Chapter 2: Training Time

The rays of the morning sun shone brightly, and harshly on Cynder, waking her up almost immediately, and noticing her surroundings almost immediately. She was still in the nursery, many of the other hatchlings were still fast asleep, and didn't want to be bothered. She got up, and made the decision to look at more of her surroundings. She wanted to know more about where she was, and studying the surroundings would be her only chance. As soon as she walked out, Gaul picked her up by her tail, and took her outside.

"I was just about to go and get you," Gaul cackled, "It seems you did the hard part for me Cynder". He placed the black dragoness between two other hatchlings, one was an earth dragoness, at least older than her by five days, and an ice dragon, at least younger than her by an hour or two.

"You are in this army now, and I have certain rules you WILL abide by if you want to survive here," Gaul said before being interrupted by the ice dragon standing right next to Cynder.

"But why are we here?" He asked, and suddenly, three apes held him down, while another one came out of the cave wielding an axe almost as big as the ape was. He held the axe down next to the hatchling before raising it into the air, and bringing it back down on the dragon's neck, blood staining the ground in massive puddles. Some of the blood started to flow under Cynder's paws, scaring her almost immediately.

"I don't allow anyone to talk until OR unless I ask them to, if you interrupt me, you will be executed on the spot, such as your poor friend here," Gaul said, pointing to the ice dragon hatchling who had recently been killed.

"Now hear me out, because I won't tell you these rules again: 1: Do not think about running away, you will be executed for treason of the highest kind. 2: Any contact with the outside, and you will be executed for treason of the highest kind. 3: No one of you is to leave the nursery for anything but food, or battle. If you hatchlings leave the nursery for any other reason, you will be executed for failing to abide by orders. 4: No one dragon is to fall in deep love, and forget about their assignment, the two dragons will be executed for failing to abide by orders. 5: Saving yourself from an execution will only mark you as a complete traitor, so when you are about to be executed, you embrace death, not cheat it. 6: Traitors are to be killed on the spot if you are to meet one. And my final rule: No one goes anywhere, alone. You will be killed by my apes if you do break this final rule," Gaul said, picking up the ice dragon hatchling's corpse, and taking it to the pauper's grave not far from them.

"Ugh... I wouldn't want to end up there," The earth dragoness hatchling whispered in Cynder's ear, looking straight for the pauper's grave.

"I... I wouldn't either," Cynder frightendly said, still shocked about the execution that took place right beside her. The black dragoness understood the rules almost immediately as Gaul told them, but was still frightened about the consequences that would happen, and as the giant ape returned, hands blood-stained, Cynder couldn't help but quiver in fear.

"Now that that's done with, let's get some real training done," Gaul snapped his fingers, and apes surrounded the small group of hatchlings.

"I have here fifteen apes, kill every single one of them, or be killed yourselves. Convexity gave you the ability to walk, run, and speak, let's see if it affects your instincts of survival," Gaul said, stepping away almost immediately, announcing the training to commence.

The apes were ready, no weapons, just bare hands, but the hatchlings weren't. As the moments passed, the apes grew more anticipated about their attack strategy, and the hatchlings grew even more frightened, except for a certain red dragon, ready to spring into battle.

"Wusses," The male said, springing to the first ape he could lay a blow on. Cynder became more frightened when she saw the male grabbed by the horns, then by the neck in a deathgrasp. The black dragoness suddenly felt blood rushing to her heart, through her forelegs and rear legs, and through her mind, she was ready to land the strike on the ape. Her senses went wild, and her mind was stuck with only one thing: KILL. The next thing she knew, she had half of the ape's throat in her mouth, and her horns were stained by the blood of the ape she had slain, saving the male from his demise. The two continously attacked their assaulters, Cynder protecting all the hatchlings while the male attacked head-on. By the end of their fifth minute when the battle began, Cynder and the red dragon had killed off all fifteen of the apes. Gaul had his hands in a clapping position, walking towards the two dragons who were standing in the middle of the fifteen corpses.

"Well done Cynder, Avarian," Gaul congratulated the two, cackling. Cynder growled, but the red dragon bowed his head down before heading towards all the other hatchlings, fear shooting their veins as they watched the two kill all of the apes. Cynder looked over to see the earth dragoness cowering under the others, scared more of her now than death. With a sigh, Cynder left the training field, and back to her own sleeping quarters, but stopped by the sound of more apes heading out to the field. Her tears had began to well, but was comforted by a mysterious force, a dragon.

"Don't worry about them, they can handle themselves," the hatchling said, his words giving her more to cry about, and then, the screams of many hatclings were heard outside. She cried out in pain and suffering, and the hatchling only let her do so, because to him, pain was the only way to suceed. When her tears dried, she let her grasp on him go, and she made her way into the tunnel where she slept, feared when the apes came back to tell her that the others in her sleeping area were dead.

"Please, don't die on me out there," she silently prayed as she continued her exhausted walk back into the nursery, sleep ready to take over again.

Regaining her strength, the dragoness pulled herself up and saw half of the hatchlings back in the nursery, a majority of them lightly injured from their gruesome training, and of those severely injured hatchlings, a light purple female hatchling limped around, her injuries proving to be more harsh than anyone else's.

"Ashmore, hold still," a yellow female hatchling spoke, chasing after the light purple dragoness.

"Primith, care for yourself!" Ashmore screeched, continuing to limp across the room to get out of the nursery.

"Ashmore!" A dragoness called out from the entrance, the voice was clearly from the hatchling Cynder had met the other day.

"Brick!" Cynder called out to her friend as the white dragoness made her way into the nursery with all the others. Brick clearly was afraid of the training she went through, and the training all the hatchlings went through.

"Cynder, everyone, are you okay?" Brick called out, her tone showing remorse and worry.

"Ashmore took on severe injuries, I took a few light scratches, Primith hardly has any injuries, and the rest of the hatchlings have little to no injuries, especially Cynder," a green dragoness spoke up, the same one she met at the training field in fact.

"You checked me out while I was sleeping?" the black hatchling asked, as to the eath hatchling's answer was a nod.

"Good work Atma, now that we have enough to help us break out, we begin tomorrow," Brick said, the earth hatchling bowing her head in pride.

"What's going on Brick?" Cynder asked, her confusion catching onto the yellow dragoness named Primith.

"Well, me and Atma have been here for three months, and with our time nearing to be taken for triple training, we thought it might be best if we leave here and never turn back, Warfang is a four day voyage from here, and it'll be easy to make it there than anywhere else, if you don't follow us, then you will die in war Cynder," Brick answered, her voice made clear for all the others to hear.

"The Dark Master has plans for the ones who stay alive, and sends them to war immediately, if a hatchling can kill a grown dragon with ease, and win the war without haste, he sends them to triple training, don't let one of them be you, join us Cynder," Atma finished her friend's answer, staring at all the other hatchlings; all so young, and about Cynder's age, a day, maybe two, or three.

"We all made the choice, we're leaving with them, but what about you?" a golden orange male spoke up, nearly a month older than her to what she realized. Most of these hatchlings were months older, and not many were only days older than what she realized.

"I-I'll do it," Cynder said, her voice beaming with pride and joy, for she never tasted the outside world before, except for the training field, where she would be put through harsh, and intense training all over again, she never wanted to be here to begin with, a family is what she had hoped for, it was the only hope she had. The darkness didn't shine a light, so it was time for her to make her own path to the light.