I trail my hands along the walls of the cave, and, once I turn a corner away from the entrance, not a sliver of light pierces the cavernous darkness. The walls are slick and slimy with ages of perspiration.

Moss and other plant-life squishes beneath my fingers, and I am thoroughly repulsed, but I dare not loose touch with the wall. Eventually, the cave becomes too large for me to touch both sides, and I continue to run my hand along the right side of the cave.

Only the steady sound of my breathing, footfalls and the somewhat calming sound of water from up ahead break the eerie silence.

The dripping gets louder, and along with it comes a faint rumbling sound, that, a bit later distinguishes itself as several different roaring sounds. The roaring slowly gets louder, and more frightening.

Though I barely notice it, it slowly gets lighter in the cavern, an orange-ish-red-ish glow that my eyes slowly adjust too. Then I feel a cold wetness, and, using the small light provided, I can just barely make out a little stream of water running down the stone wall.

The crystal stream continues down the slightly sloping floor, and I begin to follow it. It gets lighter and lighter, until suddenly the tunnel opens up to a bright cave. I gasp.

The cave is magnificent. Softly glowing orbs made of different colored crystals and full of fire are strung across the ceiling, and the is a large hole in the roof that lets the starlight cascade in. On the floor of the cave, a stream runs from one end to the other. Soft moss and ferns cover the bottom of the cave, and bright green vines wind around the walls, skirting around the large holes in the walls, likely opening up to other caverns.

But the most incredible part are the creatures. Large, about the size of elephants, with shining scales glimmering with all of the colors of the rainbow. Even larger bat-like, leathery wings spread out, lifting the animals into the wind. Some remained on the ground, four sets of razor-sharp claws scraping against stone and moss as knife-edged teeth part to the stream to let water into powerful jaws.

Long, strong tails swished along the ground, easily able to destroy stone but I am oddly mesmerizing at the moment. Dragons. Fear strikes my heart. Dragons are creatures of myth and legend, evil, animals of death and fire.

Everything I learned about dragons portrayed them as pure evil. They would do anything to hurt you and your family, going out of their way to bring pain to humans and destroy kingdoms.

My first impulse is to run away screaming bloody murder, but I stop myself. Glancing around, I realize that I am hidden in one of the fifty or so holes gaping at irregular intervals in the cave walls, and the change of them noticing me are very slim, as the dragons seem to pay no mind to this particular tunnel.

Unless, of course, the dragons are as sharp-sensed as they are in the stories. If that's the case, I'm doomed. But I like not to think of that possibility.

As the night gets darker, more of the orbs are lit, the cave lit in a variety of soft hues, emerald green, lavender purple, sunset orange, pale blue, and so on and so forth. Suddenly one of the larger dragons roared, a loud, earthquake-like sound fit to strike terror into the heart of even the bravest knight.

About twenty other dragons flock to him, forming a circle. of sharp claws and colorful scales. The other dragons stop whatever they're doing and head up to the holes in the walls, a few to a hole, sometimes even a small one that has to be carried by one of the other ones to their hole.

Like..... families. Odd. They peek out of the edges of their holes, watching the dragons below.

The dragons in the circle start to grumble among themselves, saying things in their dragon tongue that I can't understand. Some sort of meeting? Are dragons even that intelligent? I'd always been told that they were evil, stupid, killing brutes.

Then I see something interesting. Some of the dragons have begun to emerge from their holes, climbing along the walls and going into other holes. Some are going closer to the circle of dragons, and some are just climbing around in what looked like laps, shoving at each other, trying to get each other to fall. Brutes.

Leaning over the edge to get a better, look, I suddenly slip. Sliding over the edge of the cliff, my hands scrabble for purchase on the damp rock, and I end up dangling by my fingertips from the edge of the cave mouth. Surprisingly, I manage to do this without much sound, suppressing my scream to a strangled-sounding croak. The last thing I need is for the dragons to notice me.

I try to pull myself up, but I had never had much upper body strength, so I end up falling right back down to my original position. My feet scrape along the cave wall beneath me, but I cannot find a good foothold in my panic..

I can feel my fingers about to let go on their own accord, and a single though crosses my mind as my eyes scrunch up in effort and pain. I'm going to die. I followed a boy whose name I didn't even know, and now my own foolishness will kill me. I'm going to die.

Ha! I left you on a cliffhanger.......literally. I know. I am cruel.