Everything was hurting.

Ashley was lying on the ground, completely motionless. The unmoving dragon had collapsed in a loud stomp that shook his whole body, and a pond of blood was now forming under the corpse of the beast.

He let out a long sigh, eyes aimed at the clear blue sky, he had let his arm fall on the sand, and the gun that just saved his life slid on the floor of the arena.

His whole body was burning, he couldn't see it, but he was certain that it was impossible to distinguish one bruise from another. One of his eyes was hurting, and he had a hard time keeping it open. Not to mention a whole side of his face was in pain, yeah, a dragon's punch was no joke, he had no idea how his jaw didn't break.

There wasn't any noise around him, so much that he forgot for a moment where he was and what he was doing the moment before. Until a striking pain took him to the arm, where he remembered a literal front armour plaque had struck him at full speed and a hundred percent broke his bone.

A few tears raised, and he held a scream, gritting his teeth. He rolled slightly on his side to get up but stopped his motion as soon as he saw the approaching red dragon just a few feet away. Slowly, his eyes looked up, and both their glances met.

This was the same dragon that had introduced the fight, he had figured this was Vermilion, and he was holding a worriedly curious look. He stopped as he saw Ashley moving, and held the distance. None of them made a sound, and the whole stadium kept quiet, staring at the scene.

Slowly, Ashley stood up on his staggering feet and backed up. He grunted with pain and grabbed his weapon. His shoes had become tainted with red, and the lower parts of his pants too. Hopefully, this wasn't his blood. He watched the Skywing, waiting for this one to move. He raised his trembling arm, aiming the barrel of his Glock 17 at the dragon.

Finally, the dragon spoke. "Well, what an unexpected turn of events. Looks like the winner of this fight is... none other than Ashley the scavenger." He said loud enough so that the audience could hear it, you could hear the dumbfounded tone in his voice.

And finally, the whole stadium exploded, and hundreds of dragons cheered with incredulous excitement.

Ashley weakly sighed of relief and drew his weapon back, there was no point in fighting now, not if he wanted to get out of there alive anyway. He had won this fight, but not without struggling, should he have used his pistol sooner ? Probably, but it really was a last resort for him, he couldn't afford to use it carelessly.

Staggering, he went to search for his things but before he could grab his any more than his backpack, the Skywing called him.

"Scavenger." He turned to him with a worried expression. "Come, Scarlet wants to see you."

Ashley shuddered, holding his left arm with his other. The adrenaline from the fight was still present, else his wounds would be hurting a lot more, he knew it. For now, he was able to hold his pain, but there was no doubt this would not last. Nevertheless, he still reluctantly followed the dragon.

He looked around, most dragons in the audience were muttering with their neighbours, Ashley managed to catch a few words. "...astonished...", "...can't believe my eyes.", "...invisible Thunder !". He saw multiple claws pointed at him, which made him very uncomfortable.

A Skywing guard dropped close by and approached Ashley. He recognized the dragon from earlier, Salmon. He took another look at the dragon, studying him.

Salmon seemed younger than most other dragons he saw until now, he was smaller and showed no scars. His scales, if you hadn't guessed, were the colour of a Salmon, a thing that probably explained his name. For all he understood, this dragon was still mostly a novice at his post, and it angered his fellow guards. But if that meant he wasn't going to hurt him more than he already was, then he was fine with it.

Salmon grabbed Ashley by his sides and pulled off in the air, the human was holding tight his backpack on his chest. He didn't like it, losing his feet once again to be taken in the air really was starting to grow on him. This time didn't last long though, as he was gently laid on a stone balcony, right where Scarlet and Burn were standing, and they both were staring at him, one with glowing eyes, the other with a deep hatred face.

He tried to walk back to bigger the safe space between him and the queens but touched a wall at the first step he took. He looked behind him, all there was would be a fall of about a dozen meters toward the ground of the arena if he wasn't careful enough. He glanced back at Scarlet.

"Well, this was certainly an interesting fight, much more than the ones I usually get, to say the least." She said with a pleased smile. Burn snorted. "I for sure wasn't expecting it to take place in such a way."

Ashley's bag was half on his back, and he was still holding his broken arm, trying to look as little as possible. The pain was starting to grow too strong to be ignored.

"Surely this isn't the only thing you found 'interesting' within this fight." Burn said to Scarlet.

Ashley couldn't make out what she was referring to, but it worried him more than anything else at the moment. Her tone was anything but friendly, and he felt like she could tear him apart just by thinking about it. And if her dreadful expression wasn't enough, her tall scarred body could easily crush him with the snap of a claw.

"Oh yes, that's true." Scarlet said in a semi-forgetful tone. "I recall our little Sandwing friend mentioned something about a 'queenslayer' didn't he ?"

Her smile grew wider as realization struck him, in the heat of the fight, he had barely heard what the dragon was saying, but he did remember hearing such a thing. If the two queens believed he was the reason this war happened, then he was about to have a very unpleasant time.

Burn's glance was even darker than the darkest of nights. She looked like she could throw lighting just with her eyes. No question she wanted answers, now whether those would be truths or lies probably didn't matter.

"This is quite the charge you know ? Especially coming from one of the old queen's guards. Now, I don't think you lied to me the other day, but I am also very certain you did not tell the whole truth." She leaned forward and looked straight into Ashley's eyes. "And I believe this is something that will greatly interest my ally."

Ashley's eyes widened as he understood what this meant, he saw Burn's eyes glow with an uncomfortable interest.

"Yes, I'd be really content to have some 'time' with it after we're done with this day." The Sandwing female said.

"But that does not mean you're free for now." Scarlet continued. "You're going to watch everything today just like the others." She said with a smile. At the same moment, they heard noises coming from behind. Clay and Starflight were shoved towards the queen's balcony by Skywing guards.

Scarlet smirked at them. "I thought you'd appreciate the best view in the house for this." She looked at the arena, where Tsunami was being dragged by multiple guards despite her best efforts at snapping at them and clawing them.

The two newcomers were heavily chained up, made unable to leave the balcony, they also had those strips of metal that were preventing wings from opening, and Ashley started to notice it on all the prisoners. Burn took a more comfortable position to assist the fight next to Starflight, much to his horror, and Glory's tree was brought in the sunlight. Ashley was painfully shoved on the base of the tree, he tripped over and fell on his back. He felt the bone of his arm squeal with itself and let out a grunt of pain. He leaned against the trunk of the tree and laid his arm on a branch to try have it to move the least possible.

The purple Rainwing was still unmoving and had been driven in the sunlight, but as Ashley touched the tree, he seemed to notice her giving him a quick startled glance. Burn had taken notice of Glory, and was eyeing her with fixed eyes.

"Oh, finally see my new toy." Scarlet noted. "Pretty isn't she ? I bet I'm the only queen with my very own Rainwing."

"Waste of food." Burn muttered, but she showed an envious expression.

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"She doesn't eat much. She's more like an exotic plant than a dragon. Water, lots of sunshine, a little fruit, and a monkey here or there. Worth it until I get bored of her anyway." Scarlet answered.

"Hmmm." Burn finally changed the direction of her glance towards the arena.

The dragons were starting to get excited again, stomping the floor with their feet. Vermilion for his part looked mostly exhausted and annoyed. He finally moved on to the sandy arena to continue on the games of the day.

"Fellow dragons. We still have a second fight to go on, so let us begin !"

He turned toward Tsunami to designate her, but as he did this, she broke from the guards and rushed in his direction. With a surprised yelp, Vermilion jumped into the sky, barely escaping her talons. The audience roared with laughter, Tsunami hissed at Vermilion with anger.

"Looks like someone's mistaken me for her opponent today." He said with a nervous laugh. "Sorry to disappoint you, Seawing, but there's a much more dramatic fellow we'd like you to meet." He gestured to the sky, where a few Skywings were 'escorting' a green Seawing to the arena, it was Gill.

"Down on the sand, we have one of the so-called Dragonet of Destiny." Vermilion continued, still in the air. "Are they really so great and powerful ? This is how we find out. I give you... Tsunami of the Seawings !"

What a way to be dramatic. Ashley thought, as sounds of cheering, beating wings and hissing filled the arena.

He managed to catch bits of few conversations that were close enough. "It's really them ! The dragonets of Destiny !", "Did you hear the mountain singing last night ?", "...must have been an omen.", "...ghost in the peaks... the dragonets are here..."

Scarlet flicked her tail at Vermilion to indicate him to go on with his speech. "AHEM, some of you may remember a dragon a few months ago who refused to fight."

The crowd loudly booed this time, the chant echoed in the whole stadium.

"Indeed." Vermilion went on. "Tried to start a regular prisoner revolution, didn't he ? Tried to get all the dragons to stop fighting. Well clearly, he had to be taught a lesson, or we'd all be lying in our caves right now, bored out of our skulls. Am I right ?"

The audience booed once more, even more angrily.

"So what's the best way to punish a Seawing ?" Vermilion looked at the crowd, still uncomfortably hovering above the sand.

Cut them from water, now thinking about it, that would work with anyone, it's just even worse for them. Ashley responded in his head.

"Chop his head off !"

"Stuff grass in his gills !"

"Drown him !"

Ashley facepalmed when he heard the answers from the audience, each one more absurd than the previous.

Vermilion sighed. "All good suggestions. But no, the best way to punish a Seawing- is to take away their water. All their water. For months."

Ashley looked at the dragonets, careful not to move too suddenly for his arm. He saw Tsunami and Clay's glances meet each other, both filled with horror, their scales turning pale.

Gill landed hard on the sand, now in the light, Ashley could take a better look at him. The Seawing's claws were sharp and curved, his body looked thin, yet, it still showed a strong dragon. His dried scales looked almost like a green version of sand, and you could make out where his bones were due to how thin he had become. Some blood was dripping from his mouth as if he had tried to drink his own blood to survive. It was honestly a repulsive look, scary almost.

If he hadn't met him last night, Ashley would have immediately stated him as insane, even though it wouldn't be surprising for him to still be on the edge of it.

"Dehydrated, mentally unstable, and ready to fight at last. It's Gill of the Seawings !"

Ashley looked at Gill, only to see that he had been directly staring at him for most of the speech. A shiver ran down his spine, to Scarlet and the dragons on the balcony that noticed it, it was a questioning scene, few of them looked at the sweating human, probably guessing that it only meant that Gill was hungry and saw what he thought to be prey. To Ashley, this meant "If you lied to me, I'll rip you apart."

Vermilion, after looking at the interaction for a few seconds, finished. "Now, let the fight begin !" And, much to Ashley's horror, Gill immediately snapped back and charged right at Tsunami.

The young Seawing leaped over his head and rolled on the ground once she landed, she spun to face Gill as he charged again.

"He's fast." Ashley heard Starflight say behind him. "And desperate."

"Tsunami is fast too." Clay answered.

Gill reared up and spread his wings, ready to slam himself on Tsunami, but she slashed his underbelly and red blood splattered on her scales. He was sent back on the side, but immediately shot back on his feet.

His claws seized Tsunami's tail and yanked her, lifting her off. She wriggled in midair and sank her teeth into the webbed skin between his talons. Gill roared, but his mouth was silent, since the beginning of the fight, none of the opponents emitted a single sound. This unnerved Ashley deeply, there was a non-natural feeling to this fight he was witnessing.

Gill dropped Tsunami and she quickly squirmed to smash him with her tail, but he stomped on it right before the impact, then violently shoved her, pinning her down on her back, wings half-spread. She tried to fight off, but his stance was strong and he kept her on the ground.

Ashley, who had been holding his face since the beginning of the fight on one hand, wondering what happened, caught a glimpse of hope and stared more intensely at the scene. Tsunami was still fiercely trying to escape him, but she started to grow a startled expression as he was seemingly studying her.

"Good." Gill finally worded in a dry tone. "You're strong."

Ashley saw everyone startled as he spoke, except for Burn, of course, she couldn't show much other expression than annoyance and anger after all. He felt relief, as he got the confirmation that Gill was not completely out of his mind, and had listened to him. he allowed himself to sigh.

Relief didn't last though, as he felt the tree shiver, and noticed Glory slightly moving, he panicked. Glory was eyeing the balcony and was moving carefully, but she was slowly opening her mouth, ready to spray Gill with her secret weapon.

Ashley had to stop her, he couldn't let her kill Gill, especially if there was hope that he could be saved. He grabbed one of her talons to get his attention, and she immediately reacted, almost violently. She yanked her arm away and furiously looked at him.

"Don't do this." he muttered loud enough for her to hear, he gritted his teeth, talking actually pained him quite a bit, especially on the left side, where he had been slapped by his opponent earlier. "Keep your venom... not for him."

Glory still seemed annoyed, and looked like she wanted to punch him more than he already had been, but at the same moment, the arena was brought back to their attention. Tsunami had freed herself from Gill's grip and was fighting back much more ferociously. Gill wasn't done though, and he started fighting in a much different manner.

His ecstatic fight had become a more careful and curious one, he was much more precise but was sending much less risky blows, for him and Tsunami.

Because the fight had restarted, Glory got back in her original position, Ashley leaned back against the tree, but he could still smell a worrying tension in the air. He looked at the balcony, everyone seemed back at looking at the fight, but Scarlet seemed much less comfortable. "Something isn't right. Someone did something." She muttered to herself, Ashley went pale and immediately went back to stare at the arena to not get caught.

"You." She said to another Skywing, this one immediately turned to face her. "Go check Gill's cell, if you find anything unusual, do it quickly."

"Yes ma'am." The Skywing shot inside of the palace without a question.

Back on the sand, Gill got closer to Tsunami, she seemed to have taken the advantage now, no wonder that her health was a considerable advantage. She ducked multiple attacks and then slashed toward him in the face, right under the left eye.

He lost his balance for an instant, and it allowed Tsunami to bolt toward him and slam into his side, sending him to the ground. She quickly caught him and shoved his head in the sand as he tried to get back up, but she weighted her whole body on him, pinning him to the ground in an uncomfortable position. Eventually, Gill found out she was too heavy to throw off and stopped to fight back. Ashley's eyes were glowing with hope.

Tsunami faced the balcony, turning her attention to Scarlet. "I've won." She said. "You can all see that, we can end this now, without killing anyone. I ask you to let him live !"

The arena went dead silent, Ashley saw Clay look at Scarlet with a fearful expression, then go startled as he noticed her smug expression. This made Ashley's heart jump a few bit as he remembered more clearly what was supposed to happen and realised that nothing had really changed in the end.

Oh no.

"KILL HIM" several dragons from the audience shouted. "Snap his neck ! Pull out his teeth ! Gouge his eyes ! Something gory ! Death ! Death ! Death ! Death !"

Now, all the dragons were shouting at her in unison.

Tsunami lowered her head, looking at Gill, considering her options, his eyes were staring back, but they showed no emotion, none that she could connect with, at last.

"She doesn't have a choice." Starflight said. "It's her life or his, if she lets him go, he'll kill her right away. She has to know that."

Yes, but actually no. Ashley thought, looking intensely at the scene, his eyes hurt and he noticed he forgot to blink due to how tense he was. Please don't do it, please don't do it, please don't do it. He begged in his head.

Perhaps our 'Dragonet of Destiny' doesn't have the stomach for a battle." Scarlet said snidely, mocking the young Seawing, her smirk was as wide as it ever had been. "Maybe war is too scary for her. Perhaps she'd like to go back into hiding instead ?"

Tsunami lifted her shin and stared straight into Scarlet's eyes with a defying glance.

Then, she grabbed Gill's head, and smacked it violently against the ground, strong enough for everyone on the balcony to hear the impact of the head on the ground, and he went limp.

Tsunami's expression had become clear to read, I'm imagining this is you, was what it said.