Tempest Unleashed

Chapter 22: Harnesses

When I woke up the next morning, I was in a stone cell with thick metal bars embedded into the floor and ceiling every foot with a single small slot in the middle at the bottom just big enough for a dead rabbit or a piece of some other prey to fit through. I could only fit my arm through to the wrist through the slot, but I could fit my arm through to the shoulder between the bars. I looked up, hoping to see sunlight, but I was met with stone. I looked back down, stamped my talons, and growled. Someone laughed at this reaction, and it sounded very familiar. I turned to my right to find that there were only metal bars between the cells, but that wasn't what delighted me. What delighted me was who was in the next cell. "Winter, it's you! What are you doing here?" I ran over to the bars, leaned my head against them, and gripped Winter's talons, and Winter leaned his head against mine, grasped my talons back, and replied, "Our whole winglet got kidnapped and brought here, and the queen said that our whole winglet together was her chance at ruling Pyrrhia. What did you do?" I replied, "Oh, nothing, just made a few jokes, humiliated someone, the usual." Winter laughed again, and asked, "How did I get so lucky that I met a dragon like you and ended up in love with her in a single day?" Suddenly, Queen Falcon banged on the bars of both of our cages and slid a harness through the slot of each. I scowled at it, picked it up, studied it for a moment, then glanced at Queen Falcon for an explanation. She explained, "A gift for today's work. You're going to want it." Winter and I slid them over our heads cautiously, and she unlocked the cages and beckoned for us to follow her. We reluctantly followed, and we soon regretted it. When we arrived at the place where she was leading us, we saw that it was a grain mill. Qibli, Moon, Kinkajou, Turtle, and Umber were wearing their harnesses and pushing at the thick pieces of wood that powered a grinder that would grind the grains into small pieces to put in bread. There were guards that were whipping them to make sure that they were pushing as hard as they could. All of them except for the guards had scratches and whip marks everywhere. Poor little three-year-old RainWing dragonet Kinkajou stumbled and fell into the grain, and a large SkyWing whipped her hard on the wings, and she cried out in pain. Before I could stop myself, I leaped down there, ripped the whip out of the large SkyWing's talons in fury, and spread my wings to protect them all. I hissed at the guards, and told them all, "Put down your weapons! NOW." Knowing how dangerous I was, they complied, and I continued, "Back off." They complied to that, too. When I thought they were far back enough, I collected their weapons and put them in a heap on the floor. When they were in a satisfactory pile, I set them aflame and watched them burn to ashes. When the fire burnt out, I stomped on the ashes and ground the ashes underneath my talons. I yelled at all of the guards, "Is this really what you're reduced to? Torturing a poor little three-year-old dragonet and whipping her, too? A RainWing dragonet, no less? She has nothing to defend herself with, and she's put to very hard work where older dragons whip her and no one stands up for her." Pretty much everyone in the room except Queen Falcon, who looked amused, was looking guilty now. I had stood up for Kinkajou, and they hadn't. Everyone that was wearing a harness ripped it off, including me and Winter. There was a moment of silence, then Queen Falcon started to applaud us. "Bravo, you've earned all of you extra work!" She called. There was a beat of silence, and then Winter leaped down next to me, turned to face Queen Falcon, and said to me, "We will always side with you." Turtle and Umber stood next to Winter on my left, and Moon, Kinkajou, and Qibli lined up on my right. I smiled at all of them, then glared at Queen Falcon again, and retorted, "No. No, we want to go back to Jade Mountain, we don't want to be put to work anywhere or tortured, we just want to go back." She looked shocked at this reaction. I didn't think that she had ever been told 'no' in her entire life. Instead, she had probably told others 'no' for her entire life. Winter and Moon stepped forward, and agreed, "No." Kinkajou and Turtle stepped forward, and retorted, "No." Finally, Qibli and Umber stepped forward, and said, "No." Then, as one, the entire Jade Winglet yelled at Queen Falcon, "NO, NO, NO, NO!" The queen yelped her discomfort and fled the room. Free, I thought, finally free. We're free dragons at last. Finally free.