The Cursed Dragon

Chapter 2: Return

Hello dear readers. Thank you for being here.  I am excited to write and work on this story and I hope you are excited to see it unfold. Cheers

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"Dragon's balls, is that you Cadimus?" Goga's voice cut through the fog as Cadimus approached the edge of the pocket.  Cadimus was more than a little relieved to see one of his own kind waiting for him and the fact that it was Goga made things easier. The stocky brunette  and Cadimus had known each other for most of their lives. From an early age their families had been close. Good lines, good breeding made it so that it was simply expected Goga and Cadimus would be good friends. 

Well over a decade ago, while playing a game of 'Thwart' Goga, who had always been physically stronger and bigger than the other Dragon blooded their age, had knocked Cadimus through a thicket of thorns and his opal, which at the time had been on a necklace, had smashed against the stones.

The result of that break was that Goga had seen Cadimus true face before. He was one of the only people who knew Cadimus' secret outside of his parents and Abeloth.

"Yeah its me," Cadimus answered equal parts relieved and tired.

"I forgot how god-awful ugly you were without a glamor," he said stuffing what was left of the roll he had been eating in his mouth in one massive bite.

"You're one to talk," Cadimus jibed back, "Even with a glamor you're still not as pretty as me."

Tact and Goga had never really gotten acquainted. Wiping his hands on his pants Goga hopped down from the stone ledge he had been sitting on and slapped Cadimus hard on the back sending shooting pain through his broken ribs.

By the gods. Cadimus squeezed his eyes shut against the pain only letting out the smallest grunt in response. He couldn't afford to appear weak, even in front of his friend.

"Prettier than you are now," said Goga, unaffected by the insult thanks to Cadimus currently hideous form. "Seriously, no wonder you never take off that ring."

Running low on patience and very much in pain Cadimus glowered.

"Did you stay behind just to heckle me? Or were you actually expecting me to escape?"

Goga chuckled and returned to the rock he had been sitting on and picked up his satchel.

"Naw, your uncle ordered me to wait and see if you survived," Goga shrugged and slung the bag over his shoulder "Told me I could give up on you once it turned dark."

Cadimus looked to the horizon and saw the setting sun and his spine stiffened. He had barely made it back in time. A few minutes later and Goga would have left the pocket and Cadimus stranded within.

Outside the pocket was the "bloodless" world, where humans roamed and lived without any kind of magic, and there was no way in hell that Cadimus was going to walk among bloodless with his face looking like this.

To a dragon blooded at full power the bloodless were harmless. A dragon could burn a human to a crisp and make it seem an accident, or use their magic to control the weaker minded ones completely. Weakened and stripped, as he was now, roaming among the bloodless was practically a death sentence.

Captivity, experimentation...Cadimus had grown up hearing stories of the horrors of the human world for those that were stupid enough to walk through without the aid of magic for protection. He would rather stay in the pocket and risk starvation than walk among them.

"I knew you'd make it though," said Goga smiling the expression wry. He handed over a clear quarts to Cadimus.

"Bon voyage,"  Goga held up his own quarts in one hand and then brought both hands together in a low clap and vanished, blinking out of existence without so much as a whisper of evidence that he had ever been there before.