Let The Chaos Continue

The Story of Fiji

"But..." Hope stammered. "You told me you didn't know why you didn't have wings."

"I lied." Fiji began, shooting a rueful look towards Hope. "I remember what happened to my wings. When we were dragonets and you first asked, I had repressed the memories of that place, and tricked myself into forgetting because it was easier that way. " He stared at the ground. "I just hate talking about it."

"I can tell them, if you'd rather not," Boysen offered. 

"No." Fiji breathed. "You don't know all of it, Boysen. You know what you saw. Not what happened."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a reason why no one has ever spoken of the events of the Hybrid Pollution Houses, Boysen." Fiji took a deep breath. "And it's a long story."

"I heard the rumors," Boysen stared.

"Tell us." Parch insisted. "Tell us the story."

"I'll tell you my side of it." Fiji offered. "I don't know anyone else's because no one dared to speak of it." 

They sat down and waited expectantly. Hope eyed Fiji carefully as he began.

"I wasn't even a year old when the Hybrid War started." Fiji admitted. "Just a little dragonet with strange parents."

"Strange how?" Teal questioned.

"My mother wasn't from Pyrrhia." Fiji explained.  "She was from the Lost Continent, a place called Pantala. She was a SilkWing. They're kind of like butterflies, and they have four colorful wings instead of two. She came here to avoid a horrible fate on Pantala, and my father fell in love with her. And when I was born, I looked just like a normal Mudwing, but I had wings like a Silkwing." His face looked sadder. "I loved those wings. They were beautiful, just as bright and colorful as my mother's. We were happy, the three of us, living by ourselves, never bothering anyone. But then the hybrid hunt started, and Icewings found us. My father fought against them, held them off so that my mother and I could escape. But we didn't get far before someone tracked us down." 

Fiji shook his head.

"They didn't kill my mother. Not like she expected them to. They knocked us unconscious instead, and we woke up in a cell, somewhere very, very cold. There were dozens of hybrids in cells around us, and every day, Icewings would show up and drag somebody away. Some dragons screamed, others fought, and some just looked afraid, not knowing what they were being led into. I watched them for days as my mother cried and tried to find a way out. Only some of the hybrids returned to their cells. Then, one day, they came to our cell. They took my mother. She fought against them, but it was no use. They dragged her back hours later, and there was blood and burns on her scales.... She wasn't the same dragon they had taken that morning. I could see it in her eyes. I don't know what they did to her, but it was evil. They kept coming back too, ignoring other hybrids because they were fascinated by us. They knew my mother was from somewhere else, and they wanted to see what made her tick. Every day, she got quieter and quieter, until she finally stopped talking. She stopped fighting. All she did was cry. They came for me, one day, and she snapped. Threw herself at the Icewings, begging them to take her instead. To leave me in the cell, that they could do whatever they wanted to her. They obliged." Fiji's gaze grew distant. "She didn't come back after that."

Hope grabbed ahold of Fiji's talons, holding them tightly as he went on.

"Then it was my turn to find out what really went on when they took you. They did tests. The Icewings... They wanted to see what made a hybrid different from a purebred dragon. They tested everything, from venom, to fire, to how long they could survive under pain. They did a couple of those tests on me before determining that I was too young to tell them much. Said I'd be more valuable when I was older. But there was one test they were still eager to try. A test they told me that my mother had failed." He shut his eyes, squeezing Hope's talons tightly. "They wanted to see if Silkwing wings were different then those on Pyrrhia. So they pinned me to the table, and one of them picked up a sword. And they cut off my wings. Bit by bit. They let me stay conscious for it, judging my reaction to the pain as I screamed and they hacked off wings. I-" Fiji shook his head, his eyes filling with tears, unable to go on. Hope held him tightly.

"A few days later, Cinder sent me and a team out to the House." Boysen continued. "We'd been given a tip from a sympathetic Icewing who had seen what went on in there, and was so horrified that he'd been willing to betray his tribe just to end it. We broke in, killed all the Icewings, and freed all the prisoners. But some of them we were just too late to save. There were dozens of them, locked in those cells. Dozens of innocent dragons, who were tortured just for existing. Several of them died from wounds and diseases we couldn't heal. Others survived, but they never spoke again. And some managed to move on, accepting their scars, but no one ever spoke of the Hybrid Pollution Houses again. Not even the team. Cinder didn't send us on another mission again until the final battle of the war. We just couldn't handle it after some of the things we saw in there... I saw Fiji in one of the cells, and I carried him back to the Headquarters, letting Whisp and other healers fix his wounds."

"I decided after that that I wouldn't remember the Hybrid Pollution Houses." Fiji said softly. "I repressed all the memories I could, and tried to move on. You all helped me, and gave me a job. You're the reason I was able to live a life as normally as I could, and for that I thank you."

"I just wished we had known earlier what was going on." Boysen insisted. 

"So, what does this have to do with finding Sellie and the others?" Parch asked.

"Every Hybrid Pollution House had a symbol on it, marking it." Boysen explained. "I thought all of them were abandoned after the war, after we burned them, but it seems I was wrong." They froze.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Teal whispered. Boysen nodded.

"The marking you found is the symbol of a House, which means the experiments have started again- with your friends as the test subjects."