The Dragon's Son

• Chapter 5 •

The interior of the building was almost as mesmerizing as the outside.  When Onslaught pulled me through the glass doors it was like I was pulled into another world. The ceiling was about thirty feet up with a large crystal chandelier hanging down. Light refracting off each individual crystal making the air sparkle with different colored facets of light.

"Coming through!" A voice called just as a man on an odd contraption moved through. I had to jump to the side as the noisy thing passed by. It made me realize more strange objects floated or moved throughout the lobby of the room. I leaned close to one of the ones sitting on a desk, about to tap it before Onslaught grabbed my collar, and made me follow him.

"Don't worry, kid. You'll get your fill of all this stuff in time," the soldier chuckled as he dragged me down the carpeted hall to what seemed like some type of auditorium. Everyone was inside, standing in rows while doctors dealt with particular sections of the boys, men, girls, and women.  I spotted Jack and glanced at Onslaught in question, gaining a vague nod before he moved over to stand with Dagger and the others that had been standing along the wall.

I strode over to take up the empty place beside Jack. He nudged my shoulder when he noticed it was me, a smile slipping onto his face.  He flickered his gaze from me then to the short stubby doctor that was examining an anxious girl a couple of rows ahead of us, "What did the big guy want?" He asked quietly under his breathe. I was still watching the man with balding patches in his corn yellow hair. His glasses askew on his face and a sadistic grin composed of yellowed teeth and thin lips.  The man looked pale and in no sense of the way healthy.

"Hmmm, talk of home," I replied in choppy words, but my low voice rumbling beneath it, "What is this?"

I felt him shift on his feet beside me, making me glance at him to see he appeared uncomfortable.  Anxious, just like that girl. Glancing around, over most of the others heads I could see they all appeared anxious, like they were being viewed for livestock. I had seen the same expressions before, on the eyes of young hatchlings at the Dragon Festival when they were going to be chosen as knights or not.  Was this something similar? Only for humans?

"Its the initial exam, their checking us for external issues that could prevent us from being fit for the army," Jack replied, after a moment, tilting his head towards me slightly as he checked to see where the man was in the line.  The stubby man was looking over a girl about seventeen in age, his grubby fingers drifting over her sides and stomach, making me feel a bubble of anger coiling in my stomach at the perverted flicker in the sweaty man's puke green eyes, a growl suddenly ripping itself out of my throat.  Loudly. The dragonisk sound echoing through the room in a low baritone, making the chatter of doctors stop. If someone were to drop a pin, you would've been able to hear it.  All eyes had jerked in the general direction I was in, searching till I shifted, still staring at the grubby man's hands where they had stopped just centimeters from the woman's chest.

I hadn't even realized I had moved till Jack suddenly gripped my forearm tightly, keeping me from moving anymore.  But it had been enough to get the grubby little man's attention, his eyes catching mine and following them till he slowly lowered his hands to his side. Raising an eyebrow before he was suddenly moving towards us. The girl appearing to be relieved and I straightened fully. My eyes checking her posture and the way her shoulder slouched slightly before I looked back at the man who was not standing before me. He was even worse in appearance up close. For a second I regretted drawing the smelly man to me, but as I glanced at the girl again, I sucked up my self pity and covered if with my own anger and irritation. 

My nose began to burn at the stench of chemicals and sweat. Did this man not bathe? His scent was putrid. I scrunched up my nose as I bared my teeth at him.  Unconsciously slipping into Draak tongue as anger and disgust filtered through me mind, "Disgusting, little human.  Touching a woman in such a way. I should-"

"Oh, what a fine specimen... horns, the vocal capacity, the extended height and muscle strength," he interrupted my heated ranting as he started twisting around me taking measurements of my forearms and thighs, he jabbed a small thing into my neck and I snarled, snapping at the man hunching as my hand shot up to cover the bleeding prick. "Fiesty too! You'll make a fine test subject."

The twisted grin on the troll's face made a shiver roll down my spin before I lunged at him. I could hear a shout from nearby, seconds before a jolt of electricity rocked through me. I dropped to the ground as my limbs spasmed. My heart was jumping viciously in my chest as two metal clips connected to a box in the grubby man's hand by black curling wires. I couldn't breathe and the pain was searing through every nerve I had.  "Maybe I should get you a shock collar?" The man muttered as he gave me reprieve from the jolts.

Leaving me gasping on the floor as I glared at the man from the corner of my eye. My arms and legs still twitching as I tried to sit up.  My head was pounding and my vision was rocking like I was swimming in the fast correct of the river outside of my home.  I made a grab for the metal bits on my chest before I was sent into another wave of pain.  An involuntary growl tearing from me as I curled in on myself. My mind going blank except for the electricity going through me.

It stopped a minute later and Dagger was there. He pulled the metal bits off and tossed them to the side before pulling me up to a sitting position. I could see a tall brown haired man holding the box as he yelled harshly at the troll of a man. My leg gave a harsh jerk and I grabbed my thigh there with a weak grumble. My toes and fingers felt numb and that was concerning me. Plus my heart was still jumping as well and my mouth tasted like metal.  I glanced at Dagger and he seemed to see something else. He was quick to pull me up to my feet and pull my arm over his shoulders. Onslaught was there soon after to catch my other arm before my vision suddenly went completely black as they started to pull me towards the exits.