Page 16 of Cage Me

I dug herself out a peek hole and made sure there were no prying eyes around before she crawled out into the tunnel. She'd hidden much longer than usual and she was freaking starving. She had no idea what demon dragons ate, but it smelled and awful lot like rotting flesh. Fallyn had real food and if and when Azy ever dragged her out of here she would be immediately teaching her about the wonders of late-night drive-through. In the past few years living with the Mami Wata eating fish and other sea life she had to catch herself she had wished for Long John Silvers. Ooh, or the church’s Friday fish fry during Lent. She'd had enough raw fish to last a lifetime, she wouldn't be searching out the sushi place anytime soon.

Azy crept along the tunnel, headed for one of the small caves Fallyn spent most of her time in. She might not have any desire to leave, but the woman truly did not belong down here. On more than one occasion she had sent or shared her food with Azy. She never appeared in anything but human form, but she wasn't entirely human. She did have a strong sense of what was right and wrong, and that included empathy, unlike any of the other creatures down here. Azy didn't have any idea where she could have learned to have concern for anyone beside herself. It certainly wasn't from the Black Dragon or Ereshkigal, the witch.

Fallyn wasn't in the first cave Azy searched, nor in the second. There was one more place she could try, but really didn't want to. There was tunnel she saw Fallyn go in and out of a lot, but so did the Black Dragon.

She had to try. If she didn't the rumble from her stomach would be loud enough to draw demon dragons from miles away. Thus, door number three it was.

Normally, Azy had to carefully pick her way through the tunnels waiting for groups of demon dragons to move away before she could continue. Today, the caves and tunnels were empty. Eerily empty. Where in the hell – ha ha – was everyone?

She crept up the forbidden tunnel and heard a thwack thwack thwack up ahead. A faint light shined into the dark. The lacking repeated, always in threes. Azy practically tiptoed trying her best not to be heard. Except, she stumbled on some loose pebbles and skidded on her hands and knees, causing more rocks to tumble around her.

“Shitting shit bricks,” she whispered and stilled, waiting to see if the thwacker had heard and was coming out to thwack her.

“What are you doing here, Azynsa?” Fallyn's voice floated from out of the cave.

“How did you know it was me?”

“Because, it was you.”

Right. Azy got up, pulled the pebbles out of her hands and brushed off her leather pants. She glanced into the cave and just stared. No wonder none of the other random treasure hoards she'd stumbled across had any weapons. They were all here. This wasn't a cave, it was an armory. Not one filled with guns and bombs, but with lots and lots of sharp pointy things.

She imagined a thousand years of knights in shining armor trying to rescue the fair princess, for the Black Dragon to have this many swords, scythes, and – seriously? Yep, that was a pile of maces.

In the middle of all of these ancient weapons, Fallyn stood with a bucket of daggers next to her. She didn't even glance back at Azy, simply picked up three daggers and threw them in rapid succession toward her target. A form that looked remarkably like the upper torso of a dragon. A red dragon.

The daggers flew through the air, sticking into the target with extreme precision. One in the heart, and two in the eyeballs. Thwack thwack thwack.

Jesus.

“You shouldn't be here. Don't touch any of my things.”

“By things do you mean all of these knives and swords?”

“Yes, they’re mine.”

Azy raised her hands to show she wasn't touching anything. “Why do you have all of this?”

Fallyn stopped throwing her daggers for a moment. She glanced at Azy and tilted her head a few degrees to the right. “Do your people not hoard things?”

Oh. That's what this was. Fallyn had been raised by a dragon, so it made sense that she would learn his ways. “I suppose we do. The Mami Wata like their fair share of shiny things.”

“But, not you?”

“Not really. What I like to hoard, doesn't do well underwater.” Books had always been her solace. It was strange to think she hadn't read in years. She wondered if there was a chance that Fallyn had any. The woman definitely liked her bling and some old romance novels had those gold raised letters on them. Everywhere she looked, she only saw shiny, spiky metal. Except, in one corner.

“Are those… Christmas ornaments?”

Fallyn dropped the dagger she had been about to throw into the bucket and moved swiftly in front of the display. “I don't know what Christmas is. Don't touch these.”

She tried to block Azy's view with her body. There was no way she could. Ornaments hung from the tips of hundreds of blades that had been reshaped to form a macabre sort of Christmas tree or bush, or crown of thorns. Some looked like they were a hundred years old. Many though, were practically brand-new. She was sure because, directly over Fallyn’s shoulder was a Pokémon ornament.

“Where did you get all of these?”

Fallyn glared at her but must have decided she wasn't after trying to steal anything. “I collect them.”

Azy had never seen Fallyn leave hell, although she had only been down here a few weeks and it was June. Maybe Fallyn only went outside for Christmas shopping and plundering ancient castles while she was at it.

She wanted to ask more because while she was determined to get Fallyn out of hell, she didn't actually have any idea the route out of here. She had been dragged in through an underground tunnel that opened up to a water cave. In all of her secretive explorations she had yet to find that way out.

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