Mithrim

Mithrim was about to bite down on a piece of deer when she heard it. A sob. She abandoned the deer and flew to Celestia, her Rider.

Celestia, there's someone crying near the big rock. I don't know who, or what it is. Come.

Celestia jumped onto Mithrim's back and flew toward the sound. Mithrim's iridescent white scales flashed in the waning light. Her claws made a soft thump when she landed. Celestia slid off the dragon's back and ran behind the large granite stone. As Celestia rounded the edge of the stone, she stopped in her tracks. She stared in utter horror as she watched a colony of midnight black rats feed off the remains of their kill: a Rider's blood red dragon. The dragon's Rider was standing close by, watching with the same horror and sobbing for his loss. Then she looked at Celestia and whispered,

“ Help me. She has created this abomination of life. Help.”

Celestia could do nothing for him. She backed up to Mithrim and climbed on. The boy's shouts of her cruelty of leaving him followed her as she flew away.

What should we do? We cannot land anywhere for those rats will surely eat you. The queen has a twisted mind to create such a thing. What has befouled her heart so? Mithrim's reply to that was,

Hate. Betrayal. And the feeling of never in her life has she been loved.