What Will it Take? Chapter 2

I awakened. What had happened, and why was I here? A bigger question, who, was I? I peered out through the metal bars. Wow. This was a really dark place, most likely underground. A dragon next to me looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. She looked at me inquisitively, wondering why I was here. “Storm? How are you here? I thought you were practically invincible! I’m kidding, but still. I’m not mad, just... scared.” Her expression went from inquisitive to forlorn. I looked back, wondering if I was Storm. Then I remembered. A friend. My, friend. My, best friend. “Splash?” The name burst from me. “The one and only!” I looked at her and barely recognized her. She was thinner, her scales bleak, blood dripping from wounds,and looked different. I felt something inside me, that had been there always but was now alive. The rage I felt as I stared at Splash, so mad at the humans who had done this.

Why were we here? I looked to the side, my eyes seeing metal bars as far as I could see. There were hundreds of us. Just sitting there. A few rows down, there were a few hatchings. Laying there, limp. Did the cruelty ever cease? I heard a deep voice, and Splash nodded in the direction of the sound. “Which fleabag do we take today? He banged on my cage, and I winced. No. My vision wasn’t working right. Was that? Hiccup? It couldn’t be. “This one will perform well in the ring!” He said with a growl. I winced at the harsh tone. Where was this, ring, they were speaking of? I shifted nervously, but looked confident, attempting to look the part, but wasn’t feeling the part. The humans walked away, and I was faced with the dimly lit cages. Splash called, “The arenas? I will miss you terribly! I’m kidding, but be safe. It’s really dangerous there. I can’t watch you die! I wont. There is no possible way I will not try to help you.” She made a funny face that looked kind of like a grin mixed with a oh-no-you-might-die look. It looked really silly, but didn’t lighten the mood. “I’m going to try to escape. Or help you escape. All I know is I’m not letting you sit here and die.”

The humans were back. Somewhere in my chat with Splash, the humans had left and grabbed some metal chains, wing clamps, and a spiked collar. Regular metal. Heh. Blasting out of this would be easy. I backed up slowly. The humans walked into my cell, and advanced. I growled and bared my teeth. The dragons in the cells around me paced and growled loudly. Wow. I guessed this was their way of telling the humans they wouldn’t let this happen anymore. They were playing with fire, and I needed for them to back down. “Splash,” I flashed nervously in Aquatic. “Could to tell the dragons to stop growling?” I begged. She didn’t see me flash my scales. But another Seawing saw it, and told all the dragons to quiet. I let them chain me, knowing I was going to somewhere important. The wing clamps had a small loop, and the humans melted a string of chain links on the hole. “Walk it out, now!” A human shouted. A door opened, and the room was pitch black, other than the eyes of the watchful humans, cheering for something.

Then I saw it. Two glowing eyes, gleaming maliciously through the darkness. I instinctively opened my mouth and charged plasma. It wasn’t real plasma. Just my plasma, and it was usually rainbow colored. It was regular color because just as I could manipulate my scale color, I could do that to my plasma. If I walked around with rainbow plasma and color changing scales, the humans would kill me. Pain shot through my body as the dragon ripped off half my tail. It knew. It knew my tail was my weakness, as I couldn’t fly if I only had half of it. I roared loudly and rolled. I then proceeded to shoot plasma at the dragon. In reply, she sliced my leg. One plasma blast hit her directly in the muzzle, the other good shot hit her in the wing. The dragon collapsed in a pile, heaving, and out of breath. It whispered, “Kill me. You won.” I jumped away, startled by this statement.

“Go ahead. Kill me. I won’t stop you.” She looked pained as if it was hurting her to not be killed. “I can’t, I don’t believe in this. I... can’t.” I looked down, embarrassed. “Listen here, young dragonclaw. If you win enough , you will be sent off to a battle camp, where you can train with others of your kind, and battle performance.” Her eyes were soft and kind now. “Kill me, to free yourself, as your salvation will come.” I nodded, and killed her, making sure with painstaking effort, making her death quick and painless. “Thank you, for helping me.” I whispered, just before fainting.