THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN
The light of the full moon shines upon me, making my black scales glint in the night. The purple markings on my head and down my spine look a little brighter now, but I quickly slip into the low-hanging fog and disappear. Sneaking through another Night Fury's territory in the day is difficult. However, sneaking through another Night Fury's territory at night is much easier.
I slink through the woods, moving like a shadow as I search for prey. The scent of a badger reaches my nose and I follow the trail. It leads me to a burrow, which reeks of the scent. Sticking my head into the hole, I let my nose guide me towards the prey. A loud hiss sounds from the darkness and I feel claws whisk by my nose. Jerking my head, I back away from the burrow and continue with my search.
Only a few moments later, I hear the high-pitched shrieking of bats. Looking up, I see a large flock of bats passing by overhead, flapping their wings frantically and shrieking loudly. Licking my lips, I bunch up my muscles before leaping into the air. My outstretched claws snag one of the winged mammals and I also clamp my teeth down on another.
Landing with a loud thump, I quickly gobble up the one in my mouth before tearing into the other bat. Before I'm even halfway done, something suddenly barrels into my side and knocks me off my paws. Yelping, I scramble up and whirl around.
My attacker turns out to be the Night Fury that owns this territory. He's much bigger and older than me, and I can see that his hide is full of scars from previous fights. Now, unlike other female Night Furies, I prefer fight to flight, but I do know when to flee. And I'm starting to think that this might be one of those moments.
Before I can turn and run, though, the Night Fury lashes out with his front paw towards my face. I duck and then ram my head into his chest. He wheezes as the breath is knocked out of him and stumbles backwards. Snarling, I rear up on my hind legs before bringing my weight down on him. Unfortunately, he sees this coming and meets me in an upright lock, wrapping his forepaws around my shoulders while I push back at him. We wrestle for a few moments, but eventually he overpowers me and flips me underneath him.
Seeing his exposed belly, I rake my hind claws across the softer scales. He screeches in agony and I push him off of me. Clambering to my paws, I whirl around and start to race away. Before I can get more than a few meters away, the Night Fury catches up to me and pounces. His claws slice my right hind leg and I yelp in pain.
Stumbling, I lose my balance and fall down, rolling a couple of times and then slamming into a tree. As I recover, the Night Fury stalks towards me, his broad shoulders glinting in the moonlight.
"Think you can just stroll into my territory and take my prey, don't you?" he hisses.
I bare my teeth and crouch in a defensive position, "Back off! This doesn't have to get any worse."
The larger male laughs, "And why is that? Oh, go ahead. Try and reason with me when you're the one who stole my prey. Maybe I'll even take pity on you." He gives me a malicious, wicked grin revealing his thorn-sharp teeth.
Raising my hackles, I snarl, "We don't need to kill each other when Night Furies are scarce enough. There are few of our kind left and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't like to go extinct!"
The male narrows his eyes and glares at me. When he doesn't reply, I assume that he's pondering about my point. After a few moments, he growls and suddenly lashes out. I try to dodge, but he manages to clip my right windflap.
I hiss in pain as he snarls, "Don't ever think about coming back here! Now go- before I change my mind!"
I bite back a stinging retort and instead dip my head, slinking away. Unfurling my wings, I leap into the air and, with two strong downstrokes, I'm out of the forest.
Once I'm riding the wind, I do a mental check of my health. The bats weren't enough to fill my stomach, but hunger isn't something I'm not used to. The scratch on my right hind leg feels deep and throbs with pain. I worry for a moment about blood-loss, but then reassure myself that the wound can't be deep enough for that to be a problem. The slice on my windflap will most likely only leave a nick, and the cuts on my shoulders from when we were wrestling are shallow. Aside from other minor scrapes and bruises, the rest of my body is intact.
I can feel fagitude creeping up on me and my muscles begin to ache from weariness. Sleep didn't come well for me last night- not that it ever does. I've learned to always be vigilant, even in slumber, so I never fall into a deep sleep.
My mother was a very strict teacher when it came to survival. She would go on and on about how only the toughest dragons could withstand the hardships life could bring. Once my siblings and I were big enough to stand, she made sure that we were constantly on the move. We never stayed in one den for more than a few days before we were moving again. Whenever one of us got caught in something or was somehow delaying us, she would tell us to keep on going and leave them behind. Sometimes the straggler caught up, but most of the time I never saw them again.
Many might've considered my mother's lessons harsh and cruel to inflict upon dragons at such a young age. For a while, I did too and so did my siblings. But eventually I became grateful for my mother's teachings, no matter how unpleasant. I realized that experiencing these things at a younger age would better prepare me for my solitary adulthood, and my mother told me so.
She seemed to particularly favor me, for some reason. More than once, she told me that I have my father's strength and determination. I'd never met my father, but I could tell that she respected him greatly.
By the time I was a teenager and capable of taking care of myself, I was the last of my five siblings to survive. None of their deaths affected my mother or, after a while, me. So when the day came that my mother suddenly decided that it was time for me to leave and chased me away from the den, I accepted it quickly and left.
That was years ago, though, and now I need to utilize the skills she passed down to me. As I fly in no particular direction, I lick my paw and swipe it over the scratch on my windflap. The gash on my hind leg will have to wait until I reach a safe haven.
When the ocean appears underneath me, I dive down and splash the water over myself before regaining flight. The saltwater makes my wounds sting, but my mother taught me that it prevents infection and helps the healing process. A few minutes later, I feel the salt begin to numb the pain in my wounds and let out a loud sigh.
Flying higher into the air, I glance around and try to figure out where to go. I'm actually not sure where I am, since I entered the island on the other side and haven't explored what's over here. Narrowing my eyes, I try to spot the familiar shape of an island on the horizon. Unfortunately, the only thing I find is the sun beginning to peek over the water.
Sighing, I glance down into the ocean. To my surprise, I see a few dark shapes swimming underneath me. Darting downwards, I whip my tail into the water and create a splash. Flying back up, I watch as one of the dark shapes grows bigger until the head of a Thunderdrum pops out of the ocean.
Her eyes widen in surprise at seeing me, "Oh! A Night Fury!"
"Hello." I greet the tidal dragon, "I'm a little lost. Do you know where the nearest island is? Preferably one without other dragons."
The Thunderdrum ponders out it before replying, "Uhhh… I don't travel to land very often, but I think there's an island in that direction." She points northwest, "I tend to come across many smaller rock formations before the actual island. I'm not sure about the dragon population, since I haven't been up there in a while, but I know that there's a Viking village on one side. You could just fly around to the other side and rest there."
"Thanks." I dip my head to her and then flap my wings, flying higher and higher until I'm right underneath the clouds. Pouring on speed, I angle my wings downwards and back as I flap. It's a trick my mother taught me when she was teaching us how to fly. It makes me a lot faster and has helped me get out of many bad situations.
The wind whips past me quickly, some straggling fog from the clouds making my scales wet. I fly for hours, and by the time I spot an island in the distance, the sun has fully appeared over the horizon. Like the Thunderdrum said, I can see a Viking village on one side of the island. Mustering whatever strength I have left, I tilt my wings and circle around the isle. The other side contains a thick forest, much to my pleasure. As I fly closer, I also notice a sheltered cove with a lake in the center.
Diving down to it, I spread my wings and gracefully land on a boulder. My muscles are weary from the fight, flying, and lack of sleep. Trying to push away a headache, I leap off of the boulder and stumble over to a tree. Curling up amongst its roots, I tuck my nose under my tail and fall asleep.