"The air in the tunnel grew thicker and more acrid the deeper we went, and breathing became increasingly more difficult. I motioned for everyone to stop, and Erdis-undoubtedly knowing that I intended to do something about the gaseous air-did not dispute my right to call a halt. I slipped off my pack, rummaged through the contents until I found what I was looking for: a handful of pebbles. These weren't ordinary rocks. They'd been given to me by a locathah shaman when Erdis and the rest of us helped her tribe stave off an attack by a band of sahuagin. The fish-woman had enchanted the pebbles to allow surface dwellers to breathe underwater, and we were able to fight the sahuagin on their own terms. The pebbles had worked fine during the battle with the sea devils, but I had no idea if they could be adapted to function in our current situation. I pulled out my artificer's tools, worked on the pebbles for several moments, and when I was finished, I placed one under my tongue, counted to ten, then inhaled deeply through my nostrils.
"The air I took in was as clear and sweet as any I had ever breathed, and what's more, the gaseous fumes no longer stung my eyes. I had hoped as much, since the saltwater hadn't affected our vision when we fought alongside the locathah. Confident that the pebbles worked, I passed one out to every crewmember, including Erdis. Keeping a pebble stashed under one's tongue made speech difficult, but since we'd been proceeding in silence so far, I hoped this wouldn't prove much of a drawback. Thus we continued onward. Eventually the tunnel broadened and we saw a glowing green light ahead of us. I deactivated my light-stones, and we proceeded with cautious excitement toward the source of the verdant glow.
"We rounded a final bend and the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. Immediately we saw the source of the green light: both the cavern's stalactites and stalagmites were coated with some form of luminescent substance, a mold or perhaps some form of moss. Whatever it was, while its light wasn't bright as day, it was sufficient to illuminate the entire cavern-and most importantly, the cavern's sole occupant-a huge green dragon.
"Despite the pebble in my mouth, I found myself holding my breath at the sight of the awesome beast. The magnificent creature lay curled up on the cavern floor, head resting on its tail, eyes closed, greenish vapor curling forth from both its nostrils and the corners of its mouth. Even asleep, the beast exuded an almost palpable aura of power, and I was so awed by the dragon's sheer presence that I didn't notice what Erdis did. He leaned close to my ear, so close his lips almost touched my flesh, and whispered, 'No hoard.' Aside from the green dragon-and us, of course-the cavern was empty. While I'm sure that Erdis felt disappointed that there was no treasure, I later came to understand that he was more concerned because of how strange it was for the dragon not to have some kind of hoard. It was the one constant in all the tales about the beasts I'd ever heard. For reasons known only to themselves, dragons have a need, a compulsion almost, to surround themselves with treasure, but this dragon had none.
"Then another mystery soon revealed itself. We didn't notice at first, for the air in the cave was hazy from the proliferation of fumes wafting forth from the dragon's snout, but the longer we stood there, the more we came to realize that the creature was wounded, terribly so. The wings folded against its back were shredded, their bones twisted and broken. Iridescent scales had been torn away in numerous places, exposing raw bloody flesh beneath. Fractured ribs jutted out from the creature's sides, and jagged fragments of bone protruded from its shattered limbs. We might've thought the dragon dead if not for its breathing, and even that we now realized was labored and irregular.
"Once more Erdis leaned close to my ear and whispered, 'This beast has come here to die. We should leave it in peace.' We might have done so, too, except the dragon chose that moment to shift its position. It didn't move much, merely lifted its head off its tail, stretched its neck, and then settled its head on its front feet, eyes closed the entire time, but the movement was enough to reveal that the dragon wasn't entirely bereft of treasure, for we now saw that around its neck hung a golden chain, and dangling on the end of it-"
"Was the dragonhead." Asenka nodded at Tresslar's wand.
"Yes. We were at least a hundred feet away from the dragon, but as soon as I saw the dragonhead, I could sense the mystic power emanating from it. The magic was strong, more so than anything I had come across in my young life. Erdis saw the dragonhead as well as I, and he turned to me and raised a questioning eyebrow. I understood exactly what he was asking me: Is the dragonhead valuable? Not in a monetary sense, for even if it were the most precious of rare artifacts, Erdis wouldn't risk his life and the lives of his crew to obtain a single object, but a magic object… that was a different story. I looked at him and nodded.
"A sly smile spread across Erdis's face as he turned back to examine the dragon. He pointed to me then two more of the crew. The message was clear: we three were to follow; the others were to remain behind. Erdis began moving toward the dragon, I came next, and the other two followed behind me. We went slowly and cautiously, for while the dragon appeared to be on the verge of death, still it was a dragon and not to be taken lightly. I don't know how long it took us to cross the cavern floor and reach the dragon. It seemed like hours, but I'm sure it took much less than that. Close to the dragon, the air was thick with greenish vapor, and if it hadn't been for the breathing pebbles under our tongues we would've died long before reaching the beast. When we had closed to within three yards of the creature, Erdis motioned for us to halt. Once again he leaned closed to my ear and whispered.
"'No blood,' he said. For a moment I didn't understand what Erdis meant, then I realized that the floor around the dragon was spotless. Though the creature was grievously wounded and its injuries were clearly wet with blood, the dragon wasn't actually bleeding. That is to say, blood did not seep from its wounds to spill onto the floor. At first I thought the beast might be some manner of undead thing, but its sides moved in and out as it breathed, vapor curled from its nostrils, and when it had moved earlier, it motion wasn't awkward and jerky like that of an undead creature, but rather smooth and natural, despite its wounds. Only magic of an extremely high order could be responsible for such a miraculous enchantment, and I looked at the golden dragonhead hanging from the beast's neck with newfound awe. A split-second later I realized that if we removed the dragonhead, there was a very good chance that the green dragon would no longer be protected against the progression of time, and its wounds would begin bleeding and death would soon come to claim it.
"I wanted to tell Erdis these things, but I was afraid to speak aloud and wake the dragon, so I hesitated, and in that moment, Erdis-sword gripped tight-crept up to the dragon's side and reached out for the golden dragonhead with his free hand. How he intended to get the object off the chain, I don't know. For at that instant, the dragon opened its eyes, or rather, I should say eye, for its left was nothing but a hollow, bloody socket.
"Erdis took several steps backward, but before he could do anything to defend himself, the dragon lifted its head, opened its mouth and released a blast of poison green gas that rolled over the four us like a cloud of thick, emerald fog. The vaporous cloud lingered for a moment before beginning to dissipate, and when the dragon saw that none of us had fallen, it spoke.
"'I see that you have come prepared. Not that it matters, for all you've done is ensure yourselves a more grisly, though equally swift, demise.'
"Waves of fear pounded into me with each word, and if I hadn't been so completely consumed by terror, I would've turned and fled screaming for the cavern's exit. I understood then that I had experienced my first taste of dragonfear.