Tyrosh was propelled through a door, throwing her to her knees. She stared around the room, drinking in the scene. She recognized her adopted father's old study. There was Pilate's Principals and Ethics of Governance, on the same shelf it always was when Gendry gave her lessons.
She saw his chess board sitting along one wall, where it always had been. She and Gendry played many tough matches in this room. The dragoness smiled, remembering the first time she had beaten him in a game.
Her concentration was broken by a door slamming. Doors never slammed in this place. An old man strode deeper into the room. His thin white hair hung to his shoulders, and his skin was pulled tightly over his face. It made him appear skeletal. Intense emerald eyes stared at her, intelligence and madness shining in them.
"Ah, Tyrosh!" He exclaimed, stepping closer to her. She resisted the urge to choke him where he stood. She understood that this was the puppet master to her torment. "What? No love for your fellow orphan? We were both the favorites of Gendry. That should be some sort of family, right?" Tyrosh reexamined the old man, and knew who he was.
"Martell!" She spat, her hair flying wildly around her. "I always knew you were jealous of me, but this? Enslaving a whole people?"
"Oh come off your high horse!" He yelled back, showing behavior unbecoming in a Titanbringer. "How is what I did any different than what you did to the orcs?"
She choked on her rage, gave in, and struck him with her closed fists. A Titan surged forward, snatching Tyrosh by her hair and lifting her a foot off the ground. Martell clutched at his bloody mess of a nose, as it dripped red down the front of his robes. "You'll pay for that." He said, stepping forward with a dagger. He reached up and began to cut through her luxurious copper hair. When he had it shortened, he ordered a Titan to closely hold and pin her against the floor, while he shaved it to the skin. He tore out gouges from her scalp whenever she struggled. When finished, he dropped the dagger at his slippered feet.
The Titan let go of Tyrosh, and her hair fell all around her. She gathered the long silken tresses into her hands, her elven ears all the more emphasized with her mane gone. She refused to cry, instead her voice went cold. "One of these days I'll see you pay for this, Martell!" She then let out a scream of impotent rage.
"I can't believe Gendry would name you his successor." Martell guffawed, a cruel and wheezy laugh, when he saw the shocked expression on her face. "I'd forgotten, I haven't told you the best part. At the end, when Gendry was dying, he sent for you. Lucky for me he told no one of his intentions. When he died unexpectedly, it was too simple and easy to play off being his last orphan, convincing the high priests that I am meant be the next Titanbringer." He sauntered to where she knelt on the ground. "You were meant to control the Titans, and I stole that from you."
Tyrosh attempted to jump to her feet, filled with a desire to choke the life from this insane bastard. But the Titan, sensing her building hostility, calmly grabbed her by an arm, and dragged her from the room.
"Don't worry, darling." Martell gloated to Tyrosh, "We'll have lots of visits like this. It will never get tiring, showing you how I one-upped you."
Lov sat up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach. He peeled his eyes open, looking around the cave. Almost a week had passed since his grandfather dropped him off on this island. He had spent the last few days exploring the sandy beaches, searching for a bright purplish fruit he had discovered. He still couldn't get the addicting sweetness out of his thoughts. He had brought a few small game animals down with his bow, but there weren't many, and he had to supplement his diet with large juicy purple fruit. Still, he craved more meat, and his dragonhunger warned him it wasn't satisfied.
He walked to where the water lapped the sand, feeling the ocean's waves wash up over his feet. Lov surveyed the jungle not a hundred paces away and the mountain that thrust up from its depths. There was a pack of monkeys cavorting in the distant treetops. I've been here nearly a whole week and nothing's happened. He thought to himself.
Lov thought back to the day his grandfather had dropped him off. The old man, who happened to be named Tryton, told him that using a focus had been the wrong thing for him to do. "It comes from inside, and you will it to happen." He had said before floating away in his humanoid form. Lov had been practicing, attempting to master the fire again. But so far his efforts had borne no fruit.
He fell into a sitting position on the beach and closed his eyes. The sun warming his face, as a cool breeze washed in from the ocean.
Piercing the silence, a crashing and thundering erupted from the jungle. Lov opened an eye, wondering what was going on. What he saw was a beast of nightmare. It was easily the size of a horse, and it loped across the sand, its paws barely touching the ground. The head of an eagle glared at him with large eyes focusing intently upon its prey. It appeared to be covered in scales the size of his fist, looking like tiny green interlocking shields over its whole body. A vicious hooked beak snapped intimidatingly as it bolted towards him.
Lov turned and ran his fastest. He sprinted towards the trees, looking for some cover. The beast gained steadily on him. Lov burst through the trees, bodily tearing a way through the thick foliage. Leaves and branches slapped him all over. He ran through a hive, causing biting, stinging insects to swarm around him in a thick cloud. He heard the beast behind him, crashing and breaking through the jungle. In desperation, Lov climbed a tree, going so high up he feared the branches would break under his weight.
Lov watched the foliage move from his high perch, as the creature stepped into view. He struggled to ignore the insects that still buzzed around him. It was looking right at him, as if it knew exactly where he was from the start. It moved underneath the young half-dragon, pacing at the bottom of the tree. The beast reared back and launched itself from the ground. Lov felt the wind of its swing against his legs as it took a swipe at him. The creature missed by feet, but the strength of the swing was still felt. It sat back again, twitching a long whip tail back and forth, considering. The creature acted, launching at the tree, and catching its long claws in the smooth bark. Lov felt the whole trunk shake. It started to pull itself up, slowly but steadily. Lov watched in fascinated horror as it drew closer. Just when it seemed close enough to touch, its green scales the color of emeralds, deep yellow eyes staring right into the heart of Lov, it slipped and tumbled from the tree. It hit a couple of large lower branches on the way down, busting one of them from the trunk. The tree shuddered and shook with each impact.
When it landed, the animal heaved itself onto its feet and shook its head, as if to clear it. The beast gave a sharp bark, then lay down, head up gazing at Lov. The young half-dragon started looking around, hoping to see another branch or something to escape to another tree with. But nothing was close enough that he'd want to risk it.
So they waited, looking to the other to make the first move.