Sky City Chronicles

Book 2: Ember's Choice

Scattered Thoughts

          I walked away from the prisoner’s cell, ignoring his words as he yelled at me from behind the bars.  I walked up and out of the dungeons with my two guards, though I dismissed them as soon as we got to the top of the steps.  I walked through the corridors until I came to my private quarters, the door clearly marked with my rank and personal insignia of three claw marks over a thin rectangle.  I pushed open the ironwood entrance and walked into my study, noting that someone had placed a stack of reports for me to read.  The rest of the room was neat and tidy, the books ordered and stacked on the shelves, the maps and position markers hanging on one wall, and the door to my personal chambers firmly locked to anyone but me and Lord Igneous.  I walked over to the desk and leafed through the papers with disinterest, my mind occupied by the red dragon being held far below.

          For some reason I could not banish the young male from my head, and several times I stopped myself from walking out of my study and back down the stairs.  I growled slightly and placed the reports back onto my desk, holding my head with one hand as I unlocked the door to my private chambers and flopped down into the bed.  I slammed the door shut with my tail and pulled the blanket over my body tightly, trying to banish the determined face of the red male from my mind.  After several minutes of profitless attempts to sleep, I threw off the covers and stormed back into my study, my tail thrashing as I passed the desk and went back out into the main hall.  I let my feet take me back down the steps to the dungeons, my head a rush of thoughts that I could not decipher.  I came up to the bars of the dragon’s cell, and wrapped on the bar with one claw, seeing him jump slightly at the sound like he had been asleep.

          “Why is it that I cannot get your face out of my head?” I asked angrily as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, “Did you put a spell on me so that I could not forget you in this cell?”

          He looked over his shoulder with a condescending look, “And how could I have done that with my hands covered up like this?”  He waved one canister as if to prove a point, “Had I been able to cast a spell on you, you wouldn’t just be getting a headache from it.  You’d be lucky to have a head at all.” He turned his back to me and lay back down on the bed, his snores clearly being faked as I fumed over his disrespect.

          “You will tell me what you did to me,” I said threateningly, “or I’ll come in there and force you to tell me.”

          He lifted his head and looked at me with a tired expression, “And what would your dear master think of you harming his prize prisoner?  I dare say he would not be pleased to find out I had been harmed for no reason.”

          “There is every reason!” I yelled as he attempted to put his head back down, “You put a spell on me that has been driving me crazy ever since I left this cell.”  I stomped in frustration and he looked at me with a slightly surprised look, “Tell me or I swear I’ll come in there and cut off a talon at a time until you tell me.”

          I was shaking with rage and I knew he could see it in my eyes that I meant what I said, but he just put his head back down and mumbled under his breath, “Stupid female can’t tell the truth from a pile of dragon crap.”

          I tensed as he went back to pretending to snore, and with a flick of my tail I disengaged the wheel holding the bars in place.  The gate lifted at a rapid rate and the male looked up in shock as I stormed into the cell, walking right up to him and placing my blade at the curve of his throat.  “Now tell me, before my tail gets tired and I cut your windpipe out for hatchling food.”