Chapter 21 – No Promises
They entered the dragon's chamber. The heat was stifling, and Casey pushed her face into the neck of the jacket she'd put on again. Ivan was pulling her toward the pit. She almost resisted, wondering why they weren't circling around it to make for the exit, when she perceived how the air wrinkled and steamed. Kapyn had left the corridor completely heated. "Like an element," Ivan had described it once. Her eyes were burning as she jumped down into Kapyn's bed. Her feet touched hot, wet objects which adhered to her soles. She looked up and saw a black mound among the scraps of animal remains, and her heart lost a beat before she ascertained that it was Kapyn's molted skin. Ivan held the scaly edge open for her and dropped it as she entered under the dark cloak. The tent of reptile skin was warm, but not unbearable. Ivan began working to enclose them from the calidity. She could hear a metal grating sound as the layer was tucked to her. Casey left off thinking of the texture of the underside of the decaying shell. She was standing in the bloodied aftermath of Kapyn's feasting, and her mind would not allow this heinous scene to register. This was survival and conscious thought could not dwell on distractions.
"This is the plan," Ivan's breath rushed into her face. For the first time she was grateful for his halitosis. It smelled human. "We have to carry this over us to keep the heat out and make it through." She began to move forward and he halted her. "Understand; if it lifts at all while we're walking down the tunnel, it will burn the skin off your feet. We'll move slowly and walk side by side. Keep the cover at your feet, but don't trample it. Left foot, right foot." He began to move and she quickly caught on, wondering how that large mass could be so light. She looked behind to find the majority of the discarded skin was still in a heap upon the paper-littered ground. How had he removed only a portion?
They traversed the pit in the cloak, which was easy to see through. The layer was so thin it amazed Casey that it could seal them away from the heat at all. She was able to see footprints in the splotches of blood which lay in puddles on the wrinkled sheets of paper at their feet.
"Wait!" she told Ivan. "Our prints. Look!"
She began to grab at the sheets and stuff them into her pockets. Twice, she lifted the dragon skin to retrieve the pages, and the heat hit her face painfully, taking her breath and exploding behind her eyes. Ivan didn't stop her, though she sensed his impatience.
Getting onto the ledge from the pit was a task, and the heat broke through again. It raised the temperature inside the canopy in seconds. They were heading toward the corridor. She felt Ivan hesitate beside her as they rounded the arch and linked her arm in his. "We can do this," she told him.
The one thought she could not entertain was of Kapyn's returning before they made it out. She concentrated on Ivan's "lf ft, rt ft" mumbling. He seemed completely immersed in his chant. For some reason she felt confident. They were going to make it out and with all twenty toes intact.
"We're almost there," she said once, though they were just over halfway. Ivan didn't seem to be aware of anything but his mantra. The last paces were painstakingly slow. They almost got out of sync, but kept their feet in the pockets of the dragging skin.
"Wait," he directed, when Casey began to remove the covering as they exited the cave. "We can still be flayed alive from a distance." His pace quickened the farther they moved from the mouth of Kapyn's dwelling. Soon he was running and she was tripping. The dragon skin rolled and twisted around her waist and neck. "I guess it's safe now," he said, his face still so serious.
She smiled up at him. "Ivan, can you believe it? We made it! We made it out alive!"
"Yeah." He didn't seem as excited as she thought he should be.
"What's wrong?" she asked, as he worked to unwind the scaly mass. He wrapped it over his arm. He was studying it intently, rubbing his fingers over the folds.
"Nothing."
"Are you keeping that for a special occasion?" she joked. She felt so free and happy at the moment, but couldn't account for it. She had the vaguest impression that something in the dragon's cave had muddled her senses.
"Yeah," he responded, his jaw tightening. "I am."
"Ivan, what's wrong?" She repeated, forcing him to look at her. "You've just rescued us. I feel like I should be saying 'thanks.' Still, I have a feeling it wasn't for my sake."
A half-grin approached his lips for the first time, returning him to the cynical Ivan she was used to. While his motives were never selfless, she warmed to the idea that he was at least being himself now and she could recognize him for what he was.
"You're right. Want me to tell you why I helped you?"
"Yeah."
"You have to give me your word about something."
Casey sighed. The light from the cave was growing faint and soon they would be in complete blackness. "What?" she asked warily.
"You won't go back to Kapyn's cave without me."
"I won't promise that. I'm going to escape." Determination was in her tone.
"I'll see that you escape; but you have to promise, while Kapyn is alive, you won't-,"
"While Kapyn's alive?"
"Casey." He gestured to the roll under his arm. "I can kill him." His eyes were wild, maniacal.
"Ivan… Um, let's think about this for a minute." She patted his arm, completely aware now that his thoughts had been far away from her on the trek through the corridor. He had been working through his scheme - visualizing his defeat of Kapyn - while she had believed he was under duress due to the situation.
"I know you are brave. I don't think it's a stretch even to suggest you have an addiction to adrenaline, but killing the dragon? How did that ever get into your head?"
"I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything; you just have to give me your word." Casey still hesitated. "Just trust me this once." To her scoffing reply, he added, "I got you out, didn't I? I didn't have to do that."
"But, you did it for self-preservation. I'm not sure why…"
"Okay, okay. I told you you're right. I'll tell you the rest, but I have to know you won't go back alone."
She shook her head. "Honestly, the thought of going back there ever again makes me physically sick, but… I'm not promising. I'm for saving my own skin now."
"We'll get out together-,"
"Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one – Hey," she interrupted herself. "How am I going to get home?"
"You're not going to make it tonight. I'm letting you stay in my hut."
"I'm not so sure I'm agreeable to that arrangement, either. This has nothing to do with your motive for saving me, does it?" she queried with a suspicious look.
"I'm not sure what you're getting at; but if it's what I think, then you've got to be kidding. You're not my type. Even if you were, you should see yourself. Your lips are black and all puffy and split. You have no hair around your forehead and no eyebrows."
Casey reached up and to her chagrin found he was right. Kapyn had singed away an uneven path of hair on the front of her scalp. How had she missed that? "I have a receding hair line," she complained.
"Mmmm… more of an inverted Mohawk."
"Lovely," observed Casey sarcastically.
"You're more than welcome to wait out here until morning. I'm guessing Kapyn will return soon. Who knows? He might even keep you company."
That settled it for Casey. She followed him to the shelter. When he opened the door, he explained, "My side is there, and your side will be here."
"Let me guess: my side is the one without the bed."
"Well, you have the door," he noted, and she heard his rough feet shuffle across to the niche in the wall. She felt for the clothes in the corner of the shelter; and, removing her jacket, emptied the contents of its pockets to make it a comfortable addition to her little resting spot. She felt exhausted, but not tired enough to sleep. Though the jacket beneath her head was hot, she felt shiveringly cold with sweat. Her body wasn't fully adjusted to the humidity again.
She waited for Ivan to commence with a low snore before she crept over and found the soft material lodged halfway under him. She tried to tug ever so carefully. His hand clamped down on her arm in a pincer-like grip, almost scaring her witless. "Your side," he demanded, pushing her away.
Defeated, she lay back on the clothes, which chafed her skin with flecks of mud and pieces of sticks and dried leaves. He mumbled something which sounded like, "…need it anyway…" and she felt something flutter against her arm. Ivan had thrown her the soft satithril cloth.
Wrapping her arms in it, she grinned to herself. For the first time, lying in the darkness, awaiting the day to return, she was content just to be alive. Due to the closeness Kapyn's cave had introduced, her mind was acclimating to appreciate a different level of calm. The majority of her wakefulness was spent thinking about the dragonfly prince. Had the argument between Zyri and Zifford caused her to conjure up such a beautiful personage? She would not believe he wasn't real. He'd touched her, hadn't he? He had spoken with her. She absolutely had to know the truth! Was he the dragonfly prince or was he just a figment of her imaginings? She must wheedle the answer out of the pixies; that was her only way of knowing for sure. Her heart stirred at the thought of the prince's kind eyes, the way he had looked at her. She had felt the adoration in his gaze.
It was hours before her brain, rehearsing what had transpired in the past few hours, gave up and took a respite. Before that occurred, Casey came to a few conclusions: First, she was an idiot for returning with Ivan. All the same, she was glad to have left Kapyn's mountain; it had been horribly confining.
Second, in future she would be more circumspect in considering how to use Ivan. She would not take pity on him for any reason. He was merely a means of escape. She would certainly make no promises to him, especially about not returning to the cave without him in tow. In fact, she would no longer tell him any more than necessary.
Third, Ivan was going to tell her everything.
A/N: I like this chapter's ending for some reason. I hope this gave a better understanding that they were still in the mountain where Kapyn resides. Remember Ivan says the water is in Kapyn's cave?
Ohmothergrandma: I'm sharing in your jig and uber gladness, and really sad for Zifford at the same time. There are times when my fingers fly of their own accord only to pause as I register what has occurred. I did that when writing the scene when Casey finds Zifford. Horrible, horrible.
Quiet Mindreader: I noticed you called him, "Dragon Prince." Was that slip Freudian? Casey's loose tongue began Zifford's trouble, but the pixie was a bit too talkative, too. It was his undoing. I hope to clarify that later. Your theories are so much fun! I'm almost tempted to use your predictions in the story.
Arista Everett June: I'm so sorry, dearest! Should we have a funeral for him and give eulogies over his virtual grave? We'll play your Zifford playlist; I know it will be the perfect goodbye. "…yet there is the tension of the relief of finding each other safe and still together in their adventure world." Very intuitive. Perhaps you will persuade me to like him, but I'm farther along in the story and can't. "…holding onto the hands of all the remaining characters trying to pull them away from the 'ledges' you might have lurking for them." A delicious piece of imagery that begs the query, "Why don't you have any stories posted?"
Iliana11: You and I both know your bouts of insanity are far more sane than my normal, everyday lucidity. I don't know how you put up with me as a beta. Yet, I feel I love you more with each chapter you send. What epic predictions failed? I missed that. "Something bigger is going on here that I cannot seem to predict…" Ooo, foreshadowing words those. Might be rather anticlimactic to end with, "And Thon turned into a rhinoceros," now.
Hazelcloud: Oh, absolutely loved that you noticed the paper. Paper is such an underappreciated item, don't you think? Casey trusting Ivan? Ha! Not a chance. A double chocolate chip cookie for you for perceiving that Casey's words put Zifford under scrutiny. I've already written more explanation about the fat lady, which will come soon.