Night Queen

Storms And Silence

Tonight, everyone had the night off. They waited for their eggs to hatch and nothing more. I breathed in the air, which seemed to be getting heavier. The winds had picked up and the air grew damp. The storm was coming soon.

Suddenly, I heard the first lightning strike, and saw it illuminate the sky in front of the Star Cave. I stayed completely still, not breaking my vigil as another strike landed above us. And then suddenly.

Silence.

No more lightning struck and the storm cleared. That never happened. Unless.... no, that's not possible! No one could have gotten in on the only day there weren't sentinels and watches. But then how would something interfere with the magnetics of the eggs?

I looked at my father who nodded sternly. "go check it out with Cleo. We'll be behind you, we just need to gather the hatchlings... if there are any"

The last time this happened, a dark man with long black hair got shipwrecked here on Hatching Day. He found us and killed one of us, but not before Voidflame knocked his arm off. We managed to find his pendant, but we couldn't preform all the ceremonies for his body wasn't here. That sick and twisted man skinned him alive and stole his scales.

No eggs hatched that day, and we had to wait for a year until Circle Storm was back. It came every year, destroying and uprooting until its wrath gave life. Before we knew of the lighting, we kept our eggs hidden, not showerhead at this time and the eggs often took years, if not decades, to hatch.

Cleo and I flew over the island and saw something that made our hearts stop. Ships, 40 or 50, arranged in a large circle. I felt a being radiating power in the middle. They were going to try and challenge my father! We needed to tell him!

I started to fly away and then felt a rush of air. I looked back and saw a massive grey Bewilderbeast rise out of the water. It had chains on its horns and I could hear it calling for help. But I needed to get to the eggs, and so did Cleo. Family came first.

We flew back frantically, trying to find the Alpha. "DAD! DAD!" I screamed into the mess of dragons. Suddenly, my father, the mighty Alpha, came up to us and sniffed to make sure we were fine. "We saw humans!" I said frantically

"NO STOP! YOU NEED TO LISTEN! OTHERWISE WE'LL ALL BE DEAD!" Cleo roared at her father, causing him to turn around. "They have a Bewilderbeast. They're planning on challenging you! Dad! We have to do something!"

"your right" he growled. We sighed in relief. He wasn't going to rush in. "we need to attack now. When they least expect it"

"NO DAD!" I yelled. But it was too late. He had rushed off and was Alpha calling everyone to follow him.

I rushed over to Cleo and put my hands over her ears to keep her from hearing. Silver was blind and deaf, so his only communications were physical. Once Cleo's head was cleared and I couldn't hear our father any more, we flew to the eggs. Today was going to be a slaughterfest. We stood no chance. As soon as my dad was dead, the Bewilderbeast would take charge. We would either have to bow to humans or all die protecting our Alpha. The latter was more likely.

Well sped up the mountain, me riding on Cleo. Silver needed to conserve his energy and we needed as much of it as possible if we were going to save these eggs. We landed in our cave and I quickly found my satchels and Cleo's saddle bags. We continued our ascent until we were at the Hatching Grounds. We took three eggs from each of the eight Castes, each egg from a different nest. Hopefully that would prevent inbreeding once they hatched.

I heard a distant roar and a deep male voice I had never heard say in broken Draconic "BOW TO ME, I AM YOUR MASTER!" I shuddered at the voice, a chill riding down my spine. Just then I heard an Alpha howl. I couldn't listen any more. We needed to go.

We flew and flew, never taking a break. Cleo had six eggs in each saddle bag and I had the other twelve in satchels. I knew which Caste each group was from because I marked them. We flew for what seemed to be days, swooping low to catch fish when we needed to eat.

"There!" I warbled and swooped low. We landed to see a deserted island. No humans, no dragons. The trees were large and old, sturdy and worthy of a thousand secrets. The ground was ancient, as if pulled up be the Gods when the universe was created. Crumbling huts showed the fleeting existence of people here, and how little they impacted life in the long run. Not that they didn't ruin enough lives as it is.

Cleo and I quickly found this our home. We trusted the ground we walked on here. Often times the nights were so dark that Cleo didn't have to worry about blocking stars. They didn't show here. This was a sacred place, just like the Star Cave. And Cleo and I were going to keep it that way.

I started humming, and Cleo joined me, singing in Draconic.

"I'll swim and sail on savage seas...."

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Ta da. Chapter three. So. What's your theory on the grey Bewilderbeast? Who do you think is controlling it? *insert other random question here*? Anywhore, hope you enjoyed this chapter, BAI!