Ch.35: The Punishment

Sam

I asked everyone, dragons, and people, but they seemed to know what I was going to ask. Before I'd say anything, they'll point in a direction silently. The weird-looking town was almost deserted, as I'm nearing the end of the town. I hear the distant screaming of a crowd. I feel the urge to panic, to get to the source quickly. I take a deep breath, like I always do and sprint in that direction. Thank goodness I'm still wearing my tattered shirt because as I'm sprinting towards what looks like a coliseum but two times bigger, I feel my wings stretch and take on air. My feet leave the ground, it doesn't take me long to touch the clouds, I'm guessing because of our elevation… wherever we are. I silently fly over to it and I realize over the opening at the top, is a net of chains. I can't squeeze through the little holes the chains leave. So I circle around the building and I see dragons walking into an entryway which is guarded. I land a few meters away, without my wings disappearing into me, and the dragons look at me expectantly. I keep my eyes on them as I walk with a purpose. I'm starting to feel Em's presence in my mind. She's here I know it. My back starts burning badly like glass grating my skin and I wince, not making a sound because I'm too focused on finding Em. All the excitement dissipates and feel anger through our connection. And I hurry, emerging into a crowd of a mix of people and dragons.    

No one's paying attention to me as I squeeze through people and different colored dragons. I smell something odd and I hear a horrifying roar from inside the building, people and dragons around me start to become excited, people screaming like in a rock concert and dragons flapping their wings and stamping their feet. I get to the front and look for all the commotion. All I see is a monstrous snake getting ready to strike at the smaller dragon in the arena! The pale dragon doesn't move, it becomes like stone. I feel a wave of relaxation overcomes me and I sigh. But I tense up again when the snake snaps and looks straight at the dragon. It stays like this for a few moments, before I feel heat envelop my insides, the chest of the white dragon glows a dull purple that leak through her scales. Wait… her scales! I don't know why it took me this long to notice!! Em is that dragon! 

My wings appear and push me into the air, as Em shoots her flames at the snake's eyes. It shrieks in pain. I fly over as fast as I can to help. At the same time, I scream for Em, the snake strikes, biting her right shoulder. Em roars in pain, I tumble down in between them to get the snake's attention, but as soon as I do, it throws Em into a wall and Emberlynn collapses to the ground unconscious. 

My heart feels like it just dropped to my feet. My shoulder is bloody from the same wound and I'm breathing hard. I look at the snake and an uncontrollable rage overcomes me. My wings flare up and I scream like a banshee. I get that same feeling as before with Em blowing fire at the family name and I point at the snake. Thunderclouds quickly start grouping together above us and a huge column of black and purple fire come crashing down onto the snake. I stare at the death of the creature with tears in my eyes from sadness for Em and from the heat. I feel ash cover my skin, as the column becomes wild and hits part of the coliseum while dragon roar in fright and fly away to safety. I feel a wave of exhaustion as the fire column becomes ashes and the storm clouds dissipate. But my anger hasn't just simmered yet. Ignoring what just happened I look up to find all of the audience staring at the damage that the column created… maybe what I created. My wings spread and shoulders squared, I summon all of my confidence to overwhelm the fear of being surrounded by people I don't know and by a dragon that vary from two times to five times my size, to talk some sense into them. To show that respect isn't my top priority at the moment, I speak. 

"What did I just walk into?! Is killing the only thing that entertaining to you, I mean COME ON! Especially my dragon! You ALL know this is not okay!!" I point to all of them. I sigh because I've calmed down a little and I start to go check on Em before a voice calls to me. But it's in that musical language like before. And the tone sounds the same, I turn back towards the audience to find who's talking to me. I didn't even notice that a dragon had taken flight until he lands right in front of me. This dragon was a dark grayish color, the color of thunderclouds. I think it is taller the Em, 'cause I have to look at him at a bigger angle, it has horns curving upwards. It has orange eyes and spikes along the end of his tail like a stegosaurus. He speaks again but I shake my head because of my not understanding. I hear a whoosh behind me and I see Lyra. Lyra sits near Em and a light shines from her hands and Em wound. She doesn't look at me but she translates for me.

The King thinks you have purposely done this. He wants to know what you have done. I look at her then at the King. Surprised by his claim, and not understanding why I can't understand the other dragons.

I didn't! I don't even know what I did. So how do you know that I did!!? I start getting very angry, I notice that my hands start glowing yellow. My Mark burning. I look at the king as I take a deep breath to calm myself, the glowing dims. He says something, but other than Lyra translating, two dragons; a dark purple slim one and a blue dragon, land beside the King and walk towards me. They're here to escort me? I look at Lyra with a confused look. Without looking at me, she says,

Follow them, this is out of my ability, now. I stammer, one of the dragons makes a sound that's like a grunt mixed with a frustrated growl. I start walking slowly. Once I reach the opening of the arena that leads to the exit, I stop. My wounds aren't bad but it could be worse on Em. I stay put but reach Lyra with my mind,

Please tell me when Emberlynn is okay?... I wait for an answer but all I get is silence. To keep my optimism due to the situation, I'll take that silence as a yes. I continue walking into the dark tunnel towards what I feel is my punishment.