FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jade woke up, and immediately smelled a terrible stench around her, she looked around and saw that she was now in a tight space surrounded by four walls.

Still having a foggy mind, She tried to recollect, how she got there, the last thing she remembered was, that the woman from the ship poured something weird into her mouth and shortly after that she started feeling dizzy and then Will… Will… This name sounded familiar. Jade focused, letting the name sound into her mind, and then she remembered. It was a name of a human… a human that can do magic, a human that was with her, on that ship, and got caught too!

"Will! Where are you!?" The dragoness weakly screamed. Thanks to her keen sense of hearing, she heard a murmur in the cell to her right side.

“I am… here" Will answered groggily.

Jade was happy that Will was here too and that they were next to each other, the dragoness went closer to the wall that connected their cells. “Where are we?" Jade asked and again inspected the tight space.

"We are…" Will muttered and paused. He opened his eyes, only to see overwhelming darkness.

He opened his eyes wide. “Underground!" he shouted. Will immediately created a light to illuminate the room. The first thing he saw was his burned hands, which were once again tied together at the wrist, he found out that his legs were free, so he slowly got up and began to walk around the cell. He walked over to the opposite wall and felt it with his hand. Then his hand touched something different. Something cold. It's Steel! He thought.

The light vanished because of a lack of focus and energy. But then Will saw something unusual. He went to the other corner of his cell. Will looked down and saw a notch.

“I think we are in sort of prison" Will said when he went to the place where he woke up.

“We need to escape from here," Jade said immediately.

Will went closer to the place where he heard her voice. “I have one thing in mind, but I need more energy to do it" He whispered to her.

Immediately after Will said that he felt a huge wave of hunger, to waste less energy, he sat in his cell. And began to wait for the unknown.

Will didn't know if it was day or night outside, he knew that he was trapped deep underground, the weak light of the torch was shining through the hole into his cell, to keep himself busy he tried to loosen his bonds but to no avail. And this time he didn't dare to set himself free like he did last time. The pain, the burned, itching skin, all this pain to cast other spells… it was simply not worth it.

Will leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and almost fell to sleep, but then he heard a crack. Feeling a little nervous he looked to the left and saw that the steel door to his cell was opened. The two men dressed in dusty robes went through them.

"Get up" Said the first.

Will was still leaning against the wall.

The other guard carrying a torch, went to the sitting mage and kicked him in the leg. “Are you deaf?! Get up!" He roared.

Will slowly got up, one guard left his cell, the other one was still with him.

“Move!" The guard carrying a torch shouted at him. Will raised his hands to rub his face, the man instantly passed the torch to his other hand, reached into his belt, and took a dagger. “One wrong move, and you're done" Said the guard with the torch. Will looked at the slightly shaking guard. He knew that with these bounds he would be able to even defend himself, so he slowly lowered his hands and walked out of his cell. Moments later, the door to his cell closed with a loud crack.

The two guards took him under their shoulders, and the three of them walked for a few minutes along a stone corridor dimly lit by torches. Will count at least fifty cells. He could only guess how many of them were not empty.

After some time Will dropped his head and marched forward, shortly after the guards stopped. Will looked upwards and saw that there was a wooden door in front of them. The guard without the torch took his key from his belt, put it in the lock, and opened the wooden door. Beyond the door was a winding stone staircase. A long winding stone staircase, after a few minutes of climbing, finally all three of them were standing again on the hard non-sliding ground.

Will saw bars for the first time since he got here and through the rays of the sun, he was sure that it was day and that he was in the city where he should be, only that he was still in a deplorable situation, the guards led him through a winding corridor until the next cell, only now this cell was almost identical to that previous one, but it had large wooden doors. The guards threw Will in it and closed the door behind him, Will walked to the front wall of the cell to be as far away from the door as possible.

Suddenly, the large wood doors swung open with a distinct squeak, Will took a few steps and, got blinded by the sun, he waited for his eyes to again get used to natural light. After his eyes got used to the light, he slowly marched forward. After a few steps, he immediately felt sand under his feet. He did a few steps, stopped, and looked around. He found himself in a huge space, sprinkled with sand, with rows of stone tribunes built around it. Will saw more and more people sitting in the stands. He looked further and saw pieces of armor and a few broken swords.

Will's mouth went dry. I am inside an Arena. Will thought as he looked around nervously searching for his opponent, but he was alone.

He didn't have many options, his hands were tied, and even if they weren't, one more powerful spell would drain him of his energy.

Will heard a loud crack in front of him, he quickly moved his sight to the source of the sound and saw that the second gate opened. After a moment a man came out through it. His enemy was wearing leather armor, Will couldn't see his face because it was covered by a metal helmet. Will immediately saw a double sword in the man's hands. When the male human in armor finally saw Will, he immediately started rushing at him. Will didn't move even a muscle, his brain told him to run, but his body was paralyzed with fear, to his great suprise his opponent stopped a few inches infront of him.

“I see you are new here, calm down… I will give you quick death" The enemy said and started running towards Will, he was about to swing his sword, but Will at the last moment dodged to the left, the opponent started swinging his sword left and right trying to reach him, but he was nimble stepping back he avoided the sword blow, finally after a few meters Will stumbled and fell backwards on the sand. He quickly started to rose up, but his oponet was faster. The gladiator swung his sword, aiming at kneeling Will in a straight line, the sword missed Will's face by a few inches, instead of hitting the target, the sword went through the point between Will's hands the sharp metal in an instant severed his bonds.

Will quickly got up, and after quickly inspecting himself, hesmiled because he didn't feel any pain. "Now my turn!" Will said triumphantly.

The other human, again rushed at Will. But Will, without wasting any moment, gathered all the energy he had left and let out a barrage of ice shards from his hands. To Will's great luck, one shard managed to strike his enemy straight into the throat. The warrior let go of his sword, and tighter both of his hands on his fresh wound, he started gasping for air, through his hands a lot of blood started dripping on the sand. His enemy took a few steps towards him but didn't catch him because his body fell into the sand. His muscles did a few final twitches and then his whole body froze.

Will blinked a few times. Part of him didn't believe what just happened. I just killed someone… I killed another human… he thought. Over the years Will killed a lot of creatures during his missions, but he never killed another human, well until now.

Incapable of doing any more spells. Will sat on the ground watching his opponent's lifeless body. Everything was quiet, he looked at the people but all of them were sitting, in quiet. After a few minutes, the half-conscious Will was picked up by the guards and placed in his cell.

“Will is that you?" Jade asked after she heard a few creaks.

“Y-yes…" Will said slowly. Then he did a few deep breaths. “I… killed somebody" he whispered to himself, but Jade managed to hear it.

Jade opened her eyes wide. “What? Why?"

“They force me to do it!" Will weakly snapped. “It was either me or him… one of us had to die… And I won… I killed him… I killed a human" Will said.

Will felt weak, that fight had drained him of all his energy. He lay on the suddenly comfortable stone floor. "I have to go to sleep" The half-conscious mage muttered, and then fell into a deep sleep.

Shortly after that the steel door to Jade's cell opened, and two guards went inside, Jade opened her eyes slightly and saw that two of them were having a long chain in their hands.

They slowly made their way closer to the dragoness. When the humans were within arm's length away from the dragon, Jade opened her eyes and raised her head.

The guards immediately saw the side of her snout, and one glowing eye, one guard took a step back, but the other stood in place.

“It's awake," Said the first human with a little trembling voice.

“I can see that," The other said sarcastically.

“What do we do?" The first one asked.

“We need to bring it to the arena," the second human said in a calm tone.

Jade looked closer at their faces and saw that the other human, was older, and had a scar on his face.

The human with a scar on his face went closer to Jade, she growled at him, but he used his chain as a whip, and smacked the dragoness straight into her snout.

Jade crouched down and tried to cover herself with her wing, but then the same man put a chain over her horns, in the blink of an eye the chain was now on the dragon's neck. The older human pulled it and started dragging her. But she dug her claws into the ground and froze in place.

The older man started gasping. “Don't just stand there! Help me!" The man who was still pulling the dragon shouted to the younger one.

The other guard jumped slightly, He looked at the dragoness, walked up to her with uncertain steps, and like his predecessor, threw a chain around the dragoness's neck.

The two guards, started pulling her, Jade resisted, but it was getting harder with each passing moment due to constant fatigue and hunger. When they pulled her out of her cell she stopped resisting and just gave up. After some time, the three of them reached the winding stone staircase...

***

The humans placed her in a tight cell with large wooden doors in it. Jade wanted to look more closely at the cell, but then the wooden doors opened with a creak.

Jade took a few steps forward and immediately felt the heaviness of the chains around her neck. She went outside. And found herself in an arena.

She wanted to fly away but quickly found out that her wings were locked by another set of chains.

So This is where Will fought. Jade thought as she looked around. There were pieces of armor, swords, and shields lying here and there. Jade's gaze locked on one of the swords for a moment. Human weapons. She thought. Her eyes moved higher, and she saw a few people in the stands watching her.

They are… having joy watching this! Stupid creatures!

Something in front of her did a crack, Jade followed the sound and saw that the large wooden doors in front of her opened. And a human wearing strange clothes and a strange shiny thing came out of them.

The male human froze for a few moments when he saw his enemy, but after a moment, he triggered his grip and started running towards the dragoness.

When the human weapon, was within reach, her opponent started to swing his sword trying at her, but Jade managed to dodge the couple of the attacks. One of the blows managed to make a small paper cut in one of her front paws.

Despite the constant effort, the man didn't slow down, managing to wound the dragon twice more, and when he did it a fourth time, he stepped back slightly, catching a few breaths. Despite his increasing fatigue the human was still cautious and was still keeping his eyes on the enemy.

The constant feeling of hunger, the building up rage, the pain from the wounds. That's triggered her primal instincts. Jade gathered all her anger and attacked, in the blink of an eye she ran towards the man and slammed her tail into his chest. Because of the sudden impact, the man dropped his weapon. The human flew a short distance and fell backward into the sand. Without slowing down, the dragoness rushed towards him and held his arms with her front paws.

Driven by anger, she raised her right paw and used her claws to deliver a fatal blow, tearing the skin and other vital tissues. Immediately, a lot of blood started flowing, and a moment later, the human started desperately gasping for air, which only made it worse, because the human started coughing up blood. Jade looked into her opponent's eyes and saw fear in them. After a while, her opponent's strength left him and the human stopped moving.

"Beast" the human whispered, looking straight into the dragon's eyes. That was the first and last word the man said to her before his eyes became cloudy, his breathing stopped…

Jade moves away from the lifeless body. She moved a few steps backward and looked at the body and then Will's words echoed in her mind.

It was either me or him… one of us had to die…

***

Will was awakened from his sleep by a violent pounding on his cell door.

"Food!" Shouted somebody behind the wall.

Will slowly got up and went to the notch in his cell, he laid down on his stomach, and looked out through the hole in the wall, on the floor slightly away from the hole, were lying two pieces of bread and a single piece of meat. Will swiftly grabbed the meat and placed it near him, he was just about to grab the few pieces of bread, but then somebody stomped on his hand.

“Stupid mage! I lost a lot of coins because of you!" The guard shouted. “You weren't supposed to win that fight," The guard said in a sharp tone, twisting his foot slightly as it continued to press Will's hand to the ground.

Will took all his strength not to scream. If we were face to face, you wouldn't be so brave. He thought angrily, and after a few moments, the guard took his foot off his hand. Will quickly grabbed the bread, quickly placed it near him, and focussed on massaging his sore hand.

“You are a tough one, but you will need more than that to survive here." The guard said mockingly and then continued walking, and after a few moments, Will heard laughter coming from the distance.

As the sounds of laughter became distant, Will heard someone's voice.

“Hey, you!"

Will tried to lactate the source of the voice. His eyes looked through the notch opposite to hit and saw a slightly lit mouth.

“Yes?" Will asked the person.

“I have a little advice, if you can, then ration your food, not every day you will get a meal like today," The mysterious man said, and then he showed his hand, which looked terrible. Even though the man seemed not that old from the voice, his hand looked very old and wasted.

“Thanks" Will quickly said to the man, and immediately looked away trying to forget what he just saw.

After this small conversation, Will sat up and looked at the meal that the guard had given him, he looked at the two small stale pieces of bread, and at the slick piece of meat. Driven by extreme hunger, Will quickly ate the bread, then he began to eat the meat. He took a first bite of it. His face twisted, and he immediately wanted to spit it, but the feeling of hunger won over disgust. At least it isn't raw. Will thought as he consumed more and more of the precious protein. After eating what could hardly be called a "meal", Will's hunger decreased slightly.

When Will felt that he regained a bit of his energy, he moved away from the notch and went to the left side of his cell. He laid his upper body against the wall. "Jade, are you here?" He asked weakly, shifting to a more comfortable position.

"I'm Will" Jade said and let out a sigh.

His heart, beat a little faster hearing her voice. "You won," He said happily, and then the bad thoughts invaded his mind. “I thought that-"

“You thought was not too wrong, they tied my wings, so I couldn't fly away, I fought hard and got hit a few times with the human weapon… the wounds are still bleeding"

Which each part of her story Will feels angry at himself. “Stupid merchant's ship," Will said with anger.

Jade stays silent.

His stomach lightly growled, and then Will remembered about the food. “A guard came near my cell and gave me food, you probably got some too, maybe this food is horrible and there is little of it, but when you eat it you will feel better"

“I am not hungry," She said in a mopey tone.

“You need to eat something…" Will wanted to find a way to cheer her up. “Your next fight is going to be easier, I promise," Will said to her.

“Easy for you to say, these cuts still hurt" Jade huffed.

“I was lucky. That's it"

"Right… Lucky"

"You know, maybe this isn't the best time, but maybe I'd tell you about my family."

"If you want" Jade said indifferently.

And for the next few hours, Will told her a lot, he told her about his childhood, about the mage guild, about the lack of acceptance, about the lack of contact with his family for so many years…

“And… that's all" Will said, concluding his story.

After telling his story, Will realized that despite this, he practically didn't know the person with whom they had been traveling together for so long, the only thing he knew about her was that she was a dragon and that her entire family had disappeared.

“And what about you? Do you still remember your family, children?" Will asked her in a curious tone.

Jade felt a little offended by this question. “Of course I do!" She said in a higher tone, but quickly after, she calmed down. “I remember every detail about them… The younger one is called Amber, she has blue scales, the older one is called Ignis, he has red scales and my mate, Aurelius, has gray scales, all of them have green eyes, and-"

Will stopped listening to her because he realized something, something weird. Those colors, I have seen smaller dragons with those colors before. So if Jade was near them… So the dragon that talked through to Jade was… Aurelius? But that's impossible! That memory is not mine… why do I even have his memory in my head?_ _ Will tried to explain it all, but with every moment, a new question appeared in his mind.

"Will, is something wrong? You don't say anything"

Will stopped the barrage of questions in his head. "I'm fine, just thought about something"

"Over what?" Jade pressed.

He sighed. “We may not make it out alive, so I have to tell you something… For the past few days, I saw two visions, memories, or whatever it is, In all of them I saw a blue dragon, and in the last one, I learned that the dragon was you"

“You saw me? Where?" Jade asked, acting surprised.

Will rubbed his temples. “If I remember correctly, the first time, I saw you inside a cave and the other time… I saw you on a hill" Will said and continued. “I think that… somebody had implanted those memories in me"

Maybe he really didn't know, or he is a very skilled liar. Jade thought. But on the other hand, he told me about it. And I didn't see anything else that might seem odd in his mind.

“My father!" Will gasped, breaking the silence.

“Your father, implanted them?"

“No! But He would know what everything of it means!"

“But you said that your father went missing"

“Oh right, so we must find my brother... Who is also missing" Will let out a deep sigh.

“So we don't have a plan?"

“We have!" Will said. "I know where the rest of the family is. And we are not far from them" After saying this on his face appeared a small smirk.

“So we have a plan," The dragoness said. “But we are trapped" Jade reminded him.

The smile immediately left his face. “Right," Will said and started slowly walking around his cell.

Will stood up for a moment and scratched his chin. The guards forgot to tie my hands, I can cast spells! Will happily thought and got an Idea.

“Move away from the wall! I am going to get us out of here"

Will stood up, focused, and created a lightning bolt with his hands, he hit the wall in front of him with it. The dust rose, and when the dust cleaned, Will saw the wall, untouched, without a little single scratch on it. His spell was too weak to break through it. He went closer and saw that a piece of wall was missing, but that was not enough. His spell was too weak.

Will began to cough as some of the dust entered his lungs.

“It worked?" Jade asked.

“No… the spell was too weak," Will said as he went to his previous place.

After doing the spell, Will felt dizzy, and in order not to fall, he slowly sank to the floor.

Will clenched his hands. All the years of training were wasted! Because at the end I was defeated not by a large army, nor a powerful opponent or a mage or maybe even a dragon, but such a trivial thing as fatigue overcame me… If only I was full and had more energy, I would have been able to destroy this prison, even if I had to destroy it stone by stone!

Will created a light, to take a look at his burned hands, but because of the lack of energy the light was too weak and after a moment it went out. Driven by anger and helplessness Will banged his fist against the wall. I am too weak, to even cast one proper spell!

“Will I must tell you about something"

“You find a way out?" Will asked, with a hint of sarcasm.

“No…" After a pause, Jade continued. “I can read minds… and for the past few days… I read yours a few times." She confessed to him.

Due to a lack of energy, his mind needed to focus a little longer on what he had just heard. Dragons can do such a thing?! Something clicked inside his brain. Will took a nervous breath. _So that's why, she knew that much about my past! And she read mine mind… A few times… A few times! _

His friend… His only friend, the person, that was with him all the time for the past few weeks, the person that he trusted the most, the person that he had feelings for, was lurking inside his brain, his memories!

“How much did you see?" Will asked her, with a slight anger tone.

“I- I am sorry I didn't—"

“How much did you see?!" He snapped at her.

Jade huddled in her cell. “Only a few memories about your past, and a few from the past few days…"

“Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?!" Will asked her.

“Because… back then I didn't fully trust you, I wanted to tell you, but then I saw your memory, and-"

So it was about trust…

“I thought you trusted me... because I trusted you, well until now" Will huffed.

Another lie, secret, like many before! She pretended to be my childhood friend, she read my memories… because of her I became a traitor, because of her I lost my place in the guild, because of her I got imprisoned! Since she invited herself into my life, it's only getting worse!

“I am sorry… for all the bad things that happened to you… I… I am sorry for ruining your life" Jade apologizes to him, with grief.

Will felt a little moved when he heard her apology, but the feeling was quickly covered by anger. “I- That- Never mind… I'm going to sleep" He lay on the stone floor and turned himself to the other wall.

_ I was such a fool to trust a dragon._ Will thought as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Then he quickly came back to himself. Thanks to his tiredness, he managed to fall asleep quickly.

Jade heard that his breaths stabilized, and deducted that he went asleep.

When Jade wasn't talking to Will, she was thinking a lot, mostly about her family, and she developed a plan to escape. Then dragoness went closer to the wall and started scratching it, trying to make a hole in it, but the whole process was moving slowly, because of the hardness of the stone, her lack of energy, and the constant feeling of hunger. After a few scratches, Jade gave up and just lay down and fell asleep.

***

Jade was woken up by loud banging on her cell door, this time not two but four men came in with chains in their hands, they again put them around her neck and started to pull her, Jade called out to Will several times, but he didn't answer her. Maybe he already fought his next fight and didn't survive. Jade sadly thought.

Finally, Jade overcame the winding stairs and entered the cage after a few moments the wooden doors opened once again and the dragoness for the second time entered the arena, of course, she couldn't fly away, the chains on her wings wouldn't let her. But at least her wounds from yesterday were healed.

Jade stopped in the middle of the arena waiting for her opponent. She was no longer worried if she won or lost. The hunger, pain, loss… Now she only wanted one thing… she wanted all of it to end… After all these years her family was probably dead by now.

They searched for over half a year and found no clue! If they couldn't find her children with the help of a dozen flying dragons with keen sight. So why should she delude herself that she would be able to find her family with the help of a single human.

Jade waited for her opponent, the person with whom she was to fight to the death, finally after a few moments, the other door opened. A human came out, strangely without any weapon. Jade looked more closely at the human and her whole body froze when she saw the familiar pair of emerald eyes.