Diana perked up at the sound of heavy footprints heading towards them. She scowled at what she started hearing from what's coming their ways. She quickly woke up Callum and Zym, he caught sight of her tense demeanor and nodded understandingly.
"Get in the bag, Zym," Callum whispered to his adoptive son.
Diana was slightly amused at his failings with the stubborn baby Storm dragon. Callum had gingerly tried to push Zym into his satchel headfirst. Zym wiggled and squirmed, twisting out of Callum's grasp. Callum found it impossible to keep the bag open, while guiding Zym into the bag.
"Diana, look," Callum said as he showed the bag to her. "He can't fly yet, but he should be safe in my bag."
"Umm... You're sure about that?" Diana asked him, amused at the sight of his backpack.
"What?" Callum looked confused by Diana's question, but when he looked into it and was immediately alarmed by Zym's disappearance again. Zym was on the other side of the dungeon. "Hey! How'd you do that?"
Diana chuckled quietly as he continued trying to hide Zym and she headed towards the dungeon door and found the Moonshadow elves fast asleep. A few days after they met the Moonshadow elves, they started warming up to each other as close friends and they learned each other's names.
"Ram." He opened his hazel eyes and met Diana's gaze. She gave him an alarmed look and pointed her gaze towards the hallway where the voices and shadows are getting bigger by the minute.
"Wake the others up," Diana whispered to Ram.
Ram nodded and went back to the elves immediately. Runaan and Ethari immediately woke up next to each other, as did the other elves.
"The guards are coming," Ram whispered to Runaan.
Runaan nodded understandingly and gotten up with the other elves by his sides. They stood in front of the dungeon door and spotted Diana with Callum by her side.
"Good, you lot are all awake," sneered the guard. "We're going to take you lot out to show what will happen to you."
As the guards tied the humans and the elves up with some chained ropes, Diana caused a bit of fight against the guards. It was thanks to the fight that received a nasty scar over her right eyebrow.
"Look out!" Diana reared back from the guard as he tried to grab her chain. She dodged and feint, causing some of the guards to fall over their own feet. Just before one of the guards could of ended her, Ram pushed the opposing guard away with his jump of momentum and saved Diana's life.
Once the fight was done, Diana looked gratefully at Ram and said, "Thanks."
"Sure thing," replied Ram. "I was hoping to do that."
They were soon brought to the shadows of a courtyard of the fortress. A huge deal of it was hidden within canyons and cliff faces, but at the foot of the mountain, partially built into it, stood what was left of a palace. In front of it was an overgrown square paved in black granite and studded with bits of aflame torches, but in the center was a massive and empty hole; what used to be a platform had collapsed in the center of it and was nearly submerged in a wild tangle of vines. All around the square were more ruins: once-elegant buildings whose roofs had carved in, statues missing parts, sculptural details worn away by weather, and so forth.
Nightfall has came at last and it was almost time for the full moon to appear in the sky. Under different circumstances, Rayla and the other assassins would have infiltrated Katolis Castle and kill King Harrow and his son. Yet, instead, they're all here at this place that shouldn't be called an academy with several other elves who have also been captured, and being marched done to this sleeping chamber that Viren the so-called "Ablah General" mentioned. Rayla felt chills go down her spine as she walked down the corridor to see the sleeping chamber, her friends by her side.
"Rayla, would you mind telling me why you friendly with the humans?" Ethari asked. "Why did you recognized them? You haven't meet them before. And why did you ask them that they're primal mages? They're humans."
"I know them in the night before and I saw that they can do primal magic with a baby Storm dragon by their sides," Rayla said before bumping against an Earthblood elf that looked dazed. His eyes were milky white, which freaked her out. "What's with him?"
"He's been moon-blinked," whispered Ethari.
"So, tonight, we want all of you rest," Viren said as all of the captured elves were brought over to the floor and forced them to sit down. "Now, once the glorious full moon appears, lean back, put your heads and turn yourself towards its light and sleep." Viren started walking amongst the elves before leaving.
Ethari didn't like the sound of it. He knows what the dark mage is up to and said, "Everyone, we mustn't fall asleep here. He wants to moon blink them."
"Moon blink?!" Rayla exclaimed.
"Rayla!" Diana hissed softly, quickly quieting the elf before one of the guards has marched passed them. Her gaze lingered on one of the onlooking guards before looking at Ethari for the moon-blink explanation.
"Sometimes, magical creatures get forced to sleep under a full moon with magic and when they wake up, they weren't the same as if they have forgotten who they are," Ethari explained to them, quickly and quietly. "The only magical creatures that don't get moon blinked are those connected to the Moon. So, they won't moon blink us or the other Moonshadow elves here that easily."
"That may be the case," whispered Callisto. "But, I've been listening to the guards and heard them talking about how Lord Viren will cause a major war between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia. He wants to become more powerful and drain it from the Dragon Prince." He let out an uneasy breath before he continued. "I think he might be working with a very powerful elf."
All of them looked at each other uneasily, but some of them cringed at the sight of the Moon Tower. It's a terrifying sight to behold. It was made of black marble. There's a silver circle being held above the tower that's size of a full moon.
"We have to get out here," muttered Diana, making sure the guards weren't listening to them.
"We are going to get out of here," Callum said determinedly.
Andromeda looked up at the appearing stars in the night sky. It was almost evening, but the stars started to sparkle brightly in the night sky. Despite the darkness of the sky, the stars were so bright and clear like distant diamonds sparkling in the night, while the sky is like deep sapphire blue velvet that sparkled with the beautiful constellations overhead. As the clouds cleared, a silver circle of the moon had started to appear in the night sky and had casted its soft silvery beams of light over the fortress.
"I know these stars," said Andromeda. "I could get us away from here, but the only way out is to fight and we can't do it with so many guards."
"Not yet, we can't." Callum's green eyes glowed with strong determination. "But we're gonna find a way out of here. Whenever they're not watching us, we'll find a way."
"Do you really think that we can make it, Callum?" Rayla asked him as she inched closer to his side.
"Together," replied Callum softly. "We'll all find a way out of here." He shook his head and anger filled his voice.
"What these people are doing is wrong," Diana said angrily. "We have to find a way out of here without getting caught."
"Lets bring you lot back into the dungeons." Without putting up a fight, the elves and the two humans were pushed back into their respective dungeons again. Though, they didn't noticed that one of the guards looked suspicious of them. But they soon saw someone coming from the hallway. All of them pretended to fall asleep to gather information from the interloper.
It was none other than Viren himself. Callum shuddered with not just fear, but with anger. Diana placed a hand on his shoulder, in which calmed him down and they both relaxed to their "sleep."
Viren paid no mind to them and seemed have a lot on his mind as he slightly spoke to a purple caterpillar on his left ear. Diana opened one eye to gain a quick look of the dark mage and stiffened slightly at the sight. Deep set wrinkles etched themselves into his skin — Diana could see some grooves on his forehead. His eyes are gaining from experience that dark craters of exhaustion surrounded them.
"—Harrow is so easy to manipulate," Viren was saying... to himself or the magical caterpillar? "Now that I have the Dragon Prince's Egg and one of the princes, humanity will never be considered the lesser species ever again. Once I take care of the royal families, I can unite all of the kingdoms to reign a war over Xadia. But why should I trust you, Aaravos?"
She felt Callum make a furious move, but Diana kept him still from being spotted or sensed by the dark mage and his new pet caterpillar. She gave a swift glance to the elves and could see that the Moonshadow elves were terrified and horrified by the mere name and the incoming war in the other dungeon.
She watched as Viren walked into his secret lab and made sure none of his dark magic has been left behind. She tilted her head to listen to some noises from the usually empty room and suddenly heard some squeaking from behind the door. She sensed that Viren has gone upstairs.
"Are we safe?" Callum asked her softly.
"For now," Diana replied grimly. "We need to get out of here. And quick."
"And what exactly you two kids talking about doing?" The two of them spun around to see a soldier has been listening to their conversation. The soldier is a slender, muscular man with secretive dark brown eyes and his brown hair is streaked with gray from age as well as is beard. He's wearing a black leather tunic with red scales on his shoulders and around his waist. He also has spiked shoulder pads, and black wrist guards. Though, Diana was stunned at the sight of his scars; he has a permanent scar over his left eye, three scars on the left side of his neck, and four claw marks on his right arm. "Hmm?"
The two humans (with a well-hidden Zym in Callum's bag) and the elves stiffened at the sight of the guard. He started tying ten ropes around theirs wrists after he gotten them out of their prisons, and gave dark green cloaks to the elves and dark blue cloaks to the two human kids, before making them walking alongside him. He started leading them away from the dungeons. They exchanged nervous and wary glances with each other, unsure what the soldier is going to do to them or what he has in store for them.