The Wings of All Things

Chapter 6

Ugly screeches came from big cages that dangled up in the air by rusty chains. The Queen and her young Assistant walking down a dark hallway right below them. The Queen hummed softly to herself like they were taking a stroll through the park on a bright, sunny, beautiful day. The Assistant felt differently. Like a normal and sane person, she felt like she was walking into a nightmare. A filthy, disgusting, nightmare. The air was stained with the smell of pain, suffering, death, and urine. Mainly urine.

"Why haven't they cleaned these cages yet? Do they clean them at all?" The Assistant thought. "The cages for The Queen's symbols in the upper floor are spotless. This is just horrid! And she allows this? She must think the Crows know what they're doing. Guh... How they manage this place is despicable." She pondered. The Snapward Chambers are where the Crows did their filthy business.

Normally The Queen went on down here on her own to speak with the Crows in private or to even check on those who cowered in the cages but today she brought her Assistant down to take notes. The Assistant shivered as she used one hand to cover one of her ears. The cries above were hard to ignore. Despite it mostly being dragons, it was the other flights that whined constantly. Some humming birds, flies, and even some barn owls, etc. And yet it was only the dragons that whimpered quietly. A few coos were heard. Sounds of symbols being sung. A law being broken right above The Queen's head. Flyers were not allowed to make the sound of their birth symbol but since they knew their destined fate, they had nothing left to lose before the Crows get to them. It sounded sad to hear them so the assistant tried to put no mind to it as she had to do a light jog to stay in pace with her Queen. The Queen reached the height of eight feet tall. She was known to be a slender giant however.

"Why're they all crying...? Why're some singing? I never heard Flyers make symbol noises... What's putting them in such pain to make such sounds?" The Assistant thought. "I see you're as disgusted with them as I am." The Queen said. Her soft voice cutting through the painful moans above them like a hot knife through butter. "Oh, the smell? Yes, I agree. It's very dreadful." The Assistant answer. "Not the smell. The creatures that make the smell." The Queen corrected. "Low flyers. Dragons..." She sneered. "They are a waste of space. Waste of air. Waste of my resources. Mainly they are the waste of my time." She continued. The Assistant looked up at The Queen with a question on her mind. "Then why are we here? It says here..." The Assistant pointed at the tablet in her hand. "That we're visiting one?" The Queen stopped abruptly. The Assistant took a few more steps ahead before stopping too when she noticed her Queen halt. "Your Majesty?" She asked.

"That tablet of yours must be running slow down here. We're not visiting one of those disgusting serpents. We're visiting somebody even lower than them." The Queen paused as she looked off to the side. "Who could be lower than dragons?" The Assistant asked. "A traitor of our flight." The Queen sneered as she turned back to look down at her. The Assistant gasped in disbelief. "How? What have they done?" The Assistant asked. "I have yet to find out myself. I told the guards I wanted to find out on my own. And you're going to record every word." The Queen said. The Assistant nodded, already knowing her duties. "Of course your Majesty. So how far until we reach their cage?" She asked. "We're already here." The Queen said. Two metal doors stood tall before them. "Oh! Silly me." The Assistant chuckled before clearing her throat. "Wait... This is a cell? An actual cell? I thought they didn't make these anymore." The Assistant said.

"This is made for... Specials birds." The Queen said. "Birds...? What's a bird?" The Assistant thought. "With a normal cage such as these-," The Queen looked up along with her Assistant to spy at them. "Their bars allow you to see what's around you. You can hear loud and clear and be heard just the same. You can smell, and maybe even taste. But with walls... You're forced to think within them. No sounds from you or the outside, no sight but the walls themselves... This cage of walls hasn't been used for a long time actually. Not even for dragons." The Queen said. Her Assistant looked away when The Queen held her hand up to block the side of her face. A hint to her young Assistant to mind her business. She reached up to nine glowing buttons and pressed five of them. Each button letting out a different tune, the young Assistant could not help but take it in. Oddly liking the sound of it. The abrupt low and itchy boop sound that came at the end was not as lovely and caused her to flinch as the doors opened. The Queen and her small Assistant entered. The walls of the cell were a dull, rotting, slime green color. A male sat on a wooden chair in the center of it. Leaning on the chair's back legs, he balanced himself from falling as he rocked it slightly. Its creaking echoed as the women walked in.