The Executioner

I couldn't believe I requested them to do this.

But this was also part of their complex system of customs. Their ways of delivering justice and to show an example to those freshly branded. I myself carried the mark, the insignia of the golden crested wyvern, however I was no longer a slave. But I wanted to go through even these, things which I had experienced myself, to see them under a different light, without my emotions, my distress and fear hazing my mind.

So I was there, stark naked, anxiously waiting for the call, to join in the herding.

Now I knew how it worked, but then, many years ago...

Soon it came, then the door slid open, and the guard motioned me to follow with a short apology that once I was in the crowd, I was to be handled like the rest. I nodded, hoping I was prepared, although who could be prepared for what was to come!

Many, like me long ago, hadn't even seen them up close before for real.

I looked at those faces. I knew many of them indeed were criminals, committing such deeds which could have got them in prison for a decade or more, or in some less fortunate places of the world, mutilation or execution even. All I could see was fear, the fear of the unknown coming. The law of the dragons.

The guards herded us all, thirty-something males, into a large hall, ordering us all to sit beside a wall and wait. There was a large door on the far end, more than three meters tall and two wide, and an equally large display above it, which was blank, the total height to the highest point of the arched ceiling was maybe some ten meters, all very well illuminated by hidden light sources, probably even channeling natural light in, as far as I knew their architecture by this point.

We were left alone for a brief while, they mostly didn't know each other, casting a few worried glances, but too frightened to make a move. I could all well recall it. The whole place was a prison, austere, alien and foreboding, the sheer size and the blank interiors, all sending shivers down my spine.

There is no sound except for what we ourselves make.

Our own breaths. In and out. An occasional hushed word.

Then all of a sudden, the door hisses open, and there he is.

He has to duck to enter.

He has to lower his wings to fit them through the three meters tall door.

A few paces, and he sits somewhat aside, stiff and erect, the tip of the needles of his huge crest would hit the arching ceiling while he would still pull his tail in before the door could slide shut.

The sight put even me off despite that I knew them already. How lithe, slender and sinewy they are. I knew it would be a gold dragon, they are normally lighter and weaker than the brass, but their lean figure, their massive ornate crest makes them look larger if they purposely wanted to appear so.

He however probably didn't only look larger, I could well imagine him to be heavier, too. He had a considerable paunch now casually sprawling out between those long hind legs, which he couldn't even properly hold tight against his body due to its copious bulk for a decent sitting posture. Still, he did what he could to look as regal as one of their kind could ever look, the gorgeous majestic beasts.

However that, that it was him, was also part of what was to come.

Fear and speechless bewildered awe mixed on the expressions.

Then characters start to appear on the large display.

"I, Ravenos'Krann welcome you to our nation, the Skyworld. Some of you came to us by your choice, the choice of the Trial by Dragon, the choice of us instead of whatever your own law system sentenced you to. Some failed to behave proper as a free citizen of Skyworld, for you, well, there is no other choice than the Trial. Your former life is forfeited. Your former self shall no longer exist. You will serve the dragon who chooses you, however he or she may desire, for however long. Be faithful and diligent, and your mind shall come to peace, you shall be absolved. Fail, and well..."

He scanned the aghast expressions of the inexplicable. I now knew how it worked, however in such conditions one wouldn't notice the barely visible thin wires of the electroencephalogram taped on the top of his head. He nodded towards us, a long flick of his tongue, briefly stopping to lick his chops.

"I received the esteemed privilege to be the first to choose my slave. Please keep in mind that I can not understand your speech, and the din of useless yappering pisses me off. Not that I don't relish an ounce of fight or fright!"

He again licked his chops, now on the other side, turning towards us intently.

I saw panic settling in with some of us. I myself kept stiff and reasonably calm, or at least tried to. I didn't know him, and now it all didn't seem to be such a good idea. He wouldn't choose me, he couldn't...

He didn't even lift that massive paunch, he was too lazy for that. He merely pushed a foot under to slide it a bit forwards as he laid down to observe us up close. It was part of the impression. I now had realized it, he knew how to play it, to act. Likewise the way he lowered his long, slender neck on the floor, to lift only the end, the needles and frills of his crest now resting against his skin, like a snake, one enormous snake of impossible proportions.

That was how he examined us. How I was examined by a different dragon long ago, briefly, but with my heart in my throat, I felt it to be an eternity. I tried to keep calm and see the reactions to that slithering beast, how he purposely mimicked the motions of a giant constrictor with his neck as he moved from person to person.

Then one of them couldn't bear it anymore. He ran off!

Vain as it was in the locked hall, but reason gave up in him.

The dragon lifted his tail in the air and smote down with a thundering whiplash!

He killed him! I freaked out and believed for sure that the man was dead for a moment before realizing he stood frozen with the thin end of the tail now resting a few paces before him. Then he collapsed to his hands, and started crying! A grown up man, crying, weeping uncontrollably.

That was the only sound to be heard apart from the frantic breaths, the sobs of the man, whom the dragon didn't care of anymore, continuing his slithering to hover the tip of his monstrous muzzle barely centimeters from each of our faces.

Then he arrived to me.

He wouldn't choose me.

I kept reassuring myself that he wouldn't. I knew how this worked...

A warm slimy tentacle sliding across my body.

I jolted in horror. His tongue. He licked me, albeit stopped, to continue to hover over me as if he was examining.

Then again, from the side of his giant mouth. It freaked me out!

It couldn't be!

I felt the slavering tongue wrapping around my arm as he stared deep down into my eyes!

You...

I tried to talk with him, to use the sign language by habit, almost by instinct, lifting my right arm when I realized that was it, that he held it firmly wrapped by his tongue!

I would have been able to talk. I could have used my left hand. I could have used head motions, even mute speech, articulating which some understood, he however was clear. He wouldn't care.

Fright.

To flee, to not be there, to miraculously vanish out of existence!

But I was there, and he was there, the beast, staring me down, pulling me back.

I almost broke. I almost collapsed crying. I didn't want this. I...

Then a sudden breeze.

He just released me with a theatrical backflip of his head, letting his slavering tongue rain drips of sticky goo all over us, before he settled himself with a few small chewing motions of his jaws.

My heartbeats pounded in my ears as I fell back against the wall trying to calm myself.

He was already on the person next to me and continued further, not giving such an attention to anyone else like me.

Why?

I remembered it.

I knew what was to come.

Was he... Did he only stop recalling that the rest of us was still there, to freak all of them out with his advancing?

The head slithered back to hover in front of me again.

He was staring me down with a small tongue flick.

He was beckoning me.

I couldn't control it. My tears. I didn't want this. I only wanted to observe the initiation. But...

There was no way. I foolishly had chosen the dragon even when I didn't have to, and he chose me.

I raised to walk forth, trying to prepare myself if there was even such a thing to be prepared for what I believed was to come...

He suddenly jolted with a swift swipe, to lash out and wrap his tongue firmly on a leg.

Then I saw the transformation. A concealed smile turning into the expression of dread in mere moments as the person next to me felt and realized the sensation! He staggered and fell down onto his rear even without the dragon doing anything, merely maintaining his grasp on his leg.

Ravenos let himself relax, even his tongue, lolling lax apart from his grip. He didn't hurry. Characters started to appear on the display once again.

"I think I made my choice. He is the lucky one. The lucky one for his service wouldn't last very long. Nor I would ask him much to do, and I believe he will know just too well what he is ought to do. Then, oh well, he will be released. In just a couple of days. Don't worry, I won't hold you here until that part. Shall we start now?"

We all backed away terrified.

I knew it. I knew this part, but by now, I was just as freaked out like all those new to the dragons, my heart still pumping somewhere up in my throat. But at least it was settling down. At least by a little. Contrary to what that man might have been experiencing.

He used the sign language, he used it to beg for mercy, for forgiveness. He knew it, he was from here, it was clear to me, he was from here, a free man, who had committed a capital crime, a permanent mark on a dragon. He must have known that it was to no avail.

Ravenos didn't care. So much that he laxed his tongue, letting it stretch to unimaginable lengths as he turned his head this way and that to observe us, the utter terror on the faces, to relish it, to enjoy his impression, before finally turning towards his prey.

For the man was his prey, and if there was any doubt of it, now it became all clear as he advanced on him, staring him down while flexing those muscles contracting that formerly thin tentacle holding his prisoner to grab his foot by the tip of his snout.

He still tried to convince the dragon to let him free. I saw the signs probably hardly anyone else recognized for they are little known outside of Skyworld. That he would be faithful. That he would do anything, just let him live as his slave. But that slimy tongue didn't show mercy. With a strong pull, he was in to his hips.

Then Ravenos made a mistake. He tried to navigate the other leg of the desperate man into his jaws when he relaxed his grip to move forth on his body. He was momentarily without restraint.

The urge of flight kicked in. He pulled himself off to jump, to run!

But the dragon, and his tongue of a whip was faster, lashing out after him to bind his legs together at his ankles! He fell, barely saving his face from the impact. One of the slaves made a feeble move towards him, but immediately retreated far back meeting Ravenos' death stare!

One doesn't get between a dragon and his prey lest he himself became the prey!

Panic kicked in. The man was no longer begging for his life. He was thrashing in vain, trying to free himself from the grip, much to the dragon's pleasure!

He shewed it. He savored it. He was playing with his prey.

He worked slow, slowly pulling the flailing man crying out for help in, to his hips, then gently, but firmly grabbing, he let his slimy tongue briefly exploring his body before a second pull.

Now he was holding him by the neck, to my horror, I realized, very careful as to not injure him by his teeth, the tongue slightly raising him above the lower jaw! The man was desperately hammering on his captor, fists against rock-hard scales, not even putting a dent on them, Ravenos was all the more concerned about the apparently most difficult part, to get the hips past his jawbones!

He now opened wide, turning his head to show it to everyone in the hall, how careful and gentle he was, holding the struggling man with his tongue away from his teeth lest he should receive the slightest scratch, while he worked on wriggling him down.

The man, as a last resort, tried to grab his upper jaw which he couldn't even see, probably feeling for the eyes or maybe only a feeble last resort move, to hold on to the widening part as if he could delay the inevitable, but stretching out his arms like that only eased it for the dragon!

He even relaxed a bit, I saw, well on purpose, with his bulging upper neck, the man still grasping on his snout, crying out, crying for help towards the aghast crowd!

Ravenos surveyed us, pleased, delighted in the horrendous impression he was making with his gaping jaws, with the man trapped inside, before he made that final gulp, probably merely for no longer being able to cope with his gag reflex.

The massive wriggling bulge moved lower. He made a few content chewing motions to settle his very much stretched out jaws, not missing a couple of compulsory chop-licks. Then he let his mouth open slightly while he slowly swallowed.

It was unnatural. How he dragged it out. How he kept his mouth open so his prey received some air while he relaxed between the swallows, so he kept struggling, those muffled cries.

What it means to get eaten alive by a dragon, to let it sink in, into everyone in the room, that dreadful fate, and he, Ravenos, apparently was an expert in this means of torture. He enjoyed it, enjoyed our frozen, horrified expressions, mine, he looked at me!

He didn't need to emit any sign to tell me, I could be there if by his whims he happened to desired so.

One full-grown man was big for them. But who knew this one, whether this one could make room for two if he wanted?

And it was still not over.

I thought it so until after a couple of minutes sprawling out, content and delighted like a constrictor with that by now probably asphyxated man settled as a bulge stretching the wrinkled reptilian skin taut against his chest, he finally decided to give him the final push. It was clearly a chore for him, to wriggle his neck, to work his muscles to get his meal past, which suddenly sprung to life again!

We could hear the muffled cries of terror once again.

The man was still alive. Still alive, and I realized, probably only submitted to his fate ceasing the struggle, going limp, before this new assault begun on him!

It was to no avail, nobody could have convinced Ravenos to let him free by this point. With a few twists of his neck, raising his chest probably to ease his copious meal's path, the man was down, we could all see, how the upper end of that paunch had swollen, and Ravenos shewed it. He settled on his side, furling up those wings tight, so it was all clear, clear how the torture still continued deep under that occasionally wiggling soft flesh.

Ravenos gasped for air and gulped it down.

I don't know how he did it. But he did. He apparently could do it, to swallow air, down, all the way into his stomach, to prolong that woeful existence down there.

I couldn't remember seeing anything alike before, freaked out I was, I would have remembered. When I came, the dragon did a short job of the criminal. Ravenos didn't. It was at least a quarter-hour by now, and his prey was still there, alive, struggling vain for his life!

Some cried out for him.

It wasn't only me, they realized what the dragon was doing.

He belched. Then again, he gasped and gulped down a glob of air.

Finally, it dawned on me, I realized that it was probably me, only me who could have done anything, for I could communicate with them. I was still freaked out, horrified by what could be coming, but I had to try. This was insane. I advanced him, and attempted the gestures, please, stop it, let him die, please, you freak out everyone.

He stared me down deep. Characters started to form on the display.

"Such a pleasant surprise. Now here stands a man, who is so eager to be my slave. Well, sadly I have to disappoint you now. While I could definitely accept his service, it would be tad more pleasant on an empty belly. But no worries, I take his request, and now he is to follow me through the door. I wish you, all of you, good luck with your future masters!"

Ravenos bobbed his head with a long tongue flick towards the whole hall as he hefted his bulk, in it the still desperately struggling man occasionally but so clearly jiggling it, then approached the door, casting a glance towards me.

There was no escape.

I thought I at least tried, but I was too worn out to protest, to panic.

For parting, he let out one last massive belch towards the horrified naked crowd of slaves in the hall before stepping through. He pulled his tail past so the door could slide shut. Then again, he gulped down air.

I turned towards him agitated. Why?

He dismissed me with the sign that I was free to go.

I tried to insist.

He only repeated, adding that before he changed his mind. With that, he just left me there, dumbfounded and utterly devastated.

Half an hour later, my heart finally settled, I could gather some information on that who I hoped to be deceased by then.

Then I knew.

That this was what it was like.

What it was like when a man was proven guilty of killing a dragon in Skyworld.