Fragments of What Could Have Been (Request From _Kookie_716)

Fragmented

Dark blue and grey wings pumped the air in flight, dispersing clouds and soaring over the land.
Navy eyes scanned the ground below, looking for the familiar clearing within the forest. As slowly as she could, she descended from the sky, careful not to knock any of the trees by accident.

Once on the forest floor, she strained her eyes to see well. There was minimum light, making it always seem to be night but without a view of the stars and luminescence of the moon.

She lifted her scaled snout in the air and drew in the scents of the foliage. Scents of the closed moonflowers and fresh grass flooded her nostrils. Another smell caught her attention; dragons. She followed the trail of scent all the way onto a well-worn path that led her to home. On her way she passed a lush meadow filled with well over a hundred types of wildflowers with bees and butterflies, feasting upon their nectar.

A squawk in the distance from an adult dragon startled her back into reality. She lumbered into a loping run to her family. Long brown claws pierced the earth. Her feet moved faster. Her tail caught a thornbush and she winced in pain. She ripped it free and continued on.

As she grew closer, the calls became more coherent. "Fragment!"

She pushed herself harder, not trying to avoid the fragile flowers beneath her heavy paws anymore. Bursting through the thicket, she panted "I'm here!"

A great green dragon stood before her, muscles rippling under his scales. "Where have you been?" He demanded. Fragment lowered her eyes and head, avoiding eye contact. Her father raised her head back up with the tip of his tail. "I asked you a question." He growled.

Forced to look him in the eyes, Fragment felt her heart speed up in anxiety. "I was just stretching my wings." She wasn't lying. Her father glowered down at her "And where were you supposed to be?"

Fragment had no way out. "Learning how to be better." She locked her gaze at an owl hole in the tree behind him. Her father jerked her chin back toward him. His sharpened claws dug into her flesh between her scales.

"Now. Sit down and learn how to act like a true member of the Earth family." He whisked away across the ground and sat down on the dead tree stump he used as a teacher's pedestal. Fragment followed him at a brisk walk.

"Why should I accept you as a member of this family, if you cannot even heal things as simple as plants?" Her father held hostility in his gaze. Fragment leapt to her mud-brown feet, "Because I can be better! I'll do better!" She so desperately wanted to please her father. She wanted to reach her full potential.

"Very well." Her father paused. He looked around for an object to use. He darted off to find a dying tree sapling. He motioned her over.

He focused all his attention on the little sapling. Before her very eyes, Fragment saw the little tree regain strength in its stem and color in its leaves. He revived it.

"You see," He turned back to Fragment, "That is what an Earth dragon must do. What we were born to do." Fragment nodded. "You do not have the patterns of the wind and stars on your wings for no reason. You do not have branch-like horns for the fun of it. You do not have leaf patterned green scales atop your sky blue scales with brown, root-like feet for the aesthetics." Fragment felt pride blossom beneath her scales that her dad said that she at least looked like an Earth dragon.

"You try. Pour all your energy into making this tree stump flourish with moss. That's an easy task."

Fragment hesitated. Her father looked at her. "You surely can do even this. Unless you don't try."

That gave her the motivation to go and give it her all. She strode up to the tree stump and plopped down. She placed her feet on the stump and closed her eyes. She pictured how her power moved and what it looked like. She pictured it smothering the stump with moss. She flexed all the muscles in her body, hoping to squeeze out every last drop of power.

When she was sure she had it, she opened her eyes excitedly. Her father met her with crossed arms and a scowl. She looked down at the stump in silent, mental agony. There were only a couple leaves of moss on the dead, blackened stump.

Without taking one more look at her dad, she dashed off, the world blurry with tears.

Couldn't she do anything right? Her dad didn't even think she could fly right, for the sake of earth. She sprinted past the nest, past the wildflower meadow and back into the black forest. She unfolded her wings, and with great effort lifted herself across the clearing, and back into the now dusk sky.

Fireflies littered the tall grass below her, sparkling with all their bioluminescent glory. Bats flitted by, catching mosquitoes without a hitch. Fragment whooshed past it all, concentrating only on finding a place to hide before she crashed.

A small stream with a great, tall, and most importantly, sheltered, tree caught her midnight blue eye. She tucked into a dive and swooped down, landing meekly by the river bank.

She felt a rush of heat from all the activity and used her star speckled wing as a fan to cool her down. When she decided that wouldn't be effective enough, plunged her head into the emerald waters. Water bugs zoomed past, chased by silvery minnows. Underwater plants waved with the current and frogs blinked lazily. Big fish devoured the smaller ones with gusto and left no crumbs. Fragment jerked her head out the water and gasped for air.

The river seemed wide enough for the dragoness to lay down and give herself a cool-down. Carefully, she lay herself in the river bed, trying to shoo the lethargic frogs out of the way. The child water soaked through her scaled, shocking her.

Once she was done, she heaved herself onto the bank and crawled a little ways toward the tree. Her eyelids felt heavy and she curled into a ball of warmth. Sleep tugged her down into its depths and she went willing.

A screech jolted her awake. The horrid sound came from just above her. Fragment blinked sleep from her eyes rapidly. She bounced to her feet and craned her neck up into the leafy branches.

Out of the blue a limp shape flopped from the limb next to her horn. Fragment gasped and jumped back.

Carefully she crept forward, just enough to try and see what this thing was. Her eyes strained against the suffocating inky blackness.

Fragment prodded the fuzzy shape. It squeaked out in pain.
Fragment knew she couldn't do anything to help the poor thing in this darkness so the drew it closer to her with her wing.

Dawn broke and let light into the forest. Leaves dappled the ground and shone light on the sad lumo of fuzz next to Fragment's foot. It was a bat. A petite brown bat with one wing twisted at an awkward angle.

Immediately Fragment knew it was broken. She nosed the little scrap, seeing if it was still alive. Yes, but the breathing was shallow.

Her heart quickened in fear for the little animal. She knew she had to help it.

She tried to remember exactly what her father did a while back when he helped that injured squirrel.

When she finally had an idea of what to do, she painstakingly picked the fur lump up and placed it on her belly as she propped herself up against the tree.

She closed her eyes and tried again, trying to force her power out. She knew she had it in her, she just wasn't motivated enough before. An ebbing and flowing feeling came from all over her body, she thought it must be her power.

The bat written and squealed on her scaly tan stomach. For a second she wondered if she was doing more harm than good. Please let this work, please let this work, she thought.

She stayed like that for an hour, using all her energy, trying to save the bat.

A pang and stab of pain forced her eyes open. She couldn't move, frozen on the ground, soaked in the afternoon sun. She bat she had previously had on her stomach was no where to be found. Flown away, perhaps.

Now she was the one writhing in pain, stuck in one spot. She had given too much for the sake of someone else, and was now paying the price.

Pain ripped through her as she panted, "I hope I could finally make him proud."

With that, she let her head drop to the dirt.