Fleetfoot awoke at the crack of dawn and the sliver of sun hanging just above the horizon of the sea shone fiercely on the silver castle. It was dauntingly close now and as the sun finally lugged its hulking mass over the world, he was close enough to reach out and touch the shimmering walls as the tiny wagon passed through the doors.
"Hey! You! Corky! Wake up!" he kicked the girl in the butt.
"PERVERT! WHAT DO YOU WANT?" The idiocy of this greeting awoke the children who all started yapping and crying. Fleetfoot laughed and smirked as Corey turned red in the face saying, "Don't call me Corky!"
"You call me Flinchfoot!" he sputtered between chuckles.
"Hmph! I'm not the one tied to a wagon now, am I?"
"WOULD YOU ALL SHUDDUP? OR I'LL HAVE YOU ALL WHIPPED!" And thus came the voice of Sootbird. The wagon stopped abruptly and everyone became silent, though Fleetfoot was suppressing a bought of laughter.
Sootbird leapt from the horse's back and stormed to the bed of the wagon. "All of you's up!
"Sorry I can't join your party.. But I'm a bit tied up at the moment…" Fleetfoot smirked. The children look at him -- in pity or fear for him, he didn't know -- and stood. They had a bit of difficulty with it. This was on account of the way that their ankles were tied with the same rope. Corey went along with them.
Sootbird grimaced as he climbed up to unclip Fleetfoot. "Don't think I'm lettin' you off this leash… in fact…"
With that he took the rope from his waist and tightened it around his neck then dragged him like a puppy being trained out the wagon.
"I think you deserve to be treated like a dog. Like a dumb dog chasin' after a blue jay!" He laughed and jerked the rope.
Fleetfoot choked and fell on the floor. He could barely breath. Corey and the children watch in horror. His smirk had disappeared, but who has time to smirk when you're trying to breath? He felt broken and ashamed that he, Fleetfoot,the Bluejay's apprentice,had been reduced to this. He didn't cry, though. He hadn't cried once in his life since he was 5. He had had a perfectly good reason back then too.
Sootbird laughed and tugged as the walked their way through the silver-lined hallways of the castle. Every once in a while a few servant girls would pass by looking as if they had a disgusting smell beneath their noses. Of course when they saw Fleetfoot practically crawling now, they'd show a bit of pity.
They finally reached the a great door that led into the Adderhead's throne room. Sootbird smiled and looked down at Fleetfoot, whose neck, by this time, was red and raw from the rope, and said, "I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine. The Adderhead."
He pushed open the doors, jerked Fleetfoot around and over the threshold. Fleetfoot gasped, losing the bit of air he had, and fainted.
A/N: MWAHAHAHA! Cliff hanger! Sorry. Anyways, really sorry that I had to hurt Fleetfoot… but you didn't think Sootbird was going to treat him like his own, did you?