She dusted herself off and turned around to see her Voorlock flopping and struggling in the corner. Its leg was broken, its right wing shattered, and its neck was bent at a funny angle. She knelt next to it, held its head in one hand, and whispered into its ear. “Shh … just give me a moment, buddy.” Then she took a healing potion from her inventory, one of the strong ones, and poured it down the bird’s throat.

Bones snapped and feathers regrew as the Voorlock’s leg straightened and its wing put itself back together. A minute later, the bird stood up, shook its head, and bowed to its master.

“Avaendus.”

There was a loud crack of magical sounds as her steed turned again to a small stone statue in her hand. She set it back in her belt pouch.

Strange, Lefty should have made a sarcastic comment by now, she thought as she turned around to look …

… and found nothing but an empty room.

Oh no. She ran back to the wall and tried to listen but no sound came through the stone. He said he wanted to stay there anyway. She kicked the wall. Men and their porn. She pressed her ear to the wall again but still no sound. Angry, she kicked the wall again.

Now what am I going to do? She sat down to think. I’m stuck here by myself now and my only help is behind an impenetrable wall of stone with a bunch of … well … I’d rather not think about it. Her eyes looked out into the darkness. For the first time, she realized she couldn’t see any other walls. In fact, she could see nothing but a few feet around her as the only light came from a torch, down to its embers, that sat next to where the door had been. Neither could she see the ceiling. Where am I? She opened her mini-map. It had already annotated the walled door behind her. She scrolled through the path she had taken to get here. The room with the temptresses. The hallways. The room with the summoning circle. The smart ass door. The hidden staircase. They hadn’t passed any doors that they had left unopened. At least, not one they had seen. She scrolled back to where she was. Her little green dot pulsed as she returned to it. In the room behind her, the mini-map had an annotation for [last known location of Lefty – level 34 wizard]. She sighed and closed the map.

Then the torch finally died. She walked over and plucked it off the wall. Using her flint and tinder, she tried to light it but then something made a sound, so she stopped and held still, listening. Something was out there. Waiting, she heard it again. Scales against the stone. Not hesitating, she abandoned the torch and slipped off into the darkness.

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I have the feeling I’ve slipped into some place very dangerous, she thought as she felt her way along the wall. Whatever that was that moved, it was much bigger than me. She activated her [Danger Sense] and sure enough, an alert populated that said [hostile creature nearby]. As she crept along the wall, she kept her eyes aimed outward, but all she could see was blackness. Then the something moved again. Claws against stone. Then she heard something whipping back and forth through the air. That’s a tail. A very large tail. It’s a dragon.

She briefly considered her sword but thought better of it. The light from the blade would give her away. She needed to stay hidden and silent. Perhaps the beast would get bored and leave. But not if I’m in its lair. If this is its lair, it will know I am here. Then a warning lit on her H.U.D, announcing that her [danger sense] had pinged. Something was giving off heat and there was a smell like burned metal.

Then a plume of red-orange flame licked the air and shadows rose and fell in response. There it was, a big black dragon striding through the middle of the cavern, roughly twenty meters away. It’s the dragon from the beginning, she realized. The big one. Luckily, a rock hid her from the dragon’s view. For now.

You are hiding, but I know you are here.

These words scrolled across her H.U.D with the notification: [psychic communication]. Her H.U.D then gave her the option to reply using her virtual keyboard. She declined, for now.

Could she fight an adult dragon? Almost certainly not. Especially if she didn’t know its powers and even more if this was its lair. Dragons were exceedingly rare in Sable Unlimited. It was a running joke among the player population that if one encountered a dragon up close, they might as well start making plans on how they were going to respawn. However, Calista wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

I don’t know how you got here, but I know how you’re going to leave. This doesn’t have to take that long, just show yourself and we’ll be done with it.

Plans and counter plans ran through her mind. An adult dragon was a formidable foe, but she was no pushover herself. She had been playing this game since its release and this was her main character with all of her abilities and gear. She didn’t know this dragon’s weakness, but she was certain that the Emberblade could at least penetrate the beast’s armor. The biggest question was this dragon’s coloration. She knew of green dragons, blue dragons, white dragons that breathed ice, black dragons that hid in swamps and bogs, silver dragons that were rumored to live on the famous Missing Islands, gold dragons that dispensed wisdom to those fortunate to find them and even bronze dragons known for their chaotic and capricious nature. And then of course there was Very, the great red dragon known as the Scourge of the North. However, this dragon was a royal indigo with gold along its stomach and four eyes when every other dragon she had seen or heard of had only two. And I don’t know what those four eyes do.

The longer you make me look for you, the longer I will extend your pain.

Another jet of flame lit up the cavern, but Calista managed to keep the rock between her and the monster. As the light from the flame receded, she could see the dragon making its way toward a wall. Then it breathed its flame again, smaller this time as it lit up a torch. The dragon then repeated this several times and soon a half dozen torches were adding their glow to the cavern. Calista crouched behind the rock, hoping her [Stealth] skill would hold up.

You’re not getting out until you go through me, whoever you are, so come out now and we can settle this as it is meant to be settled.