Wings of Fire: A Game for Glory

Chapter 17: Bent Will

"Here are the beauties," said an appealing and calm voice, even though Envy did not understand a word they said.

Envy yawned loudly, awakened from his small mid-morning nap as he grunted, stretching his wings. He smiled at the satisfying cracks and pops in his bones as he opened his eyes to see three scavengers in the entryway, one female and two males.  The female had a fancy dress that flowed from top to bottom and had a draped neckline, which charmingly reveals the refined dress worn below it. The comfortable corset of her dress covers her stomach where the continuous flow is broken up by a simple ribbon worn quite low around her. Parts of the dress was lined with gold, but the majority of the outfit was as black as onyx. Her brunette hair was tied into a wavy ponytail, and she politely held her hands behind her back. The other two males didn't look as attractive. They both wore tan, fairly long-sleeved animal hide tunics that covered just above their waist and was half buttoned up at the center. The sleeves of their tunic are quite narrow and ragged, reaching down to well above the males' hands. They were decorated with a decorative band almost at the edges. 

The tallest male, who had long, brown hair that was braided, stepped forward. He held his hand outwards, his palm open, as he tried to pet Envy on his snout. The NightWing's heart raced as he lunged back, the spikes on his spine sticking upwards with warning. He didn't trust these scavengers at all.

"Hey, hey. There is no reason to fear them," Caribou pointed out. "They're not going to hurt you. Just let them pet you."

Newt's tail flicked when the brown-haired scavenger went to pet him, slowly approaching the ice dragon. Newt only stared at the man's palm as it slowly reached towards him, but Envy watched as the IceWing didn't move a muscle. The scavenger gently rubbed Newt's snout, giggling a bit. It was a very unexpected reaction, at least for Envy. Newt hasn't had much contact with scavengers-- the first thing these two-legged, scaleless creatures had done was tie them up, throw them into a dungeon and lock them up. Maybe they did feed them, but what is their actual purpose? Envy prayed that Caribou was right about them wanting to attempt in riding them and not about his own assumptions that they were going to butcher him.

"See?" Caribou says, a sly smirk forming on her snout. "No harm is done. There is no reason to fear these scavengers."

"I can barely read their minds," Envy protested, his voice low. "Based on the scrolls about scavengers, I imagined these petty beings as small rodents, scurrying around Pyrrhia, killing dragons and stealing treasure. Though, I never expected them to be so... civilized."

"There's a lot of things about scavengers that you'd be surprise to hear." Caribou laughed.

"Uh-- excuse me!" A loud, raucous voice suddenly echoed sharply throughout the catacombs, spooking the dragons. They sounded male, with an odd accent. They sounded somewhat young, too, and the other scavengers who were already in the room gave whoever the other male a disgusted look. Two scavengers bolted inside.

Both men wore thin, long-sleeved shirts that had no buttons on them, though the more muscular scavenger wore a red tunic, while the skinnier one wore a green one. Their pants were simple, nothing special or appealing about them at all, just the fact that they were made of dark brown leather, and they were quite narrow. They squeezed against the scavenger's legs, reaching down to their tawny-colored furred boots. They smelled like sweat and cow manure, and Envy scrunched his nose at the awful stench.

"Pine! Evergreen!" Caribou sprinted past Envy and Newt in a quick WHOOSH, almost knocking them down. The two scavengers laughed and chuckled at the sight of the icy blue IceWing, petting her snout and even wrapping their arms around Caribou's neck.

Caribou didn't even bother to say "goodbye" or "see you later." She just left with her scavengers, her laughing quickly fading away into silence once she went too far from the catacombs, abandoning Envy and Newt who were still chained up.