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Chapter 7: (in)justice

Mistica growled and hissed, straining on her bounds while she watched the guards escorting Katrin away. How could she be so stupid and just let herself be caught? She had tried her best to keep Katrin out of it, but now, now, it was all for nothing. In front of here where two guards, their long pikes aimed at her with orders to kill if necessary.

It did not stop Mistica from calling out, shouting at the top of her lunges in draconic. “I will end you all personally, tearing you from limb from limb and feed you to your own hatchlings!”

She trashed again against her bounds in pure pent up rage. “You spinless apes, come and hurt me if you dare!” She threw herself against the chains, not caring that the restraints cutting into her scales and she could feel her blood running over her shoulders where the restraints where digging the most. The guards moved their spears forwards towards Mistica to keep her back from them.

“Mistica!” Börh called out to her. “Stop that noise. You are getting us all anxious. If you don't watch out, they will hurt you.”

His words resulted in getting a murderous look from Mistica. “I dare them, I dare them, you all to hurt me. Is it cosy? uhm Börh? are you cosy in your warm stables, living a slave, stripped from all that is what it means to be a dragon.”

Börh snorted in return, looking at Mistica's two guards more. “I never got guards to guard me with orders to kill. I never have to hunt for food, yeah that is a pleasant life. Besides, the wild is horrible. "

“How do you know? Tell me, how do you possibly know what the wild is like? You don't know what you lost, because you never had it.” Mistica spat at him on instinct. For a moment, the two guards were afraid she was going to breathe fire and jumped away to hide. Trough when nothing came, they resumed their positions again.

“I, my last rider, told me, who had a friend who was a rider of a dragon who met a dragon who met a wild dragon. and he told me that the wild is a horrible place.”

“You are so ignorant that it's pain full. Who do you trust more, Börh? A rider who's whole bloody job is to keep you contained and tame. Or an actual flesh and blood dragon who is telling you that the 'wild', as you call it, is not miserable.” Mistica steamed through. She was brought to a quick silence when her heart was the sound of a whip contacting skin and Katrin's pained howl moments later.

That howl made her blood run cold, then another hit and another howl. Mistica tried to contact Katrin again, like she did two times before, but she could not reach Katrin. She had shut herself from Mistica. The pain blocking any mental pathway Mistica could use.

“I am not getting innocent people hurt,” Börh sniffed. “Poor child, all thanks to you.”

“Börh.” Mistica's voice rumbled low, shaking the beams that the stable was made of. Her whole body tensed up, ready to leap, even through her bounds where holding her body against the ground with ever-growing effort. “This is my last warning, else your wings are the next limb I tear from someone's body.”

“What ever you say. It's not like you can do anything and judging from the Lieutenant's reactions, you will not be in one for a long, long time.”

Next whipping sound was a rope on Mistica's restrains breaking under the stain. It was not enough for Mistica to break free, not while the guards were here and now were closing in on her. But it was enough for her to grab a wooden bucket from her pen and throwing it across the room and hitting Börh on the head who gave a howl of surprise and pain when the bucket smashed to bits on his head.

“I am not beyond killing a dragon, Börh.”

Katrin swallowed when she was led out of the stables and onto the large plaza where all recruits were watching her. Their rumours were no secret whispers any more but a white noise in the background while she was led to a pole and tied up with hands above her head.

“Katrin Endora. You stand accused of inadequate training your dragon, resulting in the dismemberment of one of the corps. I saw the act of your dragon happen and thus will refer to any punishment for the dragon on you. How do you plead, any words you want to share?”

Katrin was beyond words, having had only barely a few weeks to trying to learn how to be a rider and manage a dragon, a dragon who was notorious for causing mayhem and destruction. “You mean a dragon who everyone here couldn't train.” Katrin called. “A dragon who might have done this without me, yet you punish me. Someone who was recruited for this, with no training because you know where all out of options are.”

She could feel Lieutenant Amberheart's anger burn into her back. “Strip her,” she called to two guards who were standing on either end of Katrin. They undid the straps on her back and removed the leather bounds. Then removing her shirt and leaving her top naked and her breaths out for anyone to see. Katrin's cheeks burned. She could see them all starting and trying to get a look at her breasts. She had hoped she would at least get some modesty, but alas, she would not.

Katrin could hear the creaking of freshly oiled leather, then one guard offered her a small wooden stick to bite on. She opened her mouth to take the offer, biting down hard on it to prepare for what was to come.

The first strike caught her off guard. She could feel the splitting pain travel down her spine where the whip struck her. Followed my the group of recruits and Amberheart calling out one. The first of one hundred of these whips she would get. She growled through the wooden stick, trying to follow Mistica's words and not let them get to her. But the pain was intense and the second strike was even worse. Her breath became fast when the leather drawn a red streak across her back. Her back was already burning. Katrin could not imagine how it could become any worse.

She held out for ten strikes of the whip, holding out even trough her body was already bruised by the training session of this morning. The eleventh strike was becoming barely unmanageable, the fifteenth strike was her breaking point, and she yelled in pain when the whip contacted the skin. Amberheart did not stop. She kept on the same pace in striking Katrin's back repeatedly.

With the twenty-fifth strike of the whip, Katrin's skin broke and the first drops of blood traced down her back. Yet Amberheart did not stop, she would not stop until the one hundredth hit was given to Katrin's back. Katrin's throat quickly became horse from the screaming and she could no longer scream from the pain. Instead, she let out a pained hissing sound whenever she was struck. Her tears were red from tears and her head was hanging. She did not have the strength to pull her head up any more.

Half way into the flogging, Katrin felt her stomach suddenly and violently disagreeing with the pain she received and, with little warning, she vomited everything her stomach offered. Leaving an acidic taste in her mouth and burning sensation in the back of her throat. Her world became to spin from the pain and she drifted in and out of contentiousness. It did not stop the pain, but it at least made her pain bearable by not noticing each individual hit. She first skipped five whips, then 10, and before she knew she opened her eyes to a puddle of blood and vomit at her shoes. The flogging had stopped, and she was hanging liveness into the ties. She could no longer register what was said, but she felt being carried to some place.

Mistica howled like a pained wolf when she saw Katrin appear, her upper body naked and covered in blood. She was hung between two guards like she was some kind of dead meat. The scent of blood was heavy in Mistica's noise and for the first time, it made her sick and not hungry. Amberheart soon followed and stood in front of Mistica. Showing off Katrin's back to her.

“we will carry her to the infirmary next. We don't want to kill her. But, dragon, this is what you made me do. Now, if you pull something like that stunt again, this would only be a warning. If you disobey me again, Katrin might not survive her next punishment. So dragon. do you understand me?

Mistica's inability to breathe fire did not prevent her eyes from spitting fire. Her gaze alone could set wood on fire. Her anger was boiling, her nostrils flared with the scent of blood.

“I understand.” Mistica answered. Those were the only words she trusted herself to say. Her voice was already laced with anger, even her mental voice. She needs a plan, a good one, and fast. Trough she could not let Katrin get injured any more. Even though she was her captor, she also was a captive of her own prison. Mistica could see that now, and it made her feel bitter to herself. Bitter about the aggression she showed her. If she only realised sooner, perhaps she would have tackled the plan differently.

“I am sorry Katrin, oh so sorry” she said only to Katrin. Those words made her feel vulnerable, like she no longer had scales and was stranded out in the winter. She could see Katrin's head move slightly, looking at Mistica with pleading eyes. Trough Mistica did not understand what she was pleading for.

The next clear memory Katrin had was waking up in the infirmary with her back in pain and bandages around her body. Her rider's armour was hanging on the opposite of her bed. Katrin gazed at it, not with a sense of duty she might have felt the first time she wore it in the camp, but with a feeling of torment and imprisonment. She rolled her head around to see the surrounding beds. Most were empty but one, one where the doctor was laying. She could see the bed sheets dipping into a cavity where normally a leg would be.

The doctor did not seem awake, nor did she really felt the need to talk to him. What could she say, how her dragon taken his leg? He would say that she deserved what she had got or how she should blame Mistica for what she did. But she could not. When she wanted to blame Mistica, she felt uncomfortable. Mistica is not the one who flogged me. It was the Lieutenant; it was Derick; they put me in this potion.

Then a worse realisation took hold of her. It never has been them all, it had been her father. Her father contacted the corpse about her potential application as a rider. Her father was pushing and pulling her away from the corp and trying to make her learn about the corp and riders.

fuck you dad.

“Katrin? You are awake?” Mistica sounded the distance in her head. Katrin did not know if this was from a physical distance or from the pain that was emanating from her back. She shifted slightly, trying to sit upright more. However, when she did, the scabs on her back tore and the scent of blood filled her nose.

With a grunt of pain, she backed down, trying to both be comfortable and thinking about a way she could answer Mistica. This was the third time Mistica's mental voice reached her while she was physically away. What caused each connection? A thought, yes, but thoughts were something she had the whole day. Was it a specific thought? Perhaps?

Mistica

It was worth a shot, trough it felt strange, thinking of someone in the hope they answered in your mind.

“Yes, it's me, Katrin. You are alright. "

Well, it worked. She did not know why, but it worked.

Pain... I am in pain.

“I heard your screams from my pen, Katrin. I am sorry. I don't know if i ever can make it up to you. I know I see you as my captor, but I never meant you to get hurt, or, well, hurt like this.”

Katrin felt a dizzy feeling coming back into her mind. Not helped with Mistica's mental voice, or the pressure she felt when communicating with her.

I forgive you on one condition. Take me with you when you are free.

“Accepted, I will,”

Soon enough, Katrin's vision blurred, and she passed away again. She did not know how long she really stayed in the infirmary. When the nurses noticed she was awake, they put up a screen between her and the Doctor. The only company she received was that of the nurses checking up on her, changing her bandages and sheets. Washing and going to the bathroom were painful tasks she had to do on herself. The only letter she received was one of her fathers, trough it brought her no joy to read it.

“Dear Daughter, I have received news about your recent success in becoming a rider and your failure to tame the dragon that you now own. It saddens me to know that you have not brought our name to greatness like it was intended for you to do.

I fed you all these years, sheltered you out of the passion of my heart. I gave you unconditional love, but you thank me with shame yet again. This brings my heart pain. I hope you will change your ways and no longer disappoint me. Listen to your Lieutenant daughter, your future in the corps depends on it. If you can't control your dragon, perhaps ask her for help. Perhaps if you admit your shame and failure, you might have yet a chance to regain what you lost.

With love, Your father.”

Katrin tore the letter into pieces. She was not to blame! She refused to let these words define her. Admit shame? admit failure? What shame? What failure? Slowly Katrin stepped out of the bed. She just had to see Mistica. If someone didn't like that, they could walk to hell and back for all she cared.

“What are you doing miss” one nurse asked her when she had got her rider's outfit.

“Getting dressed,” Katrin answered sourly.

“But miss, you can not wear that uniform.”

“Why not?” Katrin took the uniform from the hook it was hooked on, not caring little about the protest.

“Because Lieutenant Amberheart stripped you of your rank as rider, miss.” The nurse's word made Katrin snap around. Too much agony as her back instantly ached. If she was not a rider... what would happen next?

“You know what happened to my dragon?” Katrin could feel a pit form in her stomach, that would by why she had not heart mistica again in her waking moments.

“That dragon has been deemed too dangerous for the corps and will be transported to the breeding grounds.”

MISTICA Katrin thought, hoping to have restored some mental communication with her, however Mistica gave no reply. Katrin simply slit out of her infirmary dress and slide into the rider's uniform. The nurse who has been with her rushed off, no doubt to get help, so Katrin had little time to waste. She opened the window and climbed through it despite the agonizing pain on her back. She had to get to Mistica, and thus she rushed through the buildings, keeping out of sight of anyone. Luckily, the stables were quiet, perhaps a bit too quiet as there were no guards anyway to be found.

When she stopped at Mistica's pen, she saw it was empty. Only the imprint of the small dragoness left in the hay that was still in her stalls. Hopeless, she entered Mistica's pen and looked around in desperation. She was greeted by a green dragon who was looking over the wall between their two pens.

Wait, that was that dragon Mistica sometimes talked to. “You” She pointed to the dragon “Where is Mistica? I have to find her.”

The dragon looked around, surprised, gazing empty at Katrin.

“Please, I need to find her. I am worried about her. "

“You no rider of Mistica no more.” The green dragon finally answered. “Mistica has been moved.”

“Yes, I know, but where? Do you know?”

“breeding grounds outside of the city. Derick taken Mistica. Nasty man, nasty man,”

“How long ago was that?” Katrin roamed around, hope sinking into her shoes. On top of that, she did not think she had much time after all.

“Three days ago, you were still asleep. Mistica called your name, but you didn't hear. She called you in draconic, you see. Mistica has been learning me Draconic. Her words made me cry.”

Katrin suddenly snapped to, looking perplexed at the dragon, Draconic. Wait, but that was forbidden. Mistica had been punished for that. “You speak draconic?”

The dragon answered her in a bunch of growling that sounded much like Mistica from time to time. It was a crude attempt. She could sense that much. “Yes, I speak draconic,” the green dragon translated later.

“Sorry that I don't know your name, but are you close to Mistica?”

“My name is Lorkor. Mistica gave me the name. It means strong. I like it. I wish I could help Mistica. "

Katrin bit her lip and moved out of Mistica's pen to enter the green one's pen. Perhaps not the best to enter a pen with an unknown dragon, well not if she had to believe the stories about dragons. But in the last few days, she realised those stories had been inaccurate. Katrin looked at the ties that hold the green dragon down. The not yet fully grown dragon was strapped to the ground in much lighter ways than Mistica had ever been. She could easily undo the straps, and thus a plan formed.

“Would you like to help me free, Mistica?”

“No, that's heresy! But nasty man got Mistica and will do nasty things to her. The dragons should be good for humans. But Mistica tells that dragons are slaves!” The poor dragon's fave contorted in conflicting emotions. Katrin felt her heart melt a bit at what she asked of the poor dragon. Slowly, she approached the dragon and placed a hand on its snout.

“But you would be a magnificent dragon if you listen to me, right? A human, and I tell you to help me free Mistica. That is good in her eyes, too.”

The eyes from Lorkor suddenly shone with joy. “Katrin is a smart human! I see why Mistica got a liking to you. Yes, I will help.”

Katrin did not wait longer and started to quickly undo the straps to Lorkor's body. Taking his saddle from the wall and strapping it on. She was not as skilled as a stable hand in doing so, taking her a fair bit of time. Then suddenly Lorkor stiffed a bit.

“Hear humans in the distance. They are searching for you. We must go,”

Katrin perked her head up. She had hoped she could have grabbed her belongings from her chamber in the barracks. She should have done that earlier, when she had the change. Now, now it was time to get on this dragon's back. Quickly, she climbed on Lorkor's back and strapped in. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Not only she was going to really make sure she was going to be put in jail if she was lucky, but also this was going to be her first flight.

“I hope Mistica forgives me for us not having my first flight with her.” Katrin said before leaning against Lorkor. “Go, I am ready,” she hissed under her breath. She could hear the human voices coming closer. Lorkor rushed out the stables without Börh being all the wises. Most recruits that were out there looked up in surprise at the green dragon walking out of the stables and then taking off into the sky. Her stomach fluttered when that surge into the sky came. She looked down and the ground that was getting further and further away. What would her father say if he knew what she did and why she did this?

Katrin gazed at the wooden wall and fearing the archers on top of it to shoot at them, trough they did not, then Katrin realised she was wearing rider's armour, on a dragon with a saddle, they had no reason to shoot.

They were free. Now hopefully the corps did not realise what she had done for longer and she would have a good head start on any pursuing dragons. She doubted this young, untrained dragon could catch up to a full size dragon.

Lorkor gained more and more high, finally levelling out where the air was thin and chilly. Katrin felt like she was running a marathon at this height. The chilly thin air was hard to breathe, trough it was not impossible. Her ears plopped from the difference in pressure and with a sinking feeling, she looked over the dragon's back to the ground below. The altitude was making her dizzy and the cold air made her back hurt even more.

“Mistica couldn't fly when we left. They went by card, so they shouldn't be far.” Lorkor said and picked up speed to close whatever distance they had to Mistica. He was right though. They did not have to fly far for them to catch the card that Mistica occupied. She looked horrible all tied up on a way to the small carriage. Her head was tied down, her tail was snugly against her flank and her body was covered in a heavy chain net that hold her in place.

There were no dragons to guard her, only a few hunters on horses that guarded her with long pikes.

“Here we go.” Lorkor warned before diving. He gripped the first human from his horse. In shock, the hunter dropped his lance. By the time he realised what was happening, they were already flying rather high above the ground_._

“Let me go, beast!” He shouted, not realising his situation. He took a small dagger and pushed it onto Lorkor's scales. Lorkor growled in pain and instinctually dropped the human. Katrin could do little but to watch as the hunter fallen to the ground and crashed in a small cloud of dust.

“Do you think he survived?” Lorkor sounded worried.

“Doubt, trough we can't stop now, we have to rescue Mistica.” Katrin pushed Lorkor on, making him drive another time for the other hunters. They were now expecting something and looking above. Aiming their pikes up to catch the smaller dragon and push him against the ground. They were shouting conflicting orders in the chaos, and Katrin saw Derick grab a blade to defend himself.

The second attempt of Lorkor to grab a hunter was less successful. He only gabbed a pike.

“Lorkor, can you breathe fire?” Katrin asked when the third attempt to thin the herd of hunters around Mistica failed. This time a pike drawn blood from Lorkor's belly. While the cut was not deep, blood still dripped along his chest.

“But that would kill the humans. "

“Yes, but they will kill us else, and we want to free Mistica, right? “

“yes but... but,”

_“_Look, we already killed one of them. You heart what they did to me when Mistica bit a leg off one of them. Imagine the punishment when you killed one. “

The next dive from Lorkor was more unsure, but last moment he levelled off above the hunters and was out of reach. He unleashed a plume of fire, a rather underwhelming plume of fire, that was. While the hunters had a shield to guard them from the fire, their horses did not and the fire licked their hides. The horses jumped in fight and under pained protest they ran off, letting the hunters fall on the ground in pained groans.

“Quick, drop me on the ground. I gotta free Mistica” Katrin unstrapped herself while Lorkor dived. Katrin jumped off as soon as Lorkor set foot on the ground.

“Mistica!” she called out to the black and red dragon while making her way to the carriage.

“Katrin!?” Mistica called back, surprised. “What by the ancients are you doing here? You were in the infirmary. Aren't you in pain?”

Katrin smiled sheepishly. Not that Mistica could see it. “Oh, it hurts like hell, but I couldn't leave you be shipped off to the breeding g_rounds.”_

She made her way to the first hook that hold the net down and pulled the pin that hold it down. Then the second and then the third, making her way slowly around the carriage while Lorkor kept the hunters busy with dive attacks and breathing fire around.

“You!” Derick shouted when he discovered Katrin, a bit too late. He too was distracted by the green dragon making dive attacks. By the time he discovered Katrin, she had pulled the last of all the pins and the net sided from Mistica's back. Mistica, now free, slowly stood up and towered above them all.

“what you are doing to do, beast? You can't breathe fire!” Derick jumped on the ground, pointing his blade at Katrin. “I will take your head for this heresy, Endora.”

Mistica growled deeply. She pushed her head forward and opened her mouth. What came out was no fire, but it was a black liquid that splattered across Derick's body. Mistica, Katrin and Derick looked perplexed at the black liquid that stuck to his body like tar. It took a moment before there was a sizzling sound and not much later, Derick screamed out in pain. The half of his face that was covered with the black liquid deformed under the goo. It looked like he was burning, but there was no fire. His cries of pain made the remaining hunters spin around and try to help him.

One hunter tried to scoop the goo from Derick's body. Tough moments later, he was screaming himself when the goo worked on his wingers and melted them away to the bone.

Katrin looked at Mistica, then at her wing. “Can you fly” she asked, worried.

“No, but I will run. Climb on my back. Lorkor! follow us!”

Katrin wasted no time and jumped on Mistica's back. She scrambled to get a hold of her back, resulting in her hugging Mistica's neck tightly with her arms. Her face was pressed against the scales of her back and Mistica took off running. Leaving the screaming humans behind in the goop that she spat at them.

Katrin did not know where Mistica was running to or how long they have been running before she dared to look around. Mistica had moved into the forest and Lorkor was running on her tail. The two dragons were like foxes, jumping between the trees with an elegance Katrin hadn't expected.

“Mistica... What was that?” Katrin finally dared to ask.

“what was what?” Mistica replied, her mental words were less clear than normal, more distorted. Like her mind was not organised at all.

“That spit, that I don’t know what it was. Magical death spit.”

“Oh, come on, can we not call it Magical death spit, please?”

“Okay, if not that, what then?” Katrin pondered. “I mean, what even was that?”

“I don't know, Katrin, I don't know. I never been able to do this before...I just was worried and, well, it came without me wanting. It felt like... a magical spit. "

Katrin suddenly burst out in laughing. “Okay, so I doomed myself by freeing a dragon who I only know a few weeks who has suddenly magical death spit.. and we have another dragon on our tail who helped me. Can the day be any more absurd?”

Mistica hummed a bit, evading a tree that had fallen on their path. “Oh, and you proved to me you are not my Captor....you are a friend.”

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