CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A Morning of Dragon Hoards and Mountain Hikes
Heat clung to the Doomed Mountain. Steam rose off the rocky cliffs and danced about the looming peak, drenching Em’s back in sweat. She wiped her forehead, blinking up at the sunrise.
The singular pathway to reach Brolzross the Nocturnal’s lair twisted and wove in narrow switchbacks along the steep edges of the mountain.
Winds whistled past as they wound back and forth up the cliffs.
The summit seemed to breathe like a sleeping beast. A foul aroma of dragon urine clung to every slippery surface.
Em clenched her jaw at the thought of a literal dragon sleeping within the mountain she hiked.
Her fingers hovered over the hilt of her knife.
Somehow, she had to lure Brolzross out without hurting anyone.
She chewed on her plan repeatedly as her aching legs protested at the constant incline.
They’d been climbing the mountain through the night, Tolk-Town’s distant lights fading into the valleys below.
From up there, she could make out the smudged, sprawling streets of the Fan-fiction Realms and LARP Arenas. Beyond that hung fortresses of the GRRM realms. Her heart sank at how close in proximity she’d come to the dreaded place.
One wrong choice in this quest, and she’d be damned to live there forever.
This plan has got to fucking work.
Once Em stole the dragon relic, she’d be halfway through the prophecy. Which meant she was almost free of the shitty, cliché storyline while also running out of time to make it original.
“Quit judging them, sweetheart,” Sasha said, catching Em looking over her shoulder at the unfortunate region again. “They could be completely happy with their little cliché lives.”
“But I wouldn’t be,” Em sniffed.
“Not everything is about you,” the dryad said.
“Except, this is my story and my prophecy, so it actually is,” Em retorted.
“Touche.”
“Fret not, Highness! Your plan’s genius.” Polo skipped past them, spinning on his heel. No matter how long they traveled without rest, the imp somehow possessed endless energy. “No one will be able to predict what wonderful things you do, and no dragon, for that matter!”
Predict. Em let out a deep breath. Brolzross can’t predict my plans because he’s too damn cliché. He’d expect me to sneak in, so he’ll think I woke him by accident, right? Surely, he won’t expect me to send in a helpless imp to take the relic.
No matter what scenes or actions took place, the idea of facing a real, fire-breathing dragon unnerved her. How big would the monster be? How did she expect herself to manipulate it into leaving the mountain so Gair could shoot it?
She shook back her fears.
I don’t have time to worry. I just need to be spontaneous and stay focused. If I can survive the lame-ass Heir Trials and love triangles, I can defeat a stereotypical dragon.
“The great dwarven lords Nedroic Beastpike and Sardrumlir Metalbender used to rule in these mines,” Faylorn announced.
“When Brolzross the Nocturnal overthrew them, the Wood Elves stepped in to try to rescue the artifacts within the mountain, but the dragon drove them out. Since then, no one has tried to enter the halls within the Doomed Mountain. Nor to steal back the dragon relic.”
“How fascinating!” Polo said.
“Thanks for the useless info-dump,” Em muttered.
“We’re going to be okay,” Gair whispered to her. She jumped, startled at his sudden closeness. “There’s no need to worry. You’re the Chosen One.”
“I know.” Em tucked her frizzy hair behind her ears, wishing she had brushed it out before they left.
“We’re going to be okay, Em,” her friend repeated.
“I fucking know.” Em huffed. “You already said that.”
“Sorry, you just seem worried.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one worried? You’re the one I’m depending on to kill the dragon,” Em said.
Gair shrugged. “I trust you.”
“Which is entirely stupid,” Roden growled over his shoulder from the front of their party. “The princess is spontaneous and destructive with no care for how she harms those around her.”
Em stuck her tongue out at him. She pushed past Gair and Sasha to catch up to the brooding half-elf, much to the cramped disdain of her exhausted legs. The closer she came beside him, the more his posture softened in her presence.
“I need to make sure you’re not letting any hard feelings from the other night distract you today,” she said.
Roden’s violet eyes flashed over her, his cheek muscles twitching. “Why would I have hard feelings?”
“About our argument yesterday in the tavern?” Her heart fluttered a little at the memory of how warm and close he’d been, how numbing the alcohol felt. She swallowed back the idea. I cannot be distracted with carnal, cliché things.
“No hard feelings.” Roden snorted, averting his gaze. He kicked a loose pebble in his path.
“You understand I’m trying to fix this plotline… for all of us, right?”
Roden’s scowl creased his face. “Keep telling yourself that, princess.”
“You said yourself my dragon plan is smart,” Em pushed, unsatisfied. “Which means you agree with my decisions to try to spice up a few of these tropes. I’m trying to give us all a chance to be original and break the mold. A chance to clear our names.”
“You don’t need to preach to me,” Roden growled.
“I’m aware of your hopes and why you hired Sasha to try to bring originality to the rest of us stereotypical Side Characters.
Naturally, I’m uneasy with you going against our Great Author and trying to alter the course of their plot, but that’s not the only thing bugging me. ”
Em blinked, double-checking the others weren’t too far behind. Thankfully, Polo was busy annoying Faylorn, and Sasha was talking Gair’s ear off. The dragon-mutant’s aquamarine eyes narrowed toward Roden, keeping his attention fixated on how close Em walked with the half-elf.
Em shot him a smile, and her best friend’s face lit up at her recognition.
“I don’t understand what I’ve done wrong,” Roden brooded on. “I’ve protected you, saved you from ruining yourself…”
“I’m sorry, Roden,” Em said. “I just don’t do the whole intimacy thing.”
“You apparently have time to invest in Gair.”
“Excuse me?”
Roden frowned in the direction of the blond, dragon-mutant. “He seems to know a lot about you and what you like.”
“We literally went to school together,” Em protested.
“Falling for your childhood best friend is cliché,” he spit into the dirt.
“Hell, Roden, I never said I liked him,” Em snapped back. “He’s a friend. You’re a friend. I’m not doing this whole love-interest thing—and I’m certainly not interested in a reverse harem either. I’ve got too much shit going on to worry about romantic feelings.”
Roden just scowled more.
“Hey, we can stay close, though.” Em nudged him. She needed him to stay involved if she wanted to untangle his unfortunate failed past as a Main Character. “We’re fellow heirs to different kingdoms in Novella,” she said. “We’ll run into each other a lot in the future anyway.”
“You think?” his storminess lightened.
“Sure!” Em said. “As long as you’re okay with my weirdness for the next few days.”
“I can tolerate it.”
“Perfect.”
Roden leaned in, placed his hand on her shoulder, and kissed her cheek.
Em froze in her tracks, her body rushing with warmth, and her skin singing. She ran her hands over her face to see if it was still there.
He chuckled at her dumbfounded reaction and moved ahead without another word.
Shit. Quit gooning. Em smacked herself and fell back to join Sasha again.
Developing any feelings for the brooding, roguish baddie-daddy was not original.
In fact, it was probably exactly what her Great Author intended.
She regretted not being harsher with the half-elf.
She should’ve made him furious instead of feeding his bitter ambitions.
“What the flip was that sweetheart?” Sasha demanded.
“I…I messed up,” Em stammered.
“Yeah. No crap.” The dryad motioned toward Gair, far behind them. The dragon mutant was red-eared, swearing under his breath at Roden’s back. “You’re feeding the love-triangle fire.”
“I just want everyone to be safe, happy, and original.”
“You can have two of those things, not all three,” Sasha shook her head. “Pick what your priorities are and stick with them.”
Original, burned in the depths of Em’s heart. I will have an original story. I will become a Main Character of a trope-free story.
Keep wishing on a star, Em. Maybe I’ll even write you a princessy theme song.
“Hey, there’s a huge cave up ahead!” Polo shouted, snapping Em back into reality. The imp hopped at the top of the twisting path, waving his arms and pointing around the bend. “It looks about as run through as a succubus. I think we made it!”
Faylorn paused his hike, glancing toward Em for direction. Per her instructions, he needed to split from the party to warn Tolk-Town on the other side of the mountain about their impending dragon awakening.
“There’s a secret dwarven entrance another mile up the peak,” the wizard said. “Shouldn’t take too much longer until you reach it.”
“Is that the main entrance ahead?” Em asked.
“Indeed. That’s likely what’s left of it,” Faylorn said. “Brolzross the Nocturnal plowed through and destroyed the original dwarven gateway when he took control of the Doomed Mountain.”
“He’s fat!” Polo shouted from ahead.
Sasha choked on a stifled laugh.
“Nonsense,” Faylorn snapped. “He’s simply a… um… larger creature.”
“If that’s the main entrance, then that’s where I’m heading,” Em said. “Sneaking around is cliché. Yes, through there—it’s the least expected course of action. Brolzross would expect us through the secret entrances.”
“But they’re secret,” Faylorn protested.
“Then how come you already knew their exact location?”
Faylorn shook his head, chuckling. “You never cease to amaze me, lass.”