The light grey hallways remained plain and unremarkable as Malim led Ore through them, his hand brushing against the hard metal scales of her shoulder. Walking not far behind them was the other male and Malim's sister, who Ore barely glanced at.

Passing down onto yet another seemingly plain corridor, Ore watched as the singular door in the entire corridor draw near, scratches from dragons' claws crossed each other on the metal door and concrete walls. A submissive scent of death clung to the door and the room that hid behind it, growing with every step.

Ore's eyes instinctively flickered around, their approach grew slower and slower, a glance towards Malim's clenched hands reiterated what she could smell. Death.

After long moments that seemed to stretch into her mind, the small group stopped in front of the door. The other male walked forwards and opened the door without a hitch, revealing the contents for the rest of the group to see.

Six open stalls lined two sides of the room, lit by one shining light, penetrating any darkness and destroying it; five of the stalls had a dragon tied up in, ropes crossing their bodies and through holes in the walls, securing them in place. The dragons were of a variety of species, but most seemed to be around Ore's age, their eyes watching her from where they were tied up.

Malim gently tugged the rope, leading her towards the last remaining free stall, the one to the right of the door - and closest too - Ore followed, eyes stuck upon the back of his head. Only stopping her slow walk when she was in the stall, Ore continued to watch her trainer.

The  black and red rope wobbled as it was failed to be threaded through the hole by Malim, continuously hitting the metal sides. Brain empty and calm, Ore's eyes watched every wobble, failure and success as Malim worked.

"Come on, we don't have long before we have to be out - unless you want to stay here," Malim's sister - Ore still couldn't remember her name - called out from her composed doorway, and the metal dragon watched the trainer thread the last rope through the last remaining hole.

"I'm sorry, Ore," he murmured, his face was uncharacteristically pale and shining in the bright light. Malim brushed his fingers along
Ore's scales as she hummed before he turned and left through the door then stopped.

When her trainer turned back around again - but remained where he was - Ore's eyesight could clearly pick out his pale face, a faint blotchy nose, and his shining warm brown eyes, staring right into her discoloured eyes.

The metal door closed with a clang.

Silence did not stretch for eternity, instead Ore's ears picked up the shuffling of dragons and their breathing. She stood still, so still as she assessed the situation and waited for the other dragons to say, or do something. Like the silence, this didn't last long.

"Why you here?" Ore assumed the question was - the dragon must have had a rope going around their jaws too.

"Dangerous - crazy - apparently," Ore tried to reply, best to keep it simple.

"Fire? Lava?" Another dragon asked.

"No. Wrong bindings," the water dragon opposite said, his eyes staring right at her own. Whilst he did have a binding, it didn't seem tight enough to stop him speaking.

A snarl came from one of the other dragons before a snap, Ore's eyes tried to see what was happening.

"I don't want to be here, so I'll free you all if you don't stop me," a giant male earth dragon growled as he walked down the room so that the other five could see him.

Whines filled the silence that followed, and the earth dragon revealed shining white teeth. He walked out of Ore's sight and Ore listened as he broke the dragons' bindings, and she stood still where she was.

Her legs trembled as her stomach growled, mind going back to the food and water that she has refused. What would the others do when they knew what she was?

A breeze tickled the bottom of her legs as she listened to the other dragons being freed. Her mind became clouded as she stumbled to stay standing.

Something was wrong.

Flicking her eyes open and up, towards the male water dragon, showed his narrowed green eyes staring right at her as her legs begged for rest. His longer legs remained strong under him as he strained against his bonds, muscles bulging as he snarled.

"Quickly!" He called to the others who had all been nearly freed.

The earth dragon started to cut at the water dragon's bindings, his eyes sometimes glancing back to Ore, who was only standing because of the straps digging into her. Shaking her head to clear her vision, Ore whined as she started to struggle with her breaths.

A dragon rushed over and started at her bonds as the others tried to break the door down as the water dragon opposite was freed. Two more dragons started the other two pounding at the door.

Ore fell forwards as her bindings snapped, straight into the fire dragon's chest. Ore felt teeth clamp around the back of her neck and was dragged to the door as the other dragons coughed as their claws dug deep into the door.

An attempt to get her feet under her proves futile as she was positioned against the door by the female fire dragon, her orange-red eyes looking down at her in pity. A glow built up in the dragon's throat as she turned to where the others clawed and threw their elements at the door.

Darkness claimed her.

-

Her chest hurt as it heaved gloriously fresher air into Ore's lungs, her head joined her chest in its complaints, pleading for some pain relief as she lay on the hard, solid ground. Weak, a cough made it's way through her, which was accompanied by a cough from another dragon, right next to her. The dragon wanted to go back to the darkness, but it's hold upon her was fading quickly.

Peace and quiet was always temporary, it seemed, as her brain went through what had just happened. Ore had nearly died, not for the first time, nor the second, but the third.

Death was apparently not ready for the metal dragon to join the countless other souls.

Apart from herself and the other dragon, the hallway - which was what Ore presumed it was - was as silent as a dead deer. Unlike the last silence, this one did stretch on for a while as the two recovered from what had happened. What was going to happen now? Would Malim be happy that she had survived? He didn't look happy when he tied her up.

"In case you were wondering," the water dragon said between gasps, "you weren't out for that long, just unconscious."

Ore turned and looked at the male, not daring to see what the expression in his eyes were, his was sat, head hung a bit low, his deep blue chest rising and falling quickly. Turned towards her, Ore knew that he must have been watching and glance towards his eyes proved her theory, he was intrigued.

"How come you didn't leave with the others?" Ore asked as she sat up, which was and was not a great idea - her head swam in invisible water.

"I don't really want to escape, a bit if miscommunication placed me in that death chamber, not conspiracy of escape," he said, sharp eyes watching her before tilting his head. "How come you're not going? Aside from nearly just dying, that is."

"I just do not want to, I just don't see why I should, I have everything I need and want," the metal dragon continued to watch the male.

"Torrent is my name, should you be wondering," he stood and stretched his large wings, which brushed the ceiling and would have whacked Ore had he not brought them in again.

"Ore, metal dragon," she said from where she was sat, watching him fold his wings.

"Well, Ore, I'd like to get to know you better," he flashed his long, sharp, white as a fluffy cloud teeth and turned his head towards the hallway. "But I'm not sure what the humans are going to do." He walked back with the grace of an air dragon, before compacting himself into a small blue-grey ball in a corner, his eyes peaking out and watching the corridor.

Rolling her eyes, Ore flopped back into the floor, wings spread out on either side of her as her stomach grumbled again. Condemned thing.

The footsteps which had been faint continued to grow louder, and there were a fair few of them. Would Malim be with them, or would his sister be there? Thoughts flew around her head, each as hard to grasp as air. Eventually, the humans must have seen the two dragons as they stopped and were silent, awaiting for instructions was the reason that was most likely.

"We found the two unaccounted for dragons, run and tell someone at the office," a familiar female voice said, filling Ore with dread. "Knew we should have just shot them in the head, much easier and less likely to fail."

Ore opened her eyes and moved with the same pace as a... Malim said snails were slow... same pace as a snail, watching the humans as she stood, head bowed in the corridor. Watching the humans watch her, Ore stood still as a whine escaped her throat, waiting for the humans to do something, but they all just stood there waiting for orders.

After waiting like a wall, Ore's tail twitched as she waited and a loud crack followed pain in her shoulder. A scream ravaged her throat, making all wince as the dragon stumbled backwards, limping as she watched the humans recover and aim their weapons at her. Running down her leg, her precious blood seeped from her wound and onto the once-clean floor.

The humans were watching her watch them, her eyes picking out their hands pale upon their weapons, poses stiff as everything went quiet. Ore hung her front left leg off the floor, letting loose a whine as she struggled to keep her balance - her suffocation was not helping her new situation.

"Put the injured one down, and quickly," the female said - Ore expected that if Malim's sister was a dragon, she would have growled. The metal dragon stepped away from the water dragon and whined again, shaking her head and looking at the female, along with a pleading whine.

"Three," the female began, looking straight at Ore.

The dragon knew that she wouldn't be able to get out of this one alive if they did fire. She could run and attempt to escape a traitor, or stay and die loyal.

"Two."

Ore put her paw on the ground, standing as tall as she could - not that tall - and stared at the humans. The female watched her with renewed interest.

"Tranquillise her," the female said, a small shuffle happened amongst the humans. "Now."

The crackling from some of the humans' weapons were quieter this time, even though there were more. Metal clanged against her scales before falling to the floor, although a few that hit her in the softer scales pierced her hide. Another whine joined the noise as she looked down, small metal spikes were on the floor, each with a large black and white fluffy end. Strange.

Ore shook her head as she struggled to stay awake, why was she so tired all of a sudden? Stumbling to the wall, she leant against the cool, hard stone as her legs threatened to buckle yet again. Uliel? You coming back to me? Please.

She sank down the wall, eyes not moving around the corridor as quickly before her legs fell asleep and her eyelids became heavy then closed.

I guess this is goodbye.

Goodbye my angel.