A single torch light moved through the narrow cavern, reflected in the water coating the stone walls. The youth holding the burning stick flinched at every drip from the stalactites overhead as she traversed further and further into the cave, weaving through the limestone stalagmites that had built up over the millennia. Recalling the tales of lost human remains and monsters with limbs longer than her cot back home made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle upright. The idea of a monster like the spider-wolf crawling out of the shadows was the thing of her nightmares. But nothing could compare to what was said to slumber in the deepest parts of the Forbidden Caves; a creature of the ancient ways, harbinger of storm and devastation— the dragon of Hathorn. Despite her fear of the unknown darkness of the cave, Melusine continued on as if fate was a physical thing pulling her along and closing the path behind her with each step.
The more time passed, and the more Melusine saw nothing but an endless tunnel, the stiffer she became. She began to wonder if the sun had already risen outside, or if her mother had discovered the note that she left behind. Then the teenager wondered if their old hen would lay her final egg today. A strange thing for her mind to conjure up in the dark, when Melusine was faced with maddening anxiety. The cave was said to be a maze, technically a series of twisting caverns that were impossible to navigate and map, yet there hadn't been a single fork or turn.
Melusine put her free hand on a wall, wondering if she missed the exit and had gone in circles. The light of her makeshift torch dimmed, and she stuffed her hand into her coat pocket for another lard covered rag to wrap around the end of her stick. Her footing slipped, and her heart dropped to her stomach. Melusine slid down a steep slope, screeching like a banshee. She grappled for anything to hold onto, forced to let her torch slip from her grasp. Within seconds, she was tumbling off a ledge. The thought of her own death came to her mind as a snapping maw, a single image that froze her limbs and breath as she fell.
But then... nothing. No death, no impact on her fragile and willowed body. Melusine's dark hair hung down around her field of vision like a curtain. She kicked her feet up into the air and waved her arms in circles but didn't make contact with anything. Indeed, Melusine felt nothing that could be holding her from above or below, no pinch or prick of her clothes or flesh. One hazel eye opened to peek out into the darkness that surrounded her— a vain attempt to get her bearings.
A deep, terrible chuckle reverberated around Melusine, coming from all directions. A sound that was more mouse than human squeaked its way past her lips. Pebbles rattled against the floor a foot below her, but she could not see them in the dense shadows. Whatever was finding its amusement in her suspended state couldn't be human. It hissed through teeth between breaths, and its throat clicked with a clock's rhythm.
"Who's there?" Melusine asked with a voice that cracked, used before her vocal cords had a chance to relax.
The creature in the cave only laughed more. The delayed impact with the uneven rocky ground finally came. Melusine fell face first on the floor, yelping and wincing. The bridge of her nose stung from the impact, nausea hitting her and causing Melusine to grunt in pain.
"It's been so very long since someone was foolish enough to wander their way to me..." When it spoke, the direction of the sound focused above her head. The hissing and clicking still echoed all around her, but now the Old One audibly shifted, and a breeze hit Melusine's face as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees. The floor was cold and smooth like pitch black glass, but her skin bled from the sharp dips and valleys in the volcanic rock. The air and the creature's breath smelled of acrid meat and black powder. A single golden eye the size of her head was glowing in the shadows, the dark slitted pupil focused square on her.
A shiver of fear ran down Melusine's spine, and she swallowed the bile that rose from her stomach. She scrambled to her feet and kept her focus on the giant eye. It hovered an arm's length above her head and stared down at the youngster that had fallen into the abyss.
"I'm not foolish," Melusine objected, surprised with herself for her voice not faltering but at the same time kicking herself for not thinking her response through. Another hissing chuckle spread out from the darkness and enveloped her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she rubbed at her goosebump covered arms.
"No, not at all indeed. Humor me for a bit longer then. Why are you here? Have you not heard all the terrible tales of Ekaitz in the Dragon's Labyrinth?"
Melusine shifted her weight on her other foot, supposing that she had found her reward for her nightly venture. Unless of course the spider-wolf said to roam the caverns could somehow speak. Her entire purpose for braving the caverns choked her heart and mind once more. When she gulped she strained the tense muscles in her throat and her palms grew slick with sweat.
"Do you grant wishes?" She blurted out before her anxiety could completely seize her tongue. Ekaitz's chuckling grew louder. Melusine's cheeks burned, and her hands clenched at her sides. "Wh-what I mean is... is it true? That you grant wishes, I mean?"
"A cheeky, impudent human, aren't you?" The pebbles on the obsidian ground rattled and clinked from the weight of Ekaitz's massive body laying down.
"Some people would agree," Melusine muttered. Her arms wrapped around her own waist, and her head lowered. "If you don't grant wishes, I'll leave."
Ekaitz's breath hissed through its teeth. A thought occurred to Melusine that such a muted hiss might be a dragon's version of a musing hum.
"You might find that harder to do than you think, little human. At least not without my help."
"Then help me," Melusine pleaded. Her urgency and anxiety made her tone more of a demand than a request.
The monster in the dark laughed outright when it heard her clumsy bid for mercy. A sickly green light the size of a bonfire briefly illuminated the pit. It bounced off of the floor and reflected in the walls before it faded. Melusine barely had the wherewithal to realize that the source came from the dragon's throat and chest.
"Ooh, pride is such a nasty thing." The hiss to its voice grew more pronounced while Ekaitz slithered to her left in the darkness. "I could just eat you, you know."
Melusine's muscles and heart froze. The harbinger's presence pressed down on her from above and her lungs felt heavy. When it chuckled low and deep, its breath gusted down on the top of her head.
"But you haven't," she stuttered. She cleared her throat and wrung her hands together. Melusine's head felt like there was a clamp prying her thoughts out of her mind, a faint and cool tingling sensation spreading from the top of her scalp.
"Indeed, I haven't. Any idea why, lost little human?"
"Because you," she trailed off, "are lonely?"
Ekaitz's breath stopped hitting her for a brief moment, its lungs lost its rhythm.
"That isn't true," it denied, its once insidious tone grown cold and harsh. The youth squinted up to where her ears picked up its voice. Despite how her nerves were shot from fear, or perhaps because of her fear, her lips quirked up into a smile.
"I think it is," she insisted. The pit rattled and shook with the sheer volume of the monster's bellowing roar. A burst of fire as green as an alga filled marsh fell upon and reached for the obsidian floor and walls. Melusine slipped and tumbled back down onto the ground, a sharp ache that made her head spin now stinging her hip bone. She was so preoccupied with her first good look at the creature in the pit that the pain of her cuts and scrapes being opened further didn't register with her.
Its head stood taller than the village's church bell tower, taller than the trees of the woods that surrounded her home, and taller still. It had sharp stubby protrusions of bone jutting out of its jaw and an ox's deadly horns sticking out of its temples. Its build was full of lithe power and muscle, more like a wild cat than a stocky reptile. The beast's pigmentation was difficult to make out with the brief inferno that spewed from its maw full of fangs, but the light that reflected off of its scales gave her the impression that Ekaitz was made of malachite. Then the flames sputtered out, and the beast was only a single golden eye once more, its massive head turned to peer down at her.
"Enough of your nonsense, you ingrate," the dragon hissed out between clenched teeth. "How dare you suggest that one such as I would succumb to loneliness?"
All the tension in Melusine's body released like a plug had been pulled. She smirked in the dark and brought her knee up to rest her cheek on. Who wouldn't find something so proud cute? Even if that thing happened to be a dragon of legend. Melusine even felt a kinship forming in her heart for the monster, seeing herself in how it was putting on airs.
"But you're so eager to chatter," she teased the towering myth.
"Oh-ho, would you look at how it sniggers to my face. You've the arrogant sneer that only a cocky, conceited fool would give me." The eye lowered and drew closer. "Say that I could grant wishes? What would you offer? You're merely a dirty runt wearing rags, your hair is a wild mess, you stink of pig and hens, and your body is like a twig swaying in the breeze. What could you possibly give me?" The more insults Ekaitz threw at Melusine, the harsher its tone became.
"It's not a matter of what I could give, but what you want." She gestured up to the dragon, palm up and fingers splayed.
"And what if I want freedom? What if I give you the impossible task of breaking my binds?" The eye drew even closer, and Melusine could make out a tint of green in the shadows with marginally better clarity, shaping the horned head of the bringer of storms from Hathorn's legends. She didn't allow herself to flinch, though a cold sweat did break out on her clammy skin.
"I'd find a way. Anything for my wish." Her eyes burned, reflecting Ekaitz's golden gaze.
"What is this wish of yours, then?" The harbinger asked, its eye tilted at an angle. "Wealth? Power? Is your will to see your dreams become reality strong enough to strike a bargain with me? Are you a naive and skittish hen, or are you a scaled fledgling?"
"I can't answer that with certainty," she admitted. "I want to be more than the daughter of a criminal. If that means wealth and power, I'll welcome it gladly. But most of all, I need to have freedom, and I want to see the world. I want independence from my mother and the society that bore me. If that means extending the same gift to you, I promise that I'll hunt the means to the end of the world." Melusine's heart swelled with hope and determination, even skipping a few beats from the mere thought of her desire coming true.
"So many reckless words from one so small," the Old One maundered, its tone softening. The cavern was silent for several moments, then the glowing eye disappeared. It took a second for the girl to realize that it was because the creature had closed its eyes. "Watching you scramble and wander about my prison might be mildly annoying. What is your name, human?"
"My name?" She wondered if it was safe to give a dragon her name, but her pondering didn't last long. "Melusine Tepes."
"Very well, Melusine Tepes..." Melusine felt more than saw a claw extend to her and the tip gingerly press against her forehead. Something that seared beneath her skin spread out from the talon and covered her eyes in crimson red. At least, that was what she thought happened. She couldn't maintain her composure as she fell forwards, covering her eyes with her hands as if that would soothe the pain. Her screams echoed in the cave and merged with Ekaitz's voice like a morbid symphony. "You have my aid. Use it wisely."
It felt like hours before the pain stopped. It could've been minutes, seconds even. But that didn't matter. It hurt. She felt like the agony only faded when it spread out to the rest of her and seeped into the marrow of her bones. A dull ache and a feverish body was left behind.
The warmth of sunlight only made her fever grow worse, and stung her behind her eyelids. She turned her head to one side, and her ear rang from her mother's voice. It was like she was shouting directly into her eardrum.
"Melly! Melly, are you alright?!"
She cracked open her eyes to find herself in the forest outside the cave entrance. Her mother's worried face hovered over her. Concern quickly shifted to confusion. Her mother's grip on Melusine's shoulders tightened. It was so bright, too bright. She squinted. Her mother cried out in horror.
Her once hazel eyes were now the shade of fresh blood.
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