With both hands, Omar tried to pull Silverhead's hand away, but she was steady like a thousand-year old Ironwood tree. His lungs cried for air as she didn't loosen her grip on his neck. She said she wouldn't kill us, right? And...who's Choleen?

"You!"

Omar must be hallucinating right now, but he thought he heard Andy's firm voice. Malanda and he fell to the ground when the iron grip was loosened without a warning. Both gasped, sucking all the air they could take in. Leaning his back to the wall, Omar watched Silverhead approach Andy. That fool! He should have run away when he had the chance.

But the young mage was up to something, Omar could tell from the light ball he held in his hands.

"You think you can destroy me with this?" Silverhead's voice was more menacing than mocking.

"I don't need to destroy you." Andy shook his head before he grunted, driving the light ball toward her. The ball grew the instant it hit her, the flare almost blinding Omar. In a few moments, the light ball vanished, and so did Silverhead.

"You did it!" Omar coughed when he gushed. "Great mage, you did it!"

"It worked." Andy himself looked surprised with his raised eyebrows.

Malanda rubbed her neck when she rose up. "That was smart, I must admit. You made a good use of the only spell you know." Even when she expressed her gratitude, she couldn't help being Malanda.

"I was never a good mage in the Guild." Andy lowered his eyes. "They didn't wrong me when they kicked me out."

"They wronged us all, Andy." Omar held him by the shoulders. "But among the three of us, they wronged you the most."

"Thanks, Omar." Andy grinned gratefully. "No one ever believed in me as you did."

"You didn't use the two remaining blood drops, did you?" Malanda asked Andy, who lowered his eyes again. Obviously, the great mage wouldn't be able to amaze them with more spells.

"Worried about our return journey?" Omar asked Malanda. "Let's find our dragon blood first, and then we'll see what we can do."

According to the lovely Silverhead, what they wanted was inside this cavern. Hopefully, she wasn't deluding them. With careful steps, Omar was the first one to enter the cavern, which was way bigger from inside than it seemed, lighted by hundreds of torches. The rocky roof was like two hundred feet high.

But something else stunned him.

Omar gaped at the majestic obsidian-black figure before him, a chest elegant and gleaming, a neck slender and long chained by a massive manacle of steel. Two amber eyes were fixed on him, a gigantic mouth slightly opened revealing glittering fangs and two rows of granite teeth. Moving its clawed limbs, it leaned forward, but the massive chain did hold the creature in place. Like plates of armor, a column of black scales ran from its wide head to the tip of its tail, huge membranous wings folded atop its back.

That was Choleen, he deduced; a dragon. And she looked too infuriated to welcome guests.

"This is some joke, right." Omar realized he had been holding his breath for a while. "The dragon blood we're looking for is actually the blood of a real, living dragon."

Malanda didn't have something scornful to say this time. Omar wished he could draw her face at this particular moment to show her later—if they had the chance—that she was nervous once. But still she was the calmest among the three of them.

"Maybe they...store dragon blood somewhere." Andy's voice was barely coming out. "I mean, they can't be taking blood from this dragon, right?" He nervously chuckled.

"They do." Malanda stared at Choleen, yet Omar couldn't figure out what her hawk eyes were fixed on. "The marks above the wing joints say so."

Omar wondered how she spotted the marks she was talking about from such a distance on a black scaly skin. This girl never failed in impressing him.

The three of them were startled when a sudden gust of air came out of the dragon's oval nostrils. "No need to worry, fellows." Omar was reassuring himself in the first place. "It's just an exhale. Because, as you see, she's a living creature that needs to, you know, inhale and exhale."

"Thanks for the lesson." Malanda picked an arrow from her quiver, nocked it onto the bowstring and aimed. "If you have any brilliant ideas to make this thing bleed, let me know."

The dragon snarled. Omar spotted a glow in the dark cavity of its mouth.

"No!" Omar held her bow, pushing it away from her target. "No one's going to bleed. We're here to help Choleen." He kept his eyes fixed on Choleen's glowing mouth, hoping she could understand the human tongue. One blow would make them her roasted lunch.

And the glow vanished. Omar sighed in relief.

"How do we know if she understands us?" Omar wondered, looking the dragon in the eye. She recognized her name, didn't she?

"Dragons could be more intelligent than horses," Andy pointed out.

"Have you seen a dragon before?" Malanda asked in her usual doubtful manner.

"No." Andy shrugged. "But I read about them in the Guild."

"Horses?" A crazy idea had overwhelmed Omar's mind since he heard the word. "Do you say they can be ridden?" He scanned the cavern with his eyes until he found the chain junctions at the cavern walls.

"Your ancestors used to," Andy replied. "Your mother's great grandfathers, I mean."

"Omar, what are you up to?" Malanda's voice betrayed the slightest bit of worry as he walked toward one of the junctions. He wasn't sure what made him more excited; seeing a dragon for the first time, or the way Malanda said his name.

Choleen snarled again.

"Choleen, Choleen." Omar tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. She's nothing but a big horse, he encouraged himself. A flesh-eating, big horse. She would devour him in one bite if she felt he was scared of her. He had to win her trust.

Behind him, Malanda was cursing, but Omar ignored her, his focus on nothing and nobody except Choleen.

Her third snarl was the loudest when he slowly drew one sword. Yes, it's a blade, but not to hurt you, stupid animal. He gave the chain at the steel junction a double-handed strike, a deafening clank echoing in Choleen's vast cavern, but the chain stood still, undefeated.

And Choleen roared. He would dash away if dashing was of help. What reassured him was her mouth; it was dark. The dragon was angry, but not at him. And that meant A LOT.

"Let me help." Andy warily approached Choleen. You must hide your fear better than that, Andy. The way she regarded the mage wasn't promising at all. She looked like a predator tracking her prey.

"You have lost your minds, you two," Malanda mumbled. As usual, she's not helping.

For a moment, Omar thought Choleen was ready to attack Andy, but to his surprise, she folded her clawed limbs and laid her neck to the ground. She was smarter than Omar had imagined. At the junction between the manacle and the chain, Andy held his sword upside down, the blade tip pivoted on the manacle lock.

"What are you doing?" Omar asked.

"I must say Malanda was right about me." Andy turned the hilt in his hand right and left. "I'm a thief who has learned one or two tricks of sorcery in the Guild."

Omar wasn't sure if Andy was joking. "So, this is how you got the dragon blood."

"They lock the doors at the Guild with chains."

"But this lock is much bigger."

"That's why I'm using a bigger needle." Andy grinned when the lock squealed open.

Now free, Choleen roared, lifting her neck up, spreading her huge membranous wings. Omar had never witnessed a moment that thrilling and that scary.

"Choleen!" Omar called out firmly, motioning the dragon toward him. The way she stared at him made him wonder if that was a good idea. His human-elven heart almost stopped pounding when she approached him with two slow wide steps. He was alive again when she crawled.

She's a big horse indeed. Her breaths were calmer when his hand glided over her graceful neck for a while. Minding the sharp scales, he climbed until he mounted her back. Now he was atop a dragon. Now he was invincible.

Gaping at him, Malanda was petrified. "I don't understand," she said. "We are supposed to get the blood to help our mages—"

"Defend our city," Omar completed. "What about attacking our invaders? Could we have a better weapon than we have now?"

"Are you sure you can control...her?" Malanda asked doubtfully.

"Of course not, sweetheart," Omar scoffed, Choleen allowing him to pat her neck. She trusts me, he thought, imagining himself flying her to their city, laying waste to the titanic army besieging it. "We will never know if we don't try."

"You try." Malanda gave him a wry smile. "No way I'm getting on the back of this beast."

"Your call." Omar exchanged a look with Andy. "Unless you don't want to walk all the way back to Lanox."

The End....For Now.