“Need some help?”

            Cody instantly stood, despite the pain that lanced up his leg and asked in amazement, “Larson, is that you?”

            “Don’t forget me,” Cody heard Mora announce from somewhere in the dark corridor beyond his cage.

            “Who’s Larson?” Omen asked as he and Aval pressed themselves against their own cage to try to see them.

            “I met him near Morgran, as well as Pippi and Mora. Mora is the other one here,” Cody explained. “But where is Pippi?”

            Mora responded while Lars began trying to open Cody’s cage door, “She led the charge into this place and she is probably fighting the enemy with the wolves as we speak. Inferno helped a little bit, but he wanted to make sure you were safe before he moved any further into the tunnels. He’s waiting by the entrance and he instructed us to bring you to him.”

            As the woman finished speaking, Larson yanked on the door and it swung outwards. Immediately Ashheart was out the door and nosing the lock on Omen and Aval’s cage door. Larson moved on to that one while Mora walked into the cage with Cody.

            “What is that smell!?” she gasped as soon as she reached Cody.

            “Blood, and lots of it,” Cody explained through gritted teeth as he began to pull himself up.

            Mora put a hand to his chest to stop him, “Oh no you don’t. I may not be able to see your injuries, but we are going to have to bandage you up before you go anywhere.”

            Cody didn’t argue, but sat back again as Mora fumbled around in the dark in her pack. Cody could just barely make out a roll of cloth that she pulled out of her pack that would work well enough to bandage his arms and legs. Without a word, Cody grabbed her hand and helped Mora find his right calf, where the wound began. He bit his lip to avoid gasping as she rubbed it on accident. She quickly apologized before wiping the blood from her hand onto her clothes and wrapping the cloth around Cody’s leg.

            She wound it carefully around before tying it at the base of his toes. They repeated the process three more times, a bit more carefully. By the end, Cody was feeling a bit better and his strength began to return little by little. He tenderly put weight on his arms to pull himself to his feet. He needed a little help from Mora to get out, but other than that he was fine.

            “How do we get to Inferno and which way do we go?” Aval asked before Cody could.

            “Follow me,” Mora said as she began walking. “Lars, help Cody.”

            Omen looked towards Cody but lower as he said, “Ash, you help Cody too.”

            Instantly Cody felt Larson’s muscular arm wrap around his shoulders and the wolf’s furry body pushed against the rider’s side a bit to keep him stable. They hobbled along down the pitch-black tunnels for a few minutes, and the further they went, the more Cody began to hear noises. More bones clattering, wolves growling and howling with rage, and even the scrape of claws on the stone ground. Just as he was beginning to worry that they would get caught up in the fighting with three of them being severely weakened, Mora led them down a tunnel that branched off from the main halls.

            The further they walked, the more Cody, Omen, and Aval began to slow. Cody could imagine that his friends were slowing down because of their weeks without exercise, but the rider was in actual pain. The smallest bit of light significantly increased his sight, but when he looked down he hated what he saw. His bandages were almost completely soaked with his crimson blood, which was almost enough to make him faint.

            As the light ahead began to grow larger with each slow and agonizing step, Cody grew excited. He could almost smell the fresh air outside. Even though he had only been deprived of sunlight for a few hours at the most, he felt extremely eager to reach it. He couldn’t even think about how Omen and Aval were feeling about it. As they reached the edge of the cave, Cody couldn’t resist flinging himself out into the wind to feel it whip through his hair once again.

            “I smell blood!” Cody heard the furious voice in his mind.

            Cody turned around to see Inferno clinging tightly to the side of the cliff next to him, and for the first time Cody realized that he was standing on a very high ledge, several times the dragon’s height. He limped over to Inferno and reached out to pet his glistening, smooth scales, leaning dangerously over the edge.

            “Mora put some bandages on my wounds, so I think I’ll be fine. But I doubt I will be able to join in the fight,” Cody said as he pulled himself back onto the ledge.

            Inferno lowered his massive, scaly head down to his rider before saying, “I wish you wouldn’t, but what would the wolves think if their leader missed the battle that he had brought them together for? I think you at least have to make an appearance.”

            “You’re right, but it’s just too dangerous for me to go. I would be killed in a minute!”

            “Not really. You have a dragon to protect you, after all,” Inferno encouraged as he nuzzled Cody’s stomach with his cheek.

            The rider looked at the dragon and said, “I would have to fight somehow.”

            “Use your arrows, or swing at skeletars that get too close with your axe,” Inferno suggested.

            “What will you do?” Larson asked, interrupting their conversation.

            Cody turned to him and answered, “I will ride Inferno inside. I can’t imagine how much damage it would do, but I could fire arrows at a safe distance on his back.”

            “What about Omen and Aval?” Mora asked.

            Omen stepped forward and announced, “You think I would miss the opportunity for revenge? I’m going to hunt down that evil leader of theirs and beat him to a pulp!”

            “I’m coming too,” Aval piped up weakly.

            “You are too weak,” Mora scolded them. “Stay out here, where it’s safe.”

            Omen glared at her before answering, “I’d sooner die than let that scoundrel escape without a few big scars to remind him of this day.”

            Cody thought about it for a moment before saying, “Omen doesn’t actually have a bad idea. Dongoithu, Faltanar, and their leader are the only things worth fighting. They could summon countless skeletars in the same time it would take us to kill a few I bet. The only way to end this is to send the actual enemy running.”

            “Cody, he is very powerful,” Larson warned him. “I’m not even sure we could hold Faltanar or Dongoithu off for very long separately, let alone both of them and their master.”

            “Risky as it is, he said that his plan was almost complete. We have to finish him now, or die trying. I don’t know what we’d lose if we lost, but It could be the biggest thing you could ever imagine. Will you all come with me?” Cody asked.

            The four of them, and Ashheart, looked around at each other for a few moments before looking back and agreeing in solemn tones. Cody only wished he knew where Pippi was. Being an elf who knew magic, it would have been very useful to include her. But they didn’t have time to search among the mass of fighting beasts inside.

            “Don’t forget me!” Cody sighed with relief when he saw Pippi hurtle out of a cave on a ledge a few feet away. “So what’s the plan, Rider?”

            Cody nimbly climbed up Inferno’s back until he was in the saddle before he replied, “We have to find the three real enemies. They will probably be separate from the fighting, in a room somewhere or concealed in some way.”

            “You don’t even have your armor,” Larson pointed out.

            Cody looked down at his clothing and noticed for the first time that he was only wearing a thin, baggy shirt and torn, short pants. He reached into the saddlebags and took out his helmet, showing it to Larson he said, “This will have to do for now.”

            Cody carefully leaned down to strap his legs in, despite the pain they brought. “Inferno and I will go in the main entrance, and the six of you can go in through these two caves to the main fight. Find and follow us as soon as you get there.”

            Everyone nodded and raced into the tunnels without arguing, though Omen and Aval seemed a bit sluggish as they ran. Cody and Inferno were left outside on the ledge alone. Dragon looked at rider, fear and determination glowing in their blue eyes. Cody was concerned for Inferno, but he knew that the dragon was far more worried about him. It seemed to him like they’d been together for a century, never leaving each other’s side.

            “You sure you want to do this?” Inferno asked, his mouth open slightly to show numerous saber-like fangs.

            Cody nodded, “I’m sure. We have to get in there and find those three before we lose the battle. We win now.”

            “Or die trying,” Inferno said with a growl.

            “Losing isn’t an option,” Cody said coolly, breathing deeply to relax himself. Inferno didn’t respond, only scraped his sharp claws on the stone beneath them as he prepared to lunge into the cave.

            With a simple thought from his rider, Inferno leaped inside, and Cody prepared himself for what he’d find. Almost immediately the tunnel was blocked completely by the warring creatures. The cave floor was practically a river, blood flowing on the stone beneath Inferno’s dark paws. Wolves and wolf skeletars fought each other, brother turned on brother it seemed.

            “Hang on!” Inferno said.

            A split second later, Cody found himself clutching the reigns attached to the saddle tightly as Inferno brought one massive paw above their heads. With a grunt of effort, the dragon hauled them onto the ceiling, his talons clutching at the wall carefully and leaving deep scrapes in the rough stone.

            Cody grew pale with fear, saying, “You hang on tight, or you’ll squash me like a bug!”

            Inferno growled in response, showing that he’d never let it happen to his rider. They made their way along the roof of the tunnel for a long ways, made painfully slow by the threat of falling to their deaths. Cody’s death, anyways. At last they emerged into a massive room, filled to the very edges with warring four-legged animals. They wouldn’t be able to land anywhere safely if they tried. Before Cody could say anything about it, Inferno slipped away down a tunnel a short ways before turning right side-up.

            “What should we do?” Inferno asked, panting slightly.

            Cody looked at the other side of the room where the battle was and said, “It doesn’t look like there are many other paths to take. Two others I see on the other side of the room, but I recognize one of them. It leads to the prison and the opening I went out through. We should follow it, and hopefully we can find the enemy.”

            “Without the others?” Inferno asked nervously.

            Cody looked down the dark path and nodded, gulping as he did. His companions would be lost in the battle, unable to find them no matter how long they waited. The tunnel was terrifying, but he could sense something at the end, something worth getting to. A voice at the back of his mind was telling him to go, and he intended to follow that voice. Not only that, but the path seemed oddly familiar. Perhaps he remembered it from when he had been taken to the enemy before being imprisoned.

            Inferno let out a puff of smoke through his nostrils before saying, “Lead the way. I’ve got your back.”

            Cody nodded again and tentatively stepped forward. As he walked, he began to step a bit faster. With each step his pace quickened ever so slightly, his heart pounding in his chest when he realized where he was headed. There was no doubt in his mind anymore; the enemy was waiting for them at the end.

            Not them, him.

            Cody stepped through what appeared to be a doorway and recognized the room at once, he was right that it was where he had been taken before. But looking around the room he saw no being, not even a single bone. There was a hole in the ceiling to let some sunlight inside, and a large throne of gleaming silvery-black, petrified wood.

            A sudden, loud grating sound rang in Cody’s ears, and he dove out of the way just in time. Looking back, he saw a thick metal mesh, similar to the stuff that had covered his cage but much, much thicker. He saw with a gasp of horror that Inferno was on the opposite side of the gate, his blue eyes glazing over in fear.

            “Cody!” Inferno said as he let out a massive roar. He slammed a paw at the mesh, but nothing happened. He slammed his entire body against it, but nothing happened.

            Inferno continued to roar in fury and fear, but Cody found himself frozen in place, watching as there was a swirl of smoke and a man appeared. The same man as before appeared, with a dark, billowing cloak and gray flesh showing beneath rips and tears. The shape shook slightly, a sick sort of laughter filling the room as it did.

            “You came!” the enemy said in fake shock, ignoring the raging dragon nearby.

            Cody glared at the man, his fingers curling tight around the sword hooked to a belt at his waist. “You heartless monster!” Cody roared, confidence pooling in his words, “You dare to keep a dragon and rider apart!?”

            The enemy chuckled again, “My dear boy, call me Merikh if you need something to call me by. It was my mortal name, and you haven’t seen what a…’heartless monster’ I really am.”

            Cody snarled at him, “Torturing me and my friends wasn’t enough?”

            “Torture he says!” Merikh laughed again. “But you’re quite right. I can’t have you standing in my way any longer.”

            Cody cringed when he saw the enemy raise a hand and shoot it towards him. After a few moments he opened his eyes to look, but his opponent had his arm down again. The man stood still for a minute, just watching Cody.

            “Go on, turn around,” he said with a commanding hiss.

            The rider, in his confusion, turned around. He gasped in shock as soon as he looked back at the gate. Inferno, in his anger, was oblivious to the danger. Dongoithu slipped around him, a golden-colored dagger glistening in the light. He slipped around the dragon’s legs and Cody was frozen in shock as he watched.

            “Inferno, look out!” Cody shrieked.

            The furious dragon whipped his head around, icy eyes focusing on his attacker with such menace, it made Cody shiver. But before the dragon could react, the dwarf took the golden blade and lunged upwards, driving the blade a foot and a half into Inferno’s chest, all the way up to the hilt. Blood immediately poured over the handle, pooling just below the wound in a matter of seconds. Blue eyes locked on blue eyes.

            Inferno slowly dropped to the ground, dead.