The dragoness stood there, in the outskirts of the town, patiently waiting, given she couldn't sleep anymore, eventually growling at whoever dared getting too near her belongings.
Eventually, the night let place lazily to the day, as the sun start to be visible, leaving the dragoness with a sentiment of sadness at the sight of the dawn, until she silently moves out, heading straight to the mine. Even if it was mostly used for ferrous materials, small amounts of gold and a few, albeit small, pieces of jewelry, never of great quality.
She meets up with the man that she saw last time, and given they had some time before Regef actually goes in the mine, the man tell the dragoness of some of the happenings in town:
'Regef, aware of the luxury potentially found, and being rather untrusting, regularly pays visits to the mine so he get his hands onto the valued findings. The main problems being that he visit the mine too often for what it offers, and, sometimes, remains in it for hours. Some attempts of understanding what was going on in there, albeit rare given the situation of the country, had been setted up. All failed. The most promising had been from an elf adventurer. He tried to chase the man down with one of the miners. The mine had been never heard of again, while the elf, certainly prideful of his skills, had came out insane, screaming and severely wounded.
The elf had fainted, just outside of the mine's entrance. We managed to move and to mend him, but when he woke up, he had a vicious grin, and yelled that we'd all die, before laughing in a maniacal manner. He then lunged at someone, to choke him! And despite his seemingly frail frame, he had an inhuman strength. So much we had to knock him off with a heavy log.. After that, we tied him up and left him there, trying to know what we should do. A few hours later, he had been sighted fleeing the town by some, while some others implied he went straight for the mine. All that he left was the rope that was actually holding up, torn.
Preferably, i would let you go inside alone, but then you would get lost.. S-so, i-i'll be joining you inside..'. The dragoness grumbles, 'And why would i-..'. She momentarily peer inside the cave leading to the mine. She complains, 'I can't see anything in it!'. The man ignite up a torch, before he holds it and shows it to the dragoness. She adds, 'Why you in particular.'. 'Because i know the mine, and Because i'm probably t-the only one that would help you and guide you around..'. 'Fair point..'. 'I'm Jason, by the way. N-nice to meet you, Onyx.'. '..Stay near me, Jason.'. 'O-okay..!'. Both walks into the mine.
Jason skillfully travels through the labyrinth that is the mine, at times in galleries being hand-made, sometimes leading in natural caves. Not that it stopped Onyx from complaining, 'Why is it so tight.. I can barely move..!'. The man laughs softly, 'Generally, the mine is used by humans. It wasn't meant for.. Uh.. F-for.. Powerful beings like you..!'. 'What's that supposed to mean?'. 'Nothing!'. The dragoness could tell that the human is acting strange, but she couldn't tell that Jason was actually blushing. Either way, Jason lits up another torch in the mine, making the dragoness ask, 'Why are you only igniting a part of the torches? Aren't you scared of getting up spotted?'. 'Not much of a choice.. Without light, we can't get anywhere. Besides.. If they come from behind, you have your tail, no? And if we have to flee, we can follow the trail of light..'. 'Why would i flee!?'. 'I'm no fighter, and you can hardly move.'. 'Fair point.. I hate to admit th-.. Wait, what's there?'. The dragoness points to a gallery to the left. 'There? Nothing. No minerals had been found this way, so they disregarded it.'. 'But there's *something*. Give me a torch. Place it in my maw.'. She opens her mouth up, and Jason places à lit torch in it. The dragoness adds, 'If i'm not back in ten minutes, flee.'. 'W-why?'. 'Something reeks. And i don't want to endanger you..'.
She reachs the end of the gallery and idly places a paw onto the rocky wall. Nothing seemed wrong, but corruption could be felt behind it. She starts to store up energy in her maw, when she remembers what she said. She decides to dissipate it, thankfully keeping the torch lit. And, to a fault of telling her presence, she could at least hide her breathing prowlesses. She takes a step back and swing a paw at the wall. Surprisingly, her claws went though like butter, revealing a enlightened passage.
Past it is some sort of hallway, large enough for her to move with less troubles than inside the galleries. A man stands in the end of the hallway. He speaks up, 'Another intruder!? This'll be fun! Last one was thin. But heck he packed!'. He goes into a crazed laughter. The man turns up so he faces up the dragoness. It is a noble human, 5 ft 5 inches tall, a protubering stache and a creepy grin that seemed to stretch up to its ears. When he spots the dragoness, his grin disappears, his eyes widens sensibly and he lowers his head slightly. She smirks and adds, 'Oh my. You're big! Doesn't matter!'. He draws a rapier and charges the dragoness up, grinning again.
Normally it would be child's play for the dragoness, given the human wouldn't even normally bent her bones with such a thin sword, but her instincts told her to actually be careful. The man attempt to swiftly stab the dragoness, but she dodges by jumping over him, using that moment to swing her tail at him. A heavy metallic sound could be heard soon after.
A peek at the dragoness' tail explains why: One of the blade is missing, cleanly cut. She tsks and takes a step backward after she landed up, feeling suddenly trapped.
The man cackles insanely, deviously blocking the way from where she came from. He sings, 'Breaking you will be.. So.. FUN!~'. He lowers his rapier so the tip of it touches the ground, running it on the ground with a metallic sound, obnoxiously moving slowly. As the man advances up, Onyx backs up, until a voice could be heard, 'DON'T YOU DARE!.'.
Another man appears, moving behind the noble, before he violently swings a burning torch, successfully knocking him off. Then, he kicks the rapier off, drops the torch down and rushes toward Onyx, adding, 'Oh, Onyx, you're alright..!'. 'What are you doing here!?'. 'S-sorry, but i just couldn't be helped..'. The man hugs one of the dragoness' fore leg, crying. It was Jason.
The dragoness whispers, 'Move.'. 'Why would i..'. The dragoness grits her teeth, as the man starts to wake up, 'Seriously Jason.. Move..!'. 'Wh-..?'. 'Sorry, little man.'. As the noble stands up again, and rushes at the dragoness, yelling, 'DIE!', the dragoness push Jason aside and stabs the noble, her claws piercing through his body, before he falls down, dead.
At the shock of both, the corpse stands up again, but rather than to attack, it bends backward in an inhuman angle, before a black mist pours off its mouth. Two eyes appears as a voice, seemingly coming from everywhere, speaks up, 'WHO DARED TO-..! Oh. I seeeee.~ Tell your master he'll never defeat me! Heh heh heh..'. The black mist disappears, and the corpse eventually falls down heavily onto the ground.
Rumbling sounds could be heard as dust falls down from the roof, causing Jason to scurry off to the gallery they came from. Then, he yells, 'HURRY ONYX! THE PLACE IS GONNA GET DESTROYED!'. 'But i need to-..!'. 'NOW!'. Loud crashing sounds followed by falling rocks can be heard and seen in the hallway, forcing Onyx to follow Jason. The man had taken some advance, but, thankfully, the dragoness could follow up the trail, as he said, even if it was done with unwanted charges into some of the walls.
Eventually, Onyx reachs up a natural cave in time, as the gallery she was in just crumbles away, pouring away a large cloud of dust. As the dust falls down, she notices that Jason had made it too. He says, 'Thank god. You made it too..'. 'What was *that*? 'I'm not sure.. But we should speak of it, later. Outside..'. 'Yeah..'. Both silently makes their way out, until they are outside.
They greeted by a harsh light, coming from the sun, but not fully concealing the crowd that stood around the entrance. Miners, inhabitants and guards were part of it, with more soldiers standing, somewhat away from the crowd. Whispers and voices goes in the crowd, when one of them yell, 'Monster!'. Jason rushes in front of them, extending his arms onto his sides, placing himself to protect the dragoness. 'She's with me! She was here to help us.. And she killed Regef Cinderstar!'. The soldiers that were standing besides started to back up, visibly scared, while the crowd watched them. One of the miners asks, 'What happened?'. Jason answers, 'We went it, following Regef. We found a secret gallery in it, and.. After he died, black mist poured from him. And a landslide occurred..'. 'What tells us she's not controlling you!?'. 'She's with him.'. A silent felt onto the crowd, before they yelled, against the soldiers. 'Go away! Never go in our town again!'.
All of them scurried off, except one. He's a towering human of 6 ft 2, wearing a heavy chest plate, leather skin on his chest, and leather pants. His body is pretty muscular, especially visible with his nude arms, and carries a large two-handed longsword. He smirks. 'Ugly hairface is dead? That's good.'. One of the townfolk comments, 'But he recruited you, no?'. 'Yeah. But i didn't liked him. Only joined 'cause i needed money. 'sides.. Did i harmed you?'. 'Well.. No..'. He moves up, standing in front of Onyx, 'Accept that i put my sword at your service, great bone dragoness.'. Onyx snarls, 'Call me, Onyx, ya will!?'. 'Sure would. 'Onyx'.'. The dragoness grumbles. Then Jason asks, 'Onyx..? Can you approach..?'. 'Sure..'. She executes and.. Get kissed by him! She takes a few steps off, confused. Then, the muscular man says, laughing, 'By the way, i'm Klaus 'Bearskin', lucky jewel!'. 'Shush you want!?'.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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