Dragons have long been told about in ancient tales and stories as brutal beasts. But the stories were never told from a dragons view.
Blueberry is a wild young dragon who becomes captured by a group of humans and taken to the worst place imaginab...
"I've seen the arena from my nightmares, now everything is possible." I said. He gave me a confused look. "I believe you." I explained. "So you can throw spikes from your tail?" A little voice said. It was William, and I had no idea of how long he'd been here or how much he had heard of our conversation, but I was glad he had returned safely. "Sorry, continue." He said. The skinny grey dragon did as told; "Yes. I enter a state where I am not in control of my own body. My vision becomes blurry, and sometimes I can't see anything at all. When I snap out of it I can't remember what has happened. I can only see the aftermath of what I've done." He turned his eyes to his tail; "These spikes are deadly venomous. The dragon I had faced fell down, dead as the sand of the arena." Both me and William were listening like little kids to a fairy tale. "What happened next?" William asked with enthusiasm. The dragon laid down and continued his story. "I was shocked, but most of all scared. Scared of what I'd done and who I'd become. It became worse for every battle. I tried to convince them to stop, that there was a better way, but... The dragons out there, they aren't people anymore. They didn't listen, and of course I didn't want them to die! I didn't want to be the brutal murderer I was."
"Was?" William asked.
"I don't fight anymore, or not for now at least. Since my battles are short and cost them many opponents lives they seem to have put me on hold. Maybe to be used for special occasions, I don't really know."
"Well, at least you are alive."
The wyvern gave William a distasteful look; "Don't you see? My curse attracts more humans to this god forsaken place, demanding more dragons to be captured and brought into the system. I am a special event to bring more attention to the arena, and because of this I feel ashamed. If I had died back then, countless lives would have been saved." There was silence. Neither me nor William knew what to say. Of course it wasn't his fault, he didn't ask to be put in this situation. But in a sense he was right as well. He continued; "The humans actually released me into the wild once, but quickly changed their minds. I was tracked, captured and dragged back here. That was one of the worst days of my life."
"But if you don't fight, why are they keeping you here?" I asked curiously. "We are about to find out now." He answered and stood up, walked to the edge of the cage and eagerly scanned the hallway. He was looking for someone, but who?
Without facing me he asked; "By the way, what's your name?"
"Blueberry, yours?" I said.
He chuckled; "Blueberry. That's an odd name. I believe my human name translates to Demon, but you can call me Dusty." It was a fitting name for a light grey dragon like him. He had markings in different tones of grey all over his body, and I wondered if they were once black and white. I could imagine the shining white scales and the pitch black areas that now were as his name implied, dusty. The markings reminded me of a bear-like creature called pandas I once saw in a scroll when I was younger. Beautiful creatures. But my speculations were cut short as I realized that those were only wounds, the darker ones that I thought had been markings were in reality dried blood. My thoughts were interrupted by small footsteps, and after a while an unusually small red dragon came running in the hallway. He had no claws and wore jewellery around his neck and horns. "News?" Dusty asked the dragon. "The blue one didn't survive the lions, but managed to get one killed at least. We still have that red one and the little green left, but the other huge green got killed off by some newcomer apparently." The red dragon spat out words faster than I'd ever heard someone talk before. "It's unfortunate what happened to the blue one... But now, to the real thing, do you know why I am here?" Dusty asked the little dragon.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I'm afraid it is as we both suspected. I cannot confirm with certainty, my skills with the human tongue are still intermediate at best... but yes, you have been brought back as a trophy of sorts, a mascot or special event." Dusty became frustrated upon hearing this, and his face covered with a saddened grin; "Flames,... I must get out of here." His tone was determined. "Easy there tiger, most dragons don't even get to see the outside world, let alone touch it. You should be happy you got your time outside, short as it was. You should have seen the turmoil you caused amongst the humans, I've never seen them so fired up about a single dragon's fate before. Anyway, you'll never lose a battle and you know it." Flames said. "Doesn't matter..." Dusty answered coldly. As the heated conversation unfolded, me and William made sure to retreat to the back of my cage so as to not disturb them.
"Listen Dust, I'm really sorry but there is nothing I can do. It has been settled. There was a great debate but in the end they decided to bring you back in. I wish I was a human, so I could buy you out, but I'm not." Flames said half heartedly. An awkward silence passed. "And one more thing, I won't be seeing you as often anymore. In fact I... I'm not sure I will be coming here again...in a while." It wasn't easy for Flames to deliver this news, and one could tell from the shame in his eyes. The words hit Dusty like knives and he was repulsed. "What exactly... Do you mean? Dusty managed to spit out. Flames didn't answer, but instead shamefully looked down at the ground. Dusty went on. "So it is true. After all these years, you finally did it." Dusty said in disappointment. Flames looked up into Dusty's eyes, seeking mercy but finding none. "Yes... I suppose. A human family has adopted me. A wealthy one. I am what you'd call a royal now." Flames explained, but Dusty didn't care for any of it, and took a hold of the cage's metallic edge. He pushed himself against it and said: "I am very, very disappointed in you. All your talk about escaping, all those nights planning and dreaming our way out of here! But it was only words. When the time came, where were you? Where were you when I waited at the sleepy meadows for an entire night! And when they finally came for me..."
Flames backed off. Dusty continued; "I thought I could forgive you...But now you do this..." Dusty sank down against the cage as Flames walked away in shame. But before he left, he made sure to turn around and look Dusty in the eyes and utter; "I'm sorry,... brother." Then he disappeared.
---------------------------------------------- Dusty is officially back in the story again! (For anyone confused, he's the dragon from the beginning/prologue) Question: If you were a dragon in this universe, would you be a Wyvern or a "classic"/European dragon? ----------------------------------------------
