Pieridae
You will never know when the prisoners might escape. It is why you always have to be on your guard. As the queen's personal assassin and protector, your life can be on the line at any moment in time.
Skreiking from down the hallway filled my eardrums. Those lazy guards must have finally proven their usefulness, I thought. But another clamor of metal against polished treestuff made me rethink the situation. Lifting my wrists, I willed the hidden blades to slide out. Rushing to the cabinets on the back wall of my cubicle, I opened several drawers, searching for the beakers containing a variety of poisons necessary to capture or recapture a prisoner. I found a green-tinted glass labeled "immobilizer" in scrawling letters.
Containers clinked about as I quickly removed the glass from its dusty home and carefully set it on a wooden table. I thrust my wrist blades into the purple liquid and waited for a few seconds. Retracting my blades, I concealed the beaker under the table. I peeked my head out of the room, and I instantly knew what the commotion was coming from.
Three Hivewings with a yellow crest on their chests lay sprawled on the floor, dead. They would definitely be needing backup. The prisoners must be changing their tactics. I ran silently on my talons, watching for the source of the chaos. Soon, I came upon a Viridian Green dragon with broken shackles on her wrists with a blunt treestuff dagger held in her talon.
I let out a bloodcurdling hiss and the dragon spun her head around. Upon seeing the blue-green dragon, I first thought she was a Silkwing, but only one set of wings shifted on the dragon's back instead of the Silkwing's normal two. This prisoner was a Leafwing-a dangerous type of dragon with a tendency to act with talons and teeth instead of diplomacy.
The Leafwing struck first, desperately trying to avoid capture. Unsheathing my wrist blades, I tried to access the years of training embedded into my head, but the memories slipped out of my reach. I wasn't quick enough, for she sliced the tender scales under my wings and I gasped in shock and pain. That wasn't gonna leave a pretty mark.
The Leafwing nicked my toe with as I was trying to grab hold of one of her hind legs. She beat her wings and shattered the window separating her from freedom. Glass rained from above, and I shielded my face and eyes from the shards. When the dust settled, I looked up. The prisoner had disappeared from my view. I had failed.