I cough gently into my shoulder, struggling to keep oxygen in my lungs. I fail as a vicious deluge of coughs and spams find their way out of my chest, wracking my lungs and shaking my rib cage. I go to my knees, searching for a pocket of fresh air somewhere - anywhere. Much to my surprise, I find one, and gratefully gulp down the rich oxygen.
After several moments of regaining my composure, I realize that I'm no longer surrounded by smoke. I stand, able to see my environ in earnest now that my vision is no longer obscured. As I had expected it to be, the castle has fallen into ruin due to disrepair and damage from high temperatures. Cobblestone heaps lay on the floor, some of them still smoldering with heat and fire.
I look around at the tapestries, amazed by their beauty and grace, before I look at the treasure - the endless treasure! If I were a lesser man, I would be stuffing it down my pants and giggling in giddy joy. In any case, even if I were a lesser man, I would never have much use for the stuff anyway - I doubt they take gold in the afterlife.
I search for signs of habitation, and find that I need not look far. In fact, I don't even have to look for signs - I turn about, and find the inhabitant of the treasure trove watching me intently.
"Hello, human."
My heart catches in my throat, my fear palpable and undoubtedly noticed by the creature before me. Its voice continues to echo in my skull, and I find myself unable to identify any sort of discernible features consistent with any gender. I swallow a few times before I manage to barely whisper, "hello".
A lazy smile finds its way onto the reptile's lips. A forked tongue darts at the air from between two black lips, undoubtedly picking up my fear and apprehension. "Well...why have you come?" It begins to move, exiting the mound of treasure in which it had undoubtedly been resting. I gulp as the dragon comes out to stand before me, its eyes bright with amusement and its chest glowing with its internal fire. I feel beads of sweat on my forehead - some of it from the heat of the golden scales that are suspended no more than two feet away from me, and some of it from fear. Most of it from fear.
"I...I cam to see you," I admit, my voice a hoarse whisper as the dragon begins to stand. Within moments, it is at its full height - the equivalent of at least three grown men, with a midsection that is about half as wide.
Its shadow envelopes me, and I have a difficult time of discerning where the shadow begins and ends - its scales are as dark as night, bar its underbelly which is an assortment of soft and bright golds, the brightest of them burning with the intensity of the dragon's fire like a sun amidst the vast blackness of space.
"Oh?" It adopts a mocking tone. "And you have come to bargain with me so I will not hurt your loved ones?" I sense a faint, yet marked, pitch in the dragon's mind-speech that reminds me of my mother's own voice - but the dragons' words are harsh and venomous, rather than loving and kind.
"They're all dead," I respond. "You...you killed them all..." My shoulders slump a bit more as I say it aloud.
"And you have come for vengeance," it assumes. I'm scared by what sounds like boulders tumbling, until I realize that it is the dragon's light chuckling - a light chuckling that shakes the very foundation of the castle. "Truly, this is a pitiful effort - you come wearing the garments of a farmer, and with no weapons...do you expect to outwit me? To use arcane arts upon me?"
"I'm not here for revenge," I sigh, a bitter taste in my mouth as I speak. I've always hated the word revenge, and my denial of it is no exception.
"Oh?" This seems to catch the dragon's interest. It lies upon its stomach, its forelegs crossed and its chin resting on one wrist with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow. "Then, pray tell - what have you come for?"
"I'm here because...because I'm giving up," I announce, dejected and empty. I find my energy leaving me, and my legs begin to shake. "I'm giving up, and...and I knew you would kill me eventually, so I..." I sigh. "I decided that...I at least wanted to see you before I die - before you kill me..." My legs finally give out, the toll of the climb and my impending doom breaking the muscles in two as I fall onto my backside, my gaze directed at the dragon so I can take in as much of its breath-taking appearance as possible. The reptile remains silent as I hang my head in defeat.
