Enslaved

Chapter 36

Ryuu motioned to his men to follow him with a twitch of his wing, arching his flight toward the cave system he had seen while scouting last night. They all followed him as he flew into the cave and landed, the only sound being that of their armor knocking against their sword scabbards and scales. After a moment, they were all inside and Ryuu did a quick count before flapping his wings and grabbing their attention.

"I know we have been flying for the better part of three days but the colony is right ahead." He called, keeping his voice at a safe volume. "We rest tonight and take it on in the morning. So get some sleep and if you're hungry, hunt in the surrounding forest only. Do you all understand?"

They all nodded and Ryuu turned to his right for a fraction of a second before he remembered Kajeel wasn't with him. He shook his head and turned back around to walk out of the cave, opening his sore wings and flying back up and over the small hill that housed the cave to scout the colony before their raid the next day. Hopefully, their information was correct and the slaves were arriving tomorrow morning or their long, tiring flight would have been for nothing.

***

Ryuu forced his wings faster as he soared back to the caves, the rising sun laughing at him as he tried to make it back in time. He cursed himself for the umpteenth time as he flew over the hill for falling asleep while watching that mining colony for any activity, for putting their whole operation at risk for that little time he had been asleep. He closed his wings and plummeted down for a few seconds before flaring them open just to land in the mouth of the cave and boom his wings downward, grabbing everybody's attention.

"It's time!" He shouted, trying to keep his voice from showing just how fast he had flown to get there. "Let's go!"

Everybody jumped to their feet in a flurry of activity and barely a minute passed before they were all airborne and following Ryuu into the sky. Just as they rose above the hill and the clearing came into view Ryuu cursed again, seeing the lines of slaves walking straight for the other opening on the other side of the hill to go back into those dark tunnels. Ryuu flapped his wings behind him, opening them to their full extent, and burst from the group, flying faster than he had in a while, all exhaustion getting ripped from him as he streaked for his bound people. He unsheathed his sword that was against his back between his wing joints just as he landed in front of the leading hybrid and swung his sword straight between their legs, shattering the chains before whirling around and continuing down the line. His men landed shortly after he had and the fighting ensued, the sound of wings, swords, and yelling echoing across the clearing and grating on Ryuu's tired brain.

Ryuu was a whirlwind of movement, hacking and slashing at chains and slavers alike, moving too fast for the slavers to even unsheathe their own weapons. To his dismay, there weren't as many slaves as he had heard from his spies and he could only assume that they had been tortured or exchanged in the short time it had taken to march them here. Ryuu swung his sword down on slaver's head with a snarl, cleaving it in two before yanking out his sword and moving on without so much as an ounce of pity for the man.

"Ryuu the slaves are free, let's go!"

Ryuu opened his wings without doubting the words of his men and took off, flying straight up for a few moments before stopping at a hover and looked down at the carnage that had ensued. The floor was coated in red blood yet not a drop of green blood had been spilled; not a single one of his men had died during this raid. Ryuu let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding just as one of the humans help up their blade in his direction and yelled.

"You will never get away with this, you foul half-breed!"

His voice screeched above the crowd, the human tongue grating on Ryuu's ears after spending so much time listening to only the rumblings of Draconic. He felt his men look at him in confusion, some of them not understanding the human speech and some of them understanding but not knowing how to reply with that tongue. Ryuu pulled himself together and dropped a few feet, leaving him just barely out of reach of the human.

"Oh, but I already have gotten away with this," Ryuu said back, the human language scraping uncomfortably against his throat. "It is what you are trying to get away with where your concern should lie."

The human wrinkled his nose at Ryuu and swiped at him with his sword despite their distance.

"We have already taken control of this entire land." The human spat at Ryuu. "There are more of us out there then you will ever know and once your little wish of a rebellion is over, your filthy breed will be completely under the Empire's control. Or even better- extinct."

Ryuu smiled at him and closed his wings, dropping to the ground directly in front of him at the same time as he knocked the sword out of his hand with his right-wing and held his own blade at their throat.

"And what you will never understand is how much stronger than you pathetic humans we hybrids are," Ryuu whispered so only he could hear. "You have no idea how much we have been holding back."

The human near-growled at Ryuu before Ryuu turned the bade away from his throat and sliced it down on his right shoulder in the same movement, cutting his arm clean off. Before the scream even tore out of his throat Ryuu was back in the air, the wind from his takeoff buffeting anybody who had been sneaking up on him backward and leaving the now armless man bleeding out on the ground. Ryuu rose into the air until he was at the same level as his force and looked around, nodding at all of his men as he sheathed his sword carefully down his back.

"Alright men, let's get out of here." He called out in Draconic, his throat thanking him for changing back to his inherent language. "We have a long flight ahead of us."