I cracked my eyes open and saw nothing but black. The fabric was soft, but pressed against my cheek, and it ended in a pair of yellow feet. Sucking in a breath, I jerked back, trying to get as far away from the Dragon as possible, convinced I'd given him the wrong impression.

But his tail was twisted up in the chain attached my manacles. My movement startled the man-like thing awake. He yanked his tail back, freeing it from the twists of chain just as vehemently as I'd pushed away from him.

For a moment we simply stared at each other. After a little too long, he broke the stalemate by reaching up to rub at his eyes and mumble something under his breath. I had no clue what it meant, but he clearly didn't expect me to. Instead, the yellow Dragon simply pushed to his feet and made his way around the tree. A moment later, I heard fluid hitting the ground.

Eww. He was peeing? This close?

Not caring about my wounded feet, I limped my way down towards the road and the small fire the Dragons had built in the middle of it. My body hurt more than it ever had before, and every muscle was complaining about the abuse. That was the only reason I didn't try to slip away.

Last night, the brown one had caught me easily. I'd barely made it to the base of a tree before he simply wrapped his arms around me from behind, lifted, and carried me back. I'd hit him as hard as I could and kicked out with all my force, but it hadn't even slowed him down.

In other words, I was now their prisoner. I knew it, they knew it, and making another foolish escape attempt would only make them stop trusting me at all. If I ever wanted a chance, then I needed to hope I wasn't being marched to my death, give my body time to heal, and get smart about this.

So, once I reached the fire, I simply sat. The solid green Dragon was there, poking a stick at something in the embers. He glanced over, proving his eyes were as red as the lines that jutted from them over into his hairline, then the beast merely looked back at the flames.

Yet when the yellow one was done peeing, he called out as he made his way towards me. That caused the others to stir. One by one, they all came to sit around the fire, and the green one began handing out meat. I tried to refuse, but the Wyvern grumbled and gestured for me to taste or eat it.

With nothing else being offered, I did. Thankfully, it tasted close to the meal from last night, not the meat I despised. I simply didn't understand why they were all so insistent I eat it. The orange tubers were just as good, weren't they?

Maybe they were fattening me up for slaughter? Not that it made much difference. If I stopped eating, I might prove my point, but it would only make my escape harder. I knew that. Too many times in the compound, I'd been punished by having my meals removed for a day, and the one that followed was always miserable.

Giving in, I ate. I also drank, and somehow the water bottles were full again. The dark brown one checked my feet, looking at the cloth he'd wrapped around them, and the rest began to pack their things. This time, I knew to stand up on my own. I definitely did not want to get slapped again!

Then we walked. Today, the sun was just as warm, but there were more clouds, which meant I got breaks from the burning heat. None of them lasted very long, though. Sadly, they didn't really help with the oppressive brightness either - but the Dragons gave me the cloth for my head again.

When my shadow was beneath my feet, I looked around, expecting a repeat of the day before, but I was wrong. It seemed the rest of the group didn't have any interest in stopping. That was when the brown one moved to my side, giving me a cautious smile. I didn't smile back, but I did look him over.

Through the cloth, I could see his hide was a smooth, solid brown, except for the randomly placed black polka dots all over. The spots were largest on his back, turning into what reminded me of freckles on his hands, legs, and cheeks. His chin was a creamy color underneath. That faded - or at least changed - into the lavender I'd noticed yesterday. It was as if the color grew darker in the middle of his body, and it highlighted his muscles in a way I hadn't expected.

There were also two dark purple marks on the back of his neck. Maybe it was closer to the side? No, it was behind his ears, so that definitely counted as the back, but the true back of him was in that dark brown color. His short hair was the exact same shade of brown.

From my other side, the Wyvern chuckled, clearly aware of my inspection. I wrenched my eyes away, struggling not to blush at the impropriety. I'd thought the cloth over my eyes would make it hard to see what I was doing! Unfortunately, the Wyvern seemed to notice every move I made, and he was amused. His chuckle proved it.

He also kept the cloth damp throughout the day and encouraged me to use it liberally. Thankfully, I didn't feel quite as horrible as I had the day before. Yes, I was exhausted. Yes, everything hurt, but I wasn't as hot. This time, at least half the water soaking my chemise was from the bottle the Wyvern carried. The other half was my own sweat.

By the time my shadow began to stretch off to my right, the landscape had changed. It was hard to identify exactly what was different at first. Maybe the trees seemed cleaner? Then my brain registered why: the shrubs and vines that clung to the trunks in the forest had been cleared away, leaving space for grass. The path also widened into what could only be called a dirt road. Hard-packed clay - it had to be clay - felt like stone beneath my bare and aching feet, but our steps still raised dust.

The road wasn't straight. It bent around the largest of the trees and avoided massive rocks and other hazards that would make a straight line impossible. Each step brought a change in the sounds around us and the attitude of the group.

I just walked. In truth, I didn't know what else to do. Eventually, we made the last turn. The first thing I saw was the building. Half-hidden behind some kind of stone-looking wall, it looked as if wood had been cut into planks and hung sideways to make the exterior, then painted. Something similar to stone layered the roof like scales. A strange spinning device was set on the very peak, and near the ground, a collection of plants around the front made it look inviting.

A few steps more and I saw the next, then the one after. There were dozens! Hundreds, even. A fair number of different-sized structures lined the road we were on, but more roads branched off, stretching to the sides - with more buildings along each one. The landscape before me became a cluster of the small buildings set up in a grid of streets, and buried in the middle of them were the largest ones. It had to be a town!

I'd read about towns, but my books had no pictures of the current world. In truth, I'd been more interested in the plant and animal specimens my books were filled with. Still, this was almost overwhelming. There were so many structures, and the space between them was close, almost like the rooms in the compound. The sizes might be different, and each one had its own unique shape, but I was pretty sure a lot of these were homes.

Trying to take it all in, my feet slowed and I fell further behind. My head turned from side to side to see everything. Some of the siding was white. Others were blue, yellow, and even brown. And while the colors were pastel, they were still more intense than I expected. And as we got closer, I could make out people around some of the houses. Closer still, and I could see the details like tiny flowers planted in bowls by the steps.

By the time we made it halfway up the first road, my feet were barely moving. My eyes were wide and my mouth hung open, but the corners of my lips had curled up. For just a moment, I stopped caring about what came next and simply wanted to memorize everything. Sharp pokes lightly brushed my back, the pressure of fingers following as the Wyvern encouraged me to keep walking. He pointed towards the side, but his hand stayed on my back.

It seemed I was welcome to look so long as I didn't stop. The other Dragons seemed to have their own opinions, though. Their strange words were being traded quickly. Each of them spoke up, and the hand gestures became more animated. Then we turned onto a side street.

To my left were peaks of cloth in colors as bright as the yellow Dragon's skin. Yellows, blues, purples, greens, oranges, pinks, and more! Some had patterns. Others were solid. And yet, that wasn't the most shocking thing. No, it was the people moving around under those canopies. People who were all turning to look our way.

Up ahead, someone called out. A few minutes later, someone else did the same. By the time we were halfway past the cloth canopies, dozens of people had moved to cluster around us - and people was the only word I had to describe them.

Most of them were Dragons. They came in all colors, but had scaled skin and long, muscular tails. Mixed in between those were a few human women. Their skin ranged from tawny to earthen; most of their hair was a similar color to the dirt under the trees, but brighter, like polished wood. Browns. So many different shades of it.

The colors of these people varied but not drastically, ranging from light golden tones to dark umber. Some had hair only a few shades darker than my own, while others had the blackest I'd ever seen - and so many variations and patterns in between! However, not a single one had the alabaster skin or the pastel shades of hair I was used to seeing in the compound.

When I spotted a human man among the crowd, he was colored the same way as most, in those lovely shades of brown. My eyes landed on him, trying to understand if he was a wild man or not, and he noticed. Sneering at me first, the human man stepped forward and then did the last thing I ever would've expected.

He spat at me.

As if that was some cue, the rest of the bystanders all surged closer. Immediately, the Wyvern, the yellow one, and the brown one moved to encircle me. The tan and solid green ones both shifted outward, lifting their arms out to make a break for us.

It didn't stop the yelling, though. Human, Dragon, male, and female, they all screamed and gestured at us. The sound of so many voices was loud, so I lifted my hands to press them over my ears and kept moving.

I wanted to get smaller. I tried to look at the ground, but the lunges convinced me it might be better to see an attack coming. So many people. So many voices. All of them were raised in the kind of anger that rivaled the Righteous men in the compound.

With each step, I felt more alone, more odd, and completely lost. If it wasn't for the arms of the Dragons surrounding me, I would've turned and bolted, but they were guiding me forward. But why hadn't I felt like this in the forest? Maybe because we'd been a small group out there. I hadn't been nearly as outnumbered.

Here, I was.

Seeing everyone clustered together like this, I understood just how different I was from the people on the surface. I didn't speak their language, I didn't know their customs, and I didn't look like any of them! Even worse, our group was pressing through what seemed to be the middle of them, aiming straight for a large building on the other side.

My feet slowed. I didn't want to do this. Nothing about this place felt good. It had to be a trap, or maybe a slaughterhouse? I wasn't sure, but it looked as if my time to make a decision had finally run out. Shaking my head, I tried to refuse all of this. Turning, I checked to see if there was any chance I could go back, but all I saw were more of those angry faces.

Gently, the Wyvern pressed me forward.

Dropping my head, I made my way toward the unknown. Meek. Submissive. Dutiful. Evidently, living aboveground wasn't that much different than below.

Twenty-TwoAyla

The five Dragons kept me moving until I was inside. There, the air was drastically cooler and the light was dim enough my eyes could stop straining. Confused, I lifted a corner of the cloth, checking to make sure, then sighed in relief.

But my reprieve was short-lived. The Dragon men were still talking, and intensely. With a nod, the solid green one and the mostly tan one turned and left. The door opened, I heard the sound of yelling voices still out there, and then it was closed again.

Oddly, no one else came inside.

Only a few seconds later, a human woman rushed from the back, opening an interior door and waving us in. The Wyvern and the yellow dragon said something, the woman nodded at them, and then the brown one pressed against my back to guide me forward.

I refused. Worse, the Wyvern and the yellow one were leaving! No, that couldn't be good. This had to be a trap, so I spun, intending to run out and follow the rest of them. I didn't even make it a step before the brown one grabbed me again, exactly as he'd done the night before.

My upper arms were pressed against my sides. My feet came off the ground. Aware that being good couldn't save me anymore, I screamed in terror and thrashed, locking my eyes on the woman at the door. She simply opened it wider.

The brown Dragon carried me through it, up a hall, and then turned right into a small room. The whole time, I fought. Maybe it was pointless, but I didn't care. I wouldn't let them kill me and eat me the way the Elders had described. I refused to be shackled and have my body used the way Mr. Cassidy had warned.

Never mind that I was already chained! The heavy metal bounced against my flailing legs, causing pain with each impact, but the Dragon didn't seem to care. He simply carried me over to a bed and heaved me onto it hard enough that my back bounced against the barely-there mattress.