Droning, simualtenously low and high, reverberated throughout the chamber, biting away any coherent thoughts she could have and filling her instead with fear and anxiety, painting the entire world outside of the nest as an unforgivable wasteland filled with creatures bringing certain death for everyone staying too long out there.
This time, however, the outside world wasn't just a looming threat.
It was an active one.
The volcano's walls were hit multiple times, stone creaking, growling, and finally giving way. The dragoness looked down from the rock shelf she had taken for herself, at cost of several fights. The space was almost silent save for the never-ending droning, but even that was muffled. And, after flaming rock had fallen deep into the nest, the droning died down nearly entirely.
There was a roar, and dread of outside world was overpowered by dread of the hungry one. Dread of the Queen.
A swarm of dragons of all shapes and sizes burst through the hole, terrified of their master, straight above the human army.
But even with such overpowering feeling clouding her judgement, she instantaneously and almost subconsciously deemed it a suboptimal course of action, and she shot straight to the top of the shaft. She reached the open air and turned to fly south, hoping deep down that this time it will finally be it. That this time she will finally come far enough to leave.
Yet, just like all the times before, it was vain hope, and both fears equalized far away from the point at which her thoughts would finally be liberated.
She stopped in the air as if hitting a wall after trying to go just a little farther, haphazard cut-short thoughts incapable of overcoming dread. The droning was now farther away, quieter, and it unsettled her, despite the knowledge that further is in fact better.
Making a circle in the air, bouncing between dual walls, no, not walls, waves, she whined. So close to freedom and yet so far away.
Then the droning ceased entirely for the first time she could remember.
The sudden change was met by dragons with mixed reactions. Some yelped in bewilderment and dread, others just blinked and went to satisfy their hunger, yet others rushed towards the nest.
Black stroke pierced the skies with amazing speed, covering a distance of hours of sailing in mere seconds. Air screeched in her wake, yellow eyes with slit pupils dead set on the horizon, Night Fury outpacing the wind itself and tearing fog apart.
The dragoness passed the fog but she didn't slow down, wings beating with all the strength she could muster, every ounce of speed squeezed out of her.
Her target was now in view: a little islet, no more than a rock peeking out from under the water really, but this place was very, very important. It was a border: a border she always failed to cross, only a handful of times coming near enough to actually see it, always helpless to leave her invisible prison and break free from the hungry one's tyrannical rule.
A blurred shape passed below the dragoness. She froze, unbelieving. Then she mechanically, without any thought, angled wings upwards and tail downwards, trading speed for altitude.
Her vision drifted downwards in amazement, pupils wide and eyes open completely. Then the Night Fury suddenly snapped and frantically propelled herself southwards, in fear that the droning would return and make this all for naught.
Dark ocean stretched before her, undisrupted by anything except the white foam of the waves that her sensitive eyes managed to spot. Her mind was lulled by sound of the wind and wind alone, conscious thoughts creeping back onto her mind after who knows how long.
A small whine escaped her lips, eyes closed for a while in expression of pure happiness, the dragoness relishing in silence, in peace…in freedom!
Then they shot back open, with a grin more fitting fledgling taking to the air for the first time, she squeaked and proceeded to roll, spin, dive, climb and spit her flames, even flying through them before settling back and inhaling a deep breath of air.
"Freedom"
The taste of the word was otherworldly. When was she free last time? If she was ever free? Certainly yes, otherwise she wouldn't know the meaning of it; her mind quickly answered. Her mind's metaphorical gears were no longer jammed, but oiled and speeding up.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Free! Free! Free!"
The dragoness sang, touched deeply, rolling through the air swiftly, before eventually shaking her head, looking at the evening sun, already hiding in the waves, and turning south, her mind swirled pleasantly, and she couldn't stop herself from making various tricks in the air on the way.
Land showed up just in time, at the moment weariness filled her body, and she landed on top of a wall of rocky valley cutting from sea into the land. Curling up beside a stone shielding her from wind, she sighed contentedly and slept peacefully for the first time in what felt like forever.