Chapter Text
I watched as my new three nestkin just… slept and ate. It was boring, extremely so really. I didn’t bother messing with them much as that was all they appeared to do. My dam appeared happy to fuss over them despite their lack of action.
My Sire stayed away more often as well, weirdly enough. It wasn’t as if we struggled with food despite him having to hunt for 5 now. A single hunted dragon could tide us for many dark cycles. A big one could even feed us all for an entire moon cycle! Yet my sire insists on scouting the skies to make sure there is ample amounts of food to be found for later hunting.
So, seeing as I didn’t have much else to do I practiced my abilities that I have as an archdreadwing. Flying around, I would pin my wings into different positions to test my maneuverability in different positions. Flight was one of the specialties of the Dreadwing, as it the reason for our dominion of the skies in the dark cycle.
But we have several other abilities that I have seen used. Several of which I have never used myself, seeing as I am not yet a fledgling. It will take the winters it does for one to become fully fledged for me to be one. That doesn’t stop me from knowing what they are though.
One of the abilities is our sound-sight, with the screech of our subsonic wings on our tails, or the echo of our sight roar we can see things around us without the need of our eyes. This further allows us to aim our flame as we can see everything around us, from the inside to the outside. Typically, our flame is shot out in short bursts due to its pure destructive power. However, we are fully capable of focusing it into a flame more alike that of a Spinetail, if only for a few moments.
Perhaps my favorite thing we can use, however, is our Hopeflame. When doused on another, it can heal some of the most grievous wounds in seconds. However, this is not our specialty, as we cannot use it for more than mere seconds at a time. It also takes the energy of the one being doused to heal them. Which can at times kill them depending on their condition.
Finally, dreadwings can summon and control lightning just as a Thunderwing could, even disappearing into it with ease.
Or, a fully Fledged dreadwing could.
I was only still learning how to use sound sight alongside my flying, as is one of the first things we are taught. The second being our blast once we gain flame. Everything else comes after you master those. As without those base skills, learning anything else is beyond difficult.
I sighed, as I dove down towards the grass below. Opening my subsonic wings as I focused on what I could hear. The vibrations coming off of the rocks in the mountains around the cove, the scales of my dam just a glide away. The movement of her claws as she laid them around the smallest soft scaled hatchling, Dusk. Tempest to her right and the large form of Ignate on her back. The sway of the grass as my wings came close to them, the wind below them causing it to move.
I banked a hard right, turning and bringing my wings in doing a small spin, tail fin pinned inward before opening sharply with an up pointing tilt, my tailfins flaring outward as I glided higher in the sky with the momentum of the dive. “Shadow!” Auric hissed “Pay attention when you are flying, you nearly snapped your neck!”
I slowly glided down to my mother, my earflaps pressed close to my head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” I cooed, my head lowered to the ground. “I was practicing my sound sight, I didn’t mean to get distracted.”
She growled in disappointment, before getting up and herding my back over to the nest. Ignate, who was woken by our dam’s movement, let out a curious surprised chirp. Our dam circled around Dusk so that he would be well warmed by her body. He was the runt after all, and would need more care. I carefully laid down next to them, laying over Tempest who sniffed me before laying their head back down and beginning to purr.
Ignate walked- or more accurately rolled- over to me. Their tiny amber scaled body landing between me and Auric. I huffed, before taking it upon myself to groom him. Since if I didn’t do it nobody would. To care for a Hatchling this young, most of it is simply sitting them with them and protecting them from anything that would hurt them.
Not that most sane creatures would dare to intrude on a Dreadwing Nest.
I whined as I quickly found myself growing bored. I didn’t get how my dam could sit here for night cycles simply watching over my nestkin. Yes, I would do anything to protect them, but I cannot get just sitting here for so long. She must have wing cramps by now. I might as well get some rest, the bright cycle will be starting soon anyways.
The last thing I heard was a soft chuff, as my sire laid down to groom me.