Wings Of Fire (WOF) : A dark family affair

Chapter 8

The chains, loosened by their release, made a metallic noise as they hit the rocky ground. This caused Nightjar's departure. She was definitely free but also a fugitive. As she plunged into the void, she spread her wings and headed for the trees. She heard the guards ordering them to stop immediately. "Don't even count on me to leave you a farewell letter !" shouted Maple not far from her to Hornet and the guards. To increase everyone's chances of survival, they had planned to adapt to this new and unfamiliar environment. Indeed, it was safest for Maple to skim the trees while Nightjar would run through the woods, each relying on the camouflage provided by their own scales.

Their goal was to make it all the way through the forest towards the sky realm, hoping to find themselves there. If anything happened to any of them, they promised each other that they would not come to help each other, at least not until they had brought along some much needed backup.

Finally Nightjar landed on the grassy ground and rushed toward the unknown, hoping that as she zigzagged between obstacles she would not lose her sense of direction. Even with her ability to see in the dark and the dim lights of the moons between the foliage, she stumbled several times. The stress of being caught at any moment didn't help her clumsy running, but she tried to clear her head. The trees didn't give the dragoness much room to move around as she would have liked but she was focused on her escape.

After a long moment of effort, the forest began to widen and lighten, signaling that it was coming to an end, and Nightjar, out of breath, decided to slow her pace to be as inconspicuous as possible. She didn't know if she or Maple were being chased, but one thing was for sure, it was better not to cross the muzzle of the terrible hivewing. Looking up at the sky to check her back, she saw two distant silhouettes between the stars hidden by some clouds, heading towards her. Panicking, she hurried to find a place to hide and ran between some bushes.

A few moments after sneaking into those bushes, wing noises began to buzz in Nightjar's ears and the two hunters landed. "Am I ever going to get to the end of things ?" she thought angrily. "They can't be far away, said a familiar voice, Let's search like we know how."Nightjar shivered. She was like a rabbit facing a fox, except that there were several foxes. Out of fear, she stood still, instinctively. She wanted to fly away and escape as if to end a bad nightmare and at the same time bury herself deep, becoming invisible and non-existent. Her ears were alert but did not pick up anything, not the slightest sound, only the breath of the wind and some curious insects. She knew that she could not stay doing nothing and tried slowly and carefully to raise her head and then her body.

There was not a slightest trace of life. The moons that had been high in the sky when they left began their descent into the darkness. The silence bothered Nightjar, who knew that danger lurked. She looked around, anxiously searching for dangerous eyes. But there was nothing. She didn't take the luxury of thinking any further and made her way along, feeling as if she were being watched.

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She did not come across any other dragons during that time. The dense forest had given way to a plain with only a few trees on the horizon. She had allowed herself to fly, but to be as low to the ground as possible so as not to be seen in the distance. When she had been flying for a while, Nightjar saw and rushed to a stream. She bent down and drank a little, pouring the cool liquid over her head to reconcile herself with her body that was beginning to give in due to the effort and sleep. She wanted to take a break but she still had to hold on in order to be out of the trackers' reach for ever. Looking at her tired face in the liquid, she saw in the reflections of it some movement in the sky.

Stunned, she looked up and a dark mass came dangerously close to her. She shifted just in time to avoid this treacherous attack. The perpetrator of this act landed heavily on the ground and was none other than one of the nightwing guards. Not far from the attacker was Hornet, whom Nightjar wasn't happy to find. She put her body in a fighting stance, ready to defend herself as she had been trained to do.