No one else noticed the feeling but me, not until a high pitched, resonant shriek echoed from the pathway, and the air began to heat up did everyone else notice something was off.
"The fuck was that?" Bravo readied himself, grabbing a sledgehammer, the most weapon-like object available, from the cart.
"Was it always this hot in here?" Conner asked.
"I don't think so." Troy answered, "Something's wrong, we should head out, quick."
But as they were talking, steam began to billow out from the path, shrouding the exit from view.
"What's going on," Mr. Smith asked, who was still recovering in the cart, "why's everything hazy."
"Not sure," Troy tried to waft away the steam, "could it be like hydrothermal vents?"
"No, we're not that deep under the ocean, maybe something similar, like an underground lake near an area of volcanic activity, but…"
I stopped listening to them, as I saw a shadow within the steam, it was long, almost like a snake, with an enlarged midsection and a small, almost round head, but I didn't need to wonder what it was for much longer. I didn't know it at the time, but we had just discovered a new type of dragon.
The, at the time, unknown dragon, which would later be referred to as a Drafis, had a long neck and tail, with a relatively flat body and stumpy legs. It's hide was a dull metallic with inconsistent coloring, all of it shades of grey and silver, with some streaks and splotches of gold and green. At the end of it's legs were canine-like feet with four rounded claws at the ends, clearly not for fighting, much like the rest of it's physique. Its head was small in relation to the rest of it, and was relatively spherical, with an unhinge-able jaw containing a few rows of small teeth and a long tongue. The steam which came off it as it entered the chamber, was accompanied by a sizzling or fizzing sound akin to animal fat melting on a pan, the sound contributing to its name.
As it entered the room, all background noise faded, overtaken by the hiss of steam evaporating off its scales. Bravo and Conner readied themselves, prepared for a fight, while Troy stayed back with Mr. Smith in the cart. I, on the other hand, listened.
The drafis wasn't angry or agitated. It was tired, probably having just woken up, and it was hungry. But its attention wasn't focused on us, but its actions indicated otherwise to the others.
The drafis walked forward towards Mr. Smith and Troy, ignoring myself, Bravo and Conner. Bravo pointed the sledgehammer at the drafis, trying to block its path, "Conner, keep it away from Mr. Smith and Troy!"
"Yes sir!" Conner replied as he grabbed a pickaxe and swung it at the drafis' head, which bobbed out of the way effortlessly.
While fending off the two guards, the drafis' thoughts were still on getting to food, but it didn't make any aggressive motions towards Bravo and Conner. If it ate meat, wouldn't it go after them since they are closer? I racked my brain for what was in the cart that it could want to eat, but there was nothing edible except for the people in it.
The drafis started feeling aggravated, and exhaled a barely visible, yellow gas towards Bravo and Conner.
"Get back!" I shouted, just before the drafis closed its mouth and the gas exploded, leaving the two of them singed, as they both jumped back the moment before the explosion.
They both looked over to me for a moment, and then turned back to face the drafis.
"Damn, that could blow a whole in solid rock." Bravo shouted, "Pay attention to it, if it does that again back away immediately!"
"Sir yes sir!"
As the two of them tried to keep it away from the cart, Bravo's comment gave me an idea. Maybe it didn't eat meat, maybe it ate something that we couldn't.
I put my hand to my lips and blew air through it to whistle to distract the drafis, but no sound came out.
'Damn it, I should've practiced this more.' "Hey!" I shouted throwing a nearby rock at the drafis' back.
Bravo and Conner looked over at me like I was crazy, but the drafis didn't react. I grabbed another rock and threw it as its head this time, and that finally got its attention to shift onto me.
"Over here!" I took the chunk of gold out of my pocket and waved it around, "Come get it!"
After an audible sniff, the drafis opened its mouth and moved over to me hurriedly, stopping just a foot or two from my hand. I held out my hand with the gold, taking a step towards it.
The drafis winded its head downwards on its neck, and made two more sniffs as it investigated the chunk of rock in my hand. Opening its mouth, its long tongue extended downwards, momentarily touching my hand with its rough and slimy surface, and it expelled the same yellowish gas as earlier, the gas surrounding both the chunk of rock and my hand. I jumped back in an instant as everyone began shouting, Bravo and Conner running up to try and help as the gas exploded, sending me flying back against the stone wall.
I heard a loud crack from my shoulder and my side, the impact leaving a crack in the wall behind me. Looking down at my arms, the one with the gold chunk seemed fine, but my right arm lay limply by my side.
Bravo and Conner continued running with their weapons raised to strike the drafis, and I shouted, louder than all the others' screaming, "WAIT!"
After that everything got silent. Everyone's attention shifted from the beast in front of them to me, and stayed silent as I approached the drafis once again.
Approaching the beast, I kept my breathing shallow to keep the pain from my shoulder and ribs to a minimum. I held out the gold for it to see once again, and set it down on the ground in front of it before backing away. By now my vision was becoming obscured by blood seeping over my eyes, but I could still see the drafis expel the explosive gas at the rock, and then lick up the fragments left after the explosion.
I could tell from the beginning that the drafis didn't mean any harm. It was just confused and hungry. It didn't want to attack us, it just wanted the ores in the cart, and got annoyed when we kept it from its food. I bet it's never seen people before, and didn't know how fragile we are compared to it, which seemed to have a metallic covering across its body.
With a smile on my face, tasting my own blood on my lips, I walked over to the cart and leaned against it. As I turned back to face the drafis, it had already begun leaving back down the pathway it entered from.
"Prestin, are…" Troy started, "Are you ok?"
I took a deep breath, and felt a sharp pain in my chest and right shoulder, but looked up and said, "Yeah I'll be fine, let's just get back to the town, we got all these ores to cook," with a forced smile.
Bravo and Conner's mouths remained open in shock as they walked back, looking between themselves and me.
"Come on Prestin, sit down, you shouldn't need to walk back like that." Mr. Smith said, starting to get up from the cart.
"No, no. No need, Mr. Smith. I'll be fine."
"No, I insist. Your shoulder is definitely broken."
"I'll be fine until we get back to town." I responded over my (broken) shoulder as I began walking out.
Troy and Bravo continued pulling the cart with Mr. Smith, while Conner walked with me on the way back, letting me use him as a crutch. My attempts to ease their worries definitely failed.
As I wiped the blood from my forehead, he asked, "How did you know it wouldn't attack us?"
I didn't exactly know what to tell him. Should I share it now, that I could feel some creatures' feelings? I decided against it for now, thinking it would be best to tell everyone at once. Instead of telling him, I said, "I just had a feeling." Before proceeding to give him my analysis of the situation, leaving out the fact I knew it was not aggressive, and at the end he was astonished.
He continued saying my praise all the way back to town, "It's amazing how you handled it. Have you considered joining the guard? Not just anyone can act as you did in such tense situations. Most people would've passed out immediately due to the pain, but you got right back up and solved everything." He kept on going, but I could feel myself getting lightheaded as the light from the cave's entrance came into view. The last thing I saw before I passed out was the silhouettes of everyone in the town waiting for us to return.