When I woke, I was calm.

What?

I tried to raise my head blearily, but it was so heavy… When had someone decided to stuff my head with fog?

That didn't make sense either… Did it? When I blinked my eyes open, a soft golden glow pierced my retinas like needles. The edges of my vision were blurry, fading. Like some insane artist had mixed all the colors around and added way more white than was strictly necessary.

Blearily, I worked to open my eyes again. Oh, the glow was Sparx. That at least made some semblance of sense to my weary, discombobulated mind. But wait. His edges were all blurry and when I tried to look harder at him sitting on the edge of my nose, I noticed something distinctly off.

"Sp—" My voice felt strangled and taut. No, wait… That wasn't right either. A voice couldn't feel anything. For some reason this was hilarious, and I cracked up while trying to spit my question out. "Spanks! Why there two…you?"

The dragonfly hovered, turning around slowly. "What?"

"I say 'Spanks, why two you?" I tried to choke out. Hearing what I said, I burst into another rendition of 'insane-laugh.'

"Hey! Wait—Cyn, what's wrong with you?'

"Cotton 'ttacked my brain, I think…" The kaleidoscope that was supposed to be my vision twirled again, and I looked at my brother once more. "Kno' wha', Spanks? You look really good in pink… Should wear more o' it."

"Cynder?" his eyes were rounder than dinner plates. Timidly he held a hand out. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Er…" I had to think on that one for a few minutes before I was sure I got it right. "Fourteen!"

"Right… Did your last meal taste normal?" Faint flashes of why he would ask that sparked in my head. Something about him going nuts after trying a lick of glowing mushroom juice.

"Yup! Taste like cactus juice!"

He eyed me strangely, "What the hell is a cactus?"

I could only shrug, "Dunno yet, some mushroom sorta cloud. Maybe it knows the cloud that tackled my head!" I nodded sagely, hard enough that I was sprawling on my side minutes after I had just stood. "Hope that one's friendlier!"

"Wait, Cyn?"

"Yeah, big brobro?" His look of trepidation proved he was getting more weirded out by the second.

"Is something…weird in the air to you or is that just me?"

"Everything seems weird, Spanks. Still two you by the way. Glad you got 'noffer friend your own size."

"Can you please not call me that?"

"What, yer name? Too cool for it now, Spanks?"

His eye twitched, "Do you really not remember? My name is Sparx."

"Like said I! Spanks."

Golden palm met golden forehead. "Geez, Cyn, you're freaking me out. When it feels like I'm the most sensible one present, there's a problem."

It took me a minute to think of what to say, stroking my chin with one claw. "Hey, improvement first step to realization! Or some such…"

He glared, grumbling. "Ancestors, even when you're drunk you try to spurt out sage-ness. It really doesn't fit you, you know that?"

"Don't judge a cover by its book," I insisted, batting at my tail with one paw. It wouldn't stop moving! Growling, I jumped at it only for it to lurch out of the way. Trying to chase the darned thing, I ended up tripping over my own paws. When I tried to stand, I couldn't. Something was yanking on my tail and my head all at once.

"Owww," I whined, pouting. Sparx stared at me.

"What were you trying to accomplish with this?" He asked, grabbing my tailblade and jerking it out from between two of my horns. "Did you and your tail have an argument?"

"Dunno…" I answered honestly. "Maybe today can be the day of berating rear ends! Stupid tail!" I glared at the offending blade and tried to gather a green blast of earth in my maw. Nothing came, however, and my lack of elements left me to pout some more.

"Oh great mother of—" Sparx muttered to himself, slapping a segmented hand to his head. His gold brow was beginning to develop a splash of pink in the center. "Listen, hard as it is to try and be the sensible one here, shouldn't we be escaping? They must have drugged you somehow, do you get that?"

"Bugged? Why they need do that? I'm already bugged, you're always with me and you're one! I don't need more," I said fervently. "One's hard 'nough to deal with."

"Shoot me." Sparx growled to himself.

I woke up in a panic, shivering as I felt the heaviness in the air. Instinctively, I released a bout of air, forcing the foreign substance in my body out along with it. It wasn't the first time someone had drugged or poisoned me. A group of dragons had tried to 'purify' me on multiple occasions. Besides, I couldn't catch every assassin sent after 'The General' alone.

Master—no. Part of me revolted. Malefor. He doesn't deserve any title—had drilled my power over toxin into me long and hard, and it had saved my life many times.

I looked down at where droplets of the intoxicating substance had gathered on the floor. Angel's Folly. I knew and could manipulate most substances with an adverse effect on the body or mind. Luckily, this certainly wasn't deadly, at least in these circumstances. But it came from one of the most deadly plants known to dragonkind, even being nicknamed Dragonsbane, Deathwillow and Blood Rose.

It wasn't deadly because it was poisonous, but it produced a liquid that evaporated in all but the coldest air. If a dragon or other large animal breathed it in they wouldn't remember how to fly or fight. Slowly forgetting themselves, some sources said they would merely stay until starvation struck and the willow gained nourishment from the unfortunate creature's rotting corpseinate es. Ancient lore claimed the trees had a sentience of their own, and would draw the soul away from the body. Claims of what happened next were varied as well; some sources claimed the supposedly intelligent tree took control of the dragon's body, others that the corpse itself became a new Deathwillow.

Few creatures lived long enough to see it for themselves without going mad. I wasn't sure what I believed myself. Anything was possible in our mad world. I was certain that the pollen itself would likely intoxicate and make any large predator unaggressive. There was less of it here, but enough to rob a dragon of its elemental abilities and likely intoxicate them.

I hoped Cynder was fairing okay…

I glanced up and focused on the cell. "Apparently this place doesn't belong to the brightest minds of the century…"

Who in their right mind would stick a hostile fire-breathing dragon in a woodencell, even with the Angel's Folly?