Princess Of The Flame |Dota: Dragons Blood|

Part 4.

The tunnel was deathly quiet. The crackling of my torch was the only sound, echoing off the walls. I mustn't try to make any loud noise or drastic movements. Earth Dragons are capable of detecting vibrations through the ground to find their prey, and I do not know how often this specific tunnel is used. If I had to assume anything, I would say it hasn't been used in years. The chances of encountering one here are slim to none.

The tunnel was a downward slope leading down deep into the ground. No fresh signs of dragons so far. Venturing deeper into the darkness, my torch's orange glow illuminated the walls for a fair distance. The light revealed that there was another tunnel up ahead. That is where I must go.

I turned into the new tunnel and looked to the ground, starting to see dragon prints. Perfect, I am getting closer to discovering the threat to the wurmlings. The tracks were older but I am certainly getting somewhere. Following them will lead me to wherever the dragons are.

Continuing forward I was discovering newer tracks. All of them were dragon prints. But they were all the same size and shape, nothing was out of the ordinary. How strange...could there have been a dispute amongst the Earth wurmlings? Must I go deeper?

I shook my head and pressed onward, quickly finding another tunnel system. Well then. I knelt down and looked at the dragon tracks, finding that they were very fresh. I must be going the right way. Should not be too long now. I stood and followed the tracks deeper into the tunnel.

As fresh as the tracks were, it felt awfully...barren. Abandoned even. Where are the Earth dragons? Are they asleep? If so, I should be able to hear them breathing. But I could not. Instead, I could hear the faint sound of something dripping.

Is there water in this cave system? I followed the noises through the quiet tunnel. The sound was getting louder and louder. Must be close by. While I was going forward, I would step in a puddle. Looking down at the water puddle, I quickly discovered it wasn't water at all.

To my absolute horror, it was a puddle of blood. Wurmling blood. A smeared trail lead away from it and going further ahead. It was as if a dragon was mortally wounded and attempted to retreat from its attacker. With a deep breath, I pressed onward.

The blood trail seemed to go on for forever. That was, until I found what it belonged to. An Earth wurmling laid on its side ahead of me, fresh blood pooling underneath its corpse. By the gods...this was recent. VERY recent. A few hours ago at best. Approaching the deceased dragon, I could see the reason for its massive blood loss.

It had certainly been in a fight to the death, claw and teeth marks covering its entire body. The signs of struggle were apparent with its throat being ripped out and laying next to its head. The poor thing had been ripped apart, far worse a fate than what a sword could do.

"Poor soul...what happened to you..?" I whisper to myself.

The ground had been heavily disturbed and the walls were cracked from dragons being thrown into it. But...this wasn't a battle between 2 different species. No signs of other elements being used. This was all very strange and incomprehensible, I don't understand what could have possibly happened for so much blood to spill.

The dripping wasn't coming from this wurmling, it was still just ahead. I reluctantly turned away from the cadaver and went forward. As I neared the dripping sounds, my torch would reveal an odd webbing like material appearing upon the walls with a faint blue light coming from another tunnel.

The further I went in, the more webbing I could see. Reaching the tunnel where the dim light was coming from, I turned to enter but stopped dead in place. The absolute horror before me was far more gruesome and heart-wrenching than anything I had seen in a long while. I dropped my torch from the shock, the fire going out as it hit the dirt.