Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 7: Presence of Fear

-A basic introduction to the big enemy is in this chapter, as well as the main characters running into a minion of that enemy. By the way, the title of this chapter and the title of chapter four are actually linked in some way. 

I've gotten three guesses about the big bad guy so far (through private messages and comments), two of them were way off, and one of them was spot-on. I wonder who was right?

-NFD

~~~

I'd lost count of how many nights have passed. Most nights were boring or repetitive, usually spent flying with Dad into the unknown. At first, I distracted myself by looking at the islands we passed over; tall mountain peaks, sandy lumps, thorn infestations, and sparse forests, just to name a few. After the first week, though, the details of new islands we landed on or flew over repeated themselves, quickly becoming another boring aspect of our search. Unfortunately, that meant I had little in the way of distractions, and without a distraction, my previous troubles returned.

Though the depression was familiar, it was also foreign. It used to flare up every time someone harmed me verbally or physically. Still, the only dragon around was Dad, and he never once did anything like that. The waking world felt heavier, quieter, and dimmer. I found myself looking forward to sleeping every sunrise, curling up and closing my eyes as soon as we landed. My previous motivation to battle my depression was all but gone now.

Tonight, our chosen island had a dense forest covering its entire surface, snow coating the top of it, so it looked like the ground was higher than it really was. The canopy was so thick that even the sunlight couldn't penetrate, leaving the ground perpetually shrouded in shadow and barren of snow. Dad picked a spot near what I assumed was the center of the large island, but it was hard to be certain. We were forced to walk from the beach due to how dense the tree canopy was, and by the time we stopped, I couldn't see any light from the rising sun. It was pitch black.

Strangely, I could still see fine. It was almost as if there was an invisible light all around us, but at the same time, I couldn't actually see any light. It was very confusing. I took a moment to study a nearby tree, somehow able to see its bark's details without any effort. Weird.

"This is a strange island," Dad commented, reflecting my thoughts perfectly. I quickly grew bored with the tree and laid down where I was, closing my eyes without a word, not unlike what I did every night.

There was one incident when we were attacked by the 'Scoots' as Dad called them, and now we didn't land for rest until the sun was peeking over the horizon. That way, we could see which islands had 'Scoots' on them before we let our guard down and settled down to sleep. Unfortunately, there were a lot of Scoot-infested islands; thankfully, this island didn't have those monsters,

"Aura, we need to talk," Dad rumbled. I opened my eyes and looked up at him silently. "You're getting worse."

"I'll be fine when we find them," I mumbled.

"We both know that's a lie," Dad said sternly, making me flinch. "You're hurting, but it isn't because of the nest. They're not here. Tell me what's wrong."

I sighed, knowing he wouldn't drop it until he got an answer. "I feel heavy and tired," I mumbled dully. "All I want to do is sleep."

"Is it because of our search?"

I shrugged half-heartedly. "I dunno. I miss them, but..."

"But that isn't the problem," he guessed, earning a small nod. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "What if we found a male for you?"