POV Vesuvius:
The massive dragon leaving a trail of smoke crackling with lightning, flew high above the white peaks, his eyes falling on the tall towers growing on the horizon. They were even taller and thicker than the last time, sprawling over the forest. Their ugly rough walls were like an eyesore to the dragon. A feeling of incredible irritation at the daring mortals building on his territory flared up in the depth of his dragon heart.
Vesuvius already thought about attacking them before they get finished, but he realised something, ‘I can just avoid them when they are finished, and maybe they are just trying to bait me to attack while it looks unfinished, but in reality, it is a trap. I got into this whole situation due to my emotional actions; I don’t want to repeat it.’
p The dragon shook his head and braced his wings, landing right before the gaping black entrance into the hideout of his minions. Stone walls made out of large bricks already started to fill the massive cave chamber, splitting it into multiple rooms.
Everything was dark and uncomfortably quiet, only with quiet breading coming from the depth of the base and droplets of water falling from the ceiling. The large and darks spaces felt so empty with most of his minions being on the expedition or offline. He walked forwards, his clawed legs clacking and scratching on the bare stone ground.
He kept walking through the large cave, his steps echoing through it as his eyes lightly glowed in the darkness. Dark clouds of smoke were filling the cave behind him, slowly drifting towards the ceiling and entering shafts leading out.
POV Alesia:
The young elven girl with long curled horns poking out of her blond-haired head was looking at beautifully glowing runes evenly spread through the massive claws of the beast in front of her.
Soon loud steps and clacking of something hard against the stone came from the outer part of the cave where she was working.
A terrifying magical aura was spreading through the dark cave, her body shivering from both fear and excitement as she knew the owner of that aura. She was scared of failing her job and getting eaten, but at the same time, she felt excited about pushing runic enchanting in a new unexplored direction.
That was okay to her but what made her confused was her excitement to please her master.
The draconic beast next to her immediately pressed its armoured head on the ground as if bowing. An unexplainable urge to bow her head filled her mind, making all of her muscles tense, feeling the dragon’s authority pulsing through the aura.
However, she resisted it and straightened her back, breathing deeply to calm her nerves, ‘Calm down, Alesia, you are going to do an excellent job, and he will not eat you.’
Her eyes, the blue and the reptilian ones were focused on the entrance. Soon the large dragon flickering in orange and blue light leaking through the thick smoke filling the tunnel around him entered the chamber.
The deep voice echoed through the cave, “Are you finished with your preparations?”
Alesia immediately opened her mouth, speaking with a proud tone full of expectations, “Yes, I am ready… We can start right now, your draconic highness!”
Suddenly all of her fear vanished as she looked straight at the dragon, looking at the highest tier material with greed, her eyes glowing in dim light… excited to start as soon as possible.
POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius looked at the elf smiling in front of him, feeling weirded out at her sudden shift in behaviour. He sprawled on the ground with a loud thud as his heavy armoured body hit the ground.
‘Finally, I was waiting for this for a long time.’
He outstretched his claw, the smoke around him suddenly rising and moving straight towards the ceiling, revealing his body.
The small elf brought out a weird shiny black chisel, slowly walking forwards with her soft steps clapping on the hard stone floor.
She reached towards the claw. Her eyes focused on the massive claw looking like blazing hot iron with golden webbing spread through its surface. The claw was huge, its length easily reaching the height of the small elf.
“Your highness, please try not to move now.”
She carefully put her small hand at the claw, ignoring the immense heat radiating out of it that was turning the surrounding stone into glowing red. She brought her chisel down towards his claw, its tip glowing and sparking in white light like a welding tool.
She slowly and carefully moved her hand, the tip of the tool reaching the surface of his claws. Her chest stopped moving as she held her breath. She nimbly moved her hand once more, leaving a curled scratch-like line glowing in orange and white light.
Vesuvius remained lying on the ground without moving, his big reptilian eyes observing every move of the elf, not feeling any pain or discomfort.
The hand of the small elf moved once again, carving another large line crossing through the first one and then another one.
Three lines connected together, forming a weird runic letter. A light glowing out of the lines intensified, a warm feeling spreading through the dragon’s body from his claw.
A smile formed on the face of the small elf as she finally breathed out, her eyes looking at her work. Her heartbeat was increasing with every second.
Then as if in a trance, she moved again, carving line after line, her hands moving with surgical precision, cutting lines that were perfectly sublime and beautiful. She wasn’t blinking, just moving with her hand as she walked around his claws gracefully as if dancing, carving one letter after another. Each stroke of her hand was calculated and fast, as the light of magic kept flashing with each of her moves.
The light of the runes kept getting either dimmer or brighter with each new letter as they slowly joined, forming words and then sentence. Drops of sweat started to pour down her face as her eyes were focused on the work, her irises moving from one corner to another without her blinking even once.