I wasn't sure what time it was, must have been about three or so in the morning. Hunter burst through the door in a panic, waking everyone up. He ran straight into Shadow and Nina's room, who booth quickly ran after him.
“What's going on?”, Adelind asked yawning and still half asleep.
“I'm not sure”, I replied, “stay here, I'll go check it out.”
I slipped on a pair of tan fatigues and ran out of the barracks. No sooner had my snout reached the air than a heavy, metallic smell flooded my nose and almost made me double over. The stench was almost overpowering. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but I certainly wasn't going to take a sniff to find out. For some reason, the smell was all too familiar, like I'd smelled it only days ago.
As I started down hill, I noticed several dragons darting for the hatchery. I also noticed the closer I got, the stronger the smell got. That set of more alarms than I had the mental capacity to count. I knew what had happened before I even got there, and my getting there confirmed what I already knew.
The eggs in the hatchery had been crushed. I recognized the smell from when all of my kids were born. There were at least six or seven pairs of mated dragons outside the hatchery, all of them, and in specific the mothers, were sobbing to one another so bitterly it made me feel gulity...that my kids were still alive. It was the most vile feeling I'd ever had. I saw Nina sobbing just feet from the door, I didn't see Shadow around. I also saw the hatchery guardian Mark. He was laying in chains just feet from Nina, his forepaws covered in blood and he was smiling sickly.
At that moment, I wanted to walk over and rip him apart, but I restrained myself, I was more worried about Nina. I walked up to her and nudged her. She looked at me through her tear filled gold eyes and threw herself into me, her crying increasing. I sighed and hugged her tightly as Shadow walked out, his cheeks were red and there was smoke pouring out from between his barred teeth.
“Oh no”, I thought, “Shadow don't you even think about it.”
“He did this!”, Shadow shouted, “he killed my cubs and I'll kill him for it!”
Before I could even think of letting Nina go, Shadow was in the air and had bashed into Mark. They rolled for a few seconds and Shadow was instantly up again and lunging, Mark's back leg collapsed under my friend's strike.
“I”LL KILL YOU YOU BASTARD!”, Shadow screamed.
He reared back to strike again but this time I bashed him into a wall and pinned him. Shadow squirmed like a squid trying to get out from my grip, but he wasn't having much luck.
“LET ME GO!”, Shadow howled, 'I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!”
“Shadow”, I said, “If you don't stop this then I WILL crush you, do you understand me!?”
“YOUR DEAD MARK!”, Shadow screamed.
Shadow struggled and fought to free himself. I countered by sinking my claws as deep into his skin as I could and pushing down, “Shadow, I will crush you if I have to, calm down.”
“Just so you know Shadow!”, Mark said loudly, “I took great pride in ridding you of your eggs!”
“Shut up Mark!”, I shouted, “or I will tear you apart.”
I knew that something was out of place here. I didn't know what it was, couldn't figure it out at the moment, but I sure did feel it. Before I could do anything, Shadow slashed my face with his razor tipped tail and sent me reeling. I could feel the blood running down my muzzle and one eye went cloudy.
“SHADOW PLEASE STOP!”, Nina shouted taking him to his back and pinning him, “Shadow please! This isn't you! PLEASE STOP!”
Shadow just looked at her. The two of them collapsed, crying in each others arms. After a few minutes and help from a few other dragons to get my balance back, I walked up and put my paw on Shadow's shoulder, he looked up at me, his crystal white eyes were filled with tears and agony.
“Come on brother”, I said, “let's get you back your room.”
With a heave, I hauled Shadow to my back and started back for his barracks.
“Tyro I'm”, Shadow stuttered through tear filled whines, “going to puke.”
“Not on me your not”, I said, “wait for that please.”
Hunter and I walked Shadow and Nina back to their room. Hunter lay Nina in her bed while Shadow slid off my back, wobbled into his bathroom and immediately began throwing up into their toilet.
“Get it out”, I said rubbing his back. My Mom used to do that to me when I got sick when I was little, Adelind still did whenever I'd get sick and believe me, it worked. Shadow went through three vomiting spasms so violent I could see his stomach convulsing and I was worried he might pinch off his windpipe. He the collapsed onto the toilet. He held up his paws, they had a red tinted liquid covering them. I didn't want to know what it was, but I did, it made my head hurt.
“Let's get that off”, I said turning on the sink. I actually had to hold his paws under the water. I guessed that he was so stunned and grieved from losing his kids that he had lost most of the control over his body. It made me feel like m friend would soon hate me for still having my kids, the thoughts made me feel horrible.
“There”, I said shutting off the water, “It's all off.”
Shadow turned the water back on and held his paws under it, “It...It won't wash off!”
“Shadow?”, I said, “your clean...Shadow?”
“GET IT OFF ME!”, Shadow yelped collapsing to his back, his eyes were wide in fear. He started gagging, I worried that he'd somehow twisted his windpipe closed.
“Hunter!”, I yelled pinning him up right, Shadow gagging so hard his cheeks were turning blue.
“GET IT OFF ME!”, he shouted again, his cheeks now purple.
“Shadow look at me!”, Hunter pleaded, “there is nothing on you!”
Nina ran in. The second she touched him, Shadow went completely limp and fell to the ground, Hunter put them both in the shower and we walked out into the room.
“What happened there?”, Hunter asked.
“Shadow happened”, I said feeling the dried blood on my snout, “his tail is like a razor, he hit me so hard I think he blinded me in my left eye.”
“Let me see it”, Hunter pulled out a Maglight and shined it into my eye.
“Well your not blind”, he said, “looks like he just messed ya up, but go have it looked at. I got it from here.”
I nodded and left the barracks and went to see the vet. He looked at my eye from every possible way before declaring it was only temporary and giving me a shot for it. I then walked back to my barracks, passing the hatchery on the way. There were a few dragons trying to decide what to do with Mark, who was now crying bitterly.
“Major Serelath”,one shouted running up to me.
“Yes?”, I asked.
“Any idea what we should do with Mark?”, she asked.
“Find a place far away from Captain Salanath's barracks and put him there”, I replied, “keep Shadow away from him too, come get me if you can't, don't ask why, but I feel that someone's trying to jam a square peg into a round hole.”
“Understood”, the drake answered, “the cemetery?”
“What ever keeps Mark alive through the night”, I answered.
She nodded and ran off. I walked back to my barracks where all my friends were waiting. I stepped inside and took a deep breath.
“We've had a double cross”, I said, “Mark crushed all the eggs.”
My friends went pale.
“Did you see anything?”, Vez asked.
“No, I purposely didn't look I wouldn't be able to handle the nightmares.”
No one said anything after that. I walked back to my room and lay with Adelind and my kids, pulling them all as close to me as I could.
“What happened?”, Adelind asked licking the dried blood from my snout.
“Mark happened”, I replied, “Adelind...he crushed every egg and killed every hatchling in the hatchery.”
I felt Adelind's heart stop.
“That..could have been Ace and the others”, she said in a horrified whisper.
“I know”, I replied laying my head on my pillow, I felt Tyson trying to get underneath me.
“Is he gonna come here Dad?”, Tyson squeaked, “I don't wanna die.”
I nuzzled him and pulled him close to me, “no. And if he does, it's no holds bar on him for every dragon in this barracks. He won't make it two feet past the door frame.”
Tyson squeaked something I couldn't make out and balled up underneath me. I hugged him tightly as I could, just trying to let him know that I wasn't going to leave him. Adelind pulled the rest of our shaking cubs close to her, balled up against me and went back to sleep. I however, was wide awake. My eyes were staring right at the door, ready to pounce on and kill anything that walked through the door. After about a half hour, the sounds of my snoring friends pulled me into a light, fitfull sleep.