I awoke in a fog of dank smells and shuffling feet. My senses quickly gathered themselves and I lashed outward at the cage in front of me. A loud yell and powerful punch aimed at the bars ended in nothing, but a possibly broken hand and cathartic release. That damned woman, I should've known she was up to something. She was always a schemer and a hell of a tactician. I had to hand it to Artymexia, she had this well planned out and it worked. Damn my arrogance! I sat down in my cell, resigning myself to quiet thoughts and pondering my own escape. The dragonkin would expect something clever from an elf, so I can scratch off trying to snatch it from a guard as he walks by. I could rush them as they bring in food, they'll have to keep me alive, but I expect they'd bring multiple guards and use their flames to keep me at bay.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen." a voice jeered as it shuffled towards my cell.
"Tch - couldn't think of anything better than that?" I almost laughed, but managed to contain it.
"Smart talk coming from a guy in prison." I was finally greeted by the large scowling face of their General Commander Orsu.
He entered the cell rather abruptly, almost tearing the door off, and his tail swished back and forth as he sauntered in. Orsu clearly thought pretty highly of himself for capturing me and his promotion for said action, but if he's anything like I remember he's dumb and will slip up eventually. Soon rather than later hopefully, I didn't have time to waste on these cretins. I stood up coming barely up to Orsu's nostrils, which pumped out hot breaths onto my face. Quickly scanning him over, he lacked a lot of the scars and missing scales that an average dragonkin would have, meaning a cushy life handed to him by what would most likely be merchant parents who bought his rank. Orsu clearly lacked any competent battle skills, but still his impressive size relative to mine and the lack of weapons on my end made things doubly difficult.
"You know, I don't exactly know why we're keeping you alive Elfin." he sneered, leaning his body over mine, trying to assert dominance.
I smirked staring back at him, "And I don't know how a soft belly like you made it to Commander."
That one struck a nerve, dragonkin are known for having remarkably resilient bodies being able to resist a lot of punishment, so calling one a soft belly was challenging their status as a soldier. It's almost the equivalent of calling someone stupid, but the dragonkin's impressive strength left little room for intelligence, so insulting their intelligence is futile.
Orsu cocked his fist back as far as it could go, "You're going to pay for that one."
Despite his size, Orsu is deceptively quick, but not quick enough. It took a simple feign right dodge and he tumbled off balance.
"Oh am I now?" I smiled, kicking his back hard, sending him to the ground before taking off out of the cell and down the hall way.
I wanted to begin laughing, but before I could I managed to run into a dragonkin's arm and subsequently get clothes-lined. The laughter was substituted with coughing and gagging before a being knocked out and dragged away. I blinked my eyes open again and my head was ringing. The blood crusted on my face made my skin feel uncomfortable and the upside down orientation was off-putting. They were smart enough this time to cuff my hands and feet, adding the extra precaution to dangle me upside down.
"Thought you could scamper off could you?" Orsu growled, obviously upset.
"Well," I coughed, throat feeling rough from being passed out, "your kind isn't exactly known for speed."
"Yeah well your kind is known for being rich and I think I can get a good price for you."
"What the hell do the dragonkins want with Elven gold?" It seemed odd to ransom me, our currency had no exchange rate as we never traded with them, which also meant I wouldn't be ransomed but I couldn't let them know.
"We may not use it, but the humans do." Orsu grinned pulling me by my hair and bringing my face up to his, "And they'll hand over plenty of their fancy weapons and explosives for it." He laughed before slamming me down again, racking my head hard against the wall. In the second I had before being knocked out, I tried hard to remember what he said. Trading weapons was illegal no matter your species. What were they up to now?
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