Blue broke away from the ravine and climbed up the side full of vegetation towards a hidden cave. Lika was afraid of what she could find inside the cave: a bear, a dragon, humans, or even a Werewolf. And what of the humans dogs that Blue had mentioned? Would they track them in the cave and the humans would follow only to kill both Blue and Lika? To answer her question, they raced though the cave with a sordid scent of some old skunk cadavers. Once they were inside, both Lika and Blue began to cough due to the scent of the skunks. After he had finished gagging from the stench, he helped Lika to her feet, walking her slowly as though she were a wild horse ready to bolt. “Come, we must go deeper into the cave and we must keep quiet to keep the echo of our voices from being heard outside,” Blue said as he lead her down the cave.
The cave was well lit due to the torches that had been ignited before they had arrived. Blue noticed the marks on the ground as they walked on the dirt path; it was a long, almost unending, path that followed the cave’s twists and turns but there were large indentations where the creature had stopped, leaving prints of its large scales. There was a hiss to his right and the sound of something slithering across the sandy ground. Lika had stopped before Blue could think. He felt her shiver in fear and he could feel the tension in her already stiff body. A voice sounded all around Lika and Blue as they stood in confusion, “Who daresss to passss into my cave? A lone traveler? A thief? Or a warlock ssseeking shhelter?” The voice did not echo off the walls because of its soft slithering sound it made as it spoke to them; the creature was facing them in the darker depths of the cave.
“It is I, Blue, here with the Lady Lika, escaping from the humans and their attacks,” Blue said courageously to the hissing voice. He sounded confident about this person, who seemed to have a bit of a speech problem, almost as if he knew them.
The slithering around the cave stopped suddenly. “What?!” said the voice in an astonished tone. “Is it truly Blue?” Lika could see something moving in the shadows; she wanted to run, but Blue held her back. When she looked back, she saw a black and gray serpent moving to them, only it wasn’t just a serpent, it was a serpent dragon. It much resembled the king cobra Lika had seen in paintings in her father’s gallery of the arts, but it had no hood on the back of its head and it stood twice as tall as Lika. Its bat-like wings were folded against its side to keep from getting in the way of its movements. “Tissss great to ssssee you again, Blue. I feared thosssse dogssss had gotten the better of you,” he said, then turned his eyes to Lika. “Lady Lika, it issss a pleasure to meet you, do beg my ssssstenchy entranssse, but it issss the only way to keep thosssse humansss and their dogssss from catching your ssssscent. I am Cronic of the ssssserpent dragonssss.”
|
Submission Name: Midnight's Twilight (Part V)
