Chapter 6; Performance:
We now have another song featured in this chapter folks: 'If I Had Words to Make a Day for You' - Acoustic Cover, by Daniel and Flannery Gale. It has a wonderful dissonance with Raelynne's situation as she attempts to deal with a dragon as we listen to this lullaby.
I would like to apologize for being so late with this update, but things got all sort of distracting what with midterms and then fall break. But now that I have had a lovely little visit with my family, I am going to work at my stories once more (I made this chapter longer than I originally planned to make up for my absence). I hope you enjoy! I certainly did!
Her instincts screamed. Every fiber of Raelynne's being screamed for the same thing, her blood pounding with the same urge, same desire. Run. For the sake of everything that is left to hold dear. Please…run.
And yet, she couldn't. Everything in her screamed, yet nothing, no part of her had the strength to follow through with what was cried for. It had all left her. She was so numb with fear she could not even feel the frantic beat of her heart, though it was all she could hear. Raelynne was now being conducted down a long, thin hall way of stone that was coated in a repressing darkness, her hollow steps mixing with the forceful stomps of the man with the ugly brow who forced her on. Not that it was difficult, as shock makes one very compliant.
Slowly, as if trapped in pitch, Raelynne racked her mind for possibilities, but her weakness of state and sense left for little answers to be thought possible besides just one. For in spite of the pain she felt surge from the back of her head, she could still find it in her to believe this was all some nightmare. Pain was nothing new to her dreaming mind, and such would explain how she came to be in such a dark, strange place. The gold in the vault like room she was in before, it could have all just been her imagination. Certainly it was viable that she, with her greed and hopes for a better life, could concoct a vision of towering piles of gold, of the jewels that pressed harshly against her palms when she gripped the glittering floor in her struggles. Raelynne had heard once from her mother that dreams, particularly the strangest of them, were merely tests or lessons of being and morality from the gods. This surely must be the gods' way of chiding her for her small greed. It would explain why she had dreamed up the meeting on the mountainside with the rat like man who now pushed her on further into the dark hall. She could see it even now, her sleeping, unaware self still in the forest, her true body resting in the branches of its green, she to wake when she had passed whatever test the gods had in mind for her greedy want of a better life, perhaps made more bitter but none the less safe.
But no, none of it could be a dream. It couldn't, because that would mean that…creature was a part of her mind. And none could dream up a nightmare so horrible. Not her. Not even the gods.
So this was not a dream then. That meant there was no escape waiting for her to just open her eyes. It was all real, every last horror.
A grunt of pain escaped Raelynne then, ending her thoughts as her attention was brought onto the man who shoved her down the long corridor, the torch in his hand scarcely providing enough light to fight the shadows back well enough for Raelynne to see where they were going. Upon waking earlier, she immediately recognized him as the man who had given her this lovely headache. That was about all she could wrap her mind around, throbbing as it was at the moment.
Even now, probably hours after she had received the blow that had blackened her world, she could feel the caked blood on her neck, and the ripping pain that kept her body weak with the stress of recovery. How she would love to return the discomfort tenfold to the man, and under other circumstances she would, was it not for the fact that the rat had been wise enough to remove her knife from her when she was unconscious. He probably did that before he conducted her to this horrible place, where ever this place was. It disgusted her that he touched her to find the weapon, but then a panic arose from another thought.
Her hand reached to grab at the space below her neck, Raelynne was relieved to find a small, metal lump still in its place under her garb. It was still with her, for better or worse. With this knowledge, Raelynne felt her mind at last return to its full faculty, and she decided that it was time she acted, or at the very least spoke out, headache or no.
"What are you going to do to me?" She asked, managing to keep her voice firm and demanding despite circumstances. The man only sneered at her in exasperation, but she continued "Why am I here? Where is here even?"
When he continued to ignore her, Raelynne felt the fire of her temper return to her. She would not stand to be ignored by anyone, especially when her life was in danger, which she had every right to assume it was.
"Answer me you damned rat!" Raelynne shouted, hurting her own ears with the echo of her shrill voice. The stranger didn't seemed to enjoy the sound of it either, as suddenly he opened a door, and shoved her inside yet another blackened space.
She wobbled, losing her balance from the moment the man loosened his grip on her. She didn't realize she was leaning on him so dependably to walk, and with crushed pride Raelynne found herself sprawling onto the floor. After shutting the door behind him, the man made to light the torches placed on the walls, soon alighting the room. Too weak to pick herself up, Raelynne watched him from the corner of her eyes as she took note of the room itself. It was large, and entirely made of marble, though time and neglect had tarnished its white beauty. Columns gilded with gold wound up to the ceiling like graceful vines. Unpolished mirrors were placed strategically about, all pointing to the center of the room, in which lay a lowered bath, wide enough to fit an entire army in Raelynne's humble opinion. Normally, she would have gaped at the beauty of the room, but right now she could not rise to do anything but hate the sight of it all. Before she could ask what the meaning of bringing her here was, the man moved towards the tub, bending down to work at the knobs and pulls on its rim. In an instant, a flood of water began to fill the bath, creating a billow of steam with its heat.
"There we are." The man finally said after having added the contents of some bottles that were nearby, adding a sickeningly sweet fragrance to the vapor "We are going to get you all cleaned up, nice and pretty. And then you're going to give the master what he wants."
Trying her best not to faint by the sudden heat and strongly scented oils that did her crippling headache no favors, Raelynne's expression fell into confusion at his words.
"You speak as if I understand your lunacy."
The man chuckled at her ignorance.
"No, I suppose you wouldn't. Then perhaps I should make things clear."
The man made his way back to where he left her, she reacting in turn by picking herself up and swaying a couple of steps back. If she had the option to fight him, she would have done so already, but right now it was already too much for her body to keep her standing. Still, if it came to such things, she was not confident about her chances, even against such a worm.
"I am Alfrid, once upon time counselor of Lake Town, now servant to the great and powerful Smaug, whom you just had the pleasure of meeting." The man, Alfrid, bowed his head mockingly after he introduced himself.
"And you, poor dear," He said with feigned sympathy "are here for one purpose and one only."
Raelynne felt herself gulp as Alfrid paused purposely to antagonize her with worry. It was an unnecessary effort on his part, for Raelynne was doing just fine on her own.
Oh, please gods…tell me I'm not going to be that thing's dinner.
"Smaug wishes to be entertained with music. That is your sole reason for living this long."
Immediately, one worry was squashed in Raelynne's whirring mind and another was stirred. Music? Music was what the creature wanted form her? To have her entertain him, to sing to him? What the sniveling man said had all the makings of some kind of warped fairytale, and Raelynne felt that perhaps her theory of her being in a dream created from her fevered mind might correct after all.
"Fail to please him, or run, or stutter, or refuse any of his wishes, and you will be nothing but a pitiful heap of ashes for me to sweep away." Concluded Alfrid as he took one more step towards her, fixing her with his glossy, rodent like eyes.
"Do you understand that?" He spoke, tone filled with derision.
All Raelynne's thoughts and instincts screamed a solid 'No!' for the injustice of it all, for the unfairness of this dream, but she forced her head to nod in agreement.
"Quintessentially."
"Then get in the bath." He ordered, gesturing to the steaming pool beside them. The water was opaque with expensive salts and fragrant oils, but to Raelynne it looked like a cauldron of poison. With one glance back at Alfrid, she knew he would not be allowing her the choice to deny his order, or would he leave her to her own devices even if she did comply. He was smirking, expecting her to tremble with modesty and blush at such a notion. For a possible figment of her dreams, the man seemed to forget she was a young woman used to traveling along the road by herself, and so, had little modesty to speak of. She could just outright refuse, but for the moment, it was all she could do to stand, her head swimming thanks to the now seething temperature of the room produced by the heated water. So if he wanted her to get clean, there would be nothing to stop him from tossing her in himself if she refused. Still, she felt a repugnant need to keep his eyes off her, and so, began to undress herself carefully.
Turning away from Alfrid and towards the bath, she began to remove all but her travel cloak, which acted like a closely wrapped curtain. As she tossed her articles into a pile, it was confirmed to her that her knife was indeed missing, along with her money purse.
The bastard.
Keeping her cloak wrapped around her, Raelynne dipped herself into the bath, tossing the cloak back only when she was submerged up to her neck, the generous depth of the bath allowing for such. Her arms automatically reached up to cover her breasts from view out of habit, though the salts of the bath had made the water obscure enough to limit what could be seen. Surprisingly, the water felt soothing and the heat of the bath nearly tempted Raelynne back into unconsciousness despite herself, and it was only by the saving grace of a rag being tossed at her unguarded back that kept her from succumbing to it.
"You're filthy. Clean yourself," Commanded Alfrid, a prurient smirk responding to Raelynne's hateful glare "and hurry up. Mustn't keep the master waiting."
With that, the rat man made to leave the room, taking extra effort to slam the door behind him. Counting his steps until they were no longer within ear shot, Raelynne climbed out of the water and ran towards the door. With all her might, what little there was, she tugged at the handle, causing the metal framed door to shake, but it was of no use.
It was locked.
Looking around her, Raelynne searched for another exit. But it too proved to be pointless as she could not even find a mouse hole, let alone another door. But she stated to shiver as the cold air stung her wet body, and she felt there was nothing to do but go back into the bath lest she incur the wrath of the rat man or a deadly chill.
Raelynne loved to get clean. It was one of the many other reasons she hated traveling; she always got dirty. As she slipped back into the water with a weak sigh, she almost loathed herself for the faint feeling of pleasure it gave her to be wrapped by such warmth, a rare luxury she had not felt in some time, and now to her battered and bruised body it felt near cathartic. Begrudgingly she took up the rag that had been thrown at her, and began to scrub, and regrettably, think, as the warm water she now washed over her body opened her thoughts and fears to the forefront of her mind.
That rat, Alfrid, truthfully Raelynne was wary of him. But only because she was at the moment, weak, and he could take advantage of that, just as he had her foolishness when they met. While that still burned her, she was only ever cautious of cowards, never afraid of them. She was used to dealing with such men, as a vast majority of humans, not just men, were the same.
But that monster…Smaug.
He was unfamiliar. He was a foreign terror, one that shook Raelynne's foundations of reason.
Since leaving his presence in the vault, she had put off her thoughts about him for the same reason a child shut their eyes and prays the very thing they are afraid of would disappear. However, it is never darker when one closed their eyes, and if she was to think clearly on how to survive, Raelynne would need her eyes wide open. And the effort made her sick with and by with each passing moment, her panic by had welled up to such a degree, that even now, away from the creature's presence, the thought of it brought her breath to change to dry sobs, her body beginning to shake in a chill the tepid water could not repress. The shock of her experience was coming into full form, and with the freedom of momentary privacy, Raelynne allowed it.
Dragons had been nothing but stories about creatures with jaws that bite, claws that catch, and eyes of flame. But now, Raelynne has stared into those fictional eyes of flame, and they stared right back to her core, proving to her with its accompanied claws, tail, breath, that it was every embodiment of those stories she heard as a child, and very much real. She never felt more naked than when that beast had looked at her, not even now with herself unclothed. The stories fell short in what little truths they held, failing to prepare her for the leap from fantasy to authenticity she was forced to accept being faced with such awful proof. There were few horrors that compared.
Those eyes…their slits were like black scorched swords, surrounded by the very fire that forged them. They could pierce a man down with a simple look. They certainly had done so to her. No one, no human at least, had ever been able to do that to her before, strike her down and leave her trembling. She had never been made to feel so afraid before, not even in her worst dreams or memories. She was made to feel her mortality, her fragility against the harsh enduring of the beast's presence that has lasted from time and myth. No human took to being remained of their weaknesses well, but when your humanness is something you are made to be ashamed of, weakened by, what then? Raelynne was only ever able to run thanks to the seer, primal fright he instilled in her. He inspired her blood instinct to survive, at whatever cost. He had reduced her to little more than a frightened animal. What little good it did her though, as the creature brought her back with just a sweep of his tail, leaving a now clear impression of forming bruises on her ribs that sorely constricted every breath she took. If the pain he ensued in her was only a taste of what the creature was capable of, she shuddered to think what a worse blow would render her.
Everything of the beast, from his scales to his horrid voice, worked Raelynne's panic wildly further. She was at an utter loss for what needed to be done, what could be done, for her. Raelynne's schemes and endurance had only ever dealt with other humans, but here, here in this mythos of horrors, she could not conjure a single avenue of thought as to what she should do. What could she do? Run? Fight? Cower? What would give her the grace of another sunrise, what would banish it? No little prayer or shamefully futile wish could be held back, and Raelynne found herself fighting against the comfort of old, forbidden memories.
In the lonesome room, Raelynne resumed her bathing, distracting herself form what was to shortly follow with pressing scrubs to her skin, the slow rippling of water the only sound to accommodate her dry sobs.
~:o0o:~
Just as the scalding water was beginning to become lukewarm and the pain at the back of Raelynne's head had subsided a little, the rat man returned. Having composed herself from her panic and dried her eyes, Raelynne now was refreshed in mind and body some, to the point where she was already chiding herself for her foolish panic. She still had no plan or bright hope for her situation, but Raelynne knew this much could be concluded: if she wanted to live, then at all times, she needed to keep her wits. There would be no room for error, or for fear. In the life she led before, she lost herself many times over to the dreads that so often haunt a child, but in this life now, the one this nightmare threatened, she would not allow it to happen again. Still, such tasks were more easily spoken than done…
At her sharp tongued protest, he allowed her to dress herself in private into the trappings he had brought back with him. The dress smelled of dust and earth, its crisp, creamy color making her shiver as she tightened its laces, thinking back to the old stories she knew, with young maidens being sacrificed to beasts in purest white. Disregarding the dainty slippers laid out for her, she slipped on her own sturdy boots, the length of the dress long enough to hide her trade. The final piece of her costume was a small circlet of bronze to be placed over her braided hair, like some mocking crown. With no choice left her, Raelynne went into the hall, were Alfrid was waiting with an impatient sneer.
As much as it bent her pride, she made no complaint when he made to grab her arm and commence to conduct her down the hall, as truthfully she was still not recovered enough to make the long walk on her own strength just yet. Though, already the back of her head and her bruises were much better thanks to the heated water. In addition, it was within her best interest to not make any more of an enemy out of him for the moment. To her great displeasure though, Alfrid felt that another speech on his part needed to be made.
"Now then, from this point forth you have the pleasure of being a servant of Smaug. You will address him in a manner according: master, lord, my king."
Turning her sharply towards him with a sudden stop and harsh yank on her arm, Alfrid peered to meet her eyes, which nearly matched his in height.
"You will never complain, you will never make your own human needs or thoughts known, and you will never make to escape. You are merely an insect to the master. A pet. Trying to act otherwise will be most ill-advised."
A look of cautious surprise appeared on Raelynne, and she spoke slowly. He already made mention as to what her purpose being here was before, but her still beating fear needed as much conformation as she could snatch.
"So, I am not here to be…"
"Eaten? Oh, no." Alfrid laughed heartedly at her need to have her greatest worry disproved "Smaug, though partial to sweet meats, merely wishes to be entertained for the moment. He has been in quite a, unusual, mood of late. Though who knows how long such a mood will last?"
Raelynne nodded, though still she did not fully understand it. But it seemed for the moment, if she played her part well, she would be living to see another sunrise.
"Have you decided which instrument to play for the master?" Continued Alfrid.
"Pardon?"
"To play? To sing? Smaug wishes to be entertained."
"Oh. I…I am not sure."
Alfrid let out a sigh of derision, disappointed in her incompetence. Surely, if someone wanted to live, then they would certainly at least try. Still, it was no longer his neck on the line. If this girl failed, Smaug would only order him to bring a new one or would forget the whole matter. But Alfrid was hoping this one would last long enough for him to dust the dirt from this errand first.
"Well, if you fail to keep that silly head of yours in check, it is your own neck now. But still, do try to make a good first impression on the master."
With that, Alfrid pushed Raelynne away, her momentum propelled by her own clumsy weakness. A crash of coins met her when she broke out of the dark hall and into the familiar room filled with troves of treasure. Sitting up quickly, Raelynne looked back in time to see Alfrid close the entrance into the hall behind him, leaving her in the dark.
Standing up, she panickedly turned about, ready to meet whatever may come with gritted teeth and firm resolve.
But there was nothing.
Stone columns reaching towards the ceiling encompassed her, suppressed on all sides with the unending bed of coin and splendid jewels. Once more Raelynne found herself fighting the urge to call this a dream as the gold shined out towards her all the more brilliantly in the subdued dark. The gods could still be testing her, taunting her with riches she had always dreamed of owning. But despite temptation, her eyes did not linger on any of its beauty as she continued her wild search. Her quiet breathing was the only sound against the silence, her gaze taking in all with a building tension as she continued to find no sign of the master of this dazzling fantasy. And this was far more distressing to Raelynne then if the beast had snatched her with its claws this very moment. Like a spider, she had no doubt the beast was within in the gold veins of this lair, waiting. She could almost feel the pierce of his eyes on her, causing a quicker pace of breath in her as dreaded apprehension sunk her body into a tension.
Where was the beast? Was it here still, or was it hiding, playing with her already frightened state? The lack of presence from the beast brought all sorts of panics to Raelynne's mind, warping her hope that it was only a figment of her mind, but further distorting her fear. What if all Alfrid told her a lie? What if the stories she had been disregarding for as long as she could all were truths, and she was indeed to be the creature's meal? All her reinforcements left her as the silence beat against her ears in dissonance with her racing heart. She was no coward, but imagination and horror can stir the cowardice in any, and this invisible monster was wildly working both within Raelynne. She wanted to see a light to shatter herself against, she wanted to feel a whisper of fresh air, anything but the false calm of this stale silence. Despite her best efforts, the animal instinct that had given her flight before in her meeting the beast quickly ran through her again, once more pleading with the only remaining desire in her.
Run. Run. Please. RUN!
Instinct inspired her legs to begin their race, but panic gave them the strength they needed to run now. She hardly knew which direction she began her sprint, but it did not matter as her only thoughts were dedicated to keep herself from stumbling on the hills and valleys of treasure. She thanked her cleverness in keeping her own sturdy boots, as those slippers would have surely let the cruel gold strike her heels till they were-
In an eruption of coin, a terrible head suddenly rose before Raelynne, stopping her dead in her path. The shock from the motion caused a wake to be made in the hill of treasure, reforming it as easily as a pile of sand. Forced to stumble on her back and crawl to avoid being compacted with the harsh rain of metal and jewels, Raelynne's inspiring panic became a dead weight that locked her legs and drew out all her breath.
She had run right to the beast.
"Where are you fleeing to, little song bird? Are you in such hurry to leave your new home?" Spoke the terrible creature once his head had reached its full height, the rest of his body reclined and blanketed by his trove. The portrait of ease, the Red Dragon's composed countenance was in complete deviation with Raelynne's stifled alarm as she could do nothing but gape up at the towering sight of him. His presence before her brought back every little trepidation that he had inspired in her from before, her moments of repose a glass shield against the beast and everything he invoked. Like a quivering child, she tore her gaze downwards to the red scales of his claws, to avoid meeting his eyes. If she could just keep from her head cringed down, she might be able to keep what strength she had left from being buried by his potent gaze.
"No! No, Oh Great Smaug! Just the opposite!" In Raelynne's own surprise, she spoke loud and clear, her mind and voice working clearer than when they met before "I was just admiring your great hoard! It is most impressive!"
Though unseen, Raelynne felt the dragon's cracked grin sneer at her obvious fib.
"Lying is a most dangerous trait for someone in your position to keep." The dragon spoke, his guttural voice a disembodied horror, a hiss and a howl to her ears, which shuddered through Raelynne. She did not respond, not trusting herself to try and argue for her poor excuse when she clearly did not possess the talent for fooling the scaled beast against the obvious. For a while, there was nothing but the dank stillness that seemed so often to rule each moment in this mountain. It seemed to Raelynne that the dragon was studying her, his heavily felt gaze summing her up. Whether it was because the crisp whiteness of her dress against her cleaned body, or her audacity to falsely praise his hoard, she did not know. The beast did though seem to take delight in her refusal to meet his gaze, her submissiveness no doubt pleasing to one such as him. All too soon for Raelynne, the dragon slithered its vile head down to her, twisting like a ribbon, and spoke.
"Well now, my bird, besides cowering and poorly recited deceits, what other talents do you possess?"
"I-I can sing." Raelynne answered, eager to move past her mistake, pausing only a moment to swallow her stutter "I can dance. I can recite many tales, and poems, and unsolvable riddles."
At the last of this, the beast snorted, and Raelynne grew distracted for a moment. Lifting her gaze some to lessen her air of childlike fear, she went on.
"I can play a great number of instruments. Bodhran, viol, gemshorn, mountain dulcimer–"
"Those words mean nothing to me." The dragon interrupted, and a worrisome tone of boredom was detected by Raelynne. She let out a chuckle that was far less nervous than it should have been.
"No. I suppose they would not."
Though without prior experience to dragons outside of myth, Raelynne wisely made the assumption that, for her, there would be nothing worse for her health than a bored dragon. After standing herself up and patting down the wrinkles in her dress, Raelynne grounded herself.
"A song it is then."
Concentrating on a fixed point on the dragon's neck, Raelynne began; quiet at first, but the echo of the cavernous lair gave her meek, shaking voice a full body. It was a song from her childhood, one that had always comforted her. As she sang, she found herself not quite giving a true performance, singing more for her own self than for her looming spectator. She made once more to repeat the round, a bit of her silvery tone finding its way back into her voice, though it was far from her best performance.
"If I had words to make…a day for you, I'd give you the morning, golden and…true. I would make this day, last for all time…and paint you a night, deep in moon–"
"Stop."
Cut by this one word, Raelynne felt a spark of indignity within her at being forced to halt in her song. It was one of the oldest indignities that slighted any troubadour, but her caution kept her in check as she spied a change in the dragon's countenance. He appeared to be…disappointed? She knew her voice was not at its full capability, being a bit coarse with worry, but surely, he did not think she was insufficient?
"It seems your beauty does not reflect your ability. A most unfortunate flaw." The dragon sighed with the kind of sadness a spoiled child has for a broken toy. Turning towards her, the beast caught her discolored eyes unaware, watching as poorly masked apprehension darkened their shade. He then let out a scoff of mocking amusement.
"Tell me, is it your fear of me that makes absent your talent or perhaps an absence of talent entirely?"
"I-I-I-" Raelynne stuttered in a mix of fear and shame, trapped by the creature's gaze. As she predicted before, its hold took out all of her strength and resolve. But to be killed by a poor performance, and by a dragon as well, was something of the most morbidly comical of nightmares to her, one that, as she reminded herself once again, this was not. She watched as smoke and fire that billowed and mixed in his eyes, like black tar and splattering crimson, that could never just belong to the world of dreams. It was too ethereal in its perplexing dance. But, were this a dream, Raelynne might have found herself calling such a sight…beautiful.
"Dragons are not celebrated for their patience." Continued on the beast, sparring Raelynne from her thoughts "But I suppose I will have the chance to practice, knowing now that I must wait longer still to attain my true song bird."
His words stung Raelynne with a now rising anxiety. The dragon was turned away, inspecting his sharply fine claws against the gold beneath him, red scaled neck arched gracefully and tail sweeping in time to an inaudible rhythm. Even though it would have been prudent to take this as the warning it clearly was, Raelynne could not help but feel a spark of anger at her having her performance so easily dismissed.
"As for you, my poor creature, what is to be done about you? Hm?" He added, eyes flickering their attention back onto her as he then seemed to be mulling her fate over. He tilted his head side to side noncommittally, as if was a dull task to decide her life's end, but there was a hint of cruel enjoyment to the crookedness of his sneer.
This was it, Raelynne decided. The dragon was merely playing with her now, like a cat toys with a mouse before the fateful bite. Whereas there is a kindness to the way a cat kills, in giving the creature a sporting chance with its teasing catch and release, here, there was no sport or chance. Her life meant nothing to this creature, as entertainment or as a morsel. Because she failed to appease him, her fate was being quickly sealed by his dissatisfaction and boredom. If Raelynne wished to live, she needed to create a chance for herself, any chance, however slim. But nothing but hopeless thought after hopeless thought came to her, panic rising and clouding her wits as the dragon seemed to lower its head closer, coiling like a snake and forcing her to step back. The dragon seemed to be coming to his decision now about Raelynne just as she found herself backing into the base of a column, the whites of his teeth beginning to bear down at her. She had just seconds before her now, there was nothing to lose, everything to gain, in her panicked gamble.
"I can be your bird!" She shouted suddenly in anger. From his closeness, the dragon peered down at her in curiosity at her declaration and annoyance at its volume. Realizing its harshness, Raelynne toned her voice softer, putting on a show of meekness to damper down her eagerness to live.
"I can sing, I can dance! I can do all that I have said, and do it well!" She paused, taking in the dragon's features. Those horrible eyes remained a mystery, but the rest of him seemed to be waiting to hear of what she had left to say, as if entertained by her last, courageous pleas for her life. This thought brought back a spark of her flamboyant confidence.
Dream or no, the test of gods or a cruel beast's game, this, like anything else, was a performance. And like any other performance, once you pleased the audience, you won the audience.
"I can give you what you want. If my voice does not please you, I will change it, Smaug the Abysmal, oh Smaug the Affluent! I will give you anything and everything you wish from me. I swear it!"
Raelynne ended her speech with a slight gasp of breath, eyes wide and searching for the beast's eventual and possibly fatal response.
Once again, his eyes remained unreadable. Though unwise, she rose to the silent challenge of returning his stare. Locked, she felt the dragon judge and study her eyes of blue and green, summing up her worth, as if all she was had been laid bare before him. Every breath, every heartbeat became a secret for him to steal from her, a telling tale. Her confidence wavered some at the continued invasion, but she held what little ground she had left, knowing it was all she had. When she thought the moment would never end, the dragon let a smirk then split his jaws, cruel delight igniting his eyes with a different light. The sight was enough to make one flee for better nightmares, but her closeness to the beast's snout would not permit such.
"Very well." He finally said, a pulse of his heated breath washing over Raelynne. Slowly, the beast pulled away from her, forcing her to look high above her in order to see him at his full, imposing height.
"I want you to sing. Sing like a bird, akin to the one fluttering in your chest."
A charmingly forced smile traced Raelynne's dry lips as she bowed at his request.
"Of course…master."
Oh no! What will happen to our poor Raelynne and smug Smaug now that they have finally met, and Raelynne's purpose has been made clear? Eep! So exciting! Poor Raelynne though, she had it rough this chapter. But she stuck through it, even without having nerves of steel. I like how she resolved her problem by doing what does best, and it seems she may just have what it takes to survive (But then again, only I know what is going to happen next, so, it could go anyway really).
Regardless, join me next time as Raelynne has many a sleepless night, Smaug asks some questions, and Alfrid is a massive weasel (shocker).
Special thanks to: PlaidPajamas01, The Queen Dragon, RadCatz, that one Guest, DONOVAN94, MusicOfMyMind, vixen1991, Forgotten Shadow Dweller, mbh040, Miss Pibbles, and Teddy bear 007!