Rose for the Hunter
The Forsaken Guardian
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Maestro
Inner Sanctum Nobility
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As water dripped from the stalactites onto the cave floor, we had always enjoyed exploring these old caves. They had always struck me as so eerily beautiful, haunting in how they showed us the past of mother earth herself yet like wounds they were hidden away to heal, the stalactites and stalagmites reaching for each other to close themselves. Yet, this one, as we'd soon learn, was not a wound trying to close but the jaws of a beast waiting to entrap us.
Our heavy footsteps caused light echoes through the endless corridors and chambers of this stone palace, crystals gracing the walls like jewels. enchanted as we were, we ignored the bones, the skulls with bits of meat still fresh from the last hunt. We walked right passed them. I think one of them even crushed the brittle bone from one under their foot, but we did not see this warning. This place was unreal, now that I look back at it, everything seemed too perfect, but alas, it was that very perfection that had drawn us into a trance.
As the camera from one of them flashed, photographs were taken of the place, words cannot describe it but at that moment we were awestruck. For before us was gold, piles upon piles of gold all gathered together in the centre of a strangely circular chamber, the walls ladened with crystals and now even real jewels. But we all ignored yet another warning, around the gold, its boney tail curled right round to its large skull filled with what would normally be terrifying teeth. However, we simply overlooked that, our eyes locked on the gold before us, the discovery of a lifetime, the riches we could never dream of right before us.
We could not believe it, our mouths agape as we looked to the fortune of our future. Hurriedly we began to scoop it into our bags, chattering about nothing before an ear-piercing scream or was it a roar? Maybe something between caused each one of us to jerk to our feet, fear coursing through our veins, again, the sound of what could only be described as a monster. Our final warning echoed through the walls. "RUN!" one of them said, we did not argue we simply ran, we could always come back another time but whatever it was we knew better than to stay there. However, even then we could not escape its claws.
It wasn't until a few days later that we truly understood what we had done, as I sat reading through some old books trying to find information on the gold I came across some old tale of the dragons' hoard and how those who take it will be cursed for their greed. The ringing of my phone broke me from the trance I was in, it was one of those I'd gone into the caves with, they were panicking. "Calm down, what do you mean he's dead?" my friend sobbed on the other end of the phone. "T-they just found his body, says the marks look unusual but when I got a peek. That monster we heard it's come for us, only a monster could make such large marks. One had almost sliced through his throat and across his shoulders in one sweep!" they were quickly back into a panic and suddenly the line went dead. I heard their screams and then a low grumble, the sound of heavy footsteps, something sweeping the floor. Then silence, the scream cut off halfway through. I hung up just as I heard the uttering of other voices, the last gurgling from my friend.
That was enough to scare me, what I'd just read, was it true, it had only been a snippet. But did I want to go down there again? I looked at the gold, yet unspent. I remembered their words as we exited, they already had plans for it.
~Present Day~
I could pretend now, that that still does not haunt me, but I know, that if even one of those gold coins I took goes missing, that I took from that forsaken palace all those years ago. But the dragon feeds off greed, its body might be gone but in my shadow, it lies, now and then I hear its rumble, every time I am tempted to spend that gold.
So did I go back? I did, but it was gone, there was no way to return what had been taken, I need to just hope that the shadowy claws that get tighter around my neck each day don't kill me. To live with the deaths of my friends, to be rich but not be able to spend a cent. Because if I do, that will be my demise, like them the claws will slice me and ghosts do not forget, especially that of a dragon protecting its hoard.
Our heavy footsteps caused light echoes through the endless corridors and chambers of this stone palace, crystals gracing the walls like jewels. enchanted as we were, we ignored the bones, the skulls with bits of meat still fresh from the last hunt. We walked right passed them. I think one of them even crushed the brittle bone from one under their foot, but we did not see this warning. This place was unreal, now that I look back at it, everything seemed too perfect, but alas, it was that very perfection that had drawn us into a trance.
As the camera from one of them flashed, photographs were taken of the place, words cannot describe it but at that moment we were awestruck. For before us was gold, piles upon piles of gold all gathered together in the centre of a strangely circular chamber, the walls ladened with crystals and now even real jewels. But we all ignored yet another warning, around the gold, its boney tail curled right round to its large skull filled with what would normally be terrifying teeth. However, we simply overlooked that, our eyes locked on the gold before us, the discovery of a lifetime, the riches we could never dream of right before us.
We could not believe it, our mouths agape as we looked to the fortune of our future. Hurriedly we began to scoop it into our bags, chattering about nothing before an ear-piercing scream or was it a roar? Maybe something between caused each one of us to jerk to our feet, fear coursing through our veins, again, the sound of what could only be described as a monster. Our final warning echoed through the walls. "RUN!" one of them said, we did not argue we simply ran, we could always come back another time but whatever it was we knew better than to stay there. However, even then we could not escape its claws.
It wasn't until a few days later that we truly understood what we had done, as I sat reading through some old books trying to find information on the gold I came across some old tale of the dragons' hoard and how those who take it will be cursed for their greed. The ringing of my phone broke me from the trance I was in, it was one of those I'd gone into the caves with, they were panicking. "Calm down, what do you mean he's dead?" my friend sobbed on the other end of the phone. "T-they just found his body, says the marks look unusual but when I got a peek. That monster we heard it's come for us, only a monster could make such large marks. One had almost sliced through his throat and across his shoulders in one sweep!" they were quickly back into a panic and suddenly the line went dead. I heard their screams and then a low grumble, the sound of heavy footsteps, something sweeping the floor. Then silence, the scream cut off halfway through. I hung up just as I heard the uttering of other voices, the last gurgling from my friend.
That was enough to scare me, what I'd just read, was it true, it had only been a snippet. But did I want to go down there again? I looked at the gold, yet unspent. I remembered their words as we exited, they already had plans for it.
~Present Day~
I could pretend now, that that still does not haunt me, but I know, that if even one of those gold coins I took goes missing, that I took from that forsaken palace all those years ago. But the dragon feeds off greed, its body might be gone but in my shadow, it lies, now and then I hear its rumble, every time I am tempted to spend that gold.
So did I go back? I did, but it was gone, there was no way to return what had been taken, I need to just hope that the shadowy claws that get tighter around my neck each day don't kill me. To live with the deaths of my friends, to be rich but not be able to spend a cent. Because if I do, that will be my demise, like them the claws will slice me and ghosts do not forget, especially that of a dragon protecting its hoard.