Rumbling quaked through the entire fortress, or rather, prison. The sound echoed around the corridors and stairwells. Weapons quivered and shaked on their racks, the noise merging with the rumbling. Torches and candles were barely holding on to their stands, some toppled and were extinguished.
The place was a melting pot of emotions. Shouts and screams blended into an chorus of chaos. Confusion and panic were now causing people to be in a state of unrest. But they all felt one thing, fear.
Then the rumbling stopped. A second passed. Then a huge force rocked the entire prison. People screamed and shouted again, to no avail. The blows against the prison became faster and faster, heavier with each passing moment. The prison kept shaking, again and again and again.
It didn't stop, not for a long time,and it could have continued until the end of time. The rumbling wasn't small to began with, thus the increasing blows was on a magnitude of another level. Weapons finally fell off their racks and even furniture were turned over. The sound of destruction had reached a crescendo, and everyone in the prison were the audience enjoying it.
After a lifetime, it stopped again, only for the silence to be pierced by a deafening roar. Bloods of men were chilled and some with weak wills lost their dignity. But it stopped, and didn't happened again, for a moment.
People took this moment to run to their stations, preparing for the next assault. They had pale faces, mostly due to their ancestry, but the recent attack made them paler. There was still shouting, and it was still chaotic, but there was no panic nor confusion in the air.
With people rushing around, a single individual stood apart from the rest. Ahraan had a calm exterior, though if one looked closely he looked tired. His face was unenergetic, his shoulders sagged, but no one yelled at him for being useless. The mark on his face saw to that.
Besides, he had the most dangerous task of the meatbags here. He had to 'talk' to the bastard that caused this on a regular basis. He can afford to be lax for awhile.
Walking through a corridor, Ahraan shifted his hood to cover the majority of his mark. While it was a sign of who he was, he didn't feel any pride for it. After all, it came from the same species as the troublesome bastard. He was wearing lightly, armor wouldn't help him anyway, and it helped with the heat. He needed to move fast anyway.
Down a flight of stairs, Ahraan tried not to feel the dread of doing this again. He survived sure, but it wasn't a guaranteed. Arriving at his destination, Ahraan glanced around at the grand hall. But as of now, it wasn't really 'grand', the walls were covered with a thick layer of soot, claw marks riddled from floor to ceiling. Ashes and dusts were present everywhere.
The room was large, but it was in a terrible state. Only the gate at the end of the room was in decent condition, and even it looked somewhat poorly maintained. It was made of many metal bars crisscrossing each other horizontally and vertically, forming an impenetrable barrier, tougher than the walls itself. The colour was pitch black, but Ahraan forgot whether that was the natural colour or from soot.
Sighing, Ahraan stalked towards the gate. Footsteps echoed through the chamber, no one was there to hear it. Only those permitted were allowed to venture here. Besides, anyone hoping to go beyond this place must have a death wish. Trespassers were the least of the men's worries.
Ahraan stood before the gate, and the metal bars withdrew into the walls. He never knew how it quite worked, but only humanoids could pass it. It was both a boon and curse. It kept large creatures away should they breach the defenses, but getting a giant beast behind the gate was also another matter. The bastard had killed a hundred before getting trapped.
As the bars slid away, Ahraan tried to keep a calm face. It was of the utmost importance to not let the opposition knew what he was feeling. It was also for the men's sake. Even if he did this before, it wasn't getting easier.
The bars fully withdrew, and the way was clear. Walking cautiously now, he walked through. If the 'grand' hall was a mess, then the place beyond was a wasteland. Ashes were covering the floor, some were waistdeep in the corners. Claw marks were more apparent and frequent, covering every inch of the room. Whatever was in the room, engravings or decorations, there was nothing, not even a ghost of them.
The air was thick with sulphur, the smell irritable if one was not used to it. The heat would be unbearable if you were wearing any sort of armor, thus Ahraan's choosing of light clothing was proven to be wise. Subtle cracks were also more apparent as he moved towards the target.
And walking past all that, Ahraan arrived at the true prison of the beast. A pit. It was wide, larger than a small village. And it was deep, deeper than a lake. Over the pit, spiked metal rods formed a dome shape. They were intertwined with each other, forming no apparent pattern.They were dug deep into the floor, even fused with it through some unknown method.
Seeing it brought back unpleasant memories, ones that had once brought him nightmares. The sacrifices made, the decisions一
And flames shoot through the slits of the dome. It reached several feets high, and was rising even higher. Poundings against the wall started again, and the roar that had paralysed many above was unleashed.
Before it could get out of hand, Ahraan shouted incoherently down at the pit.
Surprisingly, the beast stopped. A growl crept from the pit. The sound of flapping was heard, and then a gargantuan creature charged straight up at the dome. On impact, the effect was large.
Everything was shaking. Roaring and beating of wings was all Ahraan heard as he tried to balance himself.
"YOU DARE!!??" a voice which contained hatred and disdain at an incredible level was heard. It was gravelly, rough, and very intimidating. "YOU DARE SHOUT AT ME YOU IMPUDENT RODENT!!!?"
Ahraan flinched at first, he always did. But resumed his usual demeanor. "Yes, yes, I do dare. But never mind that, I'm here to remind you that it's been months, almost a year. And you're still banging in your pit, can you stop?"
"NEVER!! I WILL BREAK DOWN YOUR WALLS!! THIS CAGE MAY HOLD ME, BUT I WILL ESCAPE!" Was the shout he received.
Ahraan sighed and said:"You say that, but you're still trapped."
"BAH!! YOUR WARDS MAY WEAKEN ME, BUT YOU ARE WEAK!! YOU HAVE NO MAGIC AT ALL!"
Again, the talk of magic. This was Ahraan's main objective. To grill the dragon for information, without getting grilled himself. It was a taxing task, having to not get killed and still obtain something useful. What made it worst was that the beast had leverage. It knew why and how it was trapped.
Ahraan on the other hand, knew nothing. He was blind and oblivious to the workings of the prison. An example would be the gate behind him.
Thus they had settle in to a routine of Ahraan trying to get information and the beast trying to kill him. As stated before, it was taxing.
A grunt woke Ahraan from his thoughts, and he felt a breeze. Why was there a breeze this deep in the ground?
Before he could do anything, flames rise and a gust of wind blew Ahraan's hood off his head. The beast had just blew air.
"HA! YOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR MARK FROM ME!! YOU 'DRAGONSCARRED' MAY THINK YOU'RE SAFE, BUT YOU ARE ONLY DELAYING THE INEVITABLE!!" The beast's cruel voice mocked him.
Around Ahraan's mark, small, hard and dry plates of keratin covered his skin. It formed an odd pattern , and they glistened from the flames of the beast. Scales, 'gifts' left from back in the days.
Ahraan pulled on his hood, the fight seemed to have left him. " I say this again, you are stilled trapped. And when we discover the secret of the magic in your wards, your kind shall never hurt us again as they have done to me."
He left, he didn't bothered anymore. He was better off researching the prison itself.
What stayed with him however, was the feeling that something big was coming.
And the dragons will be the ones orchestrating it.