Lucia lounged leisurely in a tree a few hundred feet from the cave entrance, she absently fingered the hem of her dark velvet dress as the red lights of her vision peered intently out of the holes in her doll-like mask. She was bored out of her mind and the small amount of patience with this nonsense she had started with was quickly coming to an end. It had been a week since Geroth had begged her to let him lead the charge to reclaim their holy relic, and knowing he had history with the halfling she had agreed.

It seems that might have been a mistake on her part. First Geroth let his gloating get in the way of finishing off a major threat, and now she could feel the slow drain on their forces as ghouls and abominations were destroyed. Most unforgivable of all, Geroth had left her here to be wracked with boredom. Her sour mood was readily apparent despite the pristine calm of her mask. Staring up at the moon Lucia wondered how much longer this nonsense would continue. She had promised to stay out of Geroth’s hunt for the girl and their prize, but there had to be a line drawn somewhere.

She absently noted another faraway explosion and mentally ticked off another ghoul from her awareness. Sighing, she shook her head and watched the entrance once more. Other than the occasional rumble or explosion she had not had anything exciting happen. Running her long sharp nails through the tresses of her raven hair, she laid her hands on the limb she was perched on and began to drum her fingers along the bark in frustration. Sighing dejectedly she spoke aloud, her voice a husky whisper. "I am bored. It is at times like this that I miss being able to sleep."

While she was contemplating walking in the woods and maybe finding some wildlife to play with when Lucia noticed movement from the south slope of the mountain. Becoming unnaturally still she watched with her unblinking eyes. After an hour of intense scrutiny she could finally make out the shape. Perking up, she noticed that it was the halfling that Geroth had failed to finish off. She watched the small shape, unimpressed. She did not look like a holy warrior that destroyed an entire legion of ghouls with her fists alone. In fact, she looked rather normal all things considered. Although, to be fair Lucia knew better than most how looks could be deceiving when it came to a Sister, especially one verse in the combat art.

This one was athletic looking for a halfling to be sure, not having the characteristic plumpness that she had come to expect from such creatures, but she still looked so normal. She took a quick inventory of the sturdy clothes, the pack, and other various items and equipment. It was all so boring.

Then she saw it and felt her chest tighten in anticipation. Lucia shivered.

"What is that on your arm?" Lucia whispered in her breathy voice. As the halfling got closer and closer Lucia got more and more excited. Was that what she thought it was? Was that the Arm? She was certain now, that it was. After all, it was part of the reason that she had been excommunicated and cast out from the sisterhood over ten years ago. Watching the halfling bearing her prize boldly march into the cave entrance surrounded in an aura of holy power, Lucia did something that was rare for her.

She smiled. Her mask spread apart in a toothy rictus grin that exposed the monster underneath, something she normally found displeasing to expose. However, right now she didn't care. Lucia was giddy with an excitement that she had not felt in years. She leaped from the tree and before she hit the ground she had transformed into a black cloud that swiftly and unnaturally drifted toward the cave entrance.

It was bad luck for the Halfling that she had caught Lucia’s attention. She would devour the flesh from her bones and claim her prize. Such a prize would empower her and make her unto a god. She would finally be able to get the attention of their Lord. Still, she knew that this would have to be done carefully, lest the halfling destroy her. She wouldn’t foolishly underestimate her like Geroth had. She would pick her moment and strike her down.

Lucia was no longer bored because the hunt was on.

It had been three days since the plucky young girl had fearlessly walked into her prison leading a kobold like a wayward child and laughed in wonder at her. Serena watched Rosalyn as she slept near the base of her prison. Serena absently noticed that the young kobold was preparing the hallway leading to the chamber for their guests by resetting the traps he had led Rosalyn through before.

She counted the times that her guest’s chest rose and fell, marveling at having such splendid company after so many years. More than that though, she genuinely liked the girl. It was a rare individual to walk up to something ten times taller than you and start asking it questions. Serena was sure that if she were human and not trapped in this prison she would have been privileged to adopt Rosalyn. Her stories about Janie and her fellow Temple orphans were delightful and it broke her heart when she saw the sadness flit across the young girl’s face when the realization of their death crossed her mind.

So to take her mind off of the sadness, Serena happily answered those questions for her guest. She asked about so many things that Serena had a hard time remembering all of the topics that spilled out of her mouth. Rosalyn asked about many and varied things but most of all she wanted to know about Serena herself. Not dragon related things, but personal things.

She wanted to know Serena as an individual. That had touched her heart in a way that she hadn’t expected. She had been treated as a living god for so long by the kobolds and before that as a great evil that had to be defeated that it was refreshing to talk about her childhood and her long dead family, her long dead people, their long forgotten hopes and dreams. She got to tell the stories of their lives, not the myths and legends of dragons, but the everyday struggles of individuals living their lives and raising families.

Not for the first time being around Rosalyn sparked a maternal instinct in her that she had been feeling more and more lately. She knew that as the reigning Dragon Queen and the last of her kind she had a duty to have children, but over the last few days that feeling of duty had transformed into more than that. It was something new to her. She actually wanted to finish her egg, to not be alone anymore.

Serena had resisted having a clutch of eggs a century ago despite an overabundance of suitors at the time. Everyone wanted to be the mate of the Dragon Queen, but she had rejected them all. She was too busy, too this, too that. Always an excuse back then. Now, she couldn’t have a clutch and regret filled her heart.

Still, there was one option open to her. Serena slashed the air gently in front of her with her claw as to not wake Rosalyn and slowly pulled out the thing she had spent the better part of sixty years pouring her mana into. It was a single silver egg resting gently on a silk pillow. She could no longer lay a clutch, there being no other dragons to mate with, but she could still have children.

Dragonkind would live on, even if all of the future members of it would technically be clones of Serena. Sighing, Serena slowly set the egg down onto the floor. She had finished the egg long ago, but had not imbued it with that spark of life that would allow it to hatch. She would not have her daughter grow up in this hellhole of a prison. She stared at it wistfully while running a claw gently across the silvery swirls that adorned the outside of the shell, and didn’t notice that she was being watched.

“It is beautiful.”

Serena jumped, but relaxed when she saw Rosalyn’s dark eyes staring at her from the wool blanket that Birdie had scrounged from who knows where. “Ahh, this is my daughter, or at least it will be. Right now it is more or less a giant silver ball of mana. There is no life inside.”

“Serena? Why are you in there?” Serena hesitated at that question. It was a complicated one, and one that Rosalyn had skirted for the last few days. She contemplated lying or just not answering the question, but Serena realized that there was no one left but her. No pride to wound but her own and she had long ago abandoned that down in this dark lonely hole.

“I didn’t pay enough attention.” Craning her head toward the prone form of the girl she closed her eyes at the memory. “I thought that only dragons mattered and that if I took care of them the rest would sort itself out. Some dragons, not all mind you but enough of them, looked down of the other races of the world. They enslaved and extorted them. Ultimately, my stance led to a spiral of tragedy that caused an uprising that led to the extinction of my entire species. As for why specifically I am in this box? I was too strong. They couldn’t kill me like the rest, so they locked me away.”

Rosalyn had sat up during the short explanation that Serena had given, and she could tell the girl wanted to ask for more details. Still she refrained and Serena was grateful. Even after all of these years thinking about her failures burned hotter than any fire a dragon could breathe. Hesitating a bit Rosalyn looked up at her and said “I haven’t known you that long, and I can’t speak for what you did in the past, but…” Letting out a deep breath she continued “I do know that you didn’t have to catch me. You didn’t have to lead me deeper into the cave. You didn’t have to answer my questions.”

Nodding her head she looked Serena in one of her large silver eyes. “I think you are a good person, and I am going to get you out of there. I promise.”

Her heart filling with hope, Serena bowed her head in thanks. “Thank you, child.”