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Dragons in the dark

"Mikha died last night?"

Cynder couldn't believe what Avila and Sikha said to the rest of the dragons in the Dark Sentinel that morning. Last night, she was forced to spend the night outdoors due to no dragons awake that night or even able to fly, with Avila guarding her from harm. Only the next morning did Jekizira could carry her did she know the terrible news.

"He...fought with the wound that cut his lungs and pectoris muscle," said Sikha, trying to hold his tears. "For...five hours, at least. He...He told me about his wishes with you guys."

"So, let's hear it, then."

"He wished you all can trust each other in this time when we all fought against...an unknown enemy...but especially, he left a wish to Avila."

"To me?" said Avila, couldn't believe it.

"Yes.... He knew you're a death dragon, though I didn't believe it before I heard your prayer. It's his last wish before he died. He said about how he admired your scales and your feathers, seeing that you're like the dark crystal. You're kind to us, you see, and said that he knew...despite of your appearance, you're still the kindest female we know."

"Oh, I uh...I thank you, Sikha. I'm sure...I'm sure Mikha can rest in peace."

"Anyway," said Coraero, staring at the body of the deceased dragon with solemn expression. Mikha was like a normal black scaled dragon sleeping peacefully in an eternal place for dragons where he looked as if he was having a good dream. Near the dragon's shoulder there was a slight deep cut and, barely visible under his folded transparent wing membrane, a spear-like wound coming from near his chest. As Mikha had no hard scales at his belly, the mysterious weapon tore through his smooth hide to his rougher back. A clean cut ran down from the top of his left thigh to his leg.

"Anyway...what?" said Avila.

"He's a real loss to us, sentinels, really. Mikha came from a dragon race that knew almost all herbs around this vicinity. He's our herbalist, while Sikha's our medic. At least, I believe you have ensured his travel to afterlife?"

"I've bid him a safe travel," said Avila. "It's really is a loss."

"Yeah.... Oh, what did you get on last night's guard duty? You gotta report to me."

"We saved a girl named Laura."

"Laura?! Princess Laura, you mean?!"

"Yeah, what's wrong about her?"

"The princess rarely got out from the tower. Many people in Dark Realm didn't want to know about her secrets either."

"I know her secret. She's a vampire."

The revelation made Coraero almost jumped. "What?! You want to say the monarch family members are vampires?!"

"She's paler than most humans, and like than man you ask me and Cynder to buy from, she had glowing eyes."

"How can you see her glowing eyes if you have color blind?"

"Her eyes are black."

"Oh..."

"And, apparently, she's behind you."

Coraero turned his head to meet the gaze of a short figure, which almost gave him a heart attack. The girl was using gothic gown and carrying a black parasol. From Avila's position, she could say she was floating. Behind her two ebony-armored guards fend off some of the curious humans with their similarly black swords, supposedly made from ebony, if not painted.

"I want to thank you, black dragon, for saving my life," said Laura. "Though, I must admit, I was trying to kill myself back there."

"Why do you want to end your life? You're still..."

"I look young," interrupted Laura. "But I'm actually 100 years old. I'm an immortal being, unlike the mortal humans down there."

"I see.... What do you want to do here, then, your majesty?"

"I...just want to thank you. Also, I want to say, you are pretty with those feathers."

What Laura said to Avila made her blush, but also made others gasp (since they thought Avila was scary enough). The princess then moved closer to Avila, and patted her head, saying, "The feathers of the raven are always trying to say something to us, like death and bad omen. You're special, dragon. I presume you have any connection with death?"

"I..."

Before Avila could say anything more, Sikha burst in and say, "She's a death dragon."

This made an uncomfortable silence, and Coraero used his front paw to make a face-palm gesture, knowing the fact that her secret was known my most of the dragons in the room (including the riders, of course).

"A legendary death dragon? Oh...but you're cuter than what I imagined."

"Cute, huh? Thank you."

"For the trouble I've caused for your friend, I want to give you this."

When Avila saw the bottle, it emitted a scent familiar to her when she helped Cynder to drink. It gave rose scent, but also another, more savage scent was mixed in the potion.

"Uh...Sikha, is this that bottle you gave me last night?"

The dragon walked closer and somehow he only needed the scent to say, "This thing is my potion, but it's enhanced with...blood? Your majesty, what is inside the potion?"

"This is the potion my alchemist made from what he said a certain dragon race's recipe. I believe this is your recipe, right?"

"But I don't remember having blood in my recipe..."

"It's a vampire special. I hope it can regenerate the bones better."

"It's...vampire blood?"

"Don't worry," said Laura with a grin. "She won't be turning into one."

Laura then walked outside, gesturing her guards to leave her. Suddenly, she murmured something Avila couldn't quite understand, before she realized the vampire princess was calling her own mount, which was clearly white. It resembled Varkast, but it was older, and somehow noble enough to be as an ancient dragon. The deep scratches the dragon endured were the proof of his long life. The vampire then jumped to the dragon's back, while he eyed the dragons inside the sentinel with its blank blue eyes, without any slits. It was trying to grin, before Laura commanded him to fly back to the tower. It took flight, and roared. He was the only white there within the dark skies of Dark Realm.

After they were out of sight, Avila turned her body back to the dragon group and said, "So, why are they able to stand sunlight?"

"They're pure vampires," said Coraero. "I presume you've seen Varkast and Jose. They're half-vampires...those being bitten instead of born from a blood of the First Vampire."

"Oh...how do you know this much?"

"There are books in the library telling about their lore, but the thing that startled me is that the royal family is the pure vampire."

"Ho..."

"About Cynder...," said Sikha. "If you give her that potion, she should be able to fly normally again."

While Avila was helping Cynder, she overheard Sikha and Coraero's conversation, and it involved the twin's attack.

"So, you were attacked by a lone black dragon?" said Coraero.

"Yes...I mean no. The forest was too dark to even see something," replied Sikha. "We took the herbs by using our scent and our hand-like paws. I only saw the silhouette of a black dragon, or was it, since it was very dark, making a slashing movement towards me. I actually managed to dodge most of the attack, but ancestors, he had a very sharp claw that tore through my back leg and severed some of my muscle tissues."

"Okay...what about Mikha?"

"Ummm..."

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened to him, but I must know what dragon managed to stab him through his right lung from the same point of the shoulder with a spear-like weapon."

"I can't describe anything in the dark...but while I was trying to stop my own bleeding, Mikha had been laying on the ground while coughing blood. I helped to pull out the spike by burning it with my fire, but then, he couldn't..."

"That's enough. You don't have to mourn too much these days. We're now in a war with those Light dragons and we've anticipated casualties, both from our riders and us dragons. Now, take a day-off for a moment and fly around the city, but let one dragon accompany you."

"Why? I can also fight."

"Look at what happened to your brother, Sikha! We can't risk losing another dragon, and of course we can't lose another medic for dragons."

"I wish I can, but my legs can't."

Avila could hear Coraero sighed, leaving smoke trails. He then said, "Alright, but stay sharp. We don't know any of these mysterious attackers. It could be one of us."

When they were gone, Avila kept wondering on what kind of threat they were facing, before she remembered that Yrelka somehow wasn't there. She presumed that the demon dragon had left the scene before the others woke up, didn't even try to wait for the news of the two female dark Sentinels.

When Avila turned, though, she was surprised by the fact that Yrelka was standing beside her all along.

"The hell, Yrelka!" exclaimed Avila. "You will be expos..."

"I'm exposed, okay?"

There was a silence before she said, "You what?! Why the hell are you exposed that easily? Where did you hide?"

"Apparently, I wanted to return, but then that dragon saw me and thought I was your acquaintance."

"That dragon?"

"The one mourning."

"Oh, Sikha," thought Avila. "B...but...did he recognize you?"

"Recognize me? Oh no, no! I recently got a fact that they didn't know our physical appearance, but only from names. But, surprisingly, he was the third dragon to act as if I'm nothing."

"Yeah?"

"Oh, Yrelka," said Sikha's voice. Avila then saw the dragon jutted out from the corridor and saw the three of them. "There you are. I thought you've left."

"Sikha...."

"Wait...you became friends now?"

"You know what? I don't believe what kind of lore you know about her. She's a nice dragon and all. The hell with that being the pain or whatever..."

"But I can transfer pain..."

"No need of any fear. You're still nice to me. In fact, that pain transfer of yours...I will need a help to ease a dragon's pain."

And so, they talked for a moment, before Sikha wanted to retreat to his quarters. The dimly lit lights of the dark environment was quickly replaced by the darkness they had been accustomed to, right after the sun had disappeared behind the black hills which acted as their base. It had been a month since Avila fell there, and she managed to survive for that far if not for her counterpart Cynder and her new friends. Mutation wasn't her issue now, seeing that a member of the royal family didn't get scared to her. At least, it could decrease the negative image the death dragon had.

"Avila, are you...fine? I mean, seeing too much death these days," said Yrelka while staring at the darkened landscape. "What actually happened around here?"

"I thought you told me to not believe any dragons or their riders," said Avila.

"I did warn you, though, but is that even relevant to the one here?"

"I have a suspicion that the darkness Sikha mentioned wasn't actually shadowy."

"You mean, you want to tell me that the one killing that poor dragon was a black dragon?"

"From what Sikha told Coraero, he was attacked by something in the shadow, but logically speaking, you can't find any herbs in the middle of the night, seeing that the forest where you are dominating had almost no lights in the night."

"I know Dark Forest had dense vegetation, but then if that dragon was inside the shadow, Sikha could have seen it in black, right? Regardless on scale color?"

"Actually, you got a point, but it's not possible to render something with bright color dark as a night. Though my eyes are faulty, I can still distinguish bright scaled and dark scaled. With normal dragon eyes like Sikha have, it can't be hard to distinguish scale color."

"Or...," said Cynder. "Sikha was also in a dark region."

What Cynder said made sense, but Avila and Yrelka still stared at her as if it was impossible. Seeing the fact that her friends doubted her, she straightened things out by saying, "What? You think that's impossible?"

"It is possible, Cynder, but like I said, you can't find herbs in the middle of the..."

"I know Sikha has a bad vision at night, but Mikha isn't like that. He was trained to see better at night so when dragons attack this realm at night he will be in the stealth force. That's why Mikha was smaller than any dragons and around our sizes. I guess the small dragon saw something and surprised, and that dragon silenced him."

"But he's still alive for five hours!"

"I don't know afterwards, but..."

"Mikha's eyes were having a problem these days," said Sikha from behind the wall, before he walked into view. "I overheard about your analysis on the condition, but I'm sorry to say that Mikha gained cataract just a week ago."

"The hell?!"

"What is a cataract?" asked Avila.

"It's like something blocking your eyes so you can't see clearly."

"Wow...but I thought dragons can't get diseases that easily."

"Apparently, in this world, dragons had a bigger chance on getting mortal diseases. You know that most of us have thin hides instead of rough scales, right? Only Jek and Cory had scales, but the rest had soft scales, and softer around the neck and their underside."

"But we're reptiles. Reptiles can't..."

"It's hard to believe we're called flying lizards, but in this world, even though we're still a family of reptiles, we can still get diseases. I don't know what kind of tolerance the dragons in your world got, Avila, but in here we're as good as mortals, despite the fact that we're virtually immortal race."

"Damn it...I lost any leads..."

"Actually, Mikha said something to me about the attacker, but one of his lungs was pierced and he couldn't talk normally. I vaguely heard him saying 'blood', but then, he couldn't talk."

"Shit," murmured Cynder.

Avila wanted to say something, but she was struck with the fact that their lead was blank, and of course without that, she couldn't find the culprit. Yes, she suspected that a black dragon was the one killing Mikha, but she couldn't accuse any random dragons in the Sentinel. It was a relief that no one except Cynder, Yrelka and Sikha knew about her suspicions, although she also suspected Sikha, knowing that the fact that Sikha was also black and was the only witness, so it could be that the dragon was killing his brother and he was the spy from the Light.

She couldn't sleep that night, feeling anxious on her suspicion. She didn't want to risk any night shift to die, or even any sleeping dragons. They would be too vulnerable if there was a threat inside their small group of dragons. She shifted her scaly body many times, sometimes trying to find anything to do to let her having a rest, but she couldn't.

"Can't sleep?"

The shrill voice wasn't Yrelka's, but also not the one she was thinking now. No, it wasn't Angelus. She had died, and not in this world either. This one was the one sinister enough to change her life forever.

"You?"

"Yes, this is me," said the death dragon. She was sitting near the small Avila, and from where Avila lay, she saw the true horror of a death dragon, her nightmare. It was beautiful, but darkly beautiful. Her crow-dragon hybrid wings were more magnificent that Avila's. Her tails weren't solid; instead, it was like a darkness-based whip, flailing around the dark corners where only Avila could see clearly. Her head and her face were familiar, and unlike Avila, there were more feathers on top of her head. Her totally black eyes were watching the small dragon, and staring at it made Avila thought there was an endless void inside the eyes.

"What do you want?" snorted Avila. "Want to claim my soul now?"

She just chuckled. "No, Avila. I'm just kidding that time. You're supposed to be dead back in your own world, whelpling, but you're alive here, and cheated your death."

"I'm alive and well."

"Actually, I'm surprised that you're also one of us, or more specifically, 'her' offspring."

"Her? You mean my mother? Because of my father, she's dead. I...only vaguely remember her."

"You don't know your own mother, whelpling?"

"Well, since you've said it, she's also a death dragon, like me. Maybe she's supposed to be dead."

"Hmm...."

The dragon shifted her weight for a moment. She turned her head to a dark patch, and said, "She's one of the angels of the death, Avila, just like you now. You can't meet her now. She's dead, and outside of your reach."

"How about you? I don't know you, and yet you're inside me, with that...that abomination you..."

"I banished her into eternal darkness...your darkness, Avila."

"So, what are you, then?"

"I can't say for sure. Maybe I'm just a nightmare, maybe I'm just your illusion, your imaginary friend, or maybe just your other darker self, I do not know. You can imagine me as anything you want. I exist in you, after all."

Avila went silent for a moment. She couldn't find a better answer. The nightmare...the dragon that stalked her dream and giving her the premonition of death, had been chatting with her like a friend, instead of trying to take her soul and haunt her.

"You have no power to prevent death, whelpling," said the dragon. "That dragon is destined to die."

"Then why didn't you give me that premonition?! I can still save Mikha!"

"You try to interfere with the power of death?! You think...YOU have the power to change people's fate?! You're nothing but a small, frail, weak fake death dragon that only escapes the curse that your race inflicted to you! You're nothing! That curse is no match for your fate!"

"You don't dare talk about my past!"

"I can, and I will!! We are always watching you!"

"Then why do you let me suffer?! You can just take my soul when I was small!"

"I can't interfere with other death dragon's fate, either fake or not," said the dragon, now calmed enough to talk normally. "Especially you and your mother. You're both Argoon dragons, a race of dark crystals with a great death power and the direct descendant of the death lord itself."

"I..."

"Don't talk to me..."

"I just want to ask...about my fate. Am I fated...to bring doom to my comrades?"

The death dragon didn't want to talk about it, but yet, the dragon in front of her had suffered a mortal pain, and yet, if she had to know her dire fate, she would be a worse kind of problem. But then, when the death dragon didn't answer for a while, she realized Avila was crying.

"I...I'm going to die, right? Painfully, alone, and cold?" said Avila between her sob. "I will die...without my Seraphor with me, without my friends around me, without...without any life around me...am I right? AM I RIGHT?!"

"It's...unwise to talk about fate that easily, whelpling," said the dragon. "But, you're right. You're going to die, but not soon, although, I must tell you the torture you'll endure while embracing one of the most powerful element ever."

"W...what do you want to tell? I...I'm ready."

"As...you're not a real death dragon, you are still alive after transformation to that angel form, but..." Avila could feel pain from her heart, and she coughed blood out in the darkness. Her vision could see the white red blood glowing, meaning that...

"You're weakened, sick, frail, and wouldn't be able to use your full potential, while you're coming closer to your 'perfect state'. You'll be useless in fights, and you'll be a burden to your friends."

"I...." Avila frowned with her draconic expression, but then, she knew her fate was always one of the worst, when she traced back.

First of all, she was inducted in a violent, hardly remembered, demonic ritual that took all of her pride as a dragon and turned her into a darkness abomination that gave bad luck to any living things around her, expelling her from her own tribe. Second, she was in a fit of rage, and destroyed the race that would be her mate when she was still nothing but a small whelp. Third, although she settled down, she was still targeted by a vague organization that wants her dead, including her friends. Now, she was giving bad impressions to her comrades, including the demons she had befriended with.

"I...I can't take the fact," said Avila. "I can't take it!"

"I know it's hard, but you can't deny it."

"You think endangering dragons around me can be denied? You think my existence itself can be denied?! I'm nothing but a cursed dragon!"

"Avila! You still have everything! Look around you! Look at your counterpart!"

The black dragoness turned her head, and apparently saw Cynder, sleeping soundly while smiling as if nothing bad happened to her. Despite of the roar and voices, the small dragon didn't hear them, as if she was deaf. But Avila saw that, the dragoness had given her hope in this world, although she was separated from her mate.

"You're not alone, Avila. You're not even destined to destroy everything around you." The dragon then walked to Avila, and gave a nudge on her snout. "Whatever happens, I will always be inside you, and guide you...until it's the time you part with all you loved."

Avila saw the apparition was gone, and sudden darkness enveloped her. Because of her inversed contrast, she realized she had been awake through the night, and she was too exhausted. Cynder woke up beside her when she wanted to rest.

"Avila, you're up early. What's wrong?"

"I...have a nightmare," said Avila with a shift on her side. "Can you tell them...that I want to have a day-off?"

"Why?"

"Guess that these eyes are weary. I woke through the night."

"O...kay, but you'll miss the breakfast hunt!"

"Just...tell them I wanna sleep longer. I can feel my scales start to weigh me."

Cynder just nod, and turned her body to the cave archway. She then walked off like a cat, and the last thing Avila saw before she closed her eyes out of exhaustion, was the flailing happy dragon tail of Cynder's.

She wished her fate was better....