Wings of Fire: The Forgotten World

Chapter 59

Hemlock's POV
By CamsterDragon

Hemlock was miserable. He lay on the hard floor of his cell, hunched up into a ball, and staring at the floor. A few new cuts and bruises had been added to his collection, the most painful of which was a cut down his left eye, but they were nothing he couldn't handle. But, he had a feeling the pain was only just beginning.

He heard the other dragons whispering about him in the other cells.

"Is that a Cloudwing?"

"Yeah.. why is he in here?"

"I heard he killed off a hundred of Shatteredmoon's soldiers."

"That little guy? No way."

"I heard he's a demon from the other side of the void."

"I heard he murdered Shatteredmoon's son."

"I heard he's such a powerful animus that the ground shakes where he walks and if you look into his eyes, he can instantly command you to do anything he wants you to."

"Good thing he's looking at the floor."

Hemlock tried his best to ignore the comments from the other prisoners, but the only other thing he could think of was Pleiades and Shatteredmoon's blade to her throat. Shatteredmoon really would've killed her. I could see it in his eyes. It didn't matter that she was a valuable asset to his cause. He still would've done it. He shivered and curled up more tightly into himself.

"Ha! Look how weak he is! Can't even survive one day in the cell."

"If he's so strong, why can't he just break himself out?"

"Pathetic."

"Weak."

"Coward."

"Stupid Cloudwing."

Hemlock couldn't take the comments anymore. Sure, Cloudwings couldn't hear that well, but they weren't deaf. He slowly rose to his feet, taking his gaze off the floor and boring into the other prisoners. It was so dark that he could only really see their eyes reflected in the darkness, but that was enough.

The whispers were hushed as every eye turned to look at him. The chains on his paws were heavy and clearly had a spell to prevent him from using his powers, but he could smell that it was a weak Fig spell. He whispered slowly and quietly so that the others would not hear his words. "I enchant these chains to obey me and me alone, doing whatever I command of them disregarding their previous enchantments." He heard the chains click ever so softly, he saw the faint whisps of his own magic coil around Fig's even fainter colors, he smelled his magic overcome Figs.

For magics such as these where one animus magic was trying to overcome another, he knew he only had one command to give to the chains before they would go back to the previous enchantment. "Chains," Hemlock croaked, loud enough for the others to hear. "Make it so everyone within my earshot experiences a stab of pain in their left ear at the same time." After he had issued the command, he heard simultaneous yelps of pain from the other prisoners. After that, no one whispered about him anymore.

When Hemlock smelled the newcomers, he was once again staring blankly at the floor in his own pit of misery. He didn't want to look up when he heard the dragon stop before his cell. He wanted to pretend he didn't know who it was.

"Wakey wakey my little animus," the voice drifted into Hemlock's ears and seized his heart like a parasite. Hemlock still didn't want to look up... He couldn't. Not even when he heard the cell door creak open and felt the Smokewings grab ahold of him and thrust him to his feet.

But, when they started to push him forward, he had to look up. And he found himself staring into those terrifying, bright, icy blue eyes. A wicked grin stretched across Shatteredmoon's face. "Come now, don't tell me you're already scared?"

Hemlock gulped but tried to straighten his shoulders. "I'm not afraid," he said.

"Good. This wouldn't be twice as fun otherwise." Hemlock shivered at the dragon's definition of fun.

He was forced down a hallway to Shatteredmoon's throne room where Pleiades was already. He tilted his head worriedly, mouthing, "Are you okay?" She nodded her head, and some tension escaped Hemlock's shoulders.

He and Pleiades were brought right in front of the throne where Shatteredmoon sat, regally evil. Seconds later, Fig sat at Shatteredmoon's right. Hemlock heard a low growl come out of Pleiades's mouth.

"Now now," spoke Shatteredmoon. "Let's not be so mean to each other. We're all on equal playing grounds here." He nodded to Fig and the traitorous dragon murmured a few words than caused their chains to fall off them. At the same time, Hemlock noticed a wall of animus magic appear between them and the throne.

Pleiades growled and immediately leaped at Fig. "Wait...!" Hemlock called, trying to reach out to stop her, but it was too late. She rammed headfirst into the magic wall. Hemlock raced over to her. "Are you okay, Pleiades?" he questioned, scanning her for any injuries.

"No," she growled, pushing Hemlock away. She glared at Fig. "I'm fine."

"See?" repeated Shatteredmoon. "Equal grounds." Hemlock didn't like the look on the Smokewing's face. "Now, to discuss why you two are here." Shatteredmoon leaps off his chair and effortlessly crosses the animus wall of magic. His mace scraped the floor as he walked. Hemlock went to stand in front of Pleiades as Shatteredmoon came closer, although he was not quite sure what he could do if the much larger dragon attacked. He clearly had some sort of animus enchantment on him preventing injury from physical attacks despite his lack of armor, and Hemlock saw the other half of his small, glowing bugs zipping around the Smokewing. Not to mention all the other pieces of jewelry that glowed with animus magic on his body.

He came to a stop a tail length away from Hemlock. Hemlock tried not to shiver from the dragon's intense gaze. "I have a proposition for you." Even if Hemlock wanted to respond, he couldn't. His lips were dry and glued closed. "My little animus, and you, little miss acid..." Hemlock growled at the nickname for Pleiades. He suddenly felt very protective of Pleiades.

A smirk crossed Shatteredmoon's face. "As I was saying if miss acid serves me and you, my little animus, make me a god, I will make sure both of you live like kings and queens for the rest of your lives." The smirk grows wider. "So, what do you say?"