The dragon carried Ashley past multiple rooms and made it deeper into the palace. The Skywing kept a frowning look for the whole time after leaving Scarlet's throne room.

He had stopped for a moment as they were on their way to peak an eye at the arena through a window. Ashley tried to see the place that would probably welcome him rather soon and struggled inside the dragon's talons to turn in the direction of the arena.

It was reminiscent of Roman circuses, circle-shaped with stair-leveled bleachers, it was made of stone that seemed directly sculpted from the mountain, and the fighting area was covered by a small layer of sand. On one side, around where the throne room was located, was a wide balcony where was sitting Scarlet with Glory on the tree, the queen was wearing a proud and self-fulfilled look, and next to her was another Skywing. This one seemed much more active and was shouting stuff like a commenter would do.

On the ground, Ashley noticed two forms approaching, he guessed Clay and Fjord if he remembered well.

But before the fight could start, the Skywing guard dragged Ashley away and continued further into the palace.

They eventually arrived in a room with no windows, where two Skywings in armour were playing cards on a table, the one facing the entrance took notice of the newcomers and raised a questioning glance at Krasn, his friend turned around when he heard the guard stepping in.

"A cell for this scavenger." Krasn explained. "It was with the others but raised some problems so the queen wants it in a more secure place."

"I see." The guard slowly agreed. He grabbed a handful of keys bound by a thin metallic chain and threw it to Krasn who caught it mid-air. "Put it wherever, it's not like we have many detainees here anyways."

The guard seemed tired, actually, both of them seemed awfully on the edge of falling asleep, they were slow and their eyes weren't glancing at anything. At the same time, the noise of metal scratching against rock made itself heard, no one seemed to take notice of it except for Ashley.

Krasn opened a large wooden door and entered a long dark hallway. He carefully walked along the cells, most, if not all, were unused, left to rust with the dust.

Ashley shivered. Feels like oubliettes. He squinted his eyes to see in the cells, all he could make out was ripped pieces of clothes and bones.

Dried splatters of blood could be seen on the walls, and lots of claw marks, Ashley's respiration went sharp.

"Unnerving huh ?" The dragon guard said, eyeing him from above.

"Hum... yeah." Ashley responded cautiously.

"Well, that's what you get for making our job harder." The dragon placed him on the floor and inserted his keys in the lock of a cell. "And also for causing so much harm within the tribes."

"What ?? You're the ones fighting each other ! It's not our fault you can't agree on who the fuck can lead the Sandwings !"

Krasn snorted with a disagreeing look. "Whatever you say, scavengers are the reasons for this war, and you are a scavenger." He opened the cell and threw Ashley inside of it. "Thus, you will pay for the actions your species has done."

Ashley fell and slipped on the dirty floor, he quickly stood up but was welcomed by a slamming door right in front of his face, deafening his ears.

He heard the dragon walk away, soon enough, he was left alone in a dark and grey room filled with dust.

A moment passed, and then he simply sat against the wall and sighed.

That was it, there was nothing more he could do now, except wait for his turn.

He carefully took off his backpack and tossed it on the side. He closed his eyes and started breathing deeply. His mind started to wander, while he was in a very precarious situation, he finally had some time to think.

He thought about how he got there, not in the palace, but in this world. He had woken up in a completely new place, yet familiar enough that he could still make out what was happening in his head. Stuff that belonged to him was present too, everything that was in his sack was his.

He opened it, looked in with dead eyes for a moment, and finally grabbed his book. There was nothing special about it, except the fact that the book contained the very world he was stuck in.

He knew everything, what happened, what was happening, and what would happen. He had a complete knowledge of the timeline for as long as he could remember. And yet, nothing really mattered at the moment, because now, it was all about survival, and the books didn't teach one thing about how a, well, not-so-helpless, Scavenger, could escape Scarlet's palace.

His best bet was the Dragonets, they would manage to cause chaos and flee the Skywings, so the safest course of action would be to convince them to take him with them. It was the best course for survival too, a lone human couldn't go very far in this world, even among themselves.

And why the fuck would I be here anyways ? Let's think about this logically, even though it makes no sense. Whatever sent me there had a reason, right ? And how do I get back home, can I even ?

The more he tried to think about it, the less he understood, and the more his brain hurt.

He heard a voice coming from outside, there was a barred window casting light on him on the other side of the room, it was small and on the top of the wall, but even from here, he could manage to see that it gave on the arena. He didn't give it more attention, he already knew what was happening : Clay would fight an Icewing, and Glory would kill it.

At the same time, a metallic noise of chains came from the other side of the room, that, however, immediately drew Ashley's attention.

He jumped on his feet and dropped the book in the backpack, staring at a tall shape taking form in the dark. He noticed the harsh respiration coming from the thing and started to back away as it walked closer.

"Dinner ? So soon ?" He heard in a very raspy voice deprived of any emotion.

The figure heavily made its way closer, it became quickly clear that it was a dragon, and a rather impressive one for that matter. When he walked into the light, it revealed itself as a tall green dragon, a Seawing.

Ashley stripped backwards and felt a repulsive feeling at the sight of the dragon. He was completely dried off, his scales seemed to be crackling, some seemed to have been torn off days ago, and he had scars that were seemingly not closing themselves as he still had very clear cuts and dried blood all over him. His eyes were bloodshot and were staring deep into Ashley's.

Speaking of Ashley, he nearly threw up and was completely horrified by what he was seeing, this was undoubtedly a mistreated prisoner, who had been misfed and cut from water, so much that his body couldn't heal anymore, and his scales were completely dried off, showing cracks and uncomfortable fragility.

Without warning, the dragon leapt at Ashley, who was still possessing the situation, with his mouth wide open. But before he could reach him, he was abruptly stopped by a metallic chain tied to his talon and slammed to the ground.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

At this point, Ashley had started to notice the horrid smell, the Seawing had a few broken teeth, and his breath was truly terrible. He could also notice a few lighting scales along the dragon's body, for the few that seemed still able to light up, they were faded and the light was only a faint twinkle that happened without patterns.

Ashley left his trance as the creature weakly growled, and quickly dragged his bag before the dragon could get back on its talons. This one slowly stood up, and aimed at Ashley again, his eyes wide open staring at him. This time, the human reacted and dodged the slashing of the claws, then backed up where the dragon couldn't reach him.

The Seawing grew more annoyed and became more aggressive, he tried catching him with his claw and jumped forward once more, pulling on the chain that was holding him.

"Aaaah wait !" Ashley cried.

The dragon halted and looked around with a surprised and worried expression, still a talon in the air. He finally glanced back at the human with an intense look, only to find him searching inside of his sack. He shook his chain and growled, trying to scare Ashley, when this one didn't react, he tried to get to him again.

Ashley looked up at the Seawing once more. "Wait ! Please, I'm friend !" He took a step back. The dragon continued to try to reach for him, but this time with less insistence.

Eventually, Ashley held his metal bottle out of his backpack, handing it to the Seawing. "Hey, w- water ?"

As soon as he heard it, the dragon completely froze, losing all aggressivity towards Ashley. He still looked mad though.

Carefully, Ashley walked within reach of the dragon and opened the bottle full of water as the creature was now contemplating him with studying eyes.

"Here, look, it's-" Ashley was cut off by the dragon's heavy coughing, a very raspy and rough dried cough to say the least. If he wasn't in front of him, he would have thought someone was throwing up their organs, which could very much have been what was happening.

The Seawing turned to Ashley and grabbed the bottle, looked inside with one eye, and then swallowed all its content at one. He finished by splashing a small amount of what was left on his face and started loudly breathing, somewhat panting.

They stood there for a moment until the dragon finally noticed Ashley staring at him. He made the bottle roll on the floor towards him and finally spoke with a raspy voice.

"Who ?"

Ashley blinked a few times before answering. "Who ? Me ?"

The dragon responded only with a deep stare, Ashley grabbed the bottle. "Well, I'm no one particularly special, just another human. But we're both in the same shit aren't we ?"

The dragon took a sceptical look, analyzing Ashley. "Hu-main ?"

"Yes, or scavenger if you prefer, it's just what we call ourselves : humans."

The Seawing's lack of answer left Ashley to think. Wait, I know this is quite a precarious situation but- if I think of it, maybe I'm not just 'anyone' in this world. Could I possibly have an impact on our relations with dragons ?

That was just an idea, but maybe he could do something about it, and that shouldn't have an enormous impact on the timeline he thought. There, he could start it there, with this dragon. But for that to be useful, he also needed him to stay alive, and if his memory was correct, he knew exactly which dragon that was.

Carefully, he asked. "You're Gill aren't you ?"

The dragon frowned.

"The king of the Seawings ?"

This time the dragon showed his teeth, clearly in distrust of the small being in front of him. "Who are you ? And how do you know all this ?"

Ashley took a step back, hands in a calming position. "Hey, I am friend." He paused, thinking how to respond. "Well, I'm not sure myself how I am able to talk with you, except that I am just an unfortunate scavenger captured by Scarlet. For the next, I know a few things, that happened and will happen." He took a deep breath, he probably should work on creating a believable narrative to explain the two points.

Being able to talk with dragons was one thing, he probably could argue animus magic or something had something to do with it. But all the things he was aware would or should happen ? That was another deal.

"Are you saying that you are a seer of some sort ?" Gill snorted. "Do you realize-" he coughed. "How unbelievable that sounds ?"

"That would be a way to put it." Ashley answered, he saw the Seawing frown his eyes at him, still in distrust.

"What do you know then ?"

"Scarlet will make you fight your daughter in the arena, and she will kill you." Ashley said in a very straightforward manner.

"..."

Gill stared at him with a confused glance at first, then grew a severe look.

"Liar, all my daughters have died before they even hatched." His glance had become stern, making Ashley uncomfortable.

"It's true, her egg was stolen. By Webs." He corrected. At the mention of Webs, Gill's eyes widened.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS" He aggressively shouted at Ashley, who jumped by surprise.

"Please ! I don't- it's not- you have to trust me !" Ashley was starting to panic, there was no way he could say that their whole life was in a book, and, now thinking of it, even if he said so, he wouldn't believe him.

"And do you think this seems viable enough knowing what you are telling me ?" Gill said, looking from above.

"You can still check her wings once she makes both of you fight if you don't believe me."

This time, Gill stayed silent, looking into his thoughts. Ashley took a breath, noticing what seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the dragon's eyes.

"Alright, let's admit for a moment that you are right and that this situation is perfectly normal." His voice suddenly seemed much more alive despite still being dry. "What should I do ? Scavenger."

"Well, first off, don't rush at her and try to kill her like a sort of mad creature."

Gill stared at him for a few seconds, "Well, that makes sense ?"

"Not when you lose the ability to use your brain, so just don't let it take over your mind, it will be over in just a few days."

Gill growled. "I haven't completely lost it." His eyes stopped on one of the walls, scratched by dozens of claw marks. He looked at his poorly maintained talons. "But maybe... the water helped."

Ashley stared at the Seawing from top to bottom and then looked more around the cell. He figured some of his wounds were tied to the scars on the walls of the cell. Gill coughed again.

"I'm Ashley, by the way."

"Excuse me ?"

"Ashley, that's my name."

"Oh, I see, alright." Gill eventually sat. Ashley followed, peaking at his backpack on his knees, contemplating his options.

There was an awkward silence between the two, finally broken by Gill after a few minutes.

"You seem quite different from the usual scavengers, even without the talking I mean."

Ashley laughed. "Yeah, I get that a lot, even my fellow 'friends' find me weird."

Gill lowered his head in a studying manner.

"You wonder why I'm so pale I bet ?"

"Curious about it, yes I am."

"Hoy, no need to sound so Yoda'ish."

"What-"

"Huh... nothing, don't mind it."

Gill looked at him with strange eyes, puzzled.

"Well, if you're curious about it, it is all related to the Sun, really, if you go further north where the Sun hits much less strongly, well, you'll find more people like me. Nothing fancy really."

"That is... interesting ?"

"All in all it's just genetics after all."

Ashley saw the Seawing slightly painfully frown his eyes, like someone with a migraine would do. He thought about how well other dragons would receive that information. Probably not as well, and I'm lucky I got him to listen, and not kill me, given the state he was in when I came in.

There was no doubt that Gill was on the more 'reasonable' side of the spectrum, knowing this world, he saw no way to easily fit in, especially with his own kind. But he should probably think of his survival before everything, yeah, that sounded like a great idea.

Gill coughed roughly again, driving Ashley's attention back towards him.

"Why are you so calm ?" The dragon asked.

"What about ?"

"Everything, all this." He gestured around, showing the cell and what was beyond it. "You know, you're probably going to either be fed to some dragon or thrown in the arena, despite the obvious piece of intelligence you consist of. Not to disregard your abilities, but you're a scavenger, and I doubt you can hold much against a dragon."

"Well, to start off, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sent to the arena from the looks of it. And-" He looked inside of his backpack, like to make sure he didn't miss something. "I believe I can survive this." He said, nearly confidently, but with a definite hint of concern in his voice.

"How do you intend to do that exactly ?"

Ashley yawned, and noticed how exhausted he was, all that running around and fast thinking, for all he could call that thinking, if not throwing ideas on the moment, really got to wear him out that day.

"I can use a few tricks, y'know, scavenger stuff."

Gill only watched him stretching his arm, not saying anything.

"Well, for as much as we can call that a trick, anyway, you'll see, maybe."

Ashley went to a corner, finding it to have a few bits of straw that he could use to soften the ground, he laid down and placed his bag under his head, also noticing that the light had become slightly bluer in the cell.

He gestured to Gill. "I'm off to some sleep now, this whole place got me wrecked." He closed his eyes. "And don't forget to keep your head on, she's your daughter."

And he slowly drifted into an uncomfortable dreamless rest, as the king of the Seawings was watching him with a studying and wondering eye.

He only woke up hours later, when multiple frustrated Skywing guards entered the prison and banged against the cell, not losing any time to shout.

"WAKE THE HELL UP. It's time. Both of you."