Carnoc did his best to stay awake for the whole day, though he nodded off twice before Vical returned to the cave to nudge him awake again.  But simply being awake during the day caused new problems: all day he could hear the humans outside as they watched Vical fly and cheered for her, he could hear the ones riding the strange ride screaming as they rocketed past, hear them talking, laughing, enjoying themselves... free to go wherever they wanted in the world while he was locked up in a cage.  Like they were better than him somehow, as if they deserved to have more freedom than he and the other dragons did.

But he couldn't shut them out; if he did that he was sure he'd fall asleep, and that would only make the night more difficult once he was tied down in his harness again...  That at least gave him something to think about, even if the thoughts weren't any happier than his previous ones.  How soon and how quickly would Simon make his punishments more severe?  Would he shock him tonight, and if he did, how much?  Would it come in the morning, or right after he was tied down, and would the shocks get worse every night?  He growled and shook his head, trying to get the thoughts out of his mind; if he was going to withstand Simon's torture, the less he thought about it beforehand, the better.

Eventually his boredom made him restless and he started to pace, walking the tiny circle around the half of the cave that wasn't taken up by the two harness cushions.  He knew the humans could catch glimpses of him through the cave entrance on the far end of his route, but didn't mind and actually kind of enjoyed it: it almost seemed like he was teasing the humans, taunting them by showing how he could move around all he wanted without ever really showing himself for them.  Or at least he hoped it would taunt them... after a little while he couldn't help but be reminded how he was confined to this tiny cave, and that this was the farthest he could walk, no matter how badly he might want to have more room to move about...

He sighed and sat back down, out of sight of the humans.  It would still be at least six more hours until the park closed.

The remainder of the day passed just as slowly as morning had, and did nothing to improve his mood.  Eventually Vical came inside to rest and then he had even less space, and she dozed off before he could start a conversation.  Even though they probably would have gotten into an argument over something or other he wished she was awake so they could talk, just to do something to pass them time--as long as it didn't involve leaving the cave.

Finally the park closed, giving him a few moments to hurry outside, drink, and clear his waste before returning to the cave.  Simon didn't arrive with their dinner for another few minutes, but Vical woke up, and she growled when she saw him sitting next to her.

"Are you sure you have to keep doing this?"

"I don't have a choice anymore; I didn't go outside today.  Not that I would anyway..."

Simon and three handlers--two with rifles, one with a tray of food--walked into the cave and set out their dinner, and Vical eagerly started eating, but Carnoc wasn't sure if it was because she was hungry or because she wanted an excuse to not have to look at him or talk to him.

"Last night wasn't enough for you, I see," Simon narrowed his eyes.  "It seems I'm going to have to make the consequences of your disobedience more severe.  I'm thinking I'll put on your blindfold every night, and give you a few shocks, too, after you're in your harness.  Think you'll enjoy being shocked when you'll be helpless to stop it?"

Carnoc ignored him and kept eating in silence; the human was clearly trying to make him angry--that and he really didn't want to think about what Simon would be doing to him.  At least he didn't try to mock him again, at least not yet, but that was sure to start again once he was strapped down and unable to fight or even talk back at his taunting.

Simon was surprisingly a little more patient while he ate this time, and when the man quietly and gently strapped him down Carnoc almost thought his stoicism might have changed something in his captor.  But then once he was muzzled, secured in the harness and blindfolded again Simon laughed and shocked him, hard.  He couldn't help but cry out and thrash at the sudden pain, but there was nothing he could do to make it go away until Simon chose to end it.

"Oh, that didn't feel very nice, did it?  Too bad!"  Then came another shock and another wave of pain washed over him, making him buck helplessly in his harness and let out a muffled bellow.

"There, how was that?" Simon said once the shocks finally faded away, but he still jerked and twitched in his restraints for a little while before settling down.  "Vical flew away while I shocked you... why can't you be more obedient, like her?  She knows her place, unlike you; maybe you should let her tell you what it is, if you won't let me teach you myself."

Carnoc heard a quiet gasp and some whispering in voices he didn't recognize--the other handlers?  Did they not share Simon's attitude, and could they help him somehow?  No, he sighed; Simon was in charge, after all, and would never listen to them.  He would just have to keep bearing the pain until the human gave up, whenever that was.  Hopefully sometime soon...

"I will let you up in the morning, and you'd better be more cooperative then.  For your own sake," he said, and Carnoc heard the humans leave.

At least now he could sleep...  Even though he was used to waking around this time, he was exhausted after the previous night and day and the soft cushion beneath him was so comfortable that he fell asleep just moments later.

Simon shocked him again when he returned in the morning, just as much as he had the previous night, before untying him.  "I suggest you stop refusing to go outside," he said angrily, "because those shocks were just a tingle compared to what you'll get if you keep this up."

He resisted the urge to snarl and say something in response; he wasn't eager to get shocked again, even if this past night had been easier than the previous one.  But Simon seemed equally annoyed that he didn't have an angry retort and stormed off before he and Vical had even finished eating their breakfast, leaving one of the other handlers to collect their empty trays.

"Sleep well?" Vical asked.

"Yes.  I probably won't need your help to stay awake today, but you should probably check in a couple of times anyway just to be sure."  She nodded and left, and he sat down again.

There was another long day ahead of him, and he wasn't looking forward to it.  Even if he was technically free to move around during the day he was still confined to a tiny area, and it felt just as bad as being bound in the harness at night.  But instead of being forced to stay in the cave by the tough straps he was staying there by his own will, and didn't that make it different somehow?  It didn't make the day seem any easier or happier than that long night, though, and as the day dragged on he realized he wasn't sure which he preferred.

When he was awake during the day he could at least walk around and speak if he wanted to, but at the same time he could hear all the irritating humans outside--and see them, if he was on the right side of the cave--and there was always that little part of his mind saying that everything would be so much easier if he just took a few steps forward and went out into the sun...  Whereas at night it was quiet and cool in the cave, but the straps and muzzle were uncomfortable and he hated how they made him feel so vulnerable and powerless, and there was that feeling that the wonderful clear night sky was just beyond his reach.  At least at night he was able to vent his frustration on the unyielding straps of the harness, even though it made him sore, but the source of his frustration--the harness itself--only made him angrier when it didn't budge despite all his struggling.  So which was better?

Carnoc groaned and curled up, but it seemed his answer had been chosen for him: he couldn't sleep.

Things only got worse over the next two days.  Simon's shocks got stronger and lasted longer, and his boredom and restlessness each day increased.  Vical was no help; she refused to spend any time in the cave with him except during meals and after Simon had tied him down, shocked him and left at night, and would not speak to him unless absolutely necessary.  She wouldn't even tell him why she was acting that way, but he thought it probably was because she didn't want to see him get hurt so much, and if she didn't spend any time with him, then maybe she wouldn't care about him as much...

Then on the fifth evening Simon walked into the cave with only one tray of food.  "I've had enough," he glared.  "Get on your cushion."

Carnoc faltered and sniffed the air.  "What about--"

Simon shocked him.  "Now!"

"Why, are you going to starve me?" he growled.  "I doubt your boss wants you putting my life in danger."

"My boss doesn't know and doesn't care how I treat you, and you might as well be dead if you aren't going to entertain our guests.  Get on your cushion," he shocked him again.

He snarled, but walked over and curled up on the cushion while Vical growled low, took her meal in her jaws and walked out of the cave, leaving them alone.  On went the muzzle, harness and blindfold, but this time Simon spoke before beginning to shock him.  "I'm tired of waiting for you to give in.  Tonight you're getting the highest setting your collar has that won't knock you out instantly, and if you don't go outside as soon as I let you up tomorrow morning... well, you'll see," the man chuckled.  "Until then..."

A terrible shock struck him an instant later, the pain starting at his neck and bursting out from there, racing from one end of his body to the other and back again in an instant.  The electricity was so intense he couldn't thrash, couldn't scream, could barely even gasp for breath as Simon kept up the flow for nearly half a minute.  Then finally the human released the terrible little button and he collapsed against the cushion, twitching in his harness and lungs heaving for air as he tried to recover.  But Simon only gave him a moment and then came another bout of agony, radiating from the circlet of metal on his neck to every nerve and muscle his body had.  It was all he could do just to comprehend the pain, let alone try to overcome it, and for once he was glad he had been muzzled: he couldn't beg for mercy when Simon gave him another moment to try to regain his breath.  His heart pounded so fast he feared it might burst, his muscles trembled, and he thought he could taste blood somewhere in his mouth; he couldn't take any more of this, but there was no way he could make it stop...

"Ready for round three?  No?" the man laughed, and the shocks returned a moment later--

But they stopped again just as quickly as they'd resumed.  "What the..." Simon began, then Carnoc heard one of the doors burst open and loud, stomping footsteps echoed through the cave, and after a short pause the second door opened.

"Give me that controller, Mr. Washington!" an unfamiliar voice said.  "How dare you treat one of our treasured animals this way!  You're fired!"

"Sir, I--"

"Now, Mr. Washington, and you'd better hope you haven't caused him some permanent injury!  If he has any lasting damage from this, Disney will sue you for everything you have.  Now get out of this habitat before I'm tempted to let him show me just how he feels about you right now."

Simon walked out of the cave without another word, and the unfamiliar man said, "Mr. Moorman, release him, please."

The man who responded sounded like one of his other handlers.  "...are you sure that's a good idea?  He might--"

"He won't attack the people who just stopped someone from torturing him.  Release him."

"All right..."  There was a short pause, then Carnoc felt the straps of the harness unlock and disappear back through the cushion, but he kept his head on the ground so the handlers could remove his muzzle and blindfold.  There was just one helping him, as he saw when his blindfold was taken off: Jeff, who also took off the muzzle, and put them away on the other side of the cave's laser barrier.

"Carnoc," said the unfamiliar voice, and he looked down to see a man in black formal clothes standing before him.  "My name is Edward Onther, and I oversee all the business aspects of Animal Kingdom.  I don't like the circumstances, but it's nice to meet you."

He growled a little and stood up, but shivered as something tweaked in his shoulder.  "Then you must be the one who purchased me."

Edward hesitated, but nodded after a moment.  "Yes, I am."

Carnoc lowered his head and stared the human in the eye.  "How could you treat us this way, knowing how intelligent dragons are?"

"I...  We had no idea your kind was intelligent until just before the auction began, and even if we hadn't bought you someone else would have."

"You could have purchased me, then let me go."

"That wouldn't have worked.  What would have stopped some other zoo from capturing you and putting you on display without having to spend any money on you at all?  Or worse, what would have stopped a poacher from killing you and cutting off your horns or claws or fangs to sell illegally?  We aren't just keeping you here to make money for ourselves; when we brought you here, we also wanted to protect you.  Dragons are rare creatures, and we have to do everything we can to keep you safe."

"I can take care of myself!" Carnoc snarled.

"Yet you have been captured three times in a two-month period, and now that the world knows about your kind you don't have secrecy preventing people from trying to find you.  I know you have that explosive blast-weapon--"

"Vidac's bolt."

"Yes, well, even that has limits.  You can't fight a human with a rifle shooting you from a hideout half a mile away, and you can't fight a properly equipped jet.  You and the rest of your kind needed protection, and we had that in mind when we built this habitat.  You and Vical are safe here, and you would not be safe on your own.  That's what's important."

He snorted, but didn't argue further.

"The point is, we believed we could create an environment where you would be happy, or at least happier than you'd be anywhere else, so we brought you here, built this habitat and put our best handlers in charge of you."

"You mean Allison."

He nodded.  "At first I was surprised when I heard what had happened between you and her, but after going over the surveillance videos of her interaction with you... she did not respect you or treat you like her equal, and judging by your reaction to her care that's something that matters a lot to you.  Simon knew you were powerful, but after what had happened between you and Allison he seemed determined to break your strength instead of respect it."

"Didn't you know about the connection between Allison and Simon?" Carnoc growled.  "How could you have put him in charge of me so soon after I'd killed someone he cared about?"

"I wasn't going to.  But then when I went to tell Simon I was going to reassign him to a different group of animals, he said he could handle his emotions and that it wouldn't affect how he handled you.  I believed him... and I was wrong."  Edward sighed.  "I am very sorry for that, and for how he treated you."

He snorted.  "At least you realized and admitted your mistake, and did something to correct the situation.  That makes you better than most humans already."

The man smiled a little.  "You're welcome.  And you can rest assured that from now on your handlers will leave you alone as long as you follow two very simple rules: you do not attack your handlers, the guests, or Vical, and you do not try to escape.  No more demands to go outside, no more undeserved shocks..."

"I'd like to not have any more shocks at all," he growled, and tugged against his collar with a claw.  "Or ever be harnessed or muzzled again."

"Your harness and muzzle have to stay, I'm afraid.  We've witnessed firsthand just how dangerous your temper can be, and if something happens we need to have a way of restraining you.  That collar, however, I don't think you have to wear anymore."  At a motion from Edward, Jeff came forward, and Carnoc lowered his head so the handler could remove the shock collar.

"If you'd call Vical into the cave," he said, "we can take off hers too."

"Vical!" he roared, turning his head towards the cave entrance and flicking his tail with amusement when all the humans covered their ears.  "Come inside!"

She landed at the cave entrance immediately, wide-eyed and with her tail lashing nervously behind her.  "Why, wha...  You're not harnessed!  What's going on?  Why has Simon let you go?  Don't tell me you gave up--"

"Simon has been sent away.  He's not going to trouble me anymore, and I won't be punished for not going outside anymore, because of this man," he gestured towards Edward with his snout.  "He also wants to take off your collar."

"My--"  She bounded over at once and put her head and neck on the ground in front of the two humans; Jeff took off her collar and folded it up, then handed both her collar and Carnoc's to Edward.  "I'm glad Simon won't be able to hurt you anymore...  I didn't think I could just let him torture you like that for much longer."

"I didn't think I could stand much more myself," he growled.

"Carnoc," Edward said, and he swung his head around to look at him again, "I know it may not be something you want to do, but I have to know: is there anything, anything at all, that we could do for you that would encourage you to go outside while the park is open?"

He didn't even stop to think about it.  "No."

The man sighed.  "I expected as much...  Oh, Jeff also told me that Simon kept a few secrets from you: ever since all the female dragons were captured and installed in their habitats at various zoos, dragons have been sending recorded video messages to each other.  See, your elder had to send messages to all the females so they'd know what was going on, then some of them wanted to send replies to him with questions, and the practice just expanded from there...  Not only did Simon not tell you about this, but he didn't tell you that you've received three or four messages already, and apparently never made any plans to install a system which would allow you and Vical to view these messages and record your own.  Because of this we can't show you your messages yet, but we'll work as fast as we can and hopefully be able to show you the messages you've received within the next day or two."

"Do you at least know who sent these messages?"

Jeff pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it.  "Vical has one, from a dragon named Dulna who's at a zoo in Beijing.  Carnoc, you have three: one from Vallen in St. Louis, one from Nesleh in Baltimore, and one from Melora in San Diego."

He froze.  A message from Melora!  Was it important?  What if something bad had happened to their developing egg because of the humans, or she'd been injured, or... or maybe it was just to reassure him that she was safe and healthy.  Either way...  He tried to keep his tail from lashing too much and said, "as fast as you can?"

"Yes," Edward nodded.  "I take it you know these dragons?"

"Vallen is my clan's elder, Nesleh is my father, and Melora...  She's my mate, and she's gravid.  I need to hear her message as soon as possible, so I can be sure she and the egg weren't hurt when we were captured."

"Then we'll try to have a system ready to show you these messages by tomorrow...  In fact, I'm sure you'd like us to go work on that now."

He sat back on his haunches.  "Please."

"Right.  I'm sorry again about how Simon treated you, and your handlers will bring you the system and messages as soon as they're ready for use.  Mr. Moorman," Edward turned to face the handler, "you're in charge of them from now on, and thank you for telling me what Simon had been doing."

"I was just doing my job," Jeff said quietly.

"Well, either way, it's definitely a good thing you told me.  Now come on, we've got work to do..."  The humans all left the cave; Jeff paused to put the remote on the wall next to Carnoc's muzzle and blindfold on the laser-protected side of the cave, but Edward took the two collars away with him.

Carnoc told Vical about the conversation he'd had with the humans, and she sagged with relief.  "So we never have to see Simon again; that's good."  She yawned.  "I'm tired, and I'm sure you want to go fly...  Go ahead."

He grinned at her and leapt out into the night.
 

Simon sighed and walked back from Edward's office to his home.  It wasn't far; he and Allison had lived together in an apartment on the resort, close enough for him or Allison to be on call if something were to happen to one of the animals back at Animal Kingdom.  But after Allison had died, Simon had lived there alone--not that he'd be able to live there much longer now that he didn't work for the resort anymore, but it would probably be good for him to find somewhere to live that didn't have any memories of her associated with it.

"Night," he muttered to the security guard in the complex entryway, then he walked up to his room and sat down in one of the chairs.  He groaned and leaned forward, holding his forehead in one hand.  Work had been hard enough before Carnoc had been brought back, then even worse when he had to deal with him every day...  Staring up into the mouth that had killed his fiance.  At least then he'd been able to get some small revenge by shocking him and tying him up without a good reason, and he had to admit that being able to hurt the dragon made him feel a little better, but now he didn't have a job at all.

He had warned her about him on that fateful night, after Carnoc had been untangled from the roller coaster track, brought into the cave and strapped to his cushion but before he had woken up.  "He's not going to be happy when he wakes up, you know," he had said.

"Oh, he's never happy," Allison had just laughed back.  "That great curmudgeon isn't going to be happy here for a long time, if he ever gets happy at all.  Not that I blame him, but..."

"Well, be careful with him.  He's already shown us he has a bad temper, and he has huge fangs and claws that could tear any of us apart in a moment.  He could probably set you on fire, too, if he wanted."

"I haven't lit up the collar yet.  If he starts to get out of line, I'll just shock him, and he'll be easier after that."

"Allison, this isn't a dog you're trying to train here, he's a dragon.  If you shock him and he knows you're the one doing it to him, he could very easily kill you."

"If he gets that aggressive, I'll just turn up the strength and stun him."

Simon had taken her hand.  "Just watch out for yourself in there.  He's sure to be angry after what happened, and you'll be the only one in the cave with him."

"Relax, silly.  He can't do anyone harm when he's harnessed, and I know not to let him out unless he's calm.  You worry too much," she had laughed again, then kissed him briefly before turning to walk into his cave.  "You can head on home; I'll be along soon."

"Love you."

"Love you too."  They were the last words she had ever said to him.

He frowned and blinked back the pressure forming at the corners of his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm his emotions.  Reliving the last time he had seen her alive--for what had to be the millionth time--wasn't going to help him.

Simon was about to get up and get ready for bed when his phone rang.  He picked up the phone from where it sat on the table and glanced at the number.  He didn't recognize it.

"Hello, Simon Washington speaking."

"Hello.  As I understand, you were very close to one Allison Young, the first victim of a dragon by the name of Carnoc."

Simon sat forward in his chair.  "Yes, that's correct.  Who is this?"

"Someone with whom you share a common goal.  Listen closely, because I have a proposition for you."