Shade didn't sleep well. He kept having bad dreams. They were disjointed and strange, but there were flashing teeth and great gouts of fire that flashed right in front of his snout. He tried to fly away, but something made his wings so heavy that he had no choice but to run.
A great gaping maw was poised to swallow him when he woke up.
He gasped like a fish out of water, clutching the pouch at his neck, which all of a sudden felt like talons strangling him. He practically ripped it off and tossed it away. His wings trembled as sat staring into the darkness. And he thought reliving the volcano was bad.
He didn't think any of the other Nightwings were awake. They just kept sleeping peacefully. Except the dragonets that had gone to Jade Mountain, of course. That had been a new thing. They had come to select a few dragonets, but Shade had been with Passion at the time. He wasn't even sure he wanted to go. It was just strange that no one from his tribe had remembered him.
Even that... Moonreader? Moonchaser? Whatever her name was, the dragonet that so much of the tribe despised had gone, too. He didn't envy her. And he didn't hate her. Her mother had the guts to get her off the island. It would have been better for them all if their mothers had done that.
Did he even really fit with the Nightwings anymore? He felt so distant from them, not even one of them, not really.
Sighing, he went back to retrieve his pouch, tying it loosely around his neck. Then, he tried very hard to sleep again.