Touch of Flame

Ares woke up, feeling as if someone was hammering inside his head. The pain was like sharp spikes shooting in different directions and hitting his skull, but the back hurt the most.

Still unable to open his heavy eyes, he lifted a heavy arm and touched the back of his head. His fingers became wet, and he forced his eyes open to see the red stains on his fingertips.

Blood.

With a groan, he forced the rest of his eyes open only to gaze at the darkness above. Then he looked around, feeling as if his skull would crack open with the movement, and found that he was inside what looked like a cave. Two torches of fire lit up an exit.

Ares pushed himself up only to hear the chains that restrained him. He had shackles around his arms and feet. Where was he? He recalled waking up then it was blurry. He saw himself sitting at the river, then it was blurry again, and then something hit him on the head, and darkness followed. Now he was here.

His ears strained when he heard a voice, and blood dripped from the wound on his head and down to his shoulders. A few male voices were laughing about something.

Ares didn’t know who they were but he didn’t care at the moment. He needed to get out of this place. He tested the shackles to see if he could remove them but they were thick. He could maybe get his hand through it if he crushed his bones but the ones around his ankles would still be a problem.

Looking back, he tried to see how they were attached to the wall. He went to see if he could tear them out or undo them, but as he fumbled with it and his eyes and head hurt, he heard footsteps behind him.

“Don’t waste your time,” A gravelly male voice spoke.

Ares turned around to find a male dragon walking through the entrance.

The man was tall and his body was all muscle and veins. He had long black hair but his head was shaved on both sides, leaving him with a hawk-like look. His eyes were black and his face was tight with seriousness.

Dragons. Great.

“You wouldn’t be here human if you had just stayed with your people. Now you are paying the price for releasing one of us.” The man approached him steadily.

One of them. Nazneen. They were from the X-Clan. They were possibly the ones who were after the throne. Nazneen must be a real threat at the tournament for them to be pulling such a trick.

“I am not sure I know what you mean,” Ares said just to see if they knew everything or if he could pretend that he was completely clueless about what he did.

The man chuckled. “Lord Steele.” He called him, and with that Ares knew the man had done some research. “You kill dragons, and now you are with dragons.”

“What do you want?” Ares asked.

“I want nothing from you. I am just trying to lure your ‘Lady’ here.”

“Oh. Is that a good idea?”

The man raised a brow.

“I mean, she is bad-tempered. Very bad.”

The man laughed, looking truly amused. “I have heard,” he said, and then looked at him curiously.

“What is your plan with her?” The man wondered.

Hmm…

“Plan?”

“I am sure she is enticing, but I know your kind. You are using her.”

Not bad, Ares thought.

“Well, you know me. I kill dragons. What else would my plan be?”

The man shook his head. “Too bad you can’t use her for your plan. Your plan will come to an end soon, and so will your life.”

Ares chuckled. “You have no idea how right you are, but you should be the one sorry about my plan ending because it will end with your death.”

His remark made the dragon walk across the distance and throw a punch at him. His already-cracking skull felt like it would burst. Pain numbed his face for a moment as he stumbled back, his head flying to one side. Before he could recover, another punch hit him right in the middle of his face, making his vision darken. Ares fell back, blood seeping down his nose and mouth.

The man came after him, grabbing him by the hair and forcing his head back. “You must have enjoyed killing dragons. You should know some pain before your final breath.”

Ares forced himself to focus on his vision despite the pain. He couldn’t miss his chance now that he managed to provoke him, but he still needed him closer to the wall so he could use the chain properly. He pulled back by kicking him, but the dragon was quick to recover and came back to hit him again.

Ares let himself lay back down so the man missed hitting his face, then he threw his legs up wrapping them around the man’s waist and pulling him down. He was quick to wrap the chain around his neck, shift position to secure the chain with his knee and arm, and get him into a tight choking grip. Now the dragon would have to shift because this choking grip could make him lose consciousness in a second. Both would do since he couldn’t command him in his human form.

Tightening the chains around him as hard as he could, the man fought for a second before deciding to shift. Right in time when two other men came running inside to save him.

“Ossok srac!” He ordered quickly.

And the dragon that had shifted into a large white reptilian beast attacked the two men walking through the entrance. To defend themselves, they also shifted and broke through the ceiling of the cave, causing it to collapse. Ares pulled away from the large rocks falling down as the beastly sounds became more distant.

Now large rocks covered his pathway, and he was still in chains. He looked up to see the fight. He needed one of them to come down to free him but he didn’t know what phrase to use for that yet.

Ares saw more dragons joining the fight and knew he had a lot of dragons to deal with. As long as they stayed in their dragon form, he would be fine. two of them turned away from the fight and flew down toward him.

“Avi feres moretane!”

He made the two dragons attack one another, and one came crashing down into the cave, causing more rocks to fall. One large rock fell on his leg, almost crushing his bones. A pained groan came from his lips. He tried to pull his leg back, but it was stuck, and it hurt too much.

He looked at the other dragon but didn’t know how to make it help him. “Tu fendres!” He ordered just to keep it from harming him, but the damned beast landed on the rocks, causing the one on his leg to shift its entire weight onto him and crush him even more.

Ares gasped in pain and then cursed. He would lose his leg today. Die crippled. His breath came out short and sharp, like knives through his chest. He was in too much pain to care about how the other dragons were doing with their fight up there, but soon another one came crashing down on what was left of the cave.

Leaning back on the wall, Ares took a moment to breathe and gather his strength. He needed to get his leg out, no matter what. He could already see blood seeping out from under the rock. That leg was lost unless his being an Arozak would restore it.

When he gathered some strength, he used his other leg to push the rock away while pulling his leg out. He screamed in pain as he felt his skin tear, but surprised for a moment, he stopped because he didn’t have to push the rock too hard to make it move. He tried again, but now tested to lift it slightly and managed to do so. With some painful struggle, he lifted pushed, and then pulled his leg out.

Once he succeeded, he just collapsed in sweat and was out of breath. The pain made his head spin, and then he saw his raw, crushed leg. Now he needed to get these chains off.

He glanced up just to see how the dragons were doing. Two were still fighting, and one was still in the cave with him. He would ride him back if only he knew how to make the beast help him remove the chains. But then he remembered he was stronger than he thought, so he tried to pull at the chain to tear it off the wall. Thankfully, there were already cracks in the wall from the fight. Now he just had to keep yanking at the chains. If he only could speak the ancient language entirely he wouldn’t have to strain his shoulders.

One chain almost came off when he saw another white dragon flying down. But he was too late to order it because it began to blow fire.