The Blood Moon Killer

Chapter 39: Taken

"You're here!" She yelled happily, her wings flapping with eagerness. "Oh my baby girl..." Winter said with a small smile, sitting up and holding her tighter. "You alright?" "Yes." She replied with a satisfied smile.

Right then, the wind blew around them and Maka materialized out of the smoke, staring at Winter with a soft smile "you must be her father. I'm Maka." Winter blinked, pulling Whiteout behind him defensively. It took him a few seconds to realize that this is what Qibli spoke about in his dream. "I- Nice to meet you." 

"You have his face." Maka remarked with a small smiled "most of my children had his snout." She chuckled "but some had my eyes and my Leafspeak, they had the cutest game they'd play to figure- oh I'm rambling." She turned to Winter and her expression hardened. "We don't have much time. I can sense a darkness approaching." "Astraea?" "Possibly. We must be ready for anything."

Whiteout and Winter made their way to the living room for breakfast right as Snowslide woke up and made his way to the food. "Winter." He exclaimed with a smile and offered his claw "how've you been?" "Better, I've been better." Taking his friend's claw in his, Snowslide said "I imagine anyone would be." "Thank you. For taking her in and keeping her safe. I owe you everything." 

Snowslide smiled and gestured to Whiteout "it was no trouble at all. I understand, you owe me nothing. It was simply the right thing to do." Winter nodded nonetheless and Snowslide put a claw on Whiteout's head. "You're welcome anytime, Whiteout. I'm sure Steve would love to hang out more with you." As he said that, Steve tilted his head up and licked her shoulder.

Maka still hovered around them, a smile on her snout "you said something earlier about a darkness approaching." Winter stated calmly, but the concern was evident in his voice. The Leafwing nodded, her wings elegantly tucked at her sides "I did. I can feel it stronger now."

"Where?" Snowslide asked, walking towards the door. "Lurking." She said coldly. "Everywhere, nowhere... I can sense a plant nearby." She said confusingly. "Tell me more about this... Ritual... Whiteout is going to be used for." Blizzard asked with a small voice. "To resurrect Scarletnight, Fearburning enchanted his grave so that on a Blood Moon, a kin of the one who locked him away, - mine and Soul's descendants - would be able to revive him by bleeding on his grave. Astraea needs Whiteout. She is the last of my descendants." 

"Does that mean Moon me or is related to you?" Winter asked, studying the Leafwing, "on her mother's side, more specifically." Maka clarified "Moon is a descendant of mine so that means Whiteout is too." "What about Moon's mother?" Blizzard asked. "Scarletnight loved devouring children. We figured that out after he was killed and saw the many... Many bones. There is a higher success rate with a dragonet. Hence, Whiteout."

Winter sent a soft look to his daughter "I wish there was another way. I'm deeply sorry." "Where would his grave be? Scarletnight's." "Bellow the Altar." Maka said with a sigh "we found his bones burried under the Altar in the Blood Moon Temple."

"The one in the forest?" Whiteout asked with her eyes wide.

"Why... Yes." She said, astonished "yes that's it. You know of it?" "I've been there. Friends of mine stumbled in the cave and we found it. We saw all the blood on it. We just didn't know there was a dragon buried under there." 

"They kept the corpse there and sacrificed dragons.. Cows... Everything on the Altar to supposedly feed his soul." She shuddered "they thought it would keep his spirit alive." She shuddered again.

"What if we burn the bones?" Blizzard asked. "What bones?" Whiteout said with a confused look "after 4,000 years, everything would have decomposed by now. There is nothing left of Scarletnight."

Snowslide tilted his snout in the air. "Something doesn't smell right." Steve felt it too. He pranced around and continued to whimper, his eyes darting side to side in a hurry.

"The plant you were smelling earlier..." Whiteout remarked, staring at the windows "what is it." Maka sniffed again and her eyes went wide as she was about to shout something.

It was too late. Whiteout saw something about to go into the window. She pushed her father away from her and he stumbled out the door  "a sedative! EVERYONE! DON'T BREATHE AND RUN!" Maka yelled, seeing the plant beginning to smoke.

The plant landed right at Whiteout's claws and the smoke seemed to curl around her "daddy...." She felt her head tingle and her chest tighten "meet... Me... At the... A.... Ltar..."

The darkness swallowed her before she could hit the ground.

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As Aardvark, Kelp, Waterlily and Jet were speaking together, Turtle and Kinkajou were in the other room comforting Moon as Turtle used an enchantment to reattach her wings. the nurses kept them in good condition and they began the lengthy process to reattach them.

Just then, Souleater stood from his lying position "MAKA!" He yelled, his ears shooting up. "What's wrong?" Kelp asked, using his claws to calm the Nightwing "I-I don't know... I- she.... Oh no. I can't sense her anymore. Something's wrong. Very wrong. We need to go see! I- We need to..."

He began to hyperventilate. Jet wondered how it was possible since the dragon was dead, but he seemed like someone stole the last piece of cow after putting his name on it.

"Dude." He said nonetheless, grabbing his claw and flying up to meet his gaze, "breathe." He said. "Nice and slow. In and out. Just breathe." Slowly, he calmed down and his breathing regulated.

"What happened to Maka?" Aardvark asked cautiously, knowing that Whiteout was with her. "Who is Maka?" Waterlily asked her brother "sshh, later." He whispered. "I-I don't know. I felt her speaking to someone... Then she just... Vanished. something must've happened for her to loose consciousness."

"Aren't you both dead?" Jet asked, hoping to not offend the ancient being. "Yeah, but when we're out of the ring, we're like regular dragons. Breathing, feeling.. All that stuff. Just a bit see through. But since we're both connected through the rings, we can sense each other's presence. And feel when something is off."

"And right now, something is?" Aardvark clarified to which Soul nodded. "I'm worried." He said plainly, but the hurt was evident in his tone. His claws scraped the ground and he just stared at the floor. 

"Do you think that Astraea could have-?" "No." Aardvark interrupted harshly. "No. Whiteout is fine. She probably just ate too many cultural dishes from the Icewings and is in a food comatose, right?" He gave one look at his concerned friends to know that they didn't believe him, no matter how much they wanted too.

"I'm sorry, Aardvark." Jet said, putting a claw on his friend's shoulder "even though it hurts, we need to look at the possibility that.... Astraea got to Whiteout." He sighed shakily and looked at the wide eyed Nightwing "where would she take her?" "To Scarletnight's grave." He said plainly, but without emotion. Like he rehersed this. "In the Blood Moon Temple in the forest."

"The one we fell into?" Kelp asked while looking at Aardvark. "Judging from Aardvark's memories, that's the one." "Well then," Waterlily yipped, bouncing off her brother's back "Whiteout and Uncle Winter are still in the north, right?" They nodded "which means if were sadly right and Astraea is there, even if she... Um... Er... Ate a Skywing, it would take a day at top speed for her to carry Whiteout to the south. We're in the south of the desert." She grinned.

"We have a head start."

"What do you suggest?" Kelp asked, noticing the sly grin on her sister's face. Which usually meant she had a devious idea. She was very thoughtful for her age. "Two teams. One goes to intercept Astraea, the other to the Temple to guard the grave." She said confidently.

"I would have Uncle Qibli and dad go to intercept Astraea with Auntie Peril." Kelp said, looking at them. "The rest would go guard the Temple. If Astraea breaks through them, we can have dad communicate with us through his scarp of enchanted paper and we'll get ready." 

"I'm thinking an army of INVISIBLE RAINWINGS! THAT SHOOTS VENOM!" Waterlily said happily. "You've spent too much time with my mom." Jer said with a laugh as he gave her a nuggie. "But I agree. It would be better."

"Then we have a plan." Soul said, flexing his talons. "This has to end. One way... Or another."