The human held a pair of wire cutters up to the bonds that held Helios. They glistened brightly with a wicked edge as they sliced through the ropes and loosed his wings. Helios flexed his wings and wondered why he hadn’t killed this human already. A needle sat empty of its contents on the counter beside him, with a label he couldn’t read.
Muscle relaxer and aggression dampener. It read.
“Oh wow! These are remarkable!! I’ve never seen anyth- or anyone, with this pattern! And you say it’s genetic?! Oh the Genetics Guild would kill for your dna!” He said in astonishment, lifting up the huge dragons wings as best he could and climbing underneath them to see better, the way young dragonets used to climb under his wings when the mountain kingdoms winds got too cold. Helios stood up and rolled off of the elevated platform he’d been on, standing up and wincing loudly at the pain in his neck. He looked down and could see dried blood had caked up all down his chest and neck, some still fresh oozing over the already dried blood just from the movement.
“Oh no, no, no! This won’t do, that needs bandaged! You don’t want to ruin your magnificent scales before auction! Or bleed to death, that’d do no one any good! Although an autopsy would reveal a good amount about your unique anatomy, I’d rather you stay alive and tell me what you can do!” He said enthusiastically, moving the ladder over to directly infront of Helios neck. His huge teeth loomed over the human, the power to snuff the life out of him was right there…but, why? For what?
“Well I hate humans…. But he’s just curious…maybe he’s just oblivious to the war between the two of us.”
As the human wrapped a large roll of bandaging material around his neck, he decided to let him finish before eating him, if he was going to at all.
“Where are we?” Helios asked, looking around at the surrounding room. It was a very large space with tables set up to hold dragons of many sizes, and cabinets holding needles and large books each with a unique symbol for every dragon species. The overhead lights were dimmer thankfully, not as eyeball burning as the others and a large door that seemed to slide upwards was in the wall in front of him. His way out.
“Oh we’re a bit into “The Maze” but it’s not really all that maze-y. Once you’ve spent most your life down here wonderin when the other scientists will allow you into the guild….you get it all layed out in your brain!” He answered with a smile, but it seemed to flicker away for a moment as he spoke and then return. It was still amazing how much dragonese this human knew, like he’d only ever talked to dragons.
Helios could hear a commotion outside, a bang and a gasp of pain.
“Oh they better not be here to raid me again! It’s always-” the human started, but stopped as soon as soon as the door opened and a head poked through. It was a dragon, a Lunarwing! It was Eclipse!
“Helios!” She had shouted as the king lowered his head to block the human from her sight. And then a Seawing came in, looking like he’d killed someone. Crest.
“W-what are you two doing here?! How’d you even find me! How are you free?!” He asked incredulously, surging forward and wrapping his wings around the two of them for a moment.
The human stared at them all, And then instinctively reached for something in his pocket….
(Lol don’t kill him btw)
Crest saw the giant dragon and caught a slight glimpse of movement behind the giant dragon before being engulfed in a giant hug. He felt the cool lunarwing's scales against his, but the more prevalent feeling he had was the warmth from the king's wings. Something in him seemed to be revolted by it and he shifted uncomfortably in Helios' grasp. I may have almost killed you. How have you forgiven me so easily? Being released from the embrace, he went back to having his head lowered submissively but still watching the two dragons and keeping his senses alert to everything around them.
He watched the two converse when the solarwing looked his way, "I'm glad you're alive, Soldier, I wasn't sure if....nevermind."
Crest's interest had been nudged and he wanted to know more. Wasn't sure if what?! If they killed me! Did I do something so awful I should be put do death. Unless....did I almost die? He halted this dangerous train of thought and focused again on what the dragons were doing.
Movement caught his eye and he tensed. A small human stood with a camera ready to snap photos of them. Crest quickly assessed the small human. Doesn't look threatening. His weapon is just one of those picture devices that humans like. Doesn't seem to have any immediate weapons. The human began speaking dragon and Crest relaxed a little, deciding that he wasn't an immediate threat. He took a few steps towards the human as Eclipse pulled out some weird silver object and held it in mid air with what seemed like her mind. Is this what legends call "warping"? He took another step towards the human almost defensively. He didn't want any unnecessary deaths.
No more death...not now.
He tried to keep up, his headache beginning to return and his thoughts swirling in his head. Another human came bursting in and she glanced at him. I must look like a wreck. He thought, slightly amused. He continued opening cages and letting dragons out. The well kept dragons had so much. They had food and
Water.
He stared at the substance like it was a dream. The dragon from the cage escaped it, but Crest stayed staring at the water. The others were making their way to the doors, but Crest stayed. He stared into the pool, memories seemingly swimming in it. Nothing made any sense. He was fighting, then he saw nightwings, then he saw Minami, now he's escaping, and they are planning a rebellion. Nothing made sense! His head hurt from it all. But one thing made sense to him. Water is life.
His animal instincts suddenly kicked in and he dove for the water, not caring who or what might stand in his way. He drank deep and long, relishing each drop. It felt like complete relief to him. Nothing else seemed to matter. Water....home...life.
