The Ghost In The Well

4

A/N: Short chapter today, I'm sorry hahaaha. Warning, angst, angst, angst.

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The western continent's oldest dragon has been avoiding sleep these days. He had a dream of himself spending time with a young redhead human whenever he closed his eyes. Under the setting sun, the young man's blood-red hair shone brightly as Eruhaben watched another gold dragon converse and cut some apples to feed the latter. Three blurry blobs were also running around their chairs.

Today, Eruhaben dreamed of the redhead getting swallowed up by black smoke. The gold dragon in the dream was badly injured and he couldn't save him.

"NO!! C***!!"

And as usual, he never gets to learn his name.

Eruhaben woke up from his own scream with tears streaming down his face, his hair was soaked wet with sweat. He is a great and mighty being, yet he could not protect the ones he cherishes. It wasn't his first time being unable to lessen the burden on the redhead's shoulders.

Those dreams were different, but often similar. About the young man coughing up blood that is.

No matter how hard Eruhaben tried to recall, it was futile as if the memories or dreams were never meant to be there at all. His heart was telling him to look for the redhead, but his health was already deteriorating. At most, he will live for another three to five years.

He does remember a stupid thing.

"Tsk, that unlucky bastard."

The red-haired man had a nickname, and that nickname was something the gold dragon in the dreams came up with.

Sometimes, Eruhaben felt like his lair was too lonely. There was not a single soul but he felt like he should be used to this cold and empty lair. The lair was filled with all luxuries that he had gathered in his younger days and he was proud of it. 

Nowadays, he felt as if the loneliness was killing him. He needed someone, he missed the redhead's warm touch. The blurry smile that he had, though the dragon can feel it was sincere.

One day turned into one week, and one week turned into one month.

The great and mighty dragon was nowhere to be found, there was only a scared-looking yet beautiful elf hiding in his sheets.

Reality became a nightmare.

The gold dragon then took everything he had and went on a journey to keep himself distracted.  Unfortunately, that was how the most ancient dragon of the western continent met his end.

The white star, of course, did not let the opportunity slip through his hands. While Eruhaben was at his weakest, the mana disturbance tool was activated and he was trapped by the white star. The white star then gave him a merciful, quick death by gouging his heart out.

"Isn't this the place that the ghost told us to come to? Why is it empty?"

"I can feel a huge amount of mana here, it means that the dragon-nim just left not long ago."

Rosalyn was excited to visit a dragon but it seems that the dragon was out. The heroes inspected the place and tried to find traces of the gold dragon but there was no sign of him at all.

"Maybe we should wait?"

"Don't you think it was too empty to be a lair? I heard that dragons like to hoard treasures.", Alberu looked around to see that there was not a single piece of furniture in the cave. The mana was definitely from a dragon so the ghost was not lying to them.

While Choi Han and Lock went to get the Absorbing Necklace, the rest of them sat on the floor and waited for the gold dragon to return.

They waited, and waited, and waited. 

"I guess the dragon-nim is not coming back today..."

"Haa, I've always wanted to meet one..."

Disappointed, they left to meet up with Choi Han and went to the Ubarr territory and continued with their journey to save the jungle as planned.

A/N: How's that?