บท 33: The queen's nest

Thud! Arad leaped from the wall, landing beside the dead queen. His purple eyes glared down at her corpse. GROWL!

^Is she dead?^

{She is dead, rest at ease,}

"Arad!" Aella rushed toward him.

"Chief," Jack growled from atop the queen, rolling down and falling on his face. "My nose," He cried.

Arad stared at them, closing his eyes and morphing back into a human. "GAH!" He sighed, feeling his heart pounding like a drum. The fight took a lot out of him.

"I need to rest a bit," Arad fell on his back, catching his breath.

Aella stared at the two, "Let's rest a bit." she smiled, "Jack, are your legs fine?"

"Haha!" Jack giggled, opening his pouch and taking two red vails, "Used one of these." He smiled.

"Where did you get them? Potions are expensive." Aella stared at him with a suspicious glare.

"I borrowed from Alcott. He shouldn't mind." Jack smiled, waving his hand.

"You stole them from him?" Arad stared at him, terrified, "Do you want Ginger to kill us all?"

Jack laughed, then started coughing due to the pain in his chest, "I just borrowed them, borrowed."

Aella stared at him, "You don't fear death. When did you get the chance to steal them?"

Jack looked at her, "When he was teaching me how to use echolocation."

"He was teaching you, and you stole from him. You're nasty." Arad glared at him.

"Come on. It saved our lives. And Alcott had more than he needed," Jack waved his hand, "I also bet he could have stopped me had he wanted,"

After resting and letting the potions take effect, the three stood. Jack leans on Arad's shoulder.

"You're a dragon?" He asked.

"You can say that, have a problem?" Arad stared at him. He transformed since he thought Jack was knocked out, and having him know wasn't a part of the plan.

"Can't you transform and carry us?"

"I'm not a mount,"

"I saw you leap around with Aella on your back,"

"She's a special case, and we were fighting." Arad sighed, "Maybe when I grow up,"

"I heard dragons age slowly. I will be long dead before that." Jack looked at him.

{This man asks a lot of questions.}

"You won't wait long. I'm giving you my shoulder. That should be enough for now." Arad approached the queen's corpse.

"Don't tell me you plan to butcher it here? I want to rest." Jack sighed.

"Who talked to you?" Arad touched the queen's corpse, sucking her whole body into his stomach.

"It disappeared! What did you do, chief!" Jack turned toward Arad with a surprised face.

"You're too noisy," Aella stared at them, "Calm a bit." she sighed.

The three walked deeper into the cave, searching for an exit. For a while, the party found nothing but an endless dark tunnel.

Aella looked at them, "I sense a faint magic around here. Shall we follow it?" She asked.

^Mom, can my eyes pick it up?^

{Why ask me when you can try it? Look around you with void eyes.}

Arad blinked. His eyes flashed purple as he started to see white threads flowing around. The deeper they became, and Arad naturally became aware of it.

"Arad, do you smell this?" Aella stared at him, closing her nose. Arad took a deep breath, and he felt it. A disgusting smell filled the air.

Jack pulled his knife, "Rotting corpses, be careful of the undead." He became alert until they reached the next cavern.

The room was big and rocky and had a small water stream dripping across the wall. A nest size of an enormous beast lay in the middle, with what looked like a humanoid corpse in it.

Arad took the front, approaching slowly with his staff up. "Are you sure undead are weak to flames?" He asked.

"Yeah, go for it, Chief!" Jack walked beside him, staring at the corpse.

When they approached the corpse, Arad poked it with his staff, "Move, come on." Jack looked at it, "Do something."

Aella stared at them, "What are you two doing?" She approached, "That's a normal corpse. There is no necrotic magic around here."

The two relaxed, "This is the most decomposed corpse I've seen in a while. I bet a swarm of worms will rush out if I poked it with a dagger." Jack looked around, finding a quarterstaff and a hardcover leather book.

"Is this a mage?" Arad asked, looking at Aella, who lifted the book, flipping the pages.

Aella crossed her eyes, "This is a sorcerer, a red draconic bloodline!" She gave the book to Arad, "This is his spell book, "Give it a read."

Arad flipped through the page and found multiple spell formulas written.

****

0-tier

[Firefist]

[Firekick]

[Firebolt]

[Bonfire]

1-tier

[Burning claws]

[Overheat]

[Flamethrower]

[Flamecloak]

[Flame diversion]

2-tier

[Flame blade]

****

^I can't understand any of the formulas.^ Arad glared at the book.

He can't understand how to cast them.

{We better let Amber take a look at it, we might get some spells for free,}

Aella lifted the sorcerer's quarterstaff, "Let's have this apprised at the guild as well." she said with a smile.

Jack walked around, "Arad, do you mind giving me a light?"

Arad lifted his palm, igniting it with [Firefist]

"Can you see now?"

"Yeah, thank you."

Jack searched the whole room and then got back to Arad and Aella. "This is the queen's nest. I found her foot tracks at the entrance." He started explaining.

"We know that. Nothing else will need such a large nest." Aella looked at him and then stared at the nest in the back.

"I didn't find any written note or something that can explain, but I would guess the queen got some power from the sorcerer." Jack looked at Arad.

"Do you mean he taught her draconic? People aren't that crazy, you know?" Arad looked at him with an exhausted face.

Aella looked at Arad, "Salamander bloodline is a thing, you know? There is also a phoenix and a drake bloodline, and they all master fire."

{Aella is right. The queen and the sorcerer had red draconic bloodlines. They must have attracted each other.}

"The sorcerer probably wanted to tame her as a powerful monster, and the queen simply saw him as a tool to further her plans." Jack sighed, "Poor fellow, must have had painful last days down here."

"What I like to know is how he got down here?" Aella asked with a passive face, looking around.

"I found a route to the back. That might lead us outside." Jack pointed with his thumb,"

"Are you sure?" Arad asked, "We won't end up going deeper?"

Jack shook his head, "I don't know, but a faint stream of air comes from there."

Aella walked toward the hole Jack referred to, "You're right, but the air isn't fresh. It's musty." She scratched her head, "I think it leads to a bigger cave."

Arad looked at them, "We can get back..." but when he looked back, "Yeah, it has collapsed," He sighed, remembering what the queen did.

Jack looked at them, "We have no choice but to venture deeper,"

"I can start digging," Arad suggested.

"But what if you caused the cave to collapse?" Jack looked at him, "When the stones you wish to dig are the ones holding the cave together."

{He's right. You dig and escape alone, but if the cave collapse, those two are stuck here.}