Adventure of Tuiwen 2

Tuiwen leaves the ruined castle with the Woodland courier, following the dragon’s eastern trail away from the refugees’ marked road, while the dragon, a broad, ash-gray young adult with swept horns, ember-bright eyes, and ragged copper wing membranes, vanishes ahead. The mountain wind carries ash and a faint iron scent.

At the foothills, scree chokes an ancient stone gate set into the mountainside. Its lintel is cracked, its passage half-buried, and the threshold bears a fresh scorched furrow.

Dark blood spatters the threshold in a broken line, glossy where the heat has not dried it. Beside it, a second trail cuts through the grit: parallel grooves and deep heel-marks show that something heavy was dragged or carried.

The blood follows the gate’s inner edge, while the burden-trail veers toward a narrow seam between fallen stones. No fresh track reveals whether the dragon bore the weight, guarded it, or struggled against it.

The buried gate waits beneath the scree, its darkness breathing cold against the dragon’s fading heat. Beyond it, the mountain road disappears into shadow.

Tuiwen raises one hand, and revealing light spills across the scorched threshold. Cleansing Light passes through ash, blood, and stone without disturbing them, drawing hidden traces into separate clarity.

Eyes of the Unseen sharpens the illumination: the blood is dragon blood, shed recently from the left side, while a second smear shows where a wounded wing or foreleg struck the lintel.

The light reveals three overlapping passages in the grit: the dragon entered the gate, backed out once, then dragged the dark burden toward the narrow seam between fallen stones.

Beneath the fresh furrow lies a faint line of black mineral dust, not corruption or Saruman’s craft. It came from the burden, whose rough surface scraped the ancient threshold.

Oath-Bound restraint narrows the finding: the marks prove injury, retreat, and the burden’s passage, but reveal neither what the burden is nor why the dragon carried it.

Revealing light settles on a hidden handprint in the soot, too broad for any person and edged with scale impressions. The clue fixes the burden’s destination at the sealed seam, while the entrance remains unopened.

Tuiwen sets her Elven blade into the seam, using its narrow edge to find the hidden join rather than forcing ancient stone blindly. Architectural Intuition reveals a counterweighted lock beneath the fallen face.

She braces her shoulder and pushes. Oath-Bound restraint checks the reckless strength of simply breaking through, but Architectural Intuition guides the pressure while the blade lifts the concealed catch.

The stone yields with a deep grinding sigh. A narrow doorway opens between the fallen blocks, wide enough for an elf to pass, though not for the dragon’s massive body.

Cold air spills from the opened seam, carrying black mineral dust and the faint iron scent of fresh blood. Within, a sloping passage descends beneath the gate, its floor scored by the same burden.

The counterweight settles behind them without sealing the doorway. Beyond the threshold, the passage remains open and clearly leads toward the burden’s hidden destination.

Tuiwen steps into the mountain passage, leaving the scorched threshold behind and carrying the investigation beneath the ancient gate.

Tuiwen enters without a sound. Shadow-Master folds her into the passage’s darkness, while the Elven blade tests each stone before her weight settles upon it.

Oath-Bound restraint slows her advance where the passage narrows, forbidding a careless rush. Eyes of the Unseen finds safe footholds among the burden’s grooves and fallen grit.

The passage opens into a buried chamber. There, the broad ash-gray dragon crouches beside a black mineral mass wrapped in torn metal bands, its injured left wing held tightly closed.

The dragon is not guarding treasure. It scrapes the chamber floor clear, revealing a shallow stone basin beneath the mass, then lowers its snout to the basin’s dry channel.

Eyes of the Unseen separates old dust from fresh disturbance: the dragon has been clearing the basin repeatedly, seeking a buried watercourse. Its blood marks the effort, not an attack.