Flames of Revenge: Ch4

         Diane lay atop the rocky outcrop where the dragonet had been buried. As she stared up into the clear night sky glittering with stars she thought about the past and the future. She thought of the buried young and what it all ment. Most of all, she wondered why it mattered so much to her. Why should one small creature matter so much to her? She thought she knew why. The answer lay in her past.

         Years ago on her home island of Windmyr she had everything she had ever wanted. Surrounded by hundreds of her own kin, with warm sun and plenty of hunting and best of all, Arythros. Big, gentle, strong, Arythros with scales the color of quicksilver and eyes the flaming orange of autumn leaves. He was magnificent.

         Diane, who had gone by the name Deindanna or just Dein back then, and Aryth had known eachother their whole lives and when it came to her first mating flight he did not hesitate to rise with her. She recalled the exhillerating flight with a slight smile.

         The sun was hot and the waves pounded the surf as the wind carried them higher into the sky. His eyes never left her and no matter how fast or how far she flew, he was always right behind her. Finally at the peak of their flight, miles above the island he caught her wrapping his protective wings around her. Even though the blood pounded in her ears and the wind screaming in her ears all she could  hear, as his tail wrapped firmly around hers and he thrust home was the unspoke words, I love you.

         A few months later she had lain their first clutch. Five eggs lay in the soft white sandy nest she had piled on the sunny spot in their chosen cavern. Aryth was a proud and protective father always taking turns to watch the eggs when Diane needed to hunt or needed a break, though he did most of the hunting.

         It was on one such trip that she had said her farewell to him one fine summer day. He didn't come back. Unable to leave her nest to go look for him she sat and worried. Weeks passed and she still held out hope for him but she needed to hunt for her unhatched young's sake. Reluctantly with one last backward glance she took off to find a meal.



         It wasn't long before she discovered the reason for her mate's dissapearance. There, washed up on the shore was her mate's beautifull hide, marred by the strike of a lightnight bolt. With a keen she threw herself on his stiff body and lay there shaking. One wing was burned all the way to the bones and showing part of his rib cage otherwise he looked the same.

         Hours she lay there limp with grief muttering soft keening noises next to his body. Reluctantly when the sun began to sink into the ocean she turned to go back to her nest. By the time she had returned darkness had set. Heavy hearted she landed on the ledge. She froze. Something had been there..



         There in the darkness a pair of cold unblinking eyes stared t her as if daring her to recalaim her nest. With a roar of defiance she threw herself on her intruder. A strangled hiss eminated from the creature's throat as she crushed it against the wall of the cave. The smell of broken egg invaded her senses. One final angry grief maddend roar she took the creature behind the neck and shook. Blood sprayed on her and everywhere around the cavern mixing with the spilled yolk from all her eggs.



          She sat that night with the remains of the giant monitor lizard and the shells of her young cold and numb. In what seemed like one night everything she had was taken from her. All around her she listened to the Death Keen echoing through the island as her kin mourned the death of her mate. With each song, she felt every one of them like a knife carving her heart into ribbons. She couln't stay. Too much death. Too much nothingness. With nothing more to keep her there, she took of into the night and made for the mainland.



         Once she was there she assumed a new name and decided to live among the human population for a while in an attempt to forget. It wasn't as easy as she thought since others like her roamed the cities. It was however easier to ignore them when you all were hiding behind masks.



         Diane sighed. Perhaps she felt she could gain retrubution in a way she would have never gotten with her own lost family. She stole a glance down at the tomb of the dragonet and then raised her head to the sky and sang for all her loved ones.