good reason.

"Take it! I-I have to stop her!" 

Nibbler shrugged and stepped aside, revealing Myrkr offering his egg to Mom, who looked utterly bewildered and uncomfortable. "Myrkr, I... can't take this. Just calm down and explain—"

"I don't have time to explain!" Myrkr shouted, much to my surprise. "Take care of m-my egg! Please! Aurora's in trouble!"

Mom's face turned grim, sharply turning her head to us. "Vaskr! Nibbler!" She called authoritatively. "Keep this egg warm!" We shared an uncertain look. Were we really allowed to do that? "Hurry!"

Surprisingly, Nibbler obeyed before I did. She rushed over to my sister's egg, which Myrkr reluctantly passed to her, then slowly made her way back to me with an egg in her jaws. Oh, boy...

"Ah, ah! You are not coming with me!"

My attention snapped back to Myrkr when he snarled in frustration. "I have to go!"

"Not in your condition," Mom denied sternly, her tail barring Myrkr's way to the exit. "You will only slow me down."

Myrkr looked about to argue further but shook his head hard instead. "Fine. Just hurry!" 

Mom slipped up and out without another word, moving much faster than usual. I didn't understand what was going on, but Myrkr was fidgeting restlessly, they talked about Aurora being in trouble, and there was a heavy fear scent in the air. What happened to Aurora? Despite my doubts about her motives, I was concerned.

Nibbler's warble pulled me from my thoughts, seeing her looking back and forth between me and Myrkr's egg, confusion evident in her features. 'What do I do?'

"Lay around it?" I guessed, unsure. I wasn't a female, so I didn't get any lessons about what to do here, but Mom always did that with her eggs. We could ask Myrkr, but he didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. "Just don't heat yourself up at all; I don't think that's good for it." Only Soulburners could handle that much heat.

Nibbler awkwardly did as I suggested, ending up with the egg against her chest, leaving a lot of it exposed. She stared at it, then blinked at me. 'Like this?'

I tilted my head in thought. "Hmm, I think Mom had it lower..." Then again, Soulburners produced more heat than average, so it was probably good that the egg wasn't held correctly. We didn't want to roast the poor thing. "Actually, that should be okay."

She stared at it for a moment. ~This feels weird.~

"It looks weird," I agreed. An egg looked very out of place with Nibbler. Still, it had to be kept warm somehow, and females were supposed to naturally give off the correct heat in the right body parts. Even though Nibbler probably supplied too much heat, holding the egg by her chest had less exposure, hopefully balancing it out.

"What's taking so long?!" Our musing was interrupted by Myrkr, who hadn't seemed to take his eyes off the exit since Mom left. It was difficult to tell what the problem was just by looking at him. He displayed signs of anger, worry, despair, and panic, all bundled together. Obviously, it had to do with Aurora, but why?

I looked at Nibbler, who met my gaze and hesitantly shook her head. She was right; it probably wasn't wise to ask Myrkr for answers right now. Whatever the cause, I had a bad feeling that our lives were about to take a turn for the worst.