it was a battle in the forest that happened to commence: on one side was a thin-lipped determined human female in her teens, her weapon of choice being the double-bladed edged heavy axe that was stuck in her opponent, an ebon scaled 'nert furt' called skitiiva. of course that was a name this creature used to be referred to as, its new designated name over the last year of its new existence was loaw ranak branarr, the name given to it one night as she was forced to look up at the sky and become entranced. every time a night fury or other dragon glanced up at the sky long enough they became twisted of mind and almost literally couldn't look away from the blanket of stars dazzling addiction; the first case being silverwingthefury on a cliff one night who rose to power and uncontested leader over all the rest that soon followed. their 'short new lifes' ment that they had been converted by the power the god protector gave them and their seeming purpose little knowing it was simply a blind lure and addiction where others soon followed. two other dragons stood in the clearing and two other human, or rather ranak branarr had been struck by one of the humans axes and goes instinctive with a claw attack to knock one flesh and blood against the far tree and possibly killed him: and then there was one...ixora jackson, the other human viking gritted her teeth fiercely in an attempt to convince this large ebon aggressor to keep its distance.
she and the dragon circled each other slowly weighing the odds of surviving an attack. "lets see, this thing is big, powerful looking, probably could swallow me whole...hmmm what are my chances of survival i wonder? hmmm" she thought aloud to herself, looking for twitches in her opponents muscles that hinted at a pounce. "its hammer time" she growled and feinted right. the black night fury in front of her wasnt as easily fooled, simply batted a leasurely paw and connected it with Ixoras midriff. she sprawled hard on the grassy meadow, coughing out dust. she jumped nimbly to her feet as the full bodyweight of the creature crashed down to crush the human girl who was no longer there. meanwhile our second dragon lay paralyzed on the ground, limbs locked up because the god protector had stopped obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss meaning 'the lonely warrior' from harming one of the dragons own followers. she turned her eyes to the new arrival and tried to communicate "help me before its too late...i can feel my life slipping away im dying...the moon and stars are weakening me...weak...so weak...its draining me...human child...your companion is in mortal danger i can smell he is alive but you must act quickly; your opponent is loaw ranak branarr a very vicious savage opponent. she wont hesitate to kill . i was in league with this creature once that grabbed nightflight in his in pain and fury to restrain another. you must hurry, human child. help me break this bondage im trapped in and i will fight alongside you." even those words tasted like a sour apple on her jaws with the blood lust flowing inside of her body that gave her the strength and bondage to the god protector, obuekhov arytiss knew deeper than that which cursed her that she was helping a good cause.
"hmm interesting: this male flesh and blood has a companion, even more resourceful but foolhardy that the boy i have seen. she is a brave but hopelessly outmatched foe i recon. this fight shall be interesting. let branarr exhaust herself. serves her right for the cutthroat schemes she foolishly attempts to backstabb me with. there can be only one leader and that position belongs solely to i." mused the figurehead of 'the others' loaw okar kahuakhaun meaning "colorful" in dragon tongue. rather than charge in to aid loaw branarr he hung back near the treeline bordering the clearing, she tended to be blatantly rebellious to orders and so..maybe this would teach her a lesson...even if that lesson ment the sudden abrupt termination of her existence. eventually after near misses with said creatures attacks, Ixora luckily grabbed onto her axe and jerked it loose from skitiivas tail, temporarily paining the opponent with a roar. now Ixora had fought hard in her village home and was praised for being the best of the best fighters the village had to offer against threats even at young age! she put these abilities to the test as she dodged and rolled branarrs wild attacks. "i will end you and then scatter your remains to the worms to feast this day. i was tasked by loaw shar versel to find the human boy and it was easy for someone such as myself" she raved nastily, smacking her tail into Ixora Jackson, sending her sprawled-eagled to the grass. she snorted haughtily. "get up and fight already! this? this is just laughable!" obuekhov tried to growl in her throat at skitiivas taunts but couldn't, paralyzed as she was.
ixora landed suddenly in her field of view with an explosive "oommmpf. that double treacherous slime." she stiffened when the humans eyes sought out and caught those of the brown scaled night fury gazing back at her, by the look in that humans orbs she clearly hadn't anticipated landing right next to another creature. "help me. i know you do not get our language but i beg you understand my tone of sounds; i can help you. free me. we will fight those tyrants together." beyond the viking female obuekhov heard a roar of anger, saw a recovered (and very angry) skitiiva branarr charging full on toward both of them. "behind you. move quickly," the downed fury tried to moan, already an idea how to free herself from the moons power draining her life away. her mutual friend seemed to understand and rolled out-of-the-way upon hearing the pounding of many-clawed paws. obuekhov arytiss braced herself, saw skitiiva utter a surprised grunt, and skid full on into her unable to heel hard enough as her bodyweight worked against her. her impact somehow inexplicably freed her from the awful weakness inside her the sky had on her. she rose on shaky limbs and rose with a start to catch loaw okar kahuakhaun, whom she hadn't noticed until now, slinking over to the tree where...obuekhov broke into a run."her kin!" she gasped, seeing the boy slumped unceremoniously against the tree trunk unconscious. she knew right then and there she was committing rebellion against the greater powers of her leader. silverwingthefury tuned expertly in time to flap his wings out of the impact zone. "once again you are too niieve to see that this insurrection will be quickly crushed. the god protector has given us all the things we need and it doesn't include opposition." he smiled knowingly, touching on obuekhovs feelings. "you're just like your dead mother; hesitant and rebellious!"
from there the fighting was long, hard and bloody; Ixora amazed that this big muddy brown creature was puting her all into fighting the blue-and-gray banded one, even covering for ixora when she thought ranak branarr was getting the better of her; obuekhov, impressed with the humans evasive stamina. "she would make a fine opponent to fight...provided she was a nert furt." she thought with a sheepish grin to herself. "whats so funny? having fun thinking about the moment i tear into you? yes i would relish that thought; it isn't long in coming ether" came branarrs ugly lisping sneer, landing a blow glancingly on obuekhovs wings. she grunted in pain and retaliated by tearing a line into her wing happening to be in reach. pulling back gave both sides oppertnunities to assess eatchothers new injuries. kahuakhaun and branarr shared a knowing look. "move against the human girl, i will handle this deserter to our cause. despite obuekhov wer evakyl arytiss fighting style i feel you aren't quite ready yet to handle her. ah, i havent had this much enjoyment since the battle against my loaw shar versel." she threw her leader a dirty look in frustration but grudgingly obliged what she was told. "come here you little human worm, let me give you a hug you will not soon forget." she lashed her tail quickly forward wich ixora rolled aside and swung her axe; biting deep into her ebon hide, making her roar her agony. loaw okar gave a snort of annoyance at the sight and turned his head back to face obuekhov once more who waited wearily for his first move. "so whats the point?" he growled in a sing-song tone, lunging for her throat. "the human i mean: why do you need to protect it? after all you have gone through and faced as one of us, how were you able to break the stars control on your body? im intrigued to find out how." silence greeted him in a way enraging him more than open defiance or a challanging insult would have made. "tell me."
"tell me how i did it" floated the world-weary voice though the cloudscape, flying west."how was i able to defeat him. you said...you said he let me go? afraid he was?" the other mystery figure in the murkyness that was the voices companion echoed back "yes you did, my friend. i finally decided it was not worth fighting for, al this time ive been going about it wrong...if i submitted to your will and explained what you were doing was evil and unjustified, all this warring, all this evil you have committed, then you could have seen what you had done was wrong. i stopped fighting you. i stopped because there was two options open to me; fight you and possibly lose to your hatered...or give and and make make you see that ones love for another was strong enough to break through your imprisonment the sky had over you. so i ceased fighting you and waited to see what would happen." the second voice sounded rather pleased with itself. "and i was right; your sence of reason won out over your transfiguration the stars did to you." the first voice when it replied still sounded melancholy, "you're right of course...but...i will always be forever scared that i will be sucked back into what i once was that i could become again. what was i? what...unspeakable things did i do while i was under the god protectors influence? Nona, you must tell me please! i want to know...i need to know what i was." the other dragon Nona, a pearly coat one of purest white save black markings around her ear plates and frontal paws, was hesitant. "well you just remember the part where you looked up and saw me didnt you?" receiving no response she continued "the part about how you teemed up to surprise attack me and said that you never wanted to convert me after all?" this time there was a mournful shameful sounding moan coming from nonas companion flying far enough away alongside her to not be glimpsed. so Nona related briefly all that she had heard and seen to her recently acquired ally. when she got to the part leading up she paused for breath. "and then what happened? you said i...threatend to kill you and rid this whole land of free night furys? it was my personal mission?" the other voice pressed urgently, needy. Nona nodded and opened her jaws again to continue her story. "yes and it went something like this..."
...
just a few moments ago he had heard a roar that sounded awful, like something had happened to his leader to make her roar that loudly even reaching the distance hed retreated to recover from another blasted dragons inflicted injury. "curse that foolish creature to have been born with wings." he flew toward the source of the fierce sound, having to press his ear plates to his head to prevent them bursting. "whats happening? are you okay?" he bellowed to be heard. what a sight greeted his eyes when he was close enough for his eyesight to penetrate the cloudy sky: a huge flash of lightning lighted up the sky and he gasped, his leader, the one he looked up to and bowed whenever she addressed him was coated with a slick layer of sweat as she flapped her wings slowly up and down with a life of their own, her head sagging limp against her chest. then he caught a glimpse of the other albino fury that had scratched him earlier and growled loud enough for her head to snap in the brutes direction. he was built like a tank and muscles all over but for all his self-imposed powerful looking intimidating appearance with a slash across one eye, his combat skills lacked severely; how he had even stayed alive against younger formerly free night furys in battle was beyond Nona. he was lose enough to hear what the other was saying by now. "did...did i r-really...d-deafeat s-silverwingthefury? all b-by myself?" he couldn't believe what was coming out of the dragonesses own jaws. what had happened to her to make her so defeated looking? "nightflight?" he called, naming the exhausted looking female the color of sky blue with white sprinkles like freshly fallen snow on her wings. he asked what was wrong. "i...could ask the same thing myelf...i...i...don't know where i am. where am i? im so exhausted." she realised she was fatigued and steadied her wing beats. "i feel so...weary. last thing i remember was...giving myself up for this white dragon, i-" she let out a startled sound from her jaws as she saw the dragon she was about to say its name flying not far away from her body. "you! Nona? how? what? i don't understand whats g-going on" she stuttered. and then the brute who had been hovering nearby saw nightflight do something he hadn't seen before: she began cooing comfortingly to herself, murmuring unintelligible phrases under her breath, fretting. "oh dear oh dear...what have i done?"
the brute was growing increasingly suspicious of nightflight versels motives and edged a little closer to get a good look at her muzzle...and then he knew. he flared up at Nona across the distance. "you turned her against us?! that was the best of our kind, versel led us in a glorious path to enlightenment under the power of the god protector! how dare you! you somehow freed her of its mind link to her! now she will not be able to communicate with the rest of our kind that see the truth! by doing this you blind her. you're going to pay for this, pretty sweetheart! help me, our leader, help us and we will get you back on the right path once again." as he took off after Nona ready to savage her, nightflight hovered there tiredly, still coated with sweat, and suddenly made up her mind whose side she was on...suddenly she didn't want to look up at the stars anymore. nightlight curled her claws and un-curled them, studying them, lost in thought and a bit unsteady upon seeing they were covered with a large amount of lovely vermillion. she hovered there, thinking, pondering mulling thoughts and feelings over inside her. meanwhile Nona had to contend with the huge war mashine-on-wings barreling her way in revenge for what Nona had 'done' to nightflight. she had a few seconds on how to deal with this seething black mass before it crashed into her; driving the breath from her body and shoving her through the clouds at alarming speeds. a few moments later Nona felt a wing jarring jolt go through her as he slammed her hard into the spire of a rocky mountaintop pinnacle that loomed from the slate cloudscape. the impact was terrible! he then jabbed his claws down onto her muzzle, doing damage while emphasizing words with each claw thrust. "how dare you try to turn her against us. everything was just fine until you showed up to ruin out conquest of this land. why is it that you were the only one to remain free huh?" he shrugged off the blows nona tried prying him off with her back legs which were underneath the nasty black brutes vulnerable stomach.
he used his strength to pick Nona clear of the rock, hover up on huge wings and hurl her clear off the rock he had pinned her to and into another not too far away. she cried out shrilly in pain as her albino body struck stone hard. he took off after with a nasty victorious smirk and continued his assults on her face. "that's for daring to oppose us in the first place! that's for hurting me" he slashed down one last time as hard as he could with those big cruel protruding claws from his paws, piercing nonas neck deeply to the bone, drawing vermillion. "and that's for all the pain i feel for what you just did to our once proud leader!" nonas struggles grew limper, even though she could have handled him with ease earlier she had been using most of her stamina to avoid death-by-nightflight and now was weakened further by this brutes continual assaults. he threw himself on top of a rapidly resisting dragon, and smiled sown onto her, saving for just a moment all the hatred for this creature that had been the cause of so much of nightflights trouble and the god protector. wordlessly he started building up the gas that would materialise in the back of his throat and burn Nona to oblivion."time to find a new place to sleep. goodnight troublemaker. sleep tight." then as the fireball was about to be unleashed he suddenly stiffened, a startled expression written all over his muzzle Nona could see. then his jaws promptly snapped shut and he swallowed his own fireball, pitching over and off his precarious perch to fall down into the gorge with an awful wailing howl. behind the place where the brutish fury that had just been about to end nona was a practically shivering, warbling, babbling crying nightflight; her claws red from her she had stuck him hard across his back to disable him. "i didn't mean to...but he...h-he was about to kill you. i couldnt-t allow him to...harm anothr fury. i think theres been enough of that aleady...i couldnt help it." still shaking miserably she glanced into nonas eyes still down on the rock where she had been hurled to."did i do the right thing? i used to be so calmly collected without fear. what am i now?" Nona didnt know what she could possibly say to a creature so utterly lost and confused.
...
the other voice of nightflight loaw shar versel, now just nightflight, was silent for a very long time as she and Nona flew away from the mountain range. Nona bided her patience as much as she could until she was fit to burst "well?" there was more silence. "its..intresting. how and who i used to be, the evil thing i was as my time as versel and now the new me" said her voice thoughtfully, its owner quietly sifting through what she had just been told. "but now that im me again...whats next? what is my destiny now that i have been set free of those moral chains that bound me? what shall i become? what paths lay before me? where do they lead? too many questions and far too few answers for my apparent liking." Nona could only imagine what dark thoughts must have scuttled across nightflights mind right now. so lost and confused as a newborn puppy opening its eyes for the first time. in many ways that was entirely true of her now; being told that what she had been was unjust and terrible. what must it have been like to be under the influential trance of the god protector? Nona really didnt want to find out and now that she had freed nightflight she hoped others would soon follow in her path. her words had broken through the fog she had been seduced on that day when she had given her freedom to bide Nona more time to do what need to be done. she startled as nightflight uttered something too quiet to hear. "what was that?" she repeated it louder in a far darker tone than Nona expected it to be uttered "i said, and what does this silverwingthefury have in store me when he finds out i am no longer under his control? i am...i was...nightflight versel."