Adventures of Aurora - Ch. 2

Chapter Two



Aurora awoke bright and cheerful the next morning, despite her near-fatal landing. Her mother and father were not awake yet, so she decided to go wait for them on the ledge outside their cave.

The moon was still high in the sky, barely visible due to the light from the rising sun. Aurora looked down, the moonlight flowers’ petals were still open. Moonlight flowers were strange flowers because they bloomed at night, and seemed to glow in the light of the moon. It was said that in the Legends, Medora had visited the Valley and seen these One-of-a-kind flowers, and even wrote about them in her journal. The cave she supposedly slept in belonged to Windnyte, and was at the front of the Valley.

Aurora was becoming impatient while waiting for her parents, so she decided to go for a second flight, to test her new skill. She spread her wings and jumped from the ledge, gaining altitude quickly in the crisp morning air. She was slightly nervous after that had occurred the day before, but she wasn’t going to improve unless she practiced.

Slowly she pulled her wings closer to her body, finding the right speed to descend at and angling her body so she went more down instead of forward. Once close enough to the ground, she leveled her body and spread her wings, creating enough resistance to slow down and plant her back claws safely on the ground. Aurora was proud, if only her parents could have seen!

For a while Aurora worked on improving her landing, until many of the dragons in the Valley began to come out of their caves in the new morning light. Aurora spotted Flare and flew over, eager to show her that she could fly.

“Flare!” Aurora shouted, catching her friend’s attention.

”Aurora! You can fly!” Flare shouted happily, quickly launching herself into the air to join her friend. “ Let’s see what you can do!”

”Uh, Flare, I can’t really …”

Flare cut her off. “Can you do this?” She pulled her wings in quickly and tilted her body so she flipped over in one fluid motion. Before she began falling too fast, she spread her wings out and was now flying upside-down. The way the air rushed over her wings caused her to descend, but she stayed in place by flapping rapidly.

Aurora shook her head. “No,” she said sadly. Flare flipped back over to be at her friend’s side again.

“Really?” She asked as if she were shocked. “How about …” Flare pulled her wings in close to her body so they wouldn’t get in the way while she flipped around completely in the air. She flapped her wings to be at Aurora’s side again. Aurora shook her head.

“Really…” Flare seemed disappointed. “I can’t believe you can’t do any of that stuff, it’s easy! Right now, I’m learning how to do a spiraling nose-dive. They’re very hard.”

Aurora tried to find a way to drown out Flare’s voice in her thoughts. She did not need to be reminded that she was not yet a very strong flyer.

As she finished her thought, a deafening roar came from from Windnyte’s cave.

“A meeting!” Flare exclaimed, pointing out the obvious. Aurora and Flare angled their wings to join the hundreds of dragons swarming towards the front of the Valley. Among the crowd, Aurora spotted her mother and father, so she flew over to be with them. As they landed, Windnyte came out of the cave. His black scaled glittered in the sunlight, making it appear as if his scales were thousands of tiny stars.

He raised his wings, which was the signal for silence, and the crowd hushed. Windnyte took one long look over the crowd from the High Ledge where he stood, and began to speak.

“I have called you all here today to discuss something I feel is of utmost importance. As many of you know, food around the Evernyte Valley is beginning to get scarce. As the population of our prey decreases, the population of the Valley increases. I fear there may not be enough for us to eat if we stay any longer, therefore I have come to a conclusion that we must migrate to another valley.”

The crowd, which had been silent moments before, broke out in several cries of complaints. One powerful glance from Windnyte was all it took for the crowd to be silent once more.

“I understand many of you may not want to leave, as Evernyte valley has been your home for centuries. But we have no other choice. If we stay, we will all perish.” Windnyte paused to let his words sink in.

“I have chosen the closest uninhabited valley that I could find. We will be migrating to Starlyte Valley, near the Gryphon border.” Several members in the crowd hissed when the word “Gryphon” was mentioned. Gryphons were a dragons worst enemy, with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. Long ago there had been a war between the two species, and the land has been divided since. Windnyte ignored the hissers.

“We will be traveling for three days, leaving tomorrow. Please, pack belongings carefully. Do not bring anything you will not need, as it will weigh you down and we do not want to waste time. I am sorry that this must occur in our lifetime, but we have no other choice. I will see you all in the morning.” With these final words, Windnyte turned and walked back into his cave. All around, the dragons started to go back to their caves and pack their belongings, while others stayed around to discuss Windnyte’s decision with friends.

Aurora realized that her parents had been talking about the migration when they had said she “needed to be ready.” Reluctantly, she followed her parents back to their cave where they began packing their belongings.

“Aurora, make sure that you do not forget anything!” Shimmer called from one of the caverns. Aurora was busy in her small cavern packing the few belongings she had into a sheepskin sack. Dragons do not usually have many belongings, and what belongings they do have consist mainly of precious jewels, scrolls or items from the Humans that they may have found. Aurora was careful not to leave behind anything she may miss, and careful not to pack too much because it might slow her down.

When she was finished, Aurora went to meet her parents in the main cavern, where they were discussing the migration.

“I am surprised that Windnyte has planned the migration so quickly. I would’ve thought that he may have waited a few days to give the dragons more time to prepare…” Singe commented. They had not yet spotted Aurora waiting patiently for her turn to speak.

“Well we must trust that Windnyte has made the right choice. I only hope that Aurora will be able to fly for such a long time, she has only just learned.” Shimmer added. Singe turned to comfort her.

“ I am sure she will be fine, she is a strong girl.”

Aurora backed away into her cavern. She did not want to be included in the conversation.

Aurora was beginning to get upset. She did not want to leave Evernyte Valley so soon. This was strange, usually Aurora was always ready for a new challenge or adventure. Part of her wanted to go because she was sure it would be her best adventure yet, but something was holding her back. Whatever it was, she must ignore it, because tomorrow they left Evernyte Valley. Forever.