"Scar, wake up!" Shadowseeker whisper shouted at me. Out of habit, I quickly sat up straight in a salute. Shadow facetaloned as I collapsed back onto the ground in pain. "Ow....." I mumbled.

"Yeah, Granitetalon beat you up pretty good yesterday, I have to say," Shadow grinned. "Nothing you haven't dealt with before, though," he added, prodding me in the chest hard. I ignored him and looked out of the cage bars that me and Shadow shared.

Staring right back at me was Starlight, one of the more pitiful dragons running this "program" where dragonets fight to the death. "Rise and shine. We have big news for us today," she announced scathingly. Not bothering to disobey, since I knew where that went from experience, I strolled to the bar door, Shadowseeker on my right.

Starlight unlocked our cage with dark purple keys that matched her scales and pushed us out into the large area in between all the cells. Across from us, Granitetalon glared at me. His red eyes penetrated through my scales and hurt from the inside. He was scary.

Starlight looked bored, as if taking this long to grab a pair of four year olds was a waste. So she snapped and all the cages were unlocked. The dragonets were sweeped out from their cells by an invisible wave. Some jolted awake, others were awake and looked a little nervous because Star only used her animus powers if it was important. She never used them in punishment, though, and that reassured them.

"Today we are having a challenge," she announced, circling around us so we all heard. Whispers erupted, obviously. The last time there was a challenge, we had to run from one side of the prison to the next, 157 times exactly, and she'd know if we lied. A GlassWing (SkyWing SandWing) had won and got to be released into the world, into safety. I'd finished in third last, since I didn't have functioning wings. They'd been ruptured and torn from years of fighting my inmates, like many dragonets here. The poor soul that got last place, a small SilkWing IceWing hybrid (They're so uncommon they hadn't been named) was shot and killed. I shuddered to think about that. Two more places and that would've been me.

"You all want to know what it is, right?" Star's rough, pitiless voice broke me out of my stupure. I nodded a little late, and she stared at me, her starry orange eyes burning into mine. She seemed... interested. As if I was the only thing worth looking at here, in a room of hopeless dragonets. It was so weird. Then she shook herself and said, "Today we're going to swim. Not laps, mind you," She added as quickly concealed groans echoed around the prison chamber. "We're gonna see how long you guys can tread water for."

Treading water? I liked doing that. We went outside once before, to swim, and they taught us treading. I was one of the lucky few that could tread water for fifteen minutes, and didn't get whipped fifteen times. Maybe I'd get a higher score. I knew I wouldn't win, obviously, as I was a runt, but at least I wouldn't be near last. I couldn't say the same for Shadowseeker, though; he was very bad at treading and only got past by standing on the bottom of the pool when nobody was looking. I felt so bad when he got whipped five times and I got past with nothing. But I know not to feel too much pity, because that doesn't get you anywhere.

Neither does speaking up, either.

My hand shot into the air, despite the aches from sleeping on stone floors every night. "What does the victor get if they win?" I asked without being addressed. She swiveled around to face me. I winced, thinking I was about to get whipped, but when I opened my eyes, she was smiling kindly. Some were staring at her with dropped jaws. "I was just about to get to that. Next time wait for me to call on you.

"The seven victors of this round-yes, seven victors, Calf- will be sent to Mount Sapphire Academy and have a full, covered education. The rest of you will remain here till there's another challenge. Understood?" She said, facing everyone at once. We nodded in unison, a little scared, except for Granite, who gave a non commital grunt as he observed one muscular talon as if he could make it sharper by glaring at it. Not like it could get any more pointy and long, that is.

"Understood, Granitetalon?" Starlight growled lowly, imitating perfectly Granite's gravelly voice. He glanced up. "Whatever," He mumbled, turning back to his talons uninterestedly. "Get out," Star suddenly ordered. again, Granitetalon swivelled his head up. "Excuse me?" He said, putting down his arm. Starlight looked ready to kill. Her mood swings were confusing. "Get out of this place. This horrid, terrible place. I'm done with you. Go give yourself up to the guards or something. Just don't stay here. Get out."

We all gasped, except for a tall, scrawny dragonet I recognized as Pride. She was listening intently, focused on the drama. I stared at her for a moment, her fiery red eyes burning into Granite. Then I turned back. "Uh, what? No," The bulky dragonet stuttered. Star continued to stare at him. It was as if she'd been holding in this anger or a while now. "That's an order, Granite. And the punishment for disobeying orders.." We all chimed in, "is death."

Granitetalon back up into a wall as Star cornered him. Pride was bursting with excitement at this new drama. "I won't tell you again. Get out of here." Without another word, the giant dragonet scurried out of the training room through the tunnel entrance guarded by two ShadowWings with silver armour and spears. They let him pass because of Star's glare at them, but the next guards along the tunnel had no idea what had happened. Seeing a dragonet with battle scars running along that specific tunnel meant one thing: they'd escaped. And those dragonets died.

All I heard was a scream so high pitched it was hard to believe it was Granitalon's, but let me tell you, it was very real. And I never saw him again. The dragonets stared at the tunnel in silence. He was dead; everyone's worst nightmare, dead. Even Pride looked grim, which really didn't suit hr at all, I have to say. Then Star, without another word regarding him, turned back to us. "As I was saying," she growled, "understand?"

~An hour later~

I was standing at the edge of a black, cloudy pool, so dusty you couldn't see your talons if they'd been an inch underwater. Next to me, Shadowseeker shivered at the sight of the water, growing more unsteady and hesitant by the second. "I... I can't do this, Scar," he whimpered, backing up to me. I wrapped a warped, broken wing over him. "It's gonna be okay. You can do this," I reassured him. "You'll live."

Meanwhile, Venomflare, another director of the horrible fight club, paced the other side of the 'pool.' "Here are the rules; no hanging off the side of th pool, and no using others as floatation devices- oh wait, nevermind, that second one's okay.." He shook his head. "Ready, idiots? Three, two, one, GO!" I dove in and swam far out into the water, to make sure nobody drowned me. Shadowseeker followed me to a spot near the other side of the pool. And then I began my expert treading, while Shadow rapidly copied me.

"No, you're too tense. Relax a bit," I shouted to him over the splashes of a hundred or so dragonets trying to stay afloat. The water seemed much heavier than normal water, as if it was trying to weigh you down and drown you. I saw Shadow tense and relax his muscles, trying to find his sweet spot. Finally he let out a breath, his arms looking a bit more at ease.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours. Lots of dragonets had climbed out, and were sitting at the sidelines, watching regretfully. But there was no getting back in. Shadow was breathing heavily, and his head was bobbing under mor and more. "Hey Scar," he said, turning to me. I nodded for him to keep going. "I think I'm gonna head out. I'm not gonna die, but I will if I stay here." I frowned, and then looked around. There were just eight dragonets left; Deadflyer, Featherriser, and some more I didn't recognize right away.

"Shadow, if you stay, like, two more minutes, someone will leave and then we can be free!" I looked at him as much as I could through the water we splashed up trying to stay afloat, and saw his face. He looked exhausted, fatigue dotted his attempts to stay afloat, and his eyes screamed, "let it end."

Shadow never looked like this. He usually had so much energy, but now he looked in pain, dead. "Hang in there, bud," I murmured to him softly, just loud enough for him to hear. I glanced at the dragonets around, trying to stay afloat as well, and a thought occured to me. I swam off to the dragonet I realized was named Memory.

She looked at me in confusion. "What do you want?" She panted evenly, trying to keep her snout out. I cringed. "I'm so sorry." Confusion and then a flicker of understanding swept across her face, but she could do nothing about her fate.

I lunged and grabbed her shoulders, shoving her underwater. Immediately I felt a lightness in my treading. Although that was great, I couldn't shake this blackness out of my mind. I'd just killed a dragonet. Once I was sure she was dead, I let go. Her slender, purple and black body drifted to the surface of the murky water, back up and limp.

I glanced up. All the dragonets who'd gotten out were staring with dropped jaws at me and the body. The other dragonets in the 'pool' glanced around at each other nervously, thinking, "that could've been me." And Shadowseeker... Looked like he was in such a moment of mixed emotions, his face was scrunched up with glee and grief and horror and shame and passion. For the most part he looked immensely relieved and grateful.

Even Venomflare looked.... Well, impressed. "Nice one, kid. Alright, well that wraps up this challenge. Our winners are Featherriser, Okapi, Deadflyer, Scaleflipper, Moonscar, Scargiver, and Shadowseeker!" Nobody clapped. I'm still grateful about that.

"So climb on out, and we'll hand you the thingy and you can scramble on out the palace and take care of yourself till Fall arrives." As we climbed out of the pool, he handed us very unofficial looking certificates that we had to show the guards to get out. I was more afraid of that than taking care of myself for a whole moon cycle.

And then the rest of them left, back to their prisons for another year. An uncomfortable settled in between us dragonets, gathering by our heads and making it too awkward to speak. Finally Shadowseeker spoke up, breaking the ice. "We should go. I don't wanna be here another minute, and I know y'all don't either."

Everyone arose at his words. We began planning how to get out. We'd go alone or in pairs, two groups at the same time through different passages so as to not arouse suspicion. The first three were Okapi and Deadflyer, who left down the corridor that we came from, and Moonscar through the one across the room. They'd wait for us in some bush at the escape exit.

After a half hour that passed in a flicker, the next two left, leaving just me and Shadow. "So," I started. He shook his head. "I can't talk right now. Please." He looked at me with grave eyes. I understood and shut up, taking up pacing the room and avoiding the water where Memory's corpse floated lifelessly.

"We should go now," I said after what I thought was a good amount of time. He nodded silently. A shiver of fear ran down my spine, but I shrugged it off. We carefully made our way up the tunnel opposite the one we entered. Our talons echoed up the eerily silent tunnel, making me wonder what time it was. Late, maybe 1:00 pm. Pure daylight, that would explain why I was so tired

Because of the time, no guards were stationed anywhere. The castle was empty, all dragons were asleep, and bright sunlight filtered through cracks in the walls. Around us the White Castle walls stretched far up, maybe twenty dragons high. Pillers as thick as two SeaWing tails stabilized the roof. Great chadaliers swung with Crystal lights made from the silk of PrismWing dragons, which were usually translucent and pastel.

We quickly found an exit, the exit, and shoved the stone door open. Three bushes lay outside the door. One that looked more like a tumbleweed than a bush, a holly bush, and a bramble one big enough to fit five full grown dragons that had odd black spots. Me and Shadowseeker glanced at each other, then the book, then back at each other, and nodded. We strode over and tapped the bush. Immediately they burst out laughing and jumped out. "Shhhh," I said, but Shadow joined in with a light chuckle. We were free, after all.

"Let's go. Get out of here." Suggested Deadflyer, gesturing to the hundreds of mountains down the hill we stood on. They stretched up to the clouds, but not as far as the castle mountain. It'd be a while to get out of here walking, especially since I couldn't fly.

"Well," I said, "what are we waiting for?"