The Dragon of Lothal

Having searched the entirety of the cavernous castle to no avail, and on the verge of giving the search up for goose, a realization of sound found his ear, a sound which, similarly to the disregarded songs of a zillion cicadas, had been playing there in the background of his thoughts, completely unnoticed all the while. But that was not the light, almost airy sound of water he was hearing, but was rather the heavier, sloppy gurgle of some oily liquid.

The fountain! Tappan had passed by the fountain three or four times in his searches without giving a thought to it, it being so obvious. As he approached it, he understood why. What little light his tiny torch could offer to the surrounding darkness gleamed back towards him from off the fountain’s thick, languid liquid with an unnatural, unholy limpness which water alone could never muster. The torch held high with the one hand, and the other steadying him atop the cold, damp granite, Tappan bent his head low to inspect the fountain’s contents.

The orange torchlight glowed dimly across it’s metallic, almost coppery surface. Up close, the liquid smelled of salt and age, an odor that was somehow both alluring and revolting at the same time, but a familiar odor as Tappan recollected the deer he‘d hunted with his father long ago, and the static tang the blood had applied to his tongue when he’d been forced to bite into the still warm heart of the beast.

Blood. Is that what he was looking at? A fountain of blood?

But, why not? What better hiding place? Disgarding the torch and rolling up his sleeves, Tappan plunged both arms in up to the elbows. The fountain’s rocky bottom was both sticky and slick on his fingers as they searched in abject blindness, this way and that, but then his hand touched something else! Something that moved away from their contact! He grasped at it, feeling his fingers wrap around it even as it sliced into them. Never minding the pain, or that his own blood was adding to the fountain, Tappan withdrew his prize. He had found it! The sword of Lothal! And with it, he would become king… nay, a God!

If, that is, he could now get past the dragon.