Heart of the hidden cavern

Arising fear from below

Back in the distant past, where dragons lived long before cookies roamed earthbread, there lived a powerful all-seeing dragon, the ivory dragon, feared by all but feared nothing, had the world in the palm of their hands. At least that was how it used to be until cookies came and ruined it all and struck down almost every dragon they came across. The ivory dragon believed these cookies to be weak and insignificant creatures that did not deserve whatever pathetic lives they had; they believed it to be better to crumble than to live weak. Their mission was to turn all cookies to stone and reconstruct the past they longed for so dearly. The ivory dragon sat there, in it's thrown, eyes closed, reminiscing about the past they wished to bring back until they were brought back to reality by their scaly servant. "I have a messsage for you, master." Snake fruit cookie said with the devious smile they always wear. "What is it, Snack Fruit Cookie?" The ivory dragon said annoyedly after being awoken from their nostalgic daydream. "there'ss been ssomething circling under the palace the passt few dayss. What do you think we sshoud do?" "What are you talking about, Cookie?" "A rather large creature hass been sseen sstoping right under this location. I believe we might be under attack." "foolish cookie It's just Lotus probably trying to prick my nerves." The dragon said, angered, believing this strange intruder to be Lotus. "I can asssure you, it'ss not them." Snake Fruit Cookie said in response to the dragon. "How do you know it's not them? You said it might be an attack, didn't you? It's most likely to be them." "It can't be I saw them; they weren't even in the water. They ssaw the intruder ass well. How could it be them when they weren't in the water or even that closse to the palace?" The dragon thought about this for a second. Snake Fruit Cookie was right. Lotus couldn't have been the one doing this if they saw the intruder too. "Do you know where this intruder might have come from?" "I think I ssaw it go into a cave not too far from here, going west." As the scaly servant finished their sentence, the dragon got up from the throne they were sitting on and went to exit the throne room, not before turning back to their servant. "I'm going to find out who ever has the audacity to attempt to attack my palace and bring them down myself." The dragon said as they flew off into the sky, leaving their servant behind. They flew for a while until they found a cave in the direction Snake Fruit Cookie directed them to. They looked into the dark cavern, seeing nothing inside, and then walked in. They felt fine at first, until they felt something—something they had never felt before and thought they would feel, fear. They felt fear for the first time in their life but the amount was so small they almost didn't notice but decided to shake it off and ignore it. But to the dragon's dismay, this new feeling did not go away. As they got deeper and deeper into the cavern, the feeling got worse and worse. They tried to shake off the feeling as hard as they could, but nothing was working. They stopped walking and clospsed to their knees, their heart racing and their hands shaking.Their breathing was heavy, and their mind was forged by the overwhelming sensation of fear suffocating them. They didn't understand; why was this happening to them? How was this happening to them? Trying to calm themselves, they heard a voice. "Don't be scared, Longan; it is safe here." Longan opened their eyes, seeing the change in the cave floor. It changed from its dark gray color to a glowing white. They looked around to see that the entire caver had changed from a dark, wet, dingy den to a bright, flower-filled cave. They anxiously looked up to see something familiar to them. Another dragon stood in front of them, but it wasn't like the other dragons they've seen; it was massive, four maybe even five times their own dragon form. They stared up at it, staying completely still. It felt like their heart stopped beating at that moment. The other dragon stared back, a calm expression on their face, the complete opposite of the dragon that stood in front of them. Suddenly, the ivory dragon jumped up and ran out of the cave as fast as their legs could take them. Once they made their way out of the cave, they collapsed to the ground, shaking and catching their breath as they laid on the ground. They felt like they wanted to throw up, like they wanted to destroy the entire forest around them. They wanted to explode into a thousand pieces so no cookie could see their state, but they couldn't do anything; they couldn't even get up. They just laid there, breathing heavily. They stayed like that for a while, shaking, until they had enough strength to get up and go back to their palace. Once they arrived, they went straight to their room and stayed there for days, not even coming out to eat. All they could feel was disappointment, shame, weekends, and failure. They just wanted to disappear and never be seen again, but at least it was over, and they would never go back to that place, or so they thought.