The Redstone Peaks

It had been days of travel through the mountains following the coastline north. The first day had been wrought with grief and guilt, they kept telling each other that Captain Jesiah and his crew decided to help them, in the end, they knew what they were doing. As the days went on it got easier as the arduous task of traversing the mountains became their focus. The Redstone Peaks were tall rocky mountains, with steep cliffs, and massive crevices.

The peaks of the mountains weren't far off as the sunset on the fourth day. Erigos found a small cave, to spend the night, alongside the path they had by fortuitous happenstance stumbled upon. Harim assumed it was an old goat path, something a hunter may have used.

Alissa did her thing and got a fire going. She was handy to have around for such occasions. As they sat around the fire eating the last of their rations, huddled close as it got cold in the mountains at night, they didn't say much.

Rothox finally broke the silence. "I never knew my father."

"What? Why are you telling us this now?" Harim glanced towards him. It was so out of the blue.

"We've been traveling together for months now and we hardly know much about each other's pasts. I've told you about my criminal past in Meirgrand and my orphaned upbringing but nothing about my parents." Rothox ran his hand through his hair over the stomps of his horns that had begun to grow back. He hadn't gone this long without filing them down.

"I think you should let them grow," Alissa saw him fiddle with his stumps.

He smiled at her, "Ya, maybe I will."

"Also I hardly knew my parents too...I was young when they vanished."

"What did happen, to them?" Harim asked. "If you are fine talking about it."

"I don't know much, but from what I have learned over time they were researching the fog."

"Researching it?" Harim asked.

"Something like that, I'm not entirely sure," Alissa said with a shrug.

"Hmm..." Harim knew the Monastery was interested in researching the fog.

Isn't it funny how four orphans have found each other."

"I'm not an orphan." Erigos looked at the monk.

"In a way, you are since your parents are gone, even though you weren't abandoned at a young age." Harim hoped that didn't set him off.

Erigos thought about it. His dad had abandoned him and his mother had died all before he had turned eighteen. "I guess you're right. I never thought of it that way."

"Harim, I didn't know you were an orphan, actually now that I think about it we don't know much about you." Rothox turned his attention to Harim.

"Not many people know my past but yes I too am an orphan. My parents sold me into slavery and I haven't seen them since. No idea if they are alive or dead."

"That must have been rough," Alissa said.

"It made me who I am. I would have never been found by the Monastery if they hadn't."

"Either way, that is a shitty thing, I can't even imagine," Erigos said. They sat in silence for a minute watching the flames.

"Garrok was an orphan too," Rothox said his name breaking the silence once again. None of them had spoken his name in a long time.

"Ya he was…" Alissa looked into the fire, twirled her hand and it grew a bit larger as a cool breeze made its way through the cave. They sat in silence for a few more moments when a distant roar broke it.

"What was that?" Erigos stood, he instinctively placed a hand on his hilt.

"I'm not too sure but it sounded far," Harim also stood, staring out the cave. Another roar, this time closer. He made his way to the cave's mouth. In the faint moonlight peeking through the clouds, he caught a glint of something flying. "Ahh...Alissa." She dropped the fire, darkness enveloped them. They heard the faint sound of flapping before another much louder roar. Whatever it was, was getting closer.

Erigos with his elven eyes spotted the gargantuan winged creature flying across the tips. He rolled back inside the cave breathing heavily. "Shit, shit, shit."

"What?" Rothox went to look.

"Dragon, it's a fuck'n dragon."

The next roar was so loud the cave trembled, little pebbles bouncing on the cave floor. The flapping sounded as if it was right above them. It moved on towards the apex of their mountain. They waited another minute, no longer hearing the flapping.

"Is it gone?" Alissa asked quietly

"It sounds like it." Harim went to step outside the cave to look but Erigos pulled him back inside.

"Don't... it may be tricking us." He looked Harim in the eye. "I have come across a dragon in my life, have you?" Harim shook his head. He had read about them but never had the plesause, he always wanted to, not the evil prismatic dragons but the good earth-toned dragons. Rothox heard Erigos as he explored the back of the cave perking up at the dragon comment. He would keep that a secret for as long as he could.

"Exactly, they are smarter than all of us. I only got away because I offered to bring it a gift," Erigos said.

"Did you?" Harim asked.

"I did, otherwise it would have hunted me down and killed me, my crew, and probably anyone else I was connected to."

"What did you give it?" Harim had read dragons could have massive hordes of treasures and to ask for something it must have been of great value.

"It was some stupid trinket from a wealthy lord, I can't remember."

"What happened to the lord?" Alissa asked still seated on the cave floor.

"I haven't thought about him since. Actually, now that I think about it he did chase after us for a bit." He shook his head, "Funny how things can repeat themselves."

"Hey, guys. I found something." Rothox had ventured to the back of the cave. Once he had their attention and they made their way over to him he pointed to his discovery. "The cave continues into the mountain." Normally they would have checked the cave to make sure it was inhabited but at first glance, it had appeared to end so they hadn't bothered having encountered any other life in the area.

"How far does it go?" Harim left Erigos at the entrance, as he was still listening for the dragon.

"Further then I can see. Should we follow it?" Rothox stuck his head down the tunnel.

"I ain't sleeping knowing a dragon is flying around," Erigos left his post. "We might as well take a look."

The cave went deeper into the mountain, however, instead of going down, it curved up until it became a climb almost straight up. Rothox led the way scaling up the red rock and after a few minutes, he noticed something reflecting the light from Alissa's orbs. He scaled up to it, it was a gold coin. He picked it up.

"Harim, catch." He dropped it down to him.

Harim snatched it, keeping one hand on the rock wall. "That's weird."

"What is?" Erigos asked from the back.

"Rothox found a gold coin."

"Actually, there's a bunch up here." Rothox had climbed up a little further, finding a dozen or so more coins. The higher he climbed the more gold he found. He pushed further

"Rothox wait." Erigos started to climb faster, Rothox ignored him, all he saw was more gold. He called after him again. "Rothox, stop, don't go any higher." It was too late. Rothox reached a small platform at the top of this chimney. As he pulled himself up, he nearly slipped on the pile of coins that had built up on the stone. He caught himself and got his barring. Behind the pile at his eye level was a gap in the stone. This is where it seemed the coins had initially fallen from. The gap in the hole was small enough for him to crawl through. He was eager to find out where this money was coming from. Pulling himself into the gap, pushing past more gold coins he wiggled his way through to an apparent dead end. He placed his hand on the wall, it wasn't stone. It felt hard like stone but it was scaly too. Then a deep throaty voice spoke.

"As much as I appreciate a back scratch I prefer to meet the one doing the scratching first." The scaly wall started to move. Rothox took his hand back quickly. A giant cat-like eye stared directly at him, filling the gap. "Well hello there." The large eye blinked. Rothox knew what this was and began to creep backward. "Oh don't be doing that," the head pulled back and through the now open hole, Rothox could see the beginning of a large cavern and the head of a massive copper colored dragon.