Wings of fire Book one: Befriending a monster.

Memories

Was it always this hard to breathe?  Was his prison always this dark and empty?  When was the last time he could feel the ground beneath his talons?  There was silence in his mind and around his cell, the few thoughts he had quickly disappearing into the pain and constant feeling of metal digging into his scales.  He opened his eye.  The first thing he saw was the door to his prison, covered in dried red blood, it hurt to think about the dragon who's blood was on the door.  It hurt to do anything, to move, to blink, to breathe, and to think. 

Some of it was fading though, some of the pain coming from his last 'correction' as Scarlet liked to call them.  They usually didn't last too long, nothing he couldn't take at this point.  He tried to move his jaw but it was sore from the metal muzzle keeping it closed.  He got up, his chains weighing him down as he walked to the other side of his cell to check for water, of course there was none, Scarlet liked it better when he was starving and dehydrated.  It made him desperate to do whatever she wanted.  He laid back down, maybe he could sleep until the next killing.

There was screaming.  Not a surprise, Scarlet was probably using Peril to burn someone.  He went back to sleep, there was less pain when he did.

"Hello, Mistral?"

A voice.  Was it her?  Was she alive?  He got up, looking through the cell's iron bars with a sudden jolt of happiness.  No, the voice was a sand-wing, it wasn't her.  She was dead, she would always be dead, why did he think otherwise?  A sea-wing was following the other dragon, looking in every cell as they walked.  

"He should be in here, Mistral we aren't going to hurt you."  The sand-wing called out.

"Maybe it's better if we don't find him."

"Come on Tsunami, we have to try at least."

He backed up, what were they planning to do with him?  Did they want to kill him?  Hurt him?  Bring him into the arena to kill again?  The dragons got to his cage, looking inside. 

"You're okay!  Well, at least somewhat."  The sand dragon said.

"Sandstorm, he looks like more trouble than he's worth, we should forget him and meet up with everyone else."

"Go ahead then."

The sea-wing sat down, seemingly frustrated.  The other dragon was unlocking the door, it was too late to hide, she was going to kill him and he needed to defend himself before she got a chance to.  The sea dragon lit her bioluminescent scales, becoming a small source of light in the  sea of darkness. 

"We're going to get you out of here, don' panic."

She had said that twice, it was the last thing she had said to him, his guardian not this dragon.  The dragon opened the door, stepping towards him.

"I'm Starstorm, remember me from the battle?  Never mind.  To get you out I have to get your chains off and I can only do that if you are calm.  Take a deep breath."

He held his talons up to his face and dug the point of each claw into his scales, all he could think about was the last dragon who was kind to him.  It hurt to think of her, maybe more pain would help distract him from her voice.  His talons were suddenly pulled away, the dragon was holding his wrists and giving him a worried look.

"I don' know what you're thinking about right now but harming yourself never helps, trust me."

He let out a hiss and backed up against the wall, pulling his talons away from her grip. 

"I can help you, let me take off your muzzle at least, I swear on the moons that I won't hurt you."

He watched her, unsure.  She let out a sigh and quickly reached towards his head, pulling off his muzzle and letting it drop to the floor with one movement.  She might be telling the truth.  He slowly walked forwards, ducking his head down so she could take the metal band off.  As the metal fell to the ground it got easier to breathe.

"There, isn't that better?"

She continued to take the metal off of his scales, every time a piece fell to the stone floor his pain faded a bit, however, he couldn't help but flinch whenever she touched him.  It was strange to feel the scales of someone who didn't want to hurt him.  The sand-wing stepped back, the last band of metal had fallen to the ground and the overwhelming pain that kept him in fear was nearly gone.

"Mistral.  Tsunami and I are leaving this place, you can come if you want to, although you don't have many other options."  She gestured to the tunnel.  "You can take a moment to decide, we'll be outside."

He walked to the open door, pressing his talons against it.  She would want him to be happy and safe, even if he had to say goodbye.  As he turned towards the tunnel and started to follow the others, he thought to himself.  Goodbye Petral.  You always wanted me to enjoy life, I'll miss you.