The Cursed Dragon

by Rachal M. Roberts

  Immediately the corresponding area on the quartzite rock wall vanished.

  “Here Jeremy, hold this open with your gloves on.”

  He hurried up to put his gloves on with eyes wide open and did as she said.

  Annette jumped up, gathered as much of their equipment as she could and raced to the doorway. Once inside she said “Come on, hurry up, I’ll hold it open. Grab everything, even our little wall!”

  Jeremy had never moved so quick.

  Chapter 14

  Kalara didn’t know how long she stood there naked at the seer pool. However long she stood there, she tripled that time after she sat down, staring unfocused at the blue mist around her.

  She was empty.

  Why didn’t he kill her? He was done with her, she knew it. She had felt his thoughts as he walked out of her mind, out the lair, out of her world. He didn’t hide his feelings from her, why would he? He didn’t care if she knew his thoughts because he wasn’t coming back.

  Sitting there reminded Kalara of all those days she had sat trapped in that apartment knowing less than she did now. And still, at this moment Annette was trapping her with that evil curse. Perhaps it would have been better to not know what all Annette had done to her and taken from her, but one good thing did come from it all – Kalara knew now without doubt that magic was real and she could use it.

  Why did Annette target her? Did she want Ravanan for herself? Kalara could have gotten angry about it but what was the use? And continuously thinking about him or her brought nothing but sadness. She had to let those thoughts slide off into the abyss of her heart and move on. She was done with thinking about Ravanan and Annette. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, to stop thinking about him and how much she missed him, but with a cold determination Kalara berated herself into submission.

  Without anger and sadness distracting her Kalara became keenly focused on how her body felt. Her head ached from being walked into by a will other than hers, the base of her skull throbbed particularly bad which was a little worrying to her.

  The human skin she wore was cold from being naked in the cool cavern air but at least she was alive. Never again – Kalara vowed – would she freely present her neck.

  She stood up, brushed the dirt off her back side and thought about wearing something; not that it mattered since she was alone but it would feel right to her. She was naked and cold, she needed to cover herself.

  The healing robe would have been best for her headache but Ravanan had failed to tell her its name. She tried anyway, mentally retreating to her dark crevice, she visualized it on her body and cast “DRAPE HEALING ROBE”. That wasn’t it, the name was wrong and it didn’t appear.

  Kalara sighed, “Why couldn’t things be easy?”

  She picked over the meat left on the fire and then went to the far back corner of the lair where Ravanan had stood by the rock. Kalara did exactly what she saw him do, licked her finger, touched the same spot he had, and cast “REVEAL”.

  The spell worked and the crevice appeared although it did make her feel tired as though she’d just climbed many flights of stairs. She guessed the reveal spell would work because if the Mighty Amethyst had kept her stuff with his then she ought to be able to access it with her saliva.

  She quickly stepped into the darkness since she didn’t know how long the doorway would stay open and cast “STARLIGHT” on herself. Her body lit up the dark corridor and she made her way to the wardrobe chamber to get that robe.

  The lacy black robe was sealed tight in its case. Kalara remembered back to when she was there before and broke Naught’s case. With confidence she made a fist and punched the glass; it didn’t break but it felt like her hand did.

  Was the robe’s case different? She didn’t think so, it looked like all the others. She stood there in thought while her knuckles reddened. What was different this time?

  One thing was that she wasn’t angry. As she replayed what happened before, she realized it must have been her aura that had helped her. She stared at the glass, thinking about how to turn her aura cold. She wanted to break the glass and not hurt herself again.

  She needed coldness and ice.

  Without any more effort than that thought Kalara began to hear the faint crackle of water vapor hardening into ice, it was a very satisfying sound as the world turned cold. The air turned chilly and yet she felt fine, not cold at all. Her aura was helping her. The happiest of feelings washed over her heart.

  She punched the frozen display case and shattered it, grabbed the ornamental robe and shook the broken glass out before putting it on. As soon as Kalara put the lacy black robe on she began to feel less pain from her headache and hand. The robe was amazing, even if it was thin and intimate.

  Before Kalara left she visited the weapons rack. She ran her fingers over the weapons, admiring them. Bolt was still there and next to it was the amethyst inlaid dagger, it had to be hers by process of elimination. Kalara picked it up and admired her craftsmanship. The piece fit perfectly in her hand, becoming an extension of herself. Each faceted jewel on the hilt glinted in the starlight spell that had dimly illuminated the room. The dagger was a fine blade, she wondered what its name was. There were so many things Ravanan hadn’t told her, this was another one. Kalara set the blade back in its place and went to bed.

  The following morning Kalara awakened when she thought she felt a touch on her shoulder. Ravanan’s warm aura was there. She opened her eyes and turned over but he she couldn’t see him.

  “Ravanan?” she called out. There was no answer but she did see her breakfast at the fire. Kalara did not say his name a second time.

  She took her food into the dark crevice to eat it. Lit with her light she spent the whole day exploring the tunnel and mapping it out in her mind. It was the center of her home and the furthest she could get from him, she was going to learn it well.

  The next few days there was food each morning when she woke but Kalara never sensed his presence. Sometimes it was pizza, sometimes it was the leg of a cow, but it was always warm.

  Kalara always took it to the dark crevice to eat in peace away from the memory of him. Food for her became a sad reminder and it was an upsetting way to start each day. But she was determined to not let him bother her with his elusive manner. Being in the tunnel helped her, the cold rock was familiar and she got to the point where she didn’t need or use the light spell while eating anymore.

  The notion that she had conquered the darkness lifted her spirits also. She was going to be alright. Even her head finally stopped hurting.

  There was a lot to practice and it seemed she was eating constantly as she pushed her magic to the limit each day, working on duration and intensity. It became easier to use her aura to make ice. The seer pool was an infinite source of water and before long she was making icicles crash into the rocky walls.

  What was hard was trying to warm up her bath water, but soon that came to her too. At first she cheated by blowing through the flames of the cooking fire that she’d built near the seer pool but after a while she was breathing fire just like Ravanan. She discovered that breathing fire was highly variable, depending on the shape of her lips and amount of air she gave it.

  Kalara was depending on her aura more and more, trusting it to chill the air or help her breathe fire. She had come a long way with it and began thinking of experimenting with the more difficult magic of verbal spell casting. Sure she was already able to cast reveal and starlight, but other spells were necessary if she wanted to continue to grow.

  Freely casting verbal spells at whim was a bit daunting. Kalara was anxious that it wouldn’t work so she went back into the dark tunnel where she took every meal. In the comforting darkness she found her way past the cave formations and rocks to the certain stalagmite that made a nice chair. She could even see the orange crystal in her mind although there was no light to see it.

  Kalara warmed her chair slightly with flame-breath and took off the black healing robe, letting it fall to the grou
nd and pushed it aside with her foot. She reached out to lean and relax against the formation and breathed deeply.

  She was as peaceful as she was ever going to get. The dark void was silent while it waited to hear her voice. Kalara thought about Naught. Naught. Naught. Naught.

  “DRAPE NAUGHT”, she cast.

  The torn and filthy shadow suit covered her skin. She did it! With relief and a smile she sat down. Kalara hugged herself and ran her hands over the tight outfit. Yes there were some holes in it but it felt so good. It was hers and she knew the name of it!

  She had really messed Naught up though. Kalara put her hand on her knee and could feel skin. She examined every rip and tear carefully while eating another couple of slices of pizza, thinking on the enchantments of Naught. Although she didn’t feel any different she was invisible right now – even though there was no one there to not see her. It was amazing to think there was magic in the very fabric of Naught, that she was touching magic when for so long before this she had been thinking that magic didn’t even exist. She needed to fix Naught.

  Remembering the downside of Naught, Kalara took it off and folded it up in her lap. She breathed deep, drawing strength from the nothing around her, and visualized all the mending that Naught needed.

  Kalara cast “REPAIR”. Before her eyes, Naught’s fabric healed and even the snags were smoothed back to pristine condition. There was still some dirt, but no snags.

  After that all she wanted to do was sleep.

  The next couple of days were mental exercise as she stood in the wardrobe chamber draping Naught and letting it go back to its broken case. Over and over Kalara cast drape. She was relentless and walked around as she practiced.

  There was a lot of stuff in there. Not just weapons and clothing, but there were bags, sacks, jewelry, chests, furniture. And odder stuff still, like two green crystalline disks that were bigger than dinner plates, she had no idea what they were. The chamber stored everything that they could ever need to pass in a human world, wallets and money from eras and nations.

  Her eyes went to the special ivory display case, different from all the others, set apart and empty, adorned with fire opals, part of the first treasure he ever gave her from some two thousand years ago.

  She knew the meaning of it now, a tear flowed from the corner of her eye, but she knew it too late to keep him.

  One of her first memories was Annette stealing the cream robe from her and she was too confused to know it was happening. Kalara forcefully wiped the tear from her face and turned away from the case. The cream robe was gone and so was he. ‘Why do I even still have the stupid case?’ she wondered to herself in anger. The air behind her grew cold, she dropped the temperature even colder. The old case was creaking in protest but she didn’t care. Kalara took the air as cold as she ever had then kicked her heal backwards, destroying the case. The ivory busted into powder and the fire opals dropped into the dust and broken glass.

  It was over and gone, her heart relaxed. Kalara was glad to have that tomb of their love out of her wardrobe. She used her aura to gather the mess and dumped it all into an empty jar, opals included.

  Then she looked at the broken display cases that stood without their glass panels. Naught’s case was in front of her and glass shards everywhere. She carefully thought about how many shards there were and visualized working them like puzzle pieces. She regarded the height that the many pieces must travel, and when she felt like she was ready and relaxed enough she cast “REPAIR” and thought of 100% of the pieces going back into the case. The shards lifted and flew into their places, it was magic! She yelled out in joy to no one but herself. The glass display case was crack free and perfect like it had been before. The spell made her tired though, she was needing rest and food.

  It was the next morning, as the lair began to lighten and color pink with the dawn Kalara woke like always. She was thinking about the repair spell and how it was so tiring to her. If only she could repair herself, she paused and stared at the fire pit.

  There was no food waiting for her. She sat down on the bed, suddenly really hungry. What had happened? Kalara felt prickly with alertness. She didn’t feel his warm aura which meant he wasn’t there, or maybe he was there and hiding from her. It was so very strange.

  She hurried down through the dark tunnel to the wardrobe chamber to have a look at Ravanan’s things. After casting starlight on the hanging rock formation she checked to see what was missing, thinking maybe it would give her a clue. All his weapons were there, so were all of his clothes, even his sapphire robe which had been there for days.

  There was no sense in guessing why Ravanan had not brought her food so Kalara decided to get her mind off of it. She went over to her display cases and looked at other possible things to wear. Most of her old clothes were enchantress robes, some more revealing than others, but as far as “normal” clothes to wear she only had a couple of things.

  Kalara decided on a purple enchantress robe that matched her attitude, which was ‘ready to throw more magic around’. Since she didn’t know its name she had to break into the case.

  The purple robe fit her nicely, an elegant brocade overdress with bare shoulders and hanging sleeves, and a lavender under-dress that seamlessly followed her body to the floor. The back and front panels of the low-cut silk dress were fastened together at the sides by fine chains that stopped at her hips.

  The golden hairpiece came next, Kalara considered not wearing it but after trying it on she loved it and how it held her hair back from her face.

  “But of course it keeps my hair perfectly in place,” Kalara flatly told herself, rolling her eyes, “I designed it for my own head years ago.” It felt odd to go through her old outfits, they didn’t seem like hers and she actually felt somewhat like a thief, worried that she would be discovered. “But by who?” her dialog continued, “myself?” Kalara knew it was an outrageous concern and made herself ignore it as such.

  Kalara wondered how the robe was enchanted. She could guess at the enchantment on the hairpiece by the way her hair felt, nicely tight and pulled back, no human hands could get it so perfect. It was probably wrong to feel so beautiful.

  She needed to know how her magic was being affected by the purple robe. Immediately she thought back to Ravanan casting reveal on her ring and she would have to do the same spell – she had to find out for her peace of mind.

  On her way to the wizard’s alcove she noticed the two green disks were missing. Kalara knew Ravanan had to have them for some reason, but she was at a loss as to why.

  She took off the enchantress’ robe and laid the under-dress on the table in the wizard’s alcove. Carefully placing the biotite and iolite Kalara cast “REVEAL”. In the little iolite crystal she saw herself intent on an object in front of her, it was changing shapes very fast, there were fuzzy distractions around her but they weren’t touching her. She understood, the robe had an improving enchantment where she could think and react faster, and avoid distractions to stay focused, its name was Silk.

  When she cast reveal on the overdress Kalara learned it was enchanted to warn her of immediate changes and threats around her, and its name was Cerberus.

  Lastly she was right about the hairpiece whose name was simple enough, Silk Hair.

  Mid-day came and went, Kalara was hungry but she let it go, sure that Ravanan would bring food to her that evening. She kept practicing sending Silk and Cerberus back and then draping them again. Kalara was getting pretty good at the drape spell – feeling like practice was the only way to get better.

  The purple robe still felt oddly foreign to her though – even after draping it so many times. And Kalara knew it was crazy to feel like the clothes weren’t hers. “They are mine, all of them.” She tried to convince herself, “They fit me! And if my old self ever comes back to claim them, then... great!” But Kalara couldn’t stop feeling weird about it, despite loving the robe she needed to do something more, needed to make it hers, give it a different name, re-enchan
t it.

  Back down to her stalagmite chair she went. The dark crevice was the only place where she felt like she could find enough power, it was where she felt her best. She sat down to plan the enchantment she would do and how to do it. Kalara felt like she needed to learn about the enchantments of other things, like those two green disks that went missing earlier that morning.

  After gathering biotite, iolite, and a heavy black rock from the alcove Kalara sat down again in her stalagmite chair with everything in her lap. She figured that Silk would help her with the enchanting so she kept it on. Kalara retreated inside herself, finding the dark void of her heart, listening to the silence, and drawing from the darkness around her in the tunnel, using all her focus and aura she cast “ENCHANT SILK, CERBERUS AND SILK HAIR WITH REVEAL TO BECOME HEED”

  Faintness overtook her and she fell fast asleep.

  When she woke she was naked and in her lap was a purple pile and metal corset. Kalara was so glad that she’d left the healing robe by the chair and reached down to get it but got dizzy instead and felt out of the chair. From the ground Kalara managed to grab the black robe and struggled to put it on before going back to sleep.

  Kalara was beyond famished when she rose later that evening and was surprised that still, Ravanan had not brought her any food. “Maybe he will in the morning” she told herself and went back to sleep.

  But the next morning was no different. Kalara frustratingly pushed her hunger aside and walked back to the dark crevice to get Heed and check out her work.

  She picked up Heed and left the healing robe by the chair again. Kalara excitedly ran naked through the blackness to the wardrobe chamber’s wall mirror to see her result.

  Her eyes were wide in the reflection as she held it up to her body.

  Heed didn’t have as much substance as Silk and Cerberus had, there was less material and a whole lot more skin. “What happened?!?” Kalara stood there shocked. She hadn’t planned to change the style or cut of the dress, only to increase the enchantments.