Dragon in a Dream..........."Quite Literally".........Lady Blaze

He had heard me, but only smiled a little before stepping through, grabbing his sack at the last minute. I followed suit, entering the same room I had tumbled into on my last visit. Richard approached the far wall and, as if it were made of water, disappeared into it like this was the commonplace thing to do. The walls had given the impression of being quite solid on the previous occasion I had analyzed them. Shocked but not about to be outdone at this next development, I waited an instant to breathe deeply, screwed my eyes closed and, with my hands out in front of me, headed at a trot towards the apparently permeable barrier. I ended up crashing rather ungracefully into Richard’s side. He had been waiting tolerantly for me to follow and would accept no apologies for me plowing into him.

“I probably deserve it,” he said, with less humor than I would have liked. He went on to explain about the wall and the golden room, as we walked down a very, very dim passageway. Each of the hieroglyphs covering the room indicated a place somewhere else that could be activated to allow the passing of a person from that point into the room, or vice versa. Though all of the walls were indeed solid, they could be keyed to allow passage to the four main hallways of Richard’s underground domain by way of direct access, if he was so inclined. He had found his current living space more than ten years ago (how many exactly he was not quite sure) and still had not explored all of the rooms and tunnels. He talked of how empty the place had been, how hollow some places still seemed. No one had walked down here for what must have been hundreds of years, before Richard had stumbled upon it.

“Rather literally, in fact,” he remarked as we neared a fork and took the right, more brightly lit way. I was glad for that, seeing as how I had had trouble making out Richard’s swift moving shape. Hanging lamps dotted the low ceiling.

“You mean you fell down that hole, too?” I asked, laughing behind a hand though he had his back to me and wouldn’t be able to see anyhow. He paused a moment before replying.

“Actually, there are two physical entrances. . .the one I found was within the city. I had been running. . .from someone, through one of the more deserted, rundown areas of the Gem. When my pursuer began to overtake me, I ducked into an old, half burnt alehouse. I would have been caught, if I had not opened the trapdoor into the cellar and hid among the barrels there. When I was sure they had given up the chase, I was in such a blind hurry to quit the building that when I leapt up from my hiding place, I would have run straight into one of the kegs.”

“Don’t tell me it was illusion, like those trees,” I said dryly. He returned with an acquiescent “Then I will not,” and we stepped into a well-lit cavern so huge I could not withhold my gasp of awe.

-- Hehe, I'm sure there's a closet Dragon in a Dream fan who's just dying to post a comment, but is too scared I might bite their head off. Heh, nope, I'm quite harmeless...most of the time. Please don't be afraid to comment...

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