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.
And then another Dragon rushed into the room. This one was dark blue, almost black, but had a vivid orange ring around the midsection of its tail, and hair to match. It also wore real clothes. A shirt, pants, and things I'd seen on so many men in the compound.
But when it leaned over me, I realized it was a female. The breasts were my first hint. The shape of her face was another. Sadly, that didn't seem to matter either, because the blue-and-orange Dragon woman simply pressed down on one of my shoulders, pinning me to the bed while the brown one secured the other side.
I still screamed. I yelled. I tried to hit, swing the chain, and kick out my feet, all at the same time. A few times, I felt their grip slip, so I tried even harder, but they simply adjusted to hold me again.
Then a third Dragon rushed into the room. This one was a soft grey all over. Her skin, her hair, and even her eyes matched. She was wearing a shirt that looked to be little more than a bra, but in colors as vivid as the canopies we'd passed.
And she started giving orders. I might not be able to understand them, but I knew the tone. I saw the looks she passed to the others and the nods they gave back. More weight was pressed down on me. More of my body was pinned by these three, making my struggles even less effective, but I refused to give up.
Then something sharp pinched my arm. Thrashing my head that way, I saw a needle buried in my skin and what had to be a syringe being emptied into my arm.
The thing wasn't shaped quite like ours. It was smaller, yet still glass. The needle was thinner and longer. The fluid had been clear, and within seconds, my mind began to slow, feeling like it was drifting.
I stopped struggling.
All three of the Dragons relaxed, leaning back but keeping their hands on me. That allowed me to see the human woman again. This time, I had the chance to actually look at her. Once, I'd told my friends about the colors of people in my books. I'd talked about skin as brown as tea, and this woman definitely had it. Strongly-brewed tea. She was as dark brown as the Dragon man who'd carried me in here.
Then there was her hair. By her face - especially around the temples - it was white. Scattered white hairs were visible in her many parts, because her hair was styled in dozens of long, slim braids that turned almost black by the ends. And when she turned to look at me, I realized her eyes were almost black too.
