Of Both Worlds

Chapter 4

Ace shut the door to the health house which was abandoned as usual. In about an hour it was completely dark and Ace grabbed his bag of meat and stalked out of the health house and down to the stables. 

The horses were afraid of Ace at first and Ace took his time calming them down. Ace went through the small door in the arena to the big door which he had opened while he was by the horses. 

Through the big door was a sad sight. Three Talons—two dragons and one wyvern—were laying in a pile of dirty hay. All three picked their heads up when Ace entered. "Hello everyone." Ace's voice cracked as he tried to whisper, but also tried to be heard. "I'm Ace."

 We know who you are. The bigger of the two dragons said. It was hard to tell what she looked like in the dark. Paramonos told us about you, a Talon-Tongue who's first instinct wasn't to kill.

"What's your name?" Ace asked, as polite as he could. 

 I am Quirina, I am...I was a tree dragon. 

 The smaller dragon sat up and blinked her tired eyes. My name is Saxa, I was a sand dragon. 

 Ace was confused. "You guys both sound like you're not actual dragons anymore." 

Saxa let out an immortal sigh. That's because we aren't, young Talon-Tongue. Saxa explained. The Talonhunters have stripped that from us. They captured us and took what defined us from us. 

 Quirina started sniffing the air. Talon-Tongue, do you have...meat? 

Ace looked down at his bag of now cold meat. "Oh yeah, sorry I mean to give it to you. It was meant for Paramonos but I can split it up." Ace paused as he dug through the plastic bag. "When you say they took what defined you, what do you mean?" 

Ace threw each Talon a sausage, thank goodness he got three. The three Talons devoured the meat, savoring it. 

 Well, Quirina started, as a tree dragon I live in the trees, that's how I escape competing predators and how I catch my food, it's how I live. One day I made a fatal mistake, a miscalculation. A dog lay just below my tree, just sitting there, so I crawled down ever so quietly and took the dog. However it was a Talonhunter's hunting dog. It led them right to me and they shot their arrows at me, they sliced at me with knives and swords until I could fight no more. They threw a net over me and dragged me back, to here where they sliced off each of my claws. Not cut, not trimmed, sliced. They took a dagger to each one so I could never climb another tree. Ace was dividing up the turkey he got. I was a simple tree dragon trying to catch a meal and they stripped me of everything, my protection, my forest, my home, my identity, my freedom. 

 "How long ago was that, Quirina?" 

 The bigger dragon paused in thought. Two...maybe three hundred years ago. Ace threw each Talon a scrap of the turkey. Every year they take a knife to my claws just to make sure that if I did escape, there'd be no hope for me. The voice that came from Quirina was not the voice of a powerful dragon that invoked fear in her enemies like Aureliana, it was a beaten one, a broken one.

 "You all call me a 'Talon-Tongue', what is that?" 

 It is a person who speaks to Talons. Paramonos said rolling over.

 "So is that my...ability?" The Talons laughed, smoke coming out as they laughed, sincerely it did get cold at night. 

 Come here, Talon-Tongue, you are cold. Ace scooted over to Paramonos hesitantly, as the wyvern draped one of his thin cut up wings over Ace. Paramonos dragged his wing closer to his body, taking Ace with him. Ace flinched as he touched the wyvern's scarred side. Ace marveled how warm Paramonos was. Being a Talon-Tongue is not an ability you have, it's just something no one else does. It used to be as common as garden dragons until Melanthios arrived in Apri City. Saxa shuttered. 

 "Who's Melanthios?" Ace asked, picking up a sensitive subject. 

No one special. Quirina said quickly. Just know that after he went to Apri City, no one wanted to listen to Talons anymore. They shut us out of their heads and refused to teach their children how to talk. You, Talon-Tongue, weren't taught to shut us out, to fear us, that is why you can hear us.

"What did they do to you, Saxa?" Ace asked, turning towards the smaller dragon.

 The sand dragon lowered her head to the ground. I was young, not yet old enough to hunt or leave the nest. I was walking with my momma on the sandy beach, with my ten other siblings when I smelled meat. I knew that momma always brought meat back for us to eat so I thought maybe I could bring some meat to momma for a change. So I wobbled unsteadily over to the meat which was a fish on a line. Every time I snapped my toothless jaws at the fish, it moved just out of my reach. I followed it off the sand and when I finally sank my jaw into the fish and turned to give my prize back to momma, I was snatched up by a human. I was afraid, I started calling out to momma as the human walked back with me in his arms. Momma was upon him in a second, she sniffed around, but couldn't find me, a sand dragon's eyesight is not the best, so we have to rely mostly on smell. Since that human had handled me, I smelled like a threat to momma so she growled and bristled whenever I came near. I guess I didn't get the hint or came too close because she swiped at me, right across the face, hitting my left eye. The human that picked me up then killed momma and brought me here. I never learned how to survive in the wild, I never learned anything, but to not trust Talonhunters. 

 Ace split up the rest of the meat and gave it to the Talons. "What do they feed you guys down here?"

Paramonos shook as he ate his meat shaking Ace. Not much, not much at all. 

 "So that's why you guys don't try to escape, you've got nothing to escape to." Ace said. Saxa swished her tail but said nothing. "They didn't just capture you, they broke you."

 Paramonos got to his feet and nudged Ace to stand up. Come now young one, it's late, you should be asleep. 

 "But I'm not tired," Ace lied. Paramonos let out something that sounded like a chuckled. "Besides, you haven't told me your story yet." 

 Another day perhaps. Ace picked up his bag that used to be full of meat. He walked out in a trance all the way back to the health house. He wasn't really seeing anything, just walking. He was asleep before he even hit the pillow.

Next Chapter Ace gets dragged on a Talon hunt with some of the Talon Hunters, and something happens...