Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 76: What Lies Within [Part 3]

-Apologies for my lateness. It's frustratingly hard to get motivation and inspiration back, let alone start up the part of my brain that lets me write again. It's a struggle, but I'm still working on it.

For now, enjoy!

-NFD

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"Are you sure?" My brother, Toothless, warbled doubtfully. "I thought only dead dragons could initiate a Dreamwalk. And... well, you."

Moon sighed, staring up at the night sky. "It seems that has changed."

I shook my head as if I could dislodge my growing confusion. This startling revelation had put our plan of exposing Aurora's and Myrkr's shared soul on hold. "Let me get this straight; Shadow has supposedly been capable of entering other dragons' dreams this whole time, known more about Aurora's situation than we have, and nobody suspected a thing?"

"I don't think she's fully aware of it," Stormfly reasoned, lying in the chilly grass by my side. Vænn was currently occupying Shadow in the den with Mom. "And Dreamwalking might not be the only thing she can do either... Some things she's said before couldn't be from any dreams."

That was news to me. "Like what?"

"She knew where you were when we were separated," she answered, much to my surprise. "She actually led us to you. She also said Star spoke to her..." She trailed off sadly, then shook her head. "But I don't know if that's true."

Star spoke to Shadow? That wasn't possible. Star's soul was sacrificed to bring us back, so she shouldn't be capable of communicating with any of us. While it was true that Shadow was the direct daughter of our god, she hadn't shown any hard evidence of godly powers—not that I'd seen, anyway. Not like that would've mattered; even Moon couldn't communicate with Star. That would be like me, a mere mortal, trying to hear voices from long-deceased dragons using my own power. The only foreign voices I ever heard—to my memory—were either the Queen or false words from my... degraded mental state.

I frowned when something occurred to me. There was one instance I couldn't easily explain. "Moon, did you hear me when I prayed for you to watch over Aurora?" After I had 'the talk' with Myrkr, I prayed for Moon to keep Aurora safe, and I could've sworn I heard a faint giggle afterward, which was strange coming from Moon. She never laughed at prayers, and the voice didn't sound right either. Could that have been Star? She'd listened to prayers before, but the voice didn't sound like her.

Moon tore her gaze off the sky to give me a puzzled look over her shoulder. "I've heard several of them. Why do you ask?"

"I meant the one I made while we were lost," I corrected. "You laughed at me."

The look she gave me was unsettling. She slowly turned to face me halfway, her brows furrowed. "You never prayed to me while you were gone, son, and I would never laugh at something like that."

"Then who—"

"Could it have been Shadow?" Our dubious stares shifted to Toothless, who shrugged. "I mean, she is your daughter." He had a point. Shadow was the Dragoness of the Moon's daughter by blood, so it wasn't too far-fetched to believe she had heard my prayer instead... I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"The prayers are addressed to me," Moon replied uncomfortably. "Even if Shadow could hear prayers, which I highly doubt, she shouldn't be able to hear any meant for me."

"But it's possible?"

Moon shuffled her paws a little as she glanced briefly at the den. "It's... possible, yes. But I-I don't want to push it. I'm sure she can't." Translation: Moon doesn't want her daughter to hear any prayers. She wanted Shadow protected. I didn't have to be a deity to understand why; not all prayers were meant to be heard by children, after all.