This is my first story so please baring that in mind any feedback or corrections are much appreciated!
It had been several days since Dart travelled to human land with her brothers and while it was certainly an adventure seeing so much from her father's past, it wasn't enough. She laid awake on top of a small rocky ledge overlooking her parents and brothers sleeping thinking of her adventure and couldn't help but wonder about what else she might discover in the world. Her focus was distracted as one of the small glowing orbs that floated around the caves drifted down in front of her. She continued to sit and watch the orb flow through the air without course or reason until her eyes became too heavy to resist.
The following morning she awoke to the call of her father, looking weary-eyed towards him she saw the others all eating freshly caught fish. She wasted no time briefly stretching before gliding down next to her brothers and grabbing one of the larger fish in the small pile left for them. Quickly gulping down her fish she hopped over to her father who was staring into the larger of the caves having already had his feed. While she did not understand exactly why, since her visit to the humans her father was far more stoic than usual spending time just staring out at the dragons in the caves adjoined to theirs. As she paced up next to him she brushed her head against his foreleg, he looked down at her and gave the Night Fury equivalent of a smile. While her mother had been far angrier about the adventure her father was far different, she felt as though he knew why she had left, as if he had done it himself in the past.
The pair sat side by side watching the other dragons go about their business before her father gave a small grunt and picking up a nearby stick in his mouth. Since Dart's adventure, her father seemed far more open about sharing some of his past with her through his drawings. Once her father had returned with the stick he began to draw what looked like a Whispering Death but the head was wrong. When she queried his drawing grabbing her own stick and drawing a far simpler impression of a Whispering Death her father shook his head and added a small picture of himself, or what she had come to know as him. The drawing of a Night Fury was a simple way for the pair to understand scale, and the dragon her father had drawn was a lot bigger than him. He continued sharing his tale for a couple of hours with Dart adding her own simple drawings to help her understand. She enjoyed this form of communication and she did not know why her mother didn't use it, or more specifically didn't like it, as though something was wrong with it.
The day went on uneventfully after her father left for the day to help some dragons out that had come by. Dart spent most of the day playing with her brothers, chasing each other back and forth, and while they were far more physical when one 'caught' the other she preferred to just not get captured. As evening fell, and the young Night Lights had all but passed out from a full days play, their father returned visibly exhausted from almost an entire day out. He regurgitated several fish near the laying Night Lights before settling down to go to sleep next to their resting mother. Dart and her brothers had no quarrels with the fish and happily tucked in taking a couple each. Before Dart had finished her second fish she was interrupted by her brothers trying to fight over a final fish grappling each other and rolling in the sand, without them noticing Dart quickly downed her fish and grabbed the final one. It took a few seconds of continued fighting before Pouncer stopped on-top of Ruffrunner, mid-way through slapping him and looked over at Dart finishing the fish. Both her brothers gave out a grumble at her to which she replied by waving her tail towards them before hopping up to her ledge. She watched as her brothers fought over who's fault it was before they eventually gave up and fell asleep for the night.
As with the night before Dart struggled to sleep waking up within an hour unable to stop thinking about her adventure and the adventures of her father. After a short while thinking atop her ledge she had decided. She was going on another adventure, she needed too, nothing crazy - just something. Hopping to her feet she carefully and quietly glided down a few feet from her family, deciding to leave her brothers as she wasn't going too far. Watching the others sleep for a moment to ensure none would wake up she, to the best of her abilities, crept towards the exit into the main caverns and briskly but quietly took flight choosing a random direction.
It was exhilarating to be up in the air again as her parents had grounded them without supervision after her last trip so it felt good to stretch her wings properly and freely. She flew aimlessly swooping and gliding through the many formations in the caverns. Along her path she watched a small pack of Speed Stingers race along ledges almost able to keep up with her flying, they didn't seem bothered by her so she continued to watch and follow them for a short while impressed with their precision at such speeds. After a particularly tight corner through a narrow passage, Dart lost the Stingers and decided to keep adventuring alone briefly landing and resting on a large blue glowshroom at the mouth of a chasm.
From the glowshroom she noticed a nest only slightly above her on one of the ledges, however, it looked unattended, she decided to investigate hopping to a vantage on the other side of the chasm. From her new vantage she recognized the egg and nest, it was a Natter, but she still could not tell why the nest had been abandoned. Perhaps the mother was hunting? As she pondered why a mother would abandon an egg without protection she spotted something further along the ledge, a Cavern Crasher!
While wingless the ferocious dragons were known to hunt and feed on eggs, but why was it here? Cavern Crashers usually resided in the deeper caves that were almost entirely separated, her thoughts were interrupted when she realised the peril the egg was in with no mother to protect it. Dart had to do something and quick, the Cavern Crasher was quickly closing in on the nest at seemingly impossible speeds staring unblinkingly at its prize. Dart was not much for combat but she knew enough, leaping into the air she quickly lined up a shot just in front of the dragon before letting out a small warning shot. The blast landed inches away from the rogue dragon stunning it slightly as it stopped in its path and looked directly at Dart hovering, it's tongue tasting the air for a few seconds before its gaze turned back to the egg. Realizing that it was not alone the dragon ran towards the egg, Dart had to defend it but she knew that this creature was not to be intimidated by her. She understood her only choice and took aim at the dragons head with only the sound of her heart racing before letting the shot fly, it felt like an eternity as the ball of light travelled before causing a fiery explosion on impact with the dragon. Dart swooped in on the egg to check it was not harmed, but to her dismay, as the smoke cleared she saw the dragon still standing staring at her.
Before she had any time to react the now angered dragon had begun to open fire, but just as Dart tried to make some kind of move a blast of brilliant orange flame struck the dragon, it roared at the welcome sight of a very angry looking blue Nadder. The Nadder touched down in front of Dart and the nest in a clear combat stance and knowing it was outmatched the Crasher turned and climbed down the sheer cliff. Having made sure the intruder was gone the blue Nadder turned to Dart and chirped happily at her before giving her a brief nuzzle that Dart gladly returned, now recognizing the Nadder as one of her father's friends that joined them in their flight with the humans. Having shown her gratitude the Nadder paced over to the nest and curled up next to the now safe egg. Dart gave a friendly grumble before taking flight in the direction of the attacker, one question still remained.
Dart flew down to the bottom of the chasm and followed the thin trail of flammable slime left by the Cavern Crasher in an attempt to find where it had come from. The trail went on for some distance before leading into a small crack that no normal dragon could fit through. Peeking her head into the hole her assumptions were confirmed, this crack was a shortcut into the deeper caves – this is how the dragon got so far. Dart backed off to a safe distance before preparing to take a blast at the crack in an attempt to collapse it, but before she could fire the Crasher slithered through the hole preparing to fire its own blast. Dart was too stunned by the appearance of the creature to react she closed her eyes and to her surprise heard a blast, not unlike her own. Opening her eyes Dart looked at the Crasher that was smoking laying on its side but still breathing, she heard a large creature land beside her. Looking over towards the source of the sound she was horrified to find the one dragon she truly feared, her father growling with his eyes glaring at her, she was certain of one thing at that moment – she was in trouble.
Her father roared at the defeated Crasher that limply crawled through the crack that he wasted no time in sealing with a powerful blast. His attention then returned to Dart looking far more sheepish than before unable to meet her father's gaze. Just as he was about to start roaring at her as he had done on the human island the familiar sound of a Nadder chirped towards her father. The blue Nadder gracefully landed near the pair followed closely by a less-than-graceful baby that clearly didn't know how to fly yet. The mother chirped happily at Dart's father while gesturing at her, after a few moments her father's expression changed losing it's certainly unsettling anger and being replaced with sincerity still looking at Dart. Once the Nadder had finished her defence she nuzzled her father and took flight helping carry the newborn to their nest. Dart stared at her father who still looked somewhat angry at her but like before seemed to understand her actions he then let out a low grumble and nodded in the direction of home. They flew side by side towards home passing the sleeping Nadder and her new child. Dart thought to herself on the way that while she still wanted adventure perhaps her parents, or at least her father, could be convinced to let her go first.
THE END