Night of the Dragon

Getting over her shock, she ran to his side. Fortunately, despite his still appearance, Krasus breathed.

However, she could not wake him. Not certain what else to do, Vereesa tested to see how warm his body was. While still far more than was normal, she could at least touch him without fear of burning.

Lifting the slumped figure as carefully as she could, the ranger pulled him over to one side, where the floor of the cavern rose up. There she set him in a sitting position and pondered what to do next.

Krasus saved her that trouble by at last opening his eyes.

'V-Vereesa of the high elves,' he managed. 'You were not one of those I expected—' The dragon mage went into a coughing fit. He looked older, more emaciated.'—but it is good to see you, albeit not so good to see you here.'

'I should have expected to find you, though,' the ranger returned. 'With so much evil at hand, who would come to see to its end but you?'

'You—you and Rhonin—have done more than your sh-share, young one.' He waved off her protest. 'Be- besides, that is neither here... neither here nor there.' His eyes narrowed. 'Do you know what is going on In Grim Batol?'

'Just enough to be confused, great one.' As he winced from pain again, she eyed him in renewed concern. 'Krasus...what ails you?'

'I have been to a place of a hellish kind I hope never to suffer again. I barely managed to escape, but in doing so nearly tore myself apart. I was cast back from limbo into the very mountain itself...the very rock of the mountain...'

He quickly described for her as best he could the awful moment when, escaping a magical trap, he was randomly thrust by its unleashed forces into a part of Grim Batol. His body and the foundation of the mount became part of the same. Only the dragon's incredible magic and powerful will kept him from becoming forever entombed.

'It was all that I could do to thrust myself into the nearest chamber. I burst through, still in my true form, and crawled without care from one cavern to the next. I needed heat to revive my body. Incredible heat. Yet, the only source that I could sense close enough to reach felt like so little. However, I had no choice. I went there, forcing the change to this body when the tunnels proved too narrow....'

He had not even paid any attention to what lay all around him, his suffering mind only knowing that, despite the heat seeming so little, there were pools of molten lava within sight. Dragons were not, by nature, generally found diving into lava and, had he stayed in much longer, he would have eventually burned to death. However, it said something for the critical state of his life that this was the only way that he could quickly recuperate. Aided by what magic he could muster, the incredible heat revived him far swifter than normal means could have.

'But the trick is to know when to escape the pool. I was originally so undone that I nearly overstayed. I had thrust up twice to call as secretly as I could to any who knew me as friend, for I knew that I would unfortunately need help yet. I expected another, either one of the dwarves or a draenei—'

'Iridi?'

His brow arched. 'Ah? You have met. Yes. She seeks not one impossible quest, but two. She hopes to either free or destroy a nether dragon—'

'Yes... and also take from a blood elf a staff that he stole from a friend's murdered corpse.' Vereesa's expression turned cold despite the nearby pool. 'But Zendarin Is mine and no one else's....'

He studied her face in concern. 'A personal quest, a personal feud. I will not ask you why, but remind you of the folly of such.'

'You are hardly one to judge that,' the ranger curtly replied, standing. She glanced around at the monstrous display. 'And what do you make of this? Is this left over from Deathwing or his children?'

'No... this is the obsession of the mother of Nefarian and Onyxia, an obsession whose depth I have only just begun to appreciate... and fear. How long she must have collected these eggs, collected them and then corrupted each—no doubt with the aid of the accursed, still malevolent Demon Soul—for her own foul desires! And how—and how much effort she must have gone through—to move them here to Grim Batol after my own kind had abandoned their guarding of it.'

'You think she and this were not here already?'

'She—she could not have been here, done all this evil, and not be noticed by those keeping sentinel. No, Sinestra has only recently come to this forlorn place, but she has—has settled in very, very, well!'

He did his best to push himself up. Vereesa quickly aided him when it became clear that he was about to drop again. 'Thank— thank you. I am growing stronger by the moment, though I hope never to go through that again. That is more the way of the Earth-Warder, Deathwing's lot. But fire in any form is a valued part of life and that enabled me to do what I did.' The dragon mage scowled at the many eggs. 'And, as a servant of life, this hideous mockery of it—' Krasus gestured at one of the swollen eggs.'— fills me with such rage that I could destroy this chamber and all in it with little regard for my own destruction!'

Vereesa looked aghast, fearing that he would follow through on his dire notion. She saw herself perishing with him, leaving her children and Rhonin without her and Zendarin able to go hunting the twins at his leisure. Much as she, too, thought that this cavern deserved razing, she was selfish enough to want to at least protect her family first.

But Krasus shook his head. 'No, that I cannot do just yet. That would leave Sinestra to still plot. She has the nether dragon at her mercy and one abomination already born. She may find another blue or red dragon—magic and life—to further her creation's horrific powers—'

'Why would she even need to do that? She has eggs from your flight and likely ones stolen over the generations from even the blues, rare as they are. She could raise her own.'

'The raising would require more trouble, and she would need a mature adult, well into their power for years, to even hope to achieve what she desires. Sinestra has patience, but not in all things. Besides, there have been many generations in which she herself has had to hide as much as plot.' He smiled slightly as something else became apparent. 'And there are few enough eggs of the other flights. They would be more valuable to her than her own... which is surely what all these black flight eggs are.'

'All from one dragon alone?'

'It looks like so many, but these have been salvaged over many centuries....' He shook his head. 'The tremendous range of years Deathwing and his blood use for some of their plots ever amazes me....'

Vereesa shivered. 'Do we destroy them one by one, then? The two of us together—'

'Would take far too long. I am still weak, young one, and I think I know why....' Krasus gestured further into the bizarre cavern. 'And if I am correct, we need to go that way now.'

Wondering what could be of such greater importance to the dragon mage, Vereesa aided him in heading in the direction indicated. As they left the vicinity of the eggs, the heat from the pools began to take over, so much so that it grew harder for the high elf to breathe.

The area also took on a more crimson cast, the pools now the only source of light. While she had usually trusted Krasus in the past, the ranger began to wonder if he actually knew where he was.

The cowled figure suddenly groaned. 'Yes...' he gasped. 'We are very close.' 'Close to what?'

But Krasus did not clarify, instead peering at something ahead. Even with the eyes of a high elf, Vereesa could not see what it was until several more unsteady steps.

The glow was barely perceptible at first, only a slight, golden glimmer. It emanated from a chamber whose entrance was a crack that, when finally reached by the pair, had to be entered one at a time and sideways.

Krasus hesitated. “I will go first...but I need you to follow quickly after. I do not know how well I will be able to withstand what is in there.'

'What is it?'

He looked back at her as he began to slip through. 'One of my nightmares...'

And with that, the dragon mage vanished into the chamber. Aware that Krasus was not one to overstate a situation, the ranger immediately followed after. She pressed her back against the rock and slid from the previous cavern, wondering what she would find.

'It is as I suspected and feared,' Krasus whispered, staring at what lay ahead. 'And it made only too much sense, especially with her.'

Even as he spoke, Krasus started to lose his legs. Vereesa quickly leapt to his side and helped him right himself.