[DoA Inktober 2023] Written submissions: [DoA Inktober 2023] Movie

TW: Implied POV character death - POV minor human character

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It was a moonless night, the waves choppy and foaming and inky black as the night sky above. He had descended from his ship about half an hour ago, the small submersible he was in equipped with more than enough oxygen and battery to last him this trip down to the depths. They had found a hell of a lot of dragon nests in these depths- those eggs sell for millions upon millions when one can find the correct buyer. A risk worth taking, he thought, as a serpentine figure flashed at the edges of the column of light provided by the submersible’s headlights. He paid no attention to it because it was probably one of the hatchling dragons- they can’t do anything to him anyway, and only serve as a signal that he’s close to the nesting grounds.

As his headlights illuminated the round, dark shape of an egg- one rather close to hatching too, he thought- out of the corner of his eye he saw a red light. It seemed to be blinking slowly on and off. Probably one of those snake-dragons testing its lights for the first time. He brushed it off, but some part of his mind lingered on that red light as he approached his egg target. It was partially buried in silt and bones, and as he worked to dig it out, that red light blinked again, closer this time. Usually hatchlings wouldn’t get as close to the craft as this one did, judging by the size of the light. Some irrational part of him is telling him to turn around, and in a moment of panic, he temporarily stopped digging and turned around.

The light blinked and stayed on. Then more and more lights lit up along the dragon’s body, illuminating bone white scales and inky black stripes and blood-crimson membranes and a tail that had already wrapped around the submersible.

On the surface, the crew members of the ship looked up to see a sky even darker than before, and the rumble of the storm clouds above sounded an awful lot like ‘karma’.