Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 18: The Cover of Night

-Fair warning, this chapter will be a little dark—and probably shocking to some of you. It will be somewhat slow, but I recommend reading carefully. There are a TON of hints in this chapter, and if you don't pay careful attention, you'll miss them. I got some advice about how to better hide foreshadowing or simple hints, so we'll see how I do. Enjoy!

-NFD

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"This will help with the swelling," Astra hummed, dropping a plant at Vaskr's nose. It was a tall, skinny plant with tiny leaves, and equally tiny purple flowers grew closer to its top. "Only eat the roots unless you want to get sick." He tentatively obeyed, gnawing at the plant's base to break off the roots and swallow them. Once again, I was thankful for Astra's help.

"What that?" Shadow warbled, sniffing the purple flowers curiously. "It pretty."

"It's called Fireweed," Astra answered. "Don't eat it."

"Why?"

"Eating it raw makes you very sick."

Shadow backed up a step. "Oh."

"C'mere, little one," Moon hummed, leaning down to her daughter. "It's time for you to sleep."

"I no tired!" Shadow protested, scampering away from her mother's jaws. "I want play!" She ran circles around us with her mother hot on her tail. The only reason Moon hadn't caught her yet was that thanks to her smaller form, Shadow could make sharper turns faster than she could.

"Shadow! Stop running right now!"

"No!" She yelled, successfully evading her mother's jaws again. "You make sleep! I no sleep! I play!" Astra was entirely unhelpful, merely watching Moon struggle to catch Shadow. Suddenly, Moon dug her paws into the ground and jumped over us to land over her daughter, startling her enough to pin her to the ground. "No! Mommy! I no-" Moon deftly poked under Shadow's jaw, making her instantly go limp. "Nrah... Nrrrh... Nnnn..." Her eyes slowly slid closed as her protests trailed off into soft snoring.

Moon let out a heavy breath, bending down to pick up her limp daughter in her jaws, then laying down and lovingly placing Shadow against her warm belly. "I win," she sang softly, licking her head before covering her with a wing. That reminded me of the few times I had to do the same for Vaskr.

"She woke up not too long ago," Astra remarked. "More sleep is a little overkill."

Moon rested her head to the ground, her eyes half-open. "This Mommy is worn out," she moaned. "I need a break. Besides, a little more sleep won't hurt."

"I suppose you're right," Astra agreed. "Speaking of which, you need to start teaching her again. At four season-cycles of age, she should be capable of speaking fluently."

"I'm trying," she grumbled tiredly. "But she won't listen. All she wants to do is play, play, play."

I snorted. "She needs to learn, or she will fall behind."

"I know. She gets bored and refuses to listen."

I cocked a brow. "Then make her listen. Hatchlings don't know what's best for them; that's what parents are for. Playing is for hatchlings who follow the rules."

Moon hesitated, glancing at the hatchling sleeping against her underbelly. "But I don't want her to be mad at me..." Astra closed her eyes and groaned softly at that.

"Moon," I began as calmly as I could, hiding my exasperation. "You're not her friend; you're her mother. She isn't supposed to agree with everything you tell her to do; she's just supposed to do it. You're the adult, so take charge. Shadow obeys you, not the other way around."