Mated to the Dragon

Chapter 10

Cressida let out the breath she was holding, trying her best to relax, shining her magnifying lantern left and then right, staring down the length of the tunnel she was in. She had bought this one from a warlock and he said that the spell was in built, so in dark places the brightness would increase itself. One of the best buys that she had made…

She was sitting against one wall, a map spread between her legs, trying to see where exactly she was going.

All alone in this mountain, the young human was looking for, of all things, treasure. More specifically, a dragon’s hoard.

There were several legends concerning a mountain in this range that contained a vast hoard of treasure, apparently a dragon's. She didn't hold to such nonsense, obviously, dragons were fairy tale creatures designed to keep children in line with stories of their vast ferocity and general ill-tempered attitude towards everything.

But, the rumours of treasure were true. There was irrefutable proof, at least in her mind, in the village tales of the men who had trekked into the mountains and returns with armfuls of gold, speaking of a wondrous cavern filled with gold for the taking. They had, of course, tried to return to claim more gold for themselves, but they were never heard from again. She suspected that was where the legend of the dragon had come from.

A group of men stumble on a cavern filled with treasure, set out to get more and never return? superstitious villagers could easily claim that as a dragons doing.

Cressida folded the map neatly into a square and put it back in her pocket, careful not to wreck or crumple it. It was a very old map, found on the corpse of a man who had allegedly found the bodies of the men who had gone missing. She wasn't sure what that story was all about, but it was hers now, and she was following it, and it had led her only true so far.

Picking up her torch again, she set off deeper into the mountain, noting that it was gradually getting warmer, despite the fact that she was descending into the earth. Perhaps there was volcanic activity down here?

She pushed those thoughts out of her head and kept walking, noticing that up ahead, the tunnel widened out, and a peculiar glow emanated from around the next corner. "Lovely...Magma..." she muttered to herself, shaking her head.

If there was magma down here, it meant that it would have probably have radically altered the portion of geography she needed for the map.

Sliding up to the corner, she peeked her head around, cautiously, and her eyes went wide, a soft, convulsive spluttering coming from within her throat.

Magma! but more importantly, treasure! right there! Piles and piles of treasure! As far as the eye could see, pile upon pile of treasure!

She took a tentative step forwards, letting her eyes adjust to the light that reflected copiously off the reflective treasure.

It took her only a few steps to reach the treasure and then sit down heavily next to it, scraping a small pile of precious stones towards her, eyes wide and amazed. "It's real...It's all real."

She looked about furtively, as if to see if anyone had heard her talking to herself, and then went back to the treasure, picking a coin up and testing it's weight, giving a shake of her head, disbelieving.

Cressida dropped the pack off her back, and slid forwards, dropping her pack from her shoulders and inspecting a piece of treasure, frowning to herself before digging into the pile of gems, pulling out a small ruby, small being a relative term as the ruby was the size of eye, perfectly cut. She pocketed it, picked up her pack, and left.

* * *

Cressida returned later that month, same gear, same backpack, but this time, without the raw need for the money the treasure could bring. As a consequence, she was rather bouncy in her movements, happy, black hair flowing as she moved in towards the centre of the piles of treasure, pulling a clipboard out of her backpack and sitting down, dragging a vase towards her and peering at the carving on it curiously, frowning at the odd runes.

She wrote down on the clipboard a little bit of info about the treasure and then sighed softly, lying back a little. She was here to do some provisioning, to find out what held archaeological value, or historical value. The people at the museum who had hired her to go back down here were paying her a generous fee for anything she could find that might turn out to be the next Rosetta Stone.

"I hope you weren't thinking of taking that." A voice said, rather bluntly, from somewhere behind her.

Cressida sat up so quickly, that one would think that she had received a shock from an electric cattle prod.

"Who's there?" She asked, eyes wide as she looked in the direction the voice had come from. She had specifically said that she was the only person to go to the treasure, and hadn't even told the members of the board that had hired her where the treasure was located.

"Humans really are blind..." The voice said, and a sudden movement near her made her give a strangled scream.

It was huge. Absolutely massive.

All she saw was the head, which had been sitting near her all along, rise, yellow eyes slowly opening as the golden scaled muzzle parted for speech, the male, deep, masculine voice coming somehow from such a large creature. Now she knew what she was looking for, she could see all of him, the huge membranous wings, the massive body and gigantic legs. She could even see the giant golden tail lying like a dead snake in the treasure.

"Um...no! I-I wasn't going to take it!" She squeaked, scrambling backwards, painfully aware of how tight with fear her chest was.

"I rather think you were going to." The dragon said casually, rising from his position and taking a single step towards, a step that, in her imagination, shook the ground.

"O-okay! I was going to! but I didn't know you were here!...please don't eat me!" She said with pure fear in her every syllable, trying to scramble behind a suit of armour, knocking the heavy iron sword, encrusted with jewels from the suits hands.

Cressida dove for the sword, pulling it awkwardly into her hands and staring at the dragon, holding the sword as best she could. "Back! I-I'll hurt you!" she said, with as much bravery as she could muster, her voice breaking.

the dragon tilted his head a little, pupils dilating as he moved a little closer, an eye ridge raised. He pointed a talon sideways, where another suit of armour stood, and flicked his eyes to it. "That, is you." he said. "And this is what I can do." He continued, taking a lazy swipe at it with a paw and slicing the head of the armour cleanly from it's shoulders. "Now would you please put down the piece of metal before I get angry?"

"How do I know you won't kill me!?" She asked, still holding the sword firmly to her chest like it was a life vest.

"What's to stop me doing it anyway?" He asked, snorting, a plume of purple fire escaping his nostrils, making Cressida jump, squeak, and drop the blade.

"See? was that so hard?" The dragon asked in a lower voice, eyes narrowing a little as he looked her up and down appraisingly. "Just why are you stealing my treasure, hmm?" he asked casually, head tilted. "Or is that your past-time, a thief?"

"I'm not a thief!" She protested. "If I had of known you were here I wouldn't have touched any of it, I swear!" she pleaded, eyes wide, hands out,placating.

"Now that, I believe." The dragon said with a soft chuckle. "And please, stop acting like a scared mouse, I'm not going to eat you so long as you don't try to take any more of my treasure. You already staked your claim, and left, you have no right to come back looking for more."

"S-staked my claim?" She asked, bewildered. "I didn't do anything like that!" She protested, looking close to tears.

"Yes you did, you took a diamond, that was your allowance. The rule is that you are only one chance to take as much treasure as you can carry, after that, it is my duty to stop you taking any more." the dragon said calmly, smiling at her, a disconcerting effect that revealed far too many of his pearly white teeth for Cressida's liking.

"B-but why don't people know about dragons then?" She asked, looking at her feet, confused.

"My dear girl...are you going to tell any one about me?" He asked with a soft chuckle again, his breath washing over her, and rather than the hot, rancid breath she had expected, it was rather warm, and not nearly as unpleasant as she had thought it would be.

"N-no." She said, shaking her head. "I'm not going to..."

Tentatively, she peered up at him, looking him over from snout to tailtip, appraisingly. She was very in to dragons, and it was one her guilty fantasies that she would one day meet a dragon and be seduced by him. But that was her fantasies! Her mind was still coming to grip with the fact that she was sitting there, in a dragons lair, talking to a living, breathing dragon.

"I'm going to sleep now, you should leave, take all your stuff, and none of mine, and leave." He said bluntly.

"Th-that's all?" She asked, looking up at him, shaking her head a little.

"Did you want a scar as a souvenir?" He asked, tilting his head.

"No!" She said rather suddenly, scooting backwards away from him again. "I-its just that...You have so much treasure, and we...I mean...humans...could learn so much from it! I'm not being greedy...I just want to let people learn from what treasure is in here..." She said, and then shook her head. "No, forget I said anything."

"Forgetting is not so easy." The dragon said from right in front of her, his breath washing over her, making her look up with wide, scared eyes, right into the dragons own calm eyes.

They held her in thrall, frozen, unable to move, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, and suddenly, she felt images, thoughts, memories popping into her mind, almost as if the dragon was going through her thoughts. But that was impossible? Wasn't it?

Her mind told her it was all impossible, the dragon, everything, and then suddenly, the image in her mind intensified, became sharper and more clearer, and she realised it was one of her many fantasies about dragon, and she gulped, forcefully pulling her head back and braking eye contact, her head spinning.

"....I believe you." The dragon said simply, inclining his head towards her. "You may take one piece of treasure from this room, when I say you may go, but until then, I wish you to keep me company. There is much I wish to know. I have not left this room in many a century."

"Y-you want me to stay?" She asked, about to protest, but then quieting herself. After all, he was a lot bigger than her, and, from the sounds of it, a very great deal older.

"First, tell me your name." The dragon said, lowering his large head to rest it on his forepaws, yellow eyes observing her curiously.