The little town of Adeha'l is as evanescent as the quiet desert surrounding it, with all its subtlety and silence. But no matter how ephemeral or fading the town, it's hard to forget the torrid, sweltering heat bearing down on it. As yesterday, the sky was clear and blue the following morning; but, it was completely devoid of a single cloud, making the sun a natural enemy to be feared and respected.

Eli walked the empty streets of Adeha'l with his hood drawn and his poncho covering his upper body. He decided to forgo his cotton shirt and left it in his room at the inn. He had gone through all his clothes already since he and Mikael crossed the South Abian. The inn had water and soap, but Eli was never one to do tedious chores in the morning. It was easier to just go without a shirt for the day. Besides, the poncho would keep him decent enough and still protect his skin from the harsh sun.

As the young man walked about the town, he decided to try scouting the alleys and more out-of-reach places. Mikael insisted the town was cursed, but he failed to offer any verifiable proof of that. He claimed he could just tell, but what good is a hunch if there's nothing to back it up. Eli lived and survived off hunches and gut feelings, so he could empathize, but Mikael was talking about... magic. That wasn't something Eli was familiar with. And even still, Mikael insisted on remaining at the inn to "earn their keep", so the apathetic bard couldn't be relied on any further to figure out this elusive, so-called curse. 

After reaching the end of an alley on the south side of town, Eli saw that he was now facing out toward a vast empty landscape of flat, arid terrain. He was standing at the edge of Adeha'l. Though the horizon stretched out before him, unblocked by any mountains or small hills, the ground between it and him was lower. He stood above it, high up on the gradual incline of the Numir mountains he had descended the other day. There was still a long way to hike before the terrain eventually leveled out, and directly before him, it was a steeper decline than expected. That was because at the town's south edge was the abandoned stone quarry that once supported Adeha'l's economy. It was a gaping maw that fell deep into the dry earth, one receding level at a time, with a perilous winding path ramping its way down each gigantic step of cut stone.

At the very bottom of the quarry was a flat white disc. Even from where he stood, so high up, Eli could tell it wasn't stone, because that same white was all over the walls of the quarry. It was spread about like sand; dense in some areas, and thin everywhere else. He saw it before in the mountains, hugged to the statue in the town square, and on the crumbling buildings around town.

Salt.

But it being there, and all around the town for that matter, didn't make any sense. He was inexperience in traveling, true, but Eli was certain he heard Mikael correctly the first time. Adeha'l was known for its stone quarry, not a salt quarry. And yet, there was more salt lying down there than all of it in town behind him and in the mountains combined. It was coming from the quarry... It had to be.

There was something else of note. A figure was lying on one of the enormous stone blocks about three levels below. Though it was partially covered in strewn salt, Eli could clearly make out the outline of a person. They were lying face down... unmoving.

Eli cupped two hands around his mouth and yelled down into the quarry.

"Heeey!" he called out.

No response.

"Heeeeeeyyyyy!" he cried louder.

Still nothing.

Perhaps most would panic in his shoes. They might spin on heel and run for help, pause in breathless fear, or vomit their breakfast. But Eli had seen plenty of bodies before. Having grown up in the slums as an urchin, he was no stranger to the sight and smell of death. He was so used to it, in fact, that he was already assuming the person down there was dead... Surely, they were. Why else would they not be responding, laying there, half buried in salt beneath a scorching desert sun?

But just as he was no stranger to seeing the living pass into the great eternal, he was also not one to give up on them because of some stupid thing like "inevitability". What would Tasha say if she saw him just standing and staring at a person that might need help? What would Shalla say?

Eli took one step back and drew in a deep breath. The air was dry and hot, and he felt like his lungs weren't filling up at all, but he had to push the discomfort aside for a moment and focus on getting down. The boy stepped forward again and took a leap of faith, letting his body soar several feet forward and into the mouth of the quarry. The drop to the first level of cut stone was about fifteen feet. He felt the butterflies in his stomach as he plummeted through the air. As soon as the toes of his boots touched, he tucked and rolled forward, letting his momentum carry him with a soft tumble. Some time spent running across the rooftops of Pavicile—mostly away from and well above the reach of town guards—gave him the courage and grace to attempt such a dangerous feat.

Sparing no time to stop, he repeated the daring stunt down to the second level. The salt was growing thicker. When he landed and broke his fall with another roll, his pants and poncho were dusted with streaks of white. And since the color itself was naturally reflective, the temperature was rising the further he descended. A bead of sweat trailed from his brow and down his cheek.

One more.

Eli leapt a final time and landed on the third level, rolling beside the body. As soon as he stopped, he slid himself over to the person and grabbed their shoulder. With a heave, he pulled the body over and turned them face up. His eyes widened for a moment as he got a look at the man.

It was the pickpocket from yesterday afternoon.

Though caked in salt, Eli could discern his features well enough. His eyes were closed, his mouth hung open, and his whole body was limp and motionless. Clutched in his left hand was a leather pouch. Though Eli couldn't be certain it was the same one he lifted from the robed traveler yesterday, the boy had a hunch it was the very same. However...

Eli reached forward and gripped the bottom of the purse. It collapsed in on itself with ease and felt no coins inside. The bottom had been cut open, fiercely torn.

Was he mugged? Why cut the coins free and not just take the purse?

Something else was strange. Eli inspected the man's body, but he couldn't find any signs of a wound. No traces of blood on his clothes, no bruising around his throat, or purple tint to his cheeks and lips. Speaking of lips, they were shriveled and dried to a crisp.

Is that from laying in the salt? The poor bastard must have been down here since last night, or early morning at the latest.

The boy straightened up and glanced around. He spied an odd trail of markings in the layer of salt leading from the body. They were something like paw prints, with three toes and sharp nails that punctured the salt; almost bird-like, but bigger. It was probably half the size of an adult human. But Eli had little knowledge of beasts and fiends. He wasn't about to guess what would have left the trail. All he knew was that the tracks led away from the body and further down into the quarry. It followed the ramp down.

Eli stood up and walked to the edge of the stone and looked down to the bottom. It would have been difficult to spot before, but there was a small tunnel entrance cut into the lowest level on the east side. The tracks disappeared into the shadowy interior.

His mind made up, Eli turned back to the body of the thief and rolled him onto his back. He placed both of the man's hands over his chest and then Eli removed his poncho, laying it over the poor fellow's face.

The hot sun stung at Eli's back and dazzling white distortions of light danced across the salt as they reflected off the twin chakrams at his sides.

"Sorry," he said to the dead man. "I don't know why, but I feel responsible. Maybe I should have gotten to that coin you stole first. Perhaps then you wouldn't be down here." The boy reached a hand up and laid it over a long scar on the curve of his right shoulder. He wasn't sure anymore if he was apologizing to the dead thief... or someone else: a shadow hiding in the back of his memories.

With a sigh to steel his nerves, Eli stood up and walked down the ramp, descending further into the pit. At the very least, he could find and exterminate whatever creature was likely responsible for killing the man. Maybe he could retrieve the traveler's gold while he was at it and make amends. He might still be a thief himself, but guilt came swiftly to Eli if he knew he wronged someone that didn't deserve it. It was especially crippling to his conscious when his choices brought true harm. It was why he wasn't a very good thief. There was always some pang of guilt holding him back.

Eli was certain the tunnel would have been cooler inside, but the temperature was unbearably the same. The heat was quite uncanny. Dust swirled in the penetrating rays of daylight before a backdrop of black. Silence choked the atmosphere, and he heard naught but the sound of his own breathing. The stench of sulfur hung in the stagnant, dry air. A thick blanket of salt and sand powdered the cut stone floor and stretched into the shadows of the long tunnel, descending at a shallow angle. Though it was hard to make out from the entrance, Eli saw the tunnel bent to the left further down. He spied the faint flicker of orange torchlight, pulsating on brown walls of roughly chiseled bedrock. The stone here was more poorly delved than in the quarry outside, as if worked by unskilled hands or with poor equipment.

The tracks from outside carried on down the tunnel. Eli could barely spot them in the dark gloom, but the sunlight pouring in behind him was enough. He followed them further in, quietly moving down the tunnel until he approached the bend. Just around the corner, he found a torch lodged into a rusty iron sconce that was roughly mounted to the stone wall. It shed enough light to guide him further on, revealing more of the tunnel ahead. Multiple other torches continued to light the way every ten or fifteen feet. Glancing back down, Eli noticed that there were more claw marks now, indicating that the creature he was following either made multiple trips through his tunnel, or there were others of its kind. The salt here was tussled around less often with no wind to cover older tracks.

Pressing forward, Eli continued down the tunnel and followed its path as it burrowed deeper into the earth. Though it curved a few more times, it never split. Eventually, a muffled echo reverberated through the tunnel. Eli paused and listened...

It sounded like repetitious chanting. No... singing. But the voices were inhuman. They were scratchy and high in pitch. There had to be more than a dozen distinct voices, at the very least.

Staying low and quiet, Eli crept onward and rounded the final bend. It opened into a large chasm with stalactites hanging from the ceiling of a cave and stalagmites rising from a rough, uneven floor some ten feet below the exit to the tunnel. The chamber itself was about as vast and deep as the quarry outside, but the stone within was unspoiled by any tool of man. And where once the stalactites may have shimmered and dripped water, they were now dried, spongy husks. The heat inside was unbearable and Eli was drenched in sweat, but the source was now finally obvious.

Stretching across the floor of the cave were branching veins of molten magma, flowing in and out of dark recesses along the lower walls. The earth's slow, undaunted wrath brought with it an ominous glow of contemptuous red that tainted the brown stone of the cave, quelled only by the pitch black of the higher ceiling.

In the center of the chamber, on a relatively flat floor between wide-birthing streams of magma, Eli saw a line of many digitigrade reptilian creatures squatting before piles of glistening gold coins. Patches of dark red scales covered their backs and shoulders, clinging to leathery maroon skin. Their long snouts were pointed upward toward the ceiling as they sang, and their arms were raised to elevate open four-fingered claws, as if giving praise. Dirtied brown rags served as loincloths that covered their front sides but draped across the base of strong, spotted tails behind them. A pair of two horns adorned each of their heads and curved backward. Some of them wore straps of old leather wrapped around their forearms. Most had poorly carved stone daggers, laying on the ground at their three-toed, clawed feet.

The gold before them was uncountable. It was strewn everywhere at the back of the cavern, thrown into many piles that all blended together. There was enough coin to fill both floors of the Mining Troll and then burst through its windows. Eli had never seen so much wealth amassed in one place. His eyes were wide with shock... and the pull of the gold's allure.

But the opulent bounty was not what the creatures seemed to be worshiping. There was something akin to their likeness that the gold had amassed around... and within. Large, old bones protruded from beneath the mounds of coins rising to form the clear shape of a rib cage the size of a house and a spine that stretched the length of the cave's back wall, following its curve as it extended into a long tail. Humerus bones thicker than the ribs extended out from the upper spine, to the left and right, and connected to split radial bones that disappeared downward into the piles of gold.

Resting atop the mounds on the right was the menacing skull of the long dead monstrosity. It was long and snouted. Two horns grew out of the back. Enormous gnashing teeth lined the jaws. Its eye sockets, though empty, held an evil leer that Eli felt was being directed at him.

He didn't need a bestiary to tell him he was looking at the bones of a dragon. Its frightful visage was known to children and grown men alike, from bedtime stories to sketches in dusty tombs. At least this one was dead.

Daringly, the boy wanted a closer look, so he glanced below him to find the safest path. The tunnel exited several feet above the nearest natural ledge of the cavern wall. From here on out, he would have to climb down to the bottom. The floor below was black igneous rock. Descending further would be dangerous because of the heat, but if the creatures worshiping the dead dragon were fine without any footwear at all, Eli was sure his boots would protect him for a time. Best not to linger though.

Thrill seeking may admittedly be driving his desire to get closer, but he also couldn't just leave without learning more about why the creatures were down in this cave; why there was so much gold here with them... along with a dragon's skeleton. Surely the villagers knew about this. It was all right underneath their noses. So why keep quiet?

As Eli clambered down the ledges, he took a more cautious approach than when he leapt from the cut stone levels of the quarry. His hands grabbed the edges of the black rock as he slid his body slowly down. Soot dirtied his hands and torso as he hugged the ledges. The loose salt made it difficult for him to hold purchase, and sweaty palms added to that challenge. Even worse, the heat was sapping his stamina and he soon started to rethink his idea to get closer.

But by the time he was on the last ledge, it was too late to turn back. One final drop to go and then he'd be at the bottom, on the same level as the creatures and their gold-buried dragon. He would just find a place behind a stalagmite and rest there while spying.

Eli took a few breaths to refill his lungs before turning around to prepare to himself for the final ledge. One knee at a time, he dangled his legs over and used his upper body strength to slowly lower  himself down. But when he thought he had a good grip on the ledge, soot and salt shifting beneath his right palm proved otherwise. His hand slipped free and he hadn't the strength in his left arm to keep himself suspended. Eli plummeted and landed with a thud on his heels. He rolled backward to break the fall, but the drop was loud, especially when his steel chakrams clanged against the stone floor.

The singing stopped. Eli gasped and quickly rolled around to face the creatures... that were now staring directly at him.

Three of them wasted no time in grabbing their stone daggers. They charged toward him, standing upright on their hind legs, and moved at such an incredible speed that the boy was taken by surprise. The first stopped directly in front of him, and jabbed his dagger at Eli's stomach. He didn't press hard enough to break the skin, but it was enough to keep Eli from reaching toward his chakrams. The other two encircled Eli from the left and right. Their own daggers were pointed at the boy as well.

Eli raised his hands in surrender.

A fourth of the creatures came marching over from the larger group. It's digitigrade legs making it waddle. This one was different. The others had only two arms and two legs, but this one had a pair of dark, leathery wings on its back. They remained folded behind it, but they twitched outward as the creature approached and momentarily hinted at their total span. The wings were like a bat's. Considering this creature was the only one with this set of strange wings, Eli assumed it was the group's leader.

Now that he had a dangerously closer look at them, they were very dragon-like in their own way. Were they the spawn of the dead one in the back of the cavern? Or maybe something else?

The winged-one's beady yellow eyes glared at Eli with suspicion at first and then leaned toward the boy to sniff at him with its long nose. Eli felt like he was being inspected by a dog, but he remained as still as possible. The creature then reached out a clawed hand and tapped an elongated black nail against the chakram on Eli's right hip. The tap made an audible ringing noise as the disk swayed from the clip, but the corners of the creature's wrinkled lips stretched into an unimpressed frown and something of a grunt escaped.

Tilting its head, the creature spotted something else on Eli's person that grabbed its interest. Its yellow eyes leered at the leather purse tied to the boy's belt just behind his hip. The winged reptile reached back and snatched the dagger of its companion guarding Eli's right and brought the blade close.

"N-no, no! Hold on!" Eli started to protest, fearing that the creature was going to stab him, but the one that held its dagger to his stomach pressed harder. The boy immediately shut up.

The winged-one held the coin purse by the strings and slashed at the bottom, tearing through the leather. Coins dropped out onto the igneous floor with a chorus of loud clinks. All the creatures seemed to dance from one foot to the other in a weird display of jubilation as their eyes locked onto the coins.

With a raspy voice, the winged-one muttered something in a strange language as it curled its fingers above the coins and stared intently at them. Eli looked down as best as he could and watched the creature through his periphery, trying to make sense of what it was doing. The air seemed to swirl around him for the first time since delving below ground. Under better circumstances, the caress of a breeze on his skin would be a welcome relief, but he only shivered in trepidation as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

Without the creature touching the coins, they started to shake and clink on the ground. It started with them bouncing into each other, like they had minds of their own but couldn't control where they were going. Then, as the winged-creature's chanting became more pronounced, almost persistent, the coins raised into the air and turned freely about.

Is it... levitating them?!

The creature gestured with its hand toward the piles of gold in the back of the chamber and all seventy lora that fell from the purse glided gently through the air.

The ones on Eli's left and right moved behind him and poked at his back with their daggers while the one in front stepped backward and gestured with a flick of its head for the boy to follow. Eli obeyed without question, but took hesitant steps forward as the winged-one walked ahead. The gold in front of him glistened in the warm light of the magma and it slowly dispersed, each coin making its way toward a random pile.

Eli was pushed forward until he eventually arrived behind the rest of the creatures. The majority of them returned to their knees and continued their prior melody chanting along with their leader, who took up his position closer to the gold and dragon skeleton. One of the creatures that guarded Eli jabbed the boy behind his left knee, forcing his legs to buckle. Were they wanting him to join them? Or was this just a better way to secure their intruder?

Why aren't they killing me? he wondered.

The thief in the quarry was dead, and most likely by the hands of these creatures. The missing gold was now explained, as was the reason for it being removed from the purse. They had no need of a measily pouch when their cultish leader could simply float it away. But if they were killers as well as thieves, then why not be done with Eli the moment they acquired the gold? Did the thief outside put up a fight and force their hand?

Maybe I made the smart move when I surrendered.

He hoped.

The reptilian creatures continued their singing for several more minutes, even the ones guarding Eli resumed their role in the odd ritual. Though he couldn't understand a word of it, it sounded like a hymn, one that was repeated every few verses. It carried a somber melody and their voices sounded pleading. Were they beseaching a god? The dragon, perhaps?

For what purpose?

Suddenly, streams of gold coins began to slide from the tops of the mounds near the front of the skeleton's ribcage and neck. A low rumble of shifting gold echoed around the chasm, overpowering the singing of the creatures, and coin-upon-coin cascaded down the piles as something disturbed them.

Then the boy saw why.

Eli looked over in horror as he witnessed the dragon's skull rise into the air and turn to face the pathetic creatures gathered before it.

The singing ceased.