Mother informed her that she was finally allowed to participate in their hunt today.
It has almost been two years since she's been reincarnated into this world as a dragon, and one year since she started training her body.
Moon has grown exponentially in size and strength. She's almost thrice her previous size since she hatched. And she's assured in her ability to run and hide just in case shit hits the fan. She could even outfly Four-Tails, if she really put her mind to it.
Her scales has been hardening and growing as the time passed. She was sure that once she reached adolescence, even the sharpest of steel can't pierce through her natural armor.
There are three other Nine-Tailed dragons beside Mother, who she dubbed as Curvy, Long, Biggy based on their tails since it'll be confusing otherwise. They all look so much alike. Four-Tails couldn't come, since he, the Alpha and the others are off doing some 'confidential' stuff.
Biggy gently thump one of his tails on her head as they ready to set off. He's her favourite at the moment, since he gave her the most of the salmons he hunt ever since she could remember from hatching.
The sun was barely peaking out of the horizon as they flew steadily over the calm sea, the scent of seaweed and sulphur tickling her nose, and Moon took one quick glance below her and shivered slightly. The sea looked like a bottomless void of nothing underneath it's gorgeous cerulean waters. Drowning is one of the ways she hated to die the most.
She died gruesomely in some of her past lives; being tortured in unimaginable ways, decapitated, losing all blood, losing all limbs and senses, swallowing a million bugs, but she still hated drowning the most.
...and probably being buried alive and swimming in lava or acid.
She spied a pod of dolphins surfing along the tides as they passed through a gloomy hill, blissfully oblivious to the predators idly flying above them. She wanted to try them again. They tasted bitter and sweet, with a fatty and soft texture. She could feel the planes of her shoulder naturally tensing as her eyes sharpen into slits, her vision seemingly becoming thousand times more clearer as she eyed a particularly large dolphin making high-pitched squealing sounds. She could almost taste their blood in her mouth.
"Mother," she called, and the older female dragon glance back "there's prey."
I want to devour them.
Mother seem to let out an exhale, seeing as there's a brief flash of smoke that came out of her nose, and she nodded "be quick."
With a powerful thrust of her wings, she pushed herself downward towards her meat, shooting like a missile as her surroundings blurred around her. Her talons elongated, and she flexed her forelegs as she neared contact.
In one single swoop, she's holding a dolphin that was heavier than her in her arms. She quickly teared off it's head first; she didn't want any of its irritating sounds while eating. Sweet-sour blood flooded her mouth as her sharp teeth sunk in the soft flesh of it's cold body, taking a sizable chunk out of it without grace. Just animalistic abandon.
She wanted to offer the others some, but she was lagging behind and they were at the front. So she just ate. Eating mid-air was hard, but she managed. She left nothing but the tail, letting it carelessly drop down into the ocean for some other sea creatures to eat it. Even it's bones was delicious. She'll be eating more dolphins in the future.
She easily caught up with the older dragons, shaking off her bloody claws. Mother spared her a brief glance but said nothing else.
Finally, after another hour of just flying, they came to a stop at a nondescript island. It looked... completely normal. It looked like it came out of a perfect magazine promoting a vacation. Except she's sensing an abnormal amount of energy radiating off inside the forest.
Mother was the first to land on the ground, tails flicking away some sand irritatedly. Moon was the last, her claws sinking into the warm grains of the shore, squinting against the harsh glare of the sun.
"Can you sense them?" Biggy sidles up beside her, intently sniffing the air.
She stared at the older dragon blankly. Them? Who's them? Is it the energies she's sensing?
She could smell a distinct hue of something acrid and sour in the air. She couldn't put a name on it.
Then, just that moment, an ungodly screech tore through the air, and several huge monsters—white worms bursted from the thick foliage of the coconut trees and mountain apples. They don't have any apparent eyes, nose, or ears, but they have these hideous mouths that are almost fifteen meters in width when they opened them, and lines and lines of sharp teeth could be seen along with a revolting forked tongue dripping with saliva that flicked in the air.
They have an insane amount of energy in their bodies, nearly overflowing.
"Do not let them get ahold of you, once they did, they won't let go," Mother said, voice somber "be careful of their saliva. They're poisonous and acidic. Aim to separate their heads, in that way, they won't have enough time to fully regenerate and you can burned them to ashes," the word 'ashes' was heavy with grim anticipation like Mother has a personal vendetta against this monster worms.
"Several of these worms have already ate and killed a dozen of our nest's hatchlings," Curvy answered Moon's question, baring their teeth in anticipation. "It is necessary to eliminate their pathetic existence. These parasites burrows into the earth and will continue to suck all the magick and nutrients out until either the earth detoriates or collapses. They are ancient monsters, and we are there natural predator,"
Moon blinked. Ah. So that's what the energy is called. Magick. So these worms are not only harmful to dragons, but to their surroundings as well.
They didn't have anymore time to talk—or gave her any instructions, which seems dangerously irresponsible on their part seeing as she's just, y'know, a hatchling, but then again it wasn't as if she didn't have experience in killing monsters, humans or non-humans (she has been the hunter, the prey, and the predator)—as several of the worm-like monsters descended on them without hesitation. They moved fast, bodies slippery as they moved around the ground towards them fluidly.
But they weren't invincible. Seconds only after, while dodging another spitball acid, she spotted one of their weakness. They can't seem to eject these 'poisonous and acidic' saliva spitballs carelessly and immediately, they wait for a few moments to gather more saliva, thus closing their huge mouths and Moon saw her opportunity.
Flattening her wings to her body so she could sink towards them faster, she let her sharp claws emerged from her forelegs, swiftly ripping out a considerable chunk of their flesh(?) near the head and what she presumed as their neck, making some strange green blood spurted out of the grotesque gaping wound that would've had any man with a weak stomach puke.
The worm she clawed at let out a screech that seem to came from the deepest parts of Hell that left her sensitive ears ringing, and she hears Long and Curvy made roars of approval at her. Biggy and Mother was busy fighting off the largest worm in the dozen.
Not wasting a precious second, Moon inhaled deeply, gathering energy within her core as she directed it into her throat, feeling the raw power build up inside her, licking at the roof of her mouth as she opened her jaw wide, spewing merciless inferno upon the worm as exhaling smoke after. As usual, breathing fire leaves the bitter aftertaste of ash in her tongue and the feeling of a comforting chimney sitting on her esophagus.
If she thought the screech it let out was loud earlier, now it seems to have the purpose of popping her eardrums. Imagined pouring salt on an earthworm. Except the salt is fire and the earthworm is hundred times larger. It writhed and wriggled on the ground furiously as Moon's fire ate their flesh, green blood soaking the beautiful sand.
She didn't have time to admire her kill when another worm tried to bit her wing, letting out a croaky hiss when Moon spat another glob of black fire on it's face. The fire spread, but it slowly started to dissipate.
What? How? But then she realized. Their skin. Their skin seem to be unsusceptible to fire, but their green blood isn't. So she needs to make an opening wound first before letting her fire kill them.
She sneak a glance at Mother and Biggy. They have their hands full by taking turns at blasting and skewering the shit out of the largest white worm, and it looks like they're winning fast.
Moon turned her attention back to the white worm, who's already rearing up to attack her again.
In the end, she killed a total of four white worms, which seems to make Mother and the others inordinately proud.