Subject: Dragonet 4978

Entry No. 1

The scavengers won centuries ago. They came out of nowhere using seemingly magical objects and killed almost everyone and locked up the rest.

At least, that's what Shadow was told. Well, Dragonet 4978, as the scavengers called him. Wait, not scavengers. Humans. That's what they wanted to be referred to as. Scavenger was just a term the older dragons used for them. Speaking of older dragons, Shadow wondered where they went. It was like they all just vanished one day. The black dragon sighed and rested his head on his talons, quite uncomfortable. He had turned four a few days prior and was officially "old enough to be in a cell", as his roommate, a grumpy red dragon seemingly twenty times his size, had told him. That dragon's name was Robin, and he hated Shadow. Robin hated everything, it seemed. Every time Shadow tried to play with him, the large dragon either scowled and ignored him or "gave in" and sent the dragonet tumbling across the room with a single massive blow from his tail. Maybe red dragons hate fun? Shadow was quite curious about this.

"Oi, kid." Robin grumbled, snapping Shadow out of his trance. The little dragon almost leaped out of his skin at the sudden sound of his voice, and whirled around.

"Y-Yes sir?" he squeaked, half expecting to be hit in the face with Robin's leftovers again. That dragon always had the messiest meals, and Shadow would spend hours trying to clean his face, chest, and wings off whenever Robin felt like using him as a personal trash can. Sorry, losing focus.

The large red dragon sighed.

"Lost in that fantasy world of yours again, eh? Listen, today is a rather important day, so you need to pay attention to what I'm about to tell you. A very important human is going to show up soon, so you need to be on your best behavior." Robin said. "Don't zone out like you normally do, and if she asks you anything, don't sound like you're complaining. That's the fastest way to get punished."

Shadow tilted his head to the side, quite confused.

"Why? If she asks me a question, shouldn't I be honest? Wouldn't telling the truth be fine? Would that be complaining? But if I lie, I could get in even more trouble, because lying is wrong, right?" he asked. Robin sighed and patted Shadow's head a couple times.

"You're sweet." he said, before gripping the dragonet's head and slamming it into the floor. "But you're even more stupid."

Blood bursted from Shadow's nose, and tears filled his eyes as he scrambled away, clutching his bleeding snout.

"W-W-What was that for!?" Shadow protested, fighting tears. The last time he cried, Robin really made it quite painfully clear that it wasn't going to be tolerated in that cell. "W-What did I-"

"Shut the hell up and quit your sputtering." Robin ordered. The dragon stood and walked over to the door, peeking through the thick glass that served as one of the walls of the cell. Shadow hated that wall. Anyone walking by could see everything he was doing. Robin pushed him back and used one of his hind legs to kick the dragonet into the "shower", as the humans called it. It was like a waterfall that came from the ceiling. Shadow didn't understand how it worked, but he knew that it was quite useful for staying clean. He slammed into the wall and curled into a shaking ball.

"Clean yourself up." Robin ordered. "Try to be somewhat presentable. They're coming here for you, anyway."

Shadow sniffled and turned on the water, whimpering at the freezing temperature, and began to wash up, watching the blood from his nose mix with the water going down the drain. After washing up, he went to his bed and laid down. Well, I suppose you can't call it a bed. It was more like a solid metal platform sticking out of the wall with a very thin mattress and a blanket on it. There were three of them in the cell, one on each non-glass wall. Shadow hated his bed, but it was all he had. Robin's bed had no mattress on it. Maybe that's why he was always so grumpy? Shadow would have to ask later.

After about 30 minutes of waiting (or, as Shadow said, "half a clock"), Robin called for him to come to the glass wall. Shadow stretched and climbed down from his ledge-bed-thing and went to stand by Robin. There were quite a few humans outside, all of them staring at him. Some of them had weird looking sticks that they held at an angle, and all of them wore black armor. Well, all of them except for one. This one had long hair, and a pretty white dragon with blue eyes stood next to her. Shadow was curious about what the white dragon was doing there, until the human spoke to her. The dragon nodded slowly, before turning to Shadow.

"Hello, Dragonet 4978. How are you doing today?" she said, her voice transmitted into the cell by the odd boxes on the ceiling. Shadow jumped a little at the sudden sound, but managed to reply.

"G-Good…" he stammered out, hoping that she would be able to hear. The dragon spoke to the human, who spoke back. It seemed like the white dragon was translating for the human. There were dragons that could do that? What kind of twisted magic was this?!

"Excellent." the dragon said for the human. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, then I'll need you to come with me for a little while. Is that okay?"

"Uh...what will happen if I say no?" Shadow asked, his curiosity taking over again.

"Well, we'll have to punish you for refusing to cooperate."

"O-Oh...I guess it's okay, then."

"Perfect. For starters, do you like your new roommate?"

"Mhm...but he can be kinda grumpy sometimes."

"Understandable. SkyWings tend to be that way."

Robin snorted at this and went to lay on his bed. Shadow tilted his head, even more confused.

"Sky...Wing?"

"Yes. That's his tribe. You are a NightWing. I am an IceWing. You'll learn soon enough, I suppose."

"Oh…."

"Anyway, how do you like it here?"

"It's...not awful...but it is kinda cold in here and the bed is uncomfortable…"

"We gave you a blanket for a reason."

"...oh."

The dragon - no, IceWing - chuckled a little before talking to the human, who laughed as well.

"So, little dragon, how would you like to have another roommate?"

"Another one? Will they be grumpy like Robin?"

"Not likely. She's rather energetic, and about your age too."

"Really!?"

Shadow was quite excited. Finally, he'd have someone other than Robin to be with. Robin made one of his grumpy noises.

"Yes. She'll be arriving tonight. But first, we have a few more things to do."

A door in the glass opened, and one of the armored humans with sticks walked in and escorted Shadow out and down the hall. After what seemed like hours, they arrived at a very bright room with a bunch of white cabinets and a table-like thing in the center. One of the humans fastened a collar with a rope around Shadow's neck, pulling it tight, and attached the other end of the rope to a hook on the floor. Shadow was confused. What was going to happen? Why was he now trapped there? What was with that table?

The door swung open, and a new human, wearing a white lab coat, walked in. Shadow know what this guy was. He was one of those "scientist" things, and he was speaking into a strange device. Shadow didn't know what he was saying, but by the tone of his voice, it was important. The man in the coat grabbed something from off of the table and walked over to Shadow. The object looked like a glass tube with something sticking out of the bottom. Shadow watched the man, quite confused about what he was doing (now that I mention it, he was quite confused or curious about EVERYTHING).

"What are you doing?" he asked, knowing that the man wouldn't understand. Unfortunately, he received his answer a few seconds later when the man firmly placed his hand on Shadow's left thigh and stabbed him with something. It turns out that the glass tube had a needle sticking out of one end that Shadow didn't notice. He whimpered and tried not to pull away. After all, it should be over soon, right?

….right?

Wrong.

Shadow returned to his cell after a few hours, exhausted beyond belief and extremely embarrassed.

"Humans are horrible creatures.." he thought. "Who even does that to a dragon!?"

He leaped up onto his bed and hid his head under his wings, thinking about what he had just been through. Those scientists pricked him with things, kept forcing him to open his mouth for some reason, trimmed his claws, and, worst of all, took an odd looking device and shoved it somewhere nothing should go into until it beeped. He shuddered and whimpered a little. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Hey, kid." Robin said in his normal grumpy tone. "How'd your checkup go?"

"It was awful…" Shadow groaned. "I hope I never have to do it again."

"Well, in that case, I would give up on those dreams as soon as possible. You're going to be checked like that at least once a month until you're fully grown." Robin replied with a chuckle. Shadow turned over in bed, putting his back to Robin, and tried (and failed) to sleep. Maybe things would be better tomorrow...

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! This is my first story in a while, so I may be a tad bit rusty. Now that the virus that shall not be named has us locked in our houses, I now have time to work on this regularly. If you have any questions or advice, feel free to let me know. Once again, thank you for reading, and I'll see you all again soon!