"Come on Goliath," I smirked, "We've found it."
"No this place is too dangerous," Goliath waved for me to come his way.
I curled my tail around where Goliath's feet were without touching him. This was what I was looking for. The place behind this wall was safe. The power in this place would scare off any magical being. We both needed rest, and recuperation.
I suddenly tightened my grip around his legs suddenly. Startling him as I leapt through the illusion. Dragging him along with me. Anger, and rage flashed across his face for a split second before he seemed to realize something. I flopped down carefully as possible as I worked on catching my breath.
Avoiding laying on my stump as much as I could. I relaxed my tense damaged muscles. I was too tired to really give a shit at the moment.
"What is this place?" Goliath stood up stiffly.
"Safe," I huffed as I let my eyes fall closed.
"It felt like I was standing on the edge of death until I crossed through the illusion," Goliath started looking around as he shifted into a sitting position with his back to the wall not far from me, "This place hasn't had anything living in it for a long time."
"Just let me sleep for a couple hours," I was too busy hurting to discuss anything with him right now, "I don't have enough energy to talk about it all right now."
I passed out. I woke up to Goliath grabbing my horn, and shaking my whole head violently.
"What?" I groaned as I slowly came back to full awareness.
"We've been in here for over an hour," Goliath pulled me to my feet, "We need to get out of here. Even if you feel safe here Nix."
"We should look around first," I used the mana I'd generated while I was sleeping to heal myself the rest of the way.
I sat back on my haunches, and rubbed my healed over stump.
"How are we going to explain that?" Goliath frowned at me.
"What?" I hissed, "My missing arm?"
"Yes," Goliath pulled a ball out of his pack, "Your missing arm."
He shook it, and it lit up. Glowing brightly. It started floating once he let go of it. He took off his goggles, and looked around the space we were in now. It was a tunnel, and it led further down.
"Lets go," I starting limping further in.
"It's too dangerous," Goliath warned, "We should head back before you lose more limbs."
"Down there is safer then this tunnel," I snorted, "Its a bad idea for me to leave this place right now. I'm down a limb, and almost out of mana. We should at least wait until my mana is back."
Goliath didn't look happy about that, but he didn't disagree either so I got walking again. Heading further, and further into the tunnel. It slowly leveled out, and the cavern opened up. I paused in my stride when I saw it. They were truthfully massive.
"What do you see?" Goliath looked at me cautiously.
He tensed up as he waited for me to respond.
"Relax," I shuffled my wings, "She's been gone a long time."
I started limping forward again. Heading for her skull slowly. All her flesh had long since melted away. He scales had all sluffed off with her skin long ago, and now she lay in an emerald bed of her own fallen scales. Goliath paused when he started to catch sight of her.
I limped up to her skull slowly. Even though I was easily as tall as Goliath in my true form I still wasn't tall enough to look over her nose. Goliath reached up, and took the light out of the air. Shaking it again. Harder this time.
Then instead of just letting it float away like before he threw it as far as he could. The light flashed brighter bringing her whole skeleton into the light for him to see. Her horns, and claws still shined in the same radiant emerald green that her scales once had.
"A dragon," Goliath mumbled to himself.
"She sealed the tunnel before she died so that nothing would come down here," I stood up slowly.
Extending my wings so that I could balance myself on two legs.
"Left a warning to keep anything that isn't a dragon out," I saw multiple broken bones, "She was badly wounded."
I reached forward to touch her gently. The whole cavern shook as soon as I made contact with her skull. Just enough to make us think twice. Her bones, and scales dissolved into dust. Sucking into her skeleton toward a single point somewhere in next to where her heart had once been.
All of it was sucked into a huge emerald crystal about the size of a wheelbarrow.
"That thing is massive," I strode forward.
"Nix?" Goliath stayed where he was, "What's your plan here?"
"She's still calling," I looked at Goliath, "She doesn't want to be left here."
"You're just going to carry that whole thing out of here?" Goliath sounded as worn out as I felt.
"She doesn't deserve to be left like this," My tail twitched, "She died here alone in the dark so far from home. I have to at least try."
Goliath just sighed as he left me to do what I wanted. My gimpy three legged stride slowed me down a good amount, but it still didn't take me long to reach her crystal. I gently touched her crystal, and mana flowed into me freely. Along with images of her life. She was an earth dragon with water as her secondary element.
She specialized in controlling plant life. She would grow entire fields of grass daily for her own personal herd of deer. They were huge. Much larger than any deer I'd ever seen before. Some bore unusual markings, and used magic.
She lived in the grove of trees at the center of this field. The trees were so tall that she could rest in their shade comfortably. She had a male that was hers. He was brown, and lazy preferring to lay around in the fields. I pulled my hand off of her.