“Go back!” Caveria snarled when I caught up with her. She was striding forcefully up the path, and she gave me a furious look. “Leave me alone!”

“No,” I panted, “I won’t. You can’t do this alone.”

“I can’t?!” She stopped and whirled to face me. Her eyes bored into me. They glowed red, like her hands. I refused to be intimidated.

“No,” I said and raised my chin to look down at her. “You’re going after a dragon, aren’t you? You can’t do it alone. You can’t fight a dragon on your own.”

“Watch me,” she growled and began walking again. “Can’t fight a dragon,” she muttered. “You haven’t even seen one.”

“No, I haven’t,” I said, matching her stride. “But I’ve heard enough about them, and I don’t think anyone can fight one all on their own. Not even you. So I’m coming with you.”

“That solves one problem at least,” she said and bared her teeth at me. “The traditional way is to offer the dragon a gift and a sacrifice. And in case it’s not clear, I’m the sacrifice.”

“What?” I said.

“Can’t fight a dragon,” she said, in a mocking voice. “A fight with a dragon is always to the death. Your own, or the dragon’s. They don’t like half-measures. So I either win, or I die. There’s nothing else.”

I didn’t reply, which was partly because the path was getting very hard to see as we left the lights of Davorra farther behind.

“What about the gift?” I said, and stumbled on a rock.

She stopped and sighed deeply while I got back up. “Peter,” she said. “I really don’t want your help. This is much more dangerous than you understand. The things we’ve fought so far are... they’re like cute little kittens compared to a dragon. It’s possible I won’t survive, and in that case you won’t survive either. Please. Go back. Go away.”

“No!” I said and crossed my arms. “I’m not going back. I’m going with you. Whether I live or not.”

“Oh for...” She turned away and clenched her hands. “This is the last time I say it. Go. Away. I don’t want you dead. And... you can’t stop the war if you’re dead.”

“I know,” I said. “I probably can’t stop the war if I’m alive either. So that’s not a good argument. But I have to try, and you’ve convinced me we have to find the Dragonblade. Which means, we have to kill a dragon, and make an amulet out of its heart.”

She didn’t respond. She just stared into the darkness, her balled-up fists glowing in the dark.

“All right,” she said finally, and laughed, a short, sharp laugh. “I managed to convince you of that, but not to stay out of a dragon battle. Right.” She turned back to me and regarded me with her burning eyes. “Then come. But don’t forget I warned you. This could be the last thing you do.” She glanced away. “But... I didn’t mean that about the gift.”

“Mean what?”

“That I offer you to the dragon.” She looked at me again, and one corner of her mouth curled up slightly. “That’s the gift. The traditional thing is a goat. Dragons like goats.”

“Okay,” I said as we began walking again. “But we need to find something to offer it?”

“Yes,” she said. “Keep your eyes open for small, tasty animals. ”

We continued along the path, which climbed slowly uphill. After a while, the red glow around Caveria faded, but when she noticed I was stumbling and stepping into a lot of unseen holes, she sent out a faint cloud of red light which floated just above the ground in front of us.

I thought about what she’d said. A gift, and a sacrifice. I got the feeling there were rules and traditions around dragon-fighting, and as usual, I got the uncomfortable feeling I was in over my head. But that was usual, and I decided to ignore it.

I’d made my choice - to throw everything I had into an attempt to stop the war, and if that mean dying uselessly in the mountains while a triumphant dragon mauled Caveria, then so be it. I had spoken the truth as I saw it - there was nothing else for me to do than trying to find the Blade, and get it out of the hands of all the would-be emperors of Lumaria out there.

It had already been late when we left, and as we kept walking clouds began drifting in to cover the sky. It got darker and darker, but as long as Caveria could keep the guide light burning it was fine. I got more and more tired, though. I’d already been tired from my long walk to Davorra and there hadn’t really been any time to rest. I doubted Caveria wanted to rest already, and I didn’t really want to either. We needed to get further away first.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Where are we going?” I asked after an hour or so of silence. “Do you have a plan?”

“No,” she said, and I could hear she was tired too. “I don’t, and I don’t think we need one. Dragons live in the mountains. We are in the mountains. We don’t need to go anywhere specific, we just need to find a good place for the battle and then call a dragon.”

“Call it? I thought you set a trap?”

“No,” she said again. “I told you, you offer it a gift. Something small and tasty, like a goat, and a worthy opponent who’s willing to risk her life against the dragon’s. Then you call, in an old forgotten language, and a dragon will come. Or it will not. You never know.”

“What? You mean we might be doing all this, and no dragon shows up at all?”

“Sure,” she said, with a low laugh. “The dragons aren’t here to serve us, Peter. They serve the gods. If the gods have better things for them to do - there’ll be no fight.”

I pondered this as we reached a fork. The path continued ahead, towards a hulking, dark mass that towered above, and two other paths curved away right and left, into what looked like two side valleys. Caveria stopped, and turned to look back.

“Be quiet for a minute,” she said and closed her eyes. I was happy to oblige, and happy for the pause. My legs were getting very, very tired.

“I can’t sense anything,” she said after a while. “I’m not good at this, but I don’t think we’re being followed. Not closely, at least. I still want to keep going for a while.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s go. Which way?”

“Straight ahead,” she said. “Straight ahead, and - up.”

We forged on, and soon the path began to climb sharply. It veered to the right, and followed the flank of the mountain. It was probably just as well it was so dark, I thought. The land to the right of us fell away steeply, and grew ever more steep as we climbed. It wasn’t fun to walk in darkness, but it would have been worse to see the drop below us.

Finally, Caveria stopped. “I think,” she said, “here’s where we’ll need to do some climbing. I don’t think we can do that tonight, though. You seem almost exhausted, and I want to be well rested too. Let’s...” She sent out quick flares around us. “Let’s make camp behind that large rock. I’ll set some wards, and then nobody can sneak up on us. And if they do -” she snapped her fingers with a smile, sending sparks flying.

I returned her smile, but felt too tired to do much. I staggered after her, in behind the rock, and unrolled my bedroll and blanket. I just had enough energy to unlace my boots, and when I put my head on the bedroll, I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day dawned gray, cool and blustery. Jagged, torn clouds raced past the peaks, not far above us, hiding whatever lay beyond. Caveria didn’t want us to make a fire, so we had our breakfast cold. Bread, dried meat, and cheese. And water. I sent a grateful thought to the others, who had prepared my backpack. I had everything I needed to survive, even if I wasn’t comfortable. Most of all, I missed coffee.

“What do you think happened to the others?” I said.

Caveria shrugged. She’d slept okay, she said, but she looked tense and keyed up. “They either went back to the rooms, although I doubt it - the Elvish consulate is probably not a good place right now. Or, they got locked up.”

“I hope they’re okay,” I said, looking down into the valley below. Clouds drifted past down there as well, and they seemed to be growing thicker. I hoped we wouldn’t get rain.

“Are you joking?” she said, with a grin. “I can’t imagine the Davorran town guard causing trouble for them. Or the Dimran army. A dragon might,” she allowed, “but then, they’re down there, safe and sound, not up here chasing the most awesome opponents you can find in all Lumaria.” Her grin got wider, bordering on lunatic. I smiled back, but didn’t feel reassured.

“How far do we have to go?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not far. Like I said, the dragons live in the mountains, so you need to come to them. Also, it’s good to be above the tree line. Dragon battles involve a lot of fire.”

“Great,” I muttered. “I would have liked something that involved a lot of coffee, right now.”

“Then let’s go,” she said. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we get back to where there’s coffee.” She rose and stretched, sending small fireballs into the sky as she did. “Or we don’t and then it’s no problem. Let’s go.”

“Are you always this cheerful in the morning?” I said as we hoisted our packs and headed back onto the path. She looked over her shoulder and grinned at me.

She hadn’t been wrong about the climbing. There was still a path, but it began to switchback up a very steep, rocky slope. It felt more like a cliff face but there were a lot of large, seemingly secure rocks, with the path running half-visible on the bare soil between them.

My legs began to protest loudly before we were halfway. At least it’s uphill, I thought. I did glance back, once, and didn’t do it again. It felt like we were right out in the middle of empty space. I really hoped it wouldn’t rain - those rocks would be absolutely horrible if they were wet and slippery.

By the time we reached the top, my legs were shaking. I told Caveria I needed to rest, and she grudgingly acquiesced. I watched her as she sat down, though, and her expression betrayed her: she was pretty tired too. I ate some more bread, meat and cheese, and drank a lot of water, and slowly felt some semblance of strength returning.

“I hope there won’t be too many more climbs like that,” I said, and looked up the mountain slope above it. It wasn’t as steep - it wasn’t very steep at all, just rising gently for quite a long distance, until the rest of the mountain rose straight up, dark and foreboding. The peaks were hidden in cloud, and we were slowly getting enveloped in mist.

“Nah,” Caveria said. “I don’t think we need to. I think - let’s go around there, towards those lower crags. That looks like a good battle arena - it’s open and empty, but some cover nearby. I don’t want to fight completely out in the open.” She turned and looked the other direction, then grunted.

“What?” I said.

“I was hoping we’d run into some goat herds. There’s a lot of goats in the mountains above Davorra, but not here apparently.”

“Maybe they’re sheltering from the rain?”

“Maybe. Pity.” She crossed her arms and scowled at the clouds, at the mountain, and finally at me. “I wish Arndrir had been here. He knows the mountains.” She made a face, still looking at me. “This - this is a shambles.”