30 Recurring and Subsiding Nightmare

Nera walked alongside the river, picking up herbs and berries into different baskets as she went along. There were a lot of dead plants where she walked, but some bore fruit. She picked up an apple that looked to be edible from a half-dying tree. She felt around it, and it seemed good enough to eat, so she put it in the berry basket. Much of the forest where she resided in was gray, but there were few exceptions near the riverside. She held the red dragon scale sword in a sheath just in case of a monster attack.

As Nera took her stroll, carrying small baskets of herbs and berries, she looked down at the riverside and stumbled upon a small child by the river. She gasped, dropped the baskets, and ran over to child. She noticed the scales, wings, and tail, and knew that the little girl was a dragon.

Nera carried her out of the riverside and onto dry land. Nera saw that her wing had a tear and her leg had an arrow through it. There were many bruises and scratches on the small girl's body. Nera checked for a pulse, and there was one albeit weak. She leaned in to hear for breathing, and it was faint. She carried the small girl, as well as the baskets of herbs and food, and hurried towards the village.

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Nia stared across a field of dead dragons upon dragons. The ground was flooded with blood up to her ankles. Her face twisted in fear. She was stuck in human form with her wings and tail retracted.

"Hello!? Is there anybody still here!?" she screamed and as the voice echoed throughout the empty red fields, the blood underneath the dead dragons materialized.

The blood transformed into knights and dragonslayers holding crossbows and swords. Nia turned around. She ran and ran and ran, but as she turned around, the knights still looked as if they hadn't moved at all. She ran faster and faster, but to no avail. Eventually, she tripped and fell to the bloodied floor. As she got herself up, her entire body was covered in blood. She looked at her hands and noticed her scales peeling off one-by-one only to reveal bone underneath. She got herself up and kept running without looking back. She knew that they were still chasing her.

Soon, she reached a wall made up of dragon skeletons with no way around. She looked up to the blood-shot sky, however, there was no sky. Instead, the sky was made up of burned human and dragon carcasses alike. She tried to climb up the dragon bone wall, but each time she climbed up, the wall sank further down, while new bones piled on. She climbed faster and faster, but no progress was made. As she hurried, she lost her footing and fell down the wall. Luckily, the fall was only a couple of feet down as she landed on her behind. She stared up at the carcasses as their hands reached downwards towards her. She sat up with no emotions and turned around.

This time, there were no groups of dragonslayers in wait, but rather a giant winged demon.

The demon was coated in red and black metals with a hundred yellow eyes on it's face. It had the wings of a black dragon and the tail of one, too. It held a green longsword and pointed it towards Nia. It's eyes aimed at the little dragon.

She crawled back to the dragon bone wall in fear. The great demon approached with fiercely and growled without showing any signs of teeth.

Her body trembled in fear of the enormous monster. With her back against the wall, she saw no escape. No escape from the inevitable.

In that moment, a gentle white butterfly flew out of the blood and in front of Nia. She took her hand towards the butterfly and as she did so, a calm aura filled the air. The monster melted and dripped below to the bloody floor. The whole area began erasing itself into white as her mind drifted off and her eyes closed. The air became warm as Nia drifted peacefully to sleep.