Every young drake in the mountain hated Ebonia now, although the elder drakes that taught them applauded her skills at survival. Ebonia suffered from them every single day, which was made even worse by the fact that she was now blind in her right eye. A white scar crossed over it, a lasting mark of the damage dealt.
But Ebonia did not give up. Since she was not particularly big or strong, Ebonia developed a new weapon: her brain. She had determined that even though the others were big and vicious and scary, they were single-mindedly violent. Since all they usually thought about was using their claws and tails to fight (except when they were told by the elders to use their fire breath), Ebonia took advantage of it.
She would use her fire breath to fight them at range, and would trick them into confrontations that she had the advantage in. Whether that meant trapping them in a dead-end cave or fighting them from up high in a crevice only she could fit in, Ebonia did her best to outwit them. She kept a close eye on her surroundings to make sure she did not get caught in an unfavorable situation, and picked a fight only when there was just one drake to deal with.
The other drakes slowly began to realize that she was not the easily picked-on scared little whelp she'd been before, and were no longer as constantly violent to her as before. But she could see how much they feared and hated her, was shunned from their groups and was still frequently attacked whenever they had the strength of numbers.
But Ebonia no longer cared. She didn't need them to like her, only to leave her alone and recognize her superiority. All of her clutchmates had been killed in various ways by now, and therefore she was the strongest. And if she had to fight every inch with tooth and claw to get them to realize that, that was just what she was going to have to do.
Today she was resting, although keeping an eye out for anyone who wanted to steal the various treasures behind her. She had found more dwarven-made items, all of which she kept well-polished. They were kept in a tiny crevice, and she was lounging on a high-up ledge, which made it very difficult for any drake to raid her nest while she was present.
She looked down at the pool of magma bubbling below her. Another thing she'd been practicing was elemental magic, which for some reason came easily to her. Concentrating, she willed a ribbon of magma to rise up and dance around her. Lazily, she willed into various images, delighting in the power none of the other drakes seemed to have.
She heard the sounds of heavy footfalls approaching. Frowning, Ebonia dropped the magma back into its pool and stood up, stretching leisurely like a cat.
Appearing was the hunting teacher, Glirion. Behind him was a much larger black dragon that Ebonia had never seen before.
They were huge, and although not nearly as big as Deathwing, still dwarfed Ebonia. He had huge orange wings and large horns curving around his head, as well as a long orange crest down his throat. His eyes glittered with cunning, and they seemed quite curious as they looked over Ebonia.
"This is the one I told you about, Lord Nefarian.", said Glirion, quite nervous. Ebonia had never seen him nervous before. That meant this Nefarian fellow was quite important.
"Leave us.", Nefarian commanded, and Glirion scurried off.
Nefarian studied Ebonia for a few moments, then said, "You are from Sintharia's last clutch, are you not?"
Ebonia nodded quietly. She was keeping her guard up, not trusting this dragon. He was much larger, older, and stronger than she was, and Ebonia sensed that he was clever as well, meaning that if they fought, he would certainly win.
She kept her good eye facing towards him, keeping a close guard on her blind side. Nefarian seemed to note this.
"You are quite promising.", he said, "I heard that you lost an eye and that all of the other young dragons here hate you, yet you have made yourself stronger than all of them. Our father believes it is time we take you out of here and put you to use."
Ebonia was not sure how to respond. Nefarian continued, "Our flight has established a new base at the abandoned city of Grim Batol in order to hold our latest captive. The Aspect has requested that your first assignment shall be to assist with guarding it. Come with me, and we will fly there."
Ebonia asked, "And what if I don't want to?"
Nefarian frowned at her. "Then we'll kill you."
Ebonia replied, "I suppose I've got no choice, then."
She glanced at the many treasures behind her, feeling sorry to let them go. But there was no way she'd be able to take them with her.
But Nefarian did say that their destination was an abandoned city. She'd just have to rebuild her collection there, was all.
Ebonia stretched her wings. "Very well, I'm going with you. Can't argue when the only other option is death."
"Excellent.", replied Nefarian, "Let's get going, shall we?"*