LessName

A final, not so dramatic voice, finished the chant, sounding almost bored. For a time, the sun rises and burns, For a time life writhes and flourishes. Yet in the end the night comes, And all will be brought to dust. Lord of the Dark, we call thee! King of the Fallen, we speak thy name! Prince of the Twisted path, we summon thy power! This world shall be yours once more!

"Oh-" Arayna seemed to deflate slightly at the lack of dragon kills under the young hero's belt, but she refused to despair. "Well, this one is really old, so it would make a great dragon to start with!" Peeking around the other side of the stalagmite at the sleeping dragon, she looked around the cavern, trying to think of a plan. "There are a few other good stalagmites around I could hide behind, this dragon is blind and seems to react more to sound. I could run about and throw some of the larger bones about to make more confusing noise. And you can fight the dragon while I distract it." She glanced back at the young hero, with a questioning look.

Arayna gasped, and was glad she did, because as Regulus knocked them to the ground, she didn't lose all of the breath in her lungs. Slightly flustered, the young woman glanced back at the dragon before she was able to give the young hero before her a brief smile. "You're welcome." She whispered back, although Arayna couldn't help being overly aware of how dirty her simple dress was, and how tangled her dark brown hair was. The dragon! She thought at herself angerly, Stay focused on not dying. Handing Regulus back his sword, she raised an eyebrow at his statement. "I'm sure you're a great hero, but I don't mind waiting here to help you, if you need it of course." She said in such a way that it was clear she thought Regulus was a great hero.

As the cloud of smoke erupted from the old dragon's mouth, Arayna ducked back down behind the large mammal bone ribcage being used as her. . . well cage, except she was of course, able to slide between the bone ribs to look out. She watched, as the dragon proceeded to hack and cough more smoke, a few embers flying forth, and the young man dropped his sword. He must be a prince, She thought. Because who else would fight a dragon? For the first time in a while, Arayna felt her hope rise, but it almost immediately sank as she noticed the sword on the ground. "Well, here goes nothing." She muttered, as she slid between the 'bars' of her cage, and ran over to scoop up the weapon. Holding it awkwardly, she squinted through the haze of smoke--as it had started to disperse--to find her rescuer. She grabbed him by the shoulder, and proceeded to attempt to tow him out of the smoke.

Having finished said long process of standing up, and now that at least an inch of dust had collected on the old reptile's drooping hide, the dragon turned its head in Regulus' direction as the young man screamed his battle cry. Not yet hard of hearing, the dragon seemed to start at the unexpected high pitched noise. It stumbled back from Regulus' attack, the full force of it not connecting, but still cutting a gash as the dragon let loose a pained roar, and turned its head toward Regulus to belch flames at him. All that came forth was smoke.

Somehow going down the correct tunnel, Regulus would soon reach an expansive cavern, and find the dragon. It sat curled up on a pile of varied mammal bones, constructed almost like a bird's nest. As the brave hero stepped forward, he could see that the dragon, was no longer in its prime, as it started sneezing out smoke. The reptile, having heard a bone snap under Regulus' foot, turned its head to look in that direction with its milky white eyes, despite not being able to see. The dragon's formerly thick hide seemed to hang somewhat loose on its frailer frame, and its scales had started to go grey. With a rather pathetic attempt at a roar, the beast proceeded to start the long processes of standing up.

On his way out of town, and towards the cave, Regulus would have passed a rather ridiculous number of signs, all saying something along the lines of "Big ol' dragon down this way, turn around". What made the signs so useless was the entrance to said dragon cave, it loomed large and was easily seen once past the princess's mansion. You would think, before settling in an area, such large potential large reptile inhabiting caves would be at least closed up, if not a reason to not settle anywhere in the area. But for the people of the Big ol' Town, it was just another big ol' cave. At least, until the dragon decided to move in. Regardless, the entrance was dragon sized big, and had one main tunnel that sloped downwards deeper underground. The cave was dark, wet despite no water source above it, and smelled awful. Bones littered the entrance, but decreased in number the further one ventured inside. Dank, with little light, moss grew abundantly along the rock wall, missing in patches where long claws at scored it, and eventually, there was a fork in the road. . .

The woman, who had been standing there, a layer of dust collecting on her person, shook herself back to life with a hacking cough. When she could somewhat breathe again, the woman blinked pointedly at Regulus, and down at his 'stew'. "Ain't hungry no more boy? Well, you take care, ain't nobody wanna clean up yer remains. But yes, right outside town, or at least it was last we checked." Then, wiping down the counter where Regulus had sat, she waddled away to other customers.