The chains were heavier than anything I had ever felt on Earth. Not just heavy it felt wrong.
They dug into my wrists and ankles with a dull, constant ache, like they were alive, like they knew I didn't belong here. Every step sent pain crawling up my limbs, but that wasn't what terrified me most. It was the silence in my head where logic should have been. This wasn't real, It couldn't be real.
But the cold biting my skin, the weight dragging me down, and the sharp sting of fear in my chest made it impossible to deny.
My breath came out shaky as I lifted my head and froze. The sky wasn't a sky, violet and gold streaks burned across it, twisting like fire beneath water, reflecting off towering black structures that rose like jagged teeth clawing into the heavens. The buildings weren't anything like the ones I knew on Earth,some were carved from black stone, jagged and irregular, leaning at impossible angles as though the architects had ignored gravity. Others spiraled skyward in narrow, twisting forms that seemed almost alive, their surfaces veined with faint, glowing lines that pulsed like veins carrying light. One massive tower loomed in the distance, wider at the top than the base, crowned with spiked protrusions that glimmered under the alien sky it looked like a throne built for a god I didn't want to meet. Between the towers, smaller structures clung to cliffs or jutted from bridges like shards of glass frozen midfall. Some had open terraces with shadowed figures moving across them; others seemed abandoned, yet the faint hum of energy suggested they were far from lifeless. Every building, every shape, whispered rules and dangers I could not yet understand.
This place wasn't Earth, my stomach twisted as the realization settled in, "Where am I…?" I whispered, but no one answered, or maybe they did I just couldn't understand them.
Voices murmured around me in a harsh, guttural language that scraped against my ears. Shadows stretched and recoiled unnaturally along the streets, and the creatures moving within them made my chest tighten. Some had fur crawling across their skin, others had scales that glinted under the strange light, and in the distance, wings flickered too fast to follow. I forced my gaze down quickly, my pulse hammering. Don't look. Don't stare. Don't attract attention.
Because something deep inside me already knew I was a prey here.
They forced us to kneel, chains clinked as bodies dropped in uneven rows, I hesitated for half a second too long, and a shove from behind sent me crashing to my knees. Pain shot through me, and a gasp escaped before I could stop it.
I swallowed the rest quickly, forcing myself into silence. To my left, a man with gray, mottled fur creeping along his arms tapped his claws nervously against the stone, as though testing whether the chains would hold. They did. To my right, a girl with purple-streaked hair whispered a trembling prayer under her breath, I wished I had one too.
Then the square opened before us, and everything inside me went cold massive statues towered above wolf-headed deities carved from black stone, their hollow eyes watching like silent judges. The ground was smooth and polished, reflecting the burning sky above and along the edges, they prowled Creatures that looked like wolves but weren't too large, too aware, too intelligent their fur shimmered in unnatural shades, and their eyes tracked every movement with quiet, predatory focus.
My chest tightened as the realization hit me we weren't prisoners, we were livestock.
Then the air changed, I didn't hear him, I felt him, a shift, a presence that made my body go rigid before I understood why.
The murmurs died instantly, and even the creatures at the edges stilled, slowly, I lifted my head and saw him.
He was in chains, but he didn't belong in them, while the rest of us knelt, broken and shaking, he stood still and so controlled, untouched. Dark fur brushed his shoulders, blending with torn restraints that looked like they had already failed to hold him, his body was all controlled strength, every muscle coiled like it was waiting not to escape, but for the right moment. His eyes swept across the square and then stopped on me,
gold, not normal gold, something deeper, brighter like molten fire.
My breath caught, and I couldn't look away,I should have, everything in me screamed to drop my gaze, but I couldn't. It felt like he could see everything inside me. A whisper brushed past me,"Valtherion…" The name rippled through the air, heavy with fear. I didn't know what it meant, but the reaction it caused told me enough.
"Move," the guard barked, his voice cracking through the air like a whip. He shoved me forward, and I stumbled, barely catching myself before hitting the ground. Pain shot through my arms, but I forced myself upright, swallowing the cry that threatened to escape. My legs trembled as I obeyed, chains dragging, my heart pounding too loudly in my chest. The square had gone unnaturally quiet, thick with tension, like something was about to snap.
I tried not to look at him again, but I failed. My eyes found him. He hadn't moved, but he was still watching me. Why me? Panic clawed up my throat, I forced my gaze down, but it didn't help, I could still feel him.
"New arrival," the guard called, and my stomach dropped. Chains rattled as I was forced fully to my knees. I hated it the way my body obeyed, the way I felt small and powerless. Then silence fell again, heavy, pressing,dangerous.
And I knew.
I had already been noticed.
My hands trembled as I took a shaky step forward when ordered. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but there was nowhere to go,no one to save me. Nothing familiar left.
This world didn't just want to test me. It wanted to break me.
And as I stood there chained, shaking, and completely alone I realized something worse than fear.
In Nyxara, chains could be broken, but predators were never meant to stay bound.