°~《Chapter Two》~°☆

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I was not expecting to wake up so warm. Well, I wasn't expecting to wake up at all, but the heat had grabbed my attention first. What I noticed next was the cramped container I had been shoved in. It was completely dark and very smooth to the touch. The way the walls hugged my body was strangely comforting and caused my eyes to droop shut.

It didn't feel like much time had passed when faint voices outside the container startled me awake. I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep.

I listened carefully until the voices faded away completely. The silence was then occupied with a light hum that whispered to by tired mind to fall back asleep. I tried to resist the urge to shut my eyes, but it was no good. Sleep took me into its arms once again.

The next time I woke up, I was filled with a surge of anxiety. My head was clear and I was no longer teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.

The surrounding walls seemed to have compressed around me as I slept. I couldn't tell if that was the cause of my anxiety, but either way it was far too cramped to stay in that container any longer.

Another wave of intense anxiety hit after thinking about the walls closing in around me. It became absolutely clear that I needed out of that container pronto.

I pushed against the smooth walls with all my strength. Despite the endless amount of sleep I received, I had no energy to spare. Pushing again, I felt with my hands for any kind of opening to freedom.

I continued to push, but I had the feeling there was something incredibly wrong. My anxiety only increased when I couldn't place what exactly was wrong.

Pausing for a breather, I felt as if I was suffocating in the sticky air I had been rebreathing for who knew how long. The situation reminded me far too much of Florida and my unagreeable aunt who lived there. 

After the short break, I put all of my weight into shoving with my foot and was rewarded with the quiet sound of a crack. When no commotion was made outside the container, I silently wondered if that was actually the sound of my prison breaking and not just my joints popping in relief.

I pushed again and this time felt the container under my foot break away. A rush of fresh air flooded in around me. My lungs sang in sweet relief and I took the time to rest with the small victory.

I waited until my heart was no longer threatening to beat itself out of my chest and then pushed one more time. It was like my prison had exploded and with nothing to grab on to for support, I fell onto my stomach.

My anxiety started to creep back as I couldn't see a single thing around me. All I could do was lay there as my eyes failed to adjust to the darkness. Concentrating as hard as I was, I could now hear the voices around me more clearly.

I first heard a lady's soft tone, "Is she alright?"

A different female voice spoke up, "She hasn't gotten up yet. Something must be wrong."

"Someone should talk to her." This man's voice was closer to me than the others.

"Good idea, Dan. You talk to her." The first lady's voice got a few laughs in response.

"What?! Why me?"

"You brought it up and you're the closest."

"Fine fine. I'll talk to her." The man said giving in.

I waited for only a few moments before I heard the man's voice again. It sounded more concentrated this time.

"Hey, you alright?"

I tried to respond but only got a weird squawk and a chirp instead. I closed my mouth in confusion. Why did I sound like that?

"Don't worry, that's normal. Concentrate on me and push your words through your mind to mine."

"I don't understand." I pushed it through my mind with the feeling that more had heard it than just the man. I felt a wave of pity run into my head, but it didn't feel like it belonged to me.

"Close. You sent that to the general mindlink where everyone can hear you. Put up a mental wall to block them out while keeping me on your side."

"Sorry." I felt guilty for not getting it right the first time, but now that I had tried again, I could feel it reach his mind alone.

"Don't be. It's only natural. Now, are you alright?"

"I can't see anything."

There was a pause before I heard his response. "That'll probably explain why you're not as shocked as you should be. Let me send you a mental image of what you look like."

I wasn't sure what he meant by mental image but I quickly found out when said image entered my mind and filled the darkness.

What I saw was a leafy green lizard with wings. It was laying sprawled out on its belly and its yellow eyes seemed to be looking into nothing. It took me a moment longer to piece together what this meant.

"Is that me?" I hadn't gotten use to this telepathy thing and accidentally sent my shocked thought at him.

"You would be correct." His voice was calm with a sympathy I'd never heard before. "Were you blind before you were kidnapped?"

"No. But I had needed glasses. My right eye was pretty bad."

"That is odd. No one else here has any defects. I don't know how the white coats will react." He stopped talking for a while and questions only bubbled up.

"Wait, how many others were kidnapped? Are we all these dragon things? Why is this happening?" I was breathing heavily with my panic.

"Woah calm down. You're going to go into shock if you're not careful." He sent me another mental image of myself in the glass container. "Over there, to your left, there's some water and fruit. You'll need your strength."

"But you didn't answer my questions-"

"Yes, I know. I'll answer any questions you have after you rest and have cleared you mind."

I was aggravated that he wouldn't answer my questions right away, but he had been right about one thing. I felt awfully weak and the image of the water beside me reminded me of how thirsty I was.

I stood up on four shaky legs, glad I didn't have to support my own weight on just two. I still couldn't see but I knew the general direction I had to go based on the image Dan sent to me. I was going super slow, carefully feeling my way with the tip of my nose until I bumped into the side wall.

From there, I felt my way to the two bowls. One had no scent while the other had a strong sweet scent of fruit. My throat was dry and I quickly dunked my face into the bowl of water.

I had no idea how this body worked, but was pleasantly surprised to learn I could still siphon the water through my mouth to drink. It reminded me of horses and the many popular videos of cats "drinking" through straws.

I drank up as much as I could until my throat was no longer dry and my stomach sloshed with any sudden movement. The sweet scent of the fruit bowl now had my full attention but I was realizing a little late how skeptical I should have been before drinking all that water.

"Are you sure it's alright to eat this?" I sent my words straight to Dan.

"It's perfectly safe to eat. They get it fresh everyday and never drug it." Dan sounded like he had just woken up from a nap.

"That's good to hear." I paused as I noticed I couldn't distinguish the sweet scents apart from each other and quickly came up with an excuse, "What kind of stuff is there? I can't really see and I'm not used to my new sense of smell..."

"There's usually a different selection everyday, but today we all got some apples, pears, and strawberries. They aren't bad choices, but I like the lemons they give us once a week."

Listening to what he said, I took in a deep breath through my nose and tried to concentrate. It was still difficult to smell anything but sweetness, but now that I knew what to search for, I could tell apart the individual scents of the fruits.

Using my nose, I moved pieces of fruit out of the way until I found the strawberry. Tasting the sweet flesh of the red fruit sent shivers down my body as I found it tasted even better than how I remembered.

Fueled with curiosity, soon the entire bowl was emptied and my stomach was filled to the point I felt like I would pop like a water balloon. I could feel drowsiness edge its way into my mind, but I was determined to have my questions answered before anything else.

"Dan, I have to know. What is going on?" This one question sent a chain reaction for many other questions to pop up. Patiently, Dan answered each the best he could.

He told me many things. My wings weren't just for show, and with practice I could learn how to fly. He also told me of the many that were kidnapped and forced into this procedure. I was the eighty-seventh to have made it so far and was very lucky to even be alive especially with a defect in my eyesight.

He explained the schedule the scientists went through everyday and I was terrified to think of what they'd do with a defect like me. The possibility of death weighed on me heavily, especially having thought I had already died once before.

No one here trusted these people no matter how nice they seemed on the surface. I don't know who would even want to trust the people who took away our lives. I had no intention of forgiving those monsters.

I let out a large yawn that relaxed my tense muscles. Now that I had my answers, I was content to grab some shut eye. The thoughts I had on the surface of my mind were fresh as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

My head was foggy, but it quickly cleared when I heard the alarming hisses coming from the other dragon people around me. Something was happening and all I had to rely on was my ears. I lay frozen where I was to focus.

I heard footsteps, pens against paper, and quiet talking. From the hissing and the footsteps, I had a pretty good idea what was coming my way. I heard a hand brush against the clipboard in front of me and a hiss of my own erupted from my throat as I now had a good idea where this person stood. It was an odd noise to be making but it made me sound more vicious than how I felt.

I couldn't tell exactly where this guy was but there was no need. The glass container I was in was lifted up and my weight was shifting with every slight movement. Thanks to Dan I knew where I was being taken, but that didn't stop the fear from flooding into my mind.

Being unable to see anything around me only fed the growing fear within my chest. A low growl continued to vibrate through my body as I was packed around. The only sounds I could make out in my panic were the sounds of multiple pairs of footsteps and the occasional door opening and closing. Everything quieted down when a door near me opened and shut with a small thud.

Dan had sent me images of the rooms he's been in so I had a vague idea of my surroundings despite not being able to see it for myself. I felt the glass cage get set down and I hissed when I heard the latches click open.

Some slightly fresher air hit me as the door fully opened and I could faintly smell the sweat of two people in the room. I focused hard on the sound of light footsteps and fabric rubbing against itself and noticed the scent of sweat getting stronger.

Suspecting one of them was reaching towards me, I swiped out with my claws. Having no idea how close I even came to hitting my mark, I could only hiss my warning to stay away and backed away from the opening.

I swept my new tail appendage behind me like a guide stick and quickly noticed when a step appeared and told me there had been more than one opening for this cage after all. I came to a stop before I could fully step out.

That must not have been what the people wanted as I heard one of them mutter a soft, yet annoyed, "Come on" and tilted the cage to tip me out.

Off balance, the worker was successful in getting me the rest of the way out and the cold surface below me confirmed I was now in new territory. I could hear and feel my extended claws clink against the metallic material and guessed I was on a metal table like the ones Dan had shown me.

I continued to use my tail as I navigated backwards until it hit a wall. I huddled against the safety of the surface as I was still trying to figure out where in the room I could be.

I didn't wait long until I heard a man speaking, "Specimen C2315. Female, eighteen years old. Part of the artistic specification group. Collected May first with unusual method of suffocation. Metaforming completed October third. Egg case finished formation on October nineteenth. High heat hatching method C5 was used. Hatching occurred early morning of November twenty-ninth."

There was silence for a moment before I heard feet shuffling and the same stinky hand reaching out to me. I hissed fiercely and side stepped backwards along the edge of the wall. The hand was too close for comfort and I wasn't quick enough to get away.

I was picked up with an awkward screech, cutting off my hisses. The hand that held me was thick and was definitely a glove of some kind. I dug in with my claws resulting in nothing. It was a material I couldn't pierce.

I was set back down on something wobbly and just as cold as the table. I crouched low to my stomach feeling like I was about to fall off. Squeezing my eyes shut helped slightly, though only in the form of comfortable familiarity as it didn't change how little I could already see.

They continued speaking again but I wasn't paying them a lot of attention. I did manage to hear I was a little under four pounds and came to a height of about eight inches, though. I was practically half the size of my dog before he passed away.

They picked me up one last time to spread out my wings and to feel the different new bones in my legs, arms and wings. I didn't screech this time, but my fear still had me shaking. I kept my eyes pinned shut in the hopes they couldn't spot my weakness.

After a few more observations they made about me, I was set gently on some warm sand with intense heat radiating from above me. I lay there as I slowly convinced my body to stop shaking and brought back up my body temperature after being on the cold table for so long. I realized the sand felt really nice underneath me and decided staying there the entire time wouldn't be too bad of an idea.


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