The Dragon's Son

• Chapter 2 •

Stepping onto the transport felt like stepping into a completely different world. The room that Dagger and I stepped into as soon as I climbed onto the transport had padded benches down both sides to a point with men dressed in similar uniforms to Dagger strapped in with the harness belts. At the far end, I could make out large crates and what looked like those metal smoking contraptions on racks. I was going to question what they were before Dagger steered me into a hall with windows and two doors. opposite of the weird windows. He leads me into one of the rooms and three women was there.

"Alright, he needs a full workup. Explain the stuff as you go, he was raised by a dragon," Dagger said, but I couldn't exactly keep up with his words then. They had been in Forest Eater and it was hard for me to comprehend when someone talked too fast in it. He turned and left through the door, leaving me with the three women.

Before I knew what was happening they had me stripped and in a hot 'Bath' as one of them had explained. They scrubbed me down till it felt like my skin was coming off before I was allowed to escape the almost mud-colored water. They helped me dress in a 'dress uniform'. It was like the one's Dagger wore, but more form-fitting, and without any weapons belts, well except for a belt that one had found for my sword. They even taught me had to tie the complicated boots and work the clasp on my uniform shirt. It felt weird having something cover both my feet and chest, but I felt that I would get used to it.

When that was done, they sat me down in a chair and pulled out a buzzing contraption. They carefully, cut my hair close to my head in a 'buzz cut'. It made my horns stand out a lot more than before and my head felt colder, but it made my face more visible. They also trimmed my facial hair till all that was left was the equivalent to a 'five O'clock shadow' as one girl claimed even though I hadn't had much more than that, to begin with. It did look neater now though. This took a total of two hours to finish. But they kept up a pleasantly understandable conversation in slow human tongue, the longer I listened the more I could understand it.

Dagger came back about that time. He was covered from head to toe in dust and my brow furrowed. "Have you been outside? Already?" I tried, saying in human, causing the girls to squeal and me to jump in the raised seat that they had shaved my head in. Dagger looked up and his eyes widened in shock. I could have sworn I saw a brief look of fear shoot through his gaze before it vanished behind thickly hidden emotions.

"You look fit for the soldier's role, huh, Jake?" He chuckled as the girls continued to fawn over my deep, gruff voice that came out when I spoke Forest Eater, "And yeah, we made a couple more stops while you were getting prepped. We should be straight on from here. Come on, the girls probably need to clean up before the next recruitment trip and I hear the view is the best in the Recruit Holding bay."

He motioned for me to follow him. I briefly turned and told the ladies a gruff 'Thank you' and goodbye before standing. The boots felt heavy as I walked, and made my usually quiet footsteps loud and banging, especially against the floor of the transport. We passed a couple more similar doors to the ladies' door before he came to a door and pressed in a quick code. I could smell other people behind the door, vaguely hear their voices. I watched Dagger from the corner of my eye, took in the strange symbols he pressed. 

Did they have to keep them locked in? Were there others who didn't want anything to do with this human war? So they kept them looked in a different section of the ship so they couldn't escape, like cattle headed for the slaughter... Or common criminals head for the noose. The pad made a high-pitched beep, my hands lifting to cover my ears at the noise. Before the door slid to the side and into the wall with a barely noticeable hiss before revealing about forty or so kids all ranging from seventeen to nineteen. They were all chatting with each other in an excited rush, before they paused, looking over at the two of us. Almost instantly every eye went to my horns.