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Growing up in the mountains, Ashido believed she and her friends, her mates, were invincible. They were dragons, the strongest species in the world to date. Each and every dragon had the best control over the magic they inherited from their great ancestors, even at their weakest. In their dragon forms, Ashido and her mates were indestructible, weapons and claws simply could not penetrate their hardy scales.
Being the only female in her pack of mates, Ashido was protected more than the others. The only one capable of producing heirs for her mates, if and whenever that was to happen, her mates would put down their lives for her, not that she ever thought they would even get mortally injured. It was the sentiment that counted.
Which was why, when other dragons came by and exchanged information with them over the last years, she was having a difficult time understanding what was happening. Older dragons were leaving their territories, being driven out by a mortal man. A creature by the moniker of Shigaraki. Those that had not been driven off were enslaved, the fleeing dragons told the young ones in the mountains.
Ashido and her mates stayed put, knowing they were far away from the human, at least for the time being. The other dragons soon started to dwindle, over the years, and by the time they saw the expansion they had been told about, it was difficult if not impossible to move.
Ashido was with a clutch.
It was really poor timing, the whole thing. One heat later, and three eggs were ready in a nest. They couldn’t just leave, despite Hanta’s warnings and pressures as they saw the creeping expansion of human greed climbing up towards their mountain territory. Any disruption to the eggs could kill them, and it took about two months for the babies to hatch. Ashido and the eggs were bound to the cave in the mountains where she had laid the eggs, as the mother wouldn’t leave her nest for some humans to find her babies.
Eijirou and Denki were quick to agree to stay to defend their mate and offspring, thinking of ways to hide them from the approaching human, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.
Katsuki was the first caught. Ashido heard about it from Hanta, who had come back in his humanoid form, his left arm hanging uselessly by his side and dripping blood.
“They took him out of the sky!” He exclaimed. “They, they were trying to get us both, but he… Katsuki saw and he… he threw me away…”
The following days, as Hanta tried to heal as quickly as all dragons could, he and Ashido were bound to the nest, Ashido curled around her mate and eggs protectively. Still, they could hear the shouts and fights of their other mates, protecting the cave.
But it wasn’t enough.
“Well, this is a surprise,” the human reeked of death and decay, to the point Ashido couldn’t think of it as human. Necromancer. He walked further into the cave, Denki being pulled behind him in human form and covered in blood. “I heard reports of an eggbound dragon in the area, but this is even better. So many dragons to join in my cause.”
Ashido growled, wrapping her tail around her clutch and Hanta, forcefully blocking the necromancer’s view of the defenseless.
The necromancer laughed and approached, apparently not caring for Ashido’s increasing anger at the intruder in her home, too close to her children and injured mates.
“Come now. You must know you’ve lost,” he gestured to the bloodied and shackled Denki. “I’ve got your other dragon friends, the red and gold ones. And this one was kind enough to show me where the remaining dragons hid.”
Ashido looked to her captive mate, seeing the despair in his eyes as he managed to look at her for only a moment. Something had happened to make him do this, and given the blood all over his body, torture was just one of the possibilities of what could have broken him.
“Stay away,” Ashido growled, lowering her head to the floor as her mouth filled with acid, dripping from her lower jaw onto the floor and melting a layer of the rocky ground. “Leave before I melt you to nothing.”
The necromancer simply laughed again and continued forward, dragging Denki behind him by the chains. Even as Ashido bared her teeth, fear and anger mixing with the maternal protectiveness she had been developing since laying her clutch, the necromancer made no move away.
“You know there’s only one way out of this, dragon. One way in which neither you or your offspring are killed by my army,” he said, raising a hand in her direction. The smell of decay increased, and the air went stale. “I’ll only ask once. Submit to me and you will be able to see your eggs hatch. Will you join me?”
Fear sent chills down her spine, and her eyes went from the necromancer to Denki behind him, before she turned to the nest she was protecting with her body and her last mate staring back at her with wide eyes, uncertain how to get out of the situation. She had to think fast, turning back to the necromancer.
“I cannot leave my clutch. They cannot be moved, so I will not be moved until they pip,” she said, lowering her head in supplication, in submission. “I will not do anything to you as long as you leave this place alone until it is time for my children to hatch.”
“Is that so?” The necromancer smiled, the expression a twisted, warped version of the smiles Ashido had seen from others all her life. There was no kindness, no warmth. Only death and manic joy. “Fine, you will stay in this cave until they hatch.”
“I still need to eat, and my mates have been the ones to bring me meat,” Ashido said.
“Fine, I’ll have meat delivered here every day. Now, the black dragon, where is it? We had tried capturing it with the gold one, but that one protected it.”
Hanta gave himself up before Ashido could fib, and her heart squeezed as he too was quickly shackled, the chains appearing out of nowhere. Then chains appeared around Ashido’s hind legs, the chains leading to the floor.
“Thank you very much for coming willingly, my dear. You won’t regret your decision,” the necromancer chuckled and turned back to the entrance of the cave. “Once the eggs have hatched, you and them will be properly trained for my army.”
Ashido could only growl after them as her last two mates were dragged out of the cave, leaving her chained to her nest, unable to fight back.
It was another month before the first egg pipped, a nice long slice along the egg wall signaling her children were hatching.
It had been a hard month for Ashido, left all alone except the daily meat delivery by humans. They never went too far into the cave, but left the food just within Ashido’s reach so she wouldn’t starve, and there was a natural water supply to quench her thirst since she had forgotten about that detail.
The moment the first egg pipped, Ashido felt an overwhelming mix of excitement and dread, and she curled around the nest to watch with rapt attention as lines were made across the eggs, her children breaking out to take their first - and last - look of freedom.
Ashido felt tears push against her eyes, wishing her mates were with her. She hadn’t seen them since the necromancer, Shigaraki, had taken Denki and Hanta away from her. She missed each one dearly, and just hoped they were okay, wherever they were and whatever they were being forced to endure while she had been shackled to the cave.
It took another few days for the three eggs to hatch completely, and Ashido was relieved that the first hatchling came just after the humans left after giving her her meat. That meant she had a full 24 hours before they would return and learn of her children hatching.
As hatchlings, their colours were all muted and similar to one another, a dull sort of purple-pink. As they aged, their colours would become more vibrant and closer to whatever colours they got from their parents, so the pink would stay and just change with whoever sired the three - it could be any of her mates, since dragon reproduction was very different from human reproduction - but only time would tell.
They blinked at the world with wide, dilated eyes, surprised by the brightness after being stuck in their dark eggs for so long, and Ashido couldn’t stop the soft purring as she lowered her head to nuzzle her first child. They nuzzled back, croaking happily at the touch.
For the next several hours, Ashido cleaned her children and checked them over, ensuring they were all healthy and happy before letting them explore the nest and a bit beyond. She couldn’t let them wander since she couldn’t follow them, what with the chains keeping her in one place, so she encircled the area they were allowed to explore with her body. Even as they explored, though, she had a feeling they understood something was wrong. Hours old, and they knew something wasn't right.
Ashido couldn’t tell whether she was proud at how smart her children were, or despaired over being unable to do anything to change their upcoming fate.
The next day, the humans learned of the hatchlings' state, and Shigaraki returned to unbind Ashido and took one of her babies, forcing her to follow with her other two securely in her mouth, protected for the time being.
“Now, now, no need to act all possessive. You did agree, remember?” Shigaraki tsked.
Ashido only growled lowly in response, unable to answer with children in her mouth. If she could, she would have flung acid at the necromancer behind his back, but her children held her back figuratively.
They were brought down the mountain, and Ashido’s heart ached at the sight before her. Humanoids and dragons chained as they worked, brands everywhere she looked, and the environment made volcanic deadlands look beautiful. The land was dead, or dying at this point. The stench of death and decay rotted over everything, almost making Ashido gag.
Her children whined at the smell, the little one in Shigaraki’s grip squirming to hide from the horrible smell, only to still when the necromancer shook them slightly. Before she could do anything about the injustice, she recognized one of the dragons, since he was doing his damnest to get to her in the first place.
“Min- ah” Eijirou buckled over his front legs, something making it difficult to get back up. His typically gleaming red scales looked dull, scratched up, cracked in places. It hurt to see one of her mates in such a state, but she was unable to do anything.
Shigaraki, however, had raised his empty hand in Eijirou’s direction, and he let out a scream in pain, falling to his side and curling up.
Ashido had no idea what he had done to her mate, but the instinct to fly away with her babies was getting strong, only tethered by the remaining hatchling in the necromancer’s hands.
“Get back to work, you scaled brute,” he said to Eijirou, who shakily stood back up with his head hung low, casting only a quick, despairing glance at Ashido before he went back to… whatever he was being forced to do.
“Come. We must get you to the other dragon mothers in the army. You will be a great asset to me, and your offspring will make wonderful soldiers,” Shigaraki said, already walking forward once more.
Ashido could do nothing but follow behind.