Page 9 of That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human
Gods, I hope it wasn’t kink-related.My neck still tingled where he had bitten me. I gently touched the area to assess the damage. A tiny smear of blood showed up on my palm, but for the most part the bleeding had stopped. “It must have just been a scrape. Thank goodness,” I sighed.
My heart flip-flopped violently in my chest, making me stagger. The memory of Dante’s lips on my throat sent coils of heat rushing down to my lower stomach. The chill in the air became almost unbearable against my skin. Dante rolled to the side, and I became all too aware how warm he would be against me.
I pinched myself; the pain served as a distraction to get my shit together. “What is wrong with me?” Knees shaking, I backed further away from him. Dizziness nearly took me off my feet, and I leaned against the wall for support.
“Snapping gators, are dragons venomous?” I had heard about a mushroom that could mimic the feelings of sexual desire when eaten. It also made you shit your brains out for three days. So hopefully a dragon’s bite wasn’t exactly like that. Still, there was no telling what other effects the venom could have.
Fear made the hair on my arms stand on end. Blue Coral Snake venom paralyzes their prey. Once bitten, the unlucky mouse is just stuck there until the snake unhinges its jaw and swallows it whole. I shook my head to clear my mind.
“Cherry, you are reading way too much into this. A man got high and bit you. It doesn’t mean it’s going to end in cannibalism.” I spoke with confidence, trying to trick myself into bravery. Besides, the man had snatched me up like I was a rag doll. If he wanted to kill and eat me, he didn’t need to resort to venom.
And yet… a little distance couldn’t hurt.
“Time to go,” I whispered to myself.
As silently as I could, I took a torch from the wall and made my way out the room. When the door clicked behind me, the sound of rattling plates hit my ears. Panicked, I flattened myself against the door, ready to swing it open again in case I needed to flee. Tiny sparks of flame flickered all along the floor. As the hallway lit up, I could see hundreds of candles placed on small golden plates. They rose high into the air, better illuminating my surroundings. I gasped in both shock and wonder. “Jumping jaguars,” I breathed.
Soft piano music fluttered somewhere in the distance. Candlelight danced against elegant crystal chandeliers that lined the massive hallway. The area was decorated with high columns painted blue, the tops and bottoms of the column ending in gold-plated caps with intricate filigree. The walls and floor were a beautiful white marble that was polished to a high finish.
More golden filigree traced patterns around doorways and up the arches that led to the ceiling. My breath faded away when I took in the painting that stretched across the entire ceiling. It was of a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Dragons wove in and out of the clouds in an almost playful pattern. Some had glittering silver scales, like I’d seen on Dante. Others were red and yellow and a rainbow of other colors. I followed them further down, entranced. They ducked and weaved together, some forming intricate knots I’d only seen in tattoos.
It was just a freaking hallway, yet every inch seemed to be handcrafted by masters who must’ve trained day in and day out for the simple purpose of making everything they touched breathtaking. They had succeeded.
In a way, the site of all the surrounding beauty made me feel more at ease. Dante was clearly richer than any king in the land. A man that wealthy probably ate nothing but caviar and the tears of the poor. He didn’t need to resort to eating random women he found. I stretched my arms wide, then shook out my legs, checking for any stiffness. Aside from the urge to shove my hand down my skirt, my body felt fine. “I guess dragon venom is just an aphrodisiac. If people can get frisky after eating oysters then I suppose dragon spit isn’t that crazy.”
Relieved, I leaned against the banister to peer down the stairwell, then drew my hand back. Everything was so perfectly polished, I didn’t want to touch it. I was sure a single candlestick in this room cost more than all the money I’d ever seen in my life. Just in case, I took the end of my shirt and rubbed it against where my hand had touched the banister.
“Focus, Cherry. You’re supposed to be escaping,” I chided myself, giving my cheeks a slap.
“No more sightseeing. Time to find a way out.” I was pretty sure there weren’t any giant castles on Gideon’s Island. So that meant my plan to escape the island was a resounding success. With only the minor setback of being wherever the hell I was now.
Purpose renewed, I raced down the staircase, ignoring the beautifully painted portraits lining the way to what seemed to be a dining area. Nor did I stop to admire the massive statues of beasts that surveyed the dining room. Instead, I ran through the castle in search of the front door. Which I imagine would have been a lot easier, if they had put a fucking directory in this bitch.
Mesmerizing rooms blended together in an increasingly irritating blur the more I tried to search for the exit. After about an hour, I had managed to find two dining halls, what I assumed was a giant bedroom, a study, a kitchen, yet another dining hall in the east wing, about five unexplained giant rooms, two indoor hot springs, and a conservatory full of plants and giant beehives home to bees the size of my head. I ran out of that room with a quickness at the first angry buzz.
Chest heaving, I paused against a window to catch my breath. “How big is this fucking castle?” I screamed.
When another hour or so had passed, I was convinced I was going to die lost in a strange man’s castle. There was no way any living creature needed this much space. I didn’t even spy a single servant or any of the people from the portraits hung on the walls. Not even the windows gave me any sign of where I might be. Each one revealed nothing but darkness. I looked to what must’ve been the fifth grandfather clock I had run past. Seven o’clock at night. No wonder I couldn’t see anything outside.
I took a deep breath and trudged into another room with yet more rooms off it. Maybe behind one of these doors was a bedroom where I could take a nap. There was no way I was going to escape the (possibly) dastardly clutches of my newest dragon acquaintance if I was ready to keel over.
With a shove, one of the doors opened, and more magic candles rose to illuminate the room. “Snapping gators, this library is huge!” I gasped in awe. Bookshelves lined every wall and reached up to the ceiling. More bookshelves were neatly lined up in rows along the room. A wooden ladder leaned against a particularly tall shelf with a stack of books lying on a table next to it.
My fingers itched to get my hands on all of them. Years of boredom had me aching to snatch up every book. My sister Cinnamon and I had what I always thought was a decent size collection of fantasy novels and folktales. Clearly, we were just two paupers who thought too highly of themselves. Not even the king’s library in Goldcrest City came close to this.
“Why couldn’t I have been kidnapped by this dragon in the first place? This guy has way better stuff.” Each row was labelled with the subject of the books therein. Wasting no time, I walked down the aisle labelled Magic/Beasts. My hand skimmed past comforting leather bindings. The smell of old books nearly brought tears of joy to my eyes.
A row of four similar-looking books caught my attention. I peered closer to find that they were a part of a series called “The Big Book Of”. If my scrawny arms had the strength, I would’ve greedily nabbed the entire series. Unfortunately for me, my upper body strength failed me like a disappointing lover after I had grabbedThe Big Book Of BeastsandThe Big Book Of Magic. The remaining books of fairytales and folk songs would have to wait.
I dragged my treasure to the sunken couch in the center of the room and placed the books down with a huff. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I wandered over to the liquor cabinet that sat beside the fireplace on the far side of the room. “Ugh,” I groaned in distaste. “He’s clearly a whiskey drinker.” Which was fine. If you were just never burdened by things such as taste. Instead, I grabbed a bottle of wine, uncorked it, and returned to the couch with a full glass.
I groaned with satisfaction as my body sank into the plush furniture. It was the type of couch that was worn in such a way that you could flop onto it in any position immediately and have it soothe all your troubles away. I debated taking my comfort level up a notch and finding some wood to start up the fireplace. But that would mean having to get up, and I’ve done quite a lot of that today.
The Big Book Of Beastswas a thick leather-bound monster of a book. Its cover was decorated with the seven-headed serpent. Each head was adorned with vicious-looking fangs and a row of small horns cascading down their skull. Its body wrapped around the spine rising from the sea that decorated the back of the book. The name Victoria Remnac sat proudly above the title.
“Remnac,” I whispered, skimming my finger over the silver letters. “Wasn’t that Dante’s last name?” So this book must’ve been written by another dragon. Excitement raced through me at the thought. A mythical creature making an entire book on other magical monsters? If my sister and ma were here they’d be squealing in excitement.
The index had the monsters broken down into understandably separated categories. The types of magic they could use, bovines, equines, level of danger, etc. I wasn’t entirely sure what a bovine or equine was, but I noticed horse-like creatures down the equine section. Wasting no time, my eyes zeroed in on the page for my favorite mythical creature. Page 526– Unicorns. Quickly, I flipped to the page and noticed with no small amusement that page 526 was only about halfway through the book. Suddenly the failure of my arms seemed much less extreme.
