Empty...?!<br/><br/>She could only stare, falling to sit back on her legs, head hanging in disbelief. It could not be. All that work, all the blood, the sweat, the tears and broken bones she'd endured to nurture her last hope, her egg, and there was nothing to show for it. Feeling just as empty at this point, a roar of blood in her ears, her nails cutting into her palms as she could not think past the blinding white hot torrent of internal screaming, of loss, of sickness, of anger. It was the final nail in her coffin, shattering any hope she did have into a thousand shards.<br/><br/>Her deadened gaze lifted to spy the King leaving, her prey was leaving and there was nothing she could do. Nor would the bastard have the guts to end her himself. All her efforts, all her suffering, wasted. Looking to her empty egg she was about to resign herself to her inevitable fate, a fate she should have met when she had been but a child watching her home burn and her family get slaughtered. She was ready to meet her family and apologise for her failure at bringing them peace and justice for their suffering souls. At the very least she was grateful she would get to be with her family once more. Not without dragging some down with her into the maw of death of course, eyes now trained on the teachers behind her.<br/><br/>Whipping her head back around, all at once every hair and instinct screamed at the overwhelming power leaking off this shadowy being, meeting the mighty beasts gaze head on. Almost as if she was physically struck with awe, she dared not move with such power focused on her right now. Because though she was a force in herself, a dragons power far outweighed any other especially her own. They were essentially the embodiment of magic, the creators so they could just as easily take it away.<br/><br/>What she wasn't expecting was to be faced with with an elder dragon, a pureblooded, rare being, almost as rare if not rarer than herself. Elder dragons were considered almost extinct, the King's dragon being the only other pure blood she'd ever laid eyes on. There was no way on earth she was worthy or powerful enough to control such a magnificent beast, nor should it be. Yet the pride and elation she felt was a vice on her heart at seeing her once fragile egg overshadow the room.<br/><br/>Expecting to be devoured, a gruesome but magnificent way to die if it meant giving herself up for something greater, she closed her eyes and waited.<br/><br/>Hissing at the burn of her birthmark her eyes flew open just in time to witness the dragons brilliant flames coming at her. Spreading her arms wide she let those flames wash over her, almost basking in them. Except... she wasn't burning to ashes, she wasn't being brutally devoured, she wasn't in any form of pain. It was more akin to a comforting warmth when one sat by the fire after a cold winters night. The surge of magic was getting stronger in its magnitude to the point where even she could not stand the pressure of it, struggling to remain upright on her knees.<br/><br/>Eventually the pressure was too great and she fell back as the last of the dragons breath washed over her. Once the glow to her skin finally faded she gasped awake, heart pounding with the sudden surge of power racing through her. She recognized it as her own, not quite believing what was happening. She was alive, her magic her own to master now, which meant...<br/><br/>Her hands flew to her neck, feeling nothing but smooth, unscarred skin.<br/><br/>Freedom.<br/><br/>A pink tear escaped her at the magnitude of what this meant for her, for her family. Sixteen long, cruel, punishing and nightmare-ish years she had waited since she was six, had dreamed of this moment since she was eight.<br/><br/>A half manic, half mad sort of laugh left her lips, a twisted dark sound as she gazed up at her brilliant dragon.<br/><br/>Standing up in all her naked glory, not that she cared, she gazed around the now broken and burnt room. She could see the outline of her teachers bodies in the ashes, could even make out the terror that had marked their faces as they died. The satisfaction wasn't nearly enough. She was hungry for more, for blood. She had been starving for sixteen long years, given just the bare minimum to keep her alive and functional and sane.<br/><br/>With her powers no longer restrained, with her cursed collar gone, her freedom restored and her hunger a wild thing, she planned on doing some devouring of her own, her icy blue eyes turning a bloody red.<br/><br/>With the King gone and probably now under heavy protection, hunting him down would be a wasted effort. So she went for the next best thing, the students and teachers. Looking up at her dragon she thought;<i>Stay here, I will be back momentarily. </i><br/><br/>With that she was gone in a blink, moving with graceful inhuman speed to the teachers and students all scrambling and cowering out in the hall, some injured, some just scared shitless, quite literally. That was when the fun of the hunt began.<br/><br/>"Vile wretched monster! You shall burn in hell like the rest of your blood sucking spawn!" One teacher cried as she raced towards her, magic at the ready, shooting wildly.<br/><br/>With a tilt of her head in a bored attempt at missing one of the shots of magic she said, "been there, done that. Now let us see you try." Raising a hand, the blood coursing through the teachers throat crystallized and sliced outwards from within, decapitating her. Her head toppled to the floor with a sickening thud making everyone scream in terror. Drawing out the blood to form a globe, she disturbingly and yet eligantly drank the blood as if she were sipping tea, devouring the pints in seconds. "Now who is next?"<br/><br/>A few teachers, a couple of students and a satchel of supplies later, she walked back into the throne room fully clothed and ready to go, her physical blood hunger finally sated. The lust for revenge was still a claw in her gut, but she now had the power and the freedom to act on it. For now she would leave, needing to escape her prison and prove her freedom was true.<br/><br/>Looking up at her dragon she thought:<i>Let us fly, shall we.</i><br/><br/>Taking great care she smoothed her hand over its flank, finding him smooth and tactile to the touch, not rough and sharp like she had anticipated. With a single bound she landed gently on its back. "Go, let us be free." Grabbing onto one of his horns she braced herself.