The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 30: The Solution

"Why! Why would you do such a thing!" a dragon cried out from within the crowd.

It was the acid dragon, the one Silver had prevented from killing the humans that had rescued him. He was growling, obviously angry. It seemed as though they were back in the halls of Sky Mountain, the crowd of dragons part of the group they had freed from A.O.D.H. They were all angry, furious even.

"How dare you?! You realise what they've done to us? What they've put us through? We've been tortured, ridiculed, reduced to mere animals!"

"No... It's Eldawin that did that. He was the one that put you there in the first place," Silver tried to reason with them.

"That may be true, but he didn't make the humans do anything. They chose to put us in cages, to breed us, to control every moment of our lives. That just proves that they don't deserve to be in charge of us, to be in this world. Any race that decides that they are more important than another deserves to be destroyed!"

"You're wrong! None of that would be possible without Eldawin," growled the dragoness, but taking a step backwards as they began to advance.

"Oh, but it is. It happens all the time, in different shapes and forms, from D.E.D, and even the power they attempt to put over others of their own race!"

"Dragons do the same thing. We are just like them, only in a different body."

"No, we are much more than them! And we will not let you continue. We will destroy all who defend the likes of them!"

Slowly the crowd began to advance on her again. Silver snarled at them, pulling herself into full-metal form, but knowing that even she wouldn't be able to stand against so many. With a cry the acid dragon launched himself at her. She knocked him away with her wing, dodging passed, but that was all she managed before she was tackled from the other side, and crushed into the ground under the weight of hundreds of dragons.

* * *

Silver woke with a start, gasping for air and looking around with a start, taking in her surroundings instantly. As soon as she realised she was in a cave and not being swarmed by other dragons, she let out a groan, laying her head back down on the straw nest she was laying in. A wave of dizziness passed over her, and she closed her eyes with a small snarl. If felt like that time when she had been hungover.

When it passed she allowed herself to open her eyes again. She didn't recognise where she was at first, but she assumed she was in one of the caves of Sky Mountain. She shuffled slightly in her nest, letting out a small hiss of annoyance as one of the pieces of straw poke up through her scales. Why anyone had thought that putting her in something like this was a good idea she didn't know.

Slowly she forced herself to her feet and stepped out of the nest. She staggered to the left, leaning up against the wall and shaking her head again. She was so tired, but she knew that the moment she closed her eyes again another nightmare would be waiting for her, likely a lot worse than the one she had just had.

She looked around the cave, evaluating the area. There were a number of dragons lying around in straw nests. Snores echoed through the chamber, followed by the occasional flickering light of fire from one of the dragoness's in the cave.

Silver turned to look back at the nest she had been sleeping in, and hesitated when she saw Zepos lying beside it, deeply asleep himself. She felt herself blush deeply when she realised that he had carried her all the way back from the battle, likely refusing anyone's help to do so. She sighed softly to herself and carefully walked over to the edge of the exit leading into The Nest. She wobbled slightly, looking down, and second guessed herself. Was she really fit enough to be flying?