Chapter 17: Serpent tie

14 January 5555
Rubyworth Forest
[Zach McCarthy]

It has been eleven days since Zach has been held captive by the cloaked man in one of Rubyworth Forest's many deserted cave, who revealed nothing about himself other than his extreme hatred for Dragonslayers, or perhaps it was only directed to Zach. Beind kept under close scrutiny of a fire-breathing dragon, Zach knew that if he was to attempt escape, it had better be a foolproof one. The cloaked man had exitted the cave for his daily hunt, usually bringing back scarce food just enough to keep the dragonslayer alive, perhaps he was waiting for his buddies to arrive before deciding to deal with Zach, or perhaps everything was already planned in an unfathomable was that Zach was not able to make heads or tails out of currently.

"The only hope I have now is that Paladin would be able to bring help, his nose is better than a guard dog's." Zach thought to himself, being chained on his left foot to a rock and being guarded by a dragon towering over him, he knew that he either needed a surprise attack, or the help of a strong ally to rescue him.

Suddenly, he heard the familiar sound of hooves. "Paladin!" he thought to himself in his head, showing a slight sign of excitement hoping the dragon would not notice. Perhaps help has indeed arrived. What followed soonafter was a loud bellow of the dragon, Zach's horse has been noticed!

The dragon got up on two legs and bared its fangs at the only exit, preparing for battle as if Paladin was actually a threat to him, wasting no time, Zach immediately started on the spell he had been waiting to use for the best week and a half, Zach let out a loud whistle and the dragon took a glance at him, it was enough for Zach to finally use his magic, the Draco Mind Freeze, blinding the mind's eye of the dragon and causing it to lose any sense of direction or smell. The dragon roared in confusion, banging its head on the side of the cave causing rubbles to fall.

Just then, Paladin leapt into the cave with a stranger that Zach has never seen before, a clean shaven, brown-eyes gentleman with short black hair in formal wear with a top hat was sitting on Zach's beloved horse. But what was the most queer about this gentle was that it appears that he has a serpent for a tie, a living, breathing, colourful serpent, likely poisonous.

"Who is this man Paladin?" Zach managed to mutter, the dragonslayer's stallion neighed and appeared to look rather proud of himself.

"Fear not lad! I am here to assist you! I am a mercenary." The gentleman smiled, and began to pull out an odd looking stick from his sleeve. It appears to be made of steel, but had strange carvings on it, it was nothing that the dragonslayer has ever seen in his life. The dragon was still struggling around in the ground in pain. The queer man with the serpent tie appeared to have pushed a few buttons on his stick and it transformed into a large axe. He then slammed it hard on the chain which has been binding Zach on the rock. Zach gave the man a smile, "Lets do this."