Chapter 3: Chapter 03

Chapter 03

His agonized screams echoed through the cave system as Ratu clutched his stomach, then his head, and slumped to his knees. He knew he was hallucinating, but that did not stop the pain coursing through his veins and throughout his body.

He could see his mother standing next to the Dragon, looking as dead as the last time he had seen her before burning her corpse. She was shaking her head at him and pointing her right hand at him. "You should have saved me, son.... why didn't you try to save me, son?"

He felt the tears start to fall down his face. "I did try to save you, Mother, but nothing worked. No one knew how to save you."

The apparition muttered, "You should have saved me, son. You could have saved me if you had tried, but you were always worthless, always the weak one of my children. When I died, you should have killed the Thane and..."

Ratu put his hands over his ears, trying to block out her voice, but it didn't work. "It is your fault I died. I died alone because you didn't love me." The apparition started to move towards him, her hands outstretched and her nails ready to rend his flesh. Ratu could take no more and screamed once more before collapsing into unconsciousness on the cave floor.

The Dwarf rose and rolled Ratu onto his side so he would not choke. "I have seen this plant used before, but I have never seen what is happening to Ratu." He didn't finish the question he wanted to ask.

"Yes," Shade replied. "I have made the effects three times more aggressive than they should be by adding my blood. With my blood, I also protect him from dying whilst under the effect. But there is something he does not know yet but will soon learn: by adding my blood to the mix, he will now be addicted. An addiction he will never be able to break. He will need Dragon’s blood regularly to keep his sanity and to stay alive, so he will be an easy pawn to use."

The Dwarf closed his mouth and resolved that when Greylac let him leave this Dragon, he would never return to her side. She scared him more than anything else ever had in his life.