A Match of Monsters

Chapter Three

It was dark.

Elain knew it was dark, only a shade away form blindness. That almost none of the faded sunlight – let alone starlight – was able to penetrate a cavern as deep within the mountain as this one was. Certainly not enough for her to see.

But she could see.

Not only shadows and shapes, but the colours and fine details as well. The walls of the cavern seemed to glow like magic, everywhere she looked the stone was pulsing a soft blue light. And when she looked up, it was like she could see every star in the heavens shining from the cave's ceiling.

There were no air vents that she could see, other than the one she had fallen through. Yet a strong breeze still pushed at her back, even if she could not find where the wind escaped back to above the mountain.

A sudden forceful gust impacted on Elain's shoulder blades, and she struggled not to fall as she stumbled forward.

Too tired to resist anymore, her mind slowly shutting down as she entered a stated beyond fatigue, she allowed the swirling air currents to whirl her where they wanted to.

Slowly, from one side of the cavern to the other, she swayed like a drunk about to collapse as the wind drove her.

Finally, when the gusts tapered off, she collapsed.

First. she carefully set down her gatherer's basket – somehow still half full – onto a smooth patch of rocky floor not covered by anything. Then, she stumbled forward to a pile of fine cloths and beggar's rags all mixed together. Elain fell on her face, snuggling into the fabrics, and her mind shut down into a dreamless state.

Hours passed and nothing changed, her mind firmly cocooned in a black cloud where she neither dreamed, nor awoke.

But then something happened. Elain couldn't tell what, but whatever it was had been enough to stir her from sleep.

The cavern still glowed with the magical blue starlight, the piles of treasure were still surrounding her, the air was still stagnant with heavy silence. So what had woken her?

Finally rested and fully awake, Elain decided to get up from the nest of fabrics she had slumbered in and check out whatever had woken her up.

Wrapping her cloak around her once more, she walked away from the pile much steadier than she had walked to it. Whatever it had been, it had to have been nearby, she thought. How else would it wake her? So it should be easy enough to find.

She started by walking around the pile of treasure that included her bed of clothes and blankets, and promptly cut her search short.

Just as the eggs came into view, a sound stirred the air. A sharp crack resonated, like she would hear if two stones had collided with each other and one of them broke.

The sound came from a small clutch of strangely coloured eggs, each twice the size of her head. There were five in all, but only one was moving. Shaking slightly from side to side with long intervals in between. After each movement came a sharp crack, and Elain could see at the centre of the egg there was a small hole that slowly widened as she watched.

With each sound, the broken stone flapped outwards as something from within pushed it. Just increasing the size of the hole, forcing long cracks to appear from either side and slowly spread around the circumference of the egg.

Elain must have watched for an hour before the hatchling finally arrived. The egg exploded, great pink shards going everywhere as the little silver creature unfurled legs, neck, and wings. A yawn exposed the needle-sharp teeth behind scaled lips.

Then the eyes opened, eyes that swirled with more colours than a rainbow and held Elain still as she turned to run.

The dragon kit squawked in delight and clumsily bound forward towards her, stumbling twice before it jumped onto the trembling girl's lap. It leaned closer, stretching its long neck and resting paws already tipped with sharp talons onto her shoulders, its eyes looking into hers with only a scarce inch between their noses.

Elain was frozen with fear, the only movement was the uncontrollable shaking that wracked her body, increasing when the kit leaned closer still and began to slowly nuzzle her cheek.

The soft scales of its tale wrapped around her wrist, and she couldn't help but shriek in surprize when it opened its jaws to show off the sharp little teeth – and licked her.

Author's Note

Here's chapter three for you, sorry it's a day late.

For everyone who's read my book so far, thank you for giving it a chance! (And please remember to vote and comment.)