Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 56: Harbinger

-Hey, everyone! This week has been hectic for me, not to mention both physically and mentally exhausting, but I hope it will calm down over this upcoming weekend. In light of that, if there are any errors in this chapter that I missed, don't hesitate to let me know. I have a sneaking suspicion that I missed a few.

Enjoy!

-NFD

"You're right, I really don't like this plan."

I had only ever seen a Soulburner's tomb once before, though my sickness at the time made that memory foggy. Regardless, it wasn't an experience I wished to repeat. Yet, here I was, standing before a large rock that glowed from within, holding an unmistakable silhouette of a dragon inside it. It rested in the back wall of a dead-end pocket in the mountain, making the very air gently vibrate with its energy.

Our surroundings were well-lit by the glowing stone, and even more so by the markings in the walls. The ceiling, unlike an average cave, was unnaturally smooth and dome-like save for the ever-present images carved by Moon's ancient friends. The walls and floor were typical for a cave if one ignored the images, albeit dustier than I was used to.

"You already dislike it and you don't even know the plan," Moon huffed. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Have you done this before?"

She hesitated. "Well... not this in particular, but close enough."

I slumped. "You're kidding, right?" Now was not the time to be fiddling with a potentially island-destroying object. Auroon's tomb collapsed the entire egg-den, and he had only a fraction of the power this Soulburner did! 

"Can someone explain what I'm looking at?" Astra requested uneasily.

"This is a Soulburner's tomb," Moon answered, gingerly placing a paw on the glowing stone. "You know that when a Soulburner dies, they don't do so like any other dragon. This is what that looks like."

Astra's eyes widened. "So, inside that rock..."

"Lumen," Moon confirmed. "His soul is dormant, so all we need to do is wake him up... somehow."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I warbled slowly, fighting the urge to turn tail and flee from this cave. From the sound of it, not even Moon knew what to do, and I wasn't keen on accidentally triggering something that might blow us up. "Can't we just try again later? Maybe after you figure out what to do?"

"I know what I'm doing," she grumbled as she inspected the base of the stone. "Delaying any longer is too risky, anyway."

"You just said you didn't know how to wake Lumen up! What if you do something that'll seriously hurt us?"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "You're acting like it's going to explode. Seriously, this isn't as bad as you're making it out to be. Nothing bad will happen."

"I was told that the last time anyone messed around with one of these, it did explode," Astra countered. "In fact, I think it collapsed the whole egg-den."

"And I'd rather not this mountain collapse on us," I seconded. "Please, Moon, let's just hold off until we know what we're doing."

Moon didn't respond for a long moment, seemingly staring through the stone. "So, you're telling me that you want to surrender?" She murmured. 

I blinked rapidly in confusion. Where under her moon did that come from? "What are you talking about? We're not going to—"

"You want to give up everything we've fought for," she continued. "You want to say goodbye to everyone you love. You want to forget about your dream to grow old and watch your children find happiness. You want to condemn your loved ones to eternal suffering. You want to make our loved ones' deaths be in vain. You want to lose everything." She chuckled hollowly. "Is that what I'm hearing?"