Chapter Four: The First Steps

“I’ll take this one.”

Crystal’s eyes flew open in shock. If they hadn’t been chained to her sides, her wings would have surely flared. As it was her ruff flared in surprise, and the feathers on the tip of her tail splayed rather awkwardly. She could hear the mean vixen and the prince talking, but her mind didn’t register the words. She was a bit too busy realizing that her defiant act, instead of getting her a position where she could easily rise the ladder and get back to Wynter’s Grove quickly, had just landed her as the personal servant of the Crown Prince. 

Wait…Crystal relaxed her feathers. He would probably change his mind. The mean vixen did tell her that she’d be sure to be the last pick. Once she told him about Crystal’s ‘issues’, the prince would definitely change his mind.

“Have her sent to my quarters.”

 

Whoa. Wait. What? This was real? Crystal’s purple eyes flicked between the prince, and the rather dumbfounded vixen beside him. Crystal had spent the two weeks leading up to this day doing as much as she could to appear a worthless servant. Apparently, this wasn’t swaying the prince, who seemed determine to break her. 

Well, Crystal thought with a small snort. He can sure try. This wouldn’t change her plans too much, all she had to do was watch herself a little extra carefully, to make sure she ended up leaving the castle alive. And find a new way to be freed from service, since it would be harder to be let go from the prince’s talons than from a gardener or librarian position.

Two vixens, both Fire Dragons, emerged from the shadows as the Crown Prince turned away. Taking hold of the chains around Crystal’s neck, they quickly tugged her away from the line of Ice Dragons.

As she was led away, Crystal got one last look at the other Ice Dragons, before Fire Dragons swarmed around them and her friends were lost to the blur of shouting dragons. Peering towards the door the vixens were quite clearly leading her, Crystal’s eyes narrowed. This changed her plans quite considerably. The prince was known for losing personal servants left and right, although Crystal was quite sure that was in part to all the new laws that had been added over the last few years.

The vixens took Crystal to a large, rather empty room. One of them growled, “Stay put.” She then started reaching for a key-ring, with what looked like forty or fifty keys on it.  For a moment, Crystal thought about trying to escape, or overpower the vixens. Then she decided that she wanted her whole body to return to Wynter’s Grove, and not just her head, so she stayed put. 

There was a jingling sound, and then Crystal could feel the pressure around her wings lightening. Another jingling noise later, and a large iron band clattered to the ground between her legs. Crystal flinched sharply, legs jerking somewhat violently like she was about to run, but the second her legs moved, there was a snapping sound, like a blade being pulled from a sheathe, and then Crystal felt a sharp edge against her neck. Instantly the Ice Dragon froze, and once the vixen behind her was satisfied that Crystal wasn’t going anywhere, the knife was pulled away. 

Within just a few minutes, Crystal was chain-free, and quite reconsidering attacking the two Fire dragons, due to the amount of times her jerking movements had caused them to bring the blade to her neck. She did, however, now have a silvery-white thread with five gems on it around her neck. In the middle was a large white gem, to either side of it was a round pink gem. On the far side of each pink orb, was a sunset orange orb, that seemed to be the exact shade of Ember’s scales.

“How long do you think this one will last?” asked the vixen who had taken off the chains. The other one, who had been busy preparing something Crystal couldn’t see, snorted. “I give her a week.” She turned, revealing a bowl of cleaning lotion.

Crystal’s brow furrowed, and her ruff flicked backwards slightly. One week? They assumed that within only seven solar cycles she’d be dead? Then again, the Crown Prince was quite famous for losing his servants, and Crystal had been acting up purposely. But it wasn’t like she was trying to get killed, just to a position where she could be released early. 

The feathers on Crystal’s tail rippled slightly as a new thought came into her mind. No servants of Prince Ember had lasted more than two months. If she could beat that record, then perhaps she could get back home sooner than she had originally planned.

Crystal let the two vixens circle her, brushing off spots of dirt and preparing her for the cleaning lotion, making her more presentable for the Crown Prince. No one had really expected him to choose her, and so they’d been a bit less thorough with her initial cleaning, whereas her dark scaled friend Flake had gotten her scales scrubbed so hard she practically glowed.

It took the two vixens nearly an hour to finish preparing Crystal. By the time she was led back through the courtyard and into the large set of double doors the Prince had gone through earlier, the Ice vixen was exhausted. Her scales glowed, and her feathers had been delicately brushed and washed. Overall, Crystal felt cleaner than she’d ever been. 

The strange new necklace still hung around her neck, and Crystal now had a thin silver clasp around her neck, with a chain attached to it. This was how a Fire vixen a few steps ahead of her was leading her. Crystal couldn’t stop the small burst of anger that flared up in her whenever she saw the chain, but she knew it was protocol. If she was lucky, Ember would take it off by the end of the first month. If not, then she had better get used to it. She also had a thick metal band around her snout, keeping her from breathing ice all over the two, no matter how much they deserved it.

 The group of vixens had been going up spiral staircases for about three minutes, before the Fire Dragons finally led Crystal out through a walkway and through a long, grand looking corridor. “These are the royal quarters.” Said the orange vixen, spreading her right wing. “The door on the end is King Ash’s room, the Princess’s is to the left. The Crown Princes’ Room, the room you’ll be spending majority of your time, is here to the right. You will have an escort here for the next two days. After that, you will be required to find it on your own.”

Crystal nodded, even though the vixen was already reaching forwards to knock on the dark wooden door. The vixen rapped her talons on the wood four or five times, and then stepped back, waiting. For a few sols, the dragons were left in the silent walkway, before the door swung inwards, revealing a dark orange dragon with narrowed golden eyes. The points on his black eye-markings swept upwards, towards his horns, one of the marks of royalty. All other Fire Dragons had eye markings that swept downwards, towards their snout. It made for an easy way to track the royal-bloodline, but Crystal remembered playing with soot on the very edge of Flame Village and knew just how easy it was to fake those markings. 

The prince looked annoyed but nodded them inside. The red vixen, who had Crystal’s chain attached to a silver band around her left leg, said “Crown Prince Ember, we present before you the Ice Dragon you chose as your personal servant.” The orange vixen added in “We have a list of her known grievances, if you wish to see them so you know what specifically to target.”

Crown Prince Ember regarded them with cold eyes for a few seconds, just long enough for the two Fire vixens to shift on their talons nervously, before he finally said “Very well. Place the list with the rest of the scrolls on my desk. You take her to the chain-post.”

Crystal was half-led half-drug to the other side of the room, where a metal spike rose up out of the floor. Crystal recoiled slightly when she saw the massive chain attached to it. This earned her a smack on the back of her head from the orange vixen’s wings, and a snarl from the Prince. Quickly lowering her head, Crystal shuddered, but allowed the orange vixen to pick up the end of the chain on the floor and clasp it onto the band on her neck.

Once the longer length of chain was attached, the orange vixen took off the one connecting them, and marched away quickly. Crystal quickly inspected the chain and guessed that it was long enough to get her around the room but not out of it, while still connected to the spike. If she wanted to leave, she would need the key that was currently being placed into the prince’s paw.