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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3509269" data-attributes="member: 143">I'll think about how best to change that passage.* * * * * Chapter 162CLINGING TO LIFE“We need to make certain of it,” Varo said.  “The dragon is too great a threat to us to leave behind intact.”“We’re in no shape for another fight, Varo,” Talen said, his impatience sounding clearly in his voice.  “Have you taken a look around you?”The companions were clustered in a niche formed in a natural crevice in the wall of an elbow-shaped cavern a few hundred feet across.  They were not far from where they’d fought the dragons, and another tunnel jutted off from the far end of the cavern, a smoother, straight passage a hundred feet across that Shay said likely led to the goblin city.  It was not the best place to camp, but they had not yet encountered any goblins, and none of them were willing to return to the steam cavern. “My suggestion assumes that we rest first,” Varo said.  “I can prepare a spell that will transform myself and three others into wisps of smoke, capable of following the dragon to its lair.  Drakha is capable of following via his own means.”“You want to split the group as well?  Varo, this is not a good idea.”“It is the only way.  From what Allera’s little friend told us, the female dragon withdrew across a broad chasm, which only flying invididuals can easily bypass.”Snaggletooth, sitting on a rock nearby, lifted its head and chirped.  The faerie dragon, on its own initiative, had followed the fleeing shadow dragon as it fled back to the steam cavern, but Allera’s companion had not pursued it all the way to its lair. “Maybe he just wants the dragon’s hoard,” Dar chimed in.  The fighter leaned back against a sloping shelf of rock, his cloak rolled up and tucked under his neck.  Allera had saved his life, but until their divine casters could regain their restoration spells, there was nothing she could do to help him recover from the draining effects of the dragons’ breath weapons.  Most of them suffered from similar weakness, but Dar had been the only one to have been breathed upon twice. Varo did not respond, and after an explosive sigh, Talen said, “Is that it, Varo?  You want to risk our lives for some treasure?” “I am not concerned with a pile of coins or pretty baubles, commander.  But surely you can appreciate the benefits of securing any items of power that the dragons may have accumulated.  Clearly the goblins used the beasts as guardians; they would not have been able to access the mines in the great cavern if the pair had been hostile.”“It is an unnecessary risk,” Talen said.  “Baraka is still comatose, and we’ve already lost three.  I cannot afford to send four more of our company off to confront a foe that is no longer a threat.”“That we do not know for certain, commander.”“I said, no, cleric.”“As you wish.”  Varo started to get up.  “Wait a moment,” Talen said, meeting Varo’s eyes.  “You are going to do this anyway, aren’t you?”Varo did not respond for a moment, then finally said.  “Yes.”Talen’s expression hardened.  “What about the mission?  I thought you were focused on our goal, priest.”“It is because I believe that this is vital to accomplishing that goal that I must do this.  But I will not risk any of the others, if that is your decision.”“There is something else that you are not telling us, isn’t there?” “At some point, commander, one has to trust his instincts.  I am sorry, but there is nothing more that I can tell you.”“You should be grateful, Varo, that I am not following my instincts right now.”  With that, the knight turned and headed toward the entrance of the crevice, where Kalend and Shay were keeping watch.  As the only person—other than Varo—who had not been drained by the dragons’ breath, Talen would not likely get much in the way of sleep while the spellcasters recovered their magic. Varo watched him go.  “A dragon hoard, eh?” Dar said, looking up at the cleric.</blockquote>

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