Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 25: Second Chances

-This one is gonna be a surprise. I've waited for a while to reveal this, and I'm happy it's finally here. I still have another—much bigger—surprise coming soon, but the first one is already here. Huzzah!

-NFD

~~~

Thanks to Moon, I was gaining weight, and the egg in my belly was once again active. I didn't mean 'active' in a good way, either. It seemed very determined to punish me for nearly getting it killed, much to my displeasure. It had also attempted to make me lay it, but Astra had been very serious when she told me not to until I fattened up some more, so I resisted the urges to do otherwise.

"Ow!" I yelped, cringing as my belly cramped for the fifth time since I woke up. Let me tell you, multiple cramps in the same spot got really painful after a while. "Okay, okay! I'll feed you! Calm down!" Mercifully, my stomach gradually relaxed, allowing me to keep walking stiffly toward the freshly caught fish pile.

Moon sat beside the pile and watched as the fish slid one by one down my gullet, but I didn't feel up to eating them all. While Auroon was recovering, she had been 'voluntold' by Astra to be my caretaker. Shadow hung around her mother constantly, as usual. She hadn't said a word about Vaskr since we broke the news to Auroon and Aurora, but I held onto a shred of hope that she was right about him.

She was right about finding Aurora, after all.

I sat back on my haunches with a sigh, looking down at my partially full belly and the bump my egg created down lower. "You're a real pain in the tail, you know that?" It merely twitched, seemingly content with its latest meal. "I should call you 'high maintenance,'" I grumbled, earning a sharp twinge of pain for that insult. I glared at the bulge. "Don't hurt your mother like that! I brought you into this world, so be grateful!"

"And you starved it nearly to death," Moon interjected, glancing unhappily at the unfinished food. "It's allowed to be mad at you."

"I doubt it can hear us anyway," I muttered dismissively. "I'm just talking to vent a little."

"Careful what you say around the little ones," Moon drawled. "Remember that early-growth egg of yours?"

I slowly dragged my eyes up to her. "Moon," I said stiffly. "Now isn't the time." I didn't need a reminder of all the unhatched hatchlings I'd lost.

She grinned. "Remember how it seemed to like Auroon's voice?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Moon..."

"It turns out it was half deaf in the egg," she said innocently, her grin growing. "And Auroon's voice was deep enough for it to hear." This was getting very suspicious. She knew something.

"What did you do?"

"I felt bad for it," she continued. "It would have hatched if I hadn't taken its soul back out from its body."

A shot of anger burst in my chest. I stood and threateningly stepped forward, baring my teeth in her face. "You. Did. WHAT?!"

I trembled with rage when her grin didn't waver, almost as if this was just a game to her. I was so tempted to rip out her throat here and now. "I took its soul out of its body," she repeated breezily. I lifted a shaking paw, poised to dig into- "And I spared it season-cycles of suffering."

I froze, my claws inches from her throat. Her smug look irritated me, but I had more important worries now. "...explain."

"It was half-deaf and could only hear low pitches, blind in both eyes, didn't have wing membranes, and had a paralyzed tail," she answered, her grin fading. "It would have hatched if I hadn't intervened. You should be thanking me."