A human in Wings of Fire

4 - the Skywing palace

The trip has been rather uncomfortable, turns out, being transported carelessly by big scaled talons in the air wasn't the best experience you could have.

Who could have guessed ? Ashley thought sarcastically.

Sure, it was the first time he ever got to meet dragons and to fly with them, but as exciting as it might sound, it wasn't so great when you've been taken prisoner either to die in an arena or as a snack.

Ashley was still being carried by the same dragon, they had separated from the group and were heading towards a huge castle-like structure. They were flying high, and Ashley managed to get a glance at the whole picture. It looked as if the stone had been roughly carved at the top of a mountain, blending the structure with it. There were a lot of windows, yet it still seemed like the place could protect you from the angriest storm. He also could make out in the distance what seemed to be an arena and behind it appeared a lot of pillars that seemed connected like a spider web.

Where they hold their prisoners. He figured.

Yes, that was definitely the Skywing palace, and that was also a beautiful sight from there, a dreadful one too when you thought a bit more about it. He noticed the other part of the group, further down and heading towards the pillars. A few red dragons were escorting a blue, black and brown dragon.

"Where are the others ?" Ashley asked himself, just noticing he had spoken his thoughts.

"I don't know and I don't care, you better shut your mouth or I will eat you and say you killed yourself." The dragon unexpectedly answered with a clear annoyance in his tone, without looking at him.

Ashley's eyes widened, but he chose to stay quiet, preferring his own life over an answer that would probably not even help him a bit at the moment.

"Yeah, that's more like it." The dragon mumbled, looking pleased with himself, apparently happy he got to scare a creature nearly one-third of his size.

They dived toward the opposite side of the palace, approaching a big opening in one of the outside walls. It turned out that everything wasn't actually windows, dozens of dragons were going in and out of the palace through oversized gates that sometimes just opened to the sky. Some were carrying things, guards were meeting with each other and replacing their tired comrades, and so on. You could tell this was a busy place from far away, and from Ashley's perspective, it looked a lot like those ' organized messes' you could think about.

They entered a low entrance where the sunlight reached just enough so you could see and were met by a smaller female Skywing guarding a small door compared to the other entrances, of course, it still looked like a mansion's gate to the human.

"Well hello there." the small guard went.

"Hello Victoria." the male replied flatly, "Got a new toy for the queen." He shook Ashley's body, showing him to the dragon, this made his stomach jump.

"Ah, I see you're still stuck in 'bringing scavengers' duty." she sneered, teasing him, then proceeded to open the thick door.

"Could say that." he mumbled, walking inside a long corridor without looking back.

The hallway was empty from dragons, it was long and the only lights came from occasional windows every few meters. The walls were dressed with paintings and halberds were hanging on metallic hooks. While the dragon seemed unimpressed, it was a whole different story for the little human who was watching the decorated walls with incredulous eyes. It looked like a decorated medieval castle but with everything bigger and more impressive.

They finally came through a doorway which gave in a bigger room with a high ceiling where a lot of dragons were moving around. To say the place was buzzing with activity would have been an understatement. There were lots of dragons setting up tables and decorations, some of them were running from one place to another, bringing what was needed for their counterparts, crates were being moved in and out of the room, with their content discharged in defined places. The whole scene was surreal.

It's like if they're prepping some kind of large event. Ashley thought, not guessing how right he was.

"Hey Krasn !" a voice called from the side, as one of the working dragons walked their way, "What you doing here ? Wait- are you limping ? Did you hurt yourself ?"

The dragon sighed, and Ashley's breath was cut off as his body was pressed under the talons of the guard. "No. Just carrying something."

"Oh, some entertainment pieces I see. The queen is really planning to throw everything for her hatching day isn't she ?"

"Oh yeah." Krasn replied. "You have no idea."

Ashley felt panic take over his mind as he struggled to breathe more, trying to wiggle out of the dragon's claws, and understanding that he was very likely to be thrown with other humans. Or scavengers, as they call us. Expected to bring some action for Scarlet's birthday celebration.

The newcomer drove his eyes towards Ashley, "I believe the scavenger you're holding is trying to escape, maybe try to save it for when it is needed, wouldn't want it to die before."

"Yeah right." the dragon said carelessly, and as Ashley was about to shout, the dragon released his talon's pressure, causing the human a heavy cough, nearly choking himself.

They headed towards a less crowded corner of the hall and joined the palace's hallways once again.

It felt like every step was shaking Ashley's insides, and he really started not to feel well. Being carried here and there for hours was starting to get over his stomach, and they weren't even there yet, wherever they were going.

They eventually reached another room, about just a bit bigger than the previous one. This one was filled with long stone tables and benches, lightened by large windows, and with a throne raising from one of the middle table's ends. The dragon transported him towards what looked like a very large wooden box in a corner, large enough to be considered the size of a studio. You could see small barred windows cut into its 'walls'. When they arrived near it, he heard a scream coming from inside.

"Oh shit ! Get up ! A dragon is coming !"

The voice was male and raspy, and you could hear a distinct fear in its tone, right after hearing those words, Ashley heard steps and agitation coming from inside, noticing moving shadows inside. The dragon, still holding Ashley inside of his talon, slid a long plank on the door's face and opened it. Ashley got a moment to take a look at the strange cell, it looked like it was only put on the floor and could be moved, the wood it was made of was slightly bent, and seemed old.

It opened wide, and for an instant, he was able to see multiple persons all grouped on the other side of the small room, glazing towards the entrance, seemingly terrorized.

The man on the front widened his eyes as he saw Ashley, who felt lifted, and then got thrown rather violently inside of the wood cage.

He managed to hit the floor on his feet, but the shock was strong enough to be painful. He immediately lost his balance as he was diving towards the frightened group.

"HOLY SHIT HELP" He screamed in a rather undignified manner.

Not being given even an instant to think, they all tried to dodge the incoming human torpedo. He tried to protect himself with his arms, but was caught by someone's feet, and completely fell forward. He bumped head-first into the wall and heard a cracking noise, then fell to the ground, his vision becoming suddenly very blurry.

He heard shouting but couldn't make out what was said, a figure had jumped in front of him and was waving in front of his eyes. He felt a warm liquid slowly flowing in front of his eyes. He tried to ask for help, but only managed to let out a weak "gahh".

Not the most impressive way to introduce itself. He thought before his vision went dark as he fell into the land of unconsciousness, barely hearing a door closing and an amused laugh coming from outside.

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Well hi, it is me again, this conclude our last chapter

It's a slightly shorter chapter today, but a lot of stuff is currently being planned, and not just for this little story

this shouldn't mess too much with my uploading though, so expect the next chapters to pop out of existence in just a few days, we have a lot of near-death experiences to go through :)