Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 84: Hunt [Part 2]

-Here's another chapter! It took a bit longer than I anticipated, but my laptop was giving me a few issues. Now, the moment you've all been waiting for is in this chapter... almost. It can't be that easy, now can it? Hehe...

-NFD

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A pulsing ache pounded in my head, stirring me from unconsciousness. Despite being asleep, I felt strangely worn out, like I'd been up and moving for hours. Next was the cold chill over my scales, and something intangible kept tugging at my body in short bursts that carried colder air with it. Then, strange smells entered my nostrils, things I had never smelled before, yet they somehow seemed familiar.

I groaned and pushed to my unsteady paws, shaking my head dizzily before carefully opening my eyes. "What... the heck is this...?" I whispered. The surface I stood on was similar to the cave floors I was used to, but it was brown and softer, albeit tinged with a purple glow that came from elsewhere. In fact, when I looked around, I was surrounded by it in what looked like a very small cave.

"It's called dirt." I whirled around to see Anari sitting calmly behind me, her glowing scales illuminating my surroundings. She tilted her tiny head. "Welcome back, Aurora."

"W-Where am I?" I demanded. "How did I get here? How long was I out?" I did not sign up to be whisked away to some strange place covered in 'dirt!' I barely remembered Caligo saying something to me before everything went dark, but my muggy head unhelpfully refused to provide me more detail.

"First of all, you're not in danger, so ya can relax," Anari trilled. "We brought ya here away from the prison, which we left... oh... roughly a day ago?" She frowned a little, thinking. "...Maybe two days—I slept for a while."

I didn't like the sound of that, but at least I wasn't in any immediate danger. "And where, exactly, is 'here?'"

"It's called a burrow—basically just a hole in the ground. We found it and decided to rest here because it faintly smells like... someone we used to know," Anari answered hesitantly. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. Who? I didn't recognize any of these scents. "It isn't the same island I was brought into, so I can only assume there are several exits out of that twisted prison. We're still nearby, but not to worry; the way we left was pretty barren and burned up, and there don't seem to be any abominations on the surface here."

So I was outside my home? That didn't sit right with me. I knew I would eventually leave those caverns, but now that I had, I was uncomfortable, to put it lightly. I knew nothing about what was outside those rocky walls. I couldn't go back since I didn't know the way, and I doubted Anari would tell me where to go, so I was stuck here.

"And you thought it was a great idea to drag me out here against my will?" I growled. It wasn't fair! Why did I have to be thrown into the deep end?

"Well, it wasn't my idea," Anari replied awkwardly. "I wanted to take hatchling steps toward escaping to keep ya from freaking out, but... Well..." She looked away and kicked at the ground. "Here we are... and ya still haven't freaked out... Heh."

She acted strange, and I didn't like that. "Where's Caligo?" Anari was far too small to carry me out here, so unless they managed to recruit a random prisoner—which I doubted because Caligo would scare them away with her Caligo-ness—that left only Caligo.

Anari suddenly looked more suspicious. "W-Well, you see—"

It's about time someone mentioned me. I almost thought you had forgotten about me.

I stiffened. Caligo's voice almost reverberated inside my body, as if she spoke in more than just my mind. It actually hurt a little. "W-What the Hel was that?"