Muse Go Brrr

Atop The Mountain

We'd just arrived at the mountain peak out of breath and with our lives barely intact. I sighed in relief and looked around at what we would have to deal with next, astonished at what beheld me compared to the town's stories. A massive cave's gaping maw greeted us with a not-so-friendly snore and the stench of a thousand volcanoes. This was what we thought it to be: Gryntdl'estone's resting grounds. Luckily, with the beast's forceful breathing, we would be shielded from our scent traveling into its nostrils. I glanced at my companions along this journey who'd finally recovered from our climb and motioned for them to come close.

"This is it, guys." I whispered, "Our final leg before we acquire this so-called ultimate treasure!"

"I would not be so sure, Oma. This is where your journey ends." Yogmouth said, withdrawing a tome.

"I beg your pardon? What are you implying?"

"You've successfully brought me, your trusted ally, home. This is my mountain, my dragon, and your burial ground. Clear enough for you?"

I was too stunned to speak, looking to Sebastia for help. Her glossy eyes told me enough to realize that I'd been nothing but a pawn in this whole operation. I began recalling the enemies we'd fallen along the way all having that same glossy-eyed stare. I took another look into the cave in disbelief, a familiar emblem branded on the dragon and displayed all over the cave. How did I miss this? How could I have been so blind? I couldn't handle that stupidity I bore, falling to my knees.

"I would offer you a position alongside me, but you'll make much better food for Gryn." Yog continued, waving his hand in the cave's mouth. The mountain shook and rumbled, that deafening snore ceased, and that awful smell came closer until the creature's massive head slowly made its way out into the open. Gryntdl'estone's dark yellow eyes looked down on me hungrily as smoke was puffed from its nose.

"I understand this must all be a shock to you, truly I do. However, I ask now that you think back on this long road we've taken. Were those thugs and murderers we were fighting?"

Then and there, my memory came back to me and the truth of it all played in my head. Those were innocent people we attacked and stole from. People with lives and families that we mercilessly slaughtered. Though, with that recollection, something in my heart had awoken as I heard Gryn let out a bellow in an old eldritch tongue. The calmness of waves was quickly replaced with a fire that burned my guts, boiled my blood. I couldn't let this treachery go unanswered. I stood and dug my heel into the stone beneath me, withdrawing my broadsword.

"I don't care what happens to me after I kill you and that beast, but I will not let this continue. Not after all you've done to me and these lands." I shouted to Yogmouth whose neutral expression had twisted into a malicious grin.

"Let us see about that then, Oma." He simply responded, flipping through pages in his tome.