"So, those two creatures are what was making all that racket ?" Scarlet snarled as Ashley's face went livid. His hand managed to catch Teheron's shoulder, which was rigid like a stick.

He noticed a few Skywing guards not far off, ready to jump if anything went wrong, they did not seem particularly tensed by the two newcomers' arrival though, as they looked more concerned by the group of three smaller dragons standing in front of the queen. One of those guards looked oddly familiar though, and it was the only one seemingly interested in the two humans.

"Not running huh ? Scavengers really are strange animals." The dragon continued.

"You, tell me." The smaller black dragon immediately turned back to face the Skywing queen, terrorized. "What do they feel ?" She asked him in a slow and slithering voice.

"I- huhhh... I don't think-" the panicked dragon let out with uncertainty.

"How could a dragon read another's species mind ? Plus, scavengers aren't smart enough for it to matter." The female blue dragon quickly shot in an aggressive tone, jumping in to help her friend. Two guards walked closer, ready to act if she moved.

Scarlet turned her glance to the dragon who shot back with a defying stare.

"This is very impolite of you Seawing, you don't introduce yourself into a discussion in which you haven't been invited." She said with a snarl, "Especially with a queen, unless of course, you have a death wish."

The blue dragon responded only with a growl, as she glanced at the two guards that leaned closer, talons ready.

Slowly, Scarlet turned her head, and her gaze went on to meet Ashley's eyes, still standing in the same place, like someone trying to look invisible by not moving. He felt his whole body tense as they glared at each other for a moment that felt like an eternity.

"Now, before we get back to business." She raised a claw towards Ashley, "I believe this peculiar one had shown some strange ability back at our first little meeting. Aren't I right ? Krasn, you've been staring at this creature for the whole time now, surely you recognized it."

Ashley felt like his soul leaving his body, that very sensation of falling while your heart pounded strong enough for you to hear end feel it without needing to listen. If he hadn't gone pale a moment ago, he would have lost all his colours right now. All he wished was to dig himself a hole and hide himself far from everyone's gaze. At this point, it felt like the room itself was looking at him, except maybe Teheron, who seemed busy finding an escape.

The dragon, Krasn, turned to the queen, and did a small respectful bow, "I believe I do, ma'am, this looks like the scavengers I carried back, quite a chatty one if you want my opinion." He then proceeded to get back to his original position.

The queen advanced a bit, scaring Teheron at the same time, who started backing up.

"This was the worst fucking idea ever, and why the hell are you not moving !"

Ashley stared at Scarlet, even with the dragonnets between him and her, her figure still managed to tower him with her shadow.

"You know what, if you wish to die, go on, I'm not staying in here with you."

Scarlet looked at Teheron, "I recommend to your little friend to stop blabbering all his nonsense before I decide to have a snack, this noise is rather annoying."

The man continued as he leaned against the whole, drawing his hand behind his back, "You are the most useless guy I ever me-"

"Shut up." Ashley said without looking.

"Excuse me ?"

"They want you to shut up."

"What ? So you're working for them now ? Why should I try to please those beasts ?" Teheron responded in an incredulous tone.

Ashley looked at him and designated Scarlet, "Because this, is their queen, and kind of a mad one, so she won't hesitate to murder you painfully if she finds you 'unlikeable'. We're nothing but snacks to them after all."

Teheron looked at him for a moment, and frowned, "And how come you know all this ?"

"I... hum... It doesn't matter right now, please just don't try anything, that's our best chance there." Teheron answered with a snarl.

"Is it done Scavenger ?" Ashley heard in a pressed tone, and he quickly turned to Scarlet.

He did a small bow, "Yes your highness."

A wave of surprise shook the dragons in the room, even the ones who had already witnessed Ashley's speaking ability. Scarlet's eyes seemed to glow for an instant, which gave Ashley goosebumps.

No good sign. He thought. Scarlet quickly got back into seriousness.

"Very well." She looked at one of the guards, "You, get the small scavenger into its cell."

The guard nodded and walked towards Teheron, which he grabbed in his talon.

"Hey, what's that !" The human turned to Ashley, "You liar ! You fucking sided with dragons I knew it !"

Scarlet made a quick motion with her claws, prompting the guard to go faster. Ashley looked at the scene helplessly as the armoured male left the room with Teheron struggling in his claws.

"You traitor to the human race ! I will murder you !" He heard from the hallways, Teheron's voice was quickly muffled by the walls.

Once he couldn't hear him anymore, Ashley turned his attention back to the throne, where Scarlet got back to sit. She made a movement with her talon, asking him to get closer.

He walked towards her and stopped next to the dragonets, just a few inches next to Starflight, who was fixing him with an intensely interested look.

Holy shit I'm right next to the DoD, that's a literal kid's dream right there. He felt a quick wave of excitement, which rapidly left him as Scarlet got the attention back.

"So, scavenger." She said in a susurrating voice, "You know your kind have been kind of... irritating. During the last two decades."

Ashley did not answer, trying to get some composure back.

"Humpf, I believe you were more talkative last time scavenger." She snarled with a feigned disappointment, "But of course, since you grant me the room to talk, might as well just come to the point. You wouldn't happen to be related to the murder of a Sandwing queen do you ?"

He stood abashed for a moment under Scarlet's inquiring eyes, Tsunami turned her frowning gaze to the human.

"Wha- I certainly am not." The question had surprised him, but thinking about it, it makes sense for any dragon to try and make a connection to it. "I am no dragonslayer, and if they are still alive, I have no idea where they are."

"Hmmm..." The queen gave a disappointed look. "You at least know where the stolen treasury is."

"I am sorry to disappoint but I have no id-"

"LIAR" The queen shot, cutting his speech he jumped back with a sudden look of terror on his face, and she took a step forward, threatening him. "We know you scavengers have stolen it and keep it somewhere, we'll burn all your dens if we have to find it." She said in a hiss.

She walked closer to Ashley, near enough to slice him with her claws, the three dragonets doing their best to avoid the royal dragon.

"Now tell me, I know when someone lies to me." Her menacing left little place to argue, doing so would probably result in a painful mutilation anyway, "Where is the treasure you stole ?"

Ashley could feel the dragon's breath on his face. It was warm, but not a nice warmth, more like the burning acres of a chemical that would sting your senses roughly.

"I- I don't know where it is I swear !"

Scarlet snarled with disappointment, she started a motion with her foreleg as if she was about to smack the human out of existence.

"THEY NEVER CAME BACK WITH IT !" He shouted, which stopped the queen in her action, now giving a more interested look.

"I know two of them never came back, and the one who did only claimed the title of dragonslayer, he only had a bit of worthless gold with him, nothing even a low-ranked dragon would care for." He was now heavily sweating, feeling like he would make a puddle out of it.

Slowly, Scarlet backed to her throne, with a wider grin on her reptilian face. "See, when you want, it's much easier this way."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

She thought for a moment, as Ashley was catching his breath back. "Yesss." She said in a sizzling voice, "Very thrilling indeed, this is a much useful piece of information that you just gave me there."

Oh fuck, did she figure it out alone just with that ? Ashley panicked, knowing her character, it is very possible that she could at least make a close guess just with a few pieces of information.

"You know scavenger, I should probably be grateful towards your kind."

"H- how so ?" He responded, dumbfounded.

"Well, put it simply, this little conflict you have started by murdering the old Sandwing queen is probably the best that could have happened to strengthen my reign." A wide smile appeared on her face, which was as much addressed to him as the three dragonets. Tsunami rolled her eyes and let out a faint "not again" sigh.

"It gets me a lot of dragon prisoners which are greatly fitted for my arena." The queen grew a wicked smile. "It's a great distraction, especially for dragons that might have challenged me otherwise. Not that I expect you to understand of course." She turned her head to Ashley for that last part.

The latter did not answer, fearing an escalation of the already bad situation.

"Saves me a lot of trouble." She ended with a smirk.

"So it's alright with you that hundreds of dragons have died all across the world ?" Tsunami spat. Scarlet gave her a pitying look, "Has if you know anything about that. Have you ever been in a real battle ? Have you ever seen hundreds of dragons die ? Do you know anything, really, about this war ?" Ashley laughed internally, no, they certainly didn't know much about war if you started to compare it with the history he knew, and even less if comparing it to the biggest conflicts of history.

Tsunami's mouth opened and closed a few times. "We've studied it." She said fiercely. "We know it's awful, we know innocent dragons are getting hurt."

"Well, it's easy to say war is awful." The queen said, carelessly waving one talon, Tsunami was watching her with an intense look. "But it's a lot harder to solve those problems without having a war. Especially when you're talking about dragons, fighting comes naturally to us. You should know - you attacked me when you barely even knew me." She flickered her tail towards Tsunami, who showed her teeth in response.

"Agree to disagree." Ashley muttered a bit louder than he wished, the emptiness of the room reverberating his words. He saw both Clay and Starflight look at him at those words.

The queen turned her gaze once again to the human. "Looks like the scavenger wishes to enlighten us with his knowledge." She glared at the petrified man for a few seconds. "Please, continue with your reasoning." She said with the hint of a grin.

"I- huh..." Ashley tried.

Shit, I pretty much fucked myself there. Well, might as well just go on with, she won't kill me right now, I think, would be a waste or something probably, yeah, I'm definitely going in that arena later.

For as much as this thought was concerning, there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment. He could try to escape once taken back into the cell, but that was probably a worthless hope anyway. And there was a good possibility that his ability to speak with the dragons was enough for her to choose to make him more 'useful', knowing how much of a show-off she was.

"So ? We're waiting." She cut his thought in a menacingly polite tone, he immediately straightened himself.

"Well, for as much I believe a war, especially a massive one, can strengthen a territory's economy over a short period, which, of course, has a terrible cost when it comes to the people's lives whatever the situation is. A long-time conflict can have devastating effects and generate much more trouble in consequence than what initially started it. Such wars are exhaustive in the long term, both on the resources and the lives side, which can be hurtful to a kingdom's stability. If you manage to survive this, then you end up building your economy and your governance around this war, which makes you dependent on it." Ashley's voice was becoming more confident as he talked, while the Skywing queen seemed to grow a small contained interested look.

"I believe, Queen Scarlet, that this is very much what you have done, by centring your course of actions on this war, by using the prisoners as a distraction, by using it as a way to grow the pride of your tribe, and use it as a way to justify any harsh action you may find acceptable. But, by doing so, you might be dooming yourself, as when this war is over, because this will happen one day or another, there will be no longer new contenders for your arena, and no more excuses to deem someone a traitor. Thus, your distractions will lose their effectiveness, and dragons will start asking questions, or straight up contest your choices."

Once he had finished, a moment passed where nothing happened, he could notice that everyone in the room was now looking at him. Starflight looked completely amazed and shocked at the same time, Clay seemed... completely lost, Tsunami was giving him a frowning studying look, and Scarlet's gaze was more than intense, to say the least.

Slowly, Ashley realized the situation, his words and the way he had talked, there was simply no way the queen could let that slide. Her look was one of a raptor ready to jump on its prey, fixing every movement of the human. He started to wish to be a lot smaller than he was.

The room had gone completely silent, he could also see the few guards completely wide-eyed. There was also this dragon, Krasn, dumbfounded as if struck by lighting.

"This is rather bold affirmation coming from your mouth scavenger" Scarlet hissed, eying him from above in a threatening manner, he shivered. "My reign is anything but fragile, and I make sure that anyone who doubts it gets their opinion fixed quickly."

Ashley panicked and swore on himself. If that wasn't a way to say "I will hurt you." Then he didn't know what was.

"Now, I would have gladly kept you on my side to 'understand' your kind a bit better." She said in a clear tone of sarcasm. "But you see, I already have this beautiful piece of art right there." She designated Glory, who seemed asleep on a small scaled tree not far from the throne.

"Hey ! Glory is NOT a 'piece of art' !" Tsunami shouted at the queen.

"Well, too bad you don't get to have a word in what I chose to be right." The Skywing answered.

"However, I'd like to know who do you think should be the next Sandwing queen. Burn, Blister or Blaze ? I'd love to learn if you have already decided that, from the wisdom and wide experience of your safe little underground cave." She continued with another hint of sarcasm.

"That's not our fault," Tsunami said. "We wanted to be out in the world."

Scarlet gave her an amused look. "That's what you think. Hilarious. As if you'd have survived this long out here. Your guardians did tell you what happened to all the other dragonnets born on the brightest night, didn't they ?"

Starflight inhaled with a dreadful expression, and Scarlet made another disappointed face. "Tsk, tsk. Well, I won't go into details, but it was very sad."

"Excuse me." Ashley heard Clay start, Starflight tried to stomp on his feet, to stop him from continuing further, possibly aggravating the queen's mood. "Ow, stop ! I have a question ! Excuse me, you're majesty. Where's Sunny ?"

"Oh, the funny-looking Sandwing." Scarlet answered. "I think Burn will like her very much. She collects curiosities. You should see her palace. It's quite horrifying, full of two-headed lizards and seven-toed dragon talons and stuffed scavengers with the palest skin you saw." She said that particular sentence looking straight at Ashley, whose soul left his body.

"Quite like this one actually." She pointed at him with a talon, and wasn't thoughtful for a moment, Ashley feared for the worst.

"Hmmm, yes, this might interest her." The queen's eyes were glowing with malicious intent. She approached and examined him, and he could feel her strong claws on him, examining his face, able to snap his neck at any given moment. To say that he was trembling would be an understatement.

"I firstly thought that their paleness was due to them being dead, it seems I was wrong." Her voice was one of interest, yet, still managed to keep a threatening tone. "What are you then ? You're even paler than those I saw. Some kind of ghost maybe ? Or an albinos ?" She raised an elbow, and finally took a step back, furthering her claws from his face.

There were no words to describe what was racing through Ashley's mind, he was NOT ready for that. His shaking body was screaming for him to run, but he knew he couldn't, this situation was completely helpless. He gulped. "I- herm... No, it's very- hum- normal. That I look- this way." He was eying Scarlet with a careful glance, looking for any concerning sign, even though Scarlet was by herself a red flag. "You can find plenty- of us, that are that way- no need to send me- urm... there." Ashley tried, remembering from what he had read about Burn and her specimens, knowing how those had been described in the books, he wanted nothing but not to end up alongside Burn's victims. "Plus, I am no, hum... interestingly different dragon." He weakly finished, eyeing the dragonets near him. He could see the blue dragonnet giving him a dangerous glance, and- wait, did Glory just twitch?

"Oh yeah, that misshapen dragonnet will be the perfect present for my ally." The queen gave an evil grin to the group standing in front of her.

"You can't give Sunny to Burn !" Tsunami jumped, driving the guard's attention once again. "We have to stay together !"

"I can do whatever I like." Scarlet responded back. "This is my kingdom."

"What about Glory." Clay asked. "What's wrong with her ?"

"Nothing wrong with her." The queen said. "She's quite perfect if you ask me. A lovely accessory for my throne room." Those words made Ashley feel uncomfortable, there was something about that was quite not right, except for the fact that it was Scarlet speaking and showing her mad intentions and all that, of course.

He heard Scarlet respond to another question of Clay, not having listened to it. "Rainwings are naturally lazy creatures. Hadn't you noticed ? But then, Mudwings aren't known for their brains."

"You have to let us go !" Tsunami spat. "You can't stop the prophecy and we'll-"

"Shush." The queen prompted in a dry tone, and one of the guards knocked her with the back of a lance. "Your spunkiness is starting to bore me. Now listen, in two days we're having a big celebration for my hatching day. I want all three of you to be thrilling and fierce in the arena for me. But I also promised my subjects that today's fight would be exciting, so if I put one of you into it, it would be very thoughtful if you could win. So. Is the Nightwing up to it ?" She looked at Starflight who shuddered and curled into the smallest shape he could get. Which one of you is most likely to win a battle to the death against, say, an Icewing ?"

"Me !" Tsunami and Clay both jumped forward, making the floor tremble under Ashley's feet. It took him some time to figure he was also still shaking.

"Adorable." Scarlet narrowed her eyes at them. "But seriously."

"I-"

"No." Scarlet stopped Clay from jumping. "Let's actually let a neutral party choose for us, this way, everyone gets to be happy." Scarlet turned to Ashley. "Scavenger, which dragon of those two do you think can be the most entertaining to watch in a fight ?" She said with a smile.

Ashley laughed internally, while the situation had changed, he knew he had to do his best for the book's timeline to be followed, and he knew what to say, hopefully, it wouldn't get him on Tsunami's bad side, that was very probable though.

"Well, Your Majesty, since you are at war, and Mudwings are your allies, you don't get to have one fight in the arena often. Surely it will give some variety to it, and offer more entertainment to your subjects than just another Seawings, which you have plenty of." He bowed.

"What ! HOW DARE YOU !" Tsunami shot at him.

Yeah, there was no way he would get away from this without begging for forgiveness.

Queen Scarlet laughed, "I like your line of thinking little one." It felt genuine, and was all more concerning. "Right. Guards, prepare this one for the arena."

Two guards led Clay away, who glanced back with concern, and gave a grateful look at Ashley ? Tsunami was looking furious, and Starflight was no less miserable than a few moments ago.

"You." Scarlet pointed at Krasn, the Skywing guard, he immediately stood up in attention. "Take the Scavenger back to its cell."

The guard advanced, ready to grab Ashley. "Wait." She stopped him. "We don't want him to pull up another stunt with his pairs, rather escort it somewhere they won't cause us troubles. Take it to the lower cells." Ashley let a disappointed sigh in his head, it felt like any of his hopes were all slowly drained from him. Will he actually be able to make it out ? Because for now, everything was pointing at his death being here, approaching fast. At least the book's events were respected... for now.

Krasn politely nodded, grabbed Ashley in his talon, and headed outside. The moment before they left the room, Ashley could make out one last sentence from Scarlet. "And the rest of you, take these two dragonnets away."