Chapter Text
“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty…” came the mocking voice of Viper, somewhere to the left.
“Blurgh…” Fatespeaker groaned as she opened her eyes. “Where are we?”
“Where do you think, fearless leader?” Viper snorted. “Your brilliant smoke signal got us all captured by Queen Scarlet. We’re in the SkyWing Arena, home to prisoners of war and disgraced SkyWings and SandWings, all lined up for the slaughter.”
“Are the others near you? I don’t see them on my side of the pillars.”
“Unfortunately. Squid won’t stop muttering to himself, Flame hasn’t been this quiet in ages and it’s making me uncomfortable, and I haven’t heard Ochre’s rumbling stomach, but he’s probably around here somewhere. I overheard someone say that the Queen likes interesting fights, and MudWing and NightWing prisoners are very rare around here. Connect the dots, why don’t you!?”
“What happened to the Talons? Wait, oh no… Dune… three moons, what have I…”
“Oi, Fatespeaker! Don’t space out before the bloodbath even starts!”
“Bloodbath?”
“See for yourself. I heard that we’ll see the infamous champion kill someone today.” said Viper.
Fatespeaker felt a newfound sense of vertigo as she realized she was tightly chained via wires to a large pillar in the sky, wings folded and clamped in metal clips, surrounded by similar captured dragons on similar pillars, all connected by wires.
Down below, there was a large, circular, sandy open dome where various SkyWings were fidgeting in anticipation of the next match.
Sitting on a raised stone balcony was the cruel Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings, adorned with ruby encrusted golden armor.
“Bring in the combatants!” said the Queen.
A young female dragon swept in from one of the opposing tunnels, smoke rising up from her orange scales, bright blue eyes shimmering with delight.
Some SkyWing guards flew up to the angry looking SandWing prisoner (who thankfully wasn't Viper, but still) on Fatespeaker’s right.
The guards restrained the SandWing’s venomous tail barb and hauled him down to the sands in the arena below.
Fatespeaker felt her heart lurch as a SkyWing guard stood in the arena center, clapped his wings for silence, bowed to the Queen and introduced Horizon, formerly a SandWing soldier in Queen Blaze’s army, now pressed into facing the Queen’s dreaded champion, Peril.
“Claws up… fire ready… FIGHT!!!”
It wasn’t even a battle.
Horizon had a size and reach advantage and a deadly, venomous tail barb, but he was too afraid to use his strongest natural weapon on Peril.
And soon, Peril’s burning hot scales led to a loud, excruciating defeat for him, and victory for the champion.
And then Horizon threw himself on her deadly scales after giving up on life.
“Hmph. That was boring.” said the Queen. “I hope some of you up there are braver than this pathetic corpse.”
“Well… fuck.” said Viper, quietly mulling over the mutilated SandWing’s failed attempt to go for the eyes and the heart.
Flame hissed a curse under his breath.
And Squid…
“Kill me now.”
Nobody said anything.
“I’m being serious, here! Can somebody please slit my throat or chop my head off!? I DON’T WANT TO GET BURNED TO DEATH BY THAT CRAZY PSYCHO DEATH DRAGON!!! MOONS!!! FATESPEAKER!!! HELP MEEEEEE!!! I DON’T WANT TO DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!”
That night, Viper dreamed of the fatal fight between Horizon and Peril, replaying his critical mistakes on a non stop loop...
Horizon flung himself at Peril, slashing at her eyes and jabbing his tail at her heart. Peril whirled, avoiding his claws, and knocked him to the sand. His barbed tail bounced off her scales with a spark like miniature lightning, and then burst into flames. Fire engulfed the poisoned tip, and Horizon howled in pain.
Ochre was hungry.
This wasn’t news for anyone, as Ochre was always hungry… but the howling winds, the very long drop down to the ground, and the uncomfortable metal wing clamps made the hunger feel more acute.
Ochre struggled against his restraints for a bit before realizing that he did not want to fall off the pillar or fall to his death or both.
Also, it looked like the wires keeping him trapped were connected to wires that were connected to other dragons, and they probably wouldn’t like it if he caused everyone else to fall down at the same time. It would be something that a ‘stupid little monster’ would do, as Kestrel once said.
Ochre felt like he should have remembered something very important about Kestrel or some other dragon, or dragons, but it slipped out of his mind.
And so, he closed his eyes and daydreamed of juicy cow legs.
But soon, a hunk of meat his face.
Ochre opened his eyes, saw something dead and bloody and charred on the stone in front of him.
Ochre smiled and immediately ate the slice of unidentifiable meat in one gulp, smacking his lips.
“Wow, you look like you enjoyed that.” came a light chuckle.
Ochre looked up to see a bright, orange dragon that smelled like smoke.
“Oh, wow! You gave me meat! Thank you so much, I love you!” Ochre beamed.
The orange dragon sputtered for a bit.
“I… what? It was just a bit of meat… Ahem. Glad you enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure if MudWings eat the same things we SkyWings do. I’ve never seen a MudWing this close before, since we’re on the same side in the war. But you’re with the Talons of Peace, so you’re fair game.”
“Game? What game? Is it a fun game?” said Ochre.
“Sure! I feed you to keep you alive until I get to kill you in the arena!” the dragon smiled.
Ochre felt confused, which is something he felt quite often.
“Sorry, I'm confused! I think you said that you want me to be alive and dead! That doesn't make sense to me! I'm sorry if I'm too stupid to understand! Big dragons always say that I have small ears and a tiny brain.” said Ochre.
The other dragon made a funny face.
“What’s there to make sense of? I want to kill you.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve never killed a MudWing before!?”
“Okay… you like to try new things?”
“Why, yes, yes I do!”
“That makes sense, I like to try new things too! I like trying new kinds of food! Everyone tells me that there are so many different kinds of food in the world that I could spend my whole life trying new things to eat and never run out!”
“Huh? Okay? Wow, you really like food, don’t you?”
“Yes, I really do like food! You are a very good listener!” said Ochre.
“Okay… I guess, I’ll… see you later and bring you more food?” said the orange dragon.
“Wow! More food! Thank you so much, pretty dragon!”
The pretty dragon coughed, gave Orche another funny look, and flew away.
“That was a very nice dragon.” Orche smiled before going back to daydreaming about fried rabbits.