Melinda

“Melinda, where are you going?” Crescent asks softly. Melinda's eyes shine with joy, “To play with my friends.”

“That's wonderful, dear.” Crescent smiles, “Eyris and I are going hunting, alright?”

“Okay.” Melinda turns and scrambles off to see her friends. Crescent smiles contently and turns to head out to hunt with his current mate.

Melinda trots into the woods, happily looking for a good place to hang out. When she finds the area she normally goes to, where passing dragons shouldn't be able to find her, she picks her Conjurer's Staff up from under a bush where she hides it. She scribbles the familiar designs into the dirt and sticks her staff into the center like a sundial.

“Egot semato te, ut risalia ex olmatra skemala, et enterria portam!” Melinda chants. When she first started doing this, it came like muscle memory. She still doesn't understand how she knows what to do, but she just does. She doesn't know what language her spell is in, but she somehow knows the translation. I summon thee, to waken from the other side, and pass through the gate! Melinda bounces up and down happily as she watches her magic circle glow. Then it lets out a large, gong-like sound, and the circle seemingly drops away to create a hole of darkness in the ground. Had anyone been watching, they would've been terrified. Not only because a demon just crawled out of a bottomless pit, but an innocent little dragon was the one who summoned it.

~ ~ ~

For the past few days, Umbra has been giving Melinda weird looks and following her around. It's been bugging Melinda, but she doesn't want to sound rude if she asks them to stop keeping tabs on her 24-7. I haven't done anything wrong.

Melinda decides to head out and ask her friends what they think. She keeps a good pace through the woods. About halfway to her favorite spot, she gets an eerie feeling and shoots a glance over her shoulder. Seeing nothing, she turns back to continue in her direction, but she can't shake the feeling she's getting. Deciding to investigate, she slips into a cluster of bushes. She waits, still and silent, like a rock. Sure enough, in a couple minutes, Umbra comes into her view. She is annoyed by the fact that Umbra keeps, okay, she'll admit, Umbra keeps stalking her. Melinda thought Umbra was supposed to keep the clan safe, not make them feel uncomfortable. Umbra, obviously having lost Melinda's trail, searches around a bit for any sign of her before giving up and heading back home. As soon as the Night Guard leader is out of earshot, Melinda slides out from under the bush and silently flees to summon her demon friends.

~ ~ ~

“So your tribe is stalking you?” A tall, black creature with red eyes stands before her. She calls him Trickmurk, after the Shadown Flight's Festival, Trickmurk Circus.

“Well, not all of them. But Umbra was definitely following me out here. I managed to lose her, though.” Melinda huffs. She's glad she has other-worldly comrades to talk to. She can't turn to anyone else in her tribe about this!

“That's not very kind of her.” Trickmurk shakes his small, egg shaped head.

Melinda sits in silence for a moment or two, “I'm going to talk to her.”

“What? Why? If I were you, I'd stop interacting with her at all.” Trickmurk points out.

“She might've figured out I come out here to summon you and the rest of the crew. I can't let her tell everyone. If anything, I need to confront her so she understands my situation.” Melinda feels more decided the more she talks about it.

“Whatever floats your boat.” Trickmurk sighs, “I'm going back home. Good luck.”

“Thanks. Bye, Trickmurk.” Melinda watches as he steps onto the magic circle she drew in the dirt and disappears. She carefully deactivates the summoning area before wiping the drawing out of the dirt. She grabs her staff, hiding it in it's usual spot before hurrying out of the bushes and back home. When she gets there, she spots Umbra watching over the camp from a ledge. She takes a deep breath and claws her way up to Umbra's ledge. Umbra raises her head, “Hello, Melinda.”

“Hello, Umbra.” Melinda chirps back, “Can I talk to you?”

“I've been wanting to talk to you, too.” Umbra's eyes glisten. Melinda cannot pinpoint what emotion shone through. Friendliness? Relief? Or something darker? More evil?

“Come. I know a place we can talk in peace.” Umbra stands up, stretches a bit before opening her wings and leaping from her ledge. She spreads her wings and soars up into the air. Melinda jumps up and follows.

Umbra leads her not too far away, to a place where a cave entrance resides in the Focal Point of Starfall Isles. Umbra lands and Melinda does as well. As soon as she's down, she blurts out, “You can't tell anyone!”

“Tell anyone what?” Umbra's face clearly represents confusion.

“Uh...” Melinda hesitates, suddenly questioning everything she thought was happening, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“It's called the Night Guard. It's a more or less secret group that was put together for the protection of the tribe. They carry out dangerous missions.” Umbra explains.

“...What about them? What do I have to do with this?” Melinda is thoroughly confused, and is only becoming more and more so as her conversation continues.

“They... we... want you to join us.”

“What.”

“You're young and you're brave. We've been watching you and we think you'll be a perfect fit.”

“So you have been watching me!” Melinda is both scared and enraged by that. Mostly worried, though. She's curious as to how much Umbra knows, now. If she doesn't know about my summonings, then this whole thing makes a bit of sense, I guess. But she should know if she's been following me. But if she knew, she wouldn't want a dragon like me on this super important mission team, would she?

“Yes.” Umbra says it as if it's not any deal at all.

Melinda pouts, “If I join you... what are my responsibilities?”

“You will participate in all missions that are assigned to us. You will care for the tribe at all costs.”

“That's all?”

“It requires a lot of traveling, fighting, sneaking around, and going through other territories. Friendly or not.” Umbra's voice suddenly becomes laced with darkness and warning.

Melinda is thrilled, however. This is my chance to prove to my tribe I'm not an evil dragon summoner! I can call upon the demons for help in the missions I'm sent to protect us all with! Melinda almost jumps into the air with excitement, “Sure! I'll do it!”

Umbra smiles, “We thank you.”

“Who's we?” Melinda asks out of curiosity. I want to believe that this group is fairly large. I mean, who sends like just one dragon on these dangerous missions? How crazy strong are these dragons? Are they all from our tribe? I don't think anyone sneaks out to do dangerous missions. Then again, I never really noticed when Umbra left...

“You'll see. Follow me, please.” Umbra turns to the cave and squeezes in. Melinda follows, glad she isn't claustrophobic.

Not too long after entering the cave, it opens up to a sort of dome that is lined with candles and the roof is lit with what appear to be stars. “What is this place?”

“Our meeting place.”

“Okay. Pretty cool.” Melinda smells the air to find that the candles are scented. Although she cannot pinpoint what it's supposed to smell like.

Umbra sits down in the middle of the cave, “Melinda, meet Tenebris. Our teammate. Tenebris, you know Melinda. She agreed to join us in our missions.”

Melinda turns to see yet another dark-pelted Nocturne in the cave. Melinda trots up and smiles, “Hello, Tenebris.”

Tenebris bows her head, “Hello, Melinda. Welcome.”

Melinda turns to Umbra, “Where's everyone else?”

“It's just us.” Umbra says nonchalantly.

“Just you?” Melinda is blown away, “The tribe expects two dragons to carry out every single dangerous mission?”

“Pretty much.” Tenebris shrugs.

Melinda slowly comes to accept this fact, deciding it's best not to say anything else as she slowly nods her head.

“Ready for your first mission?” Umbra asks.

Melinda shakes her head, “I want to grab something first.”

“Sure thing.” Umbra nods, “Come back quickly.”

“I will.” Melinda turns and dashes up the cave tunnel and flies to where she hides her Conjurer's Staff. She smiles, thinking of her demon friends before rushing back to where her new teammates are waiting for her.

+Bio by Flickershade

Melinda was one of the cutest nocturnes around. Everyone seemed to love her because she would gift everyone with their favorite treats. She could never do anything evil. Expect that she had a habit of summoning demons.

There was always a few strange noises during her spare time. Everyone always thought she was just playing make believe or something cute like that. Nobody ever knew what she was truly doing. You could never tell such a sweet girl was doing something so, what they’d call, ‘evil’

‘Evil,’ she often thought to herself. She wasn’t sure what would make her evil, and what wouldn’t. She did wish to show her summoned friends to her clan mates. But they wouldn’t understand. Plus, She wasn’t planning on doing anything truly evil.

+Bio by: SpookyCups (155124)

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