The night air was unexpectedly cold as Starseer followed the tui.
It was surprisingly fast as she had to take a few seconds every now then to catch her breath.
I still can't believe it can understand me.
They flew over the houses of several NightWings. It was a sleepy night as most NightWings were in their homes relaxing. Some were taking a walk as Starseer could see them walking in the lantern lit streets, waving them a friendly hello. At the height she was flying at she could see the NightWing Palace, looming over the smaller building surrounding it. If she kept flying towards the palace she would eventually come face to face with the palace guards, something she didn't want to experience.
Fortunately the tui flew west, away from the palace and towards the forest.
Maybe it needs help with its nest? Starseer thought.
The tui landed on the branch of a tree and Starseer landed next to it. The forest was surrounded by fog and a strange wind blew past Starseer's wings, producing a similar noise to the wind she heard at home.
Spooky
The tui flew into the woods, chirping happily as it flew.
Shhh, someone is here.
"Huh? Hello, is someone there?" Starseer asked puzzlingly.
Silence was her answer as she heard nothing.
She heard a small inaudible whisper, along with the quietest of thoughts.
"I can hear your thoughts, you know. Wait, Slowtail is that-."
A dark figure with a pale mask jumped from behind her and she screamed. She closed her eyes, bracing for an attack of some sort but instead she heard laughter. She opened her eyes to find the figure holding it sides, laughing. Another dark figure with a pale mask popped up from behind a tree, chuckling as it approached her.
"Ugh! You two! Slowtail! Truthful! Take off those costumes!"
The two figures looked at each other.
"Fine." One figure took off their mask revealing it to be Slowtail. "You should've seen your face, Starseer!" Slowtail laughed.
The other figure took their mask off as well. "It was pretty funny, Starseer," Truthful chuckled.
"No it wasn't Truthful," Starseer said, baring her teeth. "What are you two doing here anyway? And what are you wearing?"
"Oh, we're wearing black robes and painted masks'' Slowtail said, showing the mask to Starseer.
"And we're here collecting logs for a prank we're going to do tomorrow when the academy opens again" Truthful replied.
"So I was right! You guys aren't working on a class project with your clawmates."
"Well no, all our clawmates are in on it, we're planning to scare the older dragonets when classes start again, " Truthful responded. "But um, don't tell anyone please."
"Yeah, we'll promise not to scare you again," Slowtail added.
"Fine, but what do you need logs for?"
"We're going to carve the logs into a monster, " Slowtail said.
"And how are you going to do that?"
The brothers looked at each other.
"Um, we don't know exactly. We are really just winging all of this to be honest with you, " Truthful replied.
Out of the corner of her eye, Starseer saw the tui sitting on a rock chirping in her direction. "Well you two have fun, I have my own thing to do, " Starseer said as she was walking towards the tui.
"Like what, following that tui?" Slowtail said.
Starseer turned back to her brothers and gave them a cheeky smile.
"Wait, are you serious?" Truthful said, confused.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be back home before you guys anyway" she said.
The tui started to fly farther into the forest and Starseer followed. She noticed the air became colder the further she went.
Strange.
She heard a noise to her right, the sound of another tui.
Wow, another tui.
She kept following the tui but heard the other tui's chirping becoming more frantic.
"Huh. Wait my tui friend, I think another tui needs our help."
The red tui ignored her and kept flying forwards.
Starseer went to the other tui and found it stuck under a fallen branch, struggling to free itself.
"Oh no, don't worry I'll help you."
She lifted the branch with ease, freeing the tui. The tui flew and looked at Starseer. This tui's feathers were a more familiar brown color unlike the strange red color of her tui friend. The brown tui perched on Starseer's shoulder, chirping softly in her ear.
"Glad to have helped you."
Starseer saw the red tui returning and the brown tui let out a loud cry and jumped off Starseer's shoulder.
"Going already?"
The brown tui bit Starseer's wing, desperately trying to pull her.
"Ouch, hey what's wrong?"
The brown tui cried out frantically at Starseer. When the red tui arrived, the brown tui flew away faster than any bird Starseer had seen before.
"Good-bye then," Starseer called out to the brown tui as it disappeared into the forest.
She turned to the red tui.
"Well that was something right?"
The red tui gave no response as it flew back where it came from.
Walking even deeper into the woods, Starseer started to take notice of how dark it was. It was unnaturally dark as she couldn't see the moon anymore. In just a few seconds, she could barely see the trees and she lost sight of the tui.
"Hello? Can you chirp so I know where you are please?"
There was no chirp.
"This doesn't seem good."
She didn't want to say it, but she was scared. She stood still, surrounded by darkness.
"Hello?" Starseer whispered.
There was no sound, no noise of crickets chirping in the grass, no sound of wolves in the distance howling to the moon and even the wind had gone silent. She closed her eyes in fear, hoping that she would see something when she opened her eyes.
At that moment, she heard a quiet thought
Come closer
Huh?
Walk forward
She opened her eyes to see a faint light in the distance.
Come closer
She heard the tui's call in the direction of the light. She slowly walked towards the light. It was a red color, similar to the tui's feathers. As she approached she noticed the light was coming from inside a large tent.
A tent? Out here?
Come inside.
Cautiously, she entered the tent and the entrance closed itself. The light was coming from the weak flame of a torch. She saw the tui on the ground, staring at her.
It was no longer chirping.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?"
The tui did not respond.
Suddenly the flame went out.
After a short moment of darkness, multiple torches went up in flames, illuminating the inside.
The tent was now much larger inside and the tui was now sitting on elegantly designed red cushions.
"What's going on here? What are you?"
The tui did not respond.
The ground started to shake and a cloud of red smoke appeared, blocking sight of the tui.
Starseer could hear an instrument playing from somewhere.
"Is that an…..accordian?"
The accordion seemed to finish playing its piece and the ground stopped shaking. The smoke slowly cleared to show not a tui, but a dragon.
A dragon with red hypnotic eyes.
A/N: Hey guys, CrystalDynamite here. Reading over this short story made me appreciate the good WOF stories on this site.
