A New Moon

Kayla had her leather pouch covering her ears struggling to drown the annoying tingling at the edge of her consciousness. Three days they had been on the road and she had not slept more than 5 hours in total. It wasn't just the consciousness of the reptile that was driving her insane but also its constant wailings throughout the night.

The animal was rabid, that she knew, and even if her brother and the riders said otherwise, they did not understand. She sighed annoyed as she tried to put the pouch at the back of her head, like a pillow. Sweat was running down the hollows of her back even though there was a chill in the night.

She tried to put her barriers higher up but the stupid reptile still managed to get inside, although not completely. Kayla breathed loudly and then suddenly felt her heart stop, the hairs on her arms rising.

The purple dragon wailed and nudged at her consciousness, an almost blurry image reaching her but she ignored it.

Stop it!, she shouted angrily in her mind not sure if the creature understood or not but it did stop.

Silence prevailed, a silence that was unnatural, a silence that was eerie and rather horrifying.

Blood. Crunch. Bones.

The air returned to her lungs and she shook her head angrily trying to clear it from all thoughts. No, this was not the time to remember.

She heard a loud noise outside and the purple dragon let out another scream. Her temples burned. She walked outside of her tent and saw a creature, the same one that had attacked them in the Brasungr festival descending quickly towards their camp.

"Shadow wyrm!" someone shouted and the word felt familiar as she remembered reading something about it in one of the books. The creature had another name which evaded her but she knew it was connected to dark magic…

Bones. Blood. Crunch.

What was happening?

She shivered and thought of running away and hiding, but she knew that this would only make her a moving target.

Just then she saw a dark humanoid figure approaching the eggs and purple. It was stealing the eggs and the riders had no idea, busy trying to fight off the shadow wyrms. Purple wailed trying to send her another distorted image but she blocked it.

Kayla watched as the figure slit the throat of the black horse so quickly, that the animal didn't even have time to yell and then the carriage rose in the air and quickly started moving into the night. She followed closely behind, trying not to alert the creature of her presence.

She felt purple's fury once again trying to break through her defenses and for a second an idea sprung into her mind, an idea she wasn't very proud of thinking.

The creature wanted to take the eggs and purple, probably somewhere far away, where her connection with purple would be all but non-existent. Maybe the creature would even kill purple and then she would be free, all her problems gone.

Should she just let it go?

The carriage and creature were already lost from her sight, most likely deep inside the forest, but she could still feel purple's presence. If it died it wouldn't be her fault.

Feelings of danger, rage and wildness emitted from the dragon as well as something else.

Something like… Terror? Betrayal?

Her heart clutched inside her chest and when she heard purple's wails again she made her choice.

Just leave me alone!, she shouted with such force into the creature's mind that suddenly all was silent.

Satisfied, Kayla continued forward, deeper into the forest following the trail of broken trees that had been left behind. The humanoid creature and the carriage were moving fast, true, but she had always loved the feeling of running. She sprung into the night, the cold wind blowing on her face, numbing her cheeks and managed to catch up with them just as they paused near a fast flowing river.

The humanoid creature heard her approaching and hissed, just as purple was struggling to break the wooden bars of its cage. The creature gazed at her, the hairs on her arms rising, but she could only see its red eyes behind the dark cloak and nothing else.

"How curious to see one such as you here" it whispered and let out a terrifying laugh.

Bones. Blood. Crunch.

Don't think about it! Not now!, she screamed at herself but the creature was saying something quick under its breath, dark magic springing forth and she felt as if her insides were boiling. Tears reached her eyes and she wanted to scream but couldn't. The dragon wailed.

"You should not have followed me" the creature hissed and just as Kayla felt her strength abandoning her, everything she was and wanted to be, starting to fade into nothingness, she heard a loud noise and saw woods and splinters falling on the creature just as the dragon attacked the thief.

Purple growled, its teeth bare and the creature started circling the dragon cautiously as sparks of dark magic attacked it. She felt too weak to pay the right amount of attention, but she could hear the noises of fighting and could feel purple's emotions as if they were her own, terror and a fierce need to protect. Every time a blow landed on purple she winced.

Suddenly purple was on the ground, smoke rising from its nostrils, as it tried to desperately move away from the knife's sharp edge that the creature was pushing against its throat.

She felt the dragon's helplessness, and rage rose inside her like nothing else before. The reptile would die if she did nothing. Kayla remembered Stoic's warning but at the moment she had no other choice.

"Risa!" she shouted, her right hand extended, the Gedwey Ignasia symbol glowing like the stars as the water from the river that flowed only a few meters away from her, rose.

Her temples were on fire, her hand was shaking, her limbs felt dead but the water rose to take the shape of a giant dragon and it crushed on the humanoid creature with such force that the earth momentarily shook.

Kayla saw the creature falling on the ground, the dragon flying above it as it viciously attacked and pecked its eyes, snarling noises emitting from it. If the force of the water had not killed the creature she was certain the reptile would.

She lay on the wet ground, water still flowing in the river, looking at the sky above her, as the new moon was hiding between grey-blue clouds. She felt lethargic, her heart beating slowly, as if every beat was a struggle.

Momentarily she saw the clouds parting and light from the moon fell on her as the purple dragon was walking towards her.

Purple?

How blind she had been! The dragon was not purple but something far more beautiful, having a unique colour she could not exactly describe. Its eyes were violet and its body was a greyish-amethyst colour, its wings like liquid silver that sparkled brightly in the moon's light

There was no more energy left in her to keep her mind's barriers up and the dragon's consciousness easily slipped into her own, emotions of concern and affection radiating from it.

Blood. Protect.

It gently touched with its muzzle her right hand, a serious expression on its face.

Protect, her dragon whispered into her mind just as blackness enveloped her.

Don't forget to tell me what you think of this chapter and follow/fav, I promise it will only take a minute :p! Also are shorter and more frequent chapters better than longer and less frequent ones? Thanks for reading !