They all turned around to face the direction where that came from. A group of multiple red angry dragons were blocking the way out. Most of them had plates of metal armour, except one, who only wore a golden chest plate, and who had rubies incrusted between her scales.

Well, here goes my plan on staying alive. This is one hundred percent Scarlet.

Speaking of her, she looked very furious, with smoke coming out of her nostrils.

"I haven't seen Kestrel in what ? Seven years ?" She said. "What a fun reunion this is going to be !"

Her pleased voice didn't match the hatred in her eyes, and she was moving her tail back and forth, visibly annoyed.

"All my least favourite dragons, in one place !"

Clay, who was the closest to Queen Scarlet, took a step back and protectively spread his wings. But if you looked closely, you could see his talons shaking with fear.

"You followed us here !" Tsunami shouted, indignant.

"Oh, I didn't have to !" Answered the queen with a grin, "Someone sent up a lovely smoke signal for me, and led us all right here ! What a brilliant idea."

After a few seconds, Sunny squicked, "Who- who are you ?"

"Now, really, this is getting insulting. You're in my territory. Apparently, you're living under my mountains, and I'm only the most important dragon for hundreds of miles ! How dare you not recognize me !" Scarlet spoke louder. She arched her neck and spread her wings, allowing all of them to make out who she was.

"Queen Scarlet of the Skywings..." Starflight whispered. And he proceeded to do a sort of... bow ? Well, it looked like it.

"Now that's more like it." The queen said, pleased. She walked forward into the cave, "Three moons, it's gloomy in here." And she proceeded to breathe fire on Starflight's bag of scrolls, which instantly started burning.

It was Ashley's first time seeing a dragon breathing its fire, and it was certainly astonishing. It looked very powerful, and to think that a creature could kill you just like that was scary. And now that he thought about it, there was no explanation for why dragons could actually breathe fire and not burn their throats in the process. But again, magic.

Clay proceeded to step closer to his friends, still facing the queen, and got in a position where he would be the first obstacle if anyone tried to reach them. Scarlet glanced at them and stumbled on Starflight, widening her eyes.

"You're a Nightwing !" She shoved Clay to the side as if he weighed nothing and grabbed Starflight's chin, studying him with no pressure.

Clay marched towards her but quickly stopped when he noticed that her guards started looking more aggressive than they already were.

"A Nightwing ! Not yet ten years old !" Scarlet continued, "How thrilling ! They don't normally let their dragons out into the world. We might corrupt their superior perfection or something, you know."

Starflight coughed as she breathed smoke on his face. She was manipulating him as if she was trying to see all the angles of a statue and searching for any imperfections.

"I've never had a Nightwing in my arena before. Thrilling ! Thrilling !" Scarlet looked inside Starflight's eyes, "Tell me, what am I thinking right now ?"

He didn't answer, panic in the eyes.

"Too hard ? I'll give you a hint. I'm thinking... 'Now why would a Nightwing, a Seawing, and a Mudwing, be hiding out under my mountains ?" She glanced at Clay's direction, where Glory and Sunny were standing behind him, "Along with whatever those two are that the Mudwing is cutely trying to protect."

Ashley had backed up for the whole speech and found himself hiding behind a bush, siding the edge of the cave, his clothes allowing him to somewhat blend into the bushes' colours.

"Now tell me. This wouldn't have anything to do with a prophecy, right ?"

Scarlet was standing dominantly, casting her shadow on the five dragonnets. Ashley noticed that he had been holding his breath for a while and slowly started to get air back in his lungs. He saw the group of Skywing guards behind Scarlet, all looked very aware, and were all looking around them to catch any possible threat. When one stared at Ashley's direction, he had a fearful thought and tried backing away more. But his feet stumbled on a loose rock and slipped. He managed to keep himself from falling, but the damage was already done, the bush shook, and a small stone rolled at the queen's talons.

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Scarlet stared intensively at where it came from, and the guard who was already looking seemed to notice Ashley and stepped towards him, frowning.

"There's something in there, and it isn't small."

"Just deal with it already." Scarlet said in a bored voice, "Surely it's nothing more than a hare, can't be more interesting than those 5 dragonnets anyway."

The guard walked to the wall and plunged his claws into the bush. When he turned around, he was holding a terrified Ashley in his talons.

"A scavenger, your majesty."

"Huh ? Now that's unexpected. Why would such a creature wander alone in my mountains ? And in the prophecy dragonet's cave to add to that ! How odd." She asked herself, tilting her head.

The guard examined Ashley for a few seconds. "This one seems different from the most we catch ma'am." The guard added, "It's taller. And paler." He studied the frightened human, "And it doesn't seem wrapped in the usual material."

Starflight jumped, forgetting all sense of survival instinct for a second, "We should study it ! Maybe it-"

"You are not going to do anything." The queen quickly stopped him. She turned to the guard, "Keep it for the arena, we'll put it with its other fellow scavengers once we get back."

The guard nodded and backed up, holding Ashley in his talons, behind careful not to crush him. He held a small wondering look as he noticed that the human wasn't struggling to try to escape.

"What is going on out here ?" A voice grumbled from inside the cave, and a sandy yellow dragon walked into the scene. The newcomer's eyes opened wide once he noticed the Skywing Queen, and he yelled, "Webs !" Back to the cave.

The dragon then proceeded to run at full speed towards Scarlet and push her off Starflight, which sent her into the air. Sunny only had time to yell, "Stop ! They'll hurt you !" to the new dragon, who was none other than Dune.

"Don't touch them !" He roared aggressively, "You'll never get your claws on them !"

"They're mine now." Scarlet hissed, landing on her feet and facing the veteran.

A Seawing came running, and as the Skywing guards finally started moving, a fight quickly started to take place. Webs, the Seawing who just stumbled into the scene, attacked three guards, striking them with his tail and his claws, Dune fought a Skywing who took position to defend the queen. Even some of the dragons started fighting. The dragon holding Ashley seemed to tense up.

Shit, this is bad.

Ashley started struggling against the guard's grip, which was getting stronger. It drew the skywing's attention who took a glance at him, and Ashley punched him in the right eye.

The dragon roared and dropped him, holding his face. Ashley fell to the ground and ran outside of the cave, and he came to a stop as he reached the edge of a cliff. His respiration became more frantic as he turned around and saw the huge armoured dragon walking towards him. Ashley searched his pockets, sweating, and pulled out a Swiss knife, which he directed towards the creature, panicking.

"Don't you come near me !" He shouted with his shaking voice.

The guard stopped for an instant and frowned, looking at the thin creature in front of him, not understanding what was happening.

"Yeah ! Don't touch me, or I'll stab you !"

Behind the dragon, the fight had slowed down, Dune lay on the ground, and all dragons were stuck between guards' claws. A voice yelled, "Leave ! Tell the Talons !" And the adult Seawing jumped into a river inside the cave, splashing everyone.

Scarlet reported her attention to the only thing that wasn't under control yet : Ashley.

He thought that his whole body heat was taken away. He felt like the queen was directly staring through his skin into his soul.

"How can't you just keep a scavenger between your claws for more than three minutes, you moron ?" She asked in an unhappy voice to the guard facing Ashley.

"Sorry you majesty, I've been... taken by surprise." He answered.

"Yeah, yeah, just do your job." Scarlet answered, "You don't want me to be disappointed because of a scavenger, do you ?"

The guard came closer, whispering, "It's not like that one is going to do much with his miniature claw."

Ashley raised his weapon, but the dragon slapped his arm, making him drop the tool. He grumbled in pain, and the dragon caught him in his talons once more.

"Aaaah, let go of me you fat-scaled chicken !" Ashley shouted at him.

The dragon stopped moving immediately, standing shocked for a moment, hurt by the insult, until a red-crowned dragon came from behind, gazing intensely at the human.

"Well, that is certainly interesting." Scarlet said with a wide grin on her face, "And quite unusual too ! If I knew this would be such a thrilling day !"

She seemed very excited. If she wasn't so big, she might have been taken for an overexcited dragonet at their hatchday. Then, they could hear a loud stump, Ashley looked over the guard's shoulder as he saw another red dragon land on the stone platform. Will this ever stop ? He thought. That dragon looked different, though. It looked more scarred and looked like its talons had been burnt.

Oh, that's Kestrel. Ashley told himself. And now she's going to argue, so that the Skywings only take her and leave the dragonets, not gonna happen, of course. But what about me ? Ah yes, the arena... Or maybe the banquets...

And so it happened, the discussion was tense, and Ashley really just tried to make himself the smallest possible, which was rather hard to pull off when you were squeezed inside of a dragon's claws. He was getting back some of his self-control, though, and started to make out the situation in his mind. All his conclusions led to I'm fucked up.

After some heated conversation, the new dragon was surrounded by guards. Then everyone proceeded to jump into the air under the order of Scarlet, and the group took formation around all the new prisoners. Ashley nearly puked as he was lifted by the dragon holding him, feeling his insides not responding correctly to the sudden movement. He somehow found himself excited at the thought that he was going to get a dragon ride, even if it was a rather "unwanted" situation.

Of course, he shouldn't have been.