Chapter 1: Chapter 1
It was only him. Maddox was the only one that was going to make the treacherous trip. He knew his ear drums could handle going to such depths where everything blacked out and a sheet of darkness was pulled over the ocean, but the feeling of the pressure always made him uncomfortable and sometimes even claustrophobic. It wasn’t the ideal place for him to go; he’d rather be swimming around a shallow lagoon with warm and crystal clear water than going down to the deep, dark depths of the ocean to retrieve a treasure that might not even be there.
Maddox took a deep breath, sure that he could make the trip without things going wrong. Boy was he the wrong one when he said that. As he started his descent into deep and colder waters, the plants became sparse and the barren plains became frequent. He knew the treasure he was looking for had a glow to it so he’d be able to pick it out in the pitch-black, and that it was hidden somewhere in the deep trenches at the bottom of the ocean, where the underwater vents and animals lurked.
It took him quite a while as he descended down and into the large caverns of the sea floor all by himself. His minimal night vision gave him minor paranoia as he glided through the dark water, knowing other creatures could see him more than he could see them. He shivered, not at the fact that the water had become frigid and almost unbearable for the tropical sea-dragon, but because of the thought that all the creatures that were created down in the trenches were made to be either much smaller or much larger than they would be in the shallow lagoons and reefs. It also didn’t help that he was by himself and hadn’t invited any other Aqrions to go with him for backup.
Every now and then Maddox would come across a glowing angler fish or a bioluminescent jellyfish that swam across his path and caused him to jump slightly but it was never anything too big or too scary for him to handle.
When he reached the bottom of the trench, he followed it’s smooth ridges and looked in all the small caverns and crack in the wall to make sure he didn’t miss the object he was looking for. Heck, he didn’t even know what he was looking for, all he knew was that it glowed and it was a rather decent sized object. He searched for hours upon hours until he stopped swimming as his eyes gazed upon light shimmering in the darkness.
He froze, unable to move as he looked at the blanket of darkness being pulled back to reveal bright light. He worked up the courage and slowly swam forward, making sure me made the smallest amount of sound possible.
Peaking around the corner, Maddox’s eyes widened with either wonder or fear or a mixture of both. Another sea-dragon like himself, who looked ancient and skinny stood swimming in place, staring at the wall of the small cavern. A million thoughts raced through Maddox’s head as he wondered who this mysterious and creepy Aqrion was as he radiated a faint glow off his bright warm colors, spores crawling out from under his skin. He moved slowly, basically only drifting in the non-existent current, looking solloem and lonely.
Then Maddox made the mistake of touching the rocky exterior of the cavern, causing a small rock to break off and slowly tumble to the cave floor. The other dragon whipped around, bright white teeth bared straight at him. Maddox shrunk back into the safety of the shadows quickly, hoping the Aqrion hadn’t seen him.
It lunged, snapping its teeth at thin water, and looking around, noticing it missed. Maddox tilted his head slightly, from looking at the way it attached to the way it looked around, and to the way it’s eye was covered in spores, this Aqrion was blind. If he didn’t make any sudden movements or sounds, hopefully he could keep his life.
As Maddox tried to move, he had caught himself in between the rocks and caused even more to fall down, sprinting past the Aqrion as fast as he could before he turned towards the sound of the rocks.
The dragon snapped its teeth angrily and let out an ear-ripping roar, causing the earth to shake and loose boulders to start crashing down into the trench. Maddox looked up with fear, from the falling rocks to the sea-dragon behind him, he sprinted, swimming as fast as he could as he kept his tail close to him and slithered between falling rocks.
There were a few close cases where the boulders almost crushed him to death beneath their weight, but Maddox wasn’t going to go out that easily. The other dragon had a harder time navigating around the falling rocks, as his disability restricted him. He was still fast, though. Very, very fast for his size and state. The dragon roared again, catching Maddox’s tail in between his teeth and pulling him to the ground.
He had been so close to the exit, he could’ve forever lost the mad Aqrion into the depths of the great sea. He was so close yet so far. He tried to shield his landing onto the hard rocks as he made impact with the floor. Scrambling to get out of the Royal’s grip, he struggled and snapped his teeth, all of his attempts failing.
The dragon had him pinned to the ground, all he managed to whisper with a horace and raspy breath was, “Help me.”
Post a comment
Please login to post comments.
Comments
Nothing but crickets. Please be a good citizen and post a comment for AlfaDragon