The Return of the Dragonborn

Chapter 2

By the time Onyx regained consciousness, it was already night. He didn’t know for how long he was out or where he even was. The putrid smell of ash and burnt flesh that filled his lungs gave him no clues but as he laid there staring up at the stars he knew that he was alone. He didn’t know how he knew this but it felt like he had been lying there, alone, for a long, long time. As he tried to remember anything, he felt a mind-numbing pain, pulsing in waves from the center of his forehead. The pain shot hot lightning through his scalp that sent him howling for the moon. He clawed at the sides of his head, trying to pull out whatever was the source of the pain out of his head.

 IT HURTS, IT HURTS 

Eventually the pain started to ease and feeling returned to his body. He reached up to touch his aching forehead but was startled to see that it was not his hand that was raised. He raised his other hand only to find the same unfamiliar limb. He sat there in stunned silence staring down at a pair of claws that were covered in sleek black and gray scales. He looked down to see that his naked body was also covered in mostly similar scales, except for a few gold scales that looked like an arrowhead right on top of his sternum. He tried to peel off a scale from his arm, hoping that he would find human skin under, but the scale refused to budge from his skin. He kept yanking on the scale until a burning sensation spread through his forearm as the scale tore off and was sent flying into the air. A dull red liquid started trickling from between his scales, when Onyx held his arm up to the moonlight he saw that it had a greenish tint to it.

I’m not a human… I’m not a human? I’m… a lizard?

Onyx continued to watch the blood as it continued to weave its way down his scaly arm, his thoughts tripping over themselves to get to the front of his mind. He was brought back to the present by a strange sensation on his arm. He noticed that he had stopped bleeding and the tip of a new scale was poking out from the base of his leathery skin. With a small pop that felt like a hair being pulled, the scale emerged, fully formed and glistening, in place of the missing one. He picked up the fallen scale, which had a sharp, jagged point, and pocketed it.

Who knows, maybe I’ll need this later

After the pain had completely abated he figured it was no use sitting around thinking and that the best course of action would be to find out where he was and how to get out first. He looked around and it seemed as though he was at the entrance to a great open feasting hall, with marble arches so high he had to crane his neck to see the tops of them. Gold and red ribbons spiraled from top to bottom over the pillars giving them the illusion that they were twirling slowly in the moon’s light. In the center of the hall sat one long marble table that at one point might have looked beautiful but now was charred and cracked as if huge flaming rocks had crashed down from the sky. Charred bodies littered the cracked floor underneath them, their stench filled the room, which made Onyx’s eyes water and his vision blurry. Robes that were once bright reds and golds, now almost indistinguishable from the corpses they belonged to. Before exploring the other end of the hall, Onyx wanted to look outside to see if he could tell where he was but instead he was met with open air. As he looked down he saw that the entrance to the hall was on the side of a cliff, with no way down, and was so high up that the tops of the trees disappeared into the night’s darkness. Off in the distance, he could see an unknown mountain range that followed the horizon.

I guess I can’t go that way

He turned around and walked back into the great hall, unsure of what to do next. As Onyx searched for an exit he found more of what remained of the residences littering the blackened floor, who or what could have caused this much damage was beyond him, he had never seen such destruction in his life. The smell of the rotting and crispy flesh stuck with him as he climbed the steps towards the end of the ruined hall. At the back sat a great pale white stone throne that stood almost three-meter tall. Onyx thought that at one point it must have sat the most powerful and wealthy king imaginable. When he got closer he noticed a head sized gem that radiated a blueish purple color embedded into the top of the throne, just above where the king’s crown would have been. Something in the back of Onyx's head tugged at him. He wanted to have that gem. He needed it. So Onyx climbed onto the throne and tried to pry the gem out of its socket but it refused to budge. While pulling with his whole weight, Onyx slipped off the throne and landed, sprawling out onto the still warm floor. With a hint of exasperation, he made a mental note to himself: 

I’ll come back for you later

Despite the ruinous state of the rest of the hall the throne appeared to be relatively untouched, in fact, it almost looked like the marble had been just polished not too long ago. As Onyx stood in front of the throne pondering the impossible condition of its cleanliness, something shifted in the corner of his eye. He noticed a sizable hole in the wall behind the throne that looked like something big bore its way through. The moonlight couldn’t pierce through the darkness very far but he gathered what little courage he had and moved towards the hole. As he approached the opening he saw something dart backward deeper into the darkness, just outside of his reach. Just as he was entering the opening, the earth shook underneath him and sent him tumbling through the hole. Where he expected there to be floor he was met with a steep, smooth decline that felt like it had been carved right out of the earth. With another sharp jolt, he slipped even further into the hole and began to slide, or rather tumble, down into the earth. He tried to slow his descent to no avail, he continued to fall all the way down to the bottom where he landed with a fleshy smack on a small, bouncy Jell-O like ball that jiggled slightly but otherwise didn’t react. 

As he tried to push himself up, he stuck his hand into another of the squishy balls. He couldn’t see very well in the pitch darkness so he picked one up and brought it up to his face to examine it closer.

 What on Earth could you be? 

It was surprisingly heavy and slightly larger than Onyx’s head. He saw that it was a greenish blue translucent orb but other than that it had no defining features. What was even weirder was that when Onyx looked through it he was able to see the room he was in clearly as if it were day. This discovery came with the realization that not only was he in a vast underground cave but that there were hundreds of these orbs covering the ground. Onyx didn’t know what else to do, so with the help of the night vision orb he got up and tried to make his way through the maze of orbs that littered the ground. After a few unsteady steps, he felt the orb rotate in his hands, sliding smoothly as if it were frictionless. Onyx’s heart jumped into his throat and he fell backward, dropping the orb which bounced lightly as it hit the ground and started lazily slinking away into the darkness.

WHAT THE FUCK!?

Onyx’s mind was flooded with fear and went blank. He expected something to happen, for the living orbs to lunge at him. Instead he was met with the soft echo of the orb as it plodded through the room. Semi-reinvigorated, Onyx decided to crawl his way through the darkness on his hands and knees, trying his very best to avoid touching the creatures that seemed to aimlessly bounce about the cave. 

After a while, he found a side of the cave, and while it wasn’t the exit that he was looking for, he thought that he was making some progress. Onyx remembered a story his mother told him when he was a child about a woman who found her way out of a maze by keeping her left hand on the same wall as she walked. He thought now would be as good of a time as any to try that trick out, so he kept his left hand on the wall as he continued to crawl in the direction of what he hoped was an exit. 

The cave seemed to stretch on forever, the darkness pressed in on him, weighing him down and making him feel small. His shoulders and palms ached and his knees were starting to bleed, the scales on his legs becoming slick and slippery. The wall next to him turned abruptly and Onyx collapsed, having relied on the wall for support. He took a minute to recover, he wondered if he would ever see the light of day again and cursed himself for falling down the hole. He tried to fight back the desperation as he sat up and managed to find his way back to the wall. The path forward was at an angle that was steep enough so that it was no longer comfortable for him to crawl but not enough to slide down, so Onyx reluctantly stood up on uncertain legs. It was at this moment too that Onyx noticed that the sound of the round creatures had all but disappeared. This reassured Onyx a little bit but the thought of being alone in the darkness almost made Onyx turn around.

As Onyx continued to follow the winding wall through pitch black corridors and halls he began to feel more and more like the woman trapped in the maze. His sense of time faded as his weary legs started to shake underneath him, the only reason he could tell he was still alive was the pain in his legs and the occasional earthquakes that knocked him off his feet. Just as his legs were about to buckle and he was about to give up, the floor evened out and the wall began to straighten again. Onyx was hopeful and wanted to think that he had finally made it out of the maze until he saw a harsh green light coming from around the next corner. Onyx quickly tiptoed to the wall and peeked his head out into the bright room. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the bright light but what he saw almost made him vomit. In the middle of the room sat something that resembled one of the round creatures he had picked up earlier except this one was a cube that stood three feet above Onyx and was as wide as five of him standing side by side. Inside of the creature’s glowing, translucent skin were two half-digested corpses, both of half-human, half-bird creatures. Their skin and feathers had almost completely been melted away, leaving bare bone and muscle tissue that bubbled as they floated motionlessly. Onyx recoiled and hid his mouth behind his hands, stopping both the scream and the vomit that he felt coming on. 

Nononononononononononononono

His mind once again was thrown into chaos as a chilling wave spread through his body as he curled into a ball with his back pressed against the wall. Luckily for him, the creature had no eyes and hadn’t seemed to notice him either. Onyx took several slow breaths, trying to calm the heart that rammed against his rib cage, trying to force its way out. He chanced another look at the creature and the room it sat in. Looking past, or rather through, the creature he could see that the corridor continued onward. Now the only problem was the giant death cube sitting in the way. Onyx sat there in the darkness and watched the creature slowly digest its victims in silent horror. The only thing Onyx could think to do was to get closer so he could try to find a way around the creature. He bit his bottom lip and took one final breath before taking a step into the room.

Fuck. Here goes nothing

  The light that the creature gave off wasn’t enough to fill the room so Onyx tried to creep along in the shadows trying not to draw attention to himself. He saw that the room was lined with ornamental stone pillars that cast long shadows. He darted from pillar to pillar until he was about halfway through the room. He noticed a small heap on the ground, just outside of pillar range, that he didn’t see before. Onyx was reluctant to leave the safety of the pillars but his curiosity got the better of him so he held his breath and darted out of the shadows. As he stepped forward and brought his foot down there was a loud snap. Onyx froze, his mind flooded with conflicting thoughts telling him to run and to stay still, like a deer caught in headlights, but it all went silent when the creature in the middle of the room jiggled ever so slightly, its skin rippling like a stone thrown into water. He felt the blood leave his face and cold sweat start to bead across his back and neck.

Don't see me, I'm not here, don’t see me

  A few anxious minutes passed before Onyx managed to convince himself that the creature wasn’t interested or at the very least, couldn’t hear him. 

Am I just lucky? Why hasn’t anything attacked me yet?

  As he started to relax and clarity returned to him, he remembered that he had stepped on something. He started praying in his head; 

Please don’t be something I’ll regret looking at oh god please don't make me regret this. 

  He instantly regretted it. Onyx was ankle deep in some unfortunate creature’s skull. It had long sharp teeth and a patch of flesh with a tuft of hair rotting on the scalp. Just the glance made Onyx want to vomit all over again. The silence was interrupted by a sound Onyx thought he would never hear again.

“Gods, I hate slimes, why were there so many of them?”

  A woman's voice came echoing down the hall from where Onyx had come from earlier. Instinctively Onyx dove back towards the pillars as another voice joined the woman’s. 

“I don’t know, this must be a powerful dungeon, but I’m almost out of fire starters so that had better be the last of them.”

It was a man’s voice this time and he sounded like his vocal cords were made of sandpaper. The woman spoke again, they were getting closer.

“Leo, how much longer are we going to explore these ruins? We’re running out of food and I haven’t been sleeping well with all the earth shakes.”

This time Onyx heard a different man’s voice, the one who he assumed was Leo, and he sounded so beyond cocky and condescending that Onyx already didn’t like him.

  “Awww c’mon, is this the best you can do? We’ve already been here for six days, one more wouldn’t hurt nobody.”

Onyx watched the party of three round the corner and come to a sudden halt in front of the giant creature. The woman let out a small shriek and dropped a large ornate stick that she was holding and a tall man stepped in front of the other two gesturing them to back away. Onyx couldn’t get a good look at them in the dim light but he could tell that they weren’t completely human.

  “Get behind me!” Leo shouted, raising a small shield in front of him. As Onyx looked at him he wasn’t surprised at all to find that he was tall and muscular, with bushy golden hair and matching beard. What surprised Onyx was the other man, who was rummaging through a bag slung over his shoulder, he was impossibly short and gray, and seeing him stand next to Leo was almost comical with their height difference.

  “What are you going to do with that sword of yours?” The short man pushed Leo out of the way, “I’m the one who has the fire starters.”

  He grabbed something from the bag and pulled out two small stones. He brought them to his lips and struck the two stones together creating sparks. He took a deep breath and brought the stones to his mouth. He sparked the stones again but this time he blew on the sparks and fire spewed from his mouth and engulfed the creature, who had not moved the entire time. As the creature burned it bounced up and down trying to put the fire out.

  “Lucky for us it was still digesting. Otherwise, it would have attacked us as soon as we walked in.” As the creature continued to burn its mass started to decrease and it shrank as if it was evaporating. An awful stench began wafting through the room, making the trio gag and retch. Onyx took this chance to sneak through the door behind it. He didn’t know who this party of three was but he thought that they might see him as an enemy and with abilities to spew fire like that, he would be dead in an instant. Just before he made it to the door he heard someone shout from behind him.

  “Hey! What’s that!?”

  The next thing Onyx knew he felt something hit him in the back of the head, before he lost consciousness the only thing he could think was:

Not again

  As Onyx blinked himself awake he found himself looking at the face of what appeared to be a woman with long slender horns that looked like the ones sable antelopes often have. She had him propped up against a fallen column in an unfamiliar room and was wrapping a cloth around his head. This room was massive, hundreds of feet tall with thousands of thick columns that lined up in even rows. The horned woman seemed to be saying something to him but to Onyx it sounded muffled and far away. 

  When she finished wrapping his head she turned and shouted something over her shoulder and two more people entered Onyx’s line of sight. The first was the short, stout man who set the cube creature on fire. He had dark rings around his eyes and a black and gray striped tail. He walked close to the ground, his greedy eyes darted back and forth as if constantly searching for anything of value and he kept fumbling around in his bag, which much to his apparent delight, was filled with silver cups and small golden trinkets. The second man was the one they called Leo. He was a tall, fair, and handsome man with a mane around his neck like a lion, and to Onyx, it looked like even his muscles had muscles. He carried a short, heavy-looking sword and a small buckler shield that was strapped to his wrist and he walked with the air of infinite confidence flowing about him.

  Onyx watched the woman jump up and run over to Leo and slap him across the face and started shouting at him. He seemed taken aback but brushed off her assault with a wave of his hand. Now that Onyx got a better look at the woman he could see that her lower half was also in the form of an antelope and instead of feet she had black hooves. Onyx tried to call out to them, to ask them where he was but recoiled from the pain that shot through the back of his skull. The woman quickly approached him and for the first time, he could hear her words.

  “You probably shouldn’t move, you got hit pretty hard on the back of your head. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a concussion. Just rest for a little bit.”

Her voice is so soft

  It felt somehow familiar and nostalgic. Her face turned into a scowl as she turned back to Leo and began to shout again.

“This is your fault! You just have to go and hit every single thing you see with your sword. You almost killed… whatever it is!”

  “Oh it’s fine, looks like just a bruise to me. I only hit it with the flat side of the sword” snorted the man-lion. “What is that thing anyway?” he waved his sword at Onyx “It doesn’t seem to have any fur or skin or anything, and I’ve never seen any lizardmen with scales like that.”

  “That’s a good question” interjected the shorter man, “Ella, you were the one who healed it, go ask!”

  They all gave Onyx wary glances as they talked amongst themselves. Onyx hated the way they referred to him as “it” but he stayed quiet as there were more pressing concerns, like what the hell a lizardman was.

“Where do you think it got the horns?”

Horns? What horns?

  Onyx raised his hands to the top of his head and felt two hard ridges going from his hairline to the top of his head.

  “I have horns!?” Onyx blurted out. The strange group in front of him jumped back at the sound of his voice.

  “It can talk!?”

  “Yeah I just heard it!”

  “Ella, go talk to him”

The woman slowly crept towards Onyx. Their caution irritated Onyx even more but they were the first “people” that he had seen so he decided to let them take their time.

“Hiiii, heyyyy, are you feeling better now? I used my last healing spell on you so you should be feeling a lot better.”

  “You used your LAST healing spell?” Leo whispered from several yards away.

  “Shut. Up.” the woman hissed back. She then spoke to Onyx, who was still clutching his horns. “My name’s Antonella but my friends call me Ella, the tall asshole is Leo, he’s the one that hit you,” 

  “Hey, what the hell!” Leo exclaimed, raising his hands in exasperation.

  “Whatever Leo, it’s your fault anyway.” Ella shot back at Leo before turning back to Onyx, “And the one stealing everything that's shiny is Randy. He’s a good person, as long as you’re not filthy rich.” she laughed uncomfortably.  “Anyways, it’s a pleasure to meet you but, uh, who are you? How did you get here?” She spoke with forced politeness that made Onyx reluctant to talk. He sighed, deciding it would be best to become friendly with these strange people. As he stood up to speak face to face with Ella he noticed she had given  him a loincloth made from the folded fabric of a cloak they must have had. This bought them some goodwill that was immediately lost when she backed away with her arms half raised.

  “My name’s Onyx. I’m not sure how I got here, I only woke up a little while ago in some grand hall at the top.” He tried to sound genuine, as if they hadn’t been the ones who hit him over the head in the first place. “Oh, and thanks for healing me too.” he added.

Ella exchanged looks with the other two and motioned for them to come over. They both hesitated but approached when Ella gave them a stern look. 

  “He says his name is what now?” Leo strutted over with a confused look on his face.

  “He doesn’t look like a dwarf or gnome to me” Chimed in Randy as he followed closely behind .

  “A Dwarf? Said Onyx, “Isn’t it rude to call them dwarfs? I think you should call them little people instead, right?” He looked at the other two expecting one of them to confirm his statement. He was met with confused looks and silence until Randy said, 

  “I’m pretty sure if any of the dwarves heard you call them “little people” they’d kill you and your whole family, they take that shit pretty seriously.” 

Now it was Onyx’s turn to stare in confused silence.

  “Wait, wait, wait, that's besides the point, how did you get here? We’re pretty deep into this dungeon and it's rated pretty high in difficulty, no ones been able to beat the boss yet so the creatures in here are more aggressive than in a pacified dungeon.” Leo spoke firmly to Onyx, demanding to hear his answer.

  “I told you already, I don’t remember. I just woke up at the top of this “dungeon” as you call it, and I’ve been trying to get out ever since”

  “Bullshit” Leo snorted back. “What do you mean you don-”

  “Wait did you say the top?” Ella interrupted Leo who scoffed and rolled his eyes. “As in that large hall at the end of that almost vertical slope? There's a white stone throne, big holes in the roof and it opens to a cliffside? ”

  “Yes that's what I’ve been trying to tell you” Onyx said with exasperation tainting his voice.

  “But… that's the boss room.” She said quietly.

  “If that's the boss room, then how do you know what it looks like?” Randy asked Ella.  “No ones been able to kill it yet.”

  “There have been a few survivors but even fewer were able to tell us what had happened in there. Most of them were too burnt up to speak.” Ella stated matter-of-factly “Say, Onyx, did you happen to see a dragon in there? It was a gold dragon, kind of similar to the gold on your chest and forehead.”

Onyx reached up again to touch his horns, he had realized that he had no idea what he looked like since he woke up. Would he even be able to recognize his own face anymore? After remaining silent for a few seconds he shook his head.

  “No there wasn’t a dragon when I woke up, I’m not even sure I would know what a dragon would look like.” 

  “Maybe you’re right Ella, it's time for us to head back down to town. We should report this to the Guild Leader. If the dragon is gone it could destroy every town in a 100 mile radius.” Leo spoke up, trying to take charge of the conversation.

  “For once, I agree” said Ella,  “We should leave right away, Onyx you should come with us, you needed help finding a way out right?

Onyx looked the group up and down one more time before deciding that he literally had no better option.

  “Sure, but do you have anything I could eat? I’m starving.”

Randy reached back into his bag and pulled out a wrinkled piece of jerky which he handed to Onyx.

  “Now, follow me!” Shouted Leo, extending his sword forward as he did an exaggerated march.

Well, how bad could this possibly go?