Trapped

Chapter 10

     Starcharm woke up with a snort. "Guys! Its waking up!" someone yelled. Before anyone could move Starcharm snapped at the nearest creature, biting down hard on its arm. He screamed in pain. Starcharm roared and bit another creature, and roared again.
     A creature pulled out a sleep weapon. Starcharm clenched her scales before it could shoot. She reached and bit again. "Careful, this one's a biter!" one of the things yelled. "You think we don't know that?" another one replied.
     Starcharm roared and bit and roared and bit. "Tranq it, knock it out, do SOMETHING!" an extremely loud one yelled. Starcharm felt darts clatter against her scales and even a thump on the back of her head, (Wow. That person doesn't understand sarcasm) but that just made her madder. She tried to get up, but found that she had chains around her wrists, ankles, torso, tail, and neck. She roared again.
     Then she felt a dart find its target on her unprotected back. She fought to stay awake and break the chains, her struggling making her scabs break open and bleed. As she fell asleep she heard one of the creatures say, "Okay, get a muzzle on it and we can continue with the tests..." She drifted off before she could hear the rest.

                                                  * * *

     When Starcharm woke up again she was still chained down to the platform. The first thing she noticed was that her mouth felt sore. She felt around with her tongue and found that one of her teeth was missing. There was just an empty space between two of her molars. Wait...Empty!
     Where was her pouch? Starcharm looked around franticly, but it was hard to see in the now-dimmed light. A sound outside of one of the two doors caught her attention. She stared at the door, waiting for something to happen. The door opened slightly.
     A female creature slipped in and closed the door behind her. She turned up the lights so it wasn't so dark. She had a long white coat over her other clothes. She had on jeans, a bright pink top, and weird colorful things on her...paws? Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail.
     She was the first one to speak as they stared at each other. "Uh...hi." she said. Starcharm tried to shrink back and snarl, but the chains and her parched throat prevented her from doing so. She just bared her teeth. "Hey, it's okay, I won't hurt you." said the creature.
     Starcharm let down her guard a little. "I'm Teagen." The creature said. Teagen, that's a weird name. Starcharm thought. She tilted her head. Starcharm's neck started to itch. She tried to scratch it this her back paw, but the chains stopped her. Teagen bent down in front of Starcharm and reached out her hand, but then hesitated. "May I?" she asked. Starcharm put her head down.
     She felt relieved when Teagen scratched her neck. "Thank you." it was hard for Starcharm to talk with her hoarse throat. Teagen jumped back with a startled yell and fell on her rear. "Y-you can talk? How?" she stammered. "Uh, same way you can: vocal chords, throat, tongue, mouth." Starcharm replied.
     Teagen could only stare. Starcharm grinned. "Don't worry little undereducated creature. I didn't know your kind existed until now." (Please read the first sentence with an overly sarcastic voice)