I felt my body tremble as they wheeled the cart into the fire blackened cave and a blindfold is placed over my eyes. Of course its silk. Everything on me is silk. I have been pampered for this last month as a form of apology from the villagers. I am this years offering to the Beast that plagues our kingdom. I feel the cart jostle and thump over rocks and cracks. The cart comes to a stop and I know what is coming next. The Plummet. This is where all of the girls scream till they either pass out, or are eaten by the Beast. I however have vowed myself to silence and will not make a single peep.

I hear the rustle of fabric as the Haulers move to the back of the cart. The wood of the cart groans as all of the men push on it at once and I am sent over the edge. My head lightens and I get chills as I fall, clamping my lips closed before my voice betrays me. I fall for what seems to be an hour until I feel my cart suddenly land on a slope and I roll into a rather soft wall. Bouncing off of the wall something sharp cuts through the ropes binding my chest to my cart.

I wince at the pain in my right arm and silently sit up, pulling off my blindfold and trying to look around me. All I see is black inky darkness so I decide to undo the ropes around my feet. They are to tight and I can not even shimmy my feet out. Reaching out to my right for whatever it was that cut my bonds before all I feel is a hot stony wall. I must have rolled past it. Pushing off the wall and keeping my right arm out I reach for the object again but only succeed in tipping my cart, and eliciting a rather loud echo from the walls around me. I bang my fist on the rocky floor in exasperation and hit something sharp. Picking up the rounded triangular rock I find the sharp edge and begin to work at the ropes on my feet.

Just as I feel the ropes fall free a tremendous roar fills my ears and tares at my bones. I listen to the echo, frozen.

Did I hear slithering? Or is it large feet dragging on the floor? Was it the sliding crash of wings on the cave wall? Perhaps it was a rattling sound.

I have never seen the beast and by this light I will not see it before my end. The sound was growing closer and more distinct it was a click followed by a rapid skittering of stones. I had herd tales of the beast being very large and thunderous with a rattling sound being made as its tail dragged across the stony ground. This was nothing like the sound the beast should be making. This was clumsy, with the clicking interrupting the skittering at uneven intervals.

Pain suddenly ripped through my head as I felt something crash into me. Images tore into my head. Two massive eggs, a giant mouth screeching at me, an opening leading into a harsh light, a fire red wing pushing me away. My eyes flooded with tears. Mainly from the pain in my head and the weight of the body crushing me, but also form another sting. The sting of . . . .Rejection? I pushed up on the body pinning me to the ground and jumped when it hoisted itself up and a rush of air told me it had turned.

I curled in on myself, to protect the ribs I had that weren't broken and trembled as I waited for this thing to kill me. I opened my eyes and tried to look around again this time I was rewarded with a faint outline of whatever it was that was in front of me. It was easily my height plus half again. Something long and serpent-like waved back and forth at me slowly. Its head perhaps? I didn't have time to think about that.

Another loud, and very sudden crash caused the thing to flatten to the ground and let out a growling noise. A large portion of my limited vision was blocked out by a large black shadow with glowing yellow orbs at the top and faint reflections in a scaly pattern. That was the dragon. Huge wing shaped shadows rose from its back as it roared, at either me or the thing in front of me, I couldn't tell which one of us it was roaring at. I knew that the thing in front of me had been running from the dragon. So I threw my lot in with the thing, diving under a raised portion of its body where I could see a bit of light.

Better than becoming dragon food right?