Thread: Gold Fever WHO: Mr. Cavanaugh & Mr. Hartley WHEN: The evening after THIS conversation [BACKDATED] WHERE: Beneath the castle
What they were doing could be considered a breach of trust. Celebrimbor Helyanwë, the over a century old black dragon who had been a student at the Academy before Blake came to teach there, would not take kindly at all to the trespassing over what he considered his territory. Of course, Ms. Menides would argue that no part of the school was officially belonging to Celebrimbor, otherwise known as Ashton Hartley. But some instincts were stronger than the word of a Fury, and the two beings rode that thin line where their wills met.
Black dragons were the largest of dragon kind and Ashton may very well be the last surviving member of that type. It made it even more paramount to Blake that he should ensure nothing came up that would cause Ashton to react in a way that might lead to his end. Ashton wasn't even a fully matured adult dragon yet, with still at least another fifty years to go to full maturity, and another century or more to full size. Blake was doing all he could, in his considerably lesser lifespan, to make sure Celebrimbor lived his full life and, even, found a mate to reproduce and help the black dragon line move out of endangerment.
It was a far cry from Blake's previous profession, which was to hunt down any and all dragonkind and exterminate them. Turns out, Blake thought ruefully as he walked down endless flights of dark stairs carrying a lantern, humanity was alive and well and dragons were the ones at threat, not the other way around as it had been in Blake's ancestors's days. Blake was tight lipped as he and Jack Cavanaugh descended. He'd turned his back on his family and on his blood oath to not only protect the two dragons still under his care, but to stick his neck out to help them do more than survive.
To help them be happy and to make sure their hoards weren't disturbed. Ashton's massive gold hoard was hidden below the castle and Blake had to make sure the random curious student didn't stumble upon it. They'd all be in danger if that happened.
Muttering under his breath, Blake paused and leaned against the stone wall to rest. His leg had started out fine, but he had lost count of how many hundreds of steps they'd taken down into the depths of the castle. By now his bad leg was throbbing and his sweat chilled on his skin in the dampness. Blake wiped his sleeve against his brow and sighed.
"I think we're getting close. I can hear the waves."