His chest was being squeezed harder and harder with each flap of the dragon's wings. A strong vertigo took hold of him being suspended in air by his arms in complete darkness. While a part of him was excited by the thrill of flying, he and Aquana had occasionally done this exact same thing either in a mission that required her to drop him into a stealth zone or just goofing off, there was another part of him that knew he was in a dangerous position.
This was not how he'd envisioned flying again. Not to mention this dragon was obviously unaccustomed to carrying a human passenger. The pressure of his paws and therefore the prick of his claws kept varying. At one moment it was too loose and Tate's heart was pounding as his adrenaline skyrocketed, his body unconciously preparing to fall. The next moment it was too tight making it too hard to get a proper breath and also bruising his sternum he suspected. The shifting also caused the talons to slip and he would only be able to tell when he was on the ground but he felt sure that he was bleeding from a few shallow scratches and gouges.
The air rushed over him and he was quickly freezing everywhere but around his torso. He couldn't feel his lips, his hands felt like ice, and his feet had gone numb.
All he could do was pray the dragon reached their destination soon and put him down. He didn't know who this dragon's "lady" was but none of this could be good. He was practically abducted in the dark, no one with upright intentions snatched people in the dark.
He inwardly groaned. His pride as a former dragon rider and just as a man was getting ground up to powder. Not once, but twice now Tate Delmont had been rendered helpless and kidnapped. He really couldn't wrap his mind around it. He was by no means a weak man, he was a skilled fighter and famous for his feats in war, but now he'd been plucked up like a flower off the side of the road twice in as many months. He didn't know if this was a result of him losing his touch, or if these incidents were just unavoidable fate.
Suddenly he felt the pitch change and knew they were descending. It was a feeling as known to him as breathing. He wished this were happening under different circumstances. No matter how uncomfortable, no downright painful this flight was proving to be, for the first time in years he was flying. He'd give anything to be able to see his surroundings, to be able to enjoy this long-lost feeling.
It was not to be, the dragon did not let him down gently or gracefully. One moment he was clutched in its paw and the next he was falling. His heart leaped in his throat and in the darkness, his hands reached up in a very human motion scrambling to hold onto something that wasn't there.
Not even a second passed before his back hit something. He'd fallen only a few feet at most, but the impact had still knocked the wind out of him.
He gasped like a dying fish, his lungs burning.
"What did you do to him?" A female voice snapped from the darkness. "Did you damage him, why is he making such a horrible noise?" The voice was frantic. A face appeared above him. He couldn't be sure but his eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he thought she might be the female dragon that came and watched him train. That made him wonder if his abductor was the blue-haired male. Still gasping for air he looked to the side where he heard a light thud as something heavy landed. He saw the outline of the dragon and then there was a brief noise he recognized as fire being built in the throat of a dragon. It was a sizzling sound that built up and then erupted into a muffled roaring noise that was almost silent.
Sure enough from the dragon's mouth, a small flame shot out, lighting a torch.
Finally able to get in a breath Tate took a few moments to center himself. Ignoring the frantic female and the shifting male. He closed his eyes and counted to twenty.
"Is he dead?" The female whispered right before he opened his eyes.
She yelped in surprise and put a hand to her chest. Relief filled her gaze as she looked at him. "You're okay? Are you okay little one?"
He blinked a few times still gathering himself. He was still not used to being looked at like he was a child or being called some version of "little one" by some dragons he encountered.
"I-" He coughed and sat up slowly, "I'm fine." He looked at the male now standing a few paces behind the female. He had blue hair as Tate had suspected. The female had a familiar halo of golden locks. Up close he could see that her eyes were brownish gold as well. He looked back and forth between them. Having only seen them from a distance this was the first time he'd gotten to see them up close. The male had pale blue hair. His eyes were a deep and vivid blue in contrast to the lightness of his hair. His build was lean and athletic. His human appearance looked to be of a man in his thirties. The woman with her gold hair and light eyes was beautiful. He was getting used to seeing beautiful faces in the Nest, but something about her was different. She almost seemed to shine, it was more than just beauty, it was something else something he didn't know how to name.
She smiled at him then and the effect almost made him have to lie back down. She glowed when she smiled, he could almost swear that this was a literal fact, but he wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him or not. Regardless her smile was warm and open. He wasn't sure if he'd seen such an inviting and calming expression on any dragon he'd met so far.
It occurred to him then that she hadn't even glanced at his black marks that other dragons couldn't help but gaze at. She was staring into his eyes with her wide smile and her eyes had not moved since he'd first opened his own.
"Who are you?" He managed to ask at last. "Why did you take me?" At his own words, his brain kicked back into gear and he remembered that a kind smile did not equal good intentions. He scooted backward until he hit something. Startled he looked behind him. With the torch now lit he was able to make out his surroundings. They were on some sort of stone platform with a low wall all the way around the space. Beyond that wall, he couldn't make out a thing due to the angle of the light in his face.
"We are on top of my villa." The female answered his unasked question. "As for who I am I'm afraid that is not something I'm at liberty to discuss. For the purpose of our interaction you may call me 'Yakahna' and behind me is my guard, just call him Void."
"What do you want with me?" He asked the same question as before in a different way. He was getting desperate for an answer now. He felt his unease rise with every moment the female stared at him with such warmth and wide-eyed wonder. It made him horribly uncomfortable to be looked at with such intensity by a complete stranger.
"I-," All of a sudden her face fell and words seemed to completely fail her. "I just wanted to meet you."
"Why?" He scooted further away from her, as far away as he could possibly get. This time she didn't follow.
Her face fell even further and she looked...hurt? He was confused by this, by all of this. Why would she want to meet him? Why couldn't she tell him her real name?
"If you wanted to meet me why didn't you just come to the Nest and ask to?" He finally managed to get out of the jumble of his thoughts.
The woman chuckled darkly. All the warmth vanished from her face and she suddenly looked colder than a winter wind. This abrupt change from joy, to hurt, to coldness made him even more nervous. He'd learned the hard way that people whose emotions fluctuated wildly and quickly were often not to be trusted. "Let's just say that this would not have been possible. I'm not exactly welcome inside the Nest proper."
Feeling no remorse about pressing with someone he didn't know, someone who'd kidnapped him for reasons unknown he bluntly asked. "Why?"
"Uh, the Elder is not my biggest fan. She seldom speaks to me much less grants me favors."
He wasn't sure what that meant or if he really needed to know. He needed to figure out why, and quickly. He needed to know how urgent his escape needed to be. His eyes darted around looking for an exit.
"I wouldn't do it if I were you. We are five stories in the air and if what I've looked up is correct a jump or fall from this height would kill the human body, am I correct?" Her smile was back in place and her eyes locked back on him.
She was so intense that he'd barely noticed the male behind her this whole time after he'd lit the torch. This meant that he jumped when the male's hand landed on her shoulder out of the shadows. "Stop it, you're scaring him."
She glanced behind her, scowled, and then looked back at Tate. "Am I scaring you?"
"Uh-" he didn't know how to answer that.
"I just didn't want you to try something foolish. If you are afraid then don't worry. Void will be taking you back shortly. I just wanted to meet you face to face for a bit." In a blink, she'd closed the distance again. He had nowhere to go as he was sitting back in a corner of the low wall. She was on her knees, he noticed that she was wearing an elegant red dress similar in style to what he'd seen the Elder in. She had to be getting it filthy kneeling in front of him as she was but she didn't seem to notice.
She grabbed his face by the chin, her grip strong as a dragons should be. He had no choice but to let her do as she wished. She tilted his face up then to the left and the right. She even reached up and touched his hair. She was looking at him but not seeing him and it made him feel like bugs were crawling all over him.
Then just as quickly as her other movements she was cupping the side of his face. The opposite side of his marks of course. This was the first time he knew she was looking at them. To his shock, if anything could be more shocking at this point. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she looked at them.
"Do they hurt?" She asked in an unsteady voice.
He really did not know what was happening. He didn't know if he should answer or not. His mind couldn't stop alternating between just racing and panicking long enough to really assess what was happening to him.
When he didn't answer she continued. "Tell me who put these vile things on you and I will kill them." She hissed her eyes flashing gold.
He felt the blood leave his face. His brain and body finally settled on how they felt, he was actually terrified. He hadn't felt this way since he was ten years old, since the day he'd first completed his first assassination. That day he'd been terrified of himself.
This feeling, the feeling this female gave him was so similar, but it was directed at her. He was terrified of her. For a wild moment, he had the urge to push himself back as hard as he could to escape this overwhelming menacing force she was exuding. Even if he fell to his death his mind screamed at him to get away!
"Enough," Void spoke once again. He gently took her by the shoulders and physically lifted her and moved her behind him. He glared down at Tate. "Stay, don't even think about it." He turned his back to Tate and addressed the woman in such low tones that Tate couldn't make out a thing. When he turned around Tate could only see the woman hunched a little bit, like she was suddenly sad. She was holding herself and biting her lip as she looked at the ground. "I'm taking you back now," Void said to Tate.
With no more explanation or fanfare than that, he was transformed, and once again before Tate could react he was grabbed up under his arms and was in the air. This time though he could see the woman standing in shadows, the lone torch flinkering on top of the building they left behind. She didn't look up once.
In absolute darkness, the male deposited him in an ally outside the Nest. This time the dragon managed to put Tate on his feet. Tate stumbled back as he was released and started to back away. The voice of Void called out from the darkness. "Please don't mention what happened tonight."
In a shaky voice, Tate called over his shoulder as he paused midstride. "Why?"
"She's not a bad person. I thought this might help her but it didn't. I apologize for dragging you into it. It will be better if you forget what happened tonight. I'm asking you to not mention it to anyone but I will not try to force you."
Something about his tone made Tate relax for the first time that night. "I'll see." Was all he could say in reply. He walked towards the Nest, the sound of wings quietly beating the air following him.