The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 123

#123 The Old Legend
Cassandra slowly woke up to the sound of something dripping next to her.
She suddenly felt a horrible sensation in her throat and started coughing out some water, almost suffocating as she was trying to get some air back. She felt exhausted, and a bit dizzy, though she was lying down. Underneath her, was something cold… and wet. It wasn’t very comfortable either. She struggled to move her body, pushing on her numb arms to help herself sit up. Her hands met with cold rocky ground. Cassandra coughed a little, spitting some water again. She felt exhausted, but her instincts quickly reminded her of the dangerous situation.
She sat up, looking around anxiously. She had no idea where she was, but somehow, the presence of light disturbed her. Her memories were slowly coming back, and she was almost sure she had lost consciousness in the deep, dark waters of the Lake of the Imperial Palace. So the question was, where was she now? Against all expectations, she was alive, but with no idea where she had ended.
As her eyes got used to the blinding light coming from above, Cassandra slowly started realizing she was surrounded by rock walls. In all shades of grey, sometimes silverish, the undefined walls of this cave were making a semi-sphere above her head. She could still hear water clearly dripping all around her. How far was she under the surface level? If there was this much light, she couldn’t be too deep…
She barely had any strength length to remain seated, but somehow, she could just stay still either. How had she even gotten there? A few meters away from her, there was what looked like a large pond, or a little lake. It was completely still and quiet, and everything else was echoing inside the cave. She could almost hear her own heartbeat echoing. Cassandra realized her body was cold, but not as wet as someone who had just gotten out of the water. How long had she been there? She was completely at a loss and even more panicked due to that. What of Opheus, and Missandra? What about the Old Emperor?
Her head was aching a little bit. She touched her forehead and felt a vivid pain. It was a bit swollen… So she had bumped her head into something, on top of the headache. Cassandra sighed. What had she gotten herself into this time? She looked around, trying to look for the creature from before, just in case, but she was obviously completely alone. After much effort, she finally got back on her feet. She was in a poor state… Her legs and arms were covered in bruises as if she had been dragged around on that same rocky ground. Cassandra looked at the water again. Had she been taken out of there, then? By whom…? She was obviously alone here.
She tried to walk to the walls, checking if there wasn’t some opening she may have missed. It was a bit tricky because the walls and the ground were a heap of thousands of little stones, and she couldn’t see all of the different levels of the wall. It was sharp, too, but some had iridescent reflections, like pink or blue. They almost looked like dark gemstones…
Cassandra’s eyes were attracted to the light above again. What she had taken for a bright light was actually some long slit in the ceiling, letting in what was most likely natural light. Cassandra squinted her eyes, trying to see anything. She was almost sure she had seen some movement up there. Was she actually that close to the ground floor?
Suddenly, something moved in the water. She retreated towards the wall as a reflex, but there was nowhere to run. Slowly, scales started appearing at the surface. Cassandra felt her blood go cold again. She could see parts of the body undulate in the water and surface at some places like a snake swimming around. How big was it really? She had been unable to see the whole body in the water, but now, she could see it move in so many places, she was only starting to get the reality of this creature’s real size. Then, the head slowly merged out of the water. First, the two horns she had seen, one of them broken at half its length. Then, the silver eyes appeared. They were so clear, if it wasn’t clearing staring at her, Cassandra would have wondered if it wasn’t actually blind. Then, the nose and maw came out of the water, dripping. She tried to keep breathing normally, but no matter how she looked at it, this creature was part dragon.
A very, very large and strange dragon. With an elongated head and neck, there was plenty of space for the many gills moving with each breathing the creature took. Cassandra didn’t even know if she should have been surprised, scared, or amazed, but she was all of that at the same time. The dragon let out a long, high-pitched growl that
echoed along the cave’s walls, and more of its body came out.
The front limbs weren’t like what she had seen before. She had thought they were short, but unlike the Dragons short paws, those were longer and more retractable. Moreover, they were obviously half-way between arms and fins. Even the “fingers” of the creature had curved claws and were tied together like palmed. Moreover, he didn’t actually use his limbs to move around, his body was more crawling like a snake’s. Cassandra retreated further, not even daring to blink for one second. She felt like her own breathing was way too loud.
The creature too didn’t lose her for a second. It was all focused on her as it was coming out of the water, more and more of its body crawling out. Cassandra had wrongly judged it’s size. If she had to compare it with the dragons
she had seen before, it’s head was about as big as Glahad’s, but there was no real comparison in terms of its body. It would have been like comparing a cat and a snake. While its neck was very thick, the rest of its body didn’t grow in size at all. It was all the same width, but very, very long. It felt like the end was never coming, and the body almost had to spiral on itself to find enough space, as Cassandra kept retreating further and further away. She was grateful was so vast, because there were few rooms inside the Imperial Palace that could have welcomed that creature comfortably. How old was that creature to have gotten so big? Its body was meters and meters long! When she finally spotted the little legs, she realized those were in no way meant to walk either, but just to stabilize the end of the body. They were thinner and shorter than the front paws.
Finally, the tail came out, almost ridiculously little and simple compared to the rest of that majestic creature. Cassandra was at a loss for words as they were just staring at each other. This thing was not a dragon as the Dragon Empire knew them. It was something alike, maybe a related species. Cassandra exhaled, realizing she had been holding her breath for a while now. Thank the gods, this creature wasn’t menacing at all. It only stared at all, and had only growled once, if a growl that was.
Cassandra had seen much scarier dragons, so she wasn’t exactly afraid. More like cautious. She could tell when a beast was angry or menacing, and that creature wasn’t. Moreover, she highly suspected it had actually saved her life by bringing her here, which showed a high form of intelligence.
She decided to take a slow step forward, seeing how the creature would react. It didn’t seem panicked in any way, and actually, came gently to her. She could see it’s thin nostrils moving a bit, smelling her. Cassandra suddenly realized what was that shimmering on its scales that had been disturbing her for a while now. Salt! Was that water salty? Could it be linked to the actual sea? The creature kept moving its iridescent scales and, just like it’s size, Cassandra had been wrong about its color as well. It wasn’t dark, but actually, of a shimmery grey. There were some other colors shimmering at some moments, making her think those scales opal-like. Just like the stones of that cave. Was it this Creature’s lair?
An idea was beginning to grow in Cassandra’s mind, and somehow, she started to really believe in it. She remembered what she had been taught when she was much, much younger. She hesitated, putting an arm out and extending her hand, though she was a bit scared and probably crazy to do so.
The Creature didn’t try to sniff it as Krai would have. Instead, it slid it’s long body past it, making Cassandra touch it’s strange, polished scales. She chuckled, impressed. The Creature began circling around her, making one, two rings with its body, keeping Cassandra inside. It still wasn’t menacing, but she felt like it was establishing some sort of protection around her. Cassandra smiled.
“I think I know who you are…” she whispered, amazed.
The Creature didn’t react to her word but, after taking a deep breath, the young woman started singing.
She used her native tongue, careful about her voice and her words, and sang the Mermaid’s Requiem. After listening to her for a few seconds, the Creature started making a high-pitched song too. It sounded like a wind blowing against some glass, a high-pitched but gentle sound. When she was done, the Creature put its head closer to her, and, after a hesitation, Cassandra gently caressed its head. Her heart was beating crazy, almost sure she was right. All the legends from her childhood were taking form in this amazing creature in front of her.
“You’re really… The Water God…” she whispered.?
She was submerged with emotion, almost to the point of crying. She had never questioned it’s existence, but having the deity-like being right next to her was an amazing sensation. The Creature sang softly again, making Cassandra chuckle, a tear escaping her eye. She took a deep breath.
Though it was a beautiful moment, she didn’t have much time for that. She couldn’t forget the crisis that was going on outside this cave, and how her family needed her. She extended her arm to caress the scales again.
“I need your help,” she whispered in her native tongue. “I really need to get back to the others… to my family.”
She wasn’t sure he would understand her, but, just then, the Creature looked up, at the long slit in the ceiling. Just as she thought, there was something up there. The exact moment when Cassandra looked up, she very clearly saw a shadow for a second. What was upstairs?
“Kyun!”
Cassandra jumped, as the baby dragon suddenly jumped out of the water, flapping it’s little wings and chasing the
water.
“Kian? How did you get here!”
She ran to the baby dragon, who happily jumped in her arms with many little squeaks. Kian kept rubbing its head against her chest while Cassandra looked at the pond again. This was definitely connected to the lake somehow! If so, how deep and wide was the lake under the surface, and beneath which room could it have spread?
“Kyuuuu…”
Kian seemed to have just noticed the gigantic Creature, and very boldly jumped from Cassandra’s arm to run to it. Without any fear, the little dragon hopped onto the first sing of the body, under the Creature’s eyes. Its white eyes were on Kian with a bit of interest, watching the baby dragon’s moves. Kian jumped higher, onto the second and higher ring, and glanced at Cassandra. Was he showing off? She tried to call him, but the little dragon ignored her and turned to the head of the body he had just climbed.
The Water God seemed interested in the baby dragon and brought it’s head closer, sniffing him. However, a sniff from such a big creature was like a gush of wind to Kian, and he was ejected away. Just as Cassandra feared he might fall, he started flipping its little wings and looked up. Now that she saw them together, there was a bit of resemblance in their bodies’ shape, though Kian was still more like Krai.
“Kyun!”
The baby dragon started flying higher, looking suddenly attracted to that slit in the ceiling. The Water God, looking curious about the baby dragon, followed his flight up, extending its body to raise it. Cassandra immediately saw her chance. With a silent apology, she climbed on the creature’s body just like Kian had done before. She was bigger than the baby dragon, but still no bigger than a kitten compared to the gigantic water creature. If it felt her climbing on its scales, it didn’t show any discomfort at all. Cassandra struggled to keep going, with her aching muscles, overall exhaustion, and the climb that was going more and more vertical and abrupt. Whatever was above them, she silently prayed it wasn’t going to be another terrible place to fall into.
Just when she had finally climbed past the second ring, she realized she wouldn’t be able to climb up the “neck” of the Creature. Just then, it seemed to finally spot her and, before she could do a thing, pushed her to be on its head, hanging on to its horns! Cassandra couldn’t help but let out a little scream in fear, but Kian apparently took it for an excited cry, and made a similar high-pitched noise, all happy and flying around her.
The Creature kept going higher, understanding her goal and Kian’s. As they finally reached the breach, Cassandra realized it would be just large enough to let her in, but there was no way the Creature could follow her. She bit her lip, and Kian jumped above, disappearing between the two edges. She was worried for him for a few seconds, but then, she heard him happily squeak from somewhere above. With a sigh of relief, she found a grip as soon as she could, ready to climb up. Just then, she looked at the Creature, whose eye was very close. She smiled at it.
“Thank you…” She whispered, and then, with a push from the Creature’s head, she climbed up.