The next morning I decide to meet Luna. I've never known the effects of flamesilk, other than it can and will burn you. I'm guessing that she's recently gone under metamorphosis, possibly even later than I have. Why? No reason. I just think that we'd have heard about her by now if she did. Whispers in the streets about someone new named Luna. Wait, no. That's right — Wasp would want to keep it as quiet as possible — so nobody knows that she has a Flamesilk outside of her grasp.
I don't think she knows I exist. I'm not even from her hive. Only, she was a Flamesilk. I was just a defected dragonet who loses consciousness from time to time.
My ears ring, and a throbbing swarms my head. Not again. Not here, in the main entrance to the caves. I try to run somewhere secure, somewhere civilised to collapse uncontrollably, but all I can muster is to fall down head over tail, sending horrible pain throughout my body.
I fall and I see it again. The same series of scenes as the last time, but now it had an hourglass, almost about to run out of time. There's a clock ticking, getting louder, until it runs out.
An ancient dragon's eyes turn completely black. A horde of ancient dragons who were supposed to be dead are battle training. Others are working with… What? Suddenly someone sets the ancient black-eyed dragon on fire.
Screaming.
Chaos.
Fire.
Death.
No. No, it can't be real. But I know it is. I surface back into my usual darkness. Come on. Another circle concerned about me? Give me a break. Hold on. I wave my antennae, sensing everybody's faces.
"Attacus?" Somebody says. I recognise her a second later.
"Khapra?"
"Yes. Finally, for the twentieth time, you respond."
"Oh, ha, ha. Very funny. Actually?"
"Yeah. It was boring."
"Sorry." Someone else pulls me up. I gasp as I feel the warmth of her wrists.
Luna.
"Are you alright?" Luna asks me. "How many claws am I holding up?"
I shrug. "I don't know. I couldn't see from practically hatching. How many claws are you holding up?" I passively counter. Luna frantically apologises.
"Sorry, sorry! I was holding up two. Here, you want a bracelet?" Before I can answer, Luna produces a bracelet and puts it in my talon. It's warm. Yup, Luna's definitely a Flamesilk.
I'm afraid to speak. Is she the one who's going to infect all of us? She seems friendly. If she is, she probably doesn't know it. I'll trust her, for now anyway. "Thanks," I say. "Are you a Flamesilk?"
I have this habit of asking questions I already know the answer to just to confirm my theories.
"Yes," Luna says.
"Well, thanks, I guess."
"No problem." I walk in the opposite direction. Three moons. What is wrong with me?