Wof: Under a Scarlet Banner

Chapter 12

Authors note: I made a minor edit to the last section of the last chapter. If you have not seen it, I suggest you go back. I thank those of you who gave me their suggestions in the previous chapter and I am proud of how this one turned out.
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The Skywing flew down to the arena and walked through the doors where the prisoners that weren't on the pillars were sometimes dragged through. The sound of different creatures baaing, barking, clawing, and mooing echoed through the hall. I guess they keep prey and maybe predators here for either the feast or the arena. The guard came to a cell where several scavengers were contained. He unlocked the door and tossed me in with a grin on his face, "Scarlet wanted me to escort you to your new quarters, have fun playing with your own kind."

He then walked off, now accompanied with an annoying laugh.

I put my hands on my head and breathed heavily. Then, kicked the air and cursed under my breath.

"No no no NO! This can't be happening."

While I was panicking internally, one of the scavengers came up to me with a cut of meat. She was a young woman with hair into a bunch of braids, with the tips dyed in a dark red. "Here, you'll need this."

I took the meat, tore a piece out and bit it, "Thanks."

I wiped my hand and stretched it to shake hers, "I'm Hunter."

The woman took my hand and gave it a good shake, "I'm Cranberry."

There was a few other people all sitting miserably like it was their last day on earth, "These are: Rowan," she pointed to another young woman with dark, brown eyes, "that jolly fellow is Cardinal," she pointed to a large man with a beard that looked very "not jolly", "and Arbutus," she pointed to a thin man sleeping on the floor.

Rowan spoke first, "Hunter...you wouldn't happen to be a dragon hunter right?"

I chuckled, "No, I'm a..." I paused to think what the medieval equivalent of my job would be, "I was a blacksmith, actually."

Cardinal scoffed, "Well, what are you doing here for, shouldn't you be back home at the forge instead of here in this cell?"

"A patrol found me in the woods."

"Alone? I don't see any companions of yours here."

"Yeah."

"Well, doing something like that, it's only natural that you got caught."

"Gee thanks, is there an easy way out of this cell, or a not so easy way? I'll take either."

"The arena or the kitchen are the only places you can go now."

"Well that's just-," I stopped myself, he was right. I obviously didn't want to end up in the kitchen, but the arena, on the other hand, is the only place where I could see the dragonets again, and tomorrow was the perfect opportunity with it being Scarlet's hatchday and all. I'm guessing these are the scavengers that fight Tsunami and Starflight, and that means I'll be sent into the arena as well. Scarlet's feast was tonight so any scavengers that would be...eaten, would already have been sent into the kitchen already.

"So where are you from, Hunter?"

"Hmm? Oh...I guess nowhere around here I suppose."

"How could you be a blacksmith with no home?"

"It's complicated. What about you, why are you here?"

"A friend of ours-,"

Rowan scoffed as Cranberry mentioned her friend.