Inside the Fire

Chapter 2: Binding

    Song to listen to: Inside the Fire

    The dead volcano has a mass of tunnels, so large at places that they make the ragtag group of humans look like insects, a large shadow, unseen to them, follows from behind, their torchlight not strong enough to pierce the heavy darkness that surrounds them. The walls and floor are a mix of sandstone and volcanic rock, if the light had been better, the humans would've notice the walls had been carved out with massive claws. A human whose armor glints dully in the torchlight grunts uncomfortably, the silence making him uneasy. All the others felt the same as the one in armor, all except for the one leading them, his excitement being dulled by his desire to look extinguished in front of the simple villagers behind him 

    'And a knight too!' He smiles to himself, it's not his first time hunting with a knight, but it is his first time hunting with a popular knight, he's heard of this one before and he wonders if he was just a little too enthusiastic when he'd first greeted him.
    The leaders clothes are ragged, and he's roughly in his early 30's, monster teeth hang from his hip, too massive to be worn around his neck, they're his call to fame. As a monster hunter, he's lived long enough in the profession to have been requested by the landlord of this area to "take care" of a little dragon problem.
    He does worry that the landlord that hired him had talked down the risks to get him to agree to himself the creature, but he was happy to do it nonetheless.
'Iron will kill any dragon, big or small.' He assures himself. The shadows pauses as his thought, and suppresses a chuckle, it considers his puny sword, which, maybe on a good day might give it an itch rash. The shadows hubris has it considering alternative methods to killing the stranger, it's as curious about the newcomer, as the newcomer is about it. The little human smelled differently than the others and had killed all the monsters in his area, which is why he is here now, hunting it.
    One of the humans walking a little slower than the others vanishes, the only sound being a light flapping of fabric, the others are so intent on seeing better that they're numb to the sound. It alerts the traveler that they are no longer alone, this pleases the waiting monster, as it twists through it's self made maze to flank the group, and quietly crunches on the squirming males terrified body, crushing his skull, and slips the foul tasting person onto the ground in a glob of saliva.
    A faint smell of their dead companions blood drifts around the party, once again, most of them are too blinded by their lack of sight to notice. The leader pauses, unwilling to play the game that was unfolding around him, he eagerly turns to his companions and searches among them for the missing face. He nods to himself,
'It was the simple one, poor kid', then to his companions,
    "We came to hunt this thing, but we are the hunted, I told you before we entered to pay attention to your company, since these things normally enjoy tormenting their victims." The knight scoffs at the term being applied to him, he has bought the landlord's lies, not knowing the real danger they were all in.
    "Has the salamander got you shaking already, stranger?" And pushes to the front to take over as the front runner.
    "If you're trying to lead us towards the thing, you're going the wrong direction."
    The shadow watches from the rear of the group, hidden and amused by the spectacle going on in front of him.
    The knight gestures in the direction the group was heading before halting, "False, the creature is nigh, we will approach it as it sleeps deeper in the chambers."
    Traveler, smiling pityingly at the knight,

    'And the songs about you were so good too',
    "Don't you smell that? We're near the entrance once more, I can smell the wheat of your fields." 

    The others subconsciously sniff at the air and find the sweat smell of their crops is mingled with the smell of blood and guts, only then do they find minds of their own and count the men among themselves.
    "Someone is missing!" One of them half panicked, "Where is Jarold? Where is my son?" A grizzled old man whispers, denial clear on his face. Looking serious now,
    "I told you to keep an eye on each other." He locks eyes with the old man, and the person they had spent the last couple days with, changes into something to be feared, his face hard, making the scars on his neck and face stand out as his nearly constant smile has faded.
    "Listen to me now, if you want to live, circle up." Most of the males quickly obey, but the knight and old man stare humbly at the stranger.
    "Who put you in charge?" Hisses the knight.
    "I believe the landlord did, which you agreed to, of course." The knight shoves a man out of the circle to grab the traveler and pull/push him to the ground, and nabs a finger in his face.
    "Not now you're not, you have already got one of us kilt, I am taking over now, I knew you were false."
    The men eye them, insecure in their defensive positions as the power play played out behind them, except for the man that had been thrown out, as he was no longer there to be seen.
The dragon chewed on this one carefully, keeping his face intact, the traveler had only a moment to notice the lost soul was shoved to far out of the light before being forced to the ground himself.
    "I was in charge of you all for two days and up until this point, only one of you had died, you're not in charge for than a minute, another man is dead". Not wanting this perfect opportunity to go to waste, the dragon drops the body parts on the humans standing under his mouth, their screams fuel him, chokes out a laugh and hears up his heart, causing his veins to glow, lighting up the cavern and getting the attention of all the humans in the cavern. If the dragon is correct about the traveler's peculiar clothes, he should survive this.
    Understanding lights up in the traveler's eyes as the room itself grew blazing hot, he grabbed the knight, pulled him to the ground, and threw his body over him, while pulling his hood over his face.
    "Run!" He screams at the rest of the party. One, and a half escape the room before it's bathed in the dragon fire, the traveler grunts at the heat, his enchanted fabric protecting him from the flames, but only the life ending part of it.
The survivor drags his half burned, mildly melted, friend out of the immediate area, hoping the tunnel he chose was the one that would help him escape to their remaining party outside. The traveler grunts and swiftly turns around, brandishing his sword, the corpses of the dead humans continue to burn, illuminating the cavernous tunnel and the massive dragon standing behind them. Its skin has a shimmering look to it, or more so, scales so small that they could be mistaken for skin. There's a faint blue-ish tint to the shine, spike grow out at every junction, and in a crown-like formation on it's head that trails off into larger, more cruel looking spines on it's back, fangs peek out from just under the upper lip, the eyes opaque with a lighter similar shimmery blue to the scales. He flicks his tale in an almost feline fashion, and waits patiently for the humans to react.
'The game is no fun if it's over to soon', he sighs, a little peeved that the traveler had acted to try to end it.
    To the knight,
"You need to get out of here." The traveler urges. The knight thinks about his squire, tending to their shared horse outside, the dragon suppresses rolling his eyes at how typical the knight is,
    'Thinking of a loved one to excuse cowardly behavior, why not except that your out of you depth here, defeat isn't dishonorable.' The knight rights himself,
"It wouldn't be right to leave you here to die!" He cries, nearly valiantly, as the piss on his legs is still warm. Both traveler and dragon suppress groans, neither of them want an audience for what they both have planned for each other, and the dragon senses a tiny bit of kinship for the traveler.
    "I'm not going to die, if this particular dragon is what I think it is, you will die if you stay and I might be the one that has to kill you!" He calmly exclaims. This peeks the dragon's interest, and it tries to go further into the traveler's mind, only to find walls have been put up,