Stronghold City Draft

Chapter 17

Once the dragon had flown back to Solis, he had told everyone he knew about how he was nearly killed by chupacabras, but saved by none other than Ezekiel, who apparently had now befriended a chupacabra. Sometimes, if a dragon was to perch on top of the wall at night, they could see the shape of a large chupacabra with glowing orange eyes- and atop its back, a thin reptilian figure sitting upright. He had become a sort of local legend, and many dragons would sit atop the wall every night hoping to get a glimpse of him- and they still do to this day. Down in Stronghold City, Ezekiel and Bastion told no one about how they had sabotaged the dragon-slaying attempt. After the eight chupacabras had not come back, Anarchy just assumed the dragon had killed them (Technically, he had killed seven of them). And of course, Lizard would never forget the sight of the dragon, and how the brilliant creature had killed the last six chupacabras with his bare paws. "Lizard, just eat the carrion. It's already dead. You're not killing anything," pleaded Shrew. Lizard gave the chunk of red meat a sniff and recoiled. "Please." Lizard reluctantly bit into the meat and chewed. A bit old, but not bad. "You can't live off date-fruits and prickly pears alone. That's not how chupacabras are meant to live," explained Shrew. Cat meowed in agreement. Lizard's nutrition was a thing Shrew brought up a lot. He and Cat worried a lot about the little chupacabra's skeletal build. "Do you think I'll ever see the brown chupacabra again? The one who saved me?" Lizard asked. "Maybe you will and maybe you won't. The desert is big, after all. Who knows where he lives." answered Shrew. Lizard asked another question that had been on his mind lately. "Do you think there are other chupacabras like me out there?" Shrew froze for a moment. "There might be. There's no saying that you'll ever meet them if they do exist. And they probably won't be as much like you as you think. You're different from the other chupacabras in many ways. You have black fur. Your eyes don't glow. Your mouth is white. You live with a kekkoriik and a cat. You don't hunt. You're nice. You have a scratched-up face. You tried to help save a dragon." Shrew was right, Lizard supposed.

Bastion licked his wounds, curled up in his den. The chupacabra had received many scratches from the others while he ran from them. "Are you sure you don't want me to get a healer?" Ezekiel asked. Bastion shook his head. "If you get a healer, they'll examine the scratches. They'll see that they're too small to be a dragon, and they'll probably come to the conclusion that it was a chupacabra. They'll wonder why I have chupacabra claw-marks on my body and could call Anarchy over to question me for possibly being a traitor." Bastion and Ezekiel tried to speak as little as possible about the dragon rescue in Stronghold City. A chupacabra laying down in its den could overhear them and bolt straight to Anarchy, and then both Ezekiel and Bastion would be publicly executed. Both the chupacabra and the saurian had heard the story of the first of Anarchy's executions, and how he had killed an escaped saurian prisoner after she had told the dragons about him and the chupacabras. He showed no mercy to anyone he deemed guilty of murder or treason, and Bastion had committed both. "Will we ever do it again?" asked Bastion. "Hm?" Ezekiel asked. "You-know-what." Ezekiel thought for a second. "If we come across it as it's happening, yes. But it's very risky." Ezekiel knew that if just one of the chupacabras in the hunting party escaped before Bastion or the dragon could kill it, then it would tell Anarchy and he would deem the two undeniably guilty. Or the chupacabras could kill either Ezekiel or Bastion while the rescue operation was in progress. Either way would spell doom.

Aviary noticed the chupacabra standing awkwardly on the windowsill, all four paws resting on the small surface. Aviary yanked the window open and it leaped, but it wasn't able to get away before Aviary caught a hold of the tip of its tail. He picked the animal up. "What do you have to say about yourself now?" he asked. The chupacabra bit him. Thankfully, it didn't break the skin, but it still felt unpleasant. "Arialia, I caught another one of the damn things by the house again." Most of the time, Lucien's barking would scare the chupacabras away and Aviary could see them bolt from the windowsills. This time, Lucien was taking a nap. There were so many chupacabras coming into the city now that they were nearly as common as house lizards. Anarchy must have a really big army, Aviary thought. Aviary walked out the door and began to carry the chupacabra to the makeshift prison. As he made his way to the stack of kennels, he felt a warm liquid flow down his wing membranes. He looked down at the chupacabra he was holding in disgust. It had urinated on him, and judging from the smile on its face, it had purposefully done it. He opened one of the empty cages and practically threw it in there. It began to hiss at him. "Hey, you decided to pee on me." Aviary counted five more chupacabras on the walk home, two digging in the trash for food, one chasing a stray cat, another just standing there, and another one that had climbed onto the roof of someone's house. He knew that the chupacabras often ate housepets and a lot of dragons had said their dog, cat, bird, lizard, or other pet had disappeared. Aviary didn't take Lucien on many walks anymore for this reason. He didn't think Lucien being half-chupacabra would save him, because he had read that chupacabras weren't afraid to cannibalize if the need arose. When Aviary got home, he noticed three chupacabras standing in the yard. One of them was digging up the lawn. "Hey! Out!" yelled Aviary. He threw a rock at them and they began to scamper away. He was a bit fed up with these animals, to be honest. They'd root through the garbage for tasty morsels, dig up the yard, leave droppings outside he frequently stepped in, and sometimes they'd even get in the house and make a huge mess. He hoped someone would stumble across Anarchy and his secret chupacabra kingdom and put a stop to this.

Lord Anarchy was sure that no dragon would ever find Stronghold City. It was not only in the open desert several miles from the dragon city, but the entrance to the cave was inside a burrow. Anarchy was aware that the dragons knew what he looked like and who he was now, so he no longer left the cave. Solaria had millions, maybe billions of chupacabras, but how many of them had a leg made from bone? His citizens brought him freshly-killed prey to eat, and he drank from the cave's puddles. He continued to rule over his kingdom with a powerful grip, despite all this. He was the hidden brain bringing order to the army of chupacabras. He wished for the day when he could finally climb to the surface and feel the soft desert breeze blowing through his fur. Not after all the dragons were gone, and he had finally brought anarchy to the Solarian Desert.