CHAPTER 70 – DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS


    The light quickly pulled away from Euphrati and Mitakahn’s company by the sudden rush of gravity as they plummeted into the cellar of the temple. Soon the room around them enclosed, smoothing out the corners, forming into a pipeline. And just like that, the pipe split into three separate tubes, dividing the group.


    The first cylinder grabbed Euphrati, Mitakahn, Excelsior, and Orion. The second cylinder took Bridger, Kunezar, and Humbler, leaving Tron and Anilithion alone in the third one. Like the threads of a rope the pipes intertwined adjusting their slopes and ran down the spine of the mountain releasing them into the three separate levels: one in the dungeons, one in the caverns, and one in the furnace relay, a jungle of metal deep down at the underbelly of the Phoenix Kingdom’s domain. When the three groups hit their respective floor a large egg cracked at the center of each room.


    Tron looked around the sun-burnt red oozy egg as he helped Anilithion up. They were in an old prison ward. Beneath the Temple of Fire and the kingdom’s catacomb city were three levels. The smallest of which were the old dungeons. Under that were the Mountain’s natural caverns, scattered and connected valleys within the stone. The cavern pipe expelled Kunezar, Bridger, and Humbler. Waiting for them was a swollen purple egg. The last layer of Mount Fire’s cellar was the irrigation network.


    They called it the Furnace. During the golden age of the kingdom’s history, they built the Furnace, a combination of pipelines and structural bases of bottomed out columns and epic archways. All crooked and dysfunctional after the generations of volcanic activity and sunken ruins, it served no purpose in modern times.


    Originally, it was meant as a volcanic canal, but over the years and torment the system failed, leaving Mount Fire susceptible to eruptions. One lone door at the bottom led to the outside. This was the level which laid in store for Mitakahn, Euphrati, Excelsior, and Orion as they finally fell out of the tube and came upon a pale yellow egg.


    The red dragon was already breaking out of its shell when Tron got a handle on the situation. He pulled out his sword getting in between Anilithion, slowly approaching the birthing beast. In its first inhale of air, it spewed out a rotten wave of flames heading straight for Tron. Instinctively, he put his left forearm out. The golden shield he got in Compis Falls unlocked and unfolded into place before the flames could harm him. The blast blew hard onto the shield. But the heat was deflected and only the sheer force behind it affectively pushed Tron.


    Anilithion drew his sword and desperately looked around for a solution. There along the walls were old shackles and chains. He ran over to one, wrapped his sword with a chain and pulled, snapping it off of the wall.


    While Tron distracted the red dragon’s rage, Anilithion snuck up on its back. He climbed onto the dragon, running up its spine, swinging the chains overhead. When he got to the red dragon’s shoulders, Anilithion swung the chains around it but it kicked into the air, throwing him forward. Anilithion cracked his whip around the dragon’s neck, catching the other end of the chain, and harnessing the beast. With a pull on the reigns the dragon’s fiery breath was cut off.


    Tron wiped the sweat off his brow, the shield folded back in, and he made a run for it. The dragon clawed at its neck, trying to peel off the restraints, to no avail. Anilithion had a good grip. Tron tried to get on the beast as well but was tripped by its tail. Then it rose into the air, leaving Tron behind and flying off with Anilithion on its back. He fell forward as it nosedived and loosened his grip.


    Right before it hit the floor it blew its dragon-breath and melted the stone, forming a tunnel. They broke the bedrock and descended into the lower cavern level where Kunezar, Bridger, and Humbler were battling a rumpus dark dragonaut, a grand sub-species of dragon with tiny wings and thick jackets of scaly armor. Their stout figures and widened stomachs gave them powerful fire-breath both in damage and longevity. This one was charcoal dark with a striped, violet hue on its underbelly.


    Tron repelled down the hole in the rock that Anilithion’s dragon made. The drop was far too much for the warrior to survive. When he approached the bottom, he flicked his arm out and the shield snapped open again. This time the golden sheet was wider and thinner as it protracted over his head, connecting to his other arm, allowing him to glide down onto the cavern floor unharmed.


    Tron looked over at Humbler distracting the dragonaut while Bridger tried to stir Kunezar awake. Tron ran over to them and asked, “What happened?”


    “He hit his head when we came out of the pipe,” explained Bridger.


    Anilithion pulled down on the whips in his left hand and led the red dragon into the dragonaut’s blindside. When they collided, the wild rumpus dragonaut swung his claw at Anilithion. He was knocked off the red dragon and took the chains with him.


    The same time Anilithion hit the floor, Tron poured the rest of his canteen on Kunezar’s face and woke him up. They both rose back to their feet and the five warriors readied themselves in their war stance. The two dragons pushed off each other and scrambled for them. Anilithion whipped the chains to keep them away. Humbler waved his hammer. Bridger shot an arrow into the red dragon’s hip. Tron re-buckled his shield and got in front of the red dragon’s counter strike to the arrow, once again absorbing its rage.


    The dragonaut relied on the dark charcoal armor covering it from head to toe. Bridger’s arrows could not affect it. Humbler’s hammer shook it up but did not harm it. They had to figure out what to do, and quick. Kunezar was still in a daze, and Tron could not hold off the red dragon forever. The dark dragonaut jumped to all fours and charged at them. Bridger and Anilithion jumped one way as Humbler and Kunezar desperately sprang for the other way. The dragon ran by, turned around, and was already coming in for another charge. Humbler got up to one knee, and swung his hammer low, tripping the dragon to the floor. Humbler was caught in its crash.


    They all jumped on top of it, trying to hold the wild beast down. Anilithion tucked his whip away and threw the chain over to Bridger while Anilithion leaned down heavily onto the creature’s shoulder. Bridger caught the chain and ran up to the head. The rest covered the dragon’s arms and legs, as Bridger wrapped the chain around its long snout of razor sharp fangs.


    Still one on one with the red dragon, Tron, continuously backpedaling, stumbled back and tripped over a random stone. The shield accidentally clicked and collapsed into a forearm-guard. The red dragon saw an opportunity while it was catching its breath and attacked. The fire came tumbling back. Tron rolled his body out of the way. He was free for one brief moment before the dragon redirected its stream, chasing Tron around the wide cavern room. When the red dragon got a chance to look around he saw its brother subdued by the men and chains. He instantly flew over to them. Tron chased after it and re-opened his shield.


    When the red dragon landed, Tron rammed into its side with his shield. It was enough of a jolt to knock it over. The red dragon fell onto Humbler, Kunezar, and Anilithion pinning them between the two dragons. Tron ran for the red dragon’s head, but when it shifted its weight he slipped and fell into the charcoal dragonaut’s rising fury. While Humbler, Kunezar, and Anilithion tried to get out of the way, Tron attempted to pry off one of the dragon’s pieces of armor, and Bridger kept his hold on the muzzled head. But the chain unraveled with the dragonaut’s rampaging behavior. Both dragons got to their feet and launched into the air, dragging Bridger away.


    Humbler threw his hammer up and it slammed the dragonaut, who was flying low to the ground. It fell back down to the floor. When the chain completely came loose, Bridger slipped free in the air. Before he hit the floor he lassoed the red dragon’s foot and caught a ride on the skyline. He quickly climbed up the chain, and onto the dragon’s leg. He pulled out two arrows and used them to puncture and climb up the dragon’s hide. The red dragon did not have armor as heavy as the dragonaut. Arrowheads could pierce its scaly skin. As he made his way to the beast’s chest, it flew crazily through the air, twisting and clenching its wounds with every thrust of the arrow.


    The red dragon flew over the rest of the company. Tron yelled to Humber, “Your hammer!”


    Humbler threw it to him, and Tron used the spike on the hammer’s back to pry the dragonaut’s chest scales up. He unsheathed his sword and shoved it in between the spike and its flesh, plunging the tip of the blade in through right to its heart. The dragon screamed and the fire ceased to cover its exhale. There was no exhale and there would never be another inhale. The dark rumpus beast fell limp, the dragonaut was dead.


    When Tron pulled out his sword, a chained talisman came with it. Tron wiped off the dragon’s innards and took a quick look at it. There was what appeared to be a picture of the mount on it. But there was no time to consider what that meant. He slipped it into his pocket and rejoined the fight against the red dragon. Bridger was still on it, flying through the air.


    He finally swung around to the dragon’s long neck. Leaving one of the arrows behind, he pulled out his sword, preparing to slit the beast’s neck. But the wild dragon took a wicked roll, and Bridger lost his grip, falling off. He fell with no hope of being saved. He didn’t just hit the ground, Bridger was like a feather on the wind. He absorbed as much of the force as he could with his legs and then tucked his head into his body and rolled over, evenly dispersing the remaining force of the impact. He refocused the force and jumped back to his feet, uninjured. Tron looked twice at his nimble friend in action. The red dragon turned around. He was coming back around for another blast of his breath.


    Bridger was fed up with this evasive beast. He loaded two arrows, pulled them back, and stared into the dragon’s eyes, leaning into his shot, favoring one side of the bow, and lining them up with the arrows in the process. It charged head-on at the group. Bridger held his breath and his stance. He released the arrows while simultaneously exhaling. Upon impact, the arrows cored the dragon’s eyes out and it crashed to the ground. Anilithion grappled the dragon’s wailing wing with his whip. Kunezar and Anilithion jumped the ensnared dragon, pinned it down, and stuck their swords through its arms. Tron came from behind the fallen beast. Its tail whipped around and knocked Tron back as he tried to approach. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Bridger pulled out his sword. And right before the dragon freed itself from their grip Bridger slit its throat. All of the dragon’s blood poured out of the cut. From within the flow another talisman hit the ground. Bridger picked it up and wiped it off. There was a bright amber flame on it.


    A blurry return greeted Mitakahn after getting knocked out. He came to inside a dewy room, small and compact with levers and boxes scattered everywhere. Euphrati knelt down by his side, wiping his brow with a wet rag. Mitakahn tried to focus. He rose to his elbows and peaked over her shoulder. Behind them was another room, much larger by the look of it. Inside he could see Excelsior and Orion battling back and forth with a pale white dragon. Mitakahn forced himself to his feet whether he had enough energy or not. The floor shook. But he ran down the fumbling room to his friends’ aid.


    Euphrati followed him, “Mitakahn…are you okay?”


    “I’m fine,” he insisted as they met the doorway to the quaint coliseum.


    There was no need to ask what happened. He already knew. At the last turn of the vertical pipe Mitakahn lost his balance. The wound on his shoulder from where he was shot with an arrow panged silently. He used the throbbing to hone his focus.


    Mitakahn got to the giant white dragon blowing glowing fire around Excelsior and Orion. He felt unsteady, catching himself on the wall. Euphrati braced him, making sure he didn’t fall. Mitakahn shook his head, unsheathed his sword, the silver gauntlet clicking into place around his left hand, and jumped down into the room. Euphrati regarded the gauntlet.


    Mitakahn looked at her. “Long story.”


    He charged and she made sure she remained behind him.


    Mitakahn took a good look around the new room. It was round, and he had enough time to spare while the dragon’s back was to them. It seemed out of place, a ceremonial room inside of the Furnace…


    There were plaques and ancient weapons decorating the gliding wall. Spears and swords, axes, and shields, they had their pick of numerous options.


    “Grab a weapon,” he told Euphrati as he lifted a shield.


    Euphrati pulled a long spear off of the wall.


    Orion had dodged out of the dragon’s way, avoiding his wrath. Excelsior, on the other hand, was cornered. Mitakahn rushed over. Just before the stream of fire landed on Excelsior, Mitakahn jumped in the way with the shield. They both ran out of the corner and rejoined Orion and Euphrati while the dragon caught its breath.


    Mitakahn’s shield burned. The heat caught his strapped hand forcing him to drop it. The pale white dragon opened its wings and climbed into the air. They got nervous. He was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared into the labyrinth of pipes.


    “Now’s our chance!” exclaimed Excelsior.


    “We don’t want to run from it, we want to defeat it,” argued Mitakahn.


    “This… is the first trial?” figured Euphrati out loud.


    “Yes, but we can find a place where we can pin it down,” explained Excelsior, “making this much easier.”


    Mitakahn nodded his head and went with Excelsior. The wanderer sent Orion, his scout, up ahead, “Find us a way,” he said to the pup.


    Orion ran forward and sniffed out a path. He turned back and barked once. They caught up with him and entered down a small pipe which led to a door. The door pulsed. The wood swelled out towards them.


    “Are you sure this is it, Ore?” asked Mitakahn as he scratched Orion’s forehead.


    Excelsior put his open-palmed hand before the door. He examined the doorknob. “There is a tremendous amount of heat behind here,” he said, “Get ready.” Excelsior put his back against the wall and slid down while he wrapped his hand with a cloth. Orion got next to him, and on the other side Mitakahn and Euphrati jumped close to the wall. Excelsior turned the knob with his covered hand and pushed the door open.


    With little effort, the door blew back, and a wave of heat flooded all around them. The air was so hot Mitakahn felt like his face was burning off. Excelsior had covered his own face with his cloak and ducked into the next room. Euphrati had a look of terror on her face, she was almost sure Excelsior was dead.


    “We must go back!” she yelled over the boiling atmosphere. But just when she turned around to head back and get away from the heat, the pale white dragon landed, blocking her path. Euphrati screamed. Orion and Mitakahn ran over to her, Orion tackled the dragon while Mitakahn grabbed Euphrati’s arm and rushed her away from the heat. He sheathed his sword and put the same cloth as before over his nose and mouth. The gauntlet remained on around his left hand.


    “Cover your face!” he yelled through the clothe, as they charged the blast boiling the room Excelsior was hiding in.


    The steam within the room made it very hard to see. It was so thick both Mitakahn and Euphrati were trying to keep themselves from falling into a coughing fit. The metal latches and pipe caps were leaking steam everywhere. Mitakahn guided Euphrati with him, still holding onto her arm, being very careful to avoid the tiny geysers of burning hot steam. Excelsior was gone, but not dead.


    Mitakahn needed the steam to clear in order to yell for him. But right now, he was still gasping for clear air. The density was both weighing and slowing everything down. Mitakahn and Euphrati were getting tired, when they had only taken a few steps from the door. This room was draining them. Just then Orion rushed by them. Mitakahn turned around. The dragon tore into the wall surrounding the door.


    The pale white dragon was getting stronger from all the heat surrounding it; natural fuel for the infernal beast. It clawed at the holes in the wall and made more room for itself. In no time it would be upon them. Mitakahn could no longer see Orion either. He was suffocating in the fog. But he kept on walking. For Euphrati, for Axion, for his kingdom, he must walk on.


    He heard a bark up ahead. Orion was still alive. Perhaps he found his master. Mitakahn looked back again, the dragon was working his way through, already halfway, he was pulling his legs the rest of the way. This was it. Mitakahn had to do something.


    He pushed Euphrati forward and told her to run. He turned around and faced the dragon, now free to attack. The same time the sword released from its sheath the steam released from the room. Some vent had cleared the swelteringly dense heat.


    Mitakahn followed the current with his hampered sight and could see light from outside. He took a deep breath and his head cleared, as well as his vision. He could see Excelsior standing by a door to the outside along with Orion and Euphrati. Unfortunately, the reflux of clean air had allowed the dragon room in its lungs to reignite his breath. Mitakahn had little time to run before a red hot stream of fire consumed him.


    Excelsior picked up a spare part of the tube off of the floor and ran for Mitakahn. When their paths met Excelsior caught the dragon’s fiery breath in the tube, redirecting the flames right back at it. It did not harm the pale white dragon but bought the two warriors enough time to get outside. Mitakahn ran out of the door and found himself at what seemed to be the bottom of the Burning Mountains.


    Impossible, he thought, they had not fallen that far. Maybe he would be able to investigate later. For now, the dragon was slamming against the doorway opening. It could only fit its head through and was trying to squeeze its arms out to start peeling the wall back to get by.


    “Looks like your plan worked, Excelsior,” admitted Mitakahn, “Want to do the honor?”


    “The honor is all yours, my friend,” bowed Excelsior.


    Mitakahn got closer to the distracted dragon, holding his sword tight. With the blade angled down, he brought his hands high above his head, preparing for a kill stroke. After a short pause, Mitakahn gently lowered his sword and did not strike.


    He turned to his company and said, “I think Euphrati should do it.”


    Excelsior agreed with him. Euphrati stepped forward and Mitakahn handed her his sword.


    She took his place beside the trapped dragon, repeated Mitakahn’s stance; her arms raised high in the air. Euphrati looked deep into the deadly dragon’s vulnerable eye and did not hesitate. With one last scream of fire, Euphrati came down hard with her stroke, thrusting Mitakahn’s sword into the skull of the dragon. Right between the eyes the blade carved into the beast’s brain. Its scream quickly gurgled, and the beast fell limp. When Euphrati pulled out the sword there was something wrapped around it.


    A chain, connected to a talisman. The talisman had an icon of a phoenix on it. The same picture they saw at the head of the cathedral. Euphrati brought it over to Mitakahn and Excelsior to have a look.


    They all examined the mysterious amulet. Suddenly, the dead dragon stirred from its resting place. Mitakahn panicked as Excelsior and Orion immediately sprang into action. But after a progression of unnatural movements made clear to be unthreatening tones from behind the broken door Orion’s ears lifted back up.


    It was the rest of the company trying to get out of the inner bowels of the mount.


    Tron, Anilithion, Bridger, Kunezar, and Humbler, all together, lifted the body up and out of the battered doorway. With one last heave, they threw it away, and the carcass rolled down the path. The dead white dragon glowed into pure light and evaporated into the sky.


    Behind it there was a grand Observatory in the distance, from this far away it looked like one lone monument. There was only one way to go now, and that was towards the tower.


    As they walked down the path, once in a while coming upon a ledge which led them further down the mountain range, Mitakahn found that they were, in fact, not at the bottom of the Burning Mountains, but somewhere in the middle. Any way they looked, the entire plot of land was blocked by steep rock-face. So, the company continued down the path and calibrated their talismans together for clues.


    On each pendant were constellations of holes too tiny to raise suspicion but too disguised to be insignificant. Upon Tron and Anilithion’s talisman of the Mount there was some strange algorithm of sequential holes tattooing the tablet. Bridger’s talisman of the Flame Eterna only had two symmetrical holes in it. Euphrati’s talisman of the phoenix however had eleven punctured stars outlining the coin’s curve in a rainbow.


    “Not sure I know what it all means,” said Humbler, as everyone else thought it to themselves.


    Right now, it did not matter, for there was nothing down here in the great labyrinth valley of the Burning Mountains, frozen wildfire caves and sharpened razor cliffs. And so there was only one way to go… down ramps of sloping platforms until they reached a ridge of stone, spanning down and around to a tower in the distance.