Chapter One
Luthen
The light was blinding, causing her to squint her eyes. It didn't help much, so she moved her hand to cover her eyes. The movement shot pain through her back like a white hot poker. All she wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep. Taking a moment she took a breath and tried to move again. The pain was not as fierce and she opened her eyes.
Everything was blurry, just blue, and then green, dark green, grass. They were focused now and an outstretched forest came into view.
"Was this right?" She thought to herself.
Something was terribly wrong about this picture. Sleeping outside did not seem normal. Briefly she tried to think about where she was, but she had never seen a forest before, and not like this. It was so rich and colorful. Birds chirped in the distance and a breeze flew by. She slowly tried to stand, and finally got there with some time. Brushing herself off the sound of rumbling reached her ears. The birds stopped their song, and the ground vibrated. Whatever it was, it was coming closer. Through the tree line figures made their entrance. Men atop horses, shouting and waving large swords wildly above their heads. They surrounded her, odd and freighting at the same time, she froze.
"Witch! You shall burn at the steak!" One shouted down at the dirty female.
"Tie her up and gag her mouth so she cannot utter curses upon us!" Another shouted.
"What are you talking about? I am not a witch!" She stammered, confused.
Two leapt from their mounts and did just that, before she had a chance to speak at all a dirty cloth was shoved into her mouth and then tied around her head. They forced her to her knees with a hiss of protest and began tieing her arms behind her back.
The two men tossed her on the back of a horse, stomach down, and one mounted it. The remaining men mounted and they started a gallop back at the tree line. The awkward position and rocky ride beat on her ribs and stomach. She coughed behind the gag. Birds scattered from the trees and the horses abruptly stopped. There was a loud growl and the horses reared up, tossing the dirty girl and rider off the horse. She landed on her bottom, then her back, looking up to meet the gaze of two great beasts hissing at her captures. They were dragons.
One a dark aqua blue with lightened stripes of blue running from nose to tail tip. His head was long and he had three spoke ear-fins. The other was grayish purple, with blue swirls about his body. His face was pinched at the snout with cheek-fins and two large twisting horns sprouting from the back of his head.
The Blue reared up and swiped the riders with his massive tail. The other two riders, including the horses, went flying into the forest, crashing against tree trunks and branches. The third rider took the moment to draw his sword and charge the Blue, only to have the Grey lean over and spill a great fountain of flame onto the weak human. The smell of burnt flesh invaded her nostrils and she gaged, trying no to breath, and covering her eyes at the carnage. She knew she was next. The rider disintegrated in a ball of fire and screams. The Blue grabbed the girl in both paws and took off, the Grey following behind. Her head was spinning, her stomach ached, and she knew that if the gag were to come off, she was going to throw up.
They took her to a tall mountain range, littered with cave openings. The largest was ornamental and lit with large scounces of clawed hands, grasping at a ball of blue fire. They landed on a cat walk leading into the mouth of the cave, placing her down on wobbly legs she watched in horror as they shrank and formed into humanoids. Human men, with shoulders and forearms still encased in scales of their color. A line of scales circled their waists like a belt and a long loin cloth of their scale color fell between their legs, almost touching the floor. Their feet were scaled and clawed, arched in an animalistic fashion, but there was no sign of wings, tail, or horns.
They each took an arm and lifted her to her feet, walking her inside. They crossed a great threshold lined with a thick runner that led to a throne atop a stepping platform. Tapestries hung from the ceiling, crafted in a deep aquamarine with a black dragon in mid battle stance. Off to the side a wall caved in as an alcove, another tapestry hung there, only this one was different. Deepest black with an almost glowing white dragon. But instead of in battle, it sat in a regal pose, displayed over a glass case which held a shimmering claw. She blinked her eyes a couple times before staring hard at it. Neither silver nor gold, it glittered with diamond tipped claws. Her attention was taken away from it when the men continued to drag her out of sight of it.
They arrived to the bottom step of the throne and held here still as a figure emerged from the back of the ornate chair.
"What is this?" the figure asked.
"Another one Lord. The humans found her, but we intercepted them"
"Good work Tatret." The Lord nodded. Tatret smiled and bowed his head.
"Thank you Lord Luthen. Lgnis did help however." Tatret added, nodding towards the gray scaled human to his right.
"Yes, of course. Take her to the dungeon. I will deal with her later." Luthen replied.
The gag came loose, and at that moment so did her tounge.
"Let me go!" She grunted as she fought against their vise like grip. She should expect no less from two beings that were just dragons moments ago. She briefly wondered what this Luthen would look like as a dragon, if he was a Lord and all. As a human he looked the part. Regal, handsome. With long black hair, a hard face, and steel gray eyes. His skin was smooth and layered with muscle. His scales were black and his loin cloth was colored black and aquamarine. "Damn it let me go!" She growled and struggled again. He leaned in on her and grabbed her chin between two fingers.
"Don't we have some fight in us?" He purred sarcastically. "Will be a joy sucking the life from you."She jerked her chin away. "Far better than the others." He added.
She struggled some more, even growling a bit. She was sure bruises would appear on her arms as soon as she looked. He laughed as he looked her up and down.
"Odd clothing for a witch."
"I am no a witch!" She nearly screamed.
"Take her away!" He spat with a wave of his hand.
She struggled one more time as they dragged her off.