The next day was, if anything, worse than the one before. This time, guards stood sentry in front of his cage, forbidding anyone to throw anything that looked even remotely like food. His cage was pulled up so that he was out of the shadow of the castle and into the burning sun. Actually, that was the best part of it all. Jaydon was like a lizard in the light and soaked in all the warm rays he could.

But the rest was horrible. He was starving to the point of madness. And his Rider had been sucking his energy all morning. He couldn’t keep it up much longer.

They had given him some brackish water to drink. He had gulped it down before throwing the bowl at the soldier, hitting him on the forehead. “Hah!” he yelled as the soldier tipped over like a top-heavy cart.

The other soldiers rushed to his aid, dragging him from the scene. One of them turned to glare at the dragon, his face twisted in a sneer. “Great job, demon. Now that’s the last water you’re getting ever.”

Jaydon smashed himself against the cage, his fingers curled into claws around the bars. He laughed, his voice harsh, “Have fun. I can survive a lot longer without water than you can. And you better enjoy the last days of your life because when I get out I will kill you and all your puny friends.”

“Really? Because last time I checked you were the one in the cage,” the soldier retorted.

Jaydon hissed, flashing his forked tongue.

The soldier blinked, his impish face blanching before he back stepped and tramped away with his friends. One soldier was left, and he eyed Jaydon nervously out of the corner of his eye, hefting his pike.

Jaydon rolled his eyes and sat down heavily on the filthy cage floor. The mesh floor was digging into his skin, leaving red marks on his legs and feet.

Then his hazy mind registered something; he had just flicked his tongue at those soldiers. “What?” he said, flicking his tongue again, going cross-eyed trying to see it. He nearly roared with joy. “Yes! It wore off!” he whispered excitedly. Now he could get revenge on all those stupid humans! He could just imagine their astonished faces as they beheld his awesome glory. I’m going to crush them and set fire to everything they own. Heck, I’m going to burn this stupid city to ashes! I’ll make them all wish they had never been born. I will call up the greatest hurricane that any man has every beheld! He smiled a very draconic smile before closing his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could.

He thought of turning into his dragon self, with his massive wings, angular head and horns, sinuous body, and winding tail. He thought of his impressive talons and long spikes on his hocks, neck, and tail. He laughed in his head, knowing that the soldiers were soon going to realize that they had made a huge mistake.

He waited for the screaming to start. Nothing. It must be done by now, he thought. He opened his eyes.

Tan legs were folded tightly in front of him, his arms resting upon the knees. No scales. No wings. No tail. Right about then he felt like he could have started crying. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “Ouch!”

Something had cut him on the nose. He looked around suspiciously before realizing it was his own nails. Except now his nails were pointed and a light grey, about two and a half inches long. He stared at them, twisting his wrist to look at them from every angle. “Well at least I’ve got my talons,” he said to himself. “Or at least part of them.” Quickly, he inspected the rest of his body but nothing else was different. Just his tongue and nails. Great.

But while he had not been concentrating on his nails, they soon faded back to the short, white human nails. “What- no. Don’t!” he whispered hoarsely, concentrating on it again. Painfully, the talons rose from his hands, curving maliciously, the points deadly sharp. He smiled.

The rest of the morning he spent using his talons to try and cut through the metal. Frankly, it was tiring. And even though dragon talons are incredibly sharp, a half formed one isn’t likely to break through metal in a matter of hours. Jaydon got so frustrated he even started biting the metal, which proved even more futile.

Then the whopper came. Jaydon gasped as he felt energy being sucked away from him in one big rush. He went limp against the burning, sun-soaked sides of the cage, his mouth open like that of a fish flopping on shore. His talons retreated into his fingers, his tongue becoming broad and useless once more.

And sleep took him under its wing.

Poke, poke.

Jaydon stirred. “Rider, please,” he uttered in the harsh dragon language.

Poke, poke. “Hey, wake up.”

Jaydon growled, hardly opening his eyes. “I’m too tired. Maybe later,” he slurred.

A harder poke. “Uncle! Please!”

“Hey kid, get away from the demon! It could kill you!” another voice called out. Jaydon recognized it as the deeply accented dopey guard that lazily patrolled his cage’s vicinity.

“No!” the kid’s voice retorted.

“Okay, suit yourself. If it eats you, then it’s not my fault.”

Jaydon knew that voice. His tired brain tried to sort it out. He shifted in the cage, his arm wobbling as he struggled to turn his exhausted body around. “Who is it?”

A light, desperate laugh. “Hey Uncle Ralem. It’s me, remember?”

Jaydon blinked. “Aidan?”

“Yeah,” Aidan’s voice sounded choked with emotion. “I came all the way to Vulnaire for you. I wasn’t going to let them take you away from me again.”

Jaydon reached his hands through the bars to hold Aidan’s face and brush his thumbs up his cheeks just to make sure he was real. The human part of him sparked and he smiled. “Aidan. You’re okay?”

Aidan smiled shyly, “Yeah, I got quite a bump, but it’s okay now. Just a little sore. But when I woke up, I saw that you got your revenge. You must have taken down fifty bad guys!”

“Of course I did. A dragon doesn’t go down without a fight,” Jaydon smirked.

Aidan blinked. “Oh.”

“Oh what?” Jaydon said, his hands slipping off Aidan’s face and going back to rest on the bars.

The boy looked away sharply, “I thought you were Uncle Ralem.”

Jaydon bit his lip. “Yeah, I’m not.”

“Where is he then? Is he in another cage?” Aidan stepped back to glance at the other cages, cringing at the sight of decaying corpses and hungry birds.

Jaydon sighed, “No. I don’t know where he is. But wait- let me out of this and we can look for him together.”

Aidan stood on his tiptoes to look at Jaydon fully, “Really? You and me?”

“Of course,” Jaydon replied, “Why not?”

Aidan looked down, “Because, well. I think most people would say it was too dangerous because I’m a kid or something stupid like that.”

Jaydon chuckled deeply. A hand settled on Aidan’s shoulder. “Of course it’s too dangerous. But that’s no reason for us not to do it. I don’t know why you humans place so much emphasis on age. Look at me. Do you think I can’t take danger?”

“You look like you can kick danger in its sorry behind,” Aidan said confidently, “Even in your underwear, in a cage!”

Jaydon’s smiled tightened, “Okay, leave out the cage part. But still, I’m only almost five months old. Think of how much older you are. Granted, you are not quite so awesome… but still. We can do things.”

Aidan smiled gleefully, “My mom would never let me do this.”

“And neither would Ralem,” Jaydon said knowingly.

“Really?” Aidan asked.

“Yup. Actually I know exactly what he would have said,” the dragon said.

“What? What would he have said?”

“He would have said this,” Jaydon cleared his throat before starting off again, this time in Ralem’s cheery Redfield accent. “Aidan, what were you doing going all the way to Vulnaire? Were you alone? Oh my- you could have gotten yourself killed! Listen, Aidan. I think you’re very brave to have come all this way and I appreciate it. But… you’ve got to go back. Your mother is probably worrying herself to death right now. And it’s not safe. Listen, buddy. I’ll be okay. Just… go back home, okay?”

Aidan laughed, “Yeah, I guess he would have said that.”

Jaydon watched the guard out of the corner of his eye.  “Well, Aidan. We can get started when you get me out. You need to find the key to this thing, but first smuggle me some food, okay? They’re starving me in here.”

Aidan nodded. “Gotcha. But… I’ve only got two pence!”

Jaydon shook his head. “Then steal! I need food!”

Aidan looked at him, wide-eyed. “You’re definitely not Uncle Ralem.”

Jaydon rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m not. And I know exactly how he feels about stealing. But in my point of view, it’s either do or die. I need food or I’m going to die. You don’t understand. Ralem is at stake here too. They’ve been hurting him and I’m the only one who can heal him. If I don’t have the energy, then he doesn’t heal. And if he doesn’t heal then…” he let the sentence fade.

“He dies,” Aidan took a deep, shuttering breath. “Okay, I’ll do it. We’re a team, right?”

Jaydon flinched, “Only me and my Rider are a team. But we can kinda be one for the time being. Just get me out of this thing, okay?”

“Okay,” Aidan saluted before turning around and marching into the crowd, “I’ll be back.”

He came back in what seemed to be forever and a day. Jaydon caught sight of him loitering around the corner of the building, watching the guard who was patrolling the cages. The dragon feigned sleep, though watched with a half-opened eye.

Fortunately, in less than five minutes, some of the guard’s friends came to chatter with him. The guard glanced at Jaydon, who was crumpled up in a heap, before setting his pike down to chat away with his buddies.

Jaydon instantly waved to Aidan, who hurried over as smoothly as he could. His pockets were bulging and oozing delicious scents. The boy quickly shoved an apple tart along with a couple oranges and the dragon inhaled them all, eating the orange as if it were an apple. When he looked hopefully back at Aidan, the boy shrugged. “That’s all I got before a girl smacked me with a broom. She almost got me too. And I didn’t know what else you liked. What foods do you eat, anyway? When you were at my house all you ate was pies.”

“I eat meat,” Jaydon said helpfully, “I don’t care if it’s raw or not. And I eat fruits. Just no vegetables,” he pointed to the corn he had thrown out of his cage the day before.

Aidan nodded, “Oh. I thought you were a fruit dragon or something.”

Jaydon laughed, “Of course not. I’m a great hunter. Usually, I eat at least a deer a day. Okay, so with the plan. How about you scout out for the key? One of these guards has to have one.”

“I don’t know,” Aidan said, frowning, “They usually don’t carry keys because they never open these gibbets. Mom says they just leave the dead people here as a warning to young kids like me.”

Jaydon gulped. “I know, I know. But somewhere. Wait- check this out.” He took out the claw on his index finger and shoved it into the keyhole. Aidan smiled. “Awesome.” Jaydon made a face, “Don’t say that yet.” He tried twisting his finger. It wouldn’t budge. He whispered an oath, trying to dig his claws in deeper.

Aidan’s eyes got bigger. “You’re only four months old and you know that word?”

Jaydon rolled his eyes, “Yes, but don’t tell Ralem. Ach, here we go. Nope. Nevermind. It’s not working. It needs a key.”

His claw dissolved and he sighed as he leaned back in the cage. “Darn it, it would have been much easier if I could have done it that way.”

Aidan scuffed his shoe in the dirt. “How about I just go and find Ralem and he figures out how to get you out?”

Jaydon coughed. “You? Alone? No way, kid. You need me. And don’t you dare just walk off and leave me here. I’m claustrophobic!”

Aidan smiled bravely. "Okay, I'll try. But if I get you out, you owe me something."

Jaydon smirked. "Sure. What do you want? Jewels, riches, a scale?"

Aidan shook his head. "No. I want a ride."

Jaydon hasn't expected that. He almost felt his imaginary wings snap open in anticipation. His heart was yearning to fly. To feel the wind on his scales, filling his wings, to laugh at the birds as he flew fast and far....

"Mr. Jaydon?"

Jaydon shook himself out of the daydream. "Uh... what? oh. Yes. I'll give you a ride wherever you want, Aidan. And you should be glad because I don't let people on my back easily."

Before he had even finished Aidan had reached through the bars to wrap them around Jaydon's craned neck. "Thanks so much Mr. Jaydon! You're the best!"

Jaydon patted the boy awkwardly on the back. "Just call me Jaydon, okay?"

"Hey kid, no touching the prisoner! He could bite your arm off!" The guard yelled, who had just broken conversation with his friends.

Aidan quickly retreated, winking at Jaydon like I’ll be back.

Jaydon heaved himself to his feet to watch the boy disappear into the guards   Quarters. He better be back. But for now all the dragon could do was try to cut through the bars with his talons.

When the sun was haggling over the roof tops, Jaydon was still slaving away, his claw moving back and forth in quick succession. He had made it a third of the way through two of the bars...

He had tried to contact his Rider but found that he was unconscious. Probably from the pain. He had been sucking Jaydon's energy all day. Those stupid humans had been hurting him pretty bad, and when he got out there would be hell to pay.

Suddenly the padding of little feet and Jaydon stopped cutting to find Aidan, looking weary and disheveled. A purple bruise was blooming under his left eye.

The part of him that was human gushed up in worry, while his dragon side felt anger at the sight of the bruise. "Are you okay? Who hit you?"

Aidan bit his lip. "They got annoyed of me nosing around. I'm okay, I guess. But I couldn't find anything! I'm sorry Mr... I mean Jaydon."

Jaydon's expression softened. "It's okay, Aidan. We can try again tomorrow. But where are you going to sleep?"

"I don't know. Maybe somewhere over," he looked around for a place to point.

Right then Jaydon had the urge to grab the child and hug him to his chest like a teddy bear, draping his wings over him like a blanket to make the safest sleeping place in creation. He usually did that with his Rider. But unfortunately, there was nothing he could do at the time. Instead he voiced an idea. "How about your friend, Liam? I'm sure you could find him with a little asking around. Just don't mention me or Ralem, okay?"

"Great idea! I haven't seen Liam in a long time!" Aidan fist pumped. "Okay, see you tomorrow, Jaydon!"

Jaydon waved goodbye with a smile, but inside his heart was sinking. Another night, swinging alone in a cage. He curled his legs tightly to his chest, his lightly shimmering eyes sweeping over the sleepy town. Soon things were going to be very different. He would make sure of that.