Nocturnal

The Starfall Isles had seen nothing like this.

When Nocturnal stumbled from the wilds to join their clan, it was cause for celebration, but little did they know that her mere presence there would bring hunger the likes of which had never been seen before. Not a day after she has settled in, she began whispering shadow curses to the land, proclaiming utter dominance over food reserves and the chance of gathering sustenance. There was no ill intent in Nocturnal's curse. Just as the sun was destined to rise and set she was destined to carry on a legacy of shadows and misfortune, bestowed upon her by Slael and Mordak.

The new clan was her home, and if they wanted to accept her, then they had to accept the dismal stump’s unwanted blessing.

Dragons around her, with their dying willpower sought to trade their goods with other clans in exchange for food, went out hunting and gathering, but their desperation was met with failure each and every time. Hunger set in quickly, but desolation soon expanded mercilessly. There were those on the verge of giving up, only to be called upon by their younglings, begging and pleading for any scrap that was left. Respite was nowhere on the horizon. Bony figures with barely enough force to breathe turned every rock, ruffled every bush and battled the most nightmarish thoughts yet to come.

Nocturnal recognized these nightmares. She had never seen them before with her own eyes but something in her heart knew the bewildering thoughts could not have found a better home than within her. Nocturnal watched as the dragons of her new clan eyed each other suspiciously, hungrily, trying to repress their urges. Mothers imagined turning on their daughters, fathers felt their stomachs rumbling just thinking of snapping at their nearest friends. Families were torn by their unspeakable appetite and the divide between reality and longing curiosity and need grew smaller by the hour.

The Guardian wondered if the famine would only be the first step in her reign over a pile of bones.


Eventually, Nocturnal's whispers grew quiet. Most of her clan was gone, lost and forgotten wherever her plague had consumed them. There are a few left who follow her, wrongly assuming that they can somehow appease her nature and they will be able to find food. Nocturnal grew tired of this long ago, and now she simply waits for them to fall or desert like all those before them.

However, there is a different singing in her blood now, a song she is not familiar with. Perhaps it is because she is getting older, perhaps it is the phase of the moon, but Nocturnal begins to yearn inside her heart. It takes her a long time to pin-point just what that yearning was, but it wasn't until she and her few clan mates passed another clan in their wandering and Nocturnal laid eyes on a hatchling for the first time.

Of course, she didn't get to see it very well, as the little thing had been snatched up quickly by it's parent, but it was just enough for Nocturnal to finally understand the unknown song her heart sang. Nothing filled Nocturnal with more love than the thought of hatching an egg under the black absence of the moon and allowing it to nose it's way into the nearest clan and raise all sorts of hell. The urge was suddenly so strong, she swore to herself right then and there that by the time she was done, every Flight in Sorenith would suffer from the curse given to her by her parents.

The simple thought filled her with joy.