The 'Wizard's Rage' Project

Chapter 2

The great dragon winced. Over twenty lamps lined the wall of the large cavern, casting a gentle amber glow throughout and bringing a sense of warmth to the dank cave. Sarlin's dull blue scales absorbed the soft light as he shuddered from the pain. One of the few remaining dragons of the first breed, he resembled a large panther more than a lizard. In a sitting position his head was within a couple of feet from the jagged roof of the cave. Two thick horns rose up from the back of his head just behind his cat-like ears and occasionally scraped the ceiling. Strong muscles moved under taut leathery hide, which was covered in an array of fist-sized scales. His eyes were a deep shade of blue and almost as big as a wagon wheel. After a few moments the look of pain once again shot across the dragon's huge face.

Duke Calden looked on feeling a sense of helplessness at his friends suffering. In a feeble attempt to distract Sarlin from his pain he said, "That'll teach you to eat one of my head of cattle!" He knew the dragon was amused from the low rumble that echoed through the cavern.

The rigid crest above Sarlin's eyes raised and his leathery ears drooped, mocking the look of a noble who had just been stung. In a deep resonating voice the dragon asked, "Why would I eat something as sickly and weak as one of your head of cattle?"

Calden laughed and said, "You are an evil dragon after all." He pulled a pipe from his pocket then started searching through the pockets of his dark trousers for a match. The hood of his blue cloak was tossed back revealing his short brown hair, thick eyebrows and deep-set brown eyes. His nose was more round than sharp with a bump on the bridge earned in a brawl when he was a teen. His face was clean-shaven with a strong jaw and thin lips. Although he felt small standing next to Sarlin, he was a tall man standing almost four inches over six foot. Broad across the shoulders and, in his younger days, narrow at the waist. With a note of seriousness in his voice, more from his inability to find a match than his concern for Sarlin, he asked, "Are you in great pain?"

"Not great pain. It's the nature of the pain. An arrow through a wing, or a cut from a sword would seem like it would be more painful, but in my experience that kind of pain pales to this broken fang. This must be the worst." Sarlin shuttered. "If I hit it the wrong way with my tongue it sends a shock so painful it makes my vision blur." He jerked his head back from another sharp pain and again struck the ceiling, causing bits of stone to bounce off the dragon's head and tumble to the ground at the Duke's feet.

Calden took a step back and said, "But surely you dragons lose lots of fangs over your lifetime." He absently brushed the dust from the front of his white shirt and then continued searching for a match. Finally he breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled a match from his pants pocket and struck it on the bottom of his brown leather boot. He put the flaming match to the Tinner weed and pulled on the pipe until several large white puffs of smoke convinced him it was lit. "This should be old hat to you." He said as he tossed the match to the ground.

The clip-clop of horse's hooves and the loud racket of an empty wagon on the pebble-stone floor interrupted their conversation. The raucous noise echoed off the walls and filled the cavern, announcing the departure of Dahf the dwarf. He'd been unloading the wagon in another cavern and was passing through on his return to Caldair.

Calden couldn't see the large axe Dahf normally wore tied to his back so he assumed it was in the floor of the wagon. He watched as the dwarf walked by leading the large gray gelding by the bridle.

Dahf was from a mountain range far north of Caldair called The Green Belt Mountains. Once a month he and Sarlin flew down to Caldair to trade gold for supplies, gold for silver or supplies for supplies. Since the mere sight of a dragon sent people scattering in every direction, Sarlin stayed in the caves to the north of Caldair during their visits.