The Blood Moon Killer

Chapter 40: Meet n' Greet

For the most part, everything went as planned. Moon stayed behind to heal a bit more and the others split into two teams. Peril, Qibli and Turtle went to intercept Astraea, while Jet, Waterlily, Kelp, Aardvark and Kinkajou went back to the temple to see if they can do anything from there. 

"Can I ask you something, Soul?" Aardvark asked, as they all flew down south. "What's up?" "Well, we read that Scarletnight looked like a bit from each tribe in the book, but when you described him, he looked like a regular Nightwing. How come?" He thought for a moment, clearly trying to remember. "All I can say is it must have been an enchantment by Fearburning because when we looked around the temple, it said the same thing 'bout him."

"You did say that Fearburning was an Animus right? Then how come you never knew of him?" Soul snickered "I was a little too focused on, y'know, not letting Scarletnight eat my mate. Sooo..."

"R-Right. Sorry." "It's okay. And besides, the one who would've told me was Queen Meteora, but..." He trailed off and shuddered. "What is it like? To have a lover?" Aardvark asked, eyeing the sky in front of him. The mountains of the Kingdom of Night were on the horizon. Souleater smiled and looked ahead "you feel complete. Like something you didn't know you were searching for is right there." "Did your brother find his mate?"

"No." He said, shaking his head. "He thought he did at one point, but no. Although, before I died, it had been almost 20 years since we spoke last." Looking back at the horizon, the mountains drew closer, but they still were not close enough to the Altar.

"Are you worried about Whiteout?" He asked, lowering himself to fly next to the young dragon. "Yeah." He flexed his claws "she's my friend, and her life is on the line right now. So of course I'm worried." Laughing, Soul grabbed him and placed the young dragonet on his back "that's not it." He stated, looking back at the rest who were pretending not to listen. 

"Tell me, what do you think of her?" "Whiteout?" "Yes, what's she like according to you?" Aardvark's snout dropped "extroverted. Energetic. Mainly those two." "Alright, what else?" Aardvark thought for a moment "she never sits still and always has a very out-going personality. She's also curious about everything and very easy to get along with. She can match energies easily and can understand how somedragon is feeling easily. Overall, she has a caring heart and she's a good dragon to be around. I can count on her for anything I need to get done."

"What about her personality?" "Um. Great. I think she has a great personality." He let out a long groan "okay. You're clearly not getting something so I'll just say it straight. Are you in love with her?"

He stopped functioning for a second. "Oh my goodness. You broke him, Soul!" Jet yelled flying to his friend and shaking him back to consciousness. "Aardvark! Dude forget it! Relax! Come back to us! LOOK AT MY HANDSOME SNOUT!" That seemed to work because his eyes were no longer dilatated. "Welcome back. Enjoy your trip?"

He glared at Jet who raised his claws in defense and flew back. "I don't know. I've never thought about a relationship." He smiled "I was around your age when I met Maka for the first time. Then a few years later, we got together and a few years after that, we welcome a baby boy into the world."

"I saw that memory of yours, when you were in the marketplace with Whiteout. You risked your life to protect her from that explosion." "Kinda like you right?" He asked, nodding to his scar. "Yes. You're exactly right." "In that moment, what were you feeling?" Aardvark thought for a moment, rolling on his back "I was worried about Whiteout. In a flash, I saw that she could've been killed by the explosion. I had to options in my mind in a split second. One, get her far enough from the blast, and two,  shield her from it."

"Funny how you never mentioned yourself. But yeah, I had those two same thought in my head when Crona was about to slash Maka." "But that's different." He said plainly "you were around each other for a while at that point. Whiteout and I have only seen each other a few times."

"And how much have your thought of her when she was away?"

"I-...." He paused and blushed "a-almost every day." "So you're in love with her." "Love?!" He yelped again. "One thing that we didn't mention about the rings, is that like Maka and I, it chooses two souls meant for each other. Soulmates, if you would." "You remind me a lot of Maka back then, she was shy to the subject. But, she was also very observant. So what do you observe?" "I usually get shy around her and, um, stutter quite a bit." "That's love." Soul said laughing. 

They were speaking so long that they didn't notice that they had arrived in the kingdom. 

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"I think I see her." Qibli stated, seeing a lone Nightwing flying quickly in the distance. The dragon had particularly large wings and they could faintly see something small on their back. As they approached, they could clearly see that it was Astraea, with an unconscious Whiteout on her back. "She must've used the upper wind currents to propel herself here quicker," Peril deduced, her claws gleaming with fire.

Astraea stopped a little ways in front of the adults and sighed, rolling her eyes. "Oh. How thrilling. I must be near an old age home with all these soon-to-be corpses around." "Big talk from someone four millennia old." Peril was quick with a response before nodding to Whiteout. "My niece is coming with us. Return her." She stated, holding out a claw for Astraea. 

"Sure, you can have her back once I'm done with the brat. I promise it won't take long." Qibli hissed "now. Give her back now." Astraea flicked her claws at the group "out of my way! The Blood Moon is going to be up soon!"

That's right. Qibli thought, looking at the sky to see the moons tinted orange. I completely forgot about that part of the spell. "Fine then. Change of plans." "Procrastination?" Turtle asked qiht a hardened look. "You bet. If we can stall her long enough, she won't be able to reach the Altar in time."

"Well, then I have almost four hours before the Blood Moons disappear so, let's see if you can keep me busy for that long," a mischievous smile danced on her snout as she looked behind her to motion to Whiteout "and see if you can keep your precious Whiteout alive."