The Wraith's Nest

Mistakes

Author's Note: Only the story is mine, none of the characters or creatures. I do try and use the official names for the wildlife, so let me know if I spelled any wrong.

Deep in the woods where the Striders grazed lived an expecting mother. A Wraith, after surviving the harsh wilderness as a juvenile, was closely inspecting her clutch of eggs. She carefully dragged the back of her claw across the leathery shells to turn them and make sure none have been damaged. She was very careful with them and guarded them well. For weeks she had stood guard, only leaving to hunt or defend her territory from rival monsters. She worked hard to keep hungry predators and curious pray as far from the nest as possible without completely driving them away. With humans wandering through frequently, her pray was always on high alert and flighty. Making her nest so close to their strange tower was risky, but the abundance of food in the area made her think that the trouble would be worth it. Soon her eggs will hatch and she would show her hatchlings how to hunt this new pray properly.

The mother Wraith carefully covers her nest with the soft branches of a nearby bush and slinks away. She was hungry and would need her full strength to protect her babies when they hatched. There was a Tyrant and Megamouth on the other side of the humans' tower. They were tough, but they could provide her with enough food to last her until the end of the incubation period. All she really had to do was get close to them and let her decoy do all the work. Not wanting to leave her eggs for too long, she dashed across the territory. She took some time to abduct and kill a Mammothbird or two, but didn't eat them. She left it for the Cariens and Trapjaws to eat so that they would leave her real food alone. It gave her a way to sharpen her hunting skills and a way for scavengers to stay off her food. However, her spiritic hunting didn't just attract the eyes of scavengers. Humans, worried that their weather tower would soon be attacked by an unknow creature, prepared and sent a scouting team to investigate.

The team of humans had only one mission. Get rid of the monster. They weren't told how, just that they needed to get rid of it. So, they followed the monster's tracks backward. They figured that if they find the root of the monster's fascination with the area they could get rid of that and the monster will leave on its own. They followed to trail to the furthest corner of the area and were very confused when the trail ended at some random bush. But, just as they were about to turn around, one of them saw movement. They slowly approached the bush and carefully bushed one of the branches aside. There were eggs shells in there. Suddenly, 4 very small Wraiths dashed out of the bush. Every one of them scrambled after the hatchlings to prevent them from escaping. They opened fire on the little Wraiths, some of them smirking in amusement when the hatchlings chirped and called for their mother. But the humans knew the mother wasn't coming. She was too far away and their gunshots drowned out the hatchlings' calls. The firefight died out just as fast as it started and the scouts made their way back to the tower, satisfied that their mission was so easy to complete.

On the other side of the map, the mother Wraith had just finished her meal when her head shot up. Her instincts were going into overdrive and food became the least of her worries. She dashed as fast as she could back to her nest, even Warp Blasting to gain ground when she was too winded to dash. Wasting energy didn't matter to her at this point. She needed to get to her babies, even if it made her weak in the end. But, she wasn't fast enough. Her nest was uncovered, the eggs were empty, and her 4 little hatchlings were dead. She crawled to each and everyone of them, softly chirping and nudging the for any small sign of life. When none of them moved, she knew the grim truth that her newborns were dead. However, she would grieve later. She picked up a new scent among the blood. Fuel. There was some kind of fuel and black powder mixed with she blood of her children, and there was only one animal that had that scent. The humans. The parasites that changed the skies with their tower have vandalized her nest, hunted her pray, and murdered her offspring. As a monsoon approached in the distance, the Wraith released a roar towards the sky, letting everything in the territory what was going to happen. The humans had started a war, and mother Wraith fully intended to give them HELL.