The nature dragoness sat down on her bunk, running her talons over her temple and sighing deeply. Morning patrols never failed to be boring, at least since the skirmishes had stopped. Her stomach growled lightly, but her paws ached enough to keep her rooted in place.

To her left, Dahak, a fire dragon, leapt onto his bunk with a grunt of relief, stretching his sore wings. He began expertly removing his armor and slinging it onto a nearby chair.

The dragoness, Zorid, unbuckled her helmet, setting it beside her and leaned onto the stone wall to relax her muscles.

Across the room, the others in her squad had shed their armor as well, resting on their respective bunks. Helmer began immediately running a clean rag over his chest plate, his tail curling in what she could only guess was content. The squad had been operating in the district for a few moons now, and it was becoming easy to predict the others' patterns of life.

She could hear Octonus across the room as he spoke with the Commander, catching a few words: "continued success". Of course, that's what they'd been trained for, wasn't it?

Dahak groaned next to her, sitting up slowly. "Man, I'm starving."

"Good for you." Helmer said without taking his eyes off his work.

"Mess is still open." Fiamma shrugged, her eyes closed.

Dahak flicked his tail, ignoring Helmer. "Great, wanna tag along, Fi?"

The fire dragoness, although the smallest of the group, always did her share of the squad's duties. She deserved whatever rest she could get. The nature dragoness shook her head. "Let her sleep, Dahak. I'll come with you." Her paws seemed to scream at her as she slid off her bunk. Even though she didn't relish the thought of walking all the way down to the mess hall, she was hungry.

"Excellent." The other fire dragon grinned, shoving himself off his bunk beside her, dwarfing the dragoness. "Cessair?"

The sky dragoness groaned softly, but the sound of her paws hitting the stone moments after made Dahak nod playfully. Of course she would come, being in the dorm made her restless.

Zorid followed Dahak into the wide halls of the compound, mulling over their patrols. Cessair padded beside her, her feathered wings tucked closely to her sides. She was still favoring her left paw. Zorid considered dragging her to the medic's cave, but the growl in her stomach reminded her of their intended destination.

....

"Ah, good 'ole Captain Patton." Dahak rumbled, tail curling in laughter. "He used to be the biggest ass in the whole training corps!" The four dragonets who had sat with them grinned.

"And he wouldn't stop hounding you about your helmet!" Cessair giggled.

The fire dragon shook his head. "I hear war paint is becoming a more popular decoration for the infantry's armor. About time they used my idea!" He slammed his paw on the table, making several onlookers jump.

"So what'd he do this time?" Zorid asked the dragonets sitting across the table from them. She could remember being their age vividly, but then again, they had a completely different childhood than she did. One was a nature dragonet, which she could sympathize with. Ironpit could be unforgiving to their element, and she wondered just how much they had in common. "Patton, I mean."

One of the middle ones, an earth dragoness named Cargan, shifted her trainee helmet on the table. "He was drilling us on our live ordinance disarming techniques, and Mingan here," she nudged the ice dragon next to her, who looked up from his tray sheepishly, "nearly blew the compound into orbit."

"And the Cap' was so red, he could've started breathing fire." The sea dragon, Gyatso, chirped.

The dragonets and the older guards burst out in laughter at the image of the short water dragon spewing fire out of anger.

Miles, the night dragonet with the seemingly endless appetite, leaned in. "We even learned a new cuss word from him." He giggled in that charming, childish way as he grabbed another chunk of meat from the center dish. "He's such a wonderful teacher."

Dahak was about rolling on the floor, and his laughter was certainly contagious. Zorid couldn't help but join in as the four young dragonets howled along with him.

The other guards in the mess couldn't seem to hold in their laughter either. A few even gathered around to join in on the officer's mockery. Patton was widely known by the guards, each had their scars from his training. But he produced results, so the commander allowed him to remain in the guard, promoting him to a senior officer too.

The pale lime nature dragonet next to Cargan, named Lotus, didn't seem to join in as much though. Zorid could feel her nerves, something was wrong. She didn't want to ignore her gut instinct either, especially since she knew what it was like to be a nature dragon in Ironpit...

"Oh, we're out of fruit." Cessair noticed, still smiling from all the laughter. "I can go-"

"No, it's fine!" Zorid cut in, a little too fiercely. Her squadmates glanced her way curiously, but she just flicked her ears forwards. "I can get them, I ate most of the other ones anyway." She chuckled, then turned to Lotus. With a noticeably softer tone, she asked, "Wanna give me a paw?" The dragonet nodded stiffly, walking behind her as they left the table with the posture of a soldier at attention.

Once they had left the main hall of the mess, Zorid gestured to a pair of seats in a quiet corridor. Lotus curled her tail in suspicion, but said nothing, and made no move to sit down next to the older dragoness.

Zorid, now that she was out here with the dragonet, had no clue what she was doing. "Lotus, right?"

Her response was a swift nod. She still didn't move.

Zorid paused, mind scrambling. "You seem... tense. I've trained in the survival division, health and safety are my functions." She knelt down in front of the dragonet, who was barely half her size. She couldn't have possibly be older than five rotations. "I just wanted to make sure everything is alright." She added in a softer voice, meeting the dragonet's eyes.

Lotus paused, searching her green eyes. She saw her own reflection and her lip curled. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she could no longer control the large sob that raked her tiny body.

It wasn't protocol, it wasn't her rank, it probably would have been a reason for her to be sent to reconditioning. But Zorid leaned in and wrapped her arms around the small dragonet, holding Lotus close to herself and willing herself not to cry. Maybe it was her maternal instincts, forced into dormancy by her experiences. Maybe it was how Lotus's eyes clouded like Zorid's. She was just so small... too young. But hadn't they all been?

The scales of Lotus's arms were crisscrossed with cuts, no doubt a result of either a training exercise or a punishment for failing one.

"Shh... It's ok. It's ok... we're ok." Zorid felt the need to spread her wings and shield Lotus from the world, even if only for a moment. The world was a dark place, and the guard only brought out the worst of the shadows. She blinked for a moment, comprehending her thoughts. Hadn't she always been loyal? Deep down, she was. She was. But this is wrong.

She opened her mouth to continue, but the red emergency lights flared brightly overhead and, for a split second, suffocating silence filled the compound. Then the chemical smoke started seeping down from the vents and the guards clamored around one another in confusion, fear, and the instinctive sense of urgency. Someone was inside the compound.

...

The smoke bomb had worked, but it was fading way too fast. Shiel tucked the folder under his chin and fiddled with the wires to open the door, sealed shut by emergency protocol. After a moderate amount of swearing, he found the wires he needed.

"Got it." Shiel hissed, hurrying Paurus in front of him. A blast of cool, fresh air swirled past them as the door slid open, and they found themselves standing on a second story balcony overlooking a stretch of basin.

They froze, the horrible realization that the smoke bomb didn't last long enough weighing down on them suddenly as the blast doors under them groaned and separated.

Shiel growled deeply. "You've gotta be kidding me..." He hissed, glaring at the guards fanning out below.

Paurus glanced up at him nervously. Shiel didn't seem invincible anymore, he seemed... afraid. And that shook the dragonet to his core.