Shrek: The Ogre and the Dragon

Chapter 5: To the Dragon's Keep

"Can I run through what we're going to do once more?"

"I guess so."

Dante, Shrek, and Clementine were making their way through a large field of sunflowers, with a new quest in hand: Rescuing a princess from an old castle guarded by a dragon, and bring her back to Duloc.

"Okay. Let me get this straight. We're all going to fight a dragon, so we can rescue a princess, just so Lord Farquaad would give back your swamp." Dante recounted on what they're going to do. "But, don't you think there might be something amiss with this? Because the moment that Farquaad explained what we're going to be doing, my dragon senses were tingling all over. I do not trust Farquaad at all. What do you think he intends to do with the princess after we get her to Duloc?" He asked to Shrek suspiciously.

Shrek stopped for a moment. "You know what? You do raise a good point." He commented, as they walked through a vegetable patch, Shrek eating an onion.

"I don't get it though, Shrek." Clementine spoke up. "If you wanted your swamp back, why didn't you just threaten Lord Farquaad like a real monster would do? Make a soup from his freshly peeled skin, squeeze the jelly from his eyes, the whole ogre trip. She commented.

"Oh, you know what? Maybe I could have decimated an entire village and put their heads on a pike, gotten a knife, cut open their spleens, and drink their fluids. Does that sound good to any of you?" Shrek asked to them.

"Uh, no, not really..." Clementine replied. Dante looked a bit repulsed and disturbed.

"For your information, there's more to ogres than people think." Shrek said, as he continued to munch on the onion.

"Okay. For example?" Dante asked.

"Example? Okay... Uhh... Ogres are... Like onions." Shrek then held out the onion.

Dante sniffed onion, then stepped back. "They stink?" He asked.

"Yes-No." Shrek replied back.

"Or they make you cry?" Clementine asked.

"No!" Shrek shook his head.

"Wait..." Dante cupped his chin for a moment, then he snapped his fingers. "It's layers, isn't it?"

"Yes." Shrek nodded, then showed one of the layers in the onion. "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers."

"You have layers, so that's why not much is known about ogres." Clementine added in.

"Exactly." Shrek nodded, and began making his way through the fields, Dante and Clementine alongside of him. "You know, the two of you aren't so bad."

"Thanks for that, Shrek. Let's get going." Dante thanked, taking off into the air. "It'll take about a day to get to the dragon's keep, so let us make haste and be on our way."

Unbeknownst to them, a shadow was following them. The shadow belonged to a creature flying up in the skies above, one of a winged dragon...

~*~*~

So, the three began to make their way across the landscapes, soon making their way into more barren and rocky landscapes by the next morning, leaving the greenery of the grasslands behind. Sure enough, they reached what seems to be some kind of volcano in the distance, one with a large dark cloud that seemed to surround the volcano.