Heart of the Mountain

Standing before him was a dragon that must have been nearly thirty feet long from nose to tail, the crest of sharp spines that ran down her back shaking to make a menacing racket that approximated the rattle of a venomous snake. The powerful legs that held her body aloft rippled with muscle beneath her shining hide, as thick around as the pillars of rock that surrounded her, her tail as girthy as a tree trunk. It dragged across the floor, sending a few errant coins scattering, her scales shifting in hue from sapphire to emerald depending on how they caught the light.

"What will you do now, Hedge Knight?" she rumbled. Her voice was so deep that he felt it rattle his teeth, penetrating him down to the bone, the deep contralto somehow still maintaining its feminine quality despite the bestial maw that was producing it. She watched him with her fiery eyes, a head as large as his torso suspended on a weaving, serpentine neck.

Isabelle had...no, there had never been an Isabelle. This dragon, this beast had been his companion the entire way, making a mockery of him. She had eaten his food, he had let her ride his horse, he had slept in the same tent as her.

"What is this?" he demanded, aiming his pike at her from behind his shield. "Some kind of dark magic?"

"I was under the impression that you didn't believe in magic," she crooned, raising a forelimb and examining her talons in the same way that a human woman might check her fingernails for dirt. "You believe only what your eyes tell you. So what say you now, buckethead? What do your eyes see?"

"My enemy," he replied, trying to put on a stoic front despite the trembling in his hands. He angled his long pike over the top of his tower shield, ensuring that his entire body was obscured, at least as much as it could be when seen from such a high angle. He had been prepared for this, he had trained for this scenario. That Isabelle had tricked him didn't change his strategy, there was a still a dragon standing before him.

"So you still mean to slay me?" she asked, those burning eyes scrutinizing him from beneath her scaly brow. "You would plant your spear into the heart of a young, naive farm girl?"

"You are no farm girl," he snarled.

"Oh, but I am," she replied with a toothy grin. "Not moments ago, I was Isabelle. I was so youthful and radiant, did you think that I had not noticed the way that your eyes traced my figure when you thought that I wasn't paying attention? Why should my transformation change that?"

"You're a monster," Iden spat, "you've been terrorizing the people of the village down in the valley."

"Terrorizing?" the great beast gasped, feigning outrage. "So I ate a few sheep, what of it? Dragons need to feed too, you know. I paid the shepherd for his trouble, he won't be going hungry on my account."

"I came here to bring down a dragon, and that's what I mean to do," Iden continued. "I can't leave this cave empty-handed, I've staked everything on this venture."

"Then it's the gold that you crave?" she said, a tongue as long as his arm escaping her jaws to wet her scaly lips. She glanced behind her, her massive head pivoting on her sinewy neck, watching the mountain of riches shimmer in the torchlight. "Mesmerizing, isn't it? Look at the way it catches the light, every individual coin glittering like a field of stars. What use has a dragon for wealth, you might ask? I do not live in a castle, I do not wear extravagant clothes, I do not entertain guests with revelry and excess. I have no need of guards, servants, or standing armies. Gold is my weakness, the chink in my armor. It holds a strange power over me, I lust for it, and perhaps you do too?"

"I share no such obsession, wealth is merely a means to an end."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked, amusement twisting her reptilian features into a smile. "I saw how my collection transfixed you. For a moment, you forgot all about your task. You were on edge all the way down the tunnel, but when you caught sight of my hoard, you dropped your guard."

"Enough of your games, dragon," he shot back. "You know all too well why I'm here, I told you as much while you shared the warmth my campfire, and ate of my food."

"A fun diversion," she chuckled, "I get so terribly bored sometimes. I was out searching for additions to my collection, and I happened upon that lovely vase. I like to wander in human form from time to time, perusing markets and shops for trinkets. I don't mind parting with coin for an item of greater merit. On the way back to my cave, I stumbled upon you while your horse was drinking from the stream. It is fortunate that you weren't a brigand. Had you tried to rob me, or ravish me, well..." She bared her fangs, each one as sharp as a butcher's knife, catching the light like pearls. "You would have discovered my true nature far sooner."

Iden didn't reply, glaring at her through the slats in his visor. She rolled her eyes, loosing a sigh that was chased by a plume of black smoke.

"How woefully trite. I really thought that you might be different from the others, Iden. There are less dangerous ways to test your mettle, you know."

"Have at you!" he bellowed, taking a step forward.

"Very well," the dragon conceded, "have it your way then..."

She reared back on her powerful hind legs, towering over him, as tall as a church steeple. Her chest inflated as she sucked in a gulp of air, and then she spewed it back out as a column of roiling fire. The flames engulfed him, and he took refuge behind his shield, the heat of it searing him even from within his armor. It just kept coming, the fire splashing against the rock floor, his shield beginning to glow red like an iron in a forge. He endured it, sweat starting to pour from his body as the very air around him seemed to cook. He held his breath, knowing that the heat would char his lungs from within.

She finally relented, and he peered up over his shield, watching as twin columns of smoke billowed from her nostrils.

"You were right about the shield," she said, "I would have to melt the very rock beneath our feet to slag steel. But can it withstand a strike from my claws?"

He had barely enough time to recover before she lunged at him, his tower shield ringing like a bell as she struck it. He braced himself, but she was too strong, and he was thrown to the ground. It was like taking a hit from a war hammer the size of an anvil, or a cannonball swung on a chain. His armor clattered as he rolled away from her, and his shield was thrown from his arm, the impact dazing him. When he was able to recover enough to struggle to a knee, his armor still uncomfortably hot from her fiery breath, he spied his shield resting on the cave floor a good ten feet away. It had been scored by her talons, leaving three deep furrows in the metal.

He lunged for it, but his armor made him slow, and the dragon swung her tail like a whip. It knocked the legs out from under him, sending him toppling end over end, and once again he found himself on the cave floor.

"Will you yield?" she asked. Iden didn't reply, he scrambled to his feet again, and lunged for his shield. He heaved as he lifted it off the ground, taking up position behind it, angling his pike towards her. "Still undeterred?" she added, flexing her massive wings. "So be it."

Iden loosed a war cry as he charged towards her, his pike resting atop his shield, and he threw all of his weight into a strike. He drove his weapon towards her chest like a javelin, lunging with all of his strength, aiming the bladed tip at her heart.

She batted the weapon away before it made contact with a casual wave of her scaly hand, throwing him off balance. He recovered, going in for a second strike, and once again she deflected his spear with alarming ease. Her winding tail crept up on him, tripping him, sending him crashing to the ground in a clattering heap.

"You're far too heavy," she muttered, watching him lean his weight on the haft of his weapon as he climbed to his feet. "That armor is doing you no favors."

She wasn't wrong, he was growing exhausted, and he hadn't even landed a hit on her yet. He had been expecting to face an animal of no greater intellect than a bear or a lion, but her mind was as keen as his own. Perhaps even moreso...

Iden cast his shield aside, gripping his pike with two hands, and charged in. If he could get close, he might be able to mitigate the advantage of her long reach. She swung one of her massive, clawed hands at him, and he heard the air whistle above his head as he ducked under the deadly blow. He stabbed at her belly with the sharp spearhead of his pike, but it glanced off her scales. They were as hard as iron. He swung the weapon in a cutting motion, the steel sparking against her hide.

He was lifted off his feet by her tail, the thick trunk of it hitting his midsection and throwing him across the cave. He came down on one of the stalagmites, his armored back slamming into the growing pillar of rock, and it shattered into pieces. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he slid to the cave floor, gasping for breath. The helmet was stifling him, obscuring his vision, and so he flung it off. As it rolled across the ground, he shook out his mane of long, dark hair, his sweat glistening in the torchlight.

Isabelle, or rather the dragon, watched him with a smile on her face as he angled his spear in her direction again.

"You're so handsome when you're angry, you know," she chuckled. "I was almost tempted to indulge you back in the tent. What might you have done if my slim, dainty fingers had crawled down to unfasten your belt? How might a nubile farm girl have expressed her gratitude?"

"Shut up," he growled, taking up an aggressive posture as he advanced on her.

"What stamina," she added. "You just keep coming, don't you?"

Iden bellowed as he charged at her, sidestepping a downward strike from her tail that hit the rock floor with enough force to crack it, shaking the ground. She was inhumanly swift, but her sheer size meant that maneuvering her massive frame took time. She telegraphed her attacks, winding up in a way that was necessary for a beast of her sheer mass.

She raised a clawed hand into the air, intending to bring it down on him like a boot crushing an insect. Iden saw it coming without his obscuring visor, and rather than dodge it, he took a knee. He drove the haft of his pike into the floor, and it caught on the uneven surface, the tip pointing straight upwards. It pierced her scaly palm, the momentum of her own blow driving it deep into her flesh, dark blood gushing from the wound.

The dragon opened her mouth in a roar of pain, a cloud of smoke escaping from her throat along with it, and she pulled back in alarm. The pike had run her through, he could see the glinting tip of the weapon as it protruded from the other side of her hand. It was no mortal blow, it was scarcely larger than a nail from her perspective, but the hurt and the surprise gave her pause.

He watched as she brought her hand up to her face, gripping the thin haft with the thumb and forefinger. He didn't know whether they were feet or hands. She obviously walked on them with a four-legged, bestial gait, and yet they seemed as dexterous as those of a human.

She pulled the pike out, her fingers trembling, and then she snapped it in half like it was nothing more than a toothpick. She turned her glowing eyes towards him as she dropped back down to all fours, her scaly brow furrowing, her lips pulling back in a snarl.

"Why are humans always so eager to throw away their lives?" she hissed. "Just because you only live sixty or seventy years, you think it has no worth?"

Iden drew his sword from its scabbard, brandishing the blade as he waited for her next move. Without the pike, he'd have no way of reaching her heart, but he wasn't done yet. He had known that this might happen, and he had faced death enough times that it no longer filled him with dread. He would give her one hell of a fight before she ended him.

The dragon turned her massive body sideways, her head swiveling to track him on her serpentine neck, and she raised her long tail off the floor as she prepared to swing it. The way that her scales refracted the light from the torches might have been beautiful under different circumstances. There must have been thousands of them, interlocking like armored plates, each one shifting in hue from blue to green depending on what angle it was viewed from. When she moved, it created mesmerizing waves of color that flowed up and down her length, almost like the wings of a butterfly. Her bulging muscles rippled beneath her hide, strong enough to propel that massive body around with surprising ease and agility.

She pulled her tail back, and then rolled her wide hips, putting her entire body into the blow. The appendage whistled as it cut through the air, and Iden had scarcely enough time to roll under it. She had been aiming for his head, and he heard it crack like a whip as it passed over him, passing by so fast that it was little more than a blue blur. It slammed into one of the many stone columns, cleaving through it as if it were no more sturdy than baked clay. With its support removed, the section above where she had smashed through it cracked and crumbled, breaking away from the ceiling and coming crashing down like a felled tree. Iden threw his arms over his head as it fell not five feet away from him, shaking the ground, showering him with fragments of broken rock that ricocheted off his armor like stones cast from a sling. The monumental column broke into pieces, dust billowing as the beast prepared another attack.

She sucked in a great lungful of air, then spewed flames in his direction, shooting a jet of roiling fire from her gaping maw. The inferno spread out in a carpet, rolling over the cave floor, rushing around the columns and stalagmites like a flood of water. The sound was terrible, half the blood-curdling roar of a giant beast, and half the whoosh of flame that filled men with a primal and instinctual fear.

Iden flung himself behind the fallen pillar, and not a second later, the wall of fire impacted the stone. Licking flames rose above the wall of rock, and he put his back to it, feeling the wave of heat wash over him as the very air burned. Black smoke billowed, rising to the domed ceiling where it clung like acrid storm clouds. Now was his chance. He sprang to his feet as best as he could manage in his heavy armor, using the cover of the smoke to change position, diving behind an intact column.

The dragon relented, more dark smoke rising from her open jaws and shooting from her nostrils like there was a coal furnace in her belly. Like a snake rearing up to strike, she raised her head on her flexible neck, turning it this way and that as she searched for him.

"You think you can hide from me?" she hissed, the quills that ran down her spine rattling menacingly. "I can hear the frenzied beating of your heart, I can smell your fear."

He heard the rumbling of her footsteps as she approached his column, and she rose up on her hind legs, leaning her weight on it. Her claws dug into its surface high above him as she wrapped her forelimbs around it, raining dust and crumbling fragments. When Iden looked up, he saw her head snake around the pillar of rock on her winding neck, her glowing eyes peering down at him as smog poured from her nostrils.

She struck like a cobra, her jaws opening to expose rows of serrated teeth, her maw wide enough that it could have swallowed him whole. He could see a fiery glow in the back of her throat, as though there was a furnace burning beyond the limits of her pink flesh.

Iden swung at her with his sword, and this time, the dragon realized that he could leverage her own momentum and weight to drive his blade deeper. She pulled back as his weapon flashed, baring her pearly teeth in a snarl. He couldn't hope to kill her with the tiny blade, but nobody enjoyed the prospect of being stabbed in the eye or in the mouth, dragon or otherwise.

"You really mean to fight to the death?" she asked, her booming voice shaking his bones. "What are you trying to prove, and to who? There's nobody else here besides the two of us. If you should fall in battle, who will know about it? Who will tell your story?"

She leaned more of her weight on the pillar, and Iden heard it begin to crack, breaking away where it joined to the roof of the cave. He scrambled out of harm's way as she fell forwards, bringing the titanic column down with her, and it shattered on the ground like a glass dropped from a table. He felt like a mouse scurrying away from a cat, his armor clanking as he ran out of range of her swiping talons.

"Just cut your losses and leave," she continued, "flee while you still have your life."

"And live out the rest of my days as a pauper?" he shot back, skidding to a halt and turning to face her with his sword at the ready. "No, I have but one chance to make something of myself, it's all or nothing."

She thundered towards him with the speed and force of an encroaching avalanche rolling down a mountainside, her jaws opening like a giant bear trap ready to snap shut on him, and he swung his sword to meet her. It was a feint, however. Rather than closing her jaws around his body, she snatched him up in her hand, so large that she could encompass him entirely. Iden bellowed in pain and surprise as she squeezed him, his steel breastplate creaking as it began to dent inwards. She had left his arms free, and so he inverted his sword so that the blade was pointing down, and began to jab at her massive fingers. The scales here were just as thick as those on the rest of her body, and his weapon did not penetrate, his steel sparking against her tough hide.

His legs dangled as she raised him high off the ground, putting them face to face.

"I could burn you to a crisp, encase you in molten slag" she threatened. "Or I could swallow you whole, armor and all. Yield. I will not give you another chance."

Iden raised his sword and threw it like a javelin, aiming for her eye. It missed, bouncing harmlessly off her brow, landing on the cave floor far below.

"If you will not see reason, then so be it..."

She held him precariously over her open jaws, Iden closing his eyes and screwing up his face as he prepared for the killing bite.

But it never came.

The next thing that he knew, Iden was standing on the ground, and he opened his eyes to see the dragon's clawed hand withdrawing. He looked up at her in confusion, she was making no move to attack him. She was just sitting there like a giant dog, her tail trailing across the floor, her massive wings folded neatly across her back.

"I surrender," she said.

"Y-you surrender?" Iden repeated, confusion and disbelief muddling his thoughts. She nodded her head, an oddly human gesture coming from such a gigantic creature.

"I yield, my treasure is yours."

"Why?" Iden asked, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously. He didn't know whether to feel elation, fear, or bemusement. "You could have killed me with a single bite, why give in now?"

"Do you still wish to claim my head?" she asked, ignoring his question. "Is my hoard enough to satisfy your lust for wealth, or should I lay my neck at your feet so that you might hack at it with your tiny sword?"

Was she serious? Was this some kind of elaborate ploy? She had outwitted him before, he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, but she was no longer trying to eat him. If she had wanted to kill him, it would have been all too easy. Even while armed, he had been next to powerless against her might.

"It's...mine?" he asked, chancing a look at the mountain of shimmering coins in disbelief.