They stood in front of the five rooms, the three to left occupied. Ember wanted to let the dragons that were in the cages loose, but she knew that she must keep the thought to herself and learn how to block her mind from being read by others. They watched the Queen decide which room they were going to go into. After a minute, a dragon, whose claws were slightly blunt at the ends, probably from running, walked over to the Queen. The small party watched the dragon with the blunt claws and dark blue scaled bow.
"Speak." The Queen said, she looked at the dragon, who was smaller than her, without moving her head.
"Well, they have a dragon in room one, implanted with the newest version of the implant, they would like, if you want to, that you yourself would see the newest model in action." The dragon said, throwing weary glances at Ember.
"We will see the new one. Lead on." The Queen said after a minute. The dragon nodded and walked to the door furthest to the left. The dragon stopped in front of the door and tapped it three times with one of her blunt claws before opening the door. The door swung with a creak followed by a jolt, then moved silently to allow them through. She followed the Queen and Amluse in and stood next to Amluse in the room.
The room was like the big room on the other side of the door, but with no cages. A dragon stood in the middle; it's scales the same colour as a lake. The dragon lifted its head to look at Ember and narrowed its eyes, staring at her. It came to her then, this is a water dragon. The water dragon wasn't the only creature in the room before the Queen and the small party arrived, there was also a hunter. The hunter was checking the water dragon's chains, which Ember was thankful for, despite not liking that a dragon was chained up. If the chains weren't there, Ember probably would have been attacked already.
The hunter, after a couple of minutes, walked wearily to the Queen, it was carrying a metal cuboid big enough that a full-grown dragon could hold it with it slipping out, but small enough to fit in a dragon's paw. It placed the cuboid in front of the Queen, who looked at the thing before poking it gently with one of her claws. A snarl of pain came from the water dragon. Ember watched the dragon tense up and stiffen.
The Queen sighed and jabbed the device again.
The dragon screamed.
The sound echoed around the room, so loud it made Ember's ears hurt. Ember's muscles clenched beneath her skin. She had grown up in an army camp, she was used to hearing dragons in pain, but the sound that came out of the dragon was not like a dragon at all, it was high, and didn't sound right. The scream only lasted for a few seconds, but it made Ember's thoughts and feelings change.
The Queen jabbed the remote again, smiling.
The dragon screamed, louder than the last time, the spark that Ember had started tried to push its way out, to break free. The dragon fell to the floor, the muscles twitching before going still.
"Is it dead?" The Queen said, sighing.
The blunt clawed dragon walked over to the water dragon. The dragon poked. No response. The dragon burrowed her brows rose. She slapped the dragon and poked it again. A muscle twitched.
"Not dead."
The Queen smiled, "Good, now where do I need to poke in order to kill this thing."
The dragon walked over and pointed, "However, we need the dragon at the moment, we are testing for faults."
"When will the tests be done?"
"Within the week."
"Come and get me when you've finished, I want to test the kill part. Any faults?"
YOU ARE READING
Eternal Fire
Fantasy'She could become their savour - or their destruction.' Rumours surrounding the untamed might of a young fire dragon are spreading across the continent of Ballasmara like wildfire. The seemingly limitless flames drive a variety of leaders towards...
