Dragon-Bound

Chapter 4 - Decisions

Chapter 4 – Decisions -

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The darkness began to thin as Saphira slowly came back to consciousness. Her head ached and her body felt stiff and sore, but a quick mental check and she could not discern that anything was broken or seriously wrong. With that in mind, she groaned as she tried to bring herself back into the aching world of pain. She had not even opened her eyes yet, but her other senses were overloading her with mixed messages that she couldn't process and had to sort through one at a time. She could feel cold stone beneath her, and it was oddly flat and smooth for her scales; she could hear faint drips of water hitting rock and then the breathing of a creature close by; she could smell dust, moss, mould, stale air and a deep masculine musk.

And then there was her sixth sense, which suddenly came screaming to the forefront of her mind that something wasn't right.

Why had she been unconscious? Her condition had not been so severe as to warrant a failure of her body, and she had been perfectly aware of everything within and around her. Sorting thrugh her memories, she shifted through what happened to her manually. The last thing she remembered was drinking by the ravine, sensing the presence watching her, then encountering the male dragon, their fight –

Suddenly Saphira remembered what her senses had been telling her when she awoke: heavy breathing that was not her own, masculine musk...

Saphira's eyes snapped open and she at once tried to bolt herself upright to stand, suddenly panicking as she realised what must have happened. But before she could familiarise herself with her surroundings, a force like a battering ram crashed into her shoulder and sent her hurtling back down to the ground. Saphira hissed as her mind ached from the sudden shift in gravity, but she tried to get up again –

But then she felt a vice like grip surround her throat just below her head and pushed her down, effectively pinning her.

Saphira looked up to see the bull dragon she had encountered towering above her, a smirk spreading across his lips as he looked down at her lazily. He had one of his hands wrapped around her throat, the edges of his talons digging into her scales slightly to make his point absolutely clear to her. Saphira snarled at him, her outrage tremendous as she struggled against his hold, trying to put even her full weight against him. She managed to move herself a few feet across the floor, but his grip stayed upon her neck and she did not rise even an inch off of the ground. She tried to knock him off but he was standing in front of her head, so no part of her could reach him with enough mass to push him off of her. Her struggles soon ceased as she lay there panting, her teeth bared as she seethed up at the male above her.

"Oh good," he sneered down her – Saphira was still finding it odd to watch his lips move in such a way as to produce speech. "You're awake." He said dryly.

Saphira then managed to see behind the male at get a good look at her surroundings. She was within some sort of stone hall, what smelled like a cavern was actually the inside of a building made of stone. It was huge, the vaulted ceilings stretching far up above her, the stone structure intricately carved and designed for space and grandeur. It was impressive – for what little she knew of architecture anyway. An idea suddenly came to her, so abrupt that it made her growl die in her throat. She had been unconscious, practically helpless and the male – Smaug, she remembered his name – had been ready for the kill. Yet here she was, inside of a building, which she could only presume to be his lair of some description. He had brought her here and had restrained her when she first awoke. Why would he go through all of this trouble if he was not going to kill her? Focusing her gaze back onto him, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Sensing her change in attitude, Smaug chuckled deeply to himself, his eyes meeting hers.