Chapter 21

“Hey.”

A voice belonging to someone that I could go my entire life without seeing again calls me from the other side of the bars. Scratch, that. They’re someone I wish never came into my life at all.

His golden eyes shine in sympathy at my clear refusal to acknowledge him. I remain in the far corner of the cell with my arms wrapped protectively around my knees. As long as he understands that the overwhelming hate I feel is for him alone. Flame might have sold me out, but I got taken from my family by him and his friends.

“Sorry about Valkyrie being heavy handed with you earlier.” I maintain my silence causing him to scratch his head and chuckle through the awkwardness of this one-sided conversation. “Well, let me get you out of here for now.”

“Why?” I’m not sure if I’m asking why he’s here or why he put me in here. Based on his expression he also doesn’t know how he should respond to that.

“Now that you’re officially an enlisted soldier, they assigned you to a camp in Ceto Dere. I’m here to take you there.”

He touches something off to the side I can’t see. Both of us watch as the large immovable bars uncross and retract. Some ascend; others tuck into pockets on the left and right side.

When I don’t move even after the cell is open, Amir holds a bag out for me to bait me out. “Don’t you want to see what your family wanted me to give to you.”

It’s probably a trap, but my curiosity is peaked. When I’m within arm’s reach, I snatch the bag from him.

“Shall we go then?”

He doesn’t wait for me to respond or check if I’m following. We both know that my only choice is let him lead me out of here. Despite hating him, I would hate rotting here more.

When we pass the cell of the person that ate Serenity, I can’t help but try and see who’s inside. Their arms were scrawny and dirty, suggesting that they’ve been here much longer than me. But unlike my cell there’s no source of light inside the cell.

Right before I give up, a pair of haunting shining silver eyes lock on me. I’m sure they belong to a person, but I can’t confirm it. Disturbed more than I probably should be since they’re the ones in the cage, I’m the first one to break eye contact.

Shaking the memory of the eyes from my mind, my attention turns back to the bag clutched in my hand. After rifling through the clothes towards the top of the bag, my initial thought was that there’s some mistake.

These aren’t my belongings. Boots, formfitting shirts, a military style cape. I mean, there’s pants in here. I’ve never once worn pants in my entire twenty years of life much less own any.

Just as I open my mouth to inform Amir of the mix-up, my fingers touch something cold and small in the bag. The smile I give is involuntary as my hand wraps around the box that holds the jade tear drop earrings Kitten gave me for my birthday.

“Are you alright?” Amir asks without turning around.

Realizing I’ve stopped walking, I clip back, “fine”, because I still hate him, so why not.

I ignore the smile that crosses his face. Apparently, my anger amuses him. Thankfully, stays quiet as he guides me out of the prison. When we make it to the top of the stairs that lead out of the underground prison, I’m required to shield my eyes from the damaging rays of the sun.

I’m not sure how long I was down there for the light to hurt my eyes so much, but I find myself yearning for a nice dark place to retreat to.

“This way.” Amir points to a shaded area directing me where to hide.

Not beyond accepting his help this time, I sprint to the safety of the shadows made by a covered corridor. It’s not as dark as I like, but better than direct exposure to the sun.

He leisurely joins me and I hate that I find his scales pretty. Unlike my plain muted blue ones, his are a vibrant gold catching that shine under the sun. When Amir catches me staring, a triumphant smile lights up his face.

“Do you like my scales?” He asks.

“No.” My lie isn’t convincing in the slightest. In fact, my response just makes his smile wider.

“Is this your first time meeting another reptile animorph? We do tend to spread out unlike other types of animorphs, so it’s harder to meet out kind. Especially in Estain given the restrictions placed on animorphs.

“Oh, by the way, I’m Amir. We didn’t get a chance to properly introduce ourselves yet. Your name is Blue, right? Is that your actual name or a nickname?”

As Amir fires off one question after another, I don’t miss that he keeps saying we when he talks about being an animorph. “Yes, it’s a nickname. And I’m not an animorph.”

Amir watches me curiously since my scales are still out. Sighing, I reach up and rip off one of them.

“What are you doing?!” Amir grasps my hand preventing me from ripping off the second scale I was reaching for. “You can just conceal them. See?”

Amir points to his neck making his scales blend into his skin before turning them back into the pretty golden hue.

“I can’t.” After I wrench my hand from his grip, I continue pulling off my scales. “I told you, I’m not an animorph.”

Amir winces with each scale I rip off. To him, this probably looks like self-mutilation. Rolling my eyes I attempt to change the subject. “Are we going somewhere?”

As if he forgot, Amir snaps and points to a path ahead and off to the left. “Thay way.”

He doesn’t openly stare, but I can feel him watching me remove my scales. “Are you going to stare the entire time?”

“Sorry.” Amir drags his eyes away from. “I just never seen someone do that to themselves.”

“Am I going to give you nightmares?” I don’t hide the hope in my voice that I’ll do just that. This guy ruined my life. The least I can do is give him a nightmare or two.

“It’s just sad seeing you do that your beautiful scales.”

“Listen, I told you I’m not an animorph. This is just some weird trait I got when—”

What I want to say is, when I became a mythic, but I can’t bring myself to admit it. Old habits are hard to break.

“A mythic,” Amir finishes for me.

I don’t say yes, but I also don’t say no to him.

“Well, animorph or not, those scales are still a precious part of you. But I also know why you’ve grown to hate them. They must have made your life significantly harder.

I shrug in response. My head is telling me to ignore him and stop this conversation, but in contrast to common sense, I keep the conversation going.

“I think it might have to do with me being born in the Divinity of Chaos season. The scales I mean.”

Amir nods his head considering. “That is possible. People born in your season are few and far between, and there’s not much information about your traits.”

“Yup. Lucky me.”

Amir chuckles as he leads me down a hall that I’m guessing is the servant’s passage. All this discretion and the lack of people around us makes me feel like I’m being smuggled out like a dirty secret.

“Why are you the one escorting me? Wanted to rub it in my face that caught the rat a bit more?”

“Mhh, that’s fair. I volunteered. Though I’m sure you didn’t want to see me, I thought you should be sent off by someone that could answer the questions I thought you would ask by now. And you know, animorphs need to stick together, is what I thought since I assumed you were one.”

Animorphs need to stick together is crazy of him to say after landing me here, but I’m curious what questions he was expecting me to have. Thankfully, Amir doesn’t wait for me to figure them out.

“We figured out you were a mythic that night. We knew that Rumi was already one since he’s being monitored, but finding you was pure chance. Initially, we were going to monitor you just like we do with Rumi, but then you were turned in by someone.”

My mind sorts through what he’s saying. The big takeaway is the Rumi’s being monitored by the military and I didn’t know.

“When that happened, we had to get to you first.”

“Why me?” I wanted to ask the Queen this question, but I didn’t dare.

“Same reason I’m in this position. I’m under a commander in the military that watches out for animorphs and mythics that are about to be executed or at least imprisoned. He’ll step in if he finds them valuable.”

“Valuable?”

“Nh. You’re from the Chaos season and you’re still alive, that makes you valuable whether or not you’ve awakened.”

I laugh at that comment. Should I be happy that they don’t know my alive status is temporary. If they knew, would I already be dead?

Amir pushes on probably confusing my chocked laugh for me simply being annoyed. “I know, it’s not fair. Being a mythic as a commoner or animorph shouldn’t be a death sentence, and I’m sorry I had a part to play in this.”

Ughh. I hate that he seems like a decent person. He’s making it hard for me to hate him. Since I don’t have any more questions about me, or at least none I want to ask them, I change the topic.

“So, can you tell me what type of animorph you are?”

Amir stands taller as he proudly states, “Absolutely. I’m a dragon.”

I halt my steps as I try to reconcile the image of a dragon with the man in front of me. This man is huge. Not just his height, but also his build. If he told me he was an ox, I would believe it with no hesitation. But a dragon!

“Surprised?”

“No.” I’m a terrible lair. Why do I even try?

Amir laughs at me making me feel better for judging him, but I do still feel bad.

“Sorry. It’s just, they’re so tiny and cute.”

A real dragon could fit in my hand. Most don’t even reach a foot high. But, I mean, duh. Animorphs have animal traits but they’re still human. Of course they’ll differ from the animals they share DNA with.

“It’s fine. That’s how most people react. I guess my looks are a far cry from possessing the charm of a dragon.” He glances my way as if expecting me to refute what he just said.

I open my mouth prepared to at least attempt, but then a thought comes to me. “You and your friend knocked me out and abducted me. You don’t get to guilt trip me.”

Amir reveals a sly smile at the missed opportunity to get on my good side. Shameless.

“We’re here.” Opening the doors to a small room, Amir lets me pass him before following me inside and closing the door.

The room is plain and for a moment, I worry that I’ve just been led to another prison.

“It might be better for you to close your eyes. The first time can be a bit, disorientating,” Amir warns.

I want to ask him what he means, but I lose the chance. When a pulsing light shines with blinding strength beneath our feet, I clamp my eyes close. I have a feeling that if I kept them open a moment longer, I might have lost my sight permanently.

“Alright, you can open your eyes.”

Not fully trusting Amir, I crack open my eye lid. When I see green grass in front of me, I’m confused enough to chance looking.

We’re standing in a town full of hundreds, maybe thousands of abandoned houses.

“Where are we?”

“The village by east bridge.” After giving me an answer, Amir points ahead of us.

As he does, the fog that was heavy seconds ago thins enough to reveal the twenty-mile bridge that connects Estain to our eastern neighbors. Or at least what’s left of it.

I catch sight of a few grand arches that remain standing hinting at the pure magnificence that once stood here. The pillars that had held the bridge above the water have long collapsed after one too many storms. Now, the bridge is reduced to a memory recorded in a few pictures.

This time when I observe the abandoned town, I see it through a different lens. On the ground peeking out amongst the tall grass, I spot the tattered remains of a stuffed toy. I bet if I went inside the houses, I would find furniture, kitchenware, and other things that were left behind in this town that’s been frozen in a single moment for more than fifteen years.

Estain stayed out of the war the longest since we’re positioned the furthest from the south, but time caught up with us. A decade after Estain destroyed all the bridges that connect to other countries in the east, we were forced to finally send troops to the front line. It was that, or risk being seen as an enemy by our allies for not standing up to the South.

“This place always gives me the creeps.” Amir rubs his arms as he shivers at the sight of the town.

I’m about to tell him that I think it’s just sad when I hear labored breathing from our right. “What is that?”

Amir doesn’t get the chance to answer me before we catch sight of a head of black hair bobbing towards us. Leaning to my right to get a better view, I spot a set of stairs that a man is heaving himself up through panted breaths.

Amir tilts his head as he clarifies, “That I believe, would be your escort.”