Dralin

Chapter 19

Instead of a dark and dusty room with treasure and hidden dangers, Pelya saw a room filled with magical lanterns, bookshelves along one wall, a stone floor with thick magical runes painted on it, workbenches with items of wizardry much like Ebudae had in her labs and more runes painted on the walls.  In addition to that, there were a few small, magical creatures in cages scattered throughout the room.  On the far end, surrounded by eight orange, glowing orbs of lights that were set on stands, was a large cage.  But the thing that made Pelya gasp was the orange dragon lying in the middle of the cage, staring at her with liquid-silver eyes.

She had heard a few tales of dragons, but few people ever saw one.  They were mysterious creatures that stayed away from human civilization.  What she remembered hearing from Mieky, a bard friend of her father’s at Carnival, was that dragons were the most powerful creatures in the world.  He told her that entire armies had fallen before them, but hadn’t heard of dragons killing humans or vice versa anytime in the last millennium or more and didn’t know why.  Mieky said little was known about them other than the facts that they were bigger than a large inn, very beautiful, could fly, and that it was an absolutely horrible idea to upset one.

As she carefully walked toward it after shutting the door behind her, Pelya observed that the dragon was beautiful, stunning even.  Metallic orange scales covered the body from snout to tail, glimmering in the light of the orbs and lanterns.  The wings were folded back and its head was resting on its front claws.  Pelya got the distinct impression that it was sad, though she couldn’t figure out how she knew that.

Mieky had mentioned that dragons were bigger than most large inns, but this one was more the size of a large wagon.  Pelya wondered if he exaggerated the facts or if it was just a small dragon.  She wasn’t sure if it was safe to get too close, but curiosity was stronger than anything.  “Hello, beautiful dragon . . . you are a dragon, aren’t you?”

Its head lifted a tiny bit and a pitiful, trembling wail emitted from its mouth before settling back on its forepaws.  The small dragon looked weak to Pelya and she instantly felt sympathy for it.  “You poor dear,” Pelya said, moving toward the cage.  She stopped at the edge of an intricately spoked, large circle of runes that surrounded the cage.  She studied them for a moment without understanding what any of it did.  “You’re trapped in there aren’t you?” she asked before instantly realizing it was a stupid question.

It gave her just the slightest miserable nod of its head.  She was surprised that the creature understood her, but remembered Mieky telling her that they were said to be much more intelligent than humans.

There was a large lock on the gate and Pelya got the idea of helping it escape.  It was probably a stupid idea, but she didn’t care.  The creature was far too beautiful to be locked away.  She noticed that the circle on the floor had spokes leading outside of it that attached to the stands the glowing orbs were above.  Those spokes were the same color orange as the orbs and went directly underneath the dragon.  “Are they draining your power?” Pelya guessed.

The head rose further that time and a louder wail came forth.

“Shh, shh,” Pelya hushed anxiously.  “I don’t want anyone to find me here, otherwise I won’t be able to rescue you.”  The dragon tilted its head in curiosity at the word rescue.  Pelya glanced back nervously to make sure no one had entered the room before turning to the dragon again.  “I don’t know what I’m doing or if I’ll succeed, but I’m going to try.”  She gestured to the circle of runes on the floor.  “Is that some sort of magic that keeps anything from getting to you?”

It didn’t respond right away.  Its eyes swirled more rapidly.  Then it nodded slowly.  Pelya got the impression there was more to the answer.  Guessing what the dragon was trying to communicate to her was difficult.  Setting down the lantern, but still keeping the rune ball in her hand so it wouldn’t deactivate, she pulled one of the picks out of her pouch and held it forward toward the circle.  It didn’t just become warm, it turned white hot and burned her fingers, causing her to drop it.  “Ouch!” she yelled, ignoring her own advice to be quiet.  The dragon raised one of the long ridges that ran over his eyes in a most humanlike expression.  Pelya stuck the wounded finger in her mouth and glared at the creature.