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“You will fly you damned beast” Derick shouted at the black dragoness who was now removed from the cart. Mistica wore, against her will, a leather harness that warped around her torso. She had two ropes tied to a hard point on her belly, the two ropes lead to two other dragons. They were shifting uncomfortable, looking from moment to moment to the smaller dragon that was roped to their bodies. The riders on their backs were getting restless, just like Derick, who had the teen unable to climb on her back and instead resorted to shouting to Mistica from the back of the left dragon.

Mistica gave a soft hiss. Where ever these dragons were going to take her, she was not interested. The two dragon's scales were dull compared to Mistica's shining black scales. So they were not at all well taken care of.

“Why you are doing this?” Mistica asked the two dragons. against she got no reply from them, not even a reaction that the actually understood her. They just guarded her with suspicion. They have said nothing since they arrived. Her speaking to the dragons in draconic did nothing other than upsetting Derick even more about her not listening.

“Damned dragon,” He shouted and took his whip again to strike her across the snout. “You must listen, and you must not speak that foul tongue of yours. You shall speak civilised with me. "

“But I was not speaking to you,” Mistica said deviantly. “I was speaking to the other dragons.” Mistica gave a toothy grin, knowing for sure that she out played her captor. However, when he did not become frustrated but gave a small smile, she could feel some of her deviant behaviour sink.

“Oh, you she-demon, Don't you understand? No dragons speak your horrible tongue, they only speak civilised, unlike what you keep trying to do. Besides, they will not speak to you unless they got permission from their riders, like a well-behaved dragon. You should take an example for them. They are well behaved and thus they have been spoiled.”

Mistica snorted, “Spoiled? Their scales are dull, their wings drooping and their tails are dragging. They don't look spoiled, they look sad. What you call being spoiled, I still call torture. You really think I am going to cooperate with you?”

Her captor gave an angry gaze to her. “This is not up to debate, dragon. You must listen to me. Now I warn you for the last time, or I will show you what is really torture.”

Mistica's response was to lie on the ground and dig her claws into the ground. She clarified she would not move. And thus her captor jumped from the back of one dragon and took his rapier. That silver weapon that was a harbinger of pain. However, this time Mistica had a plan. She waited for Derick to get close before jumping into the sky. She pulled the rope thigh in her jump, causing some distress with the other dragons, who were pulled to their sides. Her captor had to duck as not to be struck by the ropes moving. She used her back legs to dig into the ropes and, together with the tightness, she held the rope by flapping her wings to stay aloft; she undid one rope.

“She is getting free!” Derick shouted, hoping to rally the two dragons back on their feet. Trough they were flabbergasted about what was happening and did not expect to move out of the sudden. They were clumsy in trying to get on their feet. They were not in time to prevent Mistica from cutting the second rope. And she was free with a devious, grin she turned around and dived back to the ground, claws out spread and anger on her face.

She was diving straight into her ex-captor, who was on the ground trying to get the dragons moving. When he looked up to see the dragon diving straight at him, he let out a yelp of fear and ran. “Lose dragon, Lose dragon” He shouted and all the people in the camp scuttled about.

However, just before Mistica could get her claws on the little human that captured her, she saw something flying from the edge of her vision. She turned to see a net flying at her. This time she was prepared and tried to pull up in time to avoid the net. However, the net caught on her hind legs and entangled itself with a heavy rope. She could not get the rope free and it pulled tight, forcing her against the ground.

The crashed into the ground with a heavy thumb, pain shot trough her body as with her hind legs pulled by the rope she had no way of bracing herself, not like the last time she was caught by the ropes and got her fall broken by tree branches. Mistica fell to the side and could hear and feel her wing arm snap. She let out an awful bone shaking, roaring wail of pain. She was quickly surrounded by hunters and ropes where tossed over her body.

“Stupid dragon,” Derick growled. “Look what you did. You have broken your wing. Now we will never be an on time in the capital.” He took his rapier and pushed it into Mistica's shoulder in the way of punishment. Both sensations of pain became too much, and she closed her eyes. Smelling the scent of blood in the air. It was all getting way too much for her.

“Now get on the card,” her captor said and gestured with his bloody sword to the cart that she spend so many days on. Slowly Mistica stood up, her left wing drooping and dragging behind her. With every step she took, she felt her mind flushed with pain. By the time she collapsed on the card, she felt cold and weak. She knew she was strapped down again and someone was working on her wing. With a sudden painful snap, they forced her wing straight and pierced her wing membrane to tie up her wings with wooden planks and rope. The pain in her wing only got less when they were done with her wing and pulled it to her side to heal.

Mistica had felt tired, sick and alone before, but this time she felt utterly numb. The realisation slowly settled in that she just ruined her future escape attempts for a few months while her wing healed, all the while getting dragged deeper and deeper into enemy territory. She could feel her chances of getting free, getting slimmer and slimmer with each day that passed, and now she had to wait an unknown amount of time before she could fully fly again.

The only thing she was thankful for was that this time she choose how to lie on the cart and now was looking forwards towards the horses that drawn her carriage.

“we should move the beast,” one of the horseman said. He looked back at the dragon looking at them while they pulled the cart. “It could breathe fire up on us any time now.”

Another one snorted back. “You honestly think that after all this, the dragon will escape? To what end? It broke its wing. Besides, if it would have breathed fire, it would have done so already. What would be the bet that this dragon can't breathe fire?”

“So, either we think this beast is tactical enough to withhold fire and thus we will be roasted soon. or this beast can't breathe fire and, if worthless, anyway,” a third chimed in. “I doubt it's worth our money.”

“Quiet!” Derick shouted from next to the coachman that operated and steered the cart. “You all get your money. the she-demon can still hear you squabble like children. If you keep talking like that, you will make sure she tries another escape attempt. If that happens, not only you are not getting paid, but I will also ensure that your negligence is known to as the reason a new beast for the corps is set free.”

The horse riders kept their mount shut after Derrick's words, trough Mistica could see the words they wanted to say painted on their faces. Just like her father, their frustration, their anger was easily seen on their faces and unadulterated by scales or other hard features that impeded a dragon's face. She closed her eyes again. This was going to be a long ride, and she did no longer care to remember where they were taking her. By the time her wing was healed, she had to come up with a unique plan anyway, better to conserve strength after her last fuck up. Perhaps hatch a plan.

During the seven lunar cycles that they had passed, her captor did no longer pay her visits to torment her. Rather, he just looked as if her wing was healing and left off. On the morning of the seventh day, she could feel something was up. She smelled the excitement in the air of the other humans. They also felt to move faster. Something was up and it made her restless, that ever humans would excite over, would be bad for her. Was it a new place? Something new to torture her over?

It did not take long for her to realise what it was as a city appeared on the horizon. The closer they got, the larger the city appeared. From the size alone, Mistica realised this was the capital they talked about. And she was brought right at the gates. The green fields gave way to farmlands. Farmers stopped and gawked at her like she was at some kind of price. Children gathered on the road and some rushed in front of them. By the time they came to the first gate of the city, a gate on a wooden wall, a sizable crowd has gathered to watch her get wheeled into the city. They have slowed down to a crawl. That damned captor must have done it on purpose. She could hear the humans whispering.

“Isn't it small?”, “Well I have seen bigger”, “It has nice black scales”, “But wait, black dragons are a sign of destruction right?” Where all things she overheard about her, like she was some kind of thing to process. It made her feel sickish to think that no one thought of her as an individual, or they did not dare speak about it. They followed a path along the wooden wall. Luckily, the crowd of people thinned out and she no longer stared. However, they stopped at a new gate with different guards.

“I come to deliver a new dragon,” her captor called out. Pointing at Mistica. While the guards too stared at her, they did not talk, just open the gate for her to be wheeled into the inside. Whatever it was, she would now spend her time in. What she smelled excited her a bit. She smelled dragons and soon enough, she could see and hear dragons. Trough her heart sank just as fast, she could see dragons chained to posts in an open field. Humans around them, as some tried to climb up on the dragons. Other humans were training in full armour. They stopped in front of a building where the scent of dragons was strong. The horses were removed from the cart and a large collar was attached to her neck.

“Okay, dragon,” her captor said. “We are going to do this nice and easy. You will enter inside and go to your stable. You will stay there. And you will not complain.” Derick pointed around here where dragons with riders were gathered. There were at least five dragons that watched her with distrust.

“Brothers! Sisters, help me. Free me!” She called in draconic, but it was no use.

Derick, her captor this time, did not whip her, instead he smiled at her with a devious grin. “See little black she-demon? It is not used to call in your beastly tongue. Now I am going to untie you and we move you inside, understand?”

“I understand.” Mistica said back even trough she did not want to behave. She wanted to mangle, kill, and gut anyone who helped with her entrapment, dragons included. She suppressed the feeling, the urge, so she could fight another day. First a plan, then another escape attempt. When she was released from her bounds, she simply stood up and let herself be guided to the stable she would now call home. She could see curious heads of dragons poking outside of their stables to look at her. They did not speak, no doubt they also couldn't speak draconian.

She was put in a stable in the middle of the left row of stables. Inside, she was chained down to the floor to hard points that were placed on the floor. Luckily, there was some straw under her belly. It was comfortable and she could move her head to lick parts of her body and get the first real grooming session she could have done in a long time.

“This will be your home until you get a rider.” Derick said and slammed the stable shut.

It was not after the humans all left before the first dragon poked its head over the barrier separating the stables. It was a green dragon, looking rather young in age. While he looked the same size, his scales had not yet settled into a single colour like most adult dragons would have had. Still, the scales of the dragon were dull compared to her own.

“Hello!” The mental voice of the dragon sounded young, too. “You are new here, aren't you? Your scales are so shiny! I never seen shiny scales like yours? Are you one of those priced pet dragon?”

Well, that young dragon had energy enough for the two of them, energy she was not sharing with him.

“I am from the wild,” she growled back in draconic. “I am a free dragon. My scales are shiny because I care about them, because I care about being free. I am no pet. I am nothing to process.”

Trough the green dragon was startled by the growl and the draconic, not able to understand it.

“Sorry… I did not mean to offend! Please stop growling, the humans would come and they will be mad... they don't like is to growl. What is strange since I like to growl, and all this being locked up is no fun. I want to play! Like I used to do with my siblings back when we are little.…” The green dragon went on and on about his hatchling times, or well, his smaller hatching times and how his human trainer made him play strange game. It was just a constant mental barrage for the already tired Mistica.

“Will you just shut up!” Mistica called back, growling at the green dragon. “If you not have noticed, I have broken my wing, been locked up in side of some damned stable as if I am some kind of beast of burden. If you can't tell, I do not have the best of days. The last twenty lunar cycles have been the most miserable time of my life.”

The smaller dragon eeped and looked with wide eyes at Mistica. Trough he did not quite stop with talking. “Why it was miserable”

Luckily Mistica was saved by another, much older sounding dragon. “Theo, let the dragon alone. You should know not all dragons are talkative when they first brought here.” Then the dragon turned to Mistica. “You are a wild dragon, aren't you?”

Mistica snorted at the mention of the wild. “What are you calling wild? Is being born without chains on me wild?”

“Yes, for us it is.” The dragon said back. “Truth be told, you are the first 'wild' dragon who got brought here. My father was a wild dragon, but he was brought to the breeding grounds as he was too old and weak to fight.”

Mistica laid her head down. “You know that thing about not being talkative...yeah, I am not talkative.”

“Oh right, my pardon.” And the voice of the unknown dragon left her mind. Mistica sighed, not knowing if she should be happy or frustrated. She now shared her space with dragons. The scent of dragons helped to calm her nerves a bit, but knowing these dragons were so willing to accept their entrapment was unsettling. A dragon should be free! After some consideration, Mistica decided that worrying about that was a question for another day. First, she wanted to shut the eye. She could not wait for the day to be over.

It was pain again, this time the pain of cold metal burning in her scales while she felt colder than she ever been. Snow was falling outside of the stables but there was no heating around her and she was chained up in these chains that were so cold they burned her scales. She could see the cold creeping to her core and it her lips stiffened. She tried to call for help but her tongue force solid and fell out of her mouth. With panic in her eyes, she tried to mentally call for her dad, for her mother, but there was no answer. Only the horrible voice of her captor.

“Oh, this dragon can't heat themselves, useless. Boys, it's dragon meat tonight! get your blades ready”

She could see a crowd of shades approaching up on her. They cut in her frozen limbs. Every time she could feel an additional part of her body succumbing to frostbite, they cut it from her body. While the blades did not hurt, it was the cold creeping up her scales that hurt. Closer and closer, the cold came to her core. Her head hurt, a splitting headache that rang in her ears.

A loud bell scared Mistica from her sleep. “HELP!” She shouted, but no one responded. She was sure this was her nightmare until the green dragon spoke to her again.

“Black scaled! wake up, they are.” Going to inspect the dragons. “You gotta wake up,”

Mistica took a moment to realism that Black scaled meant her. Mistica grumbled in anger but put her head over the stable door just like all the other dragons did. There was a tall ginger haired human lady with her captor. She smelled a while a lot better than Derick. She smelt like rose water and lavender, clearly having had a bath ready. The two were discussing something and pointing at dragons around.

“Mistica by the way” Mistica reminded herself that she yet did not tell anyone her name, while with Derick she did not want to tell her name out of spite, but with dragons? well dragons were different, and a name was not a thing and she was not a thing.

“Oh” Theo said. “that's such a pretty name, pretty name for a pretty dra...” he was cut off by another dragon growling for them to be quiet so they could listen to what was told. The two humans now were in front of Mistica's stable. She bared her teeth at them, a gesture that made the other dragons nervous.

“It is feisty, it seems,” the rose-water lady said, looking at Mistica with a hint of admiration in her eyes. “they told me a new dragon was carted in. From what breeding ground you said she was Derick?”

Mistica looked at the smug smile on Derick's face, horrible. Pure, horrible.

“Oh Lieutenant, she came from no breeding ground. It is wild born, and I am going to tame it. "

The rose-water-lieutenant's face contorted when Derick mentioned wild born. “You what!? What were are you thinking, you idiot bringing a wild born here!? we can barely contain,” them in the breeding grounds, now you want to train them”

Derick smirked again. “Oh, but the breeding grounds have dried up with eggs with the latest security measures to prevent dragons from flying off...”

“Well, that was your fault. You let your dragon escape.” the rose-water-lieutenant said. Mistica looks amazed at the impact it had on Derick. He got white and gazed at the lady with an anger she had never seen before. She mentally stored the information while watching the fallout.

“That was not my fault,” Derick said between gritted teeth. “Besides. This she-dragon is still young, not old like the others. No, she can be used in war. We just need to train her a bit. Think about it, this is the first wild born we can train. Now if we perfect our techniques, we can steal wild born eggs or hatchlings and have a new large supply of dragons.”

The rose-water-lieutenant lady scratched her chin when looking at Mistica. “I don't like this plan a bit, Derick. I want her gone from my stables.”

“Not possible. These orders are from the king themselves.”

“By the lord,” the lady said. “Are you mad, Derick? If you fail, we get skinned alive.”

Derick snorted, “If you fail, remember you are the training lieutenant here... I am just a small trainer. But this was all so if you excuse me, I have work to do.”

The Lieutenant waited for Derick to be out of earshot before growling to herself. “You backstabbing, lying son of a bitch. I should court marshal him if he wasn't so good friends with the captain.” She then turned to Mistica.

“Well, it seems we are stuck with each other.” She approached Mistica “And I know that look dragon, you are going to make my life a living hell. I already know it.”

“ __Mistica_ ,”_ Mistica answered short. “The name is Mistica, and if you ever going to call me dragon, or beast, or it in front of me, I will tear the arm of the first person I can get.”

“Case in point” The lieutenant did not seem phased by Mistica's thread. “Lieutenant Amberheart is the name. We are going to be working together a lot until you fly out of this facility, if you like it or not. Now I will not lie. I am going to get you out of my facility, a behaved dragon with a rider on your back.”

“And I am going to make sure of it. I fly free of my bounds. "

Amberheart shook her head. “Just promise me one thing, Mistica.”

“what?”

“If you find freedom, before you come to kill me, please kill that son of a bitch Derick first and torment him a bit. "while you are at it.”

“I will not wait to torment him until I am free”

The lieutenant laughed loudly and shook her head.

“What is so funny?” Mistica asked.

“You, me. Everything. Mistica, if circumstances were different, we could have been friends, maybe. You remind me of myself when I was younger, wilder. Sadly, nothing permits us these pleasantries. Today, you will have the first rider trying to claim you. Please, just try to not kill them. "

“No promises”

It was not long before she was put in a collar and restraints again, before she was released from her chains and moved outside. Paraded in front of the other dragons and put out in the field as a single pole. Amberheart, the rose-water-lady was standing there again. Gazing at Mistica as she was tied to the pole.,”besides of her, a short human male who reeked of stress and angst.

“Recruit” Amberheart called “This is Mistica. This is a wild dragon. I am going to warn you, this dragon is not like the others and will try to hurt you. Be warned and think before you do anything. "

Mistica could smell the effect that the 'pep' talk had on the human male. The fear in his scent was implied. He took his rapier in a hand, the long shiny blade resulted in an instant anger reaction from Mistica. Her claws dug into the ground and she growled. Her tail kicked up dust as it swayed threateningly.

“Recruit.” Amberheart said again. “Look at her, look at her body language and tell me what you think the dragon is signalling.”

But with the words fallen on deaf ears, the recruit was to be absorbed. “Calm down, dragon,” He called. “I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't calm down, you leave me no choice. "

No choice? Mistica thought, watching him with a burning gaze. When he was close enough to her side, she kicked her front claw out and send him flying a good meter across the ground. Then she looked at Lieutenant Amberheart again.

“I did not kill him.” She said with a huff. “Next one who tries to hurt me will be hurt more.”

Amberheart could do nothing to rub her forehead and call out. “Recruit? You are alight?”

It took a bit of time before an answer came. “yeah! I will try again. "

“Stand down, recruit. I doubt she would let you try again. You are going back to training.”

The recruit came back protesting, “Because of one set back? But I...”

Lieutenant Amberheart started at him. "Because you displayed a suicidal lack of awareness. I told you this is a wild dragon, yet you ignored every single body sign that she was going to attack you when you came close enough. Dismissed recruit.”

“but I,”

“I said dismissed!” Lieutenant Amberheart's voice was strict. Her eyes guided the recruit until he disappeared from view behind a few buildings. “You realise that you have. " to do this little game for most of the day, every day until you let someone on your back.”

“I realise that. So that's the great test. Who caves first? Do I burn through your recruits faster than you burn through my determination?”

Lieutenant Amberheart rubbed her temples again. “What ever am I going to do with you, Mistica? I can't let you go. I can't have you hurt my recruits. You are just a beast that needs to be tamed in the eyes of everyone here.”

Mistica gave a toothy draconic grin, a devious one at that. “Perhaps, but I got you to call me by my name.”

“What even is the point of that?” Lieutenant Amberheart asked, but received no answer from the dragoness. Instead, Mistica curled into a ball around the post that leashed her to this place and shut herself off from the conversation by turning her back to the human.

“Like talking to a damned cat,” The Lieutenant called before walking away to discuss more options. This was going to be a long, long week.