The Last of the Dragons-Set 1

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    I woke in an unfamiliar place, confused as to what had happened. My vision was a bit blurry at first, but as it cleared up, it became clear that I was in a cage of some sort, laying in the dirt. I blinked rapidly as I stumbled to my feet and started glancing around. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of poorly dressed, brutally underweight people locked in cages with each other, most of them going seven or eight per cage. The cages weren't anywhere near large enough to hold that many people. Perhaps ten feet wide and maybe eight tall. Then, I remembered the events of the day before.

I turned around and surveyed the cage that I was locked in, to see Tahli sitting up against the bars, with Amy holding Bailey in her arms next to her, along with two other women and one young man.

"Bailey!" I exclaimed.

"She's asleep right now, but don't worry. She was hit in the left shoulder. It went right through. It will heal up. She'll be fine." Amy said.

For a moment, I felt actual happiness, before remembering our current situation. The cages were lined up as far as I could see in all directions, with a large camp for the soldiers set up perhaps one-hundred feet away, with trees far off in the distance, with a river off behind us. It seemed to be mid day, and the suns heat was brutal.

"So... How do we get out?" I asked as I turned around to face the others.

The three other people in the cage with us chuckled slightly.

"Get out? We've been trying to get away since we were children. Anyone who didn't believe in the war being necassary was enslaved by the different factions. The Rusino's by far have the most. I'm not even sure if the others still have any left alive. Often we would be forced into the fighting when groups of soldiers would be killed off. If you want to escape, you'll have to kill them all, and somehow unlock the door." I young man said.

"Or perhaps they could befriend one of those bloodthirsty killers from the sky... I forget what they're called." One of the women said.

Amy, Tahli and I all exchanged a brief glance with each other.

"Dragons. They're called dragons."

I looked over to see Bailey fluttering her eyes as she slowly sat up. I ran to her and wrapped her up with a hug as a tear ran down my cheek.

"Ah! Yes! Dragons. Nothing like that back home. We've yet to see one as supposedly most of them have already died, but oh my what a sight to see." The young man said.

Tahli gave him a look.

"So, you speak our language but don't know the word dragon?" She asked.

He chuckled.

"You know, in our historical records, we have reason to believe that everyone from our homeland came from another land far away. That could easily have been your home, or another land from far away that none of us while ever see." He said.

I pondered for a moment, before coming back into the present.

"So... About those dragons...We have ties with a few of them. If we could escape, we could get them to help us all." I said.

The three of them all looked at me, with shock in their eyes.

"Wait, so you're the ones who were on dragon that was supposedly shot down yesterday??" The other young women asked.

"We were. Not sure why they didn't just kill us along with the dragon." I replied.

"The dragon? They didn't kill it. I over heard them talking about how they decided to leave it to die painfully rather than putting it down quickly. Probably to spite it for all the damage it caused. As for you, they probably figured they might as well torture you as much as possible for the problems you've caused them. Just don't piss them off and do as you're told." She replied.

"Wait so they didn't kill Magar?!" Bailey exclaimed.

"Magar? The young man said with a confused tone.

"That's the dragons name. Magar is her dragon." I replied.

"Ah. Well, I wouldn't get your hopes up. They wouldn't have left her there if they didn't think she'd die." The young man replied.

I sighed, before walking over and sighting down beside Amy and Bailey.

"We can't get out of here without their help. And as far as we can tell, their all either dead, or are to far gone to call for." I said.