Jeonbae's own thoughts dragged on within him, sound escaping his notice and movement irrelevant to his inner struggle. Despair was the only thing he knew for a few minutes, the hollow pit in his heart and stomach refusing to go away, dread's icy grip on his psyche refusing to go away. There was only one other time that Jeonbae had felt this, decades ago...
The cramped confines of the cell were spattered with mold and mildew, neglected for years. Nobody would want to take care of a prison cell, it was for prisoners after all. A young man with a gaunt face and matted, short, purple hair huddled in a corner of the room, his cat-like eyes staring blankly at the grimy stone floor in front of him. A collar, made out of a silvery alloy with a rough jewel in the center, was fastened around his neck. Another man, with braided night black hair and a narrow and equally gaunt face, sat opposite to him, looking up at the other with sympathetic wisdom. He had no collar on. The black-haired one spoke a few words to the purple-haired one, gesturing with his hands briefly. The latter looked up, a glimmer of hope showing in his eyes. The black-haired man continued to talk, the purple-haired one staying silent for most of the time. In the coming days, the two exercised and ate what little that was given daily.
Then, one day, with the two sitting cross-legged on the floor of the cell, hands on their knees, eyes closed and faces showing nothing, the collar around the purple-haired man's neck broke, falling off on the ground with an unceremonious clink. His eyes opened, and he slowly stood up. The black-haired man opened his eyes as well, looking up at the purple-haired man, smiling. The former bowed to the latter, and the purple-haired man, grabbed the cell door and melted the lock, the hum of electricity echoing through the stone cell. It swung open, squeaking slightly, the purple-haired man only pausing to look back at the other, before running down the hallway and into the sunlight, leaping into the air.
The negative emotion in Jeonbae drained away as he replayed the memory in his head, hope filling him again as it once did before. He could get everyone out of this. The collar only blocked dragon magic, not one's own energy. He had learned how to control and release his energy from a political prisoner, hailing from the Northern Lands, one of the ascetic warriors that made their home in the region. Coming from his memory, he looked up at the other dragons, but saw that Aster was no longer in his cage. Worry filled him again.
"Where did Aster go?" Jeonbae asked quietly, glancing at Winter and Aksaja. He shook his head. "Never mind." The hunters probably took him to be experimented on, there wasn't much any of them could do soon. He brought his legs forward, sitting cross-legged, placing the back of his hands on his knees like he did years before. He recalled how he tapped into the well-stream of energy within him, feeling the constant flow of the chi, as it was called. It danced in his mind's eye, streams of purple and red crossing and tangling and untangling in a strange harmony. He faintly saw the energies of the other dragons, burning more brightly than the guard that was assigned to their room. He focused back to his own energy, funneling it into the collar. No doubt technology had changed in the years since he escaped from that prison, but with time, he could get it done. In the swirling chaos of the earth's chi, he noticed one brighter than the others, buzzing on papery wings. Realization dawned on him as he realized it was a firefly. He smiled slightly, trying not to betray his emotion. He knew help was on the way, and it was his responsibility to lead the effort. It was his way to redeem himself.