*Down there.* Dagon nodded at the cave entrance below them where Gena was. He could not see her, but he knew she was somewhere within.
Sephtis began to slowly descend in circles down to the entrance before banking right and slamming to the soil, his talons digging into the dirt. His acid immediately burned away the green grass and scorched the ground.
"Gena!" Dagon shouted, hopping down from Sephtis's back. "Gena! I've done it!"
Sephtis gave a low growl, sitting on his hind legs and turning away.
"What?" Came the growl of Gena. "You really managed to find a-" she stopped when her head protruded from the cave and her gold eyes landed on Sephtis. "Dragon." She finished her sentence in a disappointed but aggressive growl.
"Gena." Sephtis hummed in a low tone, nodding his horns in her direction.
"Sephtis. I never expected a dragon of your… stature.. to bow down to a sixteen year old boy." Gena mocked.
Sephtis hissed, "I did not bow to him, snake. I simply decided to accompany him on his journey. Your boy has quite the ambitions, you know."
"Let me guess. He convinced you that if you join him it would be alike to redeeming yourself, yes?" Gena asked with a hum and a click of her talons.
Sephtis snorted, averting his eyes.
"Well, let me get this straight, you damn viper, no matter what you do, you will never be welcome among us dragons!" Gena spat angrily, beating her worn fangs.
Sephtis rose to his feet, bearing his massive fangs which were much more lethal than Gena's. A thin, forked tongue flicked out of Sephtis's jaws. His scales began to shift, tilting upward to form a more pointed appearance. It was almost like how dogs rose their hackles up when they felt threatened. Venom began to excrete from beneath his scales as well.
"Enough!" Dagon yelled, jumping in between the two beasts. "Gena, whatever Sephtis did however long ago it was, he is my dragon now. He is my Kinship. And if you are going to make him your enemy, then you are making me your enemy too."
Gena's expression changed and her eyes looked softer. She looked hurt and shocked. "You would push me aside.. for a dragon you only just met?"
"That's not what I mean by that, Gena, and you know it." Dagon sighed in frustration, "I mean that, if you did something terrible, or something unforgivable, or you messed up, wouldn't you want to be forgiven too? Wouldn't you want a second chance? Don't make an enemy out of an ally."
Gena bowed her head. Dagon already knew she was thinking back to the day his father had died. Ever since they had went into hiding, Gena had always blamed herself for Ayden's death. She felt that she had failed her Kinship by letting him die. And Dagon knew she wanted him to forgive her, which he did, and so that's why he said that.
Gena stepped all the way out from within the cave, her tail flicking behind her. She began to unfurl her wings, which were caked in dirt and grime, then brought them crashing down, sending her up into the air. She wasn't quite as fast or nimble as Sephtis, not anymore at least, but she did manage to ascend and begin flying off towards the Iron Scales.
"Gena! Wait!" Dagon shouted after her as she awkwardly and slowly flew away. He began to realize he had honestly went about the whole thing the wrong way. Maybe pointing out the fact of redemption was a bit much. He had basically guilt tripped her..
"Pah. This was a waste of my time. I should never have forged a Kinship with you…" Sephtis growled.
"Don't worry, she will come around. What exactly did you do anyway? To make the dragons hate you?" Dagon asked, turning to Sephtis, who averted his emerald eyes.
"I'd rather not dredge up the past, boy." He growled softly, "some stories are best left to rot."
— — —
Gena set her jaw, her fangs grinding against each other until her gums bled. It had been a long time since last she took flight. Even when she went hunting for food to feed her and Dagon, she never flew. It was just too dangerous, the chance of being spotted by soldiers was so high back then. But no she just no longer cared.
She felt betrayed and hurt by Dagon. She'd raised him, been a mother to him, the mother he'd never had, even if she was a dragon. And now he had just turned around and betrayed her. He had chose a treacherous dragon he hardly knew over the dragon of his father, the dragon that raised him. How much it stung she could not express in words.
She remembered what Dagon had said about second chances. The image of Ayden smile popped into her head just before it was washed away, swallowed up by an abyssal wave of darkness.
She growled, shaking her head and curling up her talons. She began to turn in the air, angling her wings downward as they flicked and whipped about in the wind. She began to soar down towards the mountain where a ledge for her to perch on was, but as soon as she drew close there was a tremendous bellow that shook the mountains, causing loose rocks to tumble down.
Black scales and talon slammed into Gena from above and she roared as the claws dug into her flesh and she began spiraling downward. She writhed about, trying to turn to face her attacker. Her heart froze when she realized who it was.
"Zickarys…." She growled just before being crashed down into the sharp, jutted rocks of the Iron Scale mountains. The dragon disengaged from her, hovering in the air as Gena tumbled down the rocks, crashing down farther and farther before she hit the bottom. Her wing was broken, her ribs cracked, and her arm dislocated.
She looked up at the black dragon above her. The rider had a black hood pulled up ver their head, a single large, black horn protruding from his skull.
"Gena… it's been a long, long time. Hasn't it?" The black dragon cackled, his voice deeper than any human or most dragons.
"Take her. We have a new dragon to add to our army." The rider ordered, and from the mountains came down smaller dragons, each hissing as they came closer to Gena. Each one of the dragons was covered from head to toe in black armor with luminescent purple engravings.
Gena wanted to get to her feet, to burn away all these weakling dragons that had now swarmed her, but she didn't have the strength. She was now over two thousand years old, and that age was getting to her.
And so… her eyes closed as the enslaved dragons took her into the air, bounding her wings, limbs, and jaws in black chains.
Then they made their way for the Annagon Castle.