To The Hand of Clawed Fingers

It wasn’t long until we were stopped by the annoying man named Francis that had collected me from this morning. He had an even unhappier look on his face and practically started to shoot daggers at Cynthia. She quickly curtsied, and with a small sorry smile in my direction, ran off to follow the crowd. They stood outside two large rock doors I guessed to be the eating area, guarded by two black dragons. The moment I looked at them I got that strange crawling feeling I had under my skin as I had on the train, except I was also filled with a sudden rage. It was as if I had become one of the characters from Mortal combat vs. DC, where the heroes all started to glow yellow and wanting to rip everything to pieces. (What? Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t like video games!) But before I could follow the urge to go over and attack them the old man put a strong hold on my arm and practically pulled me away from eye sight of the other dragons, which instantly made my body relax.

When I looked back up at Francis he was giving me an uneasy look, as if he wasn’t sure what he was looking at anymore. But in an instant it was gone and he was towing me back down more corridors.

It was off to the White Dragoness again, and just like before we were practicing my curtsy, my grace, my words, and practically my whole mind process. After it was over we were brought food and I was sent to my room to either sleep or do as I like. I always went to sleep. I never had a dream again.

It went on like this for a while…
Every day I would follow Cynthia, after helping Laci get to sleep, and go do my job, feel the same rage every time I saw the black dragons, and off to practice. It was a never ending routine, and soon I felt like I had been doing this my whole life. A year was about to pass, or so the Dragoness had told me. Out of everyone here she was my stone of truth in a white rapid river. I held on for dear life.

On my seventeenth birthday she showed up at the women’s corridor. Every single women and girl in the room stopped what they were doing and practically put there noses to the floor. After only a small moment of my groggy mind figuring out who she was I glided over to her and curtsied low. She seemed almost pleased but was quickly replaced with a look I had never seen on her before. Nodding her head she motioned for me to dress and follow her. Dressing in my practice outfit which consisted of leather pants and a clingy shirt, I added my leather glove and boots to beat the cold and followed behind her. It seemed as if she might have a surprise for me, maybe taking me out of work since it was my first anniversary of being here, let alone my seventeenth birthday. But I stayed quiet, as did she. The night chill was overwhelming but I tried only to focus on keeping up with the white dragoness.

No words were spoken.

No glances were exchanged.

And we were heading toward a place I had never been.
It was needless to say I was starting to get scared.

We finally stopped at a cavern the size of my parents house (absolutely to large) and stood in the middle, facing a large dark opening. All around the wall were all the dragons I had seen the first day I had been brought here. Seeing them all sitting in raised parts of the wall, staring at my expectantly was unnerving and probably the scariest form of peer pressure I have ever been through. It was then that I heard the scrapping. The sound of escape being cut off. A boulder had been put in place of the opening White Dragoness and I had come through. Turning to my side I saw she was no longer there and quickly turned in a complete circle trying to locate the slight yet majestic woman. It didn’t take me long to realize she was staring right at me, back in her natural form, tail curled around a pink tinted white dragonette while the other was leaning against the Red and Black Dragon. The rest of the red dragons were tightly wound around them while the other colors followed suit. The only ones missing, I realized, were the black dragons.

It didn’t take long to realized what this place was used for. With the dried blackish-red color splattered along the walls and fragments of bones still littering the floor, there could only be one solution. This was the dragon’s form of a coliseum, and I was standing in the middle of it.

Only when I had realized this did a low, menacing growl emit from the dark opening in front of me.

Oh Bloody Hell.

And I thought my last birthday was bad!