Blood and Poison, Part 1

     Skyscrapers, city lights, the constant smell of methane… cities had a way of always being awake beyond the Wildlands. Even at the darkest hour of the night, there was at least one building alight, illuminating the area with the streetlights. The moon becomes insignificant, and people are more focused on their television or computer to bother to watch it.

     The Wildlands itself was a lot different. Forests, bushes, the constant smell of rain due to the recent, mild storm…. The Wildlands had a way of relaxing even the busiest dragon. At night, the forest's treetops obscured the moon to the point where visibility was close to zero. Normally, someone who wanted to go out into the forest at night would need someone with the Light Element as well—someone who can act as a walking flashlight.

     Young dragons didn't have enough power to do something like that. The average Light Elementalist wouldn't be able to do so much as produce a dim glow for a short while.
That didn't stop a group of five young dragons to explore anyway. For fun. Because they felt like it. Well, four of them did.

     But there was a sixth entity following them; the five young dragons had no idea of its presence, mainly because it followed with careful footsteps and made not a sound. The creature woke up to the sound of the five walking by, and was either curious or concerned—it wasn't really sure. Kids weren't supposed to be out this late at night. For one, they could get lost, and along with that they could get hurt or worse. They were older dragons, not simply the size of hatchlings, so they may be able to defend themselves, but that was no excuse. The entity following them, however, was a bit older, a bit bigger, and memorized the way back.

     "Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait waiiiiit!"
     "Stars above, Jen, WHAT?"
     "Are you sure it's safe to be out in the forest this time of night?"
     "'Course it's safe, I do it all the time!"
     "Me too."
     "Same here."
     "Yep."

     "B-but… it's so… it's so," Jen shook her head, "we can't see a thing! The only thing keeping the place all bright is your Element. Tzera! Are you even listening?"
     Tzera glanced back, "I'm listening," he replied. He then continued ahead.
     "…W-well are you going to, like, follow it?"
     "Nope."
     Jen shivered, looking to her right. She was almost positive she heard something.
     "C'mon, Jen, it's perfectly safe," the third dragon said, almost tackling her.
     "I—I thought I heard something," Jen said. "What if it's a… a…."
     "A what?"
     "Deer?"
     "Frog?"
     "Human?"
     "D-don't be silly!" Jen squeaked. "What if it's a Formless?"

     Apparently they never considered that possibility, because all four of the other dragons stopped in their tracks. The creature following them held its breath, hoping they wouldn't start looking around. That was the last thing it needed. It seemed that these kids were just trying to give Jen a hard time for the fun of it.

     "…Ha—hahaha! Y-yeah, sure, Jen. Formless. Like they'd get past the guards!"
     The other three laughed nervously with Tzera, but Jen went a bit closer to the nearest dragon. "They can always maybe just slip by," she whimpered.
     "Aw," one said, bringing a wing over her and pulling her close, trying to comfort her, "there, how's that? Feel safe now?"
     "You stink."
     "Pff." He let go and continued ahead.
     "We're almost there," Tzera said. "Just a little further… I've got a real scary story this time!"
     "D-do you have to? H-how about we just talk about—like—that time Jeremy tripped on his own tail and accidentally ate a—"
     "HEY!" Jeremy yelled, "How about we talk about the scary story?"
     "And then we'll talk about that," Tzera sneered.
     This was a very entertaining group of dragons, thought the creature.

     "Okay," Tzera looked at the others before sitting down. The other four did, Jen being the last, making sure she was as close to two of them as possible in the circle. "I heard this one a while ago…. True story, I swear…."

     "H-how true?"
     "Could happen right now. Riiight… now…."
     Jen was already covering her eyes, bending her hind legs until she was belly-down with her front paws blinding her. The young dragon's tail twisted around her body before Jen whimpered again.
     "This one's about… a couple of kids—a little older than we are—who were walking down a lake…."
     "B-but there's a lake nearby!" Jen yelped.
     "I know, right? What a coincidence. . ."

     The creature was always fascinated by scary stories. They were so cute, especially under this sort of atmosphere. It was just an innocent way of scaring the scales off of a friend and laugh about it later. The creature could sympathize with Jen, though; some stories were really quite jarring, and if they tell it right, it could really get to someone. Still, the creature knew that its existence was often perceived as scarier than the average horror story.

     Thankfully Tzera was no good at telling a good scary story, and because of that, the creature decided to stick around for a good, muted laugh. Besides, if Jen started to scream, she might attract unwanted attention from a Formless if there really was one around, though he was doubtful.

     "Aaaaah!" Jen screamed as Tzera concluded with a quick, scary (to her) ending. The three laughed as Jen screamed, and the creature found his body shaking with muted laughter, but then realized that Jen made a run for it—right into him.

     "Oof—I—" Jen looked up, her scaly paws making contact with the creature. In another shriek of terror, loud enough to put a ring in the creature's ears, she scrambled off of it and ran the other way.
     "Whoa, Jen, what'd you run in to?" asked Tzera. He made use of his Light Element again, this time for a stronger glow; for some reason the creature couldn't quite move out of the way fast enough.

     The creature counted two seconds before the three yelled various synonyms for 'monster' simultaneously—the monster waved his arms in the air, but one of the hatchlings reacted by using his own power: A blast of kinetic energy sent the monster flying backwards, hitting a nearby tree; with a hard bow to the head, the monster found himself too dizzy to stand.
     "RUN! RUUUUN!"

     He could only hope that they would run in the right direction, back home where they wouldn't get hurt. Silence filled the forest after that; the terrified pants of the kids faded. A cold breeze shook the treetops, and the monster was finally able to regain some equilibrium. He stood, leaning on the tree for some support, and then hoped he didn't go blind like his father. It was too dark to tell. Maybe he should at least go through a few basic facts to make sure he was thinking straight, and then make use of his own Light Element. He criticized himself for being so stupid that he didn't use it when Tzera used it to light his body.

     This tree… was made of wood. Yes, it felt very much like wood. He brought his hand over the trunk before sighing. One plus one was two… One hand… another hand… two hands. Good, he still has his basic math down. His name was Nate… Nathaniel… he made use of his Light Element, making white letters in the air that illuminated his space—fantastic, he wasn't blind—to spell it out. N-a-t-h-a-n-e-l… no, that wasn't right…. Well, he could work on that later.

     Nate took a step forward, waving his hand in front of him to make small dots of light to show the way back.

     …Oh, no, this wasn't good. Along with his diminished spelling, he seemed to have lost his sense of direction. How was he going to get back home? It wasn't like he was able to call out for help—really; he was physically incapable of speech—and even if he did get help, what were they more likely to do? Guide him home, or throw him against another tree? There were a million horrible things they could do to him with the Elements, and that toss was a tame one.

     "It—it was this way! I swear, it was slimy and cold, like a—like a…"
     It was Jen again, and the other hatchlings brought company.
     "You shouldn't have been out in the first place," said much deeper, adult voice. "Now you know you shouldn't go out. I'm just relieved you ran away unharmed…."

     Nate didn't stick around to hear the rest. Time to run.