Claws clicking against the ground, Ore followed Malim's steps down the corridor, her tail sometimes scraping against the wall not far away to her left. The lights above shone their clear, pure light upon the plain light grey floors and walls.

   She stumbled forwards, her longer legs tripping over each other. Malim glanced over his shoulder, his eyes took in Ore before looking forwards again, leaving Ore to look at his armoured back, now graced with his sword. Clicking claws of the other metal dragons echoed around her, Ore's eyes glanced over the remaining young beings similar to her, their numbers had reduced to eight dragons out of the forty-eight eggs that the humans had begun with.

The weak had gone, leaving the strongest.

When walking onto the main corridor, which usually had humans walking down it, the group paused. Dragons walked down, a group of around thirty to forty perfect specimens - their scales shimmered in varying hues, their horns shined and twisted perfectly, their claws were close to pure white. There was not a single scratch, scar, or imperfection.

Next came a bunch of dragons that were multicoloured. Ore heard one of the trainers mumble 'hybrids' and when she looked at the nearest trainer's face, the trainer's eyes were narrowed. Unlike the previous group, these dragons were scarred and scratched, more than the metal dragons.

Then the last of the hybrids had gone by, the hallway was empty. Looking up to Malim, she noticed that he was starting to walk forwards, as were the other trainers. After taking a few longer steps, she caught up and followed the other groups of dragons down the corridor.

Nothing else happened during their short journey down the corridor. Only the sounds of claws clicking against the cool grey floors filled her ears whilst her nose was assaulted with a wide range of dragon scents.

  Then, a different noise filled her ears. Many different voices, human and dragon, reached her ears in a rumble of constant noise, which only became worse once they entered the large hall. It was the largest gathering of dragons Ore had seen at the facility.

Each group stood apart from each other, casting glances over at each other.

The metallic dragons were the smallest group, and the last of the dragons to arrive. Over a hundred scaled heads turned to examine the eight youngsters, who retaliated with their own stares.

Trying to judge the varying dragons' ages wasn't as easy as other dragons; their upbringings had made many seem more mature than what first met Ore's eyes. After a moment of consideration and stares, the metal dragons walked over to an empty space in the room, where Ore's eyes put ages to the dragons.

They were all around her age, each had hit, or were hitting their growth spurts, which made a number look disproportioned. Eyes watching the various dragons, Ore followed their movements, her mind trying to work out why they were all there together.

"I think the leaders have planned something," Mercury's claw poked Ore's paw, gaining the angel dragon's attention.

"The question is what," Carbon said from behind the pair.

Agreeing, the trio soon fell silent, their eyes watching over the other numerous dragons from their positions on the cool stone floor. Lit up by the bright light from the ceiling, the dragons soon fell quiet, with only a few murmurs being heard.

A while later, the footsteps of a small group of humans reached Ore's ears. She turned her head to the left - the direction that Ore and the metal dragons had entered the room - and saw a woman with blonde hair which fell just past her shoulders and brown eyes which roamed around the room. The pair of brown eyes remained fixed upon something just behind Ore, where Malim-

Is this some relation to Malim?

'Could be,' Uliel said, the voice echoing slightly through the young dragon's mind.

Ore watched as the woman - dressed in white and cream - led the group of humans - the majority were armed and wore dark clothes whilst the remaining few wore light greys and watched the dragons wearily - to the centre of the room before stopping. Her eyes swept over the group of dragons, again pausing upon Malim before continuing.

"The dragons' training is coming to an end," the woman began, her voice raised so that all could hear it, "a dragon's training ends with a mission to the western islands of Ballasmara. That is where these dragons will go to. Their missions will be the same: to blend in with those living on the islands and gather information, which after a period of time, they will return here and deliver. The metallic dragons will travel to the islands closest to this base whilst the selected dragons," the woman gestured to the perfect specimens, "will head to the islands furthest from this base. This means that the hybrids will travel to the central islands, where a wide range of dragons live.

"They will remain on their islands until they are called using the tracker that has been implanted under their scales. We want information on the dragons that live there, their habits, their way of life, and how many there are. Some of the selected dragons will travel to the western coast of the mainland, where they will gather the same information. More details will be given to each specific dragon. Trainers, prepare the dragons for their journey."

Turning around, the woman left, a few of the dark clothed armed humans walking with her whilst the remaining stayed behind. Ore watched the humans dressed in pale grey as they passed around pieces of paper and murmured to each other, their eyes straying to the dragons in the large room.

After a while, the humans separated into three groups, each a different size. The group that headed over to the metallic dragons only contained four, whilst the other two groups contained over a dozen.  Walking closer to the dragons, the four humans stuck so close together that Ore expected them to walk into each other.

But they didn't.

Ore remained still as the four stopped a few strides away from her, Mercury and Carbon, who just sat still, their eyes following the fragile creatures' every move. After shuffling a few pieces of paper, swapping paper, murmuring between themselves so quietly that Ore couldn't pick out the words, one of the humans spoke up.

"We have your orders for your time at the dragon islands. M.148's trainer," the male paused, his brown eyes looking over the group, looking for Mercury's trainer. After giving the piece of paper over, he continued, "M.153's trainer," then, "M.160's trainer," and went through each of the eight dragons. The male stepped back to the other three fragile humans as Ore's eyes travelled over to Malim.

He had gone pale, his eyes staring at the paper in front of him, his fists clenched around the once pristine orders.

"Ore, come," Malim said, his voice barely a whisper, before turning around and walking to the nearest wall. What the orders must be in order to get such a reaction from the calm male, Ore wasn't sure.

Turned out it didn't take very long to find out.

"They have got to be joking - this is not right - why you - I just don't think that this is possible," Malim took a deep breath. "They expect that you will be gone for a year," he paused for a moment before continuing, "you are to find and join a pack, gather information about their workings, who they answer to, and what species there are. Also, if possible, cause as much damage as possible to the island's society during your time there.

"Ore, listen to me closely," Malim lowered his voice to a whisper as he bent down to her level. "Keep yourself safe, even if it means failing the mission - they would prefer it if you could do both, but they want you alive.

"Come back to me," Malim's fingers brushed over her scales, avoiding the row of spikes that covered her spine from head to tail. "I don't want to lose you too.  I will-"

Snarls reached Ore's ears, spinning around, her teeth bared, her eyes searched for the output of the noise. It didn't take her long to find it. A blue and green dragons was snarling, its face scrunched up, water dripped off its scales as it stepped towards the exit, each step sending out a little tremor in the ground.

"Take it down, Ore," Malim's voice said from behind her.

Her warmly tinted wings flapped downwards as she jumped into the sky, her eyes watched the other dragons as well as the one that was now trying to escape. The other dragons were taking sides, attempting to join the escape, trying to stop the escape, or protecting the humans.

'Roll left... now!' Uliel's voice echoed in her head, Ore followed the angel's instructions, narrowly missing a shard of ice. Warmth trickled through her veins as she prepared her attack, avoiding other fighting dragons whilst her senses were assaulted by blood, roars, growls, and cries of injured dragons.

Adjusting her wings, Ore dived towards the hybrid, concentrating her warmth in her closed jaws. Short moments away from the centre of the escaping dragons, she opened her jaws, emitting a hot, yet not particularly bright, light that caused some dragons to squint. She thrusted open her wings, cutting through the scales of the dragons near to her.

Dragons turned upon her, causing her to go on the defensive.

'Give me control! Continue and you will die,' Uliel's voice washed over her, Ore swapped places with the angel, taking a backseat in her body as the angel took on the dragons. They fought well, taking on dragons which tried to cut through her scales, but barely injured her.

Then Uliel just... stopped.

Uliel! You need to do something, please! Ore cried in her mind, but her body remained motionless as dragons tore at her scales. Panicking, Ore tried to take control, but was unable to. This continued as Ore was aware of the many dragons getting through her scales, their claws scratching the soft skin beneath.

Then Ore stopped as she felt power run through her body's veins - power like she had not felt before. It made the dragons attacking her pause for a few moments before their attacks became more frenzied.

'I apologise in advance'

Ore felt weak before pain ran through each vein, as her mind gained most of the control in her body and her jaws opened to release a screech. But no sound came out. Heat and light overwhelmed her senses before everything fell away.

She couldn't see anything.

***

Malim's eyes closed as light blinded him, heat made him put his arms up to protect his face. The sounds of fighting dragons disappeared for a few moments before screams filled his ears. As he opened his eyes and drew his sword, his search started.

Hitting the floor with no care to the noise, his feet carried him towards the mass of struggling dragons. His eyes bounced from each injured dragon, searching for a certain angel dragon. His heart thundered in his chest as the wounds on the dragons became worse and worse the closer to the centre he got.

The wounds became too horrible to look at.

Burns covered them all, some had melted scales, some had bones that were visible. Then the bodies seem to almost disappear.  Ashes formed piles next to bones and dead, or close to being dead, dragons. He couldn't make out what species they were, for many: their scales had been incinerated.

His sword clattered to the ground as his feet took him over to the body of a metal angel dragon. Scratches, burns, and the remains of elemental attacks covered her body. Whatever had killed many of the dragons near her was not the cause for Ore's injuries, then it dawned upon him.

"How? Ore, wake up," Malim lifted the dragon's once shining head onto his lap, his fingers brushing over her scratched scales as the rest of the humans searched for their dragons. They stopped at the point where the jaw met her skull, fingers travelling over the mark that was on her scales, all the dragons had near-identical.

He felt a faint thump in his fingertips. He let out a sigh - she was still alive. Sheathing his sword, Malim grabbed the angel dragon's paws and started to drag her away from the bodies of the dead and dying, pulling his dragon away.

"I need a healer!" Erupted from his mouth, his eyes darted around searching for the pink or shining green of a healing dragon. His arms ached from pulling the dragon who was really too heavy for him to go on much longer.

The few healers he saw were busy, bringing dragons away from the brink of death. All were too busy to notice his call in the mass of shouts, cries and whimpers. The two paws slipped out of his hands as his arms ached, telling him to stop.

Crouching over Ore, he started stroking her, tears running down his face.

"Wake up, please. Do not die on me now," his throat choked on air as he watched the dragon in his arms cling on to life with the tips of her claws.

A yip from behind him took his eyes away from Ore, and he stared into a pair of pink eyes, framed by the scales of the metallic healer. He moved away, allowing the dragon to get to work. The dragon's eyes closed, Malim eyes flickered between the healer and the angel, hoping that Ore could be saved.

"Leave the dragon alone. Let her die."

Malim spun around, his eyes narrowing as he unsheathed his sword.

"What?" He turned, standing face to face with one of the leaders - his sister.

"She is dangerous and unpredictable. What if it goes off in the craft? We will lose all of them," Kimik said, her brown eyes staring into his. "You shouldn't have gotten attached, if you get attached so easily, you are in the wrong job, trainer."

"Sister, she reminds me so much of Alima-" Malim started, but Kimik cut him off.

"Let her go."

Malim looked upwards, his eyes staring into his older sister's, which were identical to his own brown ones. Silently pleading, he continue to look at his superior.

"No," Kimik said, then turned away to supervise some of the other humans. Malim watched her, anger swelling inside him, it overtook his sadness about Ore. He knew that his sister just saw the dragons as numbers and letters on a peice of paper.

Turning his gaze back to the angel dragon, Malim noticed that the healer was still there. He stared at the dragon, wondering what the dragon was doing. As he watched, Malim noticed that the healer was growing weaker whilst Ore began to look better and more alive.

Then it just got to a point where the healer looked ill. Really ill.

Scales dulled, wings drooped, the healer carried on for a few moments after Malim had told the healer to stop. As much as he loved Ore, he couldn't allow one of the other trainers go through what he was. At least, not when he could stop it.

Malim watched as the healer glanced his way before getting up and walking away, scales scratching against the ground. Shuffling over to Ore, he held the dragon's heavy head on his lap.

Warm silver eyes stared into his.

"Do not do that again. You nearly scared me to death," he murmured gently, fingers brushing against cool metal scales.

The angel dragon lifted her head slightly and looked upon the carnage that Malim had pulled her out of, then back at Malim. Something was written across the dragon's face, something that looked like sadness, interest and fear.

A shiver ran up his spine.