"Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Rainbow Dash blinked at the words, the rest of the world coming into focus around her as she woke from her deep slumber.
“What happened? Where am I?” Rainbow groggily asked the world as she lifted her head off the cool floor she had it lying on. Floor. Not the ocean. So that was one thing at least.
She felt beat up and tired, her body and wings felt especially heavy and there was something tight and uncomfortable around her front left hoof. She didn’t see anything in front of her—just a wall—so Rainbow sat up and on reflex tried to open her wings. They didn’t budge. Looking down she saw a metal chain tightly wrapped several times around her midsection, holding her wings in place. Frowning, she brought her hoof up to try and rub her aching head but came up short. The sharp tug of something attached to her hoof, the clinking of metal, she looked at her hoof to see a shackle locked around it and a short chain from it leading to-
“Godfrey-?!” Rainbow Dash jumped back, startled, but she didn’t get far as the chain snapped taut and she accidentally fell on her face. “Ugh…”
The amused snickering of Godfrey filled the room and Rainbow Dash looked up, her mind clearer and now noticing a few other things. Godfrey was sitting right in front of her but he didn’t have his usual clothes on nor did it seem like he had any intention of attacking her. And the chain connecting them… it led to a shackle around Godfrey’s right wrist as well. And as she looked at his body she saw that he also had a thick steel chain wrapped around him and his wings to keep him from using them as well.
Looking to her right (while keeping one eye on Godfrey) she saw that the small room they were in had one wall that was taken up by a grid of wooden beams and a small door with a heavy padlock on it. Not a room. A prison cell.
She stared back at the smiling Godfrey and raised a single eyebrow at him.
He shrugged, the act of which almost yanked her off her hooves thanks to the short chain, and looked at the wooden bars. “Beats me. I only woke up a little before you did. Didn’t see who brought us here, but you might want to look out that window there. Good morning by the way.”
“Window…” Rainbow Dash looked at the wall on the opposite side of the bars and saw a small window up on it with metal bars blocking it. Not like it would’ve been big enough to squeeze through, but still. She jumped up on her back legs and looked out of it.
For a moment she just saw sunlight, and then the blue sky above wherever they were. That soon gave way to the massive barrier of fog just a short ways off the coast of the island, and looking down she saw that the cell’s outer wall was a sheer cliff face, going down fifty feet to where the waves smashed against the rocks. This prison or whatever they were in looked like it was carved right into the cliffside here. Checking out the sun’s location and what she had seen from the map, as well as her own inner sense of direction, Rainbow Dash knew they were on the western side of the island.
Well in one way or another she had gotten to where they wanted to go. Though the situation seemed pretty bad now. Least of all being held captive by who even knows, but chained up with Godfrey too.
Rainbow Dash got down from the window and frowned over at him. “Thanks for not killing me in my sleep at least.”
He smirked. “Where would the fun be in that?”
“My friends better be okay or you’re going to regret what you just did, you know?” Rainbow glared.
“I’m just as lost on what happened as you are right now. But they’re probably fine, they’ve proven pretty reliable,” Godfrey said.
“We’d be even more fine if it wasn’t for you. Again.” Rainbow Dash growled at him. “Don’t you ever give up?”
He looked at her with mock indignation. “Do you?”
Rainbow opened her mouth but quickly closed it, only getting out a few grumbles.
“Heh. See?” Godfrey laughed.
“It’s been so long since last time… how’d you even find us like this? How’d you know where we were going?” Rainbow narrowed her eyes at him. “There’s no way you could’ve known we were going this way.”
Godfrey just shrugged. “Where were you going?”
Rainbow clamped her mouth shut. She didn’t want to potentially give him anymore. Her curiosity was burning inside her right now though. Something about his sudden appearance didn’t add up. Especially after he had been gone for so long. Something must have happened to delay him after they parted ways at the Smoking Island. What had he been up to in the meantime? It worried her, especially knowing how tenacious and ruthless he was.
“Maybe I’m just that awesome of a tracker?” Godfrey continued with a slight chuckle.
Rainbow was about to retort when they both heard a door open up down the hall from their cell. The two prisoners stopped and looked through their bars as they heard the sound of several approaching figures. Along with a lot of agitated hissing and clicking. Rainbow Dash bit her lip while Godfrey lifted his free talon and scratched under his beak. The two of them saw the shadows approaching on the stone floor, and then green feet came into view before their captors fully stepped in front of their cell.
Well this is definitely the right island… Rainbow thought as she looked at them.
Green bipedal lizards, with dry and scaly skin and a pair of chameleon-like eyes twitching about in their heads peered at the two prisoners. Their heads were big compared to the rest of their bodies, with their torsos thin and their arms and legs spindly. Despite standing on two feet they were also only about a head taller than Rainbow Dash herself. Behind them she saw long tails swaying about that probably helped with their balance. Technically they were wearing clothes as well but really all they had on were faded and torn up rags. At one point they might have been shirts or pants but no more. A few of the lizards in the large group were also carrying wooden spears, some tipped with sharp black stones but some just sharpened wood at the end.
Those spears were leveled at them and stuck through the holes in the wooden bars to keep Godfrey and Rainbow Dash at bay as the whole group stopped.
“So this really is the Lost Isle of the Lizard People…” Godfrey whispered.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes briefly flickered over to him before she looked back at the lizards. They didn’t look happy to see her, but that wasn’t anything new. She gulped and put on an awkward smile, waving to them. “Hey there, my name’s Rainbow Dash. Nice place you got here.”
Godfrey snorted in amusement. “Please.”
A storm of hissing came from the lizards and two in particular stepped towards the bars. One had a bunch of red spots covering his green face while the other was holding an old book that he was leafing through while occasionally looking back up at Rainbow and Godfrey. The red-spotted lizard opened his mouth to deliver a low hiss while showing off rows of sharp teeth while the one holding the book finally stopped at a page and pointed at Godfrey.
“Griffon…” the voice was heavily accented and lispy but the word was clear enough. He then flipped a few more pages and stopped again before pointing at Rainbow Dash. “Pegassssusss…”
Rainbow’s smile didn’t get any less awkward and forced. “S-So you know what we are, and you can speak the same language as us? That’s great! So uh… how about you put away those spears and we have a nice conversation. I’m not going to hurt any of you. He might-” she said, pointing to Godfrey. “But I won’t.”
Godfrey just rolled his eyes this time.
“Invaders… you rot here…” the one with red spots now spoke.
Rainbow Dash winced. “That’s uh… not what I wanted to hear. And look, I’m not an invader. I’m a friend. Maybe. Sort of. If you just let me out we can talk this over peacefully. I’ve got friends who-“
“Friends?” The red one’s eyes bored deeply into Rainbow Dash as his tongue lashed about. “Ship… your ship… seen. Land where? Others on. Where… go?”
Despite the situation, Rainbow Dash felt a flicker of relief and excitement as he spoke. They saw the Heart of Azure. And that means the ship must’ve made it safely through the fog. And from what he was saying they also spotted others still onboard. Her friends were okay. They must have just drifted to somewhere else on the island where these lizards didn’t see. Rainbow Dash hoped they landed someplace safe—at the very least she knew they hadn’t been captured. She took a deep breath and smiled a true smile, calming herself down.
“I don’t know where they went, but look, we aren’t your enemy,” Rainbow Dash told the lizard and took a step forward.
He hissed and the spears were pointed directly at Rainbow, jabbing at her and forcing her to back up.
“Watch it!” She shouted.
“Invaders… invaders… leave them… lock them… forever…”
“Look, you really don’t want to do that. There’s no reason for us to be enemies,” Rainbow said. She couldn’t help the worried sweat from breaking out on her face. This is definitely not how she wanted first contact with the Lizard People to go.
“Working with… others… others on ship… others on island… invaders...” the red-spotted lizard just shook his head, his words confusing Rainbow Dash. Finally he let out a loud growling hiss and turned on his heels, walking away from the cell. The other lizards followed after him, those holding spears withdrawing them from the bars.
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash yelled, pressing her head against the wooden beams and looking after them now. “I’m not done with you!”
“I think they’re done with you though. And me too for that matter,” Godfrey said.
Rainbow looked over her shoulder and glared at him. “You just shut up.”
“Geha! What are you so upset for? Sounds like my brother and those others are safe. You’ll be out searching for the Necklace in no time.”
Rainbow froze and stepped away from the beams, not saying anything.
Godfrey shook his head. “Oh just admit it already. Why else would you have come here if you didn’t think Ponyseidon’s Necklace was here? The Lost Isle of the Lizard People is mythical enough already, I can’t imagine the trouble you went through to discover this place. The Necklace must be here. Or at least that merpony believes it is with all her heart. And that’s decent enough for me.”
“I’m not telling you nothing, Godfrey,” Rainbow Dash snorted and sat down.
“Well, not like I can blame you for that,” Godfrey chuckled.
“Unless you want to finish our fight there’s nothing more for us to talk about,” Rainbow defiantly crossed her hooves over her chest.
“Hmm...” Godfrey reached with his unshackled talon to the chains wrapped around his midsection and wings, dragging a claw across them. “No, not really. Unless we’re both at our best I don’t really want to fight you—too much fun would be missed. Heh.”
“I don’t want to be chained to a dead griffon either,” Rainbow smirked.
Godfrey chuckled a little more and took a look at the wooden beams that contained them. “Well anyways, instead of fighting I’d like you to help me break out of here.”
Rainbow’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“Not like I actually need your help. Could’ve broken out of here by myself as soon as I woke up, stupid lizards, but I don’t want you dragging your hooves and getting in my way, you know? Wouldn’t help either of us to be fighting like that,” Godfrey said.
Rainbow stared at him—and a slow rumbling built itself up in her chest, her hooves shook, and her cheeks puffed out—and finally she released a loud braying laugh, throwing her head back and flopping to the ground, kicking her hooves against the dusty stone floor. “Y-You’re kidding, right? Why would I help you escape from here? That’s just plain stupid! First off, you’d probably attack these lizards, and even though they don’t look very nice I’m not about to let you just go killing them. And we’d still be chained together so we’d just have to go to the same place and I’m definitely not bringing you to find my friends. Hay, we’d probably end up fighting at some point anyways while chained up like this! Why would I help you get out of here? Ever? Sure, I may not be able to do a whole lot in here either, but my friends are okay and I know they’ll come find me.” She sat up and grinned at him. “And when they do I’ll get out of here and you can stay with your legs and talons all chained up too.”
“Hmmm… that so?” Godfrey smiled as he lifted his free talon and scratched his headcrest. “Yeah I mean, that’d be the smart thing for you to do, more or less. Aside from the fact that you really don’t have the time to just be sitting around.”
“What do you mean?” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed.
Godfrey’s talon moved down to his stomach, he gave it a few exploratory prods before stopping at a certain spot. “Just saying if you want to find that Necklace without any trouble… you better help me out of here so we can get moving together.” He sharply pressed into his stomach and his body jolted as if he was about to throw up. But instead he just heaved a few times before something came up into his throat, a ball-shape moving from his stomach and into his mouth. With a cough, Godfrey spit something into his beak and showed it off to Rainbow Dash.
Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks as Godfrey held a yellow, walnut-sized, crystal in his beak.
Just as quickly he closed his beak and smashed the Locator Crystal to pieces before grinning at Rainbow Dash.
“Godfrey...” Rainbow’s blood had run cold. “What did you just do?”
“Hehehe… oh nothing, nothing much. Just alerted the main Bosche slaving fleet of where I was and that now they can come here. I’d say they’re about a day away at the most,” he reached his talon out towards her. “So how about working together?”