Every doctor was baffled. How on earth could Baby Toby grow so quickly and heal so fast? It should've taken him weeks at least but it took him five days. "It's like he's a superhuman!" One of the nurses declared.
"Not too far off though." Sarah commented under her breath, giving Toby a kiss. "Oh, how I wish Cassie and your Uncle Toby could be here." She sighed, rocking Toby back and forth.
Jareth put his hand on her back. "I know, my love. It will all be okay. I promise." He turned to look at his newborn son. "What a handsome young lad. Look at his jet black hair, total opposite of Cassie!"
As they were being discharged, a group of women were giggling shyly at the King, Queen, prince, and centaur disguised as an old lady. "What are they laughing at?" Sarah asked annoyedly, pulling Toby closer to her.
The volunteer that was with them turned bright red. "Well, they seem to have a liking towards you, Jareth. They were gossiping about how you look like David Bowie." Sarah laughed, while Jareth seethed annoyingly as the girls kept staring at him.
Cassandra ducked into a small crevice, just large enough for her body. She hoped that she could hide from it, but at the same time, she knew it vain, for the dragon was sure to have a good sense of smell.
Beads of sweat gathered around Cassandra's face, but she didn't dare wipe them even when they started to fall into her eyes. She was terrified that the dragon would see her movements. The sound of her heartbeat rang in her ears so loudly that she was sure he entire Underground could hear it.
Strange, she thought. Why didn't the dragon breathe fire on her? It wasn't typical of Kai dragons to not breathe fire to suffocate its prey. Not that it would do any good though, since no one was better at controlling fires better than Cassandra.
Out of nowhere, the floor gave away and the princess screamed in shock as she fell for the second time in this Labyrinth. Her heart seemed to ring in her ears, terrified that her screams would possibly be the last thing she ever heard.
That was not the case. The young princess landed on something soft and squishy. Hearing the dragon land near her, she stayed still, not wanting to draw attention to herself.
The dragon squealed, and leapt into another spot. Cassandra made a face in the dark. What was wrong? What could scare the mighty dragon like that? She was trying to stay still, but the floor seemed to move beneath her.
And with that, her breath got stuck in her throat. The FLOOR was moving? She heard a small hiss, and terror filled her entire body. This floor was soft because she was on top of snakes!
Snapping her fingers, a bundle of light appeared. There were snakes of all kinds, small, large, fat, long, venomous and not, but all were terrifying. "It's like I'm the middle of an Indiana Jones movie." She muttered.
Snakes have scared her since the day one of them bit her ankle as toddler. She still remembered the blue snake wrapping itself around her leg before sinking its long fangs inside her soft flesh. Sarah was so furious, she killed it on the spot and took Cassandra Above to be checked by a doctor, with Jareth following shortly, yelling at the snake even though it was dead.
The experience was traumatizing, to say the least. But, not as this one. This time, her mother was not available to save her life. Her father would not be there to wreak terror upon anyone. She was alone, with snakes surrounding her.
"ROOOOAAARRR!" Oh yeah, and a fireless dragon, she thought. Somehow, the dragon was less threatening compared to the slithering snakes at her feet.
She engulfed herself in flames, trying to ward off the serpents that were obviously dying to consume her. She was probably the first fresh mean that they've seen in a long time. Looking around, there were bones scattered all over. From the looks of it, numerous humanoid beings were trapped there. Cassandra really hoped that she wouldn't be one of them.
The dragon stared at her, no longer as a meal, but out of curiosity. It seemed to like her fire a lot, but since it didn't bother her, the princess turned her attention to the snakes instead. She couldn't just be in flames forever, she had to get out somehow.
For the rest of the day, the fey and the dragon worked separately, trying to get out of the prison they were in. Every time the princess thought she found a way out, she'd just reach a dead end. She climbed ledges, went through hall ways, and even tried to climb to the top only to find a celling. Her energy was running out, and she didn't have anything flammable to make a torch. With every second that passed by, she could feel her body growing colder, and the snakes stronger.
Losing concentration from her fatigue, a snake instantly lodged itself around her neck. Cassandra tried to yank it off, but all it did was constrict her threat even tighter. She could feel the other snakes coming closer to devour her, hissing in joy at the sound of her muffled scream.
Just when she almost fainted, the dragon roared, chasing the other snakes away from the fey. The snake around Cassandra's neck dislodged itself, sending he princess backing up, coughing and almost losing her balance. The dragon stood in front of her protectively, as if daring for the snakes to go ahead and try to hurt her.
The Voice came back to her, illuminating her on what to do next. Maybe the dragon was saving her because it genuinely felt bad. Or maybe it was friends with a fey. Or it hated snakes. Or it liked the fire that Cassandra had, literally and metaphorically. One thing is for sure; no one will ever know why.
Cassandra mustered the rest of the energy she had into her hands. Pulling her finger apart slowly, a beautiful orb was suspended in mid air, like a miniature sun. Cassandra propelled it forward, and let it sink into the dragon's back.
Instantly, the dragon started to smoke. It picked up Cassandra to put onto its back and doused every snake on fire with its good aim, making all of them hiss angrily before dying.
The toll of the three tasks were really getting to Cassandra. She hugged the dragon, trying to not fall of or to cry. The snakes hissing in pain made her feel terrible. While she hated snakes, was it really the right thing to just kill them?
An emotional dam broke inside of her, and tears escaped her face. She had cried before, but this was different. This was her really truly letting herself just feel bad for the disastrous situation she was in and how horrible she felt. The dragon laid down, nudging against her hair.
Cassandra finally calmed down. And rested her hand on the dragon's snout. "Thank you," she whispered. "For saving my life. You really didn't have to." The dragon seemed to almost shrug in response.
"I'm Cassandra." She introduced herself as she gave the dragon some dried fruit that she had prepared from her last task. "It's not much, but here's something." It took the food from her hands gratefully and gave her another affectionate nudge. It was nice to have someone there, after being alone with only Troy for so long then thrust into life threatening situations immediately after.
Just as she was settling in with her new friend, a hiss filled the air. A large wave of energy threw her and the dragon backwards. With all the dust in her eyes and floating around, the princess didn't dare open them.
A figure was walking closer, and through closed eyes, she could feel a dark and evil aura emanating from it. Her "magical scent" was incredibly strong, almost pungent. Sensing more, her gut telling her that this was a woman. A woman who was thirsty for revenge and wanted nothing more than to kill the young princess.
The figure was keeping distance, and Cassandra could tell that this was no ordinary magical being. The hairs on the woman's head hissed with anger, and Cassandra had never been so grateful to have her vision obstructed.
This was Medusa she was dealing with.
"Well, Princess Cassandra. How nice of you to stop by." Her voice made the hairs on Cassandra's neck stand up. It was high pitch and made every fiber of her being want to scream and run away. Some people hate the sound of nails on chalkboard, but this was like a knife scraping on chalkboard, piercing her ear drums to the point where she thought they would burst from the impact.
Cassandra put her hand on the dragon, relieved that it didn't turn to stone. That meant that it wasn't looking at the Gorgon. Medusa's hair hissed, demanding attention from their host. "Shh, my pretties," Medusa said comfortingly. "You'll feast soon enough. And on a dragon and a Princess of Goblins, as a matter of fact. That's what she gets for destroying your siblings." Cassandra could hear dirt trickling to the ground from Medusa angrily touching the ashes of her dead snake children.
I wish I was invisible. The princess thought to herself. How in the world was she going to get rid of Medusa? Then, an idea came into her head. She tried to recall the myth with Perseus. Let's see, he was a demigod, something she was not. He was gifted with tools to rid of the monster. Now what were the tools he used?
She peaked through, and was horrified to find that she was indeed invisible! The princess blinked again, trying to calm down. The only thing that she was wearing that could've been infused with magic was...
Wait. Troy's bracelet to her. Could it be infused with magic? She took it off, and was immediately visible. Putting it on again, she was still visible, but made the wish again. Lo and behold, she was invisible again!
"Where are you, little girl?" The Gorgon hissed. Cassandra did not have much time, and she struggled to find a solution. "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR KILLING MY BABIES! YOU DESTROYED ALL THAT I LOVE!"
Trying out a hunch, she put her hand on the dragon, and amazingly, it also turned invisible. It became visible the moment she pulled away, but no problem. She could just ride it. Okay, so now I have the helm of invisibility, she thought. Since both she and the dragon could sense where Medusa was, there was no need for a mirror to reflect anything, which was a relief considering the fact that Cassandra could not conjure mirrors like Sarah could.
The dragon could fly, so there were here winged sandals. Undoing her pouch, she unsheathed the sword that her parents and Goblins had gifted her with. She climbed on top of the dragon, kicking it up to make it fly.
To her surprise, Medusa could also fly! Clenching her eyes shut and her teeth together. Cassandra unsheathed a sword, ready to cut her head off. She whispered into the dragon's ear directions as to where Medusa was. Now that the Gorgon was flying, it was even more difficult to pin point where she was. Multitasking was never Cassandra's strong point. And now, she had to wield a sword, try to not fall off, sense Medusa, and guide the dragon all at the same time while being completely blind.
This went on for what seemed like hours. Fire from the dragon's breath did not burn Medusa, and Cassandra even had to go on foot a few times as to not burn too much of the dragon's energy. Cassandra hung onto a ledge for dear life, sensing Medusa floating towards her.
Her sword hit Medusa's sharp nails, the two almost dancing back and forth. Medusa was not able to see Cassandra and Cassandra could not see Medusa.
For centuries after this, Cassandra's battle with Medusa would be sung and praised and picked over.
In a last ditch effort, Cassandra did the last thing Medusa expected. She leapt off the balcony in a back flip, totally blind, and sliced the Gorgon with her sword that was now engulfed in flames. Never had Cassandra been so lucky. The aim was perfect, cleanly slicing off Medusa's head.
The princess fell, and just as she thought she would hit the hard ground, the dragon caught her. She hugged it, thanking that her plan worked and that the dragon was able to find her.
When they landed, Cassandra wrapped the head up and put it in a box so no one could turn to stone from it.
She saw that a wall had collapsed from their fight. Exhausted from the amount of energy that she used, she and the dragon walked out of the room of snake corpses to finally get some rest.
Sorry about taking a while to upload. For some reason, writing about battles is super hard for me, and this chapter is no exception. It isn't one of my best writing, but I tried to make it alright. Thanks for understanding all! Probably only a few more chapters before this fic ends. Thanks again!
