~ 19 ~

How the Weak Become Strong

"This island is meant for failures, for weaklings, those who had enough strength to flee the Mainland." As'gar softened his stance, looking pitifully down at me. "Even I had been bested by the other dragons there. The people, creatures there, they were... too strong to toy with... not in the way I enjoy."

I coughed, my head whirling around, my vision bouncing around. "You... worthless piece of shit. No wonder why your ass got kicked here."

"The world doesn't operate like how it does within your bullshit notions," As'gar growled. "The strong are strong, and the weak are weak. Very little does anything to change this. The strongest dragon usually lucked out. Whether they're kind or vicious... is of their choosing."

"Fuck you," I spat again. Though my chest felt empty, it started to fill with a different essence. "Even tyrants get taken down eventually. Live... only to torture shit... w-weaker than you..." I coughed and nearly gagged. "T-Then... you'll always be weak."

"Strength is relative to locations and its inhabitants." As'gar chuckled to himself, walking toward me from the end of the cave. I'd reached its middle, now, slowly regaining myself. "Nothing strong ever finds its way to its island. Only the weak and defeated. It's been divined that way. Fated. It's no wonder that you wound up here."

He chuckled and stopped a couple feet away, raising his claw, shaking the cell and woman inside of it. "Or how her people, winning a war but losing too much for it, decided to retreat to a distant land. They left what they had won, fearing what they may lose to maintain it. People who detest fighting. That weakness called them here."

His claw lowered and As'gar nudged to outside the cave. "Or the kingdom down there. Such a false word they use. Kingdom. Like their stake of the land is big enough to constitute such a term. They owned a sizable lot back in the Mainland, but the Reds had beaten them, stolen all they had, forcing them to sail here in whatever boats they could muster."

As'gar clicked his fangs, stepping forward, rumbling the ground. "They were too weak to stay in the game. Forced to a smaller table. But you see the issue, yes? On an island that attracts the weak, why has it pulled the peaceful... and the vicious? Surely, this is no safe harbour."

His horrible laughter returned. "But a test to all those who've arrived! When you have been reduced to weakness, how does one become strong?" He charged forward and, with a cocked arm, smacked my face back to the ground. "In an island of weaklings, it's the one who consumes all else, being the last one standing, that becomes strong! It's only in devouring this place will I ever be strong enough to have my revenge back on the Mainland."

I pushed against the ground again, rising, only for a downward fist to knock me back into the stone.

"That the Ancasters, in taking the princess's power, and stealing all that the Laleen's have to offer, can have the chance to one day take back their land!" I tried to rise, but struggled, unsure if I had any strength. "And this place is a test for the Laleen's and you as well. To see if you're willing to stand back up—or if you'll take being devoured lying down."

As'gar stepped backward, and I breathed, afforded another chance.

"The weak, devouring the rest, to become strong!" My head lifted from the ground, and I looked up at the slender dragon, watching him raise the cage in his claw. He held it over his tilted-back head. "It sounded like they needed to do something special to absorb whatever is in her. But surely..."

His tongue whipped out from his open mouth.

"...eating her will incur the same effect."

I roared before I knew I would do so, emerald lava flooding through my blood-starved limbs, and I charged forward. I went to either slash across his face or tear out his throat—but As'gar saw me coming, this time. With brightened eyes and a large snarl, he caught the front of my face in his palm and, using my momentum, slammed me against the cave's wall.

I'd been knocked against the stone, but the fire within held me together, as I struggled against the wall. But As'gar fell against my back, pressing against my spine with an elbow. His other claw smashed against the wall, revealing the princess in the cell in the gaps between the talons.

My eyes stung at their corners.

"H-Hey..." I said with the voice of the greatest disappointment in the world.

Astria nodded at me and smiled with a wipe at her eyes. "Hey yourself."

I glanced downward as the great force maintained against us. There was no sense in struggling. I didn't have it in me to break free. For the moment, I caught my breath. Let my aching muscles rest.

"Sorry I couldn't save you."

She shook her head. "Don't be. You shouldn't have had to come after me in the first place." Astria looked at the steel flooring of the cage. "I should have known being kidnapped would have had repercussions. I'm the one at fault for everything."

I felt so hopeless then. I was so big and she was so small, trapped behind bent bars, held in another's claw. I raged at the idea. I wiggled, but felt the elbow dig deeper into my spine. I yelped in suppressed pain.

As'gar's breathing licked inside my frill, as the end of his snout came close, blocking the view between the princess and me. His eyes glanced at us both from above. "Now, this is what I live for. It's getting to see what life is like when it knows its time is up. But now how to deal with you pests? Don't you worry."

He chuckled. "Once I'm done with the two of you, that kingdom below will burn next. Though, I'm afraid, princess, that your kingdom will be slashed to bits after that." He pulled his head back, laughing at the cavern's ceiling. "Oh, hell, fuck it! I've hated this place since the moment it first called to me! To flames with it! After the power of eating the two of you, I'll burn this island down, destroy its foundation to beneath the sea again!"

His head slowly lowered between us again. "But how do I do it? How do I kill you both?" His tongue slithered out, licking the side of my face. I nudged away from it, but his tongue followed. After a few more flicks close to my eye, it retracted. "Do I eat you while you still live, and let the princess watch? Horrific and horrifying—but a little too much on the snout!"

As'gar tapped the end of my nuzzle with golden talons. His head reared to the side, and he looked at the princess. "Or how about you? I must admit, ever since you've entered my claw, I've wanted nothing more than to squeeze it tight, and see what remains of you across its many bars."

He clicked his fangs, over and over, disapproving of the idea.

"But you have a gift in you, so it seems, even if you are unaware of it yourself." As'gar narrowed his eyes on her. I shifted again, but then his elbow pummelled my spine. I cried, forced to morph to his shape to reduce the pain. "As cliche as it may be, you have to be devoured by a dragon, princess, for one to gain your sacred power."

As'gar hummed to himself, looking away. "But merely eating you in front of your caring dragon... wee-eell, there's no doubt it would still feel good—it just doesn't quite push down on my button. There has to be an idea I'm not sensing here. C'mon, now, the two of you."

He looked back at us. "I can't be the one coming up with everything. How would the two of you like to die? Would someone like to go first, thinking it might buy the second some time to escape? Let's forget that notion. What is the way of leaving this life that scares you the most? What would terrify you about seeing the other die?"

His focus turned to the princess. "You. Do you care for this dragon as much as he does you? Or did you simply use him for your plot, and then craved to be rid of him."

The princess spat at a singular scale on his snout. "He's the best male that I've ever known."

"Is that so? Then how would you like to die inside of him?" Both our eyes widened at that notion, and fire blared within me. His elbow still ground into my spine, but I wiggled against it, thrashing myself onto the wall. "Now there we go! I think we have a winner! The dragon you thought you could trust, gobbling you up, as you're forced to burn and disintegrate within his stomach."

His mad cackling carried on. "Forced into his mouth and swallowed whole, the two of you, sharing your last words, as he struggles to get you outside of him. But that won't happen. And just after you're gone, I'll kill him next, and devour him whole, taking both his and your power at the same time!"

"YOU GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

It didn't fucking matter. The pain or nausea. It killed me to throw my head back, but I smacked it right into his fucking face. He stumbled back a step and, taking that space for myself, I curved, throwing the back of my elbow into his face.

I didn't give him a chance to stumble as I fell after him, latching my fangs into his throat, clamping down, tearing through the scales, biting into the flesh. His head cocked into mine to reduce my access, grabbing my throat with a claw.

I raised my claw to his face, though he grabbed my wrist, my arm thrust through his grip. My claw wiggled in the confines, gaining space, as I overpowered the golden, slender fuck. My talons slashing talons eventually reached his face, and I tore at it, digging my talons into his right eye.

"N-No! Don't you fucking—TC-ACK!"

My talons clamped and clenched, squeezing into the socket, squishing the front part of his eyes. He thundered a roar and unleashed a jet of golden flames. Uncaring about the overwhelming pain, his claw released my wrist and, turning into a fist, smacked against the top of my head. I was buried deeper into this throat before my jaw opened—and his chest bumped me back.

Just as he took a swing at my face, knocking me back, a demon unleashed in the golden beast. He hurdled forward at me, smacking me back a step at a time, slashing at my face, reaching for an eye in return. Both of us had been set on fire, lost more to the frenzy of being a dragon.

As'gar went for the offensive, and I could barely block his attacks, which were too fast and overpowering. He knocked me out of focus, unable to do anything against his quickness. There wasn't much ground behind me, and his punches broke close to my pones, his slashes, removing patches of scales from my flesh.

What scared me most was that, with every punch, the cage was caught in the contact.

"A-Again you fail me! Inch toward becoming a beast only to falter back as a human! Do you think you were the only one to exist like this! That wound up like this!" I didn't have time to comprehend his words as life dimmed from my vision. He struck me against the back wall of the cave, his final punch, throwing my back against it. "I will see that dragon come out of you. I will see you become your all—before I take it from you! STILL... STILL, YOU CANNOT FINISH THE JOB!"

His golden burning eyes looked to the claw he held in the air. I laid against the wall, trying to push off against it—but falling back onto it. Blood kept washing over my eyes, and I didn't have the strength to wipe it away.

I had to get used to seeing through the colour red.

"But now I know how to break out the beast from inside of you!" His claw squeezed, the force, exploding the bottom of the cell. A miniature woman well, hooking her hands on the bars. They were golden, bent outward. "Because now I'm going to devour this woman... and listen to you SCREAM AND BEG!"

I beat my fists against the walls, nearly breaking craters against the stone, the impact forcing me forward. I stumbled, always forward, uncaring that I was losing my balance. "I... refuse. I'll always refuse."

As'gar looked at me amused as I limped closer.

"I reject your reason for living," I said between my wheezes. "There's... no way in hell... I'll ever let it continue."

"Ha! And what right do you have to deem such a thing? Might makes right, boy!" As'gar chuckled, bringing the cage over his mouth and opening it below the hanging woman. Astria climbed the outside of the cage, ascending the bars—as if reaching his talon would make a difference. "My reason for living has made me strong enough to bring about this very moment. Your reason for living has left you weak, about to die, watching your love go first."

He wiggled the case, jostling the princess, who smacked against the bars.

I hurried quicker, grunting, trying to make it in time.

"The truth is that reason is irrelevant... it's the raw, natural strength that a dragon lucked into." Then, with a final rattle, the princess slipped. I watched her fall with a cry, her petite form disappearing in the sizable maw. "But enough talk."

As'gar stood tall before me, blood pouring from his closed eye, more gushing from his neck. Yet none of that seemed to bother him—like his injuries, somehow, made him stronger. He leaned forward and opened his mouth some more, showing the princess stranded on his tongue, trying to ride the waves he put her through.

"C-Cole!"

It was small, light, and distant—but its cry wasn't lost on me. I saw the princess inside the mouth, each bob and wave of his tongue, sliding her closer to the back. His mouth then shut, sealing her inside. As'gar chuckled as he leaned back, not having yet swallowed.

"Careful now," he said precisely, with only the smallest weight on his tongue. "Punch me around too hard, and she might fly into a fang, or I might swallow by accident." He then presented himself, holding out his arms. "First attack is free! If you're willing to take it."