She didn't think, only acting on instinct fuelled by pure terror.

She turned and ran the other way. Only, in her haste and blurred fright, she forget she was trying to run up a set of stairs—extremely steep, metal stairs. Not only that, but she was in near darkness.

So, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when she tripped. Nevertheless, as she started sailing backwards, fumbling to get a grip on something that would stop the fall, she choked on a scream, her voice broken by the air whooshing out of her lungs. Each step felt like a dagger in her back, the pain crippling.

She was falling... flailing...

Until she stopped.

The wind was knocked out of her, as all the momentum came to cease. Surely, she'd broken a rib during the fall. Gasping, she tried to wheeze a normal breath. It was near impossible.

Breathe, she told herself. Breathe. In. Out.

Though she felt like an idiot for talking to herself, she kept repeating it—because it was working. Slowly but surely, she found she was able to breathe again. Drawing a hand to her racing heart, she risked a glance around.

No visibility. Everything around her was dark.

Now she had a new reason to panic. She'd fallen... she didn't even know how long. She didn't know how the find the stairs, let alone get back up them to the door. And she was trapped, in complete darkness... with a dragon.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

Except, try as she might, it wasn't working. The pain of falling was forgotten as she fought down terror that threatened to suffocate her.

Stuck. A dragon. A fire-breathing, man-eating dragon. In the dark.

She should be trying to find an escape, she knew that. Except hindsight was twenty/twenty. Fear had frozen her completely—she was helpless.

Abruptly, an odd sense of peace fell over her. She was going to die down here, there was no other way this was going to pan out. No one was going to hear her cries for help. Oddly though, she found she was fine with that.

Besides, death by dragon. A year ago, she'd have laughed at the idea, calling it preposterous. At least in the afterlife she'd have a story to tell.

Laughing dryly, she crawled up to her hands and knees.

Only to regret it.

She'd definitely broken a rib. Or a couple.

Nevertheless, she tried her best to ignore the pain as best as she could, standing slowly. It was a struggle but she managed—

Behind her, she heard a snort, the sound akin to rumble of a volcano. Like the whinny of a mare, only as vicious as thunder. Rebecca froze. It felt as though a gust of air went right by her. A wave of smouldering heat followed. Her skin broke out in goose bumps despite the burning sensation.

Right behind her—that's where it was coming from. How close was it to her? More worrying, how many of them were hidden?

The rattle of chains was as loud as an explosion. Over and over, they hit the ground. In the darkness, everything seemed to echo and it felt like a circle of clangs forming around her, she felt trapped. If she didn't move they'd bury her.

Breathe.

In.

Out...

It wasn't working.

Calm down.

"I'm not here to hurt you," she said, aware she was talking to the darkness—and, stupidly, praying that a dragon could understand her. "I just want to get out of here. I'll never come back."

Silence—even the chains had stopped rattling as she spoke.

Then there was a huff. She swore the room shook with the force of it.

Either that meant she was digging her own grave—or it was working. She prayed for the latter. "See, we have an understanding," she continued, unable to stop her voice from quivering. "I don't hurt you. You let me get out of here alive."

I'm talking to a dragon—one that has every intention of eating me.

Another snort, akin to a huff.

Rebecca dared to take a step forward, hoping she was walking in the direction of the stairs. She moved so slowly it felt like she didn't even step.

No sound this time. No movement at all.

Her choppy breathing echoed in her ears, each louder than the last—

All around her, there was the sudden lick of flames.

Breathe.

"Don't kill me." Her voice cracked. "I'm just trying to leave."

More fire.

This was it—the moment it was going to burn her alive. Desperate now, she broke into a run. Where she was going, she didn't know.

In the distance there was a giant clatter, like something gargantuan falling.

She froze.

Then the impossible happened.

All around her, she felt something lying down. Surrounding... it was surrounding her. It wasn't the dragon. Couldn't be.

But...

Her heart was racing manically.

Beside her—right beside her, she could feel it against her side—lay an eye. An eye the size of her whole body, luminescent green. She could see every ring of the iris, every tiny detail glowing in the darkness.

Rebecca screamed.

The eye blinked at her.

Then, like a cat rubbing on a post, she heard purring.

She choked, falling silent.

A dragon was right by her. Squeezing her eyes closed, she took a step back. Except, she ran into something scaly and large. It's body.

"Don't eat me," she pleaded. "Please."

A huff. Followed by a purr. Both as loud as a hurricane.

Good or bad, she couldn't decide.

She kept talking.

"You have a nice eye. I'm sure the rest of you is nice too. It'd be a shame to eat me."

A huff.

She was frantic. "Good boy," she said. A dog, she thought, I'm trying to calm a dog. That's it. Not a dragon. "Now you should let me go."

Something bumped against her side, so forcefully she pitched to the side. Flailing for a split second, she landed in a crouch on the ground.

Not a dog. So not a dog.

She looked over. Eye for an eye—she met the dragon's gaze head on. Again, the blink.

Slowly, she allowed rationality to wash over her. If the dragon wanted to kill her, she'd have been dead the second she fell to the bottom of the stairs. Instead, it had wrapped around her like a cocoon. Almost as if it was... protecting her.

Except that was insane. Completely and utterly insane.

"I just want to go back out the door," she whispered. It had been barricaded—what had possessed her to think breaking in was a good idea? "I didn't mean to interrupt you... eating, or whatever you do down here..."

A long purr.

Something hit her in the side again.

A dog. It's a dog.

She stayed where she was, as the dragon moved its head closer—until it was nestled right beside her. Sheer terror gripped her.

Then, with one last purr, the dragon moved away completely. One second it was next to her... and the next it was like it disappeared. All the torches were suddenly illuminated.

Momentarily blinded it took a second to realise what had happened.

There was light...

And the door was open.

She didn't give it a second thought; didn't look back.

She ran straight for the open door. There wasn't a movement of hesitation.

Somehow, she'd survived.

She couldn't believe it; she'd faced a dragon and won.

*

Eventually, she found her room. Sunlight had begun to stream through the windows—which meant she'd been down there... for hours.

She said not a word of what happened, despite the fact she had to look like she'd faced death. Was she bloody—bruised?

She didn't care.

Try as she might sleep came like a plague until that morning—in bouts of sickness and nightmares. Of being eaten by a dragon; burned alive by flamed.