Sold To The Dragon Kingdom

SEVEN

They locked me up in a carriage-like cage that seemed to be made of pure iron. The weight of the carriage-cage was supported by two black giant horses that looked like a breed of horses I had never seen before. They had wide muzzles and curved crests, and their manes were dark and shaggy.

The sunlight had penetrated through the tree branches and was cascading down straight to the spot where I was crouching down. I looked far behind me and noticed that all the other seven to eight cages were occupied by other captives. Only the cage ahead of me was empty; a room for one more victim.

The men do not speak with their mouths. They communicated with a strange body language especially using their fingers which was quite hard to understand.

I rummaged through my mind desperately, searching for an idea of how to communicate with the men. I had tried talking to the leader but it didn’t worked because he ignored me. Fighting them wasn’t an option either, and I had no idea where they were taking me. Where they were taking us all.

“Hey...” I whispered softly towards the cage behind me where a young boy was weeping bitterly. From my guess, he could be around fifteen or sixteen years old and his clothes looked tattered like a homeless wanderer.

He refused to look at me. Instead, one of the giants standing by my left side suddenly turned his head and my eyes subconsciously shifted to his face. He glared at me, making my blood to freeze. I sealed my lips shut and immediately rested my back against the cage, pretending to not notice.

I continued dwelling in my thoughts.

We rode through the forest until I was barely able to stay alert and keep my eyes open. I did not had even a sip of water ever since I left the riverside stream where we were attacked. My stomach growled with hunger and severe emptiness. It felt like the worms inside me were beginning to feed on my intestines. The giants kept moving and their horses did not seemed to be exhausted one bit. They kept digging their hooves into the ground and making those clattering clattering sound.

By the time the sky had transformed into a full blown darkness, we had reached a small village where the cavalcade came to a halt on the orders of the leader. My head was spinning around and my eyes were hazy as though a spider web had engulfed my vision.

The next thing that happened at the moment... I had no idea because I dozed off to sleep unknowingly.

Shivering and panting hard, I snapped my eyes open due to the coolness of the water someone had poured on my body. Through blurred lenses, I saw the back of a giant man walking away with a bowl in his hand.

That was when my sense fully returned and I wiped off the sleep in my eyes. I found myself still inside the cage, but not on the horses anymore.

We were a total of eight cages in a large tent, the strong lights from the outside was penetrating through the wide opening where the flap of the tent was lifted. I could tell that it was dawn break already.

The cold chills continued to embrace my frame as I wrapped my arms around my body and shivered all over again. I could hear some voices coming from the outside but I couldn’t clearly figure out what was being said.

“Where are you from?” A voice suddenly asked, causing me to look towards the direction of the voice by my right. I saw the person who had asked me. A fairly large woman with wild red locks cascading beyond her shoulders. She looked bigger than any average woman so the cage appeared too small for her size.

“I’m from Urek. You?”

“South Albon. I’m a half dragon who can’t shift else I will not even think twice about fighting those humongous dragons.”

“Humongous dragons?” I almost laughed at the way she said it, but then I became serious all of a sudden. “Hold on... you mean those men are dragons? And you’re a half dragon yourself?”

“Can’t you tell the difference? We’re obviously larger than your specie. It means there are no dragons where you come from is that so?”

“There might be. Just that I’ve never come across one before.” I thought about what I said, then I added; “Or maybe I have, but was clueless then.”

“I see.” She said, in a tone than hinted out her indifference. “So why were you wandering alone in the wilderness?”

My stomach couldn’t stop growling of hunger. Even though I had intended to continue with the conversation, I felt like the rest of my energy would be drained just by talking about how strange things happened to me in one day. I needed to reserve my energy for what was going to come next.

“I’m sorry I don’t want to talk about it. Maybe not right now.” I said as I relaxed back and sealed my eyes shut. I didn’t even cared to see what her reaction would be. There was an uncomfortable cramp in my left leg and no space to stretch which was mildly frustrating.

Milan must have felt it worse than I, getting captured by those brutes with a poisonous arrow stuck in his leg. I couldn’t even imagine the pain he must be going through. I hoped he’d endure it all and stay alive so we could meet again. Alive and healthy.

While in my thoughts, a sound caused me to open my eyes, only to be met with the sight of two dragon men standing at my cage. Now I could tell they weren’t just some giant men but dragon men rather. The third one was not as big as the other two obviously, even though he was squatting down and struggling with the keys to unlock the lock on my cage. It was the sound of the keys that made me noticed their presence in the first place.

The man had his face covered in a black mask except for his eyes. I saw that they were honey in color when he glanced up at me once before he continued focusing on his work. His hands were all gloved. The aura he omitted felt very strong and familiar almost as if we had met somewhere before now.

The big lock fell to the ground with a clank sound as the man pushed in his hand and violently pulled me out as if I were a plant deeply rooted into the ground. The memories of that day came flooding back into my head. The memories of how I was almost strangled to death by that assassin. The strength of this man’s arm was incomparable to that of an ordinary human being.

The next thing I did was almost a regrettable one... I did it out of reflex, without thinking about the consequences.

I forced my hand on his right gloved hand and plucked it out quickly, revealing his hand which seemed badly burnt. I thought I might see something like a mole on his wrist but there was nothing except for the large burn scar that covered his entire hand. Perhaps I must have picked the wrong hand.

The man did not react to that. Instead, he yanked his gloves from my hand and put it back before he hitched me up against his shoulders. He gave the bunch of keys to the other dragon man who collected and went to open up another cage. It was the cage of that young boy who looked like a homeless wanderer.

“Where are you taking her?” The woman with wild red locks asked, but none of the men replied her.

Those dragon had no respect for women whatsoever.

The man silently carried me away like I was nothing but a useless log of wood on his shoulder.

**********

The sun rose a little bit high above the horizon, bathing the dragon in a warm yellowish glow from where it proudly stood on the large mountain. Helios could only see its figure perching atop the great mountain peak, head hanging low almost as if it were observing the depth below it.

By now, Helios was sure that the dragon had lost his way. That was why it chose to descend on the highest mountain to have a good view of what lies below it.

“Are we still going to track him?” Sir Randell asked from where he stood beside Dojhan. All four had converged at the Turk river the day before. And Helios had then came up with the new mission of tracking down the dragon that was headed for the South.

“We don’t know how long he’s planning to stay there. He has been standing there for several hours now. We’re heading back as soon as Lancelot returns from the hunt.” Helios replied.

Still groggy from sleep, Sir Dojhan groaned and murmured something into Sir Randell’s ear, and then both men guffawed loudly, but then they quickly composed themselves after they were met by a frown from Helios. Sir Dojhan let out a small awkward cough before strolling away to the bush to answer the call of nature.

“Sorry about that. Dojhan is still immature. He has a way with words that makes it impossible for one to not laugh at his remarks.” Said Randell, hoping to clear the leftover awkwardness rallying around them.

Helios did not replied. Not even his head had he turned to spare a glance at Randell as if no one had spoken at all.

“So what do you say about the druids who sneaked into the capital, Sir Helios? I heard from Dojhan that one was an old acquaintance of yours who was chased out of the Kingdom for practicing witchcraft.” Randell subtly changed the subject. This time, he hoped Helios would respond to him.

“You take over the task from Lancelot if you have nothing to do Randell.”