Shadow was nudged awake by something at 6 in the morning.
"Psst. You awake?" a voice whispered, audibly female. "Because it'd be REALLY cool if you were."
Shadow groaned and sleepily opened one eye.
"I am now…" he said. "What do you want?"
"I'm Zodiac. I just got here a few minutes ago and I wasn't sleepy so I thought I'd say Hi instead of waiting for morning." she said. Shadow sat up and rubbed his eyes before getting a better look at the newcomer. She seemed to be a pale silver color with pretty sky-blue eyes. She also had things that looked like antennas in front of her curved horns, and she had no wings. Oh my god she had no wings! Shadow almost fell off of the ledge when he noticed that.
"What's wrong?" Zodiac said, tilting her head.
"What are you!?" Shadow quitely exclaimed, knowing from experience not to wake up Robin. "Why do you have those things insects have!? AND WHERE THE HECK ARE YOUR WINGS!?"
"Oh, I'm a SilkWing. I'm not supposed to get my wings until I turn 6." Zodiac said. "You have really pretty eyes. I've never seen a NightWing have eyes that shade of brown."
"Uh...thanks?" Shadow said, too shocked to say much of anything else. A dragon who doesn't hatch with their wings? How was that possible?
"I'm so happy to be here. The dragon that speaks to humans told me that I was coming here because they had never seen a dragon like me and my parents before. I wonder how they're doing…" Zodiac said, before zoning out for a little bit. "I'm sure they're perfectly fine!"
Suddenly, the glass door to the room slid open, and a few humans with sticks walked in. Shadow gave them a confused look, as did Zodiac.
"What are…" Shadow started, before the humans gestured for both of them to follow. "What's going on? It's still nighttime, right?"
"I think so…" Zodiac said, getting off of Shadow's ledge and following the humans with Shadow right behind her. They walked down the dim, silent hallways for what seemed like an eternity, before arriving at a room where the human with long hair from before and her translator dragon were waiting.
"Welcome, Dragonets." the beautiful white dragon said.
"Hi!" Zodiac chirped. "What's going on?"
"Well…" the dragon started as Shadow and Zodiac both had collars placed around their necks with what looked like smooth, black ropes sticking out of the floor. "Let's just say you two have been chosen for a little project. Shadow, your physical examination results were beyond incredible, and Zodiac, we still wish to learn more about what exactly you are."
"W-What project? A-And who are you?" Shadow stammered, feeling quite uncomfortable with how the dragon said 'Project'. The white dragon smiled.
"You may call me Snowflower." she said.
"Cool name." Zodiac said, giggling at her pun. Shadow whacked her with his tail, and she shut up.
"We are sorry to have summoned you both this early in the morning, especially considering how long Zodiac has been here." Snowflower said. Zodiac nodded.
"Yeah, you could have at least let me get comfortable first. I haven't even been here for half an hour…" she said. "Anyway, what's this project about?"
"Your tribe." Snowflower said. "We've never seen any dragon like you before, and we wish to learn more about your species. Your parents were useless to our cause. Maybe you'll be more helpful."
"My parents?" Zodiac asked.
"Her parents?" Shadow echoed. Zodiac turned to him.
"Yeah. They arrived here with me, but we were taken to different rooms." she said, before turning back to Snowflower "Where are they?"
"Behave yourself, and you won't have to find out."
"Okay…."
"W-Wait! What do I have to do with any of this?" Shadow blurted. "I understand needing her, but why do you need me?"
"I already explained this. You are a perfect specimen for our project. Physically and genetically perfect in every way." Snowflower explained. "Just as intended."
"Intended?" Shadow asked.
"That's right, Shadow. You weren't just the product of standard reproduction. You are the result of several decades worth of breeding and training, just like the rest of the dragons involved in this project."
Shadow was silent. Zodiac nudged him with her tail and smiled.
"I'm sure it'll be fine." she said softly. Shadow nodded in response and turned back to Snowflower.
"So, what exactly are we going to do?" he asked.
"We'll let you know when the time is right. As for now, it's time for you two to head back to your cells. That is all."
The IceWing gestured to the door, and guards entered. They unclipped the collars and quickly returned Shadow and Zodiac to their cells. Robin was still asleep, and Shadow leaped onto his ledge to get a nap in before everyone was woken up for breakfast. Zodiac went to the unoccupied ledge and curled up in the blanket that was neatly folded up on it. It seems even the hyperactive dragonet had to rest sometimes. Shadow sighed and closed his eyes, trying to fall back to sleep.
At around 1015, Shadow woke up. Robin was chewing on something, and there was a hunk of meat laying on the floor by his bed. Zodiac was awake too, gnawing on an apple. She noticed he was awake and smiled, giving him a little wave. He cracked a little smile, feeling a bit silly for doing so, and began to eat.
"So." Robin said, tossing a bone at Shadow's head and nearly hitting him. "What did they want with you two runts?"
"We're apparently a part of a SUPER secret important project. No big deal." Zodiac said. Robin paused mid chew, before exploding.
"WHAT!?" he roared, lunging out of the bed and leaping at her. He ripped her off of her bed and pinned her against the wall, standing on his hind legs. "Really? You two!? You're barely the size of the apples you were eating!"
"ROBIN WHAT THE HELL!" Shadow cried, running over. "PUT HER DOWN!"
"I have been in this cell for 23 YEARS trying to be a part of that and they choose 2 BABIES over ME!?" Robin shouted, throwing Zodiac at Shadow. The two dragonets collided and slid into the wall, a mess of tangled limbs and tails. Zodiac scrambled to get off of Shadow, and the two of them stood up, facing Robin. Shadow hated it when Robin got mad. It was like he lost all sense of reason, and would attack anyone and anything around him. Shadow had already had 3 infirmary visits in the 5 days he had been sharing a room with Robin. Robin lunged towards them again, roaring. Shadow closed his eyes, bracing for impact.
"WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABO-GAHKCHKC!" He shouted before there were rapid bangs and a strange gurgling noise erupted from his throat and a warm liquid sprayed all over Shadow's face and back. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. Zodiac was staring at him with a terrified look, covered in blood as well. No...not at him. He followed her gaze upwards and noticed something peeking out of the wall. A turret had poked out of a wall, and was pointing at them. Robin laid by Shadow's feet, dead from multiple shots to his chest and throat.
Zodiac whimpered, trying to avoid the spreading puddle of blood. Shadow backed away and stood by her, shaking. A few minutes later, armored humans burst into the room, swiftly chaining the dragonets up and dragging them away. Snowflower was there too with the long haired human.
"What the hell happened in there!?" the icewing blurted. "If we hadn't been paying attention you would have been killed!"
"I-I...Robin attacked us! I just told him about what we did last night and he got mad!" Zodiac protested, near tears. She was holding out better than Shadow, who was a snotty, sobbing mess of black scales by Zodiac's side. Snowflower gave him a sympathetic look and sighed.
"Well, you still have to go back to your cell once his body is removed. We'll send someone in there to clean up shortly." she said. "We saw everything on the cameras."
"Then...then why did you ask?" Zodiac asked.
"We needed to make sure that we heard and saw everything correctly, so regardless of the evidence, we still need your testimonies, according to her." Snowflower said, gesturding to the human. "Shadow, what happened?"
"I-I-I-I-I d-don't know!" he sobbed. "I-I didn't expect him to at-tack us…"
Snowflower patted his head.
"Alright." she said, not unkindly, before waving to the guards, who began walking them back to the cell. Zodiac let Shadow lean on her on the way back, and after leaping over the puddle of blood, Shadow curled up under his blanket, still shaking. Zodiac was lying by him, trying to calm him down.
"Wow...I've only been here a day and all this has happened…everything's moving so fast…" she said. "I wonder what it'll be like during the project….."
"Zodiac, please…" Shadow sniffled. "Just...can you just let us have some peace for a little while? I just...I just want to stay here for a little while."
"I know, but can't you just be the teeniest bit excited? We're big important dragons! They need us!" Zodiac said happily. Shadow said nothing and curled up even tighter. He wanted to forget this ever happened.