The Dragon Liberator: Escapee

-19-

POV: Fendrel

The ex-rouge dragon barreled through the tunnel and leaped on top of the cage in the center of the room. He opened his jaws and set loose a raging blue flame onto the earth dragon.

It squealed, scales melting into each other.

Venom charged through and skidded to a stop when he saw the unfolding scene. "What are you doing?"

The fire dragon shot a burst of flame at Fendrel's door. It left a sizzling, bubbling gap. "Saving your son." He locked eyes with Charles and growled, flaring his wings. The back of his throat lit up blue.

"Don't hurt him." Fendrel rushed out of the cage, sidestepping the rogue, and stood before Charles.

With a hiss, the ex-rogue closed his jaws. He coughed a few puffs of smoke and shuddered. "He's a hunter." He coughed again.

"He's an ally." Fendrel looked at Venom. "He's the one who helps me rescue dragons. He thought this would be an easy job, but it wasn't. That isn't his fault."

Fog stretched her wing out and helped Charles to his feet.

Venom slinked down to the lower level and eyed Charles. He lifted his head and sniffed then looked at Fendrel. "Are you bleeding?" Venom grabbed Fendrel's hand. "Who did this to you? Was it the rogue?" He flung his wing toward the earth dragon.

Before Fendrel could respond, the fire dragon plunged his front paws down on the earth dragon's neck. There was a loud snap, and the writhing body went limp.

Fog covered herself with her wings and whimpered at the sound.

Venom looked between Fendrel's hand and Fog's distressed ball of feathers. "What happened here?"

The other dragons in the cages, stunned into silence until then, spoke up at once. They pointed and grabbed at their cage bars.

"Silence!" Venom flapped his wings. He pointed at Citrus. "You, tell me what happened."

Citrus shrugged. "A rogue attacked these humans and that vapor dragon. Well, a pair of rogues." She pointed at the air dragon's corpse.

"How did the rogues get in?" Venom stepped toward her.

"They were always here."

"And you didn't warn them?"

"It wasn't my problem. They got themselves into this mess." Citrus jutted her chin out.

"You ungrateful worm." Venom lashed his tail. He began ripping off the cage's doors.

Fendrel looked at Charles. "You lit up all the halls, right?"

Charles nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"You didn't see the rogues?"

"There were a lot of curtains, some of them were strung up between cages. Maybe they were hiding behind those." Charles gripped his broken arm. "By the way, I put your fire jar on the floor over there." He nodded his head towards the far side of the room.

Fendrel nodded and retrieved the jar. He tipped it all the way upside down. The ashes fell out and the fire died. He stuffed the jar back in his bag.

The freed dragons dragged themselves and limped out of their cages. Some had to be helped by the stronger dragons.

Fendrel approached Fog and placed a gentle hand on her wing. "Are you okay?"

Fog froze for a moment. "Your friend could have run away and saved himself..."

"Charles?" Fendrel crouched. "Why would he run? He wants to help us."