Lithoniel

Lithoniel had just enough time to jump back when the dragon landed on the lake of magma, triggering a mini-tsunami, the red waves crashing against the rocks, consuming them in a matter of seconds. The dragon made a step forward, and Lithoniel squinted her eyes when a wreath of smoke came out of its nostrils, rising into the sky like the chimney of a huge fireplace.

She crouched a bit, bouncing her legs as she stared at its mouth, wary and alert as she knew very well what would come next. However, the dragon didn't seem to follow the pattern and just stood there, unmoving. Maybe it was a coincidence or a strange twist of fate, but the wind started blowing, and all of a sudden, Lithoniel was enveloped in the dragon's smoke, a mist so thick it looked solid.

I can't see anything.

She gripped the hilt of her sword, and turned left when she heard a loud thud, then right as the earth shook.

It's going around me, stalking me.

Yet, it wasn't trying to get closer, which was even worse for some reason. Lithoniel struggled not to draw her sword, but the anticipation was grating on her nerves, the lack of visibility magnifying her fears. She was about to surrender to her instinct and run away when she heard a whooshing sound like an arrow flying through the air. She ducked and saw something darting over her head before crashing on the rock behind her. It was a small ball, no bigger than a coin, but it was entirely made of lava. Lithoniel shivered when the muddyfire started corroding the hard stone like acid.

However, that was just the first round. A second later, another one whizzed toward her back. Lithoniel dropped down the ground, avoiding it, and rolled sideways when other three balls, much bigger than the first one, flew toward her. It was like someone was throwing stones at her, but that someone was strong like a giant and the stones big like skulls.

She shivered, a look of fear crossing her face as she observed the hole the lava dug in the rock. It was close, just a few inches away from her head. Lithoniel was lying motionless, completely exposed, yet the dragon didn't finish her off.

She gritted her teeth, her fear replaced by a burning rage as she understood it was playing with her. A pity the only way to come out alive was to play and win. Before that, however, she had to find a way to come out of the mist. She was still formulating a plan, prudently assessing her options, when she heard someone screaming.

Rolim?!

Caution, fear, anger—everything disappeared when she realized he could be in danger. She couldn't stop herself, resist that urge to reach him, make sure he was safe. She stood up and started running, sprinting faster than she ever did, dashing down the mountain until she forgot to breathe.

She heard a deep rumble, but ignored it and kept running until all sound disappeared, and the only thing she could hear was her heart, pounding in her ears. However, what she was facing wasn't a man, an elf, or even a beast like the Zaruk. It was something ancient, something that didn't like to be defied or worse, lose its source of amusement.

Lithoniel felt the air moving around her and bent backward, the movement so abrupt that she lost balance and fell on her back. However, she was going too fast to stop immediately and started tumbling down the mountain. It was only when she was close to the edge of the cliff and that lake of lava a the bottom of it that she slowed down.

When she finally stopped, her legs were bloody, full of scrapes and cuts, yet she could barely feel the pain. Something huge just darted over her head before sweeping the mist away as if by magic. Then it smashed on the mountain behind her like a merciless flail, earth and stone wailing as a deep scar appeared on the side of the mountain.

It was the dragon's tail.

Someone was very angry with her. Lithoniel looked down at the lava, boiling at the bottom of the cliff, well aware there was just one way to avoid the dragon. A pity the cure was almost as bad as the disease. But when she saw the dragon raising its enormous feet like it wanted to squash her like a bug, she knew she had no choice left.

"To hell with it!" She shouted when it was about to strike the ground like a colossal hammer. Then she jumped down the cliff.

Luckily, the rock face wasn't like a wall, completely vertical, but more like a natural slide. The problem was that the slide was smooth, as if polished by hand, and she couldn't find anything to grab on to stop her descent.

She drew her knife and tried to plunge it into the rock, but even when the metal started grating on the hard stone, her arm aching because of the backlash, the only thing she achieved was to slow down a bit. She was halfway to the bottom, her chest growing tight as bile rose in her throat, when she saw a protrusion. She desperately tried to alter course, screaming as she stretched her arms, trying to reach it.

She was so happy that she almost cried when she finally grabbed something. She panted, lifting herself up before lying down on the hard stone. She was safe for the moment, but she was stuck there, unable to go up or down. To make things worse, her "old friend" was still looking for her. It was hovering close to the top of the cliff, but It was going lower, smelling the rocks as if it could follow her scent.

Lithoniel knew she couldn't wait there and found a small recess in the rock face that seemed big enough to hide her. She started crawling to get inside but abruptly stopped, looking up at the dragon. It was close, just above her head.

She had no more time, she had to move. However, hiding didn't seem the right move anymore. She had tried to run from the dragon, stay as far away as possible, but maybe the only way to survive was to do the opposite.

Maybe she could hide, though the dragon sense of smell seemed exceptionally keen, but then...what?

She was stuck there and there was only one way to leave that place. Maybe her mind was twisted by fear, or she was so desperate her brain had stopped working, but she saw no other way out.

She pulled out the grappling hook, started spinning it and waited until the dragon's tail was just a few meters away. Then she threw it.

It worked like a charm, the rope firmly wrapping around a huge bone spike. That's when the dragon moved. Maybe it was an involuntary reflex, but when the hook touched it, the tail sprung like a bow string, taking Lithoniel with it. She screamed at the top of her lungs, clinging on the rope when she was flung toward the dragon's body like a stone from a catapult.

Then she crashed on its back, close to its neck, barely avoiding to impale herself on one of those spikes. She was still groggy, her body aching all over, when the dragon roared in outrage, the sound waves spreading from its mouth to form something tangible, its shape similar to a cone.

Maybe it was because she was lying on its neck, far from the blast radius, but the effect wasn't so strong this time. Granted, the noise was still deafening, but her ears didn't bleed. The bad news was that the dragon became even angrier when its roar didn't work, completely furious with the ant who dared to ride it. Well, she wasn't really riding it, but desperately clinging on it, trying not to fall. It wasn't an easy task, especially when the dragon started flying upside down or performed all the aerobatic maneuvers it knew of to get rid of the pest clinging on its back. However, Lithoniel kept holding tight, well aware her life depended on it.

That torture lasted some minutes. Then the dragon calmed down, all of a sudden. It even stopped trying to throw her off. It was odd, but now that she wasn't busy writhing in pain, or resisting the urge to puke, she had the time to look at was happening beneath her.

Gradually, the darkness was swept away by the first light of the day. The landscape started changing, the volcanoes giving way to barren mountains as the sound of lava eroding the rocks was replaced by the gurgling of water.

A cascade? And...is that a river?

It seemed to go west, maybe rejoining the Frozen Sea. However, the river wasn't the only thing she saw.

There was someone moving beneath her. Two people. The breath caught in her throat when she realized they were Rolim and Kolvar. They were running toward the waterfall.

They are still alive!

However, they weren't alone. The monster the dragon had created was still chasing after them. No, it wasn't just chasing them, It had almost reached them.

I have to help them!

Yet, she had to help herself first. She was distracted, too focused on what was happening beneath her to notice the dragon was waiting for that moment to act. It abruptly spun, flying upside down like before. This time, however, she was unprepared. She was barely able to cling on its hard scales with one hand.

The dragon tried to give her the final blow and shake her off but roared in frustration when she still refused to let go. Lithoniel even started to believe she could actually make it, but she underestimated the dragon. It wasn't just angry, but hated her and was willing to do anything, even crashing on the mountain, in order to kill her.

And that's exactly what it did.

When the dragon rammed on it head-on, without even trying to slow down, Lithoniel was unable to resist, the force of impact throwing her backward. There was no escape this time, only an interminable long scream that quickly turned into a wheeze as she lost the ability to breathe. The pain was so intense that she wished she could fall faster just to make it stop. That until she actually hit the ground and understood what the word pain really meant.

Yet, despite all odds, she didn't die on impact. She wasn't even bleeding, not externally at least, but her body was broken. She could feel it. It was like someone had fun removing her bones and replaced them with a soft mush. Her spine was cracked, her legs unnaturally splayed and it felt like a ball of muddyfire was devouring her body, a bit at the time.

She wished for death, that someone would put her out of her misery and was relieved when her executioner finally arrived. She first felt its hot breath on her skin, and then saw the dragon's huge talon coming closer and closer to her. She shut her eyes, waiting for the pain to stop. Yet, it just became more intense.

It felt like someone was gnawing at her gut, tearing her stomach apart from the inside. She screamed, her cries of pain mixing with a much deeper voice. It was the dragon, but it wasn't roaring, it was wailing. The pain increased again, yet it wasn't radiating all over her body as before but localized to her stomach.

Oddly enough, she felt that her strength was coming back. She risked opening her eyes, going past that veil of pain clouding her vision, but what she saw chilled her soul. There was something coming out of her stomach; a dozen of black and twisted shadows. They were entwined around the dragon's neck, legs and tail like the tentacles of a huge marine monster.

No, not tentacles... She realized with horror. Roots.

They were restraining it, holding it down while a root bigger than the others pierced through its foot, the one the dragon had lifted to finish her off. However, injuring the dragon was just a side effect.

Lithoniel saw that the root was swelling, and at the same time, the dragon's foot shrinking, its scales falling as it shriveled like a mummy. Soon it became painfully clear that the root was absorbing nourishment, draining the dragon of its life to feed its tree.

To feed her.

She should have felt disgusted, and she was, for a second or two. But then she remembered what the dragon had done to them, and she started enjoying it, taking pleasure from watching his suffering, hearing its cries of pain.

Its foot was just a withered bone when she realized what she had done. She felt a wave of shame and revulsion, and right after, an excruciating pain when the connection broke and the roots shriveled back into shadows, disappearing without a trace.

The dragon was free, yet it didn't even try to take revenge but just soared into the sky before flying away.

Lithoniel looked confused, relieved, terrified—all at the same time. An ancient dragon, the most powerful creature the Embersea—maybe the whole world—had ever seen, was scared of her. However, she had no time to dwell on it or the thing that had taken up residence inside her.

She started standing up, when she heard Kolvar screaming, "Rolim!"

She could do nothing but run, following his voice.

Everything seemed to slow down when she arrived, terror flashing in her eyes as she watched the scene unfolding before her. She saw Kolvar standing at the edge of the cascade, his hand outstretched as he tried to reach out for something.

No, not something, but someone. It was Rolim. He was falling.

Rolim turned his head, and just for an instant, the fraction of a second, their eyes met. Time seemed to stretch on for a while, but that was just an illusion. No moment can last forever, and that one was no different. When it was over Rolim fell, the stormy waters of the river engulfing him in their cold embrace.

Then he was gone.