Prologue

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    The laughter of the children caused him great pain.  Their shrieks of joy were incomprehensible to him, but the pointing of their fingers and the huge-eyed stares they would give him were understood well enough.  Those who once feared him, ran from him, fed him... now they made a mockery of him.

    They would come to regret that.

    He shifted imperceptibly within the narrow confines of his silver cage, concealing the heavy chains that were tied around him underneath his body as yet another link broke free from beneath him.  He was bloody, beaten, and heavily underfed, yet it only served to motivate him further to break free and as a man passed obliviously by with a large amount of meat in his hands, still on the bone, a surge of rage flowed through him like a wave and with it, a puff of smoke released from between his lips despite how tightly muzzled he was.  The sight of it brought cheers from the crowd of little people that continued to gawk at him but he paid them no heed except to let it add to his fury; to fuel it.  Like a fire that had found a great forest to consume with deadly hunger, so too would these humans soon be for him.  Naught but wood for the flames.

    Patience.  He clenched his mighty jaw, fighting subtly against the chains that muzzled it closed, and felt with satisfaction as they began to loosen with his effort.  Soon enough they would realize that caging and humiliating the great Wyvern of the Wildlands would be their last mistake.

    Soon enough indeed.

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