Stardust

The wind howls as it thunders through the trees, leaves shaking and branches creaking. Thunder booms, long and loud, and far below in a mud filled clearing, a tiny hatchling sobs in fear. Next to her lies an Imperial, bearing a striking resemblance to the hatchling. The large dragon's breathing is rasping and labored, each breath sounding more painful then the last. A scorched claw, nearly as big as the hatchling herself, nudges her towards the mouth of a small cave jutting out from storm-battered greenery. Fat tears roll down her cheeks as she clings to the larger dragon's talon for another moment. With a final whispered farewell, the hatchling hesitantly crawls over to the cave, watching the larger dragon with every step she takes.
Not a minute after the hatchling is safe within the rocky walls of the cave, a bolt of lightning arcs down into the clearing, lighting up the jungle and illuminating the fallen dragon from within. A pain filled roar rips through the night, and as the echoes die, so does the dragon.
Fresh tears gather in the already blurry eyes of the hatchling, and as grief tears a hole in her heart, she flees farther down into the cave. She trips, clumsy claws catching on the uneven floor of the cavern. Her snout connects painfully with the ground, and she makes no effort to rise. Her eyes slip shut, and soon she feels as if she is floating a million miles away.


Stardust wakes to stillness and the sound of dripping water. She is still on the floor of the cave, and her papa is still dead in the clearing. Tears slip down her cheeks and join the trickle of water flowing deeper into the cave. The soothing sound of flowing water nearly puts Stardust back to sleep, the only thing stopping her the ache of hunger in her stomach. With a weary sigh and rub of her eyes, Stardust rises to her trembling paws, stumbling deeper into the cave in search of food.

Times passes, and Stardust finds herself at an impasse. Before her lies a cliff, the depths barely visible in the faint light of bio luminescent plants and animals, dancing in and out of sight. She hesitates, glancing back towards the surface she came from. Visions of a lush green forest filled to bursting with food enters the little Imperial's mind, but is quickly interrupted by the memory of her father's charred corpse. And with a shudder and a shake of her head, she flicks her wings open and leaps into the darkness.

At the bottom of the cliff is another tunnel, too smooth and symmetrical to be natural. finish this