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The above transformation sequence was commissioned from 
bersickr, who killed it again with this one! This one shows my character (Blake) getting himself transformed into a dragon after touching a cursed dragon’s hoard, while his friend Abby looks on in terror.
If interested in learning what happened, please read the below story! ^^
A Draconic Disaster:
Honestly, this seemed like the kind of thing that would’ve been fun to do as a teenager, and in a group of maybe 5. But Abby and I were in our 20s now, and by ourselves. Why did we decide exploring a cave would be something to do as an adventurous activity with just the two of us? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to have a third companion with us?
Over the past few years, I’ve developed a bit of an aversion to the idea of stepping foot in a cave. I say this having browsed the internet and seen my fair share of videos about caving gone wrong. It seemed to me like we were asking for trouble. But Abby was always a more outgoing individual than I was, and she had a lot of experience outdoors. So, I guess I could say I trusted her judgement.
When we first decided to head out of state and go on a camping trip at a forest campsite, it was supposed to be a simple 3 day getaway consisting of us doing nothing but hiking, sightseeing, and relaxing by our campfire. We both happened to have the week off, so the timing to go on a camping trip together was pretty convenient, we figured!
But once we got to our camping spot and were nearly done setting up shop, Abby made a suggestion: “Hey Blake, so…you may not be interested in this. But how about you and I check out this interesting cave nearby?”
At that, I laughed as I installed the last tent pole; completing our campsite tent. “I think I’ll pass. I mean…have you seen all the crazy stuff that happens to cavers on YouTube? I’d rather not get myself lost or trapped in one of these.”
As Abby finished adding logs to the campfire, she shook her head in my direction. “It’s not that sort of cave,” she said. “More like a large cavern with huge chambers, very wide open, and lit up. And it’s pretty small.”
“I mean, that…sounds kind of interesting,” I told her with caution in my voice, as I made my way over to sit on one of our folding chairs by the campfire. “But why do you want to see it?”
“Well,” Abby started, taking a seat in the other chair in a slouched posture. “It’s kind of a local myth; why I want to go there, I mean. We wouldn’t really be looking at the cave itself, but for something inside it. There’s this special cavern that supposedly shows itself only to a select few people. It contains a hoard of riches, which is guarded by a hideous dragon.”
Abby and I looked at each other for a good minute. Then our straight faces broke when Abby snorted, and we both broke out into a fit of laughter.
“Okay but seriously,” Abby said after we finished giggling. “It’s a really cool cave I think you’d enjoy, and quite an underrated location. We’ll be in and out in 20 minutes. One of my family friends said it was a very nice place when he went.”
I sighed with content, leaning back into my chair and closing my eyes; enjoying the evening air as the sky darkened, while the loud chirps of birds and bugs filled the air.
“Fiiiiine,” I said playfully. “But no detours through unexplored junctions, okay? Just checking out the main caverns and leaving?”
“Hmm, I promise,” Abby said in a relaxed tone. “But I’m in no hurry. We can do that on our last day of camping. Let’s just enjoy the great outdoors for the first two days. Whaddya say?”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” I told Abby with a grin, and we continued to sit down and enjoy the fresh air for the rest of that night.
Two days later…
As Abby and I made our way down a forest trail towards this cave she had mentioned at the start of our trip, we spoke happily about the events which had transpired over the past couple days. The kayaking, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, stargazing; What a fun trip this was!
It was good to get out of the city for a while and take a serious break from adult life. That’s how I felt about every trip in general. But this trip felt special, probably because we were so away from everything and everyone; enjoying isolated nature in all its great expanse. I’ve never been one of these nature enthusiasts like Abby always was. But I had to admit, this trip was pretty amazing!
Abby and I had already left our belongings in our car, which was already parked just a short 5 minute walk from the cave. We wore flip flops and warm weather outfits suitable for the day.
“Well,” Abby said to me as we neared the end of the trail. “Looks like we’ll get to enjoy one last activity before we leave! We’re here.”
She waved a hand towards something ahead of us. When I turned to see, I noticed a fairly large cliff face which had a large cave opening at the bottom. It had some electrical lighting on the roof of the cave, which illuminated some of the features inside.
Surprisingly, there were a scant few visitors around. But this looked to me like the kind of cave which should draw many more tourists than this, judging from the impressive look of it. And on the state park map, the location of this cave was only shown as a minor blip, which said: “Cave of the Cursed Hoard.”
“Wait,” I said to Abby with a concerned look, pointing to the spot on the bottom left corner of the map. “So, you weren’t kidding about that myth?”
Then Abby giggled again, pulling out her phone. “It’s just named after a local urban legend. I think it all started from this creepypasta which started circulating on the internet several years ago.” Then she handed me her phone with results pulled up from a Google search.
The search prompt was “Dragon of the Cursed Hoard Cave,” and I saw several images of a black and white photo showing a large reptilian creature sitting on a large pile of treasure, roaring towards a smaller human explorer standing in the foreground.
The explorer appeared to have been flinching in fear. The dragon had an eerie look about it, probably because of the shadowy lighting which barely lit up the background behind the explorer, the dragon, and the treasure. The creature had a magnificently long tail and neck. Fiery smoke rose from both of its nostrils, and its long snout with sharp teeth was open towards the perspective of the camera, with a bright light emitting from the back of its throat; likely an indication of it about to breathe fire. But beyond that, it was difficult to see many more details. The image was grainy, and there was some motion blur.
“Funny,” I told Abby, with a nostalgic smile, as we approached the cave entrance. “I remembered seeing this creepypasta back in middle school. Gah, so this cave is where the myth came from, huh?”
“Creepypasta, ya’ say?” Came a gravelly voice from the direction behind Abby. “And what, may I inquire, is that, exactly?”
Abby and I both turned in the direction of the voice to see an old woman with wrinkled skin, long white hair, and a stooped posture standing on the far right side of the trail. She stood in front of a cozy-looking log cabin, which presumably was her dwelling. And she was dressed kind of like a park ranger; wearing a tan-colored uniform and a hat which shielded her face from the sun. Next to her was a desk, atop which sat a small bundle of pamphlets. She must’ve been one of the officials in charge of overseeing the cave for the park or something.
“Y-Yes,” Abby said nervously to the woman after a long pause; taking her phone back from me. “It’s just a silly internet thing that we saw once about this cave.”
Then the old lady bowed her head, concealing her eyes with the tip of her hat, but not the slight smile that formed on her face. “So, that’s what they call it these days, eh?” She said. She had a noticeably Irish accent to her voice.
Then she looked up again at us both, and sighed, before reaching for the two remaining pamphlets on the desk. “Well, entry for this cave is free of charge. But tours are self-guided. Here are some maps to help you find your way around the cave with little trouble.” Then she held out the pamphlets to Abby and I.
“Thank you!” I said to the woman with a friendly smile. Abby and I both reached to grab our pamphlets, but the old lady kept holding onto her side of the pamphlet with a firm grip.
“However,” she said, with a somewhat odd, observant expression that pierced through Abby and I. “I should warn you.”
Then the old lady released the pamphlets after another moment; leaving Abby and I standing there, confused, and slightly uncomfortable. We both felt compelled to leave, but something about this lady also enticed us to listen to what she had to say.
“Allow me to tell you a wee tale,” the old woman said to Abby and I; her hands held behind her back. “Long ago, in a land far from here. There was a young lad from a noble family who wanted adventure, much like the pair of you.”
“You see, he coveted his father’s great wealth, which was amassed largely from his many years of exploits while serving as the viceroy of a powerful kingdom. But his father abused his position, you see, and used it to employ many means to take money from his own subjects. He also desired that no one, not even his own children, would inherit his great wealth.”
What is this lady talking about?, I wondered; giving Abby a raised eyebrow. I expected her look back at me with an I know, right? expression. But she seemed pretty interested in this sudden story. I guess I had to pay attention too.
“This son, the eldest of the children and natural heir to the family, recognizing his father’s lack of transparency and suspicion towards himself, snuck into his chambers one night while his father was abroad, and discovered a diary belonging to his father; apparently left behind. It spoke of a cave his father learned of which was first discovered centuries before by pirates, and used by them to deposit the greatest hoard of treasure the world had yet seen!”
“Upon learning of it,” the old lady continued. “This young lad’s father had apparently found the cave entrance to this place on an expedition across the ocean. And within it sat the hoard; untouched, with its former owners lost to history. But his father made a discovery of his own: That the cavern within which the hoard sat could be accessed from a variety of locations across the globe, including the one you see here.”
The old lady waved a hand towards the cave entrance, leading Abby and I to glance in its direction. “Y-You mean…” I started hesitantly; at which the lady’s smile dropped and she sent a frustrated glare in my direction. “That this cave, can technically teleport people…around the world?”
“Yes, yes I’m getting to that,” the woman said while putting her hands on her hips; continuing to give me the stink-eye. “And let me apologize for the middle of my tale interrupting the beginning of your question.”
At that, I smiled awkwardly and blushed in embarrassment, and Abby elbowed me in the shoulder while holding in a laugh. Clearly I was on my own here. “S-Sorry about that,” I told the woman with genuine remorse. “Please continue.”
“As I was saying,” the old lady went on. “This son kept reading the diary, and learned that his father had found a new tunnel leading out of the cave, which brought him to a place not far from his family manor, halfway across the world from where he first entered the cave. And he also discovered other paths leading to other locations which were continents and many months travel apart.”
“Using the newly-discovered cave entrance near his mansion, his father had begun to transport his own ill-gotten wealth into the cave, and add it to the old pirate hoard which already sat there.”
“The son,” the old lady went on. “Possessing a spirit of adventure and curiosity, set out to find this nearby cave entrance and discover his father’s hoard. And find it, he did.”
“However,” the lady said ominously with a raised finger. “He also found his father. But not in his human form. Combining his own ill-gotten gains he had amassed with that of the pirates before him, the hoard had become so cursed, that it could only belong to a deadly being of terror and destruction. And so it was, that when his father added enough of his own wealth to the hoard, he was transformed into a monstrous dragon; tasked with the guardianship of his own hoard which would last for the rest of his life in his old age.”
“And that was how the son found his father, but he didn’t know it was him. At least…not until the son tried to snatch come coins from the hoard before attempting to flee. And that was a grave mistake. For in doing so, he had taken his father’s curse upon himself, and became the new owner of his father’s wealth, as he had always wanted, but in the form of a monstrous dragon.”
“The father became human again, and his son was now the new dragon guardian of the cursed hoard. His father then laughed wickedly, confessing to his son that he had tricked him; deliberately leaving his diary to be discovered by his son, leading him to the cave so that the dragon curse would be passed onto him.”
“And so, over the years since, the dragon guardians, tasked with protecting the hoard from would-be thieves, could only become human again after 50 years of service. And each time a human managed to steal from the hoard, it added another year to their curse. The only other way a dragon guardian could relieve themselves of the curse is by deceiving another victim into coming into the cave, and touching the treasure. If they could do that, they would be free of their curse, while their victim would inherit it.”
“Even today, the curse is still in place,” the old lady said, eyeing Abby and I with the same observant glare she had given us since the beginning of this story. “No dragon guardian ever served the full length of their curse; always managing to pass it onto another victim who they managed to lure into their cavern. The most recent victim to be consumed by the dragon guardian, they say, was a young lass who was tricked into picking up a piece of treasure in this very cavern many decades ago. And supposedly,” the old lady said, pointing to something on the back of Abby’s pamphlet. “That is her right there.”
Then Abby flipped the pamphlet around to show where the lady was pointing. There, we saw the same creepypasta from our Google search. It showed the picture of the explorer facing the fierce-looking dragon sitting atop its hoard inside a large cavern.
“You mean,” Abby started, looking up at the old lady with a curious expression. “That dragon?”
Then the old lady suddenly grinned sweetly, and raised her hands up. “But as you said, it’s just a myth! A creepypasta as you younguns call it these days.”
She then leaned in with what seemed to be a playful expression, whispering to us both with a hand over her mouth. “But if ye manage to find a roomful of treasure, the map shows a secret tunnel which may or may not reveal itself to you! If you find it, you’ll win a prize of $5,000 if you can submit a photo proving your discovery to the park website!”
Then she waved at us both, as if we were already walking away. “Good luck!” She told us in a sing-song voice.
Then Abby and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and turned to walk towards the cave.
“Pfft…” I started with a laugh once we were far enough away. “I get it now. That whole tall tale was basically just a pitch for participating in some sort of fun cave activity. But wow, that was pretty creative.”
“I have to agree,” Abby said with a giggle of her own. “But I swear I wasn’t taking it seriously. I just really like her. Her commitment to her job is pretty impressive!”
As Abby and I continued into the cave, we came near a young couple that approached us. “Hi excuse me,” the man said. “Sorry to bother you both, but can you please tell us where you got that pamphlet you are holding? We got a similar one at the park entrance. But it looks like yours has more detail.”
“Sure!” I said, pointing a thumb back behind us. “There’s an old park ranger by that log cabin outside the cave entrance. She gave us these and told us to try finding a legendary pile of treasure.”
“You’ll know her when you see her,” Abby added next to me with a smile.
“Log cabin?” The woman said with a confused expression, looking at her partner with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t see that when we came in. But thanks! We’ll take a look!”
Then, with a wave, the couple left the cave as Abby and I waved back and walked further inside.
If Abby and I had stayed back near the cave entrance, we would’ve seen the couple stop right outside the cave and look around with confusion right at the spot where Abby and I pointed out the log cabin. They saw nothing there but empty space, with no park ranger to be found.
But Abby and I kept going further inside the limestone cave; observing the chambers with amazement. There were stalagmites, stalactites, columns, underground streams, and wide open spaces in the humid cave. There were at least 20 other people in the cave with us, and it definitely wasn’t crazy big or crowded like Carlsbad Caverns or anything like that. But the chambers were still impressive. Oddly enough though, there was this faint stench of something like smoke the deeper we got into the cave.
“Well,” I said to Abby once we finished exploring the deepest chamber we saw on the map. “Looks like we pretty much explored every part of the cave! Shall we head back?”
“But Blaaaake,” Abby said in a playfully whiny voice while pointing to her map. “You mean without looking for the secret entrance to the treasure chamber?”
“Haha I thought we agreed to no detours, Abby,” I said to her with a giggle, before looking closely at the map. “But actually, have you seen that junction on the map before we entered this part of the cave?”
I pointed to a part of the cave map on Abby’s pamphlet which showed a tunnel leading out of this chamber that I don’t think I saw before. It led to another, much larger chamber with an illustration showing a huge pile of golden treasure within, atop which sat a large dark blue, fire-breathing dragon.
Then, Abby and I looked to see the part of the chamber where we expected to see the tunnel, and there it was! Across the chamber was a small entrance to a round, torchlit tunnel which curved off near the end to an unseen destination. A small group of fellow tourists passed right in front of this entrance, not even glancing in its general direction. How did they not notice it?
“Come to think of it,” Abby said with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t even remember seeing that when we walked in here either, or on the map when I checked it just minutes ago.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” I told Abby with a vexed, worried tone. “Do you think we should trust what that old lady was saying? I was looking up that prize she was talking about before I lost my signal, and it seems legit. But this is a really complex activity you’d think would draw more attention for a prize that large. Like…how come this place isn’t bustling right now with people looking for this treasure?”
“You got me,” Abby said with raised hands. “Maybe we’re just super lucky? I think we should go in and check it out. And if it’s a bust, we just…leave the way we came in! Simple!”
Even Abby didn’t seem too sure of that remark, but she also seemed very curious about whatever was down this tunnel. And to be honest, I was too. “Fiiiiine,” I told her. “But let’s leave as soon as we check it out. It’s getting a little late, and to be honest, I’m dying to grab some food on the way home. It’s a long drive to the nearest town on the way back.
“Agreed!” Abby said with a satisfied expression. Then she waved one arm in the direction of the tunnel. “But you have to go first.”
“Ha okay whatever,” I told her with a shrug of my shoulders as I walked past her to the tunnel. “But you’re driving us back if it’s a bust,” I added.
“Huuuuh?!” Abby responded with a surprised tone. “I never agreed to that! Then you’re buying us both dinner AND driving us back if it’s not.”
At that, I laughed. “Dang, now that’s just unfair,” I said back to her, as she just looked at me with a sly grin.
We walked down the torchlit tunnel with a sense of anticipation the further along we went. Each time we walked past a torch, our long shadows passed us along the wall to the side as we moved down the natural corridor. We walked straight, then took a few turns, before we saw a relatively bright reflective light at the very end. All in all, it must’ve been a 3 minute walk, not too far at all. But as we went deeper, I could tell that the smoky scent from earlier had become much stronger, and the air felt noticeably colder as well.
As Abby and I reached the end of the tunnel, we saw a sight that made us halt in our tracks, our mouths agape in utter shock, as we dropped the pamphlets on the tunnel floor.
Before us was a massive chamber larger than any of the ones we had seen up to this point. It was very wide across, with small stalagmites and stalactites all over the cave floor and roof. There were also other tunnels leading out of the chamber in other directions, which were also torchlit like the one Abby and I came from. Well-crafted, bright torches like the ones in the tunnel were all around the circumference of the chamber as well. And their light was reflected in the gold metal of what must’ve been hundreds of thousands of coins that formed a large pile on the cave floor; amongst which sat gems, armor, and other pieces of treasure which lit up the otherwise shadowy room like a chandelier.
“Woah,” Abby gasped, as we both looked around the chamber. “The treasure is here, but I don’t see a dragon.”
Oddly enough, the chamber looked somewhat familiar, like the place in the creepypasta photo on the internet. But Abby was right! No dragon to be seen here! “I bet you that photo you were showing me was just doctored,” I told Abby with a smile.
“But wow!” I continued, looking around the cave at the huge pile of treasure. “Abby, that old lady was right! This cave really had a secret entrance to a room full of treasure!” I pulled out my phone, opening my camera app.
Then Abby laughed. “But be careful, Blake! Remember, she said touching it means you could be ‘consumed by the dragon guardian’!” Abby emphasized the last part mockingly, making air quotes with her fingers.
“Ha!” I laughed, nonchalantly picking up one of the cold gold coins and holding it out to take a picture of it against the backdrop of the treasure hoard. “Well, good thing this treasure is real and dragons aren’t!”
But then suddenly, all at once, I felt a huge aching sensation in my stomach, causing me to grunt in pain.
For a solid moment, I couldn’t even breathe. It was as if all that smoke I could smell around the cave had been gathered up and dumped into my lungs in an instant. It was like deep in my body, a fire suddenly sparked into existence and was rapidly spreading; consuming my insides!
Leaning over to try coughing, I could simultaneously feel odd pangs all over my body, on my back, my chest, my arms, my legs, my neck, my face, even my rear were all pulsing with pain! Amidst the pain, I squeezed my eyes shut, and dropped my phone and the coin I had been holding in my hands.
I heard Abby go, “Hey, what’s wro-“ before cutting herself off with a loud gasp. Whatever had surprised her so much, I could hardly pay her much mind. The burning feeling inside my body was so powerful it made my whole muscular system tense up, and I put my hands on my knees, continuing to groan as I tried to take a breath again.
Then after a solid moment or two, I could breathe again! And my body stopped tensing up. The burning sensation wasn’t gone. But it actually felt almost…comfortable and cozy, if that made sense. It now relaxed my muscles instead of causing them to tense up. And that smoky smell was still strong, but it no longer had the effect of disrupting my respiratory system despite its intensity, which was very strange.
I still needed to catch my breath after being forced to hold it for a good moment, and as I did, the sounds that came out of my mouth were ragged, like I had a sore throat.
Still hunched over on my legs, I slowly opened my eyelids, adjusting to the brightness of the cave, and turned back to see Abby looking at me with a shocked expression. Her hands covered her mouth as she arched her eyebrows upward in worry; slowly backing away as she looked in my direction.
“Oh my,” I said to her with a somewhat deeper voice. I presumed it was caused by some kind of sore throat I had from all the coughing. “I’ve never had a cramp like that in my life!”
Upon hearing my voice, Abby stopped backing away, uncovering her mouth as she continued looking at me with a distressed look on her face. Her lips moved as if she were trying to say something to me, but no words came out.
“Are you okay, Abby? You loo-“ I began, before noticing something odd to my right. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw what looked like a fleshy swampy green flap. If I wasn’t crazy, it looked like a dragon’s wing!
Flinching back, I turned around to look at whatever creature the wing belonged to, but the wing stayed behind me as I turned. And as I raised a hand to try shielding myself in fear, I could see that I had dark green, sharp fingernails! Wait, I thought with confusion. Why are my nails so sharp? And did Abby prank me at some point and put green nail polish on them? But I only started to get the hint that something was really wrong with me when I saw my skin was faded to the same swampy green complexion as the wing I saw behind me!
My neck felt wobbly and longer, I felt somewhat exposed below the waist (as if my pants had magically vanished), my shirt felt torn, and my sandals felt like they had somehow snapped. Something below my eyes also was obstructing my field of view partially, and it followed me no matter where I looked. I had to physically point my head down to try looking at why my body felt so odd, and why I also felt a part of my body dragging down on the ground even though I was still standing up.
When I looked down, I realized that I must’ve grown somewhat taller all of the sudden! In fact, I was at eye level with the torches that were placed high above the ground. And below me, I also saw a large, swampy green tail that was attached to me, somehow.
Before I could fully realize what was going on, let alone react, my body began to pulse painfully all over once more. But this time, it felt like earthquakes going off inside me, in every part of my body. I screamed loudly, with my voice transitioning to sound like a loud, roaring beast.
Argh! What is this throbbing all over?! I thought, as I struggled to stay upright. This sensation was different from earlier. It was as if another being was trapped inside me, fighting desperately to escape until it was freed.
The longer this went on, the less control I had. So lightheaded…I think I might faint! My mind raced. There was nothing I could do except try to take a seat and avoid hurting myself. As I tried leaning back to sit amidst the pain, I felt the tail (which I hadn’t yet associated with me) flail and smash hard against a pile of coins, causing a small wave of them to fly into the air or tumble down with a chorus of small clinking sounds. My shirt and sandals were ripped from my body, and I slipped backwards with a loud, piercing roar; the sound of which became etched into my brain right before I hit the side my head hard against the pile of gold.
The gold pile formed a solid wall which might as well have been concrete. Because it knocked me out cold once I fell back and hit it.
I was probably out for only a few seconds, but it felt like I was asleep for a solid hour before I faintly heard Abby screaming my name for me to wake up. When I regained consciousness, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on my back, while Abby had climbed up on the gold pile next to me. She had a weird expression of fear and amazement as she saw me wake up. I didn’t notice her backing away again slowly before a bruise pulsated painfully on the left side of my head.
I groaned and panted loudly, reaching up a hand to clutch my forehead where I must’ve hit myself Ergh…So dizzy. What in the world was that? I thought. The world was still a blur, so I shut my eyes to try regaining my sense of equilibrium as I tried to sit up. This caused many of the coins I was sitting on to slide down with loud clinking noises as I adjusted my posture.
I tried to go through my memory of what happened. I recalled…walking down a tunnel? And I remembered seeing this pile of gold I was sitting on. And…did I just now imagine hearing something roaring somewhere?
For all I knew, I could have imagined anything to be real in that moment. I knew I had hit myself hard in the head and that speculating wouldn’t do me any good. Getting a little rest was probably a better choice. I need to lie down for a moment, I decided to myself.
I rolled over onto my belly, and snuggled myself comfortably atop the pile of gold. I had no clue why the solid surface of the treasure felt so relaxing and comfortable to me. But I wasn’t going to complain. Now, I felt like I could finally gather my thoughts and get a sense of what happened to me.
I opened my eyes again and caught a glimpse of Abby standing on the cave floor below. She was clutching her hair and gaping up at me with her mouth wide open, as if she were completely speechless. It was like when she looked at me, she was seeing a big problem that needed solving!
It was also difficult to ignore how strange I felt in that moment. Nothing about me felt normal. There were new sensations, new indescribable feelings, and all of my senses seemed to be feeding my brain new information about the environment around me. I had no clue what to make of it all.
But since my head was also still in a bit of a daze, I didn’t really take much notice of it. I must’ve been confusing myself was all. I simply smiled down at Abby, and said, “Sorry about that. I’m fine now.” But when I smiled, Abby looked even more shocked for some reason.
“You…don’t have to keep looking worried,” I told her, noticing the strangely vast distance between us as we looked at one another. “By the way…erm…How did you get all the way down there?”
But Abby still looked at me with a flabbergasted expression, and didn’t respond to my question.
Oooookay, now this was getting a bit awkward. “Umm…” I went on with my smile slowly fading. “Anyways, I changed my mind. This place gives me the creeps. Wanna maybe grab a bite to eat somewhere and just head home?”
I had no idea the whole time that I was just growling.
Then finally, Abby spoke with a fearful, small, uncertain tone of voice: “B-B-Blake?” She said. “Is…that you?”
“H-Huh?” I tried to say as my smile gradually turned into a worried frown. I was still very confused. But just then, I realized that the sounds coming from my mouth weren’t human. And I began to regain my recollection of what happened up to the point where I lost consciousness.
It caused me to freeze in place where I was, and my blood ran cold. I felt inside my mouth with my tongue, and my teeth felt unusually sharp. And why did my mouth feel so large? Moreover, when I crossed my eyes and looked through my glasses, I saw a long deep green snout stretched out before me, with two smoke plumes slowly emanating from the far end of it. My eyes followed the smoke as it lifted into the air.
I remembered that something strange was happening to my body before I lost consciousness, and I remembered my clothes being torn off. But until this very moment, I hadn’t noticed I was completely naked! It was because the coolness of the cave no longer seemed to affect me, as the internal heat source I felt from earlier was still there, and kept me warm from the inside even against the ice cold metal of the treasure I sat on.
With a nervous expression, I turned my head down, and found that it was attached to the body of a large, dark green, reptile via a long serpentine neck. The body had an underside made up of lighter green ventral scales. With shocked silence, an increasingly knowing expression slowly came onto my face. I tried moving my arms, and saw the forelegs of the reptilian creature below me move the same way. I tried moving my hands, and the large, green talons of the creature moved as well!
That wasn’t all I saw when I looked down though! In front of my talons sat a long, whip-like tail with a dark brown fin running all across its entire length. It had the same dark green scales which seemed to cover the whole front part of my body.
No…, I thought with denial. This can’t be…
My movements became more frantic. I started to scan the length of the tail from its tip, and it even adjusted itself to curl inwards as if to make it easier for me to see it…As if I had willfull control of it.
No!
With increasingly heavy breaths, I found that this tail was indeed attached to my rear, which consisted of two hind legs resting on the gold. The same dark brown fin seemed to run all the way down the length of the spine and up my neck. Like my arms, when I tried to move my legs, these two large hind legs moved as well. But that wasn’t even close to the most shocking thing I saw.
My mouth went completely agape at the sight of two huge, fully-grown, bat-like wings made of the same dark green scales that now covered the rest of my body. And they were both attached to my back.
And…I could…move them. I had…wings. But what use was that in this cave? Still…I was looking back at these wings for a good, long while. I could technically fly, couldn’t I?
But I was snapped out of my trance by Abby. “Blake?” She said again with a little more confidence, probably after seeing me clearly as shocked as she was.
I then turned my head back towards her and nodded dramatically; trying to get the point across that it was absolutely me. Abby once again gasped when I did. And I searched on the ground for something reflective. As I did, I reached up a talon to feel all over my face. The first thing I noticed was that I felt two large, sharp horns that originated from the back of my head. My ears also felt long and pointy. That may have explained why they were way more powerful and seemed to pick up the sound of the slightest drop of water hitting the cave floor in another chamber of the cavern.
I tried feeling my teeth, careful to avoid scratching the inside of my mouth with a talon or biting my hand with one of my teeth. My snout was super long, tipped off with two large nostrils which could probably smell almost everything within a dozen mile radius, and which also were responsible for the two smoke plumes I could see earlier.
With fading hope that a hint of myself remained normal, I finally found a large (or was once large to me) red and silver shield amongst the pile of treasure that had a monstrous-looking emblem on its metallic surface. Grabbing and holding the shield in my two front talons, and arching my neck down to hover my face directly in front of it, I nearly fainted again upon seeing the reflection.
In the silver parts of the shield, I saw a fierce-looking, dark green dragon looking cross-eyed down its long, wrinkled snout back at me. The tip of its snout took up most of the reflection, and even jump-scared me a little bit when I saw all of its teeth! But then, continuing to look at it. I could see the horns poking out of the back of my head, the glasses that remained on the bridge of my nose, and I saw my eyebrows arched up in immense worry, with my human eyes looking wide open back at me.
Behind those eyes was all of the humanity I had left to my appearance. It was as if I had a hyperrealistic mask on my face.
I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. I dropped the shield and lied back down with a huff; looking at Abby with a low, sad growl.
Then Abby began to slowly approach me, sympathy replacing the fear on her face. “Blake, wh-what happened?!”
I tried shrugging the dragon equivalent of what were once my shoulders and shook my head with sadness, having more questions than answers for Abby.
“Well…well,” came a voice from the tunnel where Abby and I came from.
At that, Abby and I whirled around to glance in the direction of the tunnel, when the old lady from before had suddenly emerged; still wearing her park ranger outfit. She had this mischievous grin on her face, and then calmly approached me and Abby. “Looks like one of you did end up touching the treasure after all.”
Immediately, Abby’s brow furrowed in slight suspicion, then anger. “Y-you knew that this legend was real?” She said to the lady. “Then why did you try sending us here in the first place?! We thought this was just a game!”
“Nonsense!” The old lady said dismissively with a wave of her hand, as she eyed me top to bottom. “It’s as if you never listened to my tale, lass! I even told you it was a warning, did I not? And here I figured you’d be the better candidate to inherit my curse than this lad here.”
Abby and I both regarded each other with horrible realization. I’m…cursed? For 50 years, to…to guard this treasure?
When it hit me, I lied my neck down and covered my face with my claws as best I could. My throat tightened, and my eyes began to water. I was a grown man who never cried in public. But I was losing my ability to fight the emotions I felt in that moment.
Not only was I humiliated. But my life as I knew it, was over. And I had to pass this curse on to another human being to even have a chance at living a normal life again before I was…what, in my 70s? How could I even live with myself if I did that?
As the tears streamed down my face, they loudly evaporated to steam upon making contact with the coins below, catching me by surprise.
I saw Abby trying to approach me with a consoling expression, before giving a nasty glare at the old lady. But, still possessing a bit of an ego, I huffed loudly and repositioned myself; trying to use my tail to cover my face. I had never…ever…felt so embarrassed in all my life.
“What a sight,” went the voice of the old lady. “You can probably see why I would’ve preferred you to be the dragon guardian,” she said, presumably to Abby.
“Change him back!” Abby shouted threateningly at the lady. “Or I’ll-!”
“Simmer down,” the old lady said in response; her voice getting noticeably closer. Frustrated at myself for getting emotional, I tried forcing the tears to stop flowing, and firmly wiped my cheeks dry. Then I lifted my head and faced the old lady with a growl and bared teeth. The smoke emanating from my mouth and nose became more intense, and even Abby flinched and backed away whilst holding the shield I had dropped (as if she were about to use it as a weapon), while the old lady kept approaching unabated.
She regarded me with a somewhat impressed expression. “Hmm,” she went. “What an amazing curse to finally see again from the outside,” she said. “It can make a fierce beast out of even a most unremarkable lad like yourself,” she said to me. Then she placed a hand on the end of my snout, causing me to stop growling and freeze in place, regarding her with wide eyes.
“Lucky for you,” she said to me with a unfazed smile. “I rather enjoy being the dragon guardian. And I still plan to live out the rest of my tenure with the curse.”
“However,” she continued, with a somewhat derisive tone of voice. “It can get quite lonely in here, you see. I can only venture out of this chamber one day every 5 years in my human form. And having served as the dragon guardian for 45 years, I figured I’d use this opportunity to find a temporary…substitute…shall we say?”
The old lady then regarded me and Abby with the same mischievous look as before. “And that substitute, it would seem, is now you!” She said to me with a smile.
“His name is Blake!” Abby said to the old lady, cautiously approaching her from behind; and still holding the shield in her hand. “And my name is Abby. I want you to know that before you even think of trying to run. I won’t let you leave this cave. I don’t care how old you are!”
“So feisty,” the old lady said, pointing firmly at Abby with one finger. “Now that…that is what makes me wish the curse could’ve been transferred to you. You’d have been an excellent dragon guardian, lass! You remind me of meself when I was a youngun!” Then the old lady cackled again.
Wow…get a load of this crazy woman, I wanted to say to Abby, regarding her with a raised eyebrow. But she kept her attention on the old lady. Then, realizing the lady was still touching me, I sneered and shook her hand off of my face.
“Don’t be so crass!” The old lady said to me with a taken-aback expression. “Like I said, I’m not going to let you stay cursed forever, lad. I merely need a younger stand-in to take my place while I go on a little 2-week vacation to the outside world! Being a dragon guardian is rough on these old knees after all these years ya’ know?”
I didn’t lend it much thought until now. But this old lady surely must’ve been that dragon from the creepypasta photo taken many years ago! So apparently, every 5 years, she must’ve had the ability to take on a human appearance like she did before? And she used trickery to transfer the curse to either me or Abby?
I suppose she did warn us, but this wasn’t fair at all! I thought it was supposed to be just a fun game!
With another huff, I waved my head at Abby, signaling her to follow me, and crawled down on all fours to make my way towards the tunnel Abby and I came from; causing an avalanche of coins to slide down either side of the pile as I stomped across. But as I tried going in headfirst, only my head and neck barely fit into the tunnel, and the rest of my body was way too large to do anything except fully obstruct the tunnel entrance. With an annoyed grunt, I pulled my head out and tried doing the same thing with the many other tunnels leading out of the chamber. But it was no use. I’m completely trapped! I realized.
“Stop it! Will ye?” Came the voice of the old lady. “You’ll cause a cave-in you big lug!”
Then with a whine, I stopped and started pacing back and forth across the cave floor, trying to think of a solution while Abby continued looking at me with sympathy; unsure what to do herself.
Then she looked at the lady and asked in a demanding tone, “How do we know you’ll keep your word and not abandon him to be stuck as a dragon after two weeks?!”
“You don’t,” the old lady replied candidly. “I will admit, I used deception to trick you the first time. But once the curse lifted from me, don’t you wonder why I didn’t just up and leave? Why d’ya think I even came here?”
She had a point, I realized. I stopped pacing and regarded the lady again. My head was lifted high, with my horns nearly making contact with the stalactites on the cave roof.
“I promise,” she continued, as a solemn expression slowly came over her face. “I only wish to travel to see someone I haven’t seen in a very long time.” But then, after a moment, she broke out of a trance, and smiled at Abby and I again.
“And after that, I’ll pick up right where you left off! I swear. I’ve just been away from the human world for too long. Maybe I could’ve waited 5 more years for the curse to wear off. But I suppose even an old bag like me can get a little impatient.”
I suppose after learning that, I felt a (little) bit of understanding for her situation, I suppose. I wondered who she was before she was cursed, what kind of life she left behind.
Suddenly, I saw the old lady a mere step away from the tip of my fore-talons; taking me by surprise after being deep in thought for a solid minute. I did not see or hear her walking up at all, despite my heightened senses. “I just need you to fill in for me while I’m away,” she said to me. “I was by far the most effective dragon guardian in the history of this cavern. Not a single piece of treasure has been taken under my watch. And as a result, I’m looking at a perfect 50 years with no additional years of being cursed. As ye know, every time a human has stolen a piece of treasure from this cave, a year gets added to the dragon guardian’s sentence.”
She waved her hand at me; motioning for me to get closer. Abby stood off to the side, still holding the shield in a defensive stance towards the lady. With reluctance, I gulped, and arched my neck to lean my head down and hold an ear up to the lady. “So lad, I would try your best to be an absolutely frightening dragon guardian, or I’m afraid I’ll have to…extend your substitution by a year…per offense, of course.”
At that, a shiver ran down my spine. And I cringed at the thought. I would need to actually protect this cave and its treasure from intruders? And if I didn’t, I’d be stuck down here like this for an extra year? Maybe multiple years if I proved to be a bad guardian? I groaned again and looked at the old lady with a pleading expression.
“Oh stop,” the old lady said to me. “I have faith you can get the job done, lad. It’s easy! You already have the looks for this task, now just play the part! Just be watchful, attentive, and ready to frighten away intruders! It’s rather fun after a while. I only scared intruders, never hurt them. That’s all I’m asking you to do. You’ll probably see only around maybe 10ish people come across this chamber over the course of two weeks. Just roar fiercely at them or something. Like this!”
Then she held out the pamphlet with the picture of the dragon guarding the hoard, roaring at the explorers who stumbled into the cave. I couldn’t imagine myself scaring people in so frightening a way. But I guess I’d have to try if I ever wanted to become human again.
“Why d’ya think this cave isn’t too popular or flooded with tourists? It’s because I scared most of them away!” Then the old lady cackled again.
Then I shook my head and closed my eyes. This was still an awful lot to absorb. I’m glad there was a chance (assuming this lady kept her word) that I could be human again. But the next two weeks were going to be painfully awkward for me.
I groaned loudly and made my way past the old lady to look for my phone. “Well, are ye up for it or what?” The old lady asked me as I crawled away. Then I stopped, sighed, and looked back with an eye roll before nodding in the affirmative. Not like I have a choice, do I?
“Before you go,” Abby started, still speaking to the old lady with an untrusting tone of voice. “Can you please tell us how you managed to feed yourself while trapped in this cave? I need to know how to keep my friend alive since he’s obviously not gonna be eating people.”
“Goodness me, you have a dark mind,” the old lady cackled again. “I’ll just say, I had my methods. And no, I never ate people, as I just explained. But since you two don’t possess magical abilities like me, I’m afraid you’ll have to bring meals and drink fit for a dragon each day to sustain your friend here. Unfortunately, the form comes with a much larger appetite, in my experience,” she said.
Then Abby looked at me with a hysterical expression. With an awkward smirk, I looked apologetically back at her. I’m so sorry, I wanted to say to her. As I did, I found my phone where I dropped it on the cave floor, and gently picked it up.
“Ugh,” went Abby, facepalming herself with her teeth grit in frustration. “Why’d you have to go and pick up that stupid coin, Blake?” Then I looked away, blushing again with embarrassment. Yeah, come to think of it. That was my bad.
Then suddenly, with a poof, the old lady vanished into thin air; her laugh echoing down the tunnel from whence Abby and I had come. And we were both left alone, with me still stuck in the form the woman had left me in.
Then, Abby and I locked eyes with each other again, and we both sighed. We didn’t need words to know what we were saying to each other deep down. I guess we’re doing this… our expressions said.
Then Abby growled, maybe more intensely than even I could. “All right, fine!” she said with a shrill voice that made me flinch slightly; putting one hand on her hip and pointing right at me. “I’ll go out and get you an all-you-can-eat-buffet once per day. That’ll have to do for the next two weeks. But you’re paying me back for half of it when you’re done ‘dragoning around’.”
Then she turned and stomped grumpily down the tunnel. “Oh, and Blake,” she said with her voice echoing up the corridor, causing me to prick my ears up. “I’m gonna knock on this wall three times to signal that it’s me coming in. I swear if you scare me once, you’re paying for all of it, understand?”
Getting the message, I gasped and nodded my head frantically, before chuckling a little bit under my breath. Maybe she would’ve made a better dragon guardian after all… I thought to myself; remembering what the old lady had said.
As Abby’s footsteps faded, I struggled to type my phone password with the sides of my fingers (since of course, facial recognition was no longer an option) to open my phone. And after several minutes of fat-fingering, I managed to text my boss that I had contracted a sickness and was unable to come to work for a few extra days (which was true in a way). I’m pretty sure that even if I did manage to get out of here anyways, I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything in the outside world that I would normally do.
I guess for now, my place was in this cave, protecting this hoard, like a dragon was supposed to do. So, with a sigh, I walked onto the pile of treasure, wagged my long tail and tucked it around the length of my body, folded in my wings, and lied face-down into the gold, digging my snout into the pile as the two plumes of smoke continued to rise in front of me from beneath the treasure.
I had no idea why I found this position strangely comfortable. But I felt perfectly relaxed like this. Now, I suppose, I just needed to protect the hoard I had inherited.
Thanks again to the wonderful bersickr for this amazing art piece! I hope you enjoyed the story as well if you got this far! :D
bersickr, who killed it again with this one! This one shows my character (Blake) getting himself transformed into a dragon after touching a cursed dragon’s hoard, while his friend Abby looks on in terror.If interested in learning what happened, please read the below story! ^^
A Draconic Disaster:
Honestly, this seemed like the kind of thing that would’ve been fun to do as a teenager, and in a group of maybe 5. But Abby and I were in our 20s now, and by ourselves. Why did we decide exploring a cave would be something to do as an adventurous activity with just the two of us? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to have a third companion with us?
Over the past few years, I’ve developed a bit of an aversion to the idea of stepping foot in a cave. I say this having browsed the internet and seen my fair share of videos about caving gone wrong. It seemed to me like we were asking for trouble. But Abby was always a more outgoing individual than I was, and she had a lot of experience outdoors. So, I guess I could say I trusted her judgement.
When we first decided to head out of state and go on a camping trip at a forest campsite, it was supposed to be a simple 3 day getaway consisting of us doing nothing but hiking, sightseeing, and relaxing by our campfire. We both happened to have the week off, so the timing to go on a camping trip together was pretty convenient, we figured!
But once we got to our camping spot and were nearly done setting up shop, Abby made a suggestion: “Hey Blake, so…you may not be interested in this. But how about you and I check out this interesting cave nearby?”
At that, I laughed as I installed the last tent pole; completing our campsite tent. “I think I’ll pass. I mean…have you seen all the crazy stuff that happens to cavers on YouTube? I’d rather not get myself lost or trapped in one of these.”
As Abby finished adding logs to the campfire, she shook her head in my direction. “It’s not that sort of cave,” she said. “More like a large cavern with huge chambers, very wide open, and lit up. And it’s pretty small.”
“I mean, that…sounds kind of interesting,” I told her with caution in my voice, as I made my way over to sit on one of our folding chairs by the campfire. “But why do you want to see it?”
“Well,” Abby started, taking a seat in the other chair in a slouched posture. “It’s kind of a local myth; why I want to go there, I mean. We wouldn’t really be looking at the cave itself, but for something inside it. There’s this special cavern that supposedly shows itself only to a select few people. It contains a hoard of riches, which is guarded by a hideous dragon.”
Abby and I looked at each other for a good minute. Then our straight faces broke when Abby snorted, and we both broke out into a fit of laughter.
“Okay but seriously,” Abby said after we finished giggling. “It’s a really cool cave I think you’d enjoy, and quite an underrated location. We’ll be in and out in 20 minutes. One of my family friends said it was a very nice place when he went.”
I sighed with content, leaning back into my chair and closing my eyes; enjoying the evening air as the sky darkened, while the loud chirps of birds and bugs filled the air.
“Fiiiiine,” I said playfully. “But no detours through unexplored junctions, okay? Just checking out the main caverns and leaving?”
“Hmm, I promise,” Abby said in a relaxed tone. “But I’m in no hurry. We can do that on our last day of camping. Let’s just enjoy the great outdoors for the first two days. Whaddya say?”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” I told Abby with a grin, and we continued to sit down and enjoy the fresh air for the rest of that night.
Two days later…
As Abby and I made our way down a forest trail towards this cave she had mentioned at the start of our trip, we spoke happily about the events which had transpired over the past couple days. The kayaking, fishing, hiking, birdwatching, stargazing; What a fun trip this was!
It was good to get out of the city for a while and take a serious break from adult life. That’s how I felt about every trip in general. But this trip felt special, probably because we were so away from everything and everyone; enjoying isolated nature in all its great expanse. I’ve never been one of these nature enthusiasts like Abby always was. But I had to admit, this trip was pretty amazing!
Abby and I had already left our belongings in our car, which was already parked just a short 5 minute walk from the cave. We wore flip flops and warm weather outfits suitable for the day.
“Well,” Abby said to me as we neared the end of the trail. “Looks like we’ll get to enjoy one last activity before we leave! We’re here.”
She waved a hand towards something ahead of us. When I turned to see, I noticed a fairly large cliff face which had a large cave opening at the bottom. It had some electrical lighting on the roof of the cave, which illuminated some of the features inside.
Surprisingly, there were a scant few visitors around. But this looked to me like the kind of cave which should draw many more tourists than this, judging from the impressive look of it. And on the state park map, the location of this cave was only shown as a minor blip, which said: “Cave of the Cursed Hoard.”
“Wait,” I said to Abby with a concerned look, pointing to the spot on the bottom left corner of the map. “So, you weren’t kidding about that myth?”
Then Abby giggled again, pulling out her phone. “It’s just named after a local urban legend. I think it all started from this creepypasta which started circulating on the internet several years ago.” Then she handed me her phone with results pulled up from a Google search.
The search prompt was “Dragon of the Cursed Hoard Cave,” and I saw several images of a black and white photo showing a large reptilian creature sitting on a large pile of treasure, roaring towards a smaller human explorer standing in the foreground.
The explorer appeared to have been flinching in fear. The dragon had an eerie look about it, probably because of the shadowy lighting which barely lit up the background behind the explorer, the dragon, and the treasure. The creature had a magnificently long tail and neck. Fiery smoke rose from both of its nostrils, and its long snout with sharp teeth was open towards the perspective of the camera, with a bright light emitting from the back of its throat; likely an indication of it about to breathe fire. But beyond that, it was difficult to see many more details. The image was grainy, and there was some motion blur.
“Funny,” I told Abby, with a nostalgic smile, as we approached the cave entrance. “I remembered seeing this creepypasta back in middle school. Gah, so this cave is where the myth came from, huh?”
“Creepypasta, ya’ say?” Came a gravelly voice from the direction behind Abby. “And what, may I inquire, is that, exactly?”
Abby and I both turned in the direction of the voice to see an old woman with wrinkled skin, long white hair, and a stooped posture standing on the far right side of the trail. She stood in front of a cozy-looking log cabin, which presumably was her dwelling. And she was dressed kind of like a park ranger; wearing a tan-colored uniform and a hat which shielded her face from the sun. Next to her was a desk, atop which sat a small bundle of pamphlets. She must’ve been one of the officials in charge of overseeing the cave for the park or something.
“Y-Yes,” Abby said nervously to the woman after a long pause; taking her phone back from me. “It’s just a silly internet thing that we saw once about this cave.”
Then the old lady bowed her head, concealing her eyes with the tip of her hat, but not the slight smile that formed on her face. “So, that’s what they call it these days, eh?” She said. She had a noticeably Irish accent to her voice.
Then she looked up again at us both, and sighed, before reaching for the two remaining pamphlets on the desk. “Well, entry for this cave is free of charge. But tours are self-guided. Here are some maps to help you find your way around the cave with little trouble.” Then she held out the pamphlets to Abby and I.
“Thank you!” I said to the woman with a friendly smile. Abby and I both reached to grab our pamphlets, but the old lady kept holding onto her side of the pamphlet with a firm grip.
“However,” she said, with a somewhat odd, observant expression that pierced through Abby and I. “I should warn you.”
Then the old lady released the pamphlets after another moment; leaving Abby and I standing there, confused, and slightly uncomfortable. We both felt compelled to leave, but something about this lady also enticed us to listen to what she had to say.
“Allow me to tell you a wee tale,” the old woman said to Abby and I; her hands held behind her back. “Long ago, in a land far from here. There was a young lad from a noble family who wanted adventure, much like the pair of you.”
“You see, he coveted his father’s great wealth, which was amassed largely from his many years of exploits while serving as the viceroy of a powerful kingdom. But his father abused his position, you see, and used it to employ many means to take money from his own subjects. He also desired that no one, not even his own children, would inherit his great wealth.”
What is this lady talking about?, I wondered; giving Abby a raised eyebrow. I expected her look back at me with an I know, right? expression. But she seemed pretty interested in this sudden story. I guess I had to pay attention too.
“This son, the eldest of the children and natural heir to the family, recognizing his father’s lack of transparency and suspicion towards himself, snuck into his chambers one night while his father was abroad, and discovered a diary belonging to his father; apparently left behind. It spoke of a cave his father learned of which was first discovered centuries before by pirates, and used by them to deposit the greatest hoard of treasure the world had yet seen!”
“Upon learning of it,” the old lady continued. “This young lad’s father had apparently found the cave entrance to this place on an expedition across the ocean. And within it sat the hoard; untouched, with its former owners lost to history. But his father made a discovery of his own: That the cavern within which the hoard sat could be accessed from a variety of locations across the globe, including the one you see here.”
The old lady waved a hand towards the cave entrance, leading Abby and I to glance in its direction. “Y-You mean…” I started hesitantly; at which the lady’s smile dropped and she sent a frustrated glare in my direction. “That this cave, can technically teleport people…around the world?”
“Yes, yes I’m getting to that,” the woman said while putting her hands on her hips; continuing to give me the stink-eye. “And let me apologize for the middle of my tale interrupting the beginning of your question.”
At that, I smiled awkwardly and blushed in embarrassment, and Abby elbowed me in the shoulder while holding in a laugh. Clearly I was on my own here. “S-Sorry about that,” I told the woman with genuine remorse. “Please continue.”
“As I was saying,” the old lady went on. “This son kept reading the diary, and learned that his father had found a new tunnel leading out of the cave, which brought him to a place not far from his family manor, halfway across the world from where he first entered the cave. And he also discovered other paths leading to other locations which were continents and many months travel apart.”
“Using the newly-discovered cave entrance near his mansion, his father had begun to transport his own ill-gotten wealth into the cave, and add it to the old pirate hoard which already sat there.”
“The son,” the old lady went on. “Possessing a spirit of adventure and curiosity, set out to find this nearby cave entrance and discover his father’s hoard. And find it, he did.”
“However,” the lady said ominously with a raised finger. “He also found his father. But not in his human form. Combining his own ill-gotten gains he had amassed with that of the pirates before him, the hoard had become so cursed, that it could only belong to a deadly being of terror and destruction. And so it was, that when his father added enough of his own wealth to the hoard, he was transformed into a monstrous dragon; tasked with the guardianship of his own hoard which would last for the rest of his life in his old age.”
“And that was how the son found his father, but he didn’t know it was him. At least…not until the son tried to snatch come coins from the hoard before attempting to flee. And that was a grave mistake. For in doing so, he had taken his father’s curse upon himself, and became the new owner of his father’s wealth, as he had always wanted, but in the form of a monstrous dragon.”
“The father became human again, and his son was now the new dragon guardian of the cursed hoard. His father then laughed wickedly, confessing to his son that he had tricked him; deliberately leaving his diary to be discovered by his son, leading him to the cave so that the dragon curse would be passed onto him.”
“And so, over the years since, the dragon guardians, tasked with protecting the hoard from would-be thieves, could only become human again after 50 years of service. And each time a human managed to steal from the hoard, it added another year to their curse. The only other way a dragon guardian could relieve themselves of the curse is by deceiving another victim into coming into the cave, and touching the treasure. If they could do that, they would be free of their curse, while their victim would inherit it.”
“Even today, the curse is still in place,” the old lady said, eyeing Abby and I with the same observant glare she had given us since the beginning of this story. “No dragon guardian ever served the full length of their curse; always managing to pass it onto another victim who they managed to lure into their cavern. The most recent victim to be consumed by the dragon guardian, they say, was a young lass who was tricked into picking up a piece of treasure in this very cavern many decades ago. And supposedly,” the old lady said, pointing to something on the back of Abby’s pamphlet. “That is her right there.”
Then Abby flipped the pamphlet around to show where the lady was pointing. There, we saw the same creepypasta from our Google search. It showed the picture of the explorer facing the fierce-looking dragon sitting atop its hoard inside a large cavern.
“You mean,” Abby started, looking up at the old lady with a curious expression. “That dragon?”
Then the old lady suddenly grinned sweetly, and raised her hands up. “But as you said, it’s just a myth! A creepypasta as you younguns call it these days.”
She then leaned in with what seemed to be a playful expression, whispering to us both with a hand over her mouth. “But if ye manage to find a roomful of treasure, the map shows a secret tunnel which may or may not reveal itself to you! If you find it, you’ll win a prize of $5,000 if you can submit a photo proving your discovery to the park website!”
Then she waved at us both, as if we were already walking away. “Good luck!” She told us in a sing-song voice.
Then Abby and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and turned to walk towards the cave.
“Pfft…” I started with a laugh once we were far enough away. “I get it now. That whole tall tale was basically just a pitch for participating in some sort of fun cave activity. But wow, that was pretty creative.”
“I have to agree,” Abby said with a giggle of her own. “But I swear I wasn’t taking it seriously. I just really like her. Her commitment to her job is pretty impressive!”
As Abby and I continued into the cave, we came near a young couple that approached us. “Hi excuse me,” the man said. “Sorry to bother you both, but can you please tell us where you got that pamphlet you are holding? We got a similar one at the park entrance. But it looks like yours has more detail.”
“Sure!” I said, pointing a thumb back behind us. “There’s an old park ranger by that log cabin outside the cave entrance. She gave us these and told us to try finding a legendary pile of treasure.”
“You’ll know her when you see her,” Abby added next to me with a smile.
“Log cabin?” The woman said with a confused expression, looking at her partner with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t see that when we came in. But thanks! We’ll take a look!”
Then, with a wave, the couple left the cave as Abby and I waved back and walked further inside.
If Abby and I had stayed back near the cave entrance, we would’ve seen the couple stop right outside the cave and look around with confusion right at the spot where Abby and I pointed out the log cabin. They saw nothing there but empty space, with no park ranger to be found.
But Abby and I kept going further inside the limestone cave; observing the chambers with amazement. There were stalagmites, stalactites, columns, underground streams, and wide open spaces in the humid cave. There were at least 20 other people in the cave with us, and it definitely wasn’t crazy big or crowded like Carlsbad Caverns or anything like that. But the chambers were still impressive. Oddly enough though, there was this faint stench of something like smoke the deeper we got into the cave.
“Well,” I said to Abby once we finished exploring the deepest chamber we saw on the map. “Looks like we pretty much explored every part of the cave! Shall we head back?”
“But Blaaaake,” Abby said in a playfully whiny voice while pointing to her map. “You mean without looking for the secret entrance to the treasure chamber?”
“Haha I thought we agreed to no detours, Abby,” I said to her with a giggle, before looking closely at the map. “But actually, have you seen that junction on the map before we entered this part of the cave?”
I pointed to a part of the cave map on Abby’s pamphlet which showed a tunnel leading out of this chamber that I don’t think I saw before. It led to another, much larger chamber with an illustration showing a huge pile of golden treasure within, atop which sat a large dark blue, fire-breathing dragon.
Then, Abby and I looked to see the part of the chamber where we expected to see the tunnel, and there it was! Across the chamber was a small entrance to a round, torchlit tunnel which curved off near the end to an unseen destination. A small group of fellow tourists passed right in front of this entrance, not even glancing in its general direction. How did they not notice it?
“Come to think of it,” Abby said with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t even remember seeing that when we walked in here either, or on the map when I checked it just minutes ago.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” I told Abby with a vexed, worried tone. “Do you think we should trust what that old lady was saying? I was looking up that prize she was talking about before I lost my signal, and it seems legit. But this is a really complex activity you’d think would draw more attention for a prize that large. Like…how come this place isn’t bustling right now with people looking for this treasure?”
“You got me,” Abby said with raised hands. “Maybe we’re just super lucky? I think we should go in and check it out. And if it’s a bust, we just…leave the way we came in! Simple!”
Even Abby didn’t seem too sure of that remark, but she also seemed very curious about whatever was down this tunnel. And to be honest, I was too. “Fiiiiine,” I told her. “But let’s leave as soon as we check it out. It’s getting a little late, and to be honest, I’m dying to grab some food on the way home. It’s a long drive to the nearest town on the way back.
“Agreed!” Abby said with a satisfied expression. Then she waved one arm in the direction of the tunnel. “But you have to go first.”
“Ha okay whatever,” I told her with a shrug of my shoulders as I walked past her to the tunnel. “But you’re driving us back if it’s a bust,” I added.
“Huuuuh?!” Abby responded with a surprised tone. “I never agreed to that! Then you’re buying us both dinner AND driving us back if it’s not.”
At that, I laughed. “Dang, now that’s just unfair,” I said back to her, as she just looked at me with a sly grin.
We walked down the torchlit tunnel with a sense of anticipation the further along we went. Each time we walked past a torch, our long shadows passed us along the wall to the side as we moved down the natural corridor. We walked straight, then took a few turns, before we saw a relatively bright reflective light at the very end. All in all, it must’ve been a 3 minute walk, not too far at all. But as we went deeper, I could tell that the smoky scent from earlier had become much stronger, and the air felt noticeably colder as well.
As Abby and I reached the end of the tunnel, we saw a sight that made us halt in our tracks, our mouths agape in utter shock, as we dropped the pamphlets on the tunnel floor.
Before us was a massive chamber larger than any of the ones we had seen up to this point. It was very wide across, with small stalagmites and stalactites all over the cave floor and roof. There were also other tunnels leading out of the chamber in other directions, which were also torchlit like the one Abby and I came from. Well-crafted, bright torches like the ones in the tunnel were all around the circumference of the chamber as well. And their light was reflected in the gold metal of what must’ve been hundreds of thousands of coins that formed a large pile on the cave floor; amongst which sat gems, armor, and other pieces of treasure which lit up the otherwise shadowy room like a chandelier.
“Woah,” Abby gasped, as we both looked around the chamber. “The treasure is here, but I don’t see a dragon.”
Oddly enough, the chamber looked somewhat familiar, like the place in the creepypasta photo on the internet. But Abby was right! No dragon to be seen here! “I bet you that photo you were showing me was just doctored,” I told Abby with a smile.
“But wow!” I continued, looking around the cave at the huge pile of treasure. “Abby, that old lady was right! This cave really had a secret entrance to a room full of treasure!” I pulled out my phone, opening my camera app.
Then Abby laughed. “But be careful, Blake! Remember, she said touching it means you could be ‘consumed by the dragon guardian’!” Abby emphasized the last part mockingly, making air quotes with her fingers.
“Ha!” I laughed, nonchalantly picking up one of the cold gold coins and holding it out to take a picture of it against the backdrop of the treasure hoard. “Well, good thing this treasure is real and dragons aren’t!”
But then suddenly, all at once, I felt a huge aching sensation in my stomach, causing me to grunt in pain.
For a solid moment, I couldn’t even breathe. It was as if all that smoke I could smell around the cave had been gathered up and dumped into my lungs in an instant. It was like deep in my body, a fire suddenly sparked into existence and was rapidly spreading; consuming my insides!
Leaning over to try coughing, I could simultaneously feel odd pangs all over my body, on my back, my chest, my arms, my legs, my neck, my face, even my rear were all pulsing with pain! Amidst the pain, I squeezed my eyes shut, and dropped my phone and the coin I had been holding in my hands.
I heard Abby go, “Hey, what’s wro-“ before cutting herself off with a loud gasp. Whatever had surprised her so much, I could hardly pay her much mind. The burning feeling inside my body was so powerful it made my whole muscular system tense up, and I put my hands on my knees, continuing to groan as I tried to take a breath again.
Then after a solid moment or two, I could breathe again! And my body stopped tensing up. The burning sensation wasn’t gone. But it actually felt almost…comfortable and cozy, if that made sense. It now relaxed my muscles instead of causing them to tense up. And that smoky smell was still strong, but it no longer had the effect of disrupting my respiratory system despite its intensity, which was very strange.
I still needed to catch my breath after being forced to hold it for a good moment, and as I did, the sounds that came out of my mouth were ragged, like I had a sore throat.
Still hunched over on my legs, I slowly opened my eyelids, adjusting to the brightness of the cave, and turned back to see Abby looking at me with a shocked expression. Her hands covered her mouth as she arched her eyebrows upward in worry; slowly backing away as she looked in my direction.
“Oh my,” I said to her with a somewhat deeper voice. I presumed it was caused by some kind of sore throat I had from all the coughing. “I’ve never had a cramp like that in my life!”
Upon hearing my voice, Abby stopped backing away, uncovering her mouth as she continued looking at me with a distressed look on her face. Her lips moved as if she were trying to say something to me, but no words came out.
“Are you okay, Abby? You loo-“ I began, before noticing something odd to my right. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw what looked like a fleshy swampy green flap. If I wasn’t crazy, it looked like a dragon’s wing!
Flinching back, I turned around to look at whatever creature the wing belonged to, but the wing stayed behind me as I turned. And as I raised a hand to try shielding myself in fear, I could see that I had dark green, sharp fingernails! Wait, I thought with confusion. Why are my nails so sharp? And did Abby prank me at some point and put green nail polish on them? But I only started to get the hint that something was really wrong with me when I saw my skin was faded to the same swampy green complexion as the wing I saw behind me!
My neck felt wobbly and longer, I felt somewhat exposed below the waist (as if my pants had magically vanished), my shirt felt torn, and my sandals felt like they had somehow snapped. Something below my eyes also was obstructing my field of view partially, and it followed me no matter where I looked. I had to physically point my head down to try looking at why my body felt so odd, and why I also felt a part of my body dragging down on the ground even though I was still standing up.
When I looked down, I realized that I must’ve grown somewhat taller all of the sudden! In fact, I was at eye level with the torches that were placed high above the ground. And below me, I also saw a large, swampy green tail that was attached to me, somehow.
Before I could fully realize what was going on, let alone react, my body began to pulse painfully all over once more. But this time, it felt like earthquakes going off inside me, in every part of my body. I screamed loudly, with my voice transitioning to sound like a loud, roaring beast.
Argh! What is this throbbing all over?! I thought, as I struggled to stay upright. This sensation was different from earlier. It was as if another being was trapped inside me, fighting desperately to escape until it was freed.
The longer this went on, the less control I had. So lightheaded…I think I might faint! My mind raced. There was nothing I could do except try to take a seat and avoid hurting myself. As I tried leaning back to sit amidst the pain, I felt the tail (which I hadn’t yet associated with me) flail and smash hard against a pile of coins, causing a small wave of them to fly into the air or tumble down with a chorus of small clinking sounds. My shirt and sandals were ripped from my body, and I slipped backwards with a loud, piercing roar; the sound of which became etched into my brain right before I hit the side my head hard against the pile of gold.
The gold pile formed a solid wall which might as well have been concrete. Because it knocked me out cold once I fell back and hit it.
I was probably out for only a few seconds, but it felt like I was asleep for a solid hour before I faintly heard Abby screaming my name for me to wake up. When I regained consciousness, I opened my eyes to find myself lying on my back, while Abby had climbed up on the gold pile next to me. She had a weird expression of fear and amazement as she saw me wake up. I didn’t notice her backing away again slowly before a bruise pulsated painfully on the left side of my head.
I groaned and panted loudly, reaching up a hand to clutch my forehead where I must’ve hit myself Ergh…So dizzy. What in the world was that? I thought. The world was still a blur, so I shut my eyes to try regaining my sense of equilibrium as I tried to sit up. This caused many of the coins I was sitting on to slide down with loud clinking noises as I adjusted my posture.
I tried to go through my memory of what happened. I recalled…walking down a tunnel? And I remembered seeing this pile of gold I was sitting on. And…did I just now imagine hearing something roaring somewhere?
For all I knew, I could have imagined anything to be real in that moment. I knew I had hit myself hard in the head and that speculating wouldn’t do me any good. Getting a little rest was probably a better choice. I need to lie down for a moment, I decided to myself.
I rolled over onto my belly, and snuggled myself comfortably atop the pile of gold. I had no clue why the solid surface of the treasure felt so relaxing and comfortable to me. But I wasn’t going to complain. Now, I felt like I could finally gather my thoughts and get a sense of what happened to me.
I opened my eyes again and caught a glimpse of Abby standing on the cave floor below. She was clutching her hair and gaping up at me with her mouth wide open, as if she were completely speechless. It was like when she looked at me, she was seeing a big problem that needed solving!
It was also difficult to ignore how strange I felt in that moment. Nothing about me felt normal. There were new sensations, new indescribable feelings, and all of my senses seemed to be feeding my brain new information about the environment around me. I had no clue what to make of it all.
But since my head was also still in a bit of a daze, I didn’t really take much notice of it. I must’ve been confusing myself was all. I simply smiled down at Abby, and said, “Sorry about that. I’m fine now.” But when I smiled, Abby looked even more shocked for some reason.
“You…don’t have to keep looking worried,” I told her, noticing the strangely vast distance between us as we looked at one another. “By the way…erm…How did you get all the way down there?”
But Abby still looked at me with a flabbergasted expression, and didn’t respond to my question.
Oooookay, now this was getting a bit awkward. “Umm…” I went on with my smile slowly fading. “Anyways, I changed my mind. This place gives me the creeps. Wanna maybe grab a bite to eat somewhere and just head home?”
I had no idea the whole time that I was just growling.
Then finally, Abby spoke with a fearful, small, uncertain tone of voice: “B-B-Blake?” She said. “Is…that you?”
“H-Huh?” I tried to say as my smile gradually turned into a worried frown. I was still very confused. But just then, I realized that the sounds coming from my mouth weren’t human. And I began to regain my recollection of what happened up to the point where I lost consciousness.
It caused me to freeze in place where I was, and my blood ran cold. I felt inside my mouth with my tongue, and my teeth felt unusually sharp. And why did my mouth feel so large? Moreover, when I crossed my eyes and looked through my glasses, I saw a long deep green snout stretched out before me, with two smoke plumes slowly emanating from the far end of it. My eyes followed the smoke as it lifted into the air.
I remembered that something strange was happening to my body before I lost consciousness, and I remembered my clothes being torn off. But until this very moment, I hadn’t noticed I was completely naked! It was because the coolness of the cave no longer seemed to affect me, as the internal heat source I felt from earlier was still there, and kept me warm from the inside even against the ice cold metal of the treasure I sat on.
With a nervous expression, I turned my head down, and found that it was attached to the body of a large, dark green, reptile via a long serpentine neck. The body had an underside made up of lighter green ventral scales. With shocked silence, an increasingly knowing expression slowly came onto my face. I tried moving my arms, and saw the forelegs of the reptilian creature below me move the same way. I tried moving my hands, and the large, green talons of the creature moved as well!
That wasn’t all I saw when I looked down though! In front of my talons sat a long, whip-like tail with a dark brown fin running all across its entire length. It had the same dark green scales which seemed to cover the whole front part of my body.
No…, I thought with denial. This can’t be…
My movements became more frantic. I started to scan the length of the tail from its tip, and it even adjusted itself to curl inwards as if to make it easier for me to see it…As if I had willfull control of it.
No!
With increasingly heavy breaths, I found that this tail was indeed attached to my rear, which consisted of two hind legs resting on the gold. The same dark brown fin seemed to run all the way down the length of the spine and up my neck. Like my arms, when I tried to move my legs, these two large hind legs moved as well. But that wasn’t even close to the most shocking thing I saw.
My mouth went completely agape at the sight of two huge, fully-grown, bat-like wings made of the same dark green scales that now covered the rest of my body. And they were both attached to my back.
And…I could…move them. I had…wings. But what use was that in this cave? Still…I was looking back at these wings for a good, long while. I could technically fly, couldn’t I?
But I was snapped out of my trance by Abby. “Blake?” She said again with a little more confidence, probably after seeing me clearly as shocked as she was.
I then turned my head back towards her and nodded dramatically; trying to get the point across that it was absolutely me. Abby once again gasped when I did. And I searched on the ground for something reflective. As I did, I reached up a talon to feel all over my face. The first thing I noticed was that I felt two large, sharp horns that originated from the back of my head. My ears also felt long and pointy. That may have explained why they were way more powerful and seemed to pick up the sound of the slightest drop of water hitting the cave floor in another chamber of the cavern.
I tried feeling my teeth, careful to avoid scratching the inside of my mouth with a talon or biting my hand with one of my teeth. My snout was super long, tipped off with two large nostrils which could probably smell almost everything within a dozen mile radius, and which also were responsible for the two smoke plumes I could see earlier.
With fading hope that a hint of myself remained normal, I finally found a large (or was once large to me) red and silver shield amongst the pile of treasure that had a monstrous-looking emblem on its metallic surface. Grabbing and holding the shield in my two front talons, and arching my neck down to hover my face directly in front of it, I nearly fainted again upon seeing the reflection.
In the silver parts of the shield, I saw a fierce-looking, dark green dragon looking cross-eyed down its long, wrinkled snout back at me. The tip of its snout took up most of the reflection, and even jump-scared me a little bit when I saw all of its teeth! But then, continuing to look at it. I could see the horns poking out of the back of my head, the glasses that remained on the bridge of my nose, and I saw my eyebrows arched up in immense worry, with my human eyes looking wide open back at me.
Behind those eyes was all of the humanity I had left to my appearance. It was as if I had a hyperrealistic mask on my face.
I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. I dropped the shield and lied back down with a huff; looking at Abby with a low, sad growl.
Then Abby began to slowly approach me, sympathy replacing the fear on her face. “Blake, wh-what happened?!”
I tried shrugging the dragon equivalent of what were once my shoulders and shook my head with sadness, having more questions than answers for Abby.
“Well…well,” came a voice from the tunnel where Abby and I came from.
At that, Abby and I whirled around to glance in the direction of the tunnel, when the old lady from before had suddenly emerged; still wearing her park ranger outfit. She had this mischievous grin on her face, and then calmly approached me and Abby. “Looks like one of you did end up touching the treasure after all.”
Immediately, Abby’s brow furrowed in slight suspicion, then anger. “Y-you knew that this legend was real?” She said to the lady. “Then why did you try sending us here in the first place?! We thought this was just a game!”
“Nonsense!” The old lady said dismissively with a wave of her hand, as she eyed me top to bottom. “It’s as if you never listened to my tale, lass! I even told you it was a warning, did I not? And here I figured you’d be the better candidate to inherit my curse than this lad here.”
Abby and I both regarded each other with horrible realization. I’m…cursed? For 50 years, to…to guard this treasure?
When it hit me, I lied my neck down and covered my face with my claws as best I could. My throat tightened, and my eyes began to water. I was a grown man who never cried in public. But I was losing my ability to fight the emotions I felt in that moment.
Not only was I humiliated. But my life as I knew it, was over. And I had to pass this curse on to another human being to even have a chance at living a normal life again before I was…what, in my 70s? How could I even live with myself if I did that?
As the tears streamed down my face, they loudly evaporated to steam upon making contact with the coins below, catching me by surprise.
I saw Abby trying to approach me with a consoling expression, before giving a nasty glare at the old lady. But, still possessing a bit of an ego, I huffed loudly and repositioned myself; trying to use my tail to cover my face. I had never…ever…felt so embarrassed in all my life.
“What a sight,” went the voice of the old lady. “You can probably see why I would’ve preferred you to be the dragon guardian,” she said, presumably to Abby.
“Change him back!” Abby shouted threateningly at the lady. “Or I’ll-!”
“Simmer down,” the old lady said in response; her voice getting noticeably closer. Frustrated at myself for getting emotional, I tried forcing the tears to stop flowing, and firmly wiped my cheeks dry. Then I lifted my head and faced the old lady with a growl and bared teeth. The smoke emanating from my mouth and nose became more intense, and even Abby flinched and backed away whilst holding the shield I had dropped (as if she were about to use it as a weapon), while the old lady kept approaching unabated.
She regarded me with a somewhat impressed expression. “Hmm,” she went. “What an amazing curse to finally see again from the outside,” she said. “It can make a fierce beast out of even a most unremarkable lad like yourself,” she said to me. Then she placed a hand on the end of my snout, causing me to stop growling and freeze in place, regarding her with wide eyes.
“Lucky for you,” she said to me with a unfazed smile. “I rather enjoy being the dragon guardian. And I still plan to live out the rest of my tenure with the curse.”
“However,” she continued, with a somewhat derisive tone of voice. “It can get quite lonely in here, you see. I can only venture out of this chamber one day every 5 years in my human form. And having served as the dragon guardian for 45 years, I figured I’d use this opportunity to find a temporary…substitute…shall we say?”
The old lady then regarded me and Abby with the same mischievous look as before. “And that substitute, it would seem, is now you!” She said to me with a smile.
“His name is Blake!” Abby said to the old lady, cautiously approaching her from behind; and still holding the shield in her hand. “And my name is Abby. I want you to know that before you even think of trying to run. I won’t let you leave this cave. I don’t care how old you are!”
“So feisty,” the old lady said, pointing firmly at Abby with one finger. “Now that…that is what makes me wish the curse could’ve been transferred to you. You’d have been an excellent dragon guardian, lass! You remind me of meself when I was a youngun!” Then the old lady cackled again.
Wow…get a load of this crazy woman, I wanted to say to Abby, regarding her with a raised eyebrow. But she kept her attention on the old lady. Then, realizing the lady was still touching me, I sneered and shook her hand off of my face.
“Don’t be so crass!” The old lady said to me with a taken-aback expression. “Like I said, I’m not going to let you stay cursed forever, lad. I merely need a younger stand-in to take my place while I go on a little 2-week vacation to the outside world! Being a dragon guardian is rough on these old knees after all these years ya’ know?”
I didn’t lend it much thought until now. But this old lady surely must’ve been that dragon from the creepypasta photo taken many years ago! So apparently, every 5 years, she must’ve had the ability to take on a human appearance like she did before? And she used trickery to transfer the curse to either me or Abby?
I suppose she did warn us, but this wasn’t fair at all! I thought it was supposed to be just a fun game!
With another huff, I waved my head at Abby, signaling her to follow me, and crawled down on all fours to make my way towards the tunnel Abby and I came from; causing an avalanche of coins to slide down either side of the pile as I stomped across. But as I tried going in headfirst, only my head and neck barely fit into the tunnel, and the rest of my body was way too large to do anything except fully obstruct the tunnel entrance. With an annoyed grunt, I pulled my head out and tried doing the same thing with the many other tunnels leading out of the chamber. But it was no use. I’m completely trapped! I realized.
“Stop it! Will ye?” Came the voice of the old lady. “You’ll cause a cave-in you big lug!”
Then with a whine, I stopped and started pacing back and forth across the cave floor, trying to think of a solution while Abby continued looking at me with sympathy; unsure what to do herself.
Then she looked at the lady and asked in a demanding tone, “How do we know you’ll keep your word and not abandon him to be stuck as a dragon after two weeks?!”
“You don’t,” the old lady replied candidly. “I will admit, I used deception to trick you the first time. But once the curse lifted from me, don’t you wonder why I didn’t just up and leave? Why d’ya think I even came here?”
She had a point, I realized. I stopped pacing and regarded the lady again. My head was lifted high, with my horns nearly making contact with the stalactites on the cave roof.
“I promise,” she continued, as a solemn expression slowly came over her face. “I only wish to travel to see someone I haven’t seen in a very long time.” But then, after a moment, she broke out of a trance, and smiled at Abby and I again.
“And after that, I’ll pick up right where you left off! I swear. I’ve just been away from the human world for too long. Maybe I could’ve waited 5 more years for the curse to wear off. But I suppose even an old bag like me can get a little impatient.”
I suppose after learning that, I felt a (little) bit of understanding for her situation, I suppose. I wondered who she was before she was cursed, what kind of life she left behind.
Suddenly, I saw the old lady a mere step away from the tip of my fore-talons; taking me by surprise after being deep in thought for a solid minute. I did not see or hear her walking up at all, despite my heightened senses. “I just need you to fill in for me while I’m away,” she said to me. “I was by far the most effective dragon guardian in the history of this cavern. Not a single piece of treasure has been taken under my watch. And as a result, I’m looking at a perfect 50 years with no additional years of being cursed. As ye know, every time a human has stolen a piece of treasure from this cave, a year gets added to the dragon guardian’s sentence.”
She waved her hand at me; motioning for me to get closer. Abby stood off to the side, still holding the shield in a defensive stance towards the lady. With reluctance, I gulped, and arched my neck to lean my head down and hold an ear up to the lady. “So lad, I would try your best to be an absolutely frightening dragon guardian, or I’m afraid I’ll have to…extend your substitution by a year…per offense, of course.”
At that, a shiver ran down my spine. And I cringed at the thought. I would need to actually protect this cave and its treasure from intruders? And if I didn’t, I’d be stuck down here like this for an extra year? Maybe multiple years if I proved to be a bad guardian? I groaned again and looked at the old lady with a pleading expression.
“Oh stop,” the old lady said to me. “I have faith you can get the job done, lad. It’s easy! You already have the looks for this task, now just play the part! Just be watchful, attentive, and ready to frighten away intruders! It’s rather fun after a while. I only scared intruders, never hurt them. That’s all I’m asking you to do. You’ll probably see only around maybe 10ish people come across this chamber over the course of two weeks. Just roar fiercely at them or something. Like this!”
Then she held out the pamphlet with the picture of the dragon guarding the hoard, roaring at the explorers who stumbled into the cave. I couldn’t imagine myself scaring people in so frightening a way. But I guess I’d have to try if I ever wanted to become human again.
“Why d’ya think this cave isn’t too popular or flooded with tourists? It’s because I scared most of them away!” Then the old lady cackled again.
Then I shook my head and closed my eyes. This was still an awful lot to absorb. I’m glad there was a chance (assuming this lady kept her word) that I could be human again. But the next two weeks were going to be painfully awkward for me.
I groaned loudly and made my way past the old lady to look for my phone. “Well, are ye up for it or what?” The old lady asked me as I crawled away. Then I stopped, sighed, and looked back with an eye roll before nodding in the affirmative. Not like I have a choice, do I?
“Before you go,” Abby started, still speaking to the old lady with an untrusting tone of voice. “Can you please tell us how you managed to feed yourself while trapped in this cave? I need to know how to keep my friend alive since he’s obviously not gonna be eating people.”
“Goodness me, you have a dark mind,” the old lady cackled again. “I’ll just say, I had my methods. And no, I never ate people, as I just explained. But since you two don’t possess magical abilities like me, I’m afraid you’ll have to bring meals and drink fit for a dragon each day to sustain your friend here. Unfortunately, the form comes with a much larger appetite, in my experience,” she said.
Then Abby looked at me with a hysterical expression. With an awkward smirk, I looked apologetically back at her. I’m so sorry, I wanted to say to her. As I did, I found my phone where I dropped it on the cave floor, and gently picked it up.
“Ugh,” went Abby, facepalming herself with her teeth grit in frustration. “Why’d you have to go and pick up that stupid coin, Blake?” Then I looked away, blushing again with embarrassment. Yeah, come to think of it. That was my bad.
Then suddenly, with a poof, the old lady vanished into thin air; her laugh echoing down the tunnel from whence Abby and I had come. And we were both left alone, with me still stuck in the form the woman had left me in.
Then, Abby and I locked eyes with each other again, and we both sighed. We didn’t need words to know what we were saying to each other deep down. I guess we’re doing this… our expressions said.
Then Abby growled, maybe more intensely than even I could. “All right, fine!” she said with a shrill voice that made me flinch slightly; putting one hand on her hip and pointing right at me. “I’ll go out and get you an all-you-can-eat-buffet once per day. That’ll have to do for the next two weeks. But you’re paying me back for half of it when you’re done ‘dragoning around’.”
Then she turned and stomped grumpily down the tunnel. “Oh, and Blake,” she said with her voice echoing up the corridor, causing me to prick my ears up. “I’m gonna knock on this wall three times to signal that it’s me coming in. I swear if you scare me once, you’re paying for all of it, understand?”
Getting the message, I gasped and nodded my head frantically, before chuckling a little bit under my breath. Maybe she would’ve made a better dragon guardian after all… I thought to myself; remembering what the old lady had said.
As Abby’s footsteps faded, I struggled to type my phone password with the sides of my fingers (since of course, facial recognition was no longer an option) to open my phone. And after several minutes of fat-fingering, I managed to text my boss that I had contracted a sickness and was unable to come to work for a few extra days (which was true in a way). I’m pretty sure that even if I did manage to get out of here anyways, I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything in the outside world that I would normally do.
I guess for now, my place was in this cave, protecting this hoard, like a dragon was supposed to do. So, with a sigh, I walked onto the pile of treasure, wagged my long tail and tucked it around the length of my body, folded in my wings, and lied face-down into the gold, digging my snout into the pile as the two plumes of smoke continued to rise in front of me from beneath the treasure.
I had no idea why I found this position strangely comfortable. But I felt perfectly relaxed like this. Now, I suppose, I just needed to protect the hoard I had inherited.
Thanks again to the wonderful
bersickr for this amazing art piece! I hope you enjoyed the story as well if you got this far! :D
Category Artwork (Digital) / Transformation
Species Western Dragon
Size 3785 x 973px
File Size 3.72 MB
Like if I wandered into this cave and saw him yeah I’d be scared at first, but after noticing his glasses and mannerisms, I feel like I’d be less scared and more inclined to get a photo with him. Lol!
I feel like a good look into his eyes, even as a dragon, one would get the sense that he wouldn’t actually hurt you.
I feel like a good look into his eyes, even as a dragon, one would get the sense that he wouldn’t actually hurt you.
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