Secret Secrets: Chapter 7

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The humans swarmed Milarose once more, removing the shackles from his feet, unsecuring his tail, and lastly removing the muzzle. His head rested against the platform and he could not bring himself to stand, even when Lamashtu approached once more. 

“Get up,” the dark-furred drakiri snarled. 

“Lamashtu, I don’t want you handling that dracus anymore,” Mijhael said from on high. “You are too rough with them and risk damaging the product your employers wish to sell. Leave him be and have someone else bring a stretcher for him. Esperanza will need to see him sooner rather than later, it would seem.” 

Lamashtu bared her teeth in anger at the dismissal and turned away. Two primals approached him with a stretcher between them and loaded him onto it, not taking special care with him but not trying to be exceedingly rough either. The metal creaked under his weight as they lifted him, but they carried him between them through the swinging double doors and back to his cell. They had just turned into the doorway, maneuvering him when Milarose saw a flash of golden mane, firey scales glittering under the harsh lights. 

He turned his head and saw far down at the other end of the hall a kainu being led from a cell by a burly looking sprite. His stomach dropped and the hallway spun a crazy half-circle that left him breathless. 

“Icarus?” he asked in disbelief. Louder he said the name again, “Icarus!” 

The kainu’s head turned toward him and clearly stiffened, ears laying flat against his skull as he fled back into the cell he had just been led from. 

Milarose tried to move off the stretcher, to push past the primal blocking the door, but they shoved him back inside and slammed the door shut, turning a key and taking it with them. He could only watch as several moments later, Icarus was ushered down the hallway by the sprite, and the kainu didn’t so much as glance at him. 

Confusion, frustration and outright despair built in Milarose until he could hold it back no longer. He shoved his arm through the bars, clawing at the concrete floor as he roared, “Icarus!”