35 – An Eternal Flame

The first impact shuddered through the floor, making the entire passage vibrate. It wasn’t a sudden crack or a mechanical failure; this was a slow, deep thud from somewhere far below that traveled up through the basalt and settled directly in Ashley’s bones.

Then came another blow, and another, each one harder than the last. Dust drifted down from the ceiling panels while loose pebbles skittered across the iron grids. Long cracks split the basalt walls in clean lines, spreading outward from the darkness below.

“What’s this?” Simon asked, bracing his hands flat against the wall to keep his balance. “An earthquake?”

Gomp shook his head, the fur around his mouth twitching.

Ashley kept her eyes fixed on the open shaft. “No,” she said. “It’s coming up.”

The next impact hit hard enough to make the ledge tilt beneath their boots.

“Smulknefire,” Gomp croaked, grabbing Simon’s arm with both hands. “We have to go. Now.”

“Should we—”

“No,” Ashley said.

The smell arrived before the light. Sulfur and something older, like stone that had been burning since before the mountain had a name.

A wave of baking air rolled up from below and hit them full in the face, thick with ash and the sharp smell of the mountain core burning. Paco let out a low, strained bark, the sound rasping dry in his throat. He went completely still under Ashley’s hand, his body locked on whatever was coming.

The impacts slowed down. One thud. Silence. Then one final blow, close enough for Ashley to feel the vibration in her teeth.

She stepped to the edge of the tunnel and looked down. A crimson shape filled the shaft below, a mass of scales and hooked spurs too large for the space containing it.

Smulknefire was climbing.

His wings were folded tight against his sides, useless in the narrow space. Instead, hooked spurs along his joints drove into the walls, gouging holds into the basalt as he hauled his weight upward. Each movement ripped chunks free and sent them down into the glowing depths.

“You came back after your mother sent you to find an impossible solution,” his voice echoed through the abyss, coming closer and closer. “And now you not only challenge my authority, but my wisdom as well? My son, you have chosen worse than I feared.”

The serpentine neck uncoiled fast, thrusting the head up past the tunnel mouth. His snout swept past Ashley, the hot wind of his passage pulling at her hair and filling her lungs with the scent of old fire.

The head stopped. One amber eye came level with her.

Ashley stood at the edge and stared back. In the vertical slit of Smulknefire’s contracting pupil, she saw her entire shape reflected, small and white against the red glow of the shaft.

[Smulknefire – Ancient Dragon – Legendary Tier Monster]

“You.” The word came out like a stone dropped into deep water. “You dare return to my mountain.”

The amber eye did not blink.

The pupil contracted to a sliver. The heat in the shaft doubled.

He thinks I’m the other one. He’s looking at my face and seeing her. “I’m not who you think I am,” Ashley said. “Someone is wearing my face.”

“Lies.” The word boomed through the abyss, shaking the walls around them. Then the voice dropped, and what came next was worse for being quieter. “Always lies. You lied last time. You are lying now.”

Neither of them moved.

The amber pool held her without blinking. Ashley held it back. The air pressed down from every direction, the silence between them filling with the deep, rhythmic groan of the mountain settling around Smulknefire’s weight.

He thinks I’m her. And he thinks I’m lying.

She did not look away.

Neither did he.

“I had to know you were here when your servant attacked me. That thing can change shape as many times as he wants, but he can’t hide his smell. And neither can you.”

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Aury attacked first?

“He dove straight at it,” Simon murmured. “Before we could stop him.”

Gomp nodded, squinting through the haze. “Like a very large, very angry, stupid bird.”

She glanced back at the others. Surely he wanted to protect them as I asked him to. Even if they were up here…

She opened her mouth but Paco moved first.

He pushed past Ashley’s heel and planted himself at the edge of the tunnel mouth, directly between her and the eye below. He made no sound. He simply stood there, his small frame steady, and looked down at his father.

The amber eye shifted from Ashley to Paco. The killing intent lessened.

Something in it changed.

They are communicating somehow.

“I see. You brought her here?” The dragon paused for a second, then released a sound so powerful that Gomp fell to the floor.

It is not roaring. Is he… laughing?

“You fell for the same trap I did,” he said. “I was deceived by this woman once. Your mother sent you out in search of salvation, and you return with the worst poison possible.”