16 Chapter 16

Rykirus's eyes groggily opened, and his jaws tried to open in a wide yawn, but a cold tight band of metal was wrapped around his snout. Panic bubbled in his gut and he stood up, deaf to the clattering of chains, as he examined himself. There was a metal ring around his tail, claws and snout, with a chain hooked from them to the walls. His wings were pinned to the side of his body, and magic was blocked. Now that Rykirus was paying attention, he could feel the vibrations of the wood he was standing on, he was being moved.

His head snapped up as the door opened and then closed with a heavy thunk. Rykirus eyed the elf in front of him with wary eyes, she had long blond hair and warm green eyes, magic radiated off her and he had no doubt she was strong. She had the customary pointed ears of all elves, but she lacked the armor or insignia most soldiers bore proudly.

The elf stepped forward slowly, eyes sympathetic, as she reached her hand out. Rykirus went cross-eyed, watching the hand approach his snout, before he backed away, ears pinned to the side of his head, eyes narrowed into a glare, and lip curled up into a silent snarl, baring razor sharp teeth.

The elf reluctantly retracted her hand before crouching kneeling to meet his eyes, (He's still a drake fyi, a small one) "Hi," she said smiling softly, "My name's Arisa, what's yours?"

Rykirus just stared silently at the elf in front of him, the elf that was on her way to attack them! His anger spiked and he glared fiercely at her, not willing to take her pity. Arisa visibly wilted at his reaction, but she seemed the positive, friendly person and perked right up, "You can't speak with that right?" Arisa nodded at the band around his jaw, "That's why you're not responding," she said with a confident voice.

Rykirus snorted and rolled his eyes, he didn't actually know if he could talk, before trotting toward the corner and flopping down. He tried to cover his face with his wing like he usually did, before seeing the restraints and slumping down in defeat.

The mage didn't seem to take the dismissal for what it was, because she walked over to him, albeit stopping when he curled his lip over his teeth, and spoke cheerfully, "I'll just call you Night okay? Since you're dark as night, and you're a NightBlade!"

Rykirus huffed inaudibly, she just wouldn't leave him alone! She was rambling about something, with the chained drake tuning her out, before something she said made his head shoot up in surprise. Arisa noticed and grinned, "Caught your interest huh? We're headed to the human capital," her face turned sad and she looked away, "you shouldn't be here, you should be back with your family and loved ones."

Rykirus felt grief well up inside him, his body too tired for the usual anger to surface, when he thought of his family, all dead. He hardly noticed when Arisa started talking again, paying attention in the middle of her sentence, "-dn't sign up for this! I signed up to help, to heal. Not to capture little drakelings from their families and ship them somewhere for who knows how long!" she leaned back, eyes gazing blankly into the distance, "I just don't know what to do anymore," she whispered.

Orange eyes watched her as she spoke to herself. Rykirus didn't know what to make of this humanoid, she was a participant in the attack, but she was being kind to him when she had no reason to be. His head spun and he just wanted to sleep, his muscles felt sore, he had a headache, his magic was all but gone, and thoughts were whirling in his thoughts like a hurricane.

So he felt relief rush through him when a loud voice shouted something unintelligible, at least to his spinning brain, but the elf definitely understood, standing and shouting something back before approaching Rykirus.

In his state of mind, he didn't process what she was planning on doing before she did it. Rykirus didn't register the feather light touch on his snout before the door was opening again and blond hair disappeared from view.

Rykirus blinked, before his head fell on his paws and he let out a deep sigh through his nostrils, exhaling smoke. 'Well,' Rykirus thought grimly, 'I was wondering how I was going to get to the capital.' As his eyes fluttered close, another thought ran through his brain, 'I hope they feed me soon.'