Tears of a dragon

32. THE ESCAPE

-Blueberry's POV-

The collision of our fiery breaths shook our surroundings, and the shockwave that followed sent us both flying backwards. I was thrusted into the fence, and fell down onto the sand. The fire, blue and red, vanished quickly, and the arena would soon feel the effects of the explosion. "Blue, get up! Blueberry!" William shouted. I rose up onto my feet again, dashing quickly towards the Arena's center as massive pieces of rock crumbled from the walls. Many of the stone cages had begun caving in on themselves, bringing the numerous rows of seats that had rested above down with them. Screams echoed from humans and dragons alike as they were buried amongst the stone rubble. It was a horrific sight. I searched in desperation after the gate to SkyFall and Dusty, dreading that it might have already collapsed. The entire arena was breaking apart, and the once captured dragons had already begun to flee this god forsaken place. Heavy chains fell from their anchor points high above, dashing and cutting into the sand below. I was lucky not to get hit, others were not as fortunate. "SkyFall! Dusty!" I yelled as I rushed against the stream of fleeing dragons. It was absolute chaos, with some dragons colliding in the air and others getting crushed by the massive pieces of rock tumbling down. I could hear my name being called but it was impossible to navigate through the dust and crowd. Hundreds of dragons rushed to their freedom, leading to a dozen or so ramming into my sides as I walked against the stream. Finally, I spotted two silhouettes that resembled my friends in both size and shape, and I hurried towards them. I voiced their names upon meeting them, but my excitement quickly dwindled. What I saw made me realize that we had a major problem. Dusty was severely wounded, especially his wings. It was a tragic sight. What remained of them was for the most part the muscles on his bones and shreds of skin to hold them together. It was evident that he would not be able to fly, yet we couldn't leave him here.

"You have to fly without me!" Dusty proclaimed. "I'm not leaving you here!" I protested.

"They're already shooting nets into the crowd! It's now or never, leave!"

I was silenced, I didn't know what to say.

"Shut up, both of you, we're not leaving anyone!" SkyFall interrupted. She took to action, leaped up into the air and took hold of Dusty's wounded wings with her front hands. She then used her back limbs to hold onto his tail. "A little help maybe?" She asked as she lifted Dusty up into the air. I informed William to hold on tightly, then placed myself underneath Dusty so that the weight was evenly distributed. Through the dust, sand, and swarm of dragons we saw hope. It felt as if nothing on this earth could stop us from leaving this place now. The adrenaline was kicking in, and I could feel my heart beating manically.

It's finally happening.

We had just taken off, but I could already feel the extra weight holding me down. It wasn't going to be easy flying like this. As we took off I noticed how some of the dragons fell towards the ground, as if something had hit them. I focused my attention on the crowd and soon saw how giant, weighted nets were slung and deployed right into the most dense cluster of dragons. Wings were tangled, and they fell to their fate. None in our group was able to help. I could see, behind the swarm, that on a remaining piece of wall stood a group of humans and tinkered with something unfamiliar to me. A wooden-metal structure. It was clear to me that the humans had activated some sort of emergency contraption to stop our escape. When I looked closer I could see that it was some kind of catapult that shot nets into the air. As the nets were launched, they unfolded and became large enough to bring one or two dragons down. I could see dragons getting hit left and right, and as their wings were trapped in the net they fell far down to the ground. Those who were lucky got hit near the ground and landed without much damage. But those who had taken off early crashed with such force that bones were broken, and it was clear that these dragons did not survive. The sheer panic in the air as everyone fled was indescribable. As we flew we could see dragons fall down beside us, roaring all the way down until they hit the ground where they were silenced. I forced myself to keep my eyes forward. That was until the dragon flying in front of us was pierced by a spear, and he too fell down. My heart stopped for a moment. It was a silent fall, for he could not roar like those who still had their lungs intact. Fear struck me as I realized just how large of a target our trio was. There were not many left now compared to how many had attempted an escape, yet the humans could not accept defeat and ruthlessly carried on their persecution. And by each moment, the sky around us became more and more empty.