Chapter 4

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Phantom gulped down the fish she had caught rapidly while flying.

Her favorite hunting trick was to find a school of fish and track it from the air before flying up high and tucking her wings close to her body causing her to plunge into the water right on top of the fish.

She would then snatch as many as she could into her mouth before rushing back up into the air.

She finished swallowing the fish and flew up into the clouds.

She loved to play in the clouds diving and twirling while watching the puffs of white swirl and scatter around her wings.

She dove down through clouds in a tight spiral only to see a small fleet of ships on the water below her.

She was going too fast to stop and she screeched in panic as a bola wrapped around her neck and a net fell of her body.

A second bola wrapped around her legs and a third around her tail.

The net cinched tight around her body and she dropped into the water struggling violently as the net was towed to the surface.

As she was hailed dripping wet and trapped by the net into the boat Phantom began flailing even more.

The ropes of the bolas cut into her scales uncomfortably and the heavy metal weights at the end clanked together annoyingly.

The hunters cut the net open and tackled her.

They wrapped ropes around her body pining her wings to her side and muzzled her so she couldn't shoot them with her fire.

She let out muffled screeches of pain as they drug her across the deck of the ship by the ropes she was wrapped to tightly in.

They drug her into a large metal cage similar to the ones that held her mother and kin many years ago.

She flailed frantically as they slammed the door and dropped the ropes. 

Her frills were flattened against her head and her pupil were extremely dilated she covered her head as best she could with her lower set of wings and raised her upper set as best she could in the tiny cage.

The hunters laughed and poked at her with spears.

The muzzle was tight and painful as it pressed down against her frills and wrapped around her neck as well as keeping her mouth shut and covering the front of her mouth where the fire would come out.

She was poked at with spears, jeered at and otherwise harassed for a long time until the ship pulled up alongside a second ship.

This ship was larger and had other cages full of dragons on it.

They hauled her cage onto the other ship before the first one left.

She shivered from the cold air as she could no longer keep moving or breathe fire to warm herself up.

Unlike most of the storm cutters she had met on the isle she couldn't handle cold temperatures well.

At least on this boat as long as she was quiet she was left alone.

Her wide frightened eyes took in the large number of cages and dragons that filled them as well as the Vikings moving around the boat.

She remained curled in a tight ball in the corner of her cage watching her surroundings until night began to fall.

Her thoughts began to spiral down different paths

If these wings could fly....

Oh lights go down...

In this moment we're lost and found

I just want to be by your side....

If these wings could fly....

Oh curse these walls.

She thought of her mother her sisters and her father. 

She remembered flying and playing pranks.

She remembered the nets the arrows and the cages.

Her mother died in a cage.

Her father and sisters probably did as well

Except for poor whisper.

She died under a net in a rain of arrows while Phantom watched and did nothing.

She wondered how she was going to die.

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