Following the prince, we came through the forest until reaching a dead-end. What stood in our way was a huge cliff-face. Spindly and tall stalagmites grew from the rocky ground up to the sky, like large anthills madeof grey and orange stone. In between the hills of stalagmites was a stone door. Or what would have been a door at one time. Half of the two doors had fallen to the ground and the other looked as if the hinges had melded into the archway.
Sebastian turned his body to face me. "After you, my lady." He said as he bowed and gestured to the broken doorway.
I hesitated, smelling a trap. Butat this point it was either be stabbed by the royal siblings or be mauled by adragon, so I decided to move forward. I stepped up onto the threshold of the cliffside cave, hearing it creak, I looked down. The door that had fallen had been trodden upon so much that it had become the threshold to the doorway. Taking in another deep breath, I continued on.
Stepping down from the entrance door, the two of us came into an unseen hallway. It was too dark to see anything past my fingertips when I spread them out in front of me to feel my way through. Behind me, Sebastian picked up a torch from the ground and used nearby flint to light it. As he lifted the lit torch, the walls and floors of the tunnel flickered into light. Rubble littered the ground, the walls looked carved out, almost if dug by hand, one layer at a time.
We moved forward, Sebastian a few paces in front, as he had the light. I followed, a few paces behind, my hand running against the cold walls of the cave. It would dive in between the waves of the walls. The history of the cave could be felt in the depth of those waves. I came across a spot in the wall that felt different than the rest. The waves were interrupted by deep ditches cut thicker than a tree trunk. I took a step back and observed them, a chill settling in my spine as I realized what they really were.
Claw marks of a dragon.
I looked back toward the prince who was walking with a torch a short distance in front. Sebastian and Raymond were both incredibly lucky to have survived that first encounter with the dragon. Sebastians wounds had truly been just a mere scratch. It made me wonder who had not been as lucky.
Eventually they saw a light at the end of the hallway. Sebastian tossed the torch to the side, its job completed with the sight of the light. As we walked into the light, I lifted my hand and shut my eyes at the sudden brightness.
My eyes adjusted and I became astonished at what the cave had turned into. It was an arena. The floors like battle-torn ruins, with flattened slats of broken and uneven rocks, barren of any architecture or furnishing. A circle of walls surrounded the battlefield that, like the inside of a beehive, each had an archway entrance to their own cave pathways that spread throughout the mountainous underground, interconnecting and confusing even the most learned of travelers. Sun shone down from the open hole in the ceiling, brightening up the inside of the beehive arena with natural light. It shone down in a large sunray onto the bottom half of a staircase, the upper half long since broken from its path and dissolved into dust.
Following the ray of sunlight to the sky above the hole in the ceiling, I could see the castle peeking out. I could almost recognize the balconies which I had jumped across. This was the chasm I had almost fallen to my death into. Looking back down at the broken rock barrens, I wondered if I would be able to find the knife that Isadora had tossed somewhere down in this cave. The thought made me shudder. Whether from excitement or terror, it was unclear.
As I reminisced in the memory, Isadora herself appeared from the shadows of the arena. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of her.
"You managed to convince her." Isadora said, directed toward her brother.
"She is here, isn't she?" He told his sister as he scratched the back of his head. I gave Sebastian a sideways glance.
"Ignoring the princes lack of understanding of what mutual consent is," I started. Isadora shot a glare of her own at her brother. Judging from Isadora's reaction, apparently, he was not supposed to bring me unwillingly. "I would like to know why I'm here. We were running from-" I paused, once again unable to get the word out. Get over it Fenway, I told myself, dragons are real. I scolded myself for being such a wimp even after living in this world for months.
Sebastian stepped forward and explained what had happened with Niobe and also explained, rather unnecessarily, that it was my first time seeing a dragon.
Isadora looked grim. Crossing her arms, she looked at me. "Niobe is the reason we wanted to talk to you."
Isadora pointed in a certain direction, toward the broken stairwell. Upon second observation I noticed that the top of the stairs, just before it was broken off, had jagged rocks that spiked outward. Like a meteor had fallen from the sky and landed there. The way the sunlight shone on that exact spot was eerie, at the very least.
The prince and princess stared at Fenway.
I turned back to them and asked, "Am I being sacrificed to a divine being?"
Isadora shook her head. Sebastian stood behind her, looking blank-faced.
"We wouldn't sacrifice you to the dragon. It's not the olden days." The sarcastic inner voice of mine reared its head at her answer. Oh good, answered two of my questions in one. Dragons were considered divine beings, and this world was far more fucked up than I had originally thought.
Ignoring the thoughts that were clearly displayed on my face, Isadora ushered me up the staircase.
Eyebrow twitching, I walked up the staircase, constantly looking back to ensure no one was behind me to push me off. One could never be too careful with someone who had already stabbed them in the stomach once, who's to say she wouldn't stab me in the back as well? Once I got to the top, I realized the rocks were a lot larger than I had anticipated. And sharper. I carefully wedged myself through a decent-sized gap in the rocks. It was a tight squeeze in multiple places, but somehow, I managed to make it through without cutting myself or getting stuck. Once inside, I looked around. As sharp and jagged as the rocks were outside, inside they were smooth and seamless. At the center, detached from the rest of the crater, was a smooth oval shaped boulder. It was truly like a meteor had landed here. I went toward it, mesmerized, until I was standing beside it. The boulder was as tall as I was.
It took me all of three seconds to realize it was not a meteor, but an egg. Around me, encircling the egg, were marks similar to the ones on the cave walls. Dragon claw marks.
I connected the two together. Dragon and egg.
I placed my hand on the shell, it pulsed beneath me, strong and buzzing. But it felt wrong.
A pungent smell that was familiar and disgusting offended and sharpened my senses. Keeping my hand on the shell I walked around the egg to find where the smell came from. One step in, my fingers ran into an indentation in the shell. I traced it with my fingertips, following it until I found what I was looking for.
There was a hole in the egg. A scaly appendage had pushed its way out. The problem was, the appendage, whether it was a leg or a tail, its black and grey scales were flaking apart like a piece of pastry. Beneath the flakes was throbbing red and pink skin. At the end of the appendage were three horn-shaped bones pushing through the skin, which I assumed were talons, all jaundice yellow. It was here that the pungent smell of infection permeated into your lungs.
I did not know much about dragons, but this was bad.
The baby dragon was stuck in its shell, no way and no strength to get out. Just like when hatchling chicks get stuck in their eggs and cannot hatch out of them.
This dragon was dying.
I reached up with my hand and touched one of the talons. Closing my eyes in a soft and silent wish for the dragon who would be short-lived. I wished for it to be reborn as something without a shell, something strong-willed and that would live a peaceful life. A side-character style of life.
I felt something pierce into my heart, felt my eyes sting with the threat of tears, before I let go of the little dragons' talons.
Turning around, I climbed out of the dragon's nest and down the stairs where the prince and princess were awaiting her return.
"Well?" Isadora asked, stepping toward me. I could see the hope in her eyes. Which made it even more disheartening to tell her.
"It's dying."
"It can't die." Isadora denied. I did not know much about dragons, so it would not take much to assume they were supposed to be immortal. Especially if they were divine beings. They were supposed to be as powerful as long-lived gods. However, judging from Isadora's face, I had a feeling that was not what she had meant. I tried to drive the point home.
"It was unable to break through its shell. It will die from infection if it doesn't succumb to suffocation first."
"No, Fenway, it's the first and only dragon born in the last five centuries." Isadora kept on with her denial. "It can't die. If it dies, so will Evangelogia."
Before thinking, I said, "What do you mean?" Then rethought my question, holding my hand up. "No, don't tell me."
There had already been too many secrets told to me that I did not need to know. I would rather keep it that I knew nothing. There was a silence. I broke it with, "Solstice may be able to heal it."
"She can't."
"Why not? She is the greatest healer we have."
"Because dragons cannot be affected by others magic, just like me." Sebastian said. I let out a breath, unbelievable. This scenario is terrible.
"You need to heal it." Isadora commanded.
What? "I can't heal others," I told her, then pointed at Sebastian, "and he just said you can't use magic on them anyways."
"Yes, you can. You healed me." Sebastian intersected, hand on his stomach.
"You had a stab wound," I clarified, "And you're not an egg."
"I- we believe in your medicinal skills." Sebastian said, making a desperate plea.
"You are human." I gestured at Sebastian from head-to-toe. Then pointed back up at the nest. "That is a dragon egg. You can't heal an egg with surgery."
"What's surgery?" Sebastian asked.
Frustrated, I groaned. "It doesn't matter! I can't heal an egg the way I healed you!"
"If you don't heal that dragon," Isadora said, "When my brother kills its mother tomorrow during his hunt for glory so he can marry your sister, our kingdom will die with it. All the magical energy from Evangelogia will disappear. All of the forests will wither, our crops will die, the water will dry up and people will starve."
I feel like I had heard something far too important. I said I didn't want to hear it and she just went ahead and told me anyways. Pain throbbed through my brain, I rubbed it with my fingers.
Under my breath I mumbled, "Of course the dragon is the source of magic. What kind of half-assed cliché fantasy world did I reincarnate into."
"What?" Sebastian asked.
"Never mind." I sighed. "Why can't you convince your brother to just not kill the mother dragon?" Both of them looked at each other, holding each other's glances and speaking with their eyes.
"What? Is Niobe the Blackhearted not that baby dragon's mother?" I asked.
"No that's not it. She is the progenitor." Sebastian said. Something irked me about how Sebastain said progenitor instead of mother.
"Then what?"
"It's dangerous."
"What is?"
"Niobe."
I stayed silent while I went over the information that I had gathered in my head. The dragon Niobe provided nourishment and magic to the entire kingdom, but she is dangerous as an adult.
Niobe has a baby dragon who she is supremely protective of, and probably is the reason why she is attacking the northeast border cities, to get food for her one and only child in five centuries who is sick. I thought back to my books of magical powers and how they were passed down through generations. A divine magical dragon, born of another dragon.
It clicked. That was why they wanted me to save the dying hatchling.
The royal family was banking on Niobe's baby dragon having the same abilities as her. In their minds, a dragon was only harmless if it was a baby. If it was like the storybooks, then dragons were babies for hundreds of years. Adult dragons always cause disasters, even if they are the literal lifeblood of the kingdoms harvest, the living breath of the forests and oceans.
Humans would always be humans. No matter what world or what life I lived.
My blood seethed; they were all hypocrites. I understood them as a human but hated them still.
In the humans eyes, Niobe would have to die for her baby to live. But I knew that baby dragon was going to die regardless. Niobe's baby would die in pain and suffering, and so would Niobe.
I refused to let that happen.
"No matter what kind of miracle you want. That baby dragon will not survive. Even if I can't heal it, I won't let it suffer in pain." I threatened. With that, I left the two royal pains in my ass behind and climbed out of the cave. I promised myself that I would come back and end the hatchlings suffering myself, even if it led to the death of my kingdom.