“Where are you?” I say to the creature that had spoken.

“Uh, Faladel, I’m right behind you. Why?” Briareth says, concerned.

“I’m not talking to you.” I state flatly, “I’m talking to whoever commented on your lame joke.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Said the deep voice, “Why does no one ever look up? I’m above you and have been ever since The Briareth started trying to wander off. Watching you squabble is quite amusing to me.”

“He’s not The Briareth.” I say conversationally, I’m rather freaked out here, but I need to keep a cool demeanor. Flailing around and screaming might provoke a bad reaction. “He’s just Briareth.”

The Elf in question was staring upwards unabashedly. “What are you?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” The deep voice says to Briareth. I take this chance to look up at it. It is magnificent.“Well you might not have seen one of my kind before, apparently we are rather rare these days.” I watch fascinated as the creature glides down from the roof of the cavern and into the torchlight. “I” The creature says proudly, “am a dragon.”

“Woah.” Briareth says. I completely agree with the sentiment behind the exclamation. Dragons are supposed to be extinct; some even thought that their existence was only ever a myth. But this Dragon is alive, in front of us, and possibly the most awe inspiring creature I’ve seen. It's giant wings flap slowly as it lands neatly before us, stirring up a cloud of dust. When the dust clears we can see the dragon’s intelligent eyes gazing at us curiously. It’s upper scales are copper, contrasting its underbelly scales which are bronze and it's eyes which are gold with green flecks. The dragon’s wings rise slowly behind it’s back as it tilts its head at us curiously.

“And you are Elves, who came through the Dwarven entrance. Why?”

Briareth visibly gulps at the idea of being questioned by a creature that could fry him up for breakfast, so I answer the dragon’s question.

“We’re returning to our homeland. Briareth was spying and I had been a prisoner. Why do you want to know?”

“Curiosity. Being holed up under a mountain is really boring, not to mention the neighbors are nasty.” I blink. Neighbors? Are other dragons still alive? Did we stumble upon a hidden sanctuary of some sort?

“Are you stuck in here then?” Briareth asks, seemingly forgetting his earlier fears. “What happened to you?”

“I’m not stuck!” The dragon says indignantly. “Dragons are never stuck! I just- can’t fit through the door anymore.”

Briareth looks like he is about to make a comment, but I don’t trust him not to get us in trouble, so I quickly change the topic, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Smayhellionthostvalisonknoll, but you can call me Smay if that is too difficult to pronounce for your tiny mouths.” The dragon replies.

“Yep, waaaay too difficult.” Briareth says. “Why would anyone name their kid that? Must be a hassle during roll call at school.”

“I wouldn’t know, dragons don’t go to school.” Smay responds. If dragons had eyebrows, I’m sure his would be raised.

“Earlier you said that the neighbors are nasty.” I break in, “What type of neighbors do you mean? We’ve seen nobody except you.”

“You mean that you haven’t noticed them? Wow you must be nearly blind.” I think he is smirking.

“Not in the light.” I say, trying to make us seem slightly less helpless.

The dragon seems to understand my intentions and changes the subject. “Well, anyways, if you two want to have somewhere safe to sleep tonight, you could come with me. I haven't had visitors in ages.”

“Alright.” I smile. “Better than following along behind this idiot.” I gesture in Briareth’s direction.

“That was uncalled for Faladel!” Briareth breaks in indignantly.

“You, knowing that you forgot the way out, led us under a mountain that is inhabited by all sorts of malevolent creatures. Dragons, nasty neighbors, who knows what could be hiding down here?” I reply. Briareth can’t refute it, but Smay raises an objection.

“Hey I’m not that bad.”

“Sorry, present company excluded of course. But what if we had run into some other dragon? You can’t be the only dragon right?” My not-so-subtle request for information is granted and Smay replies.

“I haven’t ever met any. Well, except for some pseudodragons, do they count? They’re not really dragons. Well, they look like miny dragons, but they can’t breathe fire.” My eyebrows raise, and I glance at Briareth. I’d never heard of pseudodragons before, but perhaps he had?

“Breathing fire is a big part of classifying something as a dragon.” Briareth looks completely serious as he says this. I can’t read him at all; did he know they existed? Was knowledge of these creatures' existence hidden from me because I was only the prince instead of the king? I frown slightly, consumed by my thoughts. If such a big thing as the existence of more species than just Elves and Dwarves was hidden from me- from the whole country -what other sort of knowledge might be restricted?

I suddenly notice both of my companions staring at me, as if waiting for me to add something else to the conversation. “Well then, I suppose you are the only dragon under these mountains after all.” I say, hoping that I haven’t missed too much.

“Let's get going then.” the dragon cheerfully says, secure in his role as the only real dragon. “With your lack of wings, it might take quite a while to get there.”

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“Exactly how long has it been since you’ve had visitors, Smay?” Briareth asks as we follow Smay throughout the maze of tunnels.

“Visitors or intruders?”

“Both”

“Hmm. Nearly two years ago now. The last one got lost and stumbled into the wrong area, and unlike you Briareth, he didn’t have a horse or a buddy to warn him to stay out of the side caves.”

“Where is he now?” Briareth asks.

“He is currently in a death-like sleep. No idea when he’ll wake up, if he ever will.”

“What happened to him?” Briareth looks horrified.

“He stumbled into one of the nicer side caves.” Smay makes a dragony shrug.

“The nicer ones!? What do the mean ones do?” Briareth’s voice squeaks at the end.

“Oh they have horrible painful deaths for those who stumble into them. That one you were about to wander into when Faladel told you off… Well I don’t want to tell you, you might be traumatized.”

“I want to know.” Briareth says determinedly, but his face looks freaked out.

“No, you don’t.” Smay replies.

“Yes, I do.”

“He’s going to sneak back there and try to find out if you don’t tell him.” I comment. I want to hear what was back there too.

“Well, fine.” The dragon sighs, “Back there was a tribe of giant, bloodsucking, mimicking, sentient bats that would have first put out your torch, then lured you two in opposite directions, most likely by making you think the other was in trouble. Then they would have drained you to near death and kept you as a food source in the dark for your entire lifetime. And with them, who knows how long that might be? Those bats are very finicky. You might last a day, or forty years.”

I feel slightly sick. I guess some sentient races were bound to be, well, not as friendly to outsiders. I’m really glad I didn’t let Briareth go into that side cave. That is a disgusting end. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a cave as bat food, I already spent a seventh of my life so far locked up. Not spending the rest of it underground would be nice. Why did I even follow Briareth under these mountains again?

“Uh, Faladel, are you okay? You look rather pale.”

I shake off my fears. “I’m perfectly fine Briareth, just contemplating on how we’re probably going to spend the rest of our lives near caves full of bloodsucking bats because you forgot the way out.”

“They are giant bloodsucking, sentient, mimicking bats. Not just bloodsucking.” Smay comments absentmindedly. “It’s best not to insult them by underestimating them. Nevermind that though. Now, take a left here, and we’re home!”

Smay’s cave is rather, well, I hate to describe it like this, but it is rather anticlimactic. It has no mountains of glittering gold, no piles of gemstones, nothing really in sight that would scream DRAGON HOARD!! Instead we see rows and rows of shelves neatly labeled in some sort of archaic script. The shelves have carefully stacked boxes sitting on them, all of the boxes are closed using seals on the corners. “Ah,” says Smay, hurrying over to a paper nailed to one of the shelves. Briareth looks around disappointedly.

“Where’s all the stacks of gold pieces?” He says plaintively.

“Hmm. Oh, yeah my cave’s a bit different from most dragon caves. I used to keep it in the traditional manner, but then I could never keep track of how many things I had. And my neighbors were always stealing from my hoard. So I hid all of it. I have hundreds of these boxes, and only a few of them hold gold. I also hired a couple of security bats from the bloodsucking, sentient, mimicking colony to keep an eye out and observe the neighbors. I love making fun of them when the bats catch them doing something embarrassing.”

“You can hire the bats?” Briareth asks, looking less dejected.

“Oh yes, the colony likes that I’m a returning customer. I pay them with some of the fruits I grow in my gardens. They can then trade them throughout the caverns; we have a thriving economy.”

My mind races down two different tracks. Economy means society. Just how many sentient species are down here? Garden means light. Light would come from the sun, and therefore the outside of this cave system. So if we can find the gardens we might have a way out. “How can you grow anything down here?” I ask Smay, trying to get more information.

“Not telling, but I will tell you that the light I use to grow them isn’t from the sun.” Smay replies, as if reading my thoughts.

Well, no exit that way then. I wonder if Smay knows of other exits. He said we came through the Dwarven entrance instead of the elven, doesn’t that mean he knows where the exit to elven territory is? I’m so immersed in my thoughts, I only vaguely hear what Briareth and Smay are chatting about.

“If only a fraction of these boxes hold gold, what do the rest of them hold?” Briareth asks Smay.

“Other collectibles. You know magicy stuff, some of the rarer collectable card sets. I’ve even got Queen Barthow’s Jester, you know, from The Courts set?”

I’m befuddled, but Briareth seems to know what Smay is talking about. “You mean the one that they only created two of? And the first one was destroyed?”

“The very same. It's worth tons. But the pseudodragons have no idea how valuable it is, so they never bother with that box. Also these boxes can only be opened with some very rare ingredients. Now, will you two be staying for supper?”

“Of course, seeing as we have nowhere else to be, and knowing that we have nothing good to eat otherwise, why not?” Briareth says happily.

“Fair warning,” Smay says, “I have never cooked for Elves, so it might be a bit-” He pauses, “off.”

“So what is supper?” Briareth asks eagerly.

“Well first I have to get to the kitchen,” Smay says. “And that’s four floors up.”

“How will we get up there?” I ask, reentering the conversation.

“I’ve had stairs made for guests.” Smay smiles proudly.

“Made by whom?” Briareth chimes in.

“Not me. I hired different contractors for different levels.”

After stumbling up Smay’s unevenly made stairs, we finally make it to the kitchen. Briareth’s stomach growls very noticeably. Smay stops as if confused at where the sound was coming from. Briareth looks suitably embarrassed.

“Sorry.” He mumbles. “I’m just really hungry.”

“That roar was coming from your puny stomach? How?”

“Uhh. Naturally I suppose?”

“It normally does that?”

“Only when I’m really hungry. Are we at the kitchen yet?”

“Wow.” Smay pauses, looking still rather confused, but more awed then confused.“Oh, yes; we are at the kitchen.”

The kitchen looks neat, much like the other caves. Smay immediately heads over to a tall row of cabinets while I look around. Cabinets on both sides, a round orb on a counter, a fireplace straight ahead, the only thing that stands out is a strange white device that I don’t recognise.

“Now to answer the question of what supper is, I’m not quite sure yet. Although I like to experiment, you two won’t have the pleasure of being my taste testers this time round. I’m thinking of using one of the recipes that I really liked, just toning down on the spices a little.”

“Can I watch?” Briareth asks eagerly “Maybe I can learn something from you.”

“Why not?”

I shiver, hairs pricking up on my arms. “Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?” I murmur. Briareth and Smay ignore me and go off chatting in the general direction of the fireplace. I follow along behind them.

“If you two are going to be cooking, can I go explore, Smay?” I ask.

“Fine with me. If you can manage to open any of the boxes I’ll be impressed.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Go on Faladel. We’ll call you when the food is ready.” Briareth says.