Chapter 1
Note: This is a darker fantasy, not following the "typical" dragon plots.
Be aware of described violence, k*dnapping, abuse, and death.
-Ladon-
It’s dark... all around me. So dark. I can hear voices, some soft, some ominous. I know who they belong to, but I wish I didn’t. I just want to get out. I just want to escape, but I can’t. I’m bound... and there’s nowhere to run. I’m trapped...
No... Please... Not again...
“Ladon!”
I sat up abruptly, sweat covering my body. It took me a moment to realize I wasn’t there, but in The Red Desert, with Carter and Mefan. Carter was pounding his fist on my door, telling me to get up, which didn’t improve my mood.
Another dreadful night. I wished I could sleep better. I wished the nightmares would vanish, but they never did. I just learned to push it all to the back of my mind and not burden others with it.
“Come on, Ladon! Ashes is here, and if you’ve snuck one of Mefan’s assassins in there with you, I don’t want to be the one explaining it to him.”
I looked at the door, annoyed. Carter always came up with something so absurd. Just because he was with The God of Darkness didn’t mean I was f*cking his assassins. What was wrong with that guy?
“Go away, Carter,” I said and grabbed a pillow, hurling it at the door. But just as I did, Carter opened it, causing it to hit him in the chest.
“Ouch,” he said, his expression unchanged, with a smile on his lips.
“Get dressed,” he said.
“No, I’m sleeping,” I replied, settling back down.
“We both know you aren’t.”
“I actually was,” I insisted.
“Fine, I’ll just tell your brother you won’t go flying with him. I’m sure he’ll leave without complaining and won’t come drag your sorry ass out of here himself.”
I groaned in annoyance, covering my face with my hands before sitting up. Carter looked far too pleased with himself, and I had a strong urge to wipe that smirk off his face.
“You’re so annoying, you know that, right?” I retorted.
“A gift of mine.”
“More like a curse.”
“Just get dressed, Prince,” he said.
Mefan always enjoyed calling Carter that, and now they both seemed to relish using it to refer to me. I gave him the finger before tossing the blanket aside and getting dressed.
“You know Mefan can help if those nightmares are coming back,” Carter mentioned.
“I’m fine. I told you that,” I hissed, pulling a shirt over my head.
“I’m just saying—"
“Carter! I’m fine.”
He held up his hands and backed out of the room before walking away. The thing about Carter and Mefan was that they knew when to push and when not to. It was different with my brother. I knew he wanted to know why I had changed so much, and so did Laelia.
So I had decided to stay in The Red Desert, which suited me much better. Ashes often came by, though, so we could go flying together, but lately we had some trouble with some humans. We had hoped to have dealt with them already, but it hadn’t been so easy, and every time it seemed like we had taken care of them, more appeared. Where the hell were all these people coming from?
I knew we would have to figure it out soon because things were getting a little out of hand, and I knew that annoyed my brother especially.
Ready? a voice asked in my head.
Ashes stood out on the open sandy square as I came outside. He was already in his dragon form, just waiting for me to change as well. Mefan and Carter came out to watch as we took off into the sky.
We go east today, Ashes announced.
You go east. I go west.
Ladon!
Ashes didn’t always like us splitting up, but we needed to cover more ground, and it’s not like I couldn’t take care of myself. I had grown into my full size, and I was now just as big as Ashes.
We will meet up later, I said.
I turned and then started to fly west, keeping my eyes on the roads where people were walking or riding, just going about their daily lives. I loved it up here in the air. It was where all my worries could truly just take a step back, and I could focus on just flying. But sadly, the freeing feeling was short-lived as I noticed something between the thick tree crowns: an attack.
I let out a big roar before I started to descend, flying down to where the battle was. The humans quickly heard me, leaving their prey behind, who were just people traveling. They quickly left the whole scene as I started to take care of the human attackers.
I landed on the ground, watching them flee like ants, but some of them did decide to take on the fight, trying to shoot me with their arrows and cut me with their swords.
They didn’t do much, and with a whip of my tail, they were all pushed back. However, I unintentionally knocked a tree down, but it worked, and soon the rest started to scatter. I tried catching some of them before they escaped, but I missed and saw them flee among the trees.
I was about to take off again when I noticed not everyone had fled. I saw a woman struggling on the ground. The tree I had knocked over had sent her down onto the ground and trapped her by landing on top of her leg.
She was pushing and writhing to get free, but nothing worked. Half of her face was masked, and she wore these dark leather clothes. Her jacket had a hood in it, but it had been pushed off, and now her dark red hair was let loose. She kept her dark forest green eyes on me as she kept trying to get away. Whoever she was, she didn’t seem scared one bit. Just angry.
I changed back, and it only made her more frantic to get loose. I walked over to where she was and looked down at her, smiling a bit cruelly.
“What do we have here?” I said.
“F*ck!” she groaned as she kept trying to get free.
She certainly was a fighter.
“Need some help?” I asked her.
“Not from someone like you!” she sneered.
I placed my hands on the tree trunk and leaned forward, hearing her scream in pain. Yeah, that leg was probably not going to survive.
“Are you sure?”
She tried her best to take deep breaths and not focus on the pain. I stopped putting pressure on the tree and instead reached out. She tried pulling away from me, but there wasn’t really anywhere to go.
I pulled her mask down and was almost shocked not to find some scar or deformity, but no. Nothing but pale skin, pink lips, and a small nose with a few freckles on it came into view.
“Well, well,” I said. “And I thought you would be ugly.”
She just narrowed her eyes and tried pulling her leg free again.
“You know all you have to do is ask, and I will remove this tree from you.”
“I would rather you just leave me alone.”
“And why would I do that?” I asked.
She amused me a bit, I had to admit.
“Because once I get free, I am going to kill you!” she shouted.
“I would love to see you try, Red.”
“Just kill me or leave me. I really don’t care which one,” she sneered.
I smiled as I leaned back and crossed my arms. There was no way I was letting her go. She held the answers Ashes and I were looking for. The question was just how would I get them from her?
