---

It was their birthday, their first as proper pack leaders!

The Dragon Festival has been planned for months now, berries and fruits set aside and fermented until just right, Nephthys had even helped Vasili prepare specifically for this night. It was a day of celebration, a hunt to start off the morning and then they dragged the deer to the beach, where the real fun had begun. This would be the pups first drink too, unless they snuck a bite or two without Nephthys's knowledge, in which case...good for them!

Drinking, feasting, and even more drinking!

The moon was bloody and red, just for them, just for the dragons of the biggest damn island in the world.

Nephthys was well and truly drunk by the time the sun began to set, a picture of love and tenderness that was so rare to see out of the stone hearted woman, Vasili getting rubbed up on in front of everyone that hadn't run for the trees to avoid socialization or their snuggly mother, Creole getting his own snuggling in too and...she probably said something! Not like she'd really remember later!

The sun was just barely above the horizon when the usual noise of the jungle just....stopped.

No monkey chattering, no birds, no.....nothing.

Except.

The trees moved.

Not all of them, but there was something big in the jungle tonight.

Nephthys was in the sand, sprawled on her back in the dying light, her head back to look at the trees with a squint of those bright purples. Vas, did you? Use new berries? Her words were slurred, as she tried to pierce things together.