I stood above the dead corpse of the dragon, its body now lay limp beneath me. I won.
Grabbing my nail, I got off the dead beast and began to walk back to Charlie to see if she was okay.
But as soon as I got off and began to walk, its body suddenly started moving again.
Turning quickly, I got ready to fight once more, but it just started to turn into a black sludge, just like everything else I killed.
I was about to walk away until something caught my eyes—it was glowing with a faint orange color.
As I took a step closer to see what it was, the goop around it began to sink into the ground, revealing a rather large glowing heart.
I poked it with my nail to see if it was safe. I wasn't too keen to find out whether or not it would explode in my face.
After I had poked for about a minute, I cautiously stepped closer to the glowing heart and slowly tried to pick it up.
But the moment I touched it, the heart glowed even brighter than before and began to float in the air.
I took a step back and observed the heart, waiting for it to do something. The moment it did, it flew directly into my chest.
I felt a surge of pain envelop my entire body. I felt as if my entire body was burning. I resisted the pain, not wanting to faint from it.
After a few minutes, the pain began to die down, and I could finally breathe easily.
I checked my body to see if anything changed, and to my surprise, it did.
All the cracks from the battle were completely healed, and what's more, I felt something I didn't think I would feel in a long time—
My heartbeat.
I touched my chest, and I could feel the slight thump from my heart.
I still couldn't feel strong emotions, but with this, there might be hope.
Feeling pretty proud of myself, I ran back to Charlie with the lantern to continue the search for an exit.
Once I reached her, I saw Charlie still sleeping on the ground, a bit of dust on her face from the fight I just had with the dragon.
So, picking her up, I placed the sleeping Charlie behind my back and the lantern around my neck to light the way.
I jumped down, and this seemed to jolt Charlie awake.
"Huh… are we there yet, mr. knight?" she said sleepily.
"We're almost there, Charlie. Just go back to sleep and I'll find a way out of here."
"Okay… that's good… at least we'll be gone then before the lava reaches us," she said as she soon fell back to sleep.
Lava?
Looking around us, the cracks on the wall began leaking molten magma. It dripped slowly onto the floor I was standing on and landed directly on my feet. I gritted my teeth, waiting for the pain—but it never came.
I stared at the magma as it harmlessly slipped off me and landed on the ground.
So… I'm fireproof. Nice.
Though the problem was Charlie—she wasn't fireproof like me.
Moving quickly, I scoured the area looking for a way out, but I couldn't find one.
I didn't give up, though. As the lava grew closer and closer to Charlie, I felt the lamp around my neck move.
I looked down and saw the fireflies frantically moving in a singular path, and with nothing to lose, I followed the fireflies.
As I continued to walk, they led me toward a wall. I was confused—why would they lead me here?
I turned around to look for another way, but even harder than before, the fireflies began to move the lamp they were in and pointed directly at the wall once more.
This wasn't a coincidence—they were purposefully leading me here.
So, not wanting to hesitate, I grabbed my nail and, with one quick motion, stabbed the wall.
At first, it did nothing, but a second later the wall began to crack, and with a loud crack, the wall collapsed and revealed a large opening.
Moving quickly, I ran inside the opening, not wasting a second to think.
As I ran, I slowly felt the ground begin to steepen—it became harder and harder to run.
Eventually, I began climbing the side of the wall. Charlie didn't have her sack, so I couldn't risk her falling from my back.
I used one hand to hold Charlie from my side and another to climb.
The process was slow and tedious but was the safest route to go about it.
---
After climbing what seemed like hours, I began to see a yellow light above me.
Light!
I was close to the top.
Moving ever so slightly faster, I began to climb. The light grew brighter and brighter.
Until I finally reached the top. Grabbing hold of the edge, I pulled myself up and out of the hole with Charlie in my arms.
Once we were out, my eyes quickly adjusted to the light, and I noticed a massive volcano on the horizon.
That must be it. I picked up the sleeping Charlie, putting her behind my back, and began to walk.
It didn't take long for me to reach the base of the volcano, and from there I saw a massive crimson gate with different symbols—what I assumed was the written language here.
I approached the gate and knocked.
From the side, a small opening revealed itself.
"State your name and business," a gruff voice spoke from the hole.
I was about to open my mouth and speak but remembered the last time I did that.
Instead, I showed the guard a sleeping Charlie.
The guard quickly took notice and closed the small opening.
And not a moment later, the massive gates began to slowly open.
Finally, this adventure was over.
As the gates fully opened, imps clad in red armor and equipped with spears quickly approached me.
They must be here to retrieve Charlie.
But to my shock, they began to point spears at me.
What the hell?
"Release the royal princess at once or suffer the consequences!" the soldier barked the order at me.
Great… they think I kidnapped Charlie.
Moving slowly, I removed Charlie from my back, and a guard approached, picking her up.
I raised my hands to show I was surrendering. They quickly pinned me to the dirt and began removing my weapons and gear before taking me inside.
Great. Now I'm a prisoner… at least I wasn't trapped in the caves anymore.