Time stretched, and I realized I was gibbering. No, no, no; time to run! I sprang forward as the golem demon screeched, rattling the cavern. Just as I’d feared, the monster was incredibly fast for its size, and its cart-sized hand almost snagged me as I darted past. The tip of one claw whistled through the ends of my hair.
My injuries screamed in agony, but I ignored them. Another huge hand almost ended my life for good, but I drew on more power, activating my air skate ability and darting forward. The effort made me light-headed, but I still lived!
The golem demon bellowed, the sound like a sheet of metal in a hurricane. The edge of the chasm got closer, looking like freedom. It wasn’t until I was almost there that I realized I had still not figured out how to get across.
Too late.
I put all the Flight power I could into a feather-jump and leapt as hard, and as high as I could. Then I changed my power to more of a feather-step ability to slow my fall even further. A terrifying breeze rustled my torn clothing from behind as the golem demon made a grab for my body and barely missed again. It bellowed in rage, its eyes burning brighter.
“Rotting rot!” I cursed in a whimper, desperately using my Flight power to balance myself in mid-air. The other side of the chasm was getting closer, but approaching more slowly as my momentum began to fade.
Then I began to fall.
I flailed my arms as I sailed through the air, desperately trying to pull myself forward. The tiny bit of light from the golem demon’s lair behind me threw shadows all over. The other side of the chasm was dark, and my own shadow wasn’t helping.
When I started falling faster, the pit of my stomach dropped as well. My fear was so great, I couldn’t form rational thoughts as I sailed forward, the vulnerable travel punctuated by the roars and stomping of the monster behind me.
My hands scrabbled for purchase when I finally felt the other side of the chasm. The wounds in my back and leg spasmed, and I felt the blood oozing out as I began to slowly slip down the face of the sheer rock wall. Luckily, I was able to get one good handhold and hold myself up. The effort had only been successful because of my Flight power still reducing my body weight.
My breath came out in desperate gasps, and my head throbbed with the constant use of my power, but for the moment I was still alive.
I scrambled to find other places to put my feet and hands, almost blind in the dark. The golem demon made more than enough ruckus to fuel my tremor-vision ability, but I knew it would probably just be a distraction.
With the help of my feather-step and feather-jump abilities, I was able to climb, gritting my teeth to deal with the pain and weakness racking my body. After a few moments of frenzied effort, I almost fell in surprise as an enormous boom rocked the cliff next to me and a hail of rocks zinged past my head. I didn’t dare turn back to look, but I realized what had happened. The golem demon had started throwing rocks at me.
The next minute or so was my own personal hell of cringing and desperate climbing. The golem demon threw a few more giant stones at me, any one of which would have turned me into Nora paste. Whether because of the dark, its bad sight, or bad aim, it never quite hit me, but by the time I made it to the top of the chasm, I had cuts and bruises all over my body. It felt like there was more blood on the outside of my skin than the inside.
I screamed in triumph and turned, ready to cast my defiance at the golem demon, then barely dodged in time as a huge stone almost took my head off. The beast was just an enormous shadow across the chasm, backlit against the fire in its lair. It stomped in rage and frustration, its huge, oversized arms slamming into the ground.
After I stood upright again, I gulped and decided that taunting the enormous, murderous creature was probably not very smart. I turned and painfully limped away as fast as I could, only relaxing when the enraged bellows of the golem demon began growing fainter.
My body was suffused with a mixture of fear, elation, pain, weakness, and pride. I felt half asleep as I continued forward, not even really paying attention to how long I walked. When I noticed I’d turned on my magic torch to see, it was a bit of a surprise to me. The tunnel I followed began getting narrower, and weird echoes of my footsteps bounced from wall to wall.
I encountered a turn, and abruptly my tunnel opened up into a huge cavern. My light dimmed in the large space, and I thought I saw the glint of gold in the distance. I stopped tiredly, blinking. My senses were screaming at me, but I was so exhausted I couldn’t be sure what they were saying. I began to slowly back away, retreating back into my tunnel when I had to stop. I had felt my back bump against something that hadn’t been there before.
I turned, and my light fell on thick, brown, scaly hide, the likes of which I’d never seen before. Out of the darkness behind me, I heard a voice rumble, “What do we have here, now? Are you lost, little one?” Then it chuckled.
My throat constricted and I couldn’t breathe. I slowly turned, my lungs frozen. I moved my head and eyes up, tracking where the voice had come from, and beheld a pair of giant, reflective yellow eyes with slitted pupils.
My body felt frozen, like a rodent meeting a viper. I couldn’t think of what to say. My mind blank, I finally got out, “Oh. Uh, hello.”
I heard a chuckle again, and the huge eyes danced in the dark.
Something New
“It has been a long, long time since I have entertained any adventurers,” said the masculine voice.
“How-” I croaked then coughed. I tried again, forcing the words out, “How do you know I’m an adventurer?”
“Why else would you be down here in the dark, bloody, and asking daft questions?” asked the voice. “I also have not heard that stupid rock-brain down the tunnel screaming like this for over six hundred years. Good. When I am released from this place, one of the first things I will do is rip the arms from its body and listen to it die.”
I gaped. Not at the words—I’d heard far worse in the Jackals—it was the sincerity. I could tell that the owner of this voice was entirely serious, and had complete confidence that he spoke facts. A moment later when the lights came on, I found out why.
The cavern was flooded with light from clear, pure light sources far up near the ceiling of the cavern. In the sudden illumination, I found myself staring at a huge, grinning mouth full of enormous teeth. My gaze traveled up past a pair of flaring nostrils, over a snout covered in red scales, across dark spikes, and was held transfixed by the enormous yellow eyes, shadowed beneath massive horns.
“A dragon,” I breathed. In that moment I was so shocked, I wasn’t even scared.
“I know some of my kind will accept that kind of flattery, intentional or not,” scoffed the beast, his tongue and teeth flashing, “but I am a drake, not a dragon. I will not pretend to be that which I am not. I have no thumbs. I am not nearly large enough. No, I am proud of what I am, but I will not pretend to be one of the Ancients.”
My mouth moved for a moment. “Huh?”
The drago—drake rolled his eyes at me. Then he gently nudged me away from the mouth of the cave he’d been blocking with one of his massive legs. The message was clear, and it wasn’t like I could refuse. Even if I were completely rested and feeling great, I would have been no match for my captor.
Ripples of massive muscles pulsed under red scales as the beast moved. The drake stood over twice as tall as me at the shoulder, and a pair of silky wings folded neatly over his back. I caught a flash of metal and noticed a spiked band towards the end of a spiked tail. The light had been glinting off fresh scratches in the tarnished metal.
“To use very simple words, drakes are smaller, much less powerful dragons. Orders of magnitude less powerful. I can’t even wear a sword. No thumbs,” said the drake, holding up its one-clawed limb.
“Thumbs?” I asked. I was still tired, still slow, but my mind was waking from its stupor. Putting thoughts together was hard, but I still knew I wanted to keep the drake talking. When he was talking, he wasn’t killing me.
“Yes, no thumbs,” said the drake. “Which is more annoying than you probably can imagine. I can’t use a sword, or spear, or powerful magic like the Ancients, but at least I can add a weapon to my tail.” The drake’s tail whipped around and dangled to one side, displaying the spiked metal.
“Why do you need a weapon?” I asked. “You’re a dra—a drake.”
“You would be surprised how useful this is,” replied the drake, swishing his tail from side to side. “Do you know what it’s like to bite down on armor? Probably not. But it is not pleasant. Plus, all thinking beings use tools. I have my limitations, but I do what I can.”
The huge, winged reptile moved sinuously around me, positioning the bulk of his body in front of the tunnel I had come through and completely sealed off my escape.
“Why are you doing that?” I asked. I was so very tired, and sick of being afraid. Something within me snapped, and in that instant, I decided to say exactly what was on my mind. I might be doomed, but I’d meet my end standing tall, not bowing—even to a red drake. “It’s not like I can go anywhere. Even if you let me take that tunnel, there’s nothing but a chasm and a golem demon having a tantrum at the end. I’m trapped either way.”
The drake lowered his head in front of me, so close I could feel his breath. I stubbornly set my jaw and stared right back into the huge yellow eyes. My hand itched for a weapon, but drawing my short sword, or new dagger would be useless. Even with my ‘Bonded power, I was not strong enough yet to fight anything like this.
As I glared into the eyes of a creature that could casually kill me anytime he wanted, I vowed to get stronger. I’d always been good at fighting, and I hadn’t been helpless long, even as a girl. In Bittertown, nothing had really scared me. In my travels up to this point, I’d been able to survive or outhink all of my challenges. However, the world was a lot larger than I had known.
This was the second time in a week that I’d had no answer, no options. I hated it. Chasing power had never been an interest of mine, but in that moment, I understood why others did so. I really had been strong—Arren had been right. But now I knew how weak I was compared to the larger world, and I realized I was not at peace with this.
The drake let his lips part in a scaly smile that showed all his teeth. “What makes you think you’re dead? I haven’t had anyone to talk to in hundreds of years. It is true that my job is to guard this room, well, for another few years at least. But games are not fun unless there is some sort of reward possible, yes? Look around you, little Terran.”
I didn’t understand the instruction, but I did as the drake asked, letting my eyes roam. One full side of the cavern seemed to be where the creature lived. There was a natural pool of clear water with a little, trickling waterfall. Where the beast slept, the stone was worn into a smooth depression.
A stone stable of sorts on the far side of the grotto held massive round beetle-things. I assumed this was what the drake ate. As I continued to scan my surroundings, my eyes fell on a natural room across from me, and my breath caught.
The glint of magic stones and sparkle of jewels were obvious. Everything was at a distance, but I thought I saw pieces of armor and other interesting things, too.
The drake must have been watching my reaction. He said, “Now you see the treasure, the actual thing I’m supposed to be guarding. Luckily for you, I choose how to guard it. What is your name, little Terran?”
“Nora,” I murmured in reply, shaking my head. “Why is there treasure—” I’d already answered my own question, though. The wealth was a reward for adventurers that cleared this dungeon back when it was still active. The huge, powerful drake would have been the last obstacle, all of which made my current conversation even weirder. “How are you even here?” I asked instead.
“You know, if someone asks your name, it is polite to ask in turn,” reprimanded the drake and gently bumped my chest with the back of one enormous claw. I stumbled back, and since I only had armor on my shoulders, I actually felt the claw touch my sternum. Icy fear tried to climb from my lower back, but I stomped on it. I was done with being scared. Rot this drake.
I glared. “Then what is your rotting name? It’s also impolite to be passive aggressive or a bully. You are like one hundred times my size, and you have me trapped here. Stop asking me pointless questions and just tell me what you have to tell me.”
After a pause, the drake blinked and laughed, moving his enormous head back and shaking his snout from side to side. His lips parted as he ran a giant black tongue over his large teeth. “I think I like you. I’m glad I didn’t kill you the moment I saw you. You may call me Jadanak.”
“Okay, Jadanak, I am done playing games. I’m wounded, tired, hungry, thirsty, and starting to feel bloated. I’m pretty sure I also have a rash on my ass from laying on the ground so much. This day has been terrible. I’m not in the mood for games. Just tell me why I’m still alive.”
“Your ass?” The drake blinked and got a strange expression before shaking his head. “Okay, fine. Walk towards the treasure room. I will follow you shortly. Please don’t try to escape, or I will catch you and break your legs.”
“How do you know I won’t fight back and break yours?” I shot back.
“Because that infernal golem demon is still alive to stomp around and shriek. I can still faintly hear it. If you had the power to slay me, you could have easily dealt with that creature. Draco, I wish you had,” he sighed. “If you had destroyed that wretched creature, I would have let you pass and even let you take as much wealth as you could carry.”
I eyed Jadanak sideways. “You’re really not a very good guard, are you?”
“I don’t know about that. I’m still down here, aren’t I?”
“That’s right,” I said, limping towards the glinting wealth. “You never answered my question. What are doing down here?”
“Probably the same thing as any Adom, monster, or victim of Dolos conscripted to thankless, dangerous service,” muttered Jadanak. The drake was looking away, and I got the impression he was being evasive. I decided to let it go. There might be a chance to survive here, and I really didn’t want to needle my de facto captor.
When we were close to the treasure room, I suddenly felt pressure on the backs of my legs and started, whipping my head around. I quickly realized that the end of Jadanak’s tail had grazed my legs as we were walking. The feeling had been terrifying. Even the tip of the drake’s tail had enough power to utterly destroy me, and the beast had not even noticed. I suppressed a shiver.
After we reached the treasure room, Jadanak stopped and turned to face me. “Your task is simple. You must show me something I have never seen before. I am old, Terran, and I’ve seen most everything this universe has to offer. The only way I will let you leave is to show me something new.”
“How do I know there is even a way out?” I asked, skeptically. I placed my hands on my hips and frowned at the drake. Something was strange about this whole situation.
“You have my word, Terran woman. Not only is there an exit, I will show it to you, but only if you show me something new. I will not kill you as long as you abide by my rules. After we have this talk, I will be rolling a boulder in front of the tunnel you came through before. You will otherwise have full freedom to roam my cavern.”
“What about food and water?”
“This is your area. There is a small waterfall something like mine over there,” the drake said, pointing with his snout. Sure enough, there was a small pool of water in the rocks, fed by a little trickle. “You may share some of my meat, and much of the lichen on the cavern walls are edible. Of course, you can use your water to bathe as well,” said Jadanak. He quickly looked away.
Suddenly, I thought I understood. The drake had been cooped up in this cavern for ages with nobody to talk to. He hadn’t killed me, but it seemed I was fated to be his company for the rest of my life.
Rot that.
“I understand,” I said, heading into the treasure room
. “I just need to show you something new, right?”
“Yes, but you won’t find it in there,” replied the drake, his rumbling voice amused. “I have seen everything in this cavern for hundreds of years.”
“So all of this treasure is mine?” I asked.
“For as long as you are alive, I suppose,” replied Jadanak, sounding even more amused.
Ignoring him, I began studying the treasure room. I would need to examine the rest of the cavern later, and I still needed to try to heal. Things about my situation didn’t add up, but I did know from old stories that creatures like Jadanak usually kept their word. The long-lived tended to value such things quite a bit.
I had no plan, no real idea at all what I was going to do, but I had not given up yet. As long as I lived, I still had hope. After a quick inspection of the treasure room, I heard Jadanak begin to do something across the cavern, probably blocking the tunnel with a boulder, and I decided to clean myself off.
It had really been a long day. Heavy thinking wasn’t my strong suit, so I’d need every edge I could. Not being covered in blood, sweat, dirt, and ichor anymore would be a start.
Raised Steaks
Time was hard to judge in the cavern. Most of my time was spent sitting around thinking, but Jadanak was always there, watching. We talked fairly often, and he was strangely curious about my life back in Bittertown. He asked a lot of questions about the other Jackals and even asked what they had looked like.
The drake’s internal clock seemed to be much better than mine. After I’d realized that, I’d asked him for the time of day often enough that he eventually told me he’d just inform me of the start of each new day.
Mitigating Risk Page 16
