Moonborn

Nightmares

He dreamed of her. But it wasn't the Seraphine that he had known.

She was beaten and bruised, her legs and wings chained together with rough iron links that chafed her ankles and shoulders, sometimes rubbing the scales off to reveal red, irritated flesh. Her head was bowed in defeat, and another iron chain circled her muzzle, clamping it shut. Even her tail had chains on it, heavy enough to prevent her from swinging it at her captors. Yet another chain, circled tightly around her neck, led to a huge iron wing on the wall, but it was long enough that she could move out to the middle of the giant cavern if she wanted to. But she didn't look like she had the strength to do that, even if her tail had been lighter than a feather. Bruises lined her body, the bruised scales turning purple when they should have been blue. She was so purple she almost looked like her sister, Lavender. Even the scales that were blue appeared dull, as if she hadn't seen the sun in several days.

"Seraphine!" he shouted, or tried to, but his mouth made no noise, and he couldn't find her mind. "Seraphine?" he said again, softly, questioningly, but she made no reaction.

Her head suddenly snapped up, but not to look at him. Her eyes were wide with fear, and they stared up into the depths of the large cavern. The entire ceiling was smothered in darkness.

She became alive, suddenly, and struggled to shuffled backwards. She was frantic now, fighting her chains to get to the gaping hold in the rock that served as a door, but he could only watch helplessly. Distantly, he became aware of a clicking noise.

As it grew louder, Seraphine became even more frantic, throwing herself away from her chains. Strangely and frighteningly, Marvin couldn't feel her. The way she was acting should have meant that his mind was overflowing with panic, but he only felt his own fear and concern.

The clicking was thundering now, but Seraphine was no closer to the exit. Marvin could only watch in horror and jump in surprise when the clicking culminated and suddenly stopped.

A voice came out of the cavern, even though no one was visible. "Nicccccce to ssssse you. Don't be in ssssuch a hurry to leave. Ebenezer, why don't you take off our guesssst'sss gag ssso sssshe can anssssswer my quessstionsss, hmm? I'm ssssure that sssshe won't find the need to bite any headsssss off now." There was a slight chuckle, accompanied by a short series of rhythmic clicks.

A figure moved past Marvin, brushing through him as if he wasn't there. Dressed in a black cloak, he was completely invisible except for his pale, six-fingered hands. He went to Seraphine and yanked the ends of her muzzle chain downward, forcing her to move her head, even though she was already in the process of lowering it. Marvin felt his heart clench and he would have shouted in anger, except that he seemed to have no presence.

A vague memory surfaced itself, an old text regarding explanations of ancient draconic abilities. Some riders and dragons, it had claimed, were able to let their soul travel with their counterpart, particularly if they were separated over far distances for quite some time. But that wasn't right, was it? Seraphine was right next to him, waiting for him when he woke up, and this was just a strange, realistic dream, wasn't it? He struggled to recollect, but his mind seemed to be filled with fog.

"Ssssso," the mystery voice said, seeming to relish the slithering sound his voice made. "Are you ready to talk?"

Seraphine didn't move nor speak, and instead remained silent, trembling in exhaustion, fear and pain.

"Very well," the voice continued dryly. "Tough one, are you? It'ssss okay. I don't get much converssssssation thesssse daysssss, and when you crack it will be all the sssssweeter. Where issss the Dark One?'