The Royal Knight Academy

Chapter 18: Swords, Arrows, and Secrets

When we got inside, there was no light, only darkness. I couldn't see anything that was in front of us.

"What do we do now that we're in here?" I asked.

Before Xavier had time to respond, there was a loud, "THUD!" from behind us, causing the ground to tremble.

"Did the door just close?" he asked, worriedly.

I felt behind me. My hand touched a wall where the open door just was.

"Yep, it definitely is closed."

I hoped that there wouldn't be any more surprises in store for us, but that was not the case. The whole room seemed to light up in an instant. Torches on the walls suddenly illuminated, brightening up the place so we could finally see our surroundings.

"How convenient," I said curiously as I drew out my sword and Xavier drew out his bow and arrow.

I looked around, hoping to find what we were after. Soon enough, I saw it. Just a ways from us, there was a glass bottle perched on a rock pedestal with a golden light shining within. The light was dancing, flickering in the darkness of the bottle.

"Look over there," I said to Xavier, pointing at the flame. "I think that's what we need! We have to get it before anything else happens."

The two of us sprinted towards the light shining ahead, eager to complete our mission. Nothing could stop us now, right? Well of course, we were wrong.

We were just steps away from the flame when I suddenly heard a loud banging noise coming from above us. I looked up into the dark part of the space above us where there was no light.

"Should we be concerned about that?" I asked with a hint of fear in my voice.

Just then I saw a large blaze of searing flames of fire erupt overhead. It almost appeared as if the fire came out of thin air. The flames were only inches away from hitting our terrified faces before they disappeared from sight.

With a great feeling of dread, I said the smartest thing I could think of, "Run."

Both of us turned around and ran straight for the closed door that led us into this awful situation.

I yelled, "We need to break through the door! Whatever is up there is clearly angry we are here!"

Xavier and I tried everything possible to get through the wall. We tried kicking it, hitting it, I rammed it with my sword, and Xavier shot arrows at it. I even tried shouting "Open up" in hopes the door was magical and could actually hear the words coming out of my mouth. All of our attempts were useless.

In the midst of us trying to break through the wall, (with really no hopes of doing so) a large shadowy figure appeared behind us, towering over our heads. As I was about to give the wall one final kick, I realized that something was indeed watching our every single move. I froze in terror, the creature's shadow blocking almost all of the light coming from the burning torches.

Xavier turned towards me terrified as he whispered, "What is that?"

The only way to find out was to turn around. In front of us, stood a giant creature with emerald green scales covering its whole body with sharp claws. The creature had black and gold horns atop its head and wings as large as two horses resting upon its back. It had the brightest of yellow eyes with black slits for pupils staring right at us, its sharp teeth forming a menacing glare. It was a DRAGON!

We looked at each other, then back at it, and screamed, "AHHHH!"

We took off running to hide behind a giant boulder that was near, just as the dragon breathed a ferocious breath of fire right at us.

"How are we going to get the potion ingredient now with a giant beast who breathes fire guarding it?" I loudly shouted as we sat down behind the big rock.

"I'll try to hold it off, keeping it at bay while you try to go get the Forever Golden Flame," he replied.

"Is that all? No other instructions for what I should do?"

"That's all I could come up with, with a dragon trying to set us ablaze!"

"Okay! I guess we'll just figure it out as we go!" I said, hoping to stay alive to see another day.

Xavier stood up and quietly ran out from behind the rock to do his part.

He stopped at another nearby stone and yelled to the dragon, "HEY! Over here big guy!"

The dragon changed its focus from me to Xavier. It let out a bellowing, "ROAR!"

Its long tail swung from behind its enormous body in an attempt to hit Xavier. He leaped over the tail in just barely enough time, avoiding a tremendous blow. At that moment, I glanced back at the dragon to make sure it was distracted. Xavier began to shoot arrows at the dragon's tail while it continued to attack. I stepped out from behind the boulder and quickly and quietly crept past the brawling beast.

Sneakily making my way to the Forever Golden Flame, I realized my part of the plan was not going to be as simple as I thought. I noticed a nest sitting next to the flame. Inside of the nest, there was a single egg. It didn't appear to be a typical egg. Instead it was a giant egg with a shiny golden shell. The egg must belong to the dragon. Looking at the magnificent egg, I heard a loud cracking noise coming from right above where it was resting. I hastily looked up and was shocked at what I saw. There, barely hanging from the ceiling of the mountain, was a stalactite that was ready to fall. I needed to save that golden egg before it would be crushed. Looking at the egg, another thought popped into my head that changed everything. "Wait," I thought. "I don't think it is the flame that the dragon is protecting. It's just trying to protect its precious egg from us. It's a mother."

The cracking from above was getting louder and louder by the moment. I knew that in a split second, I would lose my chance to save the golden egg. It was now or never.

As fast as I could, I dove head first for the egg. I tightly grabbed it, wrapping my arms around it. Diving to retrieve the egg, I was so focused on saving it, that I didn't notice my helmet fly off my head, landing on the rocky ground. As I grabbed the egg, protecting it from harm, the stalactite from above fell onto the floor and shattered into tiny pieces, barely hitting me as it tumbled. A cloud of dust formed around us from the crash, then slowly disappeared into the air. I looked down, relieved to see the egg safe in my arms.

Touching that beautiful golden egg, I felt a strange connection to it. Safe in my arms from anything that could hurt it, I turned my attention to Xavier. When I did, I saw that he had his bow directly pointed at the dragon's chest, an arrow pulled back, about to shoot it one last time. I panicked. I had to warn him before it was too late.

"XAVIER! STOP! DON'T SHOOT!"

My words caught his attention. He looked directly at me with a shocked look on his face.

"Leo?" he said, confused and stunned at the same time.

Right when he said my name, his fingers swiftly yet gently let go of the bow's string, sending the arrow flying through the air. It only stopped when it hit the dragon right in its chest. The creature cried in pain when it was hit, swaying back and forth steadily, then slowly fell right onto the rocky floor as it breathed its last breath. The dragon moved no more.