Ch. 34: Trials

Em

We ascend from the crater and head towards the opposite side Karin and I entered from, a bridge above a dry river bed. A large shadow covers us briefly, I look up, it's a dragon. Flying silently, making its way to a large building, quite bigger than humans use. And this dragon wasn't the only one, There were groups upon groups of dragons either crowding the wall or heading there. Some don't care since they stay where they are off the path that we are on. Sneaking glances at me, but not looking towards the king or Karin. As almost as they fear them…

    We continue on our silent journey, aside from the quiet warnings from others, the silent yet loud stares, and the sound of flying overhead, other dragons and a few humans heading towards the wall. As we get closer, the wall towers over us. At the end of our path, a door a little bigger than the king is opened by two guards accompanied by two human males. The king nods at the guards and continues onward, my eyes adjust to the dark quickly but as we entered the tunnel, we leave the darkness into the light of the arena that awaits us. 

    An explosion of sound, I realize roars and shouts, go off as we are exposed to the light. The huge circle of rows upon rows of dragons and humans surrounding us. I look astonished at the sight, the audience quiets. I don't hear nor see the king take off towards the audience until I hear a terrible call that excites the crowd more. I see him soar above the arena while all eyes are on him. He soon lands on a platform that is closest to the arena and overlooks the audience around him. He becomes still, soon the dragons and the bondees become still too. Karin pressed against my mind and I accept him in. Looking at me, he says,

Father is preparing them for your trials. Originally, he just wants for you to use your Dragon heart. To see your color. And to see where your mindset is. To see if you're as evil as our mother. If you can be trusted. 

I nod, but I'm still confused,

Shouldn't he just ask me to show my dragon heart? And ask me questions relating to our mother? Wouldn't it just be easier that-

He likes watching combat, he'll make a show whenever the opportunity comes up. And I think he feels that he can watch your intentions and how you think more carefully during your trials. The King roars to either get my and Karin's attention, to silence us.  We look at him, without a word, he sneers at Karin. As though the king orders him to, Karin does a few flaps and lands quietly beside him. Karin looks at me thoughtfully. I take a deep breath, everyone is watching me, my every move. I look at the king, my head held high to show that I'm ready to face my trials, and the king himself. 

Young Draco, are you ready to face the challenge to prove yourself, to prove your heritage, to prove that you… are my daughter? He talks slowly, I'm assuming to have everyone else listen in, and to let his words sink into my very being. I don't know what comes over me, it is confidence or fear, something urges me to reply and look at him in the eye.

I am. And I won't disappoint. You may know who I am, but… I turn to look at the audience.

Believe me when I say this: I do not, I am not known of the dragon whom had created me. But I know my Mother… and I will never become her! I'll prove it to you, to all of you! My confidence to show my point welled up inside me and escapes as a roar, a loud one that echoes against the walls of the arena. The explosion of sound from before invades my ears, my whole body vibrates with it. The King smiles slightly while Karin beams with excitement and pride. 

Get ready. His happy voice says. Alright, I am ready to prove who I am. To find out what I am. To not live in solitude as I did before. I look around my arena. There are two gates embedded into the wall of the arena. I face both of them and widen my stance, taking deep breaths, keeping my mind clear. Not knowing what gate will open first, I keep looking back and forth between them.

Suddenly, the gate on the left opens, a wave of searing heat and a massive shriek that echoes through the arena and audience. I look up and a bright light blinds me momentarily, I move my wing to block out the light and heat. Once my eyes and scales adjust, I see an orange, red and yellow-feathered bird, a little larger than the size of a human, with flames billowing around it. That's when I notice, chains covered the opening of the place. Guessing so me and this bird don't escape. Even as I think this, the bird goes towards the chains, trying to squeeze through the holes, I see the chains heat up red. The bird squeals in pain once it touches the metal. I smirk, so it's got weaknesses. I look around me, there's a puddle of water, metal spears on a rack the size of humans, and bondees. The bird isn't paying attention to me. I look at the audience to see the mood, some are watching and others are watching the bird. I look at the king and Karin for the same thing; Karin is watching with somewhat of a hopeful look, he nods at me. The king looks either bored or disappointed. That makes me worried, I need to win him over. 

I walk calmly towards the rack of weapons, my wings tucked neatly and my tail trailing behind me. I start hearing murmurs within the stands, their eyes all on me. They wanna see what my first move is. I keep my senses on the flaming bird as I grasp the spear with my right talon, I fly up to the other side of the rounded cage and whack the metal with the spear. This causes the bird to panic and looks around later locking eyes onto me. This bird becomes fully engulfed in flames, as it's anger starts to surface. The orange flames start to turn light blue, hotter flames than orange. I hover there waiting for it to make a move, nothing happens. This is probably an intimidation tactic,  I smirk and start growling softly. My patience starts to run low, I'm starting to get desperate on proving myself. I snarl loudly, and charge towards it, ignoring the heat and stab the bird, but the bird and flames dissipate into nothing. I feel sudden heat on my back and I roar in pain, dropping the spear. My wings falter, I lose balance and I fall to the ground. I hit hard, so it takes me a minute to breathe again. As I lie in a heap of my pain, an explosion of fire surrounds me, burning my tail and my wings. I hiss and stand up awkwardly to escape the heat, tucking my wings to my sides tightly.      

The bird is flying as fast as it can to create a "wall of fire" so to speak, I can barely see the bird. I can't panic right now! Even so, I don't know what to do. Do I need to kill it? The king said that I needed to defeat it, so could I just need to pin it down? I close my eyes to try and focus on the sound of the bird. Since I can't see it, but I can hear it. I hear the whoosh of flapping, All of a sudden the bird shrieks out in anger. I smile and hit the bird with my talon, the fires immediately disintegrate and the only light is the bird on the ground scrambling to get up using its wings. I pounce quickly, wincing as my claws start glowing red. The bird looks at me, I feel it inhale, and flames sear my snout and my eyes, I snarl at the bird in pain. I'm so angry that my urge to burn this bird to a crisp overwhelms me. I see purple mixed with yellow, I hear a shriek of pain. I hesitate and it causes my flames to disappear. I see the bird that's mostly burnt feathers now, with little wisps of blue. It looks at me, tears flowing, creating more feathers in its path, I feel guilty. So to not further it's pain, I slowly get off it. I've hurt it so much, that it doesn't have the strength to get up. I walk away, trailing my burnt claws and tail in the cool dirt. 

The sun had passed its peak now, casting a yellow across half of the audience. I look up at the King in anger. I didn't want to hurt the small creature, it's my fault. I hear movement, I look behind me. Three dragons come to help the creature back into the cage it was in before. 

You didn't kill the Phoenix, why? I looked back at the King, I growl quietly. 

You never said I had to kill it, you said that I have to defeat it. I didn't want to kill the creature. I only kill out of survival, out of hunger. Not out of pleasure or entertainment. I will never do that. I have seen too much and understand the will to survive with other creatures, like that Phoenix, as you call it. I will not kill any dragon except one, my mother. That will be the only creature that I will kill out of anger. I promise you that. I bark out a roar at him, the dragons behind him gasp or shrink back in fear.  He smiles mischievously, 

We will see… He looks to the other side of the arena to the guards handling the second gate. Says something to them, and they start opening the gate, he looks back at me. The audience roars with excitement. 

Let's see how you fare with this creature. If you manage to overcome this one, you'll have to overcome me next. I shake my head even before he finishes what he had to say, 

I am not going to kill it! He smiles and nods. He starts to say something else but it gets drowned out by the loud snarl of the giant snake bigger than any dragon that I've seen before, with deep yellow eyes and frills around the top of it's again. I freeze in horror, unable to move. The audience around me screams in excitement. I get ready for it to launch a strike at me, but it doesn't. It scans the arena around me, I sigh when I realize that it can't see me. And its eyes snap to me… So it can't see me unless I move, oh blaze. I hold my breath, to stay completely still as it slithers towards me, stopping a few inches, still looking at me, it snarls in frustration quietly. I can't hold my breath for very long, if I don't do something quick it'll sense me. I gotta think quickly, I feel heat gather inside my chest, and decide on it. I breathe my violet flame aimed at its eyes. It shrieks, the audience exclaims in surprise. I back off to get some room as the snake reaches its full height, and strikes at me with an incredible force.