Alright, I'm going to continue in this tryhard format. Hopefully it doesn't to affect my writing times any more than it's already crazy / School + Gaming + Depression makes this pretty hard, but I hope I get this next chapter out before November's end!
Bricriu awoke suddenly, letting out a loud cry of fear before gasping for breath. He felt as if his lungs were going to explode out of his chest, and his scales were unbelievably cold. Looking down at his body, there was a sheen of water for only a moment before it vanished before his eyes, leaving him to slowly warm up on the dark stone floor.
Surveying his surroundings, Bricriu whimpered in fear. The room was bare, and smelled worse than anywhere he had ever been in his entire life. A horrid mix of blood, rotten meat, and other bodily secretions. A single door with a window of metal bars was the only source of light into the room, and somewhere in the shadows rats or some other vermin scrambles from one hole in the wall to the other. The light flickered and moved, bathing its orange light in a dancing pattern.
A prison, then. He was in a prison, somewhere underground. His fear turned to curiosity rather quickly, and he stood as silently as he could on his paws. Walking on his heels, desperate to avoid the scraping of his claws across the stones, Bricriu walked to the window and attempted to peek out, placing his paws against the door and straining his neck up to look out. A brief thought as to why he wasn't as tall as the guardians flashed through his mind, but he pushed it aside to survey the outside.
A single dragon in the guard's armor slept peacefully on the ground. Breathing softly through his nostrils with gentle puffs of smoke, showing his fire dragon blood. "Hey!" Bricriu called out, startling the dragon awake and to his feet. He stands straight up, both forepaws together, puffing his chest out.
Bricriu smiles a little at the jump to attention, but the smile vanishes as the dragon turns to him, annoyance written on his face. "What do you want, Bricriu?" He walks over to the door, metal armor clicking softly with every step.
Blinking slightly in surprise that the guard knows his name, Bricriu asks quickly where he is, to which the guard laughs. "You're in prison, boy. And just as well, for that nasty poison you tried to throw in Captain Casca's face." The guard then turns and looks down the halls, past the other empty cells, and then turns back with a small half smile across his snout. "I'll go get the guardian, then."
Bricriu's tail sways slowly behind him as he squeaks out. "The Guardians are here?!" The soft clicking of the dragon's claws across the stone is the only response he is given, and his mind races with thoughts. What he's going to say, what he's going to do. He begins to pace within the walls of his cell, thinking heavily about each of the guardians.
God how he wished he had his helmet.
His paws froze on the stone, gripping it in his claws. His Helm. Where did they take it? Heart pounding, he goes back to the door, looking up and down the hallway, desperately straining his ears for a sound that he wasn't even sure he'd hear.
Nothing. Silence for minutes. His own heartbeat was the only thing he could sense in the heat of the moment, and he whimpered fearfully, stepping away from the doorway and laying down on the cold ground. His despair was so deep, he didn't even notice when a sound did start to rise from the hallway. The sound of many paws walking down the hallway from the stairs, many clinking from every step.
Bricriu only responded once the key to his cell door was being turned into the lock with a satisfying click, then the door was thrown open and two guards rushed in, pouncing upon him and holding him down long enough to get those damn purple chains around his ankles again. Putting up no fight whatsoever, Bricriu grunted in pain as one of them hit him over the head anyways just in case, then looked back at the doorway as Led entered the room.
The Ice Guardian dragon watched Bricriu stand slowly, his eyes holding a cold lack of emotions. "So, Bricriu, you returned to the capital. After banishment." The dragon guards stay on either side of the guardian, growling to punctuate each sentence like a pack of hungry dogs waiting for their master's order to pounce on the foe.
"Yes, but I-" Bricriu begins, but Led snarls at him with an icy puff of rage escaping from his nostrils. Whimpering and crouching out of fear, Bricriu shuts his mouth and stares at Led with wide eyes, fighting the urge to apologize with every fiber of his being.
"As an exile, you have no rights, no home, no life. And yet you chose to come here once again." Led broke eye contact with the emerald dragon to look around the cell, as if examining it, though Bricriu could hardly guess what he was searching for. "Where people loathe your name. Where all guards are meant to keep an eye out for you. Where you will be executed for your crimes against the Realm."
Bricriu's heart stopped, his scales getting a shade lighter as he paled. A screech of terror tore through his throat, faster than he could stop it. "EXECUTED!?" Led responds to the slight with a swift backhand paw slap across his prisoner's cheek.
"In one month's time, yes." Led continues on coldly, the air in the cell beginning to drop in temperature as he speaks, to the point where the other dragons begin to shiver from the chill. Bricriu shivers more from fear and despair than anything his scales feel. "It is the punishment for those who do not abide by the laws of the Exiled. You were meant to disappear from society peacefully. You chose to come back, and so you will be made to disappear by force."
Staring down at Bricriu's wide eyes, Led's mouth twitches up into a smirk of pride. "You know, dragons are wild creatures. Many exiles find the enjoy being out there, in the wilds. I'm sure you would have fit in fine as some other dragon's bitch, had you just been patient enough." He leaves his mouth hanging open briefly, but his eyes dart to the guards beside him and he seems to decide that whatever else he was planning to say is better left unsaid. He clears his throat and continues. "You will remain down here for the month. You will be given food and water and a place to deposit your wastes, but nothing more. Understood?"
Bricriu can only stare in disbelief at the Ice Guardian, with occasional glances towards the other guards for some sort of help, anything. Instead, they only bare their teeth and whip their tails as he looks to them, as if he still poses a threat. Led grumbles, repeating the last word, but Bricriu's mind is scrambling to register anything besides his existential despair. Rolling his eyes slightly, Led turns carefully and walks back out of the cell, with the two guards following close behind.
"W-Wait." Bricriu manages to squeak out, and one guard pauses before leaving, turning to look over his shoulder and beneath his massive wings to look at the pitiful dragon. "Where's my h-" Bricriu stops himself just barely in time.
If he chooses to ask the dragon where his helm is, it may arouse suspicion. They could move his helm somewhere more secure, further away from him, in some acid proof safe. If they find out what it can do, the powers it holds, they could seek to destroy it, and he would be left without it, without its soothing feelings, its reassuring shimmer in the moonlight and its blinding beauty in the day. He felt exposed, powerless, worthless.
What powers did it have over him? He knew it made him colder, both in the literal and figurative sense. He had felt more at ease, more confident when he had the helmet on the outside, but he had even felt more of a chill at night then he ever had in Led's presence. As if his entire body was consumed by a blizzard only he felt, and yet he never shivered or truly shook from it alone.
It made him strong against the emotions that held him back. Or did they? Was love and caring and compassion a strength or a weakness? The helm suppressed them, and without that suppression he never would have made it this far, but what was the cost?
Was it addictive? Was it consuming him? Was the helm cursed?
His vision focused once more, out of the dreamland he dragged himself into, and found himself face to face with the closed door of his cell. The guard, apparently, had left him to his own thoughts. He growled at himself, wondering how long he had been standing there like an idiot, when a loud yawn rose from down the hall.
Leaving his thoughts on the helm behind, Bricriu moves to the door and looks out, calling nervously. "Hello?"
"Ah, so you're finally awake." A voice echoes down the hall, deep and taunting. "Forgive me for being asleep so long. I had strived to keep myself awake to be there for you, only to pass out myself." Bricriu can hear the dragon stretching, bones cracking and popping back into place.
"Are you another prisoner?" Bricriu asked tentatively, looking back and forth down the hallway, searching for the source of the voice, seeing no one in the hallways.
A low, smug laugh. "No, I'm a ghost. A specter, a figment of your imagination." As the source spoke, it stepped closer to the door to its own cell, and Bricriu could see the face of a male dragon through the window. His scales were gray, but not old, if the youth that was held in his eyes was any indication. "What have you been accused of to get here, hm?"
Bricriu blinked a little at the strange wording, then understood. Accused, to say he hadn't committed any crimes. A way to keep from offending a fellow inmate. "I was exiled, and decided to come back. And now, I'm apparently going to be executed for it." His eyes burn with tears, but he blinks multiple times to get it to fade and forces himself to focus on something else. Anything. "What about you?"
If the dragon noticed the shakiness in his voice, he didn't say anything. He simply said, "I seem to be the victim of prejudice." And then stepped away, frowning to himself. After a moment, he calls. "What's your name?"
"Bricriu. Yours?" Bricriu watches the dragon's eyes, the golden, snake-like irises as the inmate looked to his own, normal eyes. Something seemed to flicker, a shade of doubt or fear, because the dragon opened his mouth and then shut it, then did it again. As if thinking. "You don't have to tell me, it's okay." Bricriu says quickly, hoping he didn't offend what could possibly his only friend in his final days.
The dragon nodded in silent thanks. "So... how do you plan on getting out of here?" He asked softly. Apparently simply because he was doomed to be executed, it meant Bricriu wanted to find a way to escape.
Of course he did give it some thought.
Bricriu hummed softly as the wheels in his brain began to turn, but they all focused on one thing. Getting back his helmet. It was only through it that he stood any chance of escape, and he told the dragon such.
The dragon blinked, then chuckled softly. "A helmet is all you need to get out of here?"
"Yep." Bricriu responds, and then looks out towards his prison mate. "Do you know where it could be?"
He rolled his eyes, amused by the request. "Yeah, it's in lockup. And how exactly do you plan to get it back."
Without the reassurance of the helmet, Bricriu didn't know. But he would try. Without a shadow of doubt in his mind, he would try. No matter how hard it was.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, then opened them once more and told his plan to the dragon. The dragon was unimpressed, as he did not believe in the helm's importance, but Bricriu knew. That's all it would take.
Look. I'll be honest with you all, and I hope you don't hate me for it. I am not at all interested in writing this story. Knowing how it's going to end, recognizing that Bricriu's story is not a happy one, it's really difficult to write about him. I know many people have followed this story, and I know that I only really have readers because of this story, so I am going to keep going. But upload schedules are never going to get better, and there is a high chance I might drop this story all together, no matter how angry it makes Bricriu in my head.
If you love this story, I hope this is a fair warning, and again I am so sorry. I just feel like a terrible person for making you all wait so long for short as hell chapters simply because I don't have the time or drive to work on them.