Ynyr

It was the fifth time that day he’d felt jaws wrap around his head.

The sound of teeth clinking against plating and pressure around his cranium were excruciating. He cried out for help but was once again ignored by the elders as claws caught into the plating on his sides. It wasn’t long until he was pinned to the ground, unable to move and hardly able to breath.

It wasn’t until a bark from one of the elders that he’d be released, which could be anywhere from a few moments to a few minutes. This time, it took a full minute that felt like an eternity.

“Let Ynyr up,” One of the elders said. “You’ve made your point.”

In a moment, Ynyr felt weightless, a brief relief it was all over for the moment. He laid still on the ground as he watched his peer hatchling, a young wildclaw, trott off with a skip in his step and a smug grin on his face.

The elder walked over, a much older and very battlescarred wildclaw, and looked disapprovingly at Ynyr before quietly shaking his head at the hatchling. “Next time you decide to argue something, make sure you’re able to back it up with your teeth and talons.”

Ynyr said nothing as the elder looked down on him, and shrunk away at his gaze.

It was the fifth time that day he’d been talked down to like this.

It was every day he had to put up with it.

He was constantly bullied by his peers, being the only Banescale in a tribe of Wildclaws, an orphan taken in when he had nowhere else to go. But it was Hell.

He couldn’t even sleep at night, because the bullying never stopped.

In the dead of night the other hatchlings would pick on Ynyr, either pranking him and keeping him awake or ambushing him and beating him up. It was rare for Ynyr to ever get a full-nights sleep in the den.

Sometimes, he never made it to the den. Sometimes, the other hatchlings wouldn’t let him in. So Ynyr slept outside on the grass. It was sad that he slept easier outside than in the den, especially on summer nights.

Ynyr hardly remembered his last day among the wildclaws. He sat alone, saying nothing to the others because he’d wanted to avoid causing anymore fights with the other hatchlings.

But at the same time, he was listening to what the older wildclaws had to say, he was hearing the elders whisper things about him.

“That Banescale child has the armor of the Ancients, why is he so weak?”
“It must be a fluke, I’ve only heard of the strongest Banescales having that gene.”
“It doesn’t make any sense though, have you seen his eyes? They’re Fire, he must’ve come from the Blacksand Annex”
“It must’ve been all those years frozen in the permafrost that made him so weak.”
“Shouldn’t he be much older if that’s the case? It’s been years since the return of the Banescales.”
“Then obviously somethings wrong here. He’s an anomaly, he must be, to be born with the armor of the Ancients and still be weak. It must also be the reason why he doesn’t have any parents, they were weak as well and must have gotten themselves killed.”

Ynyr shrunk in on himself, hearing them talk about him like that. He began to tear up and tried to hide himself beneath his wings.

One of the older wildclaws, though more like a brash adolescent took notice of this, and starkly stood and marched over to the hatchling.

“Why are you crying, weakling?” He demanded suddenly. “Were you listening to us? You’re awful close to us talking over here and you seemed to just start crying out of nowhere.”

Ynyr jumped back, tears running from his eyes. “N-no! I-I wasn’t ea-eavesd-dropping!” He lied. “I-I just…. I j-just….”

The wildclaw grabbed Ynyr by his horn, shaking him by it. “I’m sick of watching you flounder around like this. You need to grow up!”

Ynyr glanced over at the other elders, and he saw a few of them stand up and some seemingly wanted to make a move to help or stop the situation, but then heard what the younger wildclaw was saying.

“You need to stand up for yourself, weakling!” The wildclaw spat. “Otherwise, you have no place here! You have no place even among your own kind! Look at yourself, born with the armor of the Ancients, and you’re wasting away as a weak little baby that can’t defend himself or even his honor!”

Ynyr tried to pull away from the wildclaw as the larger dragon was shaking him, but it seemed that the wildclaw wasn’t going to let him get away from the berating.

“We only let you in because of your armor, but that was obviously a mistake!”

Ynyr yanked away, but the wildclaw kept his grasp around Ynyr’s horn and pulled him right back.

“The elders should’ve just left you to die!”

That was too much for Ynyr. He just wanted to get away, to run far away from the wildclaws and leave this behind him. While the wildclaw still held his horn, Ynyr jumped and squirmed and writhed in his grasp, kicking and shrieking. Suddenly, the wildclaw released Ynyr and the little banescale fell hard on his back. Ynyr looked up and saw three large cuts across the wildclaw’s face and the wildclaw screamed in pain.

“Why you little!! I’m going to teach you a lesson!” The wildclaw shrieked, blood running down his face.

Ynyr yelped and rolled over, going to run, but the wilclaw latched onto his tail, dragging him back.

Once more, jaws wrapped around his head. But this wildclaw didn’t have the intent just to pin Ynyr. No, the pressure was harder this time and much more sinister. Ynyr felt claws wrap around his throat and heard some yelling, but he couldn’t make out anything over his own heartbeat in his ears.

Ynyr wanted it to end.

Then, there was a sickening crack, and Ynyr’s vision began to fade, and intense pain shooting through him.

The last words he heard were “No! He’s only a child!”