The stench of rotting corpses tickled Vell's nostrils. The smell put things into perspective for her. This beast was the apex hunter of this valley, and she was just a slacker with a new purpose in life. Memories of her village being destroyed flooded her mind. Instead of her breathing leveling out, it began to race frantically. An ear-piercing roar echoed through the valley. The unexpected sound made her jump. The startling jolt brought her back to the present. Using a trick her mother taught her she began to catch her breath. The world stopped spinning and began to straighten out, and with one final deep cleansing breath, Vell found herself, solid and ready for war.
The fear was still present, there was no doubt about that. Still, Vell knew what she had to do. Before the dragon came back, she made her way down the deep dark cave. The darkness started to consume her as she went farther into the cave. The cold stone on her feet started to fade to her surprise. A crunching sensation replaced the hard stone. A new scratching sensation made her look down. It was then her eyes finally adjusted to the pitch dark tunnel. The first thing her cat eyes could see was the old dry bones of countless kills. They scattered the tunnel the same way the branches scattered the forest. The idea of a forest of bone imprinted on her mind and never left. The smell started to make more sense to her as she got deeper still. It seemed the dragon had become lazy in its eating habits. Corpses only partially eaten littered the stone floor now, creating mountains of rotting flesh as they stacked up. Coming down one such mound of flesh Vell lost her footing and created a rotten avalanche of dead meat. The stench alone was enough to make her gag, the maggots and molded flesh finished the job. What was left of her stomach contents erupted from her mouth like the ice of the dragon. When she finally escaped the mound of death on top of her she was amazed. The tunnel opened into a large cavernous room.
The main room of the cave had its own climate. One side was frozen solid. A stream ran down into a large stone pool. The other side of the pool was flowing magma, moving towards the center of the mountain. Vell had never seen a lava fall before. The heat kept the majority of the room just warm enough for the water to flow. The stone still felt like ice. Quickly she looked around in desperation. Her eyes landed on the solution. A large pile of remains, isolated from the rest. She sat next to the pool. As she walked to them she envisioned her plan. Hiding in the bones she was ready.
