I choose Power

TEN

Dahlia comes to slowly, to the insistent prodding of something sharp between her ribs. Immediately she wakes, her head lets out an insistent painful twinge and she feels a headache so intense it feels like the contents of her head have been let loose. She has taken way too much abuse recently. The prodding does not cease and she snarls at the offender as she opens her eyes and immediately regrets it. Her stomach drops and she has to squeeze her eyes back shut tightly as vertigo slams into her. Her body is contorted into uncomfortable angles inside a small box-like bar cage and she is ironically happy to have such solid dependable materials very close to her body. What she is not happy about is her cage being suspended about fifteen feet above the ground.

The guards she had glimpsed below with a long metal rod jeer and laugh.

"Afraid?" One of them sneers but she does not bother to check.

The rod prods her again, this time in her hip.

"What, don't tell me she's afraid of a little height?" Another says and they laugh.

Anger flashes through her and she grips the bar hard. She slowly pries her eyes open to view her surroundings. She is in a poorly illuminated circular room and the only thing she can make out inside of it is her rectangular cage suspended above. Two guards stand below her, one resting his weight on the offending rod while the other talks animatedly to the other, mocking her.

"Let me out." She commands and they look back up at her.

"Don't think so, sweetheart." The first guard says.

"Very bad idea." The second one says with a grin. "Wanna be let out? Should we release the lock on your cage, see how good you do after we let you out of your nice pretty cage?" He asks.

"What's a pretty thing like you do to annoy Gouge so much though?" The first one asks. "He normally likes them just like you." He shudders. "Can't imagine ever doing anything so drastic it would get me such a punishment." He says cryptically. Dahlia has no idea what he is referring to but she will not be asking more about it either. She has to close her eyes briefly to get rid of the persistent sensation of plunging to her death.

"Question is probably what she did not do when it comes to Gouge. Bastard's harder to please than a whore." The second one says. "It has not been let out for over two decades! I almost pity the poor woman."

They seem pretty fine talking about her and ignoring her dangling from a splashing height and so she listens to them, not calling any more attention to herself.

She peers around, trying to determine if there are any similar cages that could be holding Cain, if he is even in the room at all. But she is the only prisoner in the room. She slowly raises her hands to feel the cage. When her cage shifts slightly to the side, she freezes, solidifying her death grip on the bars. Thick iron bars just a few inches apart surround her on all sides. The floor of her cage and the roof is plain hard metal and she sees where it attaches to a chain and fixes to a lever on the other side of the room, which she assumes is to lower it down.

Slowly, so the guards below do not notice her, she runs her fingers over the edges of the cage, trying to find a catch or a c***k. The cage might be rusted at some places but it has no give that she can feel. She however, finds the door of the cage locked with a thick iron lock and some long wide feathers on the floor of the cage. It must have been used to house some rabid bird before her. She abruptly seizes her motions when the door is thrown open, light spilling int the room. The guards below also stop talking at once and stand at attention.

The door opens to admit two men, one of whom she recognises from her fight earlier. She briefly wonders if she is even still in the same day.

"It is time. Release her." The guards nod and the first one walks over to a thick, heavy-looking rod and takes it before striding to a corner where she sees another metal iron jutting out of the wall. Without preamble, he raises the first rod and smashes it into the second and before she can take a second to wonder why, her stomach lurches into her throat as she plunges to the ground and she screams. When her cage jerks to a stop a short distance from the floor, her head smashes into her bar cage and buzzes. She hears the laughter of the guards from faraway. Footsteps sound closer to her and there is a jangle of keys as her lock is opened. The rod digs into her ribs painfully.

"Get up." One of the men says and she groans.

She tears her eyes open to find her cage door wide open and the four men standing at the threshold. One of them kicks her and she growls, grabbing the foot and yanking on it. The man crashes to the man hard and she jumps out of the cage, pounding on him but she is so weak that the three men easily pull her off him. They grab her arms and jerk her away.

"You b***h!" The man on the floor snarls and gets up. He tries to take a swing at her but one of the men releases her to restrict him. "You'll pay for that!"

"She will." The second man says, patting his shoulder. "We're about to watch her pay." Whatever that means, it calms the first man down and he smirks. He spins around and marches for the door. "Bind her." He says and the men pull out thick ropes, yank her arms to her back and bind them together so tight she immediately loses circulation. One of them pulls a piece of black cloth from his pocket and blindfolds her. The beginnings of fear begin to trickle into her veins. Indignation wells up within her at being manhandled and treated like trash, and frustration builds up in her at her utter helplessness. Her emotions are spinning out of her control and making her head pound. She detests being at the mercy of anyone, let alone brutes such as these and cannot help but feel like she brings shame to her family with each failure that she piles one on top of another ever since she was exiled.

"Come." The red-faced man she had dragged to the floor says, hatred burning in his eyes. "I cannot wait a moment longer."

The three other men drag her forward easily. She cannot see where they are going but she can tell that they walk through a long enclosed space. They call out greetings every now and then to men and women that she assumes are their fellow raiders because no one questions why a woman is blindfolded and being led to probable death. In fact, they all sound like they are in a very good mood and they make cryptic references to wherever she is being led to.

After a long walk, they pause and she hears the grating sound of a metal being dragged. It must have been a door or window of some kind because the first thing to hit her is the noise. It sounds like a whole kingdom could be gathered judging by the raucous laughter and noise. The noise increases as whoever her audience are see her. Drums begin to pound and people begin to chant. She vaguely makes out what they are chanting as 'Blood'.

Okay, she thinks, they are definitely not joking. She is shoved forward and forced to kneel in what feels like sand and they wait.

The chant grows louder and louder, taking up space so that it is all she can hear until it is just a roar in the air. And then it seems to reach a crescendo and stops abruptly. The sound of a metal grate reaches her ears and the next sound curdles her blood.

The three men holding her down shove her to the ground and she hears their feet pounding away as they run to safety. Eyes blindfolded, she still cannot see a thing but she hears the shuffling footsteps echoing from somewhere far in front of her. The creature lets out a long mournful bay as if it is in the worst of pain and shuffles forward again. Real fear drenches her, seizing her breath and paralyzes her limbs for a moment before she jerks back into herself with a panic. She jerks at her hands, trying to claw her way out of the bindings on her hand but it does not budge an inch. Her breath begins coming in pants as she tries to wiggle out if it frantically but the bindings are stuck tight. The shuffling and snuffling are getting closer accompanied by the occasional baying of a thing tormented.

She is going to get killed without ever seeing her killer, how pathetic. She forces herself to take a deep breath and analyze the situation critically. She has gotten out of alot of bonds before, it is one of the things that her and her sisters were taught by their training master in Solaria. When her breaths are no longer slicing into her lungs, she tests the strength of the bond. It is actually not so tight, but her earlier panic had made it seem much more constricted. The creature ambles closer and she tunes it out, working fast on getting the bindings off. She slackens her hand and with her middle finger and thumb extended as far as they will go, works on releasing her hands one after the other. She stays still, trying the method, sweat trickling down her back at the time she is taking while death looms closer and closer with every breath. The echoes of its steps is deafening to the silence of the audience as they wait on her with bated breath.

Finally, the first hand comes off and she hears very few people people give her whoops of encouragement. She quickly unties her second hand and whips off her blindfold.

In front of her is a deep, dark chamber and a metal grate has been pushed upwards to clear the path for whatever is inside. She has good idea of what it is. A pale hairless nozzle appears at the entrance and sniffs before letting out another bay and stepping fully out. Her heart stops in her chest.

A meer dragon. It is one of the rarest apex predators, nearly unstoppable in battle. Despite its name, it has no wings, but makes up for it with swiftness. It is of dragon shape, walking on its two hind limbs and keeping its deadly fore-limbs for tough fights. It stands as tall as three horses piled on top of one another with lean ropy muscles and a tough hide impregnable by steel. It exits its dark cave into the light, raises its face to the sky and the sounds that come out of its throat are so horrifying that the audience closest to it cringe away and the fine hairs on her arms stand out starkly. She has no idea how these common raiders got access to such a rare terrifying creature but out of every challenge she has faced ever since she left Solaria, this might actually be the one to do her in. Its large body rests on short stumped legs and its face is all angles with large milky eyes, a wide powerful mouth consisting of rows on rows of needle-sharp teeth. The most definite thing on its face is a large pale bulbous nose. It is a blind creature but is not to be underestimated because his nose is so sensitive that it makes up for his eyes and more.

It raises its nose to the air and sniffs, back leg scratching up the ground and she jumps up in alarm. She immediately sways, her visions swimming in front of her and barely makes out great yawning teeth aiming for her in time to dive to the floor and roll away. Two lines of fire open up on her shoulder leaking blood. The meer dragon lands in a plume of dust and gets back up, shaking off his body. The dragon had been so fast the audience had not had time to exclaim and they holler and yell at the exciting turn of events. She staggers to her feet once more and shakes her head to get rid of her double vision, her feet knocking together as she acknowledges what a lost cause it seems she is fighting. Even when she had just been banished, proud and strong and believing she can handle anything the world throws at her,  she had never stood a chance against a meer dragon and right now, with her empty stomach, her weary body and her battered head, the meer dragon is going to pick her bones for dinner.

The creature turns around and fixes her with a milky glare, stretching, only getting warmed up. The only warning she has this time of its attack is the slight hunching of the muscles on his leg and she dives out and rolls. The meer dragon crashes into where she had been standing a second ago and sniffles angrily, swiping at its nose as it spins around to face her.

She looks around frantically for any weapon she can use but she has none. They had stripped her of her dagger and her sword and left her with nothing to defend herself. Of course, they do not want their precious creature to sustain any injury and she is the expendable one, in here only to entertain them with her death and defeat. There is not even a stray stick lying around.

"Die b***h!" Someone yells. She recognizes the voice as the man that had put her in this little hell with the meer dragon. The leader. He expects her to die, they all expect her to. This is their little screwed up revenge.

Anger ignites in her at their ridicule and close-minded brutal justice. She is not one to judge over much but when the brutal barbaric judgement means she is the victim, she very much objects. She welcomes the anger that rushes through her chest, her eyes snapping back into focus and her spine going rigid.

The wind picks up around her suddenly and whips up her hair and jagged lightning zigzags through the sky so close it sends shockwaves through the gathered audience. Before everyone's eyes, the rips in her flesh sew back up by themselves. She blinks and her eyes become a glowing liquid silver and the shadows of great silver wings illuminate her back. Lightning strikes the roof of the hall, crumbling it in an explosion of tinder and people scream. It hits her, arching her back and lifting her clear off the ground before she settles back down, the lightning crackling around her body like a pet. As she faces the meer dragon, jagged lightning arcs beneath her skin and zip around her hands. The gathered audience gasp and shrink away from the death in her eyes.

The meer dragon had been taking its time with its prime meat before but when it feels the threat escalate, it lets out another of its sorrowful baying and attacks her. Power infuses her veins, drenching her every breath and there is no more room for fear. With a cruel twist of her lips, she watches the meer dragon leap through the air as if in slow-motion. When the huge sharp teeth are so close to her face that she can smell the eye-watering odour emanating from its mouth, she slams up a palm and hits its pink bulbous nose. Despite the meer dragon being nearly indestructible, ts greatest weakness is its thick, fleshy and extremely sensitive nose. Gasps echo one after one another throughout the great hall again and for a moment, every person in the room is sure they must be seeing wrong.

The huge body of the meer dragon freezes in the air as she holds it up by its oversized snout with one hand. The meer dragon appears confused for a moment before it tries to overpower her, snapping huge teeth in her face. With the one hand still holding it up, she does not flinch as she slowly tightens her grip on its snout, crushing it in. The animal is bombarded with pain and it lets out a high keening cry that brings everyone's nightmares to life. People clap their hands over their ears and scream, bent over in agony but she only smiles at the creature, baring new little fangs at it.

She brutally crushes the snout in her hands and the creature crumples to the floor, still held up by her and with a little flick of her wrist, tosses the body far where it crashes into a far wall, instantly breaking its spine and crushing a few people in the process. The people had been motionless, transfixed by the horror playing out before them but the crash of the meer dragon shocks them into motion and grown men and womentopple over one another in their haste to get away from her. She ignores them all, and looks to where the leader sits. His face pales as her eyes connect with his and he shoves his chair to the ground in his haste to escape. She laughs, a sultry echoing laugh. He had dared to a lay a finger on her, to slap her face, the worst disrespect. He is beginning to push people away, shoving them to the floor in his desperation while they all try to resist, equally wanting to live. She leaps, her feet making great twin indentations in the ground, over the many rows of seats arranged for the sadistic leisure of the audience and lands right behind him. He stumbles and glances back and his jaw goes slack with shock.

His face grows red with anger and indignation and he shakes a meaty finger at her.

"You! What are you? What sort of witch are you?!" He yells, spittle flying in all directions.

"You wish I was a witch." She whispers to him. "But I am your worst nightmare."

His eyes dart around, at his comrades deserting him without a backward glance and he feints diving for the left when he really dives for the right.

"FREEZE." She commands and he stops mid-lunge.

"STAND." She says and he straightens up. His eyes meet hers and the terror in them feeds her soul.

Several people stare at them open-mouthed, looking from her to him and with a glance from her, they scatter, abandoning their leader. A brave man yells to her right, aiming for her head with an axe and without sparing him a glance, she sends a bolt of lightning crashing into his chest, throwing him backwards through the far wall and killing him instantly. Hand still crackling with energy, she lays a gentle hand on the leader's cheek and he stiffens. Lightning rushes from her hands into his body and fries his insides. Even though he is in unimaginable pain, her command forces his mouth shut and his face complacent in peace. Despite the visible roiling and crackling of lightning beneath his skin and the burning and pinkening of his flesh from within, his face is arranged in an emotionless expression, nearly peaceful, grossly macabre.

"Goodbye." She whispers to him and sends one more jolt of lightning crackling into him. He topples over, dead.

Feeling refreshed and better than she has felt in days, she glances around to find the hall nearly empty, many injured on the floor from being trampled and the few stragglers left shoving each other into the small entryway. She smiles, radiant and beautiful and turns for them, power readying between her fingers. Her shadowy wings flutter once and she readies for a leap when her world rocks.

Magic claps onto her ears, devastating her balance and sending her reeling. The last thing she had been expecting was any type of resistance and she is unprepared for the force and magnitude of the magic opposing her. Forgetting her prey, she spins around to meet transparent, nearly white eyes from across the hall.

The man is impossibly huge, towering over the large men around him, with a cloak of animal hide draped over his shoulders. His hands are loose at his sides, his feet are planted apart and his stance is relaxed, non-confrontational, bored even, giving no indication that the lash of magic had come from him. But her eyes narrow on his and she takes a step forward.

Another pulse of magic resonates within the hall and slams into her and she staggers, her head spinning, the exertion of the past day on her body suddenly catching up to her.

"You." She grates out and he stares at her coldly. His face is the last thing she sees before she topples over, rushing to meet the darkness.