I woke up to throbbing pain in my head and neck. No, that's not right. I hurt everywhere.
I could hear people talking around me, and something else, but I couldn't make out anything through the roaring in my head. I tried to open my eyes and was greeted with more pain, sharp knives of light that pierced through a haze that disconnected me from what was going on around me.
I could feel myself move, something tearing at my wrists and a burning warmth, but it was as if someone else was acting out and I was only along for the ride. More voices, and the harsh feeling of movement that I was only just becoming aware of stopped.
Then there was something else, confusion and frustration and raging anger...but not mine, and I felt something jab the back that wasn't mine...still hurt. More pain. Somehow I stood, shaking with the effort of it, and stepped forward. Hands grabbed me (anger!) before I hit the ground. I had fallen from something, but I still couldn't see well enough to make it out.
What was going on here?
Hands steadied me and I felt myself walking, and confusion..mine and .. mine? Then through the fog, a scream and a thump.
"And what of you halfbreed? You are not on the list. What is your name and clan?"
I blanked, and the anger that welled up stole whatever control of my voice I might have mustered, but that did not stop me from hearing me snarl something at the armored man I could barely make out. Armor?
Again came the orders, "Follow the captain!", and I stepped into bright sunlight and for the first time since waking I could see clearly. I had no idea where I was, but I was certainly not alone. To either side where men in rough clothes, bearded and massive. In front of me was a giant bare- (and bear-) chested man with an axe, and the solid thump I'd just heard might have been his axe and-oh-my-god-is-that-a-head?
I wanted to be sick, but I wasn't in control. I could feel contempt and anger, but nothing like what I expected. Nothing like what I...I was walking again, pushed from behind and down, so that my face was on the repulsive wet log. It was warm and cold, sticky, and I knew that I wanted to throw up, I wanted to be able to react to this hideousness, but it wasn't up to me.
The axe rose. All I could really see was the executioner's fat gut. Time slowed, and the head of a dragon rose over a tower that I had already seen, but somehow wasn't real enough to register until that head swung my way and I heard it speak, and those words had power...and once again I was in a haze, senseless from the force of its voice.
And then we could move. For the first time, we had the same thought, "GET AWAY", and that must have given us...me...the strength to push up with muscles that felt nothing like what I was used to. I could see someone yelling and waving me over. It was one of the men I'd been standing with. I stumbled past him into the sheltering walls of a stone tower, fighting to move on shaky, unfamiliar feet. I could hear the men talking, but the words just weren't ready to make sense yet. The roaring outside was in tune to the roaring in my head and it was a struggle to do too much. For now, survive.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and the man pushed me toward the stairs up. I stumbled near the first landing, dropping to a knee and noticed that my hands were still bound, the ropes cutting at my wrists until they stained my hands red with sweat and blood. Why didn't that hurt more?
And then there was flame, sheets of it washing into the side of the tower from a hole rent in the side by the dragon. The flame stole my breath and I could feel it pushing, reaching, seeking, and then it was gone and the light that shown in from the hole was blinding. I felt myself stand and walk onto the scorched stone. It was hot, but I did not burn.
Again I was pushed..no, thrown! out of the tower and somehow I landed in the second floor of the building next door. The thatched roof had been torn away on one side and I fell through that gap. Fear seized me, and I felt that other presence again in control. We landed and rolled and I suddenly remembered doing that as a kid and once again I was able to move as I came to our feet.
I ran through the house...stairs! There was the dragon again, this time on the ground a hundred paces or so in front of me. Terror gripped me when I heard it take a breath and I ducked behind a stone wall just before a wave of heat washed around me. There was a crackling noise and I started moving before I knew it...the thatch had burst into flames. There were shouts from inside the house and I realized that the men from the tower hadn't made it through yet and could not because of the fire.
"Hey, prisoner. Stick with me and we'll get through this!" It was the armored man from before, the one who had called me a halfbreed. He was armed with a sword that should have looked intimidating, but in the face of the dragon just ... wasn't. I started moving after him through the winding ways between buildings with burning and smashed roofs, aware that the scent of burned flesh and the bodies of the dead and wounded should been more than just a little unsettling. The more I focused on that thought, the less I felt in control of where I was going and what I was doing, so I didn't. I put it out of my mind as best I could.
We broke from cover into a large courtyard in front of what I assumed to be the local keep and ran for the front doors. Just before entering I looked up to the sky and saw the dragon circling overhead and I dove into the building hoping that it had not taken an interest in us.
"All right lass...let's get those bindings off of you. I think you can find some armor to wear in here...might be a bit uncomfortable for you, but it's better than those rags you've got on".
Things started to grey out again as I froze...my only thought was 'lass'?
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