The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 22: The Weakness of Metal

"Wake up my darlings!" came the annoyingly mothering voice of Gretta as she poked her head into the female cave.

Groans of complaint rose up from the sleeping dragonesses at the noise, but one by one they eventually got to their feet, slowly making their way out of the cave. Silver opened one eye and let a sigh escape her. She hadn't slept well that night. Straw from the nest was constantly getting under her scales and poking into her skin. She had woken up many times during the night to remove them. It sucked to have softer-then-normal scales.

Grunting she hauled herself to her feet, fanning out her wings to steady herself. She felt so tired. Her claws clapped against the ground in rather annoying clashes as she stumbled out of the cave.

'I need to cut my claws,' she thought as she saw how long they had gotten.

Shrugging to herself she decided to take care of it later. She walked into The Nest and winced as unnatural light was shone throughout the cavern. A few of the other young dragons did the same, a hiss escaping a fire dragon at her left. Once her eyes adjusted she looked around to see dragons coming from their different caves along the jagged cliffs. There were thousands of them, and Silver couldn't help but feel a little nervous at seeing so many.

"Silver! So you did make it!" Raize's familiar voice came from the crowd of youngling dragons.

Silver smiled slightly when she saw her brother. He leapt over the crowd with a flap of her wings and landed next to her, giving her a friendly shove as he did so. She growled at him but shook her head, refusing to retaliate. She would get her revenge later.

"Have a good sleep?" he asked.

"Nope," she grunted, "The nests have to much straw, and I didn't have time to make my own."

"Oh that's right. You don't like comfortable sleeping quarters."

"They're not comfortable. They're annoying, painful and incredibly difficult to get a good nights sleep on."

"Ha! Well, deal with it, cause' until you make your own you'll have to."

"Shut up."

The crowd jostled their way through The Nest and into The Centre. It was even brighter there, as the sun was directly at the entrance of the mountain, sending its rays into the still waking dragons. It glinted of Silver's shell, which lit up the room even more. A few dragons around her shied away at the sudden light. She growled in embarrassment and dulled her shell quickly.

"Where to first?" she asked her brother.

"Didn't you bring you're program?" Raize chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll help you. We got combat training first."

"Cool!" Silver instantly brightened, "Is that fun?"

"Yes, it can be. Though with you... just try not to kill anyone," he said, knowing fully well what she could do.

"I'll go safe," she shrugged and let the metal on her wings ripple into a blunt edge. She had kept it sharp ever since she had been captured by D.E.D, "What can I expect?"

"Well, at the moment I'm the best, that's with the rankings, but there are a few that are probably better then me," said Raize, "So, you'll basically smash everyone."

She let loose a laugh, "You've probably gotten better you know."

"So have you. I made friends with... Ion I think, one of your dragons, and he told me what had happened at D.E.D," Raize said, "I tried to fight Tetrad when I got free, and was slaughtered. You defeated all four of their fighters without much trouble at all."