Rey'linn lay awake, huddled up against many other slaves in the small room that acted as the dorms for all the females. It was packed, and there was very little room for anyone. Many of the dragonesses were piled on top of each other, making for a very uncomfortable sleeping environment. Rey'linn was just lucky her only discomfort was from the bodies pressing against her, rather than having someone on top of her or underneath her.
She had lost many nights of sleep since she had been brought here, going from one day spending a great time with her family in the swamp, to waking up in a dingy den being crushed by other dragonesses as they slept on top of her. She had cried that first night, and cried hard. The other slaves did nothing about it. They didn't talk to her or show empathy. They just… sat and watched.
One grumpy woman even threatened to beat Rey'linn's face in and tear out her teeth if she didn't shut up.
Ever since she had woken up here, fear had kept a constant hold on her. She was scared for her life, but she was also scared of her family's life. The last thing she remembered was the nomad fire dragoness beating her face in, and the frightened cries of her family. She had no idea what happened to them.
Were they here too?
Were they dead?
She shuddered as her mind returned to those two questions, and she let out a shuddery whimper, before trying to roll her body over to the other side as best she could. She was so cramped up between other dragonesses that it didn't work; all she had done was hurt her leg more, as it had been badly scraped from an accident in the mines located underneath Dark Peak yesterday.
Apparently her moving around had woken up the large, grumpy dragoness beside her. "Do you mind, whelp? Some of us are actually trying to get sleep!" she hissed.
Rey'linn shrunk in on herself. "S-s-sorry…" she murmured.
"Damn you, now I'm going to struggle to get back to sleep, and I don't know how much sleep I've had because we get no damn sunlight here!"
"I know, I'm sorry; I won't move around again, I promise."
The earth dragoness huffed, before she lay her head back down and tried to get back to sleep. Rey'linn decided she should honestly probably get some sleep too. She hadn't slept a wink, and she'd lost all sense of time. She didn't know if she'd been awake all night or if it had only been an hour.
Her question was answered when the loud sound of stomping woke everybody up, accompanied by loud, tired groans. Beside Rey'linn, the earth dragoness lifted her head abruptly with a scowl, glaring angrily at her.
"EVERYBODY UP, LET'S GO!" a shadowclaw ordered, stomping on the ground loudly to wake everyone up.
Rey'linn sighed. It seemed like Spyro was working on increasing the sentience of his soldiers; as time went on, more and more of them became able to talk and think for themselves. The more dark dragons that became sentient, the more hellish Dark Peak became.
She liked it better when they couldn't order her around and when she couldn't hear their thoughts. The angry, savage snarls and roars were almost more comforting than the sentience and raspy voices.
Rey'linn stood to her paws, hobbling forward as she followed the crowd, getting caught in the current of bodies. She was too caught in her thoughts to hear what the shadowclaw was yelling at them, but she knew she would be going to the same place that she always went: the mines.
It was a routine. Day in, day out, she would go to the mines, get insulted and beaten by Spyro's dark dragons, go back to the cave, get crushed by a pile of other dragonesses, go to sleep, and start it all over again. She didn't know how much longer she could deal with the mental and physical stress this was putting on her.
The dragonesses made their way to the mines, walking like a pack of zombies, staring off into the distance and heads limp, lacking the will to live. There was nothing to look forward to; most of their loved ones were dead or also slaves. In Rey'linn's case, she had no idea whether her family was dead or slaves. She'd been knocked out before anything happened.
She honestly didn't care about her family anymore. All she cared about was making it through another day. Thinking about her family just got in the way of that and clouded her thoughts. She needed a clear mind to get through the day, to stay focused, and to avoid getting beaten or tortured.
They arrived, where the male slaves were already at work, and instantly got to work excavating, on the search for more minerals and gems. Rey'linn felt bad for the dragons who weren't of the earth element, having to dig with their claws or with tools instead. There weren't many tools available, so often dragons left the mines after a full day of excavating with blood streaming from their paws.
Despite having earth as her element, it didn't help her much. Mana was obviously a struggle, and they didn't have many green gems able to be used—for them, anyway. The majority of the green gems that were excavated were collected and stored away for future use for the dark dragon soldiers.
Speaking of green gems, there was one. She used her earth element to erode the rocks around the gems, before she grabbed them and put them in the large iron bucket that was hung around her neck. She continued to mine, before finding a few more green gems and many red gems. Surprisingly, there was one blue spirit gem there, which was rather rare to find in the wild.
Several hours went by, and Rey'linn was starting to feel parched. She needed water, but she knew she was likely not going to get any. That was normal. Food and water was very scarce here. She put up with it for a little while longer, but it got to the point where the dryness in her throat was unbearable.
Rey'linn turned to the ice dragon to her right, struggling to mine through a large rock. "Hey," she whispered, trying to get his attention. "Could you… could you by any chance create a small ice cube for me?"
"No," the dragon rasped.
"Please? I need some form of water; I'm absolutely parched," Rey'linn pleaded.
The ice dragon ignored her. Rey'linn scowled, kicking the rock wall, before getting back to work.
Two more hours passed, and nothing really happened. Rey'linn felt her luck for the day was over, as she got quite a lot of gems right at the start. Now she was finding nothing but rock.
Not too long later, the lunch bell rang, echoing throughout the many long and winding passages in the mine, alerting all the slaves to return to the main section of the mine. There was Vhara, standing in front of one deer carcass, which already had a sizeable chunk missing from it. The deer's left front leg was missing, as was a large chunk of its chest. Red blood stained its fur from the wound, as well as the large slice along the throat that would've killed it.
This was normal; lunch was normally one morsel shared between the whole mine, but only after one of Spyro's soldiers or generals had taken their share of food, which was usually a decent chunk.
As soon as everyone walked into the open to see the carcass, chaos ensued. All the dragons burst into a sprint towards the carcass, snarling and attacking each other to try and get to the best bits. Rey'linn stood back, not even bothering to get involved, as she started to see more blood spraying across the ground.
Several dragons pulled themselves out of the hungry horde, carrying slabs of meat and limbs that dripped with the deer's blood. Some of them had blood dribbling down their faces, arms and chests as well from the scuffle.
More dragons started to break away, most of them without food this time, leaving with nothing but a cut eye or sliced open shoulder. One of them had a split skull from when a powerful earth dragon with ram-like horns headbutted her; blood streamed down her face and she seemed to struggle holding her head up in the air as a concussion overtook her and she slumped to the floor.
The sight made Rey'linn feel sick. Each of the dragons had turned into absolute savages, tearing at each other just to get a tiny scrap of food. Within another minute or so, the horde of dragons had completely dispersed, a large amount of them limping and streaming blood. Others sat in the far corners of the room, hungrily pulling meat off the bones.
"Alright everyone, eat up! You've got work to get back to!" Vhara ordered over the sound of tearing flesh and hungry growls.
Rey'linn teared up. This was so unfair. Why was this happening?
The earth dragoness looked around, noticing many other upset dragons. Expressions of anger, hunger, fear and sadness clouded their expressions, some emotions more prevalent in some faces than others.
"Alright, everyone back to work!" Vhara ordered, the extra guards behind her stepping forward as if to make her more threatening and powerful.
No one was game enough to even complain, as everyone began to turn and return to their tunnels.
Except for one.
"No!" a young fire dragon shouted, bringing everyone's attention to him. He was in his early twenties and was rather skinny, with large bruises covering his form. Several teeth were missing from his mouth. His pupils were tiny and a deranged smile pulled at his lips. The poor dragon was insane.
"You can't expect us to work well on empty stomachs! We're all absolutely starving and tired!" he roared. "If you think we can work without a good feed, you're absolutely ridiculous and lying to yourselves!"
"Young dragon, you would do good to shut your face," Vhara hissed threateningly.
The fire dragon stomped up to Vhara with a deranged chuckle. "Make me," he snarled.
Without warning, Vhara tackled him to the ground, slamming the dragon's face into the floor with a thud. She held one paw firmly over his snout, and he was unable to open it. He kicked and thrashed underneath her, trying to get her off as she pressed his face further into the ground.
The fire dragon's friends started to rush towards Vhara to help him, but Vhara whipped one of them across the face with her tailblade, and the guards alongside her sprung into action dealing with the rest. Chaos ensued as a large fight broke out and more slaves were thrown to the ground.
Rey'linn felt her heart racing. She was getting extremely overwhelmed watching this disaster unfold in front of her. She always had a breakdown whenever violence unfolded in front of her, as she hated fights and easily got overwhelmed by them. Luckily she had never seen much gore in her life.
Now would prove to be that first time for her, as Vhara spat a large glob of poison onto the fire dragon pinned underneath her. It began to sizzle through his body, causing loud, anguished screams to tear from his throat, slightly muffed from the inability to open his mouth. The muffled, agonising screams sounded almost worse than what Rey'linn would imagine it to be if he could open it and let the screams out. He wasn't just in pain from the acid; he was also suffocating from the pressure being placed on his snout.
The fire dragon's hard thrashing became large spasms as the poison began to flow throughout his body, which started to rot and peel away, making room for rotten flesh with large holes scattered throughout it. Blood began to replace the tears streaming down his face.
Rey'linn gagged. The gore in front of her was too much. It got even worse as a shadowclaw guard decapitated one of the fire dragon's friends, sending a large splatter of blood everywhere.
The earth dragoness panicked. Seeing most of the guards engaged in battle, which other slaves were beginning to join into to help their fellow slaves, she bolted towards the exit of the mine, wanting nothing more than to simply get out. Realising what she was doing, a couple other slaves not caught in the madness followed her.
As she rounded the corner, a few shadowclaw guards standing nearby cried out, leaping at her. She dropped to the ground as the guards jumped over her, crashing into some of the other slaves. Rey'linn didn't bother to check on the other slaves; she just stood up and continued to run.
Her heart raced; her breath was heavy; her lungs burned with cold air. She ran aimlessly down the corridors, throwing herself around to dodge the many guards that would start to chase after her. She tried to avoid running into slaves, but quite a few ended up getting shoulder barged or tackled to the ground. One of them ended up with a dislocated jaw from the fall.
Nevertheless, Rey'linn pressed on. She ran, wanting to get out, but she knew she was lost.
The earth dragoness ran past several venomfangs, and they all shouted and hissed in surprise. Two of them made pursuit, and the sound of their thundering footsteps urged Rey'linn on even more.
It didn't take long before globs of venom started to shoot over her head. She screamed; they were shooting at her!
Rey'linn turned the corner into a large group of slaves being escorted by a shadowclaw guard. The moment she turned, chaos ensued, as she ran straight into the shadowclaw, knocking him backwards. She staggered backwards to continue running down the long, straight hall she had ran down, before another glob of venom shot past her face. With a splat, the off-green liquid drenched the face of a young fifteen-year-old ice dragon, who fell to the ground, screaming in pain as he clutched his sizzling face.
Her heart twisted, but there was nothing she could do; she continued to run, hoping to lose the two venomfangs, but they stayed in strong pursuit. She didn't know how much mana she had left but she decided she would try and lose the venomfangs with her earth element.
She turned and raised her forelges up in the air like a whinnying horse, before slamming her paws down on the ground, sending a green shockwave shooting towards the venomfangs, followed by large sharp pillars of rock.
There was a sick sound of squelching flesh and cracking bones as green blood sprayed from the venomfangs as they were skewered by the pillars. Loud, angry screeches tore from their throats.
Rey'linn didn't hesitate to turn and continue running, zig-zagging down the corridors. It didn't take long before she reached an area that was surprisingly quiet; no one was walking through the stone tunnels. She slowed to a steady walk, her heart still racing, uncertainty weighing down on her.
The sound of distant voices suddenly reached Rey'linn's ears. She couldn't make out the words or the voice, but there was definitely someone talking. A faint red glow illuminated the corridor further down it, which was bright and flickered quickly.
Cautiously, Rey'linn began to make her way towards the red light and the voices. The closer she got, the more she could make out clear syllables, but nothing made sense. It sounded as if this person was speaking in another language.
A low rumbling sounded, and as Rey'linn got closer, she realised the voice belonged to Spyro. His voice was vivid in her mind from the day he crashed her family's day off travel. His voice raised in intensity, to the point where he was yelling.
Rey'linn made her way to just outside the entrance to the large room, which was bathed in red light as several bright red beams burst out of a large pedestal wide enough for a dragon Spyro's size to stand comfortably on. The symbols on the pedestal also glowed a vibrant red. Several winglengths away stood Spyro, Shorok and Tenedaris; the latter was quaking in fear just behind Spyro.
It was clear that this was a ritual, and Spyro was reciting an incantation. His voice got louder and louder, before he finished the incantation. He wasn't done however, as he took a large breath and let out a massive, ear-splitting scream that rattled Rey'linn's eardrums. A wild red pulse tore from his throat towards the pedestal in the middle of the room. It came into contact with the pedestal and a loud warbling sound echoed throughout the room, the red light emitting from it intensifying.
Rey'linn had to screw her eyes shut from how bright it was, and even then, it did nothing. She completely turned her head. She needed to know what was happening, however. Curiosity was getting the better of her.
So she opened her eyes and cautiously looked back into the room. Inside the blinding red light, the earth dragoness could see a large figure begin to form. It was thin, but very large, and had massive spikes running down its back. She could see the silhouette open its mouth, revealing large, hideous teeth that were needle-thin, as well as a long, snake-like tongue. It lifted its paw, flexing its talons, before it stepped out of the beam and off the pedestal.
The sight that lay in front of Rey'linn was even more hideous than she imagined. The dragon was black with red stripes, and adorning its head were nasty, devilish horns that stood tall. Sitting upon its face were four eyes, which were completely red, apart from the white glowing dot that signified its pupils. The dragon also had two tails, each with tailblades that looked like sickles.
The red light from the pedestal pulsed and she faintly saw another silhouette begin to form, before a second creature stepped out of it. This happened a third time. Then a fourth.
Fear rose in Rey'linn's chest at the sight of so many sickly creatures standing in front of her. The shadowclaws and venomfangs were terrifying enough, but with how spikey and sharp they were, as well as the possibility of a large amount of agility from their thinness, a new layer of fear gripped her.
Three more of the creatures stepped out, but the last one looked different. It was much larger, had longer spines and claws, and appeared to have a much more well-built face, which rested in a way that made it look angry. A red branding lay on his side: the same branding that Shorok and Vhara both had.
This was a general.
It appeared that Spyro was making a new species of dragons for his dark army, and Rey'linn was witnessing its creation first hand.
"Fa'roth," Spyro called. "Step forward, please."
The general, who had been named Fa'roth, stepped towards Spyro, the other six dragons stepping into a V-formation behind him. They stood tall and powerful, ready to hear what the purple dragon would say.
"You are now the general of the new fear dragons that stand behind you; you will be called fearbringers. They are your squadron in which you will lead into battle, just like Shorok and Vhara with the shadowclaws and venomfangs. You will work in tandem with them, as well as with Drachen, and above all, me, to achieve our goal. You will remain loyal and faithful towards myself, the rest of my generals, and your soldiers. Do you accept?"
"I do," Fa'roth said, his voice low and breathy.
"Welcome to the family, then. As the rest of your squadron gets created, I ask that you get used to Dark Peak and make yourself familiar with it and everyone here. Shorok herer will show you around," Spyro said, gesturing to the shadowclaw general, who nodded in return.
"Will do; thank you, Master Spyro," Fa'roth replied with a nod of his head, before turning to exit the room.
Realising she was visible from peeking out through the entrance, Rey'linn gasped and scrambled back behind the wall, but her gasp and scrambling paws were very audible to Spyro, Shorok, Tenedaris and the seven fearbringers.
"There's someone there," Shorok muttered under his breath.
"Alright this is a good chance to test out the fearbringers in action; the six of you, get that eavesdropper," Spyro ordered.
With low snarls, the fearbringers burst into motion, leaving Spyro, Shorok, Fa'roth and Tenedaris alone. Rey'linn screamed in fear as the spiny creatures gave chase, lunging and leaping at her with long claws.
Back down the corridors she went, this time being chased by an entirely new threat that she had no idea how to deal with. A long red pulse of energy shot by her head, bringing with it an ear-splitting shriek. Rey'linn sidestepped out of habit, wanting to get as far away as she could. She turned around, noticing one of the six fearbringers opening its maw, which glowed red as energy built up inside it.
Rey'linn cursed as she dived forward, another red pulse shooting over the top of her. She covered her ears as the siren scream passed over her, the shrill noise hammering against her eardrums.
She scrambled back to her paws and continued to sprint down the corridors, making her way back into the busier open areas of Dark Peak. As she ran, she turned and fired earth missiles behind her to try and stop the fearbringers. A few missiles slammed into the fearbringers, sending red blood spraying through the air, but it wasn't enough to slow them down properly.
Rey'linn turned a sharp corner, screaming as she realised there was a small group of shadowclaws marching down the corridor towards her. None of them had time to react, and Rey'linn slammed into the group forcefully with the speed she was travelling at, knocking everyone to the ground. The fearbringers were close behind her, so she quickly scrabbled over all the shadowclaws, trying to get back on the run.
Pain flared in her leg as one of the shadowclaws breathed a stream of shadow fire at her, and the horrible sound of sizzling, burning flesh reached her ears as her leg throbbed painfully, the burn stretching along her calf.
Finally she got over the pile of shadowclaws and ran as best as she could around the corner, barging through more groups of dragons and corridors to try and lose the fearbringers. Her chest heaved with painful, ragged breaths as she ran, and the sound of rushing blood roared in her ears. Fear overwhelmed her, despite not being hit by a single siren scream.
As she turned another corner, an idea suddenly popped in her head, and so she turned around and summoned up a large pillar of earth from the ground, as wide as the corridor entrance and as tall as the ceiling. She summoned several more of these, forming a barricade between herself and the fearbringers.
They screeched in anger as they slammed their bodies against the hard stone without a successful result. Wanting to get away from the terrible sounds, Rey'linn turned and continued to run aimlessly down the stone tunnels of Dark Peak.
She turned down one corridor and found herself in a large room. She froze when she realised it was also occupied. Drachen stood there, along with four other dragons: one of each of the four main elements. Well… four live dragons of course. Scattered along the ground was a slew of bodies that had been pulled apart, blood sprayed all over the ground and the walls.
All five dragons turned their gaze to Rey'linn, who wilted under their eyes. She took the moment to study each dragon. Drachen she had already seen countless times around Dark Peak, but these other four dragons were new. The fire, electric and earth dragons were all male, large muscles rippling under their scales as long spikes riddled their bodies, covered in ancient markings. They were complete with long teeth, horns and claws too.
Rey'linn turned her eyes to the ice dragon, who was female. She too had quite a lot of musculature and was also covered in spines and markings, but there was something about her that seemed familiar. Rey'linn had no idea why, but she began to step towards the ice dragoness.
It barely took her a couple steps before she recognised the face. It was Nora. This creature was her daughter.
"Nora…" Rey'linn breathed. "What have they done to you?"
"I take it you know her?" Drachen rumbled, his low and loud voice making Rey'linn jump.
"Yes, she's my daughter! What have you done to her?!"
"Something that will help her in life. Something that will make her stronger, more powerful."
"When did power matter?"
"Since now. She needs to fight."
"FIGHT?! SHE'S FOUR!" Rey'linn screamed.
"Does she look four to you?" Drachen pressed.
"Well, no… but—"
"But nothing; you're wasting our time. Nora, why don't you do the honours? You know what to do."
The ice dragoness looked at Drachen, and then back at Rey'linn, before she nodded and started stepping ominously forward. Rey'linn's breath caught in her lungs. "Nora? Nora, stop!" Rey'linn cried. "Nora!"
Rey'linn staggered backwards, tripping over her tail and falling to the ground. She tried to get up but fell again, this time resorting to a disjointed scramble along the ground. Still, Nora advanced, looking down at Rey'linn with a blank, unreadable expression.
"Nora, you don't have to listen to what he says. You're safe now, mummy's here," Rey'linn said with a shaking voice.
Nora stopped in front of her, puffing her chest out powerfully. She spoke with a low, deep voice that made Rey'linn's heart freeze. What she said made it shatter.
"I don't need you anymore, Mother," she spat.
Before Rey'linn had any time to react, Nora's tailblade whipped around, slicing cleanly through the earth dragoness' throat. There was a thick spray of blood, followed by a gurgle from Rey'linn's throat, before she slumped to the ground, dead.
Been heaps longer than I wanted it to be, but I'm finally back with another chapter, this time with a slightly different POV to show the happenings of Dark Peak a little differently. This was fun, but also tricky to write, especially since I started writing this just as uni assignments really started to pick up. I've finished for the year now (two thirds through my degree now) so hopefully I have more time to write (if I give myself that time of course lol).
Fingers crossed it won't be three months until the next chapter.
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Cynder22: Yup everyone kinda has it out for Muras right now; can you blame them though? To them, Malefor's returned, which is a pretty big deal for everyone. I got heaps more plans for Muras though, so stay tuned.
Dragon of Mystery: Yeah a bit strange to see Cynder defending Muras, but as you can probably tell she has some very conflicting thoughts about him. And yeah absolutely Muras and Cynder now kinda have a mutual understanding of each other now as well; Muras knows what Cynder went through and Cynder knows what he is currently going through.
Wasn't expecting anyone to see a shipping possibility between Cynder and Muras though lol; ngl that surprised me haha XD
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Anyway, with that done, have a great rest of your day, and see you soon hopefully for the next chapter. If you wanna hear more from me rather than just a chapter every month (as well as an easier way to chat with me), give me a follow on Twitter ( SKdaGamer) if you have that; I'm very active there, and post updates on fanfic progress, as well as artwork, YouTube videos, music, etc.
See you guys later!