Small One paced anxiously in the limited space her tether afforded her, talons clicking against the stone. The room had a deep, impenetrable stench of despair that permeated every surface. Even the stagnant water smelled like hopelessness. Every now and then, some other creature would make a sound, though Small One couldn't actually see any other living things. The room was dim, lit only by a few weak shafts of sunlight coming from a barred hole in the wall, much too high up for Small One to even think about trying to escape. Besides, she still couldn't get the choking ring off of her neck.

From the wall to Small One's left came a low, quiet croon, muffled by the stone. Small One's ears perked. The sounds flowed together in a way that made sense. It was another of her kind! Pressing herself against the wall, she chirped a response. The croon had been a simple question: who are you? And Small One's answer was just as simple, because she was Small One and nothing more. The voice beyond the wall sounded hollow, as though the life had been sucked out of it. Still, it was what Small One had spent the first day of her life searching for: an adult who knew their way about the world and its dangers.

Small One squeaked and chirped to the stranger beyond the wall, but they were slow to respond. It was as though their throat was unused to communication. Small One butted her tiny horns against the wall and scraped her claws along it. She needed to break through and see the adult with her own eyes, so the adult could teach her how to live. But the wall was unrelenting, and after a while, Small One's calls stopped receiving answers.

When it became clear that the adult was no longer interested in conversation, Small One resumed her restless padding. The pile of dry grass made a poor hiding spot, and no matter which way Small One tried to curl up on it, she couldn't feel secure. Time seemed to stop for her, trapped with nowhere to go and nothing to do. She rubbed her snout on the stone wall, fearing she might die of sheer boredom, but a faint echo of death-prey from the hall caught her attention, as well as the scent of meat.

The death-prey who had tied Small One to the wall was approaching, carrying a hollowed out wooden thing. It paused before each barred wall, reaching into the container and tossing a few slabs of meat to the inhabitants of the dark rooms. When it came to Small One, it paused, watching her rub her snout on the wall. Small One glared at the stone wall that separated her from the adult. The death-prey tossed a few small strips of meat next to Small One before it walked away, casting an aside glance her as it went. When it had finished providing food, it vanished back from where it had come.

Small One eyed the meat lying on the floor. She was hungry, but she wouldn't eat. She would not give her captors the satisfaction of eating their leftover prey. She may have been small and fragile now, but one day she would be a mighty creature that only the gods themselves could tame, and she was going to act like it. Despite the tempting smell of the meat, Small One redoubled her efforts to break down the wall and unite with the dragon next door. She bashed her horn stubs on it, gnawed at it with her teeth, and raked it with her claws, but all that happened was that she got a fresh headache and left a few white marks on the stone.

The other creatures began to growl and hiss as she attacked the wall, clearly disturbed by the sound of her efforts. Small One called to her neighbour, asking them to help her from the other side, but her only response was a sleepy grunt. Small One snarled. Weren't adults supposed to help hatchlings? Eventually, Small One was forced to rest. The smell of the meat set her hunger on edge, but she forced herself to ignore it. She would not accept the death-prey's food, and when she united with the elder, they would destroy the death-prey together. She just needed to get through the wall first.

As Small One lay panting, she heard the now-familiar sound of death-prey approaching, only there appeared to be two this time. One was the usual death-prey, with the long mane and loose skin. The other was a taller, tougher looking one with skin that looked somewhere between the loose-skins and the hard shells. The pair chattered to one another, though the loose-skinned one seemed to be acting aggressively towards the other one. The pair of death-prey paused in front of Small One's prison, and she took the opportunity to glower at them and spread her wings threateningly.

The death-prey with the long mane pointed a claw at Small One, still barking at its companion. It gestured to the uneaten food, and its noises seemed to increase in volume. Eventually, the larger death-prey reached to its side and passed a set of small, shiny objects to the smaller one. The smaller one nodded its head, and the larger one watched as it began to make the familiar cooing sounds, opening the cage door. Small One hissed and snapped her jaws, but the larger death-prey strode in with confidence. It snatched Small One up into the air, pinning her legs to her sides and clamping her mouth shut in one smooth movement, Small One's lashing tail barely fazing it.

The long-maned death-prey fiddled at the wall where Small One's chain connected, detaching the tether and bundling it up. It stroked Small One's face gently with one hand, whispering unintelligibly in her ear even as her captors left the room with her in tow.

To Small One's surprise, they didn't take her far. Instead, they moved to the stall to her left, where the voice had come from, and swung open the door. The smaller death-prey called out cheerfully into the gloom of the cage, and the one holding Small One stepped in without a hint of fear. Small One was held low to the ground, not quite free but almost there, while the death-prey attached her chain to the wall of this new cage. As soon as she had been re-tied, the one holding her released its grip, stepping away in anticipation of Small One's lunge. Just as before, the chain pulled her back, and she settled for a hiss of defiance.

The pair left after closing the cage and throwing Small One's uneaten food in. Small One snorted at it, despite her growing hunger. Instead, she turned her gaze towards the figure lying prone on the pile of bedding, a figure that smelled even through the bitter stench of despair like a female of her own kind.


Does Small One damage the wall? (Strength = 5)

Small One rolls a 5 (required 15). Failure.

Small One can't seem to catch any breaks with these rolls, can she?