Countdown to Halloween Short Story the First

This is a short story written by FourFlames for the 2014 Halloween Countdown.
==Chapter the First==
A bright shape flitted across the trees. Huffing and panting hoarsely, it came to a halt at the tree line and touched its tongue to its teeth. They were growing sharper...
The dragon turned away and flew off, its eyes gleaming a bright blue.
==Chapter the Second==
A NightWing gazed in horror at the sky. Clouds raced past a single full moon-- one that blazed with an eerie, pale blue light. On another world, this might seem not so strange, until one remembers that Pyrrhia has three.
Impossible! she fretted, flicking her tail. I thought the Battlewinner Blue Moon wasn't for another ten years!
She dashed into her territory as swiftly as her legs could physically carry her, her face hardening. I must tell the Queen Regent. 
A bloodcurdling scream disappeared behind her on the wind. Frightened, she came to a stop, turning on her heels as she tried to identify what direction the screams came from. But the clearing around her was uncomfortably empty in the fresh night air. 
She took a few uneasy steps forward, then kept on running.
==Chapter the Third==
"I'm very tempted to kill you," muttered Mastermind. "I knew you loved dangerous research, but I never once thought you would dare to do something this brainless."
	 		
Saros ducked his head guiltily before the chief scientist. "Well, sir, the Warborn army was progressing at such a clip, it would be foolish not to see the opportunity to test them!"
"How dense are you?!" thundered Mastermind, whacking his underling over the head. "To think you recklessly released a dragon with wolf and scavenger blood on the night of the Battlewinner Blue Moon-- not just any of the experiments, either, but it had to be the angriest of them?"
Saros rolled his eyes in apathy. "Consider this an opportunity-- we're about to accomplish something amazing with science!"
Mastermind whacked him again for his cheek. 
==Chapter the Fourth==
The dunes burned a hostile blue.
Sunny staggered alone onto the bright sand, still yawning as she waded up the soft beach. It was early evening, along a stretch of coastline near Jade Mountain, and though she hadn't quite admitted to herself that she was tired yet (her early bedtime was a subject of much teasing from the others), the intense light made a compelling argument for drowsiness. She flopped into the warm sand and spread her talons over her chest. With a contented sigh she lay basking pleasurably, allowing the muscles in her wing shoulders to unwind. She looked up hopefully. The sight of the stars had always comforted her; through the skyhole, they'd danced around the moon like an elegant ballet, and she often fell asleep dreaming of one.
Tonight, though, there were no stars. Only a ravening moon that had swallowed its dancing partners.
Sunny sat back up, starting to worry. Was this another Brightest Night that came too early?
She was about to fly back to the Academy when she heard a deep growl and the sound of claws scraping the ground. The scales on the back of her neck stood straight up, and she whirled around to the sight of a huge dragon covered in hair launching at her face.
==Chapter the Fifth==
Clay emerged from the cave, standing at its maw with a basket of fruit and candy for his friends. Just as he was about to lower one into Peril's mouth, the SkyWing jumped as though bitten.
"Hey! Look!" She pointed to the beach just to the left of the cave, where Sunny was lying prone on the sand.
"You're forgetting that I can't," growled Starflight unpleasantly.
She rolled her eyes at the blind NightWing, knowing he certainly couldn't see that. "Okay, seriously! You're not going to believe me, but something just attacked the SandWing runt!"
"I told her not to go off alone," muttered Tsunami under her breath.
Clay frowned and looked out of the cave worriedly. "Is she okay?"
Peril fretted, trying to remember the details about his SandWing friend. "I don't know... does she normally have that many spiky shapes coming out of her?"
"WHAT?!" yelped Starflight, the panic manifesting in his voice as he pivoted his head. "SOMEONE IMPALED SUNNY? TAKE ME TO HER!"
"Uh-- maybe not impaled, more like--" started Peril.
"I'm with Starflight," butted in Clay. "We have to go down there and help her."
Queen Glory sighed, still not entirely trusting the firescales. "If this is all a sick joke, I will personally venom your face."
"I don't think your venom will be very effective," said Peril skeptically, "it'll probably just burn up."
"Try me." The RainWing opened her mouth and bared her threatening fangs as though to spit black liquid. Peril imitated her mockingly.
"Peril, you should stay here," advised Tsunami, joining them. "I'm not sure how much help you'll be. You might set Sunny on fire."
Peril tossed her tail angrily, causing the SeaWing to jump in order to avoid the hiss of searing-hot scales which flattened the grass. "You're always telling me I can't go places with you! Why can't I be part of Clay's life too?" She looked to him for help.
Clay gave her a concerned expression. "If we need your help, we'll call you," he reassured her before pacing out of the cave with his weak leg dragging behind him. 
Yeah, you'll only want me when I'm useful for burning things. She stamped her foot in outrage. 
Fatespeaker grabbed Starflight's talon and began guiding him out, deciding it would be best to avoid a confrontation lest Starflight get burned somewhere else.
==Chapter the Sixth==
Sunny blinked her bleary eyes. They'd unfocused after she was repeatedly gripped and pried by the dragon as it manipulated its prey. Though, it hardly seemed a dragon at all; Sunny thought it resembled something quite bearish, but smaller and more furtive. It certainly did not seem to think in the manner that dragons did. She could not get a coherent word out of its mouth despite her every appeal to morality-- it had no interest whatsoever in things she considered good or noble-- or maybe it didn't understand her. 
Now thinking itself satisfied, the beastly dragon snarled, bared its fangs, and flew away howling.
Time had now passed enough that the sand beneath her was cold-- icy, even.
She sat up and rubbed her arm, examining their work-- no large gashes thankfully, only claw marks from where she'd been tossed around-- but it throbbed with pain from a pair of matching bite marks. The unclean wound was still smeared with a rank slime from its drool mingling with her blood, and she winced as she touched it. Untreated incisions-- she could get an infection. 
She crawled weakly towards the water to wash it away, and dunked her arm straight under the salty waves. It stung. BAD. She had to bite her tongue just to keep herself soaking it in spite of the ache, and found her eyes drifting across the waves, blankly transfixed by their pale ebb and flow. 
It wasn't enough to keep her distracted for long, though. She snatched her arm free and stumbled onto the beach, grasping at the loose silt. Done. Clean. I'll do a better job later.
There was a terrible popping noise in Sunny's joints as her claws convulsed. Ouch. Okay, maybe that wasn't such a stellar idea, Sunny. For a rational moment she thought her claw must have cramped from the salt, but then a cringe ran through her whole body and before her eyes, her talons had grown in length. But the thought didn't take. She could've sworn they'd always been slightly shorter-- it doesn't look that different, she reassured herself. You're just seeing things. Maybe you really did get an infection-- or maybe blood loss? Or perhaps head trauma.
Then they began to curl into wicked points.
She yelped, clawing the ground, trying to push the talons back into her knuckles. "Bad-- talons!" She felt foolish for yelling at her own talons, but this wasn't the normal Sunny-weird-- now it was really weird. 
Her teeth elongated in her mouth. Hair coursed down her forelegs-- dragons don't even have hair! 
She scrambled back to the shimmering water in hopes of puzzling out her reflection, only to land face-first in the brine and scald her eyes. A haunting sound burst from her lungs. She clawed at her dehydrated eyeballs and flailed around on the beach, making alien sounds like the monster's howl. The soggy mange of hair covering her scales was not unlike that of the monster, either. "Three... moons," she exclaimed aloud, the delayed realization finally hitting her that this was caused by the bite. 
She couldn't fret and agonize over her predicament for long, though-- the pain returned with a vengeance, this time spinier and unrelenting and crawling inside her like thick blood. She wrestled with herself on the ground and roared hoarsely.
Across the strip of shore, where four distant shapes were calling for her, this sounded like an answer. And they came running, hurtling obliviously towards her.
==Chapter the Seventh==
Glory's ruff flashed an alarming array of colors as she observed the small, writhing dragon. "Is that actually Sunny?" she whispered, half convinced that Peril had indeed pranked them.
"Of course it's Sunny," said Clay, stepping on her foot clumsily.
"Are you sure? She looks a bit stabbier than usual," argued Glory.
"Shut up, the both of you!" Tsunami grunted, adding a reluctant 'please' to the end. "We've got to help her."
Starflight untangled his talons from Fatespeaker's and blindly padded across the sand to embrace Sunny. "Sunny, I'm so sorry I didn't see-- " He recoiled with a start. "Why do you feel so furry?"
"I don't know!" she managed to spit out, looking mildly irritated with him. Her gray-green eyes were starting to turn a peculiar shade of blue, like pools reflecting the moonlight. "Something shot out of the bushes and bit me. And I know you can't see this, but whatever bit me, it's spreading." She snarled uncharacteristically as fur peeked out from between the scales on her tail.
"What do you mean, spreading? Like... the bite's getting larger?"
Glory extended a wing to block the path of Clay, who was beginning to creep forward.
"Starflight, there's no time for this." Sunny gave the NightWing a restrained push. "I think you'll get hurt--"
He backed away grimly, rubbing the tender spot where her talons had pressed into his shoulder. "You're clearly hurt!"
Foam began to drip out of Sunny's mouth onto Starflight's arm, sliding down her enormous teeth. "Just listen to me for once and GO!" She shoved him forcefully this time, scratching him with her frantic movements as she did so.
Glory and Tsunami exchanged sideways glances and rushed to restrain Clay from bounding any closer to her and Starflight. It took their collective strength to drag him away by the tail, just managing to keep him away from the SandWing.
Fatespeaker fumbled forward and dragged Starflight up into the sky. Guiding the sightless dragon through the air felt much like carrying a heavy bag. But right now, he was the most important luggage in her life.
She glanced down at the beach, feeling a twinge of guilt.
Just then, Clay managed to break free of Glory and Tsunami, who instantly started to bicker over whose fault it was. He approached Sunny gently, trying to reason with her, but it was like a switch had been flicked. She grabbed him by the horns with her newfound strength and attempted to throw him into the sand, sinking her teeth into his enormous shoulders as he tried to throw her off. She started ripping into the bigwings, tearing at him with her large molars while he roared and flailed his limbs around to beat her away. Her teeth gnashed against his armored scales, filling the air with a horrible sound like grating claws.
Please, Fatespeaker thought desperately. Please let us make it out of here.
She watched the SandWing's movements. Sunny's stance was wolflike and vicious, and she struck out with her tail as though there were a barb attached; she looked more like a feral Viper than a friend. Clay continued to thrash for his life, while Sunny's soulless blue eyes wandered, searching for easier prey.
Fatespeaker felt her grip on Starflight's wrist slipping, and then she heard the chilling sound of something leaping into the air behind her.
==Chapter the Eighth==
She leaned towards Starflight, trying to speak softly despite the undisguised tremble in her voice. "Starflight, I'm..." How do I put this gently? "I predict that I may not be able to save you?"
"What?!" His voice cracked so hard that he almost sounded like a baby whale. His squirming caused him to slip a little in her talons; she tried to hoist him up again, but her claws snagged under a loose scale and she accidentally lost contact with his claws altogether. "Wait, no! AGH! I didn't mean to... AGH!" 
Starflight squealed and crashed out of the sky, flailing his arms.
Fatespeaker desperately dove to catch him. Unfortunately, she realized too late she wasn't the only one trying to. Just as she managed to tackle Starflight, she felt a thin line of blood trickle down her neck as the infected Sunny shot out and scored with her talons. Fatespeaker panicked and dropped him again. Furious, Fatespeaker turned around and kicked Sunny in the face, who promptly bit her by the foot and pinned her in a mad spiral towards the ground.
The NightWing lurched towards the beach below, making no effort to stop herself. She felt the sand explode around her. Coughing, she searched for Starflight, who was splayed painfully next to her in a shallow dune.
"Starflight!" she cried, still spitting out sand. She urged him up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he replied.
"Okay. Good." She looked him over, to be sure. "Starflight, I know we got a little turned around, so I need you to listen very carefully and follow directions."
"Why can't--" Starflight began.
"Sunny bit me while we were falling. Or whatever that is. Honestly I'm not even sure if it's still Sunny. But you still have a chance to escape so, if you move a bit to your right, and then keep flying straight for maybe two minutes, and then make a left for ten, and--" 
"Fatespeaker," he said calmly. "I'm not going to remember all that."
"Oh come on, at least try!" she pleaded with him.
"It's okay, really. If what happened to Sunny is going to happen to you, then I deserve to with you, and not after I've run twelve paces away like the disabled coward I am."
Fatespeaker felt an angry pop in her claws. She felt so angry with him. Because how could he say those things about himself? "You're not a coward, Starflight!" She dusted some of the sand off of his humble snout.
"Well... maybe not," the blind dragon blushed. He groped the air for her sharpened talons and clasped them. She leaned in to kiss him, but every instinct in her was screaming to go for his throat.
Before she could stop herself, she'd closed her jaws around his neck. He squirmed beneath her, choking out a strangled cry from her betrayal.
Why am I killing him?! she realized, shocking herself awake. Blood readily flowed from the bite marks. She couldn't see his eyes behind the blindfold, but the ugly thought occurred to her that she might not know the difference between a dead Starflight and an unconscious one. Instantly she dropped the body and backed away into the bushes, allowing him to push himself up before collapsing pathetically onto his stomach. He turned his head, creating little serpentine lines in the sand. 
"Fatespeaker?" he called. He looked so helpless and alone without her. 
She felt tears running down her cheeks-- no, fur. Now that she thought about it, was she even remorseful that she'd attacked him? He was just prey anyways.
She watched him stumble about lamely and began to salivate.
==Chapter the Ninth==
The NightWings' queen regent hovered above the rainforest glade, watching her advisors play card games on the veranda in mild disappointment. The moonlight tyrannized her star-scattered wings from behind, illuminating them so violently that they were no longer solid black.
"ATTENTION ALL NIGHTWINGS!"
The surrounding dragons, unaware of her identity, muttered in annoyance and ignored her. Everyone seemed so apathetic these days, it was almost depressing enough to throw off her crown.
"A-HEM. YOUR QUEEN IS SPEAKING."
One or two heads looked up. 
"TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT OF THE BATTLEWINNER BLUE MOON!" She paused. "YOU REMEMBER THE SCIENCE PROJECT WE VOTED ON A FEW YEARS AGO?"
No one cared to interrupt, except for a random cougher.
"WELL, GUESS WHAT? THE THINGS WE CREATED WITH SCIENCE ARE GOING BERSERK BECAUSE OF THIS MOON PROBLEM. AND WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING. IMMEDIATELY."
The NightWings looked amongst themselves, amused by how ridiculous she sounded. Regent Queen Lovecraft buried her face in humiliation and tried to carry on without wilting.
"Look, OUR WHOLE KINGDOM IS TO GO INTO LOCKDOWN! DO YOU HEAR ME? HIDE IN YOUR DENS AND BLOCK EVERY SINGLE WAY IN! NO MATTER WHAT, YOU MUST--"
A deep rumbling was heard in the distance, then a chorus of howls. Suddenly her warning was being given some consideration in the form of frenetic whispering and wild-eyed dragons spreading their wings.
"INTO YOUR DENS. NOW!" yelled Queen Lovecraft. She shot headfirst into her hut and padlocked all the doors as fast as she could. Her heart was beating outside her chest.
==Chapter the Tenth==
Gamechanger the tortured prisoner. Gamechanger the escaped experiment. And now, Gamechanger the dragon who lived up to his name. 
Three thousand eyes blazed in the night as the NightWings' plaything glanced over his 'pack' of infected dragons-- everything was in order. He touched his tongue to his teeth with a sadistic grin, the taste of SandWing blood still fresh on his lips. That was but an appetizer-- Imagine, he thought, an entire village of dragons!
He could sense the thinning restraint of his excited thralls-- they were brimming with energy and could barely hold an organized line for much longer.
"Kill," he hissed the command finally, lashing his hairy tail for emphasis. "Then kill more."
The pack howled and surged out of the woods, rushing the NightWing village in differing shades of black and dark purple. They leapt over fallen logs and dashed over rooftops, snarling and tearing panels off the poorly constructed huts as NightWing civilians fled in different directions. Those who weren't snatched from their windows were quickly overtaken by a mound of hungering monsters.
Good, thought Gamechanger with a crooked smile. Then he dashed past the horde and broke towards the regent's palace, knowing there was only one victim whose blood he would love to spill.
==Chapter the Eleventh==
Lovecraft staggered through her private quarters, reaching for things she might need while barricaded off. A dagger, a cache of food, books, water... all that stuff. She flew back and forth, trying to swallow the truth. It was only a matter of time.
She walked out into the hallway, advancing towards the wardrobe room with a grim expression. I'm going to need armor in more ways than one, she thought, and shuddered as she imagined her emergency bunker in the cold mountains.
Then, just as her talons clasped the doorknob, a pair of fangs sprang out behind the unlocked door and slashed her face.
She lost her balance and went down hard on the floorboards.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Content (FourFlames)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Genre (Short Story)
Category:Genre (Tragedy)