I woke up to a sound like a huge bell ringing inside my head.

I jump up, my tail poised above me, feeling sure than the enforcers have found me.

It's only when I notice Foxtail yelping and sticking his claws in his ears that I remember what had happened. The enforcers had found me, found the entire Witching Hour, and taken me to the castle to work for the queen.

Like I would ever work for that heartless maniac.

Across from me, Spike was also awakened, and Dustbunny looked like she wanted to run into a wall to shut the sound off.

And then, it does stop.

"What was that?" Spike asked, his voice deep even at such a young age. He is one of the best fighters I know, probably even rivalling some of the older dragons in skills.

I looked out the door and down the hall, noticing a couple of other dragonets doing the same.

"See anything?" This time it was Dustbunny speaking, and I saw her standing just behind my shoulder.

Before I could answer her, a darkly colored SandWing stormed up the stairs, carrying a pot and banging on it.

"Everyone get up!" She screamed, walking down the hallway. Everyone she passed quickly disappeared, but some were too slow and got hit in the head with her loud pot.

When she reached our door, I also ducked, but instead of continuing down the hall, she stepped into our room.

"You have ten minutes to make yourselves presentable," she bellowed, her voice extra loud in the small room. "Training will start emediatly after downstairs!"

And with that, she left the room, talonsteps echoing through the thin walls, along with sounds of grumbling and complaining from the multiple other dragonets.

"I wonder what she meant by presentable," Dustbunny whispered to Spike, twirling her tail around his. He just shrugged.

I could never figure out what they saw in each other that kept them together. Dustbunny was a soft spoken darling, with pretty, light scales and golden eyes. Most dragons assumed she would take over her mother's glass blowing shop when she was older.

Spike, on the other talon, was a ruff and tumble type of dragon, constantly getting into fights. His body was criss crossed with scars, and a piece of his horn was chipped.

"Here."

I looked behind me, and saw Foxtail bending over a bowl with water, lightly rubbing some sand and dirt off his scales. I quickly moved over to him to do the same.

After some time, we started hearing some others walking down, so we followed, blending into the crowd.

I looked around once we were on the ground floor, and counted only about twenty or thirty dragonets, not nearly as many as I had counted being taken from the Scorpion Den.

I wonder if they are in the other buildings, I thought back to the other structures I had seen coming in.

"Alright maggots!"

My head snapped to the door, where, in all his horrible glory, Myotes was posing.

"Today we will be practicing talon to talon combat," he said, and I heard a few snickers drifting through the space.

"Who laughed?" Myotes looked around with a frown, and even though everyone else stayed quiet, I could see a couple of grinning faces.

"Nobody?" A self satisfied smirk rested on his snout, and next to me, Spike rolled his eyes.

Giving the room another sweep, Myotes' eyes finally found mine.

"And as our first demonstration, one of the new magots can have a go at me," he said, staring me down.

My gaze never wavered.

I strode purposefully over to him, the crowd parting until there was a fairly large circle around us.

Everyone knew me. Everyone also knew not to cross me. The last dragon that did that lost an eye.

Nobody moved.

"Well?" I asked, my voice loaded with venom. I saw a few dragonets step back. "Are we going to start, or are you rethinking this?"

Myotes scoffed, "you wish," and charged.

I easily evaded him, stepping to the side and trailing a claw across his side as he sped past.

He hissed, turning around and coming at me again. This time I met him head on.

I heard a couple of shouts, chants and curses thrown forward from the crowd, but I tuned them out.

My sole focus was on the dragon in front of me.

As he reached for my neck, I shifted back, letting his talons train harmlessly in empty air, leaving his face exposed.

I hated this dragon's smirk, and I could only think of one way to get it off.

I punched him.

It wasn't my best move, and I could have let the fight continue a bit more, but I didn't feel like he was worth any more of my time.

Myotes' eyes rolled back, and he hit the ground hard.

He came too a moment later, and a groan left his mouth. He was still disoriented.

"How was that for a demonstration?" I asked, seeing the hate in his eyes, before turning around, fully intended on going out to search for some food.

I didn't move two steps, before everyone either gasped, screamed or tried to moved forward, but it was to late.

A stinging pain erupted in my back leg, making my crumple down, hissing curses.

"Rule number one," I heard a rattlesnake like voice say behind my, but I cept my eyes shut. "Always watch your back."

He started yelling at everyone else again, and I felt someone nudge my shoulder.

"Come on," Foxtail said, glancing around quickly. "Let's try and find a healer."

A nod was all he got from me.

Hobbling around outside, we eventually found one, and my leg was given a piece of bright sting cactus to use however I liked.

I used minimal, hiding it under my wing for later, and when we got back, everyone had finished eating, and was busy training again.

This month is going to be hell...