Blue kept on going in, and we finally found ourselves in front of a cave wall that was unremarkable except for what looked like a massive rip in the seam of the stone. When we passed through the rip, there was a tangible, blinding change from darkness to light. Once my eyes adjusted, I was astounded. A massive sphere of pure, radiant light hung from the roof of the chamber we had entered and below us was a cornucopia of every kind of treasure imaginable. Everything from gold coins to fine art to a few items so magical even that I could feel their pull from across the cave.
“Gods below. What is this place?” I asked, still trying to take everything in. The faerie snorted.
“This is all that Fafnir has stolen since he trapped me like this,” she said as she looked around wide eyed. “I think that he's taken more since then, but the key should still be where it was before. Come on, and don't go near the treasure. He counts it and knows where everything is.” I nodded and did my best to stay behind her, stepping over or around each and every pile. I couldn't think of a way for a single dwarf could keep track of this without it becoming an obsession. When I rounded the next corner, I discovered just how obsessive he was.
“Gods below, that's a dragon! A huge, monstrous dragon! I thought you said I'd be up against a dwarf! Not that!”
She waved her hand dismissively. “That is Fafnir. I guess he thought that looking like a stumpy, brutish dragon would protect his treasure better than looking like a stumpy, brutish dwarf.”
I gaped at him. Of all the words I could have used to describe him, 'stumpy' would not have been one of them. He was a massive creature built like some sort of white-scaled, reptilian bulldog, with bulging forelegs and a short, stubby snout. Little plumes of smoke curled out of his nostrils. He clutched in his paw a wooden sphere covered with strange, ever shifting runes.
“Don't tell me that's the key,” I asked, hoping against hope that it was just a little ways onward. Blue shook her head.
“Yep, that's it. Now you just need to go and get it like you wanted,” she said.
Fafnir opened an eye and raised his head.
“So, you plot to steal my most precious treasure, do you?” Fafnir said in a raspy voice like someone was dragging a chain across a cobbled road. “I heard you when you entered and graciously thought to give you the chance to leave with your lives, as any host should, but you have forced my hand. Goodbye mortal. Better luck next time, pixie.” Fafnir reared up and took in a great breath of air and prepared, I suppose, to incinerate me.
“Wait!” Cried Blue. “Sir Fat Head owes me so I refuse to allow you to just kill him flat out!”
Fafnir let out air he had taken in and settled into a crouch. “Very well. I give him one chance to redeem himself before I destroy him.”
I gulped. I had planned on Fafnir being small enough that I just toss a bit of iron at him and frighten him away from the key, but now that seemed to be more of an act of final desperation than a real plan. I began to look through my pack and hoped that one of my items of tribute to the Lady had snuck its way into my pack, but I had nothing. It was all outside the cave with the rest of my things. I'd almost given up when I remembered the binding chain. “Poor in wit I may be, I do have some treasures. Truly I came to offer you a gift of great magic and thought that you might exchange it for the petty thing you clutch to your chest, but if you wish to melt it into slag and kill me with your mighty fire, so be it.” Fafnir cocked his head at that, and then laughed.
“You think me a fool?” he asked, rage entering his voice. “I smell no magic on you, only the fear and piss of a mortal man.”
“My magic is a rare and subtle thing, taken from the furthest reaches of the world” I said as I reached for my coin purse with great ceremony and pulled out the binding chain. Blue's eyes went wide but she held back in fear of Fafnir. “This simple chain is a great working, able to grant power to those strong enough to take it.”
