Jewel of the Hoard Ch. 03

Cadmus' heart began to thump in his chest. Something was wrong, something was horribly wrong. The volcano had not erupted for thousands of years. Cadmus' turned around and his eyes started to scan the floor. Blood was splattered across the tile like a painter had been haphazard with his brushes. It was not there before. The guards at the door stood still, one looking over his shoulder as if expecting the outcome of the eruption and of Cadmus' reaction. They were supposed to help him. 'Why are they not helping me?'

The throne room was now empty, the cups that the noblemen and ladies had held were scattered across the floor. The dragon was alone. Aries' seat was vacant and something was coming from underneath the beautiful marble. Something so horrible that Cadmus' voice was trapped inside of himself. He could not scream, he could not beg for what he was seeing to stop.

Running down beneath the throne, red and full, was blood.

It started off as a slow rush like the pulse of a heartbeat. It came from underneath the chair he was just sitting in and from the one Aries was in moment's ago. In another blink, it started to flood across the floor and with another blink, the white tile was red. If he did not want his blood to join what was rolling out beneath the chairs, he had to act. Cadmus finally found the heart to do something.

He yelled, the sound filled with fear..

Cadmus awoke with a start, his arms thrashing about in the water. His heart was still racing in his chest and his wings were extended. Was his dream a vision of what to come? Was it a dream of the past? It felt like a combination of the two, something so surreal yet so close to his experiences that he did not know what to think. He felt sick to his stomach as the fear from three hundred years ago started to leak into his consciousness.

No, no...it could not have been the future. It had to be a reflection of the past.

And yet.

Cadmus got out of the pool and started to shake. He couldn't lose another person close to him. He wouldn't allow it. Cadmus did not dry himself. He had to see if Aries was okay. The cave felt so strange without the multitude of wisps around. Since they were attracted to the magic that had been held in the crystals, only a few stuck around. They followed Cadmus around and levitated towards his shoulders. The dragon shivered, the water suddenly feeling cold on his scales as he made his way into the living room where the mouth of the cave filtered in fresh and cold air from outside.

When Cadmus made it to the human's room, he peeked inside. The human slept peacefully, his chest rising and falling in rhythm to his breaths. He was still in his armor, a hole where the arrow pierced his chest and showing the fake skin that Cadmus patched it with. Cadmus' body was filled with relief. The fact that Aries was safe was good enough for him at the moment. Giscela sat opposite of Aries, watching him close and stroked his head much like how a mother would baby a sleeping child. Cadmus chuckled to himself. What a strange family all three of them were.

He took one last look at the two before walking back towards the cave, a newfound sense of hope going through him.