Finding Myself

Chapter 11

A dragon, enslaved, was not a pleasant experience, in fact, disregarding the dragon part, enslavement by a evil, old witch was the worst thing ever. That old hag had enslaved me using that cruel ritual she performed on me roughly fifty years ago. The enslavement mark was tattooed on my celeste chest. She knew from my description that I was a dragon, and used the ritual to force me to transform into my natural form while enslaving me. It only works on animals she says. And so I became the animals she wanted, her's to experiment on.

The experiments were a great part of torturing pains. She would routinely test her potions on my scales, sometimes plucking them off for usage. Not just my scales, my tears, my blood and much more. If I resisted her, she would exact punishment on my soul through the enslavement mark. Each experiment were painful and the loss of a scale was like having your entire nail ripped out of you fingernails. Conclusion: excruciating pain. She also like experimenting with different types of metals imbued with spells and potions, I bet she is writing on a book on How to Torture a Dragon.

Some of the good days when she was feeling a bit too lazy for experiments, she would send me off to do her chores. I had soon discovered that she lived in isolation and seldom had visitors. There was a small village east of here across the river where man lived.

Oh, did I mention her name? Her name was Sorisana Miacaryn, she was rumoured to be the oldest elvan alive however, she belonged to no elvan kingdom.

On the summer's eve, Sorisana received a calling from a white wizard and was preparing to leave to collect some sort of, I quote, 'all-knowing eye' from a cave up in the mountains. In her haste to follow the demanding wizard, she ordered me to complete an errand that she normally would have forbidden me to do because of the probability that I would be seen. I was not allowed near humans. She had ordered me to go collect the special herb that only grew downstream of the river in order to replenish her stock of beauty enhancement. Truth be told, that concoction has done nothing to improve her beauty, not when her sense of colour clashed so horribly. For a long time, I thought she was colour-blind. (no-offense here).

Over the years, I had givenup on finding help, or escaping her, every time I tried to fly away, the bond between us would flare up and burn me like no flames can, constantly reminding me of the pain I experienced in my first and only transformation. But today, today was different, luck was on my side. Where I was picking herbs, on the other side of the river, there were people, women mostly, doing their washings. If I was seen, then they would definitely rally people to come exterminate/remove me. So I made a loud commotion and belched a flame ball at the group, aiming only for their nearby patch of grass. That caused all the human to scream and running, forgetting their clothes behind them. They ran back in the direction of the small village. All I can do now is hope that they would gather some good fighters. I miss my father, my mother, Bain and Tilda deeply, my heart yearns for them. I also miss the dwarfs, Kili, Fili, and all the rest, missed their bad table manners, loud pompous singing and missed Bilbo's worrying. Please, let this work. I prayed to whichever deity resided above me.

In that moment, I didn't think about my appearance, or whether or not my family would accept me back into the ranks. I was just hopeful that they would come and save me.

Change perspective:

"Gwanur, remind nin whui mín are hi ad-?" said a drawling voice as the person toyed with his finely sharpened blade while he laid on the soft grass. (Brother, remind me why we are here again?)

"Elrohir, An i tenth anand, mín are hi na govannon- Estel." Elladan said exasperatedly. "Hi dár wasting anand, mín lonn't seen mín dilthen firen in a decade. Im tur-'t darth- na see hon ad" (For the tenth time, we are here to meet Estel.) (Now stop wasting time, we haven't seen our little human in a decade. I can't wait to see him again.) He pulled on the reins of his horse and his grey horse nudged Elrohir in the face.

Soon they were journeying through a small village and reached a small inn where they settled and awaited Estel. By the time they had their third cup of tea, Estel came hurriedly in through the doors and hastened to the twins. "Nin brothers, ha's been too an." (My brothers, it's been too long) They gave each other a good strong hug before pulling apart and did a thorough observation of each other.

"I see that you haven't changed since the day I left Rivendell."

"And you, my friend, have grown so much." They joked.

Estel enjoyed their simple reunion for a moment longer before pulling them back in their seats and spoke seriously in his raspy deep voice, "My brothers, there has been an attack on the villagers here this morning. A dragon has been sighted, and it is my duty as a ranger to protect the people. I must go and investigate. Then after this is settled, I will come home with you."

"Attack? Dragon?" the twin exclaimed simultaneously, "Count me in! Tell us more about it."

"This morning, some women who were washing their clothes by the river reported that a dragon tried to set fire on them. I investigated before coming over here, and there is indeed scorch marks burning the ground. The trail goes deep into the mountains and that is where we shall travel to."

"Then what are you waiting for Estel? To grow even older? Let us set off now!"

The twins were never one for patience. Hence, Estel, Elladan, and Elrohir grabbed their weapons and well rested horses and followed the path of a dragon.