“Good vs. Medieval Meet Indingo”

The area around them was spacious and rocky. Grim was the assortment of bones and skeletons scattered around the floor— and these were not human skeletons, but rather the remains of various large creatures, making this den all the more frightening. No one cared to comment on the trivia behind this doomed quarry; finding a way out of it was top priority.

Centrally located, the six cast their stares to a steep wall with a jagged ridge high above. There was no apparent way this potential passage to freedom could be reached, though.

As the party studied the ridge, an inconspicuous pair of luminous, golden eyes shrouded in a twenty-foot tall, black crevice in the wall, spied on them from behind. Slitted and catlike, the pupils dilated curiously, watching in interest before blinking out as the adventurers turned their heads.

"I really don't like the looks of this place," Dannix whimpered.

Keno agreed, "Neither do I, but I didn't want to be the first to say it."

There was, however, a light of hope— make that two— for a choice of iron-barred exit doors, one on each far corner of the den, beckoned the wayward souls, both within equal running distance.

Anxiously, Gregor motioned, "Well, let's not get a chance to meet whatever ate that livestock! I say we choose a door and get outta here pronto!"

"I'll get the coin," declared Stumpy as he dug in his pocket, but Gregor gave him a slap to the head.

"This is no time to deliberate, snapper! Left, right, any exit will do!"

Suddenly an ominous roar bellowed out of the crevice, followed by the resident beast itself lumbering forth into the light and cutting off all escape. The explorers struck frozen, defensive stances at the awesome threat: an enormous, scaly, blue dragon towering above them, snaking its neck and presenting its fierce, toothy maw in territorial rage. Not giving its guests time to think, the monster snarled with another rumbling growl and lunged straight for them.

What the dragon did not consider, though, were the glowing blue shackles around its forearms that yanked tightly ("Aroo?"), and sent the forty-foot behemoth into a clumsy somersault onto its back with a thundering boom! The six tiny onlookers scrambled to dodge the whip of its massive tail and stumbled to right themselves from the tremor. Quickly the heroes readied their weapons, serious glares of courage and justice etched in their faces. Dannix and Kittykat, meanwhile, sought a bunker of rocks to hide behind.

As the rumbling echo subsided and the winded creature's chest heaved, its arms crucified by the shackles anchored to the wall, its head rose from its serpentine neck to stare down its gold-ribbed underbelly. After displaying a look of confusion on its furrowed brow, the dragon's broad, elongated snout lit up with an embarrassed smile, and it giggled in a surprising four-year-old child's voice, "Hee hee hee, Indingo always fowget about that!"

"It appears we have the upper hand, dragon!" Keno boldly called, pointing his blade at the downed beast.

The dragon looked at him with a kooky gaze and whined innocently, "Aww, why would you wanna huwt Indingo? Indingo only come out to say hi!"

A glare of uncertainty was Keno's answer to the funny creature, but Gregor readily set his staff down. "I think it's okay, Keno. He doesn't look vicious."

Dannix and Kittykat raised their heads from their hiding place to gander at the situation. Although riddled with curiosity, they dared not join the others just yet.

Ever cautious, Keno maintained his battle pose and spoke back to the dragon. "That was some reception you gave us. You do understand how we could have mistaken it for an attack, right?"

"Hee hee, sowwy," the dragon chuckled again. "Indingo get excited sometimes. Not often Indingo get visitews!"

"Is that your name?" Gregor asked. "In-dingo?"

The overgrown baby nodded fervently. "Indingo my name, just like my colow is indingo blue!"

"You mean indigo," corrected Keno.

"Yah, that right! Indigno— Indi— In— Indingo! Yah, that Indingo's name!"

Gregor scoffed, "Oh, this guy's only harmful to himself!" He turned his head to the rocks where the civilians hid. "Dannix, Miss Kitty, it's all right. You can come out now."

Easily convinced, Kittykat emerged from the stone bunker and coerced her reluctant partner to do the same.

However, everyone snapped into awareness again as Indingo began to stir. Naturally uncomfortable lying on his back, the great dragon pulled himself up by his forearms to give his energy cables more slack. Then he rolled his long tail back to achieve a sitting position and finally settled onto his belly in a relaxed state.

Indingo was an amazing specimen in that he was so visually exquisite. Of the peacock variety, his large, shiny blue scales had a vivid sheen of violet and green complemented by the gold of his belly, spine, claws and horns. His body was a good forty feet long, slender and wiry. Then there were his wings— large and glorious wings that, when relaxed, folded along the sides of his body. Indingo's face was capable of a versatile set of expressions as already proven, but in his general, ignorantly happy mood, his caricature smile spanned his snout, accented by cute little webs behind his cheeks. A row of tiny gold stubs lined the center of his muzzle and stopped at his brow. Two good-sized horns protruded from the back of his skull as well. But most noteworthy about his appearance was not a natural feature; rather, it was the large, protective bandage made of ship sails wrapped around his mid body below the wing joints.

A powerful, steamy blast of contentment sighed from Indingo's nostrils as he rested on his elbows. Keno and his crew advanced closer to the simpleton beast, still showing a great amount of caution in their steps.

"You don't seem like the type of pet Skullduggery would keep," Keno addressed him.

"I'm guessing he's more of a prisoner than a pet," replied Gregor.

"Pet? Naw," Indingo answered with an exaggerated, drooling shake of his head. "Prisonew? Ehhhh, Indingo can think of bettew things to do with time, yeah!"

Dannix rolled his eyes, for that sounded all too familiar, but the heartlessness of the scene escaped him.

Kittykat, however, poured on the sympathy. Clearly upset, her voice had a cry of concern in it. "Oh, that's terrible! How could those monsters imprison such a splendid, peaceful creature and chain him up in dreadful seclusion like this?"

Unsure of exactly what she said, the dragon of very little vocabulary answered, "Umm, Indingo not know."

Gregor took a closer look at the electric blue wrist shackles and stated, "Looks like they got you tied up good. Those are magical energy shackles locked around your wrists. No amount of physical strength can break 'em."

"Is there a way you can nullify the energy, Gregor?" Keno asked.

The wizard shook his head. "I've seen this strange kind of magic before. These binds weren't created by a single chant that can easily be dispelled. Instead, the energy is being fed from a main source— a magical generator, you might say."

"Little man in nightgown say smawt things," Indingo remarked.

Gregor glared at the silly dragon. If anything got the wizard's ire up, it was misidentifying his magic-user's outfit. "It ain't a nightgown. It's a wizard's robe, okay?"

Indingo bowed his head in apology. "Sowwy."

Then Kittykat interjected again, heart gushing. "Indingo, that bandage around your ribs— did Skullduggery hurt you?"

"Bandage?" Indingo had to twirl his neck around to see what she was talking about, and it finally hit him. "Oh, yeah! No, Indingo not huwt. Indingo not know why big skull-head men put bandage on. Maybe so Indingo can look pretty? Heh, Indingo fowget stuff easy."

"Have Skullduggery, or the 'big skull-head men' as you so put it, done anything to you that you can remember?" Keno asked.

The daffy dragon placed a claw on his lip as he pondered. Finally he confessed, "Ehhhh, Indigno been thiwsty fow long time."

"They haven't been feeding you?" Kittykat expressed with grief.

"Oh, no, Indingo eat all the time, just no drinkies. Big skull-head men wait long long long long long long time befow they give Indingo drinkies. Indingo finally drink and drink and drink this mowning. Indingo's belly splosh around now, hee hee!" He followed that up with a hiccup and a ferocious belch that not even Stumpy could rival, and his belly gurgled like an underwater volcano.

"Well, I guess the situation isn't as bad as we thought," Keno summed up, "but this throws a monkey wrench-shaped piece into our puzzle, and someone hid the box top. What does Skullduggery want with an ignorant peacock dragon?"

"What ignowant mean?" Indingo asked.

"It means you don't know," answered Gregor.

"No, Indingo don't. What it mean?"

"Ignorant means— that you— don't— know!" the frustrated wizard griped back.

"Indingo not undewstand."

"Yeah, Gregor," Stumpy complained. "Why don't you just tell us what it means?"

Gregor stiffened his arms and shuddered. "Gahh! Snappers!"

"Never mind that," Kittykat suggested. "We need to find a way to free Indingo. It's so cruel to have such a beautiful and intelligent creature confined like this."

"Huh? Intelligent?" Dannix snidely cracked under his breath.

"Well, I think the proper pronunciation of his name is Indigo," Keno answered, "but you're right. We gotta find some way to—"

A noise from the far side of the den cut him off, and all heads jerked to the source.

"Intruders! Stop them!" A tinny voice cried.

The gate to the left of Indingo's nook rattled open, spilling forth a small squadron of Skullduggery knights— six of them, all hooting and hollering, charging forth with axes held high. The disturbance sprang a mad reaction inside the heroes, and they immediately engaged the enemy with a weapon-drawn counter charge.

The two factions clashed and swung their blades in fury. Gregor unleashed more of his destructive magic on the physical brutes causing two of them to retreat in fear. The remaining four were dispatched all too easily.

"These guys are a joke," Gregor grunted, standing triumphantly over one of the fallen iron carcasses.

Indingo found the show rather entertaining and laughed, "Funny! Indingo like to see big skull-head men fall down!"

"Now can we get back to how we're going to free Indingo?" Kittykat requested.

"I'm afraid we can't do that now," warned Keno. "Two of those Skullduggery soldiers escaped. Surely they're gonna call for reinforcements, and soon the whole fortress will know we're here. We'll have to tend to Indigo later."

"Are you cool with that, dragon dude?" Gregor shouted upward.

"Ehhhh, Indingo will be okay. If bad guys come too close, Indingo just breathe on them!"

"You can breathe fire?" Keno asked with surprise.

Indingo shook his head. "Naw, Indingo just have bad breath. Rotten cow smell bad. Makes big skull-head men tuwn green and cry!"

"Okay, that works too," Keno agreed. "You just employ that technique for now, and we'll come back for you."

"Let's haul ass, then," announced Gregor.

Indingo waved goodbye as the party scrambled past— in the direction opposite to where the demon knights entered. "Bye bye, friends. Don't get huwt eithew, okay?"

Kittykat briefly turned in stride to answer, "We'll be back, Indingo. That's a promise!"