Praesidium (WMMAP Fanfic)

Chapter 10

"Prince Ambrose, please don't wander too far. This place still hasn't been explored in full" one of the Professors, named professor Rey who was assigned to accompany him warned

"Yes, sir" Ambrose nodded and started to mine dragon glass... he looked around and the cave was littered with dragon glass making it look like the nigh sky because of the dark color of the glasses

"Don't worry, this is a strong barrier separating the explored and non explored territory of the cave. It has been erected by the Headmaster himself, making it the strongest defense from inside and outside forces" the second professor, professor Das, said proudly as he explained the red barrier in front of them, before proceeding to  praise list down the impressive feats of their beloved Headmaster

Ambrose looked at barrier and indeed it was an impressive and complex piece of magic, he decided to ask the headmaster about that later and then he proceeded to ignore the professor who was waxing poetry about the Headmaster and tried to focus on mining using his mana. It was more fast and efficient that way compared to using a pickaxe and hammer

After a few hours in mining, there was suddenly a loud roar echoing from deep within the cave that was accompanied by a strong earthquake making the earth beneath their feet shake and cave in causing them to fall deep underground

Ambrose groaned as he struggled to sit upright and winced in pain and realized that he fell on his side causing him to have a dislocated shoulder and he could feel slight bleeding on the side of his head. His spell casting seems to be still slow because he still sustained injuries and scratches.

"Prince Ambrose! Are you alright?" Professor Rey called out to Ambrose as he clutched his side which got impaled by a piece of fallen Dragon glass

"I don't have any life threatening injuries, sir... I should be the one asking if you're alright" Ambrose gestured to the dragon glass protruding on his side

"I didn't know royals could joke" Professor Rey said with a small chuckle before looking around for their third companion

"Professor Das! Where are you? Answer me!"

"Professor, what is that?" Ambrose asked while pointing at three weasel-like creatures staring at them hungrily. What caught their attention most was that one of them has an unconscious Professor Das' leg in his mouth and was dragging him deeper into the cave... the next thing they knew the other two pounced on them and dragged them away in different directions

Ambrose was deposited into a dwelling inside the cave and left alone, he looked around with unfocused eyes. Being dragged by the leg and hitting your head onto the floor and rocks seems to have worsened his head injury

His head snapped up towards the hungry cries of young weasel-like creatures surrounding three baby dragons, who looks like they just hatched based on the mucus still surrounding them and the egg shells scattered around. The baby dragons were doing their best to keep the baby weasel-like creatures away by snapping their jaws at them and baring their fangs, unfortunately one of the dragons got pulled by the tail and the weasel-like creatures pounced and chomped at it.

The sound of munching echoed around the cave causing Ambrose to look away in disgust.

Another loud roar echoed around the cave. Ambrose thought it is most definitely a dragon's roar, he saw the weasel-like creatures cower away from the alive baby dragons at loudness of it giving him a clear chance to escape. He was about to leave the two baby dragons behind because he knew it would be difficult to escape with them but his conscience wouldn't let him, so he dashed towards them and picked them both up with his uninjured arm.

The weasel-like creatures chased after him angrily, they wouldn't let their foods escape that easily but as Ambrose ran towards the mouth of the dwelling he sent an explosion spell above causing it to fall and close the dwelling behind him

"It worked" Ambrose said with a relived sigh before looking down at the dragons, one has silvery white scales and the other has red and black ones. They wiggled out of his arms and climbed onto each of his shoulders and the proceeded to happily rub their face against his, causing him to wince when one got on his injured shoulder so he carried one on his arm instead.

"Don't imprint on me I am not your mother" Ambrose told them sternly before walking as silently as he could, as to not get caught by any adult weasel-like creatures.

After 15 minutes of walking Ambrose saw sunlight coming from somewhere up ahead, he hastened his steps towards the light and towards freedom from this dreary cave and cannibalistic animals within... his hope suddenly came crashing down when he saw a gigantic dragon getting attacked by a lot of the weasel-like creatures and actually losing, and the sunlight he saw was from the roof of the cave and according to his calculations he wouldn't be able to float up there with his injuries

"Prince Ambrose! Thank goodness your fine!"

Ambrose looked towards the voice and saw that Professor Rey was there, barely alive and sitting on a pool of his own blood that is growing by the second.

"Professor, hang in there. We just need to find Professor Das and we'll get out of here together" Ambrose said trying his best not to panic as he shakily ripped his shirt sleeve and tried to wrap it around Professor Rey's mid section to try and stop the bleeding

"Prince Ambrose, Professor Das is already with our creator" Professor Rey said with a choked sob and Ambrose's eyes glazed with sadness "... but don't worry, I already contacted the headmaster and as long as those baby dragons are attached to you their mother won't attack you. I'll protect you from those creatures with my life as we wait for back up"

"Yes, sir" Ambrose answered as he wiped tears from his eyes, this was not the time to cry

"No matter how talented you are, you're still a kid" Professor Rey joked as he patted Ambrose's head

"Look out!"

Ambrose was pushed out of the way by Professor Rey as a group of weasel-like creatures got thrown in their direction causing them to collide with Rey. The creatures smelled his blood and proceeded to devour him to gain back their strength

The young prince stared at the scene in shock, he couldn't move and he wasn't sure if he was even breathing, he couldn't hear anything besides the loud pounding of his heart, crunching bones, ripping flesh and the shouts of his Professor being devoured alive

The mother dragon who was severely injured focused her eyes on her crying babies in Ambrose's arms. She quickly moved towards him and picked him up by the back of his shirt and flew upwards to escape. Her wings fapping with difficulty because of the severe injuries she sustained..

They finally escaped the cave with great difficulty and crashed down into the grass directly outside the cave entrance, the dragon used her last strength to flick her tail towards the roof of the entrance causing it to collapse and permanently close it

The baby dragons wiggled out of Ambrose's embrace and sadly yapped at their mother, who sniffed their heads as if ingraining their smell into her mind before looking at Ambrose with her bright gold eyes as if asking him to take care of her young... he nodded back, it was the least he could do for the dragon who saved his life, with that the mother dragon pushed her babies towards Ambrose before laying down flat on the ground and closing its eyes for the last time

Not a moment later the Headmaster arrived with 10 magicians behind him. He called out to Ambrose who was staring at the dead dragon with unfocused eys, the young boy looked towards him and smiled slightly clutching the baby dragons closer to his chest

"You're here"