Misfits of Vernada ~Wattys2016~

XX

Zappy

By 

Slash's sclaws abruptly met stone and he staggered, falling to his knees before the guard yanked him roughly to his feet; much to the cruel amusement of several dragons.

As far as he knew, he and MetalClaws were now in the Stormriders' capital, going to be assessed by the elders to determine what aged hatchlings should be set on them. On the long journey there, the Stormrider captors had healed his wounds, so he was now back to his full strength. But they had never removed the musty sack from his head even once, so now, as they ripped it off, he was blinded by the amount of light in the room.

Many fearsome Stormriders lounged before him, eyeing him disdainfully with haughty expressions.

Slash ignored them and twisted around, scanning the dragon-infested room; seeking one snout in particular but Moon was nowhere to be seen—and neither was MetalClaws, for that matter.

What he did see rooted him to the spot in fear and anger for a moment: a huge black dragon—larger even that Waterfall—sat gazing at him with one red eye full of a deadly hatred; next to her was an orange Stormrider, no less terrifying, but in a different way, and next to him was Sparkles; his gaze as he met the Sharpshooter's eyes was laced with hatred, disgust, and—fear?

Slash glared up at him, making no effort to disguise his anger.

"Welcome, Sharpshooter," the orange dragon sneered, "we hope you're not enjoying your stay here. Are you?"

Slash glared at him and the old dragon laughed. "Good.

"I am Magma, leader of the Mighty Stormriders; this is my worthy mate, Obsidian," he extended a wing toward the evil black dragon, "my daughter-in-law Tornado," a nearby grey dragon, "and our adopted grandson, Fang."

Slash started; that meant Sparkles held great power. He hoped desperately that the nasty hatchling hadn't used his authority to harm Moon.

Magma continued, "You are here to die a worthy death, Scum, for we will let you loose in our arena for the young-ones to kill, thus allowing more dragons to join our ranks." He grinned nastily. "But first you must go through certain... procedures."

Slash's heart fell as Magma's grim chuckle rolled through the room; the assembled Stormriders sniggered at his expression.

"I shall let Firefly—"

Sparkles hastily interrupted, "Grandfather, I deeply regret the circumstances that force me to interrupt you, but, please, let me test the Blunt—I mean Sharpshooter."

Chuckles spread through the room again at his 'mistake'.

Magma held the black dragon's gaze for a long minute.

"Very well," he said finally. "You do not deserve the honour, after killing Luna, but I will allow you the privilege. We will make do with one dragon for our young ones to slay." He raised his voice to address Slash's guard, "Take him away; you know what to do."

"Once there, unbind him!" Sparkles called after them as the numb Slash was dragged from the room and the other dragons began murmuring and talking.

Slash couldn't believe it; Moon was dead!

Sparkles, he growled to himself as he was led through another corridor. He didn't care what was going to happen; all he knew was that it had something to do with Sparkles.

I'm going to kill that coward, he snarled, nearly choking on his hatred. He pushed his immeasurable grief away and focused on the ugly, burning hate.