Fair warning, this chapter gets really violent and might cross the line to M rated. If it does I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional and let me know if it does cross that rating.
They were entering their fifth day at sea, their fifth day as prisoners on a madman's ship. With each passing day, the riders grew more and more concerned, afraid that they might never see their friends again. It was the not knowing that concerned them the most. They saw the Utopia go up in flames, they knew Branch and the other riders was still on that island when it exploded, but they had know idea who, if any survived.
Not much conversation was shared among the riders during those five days, most of the time they just stared at the ground in silence, to depressed to say anything. The rare occasions they did speak it was usually the same questions "What are they going to do to us? What now? Do you think Branch and the others are coming for us?" Nobody answered those questions, because no one knew the answers.
As the sun rose on the fifth day one of the hunters opened the caged, the same time as every morning to give them their breakfast, one burnt egg and a piece of dried toast each.
"Eat up," The hunter replied "As much as I wouldn't care if you all starved to death the boss wants you alive for the time being. Thor knows why?"
"I'm not hungry." Reby replied, not even looking the hunter in the eyes as she stared out the one porthole in their ship, the only source of light they had.
"Well then you can just starve." The hunter said, taking her food back. Reby's only response was a middle finger in the hunter's direction.
Guy Diamond sat in the corner, writing out his will as the hunter slammed the cage shut.
"And I leave my sword to my Aunt Ruby, and my mace to my uncle Sapphire, and my..."
"Will you stop it already?" Suki spat out. "We are not going to die! We got to believe that someone, somebody is still alive to save us.
"Oh give it up will you?" Smidge shot back, "you saw what Blood did to that Utopia, no way anybody could have survived that. Face it Suki, this is it for us."
Reby curled up in the fetal position and buried her head into her knees, thinking that this truly was the end, and they had failed the dragons they swore to protect."
"I knew this was only going to lead to our deaths." Cooper replied "I just knew it."
Seeing the depressed mood on everyone's faces Suki tried her best to think of a way to cheer them all up.
"Hey, we had a good run didn't we? And it was a whole lot of fun. We got to see so many different dragons we never knew existed, as well as got to see so many amazing islands.
"And watched our friend get murdered in front of our eyes." Guy Diamond added "And our chief."
"It was fun," Smidge clarified before hanging her head low in sadness "Too bad it was all for nothing."
The sky suddenly went foggy and a spine chilling feeling crept across all the riders.
"What's going on?" Suki asked
"I wouldn't make a sound if I was you." The hunter who served them breakfast a couple minutes earlier said as he took out a spear.
"Why not?"
It was right then a giant eel shot up from the water and snatched the hunter right out of the boat. Chomping down on him with it's teeth and dragging him into the water. The riders screamed in terror at the sight as more eels shot up from the water, surrounding the boat.
"This is it!" Guy Diamond screamed grabbing hold of Cooper, "this is how we go out!" One Eel jumped onto the boat and started ramming into the cage, trying to reach the riders. The riders all grabbed hold of each other as they all froze in terror as the eel smashed into the cage harder, and harder.
Suddenly a spear found its way into the eel's side, killing it on impact. A hunter pulled the spear out of the eel only for another eel to pick it up by the legs. The eel tossed the hunter into the air and another eel grabbed it by the head. The riders watched helplessly as the eels tugged back and forth on the hunter, fighting over him before they ripped the hunter in half and devoured him.
As the riders watched as the hunters battled the giant eels they witnessed one hunter get bit clean in half, his upper torso falling and landing right in front of the horrified riders. The sight of the amount of blood spilling from both the hunters and eels soon became to much for Smidge, as she watched another hunter get ripped in half, and another ones guts go flying across the boat Smidge found herself losing her breakfast.
Eventually after losing half the crew on board to the eels the hunters killed off the final one, stabbing it right between the eyes and sending it falling into the ocean.
"What... what in the name of Thor was those things?" Suki asked
" Giant troll eating eels." One of the hunters proclaimed, "they roam these waters."
"And you willingly sail across them why?"
"Very few trolls dare sail across these waters."
"I can see why!" Cooper replied
"Which means less chance of people finding us."
"And greater chance of you becoming a eels breakfast!"
"Ah, hunters are easy to find, dragon hunting is a big business and pays well."
"You people are psychotic." Reby spat
"No, we're just smart enough to know how to stay well hidden."
The boat soon made landfall. Just like everything else on this trip from hell the island was very dark and draggy. There was little grass, and what grass there was was brown and dead, in fact there was little living vegetation at all, just dead trees, grass and rocks. The island was also just as foggy as the air surrounding it, the riders could barely see right in front of their faces.
The riders were led out in chains and what Reby saw when she stepped foot on that island made her wish she couldn't see at all. The hunters didn't have just dragons on that island, but many other wild and endangered animals as well. There was cages filled with Elephants, Rhinos, Tigers, lions, bears, and many other endangered species.
"You guys don't hunt just dragons do you?"
"No!" Blood replied walking up to Reby, "We hunt whatevers profitable. Blood took a spear and walked up to a elephant, Reby watched horrified and helplessly as Blood ran the spear into the elephant's side. The elephant fell and soon it bled out.
"Why?" Reby sobbed "Why could you do such a horrific thing to such a beautiful animal?"
"Because it's a business!" Blood roared as a couple other hunters walked up with saws and started to saw off the elephant's tusks. "Thier ivory tusks will go for thousands on the black market and people will pay top dollar for bags made out of elephant skin and foot stools made out of their feet."
"Your a poacher! A sick, soulless, sadistic poacher!"
Blood lifted Reby's chin with the tip of his spear and glared her right in the eyes. Reby saw nothing in those eyes, no emotions, no sign of remorse, he truly didn't have a heart, or no caring what was right or wrong.
"You call me a poacher. I call myself a businessman." Blood lowered his spear and walked back to the elephant's corpse as the two hunters started loading the ivory. "You'd be surprised just how much we make off of animal parts. It truly is amazing. One tiger fur can go up to one hundred thousand dollars, and a lion's fur, even more. We probably make more a year then what you kids will ever see in your lifetime. You think people care about these dragons, about these animals? News flash kids, the world doesn't give a damn about your dragons or any other living thing but themselves. They want a tiger fur I give it to them. They want a dragon skin purse I sell them one. That is the cruel reality of this world. We run this world, and these animals, they are our profits. And I will take out anybody who tries to get in between me and my profit. Shame you had to realize this the hard way, but I did warn you to stay out of my way." Blood turned to some of his hunters. "Take them, tomorrow they will bare witness as they watch their precious dragons get slaughtered, then once the last dragon is slaughtered and turned to bags and boots, you will dispose of these pesky kids as well."
"No!" Reby cried, as she was led away Blood whispered in her ear.
"I told you, I won't let anyone stand in between me and my profit." With that the riders were drug away and locked in another cage.
"Get comfortable, for in twenty four hours, you and your dragons are history." The hunter locked the cage shut, leaving the riders helpless, and alone.
"Oh man," Reby cried, "Branch if your still alive we need you, now!"
No one got any sleep that night. How could they, knowing that come sunrise they was all going to meet a very unceremonious end. All the riders could do was stare at the cold metal floor of the cage in depression, having given up all hope.
As the sun rose the following morning the hunters lined the riders up making sure their bounds were extra tight so their was no chance of escape. They were led to the shore where Blood was sharpening his ax, if he felt any emotions at all he refused to show it.
Behind Blood was rows among rows of cages each filled with dragons, their dragons, as well as the dragons from the Utopia.
"You are about to bare witness to the next great mass extinction, the extinctions of hundreds of the most rarest dragons in the world. You can cry, you can scream, all hell your all going to do that anyway." Blood turned to his hunters. Bring out the first dragon.
A large dragon with a single horn near his snout was brought up to him, it had thick grey skin and large wings.
"That's a unidragon," Reby whispered to Suki "One of the rarest dragons in the world. Only believed to be only about five hundred in existence."
Blood raised his ax above the dragon's neck and swung it downward. All the riders could do was scream as the ax dug into the dragon's skin. Blood let out a sadistic llaugh as he raised and lowered the ax again and again, the riders crying and covering their eyes as the sound of the blade making contact with the bone met their ears. After almost a minute the dragon's head rolled off it's body and into a bloody pile onto the floor.
"Go to hell!" Suki screamed, "Go to bloody hell you monster!"
Blood didn't respond right away, instead he dropped his ax and calmly walked up to Suki, before striking her across the face with his prosthetic arm. "That's going to have consequences young lady." Blood turned to his men again. "Bring out that girls dragon."
"Wait no!" Suki cried as she witnessed her dragon, a home wrecker being led out. "Darla no! Please don't kill my Darla!"
"There's consequences to your actions young one. I was wanting to wait to get the rare ones out of the way before starting on yours, but you just had to open your little trap." Blood shrugged as he lifted his ax. All Suki could do was weep as she looked her dragon in the eye one last time, wishing she could break out of her chains and wrap them around Blood's neck, but unable to.
"Anyway, back to it!" Blood lowered his ax, Suki screamed as it made contact with Darla
"No, please, have mercy, you got your money making dragons, these dragons mean nothing to you! Please, I'm begging you!"
Blood paused briefly and turned to Suki, he could see the redness in her eyes from her crying, and there for a brief second he actually pitied the poor child "I can tell this is hard for you, I'm sorry, I truly am. But I warned you all to stay out of my way!" Blood raised his ax again and swung it down onto Darla's neck.
Suki couldn't watch, burying her face into her hands she wept loudly, helpless to do anything for her poor dragon.
"Oh my gah!" Smidge cried watching the terror in front of her eyes as Darla's head rolled off her body."
"Oh you bunch of sissies." Blood laughed "I'm just getting started." Blood turned to his hunters once more. "Bring out the feathered fury."
"No!" Reby cried "Not Melody!"
Melody growled as her cage was open and she was dragged toward Blood. Blood held Melody's head down with his prosthetic hand as his real hand raised the ax above his head.
"Finally the crown jewel of all the dragons is mine!"
Blood was about to lower the ax when he heard the sound of a blast coming from above him. As quick as a flash his ax went flying out of his hand. Blood screamed in pain as he felt his hand burning. Looking up his eyes went wide with disbelief as he saw Branch and Poppy riding Starfire, followed by all the other dragon riders behind him.
"Impossible?" Blood gasped
"Branch!" Reby cried with joy.
"You get your filthy hands off my dragon you sadist!" Branch growled jumping off of Starfire, using his gliding suit to glide over to Blood's location. He then took out his fire sword, swinging it he shot fire into Blood's chest, sending him flying across the ground.
"Let's finish this Blood!" Branch growled.
"Oh, we will." Blood roared picking himself off the ground. With the rest of the riders freeing their friends from their bonds both sides clashed, ready to end this war once and for all.
Sorry if that chapter got to much for you. As a extreme environmentalist I can sometimes go overboard when portraying the evils of poaching. In fact I wrote a entire story once dealing with poaching. If you read "Guardians of the wild" you will see just how I feel about poaching. Although fair warning that story is very controversial and I have our "heroes" do things that might make you uncomfortable.
Anyway, next chapter is the final battle so don't go anywhere.