Vivial: A Dragon's Tale

Chapter 4

   The pair of dragons stayed in the snow cave while the blizzard raged on outside. Lukathis knew he should keep his distance from Vivial. He had made her furious when he took her from her home without her knowing. He had tried to comfort her on the first night, by offering to make her a fire or let her cuddle with him, but she declined. He had tried to explain to her that he had been trying to save her life, but she believed that the clan would not have killed her. She beleived that Lukathis tricked her so that she would leave. He had only brought her here so he could desert her.

   The drake, who's home was the cave, didn't beleive in personal boundaries, either. He was constantly bombarding Lukathis and Vivial with questions, normally the questions were about the clan, and clan life. The imbecile eventually got around to when Lukathis told Vivial that there was a planned murder, then didn't shut up about his opinion on the matter; "Well, if I were the clan i would try to remove any dead weight if it had to be moved, and since you can't fly, you're pretty useless." Vivial launch herself at the drakes throught after that little comment, screaming that he didn't have wings and he should stay out of her buisness.

   Then she stormed past him, and further into the cold dark cave. After walking for a while, muttering threats at the drake, she saw alcoves in the cave walles where some objects had been stored. One of the alcoves held a glass jar with glowing white liquid in it. Another held a single, shrivled daisy in it. The jar had a note on it that said, "return". Vivial lifted the jar out of the hole and held it close to her snout, staring at it. She started to unscrew the lid when a gruff voice behind her said, "Close that."

   Vivial jumped and almost dropped the jar. Standing behind her was a large dragon. It was hideous. It's wings were tattered and ripped, it was covered in long fur, it's left horn was missing, and it's eyes.... Vivial almost screamed. It's eyes looked like they had spiderwebs over them. They were bloodshot, and the pupils were white; it was blind. She didn't know how this battle-worn dragon knew what she was holding. "Hand it over," The dragon growled. Vivial did as she was told; she was terrified of this dragon. It reminded her of the one in her nightmare.

   "Come," The dragon murmered as it stomped down a large side-cave. Vivial was reluctant, but finally she made herself follow. Maybe this is the drakes uncle, Vivial thought, maybe he is just going to take me back to Luke. She was starting to feel sorry that she had left the main cave. She followed the dragon through several different openings in the cave. She tried to remember which ones she was going through; right, left, left, middle, right, but soon she had gone through so many that she couldn't remember which was which.

   Finally, Vivial mustered up the courage to ask, "Uuh, Mr. ... uhh... Where are you taking me...?" The dragon snorted and mumbled, " I am not taking you anywhere. You are following me." Vivial, puzzled, pondered this through two more side-caves. She eventually decided to go back, since this dragon was taking her nowhere. She turned around and looked behind her. Which one had she come through? All of the tunnels looked the same to her. She spun back around to ask the old dragon, but he was gone.

   Vivial, scared, listened for the dragons footsteps, but all she heard was her own heartbeat. Truly terrified now, she dashed through the tunnel directly behind her. This tunnel brought her to a fork. She stared down the left tunnel. It was completely dark. She hadn't noticed this when she was following the dragon. She crept into the tunnel to get a better look, but it just took her to more dark, foreboding tunnels. Vivial stepped into the middle tunnel, but something was in the tunnel. A skeleton. A large dragon skeleton, bleached white, with a sword through it. Vivial tried not to look at the skeleton and lifted the sword. It was a long, bronze sword, with emeralds embedded into the hilt. As Vivial was examining it, something crept up behind her. She turned around just as a small white creature screamed, "Die!" and drove a knife into her tail. Vivial roared and thrashed trying to dislodge the knife from inbetween her scales. The white creature had flattend itself aginst the wall as it watched it's prey thrash in agony.

   Vivial, realizing that the knife was not going to come out with her flopping around like a fish out of water, targeted the creature responsible. It had been creeping around her, aiming it's eyes to the sword Vivial had dropped. It froze when the angry dragon turned on it. For being so small, it sure was brave. It was trying to stare down a dragon. Surprised, Vivial blinked. This gave the creature all the time it needed. It snatched the sword up off of the ground, and charged at Vivial.

   Vivial was impressed at this creatures bravery, or rather, stupidity. She swung her tail around and wrapped it around the tiny creatures waist, lifting it's feet off of the cave floor. Now it was this creatures turn to thrash. "No! Let... Go! Stop!" It screeched. It pulled the knife out of Vivial's tail and started stabbing everywhere it could reach. Vivial shook her tail vigorously and the creature dropped it's weapon.

   Vivial turned back to the entrance to this small cave, and saw Lukathis, "Thank Goodness I found you!" He said, then he saw the white creature. "Is that a... human?"