The Blood Moon Killer

Chapter 41: Family Matters

The Nightwing lead them all past the outstretched mountains and once they got past them, he paused and looked at what became of his home. "What-What happened?" He asked in a small voice, whipping his neck around to look at the others. "It's been vacant for a really long time." Jet explained with a sad sigh. "No one's been here to take care of it so it belongs to nature now. But, all the tribes are working together to restore it and give the Nightwings back their home. They even chose a new line of succession based off of a small vote."

"They did?" Kelp asked his friend "yep! I stole Uncle Q's Dream Visitor and contacted Uncle D.B, apparently, the new ruler is Queen Battlefighter, she was also the representative of the Nightwings of the Royal Council and would accompany Auntie G to their meetings. So once everything's back to normal, she'll take the throne and we'll officially have all seven tribes back. Huzzah."

"You seem thrilled." Soul said sarcastically, but then diving into a forest with enlarged trees. "Where's he going?" Kinkajou asked, flying near her son who looked down "didn't he say that he lived in a forest?" 

"He's going home."

They all dove after him, dodging the trees and the hanging vines that threatened to catch them. It took a minute, but they arrived at a small, worn down structure. The roof was collapsed and one of the walls were missing a piece and another was gone. The archway that began the path had an overgrown fern entangled with a rose bush. He took a deep breath and walked forward, gently pushing aside the plants and following a path only known to him.

As they walked, Aardvark could feel the stones under his claws, but they were covered in moss. The door hung off it's hinges and when Souleater tried to push it open more, it fell to the ground with a loud thud and scattering some nearby birds.

Walking inside, he looked at what his house became. The kitchen had plants taking over everything, but it was still evident it was a kitchen. His gaze wandered to the living room and saw the couch. Next to it, there was a small nightstand with a mug on it, but it's handle was broken and the glass was cracked. Picking it up on his claws, he ran his talon over it and sighed "this was her favorite mug..." He said to himself, then placing it back to where it was.

Aardvark followed him to the bedrooms and there were two. Right across from one another. "This was Maka's room." He said to the Sandwing after getting ushered in. The bed was in the corner and missing a mattress, but the frame was falling apart and covered in moss. Across from it was a desk and a chest next to it that was not covered in plants. Noticing his friend's confusion, he spoke softly. "Maka asked the plants not to touch the chest but protect it from bugs and erosion. Turns out they kept their promise." 

He bent down and thanked the plants before opening the chest. Inside it, were five things. First, Soul handed Aardvark a scroll. "The Ever-Changing Ending. The one Maka loves to read, one of my first gifts to her." He reached down and grabbed a piece of paper. "A small portrait of all out friends, Blackstar, Tsubaki, Kid, Lizard, Plumpoppy, but we called her Patty." Next, out came a small certificate. "Our marriage certificate, registering us as an official couple to the Nightwings." He placed that next to him and then pulled out a small drawing. "I drew her this one time. She loved it so much that it's been framed forever, until she kept it in here." It does look like her. Aardvark thought, looking at the drawing of the smiling Leafwing. Her eyes looked like an exact replica of Whiteout's. He recounted with a sigh. 

He hesitated, before pulling out the last piece of paper, bigger this time. "It's a portrait." He said, dusting it off and holding it up with a smile. Souleater dragged his claw over the painting as he introduced what Aardvark assumed was his family. There were six dragons. Soul was on the left, a young dragonette sitting between his front claws with a smile. She looked like her father but with green eyes. "This is our youngest, Clover." To the dragonette's left, was a dragonet who looked like a Nightwing, but had the wings of a Leafwing and Soul's red eyes, he had sharp teeth like his father and was proudly grinning in the painting. "Forestdweller, chaotic little guy. But he is very reliable. He was out second oldest." Next to Forestdweller was a dragonet about his height and looking timid, looked like a Leafwing but had stars on his wings and red eyes. "Moonlace, our oldest. Very helpful and caring. Takes after his mother." Souleater chuckled, then introduced the last dragonette who was sitting between Maka's front claws. Looking more Leafwing than Nightwing, but with Soul's sharp teeth and red eyes. She had paler scales and stars on her wings. "This is our third child, Andromeda."

He paused, looking at the whole picture. "This was our family." He said with a smile, Aardvark then noticed that they were all close together and Soul's wing was around Maka's back. "They're beautiful." Aardvark said out loud "your family, I mean. You must be proud of them." He nodded "I'd give anything to see them again." He sighed and rolled up the scroll and kept it in his claws, but put everything else back into the chest. "But you can't bring back the dead." He said flatly. 

"This sounds so cheesy but they live on in your memories.." Aardvark said, while putting a claw on his friend's shoulder and hoping that would comfort him. "And I'm sure they'd be very happy with who you turned out to be." Nodding slowly, the pale Nightwing smiled "I know they are."

There was a long pause "Moonlace asked me once if I would ever turn our family immortal so we could be with each other forever." He paused again "and you didn't?" He shook his head "of course not. To be honest, it hurts being alive, feeling all these emotions and knowing pain... It's a lot. I could never imagine living with it forever. I then asked everyone else what they thought. Andromeda thought it would be cool to live forever, but she ultimately didn't want too. Same with the others."

Aardvark sat there and looked intensely at the painting of the family that he grabbed from Souleater. "I thought about it. I wanted to make my family immortal, so I can protect them forever and love them and tell them that their dad will always be there for them..." He flexed his claws. 

Aardvark nodded "you're considerate. You care about their feelings and respect their decisions. I get it. Family matters to you." "They do... More than you know. When you have your own family, they become priority number one. They become your world and your reason to live. They were mine.."