Soliella

Soliella wakes slowly at the splash from the entrance pool, scales creaking as she uncurls her body, joints complaining.

"Hello?" The stranger says hesitantly, slowly making their way inside. "Anyone here?"

"Just me," Soliella replies, voice stiff and dry from disuse. She drops down into the lava pool just underneath her, shaking her mane free from the cobwebs, dust melting away under the heat. "May I help you?"

The stranger- a Guardian, she can see now- gawks at her. "U-Um," She shakes her head, fins glowing blue, "Is this the- they said there was treasure here? 'Riches and priceless items beyond one's wildest dreams, hidden in the very heart of the deepest underwater volcano in the darkest part of the Leviathan Trench, where you can find magical artifacts that surpass the magicks of the strongest of dragons-'"

"-and riches vast enough to tide a hundred clans over for a hundred generations," Soliella agrees, nodding. "Yes, I'd found that book too. Didn't catch the author's name though, did you?" The Guardian shakes her head and she sighs. "Ah, well. I was hoping I could write them a bad review."

"So... it's a lie, then?" The Guardian asks, wings drooping, the desperate hope in her eyes extinguished. Soliella idly wonders when the last time the poor thing slept was- it was a long way down from the surface. "Wing-shredder, of course there's no mystical hoard of treasure here, what was I thinking? Ugh, and now Poem is going to lecture me for being gullible again-"

"Oh no, the treasure is all here," Soliella replies, giving the girl a whack with her tail to push her forward. She smiles as the Guardian gasps at the endless piles of gold and metal and gems and artifacts and pieces of history that dragons would kill for, spilling out of the shelves carved into the rock walls and lit up with the light of the magma in the cavern below. "But you see- you can't touch it."

The Guardian pauses at the last moment from where she was about to take off, looking down at her in confusion.

Soliella smiles, bitter, the gold under her eye pulling at her skin as she does. "It's cursed."

She watches as the stranger's eyes finally notice the metal, inhaling sharply as she puts it together, taking a step back from the edge of the lava in horror.

"Yes," Soliella sighs, looking up at what has been her home for the past ten years. "It is how the builders of this Hoard protected it, even in death. If you touch anything here, it will start taking over you instead- from the inside out, I am ever so agonizingly slowly... well, turning into solid gold."

The Guardian gapes at her, horrified. "But- Wait, there must be something you can do, something to get the- the curse to let you go. There's always a counterclause for every curse, if you found what it was, you could-"

"No," Soliella says grimly. "I already know it. The only way to let a Caretaker go is by letting another dragon take their place."

She flies off towards the treasure in the ensuing silence, landing on a ledge gracelessly- oh, her legs have been affected while she was asleep then, haven't they? "What are you here for, by the way? What did you come swimming all the way down to find?"

"I-" The Guardian cuts her eyes to the side, anguished. "I was hoping there was a Seeing Eye here. I'm searching for- for some dragons, and I needed one to find out where they were."

"Mm," Soliella hums, flying to another shelf. "Not too bad a cause, not at all. The Hoard might have even let you take it on your own- but it's better not to risk it."

She flies back to the Guardian and holds out the shining artifact with a smile- a closed eye carved out of jade, covered with softly glowing runes.

"Wait- wait you're giving it to me?" The Guardian takes a step back. "What about the curse?"

"Well, I can touch the Hoard, you can't," Soliella says amused. The Guardian carefully takes it from her and tips it into one of her bags- poor thing really is gullible, isn't she? If Soliella had had worse intentions, the dragon would have doomed herself. "Now, hurry along. I'd like to get back to my nap, please."

"What, no- no, I can't just leave you here!" The Guardian exclaims. "There has to be a way to free you!"

"There isn't," Soliella says gently, then laughs a bit. "Besides, I'm half-gold, dear, how would I survive back up there?"

"I'd make arrangements for you in my Clan- we'd figure something out," The Guardian says fiercely. She abruptly reminds Soliella so much of her sister that she spends most of her time trying not to think about. "Just- please. I can't leave you here."

"Yes, you can." Soliella sighs, smile slipping off her face. "I was greedy when I came here, lass. I cared only for the treasure and the previous Caretaker didn't stop me- he'd been here a hundred years and was only too happy to run when I took his place. I was angry at first- of course I was- but now I do not care."

She feels tears come to her eyes even as she smiles again, looking up at the wide-eyed Guardian. "I am going to be the last," She says fiercely, the first and last time another dragon will hear her oath. "I am choosing to end this cycle of greed, of selfishness, of betrayal, of desperation. There will be no more Caretakers after me; no other dragon doomed to repeat my mistakes and pay for them thousandfold, no one else stuck here in this volcano, alone and turning to gold for their stupidity."

She looks up at the other dragon, tears running down both their faces, warm scales and cold metal. Soliella smiles with all her teeth as she swears, "I am going to be the last."