by Amelia Jade
“DRAGON!”
He sighed as they finally realized he was there, no more than three or four hundred feet in front of them, and up on a cliff face. Their screams and cries went on for thirty or more seconds while he stood still, waiting for them to collect themselves.
“Go home!” he roared, trying to intimidate them by flapping his wings out to the side, hoping they would get the point and leave.
Of course, they’d followed him up from well in the south where they were busy establishing an empire or something. He didn’t particularly care what they did, as long as they left him alone. The locals had no problems doing that, so why couldn’t these sea-wanderers?
The stench of their fear mixed with that of the metallic tang of their steel armor. A most unpleasant smell.
“Demon!”
“Oh come on,” he said, bemoaning the situation, flicking his long tail from side to side. “I’m a dragon, not some imaginary thing sent by your Satan or whomever.”
But they weren’t listening. That was rude of them.
“Fire!”
Metal bolts whizzed nearby, and one even bounced off the scales of his upper chest. He snatched it from midair with one clawed foot and snapped the arrow like it was a twig before casting it back in the general direction of his antagonizers. That’s what they were. Calling them attackers would be far too generous, because that would give them a chance of success where there was none.
Nuisance, perhaps, would be a better term.
“Very well,” he said. “I gave you a warning the last time we met. I said I would come up here and leave you all alone, if you would do the same. But no, you had to follow thousands of leagues to come after me. Why are you so difficult?” he asked, exasperated.
“Fire!”
This time two black-powder devices boomed. One of them exploded on the user, killing him instantly. The other scratched one of his scales on his stomach.
“Hee hee hee,” he rumbled. “That tickles.”
They were looking at him in terror as their best weapons did nothing against him. Their tanned skin had gone white, and some of them had even doffed their steel helmets in horror. He debated on walking forward to grab a couple as souvenirs. They were interesting, not the design of knights of old that he was used to. These had more of a pronounced crest, and sweeping sides that came to a point on either end.
Interesting. Oh well. They have no gold though, so who cares.
“Fine. You want a fight?” He flattened his wings back against his body. “Let’s have a fight.”
The last words rumbled down the hill, bouncing off of rocks as they went. It had been a while since he’d killed, and he found himself looking forward to the prospect of being rid of these pests. There were perhaps two hundred of them all told. Not many, but enough.
Reaching down into the earth, he felt the heart of the mountain, the dormant volcano at its core. There he stoked it, bringing it back to life. All around him the ground began to shake. High up on the mountain a chunk of it blew off as the pressure belowground rapidly increased.
The intruders froze, unsure of what to do. Little did they know it was already too late. They had signed their own death warrants by trespassing on his mountain.
“I hope you enjoyed your trip here,” he rumbled. “Because it was a one-way excursion.”
Another massive section near the top of the mountain exploded, flinging chunks of rock the size of him into the air. He smiled. This was the core of his power, the thing that truly inspired the legends of his kind. The ability to ignite the earth.
Turning, he headed back into the mountain, feeling the earth shift and heave around him. His tunnel was safe; he’d worked the rock to reinforce it enough to withstand what was coming. The farther he went, the warmer it became. Razor-sharp teeth flashed in the equivalent of a smile. Reaching his main cavern, he found his preferred sleeping spot and curled up.
“Okay. Enough playtime.”
He pulled the cork from the stopper of the mountain’s core.
***
“My lord! The mountain!”
“I can see that, you imbecile.” He backhanded the impertinent youth who had spoken aloud without permission.
Turning to his retainers, he signaled them forward. They strode up to either side of him. It felt weird to be standing on his feet instead of astride his warhorse, but this far up into the mountain the terrain just would have been too hard.
“I think the beast means to unleash something inside upon us,” he remarked.
“It certainly appears that way. But what could he be unleashing that is worse than the beast itself?” one of them mused.
“The great evil,” one of the others whispered in awe. “Could it really be?”
“I doubt it,” the nobleman said. “As mighty as the beast is, I don’t believe he has the power to open the gates of Hell itself to unleash the ultimate demon.”
Satan. Lucifer. The evil had a great many names.
Debris was raining down around them now, while great clouds of black smoke billowed high into the air, starting to obscure the sunlight as it spread upward and outward from dozens of holes in the mountainside. Another rumble underfoot caused everyone to spread their legs and search for traction until it passed.
“What do we do, my lord?” one of his retainers asked, looking nervously up the mountainside.
The Baron thought some more, trying to determine if pushing forward would reap them any benefit. Did they have time to defeat the beast first? The ground shook again, harder this time, taking the decision from him. “Fall back,” he commanded. Turning to his retainers, he ordered them to spread out through the ranks. “Orderly retreat. Anyone who runs is to be killed. Understood?”
They nodded and went to follow his orders. The Baron was at their front, leading his men back off the mountain. He smiled. They were going to be fine. They would march clear of the mountain and then wait for things to subside before returning to deal with the beast at last. After a long chase, leading them far from the new colonies being established, they would finally kill the dreaded beast and take its head back, where he would be suitably rewarded.
Count Esteban. Now that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
He never got the chance to find out. Before they had gone a hundred feet the world went insane. The mountain rumbled and the earth trembled. The Baron heard screams and turned around to see the entire top half of the mountain disappear in smoke and ash. A shockwave slammed down the mountain and leveled his men instantly. The heat in the air warmed their armor until it began to burn against their skin. Everyone started to throw it off as fast as they could, but it didn’t matter.
The sky was dark above them, but an orange glow began to reflect off the armor, flickering and growing stronger. Dread forming in his stomach, the Baron turned to look back up the mountain once more. Red-orange liquid rock was pouring down toward them in a solid sheet. As it grew closer the heat became unbearable.
Everyone began to scream and run away, but it didn’t matter. The lava came after them, relentless like the danger in a dream that you could never quite escape until you woke.
But this time there was no waking up.
Behind him the death cries of his men tapered out as one by one they were caught by the racing stream of death, melted down in seconds. Then at last it was his turn. Swallowing, he realized he wouldn’t be able to outrun it. Deciding to face his end like a man, Baron Esteban started to turn to face the oncoming tide.
He never made it as the lava washed over him as well, leaving no trace that they had ever traveled this far north. History would never remember him, not even as a footnote.
***
Up in the mountain the chamber grew very warm, and the dragon grew sleepy, his triple eyelids drooping lower and lower. He loved this. Curling his head back down toward his body, he breathed in deeply. On his exhale the mountain began to calm. The lava stopped flowing and the smoke tapered off into gray and then white before it to
o no longer emerged from the earth.
The normal temperatures of the outdoors started to cool the lava. As they did the outer shell hardened and stopped it from moving. The insides would remain hot for a while, but even they would eventually harden. In time it would be broken up and covered by more earth. Trees would grow and animals would return. Eventually it would look like nothing had ever happened there.
Content with the way things had gone, his bloodlust sated, the dragon relaxed. His airhole was still intact, though the lava had inadvertently closed off his entry. At first he considered moving out to reopen it, but in the end, decided against it. This would allow him some privacy, and the ability to sleep, without his treasure or the other private room being disturbed.
Yes. Now it is time to sleep. Beautiful, beautiful sleep.
The dragon closed his eyes and fell into the deep sleep of dragons.
Chapter Two
Hollie
“Mikey! Get that number two engine fired up!” she shouted, flicking switches hastily and watching gauges.
Warning cries were going up and down the tunnel as she worked to bring the great machine back to life. The tunnel borer, one of the largest in the world, had recently been pulled back for repairs. But now it began to come alive. The roar of engines announced its energy. The counter-rotating titanium teeth at the front began to utter their deep-seated whir as they spun up to speed, announcing to all that they were hungry, and looking for some rock to dig.
People began to move back through the machine, heading toward the rear as they moved out and around the massive drill head. Those would be the crews from the side caverns we found, I suppose. She waited until the last one gave her an all-clear sign. Everyone was now back behind the borer and the main tunnel and all side areas had been evacuated of personnel. She nodded and began to move levers.
Slowly but surely the great machine rolled forward. In the main control area she moved back and forth between gauges, checking them, adjusting levels and pressures as they went, keeping the machine humming along smoothly. It was an intricate dance, and one that she had spent several years learning to perfect. Now, with Adam home with a broken leg, she was the only qualified person on the team to oversee the borer’s operations. It felt damn good.
Especially now that the repairs were completed, new teeth installed, and an overhaul of the number two engine finished. Even as she spoke, Mikey brought it online and the noise in the tunnel seemed to double. Hollie grinned. Now they were digging!
The dual rail lines through the mountain were a several-year-long project, but once they were completed they would allow for much faster passage of goods from the coast to the interior plains. Not only that, but her hometown of Drake’s Crossing on the interior side had won the bid to receive a massive railyard. Everyone in town was looking forward to the job boom that was sure to follow.
Mikey’s voice drifted up from below. “Number two is reading all clear boss!” He had to shout to be heard.
Hollie stamped her foot down on the grate to let him know she had heard him. “Roger!” she added loudly, her voice distracted. Number one was reading slightly high pressure. Still in the green, but she made a mental note to keep an eye on it.
“Five feet to contact!” Eduardo, the third member of her crew called from his forward spotting position.
“Three!”
The mighty borer trundled onward. Once they reached one foot Hollie increased the speed of the rotations and the machine truly began to hum. At this point everyone pulled their headsets down into place. Speaking just wasn’t an option anymore, and they needed the ear protection that was offered. The shaking increased, and she heard Eduardo call out over the radio that they were under half a foot now.
She slowed their forward movement, dialing it down to the slowest, while the teeth continued to move around.
“CONTACT!”
The entire machine shuddered, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the pressure of number one. But it was still reading in the green and hadn’t appeared to jump at all to her trained eye. She gave number two a look, but it also looked fine.
“We’re in business!” she shouted as the teeth began to carve into the solid rock of the mountain once more. Conveyor belts grabbed the chunks as they were broken down and started to send them backward up the shaft. An entirely different operation was in place to see if they ended up hitting any veins of geologically pricey ores, at which point a subsidiary mining company would come in and handle the debris.
All in all, it was an efficiently run business, something that Hollie wasn’t overly used to. Generally the higher-ups of a company were well out of touch with reality, but that didn’t seem to be the case with Heartline Drilling. As far as she could tell, they actually had their shit together.
The shaking intensified as the rest of the drill encountered rock. Now they were really back in the swing of it. She relaxed slightly, continuing to monitor the various gauges.
“Holy shit! STOP!” Eduardo screamed.
Hollie paused for a second, trying to figure out what was wrong. Then the machine seemed to sort of buck and with a shout of surprise she slapped the emergency stop. The borer, Big Betty as they’d affectionately named her, came to an immediate stop, the massive drill head taking a moment to spin down.
The ground kept shaking.
“This is not good,” she muttered into the headset. “Not good at all. Eduardo, what do you see?!”
It took a moment for a reply. By now others were coming forward.
“The entire thing just sort of fell away! We hit a cavern straight on. I was afraid the entire roof was going to come down on us,” he said at last.
The earth started to subside, and they all breathed a big sigh of relief.
“Survey teams forward!” she called over the radio as she moved Big Betty several feet back to allow space forward. This way they could step out the side of the borer into one of the side caverns, wait there while she reversed, and then proceed forward. It was a lengthy process, but their job was already extremely risky, so nobody begrudged taking some extra time.
Anytime a cavern opened up as they drilled, a team would move forward to inspect. Now she waited as they cautiously moved forward, probing into the newly opened area.
“It’s huge,” one of them said quietly.
“Anything in there?”
“Nothing…wait…I think—”
Whoever it was never completed their sentence. A wave of terror washed out from the cavern and across the several dozen crewmembers of the drill. More than one of them screamed with fear as they turned and ran.
Everything in Hollie’s body locked down. Her muscles were frozen stiff, rooting her to the spot as she heard the boots of the rest of her team pounding down the ramps toward the rear. She knew they would be fighting one another to find a place on the carts that would carry them back toward the surface. Whoever didn’t earn a place would be forced to run the two miles back to the entrance.
All of that happened while she stood immobilized, the fear paralyzing her with its thickness. She felt she should be able to see it, so dense and cloying was it in its pervasiveness. Hollie wanted to scream, but all that came out was a mild whistle as she struggled to breathe.
What the hell is going on?
Her inability to do, well, anything, was starting to anger her. Hollie wanted to shout out, to call her team back and have them proceed back into the cavern.
Fine, if they won’t, then I will!
Stubborn determination—and not a small bit of curiosity as well—began to wear away at the fear gripping her and holding her tight. All it would take was the smallest of motions to break the spell, whatever it was. Perhaps there’s a gas leak of some sort? Though I’ve never heard of gas that can cause fear…
Hollie focused on her left foot. She commanded it to lift, to pull her foot up off the ground and put it back down. Nothing happened however. She stayed frozen. Hollie tried everything she could think of. Berating her
self, cracking jokes in her head, anything and everything that might chip loose the hold the fear had upon her. But nothing worked. The harder she fought against her muscles to force them to move, the more rigid her position became.
Fine. You don’t want my muscles doing anything? Well then they aren’t going to do a damn thing.
She snarled silently and commanded all of her muscles to go limp. Hollie didn’t really expect it to work, but she figured it was worth a try. So when her legs suddenly collapsed out from under her and she plummeted to the ground, her hands weren’t at all ready to stop her.
“Ow,” she cursed as she hit the steel grate of the upper level of the borer control room hard. Thank goodness for her thick safety uniform. The brown material had prevented her from getting scraped up by the roughness of the metal.
She brightened immediately though at the realization she could speak. A quick test proved her body was now responding to her controls. The fear that had been all commanding earlier was still there, but now that she was able to exert command on her limbs again, Hollie was able to ignore it. Well, perhaps not ignore it, but she could shunt it to the side, preventing it from gaining control.
“What the hell caused this?” she muttered, slowly moving down the stairs.
It was a ghost town. Nobody had remained. Every single one of them had fled for the surface. She wondered idly if they had stopped there, or if they’d gone all the way to their homes.
Reaching down, she scooped up one of the dropped flashlights. This was a high-powered unit, not something normally used by homeowners. When she turned it on, the entire cavern in front of her was lit up in its beam, the white glow splashing against the far side. Swinging it back and forth and also onto the ceiling above her Hollie proceeded forward, the exact opposite direction all of her friends had gone.
Your curiosity is going to be the end of you one of these days.
Perhaps. But Hollie had to know what had caused such a reaction in everyone, including her.
Flashlight in hand, she went to go find out.