Ume ultimately felt miserable.

A large airship eventually pulled overheard in the red light district. Ume was too large to fit inside the airship, so the humans suspended a number of cables and chains so that the vessel could lift her from the ground like a construction crane. The 53-year-old dragon struggled weakly as her captors attempted to fit a harness around her, except with her magic stolen, there wasn't very much she could do other than flail with brute strength.

There were a number of panicked shouts and other flurried actions from the humans assigned to this task (Ume periodically tore through chains and other restraints), and ultimately they seemed to decide that it wasn't safe to airlift an aggressive monster that was fully conscious. Half an hour later, the best alchemist in the city was called to the site to tranquilize the beast, and Ume fought frightfully in the face of a frightening cocktail of potions and arcane chemicals, but ultimately there was nothing she could do...

...and in the end she was sedated.

+ + +

Of course Ume was afraid.

The bright lights, loud noises, needles... having her ability to fly taken away from her was horrifying like the worst kind of nightmare. The Ryūjin (竜人) tended to believe that the ground was filthy, and Sky Dragons were in fact hatched in the sky. Floating effortlessly in the air came to Ume's species by nature, and her parents even levitated while sleeping.

A Ryūjin (竜人) forced onto the ground was comparable to a fish on dry land — or ejected into the vacuum of outer space.

Ume felt like she couldn't even breath (metaphorically speaking).

Her lungs had been stolen from her.

A sensation akin to claustrophobia wrecked Ume's mind, and she desperately needed to get off the ground. It was driving her insane, and she was practically hyperventilating amidst a mixture of tears and useless trembling. The humans had effectively amputated her magical limbs and left her to writhe on the ground like an earthworm. At this point, Ume didn't care about anything else. As long as she got her wings back, nothing else in the entire universe mattered to her.

A witchbrew of potent drugs twisted her medicated thoughts fuzzy and unclear, blurring her misery, fears, and anxious breakdown into a puddle of melted emotions with no outlet. It swirled inside of her like a maelstrom, spinning and spinning and churning endlessly. Time, space, and voices blurred together, and nothing made sense after that point.

+ + +

Clouds.

There were clouds.

It was the next thing that Ume remembered when she slipped back into consciousness, and it immediately soothed her mental state. She was in the air again, and this calmed the irrational terraphobia that suddenly exploded out of control when her ability to levitate was sealed away. There was a faint gentle breeze in Ume's face, and she could feel the wind blowing along the curves of her lithe and streamlined body.

For a moment, Ume forgot that she was bound in chains.

But an instant later, Ume realized that she wasn't flying of her own accord.

She had been captured.

An airship was carrying her in the sky like a useless sack of potatoes. The massive dragon hung limply beneath the airship like a suspended puppet on marionette strings, and her body sagged like a worm due to the fact that her center of gravity wasn't perfectly balanced. It was an exceedingly depressing feeling, and Ume immediately wanted to cry again.

In fact, she had never really stopped crying.

Tears had been spilling from her eyes this entire time.

It was a mixture of sniffles, saliva, and ugly snot, and it definitely wasn't a pretty sight. To a human that wasn't experienced with a dragon's facial expressions, it probably looked like Ume was drooling a lot or puffing large quantities of air through her nose. Every species had their own way of expressing emotions, and the orbicularis oris muscles that humans used to smile and frown were rather unique to primates. Cats and dogs communicated their emotions with their tails, and a Ryūjin's (竜人) natural body language was similarly complex.

None of the humans had stopped to think how the 'snake monster' was feeling.

+ + +

After a particularly depressing sniffle that the 53-year-old dragon let out, something patted Ume gently on her head.

It was a tiny pat, and Ume barely felt it since that hand was so small.

"Sorry."

The quiet and apologetic voice spoke into her ear.

A human being was literally sitting on her head, and she hadn't noticed him until now.

Suddenly, Ume was furious.

What the hell?!

The fuck?!

Fuck him!!

Sir Gawrgaru should go die!!

Why the fuck was that monster sitting on her head and pretending to be sorry?! All of this was his fault! She hadn't even attacked him first! Ume had only gone the bathroom when a suit of armor assaulted her out of nowhere! By any ordinary logic, Ume hadn't done anything  wrong! It was purely self-defense, except in this case the shark knight had completely overpowered her.

If anything, Ume was the one who had been kidnapped!

Ume was totally the victim in this situation!

Ume wanted to buck and throw Sir Gawrgaru off her head. She was so angry, and she definitely didn't want him on top of her. There were probably a thousand different colorful words she could use to describe that loathsome man, except it was a pity that they had muzzled and sealed her abilities so heartlessly. If she had her jaws, she definitely would have roasted him with dragonsfire and chewed him to pieces.

"I didn't expect that things would end up like this," the knight said quietly.

His hands were absentmindedly running through Ume's feathery dragon mane on the back of her neck, as if he was playing with long blades of soft wild grass in a meadow while musing about his life. The oversized hero was in an introspective mood, and he seemed to have many of his own thoughts beneath the sparse words that he shared out loud.

But Ume didn't care.

She hated him.

"It turns out the guild got in touch with my fiancée on the Slime Rocks, and she's actually okay."

Ume didn't give a single fuck about this Lady Luna or whoever the hell she was.

She couldn't forgive that man.

"I thought you devoured her and stole her body last night... but... I guess I was mistaken. I'm sorry."

Sir Gawrgaru had a complicated and rueful tone to his voice.

His blank eyes were empty like grey wisteria.

∎