Stronghold City Draft

Chapter 19

"Spit that out," commanded Aviary. Lucien continued to happily gobble up the black dune beetles he had found crawling in the sand, accompanied by loud crunching noises as his jaws crushed the insects' chitin exoskeletons. Aviary gave the dog's leash a sharp tug. "I said, spit that out." Lucien gave him a look with his big brown eyes and resumed devouring the beetles with his usual goofy doggish grin on his face. Aviary sighed. He couldn't take Lucien for walks in the city anymore because there were so many chupacabras that every ten yards or so, Lucien would smell one and go ballistic. Several times he had managed to pull his leash out of Aviary's grip and would race after the animals at high speed. The sheer amount of the animals was unbelievable for a creature so large. It was possible that Aviary and his family might even have to move away from Solis if this issue didn't sort itself out. But the Solarian Desert was huge and barren, and two adult dragons didn't have any hope of flying across it with a dog, a young child, and their belongings. Aviary gave Lucien's leash a sharp tug as he noticed the dog pull in the direction of a small brown lizard. The wyvern found it ironic that there were more chupacabras inside the city than outside. He was thankful for that, seeing as they were Lucien's favorite animal to chase, by far. He was constantly worrying that Lucien would get bitten by one. "Let's go home," Aviary said. The dragons of the city had erected an opening into the wall surrounding the city so it was easier for saurians and flightless dragons to get in and out, because clearly the wall wasn't keeping anyone safe anymore. Aviary was thankful for that because if anything, he did not want to fly a struggling dog over the wall two times a day just so he wouldn't have to deal with a puddle of pee on the floor. He walked back to his house, scared away a chupacabra digging through the garbage can outside, and chased away a pair of stray cats in the alleyway between his and his neighbor's house so Lucien would stop barking at them. The stray dogs and cats were arguably just as bad as the chupacabras. Since the chupacabras liked to eat them, the strays had retreated into the center of the town, where all the dragons lived for safety. Some dragons had decided to claim the desperate animals and give them a home, but most of the animals were seen as a nuisance, rooting through trash cans, agitating house pets, digging up yards, and leaving waste behind. Aviary did feel a little bad for the animals, seeing as they were just trying to escape the predators, but there was no space in his home for another dog or a cat. The moment Aviary walked through the door, he was hit with a pungent odor. He found Ariaila spraying a liquid all over the house- the source of the smell. "It's artificial chupacabra scent-marking. It's supposed to keep them away because they think this area is occupied already." Aviary winced. "It smells like piss, but really, really strong." Lucien plunged his nose to the ground and began to search for the nonexistent chupacabra that had asserted its dominance in the house. Aviary noticed that his mate had stuck corks in both her nostrils and was breathing through her mouth. No wonder. The house probably smelled so bad, any chupacabras walking past would faint from how strong the smell was.

That night, Aviary ended up sleeping outside, for obvious reasons. He had flown to the town square to lay in the soft grass. It was awfully cold, and he ended up curling into a ball with his wings around him to trap his body heat. He still could feel himself shivering, and the caged chupacabras were hurling themselves against their bars at him, which created an awful racket. Aviary swore he was having some sort of allergic reaction to the artificial scent-marking, because his eyes were watering and he found himself coughing out smoke. Otherwise, he would have dealt with it and slept in the house. Between the uncomfortable cold and the loud sound of the chupacabras banging themselves against their cages, Aviary was pretty sure he was lucky if he got three hours of sleep that night. The next day, he was dragging his wings along the ground as he sauntered home. Aralia had gotten rid of the spray bottle, but that stuff was clearly meant to last, because the house still smelled like chupacabra pee. He collapsed onto his bed and fell right asleep, ignoring his allergic reactions to the scent.

"Are you sure this burrow is big enough?" asked Shrew. The kekkoriik was peering into a hole in the ground. Out in the desert, temperatures had risen considerably. It was now about 130 degrees fahrenheit, and judging by the fact that the sun wasn't all the way up in the sky, it would rise to 170. Days like this happened every so often in the summertime. Any sensible animals that couldn't take the heat retreated into holes in the ground to escape the sun. Lizard nodded, his white tongue rolling in and out of his mouth. Lizard's black fur wasn't helping with the temperature, seeing as dark colors absorb heat. He squeezed his way into the burrow, followed by Cat and Shrew. The room the hole led to was not very big, and the tunnels that lead to the other rooms would certainly collapse if anyone tried to crawl through them. For a few minutes, the three animals sat in the hole, warm bodies pressed against each other, listening to each other's breath. Cat seemed to get agitated after a while. "Do you smell that?" asked Shrew. "What?" asked Lizard. All of a sudden, a large grey viper slithered out of one of the tunnels. Cat yowled, his back arched, claws unsheathed. There was nowhere to go. The snake's crimson tongue flickered out of its mouth. "Bite it," hissed Shrew. "You have venom. Kill it." Lizard looked at the snake. He didn't know how. He had no experience with killing. Cat and Shrew were both looking at him. The snake was likely to kill them if Lizard didn't do something. He lunged forwards and locked his jaws around the spot where the snake's head met its neck. The young chupacabra bit down until he could taste its blood running down his throat. The snake's body went slack. Lizard did not enjoy eating meat, but his instincts got the best of his and he plunged his muzzle into the snake's corpse and began to feed. Cat had a disgusted look, and Shrew wasn't keen on the smell of the snake's guts filling the burrow either. When Lizard offered to share, both declined. Both Cat and Shrew were used to eating small rodents, not huge vipers more than twice the length of their bodies. The three animals continued to huddle together in the burrow until they heard sniffing noises and pawsteps coming from an area near the entrance to the hole. Shrew crawled up to the entrance of the burrow, and then leaped back down with a squeal as a pair of jaws snapped shut behind him. A furry tan foreleg reached down into the hole. It grabbed Cat by the tail, but the cat yowled in protest and swiped his claws across the foreleg, and it dropped him. A full-grown chupacabra stuck its face down the hole. Shrew noticed that its fur was wet. "Look at its fur. It's dripping with water." Shrew had no idea of knowing that Anarchy had ordered his hunting parties to jump in the underground lake before they went outside so the water would keep them cool as they pulled animals from burrows they were hiding in. After the chupacabra's attempt of pulling one of the animals out of the hole with its jaws failed, it began to dig. "He's gonna dig us out," squeaked Lizard.

As it began to dig, the chupacabra noticed that one of the animals that was huddling in the hole was actually a puppy. Its body smelled like freshly-killed snake, and its fur was black, making it hard to distinguish what type of animal it really was. It had heard stories of black chupacabras existing before, but it had never seen one. Supposedly, they usually died from heatstroke or were killed by manticores and other large predators that spotted them easily. The chupacabra knew one thing: Lord Anarchy liked rare things. And this was a rare thing. The puppy was awfully tiny and scrawny- most definitely a runt, and a scarred, malnourished one at that. Still, Anarchy would probably like it as a trophy. It reached down and grabbed the puppy by the scruff of its neck. The cat and the kekkoriik down in the burrow began to yowl. Forget them. The cat-sized puppy continued to struggle wildly as it was carried. "Where are you taking me?" The chupacabra ignored it. As Lizard noticed the entrance to Stronghold City looming nearer, he gasped in horror. "Please, please, please let me go," he wailed. Stronghold City was a living nightmare. The stalagmites and stalactites looked like the giant teeth of some monster waiting to welcome Lizard into its belly, and the chupacabras scattered throughout the city gave Lizard unfriendly, hostile looks as his captor carried him past them. Deeper he went into the cave, before the chupacabra entered a hall-like room and dropped him in front of a mean-looking chupacabra with scars etched into his snout, a tattered ear, and a prosthetic leg made from bone. Lord Anarchy.