Author Note:

Hello, everyone! It's me again.

YAY! I finished the first official chapter! CELEBRATION!!!!!

Sorry it took so long!

Anyways, the picture above does not belong to me, but it looks AMAZING! This is sort of what Comet looks like, I just wanted to give you all a visual representation. The only differences are that the larger scales along her back, wings, tail, forearms, hind legs, neck, and face are a deep navy blue, and she has way more colorful red and blue(shade changing) scales all along her body and under her wings. She also has the white scales by her eyes, but, other than that, this is spot on! I honestly didn't think there would be any pictures that would look even remotely close to what I envisioned in my head...

Oh! And before I forget, I want to warn everyone. My story most likely will have quite a bit of fighting, violence, and suspense, just to let you all know. I don't think I'm being particularly gory, but my definition may be very different from your own. 

Just making sure you were warned! Now, let's stop listening to my blathering and actually get to the story!

Author out, and I hope you enjoy! XD

________________________________________

She heard something. It faded away, leaving a faded echo on the dead air. When she didn't hear it again, she assumed that it wasn't anything important and ignored it, slipping deeper into her sleep. Then, in just a second, it raced through the air and hit her full force, leaving her breathless, almost as if a MudWing was sitting on her. It sounded a lot like...screaming? But who was screaming? No, that wasn't the problem right now. The real problem was why they were screaming.

Comet forced her electric blue eyes open, glancing around frantically to find the source of the desperate calls of someone in trouble, but what she saw she hadn't bargained for. The instant her eyes opened, all she could see was smoke as it clouded her vision. She struggled to see for a moment before it finally cleared slightly, revealing what laid beyond.

Destruction. Decay. Ruin. It was all laid out before her talons, almost as if she was the cause of it. The landscape around her was dark and gray, ashes floating through the air and mingling with the curling wisps of smoke. Flickers of orange and red danced in the sky a distance away, signaling a fire while lighting up everything around her in an eerie orange light. Her tail flicked nervously behind her as she tried to get her bearings, choking slightly on the smog drifting through the air.

Where in Pyrrhia was she? How did she get here? This definitely didn't look like the NightWing village in the rainforest, the last place she remembered before drifting off to sleep, but then again...

Comet looked down and shifted her talons through the ash. What they uncovered made her gasp softly, dread forming a hard, heavy lump in the pit of her stomach. Vines.

Underneath all the soot there were shriveled and slightly burnt vines, grass, leaves and fruit, only relatively surviving due to the water they held. She even found a small heap of gray fur that reeked of rancid meat. A-a sloth. She clenched her jaw tightly at the sight and averted her eyes, having a soft spot for the little creatures. She felt hot tears welling up for the poor little thing's dreadful fate, and she tried desperately to keep them in and under control. There was no doubt about it now. She was still in the rainforest.

But, how had this happened to her home? Was it a forest fire? No, no. It couldn't have been a forest fire, the rainforest was much to wet and damp for that, the surviving underbrush under the ashes as proof. So what could have caused this?

Her mind spun and whirled as she tried to crack the impossible code. She tried, until she realized something.

The area was deathly quiet. The only sound that could be heard was a crackling noise of the fire raging far off, the creaking of the charred logs finally giving way in a cloud of dust and cinders, and...

Comet's eyes widened with recognition at the familiar sound. How could she have been such an idiot?! Someone was screaming in agony and fear and she had been trying to solve a stupid puzzle?

She dragged herself away from the remains of her home as she took her first step since awakening, forcing herself forward but still trying to fight the feeling of sorrow and hopelessness that was building inside of her. 

What's done is done. I need to keep going. T-there's still a chance  all the NightWings and RainWings survived.

With one tentative step after another, she slowly moved forward as she closed her eyes in deep concentration, focusing her mind on the task at hand instead of worrying. Where was the voice coming from?

After a minute or two of the snail pace, she deduced the cries were coming from her far right and spread her wings, hoping to fly and make up for any of the lost time. She launched into the air with her powerful back legs, spreading her wings wide while catching a glimpse of her odd, sparkling red and blue scales in the process. She cupped the air with them, and remembered how she used to pretend she was the night sky as a one year old dragonet. Of course, she still did it even now as a seven year old dragonet, but that was besides the point. She had someone to find right now.

She flew, whirling past the blazing fire as she caught a better view of the destruction wrought around her.

This is bad.

Everywhere she turned and looked, it was just simply destruction all around for miles, spreading out far beyond the horizon of what she could see. It made her uneasy and skittish. What could have possibly done all this damage? It has to have been someone, no natural occurrence could have such devastating results...

She felt a shiver run up her spine from horns to tail, sending its chilling grasp throughout her body as she felt her mind brush against the conscious of another. Quickly perking up and snapping her head around, she searched, not with her eyes, but with her mind. She let her powers flow from her and reach out over the terrain around her, searching its desolate landscape for the one calling out in desperation.

After a moment, she was victorious. She found their mind and connected with it, searching for the answer to where they were and if she could help. When their frightened thoughts raced through her head, it was frantic. It tore through her mind, unstoppable and unreadable, full of too much fear to be understood. She clutched her head in her talons tightly, as if it was going to split in two, yelping at the pain as she winced slightly. Three moons, is that going to leave a head ache... But she simply did her best to shake it off, knowing that they needed her help. After a moment, she was able to understand what she was hearing as a voice came into focus. Apparently he was a young male dragonet, barely a moon old, which saddened her greatly.

W-where's mommy? I-I thought she was gonna come back f-for m-me... Did the scary monster get her too? A-am...am I the only one left? W-what am I gonna do? I-I...

I don't wanna die.

Comet stopped in her tracks, hovering over the dark world of pain, confusion, chaos and misery. Her heart beat quickened as her eyes widened with shock. She was startled by what she had heard, and her wings faltered for a second before she regained control and managed to flap her wings back up the feet of altitude she had lost. In the process, she nearly let go of her connection with the voice before she quickly latched back onto it like a lifeline. After the initial shock wore off and she registered what she had heard, all she felt was her mind ablaze with fury at the thing to cause such horrors. Don't fear. I will find you soon and I will end this. I'll keep you safe.

She angled her wings to catch a wind current and sped off to where she sensed the voice was coming from, but then hesitated slightly as she finally realized the importance of one particular piece of information.

Scary...monster? What is that supposed to mean?

She had no idea what the young child meant. Was it a new threat? Some previously unknown creature rising to destroy them all? But, if so, what could it possibly be, and what did it want? Why had it never attacked before?

Comet shook the thoughts from her head, stopping herself before she rushed off on a tangent. I need to reassure the dragonet first before I do anything rash, and perhaps he even has more information on this creature. He might know what it looks like.

Making up her mind, she landed near where she felt the other dragon's mind was. As her talons gracefully touched down onto the ground, she shook herself, trying to get rid of the sticky black ashes that coated her sides from the flight. They clung to her, coating her usually shiny ebony and navy scales with grime as she growled under her breath with displeasure. They had the pungent scent of death on them, filling her snout and nostrils with such a stench it made her mind reel and her body hurl. Forcing her stomach to calm down before she lost anything important, she surveyed the area, trying to ignore what she was covered in and find the lost one, as his wails had suddenly ground to a stop. As she looked she noticed curiously that her multicolored scales had no ashes covering them, allowing them to sparkle freely. What in the name of Blister and Blaze and Burn?! How in the name of Pyrrhia are my scales doing that? Shouldn't they be covered too? The train of thought broke as a sound reached her ears. 

Sobbing. Someone was crying hard and it was coming from just over the rise. She trudged forward, desperate to find the dragonet and save him from whatever fate he was afraid he'd fall prey to.

As she slunk down the slight slope from the top, she glanced around to see a dark shadow in the trunk of one of the smoking trees. The heart wrenching sound was coming from it. Comet stepped closer, trying to get a better view.

He was small, but that was to be expected for a dragonet of his age. He had midnight black scales with little white scales peeking out from under his wings as they twinkled merrily at her, which was completely inappropriate for the exact moment. He was a NightWing, further proof to the scorched remains under her talons being the rainforest they all had cherished and loved. He didn't deserve to have this happening to him.

She stealthily moved forward so as not to startle him as she reached out and brushed his shoulder with one wing. He instantly shot up faster than a scavenger and stared at her, in which she realized that he had been crying so hard he had dried out his tear ducts. He had no more tears left to shed.

She put on a pitying face and reached forward, trying to put a reassuring talon on his back, but he flinched away, horror glazing his eyes.

"H-hey! I'm not going to hurt you." She said, trying to calm him down, but it didn't work.

He scrambled back against the charcoal wood around him, his spines scraping against them as his gaze lit up with a dark recognition. The glazed, fear driven irises stared right at her, pinning her in place with their intense gaze. She froze, and he uttered one frightened word that made dread strike through her faster than lightning.

"Occisor."

She felt something warm and sickly sweet rush over her talons in a wave. When she glanced down her talons and the ground that surrounded her were awash with a deep, scarlet red. The scarred world around her and the young dragonet seemed to disappear as it filled her vision and covered her scales. She felt it surround her and she couldn't breathe. She was drowning in it.

Blood.

She struggled and fought for air before she finally jumped up and flung her eyes open frantically. She scrambled to her talons, desperately trying to shake the "blood" from her scales as she looked around to see...her sister giggling like a maniac on the wooden floor of their hut.

"THREE MOONS! Your reaction *gasp* so hilarious!" Stargazer breathed out as she writhed on the floor, gasping with her uncontrollable laughter.

Comet blinked, utterly confused and frightened, her mind too panicked to register that the one in front of her was a friend, not a foe. She quickly surveyed the room around her to find that it was...familiar. She couldn't place a talon on it until it hit her. She was in her room.

But, the dream, it was so vivid. What does it mean? She had been having one similar to it for a couple of weeks, but she still didn't understand them. The blood, the...death. What was responsible for it? And that word. Occisor. What in Pyrrhia did it mean? And why did it sound so dreadful and yet...so familiar? Then she realized her sister was still laughing.

"H-hey. Wait a minute, what are you laughing about?" She asked confused, cocking her head to one side.

"I *gasp* dumped a leaf full of water on you *gasp* when you were sleeping, and *gasp* you jumped up so high in the air, I just can't stop laughing! You seemed genuinely scared out of your scales! A-and then *gasp* you fell right out of your hammock!" She sputtered out before falling back down in a new fit of giggles.

Confused, Comet glanced down to see what she had thought was blood had only just been water, and she was drenched. It dripped off her onto the floor, contributing to the small puddle already gathering under her talons, giving her scales a shiny sheen as she tried to shake most of it off with a shiver. She quickly glanced behind her at the leafy hammock to see that it too was wet; a small pool of water collecting in the bottom of it before softly seeping through onto the floor. Shaking her head in mock disappointment, she turned back around to the laughing NightWing sprawled on the floor in front of her.

"Er, yeah...you must have scared me pretty good." Comet answered back hesitantly, pulling her face into a weak smile knowing her older sister's prank wasn't actually what had her scared. She looked away, her face turning from the weak smile into a concentrated frown as she continued to worry.

Star finally got control of her giggle attack(not really) and glanced up. The instant she saw her sister's face, she playfully scowled.

"HEY! No frowny frowns!!!!" She scolded sternly.

Caught by surprise, Comet let out a throaty laugh, leaving her thinking place behind.

"Alright, alright, alright! Happy sunshines and rainbows forever!" She grumbled out, pretending to sound annoyed but still smiling warmly at her sister as she rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Great! Now come on, it's our last day in Moon's class! Don't wanna be late! That would be very unprofessional." Star said as she clambered up from her place on the ground and lightly walked out, fluttering her wings slightly with excitement.

"Like you care about being professional!" Comet shot back, grinning widely when Star's chuckles from the other room became audible. After giving herself one last final shake, the water droplets splattering out around her giving the floor a strange pattern of dark wood, she swiftly heaved herself to her talons before thinking about the day ahead.

It's our last day in Moon's class! Comet couldn't help but grin widely at the perfect thought.

Soon we'll be qualified to go to Jade Mountain Academy...

She bolted out of her room and rushed to gather her things, excitement energizing each movement. Once she gathered a couple of scrolls and tossed a few pieces of fruit in her small leather bag(everyone in the village thought she was a bit strange to like fruit over meat, but she didn't care; they could think what they wanted to to think) and swung it over her neck, she scrambled past all the rooms in their small wooden, thatch hut and said a bright goodbye to their mother, Dreamseeker, who returned it warmly.

"Have a good day at class, dove!" Dreamseeker called after her daughter as she rushed through the front opening.

"Alright, momma! I will!" Comet threw over her shoulder as she ran out, laughing as she chased after her kin who was already out the door ahead of her.

She raced to catch up, bounding side-by-side with her sister before the two of them lifted off to reach the sky. She sighed happily as she soared through the quickly cooling, evening air, staring up at the waking stars as they seemed to twinkle along with the thump of her wingbeats.

She was content to be a part of the night sky; always had, and always will. There was just something so...unifying about it. To be a part of something bigger than herself. It sent a sort of tingling into her talons and made her heart feel weightless, but, all the same, she couldn't help but worry...No. She shook the thought from her mind.

The dream means nothing.

____________________________________

Well, I sure hope you enjoyed the chapter!

I had fun writing this. ^-^

I hope to finish the second chapter soon, but life is chaotic and unpredictable, so until next time...

Have a good day/night! XD

And don't forget to smile! :)

~TheDragonDoodler