Milo's Perspective, pt. 3

Kestrel's trial was about halfway through, and I swear that if anyone actually showed Queen Scarlet the show Law & Order, she'd be in her room until the entire series was cancelled. Or until she found the 'special victims unit' spin-off. "The dragonets were defective," the older-looking dragon continued. Yeesh, his voice is really boring. I thought. "One had too much fire, the other did not have enough. As per SkyWing custom, you ordered Kestrel to kill them both and stay out of the breeding program for the rest of her life." I swear everybody glanced at Peril, who was obviously hiding under Clay's wings. Huh. They're kinda cute together. I thought. Peril's definitely one of those dragonets Kestrel had.

I glanced at Sidewinder, who'd begun looking like maybe his earlier suggestion of not committing suicide was soon to be repealed.

"Hey," I said to him, trying to add a small sympathetic dulling to my voice, which wasn't too hard to do for him. He looked up with sad eyes. "Yes?" he asked quietly. "You okay?" I asked. "I mean, nooooobody should be this depressed. It hurts other people to see you sad and all, too. Just do you know."

He sighed, then rested his head on his knuckles. "What's the point?" he mumbled. He's a literal well of despair. I thought. "I have some very powerful friends who're probably coming to get me. Unless they've been caught, which I could see happening." I replied. He raised his head, a small flicker of hope arising in his eyes. "Really? What makes you so sure they're coming?" I pulled the comlink I'd took off out from under one of my wings, where I'd tucked it, and held it up for him to see. His lip twitched as his face switched to an expression of confusion. "What's that?" This is pretty risky, but here goes… I inhaled sharply.

"It's a comlink," I began. "Which is an advanced piece of tech that probably shouldn't exist." He frowned. "What's it do?" his voice had gotten slightly more stable. I turned it around in my claws, examining all the edges and curves with a minor sense of superiority. Of course I feel this way, I thought. It's a freaking device of communication that these dragons have yet to conquer. "It lets you communicate with anyone else who has the signal from anywhere you are. Watch." I turned the device around searching for the 'mobile' preset, which was used to talk to Jyn. I pressed it down. "Hey, Jyn, you guys hanging in out there?" The response was after a long ten-second pause. "Woo! You got 'im! Wait, Milo? You there?" Sidewinder's eyes widened with fascination. I grinned, feeling a bit happier now that he wasn't moping around. "Yeah, how you guys doing?"

"Well, let's just say our previous party of supposed-to-be four people has accelerated up to about nine."

I coughed. "What? Who else is there?"

The comm fizzed, having more interference.

"Uh, Cuia is here and unconscious, Jake's here, Nathan only had to come because he lost a bet, Leighton, a new guy who just strolled into the portal out of interest, and Cuia's friend Arc, who's an Avali, and some friend he brought with him that only speaks german."

I sighed. "And now stealth is out of the question. You accumulated quite the motley crew, didn't you?"

He laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. Crusoe's specialty is being a fucking cartographer, if you didn't know. He's constantly spewing out facts, but they're all pretty useful sounding."

I snorted. "I actually didn't see that coming. He doing okay? Oh, and Arc was the name of the guard who put me here, believe it or not. I find that a bit spooky."

'Yeah, he's fine. Terri's here too, but she wasn't much happier than you when I shot her and Crusoe with the weird-speech gun." He sighed. "I really need better names for stuff…"

Sidewinder looked at me with a questioning look. I should probably explain a bit more… "Uh, anything important to date?" I said into the comm.

The reply was delayed.

"Um, we knocked a random SkyWing unconscious…" I heard Crusoe shouting at him angrily in the background.

"Huh. Be careful. I gotta go. Bye."

"Yeah, sure."

I set the comm down on the stone pillar, which was now warm from the sun and faced Sidewinder. "Could you possibly tell me more about..everything? I really didn't understand much of what he said information-wise. What's a gun, for instance?" he rapidly asked. Well, he's not afraid anymore... I sighed, knowing I walked right into this one, and kinda deserved it.

Five minutes later…(insert RVB Blood Gulch Blues here…)

"So lemme get this straight, you're friends with scavengers," he paused. "Mmhm." I responded.

"Have a bracelet that allows you to be any creature you want,"

I nodded.

"And you were a scavenger-erm, sorry, human, if I'm saying that correctly, before you were a dragon?"

I nodded again. "It's… complicated."

"I'll say." he snorted.

We sat in silence for a moment. Well, almost a moment, until Peril shot down towards where Kestrel was being tried. Hold up, 'tried' is more like it. She landed nearby the guards, who shied back a bit when her talons hit the sand. "It can't be true!" she cried. "Tell me it's not true!"

Jeez, what's her problem? Oh, right. No friends except Clay…

Upon looking in his direction, I noted that one of the long cables extending had been sheared during Peril's swoop of desperation from her position. I wonder if the queen notices where Peril's advance position of origin. Huh. Well THERE'S something that could put Clay in jeopardy. I looked down at my own bonds, which appeared to be some kind of cast-iron shackles. These must be the latest in metal advances for this certain colony, 'tribe' if you will. I froze in mid thought for a second. Jesus, I sound like a freaking scientist nut-job back from the freighter. I'm of course referring to the freighter I was stationed on, when I was enlisted by force into the United Systems Colonial Marine corps, or the U.S.C.M.

Which was probably the most exciting and perilous fraction of my life till this previous last few days, mainly because I was using technology unseen to common eyes that I didn't know were stolen from Cuia until recently.

I miss being in firefights. They're a lot more entertaining than sitting here because I'd probably die the second I try to escape.

Okay, I've forgotten to note this, because you'd think it were obvious, but you know how I've occasionally gambled with small chances and used my bracelet for stupid stuff, right? Well, it turns out whatever genius designed the thing made it so whatever's touching your body when you change forms disappears along with it.

Sounds okay so far, right?

Not really…

The last few times I've changed forms from dragon to something else, the shackles disappear along with it.

But when I change back to a dragon, the shackles reappear, fastened to the cables as if they never left, which is a problem in my case.

And it could lead to some peculiar consequences.

So, back to reality.

"You lied to me!" Peril was saying. "You said she was dead!"

Oof.

"Peril, dear. Would you have wanted to know your mother was alive somewhere, raising other dragonets and wishing she'd killed you instead of your brother?" Queen Scarlet asked her.

Jeez, I thought. That's not a very fair question.

I think I missed something while thinking, because the queen of the SkyWings continued speaking in her usual menacing way. "Haven't I kept you alive all these years?" She said. "Finding you the black rocks, feeding you, making you my champion? Don't you appreciate all the things I've done for you? Aren't I a better mother anyway?"

No, I thought. I might have had not much for parents, but I know they usually don't strap dragons on rocks and have insane gladiator matches that your foster child takes part in, may I add.

Woo, I need a break from talking on a recording device.

Crusoe! Stop flirting with Terri and get over here!

It's your turn, I guess.