Elide

Elide watched the great swoop of bubbling, rotting land roll before her, resisting a shudder as the awful reek of the Scarred Wasteland invaded her senses. It smelled vaguely sweet and rancid, like a dying rose, or decaying flesh.
All her instincts told her to dig her paws into this festering earth and refuse to budge, but that was made slightly more difficult by the silver links encircling her paws and keeping her firmly chained to her fellow prisoners-of-war.
And the worst of it was that she had not even been one of the warriors. She'd been on the sidelines- watching her home burn, oh sure, but she had been guilty of nothing more than being born a subject of the Gladekeeper. She'd been a hatchling burrowed under her brother and sister. She had done nothing.
And yet here she was.
It was nightfall by the time the Plague dragons allowed the small company of exhausted Nature dragons stop, but not to sleep. No, now was the time for selling.
Elide shied to Ysondre's side as the Plague dragons snapped at their flanks and generally pushed them into a shaky, straggly line. Her sister cast her a frightened look, drawing her tongue briefly over her head, and wrapped her tail around their brother.
The marketplace was buzzing with activity, packs of mirrors halting to mill around the stalls, a couple guardians examining golden baubles sported by a spiral twisting itself into knots, and many more dragons eyeing them curiously.
The Nature dragons gathered in tight, their green eyes evidence of their clear not-belonging.
Elide looked up at her brother to find him scanning her face, and she realized with a slight jolt that he was trying to memorize her face. Because... Because this might be the time to say goodbye.
A shudder ran through her.
No!
Ysondre gathered them both to her, spreading her wing over Elide and resting her head on their brother's smooth head.
"I love you," she breathed, as she had done the last two times they had been in a Plague marketplace, being prepared to be sold to the highest bidder.
"Break it up," growled the nearest Plague dragon, an enormous purple imperial with a necklace of teeth and scarred wings.
Elide flashed him a ferocious look, but held her tongue. Ysondre didn't let go of either of them until the imperial snapped his teeth at her head and she flinched away. Their brother hissed, the feathers of his plumage standing up, and he stepped protectively in front of his sisters.
Elide's eyes widened, fear cleaving through her like a lightning-strike. The imperial dwarfed him so much it would've been funny if he wasn't hissing a challenge at him.
The Plague dragon snorted and spat at him. "Keep fighting, kid."
Then he lumbered past to urge the Nature dragons into an even more tightly-knit group.
"Don't be stupid," Elide snapped at her brother, though the harshness of her words was diminished when she pressed herself against him, breaths of relief rushing out of her. "I thought he was going to- I thought you were-"
"It's alright," he reassured her gently, covering her with a wing and pulling her close. "It's alright."
But it wasn't alright.
They were in a stranger's land governed by the sister-enemy of their deity, they would almost certainly be separated at some point, and Elide had never felt more like breaking down completely.
But she let herself by pulled in close by her older brother, let her sister rub her cheek against hers, and let herself dissolve in their warmth. It was a brief moment of peace, and it was soon shattered when a bogsneak began strolling down the line, eyeing each dragon in turn. With a jolt, Elide noticed that her eyes were ice-silver, not red. She was bright gold with blue baubles and yellow sashes covering her from head to back.
Dread doused her when the bogsneak halted in front of the trio of black-and-green coatls, studying each in turn.
Terror rose like a clawing, living thing as the bogsneak nodded in approval at her brother and turned, calling, "You! Release this coatl to me!"
No, no, no-
Ysondre let out a cry and clung to him, and it was then that Elide realized her plumage had flared aggressively upward.
"Don't you dare try to take him!" she hissed, realizing for the first time that if either of her siblings left her sight, she may never see them again. Her wild, explosive fear turned volatile as the enormous purple imperial strode down the line of murmuring dragons and reached for her brother. She raised a paw to strike at him, but her brother pushed her back.
"No, Elide," he hissed at her. "You'll only get hurt."
She stared at him, unable to speak.
Her voice burst back to life as the imperial drew his chain away from the others and put the silver links in the paws of the golden bogsneak.
"No!" she shrieked, flinging herself forward, only to be caught by the chains. Ysondre was crying, hurling herself at the imperial, only to be swatted to the earth by a massive paw.
"Ysondre!"
Elide rushed to her, nosing her head, but though her chest moved up and down with short breaths, her eyes remained closed.
Fear rushed over her, slapping at her like the sporadic cut of a wave. "Ysondre!"
She whirled on the imperial who dared lay his paws on her. "Stay away from her!"
Thankfully, he wasn't paying much attention to her- he was too busy exchanging gold with the bogsneak, and her brother's deep green eyes met hers, looking oddly calm.
"I'll find you, Elide. You and Ysondre."
He pushed forward, straining against the chain, but the bogsneak did not stop him from pressing his head against hers and drawing his tongue over the groggily-awakening Ysondre.
Then he was pulled away, into the crowd, and Elide watched him go with terror in her heart and a seed of determination taking root.
The buzz of the marketplace went on and on, but to her utter relief, Ysondre was not taken away.
"We'll find him again," she told her woodenly, curling herself around her and covering her with a thick-feathered wing. "We'll see him again."
Ysondre didn't answer, and Elide fell asleep to the restless twitching of her sister and the nightmares that crept from her reality to her mind. The universe granted her a sliver of time to decide if she would endure losing her sister or losing her life. Because she was a coward and a fool, she chose to live. To step away from the sharp remnants of the chain where she could cut her own throat, watch herself bleed away into oblivion, and instead turned to run to Ysondre and the black she-imperial trying to take her away.
"Let her go!"
The purple imperial- the brutish guard who'd struck Ysondre- raised a paw to smack her this time, but Elide evaded him, seizing a handful of dirt and flinging it desperately into his eyes.
"Ysondre!"
"Elide, look out!"
Elide barely had time to roll out of the way as both black and purple imperials surged at her, teeth bared. She lurched to her paws and scored her claws down the beautiful, onyx imperial's flank. She roared, rearing up in anger, and scrambled away to seize Ysondre's chain. Her sister was watching through her paws, but she let out a cry for Elide as the imperial began to drag her away.
No.
Elide lunged for Ysondre, but out of nowhere, a long purple limb swung and connected with her stomach. It knocked her to the ground, smashing her head hard enough to make black speckles freckle her vision, and pinned her there. A voice she only vaguely recognized hissed to stay down, Ysondre's shriek pleaded for her to be okay, and the murmurs of the other slaves was the last thing she heard before she slid into blackness. When she awoke, she was in a room large enough to house a whole family of imperials. She had been placed on a cushion, soft enough for her to sink into, and she lifted her head to scan her surroundings. However, a horribly throbbing headache made her breath catch and a sob work up her throat.
And then she remembered.
Her siblings were gone. Gone. And she didn't know how to follow them. She didn't even know where to start.
She sank slowly back onto the large pillow, hopelessness threatening to engulf her.
How could I let this happen?
She closed her eyes, her whole body sagging into the soft cushion that buoyed up her bruised, beaten, bloody body. She didn't know where she was, how extensive her injuries were, if this was the home of her new master, and worst of all, where her sister and brother had gone.
She didn't know anything.
Is it time to give up?
Before she could answer that awful question, the door on the far side of the room swung open and in bustled a round snapper that...that looked just like her. Well, color-and-gene-wise. Her eyes were dark, murky blue, but as she grew closer, Elide realized with a faint start that the snapper's scales were caked in dirt and cracked with unhealth.
She rose, her claws popping out warily, and winced as pain lanced through her head.