A Dance of Death and Dragons

4. One of a kind

Small rocks crumbled down the mountain. It took a long while before they reached the bottom of the dragonpit, even with gravity on their side. Some creatures raised their head, confused by the sudden drop, before continuing with whatever they were doing. A sapphire blue hydra with wings emerged from behind the mountain line opposite from me and circled through the sky. It had five heads and was a bit smaller than Sarmite.

It noticed me and landed below, storming over to a giant red dragon, giving it a message, who in turn gave it to the colossal black dragon next to it, which made the red one look small even though it was the biggest of the rest. The black dragon roared, making the mountains tremble, it echoed through the air and I was sure it could be heard back in the kingdom as thunder.

It was my cue to get down and see what he had to say, if he could speak. Standing on the edge, I looked at the bottom of the pit, not really feeling like climbing down now that they knew I was here. Below, a couple drakes were waiting like a bunch of guard dogs. Then again, in dragons' eyes, they probably were the size of a bunch of small guard dogs.

Bracing myself, I pushed off the rocks and leaped through the air. A wave of dust and dirt scattered around when I made contact with the ground. Landing on my feet, resting my right hand on the earth, I rose up when the wave settled and everything became visible again. 

As I slowly stood straight, the black creature in front of me was revealed through the dust. My eyes trailed over him, starting from the ground, moving higher and higher and higher, passing rows of scales up to the point I couldn't bend my neck any further. It didn't matter, there didn't seem to come an end to the dragon and my mouth gaped open slightly when I let my senses travel past the beast.

He had four legs, two wings and his eyes were completely black. With a head of length 83 meters, body of 830 meters excluding the tail and neck, and a wingspan of 2,5 kilometers, he had sharp black scales all over, including his belly. He had a sharp horn on his nose and more horns on the top and sides of his head, they continued onto his thick legs and wings, becoming smaller on the top of his back and bigger on his large, strong tail again. Along with his scales, they were as sharp as a really well crafted sword.

Over 50000 years old, the power radiated off him and I wasn't scared, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little intimidated. This dude was bigger than any dragon I ever read about in books, taller than some mountains and muscular as fuck. Baffling, absolutely baffling.

One of a kind.

Speaking of books, I had no idea which legends were true about them, or if there was a right one at all. This was new territory and unfortunately I didn't have my father to teach me, so I guess I just had to wait and see what I could find out about them.

But was I going to take the Bilbo or the Thorin approach?

He raised his head, which was the size of a large airplane, covering me and a whole load of ground into shadows. When he spoke, I had never heard a voice so low, proud and threatening before. "So you have come and survived, Iola Ashford, The Purple Eyed Girl. I am Anbraxas, Bringer of Death. My guards have surrounded two halfwits at the side of one of the mountains. You should not have brought them."

"Technically, Sarmite didn't specify I had to come alone." I said, raising my eyebrows, shaking off the goosebumps.

"She sent the others away." He retorted blankly, his breath warm like a crackling fire place.

"Not the same thing." I shook my head, raising my hands besides me.

He widened his eyes, slightly enraged, and lowered his voice to an impossible tone, swaying his head from side to side like a serpent and hissing. "You have two choices. Either you do what I say, or my guards will eat them alive."