I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Dungeon

'Cramped hallways, ceilings littered with cobwebs and the only source of light being the five torches being held by the mercenaries leading the way for us... Not exactly the preferred environment for a dragon.' Ergen thought miserably as he followed the mercenaries through the dungeon. The ex-commander lady was leading the way, and Ergen wondered just what he'd been thinking when he'd followed her to this place to begin with as he didn't know how he was going to be able to turn around and get out because the space was to small. And as he thought this, he wondered just why every story he'd ever written portrayed dragons living in deep caves in the mountains when his current biggest fear was for him to cause a collapse and be buried alive.

"It seems like we're almost to the first chamber." The ex-commander explained as they neared a stone brick wall with a narrow doorway as the only way through it, and Ergen sighed internally as they reached it as there was no way that he would be able to fit through it.

"There's no way that Ergen will be able to fit through that." Rae spoke Ergen's thoughts for him.

"Then he can just walk through it." The ex-commander shrugged, and suddenly Ergen thought that she was out of her mind.

"But this whole place might collapse if he did that!" Rae yelled out Ergen's thoughts again.

"Don't worry, this place was built by the ancients, so it's going to have hundreds of support columns in almost every chamber it has. All of their dwellings did." The ex-commander explained. "As long as they are intact, breaking through any walls we might find won't bother the dungeon at all."

"But just in case, we'll all be standing closer to the exit behind you." One of the mercenaries said in a half-joking tone as the rest of them moved behind Ergen, and he sighed to himself before forming ice of his head and neck once more. He still had neck pain from when he'd slammed the chimera into a solid wall of stone earlier, and he didn't want to repeat the action and break his neck accidentally on a stupid stunt like that again.

With everyone now standing behind him, Ergen knew that he now had no choice but to continue forward. And after lowering his head, Ergen quickly moved forward smashed through the stone wall in front of him before continuing onto the next room. Thankful it had been a thin barrier, and Ergen managed to smash through the bricks with ease before he entered a massive chamber illuminated by hundreds of everlasting torches that seemed to be powered by translucent crystals. Dust piled up on the floor and Ergen felt as if there were at least a foot of it on the ground that he had to step through just to fully enter the room, and just as the ex-commander had said, there were so many support columns in the room that Ergen felt as if he'd entered a giant farm of some kind where he couldn't even see ceiling or the tops of the tall plants.

"Oh, you were right Commander!" Rae announced with her voice echoing in the space as she and the other mercenaries walked inside of the room.

"I'm not a commander anymore, so just call me Sera." The woman sighed.

"You seem like much more of a 'Commander' than a 'Sera'." Rae pouted from on top of Ergen's head, though thankfully Sera either didn't hear or just ignored the comment as she continued through the room while walking directly away from the door where they'd entered. "Do you know your way around here?"

"There have been several dungeons explored in the past that were built by the ancients." Sera explained. "If the layout is the same, then we should go straight to the other side in order to progress."

"So why is this room here, anyway?" One of the mercenaries asked. "Seems kind of pointless to build something this massive just to have nothing in it."

"Normally this room would be filled with patrols of monsters." Sera explained. "But this really is starting to look like a chimera nest."

"Why do you say that?" The mercenary asked.

"Look up." Sera quickly said, and everyone including Ergen gazed towards the ceiling to see that there seemed to be hundreds of what looked like cocoons hanging from the high ceiling. However, rather than cocoons, Ergen knew that they were simply creatures that had been wrapped in webbing and hung from the ceiling before being devoured by whichever creatures had attacked them.

"It seems like this type of chimera is from the arachnid family, though I suppose we shouldn't be surprised based on the two outside and what their legs had seemed like." Sera commented.

"There are different types?" One of the mercenaries thankfully asked as Ergen wanted to know as well.

"Chimeras can be made up from all manner of different creatures, it just depends on which creatures were close by when the magic fused them together." Sera explained, and Ergen shivered at the prospect. He didn't know how chimeras were created but being 'fused together' didn't sound like a fun process at all. "Just keep your eyes open so that they don't ambush us."

As soon as Sera finished speaking, one of the mercenaries that had been travelling beside Ergen fell down in the dust suddenly before being yanked up into the air. They hadn't noticed it before, but there had been a thin line of thread that was now pulling the man up towards the ceiling and towards an awaiting chimera while he screamed and yelled for help. Thankfully, the man had been close enough that Ergen had been able to stand on his back to legs and grab the man before he'd gotten to far, holding onto the thread before yanking it down and pulling the chimera from the ceiling until it was flying through the air towards them. It let out a shriek of fear as it fell, though it never reached the ground as Ergen cut it with his tail as soon as it was close enough, cutting the creature in half instantly.

"There's no way that we could have explored this without the dragon." Another of the mercenaries commented as several rushed towards their still dangling member as he swung from the thread in Ergen's grip. Thankfully the mercenaries were successful in removing the thread from their comrade, and the group once again resumed its pace towards the other side of the room where they found a door just as Sera had said that they would. Though, while the last door had been open, this one was completely sealed as something was blocking the other side. And without a word, the mercenaries parted in front of it as Ergen prepared to smash through another wall. However, when he did, all of them were surprised as none of the bricks that made up the wall fell to the ground. Instead all of them merely moved backwards after breaking, making the wall seem like it bent more than broke until Ergen eventually stopped pushing forward and took a few steps back to examine the barrier. The stone bricks didn't realign to their original position after being broken, though they had moved backwards until they were almost to where the wall had once been, and Ergen was curious as to just what had happened until one of the mercenaries stepped forward to examine it herself.

"What is this? Some sort of magic barrier?" The woman asked as she pushed in on the wall herself and even her small frame could make it bend slightly.

"No, it isn't magic or it would have reset itself back into a solid wall." Sera replied, walking forward herself before pulling on one of the broken bricks and finally removing it before examining the other side. "Seems like the other side is completely covered in the chimera's webbing, and that webbing is holding all of the bricks in place."

"Then how do we get through?" The woman from before asked, however no one was able to answer before Ergen moved forward again and make the two back away with one of his claws. And after they were a safe distance away, Ergen completely covered the wall with his frost breath, hopefully freezing any of the webbing on the other side before he attempted to smash through the barrier again. And this time, the sound of crumbling stone was mirrored with the sound of shattering ice before it finally gave way and Ergen found nothing but darkness on the other side. However, that was solved when the mercenaries walked forward with their torches to reveal a hallway similar to the one that had been on the other side, though this one was completely covered by several feet of webbing on both the walls and the ceiling.

"Okay..." Rae said slowly. "So who wants to go down the dark and creepy hallway first?