Chapter 44: Viridian Dragon Dido, Chained Beast of Nysa (4)

Silence. 

Darkness.

The comfortable feeling of nothingness.

Familiar feelings... something she couldn't quite place her claw on...

Suddenly, she was torn from the comfortable dark bliss and into the light. 

Opening her eyes, what she witnessed was straight out of a dream. In front of her was a beautiful meadow filled with flowers of all different colors and shapes, peeking out and over the green grass that swayed like waves in the wind. This view stretched for miles, and as far as the eye could see. A breeze blew towards her, bringing the fresh scent of lavender and Asters to her.

"Wha-" 

"Dido~!" She heard a voice coming from behind before she was tackled mercilessly to the ground. "You didn't come find me in hide and seek..." A pouting voice came from above.

Another small dragon. Forest green in color.

Wait... Those eyes... she remembered those eyes...

"Virgil?" She murmured, hoping to be wrong.

"Of course it's me! Did you look for so long that you forgot your own brother's name?" He chuckled, flapping his wings to get off of her.

 "Come on! Mom and dad never let us wander around that much, so let's enjoy this place while we can!" Aeneas disappeared beneath the grass, his small lizard body effortlessly gliding through the meadow like a fish in water. 

Virgil... the flowery meadows that stretched onto infinity...

Something was definitely wrong, but she couldn't remember anything about it. In fact, she couldn't remember anything about her own life, only that she was somehow back to when she was only a hatchling. 

"I'll catch you~!" She yelled and sprinted towards where Virgil was hiding. A giggle came from within the tall grass, and Dido pounced on it. She caught nothing but soft dirt and grass. Frolicking around in the meadows, she finally caught Virgil and pinned him down with her claws.

"Caught you~!" They both laughed as they collapsed into the grass. The sky above them was beautiful, bright blue with not a single cloud in sight. The warm mid-day sun shone down brilliantly, coating them with warm summer rays.

"... where do you think dad went?" Virgil said quietly as he gazed into the sky. 

"..." Dido didn't answer. She didn't remember anyways. 

"Do you think they are safe?" 

More memories came back to her. Memories of mom and dad, big and powerful dragons who had razed more than one city in their youth. They were both hundreds of thousands of years old when they had her and Virgil, and it took another few hundred thousand more to hatch them.

She remembered her dad's slumbering form as he and mom curled up around them to prevent her and Virgil from being cold, how he always had that happy grin whenever they went out hunting for more food for them.

"Yes." She replied. Dad was so big and strong. Nothing could get in his way. 

"Mom hasn't been back in a while..." Virgil said after some time. The midday sun was no longer as warm as before, and Dido felt a slight chill on her back.

Dido didn't respond, as she picked herself up with a flap of her wings. "Let's go home. I'm hungry." 

With a sigh, Virgil got up too. Suddenly, he froze and put his nose in the air. "Wait. I smell mom!" His entire mood lit up. "Dido! Mom is nearby!" Before she could even talk, Virgil ran off north of the meadows. Dido had no choice to but to follow him, not wanting to lose Virgil again.

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Wait. Not wanting to lose him again? Her nose caught wind of what Virgil had smelled prior, and he was right. It was mom's scent.

Except... 

There was the stench of blood and rot mixed with her mother's scent.

"VIRGIL! COME BACK!" She yelled in a panic. All of her memories were coming back to her now. The meadows of Aeneid. This was what it was called.

The resting grounds for the legendary dragon hunter Sigurd's late wife. He was known as the man who single-handedly wiped out more than half of all dragons on the continent, bathing in their blood.

The very one who murdered her parents. The one who ruthlessly killed Virgil in front of her and gifted her mutilated form to the city of Nysa for their princess's hand in marriage.

"BUT MOM IS IN FRONT?!" He screamed back. He was much younger than Dido, which meant his sense of smell had not been developed fully. He didn't know that he was running towards the single deadliest human in the oral history of dragonkind with the severed trinkets of their late mother as decorations.

"VIRGIL ITS A TRAP!" She screamed for him to get back, the desperation present in her voice as he towards the top of a tall hill. Dido unfurled her wings. 

Please please please... she pushed herself to her limit as she shot towards the top of the hill. Please don't be a repeat of her previous life... 

"MOM-" Virgil's voice was cut off almost immediately. 

Her wings brought her up and over the hill and searing the gruesome sight into her mind. In front of her was Sigurd, covered with armor forged of slain dragons skewering her brother with his greatsword. He looked at her and smiled. 

No no no no this can't be happening again. It can't... it can't... 

Dido's mind snapped. 

"I'LL KILL YOUUU!" She roared and dived towards him, her claws at the ready. Dido didn't care anymore. 

Her claws bounced off his armored arms, tearing into his unprotected face, and leaving another small scar on it. Landing on the ground behind him, she opened her mouth and began to release her dragon's breath, when a hand clenched around her throat. 

She felt it tightening as she struggled with all her might. If only she was stronger. If only...

Dido raised her claws once again and struck at Sigurd. A futile effort, but this time, she saw the world rip with her claws. Her world shattered, disappearing into little pieces of light before a great and vast void. 

Cracks of light flooded into her shell, as she brought another claw down, striking against a hard surface. It shattered, and with a great roar, she burst out of her egg, and back into the cruel world that took everything away from her. 

She stared at the humans gathered around like ants to a carcass and felt disgust welling up within her body. They should all die. All of them, for what they did to her family.

...

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Charlotte's group was the first to return back to the site of the slumbering egg to set up camp. The other 3 groups had trouble defeating their own witches since what seemed like hours passed before the second witch fell. Surprisingly, the walk back to the egg was faster than the walk toward the witch's hut.

Their group passed by the location where they had left the others behind, only seeing nothing but ash scattered amongst the green blades of grass. Charlotte could've sworn she saw thin figures hiding behind the thick plant stems nearby, but Magus Cerulean and the rest didn't seem to notice anything.

"Alright, we just rest here while we wait for the others to return." Magus Cerulean said as he pulled out his pouch filled with food and supplies. "Take some if you want."

Charlotte took him up on the offer, returning to her position with a few sticks of dried meat. 

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