To season-to make resistant
to hardship, especially through continued exposure; a term
used by slave breakers as a method of making their subjects submit.
“The Seasoning”
*Crack!*
Nosedive thought the worst
was over.
*Crack!*
He was almost beaten to death
at the mine camp for simply standing up for a younger hatchling. A Saurian
officer had obtained permission to kill him for it, but first, the lizard
wanted to make sure Nosedive suffered for his selfless deed. When Wildwing and Canard saved him and they finally reached the
Resistance base, he thought he was one of the lucky ones. He survived.
*Crack!*
He was wrong.
*Crack!*
It was just the beginning.
*Crack!*
"AHHH!" His body writhed when a surge of pain ravaged his back.
Dangling from his wrists, his feet inches from the floor, ankles bound,
shirtless, the teen slumped forward. Matted, dirty blond locks obscured his
cringing face. He trembled slightly from the scourging pain, trying his best to
hold it in. He couldn't show the Saurian his misery. He wouldn't.
"Not liking it too much,
are we?" A sinister, gruff voice asked.
If there was one thing Nosedive learned in the last two months, it was answer
when spoken to.
"What would make you say that? I do this on all my hatching days," he
panted, raising his eyes, so he met Siege's.
The burly lizard snarled, then struck out his barbed-wire whip, ripping through the
boy's chest.
A strangled howl choked from
Nosedive's throat as he contorted before slumping forward again, held fast by
his constraints. He sucked in dry, haggard breaths. His body shuddered once
more as his nerves processed more agony.
A fire burned
on the skin missing feathers, while sweat dribbled down his forehead
and face, drenching his mortified body. Blood oozed from his various
wounds—gored and ripped skin, gashes slashed across his chest and
back, arms torn.
"I would have thought by
now you would have learned," Siege grated, sauntered about the teen.
He snapped the whip in his palm. "Now." He
halted in front of Nosedive, much to the boy's disconcert. He had learned that when Siege stopped, it
usually meant inexorable pain.
Touching the boy's beak and
raising it so their eyes met, Siege smirked a
malicious grin that just oozed "Defy me so I may hurt you more."
"How do you address your lord?”
Nosedive was not one to
disappoint. He jerked his beak out of Siege's grasp and spat,
"Disgusting pile of scales."
Siege took a half-step back,
uncoiled the whip in his hand, and struck.
*Crack!*
Nosedive walked into the room—then froze.
"Uh, going somewhere, guys?"
Wildwing looked up from the duffel he was
stuffing full of extra pucks, explosive ones probably, and regarded his little
brother with a sad smile. "Dragaunus's
forces are on the move. If we don't
cross Dead Drake's Gouge by tomorrow, there's a good chance we
won't at all."
Across the room, Canard Bronzeplume
nodded in agreement. "And if we want to get a head start on the Saurians, we need to leave tonight." He lifted
two puck launchers toward his brother, one blaster, one
bazooka. "You want one?"
"Take 'em both,
just in case," Wildwing replied
shortly, once more stuffing his bag with clothes.
"Just let me get my stuff!" Nosedive shouted
excitedly, hurrying toward the small alcove in the wall they utilized as a
closet.
As he scurried past his brother, a hard hand
seized his arm at the crook of his elbow.
"Hold on a second there, kiddo," Wildwing reprimanded. Turning his brother around to
stare into his eyes, Wildwing held Nosedive by his shoulders.
He looked away, as if having a mental debate with himself before he continued with a heavy sigh,
"Look, uh...I talked this over with your father, and we both came to the
agreement that it was better if you didn't come."
"WHAT?" Nosedive hollered, tearing from his
brother's grasp. "You've got to be putting me on! I helped pick out
the team—"
"I know, but—"
"I accompanied you guys to get the Mask—"
"—where you were impaled, in case you
forgot."
"Come on!” Nosedive exploded in frustration. “That
is so not an excuse. I’m totally
healed!”
Wildwing stared at his brother skeptically, then
without saying a word, reached out.
“Hey!” Nosedive protested when Wildwing
placed a hand on the side of his abdomen and lightly applied pressure.
Subsequently, he fought the grimace that defied his will and twisted onto his
face.
“ ‘Totally,’ huh? How about ‘not even close’? You
wouldn’t even be on your feet yet if there wasn’t a war going on.”
Nosedive pushed Wildwing’s
hand from his stomach. ”It’s not like it’s my fault. You
were supposed to have my back!"
"Hey! This isn't about me, all right?" Wildwing rejoined, pointing a finger directly at his
brother's chest.
"This is about you. You're still just a kid,
Dive.”
"Oh, don't play the age card on me! I swear you
and Dad use that as a crutch!"
"Because it's the truth." Wildwing remonstrated with an exasperated sigh. Pushing the
hair back from his eyes, he furiously began to stuff supplies into his bag:
bars, water, pucks. "Look, whether or not you want to hear it, you're only
sixteen, baby bro. Canard and I don't even know if we'll make it back here, let
alone survive." Zipping up his bag, he waited for a moment, bracing
himself, before turning around to see Nosedive's crossed arms. The teen wore a face
comprised of defiant sadness, but what else was new?
"Nosedive, I'm sorry, but it's better this
way," Wildwing cajoled, gripping his brother by
the shoulders and giving him a warm shake. "You'll be safe."
Wildwing’s concerned and sorrowful face blurred into itself, and
a macabre reverberation resounded in his ears.
*Crack!*
Siege's haughty laughter.
*Crack!*
His eyes shot open, ripping
him from his reverie.
Safe? Nosedive's
mind reeled.
Kneeling upon the floor, arms
restricted behind his back by energy bonds, back still flaming from the
flogging he had received as a wake-up call, Nosedive was the farthest thing
from safe.
Glancing from under his
bangs, the teen regarded the people standing before him, Saurian dignitaries,
each one representing a house of the lizards’ regal families. One
rather old dinosaur—pun intended—swirled about a glass of rokoa
juice before taking a sip. His gray bangs disguised his age face, while his
long hair was braided half-way down his back. His green appearance
made Nosedive think of the Chameleon, another one of Dragaunus’s
henchmen. His scrunched face, though barely seen, divulged the lizard’s
malevolence, as did his fiery, amber eyes. He limped toward Nosedive with the
help of a tall cane, his long purple cloak brushing against the floor. His aged
eyes regarded Nosedive as no more than pet.
It was more than
demoralizing.
"I still don't
understand, Lord Dragaunus," the green lizard
asked with a raised, superior chin. "Why would you choose one so..."
He poked the teen in the shoulder with his cane, then
lifted Nosedive's bangs with the end of his staff."...young
and fragile to be your personal slave?”
Nosedive furled an eyebrow at
the decrepit Saurian. "Dude lizard, tons of offense.
I'm nobody's slave, all right? I happen to like being free, and I intend to
watch as your dictatorial asses are handed to yourselves and kicked back into
Limbo. So go poke your cane else where, Old Geezer."
The dinosaur gasped in horrid
disbelief, which Nosedive could only translate as "You let your slave talk
to me in that fashion," and it was decided—he would hurt for this. Siege
stomped from behind the party—ah, his keeper, it seemed—and immediately
backhanded the teen across the beak. The momentum sent Nosedive to the floor,
his shoulder smacking painfully against the metal. Cringing, he moved to twist
it—dislocated. Could he be anymore lucky?
Blinking by the swirling
colors and the feeling of the world spinning about him, he narrowed his eyes
and squinted to make out the dignitary group.
"Kill him, my
lord!" A female Saurian, who couldn't be any older than he, scowled with
way too much exuberance.
"No. Make him
suffer," an orange lizard with long, sharp claws purred, his daggers
twitching with spiteful intent. "Flog him. Make him scream for
mercy."
Nosedive shuddered at the
sinister tone.
"I have a better idea.
Pluck his feathers one by one," claimed another.
"I still do not
understand, Lord Dragaunus," the elder lizard
maintained, staring down at Nosedive with a mixture of bewilderment and
amusement. "Why this young one?"
Dragaunus strode forward, jarring the floor under Nosedive
ominously. He halted next to the elder lizard, placing a brotherly hand on the
older Saurian's shoulder. "Wildwing
Bronzeplume is his older brother."
An uproar of gasps resounded
from group.
"It cannot be..."
"Another
Bronzeplume? We must eliminate him at once!"
"By the Blazes,"
the elder lizard said, nodding in undisguised dislike. "Have you been able
to extract any of his brothers’ plans?"
"My servants have been
working diligently, Helis," Dragaunus
seethed in rage, kicking the teen in the stomach.
Nosedive writhed upon the
ground, wishing to be anywhere but the here and now.
"But so far he has held
firm."
"We must wait,
then," Helis said prosaically, yet a hint of
triumph infiltrated his voice. "The Bronzeplumes
will certainly wish to reclaim their kin. Until then, all we need to do is
wait."
"No," Nosedive
murmured drearily, his world still not on its axis. As much as he wished
numerous times during the last few months for his brother to arrive and save
him, he banished the thought from his mind instantly. Wildwing
must never come. If he were to...he couldn't think of the ramifications.
Immediate death would be rendered for punishment.
But he knew deep within his
heart if his brother found out he was Dragaunus’s
hostage, he would come. Even if he was accompanied by the Strike Force, he
would come...and Dragaunus would be waiting...
"Pathetic," Dragaunus leered, peering down at him. "You know something,
don't you? Saving it for yourself won't help you, duck boy."
Smacking Nosedive in the head
with his cane, Helis added, "What do you think
you're accomplishing by retaining that information for yourself? If your
brother truly cared, he would have been here by now, don't you think?"
"Wildwing isn't coming because he knows
you," Nosedive murmured breathlessly, heaving his shoulder blades off the
ground. He took a deep breath to curb the throbbing pain in his shoulder and
head. "He wouldn't fall into your sorry excuse for a trap. He knows
better!"
"Does he, or is he just
planning?" Dragaunus prompted.
Nosedive narrowed his eyes, but kept silent. He knew the drill by now. Whatever
he said they'd twist around and try to get him confused. He wouldn't let them.
He wouldn't betray his brother.
"Ah, my lord, look at
that glare. He will be a tough one to break, won't he?" Helis claimed, knocking the boy in the leg with his cane.
Dragaunus sneered and bent down, tracing the tip of his claws
across Nosedive's forehead and cheek. The teen shivered.
"He might share blood
with his brother, Helis, but that is all. He will
submit to me. It is inevitable. Then, with his own concord, I will slay him in
front of his brother—limb by limb."
Helis nodded and posed uncouthly, “My lord, educate me.
What of your first personal slave? Is he of the living?”
Nosedive clamped his eyes
shut as Dragaunus ran his claws down his arms and
abruptly sunk them into his flesh. “He was lost to me by that abhorrent mage
Kendra. This one will not be so lucky.”
!!!
"What do you know?"
Siege demanded, his scream nothing more than a vehement command.
Nosedive bowed his head as
sweat pelts dripped from his forehead. "I have dementia," he
whispered, not even having the strength to lift his head. He closed his eyes
and hung lifelessly from the bonds holding his wrists.
His demoralized body jerked
as another strike mortified him. He struggled in his bonds, only to fall
inert once more.
"Who is your lord!"
"Not yours..."
*Crack!*
!!!
Nosedive, arms bound above
his head, pulled his knees to his chest as he sat in the corner of his cell. He
buried his battered face in his knees and tried to hold back the tears from
falling. He had to be strong. He couldn’t show them his fear, even though he
was deathly afraid. Ironically, he wasn’t scared of dying. He was of more pain.
If they just killed him, then it would be all over, and he wouldn’t be afraid
again. He was afraid of causing his brother’s death, as he had his father, but
most of all, he was afraid of betraying Wildwing to
the Saurians. If he told the Saurians
everything he knew…he couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t tell the Saurians about his brother’s plan. He had to keep it in…no
matter what they did to him.
“FLASHBLADE!”
Oh, Stars…
Nosedive’s head jerked up at
the roar of Dragaunus’s unforgiving voice, and the
floor underneath him vibrated violently. From the left side of the hallway
stalked Dragaunus, the red dinosaur more like a blur
than a menacing overlord. That quickly changed when the overlord halted in
front of his cell and pulled down the lever. The fire red lasers sizzled out of
sight, allowing the overlord passage into the cell.
“Your odious brother has
attacked my trade lines!” The fuming overlord struck out with his backhand,
hitting Nosedive directly in the left cheek and smacking the teen’s head
against the wall. “He had his brother
Canard and four ducks with him!” He attacked again, this time Dragaunus’s claws digging mercilessly into the boy’s chest.
“Who are they? Where are they hiding?”
Dazing, Nosedive blinked,
unable to make out anything other than the red blob in front of him. He ducked
his head, feeling a hot substance trickle down the side of his head. A raging
fire flamed in his chest, as new scars were carved into his flesh.
“ANSWER ME, FLASHBLADE!” Dragaunus demanded. “WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER?”
Numbly, Nosedive stammered,
“Safe…away from here…from you…Draggy…”
Dragaunus slammed his fist against Nosedive’s head, and the
boy, rendered in a stupor, couldn’t defend himself.
“That’s Lord Dragaunus to you, fledgling!”
!!!
*Crack!*
“What do you know?”
Nosedive opened his beak to
retort, but no words followed. Even his tongue was too exhausted, too battered
to form words. Even if he could, he wouldn’t respond as Siege wished.
And Siege knew it.
*Crack!*
!!!
Nosedive could survive
Siege’s beatings and Dragaunus’s rampage. Even the
royal posse of superego misfits was nothing more than an interrogation in the
worst sense. Wraith, however, Nosedive decided, was the worst. Wraith, for the
most part, wanted nothing more than his body.
Hanging upside down over the
goblet, his blood long rushed to his head, Nosedive winced as Wraith dipped a
jutted dagger into the boiling caldron and slowly shuffled toward him. Pinioned
arms, legs tied to the ceiling, Nosedive could do nothing but shiver. There
were no words for him to say or promises he wouldn't keep later for stopping.
In fact, this wasn't even a punishment. Wraith simply needed "the blood of
innocence," and at the age of sixteen, despite his past, Nosedive
qualified as such.
It was ritual of sorts. Once
a week, or so Nosedive conjectured, Wraith would come
to his cell along with Chameleon. He would be dragged down to Wraith’s
quarters, a laboratory for Dark Saurian Magic and unspeakable evils only
contrived by the Saurian mind. Every
week, it was the same. He would struggle, thrash, do whatever he could to
rebel, yet Chameleon would morph into a bodybuilder or Siege, then rough him up enough until he couldn’t fit back. By the
time he came around, he would be hanging upside with a headache the size of the
universe and infinitely more.
Horrified, Nosedive watched
Wraith near. Beak wrapped with an electrical bond, Nosedive could do nothing
but scream muffled protests as Wraith pierced his side with the end of the
scalding blade. Dragging the dagger through his mortified body, Nosedive howled
with pain. Unthinkable, unfathomable, excruciating pain! It tore through his
side, silencing him unavoidably when his throat became painfully raw to the
point of stifling, and he was forced to suffer without an outlet.
Tears rolled from his
eyelids, seeping into his long hair that dangled underneath him. Slowly, blood
followed the path of gravity, dribbling down his side, arm, shoulder, and
trickled into the goblet below.
Wraith dipped his fingers
into the goblet, rubbing them together to feel the texture of the red
substance. “Our lord is a fool, my sanies. It is only
through the power of our ancestors we will win this battle. Once Lord Dragaunus realizes this, you and your life force will help
to conquer your brother and these wretched water fowl.”
Sniffling, the dejected teen
begged with imploring eyes to Wraith, who simply leered. It was with that
terrifying face, crimson eyes glowing in an all righteous glower,
that Nosedive slipped from consciousness.
!!!
*Crack!*
A strangled howl, then the sound of lamentation echoing
eerily through the room.
*Crack!*
!!!
“You’re too cheerful,”
Nosedive said flatly. He watched as Siege finished securing his bonds above his
head, and he winced when they became too tight.
A bright, malevolent grin
contorted the lizard’s face, but he remained silent.
Nosedive believed that was
even worse than his previous statement. “I think I like it better when you’re
just bloodthirsty and sadistic.”
Siege dropped his hands and
graced the boy with the same smile. “I’ve realized that flogging isn’t always
the best torture technique. Today, we’re going to try something new.”
Nosedive pulled his head back
a little in attempt to distance himself from the mental lizard, but that was
futile. He sent a pointed look at the empty hand of Siege—no whip, no weapon of
any sort. “Okay, what evil Saurian torture technique have you decided on for my
arch dislike?”
Siege returned a fierce
smirk. “Puckworldian Feather
Torture.”
A deep, clinging abyss
swirled in Nosedive’s stomach as his blood ran cold. His face drained of color.
“W—What? That’s outlawed! Y—You
can’t!”
Siege simply reached
out—Nosedive flinched—and plucked one feather from the boy’s chest. “This could
be over. That could the only one.” Siege touched the side of the boy’s face
almost affectionately, which only unhinged the already nervous teen more. “Tell
me what Lord Dragaunus wants to know. Where is your
brother? Who’s with him? What’s he planning?”
Nosedive snorted. “Please
refrain from adding ‘lord’ in front of Draggy. He has
yet to earn the title.”
Siege, if it was even
possible, grew more cheerful as he plucked another feather. “This is going to
take awhile. You might one to get uncomfortable if you’re not yet.”
!!!
Nosedive slipped in and out
of consciousness. He wasn’t sure how long he practiced that, but by the looks
of the blood coating his teal—or now brown—jumpsuit, it had been awhile.
Rolling his head and tipping his head back against the wall, he let the sweat
pour off his head. Sucking in wet, gasping wheezes, he tried to survive. He
tried to breath, but that seemed almost impossible in the arid temperatures of
the Raptor and the crushing pressure in his chest. He tried to remain sane, but
then realized that was just ludicrous. Maybe he could get two out of three, and
hey, if Meatloaf knew one thing, that ain’t bad.
Thunderous footsteps sounded
down the hallway, but he didn’t raise his head. He learned yet another aspect—It wasn’t worth the energy to raise his head. The Saurians would do what they pleased, despite his
resistance, and he might as well just wince and wait.
The lasers ceased to sizzle,
and the footsteps portentously neared.
He shuddered and closed his eyes, awaiting further punishment for yet
another traitorous act committed by his brother against a certain Saurian
overlord. Since Wildwing’s last action and Dragaunus’s punishment, it must have been at least a few
weeks. Not that he had a way of telling just how long it was, but by feeling,
he knew it had been longer than usual. He would have thought it was his weekly
appointment with Wraith, but he still had a little time before that. It might
have been torture time with Siege, but that was usually in the morning and
night.
No, he realized as he was
unchained from the wall and blaster’s bunt was pressed into the side of his
head, this was different. He would have fought, especially since Siege actually
released him from his bonds, but where would he go? The
Placing the blaster in its
holster, Siege crouched down to him, seizing Nosedive’s wrists in one hand.
Holding them together, he trussed them with electric bonds. “Lord Dragaunus requests your presence.” Saying that, he stood
and with a gruff yank, lugged Nosedive to his feet.
“I don’t get a say in the
matter, huh?” Nosedive retorted, to which he received a slug to the left side
of his head.
Grimacing, Nosedive staggered
forward, the end of Siege’s blaster digging into his back. Then the status quo
changed, for abruptly, the portly lizard grabbed Nosedive by the shoulder and
thrust him against his body, wrapping a tight arm around the teen’s waist.
“What are you—?” Nosedive was
cut off by the dissolving of his stomach into Jello
and a weakness overcoming his body. Teleportation. He
had only done it once before, and his opinion hadn’t changed since then. He
still hated it. In a wave of green light, he felt his body dissolving, and he
closed his eyes against the bright light. It was weird enough feeling it—his
insides turning into gelatin and mush—but watching it? No thank you.
Less than a second later, he
opened his eyes when his body once more was his own. He shook his head to rid
himself of the spots fluttering in front of his eyes. He immediately took note
of their location—the hallway outside the kitchen. Well, it wasn’t really the
kitchen. That was just the room’s nickname.
It was actually one of the many torture chambers of the
“Move it,” Siege commanded,
releasing Nosedive and ramming him forward with the bunt of his blaster.
Nosedive rolled his eyes, but
complied. Oh, this should be fun. Either they would try that method of torture
again or Wildwing was dead, and they were frying him
to eat. Both ways were not tempting in the slightest.
Walking inside the room, he
took note of Dragaunus at the controls, his fist
balled in a furious fashion, his mouth twisted in a horrible scowl. The teen
caught the tail end of the conversation, “…quite helpful these past few months
helping me to unwind my anger from your absence.”
Who was he talking—Nosedive’s
eyes pored over the opposite ledge at the other side of the abyss where stood
two ducks, both armed, both angry. His heart skipped a beat, and though he
prayed that his brother would never come, he couldn’t help the acute shrill
that surged from his beak, “WILDWING!”
He crumbled to his knees as
Siege’s blaster connected with the back of his head, pain stabbing through his
head. Leaning on his hands, he winced and tried to push past the pain, but it
just ravaged mercilessly.
He shook his head and cringed
when a rough hand fisted in his hair, and his head was involuntarily jerked
upward. Trembling, heaving in ragged breathes, Nosedive beseeched silently to
his brother, whose eyes, even though hidden behind the Mask, conveyed his
concern. To his brother’s right, Canard gasped, seeing him in such a
predicament.
“Kid…”
Siege pushed his blaster next
to Nosedive’s head, only further proving their superiority over him. The teen gulped, wishing his brother didn’t
have to see him like this, wishing that Wildwing and
Canard had never come. He couldn’t let Dragaunus win.
He had to escape. If he knew his brother as much as he thought, then Wildwing would surrender and doom Puckworld
without question to safe his life.
Firming his resolve, Nosedive
struck out with his knotted hands, hitting directly into Siege’s blaster and
knocking the weapon from his hand. Shocked, Siege slackened his grip on the
teen’s hair, leaving Nosedive enough room to twist out of his grasp and kick
directly into the lizard’s stomach. Distanced by a few meters, Nosedive pushed
to his feet and started toward his brother—only for a brutal hand to clasp his
shoulder. Siege was quicker than he looked, but just as strong.
“RUN, WILDWING!” Nosedive
screamed, struggling futilely against Siege’s grip. Desperate, demoralized
tears glimmered in his eyes. “RUN!”
“Siege, restrain him!” Dragaunus ordered.
Having lost his blaster,
Siege constricted an arm about the teen’s waist, pinioning Nosedive’s tied
hands against his body. Another hand, viciously hard, clamped over Nosedive’s
beak, silencing the teen to mere mumbles.
“Hurt him, Dragaunus, and there will be no end to your suffering,” Wildwing vowed, his voice low and menacing.
A braying laugh erupted from Dragaunus’s mouth as he sauntered toward Nosedive and
Siege. “Wildwing, your brother has found nothing here
if not suffering.”
Nosedive eyed Dragaunus through narrowed and detested eyes as the
overlord halted next to him. Oh, how he hated the lizard, even more so than he
had all the other times he had thought about it in the past few months. All Dragaunus wanted was to torture Wildwing
using him.
All his anger fled, replaced
by percolating anxiety when Dragaunus reached out
toward him, almost affectionately. Shunning away, Nosedive squeezed his eyes
and squirmed in Siege’s grip, but Siege simply tightened his hands around
Nosedive’s body, painfully so. Held immobile, the teen had no choice but to
endure the overlord’s wrath when Dragunus caressed
his neck, dragging his fingernail up and down the teen’s feathers, ruffling
them. Nosedive shivered, unhinged.
Stop…he
muffled pleadingly as Dragaunus’s hand drifted down
his neck toward his chest. Oh, Stars,
just stop!
He didn’t realize he wasn’t
the only one screaming, “STOP!” Wildwing demanded,
taking a step forward on the platform and leveling his gauntlet toward Dragaunus as a threat. His petrified sediment was echoed by
his twin brother.
Abruptly, Dragaunus
halted and instead, clamped his hand over Nosedive’s neck. “Shoot, Bronzeplume, and I will tear the flesh from his bones and
give it to you as a paper weight.”
Nosedive whimpered softly,
feeling the sharp nails digging into his skin. Eyes rising, he peered at Wildwing, who glanced with tumult at him before regarding Dragaunus resentfully. However, it was Canard who spoke
venomously, “Leave Dive out of this, Lizard Lips. He has no place in this war.
He isn’t a threat to you. He’s just a kid.”
“Ah, but you are mistaken.” Dragaunus smirked diabolically at Nosedive. “He is the son
of one of your planet’s highest ranking officials and the brother of my most
hated enemy. He is in this, whether you wish to believe it or not, and he will
stay in this until you and your brother meet my demands.”
Nosedive’s frightened eyes
widened as his glare ricocheted from Dragaunus to Wildwing then back to Dragaunus.
His heart thundered in his chest, knowing what was to come, what his brother
would do.
Reluctantly, Wildwing dropped his weapon to his side and gritted through
clenched teeth, “What do you want, Dragaunus?”
NO! He couldn’t let Wildwing and Canard give themselves
up!
“I want your hearts to be
ripped from your bodies while you are still breathing and feel them pumping in
my hands. I want to watch as you crumple to the floor, clutching for air and
life, knowing that there is nothing you can do to save yourselves and Puckworld,” the overlord hissed, then added sadistically,
“I want to see your battered and mutilated bodies lying in front of me,
bleeding and inert, the dreams of freedom of your planet all but living.”
Blindsided, Canard scoffed
breathlessly, “Is that all?”
“Surrender to me, and I will
spare your brother’s life,” Dragaunus bartered,
keeping a hand firm upon
Nosedive’s neck, his nails
poised to pierce the teen’s flesh.
With a jerk of his head,
Nosedive freed himself from Dragaunus’s grip and
wrenched his beak from Siege’s clutch with a surprising amount of vigor.
“WILDWING! HE’S GOING TO KILL ME ANYWAY! HE TOLD ME HE WANTED TO
DO IT IN FRONT OF YOU!” Nosedive screamed insistently. Noticing Dragaunus’s infuriated appearance, his eyes burning and his
nostrils permeating smoke, Nosedive turned to his brother, resigned in his
fate, “Do what you gotta do.”
“You abysmal, loathsome—” Dragaunus dove for Nosedive, claws honed in front of him,
ready to render brutal punishment—when a puck hit his hand. Dragaunus
snarled, gripping his bleeding appendage, aiming a vicious glare at Wildwing. “You will pay for that!”
Nosedive thrust his elbow
into Siege’s gut, lessening the lizard’s grasp. He kicked his heel into Siege’s
shin and tore from his grip. Twisting in mid-air, Nosedive fell
butt-first to the ground, staring disbelievingly at the two Saurians.
For a moment, no one moved. Then, as if the world restarted, Nosedive pushed
himself to his feet and moved to run—only to be confronted by the abyss in the
middle of the room. He whirled and surveyed the two lizards—Siege to the left, Dragaunus to the right. If he ran, he would only be caught
by one of them.
“NOSEDIVE!” Wildwing shouted. He darted
about the left edge of the abyss in order to help his brother, while Canard
headed the other way.
Everyone was halted at the
cacophony of a battle that bristled from the left entrance way as stray pucks
hit the walls. The Chameleon and Wraith retreated into the room. The mage
quickly created a fireball and threw it toward the opening, while the Chameleon
fired with his blaster. Disarmed suddenly, the Chameleon scrambled out of the
way, beseeching to Dragaunus, “Boss! We need help!”
Wraith grunted as a lithe
gray mallard—Duke, Nosedive remembered from his brother’s files—ducked fireball
and hip-checked him. Recovering instantaneously, the ancient mage lit his fire
sword and dove at Duke, singeing the duck’s feathers across his chest. Another
duck, gray-feathered, burly, and built, wrestled with the now shifted
Chameleon, who had morphed into a reject from the WWE.
“Siege! Restrain the boy!” Dragaunus
directed, then lunged at Wildwing.
The leader sidestepped and delivered a backhand to the overlord’s head. Ducking
a swipe of his claws, Wildwing kicked Dragaunus in the stomach, then
fell upon him, ready to attack once more.
Nosedive spared a glance at Wildwing, as the fight headed farther away and toward the
other side of the abyss again. He was uncomfortable with Wildwing
so far, but he shifted his glare at the sound of someone approaching. He took a
step backwards, his heel touching the edge of the platform as Siege stalked
forward.
“Surrender, slave, or you
will receive the beating you will not survive through—and it will be long and
suffering,” Siege threatened.
“KID!” Canard’s voice pierced the air.
Nosedive swiveled, seeing his
brother’s twin struggling to get pass Wraith, who created an invisible wall to
keep the ducks from Nosedive. Canard banged on the wall, but to no avail.
Nosedive looked down at the
electrical spurts, toying half-seriously with simply jumping. It would spare Wildwing’s life, maybe, and he wouldn’t go back to the torture
he had endured. He wouldn’t be the cause of the downfall of the Resistance
and…and…He looked back at Siege, who stood ready to pounce upon him. What other choice did he have?
Unexpectedly, the landing
underneath jarred, spilling him on the floor.
Dragaunus’s incensed voice cut through the pandemonium. “What the
Blazes!”
Haggardly raising his head,
Nosedive saw Dragaunus collect himself across the
abyss, a few feet away from Wildwing. Then, sparring a venomous glance at the leader, the overlord fled
down the hall. His older brother instantly dashed to the edge of the abyss,
beckoning, “DIVE! JUMP!”
Nosedive looked down at the
electrical spurts, then at the distance—the incredibly long distance—between he
and Wildwing. He couldn’t jump that.
Siege brayed. “Dare it, and you will perish!”
Another explosion rocked the
platform, this time louder, but not as shaky. Nosedive stared down Siege,
seeing the malevolence in his eyes. They were the exact opposite of his
brother’s…His brother who wanted to save him…who he might never see again if he
didn’t try—
“Dying would be better than
staying with you!”
Turning on his heel, Nosedive
took off toward the edge—and jumped.
“CHAMELEON!” Siege bellowed.
Nosedive barely heard him.
Flying across the abyss, bound arms extended toward his reaching, welcoming
older brother, Nosedive felt his heart lift—He would be saved. His hands came
within a foot of his brother, already feeling his touch, receiving his
welcoming smile. They would be together again—
A force slammed into his
side, directing him off course and hauling him toward the abyss.
“WILDWING!” He implored desperately as he kept his arms extended,
his eyes beseeching to his broken brother.
“NOSEDIVE! NO!”
As two strong arms encircled
waist, he felt his body turn into Jello, and a splash
of green engulfed him just inches from the electrical spurts.
And his brother vanished in a
wave of green shimmering.
Nosedive slammed against the
floor, mortified, gasping in drawing breaths. He was stolen from his family—again.
His unseeing eyes focused upon the floor, he couldn’t get the sight of his
brother’s haunted and broken eyes from his mind.
A hard hand gripped him and
wrenched him off the floor, securing him much like Siege had—arm about his
waist, hand clamped over his beak. Vertical, Nosedive now saw Dragaunus, fiddling with the controls. That meant they were
no longer in the
Dragaunus opened the comm. link and sounds of the
battle—blaster shots and puck launchers—infiltrated the small command room.
“Siege, bring Wraith to the Raptor at once. The power cells—they’re
overloading!”
Nosedive sunk into
Chameleon’s hold. Wildwing and Canard were just to
arrest Dragaunus, and Duke L’Orange
and the burly duck—Grin Backcheck—were
to keep the henchmen busy. That left Captain Mallory McMallard
and Dr. Tanya Flockheart to set the explosives.
As a flash of green
brightened the room, Dragaunus stalked toward him.
“Siege, get out of here! You—” He pointed an accusing finger at Nosedive. “You
knew about this, didn’t you? You knew they were coming!”
Though Nosedive couldn’t
speak, he glared resentfully. Yes, he knew, but he sure as hell was going to
tell the overlord.
With an eruption of engines,
Nosedive felt the subtle force of the ship rocketing out of the
Nosedive felt nothing. He was
completely numb. The air stolen from his lungs, he tried to breath, finding it
hard not from the hold upon his beak, but from the sudden soul-wrenching pain
clutching his heart. Horrid realization and dread crashed over him like a crest
of a wave, and he drowned in its void of lost. His brother was in the
WILDWING!
Smirking hellishly, the
overlord touched the teen’s cheek tenderly. “My condolences
on your loss, Flashblade. I’m sure if your
brother is not dead, he is certainly burning alive.”
Nosedive blinked, more tears
expelling from his eyes as he did so. His breathing increased to the point of
hyperventilation, and his thoughts whirled unbound him his mind. Wildwing…was dead.
Stars, what had he done? His brother was dead. The only
person who searched for him for fifteen years. The only person who gave
a shit about him when he was in the gangs and struggling to survive…His big brother…
Abruptly, Siege’s warily
voice blared, “My lord, the ducks! They’re following us!”
Nosedive’s head perked up,
tears glistening on his cheeks. Wildwing…was alive?
Dragaunus scowled, striding up behind Siege. “Then we will
escape them like we escaped that dimensional prison.” As Dragaunus
pulled back the lever, Nosedive watched aghast as a purplish-white swirl
contorted in the air, allowing the Raptor passage into its field.
They were leaving the planet!
Hell, they were leaving the dimension and taking him with them!
“Lord Dragaunus!
They followed us!”
Nosedive breathed a sigh of
relief.
Dragaunus growled angrily, “Then release the worm!”
Nosedive didn’t know what
that was, but he surely didn’t like the sound of it. He had almost lost his
brother once, and he wouldn’t lose him again! Banging his head back and
smacking into Chameleon’s face, the teen was freed. He dashed toward the
startled overlord and slammed his shoulder into Dragaunus’s
side, stopping the lizard from pulling down the lever. Striking out with his
hand, Dragaunus gripped Nosedive by the neck and
lifted the boy effortlessly in the air. His feet dangled meters from the floor,
pointing down pleadingly for stability. Gagging, the teen
stared, transfixed, at Dragaunus’s terrifying eyes.
“You will learn your place,
slave!” Dragaunus proclaimed, then
threw the teen thoughtlessly.
A chilling reverberation
sounded as Nosedive collided with the wall. He lifelessly slid down it to the
floor. Lying on his side, pain crippling him, he discerned a distanced echo,
“My lord, we’re going through!”
!!!
“My lord, we seem to be on a
planet called Earth,” Siege’s gruff voice ascertained. The burly lizard growled
under his breath, gazing intensely at the screen. “It’s warmer than Puckworld, and the inhabitants are even more stupid, if
that’s possible. They don’t seem to have any intergalactic trade or
communications. They’re completely isolated.”
Nosedive sighed, kneeling
upon the floor directly next to Dragaunus’s throne.
He rested the majority of his weight on his haunches and absentmindedly tugged
at the bonds tying his wrists together behind his back. No use. Energy bonds
were worse than ropes. He couldn’t fray them and draining the electricity?
Yeah, he had no idea how to do that.
He tugged a little harder,
hearing the vague jingling behind him.
Peering over his shoulder, Nosedive growled at the chains connecting his
bonds with Dragaunus’s throne less than a foot away.
Keeping his enemies close, the teen surmised dejectedly.
Sitting regally in his
throne, Dragaunus leaned forward. “Any sign of the
ducks?”
Ah, so that was the reason.
They wanted him close, for he was their only bargaining chip. The Saurians were outnumbered now, six to four. Coupled with the fact that the Saurians
had no hunter drones yet gave the ducks the upper hand. If Wildwing and the strike force found the Raptor, he’d be the
Saurians’ only way of survival. Wildwing
wouldn’t dare attack Dragaunus with his little
brother in the overlord’s clutches. Hell, maybe Dragaunus
just wanted to trade Nosedive’s life for their own. Nevertheless, he was the
lizards’ salvation.
Wonderful. Could he be anymore screwed?
“Yes, my lord. They landed in
a city, not too far from here. Luckily, I’ve engaged the cloaking device, so
they won’t be able to find us.”
He would have made a note to
keep his beak shut if it wasn’t already tied close by an electrical bond.
“Chameleon,” Siege continued,
“is checking all systems to make sure they’re functional, while Wraith is
deciphering the magical essences of the planet—or something like that.”
“Good,” Dragaunus
commented. “Our first task is firepower. If this planet is as inept as you say,
it should be rather unproblematic to conquer. Then we can use its resources to
expand the empire.”
Siege regarded his overlord
bemused. “What about the ducks?”
Dragaunus narrowed his eyes viciously. “They are simply six
life forms. How much of a resistance could they possibly create? We shall crush
them flat!”
Sighing in vexation, Nosedive
glowered at the overlord before ducking his head. Infuriately and
unfortunately, as much as believed in his brother’s abilities, with a cloaking
device, it looked like he wasn’t going anywhere for a while. He maneuvered onto
his butt and bent his knees to get into a more comfortable position. Leaning on
the side of Dragaunus’s throne, he tilted his head
back to rest it on the chair’s arm.
Abruptly, Nosedive tensed,
and his nerves prickled on end as a foreign hand trailed through his long hair,
its honed claws dragging across his scalp. A tingling ravaged his stomach, and
Nosedive squirmed but couldn’t get away. The chain holding fast to the chair
restricted his escape, and he was forced to endure Dragaunus’s
almost affectionate petting.
“Your brother is persistent,
if nothing else,” Dragaunus murmured, his voice
distant. It conveyed his reeling mind, conniving new ways to conquer the planet
and raise the Saurians from their current
destitution.
Suddenly, the hand fled from
Nosedive’s hair and clenched him just under the beak, tilting his head
backwards so the teen bore his eyes into those amber and malevolent ones of the
overlord. “Tell me, slave. What will mar your brother more? You tortured to the
point of derangement or your utter devotion and servitude to me?”
!!!
*Crack!*
The pain continued
unrelentingly.
*Crack!*
There was no escape.
*Crack!*
They didn’t even ask him
anymore.
*Crack!*
!!!
Laying on his side upon the floor, Nosedive was abruptly
awaken when the door opened. He blinked at the abrupt burst of light, not truly
discerning what was occurring. Was Siege there to wake him up already?
Squinting, he barely made out
the white, familiar boots on his floor, even though they looked exactly like
his did before the beginning of his torture. Slowly, Nosedive’s adjusting eyes
rose, and the teen noticed the teal jumpsuit and white knee pads, then the
person’s upper body, which was protected by rather bulky armor, white and teal.
The teen grunted excitedly; tacit tears conveyed his relief.
Wildwing bent down to the laying teen’s side, and with a
click, unshackled the chains restraining him to the throne. Reaching behind his
back, Wildwing swiftly deactivated the bonds and
those around his little brother’s beak.
“It’s
okay, Dive,” his older brother assured, as the shivering teen dove into his
arms. “It’s okay. I’m here now.”
“I didn’t think you would
find me!” Nosedive sobbed, holding onto his brother tightly and reveling in the
older drake’s sheer presence. “I was afraid they would kill you if you tried!”
“Kill me? They won’t kill
me,” Wildwing said somberly. “They have no reason to
anymore.”
“What?” Nosedive asked,
reticently lifting his head from his brother’s armor. “I—I don’t understand.
What are you talking about, Wing? You’re Dragaunus’s
enemy number one.”
Wildwing smiled a little manically. “Dragaunus
will rule the world. I’ve given up my resistance of him to save you.”
“WHAT!” Nosedive shrilled. He
couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Wildwing, you
can’t! You have to stop him! I don’t matter that much! Not for the world!”
Wildwing shrugged. “I had to do what I had to do, you know?
It’ll be okay, Nosedive.”
Nosedive blinked. Did his
brother just call him “Nosedive”? He could count on one hand how many times his
brother had. He shook his head; it didn’t matter. “How can it be okay? Dragaunus will rule the world! You have to stop him! You’re
the leader of the resistance! It’s your job!”
Wildwing drew the shuddering teenager into his arms.
“Actually, my job is being your big brother first.”
Leaning his cheek against Wildwing’s chest armor, Nosedive sighed. “But you have to
beat Dragaunus,” he squeezed shut his eyes, dreading
what he knew he had to say, “even if it means not saving me.”
“Well, actually, it’s you I
have to beat.”
Nosedive tensed and pulled
away slightly. His brother’s hands slipped to his arms. “Beat me? Dude, did Dragaunus beat on
you for a few—” He choked when the hands holding him tightened about his
biceps—writhing, squeezing, scrunching his muscles.
“Ow…Ow…OW! Wildwing!” Nosedive screamed and struggled in his grasp. “Wing,
you’re hurting me!”
Wildwing lessened his grip for a moment, his loving grin
demonizing. “That’s the point!”
Nosedive stopped struggling
and stared into the unfamiliar and horrifying eyes of whom
he thought was his brother. “You’re not Wildwing,” he
said in a gut-wrenching whisper.
The smirk only grew in
malevolence. “What gave you that idea, little brother?”
Before Nosedive could blink,
a hand detached from his arm, and a fist slammed in his right cheek, sending
him sprawling to the ground.
Panting and unhinged,
Nosedive scurried to get away, only for a hard hand to grip the back of his
shirt. He was tossed him carelessly in the air. Crashing against the wall, Nosedive
winced in mortal pain and crumpled to the floor. He diffidently moved again,
groaning and attempting futilely to get up. His feet slipped underneath him,
causing him to crash again to the floor and not allowing him to catch his
bearings.
Reverberating footsteps
jolted the floor underneath him. Raising his head, he gulped fearfully,
hopelessly.
“Who are you?”
Wildwing smirked. “Don’t you recognize me, little brother?” He
crouched down to be even with the teen, who pushed
himself onto his knees. “You were right, Nosedive. I have to stop Dragaunus, even if it means losing you.”
Nosedive flinched at the
harsh words, even though he knew this wasn’t his brother. Wildwing
wouldn’t despise him to that extent…right?
When he turned back to glare
at his brother again, Wildwing was already moving.
!!!
Nosedive’s eyes darted back
and forth at the two Saurians standing before him.
Once more chained to the throne, he really didn’t have a choice but to listen,
and he certainly didn’t like where the conversation was heading.
“He is just a Puckworlder. They had no knowledge of magic before we
arrived. There is no way he could have constructed magical boundaries by
himself,” Dragaunus snarled at the sadistic mage.
“You must be mistaken.”
“I wish it were so, my lord,”
Wraith replied, “but it is true. The process will certainly be rendered
ineffective. The Laws of Enchantment are stringent on this.”
Law of Enchantment? Nosedive’s mind reeled. Get hit with the puck too many times as a kid, huh?
Dragaunus scowled, staring at Nosedive penetratingly. “How? Unless…”
“Kendra returned to Puckworld for a brief time before her dispersing,” Wraith
interjected somberly. “Why she would choose to protect this boy is beyond the
realm of my abilities.”
“What can you do?” Dragaunus demanded, his claws clenching.
Wraith sighed before
crouching down to Nosedive. Despite the boy’s flinching, the mage took the
boy’s head in his hands. “I cannot extract the information you need by
mind-rape—”
Nosedive’s eyes widened,
terrified. By…w—what?
“—now. It will take time to weave through the magic and pull
the treads of the mystical boundaries. However, possibly he will tell us what
we want to know…by other methods.”
Dragaunus smirked. “Possibly, but we must first give him a
choice.” He regarded the boy sincerely, though his sharpened teeth held an
underlying threat in his vicious smile. “It’s doesn’t have to be this way.” He
brushed back the boy’s bangs, sending a violent tremor through Nosedive. “It
can end now. Just tell me what I want to know.”
Nosedive stared at the
overlord, then quickly jerked his head from Wraith’s
grasp. There weren’t any qualms of how Nosedive felt. He sent a glower toward
the overlord that told the lizard just what he thought of his plea bargain. He
had survived this long. He would not betray Wildwing
now.
Dragaunus’s smirk demonized. “Wraith, you may use whatever means
necessary.”
!!!
Nosedive peered about him
suspiciously. He was back on Puckworld, but that’s
impossible. The corridor of the Resistance base? The
last time he was there was the day the Saurians
attacked it, and a red flood light covered people, the walls, everything in a
macabre crimson shadow. This time, however, the hallway was devoid of its
bloodlike qualities, but was just as eerily. It was dark, pitch black. He
couldn’t see anything, yet he just…knew he was there. Instinct.
Straining, he could just make out the doorway to his father’s office—his dead
father’s office. He shook his head. No…he had to get out of there. He just had
to get out.
But to where…?
What did it matter!
Turning sharply, Nosedive
dashed down the corridor, heading somewhere but getting nowhere. The doors just
kept coming, and the darkness never ceased.
Suddenly, as he passed
through a four-way corridor, a rough hand grabbed his forearm and tugged him
into another hallway as blasts burned where he had stood. Slammed against the
wall, Nosedive panted as a hand covered his beak and kept him from screaming.
Piercing blue eyes flashed before him, holding steady, expressing their undying
love.
A single finger over his
beak, and the command was instantly understood. “Quiet. They’re here.” The Saurians.
Then, just as quickly as he
was ordered, his brother drew him into a hug. “It’s okay,” Wildwing
murmured into his ear. “It’s okay. This time I’m here. Everything’s going to be
all right.”
“Dad…” Nosedive whispered.
“Dad…he’s…” He blinked back the tears saturating his eyes.
Wildwing pulled back slightly to gaze into his little
brother’s eyes, his own soft and fond. “I know, but I’m here now, and I’m never
going to leave you, baby bro. I promise. I even brought the team.”
“You brought the team?
Canard’s here?”
Wildwing’s smile faded slightly, but he still nodded.
“Yup…Canard and the team…you know…”
Nosedive’s eyes pored over Wildwing suspiciously, his mind ricocheting to the thoughts
of the Wildwing from prior—the one who was confident
in his team, knowing the prospects by heart. Nosedive cocked his head to the
side. “Yeah, I know the team…but don’t you…?”
!!!
“My lord, he is already
suspicious.”
“Then use your discretion,
Wraith, but I want the information. If we are stuck on this planet with those
fowl, I want to know everything this brat knows.”
“Yes, my liege.”
!!!
Wildwing ruffled his little brother’s hair, and Nosedive felt
his misguided apprehension ease. He smiled—
—A blast rang out accented by
Siege’s braying laughter. A hot, sticky substance splashed across Nosedive’s
cringing face and shivering body, staining his feathers and uniform. Wildwing stiffened his arms, his loving eyes immediately
losing its sparkling light.
“NO!” shrieked Nosedive,
clutching his older brother’s lifeless body as it tumbled to the floor. Its
weight brought him with it.
“No! You promised! You can’t
leave me!” Nosedive screeched, shaking his brother’s body. “You can’t leave me!
WILDWING!” His scream waned to a desperate, helpless
plead, stressed by his gutted sobs. “Please don’t leave me.” He fell forward,
resting his head in his brother’s bleeding chest. “Please, big bro, don’t leave me…”
!!!
Wraith straightened back and
observed his work. He smirked at the wide open, wild eyes of the teenage
hatchling, huddling against the throne. Suddenly, through his beak exploded,
“NOOOOOO!” utterly broken, utterly shattered.
His eyes unseeing, haunted by
falsities made reality, Nosedive sobbed desperately into his knees, in his
heart a searing pain that could not be distinguished.
Leaning forward, Wraith
seized the boy by the head and bore his crimson orbs into Nosedive’s frantic ones.
!!!
“What do you know?”
*Crack!*
“How owns you?”
*Crack!*
“What is your stature?”
*Crack!*
!!!
Nosedive fell to his knees,
watching horrifyingly as Wildwing descended into the
pit. Ankles electrically bound to the island, he descended closer and closer
toward the electric spurts.
“NO! Please!” the teen
pleaded toward Dragaunus. “Please, don’t kill him!
I’ll do anything! Please, just don’t kill him!”
Dragaunus peered malevolently down at the distraught teen, as
tears expelled from Nosedive’s eyes. Snorting, the overlord broached, “Tell me
what I want to know.”
Nosedive whirled to Wildwing, watching as his brother looked at him through
loving eyes. His determined look said it all and then some. If Wildwing was dying, then the team—Canard!—had already fallen, and if that were the case, then
Nosedive would follow shortly.
Sadly, he could live with
that.
“Dive,” Wildwing
called, and the teen turned toward his older brother, who was only a few feet
from the spurts. “I love you, baby bro.”
Nosedive stammered through
his tears, “I—I love you, too, Wing…”
Two piercing screams—one of
death, one of lost.
!!!
A different ways, each one
more horrible, more bloody, more brutal, accented by
gutted sobs and hysterically screams…
Wraith stared at the huddled
mass in the corner, tears streaming down its ruddy face, its eyes haunted yet
dulled from their once paramount brilliance. Its voice had longed given out,
while the being hadn’t moved in what seemed like an eternity, its mind falling
to comprehend what it witnessed over and over...
!!!
Nosedive didn’t have the will
to lift his head. His brother was dead…He wasn’t exactly sure how or when, but
he had seen it, lived it, cried it.
His brother was gone, so what
did it matter? What was all the resistance for? What was any of it for?
Wrists contorted and bound
above his head, Nosedive listened dismally as Dragaunus
sauntered about him. Shirtless, his body spoke volumes of the torture it had
received the past few months, exposed and fresh in the mind of the overlord. Dragaunus halted in front of the boy, seizing him by the
beak and raising it.
“You have changed, my slave,”
Dragaunus observed darkly and self-pleasuring. “Losing your brother has broken you, has it?
No one left to save you, is that it, boy? Your mighty hero fallen?”
Nosedive simply stared at him
before jerking his beak from the overlord’s grip and once more staring blankly
at the floor.
Dragaunus once more commenced his circling. He lightly brushed
his claws up the boy’s back from the small indent to the space between
Nosedive’s shoulder blades, sending an involuntary shiver through the boy’s
body. “You should know that I am very pleased with your progress. You will be
quite helpful in the coming months in acquiring a certain ancient object.”
Nosedive snorted. “Can’t you
get it yourself?”
Dragaunus halted in front of Nosedive and lifted his hand. Even
though Nosedive hadn’t raised his head, he saw the assault in his peripheral
vision and flinched. When no attack followed, he hesitantly looked up. Dragaunus stood there, a look of haughty pride upon his
face.
Leering, Dragaunus
continued, “I would if not for a resistance I have yet to swash. You, too, will
help to assure its demise.”
“You ever read a Magic Eight
Ball?” Nosedive asked breathlessly. “Right now, yours is reading, ‘Fat Chance.’
”
“And yours is reading, ‘Hell
is on Earth.’ ” Dragaunus once more clasped Nosedive
by the beak, holding him tightly. The teen shuddered when his second hand
pressed against his lower back. “Let me
remind you, duck, of your place. You are mine, now and forever. If you do not
follow my orders, you will undoubtedly be forced, for who will save you? Your brother? I fear not.” He released Nosedive, who scowled
bitterly at the overlord.
“I will never help you,” the
teen affirmed, his voice strained from emotion.
“If that is your final
decision, then you leave me no choice but coercion.” The overlord waited, but
no further argument was made. Walking toward the exit, Dragaunus
turned to the ancient mage hovering in the corner. “Wraith, even though his
brother is dead, I wish to harrow Wildwing once more
by taking away his precious younger sibling.” He peered over his shoulder to
grope a glimpse at the battered and broken teen before he confirmed Nosedive’s
worse fears. “Mark him.”
Nosedive’s head snapped up,
his heart racing in his chest. “You can’t! I—I—I—”
“Yes, my slave,” Dragaunus replied sharply, “you will accept your position,
for now, there is no escape. You are mine…forever!”
Taken back, Nosedive sunk in
his bonds as Wraith floated in front of him and took a hold of his pants,
pulling them down below his waist. Sauntering around the teen, Wraith probed
his lower back, touching the boy’s feathers, ruffling them over and over.
Nosedive squirmed at the touch, recoiling. Closing his eyes, he retreated into
himself, the distanced grating laugh of Dragaunus
echoing in his ears.
Tears seeped from his
eyelids, and selfishly, he found himself wanting his older brother. Where are you? He beseeched ardently. Why aren’t you here? Stars,
help me! WILDWING! HELP ME!
A plethora of Saurian words
broke through his mind, as a cold and sticky liquid was spread across his lower
back. The lights of the room dimmed, then flashed on
and off as a mighty wind and a roar of thunder crashed. Nosedive looked at Dragaunus, his long bangs whisking in front of his eyes. He
froze as the noise ceased, the world seemed to slow, and all that was left was
he and Dragaunus—
In the overlord’s hell-borne
eyes, he saw his fate.
There was no future.
Dragaunus was right.
Once he was stained, there
would be no escape.
Wing…
Dragaunus laughed at his misery. “If your brother could you see
now, he would disown you, slave. I
almost wish he was still alive to do it.”
Nosedive shook his head,
dismayed tears coursing his flushed face.
There was no one left to save
him.
And in the wake of the horrid
realization, Wraith’s finger was thrust into his back—and he screamed his
throat raw.
!!!
Nosedive watched, albeit
hanging upside and through his drooping eyelids, as Wraith dipped his fingers
into the goblet. Smearing the blood in between his tips, he looked displeased.
He turned to the green Siege in the doorway.
“I cannot use his blood
anymore,” he declared grimly. “He is no longer innocent.”
!!!
*Crack!*
There was no escape.
*Crack!*
He was on another planet.
*Crack!*
He was in another universe.
*Crack!*
His back bore the crest of
the most powerful overlord in the universe.
*Crack!*
And the only person who could
stop him was dead.
*Crack!*
Wildwing was dead.
*Crack!*
His brother was dead.
*Crack!*
The unforgiving whip stopped,
and Nosedive collapsed, his bonds securing him before he slumped to the
blood-drenched floor. Heaving in gasping breaths, the teen closed his eyes,
barely holding back the tears. Sweat pored from his forehead, glistened across
his shoulders, and stung his weeping lesions. Nosedive’s tongue dangled out of
his parched beak, his mouth parched from lack of refreshment. His hair limply hung
over his worn face, sticking to his saturated feathers. Dirt and blood smeared
his complexion, while his body writhed in brutal pain.
Siege halted in front of the
teen, whip curled in one hand, smacking against the other. He glared ruthlessly
at the subjugated teen.
“Who owns you?”
A muted scream tore at his
throat, “L—Lord Dragaunus.”
“What is your stature?”
“Slave.”
The shackles above him were
undone, and he crumpled to his knees on the floor, blood splashing onto his
knees and jumpsuit. While he was freed from his bonds, he glared down at his
raw and featherless wrists, and all he saw were chains.
THE END