The Dark Claws: Book 2 The Red Moon by Flowey1787 | World Anvil Manuscripts | World Anvil
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"Wake up, Flow. You've got a visitor." Apollo said and Flow woke suddenly. What visitor? An enemy? Arson suddenly yelled "We got company! Two of them!" Of course. Time to get ready for a possibly fight... but something seemed familiar about the two... Flow gasped. "Do not attack!" he yelled and ran out. He took to the sky and was sure of who this was, but then the Dragon started to fall. Flow dove to them, and grabbed them by the front legs. Flow lowered them to the ground, then got smacked by a tail. Cross was there, ready to kill when he realized it was Flow. "Well damn... You suck at traveling."

Flow wanted to argue, but that wasn't a big issue. Haze was here. Alive. Flow took Haze to the spot that he was currently staying, and then started the questioning. "Why are you here, Cross? Why is Haze hurt? Why didn't you two walk?" Before cross could answer, Haze woke up. Cross, Flow, and Arson stared at them. Haze was confused at first, but then saw Flow, then suddenly jumped up, and leaped onto him. "You're okay!" they screamed. "YOU'RE okay!" Flow yelled, hugging them. Suddenly, Haze started strangling Flow's neck. "After what you pulled, you are lucky I haven't already smacked the SHIT out of you!" Then, Haze sighed and let go of Flow. "But... I cannot stay mad at you... no matter how much I wanna. But if you do that AGAIN, you will have met a side of me I try to keep burried deep deeeeeeeeep inside..." Flow rubbed his neck and said "Noted. But why did you come all this way? It isnt safe, and the castle is the best place for you to be." Haze looked at Flow "No matter what, we are sticking together. I do not care what anyone says about you, I am stuck with you and you are stuck with me."

As Haze said that, Charcoal walked in holding what used to be a cow. She dropped it on the ground right by the fire, and came to see what was up. "Ah, new allies? Or prisoners?" She asked Arson. "I wouldn't say 'new' allies... Cross isn't new and Haze is new to us, but Flow knows them pretty damn well." "So this is the legendary Haze." She walked over to observe them. Haze made a small yelp when Charcoal looked at them. "Oh, you are one of the sky wings who saved Flow... T-Thank you for protecting him..!" Haze bowed. Flow nudged Haze "You don't need to bow..." Flow knew Haze was basically traumatized by mother for not bowing to others when saying thank you, and he just wanted them to know it wasn't needed here.

Flow found it selfish, but he was glad Haze was there to face things with him. That night, he spent the whole time sharing stories about what had happened with Haze. He was shocked to find out Cain survived. "What?! Damn, he really is relentless... Good for him I guess." sure he tried to kill Flow, but he was still his brother. This meant maybe he could still fix things between eachother, and maybe even... "Flow, he wants you dead more than ever. He lost the ability to fly, and he can't use one of his legs. He even kept trying to turn me against you." Haze looked down. "...And for a moment... I believed him..."

Haze laid by Flow and buried their head under their paws. Flow put his wing over Haze and comforted them. "It isn't your fault... After that incident, who would trust me?" Haze looked up and yelled "Me! I saw where you were! You didn't do it, I know you didn't!" Haze had a point, but then who could have used the wyvern tooth? Not Cain, he took pride in his role, and if he was the one, why did he keep questioning Flow? Haze was out of the question for obvious reasons, but what about Violet? Could she have done it? But she never had any... any KNOWN ambitions...

"Haze... you Don't think Violet would have... done it, do you?" Haze looked at Flow, their gears also turning. "W-wait, but she never had any interest in taking the throne!" "She never SHOWED interest..." Flow then laid down and said "Hopefully this staff thing I am after can clear everything up..." Haze tilted their head "Staff? What kind of staff?" "well, I am not sure." Flow said. "But... Apollo, the dragon from the dreams I had, says it is important. Anyways, we should just rest... We have all had a rough day and we got a lot of traveling tomorrow."

At around 3 AM, thunder struck and woke Flow. He never woke up from storms, so something must have been off... No one else was awake, and that just raised more suspicion. "Someone else is in the cave with you.." Apollo warned. "Someone is in the shadows. Do not move until they get close to you." Flow acted asleep still, and heard claws tap on the ground, getting closer. Flow's heart was pounding... The steps grew louder, louder, and louder until Flow jumped up and slashed the dragon.

It was Cain. Cain let out a yell when his front leg got slashed, then rammed into Flow, knocking him over and then stepping on Flow's chest. "Never thought I would catch up... until Haze made their little trip and led me right to you!" Flow threw Cain off and saw everyone else was awake. Flow and Cain circled each other when Cain spoke up and said "I do not care about them... I just want to get my revenge on you! Flow Reamnent, I challenge you to a duel!"

Everything went silent... nobody moved or spoke a word, and were looking at Flow. "...I accept." Flow said staring back at Cain. Cain's wings were torn to shreds, his body was covered in scars and spots that were not even healed yet, and the back half of his body was struggling. Flow felt bad, but this was the path Cain took. He could have avoided those injuries... Flow knows this, but he knew Cain was hesitating on that cliff as well.

Cain walked to the entrance of the cave, then looked back at Flow with his dark, purple glowing eyes. "Let's not wait, then." Cain said almost trying to taunt Flow. Flow got up and followed Cain to a clearing in the rain forest. The storm was loud, and wind rushed against Flow's ears, but it was also quiet. Flow and Cain both knew only one would make it out of this fight alive...

Cain rushed at Flow, and used his fire. Flow dodged out of the way and slashed Cain's side, and then reached over and bit his neck. Cain let out the toxin from his tail, causing Flow to fly up until the toxin was gone. After a few minutes, the toxin was gone, but Cain was as well... Where was he... Suddenly, Cain jumped up, and grabbed Flow's tail from behind a rock. Cain was too heavy, and Flow fell right on the rock before getting slashed on the back by Cain. Flow roared out when suddenly, Flow reached up and bit Cain's left claw clean off. Cain roared out, blood spilling from his foot, and fell off the rock. Flow got up and then quickly jumped onto Cain, then jammed his horns right into Cain's chest. Flow suddenly snapped to his senses, and then stopped. Cain sat there under Flow... Bleeding with blood dripping from his mouth, unable to move anymore.

"K-kill me already..." Cain closed his eyes, ready to meet his fate. "Why would I kill you? You are my brother." Cain lifted his head up "Well, my brother is dead." Cain jumped up despite the injuries and was inches away from Flow's throat, when more blood spewed from Cain's mouth. Flow looked over to see Haze, with their horns stuck right into Cain's ribs. They looked furious, and seemed to have reacted sub-conciously. Cainfell over, and looked at the two then said "Why would you do this, Haze..?" Those were Cain's last words. He sounded like he was gargling on his own blood, but that wasn't the worst part. He sounded like he was... heart broken. He did care about Haze.

Haze sat there, watching the life drain from their brother, but Flow couldn't bear to see what happened next. He just stood up, and began to walk off when Haze grabbed Flow by the front legs. "Flow!" they sobbed. "We can't leave him! We have to heal him!" Flow looked away from Haze, then said "We don't have a way to heal him." "Flow... o-our b-brother is dying!" Haze twitched so much, someone could think they were having an episode. "Flow we can't lea-" "Haze, stop!" Flow looked at Haze with anger. "Haze, he chose this! HE knew he could die, but still chose this! Even if we could help, he probably wouldn't even ACCEPT IT!" Flow's yell was louder than the thunder in the skies.

Haze was shaking from fear, and twitching with emotion "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Haze kept repeating, and then laid on the ground, still repeating the same words. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" All the other dragons chose to just head back to the cave accept for Cross. Cross came up, and went to reach for Haze, when Flow put his paw on his.

"L-let them get it out... I fucked up. Bad. Go to the cave, please." Cross reluctantly nodded, then went back, looking behind every now and then. Haze was still repeating I'm sorry over, and over, and over, when Flow laid beside them. "I am as well, and I want to help, but... Haze, some things just can't be... fixed..." Haze went quiet, and then softly spoke "Is it weird that his death wasn't the part that scared me..?"

Flow knew what they meant. He never spoke to Haze like that, and he should have kept his emotions in check... especially when they were so vulnerable to things like that. "Haze, I never meant to do this... any of this... this tension, this pain, these injuries, the death... it was why I wanted you to stay. I love you Haze, and I care about you... You don't deserve to experience anything that is happening here."

Haze spoke softly again. "No. Matter. What." Flow couldn't understand how Haze could still hold on to that promise after what had just happened. Flow looked at Cain's body, then  at Haze. "You may be right, we can't leave him. We should at least give him a proper burial." Flow put his wing over Haze, and dragged them close enough so that he could hug them. "Y-yeah... he shou- should." Haze had sub-conciously grabbed onto Flow as they said that.

Cain had always meant well for his family, but his judgement was cloude by feelings of betrayal. Flow never was close to Cain, but it was like Flow's soul was being ripped in half when he saw his brother being put into his grave. It felt nice that everyone else chose to attend despite what Cain had tried, and it felt like Flow had found a new family. After Cain was buried, they all began packing their items, and went off.

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