The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 15: The Escape Plan

'Your plan won't work,' said Krista as they flew over the dragons below them. Several looked up at the glinting form of Silver as her shell caught the light, but she didn't notice them. She felt angry, and scared, at the dragon beside her. There was no doubt that he knew quite a lot about what the dragons were planning that night. They were at his mercy.

"What do you mean?" she asked, seething quietly.

'Speak with your mind Silver. We do not want to risk anyone catching our conversation.'

'Oh, like this?'

'Yes, thankyou. And I mean exactly as I say. Your plan won't work.'

Silver glanced at the dragon frowning, 'Why are you helping us?'

'I will tell you later, if your plan succeeds.'

A low growl formed in her throat. She didn't trust him, not at all. But she really didn't have a choice. The dragon knew their secret and she couldn't really threaten him. If anything he could blackmail them if he so wished, but for some reason he wasn't. The dragon was collarless! He had accepted humans as his leaders. Why would he want to help them at all?

The two of them landed beside Celestia, who studied Krista suspiciously. Silver had no doubt that the light dragon blamed him for her broken wing. He was the one that had read her mind after all.

"Can you flatten out your wing?" Silver asked her, wanting to get this over as quickly as possible.

Celestia lay on the ground and spread her flimsy wing as far as the broken bone would allow it to go. She was obviously in pain, but Silver admired her for not making any noise. It was probably to show defiance in front of Krista, though the mind dragon probably could hear the silent screams she was throwing out in her mind.

"Now, I'm going to need to cut open the broken part of your wing. It'll hurt, so brace yourself," Silver said to Celestia.

The light dragon didn't say anything, but her muscles tensed and she clamped her jaw shut. Silver was surprised, and slightly grateful, that she didn't question her. If a dragon wanted to cut her wing open she knew she would want to know exactly why. The trust showed by the light dragon warmed her heart.

Being as careful as she could Silver formed the end of her tail into a blade and carefully cut a small slit just above the broken bone. The cut was clean, the blade being as sharp as it was, and a small amount of blood began to well at the sight of the wound. The bone was revealed, and Silver let loose a small sigh of relief. It was a clean break, something that would be rather easy to fix.

"You might want to bight something, this is going to hurt... a lot," said Silver, looking at the light dragon.

Celestia hesitated, looking around for something to grab. There were stones lining the ground in places and the light dragon pulled one over to her, before nodding her readiness to Silver. She looked down at the bone. Dragon bones were hollow, so it looked like a giant white reed had been placed there instead of a bone.

Silver gathered a small amount of metal on the tip of her tongue and manoeuvred the bone so the broken halves were attached perfectly straight. A small whimper came from Celestia's throat as she clawed the ground and bit down on the rock. The silver dragon quickly squirted a thin stream of metal around the bone, ceiling it in place. With the blade of her tail she cut of the rugged edges of the seam before closing the skin back over the bone and ceiling it with another seam of metal.

"There we go. Once we find a healing dragon willing to help you can heal it properly, but for now that should do," said Silver, stepping back and licking the blood off her paws.