'Darklings. They're here. Oh, gods, they're here.'

The words had been running through Aytin's head the entire trek back to the keep. Now he sat in a corner while his four guards chatted, oblivious to their doom.

'We're dead. They're dead!' The thought threatened to bring on a peal of hysterical laughter that he only barely managed to clamp down on. A choking gasp still slipped out, but his captors were distracted by some argument between Opal and Juniper.

Of course, they might not be dead. It was probably worse than that. The darklings would come in the middle of the night, swooping out of the darkness to overwhelm them, and take them back to be corrupted by their masters.

And then there were those rumors of some new way they had to corrupt their victims. Something that could turn a dragonette into a darkling without effort or powerful personal magic. If they had a way to do that, every one of them was utterly doomed.

The thought of ending it all had crossed Aytin's mind more than once over his days of captivity. There had been plenty of opportunities. A couple of the cliffs were more than tall enough. One final brief flight, and it would all be over. With luck, the darklings wouldn't even find his remains.

But he was too much a coward for that. Or maybe it was that tiny hope that if he lived, he might be able to repay Xantha for all that she had done to him.

He hoped it was the latter but feared it was the former.

Only now, the idea of being taken from a cold induced stupor, of being corrupted and turned into a dark puppet, without so much as being able to fight back? It was so much worse than captivity. Even his mutilation paled when compared to that fate.

Laughter echoed throughout the shell of the keep. Zan had told some joke and the twins apparently thought it was hilarious. Even Nyx fought to keep a smile off her face.

It was insane. Absolutely insane. When the sun set, that would be the end of it all. And they were laughing like a bunch of hatchlings with honey cakes.

Then again, maybe he was insane.

Aytin felt like he was balancing on a knife's edge. He wanted to huddle in the corner. He wanted to scream at the oblivious assholes laughing away. He wanted to throw himself at his tormentors. He wanted to run for the cliff and fly again.

And there was something buzzing at the back of his mind. It was important, he knew. Like a piece of a puzzle. If he could just reach it...

Something wet and slimy slapped into his chest. Aytin looked up just in time for another wad of offal to smack into his snout.

More laughter erupted from the quartet of guards. Juniper and Opal were grinning like a pair of idiots. Their hands were bloody from the rabbits they had just finished gutting.

"Get off your useless tail and go bury that shit," Nyx called.

Wordlessly, the young dragonette gathered the bloody guts and stood. He ignored the slimy smears they left on his frayed and stained clothes, just walking towards the exit in almost a daze.

One of the twins - Opal from her earrings - stood as he passed. "Since your hands are full..." she said, as she wrapped one last length of gut around his neck. "Prefect!"

There was more laughter, but it trailed off at the lack of any reaction.

"I think you broke him, sis," Juniper commented as Aytin walked past, staring straight ahead.

There were shrugs in response, but conversation picked up as he walked out. They weren't concerned. Their prisoner had become more and more passive over the days. This hadn't been all that unexpected.

Ten steps out of the keep, Aytin bolted.

His first instinct was to run for the cliff. But even after everything, he couldn't.

He just couldn't.

So he shifted his path slightly. There was a narrow ridge that ran from the hilltop to the clearing below. It was a straight path down the hill, but Aytin had never taken it. Every step was treacherous, with crumbling rocks and clumps of soil that collapsed at the slightest touch. Its sides were nearly sheer and a tumble would break bones at best.

Aytin hit the ridgeline at a dead sprint.

When the first chunk of rock gave way under his talons, it was like his body was expecting it. He shifted ever so slightly and never even stumbled.

The root of a hardy little bush seemed to reach up to grab the dragonette's shin. It should have sent him falling on his face. Instead, he just made a graceful little hop and kept going.

Ground fell away beneath his feet. Brittle rock fragmented. A rain of dust and gravel tumbled down the hillside behind him.

But Aytin kept his balance. He always kept his balance. On the knife's edge, he never faltered.

The slope gradually flattened into the strip of grassland separating the hill from the surrounding forest. Keeping up the breakneck pace was impossible. Aytin slowed, panting for breath.

"Have... keep going..." he gasped.

To where, he wasn't sure. This time, there was no plan. He didn't even have time to think about how he was still alive after a descent that ought to have left him a bloody blue smear on the rocks below.

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Halfway to the forest, a shadow zipped overhead. Aytin threw himself to the ground, and something passed through the space where his head had been. It hit the ground with a splat, sending splatters of blood and worse across the dragonette's face.

"You dropped something!" a voice called from above.

Another shadow passed and a handful of gravel stung his back. One piece hit the wound on his left wing and he hissed in pain before pushing himself to his feet.

Four dragonettes circled above him.

One of the twins dropped for a closer pass. "You're pretty fast for a cripple!" she shouted as she swooped by, just out of reach.

"Turn around, kid," Zan called from higher up. He didn't sound particularly happy, but that was a whole lot nicer than Nyx looked.

The leader of the group stared down with a cold hate that could have frozen a red dragon's flames. It promised that no matter what happened, there would be retribution.

"Can't go back."

The words slipped from Aytin's lips without conscious thought. But he latched onto them, repeating them like a mantra.

Without any other option, the young dragonette started running again. He hadn't been paying attention to where he was going before. 'Maybe that was for the best,' he thought as he shifted his direction slightly, turning towards a particular clump of trees.

"You're making a mistake," Zan shouted.

Aytin didn't listen.

On the wing, the forest was little more than a minute away. By foot it was at least several times that. Short legs, poor diet, and exhaustion conspired to hamper Aytin's pace.

All the while, his tormentors circled like a pack of vultures.

The twins were enjoying the spectacle. Several times they doubled back to snag clumps of dirt or tree branches to drop on him. All the while they mocked him.

Zan was quiet, flying above the others. He seemed resigned to the spectacle more than anything else.

And Nyx?

Nyx was just as silent as Zan. But her silence was something malevolent. She was letting the twins do as they pleased. Letting them tire out her prey. To break him. And when they were done? It would be her turn.

Hard packed ground gave way to loam under Aytin's feet. The shade of the looming trees was a relief. He could tell he was close to passing out from the heat of his burning muscles.

"You might as well pick some berries while you're down there," Juniper called as she alighted on a pine tree's wide branch. Her talons dug deep into the rough bark.

"Or nuts!" Her sister's yell was accompanied by a pine cone. It smacked painfully into Aytin's neck as he panted for breath.

In some part of his mind he had held out hope that the forest would be too dense for them to follow him, but no such luck. The trees were primarily widely spaced pines with a few clumps of other varieties mixed in. There was plenty of room for any competent flier to navigate. Nor would they have any trouble following him from above the widely spaced canopy.

As he straightened, a sledgehammer struck him on his shoulder. It sent him spinning, but rather than sprawling to the ground Aytin continued with the motion and turned the stumble into something approaching a graceful pirouette.

Nyx flared her wings, landing near the base of the tree where Juniper perched. She shook one hand as she turned to face her escaped prisoner, and there was murder in her eyes.

"Nothing permanent."

She whirled to face Zan. The former apothecary was just coming to a trotting stop on the soft ground. He held a woodcutting ax casually against his shoulder, just in case.

"I'll leave the fucking shit alive!" she snarled. "Then maybe you can do your job and put the pieces back together!"

"And I want to get paid." Zan glanced at Juniper in her tree and then at Opal who had landed just behind him. The pair nodded at that. They might enjoy the perks of their lifestyle, but they were mercenaries at heart and everyone there knew it.

Nyx bared her teeth at her ostensible subordinate, but even in her rage she could see reason. She shut her mouth with an audible clack and spun to face Aytin. "I won't break any bones. Good enough?" she snarled through clenched teeth. Scorn dripped from every word.

"Leave his eyes and tongue."

"Fine. But I'm taking an ear. And that messed up fucking horn of his."

Zan looked like he was going to argue at that, but thought better of it. "That works."

"Like I needed your gods damned permission." She drew a dagger from her belt. "I'm gonna enjoy this."

Before the enraged dragonette could take more than a few steps, a soft rustling drew their attention. Something was moving on the other side of a dense patch of scrub oak.

"Go check it out, Juniper," Nyx commanded. "If it's a deer, get us some dinner. I have a feeling some venison steaks will hit the spot after this."

"Ooh, fuck yeah! I've got this!" The dragonette in question went off like a shot, motivated by the promise of something tastier than rabbit stew for dinner.

"Now, where were-"

Nyx was cut off by a bone chilling scream. A scream that ended in abrupt and total silence.

No one moved. Not even to breathe. Everyone just stared at the bush where Juniper had disappeared, eyes wide and ears bolt upright.

The tableau was broken by something flying over the brush to land at the brigand leader's feet.

It was Juniper. Pieces of her.

Something had torn her in half, leaving her legs and tail to fall in one pile and the remains of her torso, head, and upper limbs in another. Her neck was twisted at an odd angle and her face was a frozen mask of surprise and terror.

Opal let out a keening cry at the sight of her sister's mangled corpse. Nyx dropped her knife like it was on fire, and she scrambled for the sword at her hip. Zan had his ax held in one hand while his other scrambled at his belt for the pouch of vials he kept there.

And Aytin laughed.

"You're going to die!" he cried between hysterical half sobs. "I'm going to die! But so are you! You're all gonna die!"

They ignored him, backing away from the now wildly swaying trees. Little explosions cracked through the forest as saplings shattered, crushed by some immense force.

Zan turned to flee, legs pushing deep into the needle strewn loam to try and get enough speed to take wing. Nyx froze, torn between cursing him and joining in.

She never had a chance to decide.

A massive form burst through the trees. It faced the trio of remaining brigands, and Aytin's view was blocked by its massive blackened wing.

In his worst fears, he had never expected to see a corrupted dragon. He hadn't even known it was possible for a dragon to be corrupted. Not for sure.

Aytin closed his eyes and waited for the end.

There was a surge of heat like standing in front of Suuie's forge. He could see it through his eyelids and the smell of charred meat invaded his nostrils.

A quick death. It was the most he could have hoped for.

But there was no pain.

Cracking his eyes open, Aytin saw that where there had once been three dragonettes, nothing was left but chunks of charcoal and smoldering pine needles.

Turning slightly, he found himself face to face with the dragon. And under the flaking mud covering him, an unmistakably red dragon. A red dragon he knew.

"F-Faelon?"