"But...But Heatherwilt, I don't understand," Parakata's voice cracked, "I don't get it. Why--Why are you saying that?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Heatherwilt snapped, "You're taking my place! I'm Mom and Dad's firstborn, and you just want in the way!!"
"N-No, I...Heatherwilt,"
"You killed my siblings!"
"Heatherwilt!" Parakata strained into a squeak, backing his thicker legs up. Behind him were the twisting thorns of foxfire bramble, the border between the plague and shadow lands, the border Parakata had fled through in sheer terror as a mere hatchling. Still a child, the bramble terrified him with the memory - though such traumas were forgotten as Heatherwilt's words twisted Parakata's heart in despair and confusion.
He's a liar. A whisper snaked into Parakata's mind, almost like a thought, a thought that twitched his ears. He's a plague dragon. Treacherous. Fighting to survive and prove him the fittest. But you're nature, fitter than him, stronger, so he's taking you down.
"No...," Parakata muttered as Heatherwilt urged Dane forward to corner him against the bramble.
He'll do it with words. He'll do it with dirty tricks. He's a nasty plague dragon and he'll eat you alive - bring you back to his parents to feast on you as well.
Parakata's nose curled with disgust - first at the words, then at their blatant lies. Those were almost word-for-word the campfire ghost stories other nature hatchlings would parrot to each other of the scary, horrifying, dying plague lands. Those were words he trembled in fear over those first nights under Teo and Eileen's wings. Words he found to be purposefully fake, words he could no longer believe. Then Parakata opened his mouth to smell better, a move that Heatherwilt interpreted as baring fangs and he paused Dane in its tracks. Raising his weak wings, Heatherwilt challenged Parakata in a sharp tone brimming with hatred.
But Parakata smelled it. Alkaline swampwater, thick blackened sludge, glowing spores, heavy fog. Terrors of a night many moons removed from now - a pursuit that was only stopped by Teo's finding of him.
"Come out!" Parakata commanded to the best of his ability, "Come out, you liar!"
There was a pause. Then the whisper laughed. The laughter grew. Heatherwilt became bewildered, looking all around for this whisper growing from the void. Then the goat-like eyes of the dragon Parakata considered his little brother grew wide and looked to him for an answer.
"You...you can hear that, right?" Heatherwilt shuddered, "My whisper...,"
Parakata closed his mouth. The bramble shifted behind him and he leaped to guard the much smaller Heatherwilt. From the dark bramble horrible silver slunk out of the shadows. Laughter twisted through the thorns until cruel sails and large horns twisted backwards into the air. Parakata drew as much air into his childish chest as he could, puffing it out before barking several weak roars to try and intimidate where he knew it was impossible.
"Your whisper?" the silver dragon mocked, "I am no one's whisper but the thoughts inside your head!"
"You tricked him!" Parakata accused, "And you tried to trick me!!"
"Oh, guilty," shadow gleamed in the dragon's eyes, "I do love to play with food, after all. You were quite fun to chase all those moons ago."
Parakata's heart dropped in terror, but he steeled his stubby paws into the ground. He had a brother to protect, and up until now he had not been able to.