After just a few minutes under the heat, I soon realized that my desire to stay put would not be an option. I didn't know it was even possible to get this hot after being so cold atop the metal table.

I stepped off to the side as memories of my days at the Florida and Mississippi beaches came to me. I clearly remembered not enjoying the feeling of sand in between my toes, yet feeling it now didn't seem to bother me.

After wandering far enough away from the heat to no longer be roasting, I was starting to cool off again. The temperature wasn't nearly as cold as it was on top of the metal table, however.

I was about to lay back down when a familiar feeling washed over me and I realized I was going to need to relieve myself soon. Another old memory came back to me as I remembered the cats my family used to own when I was around ten.

I was confused at first when Dan told me I had to act like an animal, but now I was beginning to see why. It was terrifying enough to think about what might happen to me in this situation. Without my eyesight, and this apparently not being the norm, I was even more terrified of what they might do to me. Acting like an oblivious animal was my best chance at not being prodded any more than they already had.

With that thought at the front of my mind, I promptly dug a hole, did my business, and swiftly buried it. It likely wasn't done very neatly, but I could no longer smell it which lead me to believe it was good enough.

My desire to lay back down on the sand was gone and after another quick smell check, I realized the scent of one of the men had vanished. This left me with the weird scent of the man who had continuously picked me up throughout my time being here. I obviously couldn't see what he was doing, but the faint sound of a pen running across paper and the man's occasional deep breath gave me a vague idea. From the sound of it, he was somewhere in front of me.

A lump in my throat formed at the dread of still not being able to see. My whole career path was dependent on my vision but now with the simple fact I was a tiny dragon that couldn't even see her surroundings, all of my dreams were completely crushed.

To say I was upset would have been an understatement. I had been working for years to get into this art institute and now I'd never achieve my goals. I wanted to scream and cry out in frustration while hiding myself from the world. But hard advice my dad always told me came back to the front of my mind.

You don't get anywhere in life from crying and hiding.

These were the words he always said to me when I felt like giving up. I used to despise hearing them, but I eventually learned to lean on them as I worked my way up to being accepted into the top art institute of the country. So even though I wanted desperately to be like a desert spider and bury myself underneath the sand, I stood up tall, lifted my chin up high, and flared out my wings. I was going to let the world know I was here and that I was not about to back down!

I felt powerful as I opened my mouth and let out a mighty cry of determination. It was louder and higher pitched than I expected, but I ended it off with a satisfying click of my tongue.

I heard the man's startled movement and then did a double take as I also saw his reaction in my own vision. It wasn't like anything I had ever seen before. I didn't see any color and I thought I could faintly make out the messy shapes of larger objects around the room in front of me, but it slowly dissipated like a sun spot in the corner of ones vision. I concentrated harder on what I was seeing only for it to completely vanish. The feeling left me confused as I tried to understand what had just happened. Thinking about it more rationally led me to believe what I saw was actually just vibrations I had felt bouncing back and my mind filled in the blanks with what it thought things should look like.

My heart skipped a beat as it slowly caught up with my own realization. I found it rather hard to believe what I had just done was echolocation, but I also couldn't deny it. There was no other explanation for what just occurred and it left me standing dumbfounded for multiple more moments. Logic was pushed aside as a sudden wave of excitement rolled over me. At this current moment, I neither cared how nor why I could do it, I just wanted to do it again.

I made a few more cries in the hopes of getting another view of my surroundings, yet I was disappointed and confused when nothing happened. The man in the room with me cursed in his own confusion, but I didn't really care how crazy he thought I was at the moment. I just wanted to know why it hadn't worked that time.

Not deterred, I walked over to the lip of the sand box, stopping when my toes hit the plastic edge. I concentrated harder on what I recalled feeling when I first got a glimpse with the echolocation and sent out a trill of clicks as I bent my head down towards the floor below. Now that I was more focused, I got a clear view showing how high up in the sandbox I was.

Realizing it was going to be a bit more than just a simple step down, I took a deep breath and jumped over the edge, my wings spreading out on what felt like instinct. I was delighted to find my fall softened with the simple assist of my wings. Though, despite my overwhelming desire to learn how to use my wings this very moment, I knew it was a much higher priority to see where I was going first. My dream of flying would have to wait.

For the rest of the time I had in the room, I spent it moving around, randomly clicking my tongue at objects trying to figure out the sweet spot for seeing things around me. It would have been a rather fun new experience if it wasn't for the creepy man taking a bunch of notes in the center of the room. He didn't scare me nearly as badly now that I had a way of seeing him, but I was still nowhere close to liking him.

Eventually, when my time to stretch was up, they managed to corral me back into the glass cage. Of course, I tried to scratch their eyes out in the process for interrupting my important clicking practice, though they evaded every one of my swipes. I would just have to try harder next time.

I assumed I was brought back to the room I had first been in since Dan mindlinked me before I was even set down, "How'd it go?"

I was practically jumping out of my skin as I answered, "Dan, I can echolocate!"

I faced the direction I heard his mindvoice coming from, "Really? I thought only bats could do that?"

"You have a lot to learn then, cause whales and dolphins can do it too."

His mindvoice was skeptical, "You aren't either of those, Aspen."

My own mindvoice was more of a mumble now as I halfheartedly defended myself, "Well, some people can also do it..."

Our conversation rattled off as we started talking about other topics and the voices of the others around me became near nonexistent.

Remembering a past conversation, I switched to yet another topic, "What do you think the scientists will do if they find out I can't see?"

I refrained from calling myself "defective" only for the fact that I didn't want it to be seen as true.

I could feel the conflicting emotions from Dan as he responded softly, "I don't know what they might do. We've never had someone hatch with any abnormalities before. I don't think they'd respond very well if they found out though."

Anxiety rose in my chest as I started imagining all the things that could possibly happen if they were to find out. I swallowed a lump in my throat, "Then they won't find out."

"If we tell the others, they might be able to-"

"No! The others can't know!" My anxiety had reached its peak once again. It was already bad enough that I couldn't see. I didn't need to constantly feel the pity and the stares I would receive if they knew as well. "I just want everyone to treat me like I'm normal. It'll be easier to fool the scientists that way. PROMISE me you won't tell the others?"

I could feel Dan's conflicting emotions once again and could imagine the face he would be making, but he didn't argue with me as his voice remained gentle, "Alright. I'll help you keep this a secret."

I sighed in relief and felt like I could somewhat relax knowing my secret was safe with him and we moved our topic of conversation on to other subjects.

We talked about what our plans had been before we were taken and actually bonded over a few similar memories we shared. Dan was part of the athletic specification group and had joined the military in hopes of seeing more of the world even at the cost of his life. His commanders sent him on a "special mission" where he was ambushed and taken here. Now instead of seeing the world, he was stuck behind four walls of glass. I really felt sympathy for him along with everyone else here.

* * *

Over the next seven months I got to hear the stories of almost everyone in here as well as meet the new dragonets that hatched after myself. I was far from lonely but always on the edge of boredom.

A lot changed since I first arrived. For starters, there were now 108 successfully hatched dragonets. They had also started transporting us on a trolly ever since someone dropped a dragonet cage and shattered it. Another thing was the new netting they placed over all of the windows after someone thought it would be a great idea to get themselves tangled in one while playing kitten.

I hadn't noticed the window, let alone the netting, until a few weeks in of practicing my echolocation. It hadn't occurred to me to look up since I was too focused on trying to see what was right in front of me at the time. And even though I couldn't see the netting at first, I was very glad it was there when I crashed into it, unable to slow my flight while getting up to the window ledge for the first time.

With my daily practice, I could now see well enough when inside the room that I could make out sharper details of the larger objects. I couldn't say the same for when in the glass cage though. The glass barrier completely prevented me from seeing anything apart from the food and water dishes already in there with me.

It was only in my third month of being there that I finally had a good enough grasp on my echolocation that I felt confident enough to try flying. I had quickly learned that my wings were very good at picking up the sound waves that came back to me which helped a lot with navigating around the small room as I learned to fly.

The scientists thought it was strange and called me a late bloomer for taking so long in learning how to fly. A few made jokes about it, but no dragonet ever found their jokes amusing. They all reassured me that there was nothing wrong with learning a bit later while I was still trying to make up the body mass I lacked compared to the others.

While in that holding room, we were all on the same mind set; literally and figuratively. Through the general mindlink we all discussed possible escape plans as well as our common dislike for the workers that call themselves human.

I was a regular in the general mindlink as we all talked with one another. I had awkwardly asked for images of our surroundings multiple times from a lot of different people around the room, but I don't think they saw my behavior as anything but just being shy and not having a good view of things from where I was at. Regardless, I tried to keep my asking to a minimum.

The days were long and too predictable. A while ago, one of the dragonets took advantage of the predictable schedule and knocked his glass cage over and shattered it. I wasn't able to see it but the others had the courtesy to share images of it through the general mindlink. He ended up flying around without finding an exit causing everyone to get a new magnetic glass cage. Joy.

I had made so many new friends while here but I really wished we could have met under different circumstances. Our lives were stolen from us and the monsters behind it all were just able to get off scot-free. We paid back our captors with multiple scratches and bite marks whenever we got the chance.

The taste of their blood didn't please me, but seeing their pained looks did fill me with some kind of satisfaction. I wasn't sure what I was feeling honestly. I was disturbed by the fact that I wasn't that bothered when we tried to inflict the same pain our captors had put on us. Inside, I knew I didn't enjoy it, but for whatever reason, I wasn't against it either.

I remembered someone had once bitten their silent watcher who proceeded to lose their temper and threw a pen at them. Of course, it didn't hurt the rebel dragonet, but the silent watcher was never seen again. A lot of dragonets had a good idea of what happened to him, but I was again conflicted with feeling satisfied and remorse for what happened.

I tried not to think about it too often as it would start to twist my emotions in a knot that I couldn't untie no matter how hard I would try. Instead I tried to focus on other things. Today happened to be an especially calm and boring day. Dan got his desired lemon slice and I got my strawberry. And despite everything, I was still blinder than a bat.

Possible escape plans were still being mingled within the general mindlink when the ground had started to shake. Some brought it up as the possibility of being an earthquake, which is what I also thought at first. Then another possibility was brought up.

I wanted to laugh at the thought of it being an explosion but I had a tendency of being wrong. And boy was I wrong today.

Everything shook around me and I almost got tipped over in my glass confinement. I heard multiple other cages shatter as they hit the ground and a voice grew loud and clear within the general mindlink.

"Quick! Open the latches on the rest of the cages so we can all escape! Hurry!"

There was a way out! My thoughts were interrupted as the latch on my prison unlocked. I flew out with a trill of clicks to guide my path as I followed the others out.

We were free.