Limits

Chapter 2

I woke up feeling refreshed and excitement tingled all over in me as I realized what day it was, my birthday! I turn 16 today and can begin working in the aerie with my mom.

I turned over to my clock and realized i had woken up before my alarm, it was only 4 in the morning. I didn't care that it was really early, I just ran to the bathroom to take a shower. The early bird gets the worm, right?

After my shower everyone else was starting to stir from their slumber and I wasted no time getting to my mom to begin my day with a little bit of work.

When I walked into my mothers bedroom, she was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Luckily she had a coffee machine in her bathroom so I just went ahead and made her a cup, she takes way longer to fully wake up without it.

"Zayden, why are you up so early?" My mom asked as she squinted her eyes to look at me.

"Mom! It's my birthday!" I said with an agitated huff and then walked the cup of coffee over to her.

"Ohhh, Zayden darling, you didn't have to wake up this early to work. I would've came and got you." She said with sleep still evident in her voice as she took the cup from my hand. She gave me a small smile before she got up and walked to her closet.

I watched as she picked out a pair of grey sweats and a black hoodie. I guess this was her cheat day, the one day a week she gets to slack in the clothing department. I let out a small giggle watching her. It's so unusual to see her dressed like this, she's normally all professional.

I then glanced down at my own apparel, I was wearing a black form fitting shirt along with some high-waisted tan skinny jeans. I then looked into my mother's mirror and looked over my face. I wasn't too boastful but I knew I was pretty. With my high cheekbones, button nose, dark wavy hair and my bright, emerald green eyes. My mother never spoke of my dad but when she did she always said I had his eyes.

We left her room and headed towards the basement first, I was initially confused but then I remembered that the aerie was for the eggs that were laid by the animals in the basement.

When we got to the door leading to the basement my mother had me put my thumb into this device on the wall and I felt a prick in my finger, seconds later blood was dripping into the device. It startled me a little bit but it honesty it didn't hurt that bad. I few seconds later a voice came from the device " Welcome Zayden Rillcott."

As we were walking down the stair well my mother explained to me that the device on the wall was Sylvester, a highly intelligent computer system. She also told me to not be frightened by what I see in the basement and when I walked in I nearly fell to the floor. What I saw was not something I was terrified of but rather disgusted by. Hiding in my basement for all these years were these creatures, these beautiful, magnificent, dragons. They weren't as strong looking as the one I had seen the other day and I'm very glad I hadn't told my mother of the encounter now that I see what she's been doing all my life.

There were so many of them, now I understand why the eggs were always the size of my microwave. I can't believe I seriously thought they were bird eggs. I looked over all the cages and was astonished by the variations of dragons. They were beautiful, but dull compared to what I believed they could be, and I was saddened and angered to see them in such a place. They were all in their own cage but they might as well have been cramped with other dragons seeing as their bodies were touching all sides of the cages.

My eyes scanned over every cage and my eyes finally landed on a small dragon, it looked so young. It couldn't be no taller than 5 feet. It had deep green scales and two moss covered horns. It's head was held high but I could see that it wanted to fall down and crumble. You can tell so much from an animal just by looking in its eyes.

I calmly walked over to it and we just stared at each other. It started to rear up like it was going to attack me but it started to roar and then the basement blew up into a loud roaring match and I instantly felt a sharp pain in my head as the little green dragon turned towards me and looked at me very intensely. It seemed as if he was trying to say something to me.

I was interrupted from my little moment when my mother yelled at the dragons to quiet down. She then told me that the dragons were not to be let out unless for cleaning or collecting purposes. I don't know why but the thought of these animals not being able to get out and stretch their wings angered me, they were literally just being impregnated against their own will and then forced to give up their eggs without every seeing their kin. The thought disgusted me even more. I then thought to myself, “One day I'll free all of you, I promise”. Then I felt a sharp pain in my head again but immensely stronger as all the dragons heads turned to me and in unison I heard hundreds of voices loud and clear say

"We know you will Queen Lilliana"

I thought I was hallucinating all of it. I wondered who Lilliana was but didn't ponder in any of my thoughts and decided to carry on seeing what exactly they do with these poor things.

My mother allowed me to skip school for the day to get a proper introduction to her line of work. I'm not going to call it "my family's" because this isn't something I though we should be doing. These beautiful creatures needed to be free, that's how they are meant to be.

After a whole day of orientation I was pooped. I spent all day learning the different breeds of dragons and their temperaments. I found out that the little green dragon was a swamp dragon. They are relatively as aggressive as an alligator and can be very dangerous, but when I was standing there I wasn't scared at all. I let thoughts of all the dragons lull me to sleep and soon I was out like a light.

I woke up to the birds chirping rather loudly, a lot louder than usual. I sat up and looked around and realized that the doors to my patio were open.

I walked over to them and instead of closing them I took a seat outside. It was just about 5:30 in the morning and i just wanted to enjoy the beautiful colors as the sun peaked over the horizon. I hadn't gotten to just sit in peace in a long time. Not since I started working in the basement a week or so ago.

When I wake up I typically have to rush to the shower and then get myself ready. After that I have to go and check on the dragons and see if they have laid any eggs. I haven't had any more voices in my head although the dragons still look at me weird.

I've actually bonded with some of the creatures including the swamp dragon which I have named Noble, much to my mother's disapproval. Noble was one of the dragons we bred yesterday. He didn't fuss about it or put up a fight and I honestly felt bad for the female. She wasn't a swamp dragon like noble but instead a forest dragon. She was gorgeous with her high cheek bones and small snout. Her scales were a light green color with a darker undertone in the light. She didn't have any horns but she did have some long whiskers like a cat fish. It made her look similar to a Chinese dragon.

I was brought out of my thoughts when I caught something moving in the corner of my eye. I recognized the shape instantly as the lack dragon I had met at the lake and I froze. What is he doing here!? I thought to myself. He could get caught and put in those cages with the others and I don't know why but the thought of that hurt me more than the thought of any of the other dragons.

"What are you doing here boy, shoo shoo. You must leave" I said with an urgent look as a shooed him with my hands as people in cities do to pigeons. I hoped he could understand me because I couldn't put him through with the others are going through.

That same husky voice I had heard before came again and said "I had to see you again" and with that the dragon put its large head on my shoulder and brought me closer to do what I assume was a hug.

I stood there with my arms wrapped around him for a couple minutes before I pulled away and stared at him with wide-eyes.

I then manage to speak up and ask a question that I was sure could've put me in the looney bin. "Are you the voice I'm hearing in my head?"

He looked hesitant at first and after a couple seconds of awkward silence his giant head slowly nodded and he peeled back his gums as if to give me a cheeky smile. I just looked at him as realization slowly started to hit me. The voices I had heard on orientation day, those belonged to all the captive dragons.