ORCHID
I don't like being trapped here. No sane dragon would.
It's horrible, being in a dark cave away from the sunlight, and the trees, and the other RainWings, and the fruit. It's horrible being forced to use our venom, being tied up all the time and not even being able to talk. It's horrible.
All they give us to eat here is disgusting, rotting, animals. Who would eat things that have been alive? Once they tried to give me a sloth. I refused to eat that. I can hardly bear to eat the other things they bring, but who could possibly eat a sloth? NightWings, evidently. I miss the fruits from the rainforest.
But the thing I miss most of all is Mangrove. He must be missing me as well. At least, I hope he is. There are days when I worry that he isn't, that maybe he's just forgotten me and moved on. But he wouldn't do that… would he?
I don't know how long I've been here. For all I know, he could have given up by now. I don't know where I am or how I got here, so how can I expect him to find me? I can't, not really.
My scales are always blue and grey now. The colours of sadness and despair. I can hardly remember what it felt like in the days when they were colourful and bright and different every day.
I'm going to be stuck here, probably until I die. Three RainWings have already starved to death. Kinkajou told me. She is young and her wings are not bound, so she can fly from one cave to another. She can bring the rest of us news about what is happening in the other caves, but it is always bad news. Tapir is dead. They are experimenting on Gibbon again. Bright is dead. Orangutan is dead. Nothing good ever happens. Her visits are a break from the monotony, but I dread them just the same, in case there is more bad news.
The NightWings will never let us out, will they? They don't want us going back to the rainforest and telling our tribe how they treated us.
Why do they need us anyway? Why do they need us to sit in chains doing nothing for days on end, then every so often spit our venom? What is it achieving? They don't collect it, they don't use it, they just watch it and make infinite small marks on a scroll. What is the point?
They're never going to let us go.
We're here for life.
