Coming in under the wire, is the flash fiction for day 7! One week is down. I hope you enjoy my take on today’s writing challenge from Fyrecon’s Fyretober!
“I thought the point of the expedition was to get rich.” The grumbled accusation was followed by a high pitched “Erp!” Ciyla glanced back to see Hune struggling with the remains of a web. Her latest assistant twisted as if battling an invisible ghost, nose curled in a snarl of distaste.
Shame, he’d likely go the way of the others. She’d been hopeful for this one. “We are.” She turned wide channel cutting into the mountainside.
“But then,” Hune protested, the words followed by a grunt as he sprinted to catch up with her, “why aren’t we near any burial grounds or at least a dwelving.”
“Graves have bones. Only ones truly interested in those the nostrum pushers or the wealthy and desperate.” She stopped pulling a notebook, from the pack slung over her shoulder. Pages crackled loudly in the quiet as she searched for the correct notation. “Here, bring the light.”
Hune lumbered forward, raising a bright stone above her shoulder, craning his neck to read the page. Ciyla hadn’t taught him her runes yet and let his gawk as her turned the page more to the light. “But aren’t those the sort with coin to spare?”
“Coin, yes.” Ciyla glanced at the rock formations barely visible within a black so vast the stone barely cut it. “A willingness to spare it rarely.” There was the heart vein. She snapped the book closed. “The pushers will as likely scam or gut you.” She caught his gaze, making sure he paid attention. “And the desperate are even less reputable.”
“Fine, not graves then. But why aren’t we at the dwelvings hoards?”
She glanced over her shoulder. His attention was off her for a moment, focused on scaling the rocks she had passed. Focused and curious. “The dwelvings have mostly been tapped. Or they’re still active. If I didn’t feel like taking risks with humans, I feel even less motivation for coming across a dragon.”
Hune nodded. “I’m not sure why you selected me then.” He shrugged. “I thought it was for my theories on the beasts.
Ciyla tapped her notebook against her palm. His theories had been insightful and what attracted her to him, but not for the obvious reasons. “Without your calculations I couldn’t have found this cavern.”
She turned away before he could respond and rounded a corner in the cavern. Hune’s light proceeded him around the corner, and any more questions. He stopped short beside her, his eyes locked on the doorway ahead.
The dark stone surface was marred with deep gouges that extended higher then four men. Crazed paths which bore no meaning unless one was a scholar of the draconic. Which Hune was. And his mouth hung open.
“A nest?” He looked between her and the doorway approaching it was one hand raised in reverence.
Ciyla grinned at him. “This is why we’re here.”
He turned back, grinning at her with excitement. “I can’t recall the last time a nest was discovered.”
“I know,” Ciyla said. Stepping forward she tapped against a nexus of the lines. “However, your research provided the last information I needed to locate the cavern.” Leaning her full weight against the door, she felt the stone give beneath her hand. “And how to open their doorway.”
The rockslide back, but darkness didn’t lay beyond. Light shimmered through the stone, in sweeping spirals which put the patterns on the doorway to shame. The ran the length of the ceiling the walls, spiraling into a thick pillar in the center of the room, on top of which, rest thin azure fragments.
“Oh, stars preserve,” Hune whispered. His eyes had gone wide. “Their mythical eggshells?”
Ciyla grinned at him. “I told you we’d be reach.”
He nodded, rubbing his palms over his calves. Ciyla shook her head with a smile stepping forward. When was the last time she’d had an apprentice with such–
Pain flared in her side and Ciyla staggered two steps before dropping to her knees. Damn, Ciyla thought her hand clamping against her side. She glanced to the thick red mass seeping through her fingers. No, wonder he’d presented himself as perfect.
Hune whipped off the dagger in his hand and smirked at Ciyla. “Thank you for loaning me the research I was missing.”
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#fyretober #fyretoberflashfiction #fyretoberday7
“Fyretober isn’t for just writers or just artists. It’s for everyone who loves to create, and this month we’re looking to see your flash fiction, poetry, and illustrations every day. We’ll be providing daily prompts for the month and want to see what new concepts and wonders you can make with them.
Join the creation fun and share your work with us.
This isn’t a contest. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be giving out random prizes for amazing work.”
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