Aaannnddd I'm BACK!!!
Sorry for the long wait, but I'm so very pleased with this chapter, and I hope you will be to (why did I imagine myself saying this is a cute baby voice?)

.....

One thing my father always taught me, was to be vigilant. 

The gift of knowing what's going to happen, before it happens, is special. 

You aren't born with it.

You create it.

You train it.

You hone it.

That's why, when a soldier walked in the next morning, announcing that Queen Gazelle herself will be coming to inspect us, I wasn't surprised. 

The whole morning, everyone had been in a frenzy, getting things ready, cleaning up whatever is laying around, shouting at us whenever we do something even remotely wrong.

If you add all these signs up, it is quite obvious that something big is going to happen, and apparently, that something is the Queen of the SandWings. 

According to the messenger, Queen Gazelle is going to come and inspect us tonigh, before the older dragonets will go off to their first battle. 

Next week, I will be forced to go as well.

Not on my watch...

These last few days, me and Fennec have become closer, until she opened up to me that she didn't choose to be here, and would help me escape, if I ever decided to.

Cactus though, she has been keeping a close eye on me. Spike was given free reign after he killed one of the dragonets who attacked a soldier. I haven't talked to him since.

It was midday, just after Fennec had finished her shift, that I noticed Cactus was gone. That sent off warning bells in my mind, as she had never deserted her post before.

I decided to go looking for her.

After wandering for a bit, some strange chatter drifted over to me.

"...and then you will call us, understand? You will continue with your work, and we will get the gold, end of story."

"Yes sir."

Creeping closer, I realized I know one of the voices, the second one.

Cactus...

She sounded strained, and when I peaked around the corner, I saw her laying in the dirt, two daggers next to her neck, and multiple bleeding scratches all over her body. 

There was five other dragons surrounding her, and it looked like they had just been in a fight, ending with Cactus losing badly. 

It was bleeding especially badly in her neck, and I felt a spark of anger rise in my chest, as I noticed that they had opened an old wound of hers. 

The other dragons walked off, with a few final glares and spits at her, before moving out of sight.

"Are you alright?" She whirled around, baring her teeth at me, where I had just appeared in front of her, but I saw her falter as her wound opened up again. 

"Yes, I'm fine," she said, and even now, I couldn't detect any anger, discomfort, or pain in her words. It was like she was a puppet, emotionless and detached. 

"That is a lie," I matched her tone, standing still, waiting for her to make the first move. 

A growl was all I got.

Slowly, she reached for a bag around her back talon, and pulled out a piece of dark red fabric, twisting it around her neck, and in turn, covering the wound. 

I watched in silence, and reviewed all I knew of her, trying to make up my mind.

Trust her, or not?

"Do you want to be here?" I asked, deciding that that was the best approach. Her face remained the same, yet one of her talons curled up into a fist. "Did you choose this life? To work for a cruel Queen, be treated as nothing, to be trapped?"

My words must have gotten to her, as a frown shifted onto her face. 

"No," she said, softly. "I didn't choose it. But there isn't a way to escape it. I've tried before."

"I have a way," the risk I was taking in telling Cactus this was large, but beneath her hard exterior, I saw a broken dragon. 

A broken dragon, who had tried again and again and again, until they gave up, accepting their life, even if it was no better than death. 

My father was like that.

He told me stories about his past life as a merchant, a hired assassin. He told me that he didn't choose that live, he was forced into it by his father, who was a known name in the Scorpion Den. 

Ouattara. 

The best in the business. 

He had a killing streak, and for over fifty years, he's never failed an assignment. After he disappeared one night, to who knows where, everyone expected my father to continue where Quattara left off.

It was either kill or be killed for him, as all his father's old enemies started to target him.

He told me how he fought it, even considered killing himself to get away from it. But instead, he just gave up, and filled the role everyone had put out for him.

Cactus was a lot like him.

The way she held herself, taking in everything around her, noticing the subtle things happening around her when everyone else was oblivious, it put her above the rest.

Yet, she didn't use her skills.

She stood still, like my father had after some missions, emotionally detached and ready to follow orders.

The only question was, whose orders was she ready to follow?

I watched her as her gaze flickered to me, and I held her stare.

"You are lying to me," she said finally. 

I shook my head.

"I am not," nodding to her slash, I continue. "I have a plan to escape, tonight, and if you agree, there will be no risk to you."

She lifted her chin a bit, a sign for me to continue. 

"If the plan works, we will both be out of here, escaping in total chaos, and if it fails, you get to come back here dragging me, receive a reward, and you're no worse off than before."

I watched her blink slowly, mulling it over in her head.

"What type of chaos?"

"I think the killing of a Queen is quite distracting."

My nerves were fried. If she wanted to betray me, she had complete proof I was against the Queen now.

Finally she spoke again.

"What is your plan, and when does it start?"

...

Anyone have any idea for a name for Diamondback's dad?