Picking up his pace, Tao let out a relived sigh when he felt the droplets of rain no longer. He was shivering from the cruel bite of cold and wished for nothing more than a warm, wool blanket, but still, he was thankful to be out of the rain. Rubbing his hands up and down his arms in attempt to warm himself, Tao moved away from the entrance. A happy hum left his lips when he found that it was warmer the deeper he went into the cave. He felt a warm breeze brush over him, causing a shudder to rake through him due to the sudden change in temperature.

Curiosity filled him to the brim. The cave walls were moist and rugged, jagged by oddly shaped rocks. When Tao pressed his hand against the wall, he quickly withdrew upon feeling that it was ice cold to the touch, so why was the air so warm? Tao suddenly remembered his grandma’s words, but they were nothing but a whisper compared to the loud cry of his curiosity. Stepping even further into the cave, the sound of the cascading ran became fainter and fainter, till Tao soon heard nothing but the soft echo of his feet colliding with the cave floor.

There is something off, Tao thought as he ventured even deeper into the cave. By now, the little light that emitted from the entrance of the cave was useless to him, so he used the cave wall as his guild. Still, he could hear something else other than the sound of his steps. It gradually got louder and louder the further into the cave he went. It sounded almost like… breathing?

Tao knew he should turn around, turn around and wait by the entrance of the cave until the rain stopped and immediately head back to the village, but going against his better judgment, he continued to head deeper into the cave. His curiosity spiked when he saw a faint glow in the distance. It was a soft golden color and danced in the darkness like a very tiny flame. It looked so pretty, but Tao was brought out of his trance by the sound of clacking. It was a sharp, high pitched sound; kind of like coins colliding together, but where did it come from? Tao couldn’t really see anything so he resumed his slow pace, but stopped again when the sound was reintroduced to his ears. Testing out a theory, Tao slid his foot along the ground, nearly jumping from his skin when the sound came again only louder. His heart thumped loudly in his chest. He really didn’t want to believe that anyone was in this cave, but all of the loud noises around him making was really starting to freak him out!

Carefully kneeling to the ground and blindly reaching about him, Tao gripped at the first thing his fingers touched. He felt around the smooth surface of the circular object, trying to identify the cold metal against his skin. It really did feel like a coin…

Just in case, Tao immediately placed the coin back where it belonged and scanned around the dark cave, desperately looking for that small little bit of light he saw earlier. Tao almost kicked himself when his eyes passed over where the light was twice before actually noticing it. Now, he stepped quieter, afraid of his own obnoxiously loud footsteps. He could still hear the clanking under his feet but chose to ignore it, instead focusing on the light that drew nearer. The closer he got to it, the less it looked like a flame. It was starting to just look like a large gold dot, if not anything else, but it still looked as though it were dancing in the dark. It was the only source of light and the closer Tao got to it, he found that he was starting to see a little better. Tao could now see the small little circles on the floor. They were scattered everywhere and he assumed that they were the source of the clanking whenever his feet came in contact with them. The further he went the more of those circles appeared till it was nearly impossible to see the actual cave floor. The clanking grew more conspicuous. The unusual breathing sound… it grew louder and deeper. Tao could feel his hair move ever so slightly with it; back and forth with the warm breeze. The gold dot was almost blinding.

“Is this… an opening?” Tao whispered quietly to himself, shielding his eyes from the light as he walked into the bright golden light. He unshielded his eyes when he felt that his hand was no longer in contact with the cold cave wall. He could feel the edge of the wall when he felt behind him, but nowhere else.

Tao tried to hold back a gasp as he stared at the floor. All around him were small gold coins. Panic started to rise in the boy. He feared that he may have stumbled upon a bandit’s hideaway or something, but that assumption left him the moment his eyes moved to observe what was in front of him.

Before him was the largest pile of gold he had ever seen, and probably would ever see in his life. There were large chests filled with precious gems and swords and crowns. Scattered haphazardly were small dots of greens and reds and blues; emeralds and rubies and sapphires galore. Never had he seen anything so magnificent in all his years of living. So it was the gold that provided the glow of light that he had seen. Up close, the glow looked almost an orange color. Still, the outrageous amount of gold was not what made Tao halt. The gold was not what had him frozen in place, completely unable to move. It was not the gold that made his heart stop beating in his chest for endless seconds before starting to beat madly against his ribcage. Before him, coiled comfortably around the giant pile of riches, was a large, sleeping dragon.