Dragon Cave Mountain

by Scott Ferrell

  “What’s that smell?” LT asked once they were halfway to the opening. His nose twitched at the air. He scrunched up his snout. “Smells familiar.”

  “Trolls!” the wood elf squeaked.

  The group stopped and listened. Sure enough, the sound of a large cluster of trolls echoed down the halls toward them from behind. They squealed and grunted at each other in their language. It sounded a lot like a crowd of angry pigs.

  “There must hundreds,” Lena said. “Maybe even dozens!”

  “How did they get out of the Bright Forest?” Zookie asked. “Let’s go before they get here.” He walked across the treasure cavern before anybody could answer his question.

  “No time. They’re getting closer!” LT said. “We need to hide.”

  The tiger dove under a mountain of golden coins pushing himself in like a snake burrowing into the ground. The last fourth of his hindquarters and long tail stuck out.

  “I can still see you,” Zookie said, rolling his eyes. He looked around the room. There was a small cave halfway up the wall. “There, we can hide up there,” he said.

  Using his tail, he picked up Lena and set her on his back. He snatched up Woody and flew up. Tim climbed over the treasure to the wall. He reached up, grabbed the lip of the cave, and pulled himself into it. LT stared up at it.

  “Great leave the tiger that can’t fly behind.” He backed up a little and crouched low, wiggling his hindquarters in preparation to make the jump. He pounced, took two bounds up a pile of coins, and slipped as he launched himself. The tiger did a front flip and landed on his back on the other side of the coin mound just as trolls rushed into the room.

  Zookie crouched at the edge of the cave to watch. The trolls stopped and gasped, not believing what they were seeing.

  “Pretty!” one yelled out. He was particularly ugly with a misshapen and crooked nose half the size of his face.

  “Mine!” another yelled, pushing the other out of the way.

  That set them all off. The trolls pushed and punched their way into the room, trying to get to the treasure.

  Zookie glanced down at LT behind the coin mound. He backed into the cave again. “Guys, LT is still down there.”

  The noisy clattering rose to deafening levels as more and more trolls poured into the room to get their share of the treasure. LT panicked and tried to jump up to the cave, but it was too far. His claws left grooves on the wall as he slid back down to the floor. He tried again but with the same result.

  Lena crept to the edge and peeked over. “Tim.”

  The large cyclops crawled next to her and the next time LT jumped, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. Tim pulled him up into the cave. The tiger’s fur stood on end.

  Zookie looked around the small cave. “Now what?” he asked. “We need to get to the enchanted room.”

  The wood elf started jabbering in elven but couldn’t be heard over the clatter down below. He raised his voice to a high-pitched squeak.

  “What that!” a troll yelled.

  They all went quiet, listening until a fat one tried to sneak a golden plate down his pants. A short one hit him on the head with a club. The chaos resumed.

  “What’s wrong?” Lena asked Woody.

  The wood elf pointed at the dirty cave floor.

  “What?” Zookie asked. “What’s the floor got to do with this?”

  The wood elf made a noise, threw up his hands and turned in frustration. Lena crossed over and looked at the floor. Zookie followed. Just inside the light coming from the treasure room, they could see two sets of footprints. One a soft human-shaped imprint. The other was deeper, larger, and club-like.

  Zookie slipped up behind her. “Oh,” he said with a faintly embarrassed laugh. “We should follow them?”

  “We’re not going anywhere else,” LT grumbled.

  Lena peered deeper into the cave, “I can’t see anything.”

  “I can,” LT said, proud of his nightsight. “All I see is rock and dirt.”

  The wood elf chattered. He pointed at his eyes then down the cave. He nodded, gave a thumbs up and waddled into the dark.

  “I think he’s scouting ahead,” Lena said

  “Un,” Tim said.

  “Tim’s right, let’s go,” Lena said

  She grabbed LT’s tail to hold on to while he guided them down.

  The rocky hallway sloped further and further down. The air grew cool and wet. The tunnel reeked of wet vegetation. The smell hung in the air.

  “It smells down here,” LT complained.

  “Smells like my da’s gas,” Lena said.

  Just then, the sound of hissing air came from the direction they were heading.

  “Sounds like it, too,” Lena said. “What’s that?”

  “Air vent,” Zookie suggested, sniffing the air. “It smells like a jungle in here.”

  “A jungle in need of a bath,” LT muttered.

  The hissing sound grew louder.

  “I don’t think that’s an air vent,” Lena said.

  “It’s something coming this way,” LT said. “Hide!”

  “Where?” Lena asked.

  Zookie positioned himself at the front of the group. A growl rumbled in his throat as he stared into the black tunnel.

  The wood elf ran around the corner, startling Zookie. Woody’s hissing cut off into a squeal when he nearly ran into the dragon. Gibbering in elven, his speech faster than ever.

  “He’s pointing the way we’re heading and holding a finger to his lips,” the tiger reported to Lena.

  “Do we keep going?” Zookie asked.

  “He must have seen something. We have to check it out,” Lena said.

  “So, we go,” Zookie confirmed. “Lead the way.”

  The group crept down the dark cave. The air grew heavier—the smells stronger. The further they went, the slower they moved. It was like they instinctively knew something was up ahead and they needed to be quiet. That and Woody’s hushing sound earlier.

  “I can see a little,” Lena whispered.

  Sure enough, the cave had grown lighter so slowly it was hard to notice for those who had nightsight.

  “What’s down here?” LT asked.

  “I don’t know,” Zookie admitted.

  The further they went, the more the cave filled with an eerie glow.

  “What’s that?” Lena whispered.

  Up ahead, there was an opening. A glowing green light shone softly beyond it. The group moved as slowly and quietly as they could toward the mouth of the opening.

  “What is that?” Zookie whispered.

  “I just asked that,” Lena said.

  Nobody answered. They moved as close to the opening as they dared. It led to another large room. This one was mostly empty. In the center was a small pond not even big enough for Tim to take a bath in. Weird plants stuck up from the rocky ground. They had long stalk in the center with droopy leaves all the way up to the top. They swayed gently in the air as if they were underwater.

  The cloaked figure stood near the edge of the pond with his massive gargoyle. He held something clenched tightly in his fist. Green light slipped out the cracks between his fingers. His back was to the opening, facing a massive dragon tethered to the ground by magical chains.

  “Dad?” Zookie whispered.

  Chapter 27

  The dragon’s scales shimmered blue and his eyes flashed yellow with anger as he stared at the cloaked figure. “It doesn’t work on your kind, human.” He growled.

  Even though Zookie’s dad was big enough to easily take down the thin human, the intruder showed no sign of being scared. “Oh, but I think it will,” the figure said.

  “Can we rush them now?” Zookie growled quietly to LT, smoke drifting from his nose.

  “We can’t just rush in there,” LT said.

  “The Everstone was infused with dragon magic,” the large dragon was saying. “There’s no way to know what it will do to you.”

  “Everstone?” Zookie asked. “Wh
at’s an Everstone?” He glanced at the group then back to the scene in front of them.

  “How are we supposed to know,” LT said, his tail swishing back and forth with irritation.

  “I think you know exactly what it’ll do,” the figure was saying. “Too long, the dragons have kept the magic of long-life for themselves. It is about time others enjoy that luxury.” The man took a step toward the pool of water. The plants sticking straight up waved in anticipation. “All I have to do is submerge myself in this water while holding the Everstone, right?” It was a question, but he asked in a way that indicated that he knew exactly what to do.

  “I think I can make it to my dad. All we have to do is free him,” Zookie said.

  “With that big monster there?” Lena asked, pointing at the massive gargoyle standing just off to the side.

  “Just let him have whatever he wants with the whatever-stone,” LT said. “It can’t be all that bad.”

  “Obviously the dragons think otherwise,” Zookie said. “And I bet if Tim and I worked together we could take that moving statue down.”

  The dark figure moved closer to the pool. He raised his arm, the stone clutched in his fist, casting a green glow around the cave. His form seemed to lose shape like a shadow made of mists and smoke.

  “We have to do something quickly,” Lena said. Her eyes twinkled with green light as she watched his fist rise. “Zookie, your fire, can you hit his hand with your fire?”

  “My fire?” Zookie stuttered. “I can’t blow fire yet, I don’t even know how. My teachers were so busy trying to get me to fly, I never got the chance to learn.”

  Lena reached up, grabbed his smoking lips, and pulled his head closer. “Dragons blow fire. That’s what they do. We need to catch him by surprise. If he sees us coming, he’ll just dive in the pool. You can do it.”

  “I…” Zookie hesitated.

  The girl was right. It was in a dragon’s nature to breathe fire. It was an instinct born into his ancestors many millennia ago. Somewhere along the way, dragons had lost that inherent knowledge of how to do it. They had to be taught now. Why? Zookie knew the basics of how to do it, he’d just never made it happen.

  Dragons had four tubes that ran the length of their throats. One was for eating and drinking. Another was for breathing. The last two were for blowing fire. They led to two lung-like pouches in their chests where two different gases were housed. Separate, those gasses were completely harmless. When mixed together, they condensed instantly into a highly flammable liquid.

  Zookie had been able to blow each gas individually but never at the same time. He had to now, though. For the sake of his hive.

  “Okay.” He turned to face the scene below and took a deep breath. He paused to identify the muscles needed to expel the gases. He blew out. Nothing happened.

  LT wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. What did you eat?”

  Zookie ignored him and worked first one tube and then the other. He swallowed and pushed on both at the same time. A blast of fire launched from his jaws.

  The flame went wide of the figure’s glowing hand, but its sudden appearance made Zookie jerk. The fire swept to the right, crossing the fist. The figure screeched in pain, his hand flying open and the stone plopped in the pool.

  “Now!” Lena yelled, running into the cave with a wild shriek.

  Tim lumbered after her, heading straight for the gargoyle.

  Chapter 28

  Still stunned that he had blown fire, Zookie watched Tim and Lena rush into the cavern. Apparently confused by his master’s injury and the sudden appearance of a cyclops almost as big as him, the gargoyle stared at Tim until the giant slammed into him. The impact spun them around and the two behemoths twisted to the ground with a resounding thud.

  Lena screeched as she bolted across the cave floor. Her voice echoed around the cavern, adding to the chaos of the scene. The little girl ran at the fighting behemoths before apparently changing her mind. She made a sharp turn and ran for the dark figure clutching his burnt hand. More accurately, she headed for the pool.

  The man raised his good hand at her, preparing to cast a magic spell to stop her from getting the stone.

  That spurred Zookie into action. He roared and leapt into the cavern. He charged the man, slamming his head into the man’s side.

  On impact, the man burst into a dozen blackbirds. The bird that had been his burnt hand fell to the ground where it lay unmoving. The flock of birds flew in all directions before forming into a whirlwind of feathers spinning around Zookie.

  Zookie spread his wing and started pumping them to nock away the birds. He tried to blow fire, but he was having trouble concentrating on working both tubes. There were too many birds. The landed on him, pecked at spots between his scales, and flew away before he could react. All Zookie could see was writhing black all around him.

  Suddenly, LT burst through the wall of birds, crunching several of them in his powerful jaws. They disappeared in a burst of black mists between his teeth. He ripped at more with his claws.

  Grinning at his new friend, Zookie slashed out with renewed energy. The wall of birds circling the two widened away from them. Dragon and Tiger stood next to each other, snarling as the birds collected in a bunch next to the pool. They clumped tighter together until the man in a black cloak stood in front of them. Zookie noticed his hand no longer seemed hurt.

  The man laughed. It was a dark, mocking sound. “Kids, all of you! You think you can stop me? I will have my power!”

  Puffing hard, all Zookie could manage was a growl.

  “Even your cyclops stands no chance against my minion.” The man pointed.

  Zookie looked to see Tim pinned beneath the massive gargoyle. The cyclops struggled, but he couldn’t break the hold.

  “Soon, all creatures will bow down before me!” The man in black declared. “All creatures will worship the name Dyokles!”

  “Not every creature.”

  Zookie spun to see his father standing and shaking the chains free. Woody stood beside him, holding the magical key they had used to free themselves from the dungeons.

  The larger dragon swept the gargoyle off Tim with a powerful strike of his tail. The stone creature hit the far wall and fell to the ground. He started to rise, but Tim bounded over and jumped on its back. The cyclops muscles bulged as he held the gargoyle down.

  Dyokles growled. It was a deep, guttural noise that sounded more primal than any creature Zookie had ever heard. “I will not be stopped!”

  The dark figure switched from the common tongue to a language Zookie had never heard before, but he could tell it was magic. A wave of weariness washed over him after just the first few words. Zookie blinked at his father, who swayed on his paws.

  “You see,” Dyokles said, switching make to the common tongue, “I already possess magic unlike any human that has come before me. Once I am washed with the power of the Everstone, there will be no creature to stand against me.”

  Zookie’s legs felt weak. His inner eyelids slid over his eyes. He had to blink hard to keep the outer lids open. His brain felt foggy. Darkness seeped in at the edges of his conscious.

  “There will always be those who will stand against evil.”

  Zookie turned his sluggish head to see Lena, soaking wet and standing ankle-deep at the edge of the pond. She clutched the green rock in one of her tiny fists.

  Dyokles gapped at her. “That power is mine!”

  “Come get it,” Lena said.

  The dark figure turned and took a step towards her. Lena raised the rock and held it out at him. A blinding green light erupted from it.

  Dyokles held up his arms to shield himself from the light, but it surrounded him—passed through him—broke him down. Gaps opened up in his form. Black wings flapped to try to keep him together, but when one spot closed, another would open.

  “He is strong in magic,” Zookie’s dad said. “We must not allow the darkness in him to hold himself together.”

  Free from Dyo
kles’ sleep magic, the massive dragon took a step forward, inhaled, and blew a wall of flames. The liquid fire burst on the black form of Dyokles, adding to the light from the Everstone.

  Seeing his dad blow fire had always awed Zookie. Even know that he could blow his own flames, it was nothing compared to his dad’s. Still, he added his own. Bolstered by his dad’s display, Zookie quickly found the muscles to work both tubes and squeezed.

  His fire erupted on Dyokles, providing the last bit of power to pull the man apart. He blew apart in a flutter of birds that quickly dissolved into clouds of black mists. The mists swirled around like the man was trying to pull himself back together, but couldn’t. Instead, the cloud floated to the cavern’s ceiling and slipped through a crack.

  All three lights went out, plunging the cavern into near darkness. A few lightstones here and there did little to light the place.

  Zookie turned to Tim, ready to help, but as he watched, cracks formed in the gargoyle. Piece by piece, the stone creature fell apart until there was nothing left but a pile of rock and dust.

  All was quiet in the cavern deep under Dragon Cave Mountain.

  Chapter 29

  The sudden absence of imminent danger left Zookie lightheaded and shaking. His long tail swished back and forth irritably. Still, he was ready to pounce on anything he thought might be a threat.

  There were none, though. Just his new friends. Woody stood off to the side, next to the chains. Tim slumped against a wall, breathing hard, but he looked like he was okay. LT had edged away from Zookie, panting and his fur standing on end. Then there was his father.

  He turned to face the larger dragon, but his father stared at Lena. His eyes were narrowed and thoughtful. He stood very still.

  Lena didn’t seem to notice her audience. She gapped at the stone in her hand like she waited for it to do another magic trick. It didn’t. It lay in the palm of her hand, looking like just any other ordinary rock. It wasn’t, though. His father had called it the Everstone. He had never heard of it before.

  Finally, the larger dragon broke the silence. “It is a baffling thing to see a human holding the Everstone after bathing in the Waters of Dragon Fire.”