The Worst Fairytale

Chapter 7 - The Story

"Prophecy began playing its tricks, pushing her closer to the darkness of Hades' world."

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In the dark depths of the Dragon palace lay cells designated for the changelings. These changelings were diverse beings from various worlds, yet many were humans.

Folklore tells of humans leaving their infants in the forest, hoping faeries would exchange them with fae offspring.

Unbeknownst to them, their children were being abducted by dragons, held captive, and treated as slaves.

Transforming an infant into a dragon was challenging. The transformation required acceptance and could only be performed after the human infants reached the age of 15.

The Dragon Queen exploited human children for various purposes: trading them with witches, vampires, the Ice Queen, and giants, reserving the finest for her kingdom.

Her actions were to protect her realm from the Mist of Tamraaj, an unholy offspring of Nyx.

Was it morally right or wrong?

Well, only time knows the correct answer.

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Before leaving Rue to fend for herself among strangers, Baon kicked her in her dragon face and spat fire on her wings, harming her delicate dragon form. Rue was still adjusting to her dragon form, and such attacks could cause long-lasting harm. Only magic from the Queen's hands could save her, but that hope was as distant as the farthest sun.

Whimpering in pain, Rue retreated to a corner of her cell. It was so dark that she tried to produce some fire from her gut, but being a new recruit, this was not yet possible. She had to learn the trick.

For now, Rue had no choice but to stay silent and learn. She had to play smart, even if that meant portraying herself as a naive human.

"What is this place?" Rue said to herself, feeling both helpless and in severe pain from the shackles.

Those shackles burned her dragon legs. Whenever she attempted to escape, they pinched her more and dug deeper into her skin.

Rue finally tried, dragged herself near to the bars. She peered into the darkness enveloping the layer. "Hello!" her voice echoed. "Is there anyone? Please help," she whimpered.

A voice, chilling enough to freeze your soul yet imbued with a kindness that suggested trustworthiness, responded, "You're the new recruit. A newbie."

"Who is there?" Rue asked.

A sulky laugh echoed back. "I am Hajun," a silhouette of a dragon materialized in front of her, exhaling smoke from his nostrils. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Rue."

"Rue, huh? A human," he said, moving closer to inhale her scent. Rue turned her face away. "What are you doing?" she inquired.

"Nothing. Just observing you. Memorizing your image in my mind."

"Oh!"

"Sleep, little dragon human. Tomorrow is a big day." With that, Hajun retreated to his corner and curled up.

Rue was brimming with questions, yet she only received cold responses and stares from the dragons and now from this changeling too.

The one aspect she hadn't learned about was changelings. Folklore on changelings was scarce; all she knew was their ability to shapeshift. However, in her current predicament, she couldn't do even that.

Rue looked up, trying to see through the walls for anything, a hope. But there was nothing.

"What are you thinking?" A voice from within called to Rue.