The Hunt

Into the Dragon's Lair

    Zirri arrived in the town called Yock in Srukull late that night. She had been riding for hours in one of her family's cars but had switched to a less conspicuous car a few towns back. She went to a restaurant and bar. It was a shady looking place but most things that dwelled in Anilorac could be described as shady. Even Zirri, who was wearing a short black hooded cape blended right into the shady atmosphere. She found some food she would be able to stomach and listened as the people who actually lived here were talking amongst each other. 

“He is getting worse.We can’t keep sacrificing them to him.” said a waitress to one of the patrons at the bar

“Who will appease him enough so that he won’t kill us all?” Said the man in a slurred manner. "Once he gets someone who suits his needs we won't even see him for a year."

“You drunken old bastard it would be different if he were snatching men. Not one of those women came back!"

"Thats usually the case with sacrifices." said a different drunk.

The waitress sneered at the men before heading back to the bar while saying, "You all won’t do a thing until there are none of us left.”

“Trust me we don’t like it any more than you all do. We are simply not powerful enough to stop him from doing what he wants. He has plagued anyone any number of miles away from his fortress.”

“Why has no one from the capital come out to resolve the issue.”

“Because the monster is appeased so easily not enough of us have complained for them to take our request seriously.” came another man’s voice who was listening to the conversation like Zirri was. 

“I am not going to wait here for me and my coven to be snatched by some psychotic dragon.” said a witch who joined in the conversation.

    That peeked Zirri’s interest even more. She continued to listen to them talk and got quite a bit of information. She had deduced that there was a dragon terrorizing not only the town of Yock, but the neighboring towns and cities and every year he comes to receive his offering of women. He had been doing this for decades. He apparently started taking more women and even younger girls. He dwelled in a castle that no one was able to get out of alive. If they even made the attempt to defy him he has burned down some towns that stood in ruin and were now just another part of the pitiful landscape of Anilorac. Zirri was certain this dragon was Itriuz but why would a feral dragon demand women.  Better yet how was he demanding them if he was feral and what was he doing with them for a year?There was no way he was still sane enough to avoid going completely feral after all these years,  not the way Yakir explained it. A rush of excitement ran through her as the plot thickened in her little quest.

    She left the restaurant and headed to the inn she had the best possible room at. She prepared herself for her covert entrance into the castle. The ring she was wearing was telling her where to go somehow. She knew she was on the right track. She donned a black armored leggings, a black long sleeve shirt, and black combat boots. Her hair was in a bun and she put two thin blades in her bun like chopsticks. She was going to be in her cheshire beast soul so she didn’t worry too much about her neon orange hair being uncovered. She planned to get in and out. With the ring, finding the amulet will be a lot faster. 

    She drove herself  a few miles from the volcano and walked the rest of the way. She could have gotten there faster by using her wings or one of her beast souls but she decided to conserve her strength in case anything happens. She had learned long ago it does not pay to rush into a hunt. When she got there the ground beneath her heated with latent lava lurking beneath her. The castle itself sat on rock that seemed to glow a bright orange color. There were trenches leading the slow moving magma away from the brittle trees in the forest a couple of miles away as well as the nearby town. Beyond the trenches it was a molten mess with no discernable path to take directly to the castle. 

    Unfortunately, Yakir's description of a non active volcano was a little off with how it looked at first sight. The slow,and in some places still, lava pooled in various places it made it even hotter than it naturally was in Anilorac almost to the point of not being able to breathe. Zirri was not concerned though since her body will automatically adapt to the environment around her but for now her poor lungs were suffering. Her cheshire beast soul made it impossible to fly so she would have to be as a nimble cat but she knew she could do it. The alternative was being exposed to his sensitive dragon senses but to get up the heated surface of the volcano to the dragon lair would be much faster. She opted for patience and climbed up the rock path. As she walked and climbed her body adjusted to the heat so her lungs did not burn and she did not feel like she was in the midst of molten lava. Her skin became harder to adjust to the jagged terrain as well as to avoid burning herself. 

    She made it to a nearly decrepit wall and climbed it carefully into the castle’s yard. She looked around and found the place was falling apart. The dragon had to be as insane as she was told if he chose to live in such a terrible place. She also felt herself being pulled deeper into the castle but this time it was not by the ring but by her daeva nature. Something terrible was happening in this place. She was drawn by the feeling of desperation, depravity, and doom. A shiver ran through as she thought of how bad this dragon truly was. She ran straight in the direction of the pull of the ring. It seemed to almost vibrate as she found a way inside.

    Zirri found the hallways haunting and most of them were wider than most rooms. Who had lived here before the dragon to require such space. She decided to ponder that once she had left as she neared the 20 minute mark where she would need to reappear for 15 seconds before she could disappear again. Cheshires pop in and out they don’t maintain their invisibility indefinitely. Because of this the c***k in this particular beast soul’s armour was that she could only be invisible for 20 minutes consistently. She then reappeared and for 15 seconds she could not go invisible again. Since the hike up here took her 15 minutes she had only 5 minutes to get as close to the amulet as possible. 

    When she began to reappear 5 minutes later white light surrounded her again and her form changed. Zirri’s eyes returned to black but the white iris turned snake-like. Her orange hair grew longer and spiked down her back. Her feet and hands became webbed claws. Her skin became the same scaly texture as the Keaseas, which was the beast soul she was using to get to the amulet faster. There was a burst of speed and she felt herself moving down each hall with extraordinary speed with only her instincts to guide her so she didn't run through one of the decrepit walls around her. 

    She zoomed through the halls but it was like a maze full of dead ends. She needed to find the right path to what she was being pulled too. She heard a deafening roar as she was sure her foreign presence had been felt. She could feel the rage in the dragons cries. A thrill ran up her spine from excitement as the danger of it all dawned on her, while a chill of terror recalled her brother telling her she would die by being eaten by a dragon. She was too far in now to let the fear take over so she let her adrenaline push her forward as she raced to find the correct path to take.

    When the 15 seconds had finally passed she switched back to cheshire mode. She tried a route that would take her away from the amulet so she would not be around when the dragon came to track where he had last could sense her. She walked 10 minutes down a few hallways before the ring began to pull her more intensely down one particularly dark hallway. When she turned the corner she found herself at a door.