Descent into Darkness

The cooler evening air of Eknor pushed out the humid Frilofest afternoon. The village of Eknor echoed an audible life, a beating heart of active festivities coming from the village center. A fire lit glow emits into the night sky, creating a noticeable haze above the village. The streets far from the city center remain quiet and void of activity, with the occasional fire lit street lamp. Suddenly, a figure scurries through the shadows. It hurries along the streetways, keeping to the darkness along the edges. Despite its efforts to remain quiet, a rough shuffling noise emits as it darts from shadow to shadow. Drawing farther from the city center, the figure reaches an obscure alleyway between two small buildings.

The creature in the darkness feels around the back edge of the structure. With a click and a pop, a small door opens between the building structure and the roadway. The creature reaches in, pulls out an unlit torch. Glancing back and forth, the creature bounds into the light of the street lamp to ignite his torch.

The creature is a small red-colored dragon, about the size of a mountain cat, covered in thick knobby scales, the cause of the shuffling noise made in the shadows. The dragon has smaller wings, effective for basic flight, although not equipped for distance flight. He has typical horn growth for a dragon, around the back of his head, down his spine, with some smaller growths along his chin.

The dragon seemed nervous, breathing heavily, glancing back and forth as it lifted his torch to be lit by the fire lantern. As soon as the torch ignited, the dragon quickly scurried back into the shadows. Slithering himself into the opening of the secret door, he quickly closed the door behind him, once again leaving the alleyway in the darkness of the shadows.

Below the streets and buildings above, the small dragon crawls through a well-built underground corridor. The constricted passageway left no room to turn around, causing the rough scales of the red dragon to scrape against the walls and ceiling, making a louder shuffling noise than before. With one wing arm extended forward, clasping the torch, he lit his way through the narrow passage.

Soon, the small passageway opened to slightly larger and more connecting tunnels. The red dragon would intersect tunnels, some leading upward, some downward, left and right, but the red dragon made his way through using non apparent visual cues as to the correct direction.

After winding through the dark corridors, the dragon emerges in a small room, placing his torch in a holder on the wall. He takes a moment to stretch from the cramped journey, shaking off the dust and dirt he picked up along the way. The room, slightly more open, yet still compact, with an encroaching ominous feel, is nearly empty, other than a strangely placed chair, table, and a corner piled with barrels, wood crates, and some old deteriorating linens.

The dragon pauses briefly in the room, still breathing heavily, more nervous than winded. He looks around in short jerky movements, as if looking for something specific. He fidgets around with the objects in the room anxiously, as if trying to solve a puzzle. Fiddling with the furniture and barrels, he notices the table gives a little when he presses on it.

The dragon gets a quick look of recognition, and quickly scurries over to the pile of junk in the corner, looks over the barrels, then grabs one and places it on the table. He immediately opens one of the crates, pulls out two rusty cannonballs, places them on the table, then goes back to the pile in the corner, digging through the random items, pulling out several chains. He measures each one against the other, then grabs one and places it on the table with the other objects.

Once the dragon placed the objects on the table, a loud grinding noise of stone sliding against stone echoed throughout the room and connecting corridors. In the room's corner, the old dirty linens give way, falling into an opening below them. The red dragon dashes over, pulling the old linens out of the way, revealing a secret passage. The hole, not much larger than the previous corridor, led downward with steps descending into darkness. A small torch like object sits mounted to the wall at the entrance. The torch is lit by a blue flame, although not quite burning like fire. It dances around in an odd bouncing patter. The light from the blue torch fills the deep corridor with light but does not illuminate the destination of the extensive staircase. Strange noises roll through the deep darkness of the cavern. Capturing his breath with a swallow, the red dragon gains his composure, takes several deep breaths with a slight purring noise, and steps down into the darkness.