Scales of Ice [TEASER]

Chapter One [TEASER]

I will tear them all to shreds.

The silent promise came to mind once more as I listened to the pairs of descending footsteps. Two mages entered the basement in which I was kept. My nostrils flared when I recognized them as companions of the Beast Collector, the man that had attacked me and imprisoned me inside this cursed bottle.

As the two moved around the room, hatred roared to life like a great blizzard sent by the god of the skies, Bleoles, himself. The mages talked to each other without a care in the world, as if there weren't hundreds of us trapped in this small room, begging, praying, and fighting to get out. As if we barely even existed.

Now and then, they disappeared behind the filled shelves, their image distorted by the bottles as they walked by them. Their words stayed loud and clear, the sound passing through the glass walls of my confinement with ease.

"A shame Ethye died so soon. He could've collected more of them had he lived," the female commented. A growl rumbled in my chest as my spiked tail slammed into the glass behind me. I narrowed my eyes at her, but she hadn't noticed my irregular behaviour. She was too busy looking at more collectables.

"Well, I'm not going to miss him. Now that he has fulfilled his purpose, there was no reason for him to remain." The man walked past the rows of shelves, all filled with minified prisoners in glass jails. The symbol of a dragon claw on his padded shoulders made my claws extend with unease. He preferred my kind, and was far too likely to go after us in particular.

The woman mage scoffed as she looked around, gaze sweeping over the shelves. "We all know how secretive and protective he was of his 'great' collection. He barely has any earth creatures, let alone so-called great ones."

"They were probably too much of a bother to display. They like to burrow." The dragon mage headed in my direction. I held my head high and unfurled my wings to their fullest, allowing all my spikes, scales, and horns to stand as tall as possible. It made me seem twice as big and thrice as impressive, and that was just what I needed right now.

I stared him down, keeping my defensive position. Something inside of me was grateful that he was distracted by bottles down the line and out of my sight, but I refused to show any sign of weakness. They would see it like I saw it in my prey. The Beast Collector had proved as much.

Shifting in place in unease, I bent my long neck as far as I could as the mage came closer and closer. The man took bottled dragons from the shelves as he went, making me hold my breath every time. He gave each furious creature a thorough look before either putting them back or making them disappear in a puff of blue magic.

My heart thumped loudly in my ribcage as he took the dragon on the other side of the partition between us. With a dissatisfied huff, he put the bottle back down, turning to me. The mage had determination-filled eyes that were as cold as the mountains I used to live in.