The Iron Dragon

Chapter 34. A girl with very specific friends

So our new goal was to approach a magical glowing cube, perfect. Some might think it would be dangerous but I think we all had experienced worse. We turned around and made our way out through the other rooms and corridors to get closer and closer to the cube. Theoretically I could have flown over but maybe we would have missed some important things and I was too curious for the things that were still hidden here. The further we went, the more I noticed that it was getting darker and darker. No candlesticks, no fireplace, absolutely nothing to light up the dark corridors. For me it was no problem but I doubted that the inquisitor was very keen on being attacked in the dark. The noises that seemed to follow us also became louder and louder and therefore I expected that something would attack us every second. To make it a little better for the others, I made sure that again some sparks of my fire flew around us, so that the others could see something. Gradually I had the feeling that I just wanted to cover my ears because the noise coming from wherever I was was was getting louder and in the meantime it had become quite unpleasant. Varric and the bull seemed to be quite excited as we passed the rooms where barrels of wine and other brews were stored that were so big that you could have hidden a Qunari in them.

"A wine that has stored for so long It would be a waste if the Inquisition didn't make a little use of it. This stuff must taste fantastic". I thought of the many times I had sat back and enjoyed one of these fine wines together with a beautiful book. I could not prevent a certain feeling of longing rising in me during these thoughts.

" It does ". Even before I had really thought about my words, I could feel the grin of some of the group on my neck and so I cleared my throat to say something again.

"At least that's what I heard." I knew inside that everyone had seen through my words from the moment they came out of my mouth but it was more or less worth a try. I also knew that my words would perhaps bring a smile or two to the world. The next room we passed also contained a few more corpses and gradually I began to wonder how many there would be. We could all say with certainty that all the corpses must have been the same culprit, because they were all executed in the same way. Cruel and without any compassion. I knew that we would reach the ballroom of the estate at any moment and I was already curious to see the looks of the others when they saw what immediately caught the eye in this special room.

The ballroom itself was already very pompous, as was the rest of the estate, large and in splendid colours. But what attracted all eyes was the huge prepared dragon, which was attached to the ceiling of the hall. If one had never had the chance to see a dragon in detail at close range, because it was possible that one was eaten, one could do it here as long as one wanted to. This dragon hung here almost like a warning to all those who wanted to approach a dragon without having the necessary knowledge. Freya looked over to me after she had looked at the dragon as well.

"Is that okay with you? ". I wondered a little about her words and was about to ask why she was asking me this question, but then I began to understand. I could almost not believe that Freya was really worried whether I could handle the fact that there was a dragon on display here. I gave her a smile and then nodded.

"I have no problem with him being here. Just because dragon blood flows inside me too, it's not like I automatically identify myself with every other dragon. It "s good that he "s here. Of course you shouldn't see a dragon as a decoration but to give others a picture of what kind of being they could collide with everywhere, it's good. There are many who call themselves dragon hunters without having killed a single dragon. They speak from theoretical experiences and not from practical ones. Most of them freeze in panic when they come up against a real dragon. Even though I can see that it's anything but real. Freya and the others looked at me in amazement.

"It's not real? But he looks so incredibly real". I nodded and smiled a little.

"That's because someone has paid a lot of gold to make it look so real, but he isn't. But I'm happy to admit that they really did a masterstroke here, he looks really damn good. However, he is too small for a full-grown specimen, but if he had grown bigger, he would certainly not have fitted in here anymore. I happen to know that Lord d'Onterre had a weakness for dragons, actually for everything that seemed big and powerful to him, so he tried to impress his guests with these almost lifelike works of art and at the same time live out his passion".