A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Shadow's Revelation

Shadow and I walked back below deck and down to the holding locks. When we found lock B, I broke the padlock off and we entered. The door immediately led to a set of stairs which came out in a long hall way that was lined with iron doors without any kind of windows. A form of mental torture by my guess.

“Cell, 56, 54, 52”, I said noting the patterns on the doors, “they go in even numbers, decreasing.”

“If that's the case then Zero should be in the way back”, Shadow said beginning a quick trot down the hall way.

I followed him, counting the numbers as I did. 37, 35, 33, 31. Every cell was empty, so it came to me that they did more killing of prisoners here than they did saving. If that was the case then the guy Taro was hunting was probably dead. I huffed, hoping I was wrong.

“11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1”, Shadow said, “here, Prisoner 0.”

Inside the cell was a blue and white dragon who appeared to be female. She was malnourished and I could see her spine poking through the scales on her back. I could see her sides sagging with each breath she took and her breathing sounded a little too shallow. She was laying in the back of the cell, her head away from the door.

But the scent....the scent hit me like a brick wall. So familiar, why was it stuck in the back of my head? I knew this dragon. I could feel it in my chest that I knew her. Why? Why did I feel like I knew her?

“She's alive”, I said, “but week, we need to get her out.”

I grabbed the door with both my paws, took a deep breath and yanked it right off the hinges. The sound of the bolts snapping sounded like a gunshot, causing the female to whine and cover her ears. Even her whine seemed familiar. I knew the voice...but from where?

I threw the door aside and Shadow and I stepped inside. I saw my friends legs start to shake as we did. Shadow mumbled something I couldn't make out and then went to the dragoness's muzzle, lifting it so he could look her in the eyes. She had a confused expression on her muzzle.

“S....shadow?”, She asked weakly, “is that you?”

“Yeah”, Shadow replied, “it's me Mom.”

I felt my heart stop. Prisoner 0 was...Faline? Taro had been tracking his mate the whole time? Faline stood and wrapped Shadow in her wings as I stood there completely speechless. Faline used to hang around the preserve with Hunter, Taro and his friend Firedrake all the time. One day Taro showed up and asked to talk to my Dad. If I had known then that Taro was going to cry to my Dad and tell him that Faline was dead, I wouldn't have eavesdropped. It was the first time I had ever seen Taro cry over anything. Learning that she was gone had killed me inside. That was 25 years ago. Now, Given everything that had happened in the past 25 hours, I wasn't sure what to think.

“Its you”, Faline said quietly, “my son...Shadow.”

Her tone was full of mixed emotions. I could tell Shadow was as well. They stood there, holding each other close, both of them seemed like they wanted to cry, but they didn't. Faline seemed too weak, Shadow too shocked. All the while I sat there watching them. Faline spoke up again.

“Where's your father?”, she asked looking into Shadow's eyes, “I want to see him.”

Shadow sighed and looked away.

“I see”, Faline replied, sadness hinged on her voice, “knowing him it was something reckless, serves him right for taking on those risky missions.”

She smiled and licked Shadow's nose, “my foolish, brave boys.”

“Mom”, Shadow said, “he died to save you....so I could have you back.”