You can't imagine what might be the source of that cold, clear light, and after a few momments, you decide that maybe you could go and investigate. You walk down the narrow tunnell, disconcerted by the resemblence to the tiny hole you crawled in. You shiver a little, and hope it doesn't get any smaller. Just as you're starting to think of turning back, you round a cornor and locate the source of the bright, cold light.
You find that the tunnell leads to a huge cavern, whose walls are encrusted with many raw jewels. The floor is littered with coins, armour, a few swords, crowns, golden chalices, what seems to be the anchor of a huge ship, and too many other things to name-just all things shining. In the center of the cavarn, happily burbling over what seems to be either an extremely large coin or a golden creast of some kind, is an enormous green-scaled dragon with wicked looking horns. You duck behind an outcropping and try not to breathe, hoping not to be noticed. At first it seems to work, the dragon continuing to examine the new treasure, but just as you begin to relax, the dragon suddenly speaks to you.
"Why are you hiding amongst my hoard?" it-no, he-enquires, sounding very polite and civil, but with a core of steel under the words that tells you to choose your answer carefully. You hesitate a second, thinking of running, but deciding that flattering combined with honesty might be your best route.
"I was in the main cavern and saw such a beautiful glow that I could not resist following it. Now I see that it was your lovely treasures, but you are the most beautiful thing here...." you begin, thinking that maybe running might have been better then that tangle of words. Too late now...
The dragon makes a sound very similar to a laugh, and you notice a plume of smoke drifting out from its jaws. Now you're sure that anything was better then running. "Oh, indeed? And that I could swallow your whole and not even notice doesn't occur to you?" he continues, and you admit that it has, causing the laughing sound to re-occur. "Come in, little one, admire my 'lovely treasures'. You amuse me." he says indulgently, and you creep into the cavern, carefully not touching anything. You think that might be pushing your luck.
You stand as far from the dragon as possible, and it lectures you on which are its favorite artifacts and where they were obtained for several minutes. You find that all the jewels, coins, and many other treasures are from The Nameless Forest, the place where he was hatched. Apparently his parents had laid an unusually large clutch, an occurance that was not as rare as it once was for all creatures the world over, and a traveller had earned his parents' trust, along with the right to raise one of their young. The dragon had stayed with him as a hatchling, but had left for a home of his own when he had grown.
You see your ticket out, and tell the dragon that his descriptions of the beauty of his homeland make you wish to see it, and the dragon indulgently gives you directions out of the mountain and to the forest of his family. He also offers to show you a few paintings by his former foster-parent of himself as a hatchling and even an egg. Why you'd want to look at a doodle of an egg you can't imagine, but it's best to be polite to dragons, so you do look. |
