Everything was dark, and everything hurt.  He could hear snatches of screaming, roars, a crackling fire...  Then it all faded into a far-off rumble.  He thought he felt himself falling, but he couldn't be sure, and he couldn't feel any wind rushing past him.

Eventually a point of light appeared in his vision.  His pain faded, he stopped falling, and after a moment's hesitation he began to walk towards the light; anything to get out of the painful darkness.

But as he approached it, he began to hear things.  Laughter, malicious human laughter, and the roars of a dragon in pain...  The light spread from a point until it illuminated a full room, and suddenly he was chained down again while Dave and Simon laughed at him and shocked him.  But this time they towered over him, stretching almost to the ceiling, and after a moment Allison joined them, a terrible wound in her side, then Jim, his head balanced on his shoulder, and they began to torture him as well.

And they were joined by faceless humans, men and women he had never seen before, yet he felt connected to all of them somehow.  He screamed and tried to run, but there was no escape from his chains; the humans circled around him and kicked at him with giant feet the size of his body.  He howled at the pain, jerking against his restraints and crying frantically for them to stop, but they didn't, not until he thought his scales were about to burst open and his insides would drain out between them.

Then they all backed away, laughing, and turned and left him there alone as the room faded into darkness again.  But one stayed; she came back and knelt down to run her hands down his back.  Allison.  She, of all the humans in the world, came back to make him feel better.  She wiped her hands down his back, his sides, along his ruined wings...  She didn't release him, but wherever she touched him his pain went away.

"Silly little dragon," she stood up so she towered over him again and laughed at him, but it was a friendly laugh this time.  "One day you'll grow up, and you'll realize you can't take the kindness I showed you for granted.  You looked so sad when you found out we had locked you up; all I wanted to do was to make you feel better, but you had other plans, and you got the better of me."

She turned and walked away, and he heard Simon's voice echo, "she was the nicest human being on Earth..."  Then all faded away into darkness.
 

"Come on, Carnoc, you can do it!  Pump those wings!  Keep your neck straight, keep moving forward, and... jump!"

It was Nesleh, standing next to him.  He ran towards the end of the ledge, wings flapping up and down, then reached the end and leapt skyward, beating for every bit of air he could get.  For one wonderful moment he could feel himself rising, feel the air slipping by him, but then...

His father's massive tail wrapped around his fledgling body.  "Not quite," the old dragon laughed.  "Don't flail so much, keep your stroke smooth, and make sure to keep your body level.  You have to give the air time to gather beneath you if you want it to carry you up.  Now come on, back to the ledge so you can try again."

Nesleh flung him with his tail, then a massive thump like a heartbeat sounded around him, and when he landed there was a dragon lying under him, pinned beneath his paws.  "You're so strong," the other dragon said: Molthan.  "How in the name of the ancients did you throw me like that?"

"That's enough sparring, you two," Vallen said from where he leaned against the cave wall, Nesleh beside him; the elder dragons didn't seem as large as they had moments before.  "I know it's fun, but we'll be leaving in a few days and I don't want leave you for a year with an injury weighing on my mind."

"All right," Molthan said, and rolled out from beneath his paws.  "Even if..."  The other young dragon lashed out with his tail and tripped him, and he fell to the ground.  "Even if I can take you down sometimes," he laughed.

He got back to his feet with a growl, but another heartbeat thudded and now it was grass beneath him, not rock, and there was a half-eaten deer between his front paws.  "You save any for me, son?" Nesleh said, landing in front of him and folding his wings, but the mysterious heart beat again and he was gone as soon as he had appeared.  Then there was Melora crouched in front of him, waiting for him to mount her, but as he stepped forward a heartbeat transformed her into Vical, who laid down and gestured with a wing for him to curl up around her.  He took a step forward...

The heart beat one last time, and everything went dark once again.

He sat on his haunches in the outer cavern back home, watching the stars turn from the cave entrance.  All was quiet for some time, but eventually he heard claws clicking against rock behind him, and he turned to see another dragon appear out of the depths of the cave.

It was Molthan, but his face...  The scars his claws had left almost a year ago were open and bleeding, dripping down to leave a dark trail on the ground as he walked.  "See what you've done?" he snarled, shaking his head and flinging drops of blood everywhere.

Carnoc backed away until his hindquarters hit the wall.  "What...  You healed months ago!  What's happened to you?"

He snorted and stepped closer.  "You think I could ever heal from what happened?  That these scars and this blood will ever go away?  You were my friend, Carnoc, but did that matter to you?  Did learning to control yourself matter enough for you to focus on it when you knew full well that refusing to learn put everyone around you in danger?  You betrayed me!"

"I..."  He lowered his head and pawed at the ground.  "I never meant to hurt you, you know that..."

"Didn't you?" said another voice, and Alon appeared next to Molthan.  But blood poured from his neck: the old dragon's throat had been ripped out.  "You certainly meant to hurt me, and even if you flew away instead we all know what would have happened if you had stayed.  I was right; you've never been able to control your temper, and the clan would have been better off just killing you as soon as we realized what you are.  Sern brought disaster to his clan, and so have you."

"I didn't ask to be this way!" he cried.  "All I ever did was hatch, and the clan has not suffered because of me."

"I watched the clan splinter apart when we discovered your true nature, and it hasn't been the same since.  We all suffered because of your presence; you made other dragons think violent arguments and fights would be allowed, that thinking of ourselves as so much better than humans was acceptable.  Our discovery was your fault, our capture was your fault, and the way humans have treated us since is all your fault.  You ruined everything."

"You're the one who antagonized me," he snarled.

"But you're the one who let it get to you," a third dragon said, a dragon whose forelegs ended before the elbow as charred, smoking stumps.  "I told you all along that you couldn't let things get to you so much, especially once I figured out why you were so temperamental.  I did the best I could with you, son, but..."  Nesleh sighed and looked away.  "I guess it wasn't good enough.  Maybe I should be sorry for failing to control you, or for failing to bring myself to do what was necessary to keep the clan safe...  But whatever I should have done, what I chose to do was wrong, and we've all paid for it.  See what you've done to us?"  He reared up onto his hind legs, and the three dragons advanced on him.

"No!"  Carnoc shuddered and curled up against the wall, pulling his wings up around himself, trying to hide himself away only to discover his wings had been torn to shreds and he could still see them advancing on him.  He wanted to roar for help, to fight back, anything to make them leave him alone...  But they attacked him with bloodied claws and teeth, tearing through scale, muscle and bone, digging deeper and deeper into his flesh while he screamed in pain, writhing and trying to get away but pinned against the solid rock of the wall and floor.  "Leave me alone," he gasped, pleading.  "I'm sorry!"  They just ignored him, and then he could feel them grasp at his heart, twisting, squeezing, trying to tug it out of him as best they could, when finally he found his strength and roared, pushing them all away, but he felt something tear and collapsed in a pool of his own blood while the three dragons laughed at him.

But there was no pain anymore, and slowly they faded away into darkness.  Their laughter echoed around him for a few moments, until he became aware of some new, softer surface beneath him, and someone called his name.

"Carnoc?"

He opened his eyes to see Nesleh's head above him, and the old dragon smiled.  "There you are, son."

He groaned and raised his head slowly, his whole body aching.  He looked around; they were in an unfamiliar room, surrounded by bags of fluid and computer monitors, beeping and flashing and...  Humans stood all around him, dressed in white coats and watching the monitors.  He lay on his side, the straps of a harness laced over his body and limbs, but his body...

One of the humans stepped forward, and he swung his head around to growl at her.  "It's okay, it's okay," Nesleh said quickly, touching a paw to his shoulder.  "They're doctors.  They're here to help you."

The woman nodded.  "That's right; you've been badly hurt, and we've been working for weeks to get you fixed up again.  Are you in any pain?  We've given you drugs to dull it, but we can't be sure how effective the dosages are...  We don't have a lot of experience with your species."

He blinked and lowered his head again, glancing around at all the humans.  "I...  I'm all right, I guess.  Stiff."

"That's to be expected, I suppose, seeing as you haven't moved for so long.  Well, we're here to help you, so...  We'll leave you alone with your dad, but let us know if you hurt anywhere, because you've been through a lot and there could be any number of complications."

Nesleh dipped his head.  "We'll let you know if he feels anything out of the ordinary."

Carnoc waited for the humans to leave before speaking again.  "What's happened to me?" he asked, looking back at his body again.

"Dave and Simon hurt you very badly, you have to understand that.  They almost killed you...  I barely got there in time, and even then you were in terrible shape.  If the captain hadn't been so quick to call for help, you probably wouldn't be alive."

"But--"

"Quiet, son, just listen to me.  To heal you...  Some parts of your body just can't be fixed.  Your claws are never going to grow back."

He tugged against his harness, then looked down at the stumps of his claws.  "But I need them.  How am I supposed to hunt for prey if I don't even have claws to kill it with?"

"I know, I know.  The doctors are working on a sort of gloves with built-in metal claws for you to wear, so once they have those ready it shouldn't cause you any trouble.  But there's a greater problem."

He shifted away.  What could be worse than losing his claws?  Had his fangs been removed or broken somehow, or had they gone so far as to castrate him?  What else had the two humans done?

"I understand this might be hard for you to hear..."  Nesleh sighed and looked at the floor, then said, "while you were restrained, Dave and Simon used some sort of rubber stoppers to plug your fluid channels and keep you from using Vidac's bolt.  The doctors were able to get those out easily enough, but by the time they noticed the stoppers they had been in your valves for almost two full days.  So when they were removed...  The valves wouldn't close all the way, and the fluids for Vidac's bolt were leaking out into your mouth; it was like you had the rupture sickness.  Your fluid sacs had to be removed."

"No!" he said, turning to aim at an empty spot on the floor and feeling for the reflex that would open the channels, let the two tiny drops of fluid fall into his mouth so he could light the bolt...  But no drops fell onto his tongue.  He tried again, desperate, waiting for the familiar taste of the fluid, flicking his tongue even though he hadn't felt them...  Nothing happened.  His bolt was gone.

"I'm sorry, but it's true."  The older dragon reached over and nudged at his neck with his nose, but Carnoc ignored him.  No claws, and now no bolt...  How could he call himself a warrior dragon after this?  What could he possibly have left to distinguish himself from the others?

"I know it must be a shock to hear, but at least our fighting with the humans is over.  In all likelihood you will never need Vidac's bolt again."

"But that's not what matters," he moaned.  "Without the bolt, without my claws and my strength...  I'm nothing anymore.  I can't call myself a warrior dragon, not without Vidac's bolt, and unlike the rest of you I won't even have fire to breathe.  How can I be a dragon at all?"

Nesleh wrapped his neck around his son's, nuzzling him close.  "It doesn't matter what those terrible humans did to you, Carnoc, not to me.  I don't care if you have Vidac's bolt, I don't care if you have natural foreclaws.  You're still my son, and nobody can ever take that away, not from either of us.  You're the same dragon I hatched and raised, you're just going through a tough time right now.  It's all right."

He groaned and laid his head on the floor, letting his neck fall out of his father's embrace.  "But what about the rest of the clan, when they see me so weak like this?  They respected me before because I had my abilities, but now...  I'm just like them.  Weaker, without fire and claws."

"Nothing will change," he said firmly.  "I've told the clans what happened to you, and they won't turn on you just because you've been hurt.  Don't worry about it."

He sighed, but picked his head up again.  "Is there anything else they've ruined?"

"Fortunately, the rest of your body isn't as bad off.  They had to remove some scales from your neck so they could treat internal burns caused by the electroshocks, but they should grow back in soon enough.  The marks from those pads won't fade for a while, but..."

Carnoc strained to see as much of his neck as possible, but couldn't see bare skin anywhere; the affected area must not have been very large.  "What else?"

"As for your wings," Nesleh continued, "you won't be flying for a while, but the membranes will heal as time passes despite how badly they were damaged.  That paste you see on them is a compound that's supposed to make them grow back faster.  The doctors said not to move them around much, even once they let you out; it's been three weeks and most of the stitches have already dissolved, but the last few could still come apart if you put any strain on your wings before they're ready for it."

He tilted his head and looked around the room again.  "Where's Melora?  Is she well?"

"She's waiting outside; I wanted to see you by myself first to tell you what had happened and what the doctors had to say about your healing process.  I'll send her in next, but watch out for her nose because she'll probably try to nuzzle you to death," he chuckled.

Carnoc noticed the white pads on his father for the first time, one wrapped around his flying arm and one at his throat.  "What happened to you?" he asked, sniffing at the bandages.

"Dave put a few bullets in me right before I killed him, and the wounds are taking their time closing.  My wing's actually in a cast; I haven't been able to fly since then, either, but it should come off in a couple of weeks.  And my throat was bleeding pretty badly before they got it wrapped properly, the bandage is just in case it opens again."

"How did you save me, anyway?  I thought they were keeping you away from me somehow."

Nesleh tilted his head.  "They used your chains and muzzle to confine me up on the deck, but they didn't do anything to Sean and he was able to help me break free."

"How did you get that coward to help you?"

The old dragon laughed.  "First I lied and told him the guards would only stun him if he didn't listen to them, not kill him, then I threatened to kill him myself if he didn't help me.  Anyway, we took down most of the guards and made the rest help us get into the hangar so we could free you.  I killed Dave and Simon, Sean killed Marco and a few of the other men in the hangar, and the rest surrendered when the ship's crew came to help.  The driver and the captain had taken advantage of the distractions on deck to get a jump on the guards around them, and they set off the ship's alarms, ordered the crew to take the ship back from Marco's people, and called for a team of doctors from San Diego.  It was very close, but they made it just in time to save your life."

He nuzzled at his father's neck.  "I knew you'd come to rescue me."

"Of course I did."  Nesleh reached down and returned the nuzzle.  "So are you all right?"

Carnoc growled and tugged at his harness.  "Can you tell them to let me up?"

"I think they want to make sure you won't hurt yourself accidentally by moving around too much, so you're going to have to stay that way for at least a little while longer.  Now, do you want to see Melora alone, or should I stay here with you?"

He ducked his head again and looked around the room, shivering a little.  What if...  He growled and shook his head; Melora would be here, and she could protect him if she had to.  "You can leave us alone," he finally said.  "I should be all right."

Nesleh looked uncertain, but he slowly stood and walked over towards the door.  He walked out when it was opened for him, then another dragon walked in.

"My mate!" Melora roared happily, lunging over to him and nuzzling at his cheeks, his jaw, behind his earhole, his forehead...  She pressed her nose against him so hard it almost hurt.  "I'm so glad you're safe," she purred.

He nuzzled her cheek softly and tried to purr back at her, but the sound wouldn't come.  "It's good to see you, too.  How long until you lay our egg?"

She nuzzled him again, then took one of his horns in her jaws and steered his head over to look at her bloated flanks.  "About a week," she said.  "I just hope you'll be able to fly by then.  They're prepared to clear the building to give us privacy if you can't make it out to our cave, but I'd rather not lay here...  It doesn't feel safe."

He sniffed her flank, then pressed his snout against the fat accumulated around the nearly-developed egg.  "How far are we from your clan's cave?"

"A short flight.  This is the closest human town to our mountain that has a hospital, but since they had to tear most of the original building down to make room for you and your dad...  It's the closest they could get you to home and still have a medical staff for you, I guess."

Carnoc peered at his wings.  "I don't know if I'll be ready to fly anywhere by then.  Maybe if these idiot humans hadn't strapped me down again," he strained against his harness, but he felt weaker than he remembered being and the harness held him easily.  "I guess we'll find out when the day comes, one way or the other."

"We don't have that long to choose.  I'll start cramping up the night before I lay, and once that starts I won't be able to fly anywhere."  She lowered her head to sniff at his wings and belly.  "Figure out whether or not you can fly as soon as you can so we can decide where I'll lay the egg.  Especially if you want me to do it here, because I'll have to nerve myself up for it if that's the only way we can be together."

"I'll do my best," he said, reaching up to nuzzle her cheek.  "How's everyone else been doing?"

Melora shuffled her wings.  "All right, I suppose.  Everyone's come back from their zoos and nobody else was attacked, so they're all just waiting for the eggs to come along."

He shook his head.  "What about Vical?"

"Why does she have to insist on asking about you and acting like she cares for you?  I'm your mate, not her," she snarled, "so she shouldn't be asking me how you're doing or whether or not you've mentioned her!  If she talks about you like that again..."

"Stop acting like this," he said, voice low.  "She's allowed to care for me if she wants.  Why can't you just think of her as my friend, like Krain and Molthan are my friends?  Didn't they ask you about me, too?  There's no difference between their behavior and Vical's.  And besides, you know what it's like to spend all that time with another dragon; don't you care about Aithsa now, because you lived with him for so long?  You don't hear me complaining about you caring for him."

She lowered her head.  "You're right, I'm sorry...  You both told me how careful you were around each other, and the humans caring for you even said nothing ever happened...  I just didn't want any other dragoness to talk about my mate like that, I suppose."

"You had someone talk to Jeff?" Carnoc looked up, surprised.

"I had to be sure," she said sheepishly.  "But are you sure you're all right?  You don't look very good," she swept her tail up and down his side, sniffing at the bare patch of skin at his throat.

"There's no pain, but I don't feel like my old self," he sighed.  "They took my claws, they cut my wings..."  He struggled to keep his voice level.  "They even took away Vidac's bolt.  I'm not a warrior dragon anymore."

"That's what Nesleh said, but they can't have!  You're our warrior!" she snarled, and jabbed a claw into his side, hard.  "Show me your famous warrior's temper, come on!"

Carnoc yelped at the sudden pain and started to raise his claws to defend himself--

But he couldn't move, and he had no claws.  He fought the harness like he had fought his chains in the hangar, but he couldn't escape, and when she jabbed at him again...

All he could see was a mixture of Dave and Simon standing before him, pulling out his claws, cutting up his wings, pressing buttons to electrocute him, but all of it was overridden by the weight pressing against his back where Simon had sat in that saddle, taunting him, laughing at him over and over again...  He screamed and thrashed in his harness, bucking against the straps and waving his head back and forth, alternately looking around for danger and reaching down to gnaw at the straps of his harness, to get away, to break free so he could escape from the humans who'd hurt him so badly...

He was dimly aware of his father and human doctors bursting into the room, but it was as if a haze had dropped over all his senses; he could barely hear, or see, or smell anything, anything other than the sound of his short, gasping breaths, the pounding of blood in his ears, his heart racing, and the terrible pain lancing all through him...  He could sense someone approaching and flung his head in that direction, roaring, but couldn't reach anything, then thought he heard someone call his name, and a moment later claws strong as iron wrapped around his neck and forced his head to the ground.  He cried out and struggled a few moments longer, but suddenly his muscles felt even weaker, and wouldn't respond to his movements, and a few moments later he went limp, unconscious.

Nesleh sighed and released his son's neck once he was sure the sedative the doctor had given him had taken full effect.  "What happened?"

One of the doctors moved to a nearby display screen and examined it for a few moments.  "I think it was a panic attack, but that's not much of a surprise after what he went through.  Dr. David, call a psychologist; he probably has acute stress disorder, and he may need therapy to keep it from turning into PTSD.  Dr. Blair, Dr. Hamilton, help me make sure he didn't strain or break anything.  Thank you for holding him down," she nodded to Nesleh, then stepped forward to examine Carnoc.

He growled softly.  "But what could have made him react like that?"

"Anything, really, anything his mind could have possibly related to his torture, but you'll have to wait until he wakes up to find out."

Nesleh nudged Melora's shoulder.  "Do you have any idea what happened?"

She shook her head and stepped around the doctors and her unconscious mate.  "I don't know...  We talked about Vical for a moment, then he said he wasn't a warrior anymore.  But I told him that wasn't true and tried to show him by raising his temper, and I poked him in the side a couple of times, then he just lost it."  She whined and looked at the floor.  "Do you think it was my fault?"

"I don't know.  One of the doctors said he probably has acute stress disorder and that it might turn into PTSD, but I don't know what that means.  Let me ask...  Doctor, what's that acronym you used stand for?"

"Post-traumatic stress disorder," she said.  "If his acute stress disorder lasts for a month after the trauma, then it becomes PTSD--which is worse, because if it lasts that long then it could last for the rest of his life if he doesn't get help for it.  Either way, he'll need therapy as soon as possible."

"Already?  He hasn't even been awake for half an hour yet; give him time to see if he recovers on his own."

"The psychologist still has to come and see if he has acute stress disorder.  If he does, then something that other dragon was doing with him must have triggered a memory of his torture, and he reacted to it... violently.  A psychologist should be able to help him cope with the trauma so he can recover before it turns into PTSD, but if they don't get to work on that quickly it could take him years to recover psychologically, if he recovers at all."

"Can it get any worse?"

"Not much worse than that, thankfully, but if he hadn't been harnessed he could have hurt himself or the other dragon very badly.  Again, a psychologist should be able to help him deal with the stress.  I don't know what he'll be like once he wakes up again, but he probably won't be the dragon you're used to."  She shook her head and went back to her work.

"How long will it be until he wakes up?" Nesleh asked.

"A few hours if we just let that shot run its course, but I'm thinking we'll keep him out longer; he needs all the rest he can get anyway.  You should probably just come back in the morning."

"Just come get me when you're getting ready for him to wake up."  He explained the situation to Melora--though he left out that Carnoc's attack likely had been her fault--then said goodbye to the doctor, and the two of them left the room.