Chapter 36: Gone with the Nightmares
Nia landed on a large tree branch in the forest. She didn't think anybody was following her. Her clothes and sword had some blood on it from the dragonslayer who she cut her leg off.
She didn't want to hurt them, but she felt that she had no choice. It was either her or them. That captain definitely knew I was a dragon, she thought as she looked at her illusive ring. The ring that cloaked her appearance hiding away the scales.
The wind chilled the forest air. Leaves rustled and danced in the cold. Nia shivered, but she was unsure whether it was the weather or what she has done.
She has only killed monsters and pests before. She never hurt a human. For 30 years, she played in the village with plenty of village children. All of them human.
But it was different. They were dragonslayers. The same people who hunted dragons for sport.
As she closed her eyes, she remembered the one dragonslayer from 30 years ago. As she opened them, she saw the forest on fire. Burning. The smell of dead dragons and humans alike.
"It's horrible," she muttered.
Among the corpses of the dead, there was one standing above. The demon who wore red, green, and black. Smoke clouded the demon's face. The demon's arm twisted itself into a green blade and pierced through the bodies.
She wanted to look away, but couldn't. The fires turned to black and then white. The heat grew.
As she looked down on her hand, it twisted itself into a red blade. She looked up at the demon. It's cloak danced around the flames.
The ground underneath her began to shake. The ground grew up like a pimple and as she looked down, she saw the bodies of dragonslayers. All headless and no blood. Her head turned back up and she faced the demon in front of her. Behind the demon, crows tangled strings on it's back. The strings made of lightning and feathers. She looked behind her and saw the same string attached. Strings of lightning and feathers being moved around by crows. They cawed and cawed as they tangled the demon and Nera with strings.
The white fire surrounded their two hill of corpses. One hill of dragons. One hill of dragonslayers. The demon grew wings of black that started to encircle the two. She took up her red bladed arm and as she did so, the demon mirrored her with the green bladed arm. Nera's eyes turned green. Yellow eyes glowed from the smoke, but eventually the smoke began to fade from the demon's face.
As the smoke faded, Nera's green eyes disappeared. As she did so, the face was clear. It was Nera's face. A perfect image of Nera. As the green eyes faded, the yellow eyes stayed. The yellow eyes stared into Nera. Her mind wandered until the wings closed them off from the fire. Closed them off until nothing but the yellow eyes staring back.
The yellow eyes faded. And so, Nera was left in complete darkness. No light. No sound. Not even the sound of her own breathing or heartbeat.
She closed her eyes, but closed or open looked the same. She opened them, again, but now there was a creature flying in the middle of the darkness. A white butterfly. It soared as the only light within the dark abyss. As it soared, the yellow eyes began to glow again. The yellow eyes moved closer towards the butterfly like a predator eyeing its prey. It moved closer until the eyes were right on top of it. But the butterfly didn't care. It didn't change its pace or fly away from it.
"No. No. No. Not the beautiful butterfly."
Nera's eyes turned green, but there was no rage behind it. The yellow eyes twisted and melded itself into metal jaws. It's jaws wide open to eat the butterfly.
But Nera was there. She wouldn't let that happen. Her green eyes charged towards the yellow metal jaws. The jaws opened wider to chomp down on the white butterfly. The green eyes charged forward to protect the butterfly. The jaws began to close.
And with that, Nia awoke breathing heavily and sweating profusely. She fell asleep on the tree branch. She felt exhausted even though it was just a nightmare.
She looked up at the morning sky holding the red blade in her hands.
"I'm not like that demon. Those dragonslayers would have killed me. It was either me or them. I can't regret it," Nia said to herself. She gave herself the resolve to move forward.
She began to close her eyes, again, but then remembered about Nera. She had to go back to make sure they were safe. Nia hoped that her big sister Nera was safe. Nia thought, as the name of dragonslayer would imply, that means they would only try to harm dragons and not other humans. That is what Nia had hoped, anyways. She knew she couldn't stay at Kyte village any longer, but she needed to be sure that they were safe. After she has made sure of that, she would leave to live somewhere else, but she had hoped to say good-bye to her big sister one last time.
She took off towards the sky and flew towards Kyte village. She approached carefully, flying just above the tree lines. As she approached, she perched herself onto a sturdy branch and looked at the village. She didn't see any more dragonslayers. As a matter of fact, she didn't see any of the villagers, either. Nobody was working the fields or tended to the livestock. She needed to get closer.
She flew down to the fields and retracted her wings and tail. As she walked around the village, there was nobody there. No villagers. She ran to Nera's cabin and immediately noticed that the bodies of the two dragonslayers were no longer there. The blood stain of one of them still soaked the wooden floor.
Nia looked around and assumed that the other dragonslayers moved the bodies. But where were the villagers. The dragonslayers heard that there was a dragon.
She delved into her own thoughts trying to piece together what happened. The village suddenly disappeared and there are no bodies. There were no signs that the villagers were killed. Otherwise, the village would have some bodies.
Suddenly, some pans dropped to the ground in one of the other houses. Nia quickly ran over to where the noise came from holding her red sword.
It was a small boy hiding in a corner. Nia recognized the boy from the village, although, he usually kept to himself, so she didn't really know the kid. He had curly black hair and a slightly tanned skin.
"They're gone. They're all gone," the boy said.
She put her sword on the ground as she had no sheath with her.
Nia went over to the boy and kneeled down.
"What happened after I escaped?"
The boy shivered with his arms held on his head as he crouched in the corner.
"The dragonslayers. They took them. They took them all. My dad. My mom," the boy said in a rush.
Nia tried to calm the young boy and gently said, "It's okay. Calm down. I'm here. Where did they take them?"
The boy sniffled and said, "I don't know. They gathered the villagers up and wanted to know where the dragon. My parents hid me in the cupboard and they told me not to get out, but I was hungry."
"I understand." Nia got herself up and held a hand out to the boy.
The young boy stopped sniffling and looked up at the bright smiling girl.
"I'll help you find your parents. What's your name?"
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