"Attacus?"

Someone nudges my head. I feel sleepy and the silk hammock I'm in is so comfy. I fling my wings over my head and turn to face the other way. I want to sleep. I slowly open my eyes to find that I'm not, in fact, in the web bridges and that the last two months have actually happened. I scramble out of the hammock and fall on the stone floor. Where are we?

"Sounds like you finally woke up," Khapra says.

"Hey," I protest indignantly. "I didn't mean to—"

"Shh," Khapra interrupts. "We're in a prison. Might want to keep it down. In case you didn't know, I'm talking to you through a crack in the prison wall, so keep it quiet."

Good point.

It's the middle of the night and I am extremely hungry. It appears that the prison forgot to feed us. I scan the scene with my antennae and find a really old-looking piece of meat. Ew. I turn away from that mess and I walk forward, my talon almost tripping on the vertical bars guarding my room. I feel around for a lock, finding a heavy lock mechanism with a key jammed into it. I turn the key and the door creaks open. I tiptoe to Khapra's door and do the same, realising she had eaten her food. Yeesh. "Where do we go from here?" She whispers.

"Find Lachia," I reply. "if she's in the same building."

"How do we know if she—"

I put my claw to her nose, gently telling her to be quiet. My antennae unfurl up, sensing someone in the halls. "Someone's here," I whisper. My antennae unfurl further, and I sigh.

"What are we going to do?" Khapra asks.

"Okay," I whisper, formulating a plan. "We could-"

"Oh! We could run, and if they find us, WE WILL KNOCK THEM OUT COLD AND KEEP RUNNING."

"Shush. That's waay too dangerous. I say we pretend to be visitors, calmly looking for someone we know."

"Ugh," Khapra scoffs. "You're soooo boring. You're really good at not having fun."

"And you're really good at being crazy and planning suicide missions," I counter. "Besides, when we don't even know what this place is, where to go, the skill levels of all the guards, who knows our chance of survival?"

I hear the talonsteps getting louder and I yank Khapra's wrist closer to my side. "Fine," she snaps. "You take the lead."

Chalcedon is away in another ward. So is Lachia. We each put our front talon on the wall and walk along until we run into a guard. We'd agreed that I'd do all the talking. Slowly we stepped along, charading as two innocent blind dragonets lost on their way visiting someone.

"Just take a right at that corner over there," I mutter audibly. "You'll find it. Hah." It's simple, playing the role of the young, ignorant dragonet; it's what everyone assumes I am. Just take a step. Right talon. Left talon. It will be okay. Breathe. You are okay.

"Hey! You can't be here!"

I swivel my head instinctively, and my antennae feel a tall guard, with a deploying weapon at the ready. I blanch, feeling a sense of fear creep out before I remask my face with relief. "Finally," I say innocently. "Someone who works here. Khapra, we can get out of this cave!"

"Really?" Khapra says excitedly. She fumbles around towards the guard and attempts to shake his talon. "Can you get us out of here? It's really hot in here, if you ask me."

I gave an unreceived weird look to Khapra. If anything, it was freezing.

"I'll have to ask you to leave," the guard grumbles. "You're not supposed to be here."

"I know," Khapra whined. "We got lost visiting someone."

A pause.

"We don't do visiting," the guard retorted. "Out."

"Well, where are we?"

"BACKU—"

Without thinking, I pound the guard's head, hearing a thump as he falls to the ground.

"We have to run," I pant, dragging Khapra forward. She dashes along, seemingly knowing where she's going without antennae. The breath coming from her mouth is short and controlled, like she's done this before but is still scared. "Are you okay?" I whisper.

"Yeah," she pants. "I'm fine." And she keeps running.

I run and run, not stopping to catch my breath but coming to the conclusion that I would regret that come the next few minutes. I subconsciously touch the scar on my right forearm. How many days ago did that happen? Ten? Twelve? I don't even remember anymore.

Run. Run for your life and don't turn back.

My foot stumbles over a small downstep, and almost I come tumbling down to the floor.

Be more careful. I look with my antennae to check if Khapra's okay, and she's running along, albeit at a much slower pace. "Are you okay?" I ask her.

"I need water," she pants. "Really—" she gasps. "Soon."

Uh oh. I grab Khapra's arm to keep her going before I realise she's burning up. I let go and scan the place for any source of water. That old prison food flashes through my mind and I realise something horrible. "Help," She mumbles, before falling to the ground.

"Hello?" I call out. "I need help!"

Lachia calls me from somewhere. "Attacus? Is that you?"

"Lachia!" I scream. I pick up Khapra (ow) and run to her (also ow.) "Where are you?"

"I'm over here!" she yells. "Keep running forward!"

I get to Lachia and lay Khapra down next to her. "I think she's sick," I say. Lachia inspects her and pulls back. "I think so, too," she says. I can tell she's doing a pulse check. "She needs better care," I tell Lachia.

"Well, she can't exactly get that here, can she?"

"I can help," A new voice says.

"Chalcedon!" Lachia squeals. "Where were you?"

"I was over there in one of the other buildings. I guess they took pity on me because they thought I couldn't be dangerous. I mean, sure, there was a bunch of mutated tough guys over there, but—"

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupt. "Mutated what now?"

"Yes, mutated dragons. If I asked them about it, they all just said the same thing: 'experiments.'"

I feel my sister squirm. "What is it?" I whisper to her. She shakes her head. "They did those to me," she whispers, and I feel her breathing down my shoulder. "Can we please get out of here?"

"Okay. But one question: How did you get here in the first place?"

Lachia hesitates before saying, "They kidnapped me. Then they did all these experiments on me and my wing— Attacus, it was awful."

I feel boiling rage inside me rise up to my head. Nobody could do that to my sister. Lachia starts to quietly cry, the thing she has only ever done once. "I'm not going to ask any more questions," I tell Lachia. "But I'm going to have a talk with who did this." I think of that hulking figure in the caves. Do they have the audacity to just take dragons— as if they were grains of sand instead of actual living dragons with lives of their own? "Unlock as many prisoners as you can," I tell Chalcedon.

In a rush of fury, I run. I run away from everyone, off to find the dragon who did this. I will never forgive them. I don't care if they die right now or live until the end of time— although the former would be much appreciated. I stop with a skid when I hear that familiar voice.

"So it's all going to plan?"

"Yes, boss. The data you wanted will be ready in three days."

"Three DAYS? It should be three hours! It isn't that hard to load a data chart with scientific research!"

Scientific research my tail.

"I'm sorry, boss. I will try to have it ready sooner."

"Good." The boss flicks their tongue and steps away slowly. I take my chance and run towards him. When I'm in range, I bite their leg, only to discover their scales are rock-solid. Ow. They shake me off and tut me. "Oh, little dragon," they chide. "It's actually rude to attack exemplary scientists like myself unprovoked."

"Unprovoked?!" I spit. "What have you done to my sister?"

"Oh, that little gnat?" I can hear the eye roll in their voice. "Please. She was asking for it. Her mother had the same problem, after all!"

Everything stops. "How do you know about my mother?" I hiss in a low voice.

"The same thing! We collected her, ran some tests, and off she was!"

"Really?"

They laugh. "No," They say in a suddenly monotone voice. "She's still having blood work done. Judging from your mother and sister, there's actually a plant that speeds up infectious processes. It was very easy to give some to your sister."