The metal dragon was curled up into as small as she could in the little fabric nest, hoping against hope that something was going to happen. Such as Uliel coming back to her.

But as time went past, the dragon's angel failed to reappear, and the dragon refused to unwind from the position she was in - even food and drink went unnoticed in the other corner of the room. The lighting went by in a cycle of dimming and brightening, and the dragon became thinner, scales duller and darker, yet still the dragon didn't move.

Uliel, please, Uliel, Uliel, my angel. Uliel, Uliel, Uliel, come back to me. Uliel, Uliel, Uliel, Uliel, why did you leave me? Uliel, Uliel, Uliel, why did I listen to you? Uliel, Uliel, why did I grow dependant upon you? Uliel, I know you're still there. Uliel!

The angel-less dragon remained curled up and still even when her door opened, the dragon's eye was all that moved. Watching the motionless dragon, the humans approached, a group of five, all wearing thick and dark grey protective gear, whilst also carrying weapons that were pointed in the direction of the metal scaled dragon.

"I thought dragons loved their food, so she must be ill to have been leaving it for so long," a male said as he approached Ore, who continued to remain still, even as fingers brushed her scales.

"Careful, you don't want your hand being taken off," one of the five who remained back said, a female.

Uliel, where are you? Come back to me, come and help me.

"If she lashed out, it wouldn't be just my fingers that I'd have to be worried about." Ore watched the male grin as his eyes examined her curled up form. "I think that we should get a healer in here."

"The report said that she had been healed when she was put in here, so unless she harmed herself, she's not injured," another male called out after reading a piece of paper.

"There's something strange about this one; I thought she was an angel dragon, they have silvery scales. Something has happened to her, her scales have gone a dark orangey colour," the male stood next to her looked into her eye. "The eye is a pale orange too."

"We can see her, we've got eyes, you know?" Another female said.

"She needs to be checked over before she is seen in two days, by someone who knows what they are talking about. This is not normal." The male said as he walked away, casting a glance back to the still dragon. "Write that down and we'll check the next one." Ore's eye closed as did the door, continuing her pleading for her angel who had betrayed her.

-

An orange ear flicked towards the door as it was unlocked and opened, revealing a group of humans standing in the doorway. The group of nine walked closer before stopping as a male continued towards the dragon, who followed the male with her eye.

Uliel...

"Hello, I'm just going to have a look at you," the male said, his fingers trailing down her back to her wings. "If you could stand up, it would make my life easier, but I can still do it this way." The male chuckled before reaching down towards Ore's face. A low growl rumbled through her throat as the male's fingers strayed too close to her eyes which narrowed as the man took a step back.

Moving her tail, the metal dragon began to unwind, her joints and scales creaking from the movement as the dragon stumbled to her feet, her heart a rekindled fire in her metal chest. Leaning against the wall, the dragon watched the humans, her mind cried out again for her angel, where a bottomless chasm had opened and was swallowing her whole.

"For a dragon who is over a year old, she moves like an old grandma, but when was the last time she moved? Probably not for a while," the male said his eyes taking in the dragon. "Her scales have lost their shine, which is mostly from her hunger and dehydration; her claws are dull and blunt from carelessness; and her colouring is quite dark for an angel dragon.

"I would say that she has lost the will to live. Although why her angel isn't doing anything..." the male walked towards her head once again, staring into her eyes. "Why was she brought in?"

"She was found in the center of the explosion and became violent when she regained consciousness," a male said after moments of flicking through paper.

"Poor thing. Bring a calm, friendly dragon in, I want to check something," the male said, turning away from weakened dragon and strode towards the door. "Now would be a good time." A couple of humans scourged away from the group whilst the main male started scribbling on the paper.

The dragon whimpered quietly as she slid down the wall, eyes watching the humans by the door, who was in turn watching the angel dragon. A dragon who was broken in her mind would not be of much use to the humans, so why should she stay standing? They seemed to be done looking at her closely anyway. Now sat on the floor, she curled back up.

"I brought another angel dragon, she's a fair bit older than the one in there, so they should not know each other," a female said, Ore barely listening to what they were saying, only watching the humans with one eye as they moved to allow an adult dragon in.

The lights shining upon the angel dragon's silver scales, she stopped moving when her golden eyes came to a rest upon the curled up dragon's amber scales and tainted eyes. Baring her long shining teeth, the angel dragon whined before growling backing back up and into the hallway, leaving the young dragon alone in the room.

"Thought so," the male who had approached the curled up dragon murmured before speaking normally. "You can take the angel dragon back, I think that I know what's happening here." The angel-less dragon watched him write something down, then probably underline it before handing the clipboard back to one of the other humans. "Case closed."

The door closed, leaving the metal dragon all alone.
-
Her stomach rumbled like far away thunder, the meat's not-quite-fresh smell wafted over to her, but the dragon remained curled up in the corner. Not doing anything physically, just thinking and crying out as an invisible weight crushed into her from all sides.

'"Come on you cheeky little angel, get off my ear!"' A memory from her first trainer - Han? Fan? Dan? - came to her mind from when she had played with his ear whilst he was walking from her little box. Such a strange memory, one that the dragon had thought she had forgotten.

Would she still be considered an angel dragon? She had no angel, the one thing that made them unique. Her breath caught in her throat. What was she? An angel dragon with no angel was just a dragon, but she had metal scales. So not so ordinary. A metal scaled dragon?

There was nothing more to her, she was just a metal scaled dragon. Nothing more.

Uliel, I hate you for abandoning me. How could you do that? You were meant to help me, guide me through life, but you disappear not too long after you randomly just appear. Uliel, you left me worse off than how I was before you.

The metal dragon's eyes flicked towards the food, but footsteps stopped in front of her door; she was a popular dragon today, with all these visitors coming to look at her. Her body groaning for her to lie back down, she got to her feet as the door opened, revealing a larger group than before.

"Oh, she's standing," the male who last saw her said.

"Ore?" The dragon's eyes darted towards a male, one she knew well. He walked closer to her, taking more time than he ever had done before until he stood just outside of swiping reach.

"Don't get too attached Malim, the decision about her future has been made, placing both her welfare and our safety into account. You can't change it," the female said, Malim's sister, she was sure that Malim had once told her his sister's name, but the dragon had long forgotten it.

"You could, if she got better," Malim said, his face turned away to the dragon so all she could see was the back of his head and his hair.

"There's no time for her to get better, the orders was for her to be put down this afternoon."

The dragon's coloured eyes narrowed, 'put down'? Whatever that meant, it didn't sound good, neither was Malim's reaction a happy one. He'd started to walk over to his sister and began to speak, but she cut him off and silence reigned.

"All she needs is-" the male was interrupted by Malim's sister.

"That doesn't matter, unless it is something that would work and is quick and easy."

"All she probably needs is someone to live for, hope, a reason to live," the male started.

"There's nothing to say that that'll work, I've read reports that they only get worse as time goes by," the female said. "We need to get going." With that, she turned and walked into the corridor before her shoes stopped clicking against the stone floor, Ore's eyes following her.

"Not necessarily," Malim muttered. "Come here, Ore."

Obediently, Ore stepped closer and closer towards the human, before stopping in front of him, her eyes staring at his. Malim was given some of the long, dark and red rope-like bindings as well as some more that was limp and already partly tied together.

"I'm sorry," Malim whispered as he placed the bindings over her head and tightened some of them so that they sat close upon her scales, but would still move. "I tried, I promise, but they wouldn't listen to me." His eyes glistened as he tightened the bindings around Ore's jaws.

Stepping away from her, Ore noticed that the human was holding one of he bindings that was attached to those on her body. He gave them a gentle tug and Ore stepped forwards before tilting her head at him.

"Follow me," Malim said as Ore walked towards him, her eyes fixed upon his. "That's it, good girl." He ran a hand over her scales as she was brought out of her brightly lit room and into a plain light grey hallway.

-
I had accidentally deleted the whole original version of this chapter. So I had to rewrite it.
For some reason this chapter just did not want to become written - aka I spent hours just staring at a screen for a few weeks. I hate writer's block, even if I knew what I wanted to write.
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