Chapter V: Dragos's Dungeon

Circe woke up in a dark, stuffy, echoey room. The spiritual echoes were anguished and somewhat clasped into the thick hot air as they seemed to be getting louder and louder. Circe walked across the black water and came upon a large cage. The outer fringes of the cage appeared to be glowing.

The creature inside the cage opened its huge red eyes, sniffed the noxious air, and release a harsh vitriolic growl into the dark empty chamber. Circe recoiled, breathing heavily. He had seen this creature before. Somewhere in his past life. The rough, angry countenance of the dragon's snout banged against the cage as it bared its grimy yellow teeth. The harsh livid form of the goat bleated as it banged its head against the rungs and the lion roared as the thick green cord slithered toward Circe, hissing with abhorrent virulence. Circe's feet somehow seemed to be stuck, his body rigid.

"Come closer to me, Circe. Become one with me and die." the abominate creature growled.

Circe stared definitely at the Chimera, obstinate to react. "No!"

"You don't belong with these people. They will never understand you, they will never understand us. Come with me!"

"Never! You're a murderer!"

"You fool!"

Circe felt a white hot fire burning in his heart. He knelt down, wincing, desperately clutching his chest. He fell dead into the black water and the darkness swallowed him whole.

"Wake up, Mr. Chimer. You have a detention to attend to!"

Circe gasped himself awake, gulping for air. His hair was wet, and his body felt incredibly hot and sweaty as if he had just run a mile. He looked down, squinting. He recognized the goblin's small figure and his grumbly chainsaw voice in the cold morning blue. Zebulon's snores were still warbling across the room.

"Ulrik?"

"Detention starts at seven. Make haste and get ready, your fellow comrade and I will be waiting outside."

Circe got up and slouched into the bathroom that the dormitory shared. He brushed his teeth and took a shower and by 7:10 he was outside, fully dressed in his uniform. Oddly enough, he was hungry. The pale blue morning hue was still blanketed across the campus, but Circe could make out a strip of pink begin to present itself in the skyline behind the Grand Pavilion.

He joined the company of the goblin and Malik Absalom. Malik scowled heavily at him and the goblin appeared pretty miffed.

"You're late," said Ulrik.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Circe yawned.

As Ulrik lead them toward the Sorcerer's hooded statue, the thought of the Chimera crept into Circe's mind. He knew that it was his father, and even though it was a dream, it didn't really feel like him. Had the beast really been trying to communicate with him?

Ulrik lead behind the statue, revealing a rusty latticed grate. The goblin pointed its gnarled finger and the grate flung open by itself. They descended underground using the ladder that was magically attached to the metallic pit. Completely disenchanted, Circe trudged across the dark grimy underground until he saw a humongous red, prickly creature prowling heavily toward them.

"I can take it over from here," said the dragon.

Ulrik nodded curtly. "I'll be back to fetch you guys by eight." Then he disappeared in a swirling cloud of purple smoke.

Circe looked around. The dungeon seemed to be fraught with nothing but molded gray skeletons and huge piles of black poop. Circe pinched his nose.

"So you're the Chimera's son?" the dragon puffed out two smoke rings from its snout. Circe nodded. "I'm Dragos. Your father used to come here a lot."

"What did he do?" Circe asked, putting a good distance away from Malik.

"Reportedly he burned a lot of students and ate them alive. A lot of the teachers opted to expel him, but Zenithclad refused."

"And you never bothered to kill him all this time, you stupid dragon?" Malik snarled.

"Excuse me?" Dragos turned to the black boy threateningly.

"I mean, if I was a dragon, I wouldn't be as incompetent as you at my job. I'd kill any murderers that come my way."

A mighty blight of orange clouds erupted into the cold midnight dungeon. Circe and Malik dived out of the way. Circe's elbow got blazed by the flames, but it appeared to be only his jacket. He fell over into a pile of dismembered bones. The heavy steps of the dragon prowled away into the cool looming shadows.

"Way to go genius!" Circe echoed. Circe stayed hidden in the pile of bones until Ulrik arrived to pick them up. When the goblin snapped his fingers they were back to the surface of the school and the safety of the wintry morning light. By now, it appeared there were a bunch of students scuttling around to make it to their first day of classes.

Circe shuddered, hoping to never return to that dungeon. "Is there a way you can snap me a new uniform?"