"Unbelievable…"
Instead of words, they all came out as a series of growls.
He found an opening. Pushing forward, he dove into the waterfall, entering the cave inside. His third membrane slid across his eyes, protecting him from the sharp spray of water from hurting his eyes.
Once he entered the cave, the barbels on his face twitched as he sensed the air and wind currents. When he deemed the cave harmless, he relaxed slightly. His sharp talons dug into the ground as he made his way inside.
As if the cave had known someone had entered, golden hues glowed up through the markings carved on the walls of the cave. Following the markings, it seemed to lead a way deep down below.
He kept going down and down. If the cave ever crumbled, he would have been buried alive. After a while, he finally reached the deepest part of the mountain.
And there.
A soft red glow emitted from the rune hovering in the center of the cave.
"It's real… Not just a myth…"
He breathed out. He craned his long neck as he regarded the glowing rune.
The dragon hastily returned to his human form. Loud cracks echoed loudly as bones popped unnaturally. Black blue scales crawled back as human skin started to appear. The scales sunk into the dragon tattoo that coiled around his right arm.
Finally, a man appeared, naked.
His clothes had been shredded apart during the transformation into the beast.
Despite the wounds from the previous battlefield that covered all of his body, he still managed to look like a greek god, a perfectly sculpted body with strong muscles in every right place. Dried blood had coated the right side of his perfectly sculptured face.
Slowly, he took a hesitant step towards the rune, fearing if there were any traps placed, however, when nothing happened, he took larger steps, one after another, until he was partially running for it.
The cave shook as soon as his hand grabbed hold of the rune.
Sensing that the cave was about to collapse, the man shifted back into his dragon form. Grasping the red rune in one of his talons, he avoided the falling boulders. Panicked, he gave a loud screech and pumped his body, shooting ahead for the exit.
The cave was slowly closing on him, one almost hit his tail before he managed to evade it. He bent his long body, rocketing and zigzagging to avoid the falling debris.
The exit of the cave was right in front of his eyes. His heart was beating rapidly, pumping hard inside his ribcage. The adrenaline of not making it out was overwhelming.
The small ruby red rune slipped through his talons and clattered onto the ground. He wasted no time and did a backflip to fetch it without a second thought.
More and more debris fell as if trying to bury him alive. At this time, he knew he would never make it out alive. In a split second, he made a decision before the cave could completely collapse upon him.
He crushed the rune…
Time stilled before getting sucked into the rune, including him until…
Everything disappeared.
***
Bai Shuyin was just a normal high school student. Long and straight black hair, you know, the usual. The only thing that was striking about her feature was her cerulean blue eyes. However, those eyes were always hidden under the dark long bangs that covered her face.
Bai Shuyin.
The normal but always grumpy high school girl.
But not a nobody in school.
She had proven her existence.
By being the stupidest and laziest in class. She always managed to rank first --if you counted from the back, of course-- and slept through classes.
Except, she had her reasons. A valid one.
Aside from her struggle to scrape for scores, Bai Shuyin spent her daily life in her drunken uncle's martial art gymnasium during the day and hugging her novels during the night.
Reading novels became her newfound addiction, an escapee from life. She decided that solely dedicating her life to reading was enough for her. She hated pressure, hated burden, and hated responsibility.
Her living cost? No worries. She would help her uncle run his gymnasium-- hey, she might be lazy, but she once held a blackbelt. So, She would help run the gymnasium and read until her eyesight went bad at night.
Simple life, right?
So when her life flashed in front of her, she had nothing to regret because she had nothing to hold on to. Unknown to her, she had just been visited by our infamous tour guide.
Truck-kun.