Nicholas

The musty, sickly sweet, fragrant smell of the mushrooms nearly made Nicholas faint. But he kept walking, feet dragging in the cracked, hard mud of the wasteland. He knew those mushrooms were poisonous, but he also knew that he was desperate. He forced himself not to look back as he kept on going. He was Clanless, an outcast, being born in a Clan hell-bent on taking over a large section of the Wandering Contagion. He had been exiled once they realized he had showed mercy to one dragon, and here he was: hungry, thirsty, and tired. Clanless dragons didn’t usually get far in the wastelands, though Nicholas’ rugged training had kept him alive for weeks on end. Each day, however, he grew more tired. He grew more hungry, and more thirsty, and more and more alone. He had never been so alone in his life. Although his mother and father had always been distant, they were still there. He had nobody anymore.
He stopped when he heard a strange sound, seemingly a murmuring noise, rare in the generally quiet outlands of the territory. He didn’t run over, but instead walked, exhausted. There was a small puddle in the flat land, the water looking surprisingly clean and inviting. Nicholas bent down and took a drink. He sat down, nearly drinking all of the water in the puddle. Sure enough, without even thinking, darkness overtook him and he was asleep.
The sounds of greedy drinking awoke him. He blinked his eyes open slowly, the emptiness if his stomach seemingly rattling with each gasping breath. He took in the new sight around him. Two dragons, one a pure gold Imperial, the other a pink Wildclaw, were there, drinking the last water out of the small puddle. They hadn’t even seemed to have noticed him. Nicholas looked at the desperation in their eyes, and realized that they were desperate too. Wanting water, wanting food, but not getting enough. He somehow found the strength inside himself to trudge over to them.
The gold Imperial looked up and her eyes quickly flashed from contentedness to anger. She glared at him.
“Don’t come any closer!” she hissed in a raspy voice.
The Wildclaw stared after her, his eyes betraying nothing.
Nicholas glared back at them, a sour stare. “I’m not bothering you, am I?”
“Get. Out.” hissed the Imperial, taking a threatening step towards him.
Nicholas took a step back and brandished his sapphire feathers. Quick as the Stormcatcher, she lunged, shoving him backwards. Nicholas tumbled back, the lack of food weakening him significantly. The gold Imperial was on him, slamming his head into the ground. His vision blurred, dots dancing in his eyes. She slammed his head against the dirt one more time and his vision faded.

Once more, he awoke to his empty stomach rattling in his chest as he breathed.
“He’s awake!” a voice hissed.
Nicholas tried to open his eyes, but he could only see an empty void of darkness, ongoing, in front of him. He tried to move and moved his legs around slightly, but something was wrapped around them, holding them there.
“Why are you here?” a second voice asked, seemingly right in his ear. He could feel the hot breath from the dragon against his head.
“I didn’t come here, your dragons brought me here,” he growled, struggling against the bonds.
Suddenly, color flooded back into his vision as the blindfold was ripped off. The golden Imperial as well as two light blue Coatls were glaring down at him.
“Why were you near us, then!” snarled one of the Coatls.
“I saw some water and I was so thirsty so I went to get it but then I fell asleep and when I woke up some of your dragons were there and they knocked me out and brought me here,” he said quickly, pausing afterwards to take a breath.
After a brief pause, the golden Imperial said,” How well can you fight?”
He stuttered a little, confused by the question. “W-what?”
“You heard me.”
“Pretty good, actually,” he said. “Why?”
“We need all the help we can get right now. I’ll make you a deal. In exchange for food and a place to sleep, you help us in our battles with the other Clans. One of our leaders just died and the other is badly injured, so we need as much help as possible.”
“Deal,” he said, without hesitation.
Quick as wind, claws slashed down on the strong rope and Nicholas stepped out of the broken bonds.
“Welcome,” said the golden Imperial, “To war