Silver followed the path that she had been told, Zepos walking right next to her. They were silent, both thinking through what had happened. Silver had always been a free spirited dragoness, loving to try new things and not afraid of danger, and now, she was trapped. Silver had never considered herself claustrophobic, she had spent a lot of her time in caves, but as she walked through the corridor that was so small she doubted she could open her wings fully, she was scared. The bleak walls lit in red seemed to be descending down on her, making her jittery at every brush of a dragon's wing or clack of claws against stony ground. She nearly missed the turn but Zepos caught her and turned her in the right direction.

"Are you alright?" asked the electric dragon.

Silver nodded her head slightly and forced herself to take a deep breath, "Yeah... I'm alright."

He could obviously tell she wasn't but didn't press the matter. Instead they followed the small group of dragons down another dimly lit corridor. At one point a couple of humans with assault rifles joined them. Two out at the front and two at the back. The strong urge to attack and run went through Silver, but with her collar on she doubted she would get far.

The humans lead them through the base at a fast pace. Silver tried to memorize the layout but before long her mind became muddled. It was like a maze. Everything seemed to look the same and Silver swore at one point that they went in a circle. Maybe it was a trick to get the dragons confused about where they were.

Eventually they came to a stop outside a large double door. Growls and grumbles were heard on the inside, followed by the occasional roar. Laughing was also being sounded as well, much to Silver's surprise. How anyone could laugh in this place was beyond her.

The guards opened the door and told the dragons to walk inside. Silver went last, walking in nervously. She was the smallest of the group, most probably the youngest as well, and even with her metal shell and fighting prowess she suddenly felt very vulnerable. She tried to put down her metal shell, but stopped as a slight tingle came from the collar. Putting her shell down would break the collar, and it decided that such a grab for freedom was unacceptable. She had no doubt next time she tried she would be electrocuted.

"And here are this weeks newbies!" said a loud voice over the crowd, "Lets see what we got here."

It sounded like the voice was coming from a microphone, and it was a dragon's voice. She could tell because it was slightly more guttural then a humans, almost like it was growling. No human could make their voice that deep without hurting their throat.

"One...three, nope. Five more fire dragons," the voice continued, "Two earth dragons... a wind dragon, nice. We need a few more of them."

A few chuckles went around the crowd.

"An electric dragon, and..." the dragon hesitated and Silver assumed it had seen her, "What seems to be a new species! Well this just got interesting."

The place was crowded with dragons of every type. From common fire dragons and earth dragons to some species Silver had never seen before. A dragon with a strange light, almost fluoro green colour was eyeing her up and down in interest. She glared at it, causing it to snort and turn away. A strange blue/white coloured dragon flew overhead towards another area of the place.

To Silver it looked like a football oval, but bigger. There was a series of large steps on each side of the area, all covered in dragons. It was like one of the meetings her father sometimes called, but a lot more crowded. She was disliking this place more and more, especially since over the previous year she had spent her time with no dragons at all. Though it was rather lonely she would prefer that to this overcrowded festival.

A thud caught her attention as a dragon landed behind her. She turned around and nearly yelped in surprise as a large dragon looked down at her, his eyes taking in everything she was in one glance. He was an earth dragon with a nasty amount of scars covering his body. Dragons only scarred when their scales were completely ripped off and given very little chance to heal. This dragon had seen a lot of that.

"And who might you be, dragoness," he said it somewhat kindly, his voice still booming out in the crowds of dragons around them.

There was some sought of device on the side of his head that Silver guessed allowed his voice to be projected outwards.

"I... um... Silver," she said, seeing no harm in giving out her name.

"Silver ha? A suitable name for a beautiful dragoness," said the dragon with a grin.

Silver got flustered and stared down at her feet, shuffling slightly. It was awkward being the centre of attention and right now she really, really, wanted to be alone. All this was confusing to her. These dragons seemed almost... happy.

"What species are you Silver?" asked the dragon.

"Metallic," she replied, "Metal."

A collective gasp ran through the dragons near her. She wondered whether they had heard of metallic dragons. As far as she knew her father and her were the only metal dragons on the planet.

The dragon seemed to be surprised as well, "A new species ha? Well this is a welcome arrangement. Some extra excitement in our lives. Welcome to D.E.D. The dragon education department."

For some odd reason, Silver didn't feel very welcome.

* * *

Zepos managed to find them a rather quiet spot towards the end of the area. Silver lay down on the ground and let loose a small sigh. It was all getting to her now. Another headache was beginning to form in her head. The noise, the crowd, the place. She had spent the whole year wanting to find another dragon and now she had found too many.

"That was strange," said Zepos.

"Agreed," sighed Silver, laying her head on the ground.

"No. I mean that earth dragon," he said.

"What about him? He did seem a bit too cheerful and all, but honestly he didn't seem to bad," she sighed.

"Didn't you notice something about his collar?"

"What about it?"

"He didn't have one."

Silver's head shot up and she stared at the electric dragon in surprise. For a moment she didn't believe him. Saying that meant that the dragon was willingly here. Why a dragon would want to be here was beyond her. It seemed impossible. If she were able to get her collar off she would go full metal and break out of this place within ten minutes. It would be easy. The fact that the earth dragon wasn't waring it told her a few things about the dragons here.

"It seemed there is a bit more to this place then chains," said Zepos.

"I know," Silver looked out over the crowd of dragons to the other side of the stadium

The earth dragon was sitting at the top of a platform, looking over the rest of the area. It was just above the gate they had entered from. He was with a few other dragons, an electric dragon, two fire dragons and a strange dragon she didn't recognise. All were reasonabley large, and none had collars.

"They seem to be the leaders of this place," She said to Zepos, "Maybe it's a reward for good behaviour or something."

"Probably," he agreed.

Then that might be her way out. If she could get to a point where she was able to get rid of her collar for 'good behaviour' then she would be able to escape easily, and maybe even rescue a few other dragons as she did. It would also make the humans trust her. She grinned at the thought. So this place wasn't invincible after all.

"Silver?" said a voice she didn't recognise.

Frowning she looked around to see a wind dragon nervously approaching them. He was older then Zepos by a few years and bigger then both of them. He seemed a bit frail however. In fact, most of the dragons there seemed a bit frail, as if they weren't fed quite enough food. He was a creamy, blue coloured dragon like most wind dragons but the colours seemed dull and not as vibrant as usual.

"Yes?" said the dragoness.

The wind dragon trudged up to them, "I'm Eril. I don't know if you remember me, I left the valley like, five years ago now."

"You lived in dragon valley?" said Silver in surprise, searching her memories for the wind dragon. His name did sound familiar.

"Yeah, your father rescued me from that other place, but I found staying in the valley boring, so I left. A week later I ended up here, and well... I've been here ever since," he said.

"You've been here five years?" she instantly felt sorry for the dragon, he must have been younger then her when he first arrived.

He nodded glumly, "It's been horrible. The humans here are focused on... 'educating' us dragons, making us into pets. Every afternoon Tetrad gives us a 'lesson' on how we should accept the humans as our superiors and how they will take good care of us and we should do whatever they say. It's a bit more then that bit you get the gist."

"Who's Tetrad?"

"That earth dragon that greeted you on the way in," he said.

Silver growled. She was beginning to like that dragon less and less, "Why would he do such a thing?"

Eril shrugged, "There's some sought of hierarchy here. The dragons that agree and do whatever the humans tell them to do get promoted higher and higher until they become 'collarless'. These dragons are the leaders of this place and if you don't do what they say... well... I'm sure you would know what happens."

"I can guess," she said, looking up at the collarless dragons with a sudden hatred. How dare these dragons torture others. She felt herself wanting to fly up to where they were and giving them a piece of her mind, but she was sure that would end up worse for her then them, "We need to get out of this place. Can it be done?"

The wind dragon hesitated, "Yes... well its been done before. Some fire dragon by the name of Raize managed to break his collar and escape about a year ago and there have been other occurrences as well."

Zepos and Silver looked at each other in surprise. Raize had been here? And he had escaped. She felt herself getting excited again. The collars weren't unbreakable. If her brother had been able to do it then she could to. Fire dragons weren't as strong as metallic dragons. She just needed to find a way she could. The question was how.

"Did you know him?" asked Eril seeing the look they gave each other.

"He's my brother," said Silver.

"Oh," the wind dragon was suddenly excited, "Do you know how he did it?"

She shook her head, "No, but knowing him he probably found some trick or something in the collars and managed to unhook it or something. He's smart like that."

"Okay," his wings drooped slightly.

"But we will find a way," said Zepos confidently, stepping forward, "I know we will."

Eril smiled slightly at the electric dragon and nodded, "I'll help you guys as much as I can."

"Good, can you tell us more about the collarless dragons?" asked Silver.

"Of course. First theirs Tetrad, he's kind of like the leader of them. Then theirs Irelia the fire dragon, she's the meanest and you really don't want to get on her bad side. Especially when she's gravid. Then there's her brother Tirene. He mostly follows his sisters lead and basically does whatever he's told. Then there's Cert. He's the electric dragon and probably the most dangerous of the bunch. He handles all the punishments, and seems to enjoy doing it. And lastly there's Krita. He's the mind dragon, and probably the most important of them all. He is the one that decides whether or not a dragon is 'improving' in their education."

"A mind dragon?" Silver was confused.

"Yeah. He can read and control minds, though he doesn't have a very strong will so if he does try to mind control you its rather easy to break. If your anything like your father you shouldn't have to worry."

Silver smiled slightly. She had heard of mind dragons before but had never seen one. They were a rare species, but far from endangered. Most were quite smart, and often used their powers to create illusions or help fix mentally broken dragons. The fact that a mind dragon was in the group instantly squashed her chances of getting in there herself. A dragon that could read minds always knew who was the enemy and who was friend.

"Well, I better go," said Eril, "My break is over. Call me if you need me."

The wind dragon took to the air with an easy flap of his wings and quickly flew off. Silver watched him go, his information a little startling. Dragons willingly going into slavery... for humans. Especially humans that tortured them. It was wrong. A growl escaped her.

"Don't make a mess of anyone yet," said Zepos, giving her a friendly nudge, "Make sure the collar is off first."

"No promises," she muttered.

"Silver, seriously. Look, do what you can to remain in low profile, or better yet get them to trust you. As long as you do that it will make it far easier to escape," he said.

She looked at him, knowing he was right, "I'll try Zepos, but I'm very angry. Even torture won't hold me back for long."

Zepos smiled, "Well at least try to hold back, until you can make a difference. Can you promise that."

She sighed and smiled back, "I can promise that."

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Hey guys! New chapter! Vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought, as usual :) Next chapter will be up soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^