Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 97: Change [Part 3]

Our poor excuse for a camp was silent despite the five dragons gathered. The cloud my second mother, Moon, had created to disrupt the fuel for Aurora's magic still covered the moon, shrouding us in darkness that fit the mood perfectly.

"What have I done?" Anari whispered, barely audible.

"We were all doing it," Moon murmured solemnly. "Don't blame yourself."

"But it was me from the start," she argued. "I pushed her to recover her memories. I forced her to relive them."

"And we encouraged it," Splinter countered. "We were all trying to change her, except for... erm..."

"C-Caligo," Myrkr finished, his ears drooping. "Ironic, given she's supposed to be the least friendly of all of us."

"Auroon?" I looked up at Moon, who looked worried. "Are you alright?"

I stared at my second mother for a long moment, then slowly shook my head. "No. I'm supposed to be her father. I'm supposed to support her, but instead..." I flexed my claws in the dirt. "I was trying to change her into my vision of Aurora. I tried to get my daughter back when she was right there in front of me the whole time. I should've been better."

"No," Moon argued. "You are a great father, but you're just like everyone else in that you make mistakes. Seeing her like this a second time has been hard on all of us. We all made the same mistake, and none of us is perfect. Don't beat yourself up for being normal."

"A second time?" Anari queried, confused.

"Aurora was captured before. They tortured her and ruined her mind until she couldn't recognize us anymore," I muttered bitterly. "We rescued and cleansed her of corruption, which seemed to do the trick, but it has happened again." It tore me up inside to think of my daughter's mind being abused like a child's toy. Why did it have to be her? I would take her place in a heartbeat—better me than Aurora—, but it wasn't my choice to make.

"No wonder her mind is so difficult to fix," Anari mumbled. "Like an old injury, it was easier to damage her mind a second time."

"What do we do?" Splinter warbled.

"Do?" I sighed hopelessly. "There's nothing we can do. Aurora has rejected us. If we try to push harder, she will most likely retaliate, and I don't know what she's capable of now." Aurora was stubborn. Pressuring her would only earn greater resistance, maybe even the violent kind. At least, that was if that hadn't changed, too.

"Who says we need to push harder?" Myrkr interjected. "W-What if we just tried to understand her as she is now?"

"At this level, understanding requires communication," Moon explained. "And that won't happen if she has begun to despise us. Right now, the only one she seems to accept is Caligo, as much as I hate to say it. If we want her to let us at least apologize, we'll have to speak through Caligo forcibly, but we don't know where she is."

Anari shuffled her ruined wings, looking surprisingly uncomfortable despite Moon's words against Caligo. "A-Actually..."

I eyed Anari, keeping my emotions hidden. "What?" I doubted Anari would tell us where Caligo was hiding, so she must have something else on her mind.

The small dragon hesitated for a moment. "Caligo... wants to help us fix this. There's no need to force her."

We looked at one another in surprise. "You're telling me Caligo, the avatar of my greatest enemy, wants to help us?" Moon warbled dubiously. "Forgive me, Anari, but I seriously doubt that. Caligo is selfish. She would have nothing to gain from aiding us."