SoNem flew aimlessly, hardly aware of the presence of the other dragons around him. The only reminder was the occasional brush of his wing tips with someone else’s or the passing thought of another dragon through mind-speak. None of them spoke aloud, and the night air was rendered into a mournful silence. Try as he might, SoNem couldn’t get the picture of the Queen’s final moment out of his head. He felt an emptiness deep in his hearts that he had never felt before, and he didn’t know how to cope with it. He tried suppressing it, but it always reared its ugly head again when his thoughts flitted back to the poachers.

He wondered passively how long they had been flying. It felt like days now, but it couldn’t have been more than three or four hours. His shoulders strained as he beat his leathery wings, his muscles slowly wearing down as his endurance faltered. Looking around, he saw the dark forms of dragons descending into the forest below. It appeared he wasn’t the only one tired of flying. He tilted his head to eye the ground, searching for a place to land among the trees.

“SoNem!”

The voice pierced through the silence, and startled him awake. SoNem craned his neck around to see who had called out his name. There, a little ways back, a small Erithian dragonelle fluttered towards him, beating her wings rapidly to try to catch up. He recognized the emerald and gold scales of his serf, Istaria. He felt a wave of relief that she had gotten out alright, and slowed to a gentle glide so she could reach him.

“What happened? Why did the Queen tell us to leave the Nest?”

Istaria stared at him with wide, confused eyes. She always was a timid one. SoNem hesitated. He felt the need to protect her, but he knew she was a fully grown dragonelle – even if she was half his size – and she could handle the truth. He angled his head slightly so he could meet her gaze. He could see the moonlight reflecting in her amber eyes, and imagined his own looked the same way.

[i]Humans. They invaded the Queen’s cave and murdered her. She didn’t even have time to defend herself.[/i]

Even though they were right next to each other, SoNem preferred to use mind-speak. He didn’t want to break the solemn quiet any more than Istaria already had. Upon explaining the horrific attack to her, he felt a fresh pang of despair. Where could they possibly go now? He had lived in the Nest since he was a hatchling and, like all the other young dragons, didn’t know anything about the outside world. His head began to hurt.

[i]Let’s just find a place to rest. I don’t want to think about this anymore.[/i]

Istaria watched SoNem with sadness in her eyes. She had never seen him act this way before. He was always so boisterous and full of life, but now he was just an empty shell of his former self. She couldn’t blame him, though. Witnessing the murder of their beloved Queen would change any dragon, no matter how hard his hearts were. She let silence draw out between them as they glided down to a small clearing in the forest below.

The foliage was soft underfoot and the trees were dense, so any humans who might happen to be wandering nearby would have a difficult time spotting them. SoNem decided it would make a decent place to spend the rest of the night. He tucked his sore wings against his back and lay down, curling his tail around his body. Istaria did the same a few meters away. She dozed off quickly – the long flight took a harsher toll on her smaller frame – but sleep didn’t come quite as easily to SoNem. He closed one eye, leaving the other one open to look out for humans, and tried to let his consciousness fade away. Instead, his mind was stuck on an unending loop of the earlier attack and questions as to how the hundreds of now-homeless dragons would survive.