Author's Note: This chapter was revised and expanded on 5/26/19. Story name was changed as well.
Welf Crozzo headed up their party as they maneuvered through the dungeon floor well above any they had explored before. According to the map Eina had given them, they were close to the dragon's lair. Thank goodness for that map. On this maze-like floor full of dark caves, there were endless hiding places for the dragon or any other creature who might call this dark, dank floor home.
A stench different than the wet, mildew odor of the damp caverns assaulted his nose. Reeking of ammonia and rotting meat, the repulsive stink assaulted his nasal passages bringing tears to his eyes.
"We're close," Welf announced, coughing.
Loosening up his scarf, he tied the cloth around the lower half of his face to cover his mouth and nose in order to ward off the malodorous scent of death and excrement.
"How can you tell?" Bell asked seconds before the foul odor reached his nose making him gag. "Okay. This has to be it."
The sound of paper rustling could be heard and the light of the lantern bounced wildly across the walls as Lili consulted the map.
Welf listened carefully. He could hear a soft scraping sound of something heavy being dragged across the hard packed dirt floor close by. There was a metallic clink of chains. The thump of a large, burdensome tail being flicked came from inside the darker than black cave to his right.
"It should be the cave immediately to your right," Lili said.
A 'whoosh' like the sound of accelerant catching flame before igniting a fire caught his attention.
"Shhh," Welf hissed.
"To your right!" Lili shouted.
Welf whipped his head toward the sound in time to see the orange-red fire glowing in the belly of the beast before it opened its mouth to expel a fire ball. He jumped out of the way to avoid being incinerated. Hitting the ground and rolling back up to a standing position on his feet, he drew his sword.
The dragon was as black as the darkness surrounding it. Only the red and orange eyes, the color of fire, anger, and blood, with an envy green vertical slit pupil, illuminated the shadows giving away its position.
Lunging forward, Welf thrust his sword at one of the dragon's luminescent eyes. The dragon closed his eyes, the blade glancing off the eyelid covered in enchanted ebony scales. The creature made a sound like a taunting chuckle.
"Dammit," Welf cursed when the eyes opened back up and fixed their hostile glare on him.
He grasped the handle of his sword with both hands, thrusting it forward with all of his might into the dragon's eye. The dragon roared, blowing him back against the cave wall, it's hot, sulfurous breath almost roasting him and making him nauseated.
As Welf sat dazed on the dirt floor, he would swear he heard a woman's tormented scream entangled with the deafening sound when the beast howled again in pain. Since the great dragon's mouth was open wide, his opportunity for landing a second and lethal strike had come. Raising his hand, palm facing the dragon's gaping maw, he shouted, "Will-o-Wisp!", unleashing his spell.
The anti magic burst entered the creature's mouth, exploding in his throat as his flames stalled on their attempt to eject it. The dragon opened his mouth wider and bellowed in pain and fury, driving all of them to their knees with their hands over their ears, but the sound reverberated inside their heads.
Bell immediately hit the beast with a firebolt when it roared yet again. The lightning like arc of fiery electricity entered the dragon's mouth.
Welf issued another blast of his Will-o-Wisp to inflict further damage after Bell's firebolt to decimate the creature's insides entirely. When the dragon dropped down onto its belly with a groan, Welf stepped up with his long, double edged sword to ram it through the dragon's head. Pinned to the floor, mortally wounded after being gutted by firebolt and unable to heal, the pitiful creature issued a moan and a puff of smoke before lying motionless.
All three people stood still, not saying a word. The dripping of water was the only sound to be heard inside the cavernous hall. They were still stuck at the opening of the cave which was presently blocked with the dragon's large body.
"Is it dead?" Lili asked in a whisper. Although her voice was low, the sound might as well have been a shout in the dark due to the overwhelming quiet.
"I believe so," Welf said, stepping on the dragon's elongated snout to pull his sword free.
"Did that seem to be a little too easy to anyone else?" Bell questioned his friends.
"Not really. Why?" Welf asked, cleaning off his sword and throwing the filthy cloth on the floor.
"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right," he murmured in return.
"Lili, come up here!" Welf requested. "I need that light."
"It's all yours," she said, handing the lantern to him, and stepping back. "I have another one."
Taking off her massive rucksack, she began digging around for her other lantern.
"Gee, thanks," Welf muttered, raising up on his tiptoes to peek around the dragon to see inside.
"Here, Bell." She gave him the second one, rummaging for another.
"How many do you have in there?" Bell asked, peeking into the backpack.
"Enough," she answered curtly, producing the third one and a match to light both of them.
Welf and Bell cautiously stepped over the legs of the enormous beast blocking the entrance as if still protecting his dwelling. They were exploring the interior of the cave to see if the kidnapped woman the dragon allegedly guarded was hidden inside.
"Hey, Welf, do you see this?" Bell inquired, bringing his friend's attention to the gold chain on the floor. Each of the links was about as big around as his wrist and as long as his arm.
"Gold is a horrible metal of choice for a chain due to it's softness. It would be easily broken. These chains have to be simply for show...but why?" Welf thought out loud.
Following the chain, the massive links eventually split off into four separate chains, the links comprising them much smaller. These chains led to the woman lying unconscious on a stone slab. Each chain attached to one of her four appendages by a thick gold cuff on her wrists and ankles.
"That's so odd," Welf murmured, examining the imposing shackles. "Was this really how the dragon was holding her prisoner? As if he couldn't burn her to a crisp if she tried to escape? If she did leave, she would get lost in the darkness. None of this makes sense."
Welf studied the woman who appeared to be sleeping because she did not look dead. She actually looked quite healthy despite her light complexion. There was even a soft pink blush on the tops of her cheeks. Her lips were a deep crimson as if they had been painted on. Her hair black as the dragon's scales, splayed out around her head, tumbling over the edges in loose curls. Her hands lay folded on her belly. A black dress covered her from under her chin down to her toes.
A low rumbling sound came from behind them. An earthquake? No. The floor wasn't shaking. The sound morphed into rabid growling.
"Guys! I think the dragon is waking up!" Lili shrieked. "Hurry!"
Welf raised his sword to break the chain. Due to the softness of the metal, this should be easy. The blade of the sword contacted the metal, sending out a spark. Only a small chink was removed. Of course it was enchanted.
"Nothing in this cave is what it seems!" Bell yelled.
"Tell me about it!" Welf rejoined, reaching behind his head to unsheathe his magic sword with no name to break the chain.
"Look out!" Bell shouted.
Welf swung his head in the direction in which Bell pointed. The previously unconscious woman was sitting up. Her eyes were wide open and locked on him. The irises were striated red and orange with a vertical green pupil - just like the dragon's eyes.
"Oh, by the gods," he mumbled under his breath.
The woman, terrifying yet beautiful, raised her arm. She held her arm out straight, her fingers making a grasping motion.
"Welf!" Bell yelled when he found himself held in the dragon's claws.
"Dammit," he grumbled, raising his sword.
Welf didn't want to kill her, but she was controlling the dragon and might kill Bell. Bell was his friend. At the moment, she was his enemy. Sacrificing her life for Bell's was a chance he was willing to take.
Rather than stabbing her, he hit her alongside the head with the flat side of his blade. She fell to the side, then back, her body draping across the stone platform as if she had fainted there. He waited, sword poised and ready to thrust into her heart should she sit back up. However, she remained in the dramatic pose on her back, her body lying perpendicular to the platform under her, head and legs hanging off into the air.
The dragon no longer moved, but it did not release its grip on Bell either. Using his Hestia knife, Bell hacked away each one of the scaly fingers as big around as his leg enclosing his torso to free himself.
Running over to assist Welf with releasing the woman, he tripped over where the chains converged and led back to the dragon. In the light of both of their lanterns filling the room, they could see where the chain attached to a collar around the almost dead dragon's neck.
"That's how she's controlling it, making it her puppet. The chain is acting as a conductor for the magic," Bell explained, sounding pretty sure although the explanation was a deductive guess.
"Should I kill her?" Welf asked, his blade held over her neck and ready to lop off her head.
"Cut the chains! Cut the chains!" Bell shouted as she sat back up.
"Help me! Free me," she begged, her eyes staying closed. "The dragon is dying!"
"Bell! Bring your knife!" Welf yelled. "You open up the shackles on her ankles. I'll pry open the ones on her wrists."
Using the tips of their blades, they began wrestling with the substantial restraints.
"Hurry," she pleaded, squeezing her eyes shut tight. "Set me free!"
"We're hurrying, we're hurrying," Welf assured her, his blade slipping and cutting the palm of her hand. "I'm so sorry."
"It's fine. The pain reminded me I'm still human after all," she sighed as if relieved. "This has to end. It has gone on for far too long."
"Do you control the dragon or does he control you?" Welf asked, breaking one of the shackles.
"It goes both ways," she answered. "We're connected so the magic flows back and forth between us. I have to set him free."
Welf was sure he had misunderstood her, and she was pleading to be set free again.
Bell removed one of the ankle cuffs, and she screamed as if he had hurt her which startled him. With shaking hands, he began trying to free her from the second shackle.
The dragon groaned; a pathetic, watery sound bubbling up from deep in his throat.
"He's dying! He's dying!" she shrieked. "It hurts!"
The woman gritted her teeth against the agony, groaning in place of releasing her screams.
"The dragon dying is causing you pain?" Bell asked.
"We're linked. I know his thoughts. He knows mine. I feel his pain. He feels mine. At the moment, I feel like I'm dying with him. I can't see. Every joint, every bone in my body aches. It hurts to breathe. There's a weight on my chest."
"How long have you been connected to him this way?" Welf inquired, stabbing at the shackle around her wrist.
"I-I d-don't kn-know," she stuttered, tears forming at the corners of her tightly closed eyes. "I've lost count of the years."
"Years?" Welf muttered.
"Will you die if we free you from the dragon?" Bell questioned her, pausing in his efforts.
Welf hesitated and looked at Bell. Were they doing the right thing by setting her free?
"I'll die if you don't free me from him regardless! At least try to save me! You make the decision whether I live or die!" she screamed.
The dragon opened its mouth issuing a low, mournful howl along with a belch of smoke. He inhaled slowly, preparing to release his final breath and his life.
"There! Got it!" Welf yelled, popping open the other wrist shackle.
"Me too!" Bell chimed in, freeing her from the last chain on her ankle.
The entire cave lit up with a blinding white light. The burst of light faded in brilliance and size, compressing itself into a thin line that blazed across the room like a spear and pierced her chest. The woman inhaled a long, wheezing breath, her eyes opening wide in fear and pain. Her eyes were a solid white blue color, no iris, no sclera. Then the light was gone, absorbed into her body. She inhaled a few more loud gulps of air, her mouth opening and closing like that of a fish. Afterwards, she fell over onto her side on the slab, not moving a muscle or making a sound.
"Is she dead?" Bell asked apprehensively.
Welf placed his hand under her nose. He could feel the lightest puffs of air rapidly blowing across his fingers.
"I think she's alive. For now anyway," he added.
"We should take her with us," Bell declared, his mind obviously set.
"Do you think that is a good idea?" Lili asked, dubious of the woman who had tried to use a dragon to kill them all.
"Should we leave her here to die?" Bell returned, disbelieving his ears. "I can't do that, Lili."
"Why not? She's not our responsibility. We have enough troubles of our own, Bell," she reminded him, not intentionally trying to be cruel. "Besides, she tried to kill you."
"She was under the influence of the dragon, that's all," he said, too quick to dismiss people's obvious shortcomings as always.
"I'll take her. She will be my responsibility," Welf said seeing the torn and guilt riddled expression on Bell's face.
Bell was sometimes too naive, too trusting, for his own good. Yet he believed this woman to be a victim. None of what she had done had been her fault. She had possibly been captured as a child and held prisoner most of her life.
Welf was by no means a tender hearted person like Bell, but he wasn't completely heartless either. He lived alone and had no one else to take care of. So he volunteered to take her, to give her place to stay and take care of her in order to alleviate some of the financial and emotional burden from Bell and the women closest to him. If Bell believed she was worth saving, then he did too.
"Help me get her onto my back," Welf said to Bell, hunching down in front of the unconscious woman. "If something bad happens to me, it's all your fault."
Bell's face turned red as he sat the woman up, then carefully laid her against Welf's back. He placed one of her legs around his friend's waist, then had to run around to the other side to do the same thing.
As Welf carried her through the dungeon, a dead weight on his back, he listened to her light snoring. Occasionally, she emitted little growls from her chest which vibrated against his back. In these moments, he wondered exactly what he had gotten himself into.
Once at his house, Welf put her in his bed, covering her with layers of blankets. Despite the warmth in the cozy little house meant for one, her skin remained cold, deathly cold. At least her chattering teeth stopped after a few hours.
As days passed, her skin took on a ghastly ashen color, the pallor of death. He feared she was slowly dying right in front of him. He didn't know who she was or exactly what she might be. But she had called herself human, saying how good it felt to be reminded she was still human.
Welf wasn't too much for the damsel in distress type. However, this woman had survived years of imprisonment, being held under the influence of a dragon. Obviously, the creature relied on her to strengthen him and keep him alive. There was no way he would consider her a weakling.
Dabbing her clammy forehead with a wet cloth, he wiped the cold sweat from her entire face. Then he spoon fed her a little water and a small amount of chicken broth. He was doing what he could to keep her alive, hoping it would be enough. Perhaps she couldn't survive after all without being tethered to the dragon and her life force combining with his.
But Welf had to try to save her. Maybe she could break free of the dragon's power, reclaiming her life and her strength. After that, she would be free to do as she pleased. She could leave, or she could stay. The decision was hers to make.
What was that light that went into her after the dragon breathed its last pathetic breath? Was it his power, his life, going into her? Was it too much for her human body to contain?
Welf had other questions too. What was her name? Where did she come from? Did she even remember anything about her life before the dragon taking her prisoner?
"Wake up," he said, pushing away the sweaty hairs plastered to her cheeks. "There's so many things I want to ask you."