Rescue

[Py Davis]

The cavern was cold, but only just cold enough for the water dripping around him to have frozen into a thin layer of ice under Py's feet. His breath steaming in front of him, Py took precautions at every step to ensure he didn't fall, choosing the dryest outcrops of rock to step on as he made his way through the underground rock passage. He held the coil of rope on his belt tightly to stop it swinging, and with his other hand he steadied his shield on his shoulder. With no hands and unsteady footing, he barely managed to keep his balance.

The passage opened out into a larger room, with a hole in the floor leading to a larger, darker cavern. Light spilled in through the hole in the roof, which clearly led to a snowy outside landscape. With dry footing, Py crept to the edge, taking cover behind a stone pillar and peering over. His pupils began to glow a faded yellow, and Py could see into the pit. Five small drakes, with heads disproportionately larger than their bodies, rolled and snapped in the pit below.

"Hatchlings," Py muttered to himself. It didn't surprise him, but it did explain why the girl had been snatched by the drake and not eaten on the spot. He looked around the cavern, the pit and the opening in the roof, formulating a plan. The drake would be here soon with its prize.

[Viktor Delacroix]

The hatchlings squirmed about on the cavern floor below.

Such little things that will one day be mighty, Viktor thought, and how Tiamat will squeal in rage when I kill them all.

Hextor demanded loyalty and so demanded that his old allegiances be severed. This was to be the proof of that severance. Tiamat will rue the day she ever decided that Viktor Delacroix was an unworthy vassal.

While he surveyed the drakes below, a young man dashed into the cavern. Within moment the boy had jumped into the pit.

"What? Boy, what are you doing?"

[Kina]

"Nice hatchlings..." Kina said. He crept up to the broken eggs and looked at the other two.