A Fading Star Will Rise Again (A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfic)

11- Gone

Nightfall

Este can't be gone. She just can't. I need her. Nightfall shook his head, focusing his attention back to the issue at hand. He'd just told Serenity to gather the first group to leave, which he would lead out of the Hidden World.

They couldn't wait any longer, especially not now, when Esteria was missing. He paced back and forth, his wings twitching with the desperate need to get out and search for her.

He could just see her, smiling at him, her stunning blue eyes glinting, her jet-black scales bringing everything around her to envy her beauty...

Stop it. She's fine. He told himself. She has to be fine.

"This way!" Serenity's voice called from down the corridor. She led a large number of dragons, hundreds of them, towards the exit. Nightfall leapt into the air, gliding to hover beside Serenity.

"So you want me to escort you out?" She asked.

"Yes," Nightfall answered with a nod. "So that if anything happens you can report for backup."

"Right," Serenity nodded. Nightfall took the lead, beckoning for the group to follow him.

They erupted out of the Hidden World, taking to the sky. Nightfall smiled as he heard the hoots and hollers of the dragons that twirled through the open sky.

Nightfall scanned the sea, searching for any sign of Esteria. But it was completely still.

Too still.

The ocean surface looked like glass, not even the slightest ripple disturbing it. The dragons in his group were flying in loops, skimming the water, but no matter what, the water remained unmoved.

Something was wrong. He could sense it, danger looming just before him.

"Stop!" He called to his group. The dragons obeyed, halting their celebration.

At that moment, a gargantuan black figure arose from the water. It was huge, with long black wings and white spines running along its back. It had a headdress of yellow-ish spikes along its head, like a nadder's but much larger.

It roared, the sound monotone and almost robotic. Nightfall snarled. "Where's Esteria?" He demanded.

The dragon didn't respond, instead bowing its head. On its neck stood a tall girl with long, strawberry-blonde hair. She gave a charming smile, before shooting an arrow directly at Nightfall's heart.

Esteria

Esteria's eyes fluttered open, and she found herself beat up and bloody, lying on a bed of leaves on the island she had landed on before.

Her front leg was wrapped in gauze, and tending to her other wounds was Lyra, the girl who had seen Esteria the previous night.

Lyra, the girl Esteria had tried to kill, was now saving her life.

Esteria leapt to her feet, ignoring the pain that shot through her body. Her pupils narrowed to slits in her blue eyes, and she felt something inside of her give a foreboding tug.

Something is seriously wrong. Esteria realized. This gut-wrenching feeling was bad, bad as the day that her father had died.

That's it. Someone has died. She realized. She shook her head, trying to keep the name from entering her mind, but she couldn't.

Nightfall.

Nightfall... is dead.