Prompt: The jury isn’t out on whether dragons truly lurk the dungeons. Some veteran adventurers claim to have seen them with their own eyes. Surely they wouldn’t be this close to the surface? The shadow you see on the wall begs to differ. You brace yourself to battle the beast – but the creature that accosts you is much smaller. A pesky wyrm coughs its tiny flame at you, mugging you for gold to add to its hoard.

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Alon tossed a rock ahead of them, past Logue who was in front of him. It rolled across the stone tiles and rolled across one that was clearly a trigger. As the tile was pressed by the stone flame shot from the walls, creating a wall of fire in the already hot and muggy space. They had been moving through the tunnel at a turtle’s pace but they were alive and well which was good. Slow and steady means making it out alive. Alon wanted to track all the different kinds of traps in the tunnel but knew better than to stop and take notes now until they were safely through. Passing through the last trap of spikes they entered the chamber beyond where the ether courser flopped onto his butt and just breathed. He had not realized just how spooked he had been every time a trap went off until he was standing on safe ground where each step wasn’t at risk of triggering a death trap.
“You alright?” Logue asked, turning to face the new dungeoneer.
“Yeah, I think I just need to calm my beating heart,” Alon replied.
“Maybe drink some water. We didn’t have anything to drink while we were in that tunnel and we were in there for a far bit by Earthen Furnace standards. It’s easy to get dehydrated down here if you’re not careful.”
Alon nodded and grabbed out of his casks of water, drinking some as Logue did the same with his cask of water. Both were refreshed and Alon was soon able to get back up without his legs shaking in terror. They began to cross the chamber.
The chamber was long and curved and clearly had some lava around the corner that made the end of the tunnel glow. As they made their way across a shadow began to grow on the far wall, the figure standing out of view of the coursers. It grew and grew. A large lizard with a tail that whipped behind it. A lizard-like face with multiple sets of horns running back and partially down the neck. Alon noticed it had no legs though.
“Is that a dragon?” Alon asked, taking a step back.
“There shouldn’t be dragons here…” Logue replied, also taking a step back.
“You don’t sound too confident.”
“Just because I’ve never seen one doesn’t make it impossible.”
Roar!
Both coursers looked confused as the creature made a roar, but it was nowhere near as loud as they expected it to be. They tilted their head and watched as the shadow grew bigger and then shrunk as the creature came into view. A little wyrm lifted itself as high as it could, trying to look bigger, coming up to the knees of the coursers.
Roar! HSSSSSSS!
It proceeded to release a tiny puff of fire and smoke that would mostly likely have only singed the fur of the coursers. Nothing large enough to harm either of them.
“Well, that was actually disappointing,” Alon commented.
“You’d rather be eaten by a dragon or burned alive?” Logue asked, raising a brow.
“Well, no, but confirming the existence of a dragon would have been quite the find!”
“If we had lived to tell the tale.”
“True.”
Alon rummaged through his bag and pulled out a shiny coin. Carefully walking up to the wyrm that continued to hiss, he lowered his head to give it the coin. The wyrm looked at him suspiciously, then to the coin. The wyrm took the coin from the courser, giving Alon one last look, tilting its head in confusion but it also seemed pleased. As suddenly as it had appeared it was gone. Scurrying away into a crack in the wall and vanishing with its shiny new treasure.
“That was nice of you,” Logue commented.
“Well, it seemed like the most peaceful solution.”
“Agreed.”
They continued on their way, happy to be alive even if they didn’t get the honor of confirming the existence of dragons.