It took Kaz a second to realize that the people dragging him somewhere had stopped. He was incredibly disoriented from a mix of not being able to move so he could look around and every muscle in his body cramping at how tightly the metal net was wrapped around him.

Where even was he? Quickly scanning his surroundings as best he could, he saw dark, stone walls, making up a dimly lit, round room with a very large cage in the corner. Kaz felt his heart stutter in fear. That was no doubt meant for him, though he couldn't say he was surprised by it. Honestly, he would prefer a cage if it meant getting out of this net. The way it stopped all of his movement, the oppressive metal tied all around him.... It kept him on the edge of panic.

Though what was making him panic as well was that he had no idea what had happened to Elaya and Rhen. Were they okay? He certainly hoped these humans were nicer to their own species than to dragons. Kaz couldn't even blame them, though—dragons had treated humans even worse than this for centuries.

"Remember, it can't burn us, but it can still bite," said one of the people close to him. Kaz tried to crane his neck to look at him, but there was truly no give to the net. "So be ready with the muzzle."

Muzzle? Kaz looked around, swallowing when he saw one of the humans holding a large, metal contraption in her hands. It was made up of two curved plates of metal, with rings at each end, no doubt meant for padlocks. It wasn't hard to figure out how this must have worked—the metal would go over Kaz's snout, making it impossible for him to open his mouth, much like what the net was doing right now.

But that meant he would be rendered silent again. He would have to ask if Rhen and Elaya were okay before they could muzzle him.

Kaz knew that he should be worrying about having that thing locked onto his snout instead, but he couldn't bring himself to care. There was nothing more important to him than the safety of his friends. It was his fault they were stuck here, after all. If he had paid more attention, he could have avoided that net. Or perhaps he should have recognized that the strange feeling he'd had was him losing control over magic and left before they could have gotten shot down.

He couldn't help but whine as the humans started to pull the net off of him, sending pinpricks throughout his wings and legs. He wanted to stretch them out so much, but of course, the people freeing him wouldn't let him do that, as they had no way of knowing Kaz wouldn't hurt them.

He was going to try to run as soon as he was given a chance to, especially after he was freed enough to move his neck a little and his eyes came across a set of four shackles connected by chains that were lying on the stone floor. The metal they were made of looked heavy and unyielding, perfect to stop him from so much as walking fast, and he had no doubts that his wings would share a similar fate, even if he could see no restraints for them.

Why were these humans so perfectly equipped for taking a dragon captive? He was still surprised that their leader had promised not to kill him, but surely they were not thinking of keeping him here for the rest of his very long life.

"Get ready."

Kaz finally felt the net leave him snout enough for him to open his mouth and speak, just as the man holding the muzzle climbed under the net with him, about to lock the metal contraption onto him. The dragon jerked back as much as he could under the heavy net, giving himself a few seconds of surprise to ask the question he wanted to ask the most.

"Please, my friends, are they unharmed? Are they safe?"

The humans, all ten of them, stared at him in surprise, as if they'd never heard a dragon speak. Or perhaps they were surprised at the question itself.

"They came here with me. I need to know if—" The rest of the sentence was turned into a grunt as metal was pushed onto his snout and locked in place before he could try to resist.

Kaz shook his head, trying to get the muzzle off, but it was very difficult with the weight of the net pulling his head to the ground. He tried raising his claws instead, to rip the padlocks off, but with the limited movement and in his current, much clumsier form, he couldn't quite reach.

"Quickly now."

Kaz cringed at the sound of metal scratching against the stone floor, watching the humans pull the restraints towards him. His instincts were telling him to run, but he very well knew there was no getting the net off him by himself. He'd already tried when he'd been shot down, and he'd failed miserably. He would just end up tangled up in the net more.

Besides, if he fought back, he might make the situation worse for Rhen and Elaya. These people might take their association with him and punish them for him not cooperating, too. Kaz had no idea how these people saw other humans being friendly with dragons, but even Rhen had judged people who served them very harshly, so it was unlikely to be positive.

Stolen story; please report.

He flinched when the humans joined him beneath the net from all sides and winced as a shackle wrapped around his wrist, cold and heavy against his scales. The other three quickly followed, but with the way the net was wrapped around him, Kaz barely noticed the chains limiting his movement.

Kaz expected them to pull the net off him after that as the humans got out from under the net, but no one made a move to do so. And when a clinking noise reached Kaz's ears, he realized why.

Two of the humans were bringing forth a thick, metal collar with a chain, no doubt about to be locked onto Kaz's neck. The dragon recoiled, feeling his already racing heart double its efforts. The sight of it pulled him back to Zriannis' castle. To the knife that had left cuts on his chest which he'd not fully healed yet. He wanted that collar nowhere near him.

But of course, the people who had chained him didn't care about what he was comfortable with, and despite his best efforts to get away as the two humans got under the net, he couldn't move enough to put up any significant resistance, and very quickly, the collar was being put around his neck.

For a second Kaz's panicked instincts almost made him slam his body into the two humans, which would no doubt hurt them very badly, but he resisted, shutting his eyes as the collar was locked into place. He didn't want to hurt anyone. And he didn't think these people wanted to hurt him. They were probably just scared of him and didn't want to take any chances, which, assuming they'd met other dragons, made perfect sense.

"This one is much more compliant than the dragons I heard about," Kaz heard a man whisper, presumably to someone else, though Kaz couldn't turn well enough to look. A part of him felt ashamed that he wasn't trying to fight back, but he knew that was simply a reflex he'd been taught about how a dragon should act and preserving clan honor. And since he was the last of his clan, this had little impact on anything.

"Dragons are cunning," said a woman to all of them. "This might be a trick. Don't let down your guard."

Kaz sighed. Even if he could talk, they wouldn't believe a word he said, would they? But he couldn't blame them for this either.

He just stood there, trying not to move and get tangled up further as the humans began pulling the net off him, save for two who firmly held the thick chain attached to the collar, probably in case he decided to run. But two humans couldn't possibly hold him back.

As the net left his head, Kaz looked around as subtly as he could, trying to find an exit to this place. He quickly spotted two large, wooden doors, definitely large enough to fit him. If he could get to them quickly enough and break them down, he should be able to get airborne fast enough for them not to catch him again.

But with those chains binding his legs, it was entirely possible this plan would fail. And not only would it seem to confirm their suspicions that Kaz had not fought them only to surprise them later, but it would also no doubt lead to some kind of repercussion for him and likely his friends.

But if he managed to escape, he could then find his friends and they could leave. Assuming they wanted to, but Kaz wouldn't worry about those thoughts right now.

He was about to bolt, as much as his restraints would allow him to, when he realized that they weren't pulling the net off his wings. And as all ten of the humans came to grab the chain of his collar, it became clear that they had no interest in taking the net off completely.

But he shouldn't be surprised. Even though he'd not wanted to do anything like that, he could very easily knock them all down with the force of his wings. Realizing how dangerous his wings could be to humans, it was naive to think they would not restrain them, too.

As they all pulled at the chain, Kaz grunted, ten humans being too much for him to hold back, and so he had no choice but to follow. He stumbled, almost falling as he tried to stretch his leg as far as he usually did when taking a step, only to be stopped by the chain. Focusing on only taking small steps, he let himself be dragged into the cage.

As the chain was secured to a metal ring on the floor with a large padlock, only then did the humans pull the metal net off his wings. For a second Kaz was confused, but as he gingerly stretched his aching wings, he quickly realized why the humans were no longer worried about them when the tips of his wings touched the bars. The cage wasn't large enough to let him move them in a significant way, let alone hit people with them.

He sighed through his nose as the door of the cage was closed with a loud creak, leaving him with no way out. But he hadn't had much of a chance if he'd tried to run anyway, with his wings as wrapped up in the net as they had been. There would have been very little chance of him managing to free his wings with his teeth alone, as he couldn't touch his back in this form any other way, even if he weren't chained.

He lay down on the ground, trying to get as comfortable as he could with the chains restricting his movement and the cramped size of the cage. Kaz watched as the humans started to walk away. Some were looking over their shoulder back at him still, but no one stopped or said anything.

He sighed again when the large doors opened and the humans walked outside, closing the doors being them and leaving him alone in the dark, stone chamber. Even though there were many worries on his mind right now, the most nagging thought he had was just how tired he was. He stretched out as much as he could, resting his head against the cool stone and curling his tail around himself.

He had been exhausted after the trip over to this island, but his body had let him ignore that with everything that had happened. But not anymore, it seemed, because the longer he was stuck here, the heavier his eyelids grew.

Even though he felt annoyed with himself for wanting to sleep during this situation, not even knowing if Elaya and Rhen were okay or not, he knew there was no fighting it as his eyes slid closed.

Maybe some rest would help him think, and he could come up with a plan on how to convince these people that he didn't mean them any harm. Or at least find out if his friends were okay.