I felt like being awesome and posting this early

Chapter 13

Home

The egg feels smooth but lumpy in my paws as I fly towards the valley where I told the clan to go. I've been thinking about giving it a name. Maybe Clan Infernious? Infernious means fire, and we're dragons, so I guess it could work.

I tilt my wings and slice through the wind towards the valley. Narrowing my eyes, I see that no one is there.

"Frostbite!" I whip my head around to see Zylah flying towards me, "We found this wonderful hollow, come see!"

Signaling for Skurge and Whiplash to follow, I fly after Zylah. She dives down and soars around the cliffs. Then, she suddenly jerks to her left and disappears. Tilting my head, I flap my wings harder and see that she landed in…a hollow. It looks like something carved a chunk of land out of the ridge. Glancing over my shoulder, I land beside her. The entire clan, even Skull, can fit in the large area.

"Pretty good, huh?" my delta asks, puffing out her chest. I look around. There are bushes and a few thin trees lining the edge, so that would save the hatchlings from falling down the steep drop. There are large crevices on the rocky vertical mountainsides, so most of the Fangs and Claws could fit into them. Plenty of areas where we could dig separate dens. And, on one of the more rocky walls to my left, there's a small waterfall with a pool at the base. Half of the pool goes underneath the rocks, seeing as they hang over the pool, and with one sniff I can tell that it's fresh water.

"Wow," Whiplash breathes, "This place is awesome! We can all live here!"

Skull lifts his head above the hollow and sniffs the air, "And the forests smell like they're full of prey."

"It's good, huh?" Nixie squeals, standing beside Zylah, "I think it's great. Do you think it's great, because I do and I think that everyone likes this place and-"

Skurge groans, "Nixie, please, our ears are bleeding."

I purr halfheartedly and nod to Zylah, "Good job, Zylah."

The Skrill ducks her head and says, "Well, actually, Willow and Larksong found it."

I look at the two hatchlings, who are watching us under their mother's wing, and Willow speaks up bravely, "We did! We were playing, and I nearly fell into it!"

I nod and sniff the air. Skurge slithers up beside me and asks, "Something's off here. I mean, why has nobody claimed such a wonderful place like this? Something must be out there, scaring off the dragons."

"I'll check it out." I say, flying up to the top of the hollow, forgetting about the eggs. I sniff the air again, and open my mouth to taste it. My eyes turn to slits. Dire wolves! I once smelled the brutes when a wind from their territory blew over the ocean and passed Outcast Island. Skurge told me just how dangerous they could be.

"Skurge, get over here!" I call over my shoulder. A few moments later, my deputy is by my side, his head in the air, "The scent is old. So old I can only just smell it."

"Do you think we could stay here anyways?" I ask, "They could be gone."

Skurge mutters to himself for a moment, and then says, "They might not have ever been on the island. This scent could have come from a wind, and it's spring now so the recent snow from winter could have frozen the scent and preserved it. Now that the cold is gone, the smell is in the air, faint, but likely to stay unless another scent comes over it."

See? This is why he is my deputy.

"Alright," I say, bunching up my muscles, "Let's go tell the others to start setting up camp."

Turning around, I spring down into the hollow. Everyone looks up as I do. Looking around, I see a tall ledge above the pool of water. Leaping up onto it, I turn around and face my clan. They gather around the pool.

"Dragons of…" I hesitate, and then say, "…Clan Infernious! We are going to make camp here. It most likely will be permanent. I want the nursery to be the most protected area, along with Dracen's den. Any questions?"

Fernheart lifts her tail and I nod. "What about those eggs?" she asks and my eyes widen, landing on the two crossbreed eggs. "Oh…yes, I forgot about those," I say, "Um, Skurge, Whiplash and I came across two dragons; a Monstrous Nightmare and a Deadly Nadder. They did not wish to join our clan, but they gave their eggs to us. They may be crossbreeds, but they will be treated as well as any other clan member. After all, they will be the first dragons to hatch in the clan."

Everyone nods, and I yowl, "Well, then. Let's get to work!"

They scurry away and I leap down from the ledge. Walking towards Fernheart, I say, "The eggs will need a mother. I know you are busy enough, but for now-"

"I can take care of them." Misty suddenly says. All the dragons that heard- me, Fernheart, Fireflight, Dracen, Skyflame, and Skurge- whip their heads towards her, eyes wide. Misty doesn't break her gaze from mine, or her posture, and repeats, "I can take care of them. They are part Nadder, after all. And if Fernheart can take care of four Changewing hatchlings and two hatchlings of her own, two crossbreed eggs will be a piece of squirrel. Besides," she looks at Fernheart, "you've already got your talons full with those six."

The mother blinks in surprise, and then says, "Well, I guess two more hatchlings would be a little overwhelming…"

Skyflame walks up to her sibling, "Are you sure you can do this, little sister?"

Misty nods and walks up to the eggs. She nudges them towards Fernheart, and then lays down with her wings over them. "I can be their…mother, right?" she asks me. I blink and snap out of it, "Oh, of course. Fernheart will be there to advise you if you need it."

She smiles and nods. Fireflight stands still. "I never thought you'd be the mother type," he says.

"Me neither." Misty purrs. We all stand around for a few moments before Dracen says, "Call me when they hatch." Misty nods and he walks away with his herbs. Skurge jerks his head towards me and I trot towards him. He slithers slowly and I walk beside him.

"Well," my deputy says, "I did not see that coming."

"Me neither," I laugh softly, "I don't think anyone did, even her. I always thought she was a fun, energetic, careless, overgrown hatchling. But now it's like bam! She grew up in two seconds."

"Frostbite!" I hear Aquamarine call and turn to look at the Thunder Drum, "Where do you want your den to be? I can build it if you want."

I shake my head and reply, "It's okay. I can build my own."

I turn back to Skurge, who is staring at the rock wall where I made the announcement. His white eyes glint in the sunlight as he rumbles, "How about there?"

Following his gaze, I see a dark splotch in the wall. It's almost entirely hidden by a large boulder, but if I push it aside, I think I would be able to fit in the cave. Trotting up to the wall, I jump over the pool and onto the ledge. Hooking my claws into nooks and crannies in the rocks, I make my way over to the cave. Using my shoulders, I slowly push the boulder that is covering the entrance to the shelter. Suddenly, it falls to the ground with a thud.

I look down, "Are you okay?" Skurge thankfully didn't get hit and instead is already pushing the large rock to the edge of the clearing, towards the cliff. With one hard shove, he sends the stone tumbling down to the ocean and slithers to my side.

I turn around and walk into the cave. It's dark, but I'm used to that, what with being born in the Dark Cave and all. "Ahh," I hear Skurge sigh, "It's good to be out of the sun." I prick up at that. I had forgotten that Whispering Deaths hate sunlight. It must've driven him crazy, being out in the sun all the time.

With a quick sniff, I walk on. Soon, I feel a cold wall touch my nose and take a step back. "Stop." I order and Skurge stops. Turning around, I look at the cave. The light from the entrance reaches to the middle of the cavern, but it turns grey a few Terror lengths in. There are a few stalactites hanging from the ceiling, but they aren't long enough to touch my head. Padding up to the middle, I sniff the flat rock. This seems like a good place to make a nest. I lift my head and look around again. The cave seems to go far deeper into the mountain than it would seem, looking from the outside. It is big enough for both Skurge and I to fit in, along with extra space to move around.

I turn to Skurge, who is watching me from the shadows, and nod, "This is a good place to sleep in."

He straightens up and says, "Alright. I'll go organize hunting patrols."

"Thanks."

I walk after him as he slides out of the cave. Before I walk out, though, I rub my cheek against a couple of rocks to leave my scent on them, letting the other dragons know that this is my den.

"Hey, Frostbite!" Dagger calls from the ground, "This crevice actually opens up a bit on the inside. It's a good shelter-can we start making nests?"

I look at the fissure he's standing next to. It looks almost as if a claw came down from the sky and scratched it, separating the rock wall from the ground. I can see that it opens up inside, but just in case, I say, "Sure, but put some stabilizing rocks in case it decides to cave-in. Zylah," I jerk my head towards my delta, "supervise it."

She nods and gets to work with the Fangs and Claws. I lay down on the Leader's Ledge, as I am going to call it now, and gaze around the camp. Dracen's head is sticking out of some hanging lichen that is covering part of the far wall. There seems to be a small cave near the middle of the wall, because he keeps ducking in and out of the curtain of plant. There are also rocks so that he can climb down easily. I purr, happy that my friend is settling in quickly.

"Crag!" I perk up at Skurge's bark, "I want you to lead a hunting party. Take a Fang with you. We don't know what's out there. Solheart, you do the same."

The Skullion swivels his head towards him, a little startled, and then at me and asks, "Am I a Claw or a Fang?"

"Which do you prefer?" I ask, "You seem very capable of sneaking up on prey, so I figured you would be a Claw."

He nods and grin, flashing his sharp deadly teeth, "That's right. I'll be a Claw." Then, he goes off to gather some hunters. Crag, who was talking to Nixie, suddenly speaks up, "Is Nixie is Claw or a Fang?"

"Claw." I can't even imagine her in a fight.

Nixie squeals in joy and follows him and some other dragons out of the hollow towards the forest. It surprises me, how quickly she can move on land and how much smaller she is when her belly isn't full of water.

I notice Misty watching them as they leave. The nursery, which is basically a large vertical fissure in the wall, is slightly beneath Dracen's den, surrounded by lichen as well. The Nadder is crouching with her head sticking out next to Fernheart, who is watching her hatchlings play nearby.

Looking around, I see Amber, Ash, and the omega, Sparrow, coming into the camp with their mouths full of moss, twigs, and soft leaves.

"Sparrow!" I hear Skurge bark. Sparrow jumps in surprise and nearly drops his bundle. Trotting up to the deputy, he nods for him to continue. "Make Fernheart's and Misty's nests. Then you can help the Fangs and Claws with theirs."

"Wait." I interrupt, standing up. Leaping down next to my beta, I say, "Actually, I need the omega to map out the territory. That is his most important job, after all."

Skurge scowls at Sparrow and then growls softly, "I'll have Nightwhisper and Ash do it, then."

I nod curtly, and then look down at the omega, "I'll be accompanying you, if you don't mind. I want to get a look of the territory too." I glance at the sun, which is slowly starting to set, "And I hope you have a good memory, because we don't have any bones to bring with us. But the Claws should be done by the time we get back."

Sparrow jerks his head and quickly gives his nest materials to Nightwhisper. Bunching up my muscles, I spring onto the wall and then climb the rest of the way up. Turning around, I wait for Sparrow to fly up and then plunge into the forest.

"I never would've thought I would someday belong to a clan and live on such a beautiful island." Sparrow comments as we walk, "I don't really even mind my rank."

We're heading back to the camp now. The forest was absolutely gorgeous. There's an outcropping of tall rocks in a clearing that I think would be great for training. I smell prey everywhere, and we even came across a boar. Besides the forest, we also went to the valley I saw from the sky earlier. It's much larger up close, and it seems like the plains go on forever. At one point they turned into marsh, and I saw a bunch of frogs and herons. We didn't go through the whole island, though, because I doubt we'll need it all. Well, for now anyways.

"Yeah," I respond, "It's a good thing Nixie found us, even though she can be a bit…"

Sparrow glances at me and I pause before continuing, "…overenthusiastic."

He nods and we continue in silence. The sky is stained with red and orange as dusk falls. Suddenly, Dagger bursts through the undergrowth and skids to a halt in front of us.

"Frostbite!" he exclaims, "You've gotta see this!"

Sparrow and I look at each other before following him through the trees. As we trot, I hear the familiar trickling of water. Abruptly, the trees clear and I see Crag's hunting party on the edge of large river. The only problem is that the river is red.

I'm about to hiss in alarm when I see Nixie dive into the river and come back up with a large red fish in her jaws. Tilting my head in confusion, I walk to the river's edge and peer into the water.

The entire river is filled with red fish.

But now that I see them up close, I notice they're not entirely red. Their heads are green, and they've got long, curved jaws that look too strange to belong to any animal.

"Salmon!" Nixie squeals with joy as she drops her fish, "They're spawning!"

"Salmon?" I ask in confusion, "Is that a river fish?"

"No," she replies, "They spend most of their lives in the ocean, fattening up and stuff, but in the spring and summer millions come to their birth rivers to lay eggs."

Crag snaps his jaws around one, killing it, and then drops it on a growing pile. "They taste good too!" he rumbles, "Much better than ocean fish. I think they're a bit too salty."

I leap over the river and land beside the pile. Cautiously, I sniff it and am pleasantly surprised. They don't smell too much like those tart and salty ocean fish that Skull caught on the Skullion Island. My mouth waters and I take a step back. Yep, I definitely like forest prey better than sky or ocean.

I walk to the edge of the river beside Fireflight and lift a paw, "Hope you don't mind if I try to catch on- ah-ha!"

Hooking a plump one with my claws I fling it into the air and give it a killing bite. Looking across the river, I see Sparrow struggling to kill a fish that's flapping around on the shore pebbles. He suddenly slips on his lame paw and the fish bounces back into the river.

Sighing, I toss mine across the water and it lands next to him, "Go tell everyone that we'll be there soon. Also, bring that to Misty-"

"No!" Fireflight suddenly snaps. We all turn to look at him and he gulps. "I mean, uh," he stutters, "I can take something to her."

"What's wrong with Sparrow doing it?" Nixie asks. The Nadder looks at his paws and stutters, "Uh…well, I mean-er-"

"Oh," I perk up knowingly, "Alright, you can take a salmon to her. Sparrow, well, you might as well have that now."

Fireflight sighs with relief as Sparrow starts chewing on the fish hungrily. Skyflame, the Fang that came with the hunting party, stares at him for a few moments before turning to their fresh kill pile.

"Is the other hunting patrol back?" I ask Crag and he replies, "They should be just getting there."

I nod and pick up three fish from the pile. I notice that they also caught woodland prey along with the river prey. Skyflame picks up a young boar and Crag, a raccoon.

Crag looks at the rest of the prey and says through the raccoon's fur, "We're gonna haf to cum back phhor de ress."

He flicks his tail and the patrol sets out. I quickly signal for Sparrow to guard the rest of the kill and follow them. The river is close to the camp, but my neck still starts to ache from the weight of the plump fish by the time we get there.

The other patrol is already at the camp, but seem to have only just gotten there because everybody's watching them pile the prey. We jump down into the hollow and do the same.

With a jerk of my head, I send Falcon and Aquamarine to go and fetch the rest of the prey. I watch as Fireflight trots to Misty in the nursery, and then pad towards the pool. Dipping my head, I lap up the nice cool water. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until I saw the river.

I drink for a few moments longer, and then lift my head and turn around. Many dragons are glancing at me occasionally, probably waiting for me to take the first pick of prey.

Smiling a little, I turn back around and leap onto the Leader's Ledge. Everybody looks up as me as I begin, "Dragons of Infernious! Today we have found our home, and tonight, we feast on its riches. Let us hope that we can settle in quickly, and soon maybe even start training apprentices."

I look at Willow and Larksong, who perk up and squeal with joy. I purr and then jump off of my perch, landing next to the prey pile. Falcon, Sparrow, and Aquamarine are skidding into the hollow and quickly dispose of their prey on the heap.

Sniffing around, I settle on a salmon and a wood duck, taking them next to the pool to eat. I sink my teeth into the salmon, and am pleasantly surprised. Skurge goes next as usual, ripping the two hind legs off of the boar and also taking a squirrel. He drags them to eat next to me and lies down, his side spines tickling my flank.

Soon, everyone has chosen a piece of prey and is eating contently. I notice Dracen eating and chatting softly with Solheart, Aquamarine, Amber, and Skull, and I see Fernheart walking towards them. Huh, it's good that he's not eating alone, I guess.

By the time everyone is finished, the sun has gone down and the stars come out. Yawning, I stand up, and with a nod to the clan members, turn towards my den.

Dracen's POV

The scent of raccoon reaches my nose and I pick it from the prey pile. My mouth waters as I carry it back to my den, but before I can reach it-

"Hey, Dracen!" Amber, who is eating with Aquamarine, Solheart, and Skull, calls, "Come over here and join us."

I hesitate and she says, "Come on, cousin. Be more social."

Sighing, I walk over to them and lay down next to Solheart.

I sink my teeth into the dark furred prey, relishing its sharp sweet flavor. "So," Skull, who is gulping down the rest of the boar, says, "Do you like the new place, Dracen?"

"Yeah," I answer, "There's a lot of space for storage and sleeping."

Aquamarine licks her claws and says, "Actually, no. As far as I know, Skurge doesn't have a den yet."

"Really?" Amber asks, mildly interested, "So, where is he gonna sleep?"

"Eh, he'll probably share with Frostbite." Aquamarine says, "You know, leader and deputy."

Solheart sniffs and curls his tail around his belly, "It's only a matter of time before we have four-legged white hatchlings with spikes all over them running around the camp."

I nearly choke and cough, "What? That wouldn't happen."

"Well, back at the Isle of Skullions, there used to be a few small clans. They weren't very big, or collected as this one, and I wasn't in any. But I've heard that in nearly every one, the beta and the leader eventually became mates. I remember that I once met the leader and the deputy of one group once when I accidently strayed into their territory. The two were on a walk, and when they sensed me, they nearly ripped my head off. They fought very well together. I think the female was the beta and the male was the leader."

Silence follows his words. I glance at Frostbite, who is lying next to Skurge, and feel a flicker of disappointment. Before the whole clan thing started, I had hoped that one day, her and I could have become partners. But now…

We're basically from two different worlds. I don't share her thirst for blood, or feel her excitement as she kills. I've never wanted to fight since the classes we took when we were kids.

"Whatever," Amber snorts, "I don't think it'll happen. Frostbite's too busy to be thinking about becoming a mother. And don't you think Skurge is a bit…you know…old for her? I mean, he was her mentor."

"Well, that didn't stop me and my husband." Fernheart suddenly joins us, "He's gone now, but we still had enough time together to be happy."

"Huh," I huff, and then start washing the blood off of my paws and maw. I don't need a mate anyways. I'm fine. And I've got my cousin Amber to keep me company.

They continue to talk for a while, and I occasionally join in. With bellies full and the night not so cold, everyone's in a good mood. At one point, Poppyseed and Adder crash into my side, and after a scolding from their adoptive mother, they and the rest of their siblings go to the nursery, along with Fernheart.

Then, after the stars and the moon have come, Frostbite gets up and nods to everyone before climbing into her den. Skurge gets up as well, and mutters to Nightwhisper. I see his eyes narrow, and then the Whispering Death turns around and disappears into Frostbite's cave. I sniff, and can't help feeling the sharp fangs of jealousy.

Don't worry, there won't be much romance and all that fluffy stuff. That last Dracen part was my big sister's idea. She ships DracenXFrostbite...Fracen? Drabite? Hmm, I wonder what FrostbiteXSkurge would be? Frosturge? Frurge? Skurgebite?

CREDIT TO JOHNNYLEE619 FOR THE NAME INFERNIOUS!

Lol, good night everybody