Chapter I – The Blue Palace

            Morrigan landed her Dragon on the roof of the Blue Palace. She disembarked via her dragon Diablo’s wing. Diablo tilted her wing forty-five degrees so that Morrigan could use it to slide safely to the palace rooftop. A rather long and fast slide Morrigan thought, who had to take it about 50 feet to the ground below her. Diablo was one of the biggest dragons in New Poasis, and almost as ancient as the land itself. Although size and age didn’t always correlate with dragons, it did with Diablo, whose massive red wings outstretched over a bulky scaly torso. From the torso jutted out a long spiked tail which coiled towards the end.

The most striking part of Diablo was her head and facial features, which was comprised of two golden horns and emerald green eyes. As Morrigan landed on the blue palace stone, she gazed out over the greater area of New Poasis. She saw children playing with their baby Dragons in a distant park. The sight made her stomach tremble. What peaceful bliss that is at risk Morrigan thought. New Poasis had seen over 20 years of no major conflict since the Fire and Blood Concordant. Other than petty squabbles between the Humans themselves, Humans and Dragons had since then lived mostly symbiotically in harmony. However, that was all at risk by the threat of the Remainders. There were whispers that they were gathering in a large force camped nearby, preparing to surround the city walls. If only the Dragons would—

            “Don’t go down that road again, you’re only making it worse.” interrupted Diablo.

            “You know I don’t like when you do that.” Morrigan returned with a hint of sass.

Diablo over time had developed the ancient dragon skill of telepathy. Being able to live for hundreds and sometimes over a thousand years, has allowed Dragons to be more in tune with other beings. Although Diablo couldn’t read Morrigan’s mind word-for-word, Diablo through centuries of practice could deduce thought from pure emotion. She must have felt my stomach tremble thought Morrigan. Morrigan was Diablo’s rider, making their connection special and bond strong. Morrigan had learned that if this bond between Dragon and rider is cultivated over years of partnership, then sometimes emotional blending between the two can occur.

Morrigan and Diablo were an exception, having cultivated a very strong connection in what would be considered a blink of an eye. This was much to the amazement of some citizens of New Poasis but to the disappointment of others. Counting amongst those disappointed were the residents of the palace below. Those who lived in the palace were not that fond of either Morrigan or Dragons in New Poasis to say the least. However, they were the people Morrigan had the pleasure of having to deal with today.

“Let me get this over with. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Morrigan told Diablo.

“You’ll know where to find me.” Diablo answered with a yawn.

 She opened the hatch on the rooftop and took a spiral staircase which led into the palace landing lobby. These were common on all buildings, as seldom did people travel by other means than Dragonback anymore. Even those without Dragons of their own could hitch rides with others as long as they weren’t afraid of heights. The palace landing lobby consisted of a small room with an attendant, with an intimidating iron-clad door leading to another room. It was here you were to state your business for visiting the palace before being allowed entry. The inhabitants of the palace were very stingy about security as they very much existed in their own bubble within New Poasis. Morrigan approached the attendant who eyed her up and down suspiciously. The attendant was dressed top to bottom in a blue service uniform with a matching hat. The blue was the same royal blue of the palace exterior, and had gold buttons that ran vertically up the uniform coat.

“Tall, long red hair, pale blue eyes, unmistakable.” he muttered to himself. What brings you in today?” asked the attendant with an air of caution.

“I’m here to speak with the Royals”. Morrigan replied, reluctant to call them by their fabricated name.

The palace occupants fancied themselves some sort of higher-class of New Poasis, when in reality the truth was far from it. However, Morrigan knew to fulfill her promise to Diablo by flying away from this place as soon as possible, she had to take part in their charade.

“On what grounds do you mean to speak to the righteous ones?” answered the attendant quizzically.

“I’m here on behalf of the dragons.” Morrigan answered unflinchingly.

“As you wish.” answered the attendant, muttering under his breath as he fumbled with the large silver keys that opened the cast-iron door. Had Morrigan provided any other reason, the attendant surely would have further questioning and pestering for Morrigan. However, being Diablo’s rider, the attendant wouldn’t dare question Morrigan if she was truly at the palace on behalf of Dragon business. Once the correct three silver keys it took to unlock the door were all firmly in place, the heavy iron-clad door slowly hinged open and Morrigan entered a long narrow corridor dimly lit by torchlight. She proceeded down it, and entered another small chamber which contained another downward spiral staircase. This would take her into the Grand Hall which connected with the throne room. Morrigan took a deep breath, and started her descent, bracing herself for what was to come. The royal court would be awaiting her there, and she would be tasked with attempting to unify them with their cause.

The dragons of New Poasis always sought to resolve conflict peacefully. To do so in this case, they would need the greater community to not be fractured with the inhabitants of the palace. The Remainders entire offensive strategy allegedly banked on the help of the Royals with their position within the city walls. How that would level the playing field when they were only just humans, Morrigan didn’t know. But Diablo had insisted it was important to treat with them. Diablo revealed that she and other dragons had reported spotting cloaked Royal members traveling outside of the city limits in secrecy. As she descended the staircase, Morrigan pondered whether these Remainders sincerely trusted the Royals or saw them as a mere stepping-stone, but her train of thought was interrupted as she plunged into a sudden free-fall.

The spiral staircase was many steps to the bottom, and dimly lit like the corridor, and as she took a step the stair had given out under her. Morrigan fell rapidly into absolute darkness, until it consumed her and her mind faded into unconsciousness. Morrigan awoke with a pounding in her head and struggled to open her eyes. Everything looked blurry but she could make out a faint torchlight in the distance. She tried to stand, but quickly realized she was shackled to a pole, which made her jolt back to the floor. Morrigan sat for a moment and tried to gather her thoughts, but was interrupted by the sound of encroaching footsteps. The sound of the shackle must have alerted whomever was keeping her prisoner. She just had enough time to grasp she was in the deep palace dungeon when a cloaked figure approached.

            “Well, well look who’s awake.” a menacing voice hissed.

Although it was too dark for Morrigan to make out their facial features, she knew at once who she was dealing with.

“You can’t believe you’ll get away with this.” Morrigan replied.

“You appear to be the one won’t be getting away anytime soon.” the voice replied with a snigger.

“And now that I have you.” The voice added. “It’s high time you’ve finally repented for this!”

The cloaked figure pulled down their hood revealing their grotesque face. Morrigan winced at what she saw. She had imagined it wasn’t pretty but this was hideous. What revealed itself under the hood was hardly recognizable from what it once was. His face was a mix of red and black, with burn scars making it seem as if portions of his face was raised and indented. His face was more reminiscent of a hunk of meat that had been left over a campfire and forgotten than that of a human. The cloaked figure paced over to the closest sconce that was holding the torch in the distance, removed it, and circled back to Morrigan.

“You will soon know what it means to be unrecognizable to friends and family, to have children turn away from you in fear and disgust. You will soon learn the meaning of what it is to play with fire!” spit the abominable face at Morrigan.

After saying this, the figure approached, holding the torch in an outstretched arm inching toward Morrigan. Morrigan tried to move her arms to cover up, only to reveal that her arms were shackled in such a way that limited her range of motion to behind her back. As she winced and writhed, the glowing flame approached closer, engulfing her vision with a blinding light. The heat grew increasingly more intense and it felt as if it was filling her lungs, and the light blinding her vision turned to a pure red. She couldn’t tell if she was lit aflame but as she gasped for some sort of air,

Morrigan felt the fire in the back of her throat. Fearing she was beginning to burn her insides, Morrigan in desperation tried to exhale with all of her might. What happened next Morrigan had thought only was possible in a young girl’s imagination. Morrigan breathed the torch flame from in front of her face directly back towards the cloaked figure. The fire had come from within her and as it left she felt no burning pain at all. As this happened, the figure dropped the wooden stave of the torch on the floor and lit completely aflame from head to toe.

“AAAAAAAAAAGH!!” he screamed, flailing and spinning every which way.

“Impossible! Curse you demon!” he continued bellowing, now rolling on the floor in a futile attempt to douse the flames.

The blood-piercing screams and shrieks continued until eventually the ball of flame started to move slower and slower, and the flame simmered and began to die. Morrigan watched in both amazement and astonishment, as the life seemed to seep out of the charred corpse that had once been her most fearsome foe. As she watched the dwindling flame, Morrigan knew it would only be a matter of time before someone arrived to see what the commotion had been about. Rather than think about what might happen next, Morrigan saw in the flame her past, the only other time an event like this had occurred in New Poasis. It had been right before the Fire and Blood Concordant.

Dragons and Humans were occupying the same space, but the living was far from harmonious. The issue was not with the Dragons- they were quite indifferent to Humans, and viewed them more as Humans would view a pack of dogs or troop of monkeys rather than threats or as equals. The Humans on the other hand, were very much divided on what one side described as the “Dragon problem”. There were two conflicting schools of thought, one being that Humans should learn and benefit from the Dragons superior intelligence.

The other being that Humans ought to find a way to tame the Dragons, and make them subservient to them- as they’d done with other species. Morrigan was born into the side of the settlement that had hoped to unify with the Dragons rather than control them. She was just a young girl when she would rise to the center of this conflict. After much debate and failed compromise, the two sides had reached an impasse on how to proceed with the local Dragons. Although the Dragons had not threatened or become aggressive to the Human population, the side looking to tame the dragons convinced themselves it was time to act. This party was spearheaded by one wicked man, Istvan Grimlin. Grimlin had radicalized his party into believing that humans that side with dragons should be part of the subservient class with the dragons they conquer. “They may as well have scales and a tail too.”

Grimlin would say of the Humans who sought to live peacefully alongside the dragons. Grimlin’s offensive had two parts to it- first, consolidate the Humans, and second tame the Dragons. Grimlin’s reasoning for this two-pronged approach, was to take advantage of the Dragon’s disinterest in the Human conflict. He figured that they wouldn’t intervene, and he could overthrow the pro-dragon leaders with relative ease, as they weren’t experienced in warfare. They lacked a standing army, and also weren’t expecting any attacks from anyone, as Grimlin was careful to not openly threaten his planned coup.

Grimlin himself was a grizzled veteran in the art, having participated in several human wars on the front lines. After removing any pro-dragon resistance, Grimlin then could turn his complete focus to the Dragons, without having to worry about Human intervention. On one misty Saturday afternoon, Grimlin set his plan into action. With Saturday being the holy day of rest, most people were lounging about enjoying themselves when Grimlin’s militia marched upon the homes of the main pro-dragon leaders. Among those homes visited was that of Morrigan’s, as her father was one of the most prominent advocates for Human and Dragon coexistence and harmony. Her mother screamed as a group of soldiers dragged Morrigan’s father from their home, stuffing a sack over his head.

Morrigan not knowing what was happening, decided to pursue her father and her captors, bolting out of the door after them. Her mother being deep in pregnancy at the time, was unable to give chase, and Morrigan heard her scream slowly fade and she trailed the men. All of the leaders had been captured and rounded up into the village square, where Grimlin and his men blared trumpets to attract the attention of the townsfolk.

They had prepared an executioner’s block and had all the leaders bound and lined up. Next to the block was a headsman, standing shirtless with a black hood covering his face. His long battle-axe required two hands to hold and the sun gleaming off of it showed it had been freshly polished for the occasion. Grimlin’s men had formed a perimeter of armor-clad soldiers in a shield-wall to prevent any citizens from getting brave and rushing the prisoners. This alone wouldn’t be enough of a deterrent, but Grimlin also had positioned a ring of archers along the rooftops above so that anyone who got any heroic ideas would be pinned between shield and arrow. Once it seemed as if the crowd around the town center had reached full capacity, Grimlin silenced the trumpets and began to speak.

“Today is a turning point in the history of mankind.” Grimlin spoke with a booming voice. “Those who have dared to support the fiery beasts will soon perish.” Grimlin continued. “Then those who remain shall overtake the monsters and harness power never known to man before!”

Grimlin’s supporters let out a raucous cheer at this sentiment. Morrigan being only seven years of age, was struggling to get a glimpse through the crowd. It was very difficult for her to see through the crowd of people and the surrounding shield wall. Hopping up and down did no help, so she began to use her size to her advantage, and crawled as close as she could get to the front of the mob. She navigated around a variety of onlookers, which wasn’t too difficult given most were frozen with fear. As she made it to the front, she could see through a small window in the shield wall- her father. A soldier was removing the sack from his head, and Morrigan was able to see his face. If he was afraid, he was not showing it, but rather had a stoic look of a solemnness. The soldier escorted him over to the executioner’s block, where he dropped him to his knees.

            “First we shall have the head of the man who most should rather have been born with horns and a tail, Arthur Swords! This man has been known to be fraternizing with the Dragons, and bringing others to do so too. He would probably spend his free time warming their eggs if they’d allow it!”

Grimlin’s goons broke out in a hearty laugh at this, and Morrigan saw her chance. A soldier in the shield wall was laughing and had raised his shield slightly off the ground, creating just enough room for a girl of Morrigan’s stature to slide through. Morrigan took off into a sprint and dove headfirst, sliding underneath the shield and between the soldier’s legs, breaching the perimeter. The laughter subsided and the whole crowd, both sides included, let out a gasp. Morrigan stood, dusted herself off, and began to approach the executioner’s block. She wasn’t sure what she was doing, she had no plan, but it was as if she had gone into autopilot. Her feet carried her forward, but on her way there, Grimlin stepped in front of her, halting her in her tracks.

            “So we have ourselves a hero do we?” Grimlin sneered, glaring down at her with his face contorted in a twisted grin. “You must be Arthur’s daughter. I was surprised to hear of his children. I thought he was too busy sleeping with dragons to be able to do his duties of a husband. You will soon have a sibling too, no? Shame they will never be able to meet their father.”

With that, Grimlin motioned to the executioner, who then raised his battle-axe high above his head, and in one fell swoop brought it down upon Arthur Swords. Morrigan saw her father’s head fall into the basket that was placed beside the executioner’s block, and opened up her mouth to scream. However, it wasn’t words that escaped her throat, but rather she felt a burning sensation, followed by flames that shot out right into the face of Grimlin. Grimlin let out an ear piercing scream and ran to a nearby well, dunking his whole head and upper body into it.

There was a pregnant pause as the crowd tried to digest what had just happened. Before they could fully grasp it, everyone started looking towards the sky as a gigantic shadow began covering the townsfolk. Utter astonishment and fear, became mixed with amazement as the crowd watched in awe as the great Dragon began to descend into the town center. The shield wall broke rank, as soldiers and people moved back to allow ample room for the Dragon’s landing, as it was enormous in size. A good number of townsfolk began to flee the scene, as others stood watching, gripped by a combination of curiosity, terror, and wonder. The Dragon upon landing, craned its head to look around, pausing at the sight of Arthur’s decapitated head. It shook its head disapprovingly, then focused its attention upon the crowd. It opened its great big snout and began to speak.

            “Normally I do not lower myself into the midst of human affairs. Even if they do involve a friend such as Arthur was to me and my kind. As different as some of you perceive us to be, the history of Dragons and Humans has been intertwined for as long as time. However, seldom do our lines blur for Humans and Dragons are very distinct creatures. I was resting in my roost when I sensed that a very powerful and rare occurrence took place here.” The great Dragon turned and faced Morrigan directly. “I sense your direct involvement in this occurrence. Can you tell me, little one, what just took place here?”

Morrigan opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She had never spoken to a Dragon before, let alone could she explain what had just happened. The Dragon however, seemed satisfied by Morrigan’s speechlessness, and again addressed the crowd.

            “Long have my kind been opposed to a union with Humans for a lack of honesty in their ways. However, what this young innocent girl has demonstrated here opens my old eyes to new possibilities. Arthur had wished for a union between us, and perhaps his passing may instead be a fulfillment of his wish. Those who are pure of heart and wish to share in our ancient knowledge are henceforth welcome to. Those who are not wanting of this, are free to stay or go as you please. Just know from here on out, it would be wise not to trifle with Humans who are willing to befriend a Dragon.”

            Since that fateful day Morrigan had grown up living and learning from the Dragon’s ancient wisdom. As did almost all of the citizens who decided to remain in New Poasis. However, a group remained that didn’t buy in to learning from Dragons, but also weren’t willing to relocate from New Poasis. This group consolidated in the old royal palace and its surrounding area, dubbing themselves The Royals.

Twenty years later, here Morrigan was, in the dungeon of that building, waiting for what would happen next. As expected, Grimlin’s screams must have alerted others, as Morrigan again heard footsteps approaching. Another hooded figure approached Morrigan silently, carrying their own torch. Morrigan remained seated, tracking the figure with her eyes. The stranger upon getting closer, stopped to peer at the smoldering remains of Grimlin. Morrigan braced herself, knowing that if this was one of Grimlin’s henchmen they wouldn’t hesitate to avenge him. The figure turned to Morrigan, circled around her, and wordlessly took out a set of keys and undid the lock that had kept Morrigan chained to the pole. Morrigan, able to stand up now, looked at the stranger searchingly.

            “Who are you and why are you freeing me?” she said demandingly. “If this is some sort of trick don’t think you won’t suffer the same fate as him.” she said motioning to the blackened carcass of Grimlin. The hooded stranger whose face was completely obscured stood silent for a moment looking directly into Morrigan’s eyes. Then, let out a howling laugh that echoed off the dungeon walls.

            “Grimlin’s even uglier than I imagined.” the stranger said in a voice Morrigan recognized very well. They then pulled down their hood to reveal himself and Morrigan immediately was alleviated of the tension.

            “Arte! Brother, how did you make it here? How did you know I was captured?” Morrigan asked.

            “Your fiery winged companion must have sensed you were in some sort of danger.” Arte replied. “I was not expecting to be woken up to the sound of thrashing wings this morning. It was terrifying, I thought there was a tornado approaching.” Arte turned and looked towards the remains of Grimlin. “So he survived all these years huh? Very bold of him to return here. They must have snuck him into the city and have been hiding him for who knows how long.”

            “I’m glad he returned and was finally served justice.” Morrigan replied emotionlessly. “Last time I saw him you were still in mom’s belly, and I was smaller than a baby Dragon.”

            “You’ll have to tell me how you managed to best him while being chained up, but first, we should get out of here.” Arte said. “I had to knock out a guard or two on my way down here, and I’d like to be clear of this place before they come to.” he continued.

            “Fine by me. Let’s get going.” Morrigan answered.

Before leaving the cell, Morrigan paused to take one last look at Grimlin’s charred remains. Something shined in the torchlight that caught her eye. She bent down and found a sapphire ring Grimlin was wearing, which she stripped from his hand. Upon closer inspection, the ring had inscribed his initials and read “For your service”.

            “He must have gotten this for one of the many wars he participated in.” Morrigan said, as she pocketed it.

            “You really want to take something that belonged to him?” Arte asked in a curious tone.

            “Even though he’s finally gone, I don’t want to ever forget what he took from us.” Morrigan replied somberly.

 Arte nodded understandingly, and they started down the long dark corridor that led from the cell in which Morrigan was being held. They passed by several other holding cells and torture chambers before arriving at a spiral staircase similar to the one Morrigan had originally fallen through. Laying nearby was a guard that Arte had dispatched presumably on his way in. 

            “Wait, before we go up, you should take his cloak. The guards all have one and with the hood drawn up they shouldn’t be able to distinguish us from any others.” Arte said.

Morrigan lifted the cloak off the guard’s body, who let out a small grunt from being moved but didn’t return to consciousness. Morrigan put it on and drew the hood tight so her face was hardly visible. They started up the spiral staircase, until they reached a landing with a wooden oak door.

            “This leads from the dungeon to a smaller chamber which connects to the Great Hall. There will be a lot of activity in there so that’s where we have to be most careful. From there, we can enter the courtyard which has access to the ramparts of the palace. Diablo said he’ll be waiting and watching and can pick us up from there.”

            Morrigan nodded and took a deep breath. She pushed open the door slowly and as silently as possible, hoping no one was waiting on the other side.

The door opened and revealed something so despicable Morrigan had to clench her stomach. An armed guard was escorting a wagon across the great hall. Within the wagon laid a circle of dragon eggs, and at the center was a caged baby blue dragon.

            “That’s why the Remainders needed help from within the city.” Morrigan whispered. “They’ve been trying to steal dragons. They must be smart enough to realize they could never defeat dragons simply on their own.”

            “Damn them. What do we do about it? We can’t let them get away with this.” Arte replied with great difficulty keeping his voice in a whisper.

            “Keep your voice down, I have an idea.” Morrigan answered. “First, we have to find out where they’re taking them.” she said.

            With that, Morrigan proceeded through the door and started in the direction of the wagon, trying to appear nonchalant. Arte followed her as they proceeded through the Great Hall. The Great Hall served as a center of activity within the palace as it was long and vast. There were rows of long tables where currently a great number of people were having what appeared to be lunch. There were rows of market stalls as well, since people within the palace preferred to trade amongst themselves rather than in the greater city market. Also sprinkled throughout the hall, were numerous raised platforms which served as stages for concerts and swordplay.

The clang of steel on steel rang throughout the hall as two combatants were currently at practice. There was also a large amount of foot traffic, as the hall’s central location made it a hub for getting to all other parts of the palace. All of this hustle and bustle allowed Morrigan and Arte to trail the wagon while blending in with the crowd. The wagon headed away from the throne room and towards the living quarters, where many palace residents lived in dormitories. They continued to follow, and rounded a corner out of the Great Hall, into a long hallway with doors on both sides. Outside of one door stood two armored guards with one on each side.

This is where the wagon stopped as one of the guards took a key ring off his belt, and began unlocking the door. Morrigan and Arte stopped at a safe distance away and pretended to be in conversation so they could watch them. However, as the guard pushed open the door, he heard the baby dragon bang its head against the cage. The baby dragon seemingly aware of what was happening, stuck its snout through the cage bars, and ejected a small stream of fire towards him. The guard didn’t flinch as he was engulfed in the stream, and amazingly, he didn’t catch fire, but began laughing.

            “Do that again why don’t you? Been awhile since I’ve had someone warm me up”. The guard said and with that slashed at the baby dragon’s wing with his sword.

The dragon recoiled and let out a roar of pain as the blade had cut into the wing slightly.

            “Only way to train em. Can’t have um thinking they’re able to burn us.” the guard said as he motioned for the wagon to pass through.

            Morrigan winced at the sight of this, and felt anger burning in her chest.

            “These monsters. If that cut was any deeper that Dragon wouldn’t be able to fly.” She said through gritted teeth.

            “We’ll get them back for it. We will. First, how do you suppose we’ll get past them? I’d say we could take those cowards in a fair fight but not when they’re armor clad and you’re hurt.” Arte said.

Before Morrigan could answer, some more people proceeded down the corridor and to not appear suspicious she put her hands in her pockets as if she was searching for her dorm key. As she did this she found not a key but found something else she had forgotten- Grimlin’s ring. The people passed and Morrigan turned to Arte.

            “I’ve just thought of another idea for that as well. We’d have to be convincing, but what if we come up with a story for this?” Morrigan whispered flashing the ring from her pocket.

            Arte’s eyes lit up. He always had a knack for storytelling and acting which was much to their mothers chagrin throughout their youth.

            “I think that might just work. Grimlin’s name must still carry heavy weight here. We can say he’s heard of the Dragon’s outburst and requests it receive further torture.”

            As sick as that idea made Morrigan, she was impressed with Arte’s wit. Grimlin’s deep hatred of Dragonkind and his crusade against them was worse than anyone’s. The request seems reasonable and with his ring as proof it might just work Morrigan thought. However, she thought of one small problem.

            “If they believe that, we’ll still need to get from them the key to its cage as well.” Morrigan replied.

            “Leave that part to me.” said Arte confidently. “Come on, let’s get to it before people start to notice we’ve been standing here so long. Follow my lead.” said Arte.

            Having constructed their plan, the two began meandering towards the door, careful to not draw too much attention to themselves on the way. Upon reaching the door, the guards brandished their swords clearly not expecting any visitors.

“This room is off-limits. Only those with Royal clearance can enter.” said one guard. “Who are you anyway that come so concealed?” asked the other.

            “We are here on the orders of Grimlin.” Arte replied.

Upon hearing his name, both guards looked at each other and slightly lowered their swords.

            “Why has he not come himself?” asked one guard suspiciously.

            “And what orders might those be?” added the other.

            “Perhaps you are not aware, but Grimlin is currently dealing with a very important prisoner. One that he has a rather personal history with, and would like to take his time. However, he is outraged at hearing about the Dragon’s recent outburst. Word travels quickly around the palace, you know. He’s ordered us to see to it the Dragon is properly punished for its aggressions. Since he could not come himself, he provided us his prized war ring as proof to show we bring his word.” explained Arte.

            Upon Arte finishing, Morrigan took the ring out of her pocket and passed it to the guards for inspection. They passed it between one another, taking time to turn it over in their hands and read the inscription, looking repeatedly up at Arte and Morrigan as they did so. Finally, they passed it back and the guard whom had slashed the Dragon spoke.

            “I see. Grimlin is aware that I myself have already seen to it that the dragon was punished, correct?” said the guard.

            “He heard of that yes, and was very displeased to find out the Dragon was let off so lightly. If that had happened to someone else it could have killed them. Hence we were sent.” Arte replied with a tone of impatience.

            The guard bristled upon hearing that.

            “Well tell him if that’s the case, then next time I’ll cut the whole damned thing’s wing off. Go ahead, just make sure it suffers.” the guard replied while starting to unlock the door.

            “Oh and one more thing. We require the key to the Dragon’s cage as well.” Arte added, as if that was a given.

            The guard paused at this and lifted up the visor on his helmet to stare directly into Arte’s eyes.

            “Why would you need that?” he asked suspiciously.

            “For a new form of torture and submission.” Arte replied unblinkingly. “Grimlin wants us to bring back the Dragon’s tail. Says it will never attack anyone it’s not supposed to after that. Don’t worry we will subdue it first so it is unable to escape.” Arte affirmed.

            There was an elongated silence as the guards took this in. Morrigan felt sweat creeping down her spine. If this didn’t work, they would be the ones losing their tails. The guards looked at one another, then to Morrigan’s great relief, nodded and the guard with the key ring removed a key and passed it to Arte. He nodded back at them, and they entered the room closing the door behind them. The dirty dorm room had been removed of everything except the cage, eggs, wagon, and minor provisions for the dragon such as raw meats and odd-colored water. The dragon eggs rested in a large pot above a fireplace that had some freshly added logs.

            “Disgusting conditions, but at least they know they have to keep the eggs warm.” said Morrigan.

            They proceeded forwards toward the cage. Upon reaching it, the baby dragon stood upright, eyeing them suspiciously, surely noticing they were unarmored. Before it could fully react, Morrigan spoke,

            “Hey there, are you all right? We saw you get cut.” Morrigan said.

            “You can speak my language? I can’t understand anyone I thought it was just me. I’m okay the sword didn’t get too deep.” replied the Dragon.

            “That’s really good to hear. Don’t worry, you are not alone. You are just in a very bad place right now and we’re here to rescue you. We can explain more later. For now, let’s discuss how we’re getting out of here. Do you know where the palace courtyard is? Morrigan said.

            “Yes, I’ve been wheeled past what is unmistakably an exit outdoors before. I noticed it because I don’t see much sunlight.” The dragon answered.

            “Good, what we’ll do is this- I’ll scream and the guards will open the door to see what happened, that’s when you’ll fly out past them and head directly for that exit. Once outside, you’ll meet a red dragon Diablo in the vicinity. She’ll be able to help you.” Morrigan explained.

            “Easy enough. What will you do, how will you escape?” the dragon pondered aloud.

            “We’ll be playing dead here so the guards chase you. Once it’s clear, we’ll collect these eggs and make our exit too.” Morrigan answered.

With that, Morrigan unlocked the cage and the dragon stepped out.

            “Freedom at last. Let’s get out of here. Ready whenever you are.” the dragon said.

So Morrigan screamed and sure enough the guards promptly swung the door open. The dragon having been hovering ready to go, blew some fire as a smoke screen, and took off barely clearing the heads of the guards. The guards, frozen for a second, peered into the room to see the bodies of Morrigan and Arte motionless on the floor. They then took off full-speed in the direction the dragon had gone. Morrigan and Arte sprung up, and quickly gathered the eggs into a wheelbarrow, being careful not to burn themselves. Arte pushed the barrel and Morrigan peeked out to see if the coast was clear. A huge commotion was coming from the Great Hall, which seemed to have attracted everyone’s attention, so they were able to slip quietly out.

            “This way, we can bypass the Great Hall.” Arte motioned, and they proceeded down the corridor. They passed through a couple of deserted hallways and some other living quarters, and reached a side entrance to the courtyard. They walked out into the bright sunlight and Morrigan started to finally feel relieved.

            “Ok, now there’s a ladder up the ramparts just in the corner there. We’ll have to make a couple trips up and down because, well probably only be able to bring one eg-“

            Arte stopped mid-sentence. Morrigan had seen it too. Guards were beginning to close in all around them. A distinguished guard whose gilded armor suggested rank of captain spoke.

            “That’s them, the escaped prisoner and her accomplice. Thought they could get away with the dragon eggs too.” she said. “No matter, you are hereby charged with the murder of Istvan Grimlin. This bears the sentence of death. Conveniently we have the courtyard gallows here. The circle of guards enclosed and Morrigan closed her eyes. When she opened them, the sun had been blotted out. The guards stopped in their tracks and looked skyward. Descending upon them was a magnificent red dragon with golden horns.