The Colony: Mercy
"Come on... just a few more feet..." Galis lowered his nose to push his sister forward, the broadness of his nose shoved her forward while he limped forward, favoring his left hind leg and the large scrape that had torn into his flesh.
"There's a good spot here," Ejani stopped from his position near the rocks and gestured with his narrow muzzle. "We need to get into hiding. I think I'm still bleeding."
Galis sighed and lowered his head as he just concentrated on walking forward one painful step at a time, ignoring the growing pain along his haunches. His wings were aching as well, all of them in the same sorry state, only their sister had managed to get away with being unhurt save for exhaustion. Ejani, Galis and their sister, Illana, had set out together as a group from their home. They'd shunned the idea of taking different directions for their 'quests', instead they had decided to stay together and try something different. It was supposed to be a time for reflection for them all, they were supposed to journey outside of their homes to find themselves. That was the Old Way, and he for one had been sick of it. His older brother Ejani had been just as fed up with the idea of the 'Old Ways' being enforced on the younger generations.
Illana had been more than happy to join them, the midnight blue dragoness had been disgusted at the idea of being sent out into the world to allow a drake to claim her. It was absolutely disgusting the way they hinted at where she should fly to find the most 'appropriate mate'. She was intelligent, swift and strong, not some cow to be bred to a fine stud bull. Galis had known that all his life and he had needed little persuading to join his siblings when Ejani had declared that they would leave together, as one. They would take to wing and have a chance at finding out their own lives away from any dragon territory. They would start their own traditions and, later, persuade others to join them once they'd found a decent land to settle in.
Decent land... Galis growled bitterly as he approached the rocks and saw his brother sinking down onto his haunches, his legs trembling and blood running along his side where a sharp claw had hit him.
They had found a land that wasn't home to any dragons, a land so far away that they had felt sure they would be the first of their kind. And that was when they had come to greet them. Beasts from the skies, creatures that were insects, but so much larger and stranger than any insect he had ever seen. Their coppery tough armor was beetle like, bisected to allow their wings to remain protected, but they boasted sleek dark fur along their necks and chests. Their feet were paw like and tipped with claws and their mouths, they had had fangs like wolves. Not insect like at all, save for the faceted eyes that had watched them as the dragons had encountered the first patrol nearly three weeks ago. And since then they had been hunted by them mercilessly.
Every time they tried to flee east towards their homeland, they were driven back as the thickest patrols formed a net that was always closing and forcing them further away from safety. They had all lost weight, it was impossible to keep it on when they were always running. They had taken many of the insects lives, but there were always more, and they knew the terrain. And always, always they tried to slip between the two dark black males to separate their sister, every encounter they tried to drive her away from them and they were harder pressed to defend her. They couldn't even allow her to close for fear they'd take her down immediately. She was the only one unmarked, but she was thinner than both of them.
"We can't go on.." Ejani lifted his head wearily and turned it to lick at his wound. "We need to find a way out of here or to safety."
"Where?" Galis wanted to drop onto his stomach and sleep, but he couldn't they weren't exactly safe here, but it was safer. "They're going to be on us soon, you know they will."
"Water, we can get Illana to water and see if that throws them off our scent, or at least make her secure. Bugs don't like water." Ejani tried to sound sure, but Galis could hear the desperation in his brother's voice.
"I'm not leaving either of you." Illana hissed out and bared her teeth. "If we make a stand we might be able to break through, let me fight. I'm not hurt."
"They want you." Galis lifted his head higher and gave it a short shake. "They want you like nothing else, we need to get you gone. If we can get you to safety they might just leave us alone."
_Or they'll torture and kill us. _ The thought sent a shiver down his spine, but he kept his thoughts to himself. He didn't want to worry her, she was already carrying enough burdens as it was. He needed to get her out of here and to safety. That was his primary goal.
If one of them lived, they would at least have meaning to this hellish journey and word could be carried back to their family. He lowered his muzzle to clean his own wound with strokes of his broad tongue, trying to get the worst of the contamination out of it. The insects struck with their lower arms that ended in short dark yellow hooks that released venom. They were too large to be killed by it, but the wound was puffy and swollen with infection. It had been two days since he'd been injured and it was only growing worse, but he dutifully latched his maw around it and sucked the bitter taste of the infection and venom out of it before spatting it on the ground. His sister's sound of disgust didn't deter him as he tried to get the worst of the swelling down.
TCK TCK TCCCCCCHHHHHHK TCK TCK TCK.... A crackling sound, the clicking noise and rippling of melody that brought to mind summer nights shot terror through him.
"FLY!!" He bugled out the words while Ejani stumbled to all fours and used a wing to shove their sister back behind them. Her body already in motion as the first wave approached.
Their copper carapaces caught the sunlight as they scrabbled over the rocks and splayed their six appendages wide to cling to it, the middle ones scraping white marks as he crowded back with his brother. They came along the rocks, the filthy bugs must have been crawling behind them instead of flying. The creatures were loud when they flew, their humming sound vibrating the air as they tried to keep their bodies aloft on the weak styled wings. Galis bared his fangs while he stood shoulder to shoulder with his brother and felt his sister behind him. Her wings were open, he could see that much as three dark red ones advanced in front of them. The beasts less beetle like, with more segmented bodies and powerful upper torsos.
The copper insects were the most common and numerous, but the red ones were the more deadly. They were twice the length of a dragon, so large that they could have killed with a single blow, but they weren't flighted. Their pincher like mouths clicked together in a tapping noise as the dark black eyes centered on them eagerly. They were the leaders, or as far as Galis could tell they were the leaders, they were normally the ones that seemed to send out the drones to harry the dragons through their territory. The inability to fly was made up for in the fact they were fast on the ground, so damn fast that Galis was already trembling as he watched them spread out in a pincher movement to corral them. He'd never seen so many before, he'd always assumed the ones they saw might be all the same one. The Queen.
"Fucking Bloodies!" Ejani spat out their name for the large beasts. "GET UP IN THE AIR ILLANA!! They can't fly as well as you!!"
"You first!" Her voice held a stubborn note while one of the Bloodies approached closer and reared up, the middle appendages splayed out to balance his segmented body. Too close, too damn close.
Oh god... She has to live, please... Galis twisted his body away from the crimson insect and lunged at his sister with a wild roar.
"FLY!!!" He shrieked the words, even as Ejani launched himself forward with a bugling war cry, his wings splayed open and teeth bared.
Galis didn't have time to watch him, instead he drove Illana to the air with his betrayal, his claws flexed out while she squealed in outrage and launched herself up into the air. Already he could hear the beetles clattering, their shells parting for flight as she beat herself higher up above him.
"FLY!! EAST GO EAST!! WE WILL MEET YOU THERE!" Galis screeched the words before whipping around to see his brother clinging to the Bloody that had tried to come near him. "FLY ILLANA!!!!"
The young drake didn't spare even a glance at her as he launched himself behind his brother, shrieking out his challenge and baring his teeth. He was going to die, but it didn't matter, he would go out as a drake should. Defending his family. Not even the fear he felt could stop him as he straddled the insect and started to snap at the hard hide. He would die here.
.
~ ~ * ~ ~
.
Galis woke up, alive, but aching all over to the sound of a muffled snarl. His head was pounding and his neck felt heavy, his entire body was pulsing in time to his heart while he got his head up and swayed it back and forth slowly. A wet slick noise was echoing in the dimly lit room, the blue lights casting shadows as he tried to heave himself up only to feel his legs stuck and unable to move. Something coated them, it spilled over the edges and made it impossible for him do more than move them an inch while he twisted his body about. The snarling sound grew louder, something was scrabbling and fighting in the cavern. With a snarling groan he lunged himself upwards and tore one of his feet nearly free of something thick and gooey. It didn't help, the moment he truly stirred a pair of heavy knees dropped down and hit against his side to pin him back down.
"NRRRFF?!?!" He tried to snarl to his captor to let him up, but something coated his muzzle, the same gooey stuff clung there while he worked his jaws angrily.
"Don't move... You'll only make it worse." A weary female voice greeted his attempts to speak and he jerked his head about to see a centaur above him. A centaur?!
The female had tired eyes, dark circles were shown beneath them as she looked across the room and away from him. The blue light didn't show him anything exact, but she had dark hair that was cut short and spiked at the top, her long ears folded back against her head. She was naked, but that was often the case, except her nudity was covered with her folded arms. She was kneeling over him, showing a pale equine lower body that was heavy enough that he couldn't quite lunge upwards to fight against the hold. She didn't make any move to harm him, just kept him in place as he came more awake and the pain in his head started to recede.
They had fought the Bloody, he remembered tearing at the carapace and tearing off chunks of it with his teeth eventually, trying for the soft vulnerable underside. He had been desperate, hoping their attack on a leader would give their sister time to flee from whatever these insects wanted from her. They had been right, the beetles that took to flight had tried to attack them from all sides while they fought. Ejani had gone for the head, his winds used to batter the beast into submission, but something had hit him hard enough that he had lost his grip. He remembered it tackling him before the darkness, but that was all. Ejani!
Galis twisted his head up as far as it would go and looked around the cavern desperately, only to freeze in horror before he'd even gotten to the wall. The Bloody was there, it's carapace leaking dark ooze to the ground and its head was thrown back as another snarl burst out. But not from the insect. The dark black whipping tail twisted back and forth while the bug's throat bulged and swelled open wider, the pinchers dug firmly against Ejani's hips and pulled, pulling him into the gaping slimy maw slowly as the drake tried to fight his way free. His hind paws were braced against the upper jaw, yanking backwards as Galis stared in terror as the throat rippled and another few inches slipped downwards.
"EEEANNNNI!!!!" Galis shrieked around the muzzle, screaming his horror as the hind legs were pulled together forcefully and began to slip away.
The pinchers pulled and tugged while the Bloody's head jerked higher up and the throat gave another rippling pull. He could see the outline, the flesh of the insect straining as the drake's form slipped down the long esophagus. Still struggling, still fighting, but with increasing panic as Ejani tried to find enough purchase to escape. He was still alive, being eaten whole and alive by this... this monster! Galis flailed wildly, trying to throw his weight up as he let out a muffled shriek of despair. The long dark tail whipping from the jaws before it was pulled inwards and his brother disappeared from sight down the long cavernous hole. The bulging form dropping lower as the struggles became spasms of movement, a bulge of a hind leg, a twist of a wing, leaving Galis to shake in horror and his stomach roil with the need to vomit.
"Please.. stop.." The centaur's voice was rough. "If you struggle they will eat you, you will be too much trouble to keep."
"EAAANNNIII!!" He sobbed out the name as the Bloody raised his head and clicked his pinchers together in an almost self satisfied way.
"Blood must be paid for blood." The centaur pushed her weight against him a bit more firmly, but Galis was beyond caring. His brother! His brother had been killed, eaten in front of him!!!"
"Tcccck tetttcckk rrrchkchkchkchkc ttttckkk" The clicking chitter didn't matter, Galis dropped his head down, tears rolling down his muzzle. He would kill this thing, or be killed, it didn't matter.
"Most Gracious General Har'echk imparts his mercy upon the lower lifeform." The centaur spoke as the beast continued to chitter. "You have cost him many Ta'chak's in their attempts to capture the female, but it will not be a loss for the Colony. The female will be captured eventually."
They didn't get her... Hope lurched in his chest and he lifted his head, hardly daring to hope it was the truth.
"General Har'echk has no use for a non-egg bearer, but you are to be given mercy and servitude to the Colony to atone for your crimes." The centaur glanced down at him, almost fearfully. "You will be sentenced to the Egg-Chambers as the lowest of creatures. You will serve as the slave to slaves until death releases you. This is the mercy of the Colony."
"Nnf.. rrrrrrrr.." Galis growled low in his throat as his answer, but Har'echk didn't seem to pay attention. The swollen beast settled back onto his stomach and made a few short clicks of his pinchers that weren't translated.
"It's no use fighting." The centaur stared down at him pityingly. "There is no hope, no escape..."
Galis glared up at her, enraged at her dismissal. There was always a way to fight, always a way to escape. A strange creature, rather like a large caterpillar, save the legs were longer and it boasted a long curled appendage on its snout, came from the darkness. The eyes were gold, glittering and brilliant looking while the length of the beast was colored in a riot of reds and yellows, with whites trailing down along the underside. It was the most absurd thing Galis had ever seen, without a bit of armor on its body. It was soft looking and he immediately lunged forward for a chance to latch his jaws around it, but the beast didn't even flinch. It approached him with a rippling of its body and twisted it's head to one side to regard him.
"Taruun, the slave-master." The centaur shifted her weight, almost nervously, but when he looked at her, her eyes were bright and yearning.
Taruun lowered it's, his?, head down lower before curling his body about at an awkward angle and rippled the length of the tough looking legs. The tips were spiked and hooked, that much Galis could see before three sets reached down and clutched at either side of his coated muzzle. Whatever the goo was it provided an easy hold for the beast to force his head up. The drake tried to yank his head back down, struggling against the hold, but the creature kept his head pulled up no matter how he struggled. He couldn't put his body into it, only his neck as he felt the hard underside of the insect rubbing along the length of his muzzle as the sharp hard legs stepped over his shoulders and sides. Poking and jabbing at him as he struggled.
The centaur made an appreciative noise, something that set the drake's tail lashing back and forth as the lower portion of the beast shifted forward and something pushed open out of the layers of carapace that armored the underside. For a moment, he could barely form the disgusting thought as the sharp edged tip pushed into the light and revealed something ribbed and large looking. It's tip was actually hooked backwards in a way that was completely foreign to the drake, but there was no denying what it was supposed to be. The beast pushed his shaft out as something thick and golden oozed out and bubbled up from the glans. The dragon tried to roar out his outrage and twisted his body backwards, unable to get out of the restraints as the legs held his head still and the body arched above him purposefully.
_I'm not going to let this.. this thing do anything with its cock to me! _ He snarled to himself mentally as the hooked tip brushed along his snout and the gooey precum oozed out to smear over him, the harsh sweet scent flooding his senses.
Gloriously, blissfully, amazingly the goo started to lose strength as he strained with his jaws to escape, pulling his head about as the multiple legs jabbed down against him, pushing and nudging demandingly in an attempt to get him to spread his maw open wider. He snarled out, cursing as the legs curled beneath his jaws and he was suddenly able to open them. The weak spot at the bridge of his nose gave way and he opened his mouth before lunging forward. His intent was the snap the damn thing off and show these insects that he was not to be trifled with, but the legs hooked into the corners of his lips, his muzzle and yanked his head back.
Four pairs were used, two held shoved his lower jaws downwards, forcing them open, while the other two were used on his upper jaw. He tried to snap them shut, but whatever, whoever, Taruun was, he knew how to control a victim. The drake snarled and cursed, his head twisting back and forth as the hooked shaped cock pushed forward and slipped between his spread open jaws. He felt it briefly scrape over his tongue, dragging along it as another thick golden drop of precum bubbled up from the tip and splattered down onto his waiting tongue. The sweet taste of honey and clover filled his senses as it spilled along the edges of his teeth before another drop welled out of the tip and coated his tongue. Galis tried to twist his head away, but his body reacted to that sickeningly sweet taste and his throat convulsed in an attempt to swallow.
It was filling his senses, spreading through every part of him, so thick and heavy, sweet and flooding his nostrils as he drew in a breath and blew it out again. It dribbled down, oozing out of his maw, but so much remained on his tongue. He hated it, he hated this creature, he wouldn't to snap it's cock off, but the taste of it continued to assault him. It was tingling on his tongue as the hips shifted forward and his nose was pushed up against the plates along the underside. The legs shifted and slowly lowered his jaws, releasing their pressure as another warm thick ooze worked into the back of his throat and this time he swallowed it down greedily. He hated himself for it, hated that trigger, but the taste was making it hard to think. Hard to react the way he wanted to react.
The legs released his mouth and to his humiliation he closed it, but didn't bite down. The moment he gripped the strangely shaped shaft he swallowed another hot gooey drop from the tip and his throat convulsed. The taste of it filled him and made his mind swim while he tried to make himself twist his head away, break the damn thing off, but the only thing he did was suckle around it. Pulling the thick sweet taste of the nectar onto his tongue and his body began to relax. The tension and struggles slipped away as he worked his throat and the hooked tip painfully jabbed against the flat spread of his tongue. His own blood welled out from that painful stab, but it still didn't stop him from working his jaws again, pulling harder and swallowing down another sickly sweet droplet.
The shaft pushed forward, forcing its way into his throat as something suddenly pulsed out of the tip, something thicker and heavier. He squeezed his eyes shut, a tear rolling down his muzzle as his throat worked to swallow it down. It tasted sharper, almost bitter, but he worked his jaws anyway, pulling along the insect's shaft, drawing it inwards as every muscle seemed to go loose and relaxed. The fight slipping away from him as the slavemaster insured that he was dosed well and fully. Whatever it was pumping out, nectar, precum, semen, honey, it was sticking to his tongue as the rippling creature stepped back and scraped his hooked tip along the dragon's tongue. It began to chitter, the sound of it echoing in the large room.
"You are now a slave." The centaur's voice sounded dreamy as the red and orange creature stepped away and Galis lifted his head. Her lips glistened slightly, something golden clung to her bottom lip before her tongue swept out to lick it up. "You will see Master Taruun or one of his underlings every morning to receive your hikan if you miss a dose, your body will reject it forcefully.. You cannot live without it. Rejoice, for the Colony has given you its mercy."
Her voice sounded almost pleasant while Galis' stomach turned in horror. Mercy? This was no mercy, this was a new hell...