Pathway
Menu
Den of Diamonds
You find yourself walking towards a gaping crack in the earth. Then you look into the deep crevasse and stare in awe at the billions of raw glittering gemstones and precious metals lining the walls of the entrance.
No, they aren't just lining the walls, the walls are made entirely out of these gems and metals.
A greedy thought enters your mind pushing over your previous wonder at how the crack had been made.
No, they aren't just lining the walls, the walls are made entirely out of these gems and metals.
A greedy thought enters your mind pushing over your previous wonder at how the crack had been made.
You creep closer to the edge to look at the gems closest to you. It seems that most of the walls makeup is a hard clear crystal looking gem, and you do not realize at first that they are actually diamonds. Intrigued by the giant crack in the earth large enough to fit a mountain inside, you head home to get mountain climbing supplies. When you return it is noon, sunny, hot, and slightly breezy. Then you start exploring the crevasse realizing quickly that there is a jagged path you can take instead of climbing down into the hole...
As you hike down into the giant cave you admire the walls sparkling with gemstones reflecting the light from the entrance. As you had seen before; most gems were the hard clear kind, but other colorful gems dotted the walls. Meanwhile a pair of eyes stare at you, just boring into your face from afar. Then you spot movement below. Your steps falter, and your eyes stay glued to the inky darkness searching for what had moved. Then you see more movement to your right. A massive shape appears, crawling over the gem covered surface of the walls. With each step it takes an audible scraping of claws against stones reach your ears. The shape detaches itself from the darkness as it crawls up the glittering walls into the light towards you. Then it too pauses, watching you curiously. You of course are frozen, wary of the dragon you see before you. Some dragons were nice, and others you knew were not. Hopefully this dragon was a nice one. |
...you smile awkwardly...
The dragon opens its mouth and utters a single screech then grabs you as you attempt to flee. It then turns around in mid air and dives deeper into the cave.The grip of its jaws around your waist is strong but not painfully so. Your screams die out into silence as you spot eerie lights glowing up from the depths, and even more dragons scattered around the cave. Their bodies glow like ghosts in the pale light. What should you do now? Death hasn't come yet, but the dragon holding you is clearly taking you deeper into its diamond den. Then suddenly the dragon stops descending and levels its flight out. You start to see the golden light of torch fire ahead, and was that... a house? What was a clearly wooden house doing down here? The dragon slows down until it's barely skimming over the jewel encrusted floor. Then its wings flap once, twice, and one last time before landing heavily. It lets out what sounds like a muffled moo past your body, and then as if just remembering you're in its mouth the beast sets you down onto the ground. You wiggle away crawling across the floor as the dragon watches you. Then a voice echoes through the cave. "Oh my gosh are you okay?!? Please tell me you're not hurt!" The door to the house creaks open and a dark haired woman runs towards you. Her face is distressed as she looks you over. You smile awkwardly unsure of how to react. You tell her you're well enough, and then turn your gaze from her to the dragon who had brought you all the way down here. In the light you can now clearly see a handsome red dragon looking at you, and then turning its gaze to the lady. The woman turns to look at the dragon too then gives it a stern look. "Feirlire out of all the dragons down here you should know not to pick up people from outside! I'm disappointed in you. You had better not be teaching the hatchlings this kind of behavior." The woman deepened her voice while chastising the old red dragon. He seemed to know that he was in trouble and was backing away from the stern faced lady. "I'm so sorry my dragons don't usually bother people outside of our den. My name is TerraAnne. Please feel free to rest in the house and relax. I swear none of these dragons will harm you." The copper skinned woman clad in an earthly green dress offers to help you up. She takes your hand and leads you to the rustic log cabin styled house standing just ahead. Food she had cooking before your arrival smelled delicious as you walk through the doorway and take in your surroundings. Books and scrolls lay everywhere, while some beautiful drawings and paintings line the walls. Seven dragon babies were settled around a warm fire carefully protected by a tiny blue colored wingless pygmy dragon. It squeaks while looking at you but does not move from its location. "I'de rather you not touch the art, but feel free to read any book or scroll you see. You can't take them from here but if you find any information you want feel free to grab a pen and a blank piece of paper and copy it down." TerraAnne says warmly while putting up her long straight dark brown hair into a bun. Then she moves to get dishes out with food. More relaxed now you step outside into the firelight to gaze around at not only the beautiful cavern made of jewels and metals, but also at the vast array of dragons living here. Obviously the woman lived with them, and it seemed to be that she was raising them judging by the eggs in front of the fire inside. You had seen similar dragon keepers before but none of them had lived in such a beautiful home. Again a greedy thought passes through your mind. It was an image of you filling up your bags with gems, gold, silver, and bronze then leaving. However by the end of that thought you turn to see more than a few dragons all curiously gazing at you from a far. One, a gorgeous gold wyvern was even edging towards you trying to get a good sniff of your scent. Immediately the thought of taking gold and jewels away was dashed by the knowledge that these dragons would likely not take kindly to a stranger stealing or harming their den. There and then you tell yourself that you won't be taking anything from here unless it was given to you. Escaping the prying eyes of the many dragons you walk back into the house and start looking at all of the scrolls. Some of them interest you greatly, and TerraAnne sees this while she eats dinner at her small table. As you become engrossed in reading the Lady decides that when you leave she'll offer a gift and an invitation to come back, but for now she lets you continue to read.... |