Karil was almost done when he felt a pang of sudden fear in his stomach, he looked behind him at the center of the room to see nothing but the golden desert of pieces, random furniture and the deep depression at the center. No dragon to be seen anywhere. He blinked a few times, hoping that the sleeping creature would reappear, but at the third failure he had to face the truth that an invisible fire breathing monster was roaming around him somewhere. He took a deep breath, devising a plan to survive this and he had to act fast. He began by putting his bag down next to the pile of remaining gemstones, then he started to make his way back to the tunnels, slowly going along the wall, fists clenched, listening to the muffled sound of the raging blizzard above, if the dragon-kin could sweat, his sleeveless shirt would be drenched.
The walk back felt ten times slower than the first, especially with Karil's eyes shooting in every direction, searching for any clue of the dragon's whereabouts. As he reached the half-way point, something caught his attention, every few seconds, he could feel hot air on his back, almost scalding, even for him. Karil's hands started shaking even more but he did his best to pretend he had not noticed, his eyes focused on the illusory wall at the entrance of the tunnel he came through. Seconds passed, the breath was still there, worse, he could now even hear the almost imperceptible footsteps of the dragon on the gold pieces, how could such a beast be this silent? Why was it not attacking? Was it waiting for him to reach the exit to kill him? Karil's vision was getting blurry, he was at a loss for what to do, at each second he felt as if the dragon was getting closer to attacking him.
As only a fourth of the distance was left to the tunnel, Karil's calm broke, he couldn't bear the fear anymore and suddenly took off. Sprinting as fast as he could, vaulting above abandoned buffets and chairs and making a terrible racket as the gold pieces dispersed under his leather boots. He did his best to ignore the raging roar bellowing from the drake behind him, a sound so powerful the cavern shook, dust and small stones fell from the ceiling, but worst of all, Karil could now hear the heavy strides of the enraged predator closing in on him. Despite knowing the futility of his efforts, he did his best to outrun the dragon, but it was over in a matter of seconds as he felt a jaw as large as his chest close on his shirt from behind. Next thing he knew, he was thrown backwards, his thin shirt ripping under the strength of the attack. Years of falling had prepared him for such events, he tucked and rolled and ended up back on his feet ready to run again. But what was the point? He knew now the invisible dragon was between him and the exit, and what exit was that? Tunnels that took him hours to navigate and 5 armed angry gang members at its end.
Despair was not enough to describe what Karil felt as he saw his ripped dirty shirt floating slowly towards him, the air getting hotter by the second. When it was a few feet from him, the jaw in which the fabric was trapped revealed itself, red scales reflecting the light above, teeth as long as the dragon-kin's fingers. Knowing that the red dragon was only a young adult did not help diminish the terror coursing through Karil's mind as two piercing yellow eyes appeared. The red dragon was bigger than any animal or monster Karil had had the displeasure of seeing, it was more than 20 feet tall to its withers, at least 25 with the head, it had wings large and powerful enough to carry such a creature effortlessly through the air. Its thick muscular chest and stomach were covered in yellow scales that had less of a shine to them but seemed as resistant as the ones covering the rest of his body. Four powerful limbs carried the beast, each was armed with claws capable of rending any flesh into a pile of oozing meat. Its tail seemed longer than the dragon itself, it was covered in hardened scales forming spikes at the end. But what Karil could not stop watching were its eyes, yellow with one black slit at the center, he could see intelligence in them, arrogance even and he did not dare stop looking, as if it was the only thing keeping him alive.
The dragon's head lowered slowly to Karil's level, he was now a few inches from his face, he let go of the useless torn shirt at his feet. His nostrils sniffed a few times and his bifurcated, strangely green tongue tasted the air around the intruder. After a moment, he opened his mouth: "Distant kin, what are you doing in my lair? Trying to take from my hoard, then fleeing like a mere thief, have you no respect for even yourself?" said the wyrm with a deep and rumbling voice that echoed in the rock chamber all around. It took an instant for Karil to react, he thought himself dead, on top of that, it had been years since he had heard proper dragonic spoken, he searched through obscure memories to find the right words. Without hesitation, he fell on his knees, hands clasped, head low, "I apologize distant kin, had I the choice, I would not have dared entering your lair..." the dragon snorted at that and cut him off.
- "What is the meaning of this? Did you smaller folk forget any kind of honor? Are you such a poltroon that you can not take ownership of your actions?" the voice was now booming with indignation, Karil did not dare look up.
- "I ask for mercy... w-we dragon-kin do not have your strength, many of us are slaves to humans and elves, as am I. I am a slave and my master sent me here to steal from your hoard... hum..." the stress was making it harder for him to remember his mother's tongue, but he managed, "when you awoke I... hum... chose to leave what I had stolen, hoping you would be... merciful, I only ask for you to let me go and, I swear solemnly to you that you won't see me again." the dragon seemed to think for an instant.
- "You say your masters sent you here, but you want to leave empty handed?" the dragon's tail was moving lazily back and forth behind him, scraping the gold coins around as he was thinking.
