by S. E. Smith
Drago turned and walked through the doorway of the great hall, shutting the massive doors behind him. He uttered a spell to lock the doors of the room before striding through the double doors leading outside. With a whisper, he cast a spell to enchant the castle. He would do the same for the entire Isle of the Dragon. No one would be able to set foot on the island – not even those of the magical realm. It was a spell no others knew. Those unlucky enough to make their way to the shores would perish, trapped between the high cliffs and the water.
Shifting, he launched himself up into the air. He circled the isle five times, re-enforcing the spell until the mists grew thick and heavy. Only when he was satisfied did he return to the castle. Landing on the top tower, he scanned the isle one last time. This would be the last time he would see it.
Drago blinked and turned his gaze to the ground. Pushing off of the turret, he swept downward. A moment before he impacted with the hard surface of the courtyard, the ground opened and he disappeared inside. The chasm was nearly thirty meters deep and as he shot through, the opening sealed behind him. He curved his body, swooping down the elaborate stone staircases and through the arched doorways to the massive cavern below. In the deepest chamber, he swept over the sea of treasure until he landed on a mountain of gold coins and jewels. His body slid down the avalanche of treasure to where a large platform towered.
Drago stepped up the stairs to the top. With a swipe of his tail, he brushed off the coins and jewels that had fallen onto the stone platform before turning in a circle and lying down. His gaze swept over the immense wealth of the dragons. In the distance, he could see the replicas of his father and mother. They had been the first to disappear, shortly before the Great Battle had begun. They had traveled to the Isle of the Monsters to see Nali. Their loss had hit him and the other dragons hard.
“I let you down, Father, but I will not give up,” Drago vowed, gazing at the statue of his sire. “I have nothing left to protect but the Dragon’s Heart that you hold. I will guard it until the very end.”
Drago lowered his head, closed his eyes in grief, and as the silence grew, began the task of guarding the treasure of his people. Soon, hours passed into days, and days passed into weeks. The weeks blended into years, and the years faded into the chasm of emptiness that grew inside Drago. He eventually grew tired, sleeping more as his loneliness and the magic he needed to use to keep his body strong began to take its toll on him. He briefly woke when a slight disturbance shook the isle. The ground trembled beneath him, but he did not sense another’s presence and he soon fell back to sleep.
The Dragon’s Heart glowed brightly, shimmering as if the Goddess was aware that the last of the dragons was in danger of perishing. Drago was unaware of the huge blood-red diamond rising from its resting place between the claws of his father’s statue. Lost in the realm of his dreams, he slept as a nearby passage slowly opened to another world.
Chapter 1
Carly Tate hummed to the music playing on the radio as she slowed to a stop at the front entrance to Yachats State Park. Today was the day! She was taking control of her life. In reality, today was actually the third day of ‘Today was the Day’. She was going to start exercising, lose some weight, focus on getting a better job, and perhaps even think about moving out of Yachats, Oregon. Heck, she might even consider moving to Portland or Seattle.
“One baby step at a time,” she said out loud, repeating her new mantra.
She just needed to concentrate on staying focused, which was not something that she was especially good at. Luckily, her roommate and best friend, since forever, loved her just the way she was – most of the time. Poor Jenny had the best shoulders to cry on, and only went a little nuts when Carly went to pieces after she chose to date the wrong kind of guys – like Ross Galloway.
“How many?” the ranger asked in a slightly bored tone.
“Just me,” Carly replied, handing him her state park pass.
“Be careful along the trails; it looks like we have a storm coming. Park closes at sunset. Please park in designated areas only and don’t feed any wildlife,” the ranger said, handing back her pass, along with a map, and the parking pass for her car dash.
“Thank you,” Carly responded.
She decided it was probably best not to tell the ranger that they had had this same conversation the last three days in a row. This would make her fourth trip in as many days. She now had a nice stack of maps littering her passenger seat.
Accelerating, she followed the winding road. The same old feelings started to choke her the farther she drove. She reached over and turned up the music just as she had done for the last three days, hoping it would kick her adrenaline into gear and not her imagination.
Tall redwoods and other evergreens lined the narrow, winding road. Green moss grew on the rocks, making them slippery, and lush ferns rose up past her hips. Carly knew exactly how slippery the moss was and how high the ferns were because yesterday when she’d reached the top of the path, she had stepped up on a rock for a “Rocky movie moment” and had promptly – and very inelegantly – landed on her ass in the middle of some ferns.
Carly was not a graceful athlete. In fact, just using the word athlete and her name in the same sentence was enough to qualify to go on the Comedy Central Standup Comedian circuit. She had decided the day before that she had a better chance of becoming a mega-star comedian than she did losing the weight she wanted and hiking the full length of the trail without killing herself in the process. Still, she had sworn to Jenny – her very athletic best friend – that she was going to do this even if it killed her.
“Unfortunately, it just might,” Carly muttered when she shifted in the driver’s seat of her dark red Ford Focus and felt the bruises and protesting muscles from her fall the day before.
She was still muttering under her breath when she pulled into the parking spot near the entrance to a hiking trail and turned off the ignition. She hadn’t tried this trail yet. Picking up one of the maps from the pile, she glanced at it and wrinkled her nose before releasing a low groan.
“Four miles,” she moaned, leaning her forehead against the steering wheel. “You can do this, Carly. It’s only four miles. It will be a walk in the park.” A snort escaped her at the pun. “Okay, you do this and you can treat yourself to a small ice cream at the Dairy Queen on the way home, how’s that for a reward?”
Leaning back in the seat, she bent over and picked up the small backpack from the floorboard and shoved the map inside. Opening the door, she slid out with another loud groan before glancing around to make sure no one else could see or hear her. She turned, slammed the door shut, and pocketed her car keys.
“Ice cream. Remember the ice cream,” she mumbled under her breath as she forced her aching muscles into motion.
She stepped onto the trail and pulled the denim and leather backpack onto her shoulders. Gripping the straps, she started down the uneven path. “Ice cream…” she muttered with each of the first two hundred and seventy-one steps before she started focusing on other more important things – like hungry bears, mountain lions, and Big Foot.
Nearly two and a half miles later and barely half way into her hike, Carly was in a foul temper. She had fallen – again – when the large iced coffee she’d drunk earlier flooded her bladder and made stopping for a pit stop an urgent priority. Since there were no restrooms along the trail, she had been forced to find a bush to water.
Of course, there was no flat ground to be found. The only options available were a rock wall to climb up or a steep slope to climb down. Her protesting muscles and lack of coordination, plus the fact there was nothing to hide behind if she climbed up, meant she was left with no alternative but to navigate the steep drop off. She had made it but not without a few slips and slides. The seat of her jeans and her knees were covered in damp, cold mud which added to the misery of her aching body.
Fortunately, she had discovered a small stream of water coming out of the rocks a little further
up the trail to clean up a little. The icy water had given her an opportunity to wash the dirt off of her hands and refresh herself. Of course, now her fingers were frozen.
Think positive, Carly. At least you’re not still completely filthy, she thought ruefully as she continued to trudge up the trail.
Carly couldn’t help but think that if all of her earlier misadventures hadn’t been enough to convince her that she should have just gone to the gym, the unpredictable Oregon weather should have been the final decision maker. The dropping temperature and the rolling, thick clouds told her that she was an idiot for being a miser and letting her embarrassment get the best of her. Those two concerns had kept her from going to the local gym – money and Ross – and not necessarily in that order.
She had been reluctant to purchase the annual membership until she knew she was going to stick with her exercise plan. She had bought the membership once a couple of years ago – and never went. Of course, she was older and more mature now which should have meant she was more disciplined – only Carly knew herself well enough when it came to exercise to know that she wasn’t. If she had thought more about it, she should have just purchased the monthly contract, but it would have cost her five dollars more each month, which in a year would have been a whopping sixty dollars more than the yearly membership.
The real reason she didn’t go to the gym, though, was because of her reluctance to run into Ross Galloway. Ross put the bad in ‘bad boy’. Jenny had warned her, but Carly had been all goo-goo eyed when Ross had shown up in his faded jeans, ratty t-shirt, black leather jacket, and his devil-may-care attitude down at the local bar near the waterfront. She really knew better than to date a guy she met at the bar. She had known better than to date Ross Galloway – hell, he had been bad in high school! Still, she had been feeling pretty mellow after her first beer when he had asked her out – not something that happened all that often. He also went to the gym – the only one in town.
By the fourth date, Carly had realized her mistake and called Jenny to come pick her up. Granted, it hadn’t all been Ross’s fault. She hadn’t meant to release the fishing net on his boat. It had been an accident. Also, he had been the one who had wanted a smoke! It wasn’t like she had dropped the match on purpose. You’d think if the guy owned a boat, he’d know if there were flammable items on board.
Carly looked up when a fat raindrop landed on her cheek. Almost in tears, she focused on the trail in front of her when another drop hit her on the end of her nose. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed by an earth-shaking roll of thunder.
“Really? You think I’m enjoying this so much you wanted to add to the fun? You could have waited, you know. I’m almost half way back. Just another hour… or two,” Carly argued with the sky. She was rewarded with three more large drops and a heavy mist approaching at a rapid clip. “Great! Thank you so very much… not! I hope you are having fun because I have to tell you that this really sucks big time. I HATE EXERCISING!”
Of course, arguing with the sky wasn’t something most sane people did, but it made Carly feel a little bit better. She cringed when a bolt of lightning struck close enough that she thought her hair was standing on end. Okay, maybe the sky gods were listening and they were not entertained by her yelling at them.
Picking up speed, Carly tried to half walk, half jog along the uneven trail. She smothered a cry when another bolt of lightning struck. Didn’t the weather know that it was just supposed to rain, not have a full-fledged electrical storm? She should have checked the weather forecast before she got out of her car.
“Shouldn’t the ranger have insisted that no one go hiking? He frigging knew there was a storm coming. Isn’t it his duty to help protect idiots like me from themselves?” Carly cursed under her breath.
She jolted to a stop when a small group of rocks tumbled onto the trail ahead of her. Then the rain started coming down in thicker sheets, drenching her. She pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head, cursing again when it caught on her backpack. She needed to find a safe place to weather the storm. A loud cracking sound made her look up. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw a leaning tree sway dangerously toward her. Small rocks rained down around her, hitting her shoulders.
Carly jumped closer to the rock face and was surprised when she noticed a dark crevice running vertically from the ground to almost a half meter over her head that appeared to be a very narrow entrance to a cave. Perhaps her luck was changing. It might not be the local hotel, but it was better than getting struck by lightning or crushed by falling trees and rocks.
Carly squeezed into the narrow crack in the rock face and released a frustrated groan. Why couldn’t the stupid opening be just a few centimeters wider? It wasn't until she was halfway in the crevice that the sudden image of horrible, scary bugs flared in her mind. She really hoped there weren’t any spiders, snakes, or other creepy crawly things in the dark recesses.
A flash of lightning and the crackle in the air had her frantically sucking in her stomach so she could slip inside. Of course, she became stuck. Wiggling back and forth, she added a few loud curses to go with the new bruises she was adding to her collection before she popped through the opening into inky blackness.
She turned and grabbed a branch just outside the opening; then wildly waved the damp branch around, hoping against hope that it was enough to chase off any of the nasty gremlins and their sticky webs that might be lurking near the entrance. The rain picked up even more, pouring down the side of the mountain until the entrance looked more like the back of a waterfall. Carly hiccupped in the dark.
“This is why I hate to exercise,” she groaned with a shiver.
Turning away from the wall of water, she absently waved the branch with her left hand while she reached for her cell phone with her right. She tried sliding it to unlock the screen and cursed loudly when it didn’t work. She slid the thin branch between her dirty, jean-clad knees and used her right index finger to open the flashlight option on her cell phone. Slowly shining the light along the walls and floor, she looked around the narrow cave.
“I told Jenny this would be the death of me. Archaeologists are going to find my mummified body a thousand years from now and say ‘Yep, this is a perfect example of Darwin in action’,” she muttered in her best ‘learned scientist’ voice. She stared at the walls with growing dread, certain that she could see them moving with all kinds of deadly bugs determined to suck her dry. “Forget being mummified. I’m going to be picked clean to the bone!” She took a breath, then her lips quirked up. “I guess that is one way to lose some weight.”
Jenny Ackerly, her best friend and roommate, had laughed earlier this morning when Carly had dramatically foretold her own death by exercise. Well, Jenny wouldn’t be laughing when Carly went missing.
Carly vowed she would come back from the dead just to point out to Jenny that hiking was not for everyone. Of course, she would also have to admit that Jenny was right. After all, Jenny had been the one to point out that Carly sucked at exercising and would be better off – and much safer – to just buy the gym membership.
“Okay, it wasn’t really a hike, so much as a stroll, but it still counts,” Carly told the dark walls in defiance. “The state should have put up better signs and they need to hire rangers who tell you that you’re stupid if you ignore them when they say a storm is coming.”
Carly tilted her head when she thought she caught a glimpse of light coming from the back of the cave. Her mind swept through all the possibilities. What if there was a serial killer waiting for her, or a vampire, or a… she slammed the door shut on her wild, out of control imagination when the sudden vision of the walking dead appeared in her mind. Drawing in a shaky breath, she swore she would never attend Horror Night at the local college ever again.
“Or horror movies,” Carly whispered, her hand beginning to shake. “No more Saturday night horror movie marathons. God! Why did I have to go on an alien binge this last weekend?”
Swallowin
g, Carly felt herself drawn to the warmth and light coming from the back of the cave like a bug to a bug zapper. Unable to resist, she stepped closer on trembling legs. The walls and floor of the cave were smoothing out the farther she walked.
Turning the corner, she stopped in surprise when she saw the light was coming from a glowing torch in a sconce attached to the wall. Further down the passage, she saw an arched doorway. It reminded her of old castles, like the one out of the Dracula movie she had watched the night before.
“Carly, you really, really need to get a better taste in movies!” she growled to herself in annoyance. “Romantic comedies are good. Animated cartoons are even better.”
She released a long breath and glanced down at the phone in her hand. She didn’t need the flashlight anymore. Swiping her finger across the screen, she turned it off. There was no sense in wasting the power on her phone now that she had the light of the torch. Plus, she needed to conserve the power so she could call the ranger and admit that she needed help – a lot of it.
Fascinated by the beauty of the elaborately carved stone that formed the walls and floor, she soon became lost in the twists and turns as she followed the passageway. A magnificently carved entrance held her spellbound. The pillars were carved into the shape of dragons.
“Oh, oh, oh! I love dragons!” Carly breathed, hurrying forward to run her hands over the beautiful sculptures.
Her mind swirled in awe. If there had been any way she could slip the huge dragons into her backpack, she would have done it in a heartbeat. Her bedroom was covered in dragon figurines and medieval castles. Carly lovingly ran her hands over the rough stone belly of one of the dragons.
“Wow! This is just… Wow! Who would have thought to put something like this here? I’ve never seen this part of the park before, that’s for sure!” she breathed out in excitement.
