If Glory Missed

Chapter Ten - Venomous

Pain.

That was all that Glory could feel.

She had been floating in and out of consciousness for... Hours? Days?

Flashes of light and the sounds of tools working were the only other signs that she was alive.

Wait, has the torture stopped? The pain certainly hadn't. It was still there, strong as ever. Glory could feel every individual scale burning from whatever they had done to her. The feeling of being constantly poked, prodded, and stabbed had finally stopped though. Why?

Glory felt several dragons lift her body off the table. She tried to protest, but barely a whimper left her aching jaws and there was no way she would be able to force her muscles to move.

After a few minutes she managed to open her eyes slightly, but the moment she did so her eyes were blasted by the blinding rays of the sun. Outside? The only place outside that I can think of Scarlet moving me to is the arena. But I am in no condition to fight! Glory thought in alarm. The dragons carrying her suddenly dove down and tossed her roughly onto the arena sand. Before she had a chance to even lift her head, one of the guards pressed her snout into the ground while the others chained her to the ground.

It's not like I have the energy to fight you right now even if I wanted to (which I do)! She hissed at them internally.

"GATHER AROUND MY SUBJECTS!" That was Scarlet's voice. Glory could just make out the dark orange scales from her low vantage point. "I am SURE all of you remember that YESTERDAY was my HATCHING DAY. If you did not remember then you are either an IDIOT or a TRAITOR to your Queen and should therefore not be here in the first place!"

"ANYWAYS," she changed the subject back, "Today you might recognize the dragon who RUINED MY SPECIAL DAY yesterday." There were several gasps from the crowd and the shuffling of claws suggested that some of them had backed away, recalling her ability to spit acid. Glory wished she could shoot her acid at Scarlet's smug face right now.

"Don't be afraid, she is perfectly harmless now," Scarlet reassured them, not able to contain the note of triumph in her voice. "I punished her in a way that she will NEVER forget. Come close and see for yourself. Marvel at the work of my most talented subjects and let this be a warning to ANYONE in the audience who even thought for a SECOND that they could go against me without SERIOUS repercussions." With that, she waved one wing at the guards holding Glory. They promptly stepped away, allowing Glory to raise her head. The RainWing quickly noticed that she wore a collar studded with scarlet gems. Chains extended from both sides to keep her from escaping.

Several dragons from the audience had already landed in the arena to get a closer look. Glory weakly got to her talons and hissed at them, fanning out her frills and baring her... Fangs. She reached up to touch her fangs, but there were only two empty spaces in her gums where they should be.

No, no, no, NO! This can't be happening. Her heart pounded faster against her chest as she surveyed the rest of the damage Scarlet had caused to her.

She looked at the collar again and realized why it hurt so much. The metal had been welded to her scales by SkyWing fire. That wasn't even the worst of it. Almost every inch of her scales had been tattooed with red ink. No, not red, she realized in disgust. My scales have been colored scarlet.

Almost everything that made her tribe unique had been taken from her. A MudWing walked up to her cautiously, but once she noticed GLory's fangs were gone she could only gaze at her with fascinated horror. A SkyWing poked her tail and Glory tried spinning around to swipe at him with her claws. The chains binding her were pulled taut and all she managed to do was cause a burning sensation around her entire neck. She shrieked in pain and faced forward again.

Scarlet was directly in front of her. The SkyWing Queen's snout was only inches from Glory when she spoke, "You thought your life as my artwork was a miserable existence, but now you get to be my pet," Scarlet snarled. She stared intently into Glory's eyes for a reaction, but Glory held her gaze unflinchingly.

For a moment, Glory was convinced that the queen would retaliate in some way when she refused to cower in fear. Then Scarlet blinked once, and the sides up her mouth curled up into a venomous smile.