A Shadow in the Stars-WILL NOT BE UPDATED

Chapter 2

Waterlily

Waterlily woke to familiar rusted metal bars she had seen so many times before.

"Ugh. Not again." She had finally escaped from Drought, the horrible Sandwing who had kept her prisoner for practically her entire life, only to end up right back there again. "This is bullshit!" She howled from her cage. She would be far away from here if it weren't for Dusk. It didn't matter anymore anyway, he had escaped while she was stuck in this hellhole forever. Waterlily's lip curled in disgust when she saw shimmering scarlet scales in the cage across from her. "Oh by the claws of the clouds! You got caught too?" She snapped furiously at him from her cage. 

Dusk's head jerked up. "Hey, I'm not the one with a bounty on my head!" He snarled.

Suddenly, the rusted metal bars of her cage screeched open, and a mangled tan snout sneered down at Waterlily in disgust.

 "Shut up." Snarled the scarred Sandwing. It was far too familiar for Waterlily's liking. 

"Bask! Great to see you! Have you had any fun while I was gone?" 

"You have no idea. In fact, those were the most blissful few hours of my life." 

Bask grabbed Waterlily's wrist, and yanked her out of the cage. Promptly thereafter, she was jostled into a pit she had seen many times before. 

"My newly recovered champion will fight a new weirdo in the pit today! So great to have you back, by the way. It was oh-so-lonely without your constant whining.'' A sandy, canary-yellow dragon was smiling menacingly from a high-up enclosed spot in the stone bleachers. Drought. She was plunged out of her thoughts when her captor yelled, "Bring him out!" Dusk was thrust out on the stage right next to Waterlily. He was thrashing violently, trying to tear out the throats of the guards that had hauled him into the pit.

"You won't get away with this! You can't even do this, legally, since this is obviously a cheap ripoff of the Skywing gladiator arena! Queen Scarlet had it copy-righted!" Dusk snarled indignantly at the chuckling dragons in the bleachers.

 Drought's Smile widened. "Today will be extraordinary."

Dusk

Dusk was bleeding heavily from deep slashes on his side. Waterlily's claws were sharper than one would guess. Dragons were caterwauling from the bleachers above the arena. 

"Isn't this such a treat? Disgusting hybrid abominations getting what they deserve!" Drought cackled from the bleachers. Dusk glared up at her, clenching his canines. Drought grinned down at him. "Better watch your opponent there!" He tilted his head in confusion, then, Dusk was suddenly pinned to the hard stone beneath him. Waterlily's venomous tail barb was poised to strike his heart. 

"Pretend to be dead."She hissed, spreading her wings to shield them from the crowd. taking out black paint from a pouch underneath her wing and quickly painting a convincing blackened wound. 

"What?" He responded, "You heard me." She growled, just before folding her wings in and slamming her tail barb against the stone beside Dusk's heart. The crowd hollered with delight.  "They throw the dead bodies in the back, so you can escape. But wait for me." Dusk obliged, his only goals at this moment were: don't die and get out of here. Dusk shut his eyes tight and screamed horribly. He then abruptly stopped, as a dragon would when fatally stabbed. Just like that, he was thrown onto a pile of dead Dragon corpses that smelled like a rotting cow. There, he waited for Waterlily.