The Time Capsule

Chapter 32: Chained Beast Pt 2

Chapter 32: Chained Beast Pt 2

AN: Feed....connecting...feed...connecting 

It was a dragon. A large, white spiked dragon lay curled up in the innermost part of the cave. Angelica went first as the gang slipped and skidded over wet rocks and boulders, the stalagmites dripping freezing cold water onto their skulls. Angelica saw it first, or rather, stumbled on something fleshy, rock hard, but definitely moving. The chamber shook as it let out another breath, sensing intruders in it's cave. 

"Don't...move," she whispered. "Don't make a sound."

"Is that...a dragon?" Narcissa said in a tiny voice.

Bending down to inspect the poor creature, Angelica saw the white scales were covered with large red cuts, cuts that blended into the darkness with soil and grit. It was tortured just as much, if not more, than the dwarves were. There were solid metal chains wrapped around its feet, which cut the skin even more, the gigantic claws breaking and peeling with time, nowhere to shed skin. Her eyes travelled upwards from the metal clamps to the chains that held them in place, which sure enough were connected to...

"The mine carts," Oliver whispered. 

"Ohh of course," Angelica said. "It doesn't just live in the mines. It *runs* the mines." 

"How does it..." Layla dared to ask.

Angelica ever so lightly so as not to set off a chain reaction, placed her hand on the dragon's rough scales, which glowed a bright, brilliant orange, and the dragon hissed in pain in its sleep. Half snake, half bird, the creature slithered its tail as the orange light coursed through its body, the spikes dripping blood. 

"Whoever's in charge...they...they use the gold..." Angelica choked, the sentence too horrible to finish. 

"As food and torture for the dragon," James said. "Sending it through the dragon's veins from the melting pot. The dragon thinks its food, why wouldn't it. It's never known anything else. Every time a new cart is pushed off above the mines..." 

"Another burst of gold is forced down the dragon's veins," Narcissa growled. "Poisoning and weakening the dragon. Metal in gold can't last in any organic form without doing quite some damage, right?" 

James nodded, the world fading around Angelica as she took in the dragon. It must have not seen the sunlight in hundreds of years. Her heart broke for it. If her father had been here when the carts were still running on the track up to the sun. It had been tortured most of her teenage and childhood life. While she was living her days carefree in the sun, the innocent beast was down here in the muck and dust, caked in its own blood, as it only ever saw the streams of sunlight, filtered down from he crack in the cave. 

"The dragon was here all along,' Angeica said. "Would Levi and Jillian have come across this task too in their time?" 

"Yes," James replied after a long pause. "Yes, I rather think they would have." 

"Do you think this is why they failed?" Angelica asked. "It never got to leave...but they did." 

Her father didn't answer. His expression was of utter and complete hopelessness, something she had never seen on his face before. It was as if he had already asked a question, about the dragon, and figured it out before anyone else. Slowly, her sibling's faces started to show the same expression, starting with Layla, who burst into tears. 

"What?" Angelica asked. "What is it? What!?" 

James looked at the siblings, then knelt on one knee as if explaining something to a child. 

"Darling..." he said. "You said you were in charge. Now you have a choice. You've already spotted that the dragon was connected to the very heart of the mines. It's not simply physical. It's through the dragon's heart, through its very soul. The dwarves are captives here too, they feel the connection. They feel the dragon's pain. You have to choose. Set the dwarves free and the dragon dies...or set the dragon free and crush the dwarf race into oblivion."