Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 63: Restraint

-Apologies for the lateness, again. The next chapter will probably be delayed for a little while due to my recent injury, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I'm able. 

Enjoy!

-NFD

~~~

"D-Do you know what's wrong?"

Mom inspected my bloated gut while Myrkr crouched by my head and fidgeted anxiously. A low moan escaped me as another wave of pain rolled up my body. Something was wrong with the egg, my lower belly, or something in that area. All I knew was that I woke up in pain and felt unusually hot, and it hadn't stopped for the past hour.

"Without the proper training, I can only say that she has a fever," Mom answered worriedly, gently nosing at my hardened belly scales, which protected my egg. "That can't be good for the egg, but it could be a warning sign that she's ready to—"

"I'll get Astra!" Myrkr barked, jumping to his paws and bolting out of the den before we could get a word in.

"...to lay the egg," Mom finished with a sigh. "Is he usually this jumpy?"

"S-Since I got pregnant, yeah," I answered weakly. "He's scared." We both were, and not only because of any potential complications. We were scared of being parents, too. As the night I'd finally bring our egg into the world drew ever closer, our anxiety and worry got stronger. A season-cycle ago, we never could've imagined going through with having an egg, yet here we were, scared out of our minds.

"I didn't even tell him where Astra was," Mom murmured. "He should've stayed here and let me go."

"Myrkr is a good tracker when he puts in the effort," Splinter interjected quietly from where she lingered on the opposite end of the main chamber. Even when I was too weak to pose a threat, she never pushed her luck around me, not when there was a chance Myrkr would find out. She didn't want to shatter the delicate trust she'd only recently been given, let alone get 'mauled' by me.

"He prefers doing things himself," I added, groaning at another wave of pain. "I-It makes him feel like he's helping." That, and Myrkr didn't like relying on others to be fast enough, not when the reason for urgency revolved around me, and even more so when I carried his egg at the same time. Past experience with others sacrificing me for their needs left Myrkr with very little trust for others. It was as I said, everyone else had something or someone else to lose, but he didn't.

That was why I trusted Myrkr above all others. There was absolutely no chance he'd betray me because I was the only thing that could be used against him. He knew that, so he took his role very seriously, hence his haste to find Nana Astra himself. 

"Astra is extremely difficult to track," Mom warned. "Auroon's whole side of the family is." Coming from Mom, that was a big compliment.

"Who says he's tracking Astra?" Splinter countered, tilting her head quizzically. "Do you think the Draugr aren't actively trying to stop whatever they're doing in there? Myrkr is smart; he will track whatever's the easiest for efficiency, and the Draugr are sure to leave a trail."

Mom took her attention off me long enough to give Splinter a puzzled look. "Scoots can be tracked?"

She nodded. "Not by conventional means, but sometimes, yes." 

"Sometimes?"

"It depends on the Draugr," she elaborated. "The mindless ones can be tracked, the Seekers can't, the Feeders usually can be, and the wretched converted ones..." She hesitated, glancing at me for a split second. "It depends on how intelligent they are."