"Man I am lost and these bushes have grown too much", Sam was lost and in the dense part of the forest. It all happened few minutes earlier when they all had stopped to rest and Sam decided to take a bath in the nearby stream.
He was busy washing himself when the water level started rising and a suddenly a huge flow came which carried Sam with it and dumped him down a waterfall. When he cam back to his senses he found himself in the lower part of the forest.
Since the lower part was closer to the dragon vein the vegetation growing there was much higher. "Let's find a high point to see where I am. These large trees are blocking my damn vision", he was looking for an open area or a rock through which he could see more.
"Nothing around huh", tired of walking and combing through thick bushes he decided to take rest and sat down. 'These big trees are are a pain in the ass. Not to mention it will soon be nightfall', if he doesn't find his way back he was in big trouble since he doesn't know what kind of monsters live and come at night
[Can't help you myself. This place is filled with mana energy and it is blocking my vision too. Hard for me to search for energy signals], Sei's vision was blocked due to how thick the mana in the surrounding was. For him it was like that day when thick fog blocks vision, everything is hazy red for him.
*Grrr "What was that", Sam heard a low growl and started looking around. [What is it?], Sei asked seeing Sam spinning around. 'Don't you hear some kind of low growl', hearing the voice again Sam asked Sei. There was no monster in the surrounding but the Sam was hearing the same voice again and again. The sound seemed to follow the same pattern, ringing two times and then silence and again the same pattern would follow.
"Let's find the source of the voice", Sam was growing uncomfortable with passage of time since it was slowly growing louder. He continued following the voice and arrived in front of a cave hidden in the thickets. "Looks like the source is inside this cave", he drew his sword out and cleared some bushes.
[This cave is giving me the creep], Sei got weird feeling coming from the cave.
For a moment Sam hesitated to enter and stood at the entrance peeking inside to look what lied there. But the sound wouldn't stop coming and he decided to go in the cave. The interior of the cave was narrow but long and quite dark.
"It's quite dark in here", he lighted a torch and the surrounding lighted. The walls were filled with some old age paintings. "These must have been drawn ages ago", he said this after seeing that some part of the paintings had worn off.
"I guess they all were terrible at this", the painting was quite crude and he could only figure out the monster and the some figure surrounding it, most likely people. "Are they hunting it or are they worshipping it", he saw some paintings and tried to figure out the intention shown in the painting.
"Let's move on", he continued walking deeper but suddenly the floor beneath him cracked and he fell deep down a big hole and crashed into something.
"Ouch!", the fall would have been fatal if he had not landed on the soft floor. Sam's eyes slowly adjusted to the surrounding and now he was able to see much more clearly. "I fell down quite a long way", the ceiling was very high as Sam could see faint light coming from it.
*grr
He was startled by the loud noise and jumped from the rock and onto the ground. What he thought was a big rock upon closer look turned out to be a monster. "What is this", seeing the big monster Sam was baffled at its size. It was the biggest he had seen, atleast 40m in length. [Dragon], Sei's voice resounded in Sam's head.
The dragon moved and brought his head closer to the foreign presence. Up closer his big face and red glowing eyes made Sam unable to move from his place. Fear, it was the greatest fear he had felt until now. The dragon scanned Sam for a few seconds and then slowly turned around as if Sam's existence meant nothing to him.
Sam breathed a sigh of relief and calmed his racing heart. His legs had already given up and he popped down on the ground. [Never seen a dragon this close], Sei joked but was as nervous as Sam was. One bad move and they would have been wiped out. Dragons were very fearsome creatures and would rarely associate themself with others.
Sam decided to move away but there was no exit. He circled the whole place as stealthily as possible but the whole place was sealed. Nervously, 'There is no exit, what to do now?', Sam asked Sei for advice.
[My fears have come true. This place is a dragon prison, meant for holding dragons. See the big magic circles drawn on the ceiling and ground], Sei analysed the surroundings and stated his observations. Sam looked above and below and saw big circles drawn on the ceiling.
"But why imprison a dragon in the first place. Aren't they very strong?", Sam asked after sitting in a corner. Sei also had no idea why the dragon was imprisoned.
Sam turned to the dragon and found him all chained up which made Sam's heart aching for some reason. He got up and went near the dragon, pulled out a potion bottle and poured it all over the dragon. The potion worked and the dragon started feeling much better. He looked in Sam's direction and used telepathy to communicate.
"Hu.. mnngh mnnhh. Human. Can you hear me?", Sam heard the voice of the dragon echo inside his mind. "Are you talking to me", Sam exclaimed in surprise.
"Human. What is your name?", the dragon asked. 'My name is Sam", responded Sam. "I see you have a unique constitution I see. Why?".
"Quite perceptive of you", and Sam continued to tell his isekai theory. The dragon found it quite amusing and laughed heartily. "It has been so long since someone talked to me and made me laugh", the dragon found Sam's personality likable.
"Human. No, Sam you are a good person. Will you help this old dragon", the dragon told his story. He was captured by humans when he was a baby and since then had been kept here prisoned by a human tribe. They did so to absorb his life force.
"We dragons have big life force and it is impossible for them to absorb it all. I have been holding it till now against them in hopes that someone might help", the dragon ended his talk with a sigh.
"What do you want me to do?", Sam was ready to help the dragon and immediately started destroying the magic circles drawn to keep the dragon binded. "These chains are beyond my strength", Sam complained to the dragon.
But he took out another potion from his bag and poured on the dragon. The potion increased the strength of the consumer by ten folds and it gave the dragon ability to free itself from the chains.
After destroying the chains the dragon felt quite good and moved around the cave for a few moment. "You have helped in many ways. We, dragons are quite prideful creature and usually repay our debts. Come forward and I will give you a skill", the dragon said.
"A skill. What skill", Sam step forward and the dragon started chanting some spell. The chest of dragon formed a big tattoo that looked like a shield with wings, the tattoo glowed bright and flew out of the dragons chest and into Sam's chest where it was absorbed and disappeared.
"It is the ultimate defense skill that will protect you from unseen dangers", the dragon responded and spread its wing, picked Sam up and flew out and dropped him in the upper parts of the forest. Then it flew into the horizon.
"Quite a day, it has been", Sam wiped all the sweat on his forehead and went to find his friends.