POV: Fendrel
Venom sprang around the corner and charged into the circular room. He roared and smacked the flaming logs of the bonfire against a wall, narrowly missing a stunned dragon hunter.
"What the—" Venom's tail cut a hunter off as he was tossed against a wall. The hunter fell to the ground, unconscious.
The other hunters snapped out of their stunned states and scrambled for their weapons.
Venom knocked down a whole rack on the wall and hissed at the nearby hunters.
"Watch his fangs and claws!" A hunter shouted right before he was swept off his feet by one of Venom's wings.
Another hunter was pinned under Venom's massive paws.
The rooms were marked alphabetically according to the dragon elements.
Fendrel cut through the battle and ran into the passage that led to A-1. The hall and the room ahead were torch-lit. It was empty, save for three cages. A-2 was no different.
He ran into D-1 next. The room had three cages, only one had a dusk dragon in it. She was barely a few years old. Maybe two at the oldest.
She squeezed against the furthest corner of her cage. Her black scales would have let her melt into the shadows had it not been for the two bright green stripes running down her back and tail. She hissed yet had no fangs.
If I remember correctly, dusk hatchlings don't get their fangs until they're older.
Fendrel pulled out the necklace he showed Cloud when they first met from beneath his shirt. He held it out so the young dusk dragon could see.
She tentatively stepped toward him.
Venom's thunderous roar emanated from the door.
The little dragon cowered and fled to her corner.
"It's okay." Fendrel lifted the necklace over his head and held it out further.
Does she even know what this means? Does she just like the necklace, or has she been told about me?
She approached the bars and sniffed the necklace.
Fendrel put the necklace back on and tucked it under his shirt. He took out the multitool he used to free Cloud. He unlocked her cage. "We're getting you out of here."
The hatchling raced out of her cage and leapt toward him.
Fendrel wrapped his arms around her tightly, scratching her head every time she whimpered. "You're safe now. But I have to help the others, too. Okay?"
The baby dragon loosened her grip and allowed Fendrel to set her down.
"I'll be back, I promise." Fendrel left and went into D-2. No dusk dragons.
In the following rooms there were no earth or fire dragons, one floral dragon, and no gemstone dragons. The teen-aged floral dragon had shiny lime green scales. He lifted his head, intrigued yet skeptical.
Fendrel displayed the necklace again. The floral dragon relaxed in his cramped cage. He looked exhausted and had holes in his ears and nose.
"Are you who I think you are?" The dragon snorted.
"Who do you think I am?" Fendrel approached the cage with his multitool in hand.
The floral dragon shrugged dismissively.
Fendrel hid his necklace, unlocked the door, and swung it open. He placed the tool back in the bag.
One of the hunters in the circular room screamed. A loud thud cut off his cry.
"What is going on in there?" The lime-like dragon stepped out of his cage and stretched his wings.
"I had some help today." Fendrel grinned.
Venom snarled from the other room.
"I think I'll stay in here." The floral dragon sat, leaning against the cage bars. "Just call me out when you're finished in there."
"Are you injured?" Fendrel held his hand out to the dragon.
The dragon's eyelids drooped. "No, just tired. They ran me until I collapsed yesterday." He yawned.
Fendrel nodded, leaving the room.
Floral dragons are usually less thankful for being rescued.
He entered I-1. Nothing, but I-2 had one ice dragon.
A rogue.
Her blood-red stripes looked like scars on her white fur. As soon as she saw Fendrel, she lunged at the bars. She gnawed and scratched, screeched and snarled. The ice dragon seemed to have gone insane. Then again, all rogues were like this when they encountered humans.
Fendrel left the ice dragon's room and went on to check the others.
The rogue roared with fury as he moved further from her clutches, her cries turning into an ear-piercing screech.
He entered S-1 and 2, V-1 and 2, and W-1 and 2. No more dragons. Fendrel breathed a sigh of relief.
They really are refraining from harvesting dragons. But why? Are they sending more dragons to act as training dummies for new recruits?
The commotion in the circular room continued. Fendrel peeked his head in. Almost all of the hunters lay still. Weapons were strewn all across the floor. Venom threw the two remaining hunters against the wall with his forearms.
Venom's chest heaved. There were cuts around his legs and tail. His wings sank a little
Fendrel rushed forward. The injuries weren't major, just grazes and small cuts. He stepped back and sighed, then stooped down and picked up four knives, stuffing them in his bag.
"So, are there any caged dragons here?" Venom's words came between gasps.
"A floral dragon, a dusk dragon hatchling, and a rogue ice dragon." Fendrel nodded his head at the doors.
Venom growled. "A rogue. What are you going to do with it?"
"I usually just leave them. It's too dangerous to free them and they'll probably just cause more harm if they're uncaged." Fendrel crossed his arms.
Venom squinted his eyes at the doors. "A floral dragon. And a hatchling? I knew these humans were cruel, but I thought they at least had some dignity."
"The hatchling is free, she's just scared." Fendrel headed into D-1.
The hatchling had her tail curled tightly around her body and hid her face in her wings. She trembled and whimpered when she heard Fendrel walk in. The black and green dragon poked her snout out from her wings and sniffed. Her wings opened and her tail relaxed when she recognized Fendrel's scent. She crept up to him and sat on her haunches, reaching up to him with her tiny paws.
Fendrel picked her up and carried her out into the circular room.
Venom chuckled when he saw the hatchling clinging to Fendrel. "Hello little one." He traced the bright green stripes on her back with his claw. "What's your name?"
"Vi-per." She stretched her neck out.
Fendrel smiled.
Venom looked at the unconscious hunters around the room. "And what do you do with them?"
"I just tie them up and set a signal fire hoping any royal guards nearby will see it and come check it out. I don't know if it ever works, though." Fendrel shrugged.
Venom nodded. "You don't kill them?"
Fendrel froze. "No. I've never killed a human."
"Why would you leave these murderers alive? What happens if they get free and cause more harm?" Venom's tone rose.
"Because not all of them deserve it," Fendrel's ears burned. "You didn't have a problem with letting the rogue stay here, why not just kill her?"
Venom snorted. "That rogue will keep the dragon hunters busy enough to neglect searching for sane dragons. Dragon hunters have never done a lick of good for dragons."
"You don't know that." Fendrel shook his head.
"And you do? Do you hear yourself? What would your mother think?" Venom's stern voice jolted Fendrel.
Fendrel glared at the older dragon. "She would say to have grace. You of all beings should know that. You're the one who lived with her ever since she was banished." He grabbed the chains that lay on the ground. "I'm tying them up and letting them live, whether you agree with me or not."
Venom stood in silence while Fendrel dragged the hunters to the mouth of the cave one-by-one and sat them with their backs pressed together.
The hunters kept falling forward before Fendrel could tie them all together.
After a few more tries, Fendrel groaned in frustration.
"Your mother was an enigma to me in many ways, even while we discovered more of each other's lives." Venom held the hunters together with his front paws. "The dragon hunters weren't around while she was alive, so I have no idea how she would feel, but I do see her in you. Even if I don't understand yet, I am willing to listen."
Fendrel didn't meet his eyes. He wrapped the long metal chain around the hunters as many times as he could before retrieving a staff from within the base to stick between the links. He sighed. "I don't think I'm ready to talk about it yet."
Venom nodded. "Whenever you're ready, let me know."
<~><~><~>
Fog took a tentative step toward the chained-up dragon hunters, sniffing the air. She leaped back when one of them grunted in their sleep.
"They'll be awake soon. We should set the signal fire and watch from higher ground." Fendrel stood away from the others.
They were all in the valley. Viper hooked her claws into the scales on Venom's neck with her tail looped onto his shoulder. The lime dragon sat on the boulders that hid the cave entrance, watching for the hunters who would, hopefully, arrive with the new dragon.
"I'll go grab the logs from inside for the signal fire." Venom crawled through the cave mouth.
Fendrel looked up at the perched floral dragon. "Do you see them?"
He shook his head. "Not yet."
After the hunters were completely restrained, Fendrel told the floral dragon that they were expecting more, traveling by cart through the valley. The floral dragon nodded and introduced himself as Sour.
Fendrel could tell Sour was tired, but he insisted that he could look out for them.
My father always said I had the best eyes of all my siblings, or maybe by best he meant prettiest? Sour's comment rang in Fendrel's mind.
Venom crawled out of the cave with one paw clutching a bundle of logs. He set them down with a thunk. "...I don't know how to start a fire."
"I got it." Fendrel stepped up to the wood. He crouched, grabbing a stone from the ground and his multitool, striking them together until he produced a spark. The fire crackled to life, inching across the wood. "We'll need to gather some plants to darken the smoke. The pond further down the valley has some."
Fog raised her wings. "I'll go with you. I need water in order to heal Venom's wounds."
Sour's ears perked up. "Can you bring some food back for me?"
"And some for the incoming dragon." Venom raised one talon. "I'm going to hunt."
Venom looked at Sour. "If you see any humans coming, hide with Viper."
Sour nodded but didn't meet his gaze.
The dusk dragon set the hatchling down and flew away while Fendrel and Fog started off down the valley.
<~><~><~>
The nearer to the pond they walked, plants became more numerous and the soil felt softer.
Fog looked at the high walls of the valley. "How did you know this place existed? Do you have a map?"
"I used to have one with the tribes' domains marked on it, but then I figured if the hunters caught me and found it, they would know exactly where all the dragons live. I burned it, but I don't need it anymore." Fendrel shrugged.
"I guess that's the great part about traveling around all the time. You get to see so many new things, and now I get to explore it too!" She flung her wings out with excitement. "I wonder if Mist ever got to see any of this."
Fendrel's shoes sank into the mud at the pond's edge. He bent down to fill a canteen he kept in his bag. He screwed on the cap and put it away, then turned to the vapor dragon. "Fog, do you honestly believe that she would run away?"
"No." She shook her head, her eyes dropping. "I think something horrible happened to her. She wouldn't just leave without telling anyone... without telling me."
"You two must have been close." Fendrel repeatedly glanced over shoulder at her as he walked around, picking berries from the bushes.
"Yeah. She's like my sister. She's actually my adopted sister." Fog opened the saddle bags for Fendrel to put more berries in.
"How long have you two been friends?" Fendrel tried to keep her cheerful.
Fog thought for a moment. "I've known her since I was little. She befriended me before my mother passed. I'm glad she was old enough to care for me by then so I wouldn't be placed in the orphanage."
"Orphanage?" Fendrel momentarily halted his berry-picking to look at her.
How is she able to talk about this so freely? ... Why can't I?
Fog nodded. "No one knows who Mist's parents are, so my mother took her in and raised the two of us as if we had always been a family. My father was from a different tribe, I think he might have been a water or ice dragon. Anyway, Mother didn't tell me who he was, and I never asked. I think they had different views on humans and that's why they separated. Mother actually went to the War Across the Sea, but she didn't fight. She was trying to advocate for peace; it didn't work out, though. There was an accident... a misunderstanding."
"What happened?" Fendrel's voice was full of sincerity.
Fog took a deep breath. "Apparently, she was trying to rescue a human from a cougar, but the other humans killed her because they thought she was trying to attack their friend." She curled her tail around her front paws. "At least she was trying to make a difference, though."
Fendrel found that he couldn't move. "She sounded very bold."
Fog gave a shy smile. "That's what everyone tells me." She took a long drink of water.
Fendrel finished gathering berries and dumped them in the saddle bags.
They started back toward the others.
"My mother was an advocate for peace as well, but maybe not as extreme as trying to stop a war." Fendrel gave a nervous chuckle.
Fog's ears perked up.
Fendrel couldn't help the smile on his face. "She would always tell stories to my brother and I about how dragons weren't monsters like everyone in our village claimed. There are good and bad dragons just as there are good and bad humans. That's why, even after our village was attacked by a rogue fire dragon, I still trusted my mother's words, even if I had never formally met a dragon before that."
"She seemed lovely." Fog's comment heightened Fendrel's spirits. "What about your brother? Does he do the same thing you do? I've never heard of a second Liberator. Unless there were two all along, but no one ever guessed that there could be more than one human going around rescuing dragons!"
"Uh, no. It's just me." Fendrel scratched his head. "We went our separate ways a while back."
"Oh. Well, maybe you'll find each other again. And then you can convince him to help you." Fog had a skip in his step. "You are brothers after all, and family has to stick together."
Fendrel grinned, embarrassed.
Thank you, Fog, but I doubt I'll ever see him again.