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Green stretched and shook himself, uncomfortable sleeping on the unfamiliar cave floor. He was feeling hopeful, though, that the problems between him and his sister could be resolved today. First, he needed to hunt. And not just for himself; he was going to catch something for the Adlyens as well as an apology for the death of their gatherer. He spread his wings and set out into the dense forest.
His hunting had gone well. He'd caught a nice portion for himself which he ate quickly and a suitably large portion for the Adlyens. He was heading toward one of the villages with it now. It was the closest one to their den and so he figured it was where the gatherer had been from. He wouldn't stay long; they would no doubt be grieving and need their space.
As he got near the clearing where the village (more like a gathering of huts, really) was, his nose twitched with a sharp smell blowing in the wind. Smoke. What? The Adlyens didn't usually use fires during the day, preferring to wait till dawn and dusk to do most of their cooking and of course using it for light and protection at night. Maybe there was a special occasion. Would it have to do with the death?
It was so much worse than he expected. This was no purposeful fire. This was Drâken fire, hotter than normal fire and almost impossible to put out. The Adlyens were caught between fleeing, hiding, and trying to free those trapped within. Wait. Hiding? It became horribly clear seconds later.
Blue swooped over the wooden buildings, blasting them with hell's heat and lashing out with her claws. Her scent radiated joy and pride and viciousness. Green leapt into the air, offering forgotten. This wasn't just paranoia. This was cruelty.
"Stop!" he called out. She twirled in the air and bared her teeth at him.
"Stay out of this! If you want to sit by idly for them to attack us, fine, but I won't!" she growled to him, diving back down presumably to attack more Adlyens. Green refused to let her do that. He didn't understand what had gotten into her recently, but he would not stand by while she killed innocents.
He shot after her. Several quick flaps of his wings put him right in front of her face and she was forced to swerve and circle to avoid him, snarling in rage. She launched herself at him and he dodged before going back at her. They continued this several times, each trying to block the other from being near the distressed Adlyens.
Then Blue, instead of going on the attack again flew up and away from the scene. Wondering what she was doing as she wasn't going in the direction of the den, and not trusting her to give up and leave the Adlyens alone, Green followed her.
They flew to a part of the island planet Green had never been to, although he had passed along the edges. Everything was blinding, with masses of white rock reflecting the bright sunlight. There were cliffs and chasms all over, and everything from near sand gravel to giant boulders. It was eerily silent. No birds sand, no Drâken roared, no Adlyens chattered. It seemed they were the only ones there.
Green was getting a bad feeling about this. But he couldn't let Blue go without talking to her and getting her to stop her crazy behavior.
She stopped flying forward and turned in the air to face him. There was an unfriendly gleam in her eyes.
Heart pounding, Green spoke. "I don't know what's going on, but we can talk it out. You can't keep killing Adlyens. If they bother you that much, we'll go to a different cave farther away from their settlements. But what you did today was awful and I won't let you do that again. They are not to blame for the actions of a single member of their species. Please, Blue, tell me what's going on. Let me hel – "
Blue had seemed to be listening, but he'd been subconsciously edging forward as he talked and as soon as he had gotten in range, she'd lunged and caught him by the tail. Before he could understand what just happened, she was dangling him upside down, tail caught in a painful grip between her teeth. She began to spin him, making him dizzy and quickly gaining momentum. Then, she let go.
Green flew into the hard wall of the canyon, roaring in pain as several bones broke on impact. He dropped to the floor, whining at the red-hot sparks shooting across his back, his vision clearing and fading. He lay there, in too much agony to get up.
By the time he managed to heal enough to get back, the sun had set. He limped to the edge of the forest, dreading what he would find.
The village was completely razed to the ground.
