Dragon Spire (Hiatus)

Chapter 4

Rafaella POV

"Rafee! ... Wake up Rafee!"

I heard a distressed call in the distance.

I grunted in response, not finding the energy to open my eyes or even move.

"Rafaella! It's me, Amaya. Please wake up. I need your help. Please," she ended in a whine.

It was so unlike her to whine like that, and be worried like that. So somehow I did find the strength the open my eyes, but immediately closed them again, not liking what I saw. Her face hovered above mine, covered in blood, bruises and dirt. I heard crying, and not just from her. Everywhere around us there were cries of anguish, despair, lost hope, broken cries rang in my ears. And yet I forced myself up and took a look around.

No, no, this can't be happening! Why me? No, no, no ... yes. I heard myself end. I looked up at Amaya in despair. "Amaya, what is going to happen to us?"

"I don't know, Rafaella, I don't know, but we must not break."

"I know, we should get everyone together to comfort each other and to do a bonding ritual," Rafaella said, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

"Good idea," I said,"but first we need to make sure everyone is awake."

Turns out that most of them were awake, even if they were pretty cut up. Amaya had it pretty bad, and it was obviously weakening to be away from the Spire, because it held the power of all of her elders, and helped her with the sometimes uncontrollable power that queens and kings of an aerie held. She still had not found hers yet, but it would come with the shifting, which by now was only three weeks off.

"Come on, is their anyone in there?" I was snapped out of my daze by Amaya.

"That's my line!" I retorted.

"Oh whatever. Let's just get everyone together," she sighed.

We wasted no time pulling the twenty of us who had been caught into a circle, where we sat and just held hands, linking us and giving us hope. I looked around the circle, "We may all be caught, but that does not mean that we have been broken. we will survive this encounter with humans, even if it means pretending to be something we are not. Let us give each other hope.

That was my version of an inspiring speech, and we whispered around the circle, before deciding to sing. Our words, spoken in our native language, never the language of men, floated up through the floorboards to the men above. Before starting our second song, one of the shifter's across from asked," what if they, the men, I mean, hear us?"

I looked at her, "so what if the men hear us? They cannot do anything about it, and if they don't like it they are going to have to force us to stop. They cannot do that."

And with that we continued to sing.

Conner POV

"Hey John, what is going on down there? I swear I heard singing from the beasts," I said, confused. It sounded like singing, but did not contain a single word that I knew. It was more wild, filled with emotion, sounding beautiful even with the growls, barks and hisses mixed in. The language, if it was more than just an animal language, was fluid and beautiful. I did believe that they were actually intelligent creatures, but the boss said that if we did not break them, we would never be able to ride them, or make them listen to us. And selling dragons that could be ridden was a business.

"I thought so too, kid. I am surprised that they can even sound like that. All I have ever heard from them was feral hisses. This is similar, but different. More controlled. If only I could have one them women for myself, boy they are beauties," he responded, ending with a low chuckle.