Lydia felt weightless as she opened her eyes, her wings felt as though they were floating on either side of her and her mind felt fuzzy and light, a weird feeling that just made her feel odd. As her eyes adjusted to the world around her, she found herself standing within one of the few meeting caves within the mountain.

She could remember this place from when she was four years old, her mother teaching her about organizing dragons and making sure they obey their orders. Lydia could also remember her lesions on how to work with her council when she one day became queen.

Queen, that was a terrifying thought. Did Lydia even want to be Queen? Of course I want to! I'm a princess! It's my duty to one day be queen, and for her to save her tribe from their false queen who was currently ruling the Kingdom of Night in the eyes of all of Pyrrhia.

Focus Lydia! She shook her head with a flick of her tail, that made no sound of it dragging across the stone. That caught her attention quickly as she whipped around to look at her tail, moving it across the stone once more and not hearing the sound of scales against stone.

What's going on? Why can't I hear myself on the stone? She tried tapping her talons next, and yet again, nothing. The cave was only filled with silence, she couldn't make any noise.

Then suddenly, there was noise.

Lydia's heart jumped as she thought she made it, but after looking around the room once more, she realized it wasn't her. Instead it was another NightWing, a familiar NightWing.

Queen Animosity.

Her mother was seated in a chair, one of the many that circled around the dark wooden oval table. Her chair was the largest at the table, while the rest were all regular sized.

Animosity was hunched over a scroll, one of her talons dipped in a small glass pot of sparkling black ink, the light of the hung torches along the caves walls made it sparkle as though bits of gold were trapped within it, unable to break free from its dark and sticky grip. Holding it hostage as though it were holding its own tiny stars.

She was writing down something in quick strokes of her talons, the sound of them scratching against the scroll filling the air along side the hungrily flickering of the torches. She looked tried and more tense than what Lydia normally saw from her mother.

"Mom?" She called out, the sound of her voice not echoing like it normally would within the caves and tunnels within the mountain. If her mother could hear her, she gave no response, not even a flick of her ear to acknowledge she heard her. "Mother?" She tried again, but still, nothing.

Is this another dream? She started to walk around the room, trying to look over her mother's shoulder to see what she was writing, but she couldn't get a good view, it has to be.

-they cannot know of the plans for the future. Make sure everything with well hidden and don't leave any traces of your entry within their kingdom. I want them to be vulnerable when-

For who to be vulnerable? She wondered with confusion, her wings tightening against her sides, and what Kingdom is mother talking about? Who is this scroll for? She tried to peek at anything else, but she could see pst her mother from the way she was hunched over her work with a tired scowl. A filed scowl she's never seen before.

"This all needs to be perfect," Animosity muttered to herself as she scowled down at the paper, her golden yellow eyes narrowing harshly down upon it as though it had done some crime against her. "In order for it to work."

She wanted to desperately ask her mother what she was talking about, but she knew she wouldn't be able to hear her based off of her futile attempts before hand.

Suddenly, there was knocking coming from the door. The NightWing Queen rose her head and narrowed her eyes at the dark wooden door for a few moments before grinning a "Come in" to who ever was on the other side, which turned out to be a soldier.

The other NightWing opened the door, looking at the queen for a moment before looking over her shoulder, moving out of the way for the dragon behind her, holding the door open for him.

It was her father, King Charming.

The king had his back turned and was crouched down, moving backwards into the room. Animosity gave him a strange look.

"Charming, what in all of Pyrrhia are you doing?" She asked with a flick of her ears.

"Come on! Come on! You can do it!" Charming cheered on softly, moving to the side a little. A large, over joyed smile was practically glowing on his face, his bioluminescent scales emoting a soft glow.

As soon as Animosity spotted what, or rather who, Charming was talking to, the Queen's face practically melted into a soft and loving look.

Following after Charming on her wobbly little legs was a tiny dragonet, barely a hatchling, her eyes a sparkling scarlet red filled with curiosity, joy and playful determination as she followed after her father.

It's....me, Lydia looked at the scene before her in awe, her jaws slightly agape, this must be a past memory, or something. The little dragonet giggled and cooed as she wobbled after her father, nearly falling over several times. One she was finally past the doorway and past the soldier who smiled down at her in awe, she practically leaped forwards towards King Charming, or more so tripped towards him.

The king let out a chuckle as he leaned closer, quick enough for his daughter to grasp his snout for balance on her hind legs that wobbled, her tiny wings flapping to steady herself. The little dragonet looked into her father's eyes and gave him a larger grin, giggling with delight as she looked into his eyes.

But...I don't remember this.

Because this isn't your memory.

WHAT? WHA-HUH? Who-? Lydia practically jumped into the ceiling in her moment of shock, her wings flaring out and flapping madly as though trying to calm her down. The NightWing Princess quickly looked around the room, but no one spoke, everyone was still within the memory, oblivious to her being there watching them. Her heart was pounding so heavily within her chest, she thought it would leap out of her at any moment.

Who....?

Shhhhhhh.... the strange voice whispered softly, seemingly from nowhere still as Lydia watched each dragon closely, still, no one spoke. Don't give yourself more of a headache than you already have.

A headache? What headache? She didn't feel any pain within her skull, not even a dull throb.

Wait, are you the dragon who's been giving me that awful repetitive nightmare for the last few weeks? Has that been you?

She didn't get a response from the voice, she now just felt empty, alone.

With a shake of her head, she focused back on the dragons in front of her. She stood beside Queen Animosity from behind the table, watching the scene unfold, but that's when she noticed something rather odd. When she looked past Animosity, there wasn't any stone around her, the walls were made of thick wood and carved smooth stone bricks and woven branches.

Lydia felt even more confused as she moved to get a closer look, soon, the whole cave was gone. Animosity was now sitting on a low, lightly coloured wooden carved table, it's legs carved to look like spirals of water. Warm sunlight filtered in through cloth covered windows, making the room glow a warm golden yellow. Across the room where Charming and her younger self would've been, was another set of dragons. Another dragon and dragonet.

This other adult dragon was a NightWing with warm grey scales and large shoulders and strong looking wing muscles. His eyes were a warm ember like tree sap, wrapped around his horns were silver wires that held a set of glasses in place upon his thick snout.

The dragonet handing onto him was another NightWing, this one was a warm brown in colour, almost like a mix of the adult NightWing and Animosity's scales. He must've been about the same age as Lydia just moments before. He looked to have strong wings like the other NightWing, sparkling golden yellow eyes like Animosity and pearly white teardrop scales sitting at the corners of each of his eyes.

Lydia looked back towards her mother, wondering if she'd be a different dragon, but no, it was still her mother sitting there, giving them a warm and loving smile. But there was something different about Animosity's face.

Her burn scar was gone.

The scar that covered nearly half of her mother's face was gone, replaced with her beautiful dark red-ish brown scales that covered the rest of her body.

Just as suddenly as she had seen it, everything was gone and replaced by darkness, the world around her going dark as though none of it was there to begin with.

The last thing she was able to see was a pair of slim, narrow black eyes with narrow slits for irises, surrounded by thin sparkling dull gold that gleamed. As quickly as she was able to see them, they were gone.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

A pounding feeling made its way into her skull and she ground her teeth in a wince. She felt as though she was moving, her body laying on something covered in small grooves.

Where....?

There was a bump and she felt her body slide a little across the ground. Every so often she could feel warmth wash over her for a few seconds before a cold feeling took its place. The feeling continued to roll across her body in uneven patterns, not even really patterns just randomly. She never really felt it before.

I've felt the warmth of the torches, but nothing like this, she thought to herself, her ears flattening against the sides of her skull. That's when she felt the reliving coldness of her earring, her favourite one that she always wanted to wear, the silver chains that hum down with a similar round ruby surrounded by silver lining.

Lydia focused on her breathing for a few more moments, in, and out, in, and out. She confined to focus on that, waiting for her heart rate to slow down and for her mind to clear, her skull splitting headache slowly starting to fade away.

Who ever that dragon was, she started to think as she let out another breath, listening to the sounds around her, was right about me having a headache. They must've known she'd wake up with it, hence why they didn't want her mind to start raving about who they were and quickly shushed her in her dream.

Soon enough, it had faded away, or at least faded away just enough for her to gather the courage to open her eyes ever so slightly.

Momentarily, the NightWing Princess was blinded by the harsh lighting, her scarlet red eyes narrowing with a wince, her ears twitching as she flinched back. Once her body relaxed, she tried again, feeling encouraged by the sound of singing birds and the soft whistle of the wind.

Wait...birds? She'd rarely ever hear birds within the mountain, sometimes if she stayed up to see sunrise, she'd be able to hear them from a distance far off down in the forests along the mountain side, but she's never heard them this close before to where they sound as though they're practically on top of her. And the wind, she could feel it brush against her scales, or at least the scales along her arms and a little bit of her wings and tail.

She opened her eyes once more, expecting the blinding golden light this time. As her vision cleared, she felt her eyes widen in shock as she saw the world around her.

A world lit up by the sun, it's warm rays filtering through the trees that's leaf's seemingly glowed in its sunlight. The trees! They were so large! Their thick branches stretched out far across her head high up above. Lydia was able to see bird sitting upon their branches, chirping and looking down at her with curiosity as she moved by.

Moved by.

She looked down with her eyes and saw that she was laid upon shedded wood, the blanks stripped of their bark and nailed together at each end. On either side of her were small fences to keep something inside of what ever she was on, the back open. Wait, this looks like a cart.

She's never seen many of them, but she's seen careers pulled by dragons in the mountain tunnels. The backs always loaded with scrolls, foods, anything really.

Lydia looked over her shoulder ever so slightly, seeing her body draped in a soft, black cloth that she could feel was tied around her neck gently to keep it in place. She could feel it's good resting gently upon her head, holes for her horns to slip through upon the top.

Near the front of the cart, not to far away from where her head laid, were two sacks that were leaned up against one another in the corner, with each bump they shifted, the familiar sound of coins and metals shifting against one another rising from it.

Suddenly, the cart stopped its movement, Lydia having to sink her talons into the wood in order to keep herself grounded as her jaws clenched shut, she wasn't able to keep the air from forcing its way out of her nostrils in a startled huff though.

With the hood upon her head, it was difficult to see that much around her, especially with her head down. Even with some of her vision blocked, she could still feel the eyes of someone watching her.

Maybe if I don't move, they'll think I'm still asleep, she wondered to herself as she listened her grip on the wood, forcing herself to relax.

There was a grunt and the shuffling of dirt, a dragon moving before the cart creaked under added weight.

"You're awake," a gruff voice spoke out, making Lydia wince, "Come on, no use hidin' it from me."

There goes that plan... A little hesitant, she moved, using one of her talons to pull up the hood ever so slightly so she could see the dragon who was speaking to her.

It was another NightWing.

He looked to be in his mid thirties in age, he had dark ember eyes, almost brown in colour but with sparks of bright gold inside of them. His scales were a shaded in a dark orangy yellow-ish brown, an odd colour she didn't see often since most NightWing's scales were shaded blue, purple or just grey in tone. One of his ears was tattered and torn, hardly any ear left. He had a few scars across his snout, each looking old, not fresh.

"There we go," he smiled at her, his voice rumbling within his throat as he looked into her eyes, "such a beautiful colour, never seen a dragon with your kind of eyes before."

Well yeah, neither have I, she wanted to snap, but kept her jaws shut, her eyes staring into his. Lydia could feel her whole body tensing under his stare, which didn't help to calm down her beating heart hat threatened to leap right out of her chest.

"Don't speak much, do ya sweet heart?" His ears twitched with a snort. "Eh, you'll find you're voice in no time. I know this must be a little nerve racking for you, but don't worry darling, everything will be alright now that you're here with me."

"Who are you?" She managed to rasp out before she slammed her talons over her snout, her ears pinning down as she stared up at him with wide eyes.

He looked at her for a few moments before he gave her a warm smile, which is when she noticed he had some teeth made of silver within his jaws.

"The names Quickstrike," he started with a shuffle of his wings, a happy look within his eyes.

"I'm your father."

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- MindlessTyper