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“Hey kid. Your shift’s up,” said the gruff voice of an Earthblood prison guard from across the stone room.
“Oh, yes,” said Terry as he got up from the damp dungeon floor. “Are there any new prisoners?”
“Yeah, a human girl. Caught her trying to steal a dragon, of all the stupid things. Surprised we only caught her just as she was getting away, with all that security.” He didn’t mention that the guards had been found out cold around the stables.
“Wow, she must have guts,” Terry laughed dryly.
“Hmph. Anyway, off you go.”
“R-right,” said Terry as he walked down to the holding cells.
As he walked, he heard a faint voice coming from the dungeons.
“You can’t do this to me! I was only going to…borrow the dragon! For, uhh, riding!”
“Oh my stars, BE QUIET! You’ll get in more trouble if you keep shouting at us. There’s nothing we can do!”
The scowling guard came into sight, walking up the stairs.
“Good luck with that girl, she annoyed the crap out of me,” he said.
“Sure will!” Terry said brightly. He nervously walked down the last few stairs. The cells of the ‘minor crimes’ section came into view, holding a wide variety of elves who had committed misdemeanours and a few humans who dared trespass into Xadia. Then Terry saw the girl. She was around the same age as him, with light skin and black plaited hair with a white streak through it, sitting slumped on the ground. She glanced up at him.
“Did they send you in because the other guy got annoyed?” she said.
“Uh, nope. It was the end of his shift.” Terry walked over to stand at his post. It happened to be right next to the girl’s cell. She was cute for a human, he thought, with her deep green eyes and black dress with the pointed shoulder spikes and golden geometric patterns that didn’t suit her perceived personality, somehow.
After a long silence, as was natural in the cells, Terry said “I heard you were in here trying to steal a dragon. I’m assuming you were going to…uh…ahem, kill it? For dark magic I mean. From the streak in your hair, you know. Sorry if I’m wrong, I just thought-”
“No, it’s fine. I…Well yes. I was,” she sighed. “I don’t like doing it, the killing part I mean, but I need to. Not gonna tell you my whole life story obviously, but...yeah.”
“Oh. Right. Of course. Ahem,” Terry awkwardly bounced on his toes as another guard glared at him. He wasn’t that educated on dark magic, as they didn’t teach about it much in school. All they said was that it was very dangerous and harmful to animals and elves, and the humans too. It destroyed them from the inside, but was extremely addictive.
“You don’t look like the type to work at a prison,” she said.
“Yeah, well, it’s difficult to get a job here in these parts, especially for younger elves. And I need as much money as I can get so I can finally-” He cut himself off, “well, you know, get on with life.”
“Huh,” she said. Terry wondered why he was talking to this girl; it wasn’t like him to go against the rules.
The rest of his shift played out in silence, with the occasional sounds of the prisoners and guards moving around, and the frequent sighs, tuts and humming of the girl. As he was walking back up to the main building, the girl said “Wait! Thank you. For talking to me. I’ve been SO BORED in this cell the last couple days. I mean, they confiscated my playing cards so I can’t even play solitaire!” Terry glanced back and smiled as she rambled on.
He thought about the strange girl the whole day. He didn’t know why he was so fixated on her. He’d never met anyone like her before. His small Earthblood village in the middle of the forest was cosy, but everyone was…kind of the same. Terry hated that. He hated how no one ever had any opinions of their own; how everyone followed the routine set out for them by the status quo, which was essentially to either be a cruel, heartless dragon wrangler, or to serve them. That’s why he had to get out.
-
The next day, he had a long shift ahead of him. As usual, he got up at dawn, got washed and dressed, made breakfast and looked in the mirror and wished he was something he was not. As usual.
“Right, I’ll be off then, since it’s a Wednesday…” He trailed off as his family all but ignored him. Suddenly, as he was walking down his street, a small orange and green dragon swooped into him, knocking him over.
“Sorry, Talia!” his friend Isa called out to him. He hated that name. “I’m trying to train lil’ Raelo here, but to no avail,” she said dramatically.
“Ah, no worries Isa. I hope you make some progress today! Seems like you’ve been trying to train him for months now…” That last part he said under his breath. “How’s your week been?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” she said. “School, homework, work-work, repeat. What about you?”
“My job at the prison is going well! I mean I haven’t got fired yet,” Terry said, uncertain. “There’s this human girl in the prison. She’s very…interesting. Fun to talk to.” That’s when he knew he’d slipped up.
“Talk to? You know you’re not meant to talk to the prisoners, Talia, you could get fired!” The thing about Isa was that she was a good friend, but she’s not the brightest. She couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, and seemed to get a strange kick out of snitching on people. That, and the culture of sticking to the rules in this town made a recipe for someone who wasn’t to be trusted.
“No no, you’ve got it wrong! She talked to me, but I didn't talk back,” but he knew it was too late. Isa never let you get a word in edgeways once you’d spilled a secret.
“What are they gonna say? I bet you’ll get fired! I’m surprised the other guards on duty haven’t ratted you out yet-”
“It won’t happen again! Just…please don’t tell anyone, okay? I really need this job.” He didn’t point out the hypocrisy of her words.
“But-”
“Isa. Please.”
She stared at Terry for an uncomfortable amount of time. Eventually, she sighs. “Alright, fine. But you owe me one.”
“Yeah…fair enough,” Terry said, even though it wasn’t fair. He needed new friends.