Terracana
Chapter 20: Chapter 18: Dragons, Treasure and Revelations
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Chapter 18: Dragons, Treasure, and Revelations
"What is a dragon doing in the Everfree Forest!?" Luna shouts out.
"Do dragons have any weaknesses?" I ask quickly as the dragon pulls itself out of the pile of gold and jewels.
"Electricity can stun them for a few seconds, but their scales are too tough to cut, even our scythe can't cut a fully grown dragon's scales," she tells me.
"What are you doing in my cave! Here to steal my hoard!?" the dragon roars at us.
"Errr, no. We're just looking for a place to set up camp," I tell him.
"Sure you are, at least I'll have a little snack before my nap," he says and lunges at us.
"OH SHIT!" I yell and channel an arcane and two lightning elements through my stave and fire a beam of electricity at him.
His eyes go wide as he roars while shaking violently, I keep the beam going for ten seconds before stopping. He drops onto his hoard and I look to Luna. "Now what?" I ask.
"We run! It would take our sister, us, and a hundred of our guards just to repel a dragon!" she tells me.
The dragon roars in rage and fires a fire ball at us from its mouth. I dive to the side and Luna flies over it. The fire ball impacts the cavern's entrance, causing it to cave in. I cast my stone armour spell and to my surprise, the gems from the hoard attach to me forming a solid coating of rainbow coloured armour, Luna's horn glows brightly making the cavern light up.
I cast another lightning beam and fire at the dragon. He dodges and swings his tail at me which I teleport behind his tail before it hits and let out a sigh of relief. Luna swings her scythe at the dragon's head and sparks fly off, enraging him even further.
He slams his tail on the floor knocking me up into the air. I look down and see him open his mouth ready to eat me.
"OH FUCK NO!" I shout as he lunges up and swallows me.
POV: Luna
My heart stops as I watch Adrian get eaten by the dragon. "Adrian?" I whimper. Tears falling down my face as I watch the lump in his throat go down.
The dragon then turns to me and snarls. My anguish turns into a burning rage and my eyes shine brightly, overflowing with magic.
"THOU SHALL SUFFER OUR WRATH FOR TAKING OUR MATE FROM US!" I yell at him with my Royal Canterlot Voice.
I charge at him and slam the back of my scythe into the side of his head like a hammer. His head slams into the ground causing a small crater. He gets back up and fires a ball of fire at me.
I swipe it aside with the back of my left hand, ignoring the slight burn. I fire a beam of pure magic at him and blast him into the back wall.
For the next minute, we fight tooth and nail. My rage blinding me, making me fight like a savage at the loss of my coltfriend... my mate... my Adrian.
Suddenly, the dragon roars in agony. Its stomach starts bloating, blisters start seeping out from under its scales. After a few more seconds, its stomach explodes and showers the ground and part of the hoard with blood.
A gasp and coughing gets my attention and my eyes widen in relief.
POV: Adrian Stormsword
I start coughing and wipe my face. I'm so glad I replaced my stone armour with a barrier shield, though I still suffered some burns and blisters from where the dragon's stomach acid started to get at me. I quickly drop my barrier and heal myself. I then fall on my back panting now that I can breath again.
"ADRIAN!" I hear Luna call out. She's quickly beside me and hugs me, despite the fact I'm covered in dragon blood.
"Hey, Luna. Remind me never to do that again..." I tell her. I had to stab the dragon with my sword and channel a constant flow of arcane energy through it while holding my breath. Good thing their insides aren't resistant to magic like their scales are.
Luna then starts sobbing into my chest. "We thought we lost thee," she says.
"It's alright, Luna. I'm here, I'm alive," I tell her and grip her hand. She helps me up and uses her magic to clean the blood off of us while I use mine to heal her wounds.
Once done, we look at the remains of the dragon. I look from the corpse, to the hoard, and then to Luna. "Does this mean this is all ours now?" I ask her as I start looking through the pile.
Luna is standing beside me, still sniffling a bit. "Well, technically it all belongs to thee now. Dragon law states that should any other creature kill a dragon, its hoard will belong to the one who killed it. Though this was mainly put in place for other dragons since it takes a dragon to kill a dragon," she tells me.
Well, I guess I don't have to worry about expenses anymore. Something catches my eye and I pull it out. It's a bow, but not just any bow, it's an elven bow from Terra. It looks pretty old with a cracked leather grip and faded wooden finish with small bits of mould along it, there's also four small gems, one above and below the grip on both sides.
A ruby, sapphire, emerald, and a diamond, representing the four natural elements. I recognize this from a book I read on elven magic, I tap the ruby and it starts to shine. I place two fingers on the string and pull back where an arrow made of fire forms, I can feel my mana get drained from myself to form the arrow. I let go and fire the arrow at the wall where it explodes on contact.
"What manner of bow is this? We've never seen anything like it," Luna asks me intrigued.
"This is an elven bow from Terra... but how did it get here?" I reply and ask.
"We do not know, mayhap we can take it with us? We would like our researchers to examine it, they may be able to replicate it for our guards," she asks me. I nodded and place it on my back between my pack and me.
"What about the rest of this?" I ask, waving to the huge pile of treasure.
"We shall send a letter to our sister to send a recovery team to take it back to the Castle's Treasury," she tells me.
I stand back up and look at the entrance. "So how do we remove that?" I ask pointing to the blocked entrance. Luna's horn glows brighter and the boulders blocking the cave roll outside. "That works," I say with a chuckle.
"Let us take a break and set up camp on the other side of the cave," Luna tells me.
I nodded and we head over there. While Luna starts to drag the dragon's corpse out of the cave very slowly. I set up the tent and a small fire pit with my cooking utensils next to it. I place a thick mat in the tent, two small pillows, and a blanket over it. A small lamp is hanging in the middle of the top bar that's holding the tent up.
Once finished. I help Luna by spraying the hoard and ground with my water spray spell to wash most of the blood away to the other end of the Cavern.
Luna returns once I'm done and removes her armour. She goes inside the tent and I follow her in after removing my armour as well.
She's laying on the mat with a piece of parchment and a quill in her hands. I lay next to her and wait until she's done. Her horn glows and the letter disappears in a flash of light.
"There, they should be here by at most tomorrow," she tells me.
Luna then cuddles up to me and I wrap my left arm around her. "So, would you like to take a nap before we get to training?" I ask her.
"Mmhmmm," she hums in reply and rests her head on my chest. We both lie there in silence and fall asleep.
POV: Celestia
Another Noble walks up and asks if she can buy the rights to a Spa located next to her house. I know this Spa as I tend to visit it now and then when I can.
"I am sorry Miss Clear, but I'm afraid I can't allow that. The family that owns that Spa are good friends of mine. I ask you don't bring this up again," I tell her calmly, but my patience is starting to wear thin with all these, as Adrian called them, dense Nobles.
She frowns but nodded and left. Before the next one in line could speak a scroll appears before me. Ah, a letter from Twilight, just what I need to get my mind off... I think to myself but stop as I see Luna's seal on it. I quickly open it and read it.
Dear sister.
We have arrived at the Everfree and have set up camp at our old camping site when we were fillies.
But a dragon has been inhabiting this cave for who knows how long and attacked us. It attempted to devour us and swallowed Adrian.
I gasp and place my left hand over my mouth as my eyes go wide.
Surprisingly though, Adrian managed to kill the dragon from the inside. We art both fine and in perfect health. I ask thou send a recovery team to collect Adrian's new hoard to store in the Castle's Treasury, along with the remains of the dragon, we art sure it's remains could be valuable in making a variety of magic resistant weapons and armour.
Your sister, Luna.
I breath out a sigh of relief, but then I get a worried expression. Adrian managed to kill a fully grown dragon and from within it no less. If other dragons get word of this, they would come seeking to challenge him.
I write a reply telling Luna not to mention this to anypony.
I send it off and stand up. "An important matter has just come up I'm afraid, court is adjourned until further notice," I tell them with a slight bow.
Once the Throne Room was cleared, I call in the recovery team. "Yes, your Majesty?" the mare in front asks.
"We are to head down to the Everfree Forest to recover a large dragon hoard from a cave... as well as the dragon's corpse." I tell them.
Gasps ring throughout the room. "A... d-dragon's corpse?" one of the stallions at the back asks.
"Yes, details will be given on route. Let us head to the carriages and begin," I say and look around for any signs of anypony not meant to be in here. Once I see and feel nothing, we all start walking to the courtyard.
POV: Luna
I slightly open my eyes, still laying on Adrian. I close my eyes and smile, my head slowly rising and falling on his chest along with a rolled up scroll from my sister. I ignore it for now and after a few minutes I hear a cough. My eyes snap open and I see Tia with her head poking inside the tent with a smile.
I carefully stand up without disturbing Adrian and exit the tent. Tia then hugs me and I return it. "I am so glad to see you both unharmed," she tells me, relief clear in her tone.
"We art fine sister. Though we have Adrian to thank for that," I reply looking back at the tent.
Tia then turns to the hoard. "That is quite an impressive hoard the dragon collected," she says looking over the pile of treasure. The guards then start loading it onto the ten carriages they brought with them. It takes about an hour to get only half of it on board. Once loaded fully, they take off slowly due to all the extra added weight.
Tia goes back with them but said she'll be back for the rest once that batch is stored. I notice Adrian is awake and looking through the pile still here, just examining the gems and gold. He gasps and is holding up a particularly big amethyst. "Tis an amethyst... why art thou so excited about it," I ask him.
He looks at me with a grin. "It's not just any amethyst, it's a pure one. If I could get my hands on a good long piece of rose wood, I could make myself a proper staff with this! Shame it's a rare and hard to find tree. I don't know if you even have them in this world," he says and takes it over to his pack and puts it inside.
"Rose wood? We have a rose wood tree growing in the Castle's Garden," I tell him.
He looks up at me with a wider grin. "Can I perhaps have a branch from it?" he asks me eagerly.
His excitement causes me to smile at him. "Sure, but could we also have at least a third of the gold? It would help boost our funding for Equestria," I ask.
"A third? Heck, get me a nice straight branch and you can have half of the entire hoard," he replies.
I smile wider and hug him. "Tis a deal."
POV: Adrian Stormsword
Once we settled on our agreement, we wait outside the cave for Celestia to return. I look around and it looks just like it was when I first arrived. The dragon is laying to the left of the cave and starting to smell bad. A few minutes later, growls to our right grabs our attention. A pack of wooden wolves with glowing sickly green eyes slowly creep towards the carcass. I draw my sword and stand in between them and the dragon corpse, then I cast my stone armour spell and just glare at them.
Luna stands beside me with her scythe in hand and armour equipped. I channel an earth element with two fire elements and point my stave at the three closest together. After a few seconds just staring at each other, one of them pounces and Luna cleaves it in two at its mid section. I release my spell and a fire ball hurtles towards the middle wolf.
It explodes making it shatter into pieces, the two next to it are set on fire by the blast and start rolling on the grass to try and put themselves out. Luna is keeping them from getting near me while I spray two more with three fire elements. A large wolf is standing on a boulder not too far away snarling at us, must be the alpha.
I channel three Ice elements and charge it up. Luna bashes a wolf out of my way and I fire my spell. Nine shards of ice rip through the large wolf who slumps to the floor as bits of its legs get blown off.
To our horror, it howls and the others, dead or alive, start to merge with it. It's now six times bigger and much more sinister looking.
I quickly channel an arcane element with two fire elements and cast the beam at it. It howls in pain as it's set on fire wherever the beam hits.
Luna throws her scythe at its front left leg, slicing it off. I erect a stone wall in front of us as cover, just in case. It starts thrashing and even throws its severed leg at us. We duck behind the wall and get showered in splinters, I look over the wall to see the wolf limping away.
I sigh and lean my back against the stone wall. "That went well," I say and cancel my stone armour.
"Very. Though they do not look it, timberwolves are very dangerous and are only weak to fire based attacks," she tells me.
We just sit behind the safety of the wall until Celestia returns, while we wait I use water elements to put out the fires still burning. Luna then tells me that we'll head to her old Castle in the Forest some time during next week.
Celestia returns and loads up the rest of the hoard, Luna also tells her about our deal and she agrees. After Celestia hugs Luna, she surprises me by giving me one as well.
"Thank you for keeping my sister safe," she tells me with a small gentle kiss to my cheek. I stand there dumbfounded as she steps into one of the carriages and flies off back to Canterlot.
I turn to Luna, who looks completely fine. "Did Celestia just kiss me?" I ask her.
"Yes, is something wrong with that?" she replies.
"You're not angry at her for it?" I ask confused.
"Nay, if she would ask thee to court her, we would support her decision," she tells me.
My jaw drops. "Wait... you wouldn't mind if I courted both you and your sister?" I say flabbergasted.
"Nay, we would encourage it. Thou hast proven thyself loyal and not after power or titles. Thou treats us as friends rather than rulers or goddesses. Tis a feeling we have not felt in centuries," she says. She then frowns. "Does your kind not take multiple partners?" she asks.
"Errr, no. We take one partner at a time," I reply.
"We see. Well, in Equestria, the male to female ratio is three mares to every stallion, so stallions can have around three to five partners at a time," she tells me.
I just stare at her for a few seconds, processing this information. I shake my head and smile at her. "Well if you are alright with it, I wouldn't mind giving her a chance. I have to admit, I found her very appealing during our workout sessions in the gym," I reply with a chuckle.
"We noticed," she says giggling along with me.
I then look her in the eyes. "Are you really positive about this? I don't mind being with just you," I tell her.
"That is very generous of thee, but we can tell our sister has feelings for thee," she replies.
I sigh and Lean against her, should I give Celestia a chance? "So you would really let Celestia join us?" I ask.
"Yes, we understand it will take thee some time to adjust to such a concept," she replies.
"Yeah, I'll think about it during our stay here," I tell her.
She smiles and pulls me towards the cave and back to the tent. We go back inside, cuddle up in the tent and fall back to sleep.
I awaken to the smell of something sweet. I look to my left and see Luna clinging to me with flushed cheeks. I lightly shake her shoulder with worry, I hope she hasn't got a fever. She moans and slowly opens her eyes, she also has a dopey smile on her face. "Hello, love," she says seductively.
I raise an eye brow at her. "Are you alright?" I ask.
"Mmhmm, we are alright as long as thou art near," she replies and straddles me.
I blush as she starts rocking back and forth. She moans and then her eyes shoot wide open, as if afraid. "By our stars... we're in heat."