Dragon Blood (Short Story)

3. Choleen

With both hands, Omar tried to pull Silverhead's hand away, but she was steady like a thousand-year old Ironwood tree. His lungs cried for air as she didn't loosen her grip on his neck. She said she wouldn't kill us, right? And...who's Choleen?

"You!"

Omar must be hallucinating right now, but he thought he heard Andy's firm voice. Malanda and he fell to the ground when the iron grip was loosened without a warning. Both gasped, sucking all the air they could take in. Leaning his back to the wall, Omar watched Silverhead approach Andy. That fool! He should have run away when he had the chance.

But the young mage was up to something, Omar could tell from the light ball he held in his hands.

"You think you can destroy me with this?" Silverhead's voice was more menacing than mocking.

"I don't need to destroy you." Andy shook his head before he grunted, driving the light ball toward her. The ball grew the instant it hit her, the flare almost blinding Omar. In a few moments, the light ball vanished, and so did Silverhead.

"You did it!" Omar coughed when he gushed. "Great mage, you did it!"

"It worked." Andy himself looked surprised with his raised eyebrows.

Malanda rubbed her neck when she rose up. "That was smart, I must admit. You made a good use of the only spell you know." Even when she expressed her gratitude, she couldn't help being Malanda.

"I was never a good mage in the Guild." Andy lowered his eyes. "They didn't wrong me when they kicked me out."

"They wronged us all, Andy." Omar held him by the shoulders. "But among the three of us, they wronged you the most."

"Thanks, Omar." Andy grinned gratefully. "No one ever believed in me as you did."

"You didn't use the two remaining blood drops, did you?" Malanda asked Andy, who lowered his eyes again. Obviously, the great mage wouldn't be able to amaze them with more spells.

"Worried about our return journey?" Omar asked Malanda. "Let's find our dragon blood first, and then we'll see what we can do."

According to the lovely Silverhead, what they wanted was inside this cavern. Hopefully, she wasn't deluding them. With careful steps, Omar was the first one to enter the cavern, which was way bigger from inside than it seemed, lighted by hundreds of torches. The rocky roof was like two hundred feet high.

But something else stunned him.

Omar gaped at the majestic obsidian-black figure before him, a chest elegant and gleaming, a neck slender and long chained by a massive manacle of steel. Two amber eyes were fixed on him, a gigantic mouth slightly opened revealing glittering fangs and two rows of granite teeth. Moving its clawed limbs, it leaned forward, but the massive chain did hold the creature in place. Like plates of armor, a column of black scales ran from its wide head to the tip of its tail, huge membranous wings folded atop its back.

That was Choleen, he deduced; a dragon. And she looked too infuriated to welcome guests.

"This is some joke, right." Omar realized he had been holding his breath for a while. "The dragon blood we're looking for is actually the blood of a real, living dragon."

Malanda didn't have something scornful to say this time. Omar wished he could draw her face at this particular moment to show her later—if they had the chance—that she was nervous once. But still she was the calmest among the three of them.

"Maybe they...store dragon blood somewhere." Andy's voice was barely coming out. "I mean, they can't be taking blood from this dragon, right?" He nervously chuckled.