Saturday 19 May 2018

Day 13 - Dawn

     Bobmadik and Harry stopped, a warm orange glow emanating from the cavern in front of them as soft as it was it jarred them out of their lone reverie. They’d been in the catacombs for three days.  In that time they’d not encountered a living creature, none of the normal trolls, troglodytes, kobolds, nothing. None of the traditional denizens of the underworld, and now there was a glow appearing in front of them.
     This did not make sense, Bob most definitely knew they were not low enough for lava; his Dwarves knowledge and intuition told him that.  They had been climbing continuously for the last two and a half days. having started to climb a short while after entering the tunnels.
    ‘Bob, what do you think that is?’
    ‘That’s definitely the glow of gold and treasure, I’d know it anywhere.’
    ‘Gold in the dark doesn’t glow, Bob, you know that. There has to be a light source.’
    ‘Absolutely. What you’re seeing there Harry is the glow of a dragon's lair.’
    Harry unhooked his padded leather helmet and placed it on his head, drew his short sword and limbered up.
    ‘Might be the explanation as to why we’ve not seen anything living or found any treasure.’
    Bob watched bemused, he was always stunned that for a halfling Harry really thought he could take on the world.  Standing at 4 foot tall with a slight sinewy build that made him the perfect burglar. That’s not to say he was not a good fighter or brawler.  ‘Harry?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘It’s a dragon you dope. Go have a look.’
    ‘What? Why me?’
    ‘Your the burglar.’
     Harry did not say a thing. He sheathed his sword, dropped his pack off his shoulders, removed anything else he thought would make a noise.  
     Bob watched as his friend set-of down the hall, quick yet extraordinarily quiet, hugging to the wall. Harry paused at the entrance to the cavern, then in the blink of an eye disappeared around the bend and into the cavern.  Bob, taking off his pack, placed it next to Harry’s pulling his stone clock from his pack he spread it over the two packs and watched as the cloak’s pattern shifted and reflected the stone of the cavern around it disguising the two discarded packs as a boulder protruding from the cabin wall.  
    Like his friend before him, he removed anything else that would make noise and slid it under the cloak.  It would be useless to wait and not be ready to run to his friend's aid.
    After several minutes Bobmadik started to worry about his friend, it was not unusual for Harry to disappear out of sight when scouting. What was unusual that he was gone for so long.  His approach was to get in, understand the situation and get out so that they could both devise the best approach to whatever lay in front of them.
   Was that right, did he just hear laughter, a low baritone guffaw?
   Bob snuck forward curious and concerned as to what was happening.  As he approached the mouth of the cavern he heard snippets of a conversation.  Not quite sure if Harry was involved he stopped, stood as still as he could and listened.
   The conversation was in a calm conversant tone, as he listened he was able to discern the two voices, one was a deep sultry masculine yet feminine voice the other; Harry's.  Bob knew better than to assume everything was ok. He continued forward cautiously.
   As he popped his head around the wall of the cavern the direction that He'd seen Harry disappear, he felt his weight shift, realising to late that he was levitating away from the floor and wall missing any opportunity of holding himself in place.
   He drifted out above piles of gems and gold strewn across the large open cavern, some scattered, others piled showing indentations where something large had sat or slept.
   'Good of you to join us kind Dwarf Your friend here tells me your name is Bob.'
    Bob was mesmerised, there in front of him was the largest dragon he had ever seen.  It's smooth shiny scales the size of large banquet plates.  The dragon was of an opaque silver color that constantly shifted in the glow of a dozen floating flames scattered around the room reflecting the gold.
   It was a proud majestic looking creature, with a frill that ran high atop it's head and back, all the way to the end of the tail. four shiny horns streamlined back from the smooth plates of the dragons face that gleamed like liquid metal.
   Harry was floating in the air 6 foot in front of the Dragon. 'Yo! Bob. Dawn this is my friend Bob.  Bob Meet Dawn, she's a dragon.'
   'I can see that Harry.'
   

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Bobmadik (aka Bob) is my goto character from my childhood - below is another piece of hs back Story.  Other items you will find on on this site include the following list provided in order of appearance.

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